so here we are---Wednesday morning---students off on vacations--lots of "unstructured" or free time---very careful budgeting needed to get through the next 2.5 weeks---what do we do?
Have to pay two bills this morning--the banks where this will happen are not exactly on the upper west side. So I have some visits to make, but where? Choice one" mid fifties--banks are a few blocks apart---still pretty easy access to my apartment. Choice 2: East 86 street around Lexington where the two bank sit near each other. Always fun to visit the complacent upper east side, (complacent for whom?) In the seventies, many of the women I pursued then in their early 30's lived on the east side. Upper west was still for the more "daring" people---this all began to change in the late seventies, when the working class bars on the upper west side became "go to" bars and were packed with young people. Still, many people whom I interacted with in my 20's and 30's lived on the east side. Choice 3: the two banks are actually on the same block, where---Bedford Avenue Williamburg, once a street I walked on almost every day as I headed to South 4th street Bar and Cafe. Arrived there around 2007, just as it was changing, and new restaurants were opening all over the block. Since the bar closed about 4 years ago, have not been there---definitely not since the pandemic arrived two years ago. Could be a fun adventure to explore the upscale changes as I go to pay my bills---the most surreal and challenging of my possible trips. What will be my choice? Will decide, later.
Survived tbe long 4th of July weekend with one movie: Lost Highway, by David Lynch, a really remarkable and all encompassing film---really drew me in---just what I needed for an early Saturday show. On Sunday, visited the Center for Fiction once, before the pandemic, my "haunt"--now, just a place to read and have some coffee. A decent amount of people there, but somehow the energy that I once knew was missing. Left and walked a block away to the bar-restaurant on Fulton and, for the first time in a long while, "hung out". Came in to watch baseball, but actually, since the bar was pretty empty, had a long conversation with the friendly bartender. Reminded me of the "old days"---should do it again, except a plain Caesar salad with tax and good tip for the bartender's friendship came to a little over $17.00. That's pretty heavy for me these days. But when I left I felt pleased--good to remember that I can have that experience. Monday's highlight was a brief but meaningful trip to the Drama Bookstore, that amazing place on west 39th near 8th. A staggering selection of reading material there from Greek drama to plays just closing off Broadway---I could stay forever--except that the bathrooms are closed. More strategy needed. Read a script by Mady C---about discovering her husband, with whom she had been in a relationship with for over 20 years, was arrested for something ugly. How could this have happened? I read with interest, but did not come away with any real answers---since I knew the husband when he was younger, I tried to put together some memories of my encounters with him (superficial but friendly) that might give me a clue as to why he would motivate his strange and eratic behavior, but did not come up with much. Eratic behavior from someone whom you think you know over the years as a steady person is always difficult to process. The gentleman in the monologue is not the only one I know.
All right, time to get going, will report (I hope) soon.
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