so here we are...Saturday...

morning---will see Sarah Ruhl's new play tonight;it is chock full of actors whom I am acquainted with. Wonder whether I will wait to say hello to them--one of them, David, whom I met when he was in the Dustin Hoffman revival of Death of a Salesman, is a really nice guy. I have not seen him in about 15 years; it would be nice to talk to him again. Well, we will see. I am interested to see how Ms. Ruhl presents people of what I think are, my generation. And knowing that I will see the play, gives my day some structure.
    Next week at this time, I will be in California for the events that lead up to my niece's wedding. Facing this with some trepidation---I am not used to being away from home---also, will be interesting to see where my relationship with my brother is at. It has never been contentious, but we will be exposed to each other for a pretty long period of time. The whole trip seems somewhat unreal to me---what with everything going on in the city---and my focus on the current Mayoral race and a few races for the City Council. Lots of thoughts about that. The Mayor's intractability--his insistence on not listening to communities---to forcing his own policies on them---is very unsettling. An editorial in today's NY Times, expressed disappointment that two other New York office holders, Scott Stringer and Hakeem Jeffries, may have felt it was politically expedient to wait until the Mayor can't run again due to term limits---and so are setting their sites on 2021.  But the current Mayor' policies are so brutish that by that time it may be too late to effect too much change.. I am frightened for what the city might become if things remain the same---of course, perhaps I am being too pessimistic---but discussion, discussion, discussion, that is what is really needed. Too many people I know don't realize the importance of this election, and how who the Mayor is effects the living conditions of all. Where does it end?
    Yesterday, my blog entry was the last thing I did on the library computer---for some reason there was a big demand for computers at the Saint Agnes branch. Determined to continue, I headed to Brooklyn, stopped at Coffee on Bergen Street and Flatbush (I love their coffee) and then walked to the Central Library at Grand Army Plaza. I love that place! Spent about an hour on the computer, then walked north on Washington to Fulton---grabbed a pizza slice near there (pretty good) and then took the C back to Manhattan. My goal was to see the movie Step!, a documentary about the graduating class of a charter school in Baltimore. It is a class of about 60, all girls, and the class is completely made up of black young women---mostly from homes on the poverty level or close to it.
Seven years earlier they were admitted as the first class-sixth graders with the goal of the school to make sure all were accepted into accredited colleges in 2015. The movie centers on the Step dancing group of this class and on three young women and their families in particular. Each of the three young women graduating have different stories---one is bright but distracted, one is the valedictorian who gets in Johns Hopkins, and one gets into a smaller school in Alabama. Interesting, a although all the people in the movie are black, the violence that seems to be prevalent in those neighborhoods was never discussed. That, to me is a good thing. I found myself moved by much of the movie, I wanted to go down to the school and serve as a tutor for those girls.
    Yet when I left the movie house, it was only 6:30. A whole night ahead for cityboy. I played with three options in my mind---I wanted to eat somewhere where I could watch the Yankee game---my choice was the Gramercy Bar on 2nd between 19th and 20th street---it is usually a quiet bar and pretty friendly. The bartender I hoped to find there---Amanda--was not there, but the one who was was welcoming, and I settled in for my grilled cheese and watched the start of the game without much contact from the other patrons. Left at about 9---could not get myself to just go to the subway, instead I walked north on 2nd to 23rd street, then right on 23rd to first avenue, and then south on First to 14th street. All of a sudden I realized that I had not been on that section of first avenue for a while, and I was hungry to check out what was new. Did not find much---some new restaurants and coffee places---Stuyvesant Town seemed the same as always. But the point was, I had to wander---just not ready to return to the upper west side yet, even though I was a bit tired.
   The rest, as they say, was silence---L train to sixth and the 1 back to the West Side, Oh yes, I did stop off at Lincoln Center where they were showing the somewhat bizarre Bergman movie of the opera The Magic Flute. What amazing music! Really bonded with it.
   So that is all for now---will report on Ms. Ruhl's play and other things, probably on Monday