the pod bay door

It’s Sunday night, and I am worn out. I have one more day left on my NYC trip, and it has been fun. The past couple days have been warm, and I’ve been walking about feeling heavy from the humidity and heat. Tomorrow the high is 21C! I need my short pants, I’m sweating way too much.

Last night I watched Bill Maher do 90 mins of standup in support of his new book, When You Ride Alone, You Ride With bin Laden. The book considers ways the US goverment might act to help its citizens fight the war on terrorism, and uses as its inspiration posters from WWII. Thirty-three new posters were created by a group of artists, and some are available on his tour. I quite enjoyed his performance, and afterwards he autographed my copy of his book.

Celebrity Sighting 1: Ann Coulter was sitting two seats away from me. I stood next to her when the crowd was leaving but said nothing.

Today I saw two very good and important movies. Far From Heaven is Todd Haynes’ new picture, an examination of upscale life in Hartford CT in 1957. Julianne Moore gives perhaps the performance of her career as a supportive housewife and mother, and one of the local society page celebrities among her friends. Her husband, Dennis Quaid, is a successful business man for the local company called Magnatech. They have two small children, a gardener and a maid, and life seems grand. It is the fall, the leaves are shades of golden red and auburn. But all is not as it seems. Moore’s life begins to unravel, and she finds herself confiding in not only her best friend, but also her new gardener, played by Dennis Haysbert of 24. That the gardener is black will come to haunt her. The film is also presented in the style of the late 50s films, and is inspired by the movies of Douglas Sirk, including All That Heaven Allows. I’ve seen none of Sirk’s movies so cannot comment on that aspect of the movie. Highly recommended. Moore’s performance is so powerful it’s almost as if she isn’t acting. She inhabits all the movement, behaviour and nuances of The Supportive Wife, wanting nothing more than the best for her husband and children.

Bloody Sunday is a new film that replays the events in Derry, Northern Ireland on 30 January 1972. A civil rights march was organized for that day, and when the march had ended, the British Army shot 27 civilians, killing 13 of them. The writer/director, Paul Greengrass, shot the film as if he was a cameraman on the day of the event. It is hard to believe the movie was made last year, everything looks like documentary or news footage. The film shows both points of view, that of the marchers, specifically the Member of Parliament for the area, and the army commanders. The bias is, as you would expect, towards the marchers, and we are reminded at the end of the movie that no soldier was ever disciplined for killing a civilian. Again, highly recommended. Shot as it is, with hand held cameras, it’s also hard to believe that the dialog between all the actors was scripted. It truly appears to be footage shot on location as it all happened.

Celebrity Sighting 2: I was walking back to the Leo House when I looked up and saw Butch Goring walking in front of me with his girl friend/wife. Again, I said nothing, but wanted to say, “Hey Butch, we went to the same high school!”

Tomorrow is my last day here, and I am looking forward to returning to Edmonton to my home and my own bed, and my friends. But it’s been a lot of fun to be here again. I think I’ve had my fill of New York for a time to come.

Last night Lisa and I saw Janeane Garofalo and Zach Galifianakis perform at The Town Hall on 43rd Street. Both were very funny. Garofalo brought out notes which she would use to remind her about what to speak next. She railed against everything: food, the US government, kids’ trendoid names, technology, drinking, and had the crowd laughing for almost two hours. Tonight I’m seeing Bill Maher at the 92nd Street Y. Check out Maher’s new book, When You Ride Alone, You Ride With bin Laden.

The weather has warmed up considerably, and I’m enjoying it, knowing these are the final three days I’ll experience such weather until next April at the earliest.

This trip seems to be going on for a long time, doesn’t it? I’ll be home soon.

In New York today the sun warmed up considerably, and it was great walking weather. Here at 5:45 pm, the sun is down, but it is still warm. A nice change from very cool weather earlier in the week. Today was a great day, and it’s not over, but the theme so far has been Edmonton Friends. I had a 90-minute visit with Sekeena in the morning, and in the afternoon, descended upon Macy’s to find Jessica, and have a coffee with her as well. Both visits were great, life-affirming (ok, that’s corny, but true) and I left both visits energized. Both are doing well: Sekeena is in law school at nights, working towards her degree which she hopes to finish by 2005. Jessica’s new album is being delivered as we speak, 1000 pressings of her 5th effort, of which she is justifiably proud (I know, I’ve heard some of the cuts already). Seeing these two amazing women today was great, and it’s not over. In a few minutes, I meet with my friend Lisa (whom I met at the Steely Dan parties in March 2001). We are going for a bite, and are off to see Janeane Garofolo perform stand-up. Later.

I saw two movies today. The Grey Zone is one of the most powerful holocaust movies ever, and one of the best pictures of the year. It is written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson, who played one of the brothers in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and also directed O. The film examines the Sonderkommando, the group of Jews in concentration camps that ushered other Jews to the gas chambers, and then burned their bodies. The Sonderkommando were granted privileges such as food, wine, liquor, cigarettes in exchange for unspeakable acts, and were spared their own deaths, but for a period of four months only. On Oct 7, 1944, a group of them staged an historic revolt at Auschwitz.

The film features a number of memorable performances by Mira Sorvino, Daniel Benzali, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Allan Corduner as the Jewish surgeon who reported to Josef Mengele, David Chandler as one of the kommandos, and surprisingly, David Arquette, whose performance as a Hungarian Jew will make you forget his previous personas (of mostly assholes). The most horrifying aspect of the movie is its bleak and basic portrayal of the kommandos actions, which for them was business as usual. the movie is mind-numbing. I left wondering, again, how anyone could ever do this to another human being, and how the Sonderkommandos’ own psyches could survive until their own deaths.

I also saw Femme Fatale, the new film written and directed by Brian de Palma. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos plays a jewel thief who double-crosses her partners in a jewel heist of a diamond-studded – er – outfit. She escapes, and seven years later, returns to France as the wife of the US Ambassador. Along the way…well, it gets kinky, and messy, and confusing, and ultimately unsatisfying. Romijn-Stamos won me over as a Bad Girl, but it wasn’t enough for me to recommend the movie. Wait for the video/dvd/whatever.

Last night was another NYC ritual: visiting and having dinner with Leo and Diane Dillon in Brooklyn. I first met the Dillons at a regional sf convention I had helped organize, Context’89, in Edmonton that year. We’ve been friends ever since, and every time I visit NYC, I take the subway to Brooklyn and we meet, visit, and have dinner. Last night was no exception. They signed a number of copies of their books for me, in addition to a few posters and post cards. I love them both a lot, they are wonderful folks and brilliant illustrators. They showed me their current work in progress, another title by Margaret Wise Brown called “Where Have You Been.” Wise passed away in 1952, having written hundreds of of books and stories during her short life. The Dillons also illustrated her story, “Two Little Trains“.

Today is a runaround day, for lack of a better description. I hope to see The Grey Zone this afternoon, maybe get a half-price ticket to see 42nd Street, wander through a couple record stores, visit the Pop Shop. If there is an emerging theme to this trip, it’s laziness.

The one enduring image I have of New Yorkers this time around is that of cell phones: they are everywhere. Every third or fourth person is walking and talking on a cell phone. It’s like the plague. Speaking of which, for the first time in 100 years, the plague has hit NYC.

It’s Wed afternoon in NYC, cool, some drizzle. The movie Tully was better than I expected. Getting to watch Julianne Nicholson for two hours swayed my opinion, but seriously, it’s a fine little film. Tully is one of two sons of Tully Coates, Sr, a midwestern farmer who discovers that he owes $300,000 to the bank, but can’t determine why. Nicholson plays a friend of the family. Tully is played by Anson Mount. As the centre of the movie, he faces his family’s problems, and his own (as a womanizer without any responsibilities beyond the farm itself). The movie is gorgeous to watch, and the themes at times devestating. Of note is the performance by Bob Burrus as the father, who apparently hasn’t laughed or smiled since their mother’s death 15 years earlier. Recommended.
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