diary of E5B shoot
Check out how it all went down.
the happenings
My story collection, Girls in Trouble, was selected by Peter Ho Davies for the 2010 Grace Paley Prize .
East Fifth Bliss is now a feature film starring Michael C. Hall, Lucy Liu, Chris Messina, Sarah Shahi, Brad Henke, Brie Larson, and Peter Fonda. Read the announcement in Variety.
E5B got front page mention in the NY Times business section. Also, a nice shout-out in the Post's Page Six. And check out a Q&A and a piece on the building that inspired the novel on EV Grieve, the blog for all things East Village.
Also, I received a 2010 NoMAA/JP Morgan grant for my just completed novel Where Night Stops.
thoughts
7.21.10
The homeless sleeping in the park out front of my apartment has grown from one to four in a matter of days. It's a nice park. I'd sleep there if I were homeless.
Great scene this morning. 6:30 a.m. I'm heading downtown. All four guys are asleep (passed-out?) on the rocky outcrop in the middle of park. Clothing, bottles, a couple random shoes tossed about. They looked like they'd been washed ashore after a shipwreck. The morning light stabbed them in place. A still life of a battle lost.
230 plus years earlier, George Washington stood on the exact spot the homeless now slept, watching the British tear through his troops. Some 3,000 men he lost before hightailing it over to New Jersey.
I don't envision the homeless retreating as Washington had. They're staying on for the duration of the fight.
7.7.10
I was named one of three Emerging Author finalists for the Indiana Authors Award. Check out the press release. Indiana Authors Award.
6.4.10
Got to see a rough cut of the E5B. Looks fantastic. Funny, touching, and poignant.
5.22.10
I got corralled into marching in the NY Invasive Species puppet parade in Katonah, NY, on Saturday. The train ride up was part of the parade, then we cruised around the town. Katonah is an hour or so north of the City. Metro North. Every stop a new invasive species clambered on. Rats launched the trip from Grand Central (very creepy/fun outfits, tails and all). Moths joined at 125th street in Harlem. Pigeons got on somewhere (great puppets--heading bobbing). We were water chestnuts. Not the most thrilling of invasive species, I admit. Still, the puppet outfits were provided for us and we'd got on the first car of the train, made our way through each car to the reat, joining all the others.
Most everyone riding enjoyed the performance, though some weren't so pleased. One guy in a Jets jersey and Yankees ball cap said, "Why don't you people get a life."
For some reason, his comment was like last-call lights coming on, killing the moment. I thought of everyone I'd come across that day and the things they were doing, the things they found important. The things that made their lives. I thought of the people who devoted their weekends to finding homes for animal from the shelter. I thought of the people walking their pets and picking up their dog's shit. I thought of the Dominican bakery girl who struggled to add up the cost of my order, the man arguing in the middle of Broadway with someone unseen, the girl straggling home from a night out. And I thought of the man sitting alone there on the train. Traveling north to some place for some reason he considered important.
This morning, I watched a crew take down a 40 foot tree in Union Square. It was rather fascinating how they felled it.
5.20.10
Meet with the artist Gregory de la Haba yesterday about collaborating on After Lilly. Turn the novel in a rollicking, huge art book. Few can bring the emotional to image the way De la Haba can. Very excited about the prospect.
5.19.10
Yesterday. I pass a guy waiting for the elevator, nod a hello. He's still waiting when I return 5 minutes later.
Me: "Still waiting for the elevator?"
Him: "No, I'm watching the paint dry."
Me: "I didn't realize it was wet."
Him: "It's not."
Me: "Then I guess your job's done."