A reader named Melanie interviewed me a few days ago for a college class she’s taking. The gist of the assignment was for students to talk to someone who’s doing something they’d like to do.
Melanie apparently wants to write blog entries about bulldog poop and pluck her eyebrows on the subway.
Actually, I think she just wants to move to NYC and be a writer. She sent me a list of questions, some of which I knew answers to right away and some I had to think about. Like “What’s your favorite place in the city?” Some of my favorite places are places I haven’t experienced yet.
Did I ever tell you that the second time I ever hung out with TBID, he drove me to the most dangerous neighborhood in Brooklyn - a place with some of the state’s highest murder rates - and said, “So here’s where I’d deposit your body if I killed you.” He then took me to the Lower East Side where we talked for hours, and he may have flashed his muscular arms.
I was smitten.
Another question was “Why do you blog everyday?” That, I can answer.
I try to blog everyday, with the exception of some Fridays and weekends, because I view it as homework. I started my blog in 2005 as a way for my parents to keep up with me when I moved. If I went a few days between posts, my mom would leave me voicemails like this: “Hi, Man. It’s Mom. I noticed you haven’t blogged lately. Are you dead?”
Usually, I wasn’t. I was just wrapped up in other activities, like America’s Next Top Model or having a quiet nervous breakdown. Typical middle school teacher things.
Eventually, I treated the blog as exercise. Some days it’s painful - like milking a bull, nothing comes out. (Okay, the right stuff doesn’t come out). Other days it feels good, like I sprinted my stress out.
Blogging almost every day requires that I keep a writer’s eye on the world. I need material, dammit! And there’s a lot around me, if I can only tap into it. This is why I consider and reconsider and reconsider reconsidering the mundane. There’s so much humor and beauty in it.
I don’t think that this is exclusive to NYC, though living here certainly helps. Dull moments are for dull people.
I’m going to a documentary screening and concert tonight, and I intended to make this a light post. The entire week has been low prolific, because I’ve been working on some freelance writing. More heavy - and I hope, links to my writing elsewhere - to come later.
what documentary? what concert?
The documentary was called Seven. It was at the NYU Skirball Center. I didn’t end of seeing it after all, because I was running late. The concert was opened by The Latters. I know the guitarist and back-up singer. I don’t know what the headliner was called, but the guitarist was Eric Krasno of Soulive. The drummer was Adam Deitch. (These guys are well-known among music nerd circles. I hadn’t heard of them until that night).