Whew. It’s been a heck of a week. We’ve been on high alert to evacuate for days, with all of our important papers and precious things packed in our car trunks, and a constant eye on the wildfire updates here in California. I missed writing to you all on Wednesday because I was so anxious and distracted.
And now it’s 9/11, 19 years after horrific events that changed our lives forever. I miss living in Manhattan, so today’s post features NYC-centric things I love.
1) Here’s my account of what I remember of September 11, 2001. I re-read and share it every year in some way or another. The memory has grown a little hazy and surreal with time, but the heart-deep grief is still strong. For another perspective, read “Mile 13,” my friend Raquel Cook’s haunting and ingeniously crafted essay in the anthology Silent Notes Taken.
2) Back in May, Patrick and I watched Lucky Grandma on the independent movie streaming site Kino Now. Sure, it’s a funny, action-packed heist movie, but it’s also a poignant meditation on aging, grief, and loneliness. Tsai Chin as Nai Nai is fantastic, the score is delightful, and the Chinatown-centered plot will keep you guessing.
3) Books set in New York abound, but here’s one that felt like it was written just for me. Victor LaValle’s novel The Changeling was one of my Top Ten Books in 2018. Part fairy tale, part horror, part NYC love letter, The Changeling proved tough for reviewers to classify. (I think it’s easy: dark contemporary fantasy. But “fantasy” carries a strong genre taint for some.) It tells the story of Apollo Kagwa, who goes on a labyrinthine quest through four of the five boroughs to find out what really happened to his wife and their newborn son. I read it in one long, envious, homesick-making binge, but now I feel like re-reading it so I can savor it in all its glory.
4) On a bitterly cold Saturday morning in February of 1988, I got off a bus at Manhattan’s Port Authority for the first time. Before venturing out to explore the streets I’d been reading about for years, I stopped at a kiosk for a snack. There I saw a row of shiny, purple boxes. Intrigued, I bought my first pack of Choward’s Violet Gum.
In the 1930s, Charles Howard started manufacturing candy and gum in an industrial loft on Broadway. Though the company has since moved out to Long Island, it still makes several unique confections. Our little SoCal ice cream shop sells the gum, but you can also buy it from the source. All these years later when I have a piece, I’m transported back to the day I fell in love with New York at first encounter.
5) François Couperin’s “Les Barricades Mystérieuses” is one of my desert island pieces of music. Even though I’ve heard it ten thousand times, the descent to the six chord in the third measure thrills me every time. I’m no musicologist, but Couperin seems to anticipate Beethoven’s gift for making melody out of harmony. The rondeau’s shifting, prismatic patterns are somehow haunting, an effect I normally associate with music in minor keys.
Couperin wrote the piece for harpsichord in 1717 (and here’s my favorite recording on piano). However, in the video above, it’s been transcribed and arranged for the world-class ensemble LeStrange Viols. One of my favorite things about New York is how it’s a magnet for artists of all kinds who have dedicated their lives to excellence, however obscure or unappreciated by mainstream culture.
With that, I wish you all a good Friday. Stay safe, and find joy wherever you can.
I always feel smarter after reading your posts as if your thoughts and life experiences seep into my mind and heart. Thanks for that.
Thanks for bringing "Lucky Grandma" to my attention.
Tsai Chin's face is captivating.
I would love to learn more about why you moved to New York City.