All Time Favorite Songs 6 - 10

6. "American Pie" - Don McLean
7. "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" - R.E.M.
8. "Beast of Burden" - Rolling Stones
9. "Nose Over Tail" - Alkaline Trio
10. "Free Bird" - Lynyrd Skynrd

Dear Spring

Come out come out wherever you are!!! I'm ready to play!

What's Your Favorite Place Ever?

Favorite New York Quotes, Volume VII.

"'What do you want to do?'

'I don’t know. What’s your favorite place ever? In the whole city, I mean.'

'My favorite place ever in the whole city?'

'Right.'

'Including the boroughs?'

'Don’t tell me it’s in Brooklyn. That’s awfully disappointing.'

'Not Brooklyn,' Sammy said. 'Queens.'

'Worse still.'

'Only it isn’t there anymore, my favorite place. They closed it. Packed it up and rolled it right it right out of town.'

'The fair,' Bacon said. He shook his head. 'You and that Fair.'"

Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Rules + Duties for Being 24

On my train ride home today, I read this:

"1/15/57

Rules + duties for being 24 [SS's birthday was January 16, 1933.]

1. Have better posture.
2. Write Mother 3 times a week.
3. Eat less.
4. Write two hours a day minimally.
5. Never complain publicly about Brandeis or money.
6. Teach David to read."

from Susan Sontag's Journals


It's a coincidence, no doubt, but I can't help but note that I will be turning 24 tomorrow on February 16. In the same spirit, here goes.

Rules + duties for being 24

1. Live more in reality and fantasize less.
2. Stop doing things because I feel obligated.
3. Eat less.
4. Write two hours a week minimally.
5. Figure out a five year plan.
6. Spend less time worrying about other people.

...Quite Simply, I was in Love with New York

Favorite New York Quotes, Volume VI.

"...quite simply, I was in love with New York. I do not mean 'love' in any colloquial way, I mean that I was in love with the city, the way you love the first person who ever touches you and never love anyone quite that way again." Joan Didion, "Goodbye to All That" in Slouching Towards Bethlehem

I Can Remember Now

Favorite New York Quotes, Volume V.

"I can remember now, with a clarity that makes the nerves in the back of my neck constrict, when New York began for me, but I cannot lay my finger upon the moment it ended, can never cut through the ambiguities and second starts and broken resolves to the exact place on the page where the heroine is no longer as optimistic as she once was." Joan Didion, "Goodbye to All That" in Slouching Towards Bethlehem

In NY, a Stranger is an Enemy...

Favorite New York Quotes, Volume IV.

"In Calif., a stranger is a [potential] friend until he proves otherwise; in NY, a stranger is an enemy until he proves otherwise. One uses up a lot of energy in NY by that hypothesis." Susan Sontag in her journals.