New York City is home to 8.3 million people, and sometimes I’m pretty sure I know every one of them.
I’m not particularly popular or cool. I am not affiliated with a “scene,” I don’t go to a lot of parties, and I’m sort of a stay-at-home girl. But it’s gradually become impossible to leave my [...]
Archive for the ‘Out & About’ category
Small World
Popular Songs (Yo La Tengo, Barrymore Theater, Madison, 1/23/10)
My car has a cassette deck but no CD player, so unless I plug the iPod adapter into the cigarette lighter, it’s college mix tapes all the way. Little time capsules that transport me back to the 1990s faster than clove cigarettes or sandalwood oil. They’re full of the usual suspects: Nirvana, [...]
Aquarium
Back late from a weekend in Vegas, too tired to write. Here are some photos from a trip to an aquarium a few weeks ago. The one of the stingray in the light is my favorite; it’s currently the desktop image on my laptop.
Interstitial
In New York for a few days, and as usual, it’s sensory and emotional overload. Friends I think of every day—but see only once or twice a year—are here in the flesh. We go to amazing restaurants and wander around museums. We gossip and catch up and sit in loving companionable silence. [...]
Stranger behavior III
Another year, another batch of observations to build on this an this.
Stella settles in to her seat on a flight to the West Coast for work. Her boss is in the row in front. She turns her attention to the younger gentleman in the seat beside her. He’s visiting from Holland. His chin is pierced [...]
Wild Kingdom
If you ever go kayaking in a mangrove swamp in Thailand, here’s what could happen to you:
It turns out that the monkey who joined us was rather well-behaved, all things considered. After I posted that video on YouTube, we found a few others where the monkeys were a bit more aggressive:
You’re not supposed to feed [...]
Biking to work
Things I’ve learned recently while biking to work:
- A little shame plus a little inspiration make for a nice motivational cocktail. A few months ago, my friend LizardBreath bought a folding bike and started biking to work. Her commute is most of the length of Manhattan — much longer than mine — and she threw [...]
Some objects of desire.
This summer we went to Europe.
We ate a lot of great food,
drank delicious wine,
visited as many museums as we possibly could,
visited a good friend,
swam in the Mediterranean,
and saw many beautiful things. Here are a few:
The South of France:
Fontfroide Abbey
The Cloisters
There’s a recording studio about this room! Seriously.
Wheels of steel.
A man outstanding [...]
