12/12
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| 86th Street windowwdtttc |
Moat of the college football games I wan to watch have been cancelled. The season continues to stagger along to its conclusion, in the south they even have fans in the stands. Some teams and many players have just decided to end the seasons.
I make my weekly visit to the farmers market, stopping for fresh baked cookies and a cup of rich Colombian coffee.
We get together for a ZOOM with my mother in her assisted care facility. The isolation of elderly in this renewed lockdown is very difficult but residents of these facilities are still dying at disproportionate rates. It’s hard explaining to her that we’re all dealing with this, each in our own way.
I go on a long walk in search of soufganiyot, the traditional Channukah jelly donuts. Which leads me to the iconic Upper West Side Barney Greengrass. They’ve built a large outdoor facility. I ask the owner Gary if he’s prepared for the new crackdown on indoor dining. He gestures around, “I never opened,” he said, “I knew this was going to happen.” And I quickly see it’s true. On my walk, it’s clear that this is the most muted of holiday seasons. A wall mural in Harlem proclaims Stella Artois’ beer’ support of outdoor dining.
Watch Steve McQueen’s first episode in his “Small Axe series. “Mangrove”tells the story of A London restaurant that quickly became a gathering place for the British West Indies and Jamaican community. Set in 1968, it's revelatory to me to see what was going on on London while the “revolution” pored into the streets of American cities. The main focus is the trial of nine parsons of the constantly harassed restaurant arrested for fomenting a riot in a protest against police violence. The struggle of the accused ot maintain solidarity in the face of threaten jail time and the temptations of plea bargains is profoundly moving as a community acts to establish that they belong. When one long suffering friend of the Mangrove owner decides he’s going home, the owner looks around and says, “This is home.”
12/13
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| Monkey Cup Tree |
Warm enough for coffee and he Sunday Times at my favorite Venezuelan coffee shop. Decorated for Christmas.
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| Stella mural |
Since it looks like the last warm day for awhile, I decide to do one last virtual race, the San Francisco Marathon (virtual) 5k making a course along the edges of Central Park.x
My family gathers for its weekly ZOOM meeting. My Berlin son feel very alone as the rest of his family ah gone to Croatia, the schools are closed a week early and everything in Berlin shut down. He is increasingly convinced that no one really knows what they’re doing . That the scene in Sasha Baron Cohen’s new “Borat” move where Borat swings an iron skillet at the wall trying to kill Covid viruses is a pretty accurate image of what we’re doing. As the sun sets, one of us lights Channukah candles and we in Harlem, Brooklyn and Berlin sing the traditional songs, remembering when we were all together. And wondering when that can be again. All curious as to the when and who of vaccines.
I stop by my neighborhood pub for one last drink. They are at capacity inside, so I take my drink and chips and salsa outside. It's starting to get cool as I talk to my mom. I go in to pay my bill. The manager smiles and says, “See you in a couple of weeks. Months?" He shrugs his shoulders. She’s his head. Laughs.
My friends Hot Glue & The Gun stream their "Christmas Spectacular"bringing back many of their "guest stars." Somehow in this pandemic they created the perfect vehicle for their performance. Including a regular coterie of regularly animated inanimate objects. At the end of the day, it was a successfully creative project to create community in this time of separation. Blessings, friends.
(https://www.facebook.com/hotglueandthegun/videos/20935572747654)
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