mom and dad are here!!!

so after church...

we visit the cloisters :)

[they're just up the hill from my church building. absolutely gorgeous!!! truly one of my favorite places in new york.]






don't you think dad and i look so much alike in this picture? or maybe it's just our mutually round faces? :)













and thank you leslie! she's advertising my sublet request on her fabulous blog! huzzah!

2am photo shoot.

last night around 2am there was an absolute torrential thunderstorm over new york. the rain created this massive waterfall plunging down from the rooftop of my building.

my window looks out into the well in the middle of the apartment building, and the mini-iguazu-falls was right outside my room.

so i took these semi-abstracted photos [pink sky and soft blur of the water due to super-long exposure time].






and i realize the pictures kinda make it look like i live in chechnya. but don't make fun of me if i think they are super beautiful.

and i love her

last night i heard salman rushdie read a yet-to-be-published short story he had just written.

a few days before i attended a discussion between jonathan safran foer and zadie smith.

tonight i went to a book launch/reading/discussion of "gods and soldiers: an anthology of contemporary african writing", with authors binyavanga wainaina and patrice nganang. last tuesday it was a reading by antije krog and adrienne rich.

ok i say none of this to brag, and i hope this post doesn't come off in that way: i simply had to share because i feel that since moving to new york over 3 months ago i have been in a literal intellectual explosion. i have had years worth of cultural experiences crammed into a few months time. this last week is not even that unusual - if i actually documented on this blog every fascinating artistic and intellectual event i attended and my copious notes and thoughts and insights learned, i would have crammed up blogspot and bored everyone to tears - i would suddenly find myself with a blog with no audience. haha - truly i feel my blogging of my new york experience is horribly lacking, but its paucity is only due to my constant feeling of sheer incapacity to process the absolute brimming richness of day-to-day life and experience. toni recently asked me if it's actually possible to attend a movie screening in new york where the director isn't present for a post-film q&a, and i laughingly admitted that you have to seek out a discussion-less screening of anything :) new york is like a continuous film festival, literary seminar, museum exhibition, and contemporary art festival happening all at once - there's never an excuse to be un-inspired or un-challenged or bored, and you're bound to miss four events while sitting at the reading or exhibition or screening you chose among the endless crop of possibilities.

i cannot express enough how deeply and terribly lucky i feel to actually be here. my life is so near perfect... except for the huge gaping hole that is left by the fact that all my dearest loved ones are at least 5 hours away by plane. so speaking of, stella is now cast-less!!! and i can't help but say that as inspiring as salman rushdie is in person, i'd rather squeeze stella for an hour :) congrats steph on making it through such an ordeal. you are my hero.

and a brief fyi and p.s... post-title from the beatles of course. ah! how good is this scene?! i can (and am) watching it over and over...again, mom - i will always have the deepest gratitude to you for raising us on the beatles :)

of note:

this is what a real pretzel looks like:

and if you happen to find yourself on the lower east side of manhattan, and not in germany, this is where you can eat one (or three):

i tell you when i stumbled upon cafe katja on saturday amidst gallery-hopping i nearly died of joy. i didn't realize the potential wonder that pretzels could contain until visiting their birthplace last summer, and since returning to the US have been woefully missing the real prussian goodness. but of course, since you can find anything in this blessed city, i would naturally stumble across a hole-in-the-wall austrian bar nestled between little italy and chinatown to indulge in an authentic pretzel experience :)

so everyone come visit me and we'll take a little international tour of cozy little restaurants, galleries, and parks just like this. i mean how can you resist?

me + german pretzels + new york = :)

well there's not much to see actually we're inside a chinese dragon.

my awesome bro lincoln made this video for my awesome mom, in honor of our childhood, in which "what's up doc" played a critical role. thank you mom for raising us right :) and lincoln!!! you're amazing!!!!

america's best invention.

it's true. to much controversy the new york yankees have a new stadium this season. i tell you it's hot news on these city streets - i can't tell you how many conversations in subways i've heard, men complaining of the suuuuper-over-priced tickets or recounting sentimental tales of childhood visits to the original yankee stadium... i love how important baseball is in this city!

and i say hey, it may be a new stadium, but it's still baseball, and so it's still awesome. and so me and a certain german already have tickets for a nationals game in june. because on one's first visit to america, one must go to a baseball game, yes? :)

but p.s. as historic as the yankees are... whatev' - i wish we could go to the angels instead :(

april 18, 1969

mom and dad on their first date :) this wondrous occasion has been celebrated every year as parker day, and today is it's 40th anniversary! so happiest of parker days to all! really, how happy are we all that mom and dad met in mr. brunt's history class at villa park high school? :) love you guys so much.

the local train to etsy

it's true, my official uniform for many years has been a vintage dress with a vintage slip underneath. i promise it's the most comfortable thing to wear ever. SO... to inaugurate the 72 degree weather (!!!), i thought it was time to shop for a few new spring vintage dresses. but. vintage in new york city = WAY overpriced. even brooklyn. i mean seriously - $50 for a dress? i miss LA shops... so instead, i resorted to etsy. huzzah! what do you think?


and i have no face in these pictures because a) my hair is super long and is taking over my head, and b) i'm super shy and awkward when having my photo taken - thanks carlynne, you're the best roommate/photographer! :)

more lunch-break blogging.

i think this is really wonderful. my friend ashmae is quite brilliant, and also a beautiful artist. one of her pieces was lovingly given to me and hung on my otherwise naked wall in oxford. it brought me such joy!

but please take a moment to join her effort! it is just what american women need, truly. huzzah for [non-maoist] cultural revolutions!!!

summer nights

it was a full glorious 63 degrees today in new york!!! a warmness which extended into this blessed night... it seems like my bones have been frigid for the last 5 months straight, and so i took full advantage of the balmy evening, taking an extended walk home through the late-night still city streets after a DELISH deeeeep soul food supper at sylvia's in east harlem. [this place is so good even obama paid them a visit :)]

i find harlem to be oh so beautiful. the victorian architecture is scuffed up and lived in, and nothing beats st. nicholas' park with the dramatic gothic architecure of the city college. walking home past these brownstone row houses, with people laughing and playing out on their stoops, past the endless number of baptist churches and their neon crosses, past groups of old men still playing chess - the rigorous tap-tap of their timers punctuating the otherwise low hum of their concentration - past the chicken and waffle and fish and chips stands glowing in the dark... it was so perfectly warm and home-y and inviting, i was so thrilled to feel summer rolling into the little cluster of islands we call new york city! winter = overrated.

wherever you read this post, i hope had a calm night of simple pleasures as well :)


p.s. just to assure mom and dad: i was accompanied on this walk through harlem by a male-friend, who had also accompanied me to the finger-lickin' good soul food delights - and in any case, i promise harlem is not what it used to be. God bless guiliani! :)