Autobiographical
Brave New World
I am sitting on a NJ Transit train en route from Princeton to New York for a seminar on fMRI statistical analysis. As I travel, I’m corresponding in real time with my best friend, who lives in Madrid. We’re making plans for my trip there next week. And alI I can think about is how [...]
So Much Farther Left To Climb
So much farther left to climb. Not one inch has been secure.1 I’ve spent and will spend this weekend in the studio, pushing against the limits of what I can do. And all that comes to mind are those words. With Honor : This Is Our Revenge : Elevens↩
Auditions, Complexity, Homes
It’s now official: I’m trying out for Marigold. If, after the audition, they want to take me and I decide that I want to join, I’m going to have leave Spain indefinitely. I’ll move back in with my parents in New Jersey. It’s partly a wonderful situation. It’s partly an awful situation. There’s no doubt [...]
Sois Mala Gente
One of the more remarkable experiences of the weekend: having a man walk up to me, ask me for rolling papers, ask me to ask my friends for them when I suggest they might have some, ask me where I’m from, find out I’m from the United States, say to my face, “you all are [...]
The Ugliest
As I checked out today from the Hotel Cervia, I came upon the most disgusting woman I have ever encountered. She was the mother of the two women I had come to think of as the proprietors of the hotel and she it was who awaited impatiently my money. As I stood there counting out [...]
The White Night
Without anticipation, Morris and I wondered into La Notte Bianca, during which the vast majority of Rome was shut down and the city set upon itself the task of carrying out a sort of Roman Mardi Gras. It was a remarkable experience: especially for the on-and-off rainstorms through the night, of which the arrival elicited [...]
Events Today
Today I had the pleasure to climb five hundred some steps to the dome at the top of Saint Peter’s Basilica, walk to Colliseum (to find that it was closed), drink absinthe, eat dinner with an Italian man and his Spanish love whom he was trying to convince to move to Rome permanently and take [...]
Almost Arrested
I came this close (possibly not that close to be honest) to getting arrested last night because of Ale. We walked into the Metro at Diego de Leon. Ale and Victor went through the turnstiles and I said I had to buy a ticket, which I did. By the time I noticed Ale saying I [...]
Summary
1300 miles of driving, 12 days and 1 cancelled festival later, I am sitting on the ground at JFK airport. It’s 7:17 PM here in New York City. I am happy. To say that I am happy might seem trite, but I think it is anything but trite given how much has been required to [...]
Wow. That Really Just Happened.
While eating dinner at Swagat with Fox, Fletch and Canning, Fox pointed out that the waterpourer was obsessive about filling the glasses. As we all noticed it, we became interested in testing the boundaries of his filling. After seeing that anything more than a deciliter of water being removed from the cup merited refilling it, [...]