I vowed to keep a decent trip blog but we have been busy walking our feet off and doing stuff. Last night we saw Rhyton at Union Pool--loved it, and loved seeing Rob play drums again, in this mostly improvised super smart not-jam band.
One of my nerdly bucket list missions was to hit the Film Forum--I saw a sweet animated documentary autobiography about the Georgian artist and puppeteer Rezo Gabriadze, Rezo. Tales of Tales, a classic Russian animated film was the opener.
I also visited The Society of Illustrators and saw this year's winners on display.
We walked and walked and walked some more, got blisters, went into Chelsea Guitars and saw Mike Campbell browsing; walked the High Line; had an amazing meal at Cervo's; walked some more.
I pilgrimaged to The Strand and got bookstore wig-out lockup where I couldn't really buy anything, then walked all the way to our midtown hotel, past the Empire State Building. By that time I was kind of done with midtown and ready for our next encampment in Brooklyn.
One night we went to Russ and Daughter's for dinner and then over to Prune for champagne and dessert. Rob took me to Otto's Shrunken Head and Manitoba's and an amazing thai place, and I was lucky to meet Tracy's old friends Candace and Amy and spend some time with them and their pal Cey, who kindly showed us his studio.
Time has a funny way of expanding and contracting with so much activity and motion. I hunkered down at times and finished up Paul Theroux's The Lower River and started a classic 60's manga anthology called Trash Market by Tadao Tsuge. The Lower River read like a Graham Greene rebuttal to any nostalgia or innocence whatsoever about Western relief efforts in Africa.
I doodled a bit here and there and saw many youthful indie moustaches. I guess my equivalent to a youthful moustache was birkenstock sandals in Eugene. Hug young people, tell them you love them, as they go through difficult phases.
