another interesting weekend....

perhaps not as exciting as last weekend, but still strong, nevertheless.
 Saturday evening: went out to see the theater project of my friends, Abby and Michael. It was playing at the Invisible Dog, a venue very close to the F train Bergen Street stop. So the plan was to give myself a lot of time, in case trains were moving slowly. That is exactly what did happen---I found myself at the West 4th street station and the time clock said the next F would come in 15 minutes. Wow! That is a lot of time to spend at one station--but the D was coming in one minute. The D would let me off about 5 long blocks east of the F. But I took it anyway, (I am impatient at times) and after getting of the train, prepared for my long trip west on the five blocks that cross Bergen Street.
Quite and adventure---the streets, very long, are filled with brownstones, but the foot traffic was minimal Who lives in these brownstones, (now worth about 2.5 million) I asked myself. Why are so few people on the street around 8:30 P.M. Occasionally saw a couple walking slowly or a someone walking his or her dog, but the effect was kind of eerie. Anyway, I arrived at Smith Street (where the venue is) pretty early, but happy that I had done some exploration.
 The project involved a group of young people (high school and college) all from other countries, in which they introduced themselves then constructed and took down some large platforms. Lots of team work---I understand what my friends were trying to do--but I felt distanced from most of the project. Still, the audience seemed to love it---the applause when the play ended was incredibly strong.I congratulated my friends and left, returned home and went to bed.
  Sunday, the day of flyering for the march this coming Saturday. First I visited Cobra club, watched some football, then said hi to my friend Matt at his bookstore Molassses. Josh, my flyering partner, met me at Myrtle Avenue and Broadway, and we embarked on our journey through Brooklyn to alert people of the march.
  A fascinating trip, all walked---beginning at the Myrtle-Broadway subway, going west on Myrtle, had an interesting conversation with a person of color-- man in his sixties---he had just left the church across the street from a NYCHA project---and told Josh and myself that he could no longer afford an apartment or a house in the borough---even though he had been born and raised in the projects across the street. His frustration was palpable. The journey continued south at Nostrand, then west again on Lafayette, then north again to Myrtle---and we moved west on that street really almost up to Flatbush. At one point, around Hall Street, an elderly black woman told us that the some of the white newcomers to the area looked at her as if she did not belong--she was agitated about this. She assured us she would support our march. Finally landed at the Gotham Market, had some ice cream and later coffee to fill me up after the long trip. Then went to the fiction center nearby and compared notes with Simon, the former student at Friends who is a barista there, and also beginning his graduate studies in Social work. Would have liked to have stayed there and read, but now exhaustion was really setting in, so I got on the subway and returned home.
  Today a "lazy" day (maybe I need one)--only event scheduled is the final BAN meeting before the march. Rest of time, I will read---getting really into plays written by contemporaries of Shakespeare and articles about them---will report soon.