New York has always been the city of dreams for me. I took my first novel into the city on the subway, ran the CBS Morning News there, edited Us Magazine, went there for interviews, met countless times with agents, publishers, editors. Always the city of dreams, a mystical place so suffused with energy, so much larger than life. This turned out to be an intense roller coaster of a weekend. We saw “Death Of A Salesmen” with Philip Seymour Hoffman and we were just hit in the gut with it. The play connects with me on so many levels it would be difficult to recount them. Maria and I also went to the Park Slope Gallery in Brooklyn to pick up the George Forss photo that I bought and I am thrilled to have.
At the gallery I heard more of the amazing life story of this genius, hailed all over the world for years for his groundbreaking photography, and then left behind by the digital photography revolution. (I am speaking on “Creativity and Photography” at 2 p.m Saturday at the Mother’s Day Art Show at 70 Main Street, Greenwich, N.Y. Details on Maria’s website.) We saw “The Avengers” with my daughter Emma. Parts of it were fun, but it is the kind of movie that just washes right off of you after the 1,000 explosion. People in the theater loved it. We saw Pearl, the Yellow Lab who used to live on the farm, now lives with my daughter Emma. She is aging, ill. Hard to say goobye to her. I took photos in Central Park, wandered into barbershops, walked around Brooklyn.
“Death Of A Salesman” hit home with me. I wonder about relevance, parenting, facing reality, aging, coherence. The play made me wonder more. I am putting up a photo album on Facebook of my visit to New York. Lots of fun, too, early morning walks, great food, soaking up the runaway energy. Glad to see the dogs, donkeys, chickens.