frenetic week...

which began on Monday at 7:30, as I sat sipping my coffee and trying to figure out how to balance my budget for the week. The phone: it was Joe S from friends, could I sub for him all day (and the next day as well). At that point, everything changed---lots of work for the whole week, three days of sessions as well, and very little energy or time to spend money. So here we are, at the end of this week with non stop work.
 Last night, I finally got out--thought about trying to get a last minute ticket to MacBeth at CSC, but decided instead to see The Irishman---a film that I had to see fairly soon. Glad that I did--it is an amazing film--Scorsese and his screen writer have done a great job with the script. Robert DeNiro is the central character--a man who understands ethics and morality, but who is able to turn into a cold blooded killer if the situation calls for it. Does he represent Scorsese himself?  Does Scorsese see a gap between his need for seriousness and austerity (in some of his movies) and his putting on screen vicious and in some cases (The Wolf of Wall Street) vulgar events. The final moment of the movie is the only one where one really feels the director is present. It is a cold, remote ending, after all the violence and "life" that we have seen in the past three hours and twenty minutes. Those three hours and twenty minutes move incredibly fast---I was amazed at how quickly the time went. At any rate, I am really glad that I saw the film. The movie theater, the Landmark 57 is in a somewhat remote area where midtown meets the upper west side. It was freezing when I got out, far too late to wait for a bus (coming once every 40 minutes) and the taxis were all going the other way. So, in spite of the cold, I walked (actually ran at times) the 19 blocks from the theater to my apartment house. Amazing!
  Today, I will go to a reunion party for the South fourth people at another bar in Willamsburg--hope a lot of people show up and that it lasts a long time. Maybe then another party, hosted by a theater company in Brooklyn Heights. We will see. Tomorrow is open---lots of football to watch---will report soon.