Un Coeur en Hiver Chaud

You may as well know now, I'm, ahem... seeing someone. Aw hell. Whomikidding, Ive got a man. I never blog about my intimate life but it just seems like too big of an omission, like Im hiding something from you dear reader, and hide I wont. And we do all this great stuff together and if you dont know who he is then i cant mention him without you going "who?" and scrolling through past blogs to see if you can find the name, calling other readers "do you remember that guy? did she know him from school?" That type of thing. So now you know. Hes great. I love him. I havent asked him if I can blow up his spot in this thing so for now we'll call him "Rick." Rick and I have been together for about three months (so you can get on him about decreased writing frequency, its so much more productive to be single!) and he is an east coaster (boston...nobody's perfect!) who has lived in NYC for about seven years so knows a lot of fun stuff to do in and around the city. I think youll like him. He's awfully good to me, thats likeable. And Bub, I know youre reading this, hes jewish, both parents. Kenehorah. Ok, so if you dont know, now you know.

Most recently we've been taking advantage of the incredible Summer Stage concert events in central park. Last weekend we went to two in a row, these types of things make what I've dubbed "hot winter" in NYC worthwhile. Why do I call what should be summer hot winter? Why because thats just what it is! Its grey, overcast and with pretty solid chance of lightning storms and downpours, sound familiar? Like winter? Yes but! What you cant imagine, those of you who complain about a little seattle drizzle (I know it sucks,) is that during all of this textbook WINTER weather, its also very, very HOT! Thats right all of the above characteristics plus temps in the 90's and majority humidity. Hard to conceive of such a season, but Hot Winter is very real. Its happening right now. I mean RIGHT now, i just ducked inside the house as the gunmetal sky broke open, thunder crashed like cymbals directly over head and raindrops like squirtgun blasts pelted the hot steaming cement. Lightening just lit up the inside of my apartment through the skylight like a flashcube! The gutters look like a new orleans scene though its only been raining for five minutes. And, in case you needed reminding, its hot as a flatscreen tv on canal street. Anyway, they have a great concert series at central park (and prospect park) to try to distract new yorkers from the opressive misery of the city. And (even though youre often standing in a mudpit, soaking and sweating) it works, its a bandaid, but during the concerts you can genuinely enjoy yourself. Rick and I went to go see the algerian dj Cheb i-Sabbah on Sat night. He had a friend who was playing dhol (punjabi drums) for the show, there were three moroccan men dancers with beautiful long silky robes and metal castanet type bells, one of whom could keep his head bobbing in such a way that the tassel on top of his fez never stopped spinning. He could have a hell of a burlesque career... There was an incredible afghani tabla player there as well, and a kit drummer from Brooklyn and Sabbah on the ones and twos. He had performers from almost every genre of music that he drew from: two indian women did some Kathak dance, there was a STELLAR all male punjabi bhangra dance team, complete with bright satin traditional Punjabi costumes. How a man can wear a pink and white striped satin wrap skirt, a pink vest, a pink turban with a silver and white crease folded dinner napkin sticking out of it at a rakish angle and a choker of large silver beads and still manage to look not only straight (a feat unto itself) but attractive is totally beyond me. The team comprised mainly of med students from Cornell, which is hilarious. They were AMAZING. Reminded me of Pakistan and seeing the men dance at the Junoon show in Islamabad. There was an arabic style "bellydancer" and to top it all off hassan hakmoun came out and sang and played this primitive (!) looking guitar-y thing at the end and they all came out and danced a finale together. I found out afterward, talking to one of the punjabis a bearded young med stundent in a blue satin getup, that they put the thing together in about a week and a half and there had been no rehearsals with the whole group.

The next day we went to go see my favorite Senegalese hip hop group Darra J. Rick (ha! Rick!) parked pretty far away from the park (you never know when itll be the closest possible space) so we took a leisurely stroll across the upper east side, which was nice for me. I can never get enough of that area. We walked into the park and the cordoned off concert area. Right away something struck me as off, but it took me a moment to figure out what it was. First of all I can never see shit 'cept elbows and shoulders at senegalese shows and i had a clear and unobstructed view of the stage. That never happens. It also rarely happens that a large part of the crowd at any given Senegalese concert, hip hop or not, are wearing mexican wrestling masks. I said to Rick, "Rick...everyone here is mexican." he was like "yeah..." "No, I mean EVERYONE." He looked around and saw that indeed absolutely everyone in the entire Darra J audience was mexican, not puerto rican or any other latino anything, mexican. The place felt like a san jose flea market. So I asked a nearby Mexican what the deal was. Double bill, Darra J opening up for some band called Mal Vecindo or however you say bad neighborhood in spanish. There was a tremendously monotonous and boring congolese band inbetween that seemed to play the same song for about 90 minutes. I think there is no other place on earth where a Senegalese hip hop group could play to a packed house of 100 percent mexicans. Pretty well received though, i must say. the mexicans got into it. We left the congolese to hypnotise the crown into an afropop stupor and we went to go walk around the park and find a place to sit where he could be in the shade and I could catch some rays. ended up in front of the lake and spent a few moments talking about how much we didnt want to row around in some crumby rowboat as an excuse to kiss, who needs to risk a potential overboard and god only knows what absorbed from the water just for a canned romantic moment? We agreed that landed romance works for us, laughed about the hasidic family out for a row in the heat in full regalia and went to go meet my friend marie and her man for dinner in harlem.


I had an interview at another salon yesterday. It was good, had a phone interview and then shadowed at the salon all afternoon. The phone interview was long and somewhat tortuous but revelatory and good. He said there were a couple of red flags in my responses one of which was semantic but the other was how much Ive "moved around." He was concerned about my possible longevity. Ive done so many different things and held different jobs for a couple of years at a time. It is true and I was glad to have someone point something out that could use improvement, its always an opportunity for self discovery when someone is forthcoming with constructive criticism. I havent ever been able to imagine staying somewhere for years and years, or even wanting to. I think its time for me to do so, and to really carefully choose where I start to make sure that that is where I want to be for the forseeable future. I think I could be at this place for a really long time. Its a competitive interview process, and I think I have a good chance. Its a good feeling to feel like I really want something and have to work to get it. Such a change from the silver seattle spoon in mouth. Say a prayer for me!