providence was great; once my lecture at brown university was done, i had no obligations other than to relax, so that was exactly what i did. there was a bit of driving around providence admiring the architecture, & a fruitless search for postcards with pictures of the lovely old wooden houses on them (this is a huge gap in the market – if you are there with a good camera on a sunny day, please take some postcard pics!); there was food consumption, a soak in a hot tub, an hour of theatre improv, and sleep-ins. all in all a very relaxing time, warmly hosted by vanessa from perishable theatre.
on sunday andy & i took the train up to ossining, where maria porter lives. she took us for a walk along the river and through the town of sleepy hollow, where the headless horseman rode, before bringing us home for a wonderful barbecue (tofu & vegies kindly cooked on a separate grill to the chicken & pork ribs) followed by apple pie & pumpkin – oops! make that sweet potato pie … to give us a real traditional almost-thanksgiving kind of a meal. it really was t-shirt weather, & the autumnal trees were very pretty.
back in new york city the temperatures have continued to be extremely gentle; the subway continues to be confusing, as signage – especially relating to service changes – is minimal and in fact often non-existant (but we do still manage to get places); & the buildings continue to be so tall that my head is falling off the back of my neck. we’ve been to more shows, including the installation “zee” which involves entering a room filled with a dense white fog & strobing lights that would be distressing to anyone suffering from claustrophobia and/or epilepsy. but once i’d got over the initial apprehension of what the experience would entail, i really enjoyed it – it was playful and fun to be quite disoriented and displaced – even if it didn’t develop into anything.
today was a relatively relaxed day. i visited the “new” offices of franklin furnace (they moved years ago, but it’s even more years since i last visited), then this evening i met up with kirsty graham, another former OUSA president, who is living over here; we hadn’t seen each other for more than 10 years so we had a lot to talk about. after that we went downtown to the houseworks bookshop & cafe in the hope of catching the end of sarah schulman’s presentation, but it was over by the time we got there. nevermind – i know i can’t see & do everything, even though i keep trying!