Dispatch from the Coolest Place on Earth

5:46 PM |



Last Thursday night, our sleepy suburb of Havertown, Pennsylvania was briefly transformed into the coolest place on earth when our neighbor, musician Scott McClatchy, threw a house concert featuring two of his good friends.  Those two friends were Scott Kempner and Eric Ambel, one half of the legendary NYC band, the Del-Lords.


Andre and I have been huge Del-Lords fans for a long time, but until pretty recently we were sure we'd missed our chance to see them live.  We'd been hoping they might someday reunite, and then--to our delight--they did, recording last year's impressive comeback album, Elvis Club.  

We hoped we'd get to see them in concert some day, and we did, first in New York City, then in northern New Jersey.  But we never dared hope we'd get to see them in our neighbor's living room.  Sure, the universe grants a wish here and there.  But it usually isn't quite that accommodating.

The concert opened with a set by Scott McClatchy, whose own catalog of songs definitely warrants a close listen.



Then Scott Kempner and Eric Ambel came on, playing a delightfully wide ranging set list that included old and new Del-Lords songs and material from both men's solo careers. 


To our sheer joy the show ended with "Stay With Me," a song Andre and I both love, but one we never thought we'd hear live.  


And because we just can't get enough of a good thing, we drove to Asbury Park on Friday to see Scott and Eric play in Rich Russo's Anything Anything benefit for the Light of Day Foundation.  More about that soon.

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Proof it All Night

7:23 PM |


The page proofs for Love, Lucy turned up in yesterday's mail, giving me an excuse to commandeer the dining room table and brandish my favorite blue Flair pen.  

This stage of the making-of-the-book process is both thrilling and frightening.  I know this will be my last chance to get the text exactly where I want it to be--to catch typos and clumsy wordings and even logistical errors.  I pull up a map of Florence to once more trace Lucy's walk from Piazza Santa Maria Novella to the Arno, making sure I haven't flubbed the streets she'll be following along the way. I see I've used the word "side" three times in two sentences and I agonize over which one to strike. 

But I can't make too many changes at this point--only a word here, a phrase there.  So I keep the blue Flair pen a little out of reach, where I won't be tempted to use it frivolously.  I try to pacify myself with Radio Mozart, coffee, and frequent soothing visits to Facebook.  

And I take pleasure in having actual pages in my hand for the first time.  What began as daydreams and scribbles and grew into pixels on a screen now has a crisp new life as ink on paper, and the satisfying heft of an almost-book.
















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Polar Vortex

7:27 PM |



They say something called a Polar Vortex is swooping into the Northeastern United States.  It sounds horrible--so cold (polar) and so threatening (vortex).  Even now, just beyond the window, I hear the wind kicking up, threatening to do some damage.

So barring the unexpected, I plan to just stay put for a while. I've stocked up on groceries.  I've got fuzzy socks and a stack of Young Adult books.



And I've got a project: the first 130 pages of a novel set in Greece, to which I've been adding, slowly, page by page, in this all-too-brief span of days between the holidays and spring semester. 

And, most importantly of all, I've got dogs:



because writing in bed would just be too cold and lonely without dogs.

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In this Season of Arrivals and Departures

7:39 AM |


Because yesterday we saw my mother off at Philly International:



and because the one thing harder than the give and take of family life is disconnection and separation:


Rooby watches my sister drive away


I share the following poem, begun in the window seat of an airplane:


Neat

At cruising altitude the earth comes clean,
the makeshift garbage heap of man-made things 
and nature’s thousand tangled hues of green,
made tidy by the miles.    Seen past our wings,
roads run straight, and silos glint like dimes,
each swimming pool slick as a polished gem.
Even mountain ranges, wild sublimes
of river, butte and canyon, figure trim
and tailor cut, their splendid disarray
mere patterns on a rug.  Obedient
and orderly, the planet curls away,     
its edges gently smudged, but on descent
it tugs us back,  its noise and ample mess                                  
as welcome as a lover’s sloppy kiss.






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The Christmas Misadventures of Nico

4:56 PM |


I start this post with the wise and kindly face of Reuben, our resident senior dog, and the avatar of sanity and reason, especially compared with You Know Who:



A few nights before Christmas, little Nico saw his opening and took it.  My Mom had just arrived from Florida.


Picking up my Mom at Philly International Airport
We were getting her settled in when we noticed that we hadn't seen Nico around for a minute or two.  Given his penchant for sneaking out the front door whenever it opens, we started running from room to room, calling his name with increasing hysteria until someone heard a vague rustling sound coming from under the bed.  

It was the paper wrappers from a box of twelve Godiva truffles: my Christmas present, which had been hidden deep in the bedroom closet.  By the time we detected Nico, he had snarfed down eleven of those yummy, decadent, dark chocolate nuggets of kryptonite.  And he was none too happy when we took the twelfth away.

One call to Poison Control later and we were rushing Nico to Old Marple Animal Hospital.  He rode happily between us, excited to be going for a late evening jaunt!

Twelve hours later, Nico was sent home from the hospital. While I never did get a taste of what turned out to be an almost thousand dollar box of truffles, I did get some lovely Christmas gifts, especially this double portrait of my Dad in World War II and his Dad in World War I:




and some books and music I was longing for:



and of course the gift of Christmas itself surrounded by family.



Still, one of the holiday's best gifts was undoubtedly the continued presence in our lives of Nico the chocolate-seeking missile:



Notice the look in his eyes.  We're pretty sure he's plotting his next misadventure.

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Christmas Eve 2013

7:54 PM |


My Mom and sister are in the house!  We've been shopping, cooking and wrapping, listening to show tunes, eating soup, lavishing attention on the dogs.


And we're taking this moment to wish everyone happy holidays and a lovely new year.  

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Check it out! A New Video from Drull

8:14 AM |



A while ago, my son's band Drull launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a video for their song Persona.  Thanks to the generosity of friends and fans, a very professional video now exists for a beautiful (and, I think, catchy) song.  Please click on through, as every view helps...and hit the little YouTube thumbs up symbol if you're inclined.  

Thanks, friends!





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