Again, we had a good group, which is nice since I’m starting the events later to fit in all the almost normal events people are enjoying now that we’re nearly opened. I was out and about “in real life” over the weekend, mostly masked and outdoors, but at least out. I attended two not really distanced but outside picnics in the park over the weekend. I also was absolutely delighted to catch the last hour of a guerilla performance of “As You Like It” being performed in a random corner of Central Park by a young, clever company who call themselves “Idle Playthings.” The cast was really good, very funny, and they used well thought out minimal costumes, and even their masks, to dramatic effect. As I saw someone comment on Facebook after getting to visit the newly opened Metropolitan Museum of Art, at only 25% capacity but still open, “culture is like oxygen” and she said she felt she had been “suffocating” from the lack of it during the closings. We who live in NYC are definitely spoiled for all the formerly omnipresent cultural options, but many of us live her on purpose for that reason and to not be able to enjoy it was hard. Of course, it’s hard on all the art makers who make a living from making art as well as all the people who work in support functions for culture and audiences. But for us audience, it’s hard too. And to grab just a bit of theater really did feel like a breath of fresh air after choking on smog for weeks. And, in the evening, I caught what is now apparently a regular Sunday night occurrence, a stand-up comedy show “under a tree” in yet another random corner in Central Park. Many of the comics who performed referred to the challenge of performing under said tree, but they did their darnedest and put on a good show.
I got home in time for the PareaGroove and people showed up in fine form. We talked about the unemployment benefits some of us are getting and whether we will get another boost. We talked about watching the US Open on TV without the audience. Some of us talked about how they are finally getting around to purging the accumulated excess in our apartments. We talked about how our choices in clothes has changed now that we spend so much time at home. We discussed in-door dining again, it’s a big deal for New Yorkers and the City economy. We talked a bit about the onset of art in the opening and how we hope for more. One of us heard from her window the loud roar of the seeming nightly drag races of souped up ATV cars and motorcycles. I can’t hear them from my apartment fortunately, but I saw them racing up Columbus Ave. Saturday night, all with flashing LED lights outlining their vehicles. We wondered how they all knew about where and when to come to be annoying to us all. We talked about Bob Woodward and his book “Rage” and about his interviews and how he seemed desperate to almost warn us about how really bad things are in the White House. We talked about what it meant to be liberal or conservative. We talked about the new revelation that the Trump administration stole $4 million from the fund for FDNY first responders. We worried about the UN and Trump’s threat to leave it or at least defund it and what that would mean to the world. We talked about the Latino vote and about socialism and about Bloomberg giving $100 million to the Florida Democrats to help in the election. We discussed travel restrictions and Giuliani and Fauci and voting polls, and we talked about what efforts we could make to help people get to the polls and vote. The conversation was somewhat stressful raising some catastrophic anxiety, so we ended it after about ninety minutes so people, myself included, could retreat to self soothing TV and snacks.
