DIARY
– NIMBUS – Well, kids, it’s Nimbus, and that means time for exhileration. The background you see is the east river (technically one of the inlets leading into the Brooklyn Navy Yard) as seen from Williamsburg in Brooklyn.The foreground is the fire I witness and photographed last Tuesday. The main box shows the fire as seen from my apartment window. To the left is the Manhattan bridge between the tree branches. The other three photos are closer to the site, with many firefighters present.
– AND NIMBUS – Well, kids, it’s Nimbus, and that means time for exhaltation. I think you’ll find the links I’ve provided above useful to this end. Remember it’s Carnival! There’s no time of the year so suited to ripping cells apart.
– WWW.HEREISNOWHY.COM – All of the main sections are up and functioning. There are still some sub-sections I must insert, but keep poking around. It should tell you all you need to know about the master plan.
– CONAN O’BRIEN – On Friday, after working on the website, I rode the subway out to Rockafeller Center where I met Matt, and shortly, Peter and Katie for Conan O’Brien. The experience involved waiting in line for seemingly forever before being given our complimentary T-shirts and ushered into the auditorium (?), which is much different than it seems on TV (they acknowledged this before the show – “now you see how shitty the place really is,” were his exact words I think. The crowd was removed from the stage by about fifteen feet, and the actual chairs and desk were surprisingly small and removed. Also, plasma screens hung from rafters just above the angle of the cameras, so the image of a high ceiling was exactly that: an illusion. But I wasn’t disappointed. A large part of the fun of watching a taping is seeing all the tricks the network creates to add an extra sheen and luster to the production. My theatrical mind is all admiration.
We were primed for all this by a standup comic who introduced us to the ins and outs of the program, including the Applause signs. After this the band came on and jumped right into a jazz riff. The band was the most consistantly fun and impressive part of the taping. They were a louder and more visceral presence than on the show, playing through the commercials and showing more enthusiasm than I think I could muster after a ten year gig. And Conan himself, was of course, a lot of fun, tall and lanky in ways you can’t see on screen, and just as much fun.
You’ll be sat to know that the show is taped on the seventh floor; the windows that look out upon the Empire State Building are merely a setpiece. I’m sorry to disillusion you…
– AFTER THE SHOW – We said goodbye to Peter, who had a pile of homework in his way, and rode down to a Mexican place Matt knew in Alphabet City. From there, the usual conversations about universal health care and sex in the U.S. We stopped back at Peter’s so Jess could pick up her backpack, then rode back to Brooklyn where we made an ill-fated and expensive stop at a most un-happening bar ($5 cover, $5 beers; payoff: a lackadaisical crowd hapazardly swaying to selections from Saturday Night Fever and the like). So Jess and I went home and tried to stay up and watch Conan, looking for ourselves. But we fell asleep halfway through.
– THE REST OF THE WEEKEND – I spent most of Saturday reading religious stuff and finishing Jernigan by David Gates, my (as of today) workshop instructor. It was well written and amazingly depressing, so I’m interested in the course of the next fifteen weeks. That night, Jess and I took a long (for her) walk down to the Brooklyn Ice Cream shop at the Fulton Ferry landing, but by then it had gotten chilly, so after our ice cream, we walked back home and caught some SNL.
On Sunday I went to church (a habit I shouldn’t be breaking these days, what, with Carnivale debaucheries on their way). I spent most of my afternoon cleaning, finally taking down the Christmas tree and organizing my CDs for the first time in literal years… I seem to be missing a lot. Have you seen them? I finally fell asleep during Cheers, somewhere around 1:30.
– THE NEW SEMESTER! – I’m explicably excited… more in fact, than last semester, which makes no sense as I’m just more acquainted with the program, and I’ve gotten the instructors I’ve wanted all alone. I don’t know… maybe I’m just in a good mood these days.
– I HAD A DREAM LAST NIGHT – about having kids. It was a good dream. Weird.
– JANUARY – Is the month of gourmet coffee.
– TODAY – Is Midwife Day.
– HAPPY BIRTHDAY – Andy Kaufman! (Actually, I screwed this up… Andy’s birthday was on the 17th. Maybe he won’t notice my goof.)
NEWS OF THE WEEK
The New York Times: Ford to Cut Up to 30,000 Jobs and 14 Plants by 2012.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
Which is your favorite of the seven sins and why?
END OF POST.