Let's start with the random... Something was going on recently on the top floor of the building across the street from P.S. 260. All the windows one night were filled with gradiating colors of the rainbow. I'm really curious to know what was happening o'er there.
I saw this scribbled on the pavement on Bleecker Street just after we left Steph's B-day party:
As I left a sound-mixing session in Midtown last week, I saw all these people crowded around the window of an electronics store, watching the fire from an airplane that crashed into a building 30 blocks up on TV. It happened about 12 blocks from my apartment. No, I did not get hurt nor did I know anyone hurt in the crash, but thank you to everyone who called me to make sure I was okay.
Anyway, this sight reminded me of the olden days when people did this sort of thing more often.
Saturday night Dustin and I went to Gennaro for dinner, a scrumptious Italian restaurant with the best butter-and-sage sauce in town.
Not to mention the coolest chandeliers.
Sunday I stopped by the Upper West Broadway Street Fair.
If you've never been to a street fair, it's pretty much an outdoor flea market.
We have musicians.
Food. Flora... Fauna... ... And all the knicknacks you could possibly want.
Yes, they even have diabetic socks (anybody care to guess what in the world that means??).
And it's usually pretty dern cheap.
Okay, but let's back up to the really fun stuff. Our friend Rob (Dustin's friend since high school, with whom we work at P.S. 260 and who cut the "Shining" trailer) is directing and cutting a web video for the Washington Post. One day he said, "Jenna, will you be a raver in my project? I need a raver for a party scene and you kind of have that look." I said "Of course!" Dustin also got a chance to be part of the fun so we went over to his friend's house to shoot during a party on Saturday night.
The place was huge. Unfortunately, not a lot of people were there.
Now, I have never been to a rave, nor do I ever plan on going to one, but the basic idea is that a bunch of kids dress up in silly clothes and dance to techno music while maneuvering glow sticks in the fanciest of ways.
Here is the picture Rob gave me as a reference.
Um, yeah. Well, sadly enough, my closet does NOT contain anything seen in the above picture, so when we arrived Rob dressed me up in a homemade Lieberman tank top, goggles, candy bracelets, baggy pants, and pacifier necklaces that light up.
... while Rob's girl Molly put together some glow sticks and plastic light-up bracelets.
Dustin put on a visor, goggles, and some necklaces, and played with a Kendo sword while I finished getting ready.
It's a generally goofy look.
We got into character and started dancing around.
Wow.
Here's Rob with his creation, a "Liebermania" poster he designed for this section of the film.
Well, we got into character pretty well. Once the techno music started pumping and I made myself stop caring about the strangers who were looking at us like, "Who are these people and what are they wearing?", we really got into it. I don't know if I was a good or convincing raver, but we sure did have fun embarrassing ourselves.
Every year the New Yorker, of which Dustin is a regular subscriber and I have been a longtime fan, has a festival of events over one weekend in October where all kinds of cultural icons and contributers speak, read, or are interviewed. Some cook and speak, then share with the audience (as Mario Batalli did this year). Some take the audience on a cruise around the island to discuss its architecture (and have brunch). Dustin and I were lucky enough (and fast enough on the internets) to get tickets to 5 events for this last weekend (not knowing we would both end up having to work all weekend). Fortunately we made it to 4 of the 5 events, in between working and going to friends' parties.
The first event was a reading in West Chelsea. We arrived mighty early and got great seats.
I knew when buying tickets that I wanted to see some kind of writer (even though I wasn't previously familiar with either of the two below), because, especially coming from a writing background (if I can actually call it that), I have never been to a reading that was not wonderful (my favorite being Lisa Zeidner, my hero).
The first person was Jonathan Safran Foer. He is 3 years older than me. And he is brilliant. BRILLIANT. He read this story that depended greatly on the use of symbols to represent what is (not) said in the silences of human interaction, particularly familial communication. His symbols were thrown up behind him via projector.
His story was intellectual and all of a sudden terribly moving. I was completely struck by his prose and ability to affect both heart and mind simultaneously. If I can find the story somewhere online I will link y'all to it, because it was wonderful.
The other writer was Edward P. Jones, who has a completely different style, and even in reading his work voices the prose differently. Whereas Foer had a soft, almost cynical, Jewish East-Coaster style, Jones had a lyrical, lilting Southern drawl that made his stories feel like lullabies.
After they read, there was a 1/2 hour-long Q & A session with the host and the audience, a format used for each New Yorker Festival event, which was pretty cool.
We kind of wanted to talk to the writers afterward, but Foer was being mobbed by 20-something hipster groupie girls (a group of which, if I had been familiar with Foer before this event, I would have sheepishly been a part).
Afterward we headed down to the Village to a lounge for Stephanie's birthday party - her first in New York!! She invited literally everyone she's met here, and I'm pretty sure every single person showed up.
Jason instantly asked me advice on how to talk to a cute girl across the room (as if I have experience in that area).
The birthday girl was leafing through Polaroids of the evening (that's her new big thing, as a photographer).
We wished her a happy day.
Nicole was there with her beau, ad exec Doug.
We were happy to see each other (though I suppose Doug doesn't look too happy in this photo).
It was strange... it was like a P.S. 260-quitters party.
Along with Nicole, former P.S. assistants Tom and Erik made their appearances.
As did former runner Emily (in the middle).
Plenty of regular P.S.-ers were there, of course me and D.
As well as Sarra & Princess.
And Jason brought one of his clients (?) so Mitch chatted her up as good producers do.
Stephanie took a Polaroid of Dustin and me. It was precious.
I'm not sure what happened to make this shot occur, but it seemed like an important event.
We left and decided to go to yet another shindig, to see our long-lost friend Madeleine (also an ex-P.S.-er). On the way we saw these cool chairs, aglow on the street.
It was a mustache party we were going to (mainly the reason we were going - I mean just look at Dustin). This is how we knew we were at the correct apartment.
There was Madeleine inside, back from her Canadian rock tour as videographer, and her beau Matty. (I guess Madeleine had lost her mustache by this time).
We were so happy to see her after many months apart.
The next day, Saturday, Dustin and I watched the TiVO-d "Battlestar Galactica" season premiere, then worked for a few hours (missing out on the lecture by Anthony Lane, my favorite movie critic), then went to our next event: a panel on "Fake News", including writer David Borowitz of the Borowitz Report, a head writer for "The Daily Show" and the lead editor for The Onion.
May I just say I laughed my bum off? There were many fans present.
Then, after a so-so quick dinner at a local Thai joint, we went to the 3rd event, an interview with Steve Coogan. It was a 7:30 start time, and for such events they had complimentary cocktails sponsored by Grey Goose (insert logo here - and twinkling smile). They were more than prepared.
I got the best bartender, who sublimely rimmed the glasses with sugar and swirled the cocktail as he poured.
Delish! (yes, I just said that and I'm not ashamed.) D. and I gave our best snooty-New Yorker-fans look.
Coogan, a British comedian and actor, best known for his roles in "24-Hour Party People" and the hilarious "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story" was down-to-earth and hilarious. My favorite part was his impressions, and impressions of impressions: first he would say, "Well, anybody can do a caricature of Sean Connery" and give a perfectly fine impression of said actor, and then he would say, "But they often don't get the voice low enough," giving his voice a new depth and weight, which astoundingly made the impersonation even more spot-on.
And finally, on Sunday, after another day of work (or, I should say, during a 2-hour interlude during work), we saw a discussion between New Yorker editor David Remnick and Jon Stewart. Actually, right before the event started, I dashed out of the auditorium to go to the ladies' room (no camera). One of the P.A.'s gave me wrong directions, and I ended up almost running down an escalator that was going up... I stopped myself just in time an looked up to see the person coming up was... wait for it.... Jon Stewart himself. I stared at him, and he was staring at me, and I stammered to myself, "Oh, I'm going the wrong way...." and twirled around and ran in the other direction. It was great. Jon Stewart was funny (of course) but more than that he was extremely intelligent and well-spoken in discussing the media's role in our culture, and in the world. He himself got tongue-tied when his wife and 2-year-old son came in a little late and sat in the 4th row. He saw them and suddenly couldn't think of anything to say and got all blushy. It was quite endearing. One of his remarks of last night ended up on national news this morning, which I thought was funny.
Anyway, then we went back to work for the rest of our lives.
A couple of Fridays ago was my good friend Nicole's last day at P.S. 260/Brandname. She got a fancy-schmancy job at a production company and had to move on up, but I will miss her lots. We shared lots of memories together, from the Diane Von Furstenberg sample sale to the Fiery Furnaces concert to the countless trips to H&M and Forever 21, and who could forget her impromptu karaoke rendition of "Holiday" for Bryan's going-away shindig? She has gone through the shaving her head completely/growing her hair out cyle several times since she was a teenager, and to be honest she gave me a lot of bravery to cut my hair. Dustin calls her Bubbly because that's exactly what she is, perky and smiley and sweet at (almost) all times.
That day we both wore frilly girly shirts in honor of each other.
Stephanie and Mitch prepared for her surprise party by following instructions to make the first-ever "P.S.26-tini", courtesy of the demented imagination of runner Adrian, who, incidentally, never tried the recipe. I'm pretty sure he just took an inventory of the liquors in our cabinet and told Stephanie to combine them, topping it with champagne.
It was the nastiest beverage I or anybody has ever drank. (or is it drunk?)
We all gathered in the P.S. kitchen awaiting her arrival.
Mitch hid and kept an eye out, lest the surprise be ruined.
Even Rob's pup Sadie joined the festivities.
Nicole emerged and was just delighted.
She grabbed herself a P.S. 26-tini, unaware of its approaching wrath.
Stephanie, stationer extraordinaire, made a goodbye card for Nicole, using lots and lots of embarrassing pictures (including cartoons). We all signed it.
We gave her a send-off package, complete with a rearview mirror for her bike and a slip (to avoid those transparent wardrobe mishaps).
Sadie made herself right at home. (She is soooooo cute, very very soft.)
We moved up to the roof and continued the par-tay.
Stephanie watered the plants diligently as always.
Even former Brandname headmaster Dave Moore dropped by.
We decided to go have drinks at a lounge downtown, and on the subway over, Dustin took quite possibly the most embarrassing photo of me ever.
On the way to the lounge we walked through Little Italy, which was having its annual Feast of San Gennaro street festival.
They sell really authentic Italian food, like...
... deep-fried oreos.
Ned got some. He really enjoyed them. (They're actually pretty good, as my Texan readers might already know.)
We had some quality acquaintance time, which is always lovely.
(sidenote: Nicole got Stephanie hired here. They've been friends since their Chicago childhoods. Luckily, even though Nicole is leaving, we still get to have Steph, who is equally awesome.)
