Rainy day, Brooklyn

We've been in New York for a week now and have spent most of that time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's huge. They have over two million objects in archive. I am beginning to wonder if we are not, in fact, masochists. The Smithsonian already kicked our asses. We went to 15 out of the 17 museums, but still left DC beaten, heads bowed, oodles of art yet unseen.

Our Brooklyn airbnb apartment,
the three windows above the grocery store.
That's M. going in the door.

Yesterday, we took a quick pass through Strawberry Fields, the John Lennon memorial in Central Park. In all, it's a couple of acres but most people just stop long enough to take a photo of themselves by the "Imagine" mosaic embedded in the sidewalk. Naturally the place has a self-appointed, Yoko approved, "Mayor of Strawberry Fields" and yesterday the Mayor was in. M. Lee hates guys like this so, when the Mayor began rounding up the tourists for his schtick, he wanted to immediately leave. I thought about staying to take a couple of photos but then decided against it. The memorial feels sweet, sad and empty. Seemed best to leave it at that.

View of the street from our apartment

As usual, we eat breakfast and lunch at home and take sandwiches with us when we're out during the day. For treats, we found a bakery in Chinatown that sells excellent red bean buns and mochi balls. And here in Flatbush, only two blocks from our apartment, Kabir's Bakery sells most delicious giant samosas for a dollar so this rainy Sunday we stayed home, had samosas for lunch and did laundry.

Small but nice, with a kitchen.

I have yet to find a place to read poetry. Places favor rap and spoken word, which I don't do, and most readings start late here in the City that never sleeps. Anyway, New York is already listed on my world tour. I read here in the '60s in the basement of St. Mark's in the Bowery before it was taken over by academics. Yes, Gingburg and Orlovsky also read that night and no, they did not speak to me, a mere girl.

Kabir's Bakery, Brooklyn
Great samosas, one dollar.

Tomorrow, MOMA.

Peter and the Starcatcher

Peter and the Starcatcher was absolutely enthralling. It was hard waking to the gray morning after an evening of such wonderful language and spectacle. Everyone was perfect. And all on such a small stage. Brilliant. I read that Peter is going on the road beginning this August. If it comes to a theater anywhere near you...GO!!!

Update: Here is the schedule for Peter and the Starcatcher's upcoming tour.

Friends along the way

As usual, I'm on the run so this has to be brief. We made a new friend last night. It's a friend of a friend kind of thing. Anyway, we're going to a play with him tonight. As a member of the Actor's Guild, he can get discount tickets so the three of us are going tonight to see Peter and the Starcatcer. Should be good. It won five Tony Awards when it was on Broadway. Now it's moved to a smaller off-Broadway location. Okay. Gotta go.

Enter the Blue Cloud

I have no idea how I got this photo. I took it from the car as we were driving across the country but, at the time, I was completely unaware of that strange blue cloud leaking in from the top.

Strange photo taken on the road

Perhaps M. Lee is right. Perhaps we do live in a sim.

Other than that, we are in NY, Brooklyn to be exact and, of course, M. Lee is tapping his foot by the door so gotta go.

my perfunctory arty ny subway pic

Nuts

One fateful day, Squirrel and Mr. Donut cross paths.

Notes in passing

Spaceman and me.

Went to the National Archives today. I have never been in a building with so many brass doors. Even the bathroom doors are brass and gigantic. The Archives are the home of important historical documents such as the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and the Magna Carta. Oddly, of these four, the Magna Carta, from 1297, is in the best shape. In comparison, the Declaration of Independence, 1776, has almost completely faded away and the Constitution and Bill of Rights aren't doing very well either. However, the room they are in, the manner in which they are displayed and the Security surrounding them is so opulent, reverential and threatening that it wouldn't matter if comic books were under the layers of brass, glass and watchful eyes, they would inspire awe.

Glenn Curtiss
1907s Fastest Man in the World.

We also visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It houses everything from the Wright brother's airplanes and Glenn Curtiss's V-8 motorcycle to the Command Module which ferried astronauts to and from the moon and a full-scale replica of the same Voyager I which is on its deep space mission, never to return. Besides sending information back to Earth, Voyager is carrying the Golden Record with pictures and sounds of Earth and detailed information about where our planet is located. I hope that's a good idea.

This evening, back in our little makeshift basement apartment on Capitol Hill, the domestic battle raging upstairs all week continues. It's really sad. Their baby chirps away happily in morning and they are at each others throats at night then the silent treatment.

Seventeen days

That's how long we've been gone but it seems so much longer. We've traversed many worlds, visited a time whorl and now are here in the center of world power, the US capital. Yesterday, passing by some nice rocking chairs under a rose arbor on the Mall, we dipped in for a sit. One of my many mottoes is never pass up a fine rocking chair. No, I'm not "ready" for one but they are fun for a pause. So we sat there under the just budding vines, under gray skies and got into an interesting conversation with an older black woman who was also rocking away. She claimed to be in the DOD and, if it were true, it sounded like she really had her ear to the ground, foreign ambassadors, street rumors...all that. I decided to believe her. It's more fun that way. M. Lee did not.

Anyway, I still haven't included anything about our visit to New Vrindaban and now the whole thing is receding in the rear view mirror. I fully intend to post some photos for my own future reference and my kids, if they are so inclined. This is, after all, a blog aka diary. And I'm still preparing myself for the task of wearing actual grown up clothes to this wedding on the 25th, an actually dress, high heels, M. Lee in a tailored suit. Holy shit! I was born wearing jeans. So we're going to do it, and it will probably be fun, but damn. I'm just hoping I don't wobble in the heels and twist an ankle.

Ok. Enough of this. Gotta eat my oatmeal now. We're leaving in 15 min. Yes. It's raining.

Rainy Monday

Suitsupply has the right suit for everybody,
even old guys.

On Saturday we managed to get in a bike ride. It was the one, true, though not quite warm sunny day. Including all the noodling, it was about a 25 mile ride which is pretty good for my first ride of the season. Once we crossed the Potomac we jumped on the Mt. Vernon Trail, a multi-use path which follows the river all the way to George Washington's home, though we didn't get that far ourselves.

But we did stop off at the Museum of Natural History on the way home. Oh my god. This museum alone is worth driving across the country for. Outstanding, fabulous and amazing.

And M. Lee's suit was ready yesterday so we picked that up. He looks great. Suitsupply is everything it promises to be but the guy who made it all come together was a fellow named Faouzi. He was wonderful. Fantastic. He knew exactly where the line was for an old guy, modern but appropriate. Photo to follow.

Okay. Gotta go. The Trip Tyrant, M. Lee, is rattling on about how we have to leave in a few minutes.


Note to my future self: 
Hey! Don't be like me. Bring your bike jacket and collapsible water bottle.

Slow Nickels TV

Slow Nickels is an odd name for anything but I suppose it makes sense as a laundromat although it would be more accurate to call the place Lots of Nickles. Anyway, we're at Slow Nickels doing our laundry this morning for the first time since we left Nevada. DC TV news is on. I don't know if its just me but it seems definitely different than TV news anywhere else I've been. The daily political scene plays out more like a battle in a Roman collesium, every strike broadcast, who is where doing what and everybody leaning in, keeping up blow by blow, the States themselves watching from front row seats, competing with one another, switching alliances on a moments notice like ringside hustlers buying and selling odds on each and every move. It's mad. OK. Gotta go. Time to fold laundry.

Notes and reflections

Five days in DC now. We're staying about 2.5 mi away from the Mall so everyday we get in a good walk going to and from the museums. The first few days it rained but the last two have been clear blue and warm in the sun. Makes all the difference. We've seen a lot of art, good and bad and some masters, including da Vinci and Rembrandt, and today we checked out the exhibit at the old patent building now the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Their portrait gallery was pretty bad but there is some wonderful, and disturbing, art brut. They refer to it as folk art for whatever reason but it's art brut aka outsider art. Anyway, the exhibit kicked our asses. It's huge. We got there at the end of the day and only had enough energy for the first floor.

Also I ran into a dear old friend from Oregon on the Mall today. Talk about a surprise! She and her husband are in DC visiting family. She called my name from across the street. It was phenomenal. We really don't know what's going to happen in a day, do we? So we did coffee. The event got me brooding again that we didn't stop in Kansas City and have coffee with Roy. I want to totally blame M. Lee for that. He makes plans way in advance and mostly alone. He decides destinations, reservations and even where we'll eat along the way. It's mostly all good so I am in the habit of just going along with things. I really hate admitting I'm so passive. It's a pathetic kind of flaw, a convenient weakness, but blaming him only magnifies it so I can't/don't want to do that. Arg.

Hwy 50 revisited and the wild guys at Suit Supply

Day Eight, DC and such.

Getting into DC we missed the turnoff Mrs. Google wanted us to take so we ended up exiting I-70 on good old Hwy. 50. It was like coming home. We only stayed on it for five miles then once again parted ways, it winding off towards its destination, as Don noted, Ocean City, MD 3073 mi away from its beginning in West Sac. We missed the cherry blossoms...or at least while they were still on the trees though we did pass voluptuous sweeps of fallen blossoms in yards and gutters. Even they are quite lovely, but perhaps that's just my expanded/skewed sense of beauty. Anyway, now that we are "somewhere" we are on military time. M. Lee has a busy day planned so, as usual, I have only minutes to dash off a note.

New Vrindaban didn't have wifi and I didn't want to fiddle with using my phone for one. In any case, that experience will require a little more time to digest so notes on Days Five, Six and Seven will have to wait awhile. Just to say, it was an amazing stop. Much has changed (and not changed) but even M. had a good time and that is saying a lot. So today we are off to Suit Supply. M. needs a suit for my nephew's wedding. He wants them to make him look like this, well except that he's going to still wear socks. 

Day four, "Eat your dinner LIKE THIS."

Columbus Ohio. Went to the Banana Leaf vegetarian Indian restaurant/buffet. Tasty but very strange place. Dinner began with a complete oral tutorial by the owner, six individually served appetizers and a glass of mango juice or mango lassi before we could get our hands on the buffet. We felt like children who had to be good little clean plate-ers with each and every serving before we could have anything else. Anyway, it was a vegetarian joint so, especially after the Limon Denny's, it qualified as a bonafide oasis.

Today, on to New Vrindaban to face down some ghosts and maybe liberate a few. Wish me luck.

Day three, ghosts and hard choices

We both hated Limon, M. Lee even more than I. And I don’t think it was because the place is so small or beat down or because so many of its residents work at the grim nearby prison. There is something else, something very wrong about Limon Colorado then this evening we read about the gruesome event that happened there back in 1900 and then that feeling of dread and gloom that permeates the place made sad and eerie sense.

We were back on the road by seven this morning. We needed to get an early start as today’s destination was Columbia MO, a 650 mile, 10 hour drive. I-70 goes right though Kansas City.  We also wanted to stop and have coffee with Roy. Even weeks before we left home, M. Lee and I discussed the possibility and decided the only way to do it would be to spend the night in KC. Stopping for an hour just wouldn't be enough and anyway, today’s drive was already too long. It was very disappointing but adding another night on the road just didn’t work with the rest of the schedule. We invited him to join us in DC instead. It would be great fun. We really hope he does. Who knows? Far-fetched perhaps but it could happen. We shall see.

Kansas points of interest:
8000 lb. prairie dog
World’s largest ball of sisal twine
Kansas Barbed Wire Museum
Home of President D.D. Eisenhower

Day Two made better by pancakes and Louie C.K.

We stayed in Salina CO last night, had a veggie burger and fries at Denny's and today, after 537 miles, made it to Limon CO. The drive included a grueling passage over the Continental Divide during the tail end of a spring storm. Vail was closed which infuriated M. Lee. Skiers get crazy when they see fresh snow go to waste. At Grand Junction we left Hwy. 50 for Interstate 70 (sorry Roy) and tonight we're in what's left of Limon watching Louie C.K. after a pancake dinner at (where else?) Denny's. You know you're in a small town when photos of the high school prom court make the front page.

Day One, the Loneliest Highway

Headed east, looking back. 

When Life magazine named Nevada's Hwy. 50 the "Loneliest Road in America"  back in 1986 its uninitiated urban editors meant it as an insult. They missed it all, the ancient beauty, staggering silence, open space and skies. We took Hwy. 50 east this morning and, having spent a lot of summers past exploring the Great Basin, it was sweet like coming home. It is a place to disappear in. But today was not a time for that. Today was Day One of our cross-country road trip. Our first main stop will be New Vrindaban, West Virginia, two nights. I lived there many years ago. I am going back to reclaim my ghosts.