Catch-up

I've had several amazing evenings recently of the "only in New York" stamp. Last Wednesday, I went to see my former student Abby Rosebrock's play Different Animals at the Cherry Lane Theatre. It's an incredibly good play, one of the best I've seen for quite some time; Abby performs in it as well as being its author, and I thought everything about the show (acting, music, sets) was just fantastic, something like the tragic marriage of Edward Albee and Anita Loos, very funny but heartbreaking in its conclusions. We dined afterwards at Casa, and the whole thing was just one of those enchanted evenings (G. has had a spell of poor health recently but is on the mend, so it was a particular treat to be out on a beautiful spring night enjoying the pleasures of the city). There is always something particularly pure and lovely about contemplating good things made by one's students!

On Sunday I was at (le) Poisson Rouge for, of all things, the Iggy and the Stooges show! A friend in the band put a bunch of us on the guest list, and it was amazing to see them play in person - I was saying to B. afterwards in an email that I don't like it in fitness classes when teachers tell you to give "120%," it's not logical, 100% is actually the maximum you can give (by definition!) - but if there is such a thing as giving 120%, it is Iggy in performance. Ropy, lean, tanned, glistening with sweat - he is a spectacle, it was pretty amazing.

On Saturday I was in Philadelphia for the memorial service for my beloved high-school music teacher Al Clayton.

Miscellaneous light reading: Harry Bingham, Talking to the Dead (exactly and perfectly to my taste, so much so that I am only dismayed the second in the series isn't out yet); Sarah Pinborough, The Taken (well-written, but more straightforward "genre" horror than her more recent books); Michael Robotham, Say You're Sorry (competent storytelling, but there are too many implausibilities); Alison Gaylin, And She Was and Into the Dark (quite reasonable); Stav Sherez, The Black Monastery (flawed but entirely readable).

I am going to order another Paperwhite, as there's still no word from Delta. Reading on the phone is fine, but it will be better to have a dedicated device. The battery for my laptop should be delivered tomorrow or Wednesday to the repair people; I will be very glad to have that computer back, it's nice to have this tablet and keyboard as a backup but using Cubmail rather than Thunderbird for my main email is detrimental to correspondence! Various other shopping to do before I leave town on the 9th, as I am going straight from Cayman to London for my cousin's wedding, which involves enough separate gatherings that it is putting a strain on my capacity to produce outfits of respectability....