Monday: Pantera Shirt in Cafe Ost

I had no idea that hours from this moment, random Pantera fans would  throw me the devil horns
from their car waiting for a light on the Bowery. Very rejuvenating!

I don't why I have this expression.

Me, breaking, in Cafe Ost.

Writing is slippery. I can't think about what I'm doing too much. I can barely blog about it.

I ingested an Americano AND an iced coffee. Super decadent writing day.

Also, I recorded in my notebook the names of lit mags that had been encouraging in the past.

I ended this session by reading a few of Frank O'Hara's Lunch Poems, some of them written in the neighborhood where I wrote today, where I always write.

I'm not writing about New York, though. I never write about New York.

Dressed for Class

My very full week is drawing to a close.  This week, I taught a slew of one-shot classes in four days, which feels weird and kind of overwhelming as a part-timer.   Today class was great, actually--amazing students, and a crazy, almost haphazard energy.  I feel like we all learned something and got inspired.  I haven't had so much fun in a pedagogical setting in a good long time. (Was it because my hot pink tights were making their seasonal debut?)

After work, I biked to my favorite cafe to get in a bit of writing.  I don't know what's going on in the city right now, but the cafe was rife-ish with the kind of young hip new media/fashion types you always see featured in Interview and/or New York magazine.  I was intially visually dazzled by them, but then they opened their mouths and started talking and the dazzle--Lara--it faded.  I don't want to be judge-y, but it did make me feel like my life wasn't so dull in comparison (except for maybe visually).  Half were Brits or pretending to be.

It's why I appreciated this young woman dressed for class in a vintage dress and a pair of basic black tights. 

On the way home, we passed this excellent Halloween window, complete with a fashionable mummy and a heartbreakingly small, lovely vintage casket.

Lara, wishing I were in Southern Utah!

Street Theater/Little Library

I forgot that last week I actually reunioned with FIVE old friends instead of four.  Here, right here in McNally Jackson is someone I hadn't seen in well over ten years, mostly because she lives in London.   This photo and mention also serves as a sneak preview of an upcoming Guest Blogger installment.  While I was thoroughly enjoying my time with my London friend this amazing boy (see him on the far left??) strolled in while we were chatting wearing 1990 club kid white vinyl platform boots and neon orange hot pants, plus harness.  It was one of those quintessential New York moments:  just your typical Wednesday afternoon in the city.

Below you'll see that a new season of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot has commenced:  The Merry Wives of Windsor (Towers) is now playing in the municipal parking lot on Ludlow Street.  These productions feature equity actors and everything and like their flashier cousin in Central Park are absolutely free.  (Two years ago, Lara and her Utah teens attended a production.)

Lastly, after Prune, Claire and I walked up to the Standard East Village hotel to see the little Beat Literature library in one of the common areas.  It does crack me up that there are more sunglasses and eyeglass frames for sale then Beat Lit titles to peruse.  And when has Norman Mailer been considered a Beat?

In other news, I've been finishing up my online class today.  My birthday week starts tomorrow!

Post as Inspiration Board

I spotted this gal this morning after work writing with intensity in a bound notebook, similar to my AW notebook.  Do you think she was writing morning pages?  And don't you love her shoes??

Later on in the day, I tried out a cafe called Lost Weekend.  I'd never been before and had always been a little intimidated by the cool kids hanging out outside.  Inside it's one large airy room, one side decorated with stacks of well placed teeshirts and board shorts.  The one community table there features a big coffee table book on the history of surfing (see the page I liked below).  On one wall surfing videos are projected. 

Not tights, but magnificent legwear anyway.

 The barista at Lost Weekend wore a super cute summer pencil skirt, which you can really see here.

 

Lastly, Dana Spiotta's novel about a difficult singer songwriter and the sister who supports and worries about him has a cool new cover on the paperback version.  (I saw it at the bookstore today.)  Last year, I bought and read a (signed!!) copy of the hard cover version for my birthday month.  This reminds me that this morning I put up a review on Goodreads.  Finally!  Was it a result of AW?  I don't know, but reading the work of other librarians recently makes me think I've got to ratchet it up.  I don't know if Goodreads qualifies as a "ratchet."

Lara, this post, I was thinking, is kind of a little visual inspiration board (or bored, perhaps), probably not quite a shrine.  It was a good day for images; at least I think so.

A Life Wasted in Cafes: My Rapid Review of Ostcafe in the East Village

I spend most of my time away from work and home in cafes, since I discovered them in the mid-'80s.  I get the most work done in them.  They are my second living rooms (since I've never in my life lived in a space with a big living room).  They are the sites of my highest levels of productivity.  I know that's the worst sentence ever, but it's true!   I've always chosen places to live for their proximity to cafes.  In other words, I have to be able to walk to one.  Even when I lived in Utah, this was a central criterion for signing a lease.  Just sayin', it is one of the weird and potentially difficult things about me, but also one of the potentially fun things, too!

This photo was taken at Ostcafe on Monday:

Ost Pros:

Coffee:  Black Cat. I always order the green tea, which comes in a generous cup with saucer.
Look and feel:  Great ambience, a wall of windows and super high ceilings.
Outlets:  Plenty
Internet:  One hour log-in with purchase.  Good for getting non-internet work done.
Seating:  Ample and cute!
Friends:  Always saying hello to someone.  Has a real neighborhood feel.
Bathroom:  Good!
Fashion and legwear:  Often fun!

Ost Cons:

Internet:  The one-hour log-in can feel quite prohibitive for getting internet-based work done.
Eats:  Nothing baked on the premise and nothing to eat during the day but croissants and pastries, although everything's imported from Balthazar Bakery.
Friends:   Sometimes too many and that's distracting!

On an non-Ost note, this is the second day of my youngest kid's big field trip to Washington DC.  It supplements their yearlong study of American government and manifest destiny.  I'm so excited for my kid, I can hardly stand it, living vicariously through her.  Tonight, she and her classmates take a cruise on the Potomac River!

Bikes and White Striped Tights

My friend found these in a chain drug store.

Another list:

1.  Worked, but before that rode my bike around.  This book is all about riding around for the fun of it. I bet you didn't know people did that in New York.

2.  Last night, one of my kids showed me this website featuring assorted commuters reading on the subway.  Aside from tights and bikes, there is nothing that makes me happier than seeing my fellow citizens reading in public.  I used to take the same photos for my other blog, so I'm happy that someone else feels the same way.

3.  Visited my favorite bike shop and had something on my bike fixed.  The bike shop owner is opening a new coffee shop next door this month--another place to grade papers!

4.  Today, my other kid shooed away from the playground.  I decided to practice being a free-range parent and sat in a nearby cafe where I ate a raw brownie sweetened with coconut oil.  And then a parent friend came in with her tights and let me take a picture of them.

5.  Speaking of subway reading, today on my commute I read Sam Lipsyte's The Ask, a satirical novel about a flailing parent who works and then gets fired from and then gets a second chance in the development office of a third-tier, over-priced university of New York City.   For over a year now, I've been reading novels about college.

6.  Today was one of the days I did not feel my tight place.

Blog, I Love You!

The view from Bowery Coffee

Yesterday, despite my impetuous pairing of pink tights with red boots, it was a day which will be largely unremembered when I look back on 2012 from the vantage point of Dec 31st.  Today was even worse, with quotidian concerns and activities.  It doesn't help that there's been a pronounced spring chill; for the past two days I've pulled on my beyond dull puffy winter coat.  Which is why I was so keen on the tights/boots combo below.  Would I have paired the two if not for this blog?  Probably not.  

So, thanks, blog.  I love you!

The other two photos were taken at Bowery Coffee.  My ersatz observations follow:  

Coffee:  Counter Culture

Unexpected tea:  White (Two kinds)

Pros:  Super friendly and accommodating staff.  (Not that I'm demanding.)  They have white tea on the menu!  Credit cards accepted with super low minimum.  Doughnut Plant doughnuts.  No wifi (means I get writing done).  Very aesthetically pleasing

Cons:  No public bathroom.  Limited seating.  No food.  No wifi (means I can't grade papers there).  No electrical outlets.

Unexpected amenity:  A lovely view of the ever-changing Bowery mural.

Distorted leg action

Super skinny, kind of shiny jeans

Peacock Boots/Denim "Tights"

I hope you click on the above Twitpic (worst newish coined word ever) so you can see the larger better version of the photo I took of these slamming burned-out velvety peacock boots that were distracting meat Cafe Ost.

The boot owner's jeans were skinny enough to be denim tights. I'm going to be mini-blogging (which is the cutest newish coined word ever) here for the the next ten days or so.

March is tightening; a lot will be expected of me soon.

Copying Lara (As Usual)

Tights seen at McNally Jackson on Friday

What I did this Satuday:

Biked to work

Worked

Biked home

Texted kid at sleepover (Did you make it out to Brooklyn?)

Rest of family still in pajamas

Made them dress for dinner.  Walked to Taqueria.  Taqueria was playing the first Rocky on their monitors--soundless.  I could not tear myself away, especially when Rocky and Adrian make out a little in Rocky's crummy apartment.

Found my copy of Diane Williams' This is About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time, and Fate
(excited about this because I'm going to see DW--one of my grad school heroes in my 20s--on Monday)

Cleaned out the top shelf of a book shelf--sorted through zines and Playbills.  Found the Quarterly Wests Lara gave me four years ago from AWP.

Threw away a ton of papers while listening to Emmy Lou Harris on Prairie Home Companion.  Yes, I'm middle aged.

Bowery Coffee's Black Tights Bonanza

I spent about one hour today writing in Bowery Coffee before getting hamantaschen for Purim (more on this tomorrow). Bowery Coffee's only been open since October and is so small, it had only imagined it would be uncomfortably intimate.

 I had been a little nervous about hanging out there: Would the staff mind if I hogged one of the three little tables with my helmet, requisite two bags and laptop? Turns out "no." In fact, the counter dude was so friendly and helpful (to me and everyone) I thought we might become fast friends. (He asked me if I had skateboarded there.)

 Despite the balmy weather--the cafe door propped open to welcome it--gal after gal came in wearing black tights, and it is silly how thrilling this was for me. See for yourself.

Sensoryship

Today loved intermittently checking out Wikipedia's blacked-out (with pertinent info) site created in opposition to SOPA and PIPA (which I kept automatically reading as "Pippa" as in "Middleton").   I always find protest terribly exciting and excited to learn that SOPA looks like it will fail.

But that's all I can say today.

Speaking of black, sometimes all you can do is post a photo (taken this afternoon) of a fellow citizen in black tights and really stupendous wedge-heeled shoes.