long weekends are weird.....

wonderful to think about when you are working, and sometimes difficult to negotiate when the lack of structure really hits you. That is my feeling on this, my 4th day off. Friends returns to work tomorrow, but so far no work. Here is a run down of the rest of the weekend.
  Saturday, after three sessions. Rest---not really my idea, but I was "zonked" by the time I returned home and picked up my laundry. So I stayed in the apartment, listened to some classical music and did not much else. Still, I had a lot to look forward to...
 Sunday---a good day, I headed out to Cobra in the late morning---stayed there for a while--always a welcoming place, today there was no sports to watch so it was just hanging out. After I left the place, I thought I would catch the DeKalb Avenue bus back to downtown Brooklyn, but the bus was so crowded that I decided to walk further east---first about nine blocks to Wycoff and Myrtle---a big intersection and then past Myrtle, to the furthest east part of Bushwick. This was an interesting walk---east of Myrtle Bushwick becomes far more quieter---less signs of over-gentrification---very few coffee houses or bars---almost none--- ar less new buildings---a really quiet energy as I walked down Cornelia Street from Wycoff to Wilson, and then back to Gates Avenue where I picked up the bus to downtown. Once Gates travels from Bushwick into Bed-Stuy, one sees something pretty amazing; There are no brownstones on Gates! It may be one of the only east-west streets in Bed-Stuy, that for most of it, contains no brownstones. Got off at Marcus Garvey---the bus was getting too crowded, and too the 15 to Fulton (I would like at some point to take the 15 all the way into Queens---it is a fascinating ride---but was not up to it on Sunday)  then the C, which came quickly, to Lafayette. Then the bookstore and finally a nice dinner with a great salad at the bar restaurant next to TFANA.  Had a good conversation about movies with one of the bartenders--he invited me back. Tired, even if it was early, and so I returned home.
  Monday, a little too tired to go to Brooklyn---I ended up going to Metrograph to see a Scorsese movie made in the middle seventies called New York, New York---DeNiro, playing,  (as usual) the aggressive and difficult musician and Liza Minelli as his girl friend. The movie runs about three hours---after an hour I was gone. Why? Well, the opening scene, the celebration downtown of the end of World War II, is incredibly well made---but DeNiro's character was just too much for me to deal with. For most of the first hour, he is completely verbally abusive to Minelli's character, and she puts up with it---actually falls in love with him, in spite of it. Its amazing how easily accepted that was in the late seventies---now, watching it, I felt it was repugnant. I simply did not want to deal with any more of this character---the outsider who won't take no for an answer---the kind of character that Scorsese builds most of his films around. Will I ever see another movie?After that, I don't know---I walked from Metrograph---on Ludlow and Canal, to the subway station by the Film Forum (yes, I did pick up their revival schedule--some very interesting stuff).
 But there is more. Did not want to end my day early so I got a standing room at the Met for Alcina, an opera by Handel that they are playing now. I lasted one act (there are only two)---Handel is difficult---long arias that stop the action--you either like them or you don't. Handel operas are usually directed as Baroque pieces with singers mostly standing still---this production was totally busy---every aria or recit punctuated with movement, most of which called attention to itself. I can understand why the director wanted to do it--but---well, its Handel, and I never have really enjoyed seeing his operas on stage.
  That is all for now--will report soon.