And I Didn't Even Have to Resort to the Sea Kayaks

[dr_pretentious]

Remember how I concocted a cunning plan which could not fail? Well, how about that? It didn't.

I had a lovely student-free day in Manhattan, nearly five hours of which went to making further cuts on the big book. I'm pretty sure when I enter all the changes I marked up on hard copy today, I will have eliminated nearly a thousand words just from cutting useless dialogue tags.

Once my brain was mush from all that mark-up, I found a theater on the Lower East Side that was still showing An Inconvenient Truth. Yep, it's inconvenient, all right. Maybe I'll become a vegetarian. (That sound you hear emanating from across the Atlantic is vgnwtch shouting encouragement.)

Had a lovely dinner at that fennel pollen place with DP and her mother and daughter. Dinner out with a three-year-old is surprisingly easy, if the three-year-old is sunny and charming, and if you arrive at the restaurant at 5:00 when there are no other patrons yet.

And then there was the reading itself, the excuse for the whole excursion.

For three years I ran a poetry series, so maybe that makes me a connoisseur of writers' performances of their own work. matociquala has the moxie. The moxie is rarer than you might think. Even if everything else had gone wrong--even if I had ended up needing to cross the bay by kayak--the reading would have been work the trouble.

Next month, Delia Sherman's one of the featured readers. I've been teaching one of her stories--her "CATNYP" is in an anthology of YA science fiction and fantasy that goes over well with my numerous thirteen year old male students who speak English as a second or third language. Anyhow, I'll be going back. Anybody in?

Comments

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

I found a theater on the Lower East Side that was still showing An Inconvenient Truth. Yep, it's inconvenient, all right. Maybe I'll become a vegetarian. (That sound you hear emanating from across the Atlantic is vgnwtch shouting encouragement.)

Funny - a lot of veg*ns have been saying, "Fantastic film. Why doesn't it mention that going vegan is the biggest single positive contribution you can make to the environment?" If you do decide to go veg*n - or even if you don't - Plant Based Nutrition & Health is a really great nutrition book, and it's available in the US through Vegan Outreach's catalogue. Indepth explanations followed by easy, sensible summaries at the end of each chapter.

even if I had ended up needing to cross the bay by kayak--the reading would have been work the trouble.

HURRAY!!

It sounds like you had a really wonderful day :)

[awritersweekend.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, I find it very tempting. Let me check my calendar...

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

They run on the 3rd Wednesday of every month, so March's falls on the 21st. You were coming east early for the conference anyway, right? So maybe we can go into the city for whoever Datlow and Grant have reading that night? Nice reward for all the work we'll have done to set up for our own shindig.

[happy-dr-friend.livejournal.com]

Critter enjoyed dinner with you...brief post about it on my LJ. Do you and D have any plans for the upcoming weekend? I have various ideas, mostly involving you, 211, and anyone else you care to drag into it coming into Manhattan since the logistics of getting a 3 year old to NJ become more challanging alone. The Guggenheim has an exhibit on Jackson Pollack, if anyone's into him and the AMNH has one on lizards, which would probably amuse at least Critter. Other possibilites exist, those are just the ones I know of at the moment.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Critter's very good company. I'm charmed and delighted that she remembers me. I hope next Saturday works for all concerned--if not, I'm afraid we're full up on family obligations until October. Well, I still have a vague notion about getting up to NYC for a little Brecht, but that's looking less and less realistic, and would probably be on a weeknight if it happened.