therealtamara

In the pod

Huddling with podcasts has become a source of comfort for me. I spend a part of my respite time under earphones and tuned to one of these specific three.

At the moment, that rotation is led by Julia Louis Dreyfus. I am caught up on Wiser than Me, which gladdens me (I have been enriched), and I can’t wait for Wednesday.

Anderson Cooper offers wisdom on grieving; perversely, I find tremendous uplift in listening to All There Is with…. I am far from done with the seasons of this series.

Somehow, Brooke Shields snuck on to my listening cycle. On Now What? she interviews people who have dealt with moments of transition. (Who hasn’t?) These shared pivotal moments are enlightening.

I found myself listening to one of the most distinctive voices the other day. [Bebe Neuwirth has a special timbre when she speaks.]

I appreciate her work as a dancer and actress, but I love her for a moment at a Broadway Cares event some 4 years ago.

The audience was instructed “cell phones off.” A routine command in the theater. Within minutes, a phone went off.

Ms. Neuwirth rose to the occasion in righteous outrage admonishing the offender.

I hate hearing ringing during a performance, don’t you?

Apparently, she and I are in sync on this one.

For love of country

Patriotism is something that Conservatives “owned” or thought they did. Then along came the crazies in the GOP. Matt Gaetz (not unlike his boss) is a destroyer. The only pledge of allegiance he’ll have to sign is to (ugh) the president elect.

Patriotism runs deep in all Americans who understand the values that are fundamental to the United States of America.

It’s love of country, not fealty to a would be strong man. We, the people, are not bossed by our leaders. We choose them to serve us.

Fight fire

For those traumatized by the blazing forestland in New Jersey and California, the appeal of flames rising is probably gone.

Fire can also be a metaphor. Fire in the belly signifies ambition and the Doors sang of stoking desire.

There is passing the torch, a tradition exemplified in Paris this summer. Fire also captures the idea in getting burned [or its alter ego, not].

Fires give heat and light. The campfire is benign and contained and well-loved. Fires can rage, giving birth to an angry modality.

Pastel crayons are waxy. I also used red pencil for definition and outline.

Our art therapy/connection group used it as a metaphor symbolic of what moves and inspires us.

Mine kind of, you know, “wrote itself.”

A collage occupied me while we did our introductions. I was multitasking.

Thank you

We are thanked for voting.

Voting is our privilege, a right that comes with democracy. We should treasure it. No thanks necessary.

The video artist I passed in front of our local school[slash]polling place seemed to share that p.o.v.

“In Argentina,” I think I heard her say, “You have to vote.”

Apparently, it’s beyond your right so that it’s illegal not to cast a ballot.

Hmm.

Run run run

It’s not like I’m crazy for the big footrace that is the NYC Marathon as it has disrupted my 1st Sunday in November for about 50 years.

Let me explain.

I moved to the other side of the race’s course in 1974. On the day of the Marathon, I am confined to staying east of its long, long path. That confinement lasts from appx 10 am until 4 or 5 pm.

The closest to normal for me is to walk along the east side of 1st Av, avoiding crowds. I can walk past the 59th Street Bridge and start across town there.

Busses did not run down York for many a year; perhaps because their terminus is at 91st and 1st. I am not sure why I was able to get one once; call it a fluke.

This year, I watched the festive firework display as runners gather in the Park. My perch was my window overlooking rooftops and clear to the site.

I also captured the smoke as the show ended.

Every year since 1974, I have been trapped between the East River and 1st Avenue.

That was fun.

My art project¹⁰¹

The “garden” at the corner of 91st and East End

Wabi-Sabi

Perfect in its imperfection!

I have been searching for this word, and today, it popped up in the NYT Mini Puzzle!

I first learned of this idea in a pottery class.

An intentional dent or ding was the suggestion forwarded by my instructor.

I never did carch the name of the philosophy until now.

This concept isn’t just a construct for aesthetics and the arts.

It is how we should embrace life.

Perfect in its imperfections.

It is a balance. Perfect because of its imperfection.

It is an intentional contradiction.

Is Forrest Gump just looking for El Dorado?

What’s something you believe everyone should know.

We’ve seen Candide at least a couple of times. If by “seen,” you count the back rows of the Theatre, which is still occupied by Wicked for these dozen plus years. The stage is away aways from the topt’o the house there.

We saw Grand Hotel with Cyd Charisse uptop, too. Even from that height, she had spectacular legs.

I digress a bit, but yes, everyone should be aware of Ms. Charisse’s beauty in her Bway debut at age 70 and the steep incline that defines the Gershwin Theatre’s seating capacity.

Candide was led by Jim Dale and a newly minted Jason Daniely and featured Arte Johnson. Its music is by Leonard Bernstein with some additional Sondheim songs.

Like Forrest, Candide falls into a series of adventures [well mis- adventures].

His naïveté, [well their naïveté] creates the disconnect between how unsettling things are and their happy-go-lucky reactions.

“The best of all possible worlds” offers many upsets to the hero [well heroes] of these picaresques

In Gump’s best world, “life is like a box of chocolates.”

Two views, two famous lines. Two innocents abroad.

Quibbles bangles and bright shiny things

My imagined dialog with Julia Louis Dreyfus over my quibble about the name of her [except for its name, maybe?] impeccable podcast goes like this:

Tamara: Why “Wiser than Me,” Julia, when it should be “than I”?

Julia: Because.. I don’t want to sound prissy?

Tamara: You don’t want to sound grammatically correct, Julia.

[And she aka I, Tamara goes on:] We, none of us do. We throw aints around as if we were born to them.

Now, I will pivot back to the original programming here. I developed this doubt. Than Me/I? He or She vs. Him or Her? Wiser than him? Nah, it’s Wiser than He with the is that would follow implied or unspoken.

So, running back to the quibble that brought me to this diatribe, there is an “am” to end “Wiser than I”. By the way, Julia, great work.

“Wade in the water”

If anyone or anything can convert me towards religion, it would be a snippet from Alvin Ailey’s Revelations. Yes, it is a masterpiece. Yes, it has stunned audiences all over the globe since its creation in 1960.

This audience included. Tonight, I caught a glimmer from archives of this rich inclusive robust dance work on a PBS American Masters show. It sent shivers. Just as it had when I first met it on a stage in the ’60s and every encounter since.

There’s a purity to Alvin Ailey’s choreography that gives his dances grandeur.