Imagine if you lived here.




Or walked around in this.

Last year Jennifer May, the photographer, dragged me out to the deserted train cars on route 28 for a photo shoot. she's got that powerfully comforting power of a photographer who can Get You To Do What She Wants about her. Vital for a photographer. And I began to move in and out of the old cars, forgetting about the mess they were and thinking about how they might have been in my father's time. He loves trains. And he loves photography. And it's a bit uncanny, now, thinking about it. I haven't even shown him the photograph yet.

Bad daughter.

Jennifer and the writer and playright and major prime mover up here, Nina Shengold assembled photos and portraits of a whole bunch of writers up here for a book, forthcoming. River of Words. It is a powerfully comforting title. They are both comfortingly powerful women. Glad I got on that train.

Maggie is writing a novel set in 19th century NYC, among the girl gangsters. She read from the second chapter, which was marvelous. Peter Aaron read a story from his ultracynic days and a great piece, a really powerful piece about the Bad Brains. Tony Fletcher read from his fantastic book on music in NYC, 1927-1997, and then a hilarious and too spot-on scene from his novel, Hedonism. The 80s art scene, the anchorage, an on the make art dealer. I read chapter 1 from the new book. It went over well. And it ends terrifically for reading a loud, with the words Thank You.

Thank you.