2004-04-11 - 12:58 p.m.

in honor of easter, my only mildly sacreligious

stations of bohemianism

1. the block
   in which i play resident poet on the block.
   i get yelled at by men waiting outside the bowery mission, they think i am taking their picture (i am not). i get rained on. s takes me for a glass of wine to shake off the funk.
2. keap street
   in which s and s and i wait and wait for the norwegian to arrive.
   we struggle to entertain one another. s brilliantly drags out the television so we can watch NewsHour on PBS. s fixes us a plate of chocolate and cheese so we don't starve.
3. moto
   in which i begin to sip french wine at my new favorite hole-in-the-wall.
   s and s and i chat about condi rice's testimony while we await d and the norwegian. the location itself is intoxicating, the rumble of the train and the intimacy of the location conspire to charm us all. the jetlagged norwegian joins us and we caffeinate and feed him. the steamed artichoke with saffron aiolli made everything alright.
4. the pyramid
   in which s and s take me to 80s music night at a club on avenue A.
   well, first we went to look for the brazilian (who was not around). is it me or do new yorkers not know how to dance? maybe we've had the cabaret laws for so long that folks have forgotten how to shake their asses. i was enjoying the david bowie and duran duran and smiths songs so much i got up on the speakerbox and go-go'ed the rest of the dance floor into arm-raising ass-shaking reverie.
5. the kitchen club
   in which s takes me for negimaki and soothes my troubled brow.
   i was cranky all through rehearsal, but we still managed to pull off some good music. in the middle of our meal, cb called to cancel getting together later in the evening. its the second time he's cancelled on me this week. his reason for cancellation is that he's too depressed. and he told me the whole entire drawn-out, emotionally-stunted reason for his depression, which i will summarise here as: he is hung up on another girl. i got off the phone with him feeling simultaneously disappointed and relieved. s had comforting advice, and if she hadn't been with me i would have been way more upset by cb's call.
6. the lounge
   in which the gallerist buys me too many whiskies and cigarettes.
   i was still primed to go out and raise a little hell after rehearsal, so i drifted over to my local and ordered a scotch. i struck up a conversation with the gallerist, who is immensely entertaining. her boyfriend situation is remarkably similar to the one i just got out of, her partner even has the same first name as my ex. some of her friends drifted in. i met a woman working on a novel about the development of the laugh track. she and i bitched about our moral terror of reality television. at 3a, when i was singing along with billie holliday and there were only five other people in the bar, i realised i'd better get home while i could still actually walk.
7. the farmer's market
   in which i try to chase away my hangover by shopping for easter and meeting a for lunch.
   i was hoping for strawberries, leeks, artichokes; but the market is still mostly apples, meat, root vegetables, and bread. i got some lovely shiitakes and a gorgeous turkey breast. a and i slurped noodles and seaweed at republic while she told me about recent craig's list dates. a and b are doing much better on the list than i have in a long time.
8. the wine store
   in which i shop for wine and kick ass in chess.
   i stopped into the local wine shop for easter wines. i noticed a chess board set up in the corner. i challenged g to a quick friendly game. i kicked his sorry ass. twice. i felt like a million bucks.
9. my kitchen
   in which i make quiche.
   still fighting a hangover, i began to cook. i make the very best quiches on earth. the quiches i am taking to easter dinner are shiitake mushroom, asparagus, and green onion with two kinds of irish cheese. while they were baking, i watched 'johnny mnemonic' and decided that it was the most underrated movie of 1995. the 'VR' effects are really cheesy and bad. but fortunately there aren't many of them.
10. the diner
    in which n and j smoke me out, and we all get the munchies.
    n and j called me from the chelsea, said they were bored. i invited them over for a glass of wine and we all smoked a bit. they told me funny stories of a recent trip to ireland. i prodded them for info on brazil, where they went last year. after a while, we decided on hamburgers around the corner. i've never eaten so much at midnight. we stopped at the gallerist's opening on the way, and i must confess here that her aesthetic continues to confound me.
11. kitchenette
    in which i dine with my brother and m.
    kitchenette is slightly bigger than my own kitchen. we barely crammed our legs under the table. but they make a fine artichoke omelette. my brother wants to write a speculative fiction novel about jesus. i'm not kidding.

(to be continued...)