crossed paths - Jim Carroll.

That night, December 2 1987 - Jim Carroll and Richard Hell read in the main church at St. Mark's between 9th and 10th street in New York.

Richard Hell had been our best man that morning at my wedding at Gotham City Town Hall.

It had snowed off and on all day.

Jim Carroll read a funny funny story from his book The Basketball Diaries and then Richard read some poems.

After the reading, Richard and my husband and I walked over to 7B, on Thompkins Square Park, and had champagne.

I really liked Jim Carroll's funny freaky fearless story about a cockroach. His voice was gravelly world weary smoky sexy. Very sweet. To this day I had believed he was younger than me and tonight I heard he died of a heart attack on Friday September 11th. A rainy day. He was 60.

RIP Jim Carroll.

new york january 19

It was bitter cold yesterday.
I went to see The Reader at the Paris theatre on 59th street there, near the Plaza. I love that corner of New York.
At the end I had an interesting conversation with my new German friend but we both found the film quite unsatisfying. Ralph Feines became a new face of German Guilt, I guess although I had the feeling I'd just seen a very bad version of The Crucible (arthur miller play).

I was going to walk home through the park because I love being cold cold cold and coming in doors and running the bath but I don't know, maybe I'd seen enough people in the bath. I got a cab instead.

This morning, it was warmer although it was snowing a little bit.
I pulled on my swedish ice skating skirt over my pants and biked down to 7th & 27th to meet some friends.
There are bike paths all over the town now.
You can bike right through Times Square. The other day I went to the bank and almost bumped into another new bike hook up place on the pavement. I guess they are putting them in at night. Now they are everywhere. It's so easy to get around and find a place to lock your bike.

Anyway, at around 11 o'clock it started to snow and it didn't stop till around 5pm. I was glad to be indoors. Biking back through the park i had to watch the snow on the roads. Lots of runners out. It's so beautiful. So sweet to see all the people with their various dogs making sillhouettes everywhere.
My friend Alexandra sent me the perfect reading book (Shantaram) along with a darling pair of warm socks with little tassels. The book is set in India. Mumbai actually. And it's very vivid in parts. Some really good sentences. The sort that make you stop for a minute. I can even stop after a chapter and put it down quite able to look forward to the next chapter tomorrow which isn't the case with a lot of books.
But it wasn't til today when I put the socks on and opened the book again that I understood all the times that she had said to me, "i hate the winter. i'd much rather be on a warm beach." She loves to be warm.

monday

Now that I am a US citizen, I have a responsibility to turn up and serve on jury duty.
I got summoned and went along today.
They told us how random it was.
You get picked once every 4-6 years.
I don't know how they do it.
Old and young. Seemed to me that every nation was represented.
You get sent to one of 6 locations, I think, where there are lots of trials going on - criminal and civil.
They put out magazines for you to read and send you off to lunch for an hour.
What are the chances then, that, thinking, "I need to stretch my legs" as I look for a place to eat my homemade cheese sandwich, someone calls my name and sitting in the back of the sorting area, there's a whole bunch of people I know.
Using lap tops.
The court has wi-fi.
Fancy that.

2 january 2009 - Moon in Aries 9:40pm

Moon in Aries - it's a good time to start new projects.

December 30th - daytime

I have just come back from a lovely weekend in snowy Woodstock. I went to the little town on the other side of the river, with my record collector friend Tim and his wife Beth. We found one of those rare record shops that has loads of books all over the place and bits of stereo equipment and shelves and shelves of records. And 45's. Some in disgraceful condition, but some not bad. Tim found a few good ones. We had a wonderful drive over the Rip Van Winkle bridge, across the racing Hudson River, and back along the snow ridged very well laid roads, passed the iced up pond, and back to their place. They have one of those rooms that has been added on that's all windows and when you look out in summer it's all green. At the moment it's tall bare trees and the sunset last night made it look like the mountains were on fire.
I came back on the bus which belted along at 70 miles an hour. I got the seat at the front. It was like being flown home very close to the ground. A lot of houses were decorated on route of course.

I'm glad the nights are going to get lighter now. And just around the corner - 2009. Amazing isn't it.

Orion - stars in the sky tonight

Here is Orion with the stars joined up. The three stars in the middle are his belt and if you are in a dark place you will be able to make out the sword in the middle. The star in the top right hand corner is pronouced beatle juice. Orion has a dog called Sirius. Sirius is one of the brightest stars in the sky.
The story goes that Apollo was jealous that Orion liked Artemis who was a pretty magnificent hunting goddess. One day, Orion went swimming and Apollo dared Artemis that she couldn't fire her bow and arrow and hit "that thing" bobbing about in the water. She got him. It was Orion. I don't know what she did to Apollo. He's the sun god and he's still in the sky [splay hands]. Artemis arranged that Orion would always be in the night sky. Some old bits of parchment refer to Artemis as goddess of the moon - so maybe that's why she has him up in the sky with her
What I like best about the story is that the gods put his dog up there with him.
Sirius.
Just to the right.
You might have to tilt your head a bit.