Avoiding Ignorance, But Maybe Not the Flames

Fourteenth Street


I've decided that I need to inject a little culture into my week off.  I've bought some books, rented some edifying movies, & will get out for some theater & trips about the city. Here are some of my plans for the Holy Week.

I bought two early books by Hilary Mantel - Every Day is Mother's Day, & Vacant Possession. I went on a binge reading session of her books last year, & even I became a bit overwhelmed by their dark terrors.  Now I'm back for more "mean pleasure"!  I also got a collection of Caroline Blackwood's short fiction, described by the LA Times as "nothing less than a marvelous slide into an emotional abyss".  Hope to read at least one of these books.

I just got out Serpico (nostalgia) & a collection of films by Kenneth Anger.

I hate Broadway most of the time, but there are actually one or two plays I'd like to see. I think I'm going for Jerusalem, by Jez Butterworth, with Mark Rylance in the lead role:

Butterworth's dominant character is Johnny "Rooster" Byron: a mixture of Pied Piper, Romany roustabout and Wiltshire Falstaff. A former daredevil, he now lives in a woody trailer from which he dispenses booze, drugs and fantastic fables to a gang of admiring onlookers. But on the day of the local fair, which also happens to be St George's Day, he faces eviction for unauthorised encampment. With a new estate about to be built in the area, there is no room for a charismatic anarchist, disturber of the peace and wild man of the woods like Johnny Byron. (Guardian)

Going to Times Square is a drag.  It always makes me want to kick the shins of tourists.  But I might just make it over there for this one. 

And I also want to get to Coney Island!  But with no rainbow plans in mind.