I’m Amanda. I’ve got wide eyes, a smart mouth, and a MetroCard. And I’m not afraid to use them.
Feeling inspired by a book I’m reading, I decided to organize the drawer in my living room/home office where I store my weekly to-do lists and old calendars.
I found this jotted down on my list for the week of September 15, 2008:
Put your arms around me and squeeze me like a book deal will come out of my ass. You have everything, and I want it.
Dancers Among Us is a collection of photographs featuring members of the Paul Taylor, Mark Morris, and Martha Graham Dance Companies dancing their way through NYC.
These photographs were taken without the assistance of trampolines, wires, or other tools.
It’s Poem in Your Pocket Day!
I couldn’t forget about you. (Please excuse the poor editing).
Happy Poem in Your Pocket Day! from Amanda Green on Vimeo.
You’re going to cringe in remembrance.
If Noisiest Passenger existed in 1996, courtesy of Jeremy.
What’s worse - MIDI files or Alanis Morissette misusing the word “ironic”?
My friend Jim is a longtime actor who’s been transitioning to voice-overs. I love hearing about his auditions.
Jim talks about his audition from Amanda Green on Vimeo.
NYC artist jayshells has created these subway etiquette posters and is putting them up in subways now.
A story I wrote about my dad is published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Dad. It hits bookstores today.
The lawnmower man and I are on page 97.
I’ve been trying to read Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, with little success. I find it to be a collection of some of Gladwell’s least interesting articles.
Also, I cleverly worked the public library system by requesting a large print edition that wouldn’t be in much demand.
The result?
A 661-page would-be tome. In hardcover.
It’s not only painful to lug around. I feel special, err differently-abled when I try to read the thing on the subway.
Another thing Cade and I shared when we hung out at my apartment was one of my favorite Stephen Dunn poems called “The Vanishings.”
I mentioned it when we thought aloud about our compete lack of animosity towards each other. All that pain has been forgiven, if not forgotten. He’s just not on the top of my list of disappointing ex-boyfriends these days.
One of the things I found irritating about him when we were together was his disinterest in my media recommendations. Sharing specific books, songs, films, and so on is one of my favorite ways to show loved ones I care. When someone acts like they’ve been given a homework assignment and refuses to explore it, I feel rejected.
I think, “But I chose this just for you!”
When I mentioned the poem, I automatically went to my bookshelf. I had to make an offering - it was too perfect.
I read this excerpt:
In early January, I found myself sitting in my living room in the dark with my ex-boyfriend Cade, the one before TBID.
We’d had dinner and then picked up my computer from the repair shop. He carried the 50-pound tower up the three flights to my apartment. It was the first time he’d seen it, so I offered to show him around.
I walked him through the four rooms, mentally noting how much of it was unfamiliar - the couch, the table, the clothes strewn about the bedroom. And how much he’d seen before - the bedding, the pictures on the wall, the coat hook it took us an hour to hang where I used to live.
Eventually, we sat on opposite ends of the couch. I don’t know who started it, but soon there was music.
