Simple Pleasures Returning -

Slowly, very slowly, more simple collective pleasures seem to be surfacing. The streets of New York City, once jarringly empty, have been bustling with a long-gone energy. And I am reminded of how strong a “character” setting can be in a story, a powerful entity impacting all characters. Ok, ok, this was my literacy lesson today! Now that I am once again teaching reading, I’ve been constantly connecting story elements to real life. My reluctant and still emerging readers need to understand that the things they need to do in a book to understand are exactly what they do everyday. Navigating their way through people and places, drawing meaning from the circumstances this creates. Just like them there video games. Ah, if only a passion for real and consequential action IRL was as motivating to the youth of today…

Anyway, the vacant storefronts remind you of the damage done. So I have been visiting her more… hating to see her down and out. Here are some shots of some simple pleasures that have been feeding my soul through a very busy transition. Part of my City on the mend.

A quick stop at Molly’s Cupcakes for a vegan vanilla with chocolate frosting. Thick, delicious frosting, though kind of disappointed they haven’t upped their vegan options since my previous visit years ago.

I met a boy called Franks Mills on September 12th right here, in front of the Waverly. But unfortunately I lost his address. I just love old New York. It seems now like old New York. The kind of place where Dylan Thomas would die again.

More of Greenwich Village

And it’s many commercial real estate opportunities

When I heard movies were back, I had to go to my favorite theater–The Angelica. I saw Nomadland because it won the Golden Globe and I was curious. It wasn’t great, but I did appreciate how powerfully an invisible character pressed upon the main character. He, her dead husband, was discernible in every one of her interactions, imparting conflicts and limitations to her existence that were not resolved. The pain of her broken heart wasn’t made into a spectacle; it was just a part of her–like a bum leg or myopia. I really appreciated that understatement as the pains of the heart are private.

I used to have to go to the earliest showing to assure no one next to me at the movies. Now I don’t have to!

I need to get the catalog that bowling alleys and movie theaters get their carpets from. Oh, insider tip: Buy the popcorn! It’s really expensive but your mask can be off the entire time you’re munching.

An after work walk in Brooklyn because when the sun beams so powerfully, I can’t descend into subterranean transit to get to my subterranean apartment.