Late February?!?! How did we get here so fast? I’m thrilled that the days are getting longer and that I actually walked around outside for my lunch hour yesterday without a single winter accouterment, but I can’t stand the now persistent feeling that you blink for an instant and miss a week, a month, or hell, the better part of 2021. Maybe as things continue to open up and the way we spend our days becomes increasingly varied, this breakneck, out of control pacing will subside. In the meantime, I think it’s high time for me to get my stressed out ass back into a yoga studio so I can refamiliarize myself with the concept of being present.
Did you all have a fun Superbowl/Valentine’s Day weekend? I had a couple of good hangs with pals at Jack’s Wife Freda, Kick Axe throwing, and Insa, spent a very nerdy afternoon making a Wordle-inspired Valentine card for my main squeeze, and watched the Halftime Show with him and his son while taking down over a shared variety platter of take-out tacos. It was great but, as usual, too short of a break from work. That’s why the long weekend ahead can’t come soon enough, and for the first time in forever I’m feeling inspired– at least right now, anyway– to venture out in the world and pack each day of it to the gills.
First up, The Bell House’s annual 50 First Jokes event, a fun and fast-paced comedy show that invites 50 talented local comics to tell their first jokes of the New Year, was postponed from early January to tonight, and there are still tickets available. I’ve got tickets to see Just For Us in the city on Saturday night, so I might save my own Friday night for The Automat, a documentary about the old-timey American restaurant concept featuring cameos from Mel Brooks, RBG, and Carl Reiner that’s screening at The Film Forum. Or maybe I’ll rest up so that I can brave the crowds at the new Faith Ringgold: American People retrospective at The New Museum tomorrow. I’d love to have the energy for the Lunar New Year Parade on Sunday, but if not a performance by the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra of Glinka, Gurria-Cardenas, and Brahms at the Brooklyn Museum later that evening might make for a sufficiently mellow alternative.
On Monday, Ethan Hawke will be discussing his latest novel, A Bright Ray of Darkness, with fellow actor Zoe Kazan at St. Ann’s Church; and on Tuesday night the great Ophira Eisenberg will be hosting a book launch/gameshow-themed party for Eating Salad Drunk: Haikus for the Burnout Age by Comedy Greats at Littlefield. If I’m being honest, I’ll inevitably rewatch the most recent episode of Somebody, Somewhere at least once during this weekend’s itinerary because it was just so damn good.
Speaking of TV, as an unapologetic and lifelong Law & Order fan, there’s no way I’d miss tuning in to the return of the original series on Thursday night on NBC. Jack McCoy is back, and the only more exciting news I could hear about that show would be that Lennie Briscoe is joining him, RIP. It will probably disappoint but the thing is, I don’t even care. I’m also planning on firing up The Trojan Horse Affair, a new podcast from Serial and The New York Times that we included in our February Culture Calendar, which you should consider taking a gander at if you’re still looking for ways to pass the time over the next several days.
I hope with all my heart that you all get Monday off too, and that you can really relax and enjoy the weekend and the plummeting Covid positivity rate around here. No one knows what the future holds, of course, but it sure is nice to not feel like everyone I know is either sick or exposed for the time being. Onward to the long weekend, Brooklyn, and don’t forget to bundle up– the cold temps are back, baby!
