Thursday, April 14, 2005

New York state of mind

I'm off tomorrow for New York. This is a trip I've been looking forward to for a long time. Our friend Elizabeth Spencer's work "The Light in the Piazza" has been made into a musical, and it's opening at Lincoln Center. (More here.) I'm so happy for her. She has been to the prior versions in Seattle and Chicago and, of course, she'll be in New York. Spencer is a kind of writer's writer, which is not to say she is difficult, but only to say that she's appreciated deeply by the few and not widely enough by the many. This story, which as Paul pointed out was made into a movie, shows one side of her talent, while her political novel The Voice at the Back Door shows quite another.

I haven't been to NYC since before 9/11. We'll always be grateful to Tucker, who talked us into spending fall break up there in 2000, when he was in second grade. He wanted to go to the top of the Statue of Liberty, which we did. I took some nice shots of the World Trade Center from the ferry. We stayed at the graceful old Mayflower (since sold for redevelopent), near the Dakota, on Columbus Circle. It was Columbus Day weekend, as well as what would have been John Lennon's 60th birthday (in the 20th year since his murder), a heady environment for a young Beatles fan. Especially given what's happened since, it was a magical time.

This time, my quandary is how to pack. The weather is chillier than I would have ordered; doesn't really feel like spring. I'll probably go native with a lot of simple, easy black. And as we're wandering about, it would be cool to find a bathroom like this.

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