Category: Writing

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Season Collusion

It’s the first full day of Spring. Yet. Wintry all-day snow. Upper West Side got more than most. Over 8 inches. So. Read Autumn by Ali Smith for tomorrow’s book club:

Collage campus. I didn’t intend to like this book based on its subject matter. Dying old guy and young girl as friends. Yet. I did like it. More for its richness of language, word play, concision of phrasing. And. Daniel’s perspective on life as a collage alum, rather than a college one. An asymmetrically smart relationship. Historical. Topical. Not a story novel. More a literary read.

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Do the Lighten Up

Make America laugh again. Journalists are such easy prey. They take themselves so seriously that any jab puts them into supercilious overdrive. Get a grip. Stop swinging at low hanging fruit and do some real reporting. Stormy. Really? And. Of course. Dennis Rodman would love to join the Rocket Man summit. Why not?

Speaking of light. Two out of three books so far fit the bill. The Wife Between Us, by Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen. Not sure why this took two women to conjure it. Disturbed families. Vulnerable adults. Worth a few hours on a wintry Saturday. Mrs., Caitlin Macy. Upper East Side moms. Nothing more than trite. However, The Woman In the Window, by A.J. Finn is not light at all. Dr.Husband reports depressing and tedious. So nope. Won’t read that one.

Apologies to Archie Bell & the Drells. Go Tiger!

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Asymmetrical

Will North & South Korea benefit from cultural connections at the Olympics? If so, it may be the best outcome of a lackluster Games. Meanwhile back at Homeland, ripped from the headlines. Will Alex Jones mount a standoff? Guns. Militias. Tipping toward civil unrest.

Franco out. Tiger in.

Read Lisa Halliday’s debut novel, Asymmetry. The first section a novella memoir of her romantic liaison with a forty-years older Philip Roth-esque author mentor. That section was good. The second and third sections failed as did the structure. Not so much.

Book Treks reviews.

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A Country in Chasm

Our divided country’s fissures don’t seem to be narrowing. A staged CNN anti-gun town hall exploited grieving kids and relatives of murdered students. The White House held its own listening meeting as the President pushed arming military-trained teachers. Today NRA Chair Wayne LaPierre used his insane rant at CPAC as a call to war against rising socialism.

Then there’s the never-ending gender divide. New York Times opinion column The Boys Are Not All Right by Michael Ian Black discusses guns and boys. It so resonated with my sentiments on the subject, I commented and it was a NYTimes Pick. Making young men feel that they are toxic surely will not provide a healthier outlook. Broken record alert.

Even the poor Central Park forsythia is conflicted. Is it February? Hope springs… 

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Writing Wrongs

Just finished the novel Golden Hill by Francis Spufford. Manhattan 1746. Richard Smith, a young handsome man, appears at a counting house after a long voyage from London. He has a note for an extremely large sum to be paid to him in sixty days. Everyone is wary because his plans for the money are secret. Smith finds New-York gritty and dark where a sense of morality seems out of place. During the days he awaits payment, Smith has many misadventures as a result of bad luck and bad choices. Especially his love for a combative clever girl. But in the end. He rights some wrongs. Historical redemption. A beautifully written read.

Speaking of horrific wrongs. Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida is named for a journalist who turned activist protecting the Everglades. As with the shooting in her eponymous school, journalists converged to report the story. Yet they lost objectivity and immediately became anti-gun activists, even going so far as to exploit students in shock. It’s okay to have opinions. Editorialize. Show sadness in the face of tragedy. But do it after the story has been reported. And tell your audience that it’s an opinion piece. Not news.

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Names Interchange

Media talking heads seem to have a problem knowing the preferred pronunciation of prominent peoples’ names. From veterans like Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd to more likely culprits at FoxNews. They all say “Steen” and “Stine” interchangeably. Often in the same paragraph. It’s Rod Rosenstein (STINE). Harvey Weinstein (STEEN). Carl BernSTEEN. How can these people cover the news so incompetently? It’s their only job to know these things.

There is no excuse for anyone to mispronounce the esteemed Senator from California’s surname. The most seasoned brilliant fair-minded person in government. As they’ve been doing all day. For the love of God. It’s Dianne Feinstein (STINE)!!!

Go back to 1983. William Safire agrees with me. How I miss his On Language column.

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Serpentine Shifts

The Golden Globes. Hats off to the few women who represented true individualism by not conforming to walking the red carpet in black. What’s the point when you pose and strut and remain objectified as a pretty thing anyway? Nicole should have thanked her co-star. Male directors need not have been dissed. Misandry is not the answer to bad behavior by a few jerks. Happy about James Franco. Of course. And Seth Meyers was solid.

The Essex Serpent, a novel by Sarah Perry. An amorphous Ness. Meant to be a Victorian Gothic homage, it didn’t quite manage either. Science, medicine, modernity dispelled the gossamer blue fog along a rural estuary where the mythic serpent was reportedly glimpsed. The so-called monster never conjured a terror commensurate with the village’s reaction. Perry draws her characters well. They just didn’t seem to belong in the same story together. A good read, but don’t agree with all the literary accolades.

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Faux Claire

House of Cards creator Beau Willimon’s Broadway debut The Parisian Woman falls flat. As edgy as Robin Wright is as Claire Underwood in the Netflix series, Uma Thurman as Chloe in this modern-day play is not. Thurman seems tentative in her portrayal of a supposedly scheming liberal in Trump’s Washington political landscape. Related jokes are few and dated. Characters are generally mis-cast even as the weak writing would test any actor. Blair Brown displays her professional chops and is the only standout.

On the plus side. The Hudson Theater has been brilliantly brought back to its 1903 glory. Hotel conference room sheetrock was torn down to reveal crown moldings and historic detail from Ethel Barrymore’s stage heyday. It reopened last year and is worth the visit.

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Text Effect

Texting has replaced talking. No need to leave your couch to have a romantic rendez-vous. Just insert a flirty photo. Clipped narratives allow people to engage with or ignore each other. A recent study has shown that fewer teens are dating. Why spend the money. Why waste time on low-paying summer jobs when tweeting meets all their needs. Face-to-face social interaction is becoming rare. What will be the effect. Increased isolation. Joining like-minded online safe spaces. Soon college will be too scary unless it’s done on the net.

And. btw. LOL is rarely that.

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Chaos Is A Ladder

Bran recalled Littlefinger’s phrase in Game of Thrones. It may apply to today’s Trump administration. Chief of Staff John Kelly looks like jelly in the wake of his boss’ derailment syndrome. Trump talking off-the-cuff to give cover to KuKluxers in his mid-town tower.

In the meantime. Wily Steve Bannon gave an interview to moonbat Robert Kuttner in Amherst, Massachusetts no less. Calling Alt-Right fringe a collection of clowns. Identity politics will crush the Democrats, said he. Thinking his comments were off-the-record. Kuttner & Bannon do seem to share antipathy for Chinese trade shenanigans. Bannon must be out-the-door.

Chaos is a ladder to unity afterall. To sanity and comity. A civil coup.