New York Minute
a little story to jumpstart your day
Greetings City-dwellers and those that can’t believe people live here:
I had a classic NYC moment the other day.
Talking on the phone during one of the random misty rains we’ve been having lately, I ducked into the doorway of a closed shop. I was having my animated conversation while holding a steaming coffee when a young woman stopped under the nearby awning and pulled out a cigarette.
I was downwind, so I made the briefest eye contact and moved to a spot slightly upstreet of her. The woman, without saying a word or acknowledging me in any other way, side-stepped into the slightly downtown spot I had freed—leaving me to take her spot upwind of the smoke. Breathing crisis smoothly averted.
I never stopped talking.
(alright, alright, settle down with your she never stops talking quips)
In any event, I continued my phone conversation as the woman smoked her cigarette halfway to the filter. The rain misted away into fog and then nothing, and a homeless man who’d been lurking in another doorway began to weave towards me, presumably to ask for money (or maybe for the croissant that I was holding but not eating). Just as he came within speaking distance, however, the smoker dropped her half-smoked cigarette and stalked off, leaving the long butt sizzling on the damp pavement.
The homeless man’s gaze was drawn by the flash of cinder and he veered downtown to swoop the still-lit cigarette off the street. He left, happily smoking.
I finished my phone call and left, happy.
NYC had taken care of itself again. Litter cleaned up, pedestrians in their own worlds. Onward.
WRITING NEWS:
I forgot to announce the livecast of the Literary Salon held by Pen Parentis this past Tuesday! You can watch the playback on YouTube. Subscribe to the show at youtube.com/penparentis -on Tuesday, the lineup was Evan Dalton Smith, Xavier Trevino, and Nicole Haroutunian discussing the topic: “Addictions, Compulsions and Obsessions.”
Also!! My interview in Authority Magazine has posted!! Cut and paste and turn my words into memes.
Inspirations this week? I went to a crazy Lithuanian concert. The venue was far too small, the performer was impersonating Kernagis, a singer-songwriter sensation during Soviet Lithuania times (in the 1980s) trained in the Theater, a self-taught poet, the life and soul of anti-Soviet, pro-humor, passionate pagan Lithuanianism, whose medium was sarcasm and hyperbole (which incidentally was the name of another 1980s underground Lithuanian band of the day).
Recently a friend sent me a clip of the kind of direct anti-message that flew under the radar in those oppressive Soviet times. I am guessing we are going to be seeing a LOT more of this kind of thing in the next four years. (Until the USA begins to use deserted real estate that developers have left abandoned (for tax reasons) as heavily patrolled “housing” for captive political dissidents and their disappeared families)
Other inspirations? A sexy jazz concert at Lincoln Center in a skytop club called Dizzy’s Club, a weekend trip up to the wildernesses of Massachusetts. It’s been a great week, full of excellent conversations.
Random Final Thought:
PS: Guess who was mentioned as an “author” in the Daily News??? Is it terrible that I feel more like an author because this rag said I was than because of my writing? yes yes it is thank you ridiculous world (and thanks to Cal for going to grad school with me and inviting me to his party)
Love your humorous acceptance of life!
of course you're an author!