“It’s all about the glasses,” he said. I shot him a glance. He grinned. “How can you type without looking?” I just smiled. And kept typing. Like a little Cheshire cat with a cup of coffee by the bed. “If you pass me my glasses I can see what you’re doing.” “I’m not sure I […]
Magnani, Manolo, and Where’s My Life of French Chic?
Anna Magnani was peeling herself out of a black satin slip, splashing in a small fountain, and sputtering in Italian while the women on the street around her were trying on clothing. Furiously. It was all very Filene’s Basement. The original – in the 1960s. But what was an Italian film icon doing in the […]
Constraints and Open Spaces
I dream a problem to solve: I need a small parking area for my fleet of six jets, he tells me. I am standing in a mall lot, on the upper deck, in the middle of a city. The site includes a spiral ramp on one side, and a poorly lit corner bounded by a […]
Tossing and Turning, Flossing and Spurning
You know those nights when you can’t sleep? You’re soooooooooooooo tired, but you hit the lights, crawl under the comforter, settle in just so with your pillows scrunched and your toes dangling off the edge of the bed – exactly as you like it. You shut your eyes. You think good thoughts. You wait. And […]
Letters, Writ Small, for Nathalie Sarraute
Nathalie Sarraute was one of the initiators of the nouveaux romans genre of novel-writing, a style that shuns the use of traditional narrative techniques, such as plot structure, characters, and setting. Instead, Sarraute and other practitioners of the “new novel” focus on presenting precise, objective narratives that are often episodic in nature and call upon […]
The Zone
Your kid’s eyes are glazed over because it’s after three a.m. and he’s still working, and your eyes are glazed over because it’s after three a.m. and you’re still working, and while you’re the mother you remember being the kid – hanging on with everything you’ve got to pull it out at the end of […]
Cynical, skeptical, or cautious?
We had both been waiting at the hospital for three hours. She’s a registered nurse, and was even more annoyed than I was. “I don’t know what could be taking so long for a few simple tests,” she says. “A little blood work and the basics. This is a woman’s clinic now.” I am sitting […]
Traveling Home
“What do you think about changing the stairs, over there, in that corner?” he asks. My father points to an area of our living room, though it doesn’t seem to fully resemble the place I grew up. Not as I recall it. I wonder what he is doing here, why he is standing in our […]
Standing O
What was the event? I have no idea. But whatever it was that inspired it, the celebration was breathtaking – a program that plucked the most talented musicians and ensembles from across the world. The proportions of the performance were monumental; the music spun classical and rock and jazz and folk and opera and rhythms […]
No Knowledge
It was an odd night of even odder dreams; an odd night because I slept eight hours (exceptional), and odd dreams as I found myself sitting behind a massive wooden desk, part of a management directive to motivate my staff with plastic boy toys. Now, now – not those toys. Strange morphing, scoping, bending wheeled […]