New York, New York

Hully gee, but it's been a long time since I posted a blog entry.

Well, dear readers, exciting things are happening. I'm in New York, sitting in the New York Public Library's (NYPL) main branch reading room in Bryant Park. I just got an NYPL library card! (Well, a Visitor's Card--I don't think I can check out materials.) B. and I leave New York tomorrow, which would be sad, but... on Monday I start a job at an excellent academic library, at the closest law school to my home.

Wow. About the job, much more than that I do not know. No thirty, as we journalists say. It's temporary, and probably part-time, and the duties are nebulous. But I can't wait.

Ummm... impressions of New York. Why do New Yorkers have a reputation as being rude and unfriendly? I love New York (obvious enough--you can take the boy out of Brooklyn, but you can't take the Brooklyn out of the boy). But I also love New Yorkers. They're polite, friendly, and cheerful. They don't suffer fools gladly, but they make allowances (sometimes wide ones) for tourists.

Broadway. I keep swearing (or affirming) that I will start blogging about everything we see, on Broadway and elsewhere. But that particular to-do item never bubbles to the top. Well, here are my brief impressions of the three shows we've seen this trip.

Next to Normal: Strong meat. A musical, and not a typical one, about a mother with bipolar disorder (almost certainly bipolar I disorder, for those of you that know the difference and/or care). My quick take is that the show does a great job of showing the ramified nature, and interactions of, brain chemistry and environment. On some level, it's all chemistry (whether you're a reductionist or not). Sometimes, the causes of mood are difficult to tease from the skein of life. Other times, the causes of mood are as obvious as a scream.

The Royal Family: Great fun, but also with its serious elements. About a family based on the Barrymores, it shows that actors are both like the rest of us, and very much unlike some of us. As big a theater buff as I am, I appreciated this distinction. I also understand why The Royal Family is such a popular show with insiders--it's very much like a 1930's version of 30 Rock.

Wishful Drinking: Before I saw this, I thought well, although not often, about Carrie Fisher. Now, I love her. It's true, as one review said, that she's less confessing about her own self than taking a created character (the one that played Princess Leia) and confessing from that perspective. But that self is quite entertaining, and extremely revelatory. Two more points. First, her show (from my lawyerly perspective) is a tribute to two black-letter rules of U.S. law: you can't defame the dead, and truth is an absolute defense to an action for defamation. Second, as she says in the show, if you name something, and own it, it takes much of the power away from that thing.

Well, I have an article (on library job interviewing) to pull, reading to do, and a lunch appointment with a friend of B.'s who is here for the same conference that brings us to New York. A quick 570 words--in 25 minutes, no less!

Later, gentle readers--but hopefully not this much later.