best of 2014

Somehow it’s already a new year and I’m still convincing myself to get back in my regular rhythm of work and writing and socializing and sleeping 6-7 hrs/night instead of 8-10 hrs/night with extended naps in between. Having just come back “down south” to NYC and out of the cold, dark place that is New England in winter, I’d like to suggest we just skip over January and February.  As I made a concerted effort to stay offline, I neglected some year end chores like thinking about just what it was I consumed in 2014: words, music, film. I read very little new fiction and listened mostly to classical and friends’ music but here for good measure are lists of things I found worthwhile in 2014:

2014 books (no particular order):

• Bark: Lorrie Moore
• Can’t and Won’t: Lydia Davis
• The Laughing Monsters: Denis Johnson
• The Shell Collector: Anthony Doerr (I know…not released in 2014 but one of the best I read in 2014)
• Remembering the Year of the French: (Guy Beiner, also not released in 2014)
• Lila: Marilynne Robinson
• The Beautiful Thing that Awaits us All: Laird Barron
• This Side of Brightness: Colum McCann

2014 music (music released in 2014 or performances in 2014 – in no particular order)

• Jack White: Lazaretto
• The Black Keys: Turn Blue
• St. Paul & Broken Bones: Half the City
• Afghan Whigs: Do to the Beast
• Mastodon: Once more round the sun
• Nick Cave live at Town Hall
• Bryan Ferry live at the Beacon Theater
• Jessie Kilguss: Devastate Me
• Peg Simone live at various

2014 movies (released in 2014 – no particular order)

• Only Lovers Left Alive
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Frank
• Maleficent
• The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Calvary

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the oncoming onslaught of another semester or, summer’s end

While seemingly most of the city is out of town on vacation, there are those of us who work in Higher Ed who are slogging away at all the myriad tasks that are required for a new college semester to get rolling. Full-time faculty are returning, as are administrative colleagues who were away on research trips. People ask me about my summer. My summer has been spent (mostly) in the city working and aside from one quick jaunt to the Adirondacks planned for Labor Day, is now over.  Next week I head out to the wilds of NJ for my new Ph.D. program’s Orientation & my classes start the day after Labor Day. Meanwhile, my writing suffers. I still write a poem-a-day during the week (sometimes more) but all the stories I started this summer remain in first or second draft – some likely to remain there for months. Sitting with a long-time artist friend over tea this past weekend, I listened to her talk about a documentary film she’s starting and catching up on her various other output (hard cover book of her illustrations, an installation, etc.). On Friday, I met up with two musician friends – one of whom is playing shows as part of a music-inspired-by-books series before heading out on a UK tour. The other has started a small press and is launching her own line of soaps and perfumes while continuing to play live shows and put out a song a week. Both have full-time jobs. Then I think of all the many creative people in this town who talk more about doing creative work than actually doing the work and I find myself happy to have such accomplished friends and hope that their ongoing creative work will give me the kick in the butt I need to finish my wayward stories and send them out before the pressures of maintaining two jobs and a Ph.D. program swallows all my mental energy. There is a plethora of articles (and books) on how women write when they have kids – maybe it’s time someone wrote about how women create while working full-time, part-time and trying to survive one one income in NYC.