is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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A Day!
A Day!
Today was about as close to a perfect day as I�ve had lately. I woke up around 10:30, stayed in bed until 11, did some yoga and ate some cereal, took a shower and walked down and over to the Film Forum and saw Terrence Malick�s beautiful Days of Heaven (which does many things, including reminding us why natural light-filming is great, and why we once thought both Richard Gere and Sam Shepard were handsome). There I ate some tasty popcorn. Then I took the train up to 34th Street and went to Macy�s dress section, where I ascertained that there really is no better dress for my sister�s wedding than the one I have. Sure, there are other dresses that would work, if I needed to find one. But the one I have is GREAT.
Then I met Linda and Wendy and saw a film in the Tribeca Film Festival called Tierney Gearon: The Mother Project. It is about a photographer Linda has worked with and is made by filmmakers both Linda and Wendy know, and it is AMAZING. Such a great film. Gearon�s photography is amazing: personal and raw and beautiful, and the story, of her relationship with her own children and with her schizophrenic manic-depressive mother, is raw and touching and, really, a commentary on all kinds of families, even those untouched by mental illness. I highly recommend this documentary.
I also drank a delicious over-priced movie Pepsi.
Then Gayle came in from Princeton, and we ate at Rice, a restaurant around the corner from the warehouse on Spring and Bowery were I lived for a summer in 2001. Yummy tasty. Then we went to see John Vanderslice at The Mercury Lounge. We got there early, because I had told him I would look for him before the show. But when I got to the show I suddenly realized that I didn�t really know what he looked like. I mean, I thought I did. But there were all these guys there who could have been him. It�s an indie thing. So I reminded myself that I probably would really know him when I saw him and that I just hadn�t seen him yet. I stopped looking and Gayle and I had some whiskey. Then the first band played. We watched them for awhile, and then left the music room. At the bar we entered into a discourse about what was wrong with the band. Me: �I want to know what would have made that OK.� Her: �Ha! I was about to say: there was so much wrong with that!� Me: �I think maybe my first comment was too harsh. What I meant was something more like: In what situation would that be called for?� And then she launched into an interesting investigation into what could and could not save the band in question, which shall remain unnamed. The whiskey was tasty. We soon began conversing about phenomenology. This was ever-so-interesting to us. I had a short conversation with a Random Guy about whiskey, and he then kept returning to my side every now and then to see whether we might start talking again. I appreciated his attentiveness, but we never did speak again. He looked a bit like the guy I once dated who only Heidi has met, and whom she calls �the boring guy.� I do not at all mean to suggest that the guy with whom I discussed whiskey is boring.
The second band was better, or at least momentarily perplexing (to me), but not enough to keep us in the crowded room. We reretreated and had some more whiskey, and got more deeply in to PHENOMENOLOGY. What, really, distinguishes Merleau-Ponty, Husserl, Heidegger, and Levinas? We were all up IN it for awhile. Then it was time for Vanderslice et al. to play. Gayle said, �he better play �dear sarah shiu� because that is the best song ever!� and then it was the first song of the set! It was a very good set. Gayle was pleased, I was pleased. It was fun for me to recall the various things Heidi had text-messaged me from the show in London, and compare them to what I was viewing. They had a cellist sitting in on the set, who had recorded with them on Pixel Revolt. Everything was perfect.
After the show, since I had not found Mr. Vanderslice before the show, I waited to say hi and bye, and when I said, �I am Jill Stauffer,� he grabbed me and gave me the most sincere hug I�ve had in quite a long time, and then we had a fairly lengthy (considering the line of people waiting to talk to him) earnest eye-to-eye with one-of-his-hands-on-each-of-my-shoulders conversation about things we have and have not arranged with regard to writing, and speaking, and meeting, and me seeing the show tomorrow. What a very lovely person he is.
Then I left the rock show. Gayle went over to Brooklyn to stay with Kazanjian-man, and I began the walk from Houston and A to 22nd and 3rd. It then occurred to me that I was very near the House of Strauss. Sure, Strauss has been living in Berlin for years, but he�s in town right now, and of course he still has the same apartment because New Yorkers never give up their apartments. So I called him and of course he was awake on a deadline, but of course he invited me up to drink beer because he is a writer and procrastination is a way of life. After the two whiskeys I am certain I didn�t need the Lambic, but it was TASTY. And Strauss always makes me laugh.
Then I walked the rest of the way back here. And now it is time for SLEEPING.
2:48 a.m. - April 28, 2006
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