I have this secret dream of becoming a playwright (I love how the spare nature of stages gives the audience’s imagination a much greater work-out than most movies), so this article in the Times about how it is harder for women playwrights to get their work into production at Broadway, off-Broadway, and non-profit theaters is really fascinating. Definitely worth reading–check it out.
I just did my first interview about Supergirls Speak Out a few days ago, and my editor and I just decided to add an addendum to the book like a “Q and A with the Author,” so I just finished answering about ten pretty thorough questions about Supergirls and my experience as one.
And it got me thinking about how I have been going a lot easier on myself lately. And in general, I’ve been feeling awesome. And on the less great days, it’s cool to think about how my book is aimed to help other girls go easier on themselves and enjoy their lives more. In fact, it helps me along a lot.
And that’s why I haven’t been the most faithful blogger lately. Although I am writing a lot and staying pretty on top of my e-mails, I’m also living my life in a very full way. I’m having a lot of fun living in New York right now, going on lunches, reading lots of books, shopping at street fairs and little boutiques, getting settled in my first apartment, and making time for ME. And it has kept me so busy! I feel like I’m in a really great place right now.
How are things going for you?
Oh, God! I could try to come up with some analysis on how a feminist might react to this situation (i.e. a) the young Sarah Palin looks rather healthy, given that beauty pageant contestants are stereotyped as chronic dieters, b) Isn’t it ironic that the path to being the conservative, anti-feminist Republican VP candidate can include participation in a beauty pageant, or c) Is the fact that this woman was in a beauty pageant and then became a “prominent” politician a tribute or a blow to feminism?) but I’m really just at lost for words and can’t come up with anything. This election is getting exponentially weirder by the day.
I just saw the trailer for the forthcoming movie by one of my favorite comedy troupes, Derrick Comedy, and I am sooo pumped.
What I really like about Derrick–a group of three NYU grads who make really funny YouTube videos and do really impressive improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, among other venues, in New York City–is that their stuff is often laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s also really clever. I pasted some of their other really funny videos below. Probably not appropriate for work, FYI. Not like anyone I know is at the office on Saturday, but whatever, that’s my disclaimer.
I really need to get down to decorating my apartment. I’ve been there for a month, and although I do have some stuff on the walls, it is a little spare right now and I’d love to really to pizzazz it up!
Unfortunately, I am not particularly visually inclined at all. I have a really tough time conceptualizing what aesthetically pleasing things LOOK like, even though I can easily write things that sounds good (does that make sense?). I think interior decorating is a gift that some people have–my friends Tara and Lauren both have really fantastic taste and a good creative eye–that I personally don’t.
So, this weekend I’m going to do a Bed Bath and Beyond run to get some basics and I’m going to make a Pearl Paint run to buy some canvas and paints (I am a terrible painter but I LOVE painting, so I’ll hang some “abstracts” around the apartment). But from there, I’m a little lost. Does anyone have suggestions on pretty stuff to buy to decorate an apartment? Ideally, I’d love to get some stuff that can brighten up my space and make the apartment look inviting and open…
Also, I am really big on inspirational quotes–I have quotes from my favorite books, my favorite thinkers, and my own ideas on life–scrawled onto pieces of white paper and hung on my walls, that technically do the job, but I would love to have these phrases displayed in a way that’s a little more artful. Short of needlepoint, what else can I do to achieve this?
But then again, I think a needlepoint that said, “WRITE YOUR FUCKING NOVEL!” (one of the many inspirational quotes on my wall) could have redeeming entertainment value.
I’m obsessed with this song. I just love it. I feel like Katy Perry is sort of a good role model. Like, I know “I Kissed a Girl” is raunchy as all hell, but Perry just seems really assertive and confident and cool. I think any celebrity that sets an example of style and personality is better than the cookie-cutter female celebrities who are lauded as cool or beautiful simply for modeling the same-old limiting female ideal (a la Lauren Conrad or Hilary Duff or whatever).
Anyway, loves it.
I love Starbucks coffee. Actually, I take that back–I don’t drink their coffee. I drink their lattes, their macchiatos, their iced concoctions… like crazy. In fact, almost every day I’ve lived in New York for the past two years, I’ve probably had at least one drink from Starbucks.
(My usual is a “triple-grande-caramel-macchiato.” Perfection. Anyway)
However, I am trying to quit Starbucks. A few months ago I was having lunch with my friend Cathy Wasserman, a life coach, and we got talking about how bad Starbucks is for your budget. She was telling me that when Suze Orman examines women’s spending, she advises that Starbucks should be the first thing to go. I got thinking about it, I realized that if I had never had Starbucks, I could have bought myself a trip to Paris or a really, really nice coat with all that money. In fact, let’s look at this equation:
The price of a triple grande caramel macchiato seems to vary depending on the Starbucks I’m in, but it seems to hover around $4.60.
Now, for the sake of getting a modest guess, let’s say I have said drink four times a week.
$4.60 X 4= $18.40 a week on Starbucks
$18.40 X 4 weeks=$73.60 a month on Starbucks
$73.60 X 12 months= $883.20 a year on Starbucks
As such, in my two-year New York tenure, I’ve spent $1766.40 on Starbucks… and that’s the modest estimate. (That’s not including the muffins, the water bottles, the Doubleshots and the internet access I buy there, but whatever)
So, say I had $1766.40 to spend on whatever I wanted. Here’s what I would buy:
One-month time share in Boca Raton
Fur coat
… and more Starbucks.
Like other addictions, attempting to quit Starbucks has been extremely difficult and most unfruitful, given that I’m writing this from my local Starbucks, triple-grande caramel macchiato in hand…
I just joined a new writers’ group, and one of the questions that I asked everyone at the first meeting was, “What do you do to get into the creative zone?” Personally, it’s of huge interest to me, because I’m always very intrigued to see what other people do to reach over to the right side of their brain and tap into the brain muscles that they don’t always use during their other endeavors of the day. Part of it is mere curiosity, and part of it is a more self-serving wish to see how I can implement others’ strategies into my “creativity-launching” routine.
I got some interesting answers from the writers at the meeting, such as sitting in silence and then starting to write, or listening to music, or reading others’ books.
Personally, I have a few things that get me in the zone. First and foremost, I need something to drink, preferably Starbucks (although I’m trying to quit my latte habit for real right now). I like to listen to music–a playlist not unlike my “dance party” playlist, but with a lot more jazz and rat pack music (I don’t know, it inspires me). Also before I start writing, I like to read books or articles that are in the style of what I want to write. For example, if I’m going to be pitching articles to magazines, I like to send a few minutes paging through my latest copy of New York or Newsweek to get into pitching mode. If I’m going to be working on my book proposal, I’ll read the latest women’s-y non-fiction books that I just picked up. If I’m working on my novel (haha, yes, I’m working on a novel), I’ll pick up books by some of my favorite novelists and poets–Jonathan Franzen, Ernest Hemingway, Nick McDonell, Curtis Sittenfeld. Reading helps me get the genre-specific writing styles and pace in my head, and I just get excited about writing from it. I usually sit there and read whatever I’ve chosen until I feel like the words are going to start spitting out of my fingertips. Then usually I’m ready to type and write for an hour or two (at which time it’s probably time for a coffee break, which is a slightly less organic mode of revving one’s creative engines).
Any writers out of there? What do you do when you have to get in the zone?
Any fun plans for the weekend? Personally, my mom is in town and my good friend from home is in town, so I have a busy weekend of dinners out and shopping ahead of me!
Random funny story: I had dinner at Otto last night, a restaurant mentioned in the NY TImes piece that I blogged about the other day. Otto is allegedly the girlier counterpart to Mario Batali’s more guy-centric restaurant Babbo (although probably not intentionally). But it cracked me up: during the 8:30 dinners at Otto, they had Paris Hilton, Miley Cyrus, and Britney Spears music playing out the speakers. Seriously? Haha…
Actually, I can’t pretend I didn’t like it. ;) It was a great meal. I had heard Otto was Candace Bushnell’s favorite restaurant, and I definitely know why now! Very cute.
I had the privilege on Monday night of going to see a taping of Inside the Actor’s Studio featuring Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe. Daniel Radcliffe is one of my favorite actors; he’s a real cutie and I have a major crush on him, but I also really respect him as an actor–I’ve seen him in Equus twice and he is simply a breathtaking, impossibly convincing actor on stage.
Anyway, it was interesting to see him being interviewed by James Lipton (who I had completely forgotten, played the jail warden on my favorite TV show ever Arrested Development). Radcliffe was totally acting like a nineteen year old guy; he was hyper and a little unfocused and very silly (apparently he takes lots of baths), and it was nice to see him acting like a kid.
But something that kept going through my mind in watching Radcliffe’s interview was that, if he were a girl, he would TOTALLY be a Supergirl. It’s very clear that Radcliffe is a workaholic and a perfectionist in his work–you could hear it in the way he talked about his projects, and also in the mere breadth of his projects. But it also sounds like he has a lot of pressure on him: pressure to avoid the press, to be attractive and keep his body in shape (he mentioned that after he got the part in Equus that he had to get into shape fast because he is naked for a rather long scene at the end of the play), and to pursue some kind of identity in the face of having taken a ten-year-long acting job that has really dictated a great deal of the way that people perceive him (Harry Potter, naturally).
As such, something that really struck me was Radcliffe talking about how he had very few friends his own age, and how most of his mentors and adult co-stars were his friends, rather than pursuing other teenaged and twentysomething friends. This struck me as VERY Supergirl-esque. I often observe that Supergirls who are very mature and very career oriented often have trouble relating to people their own age, because Supergirls are so aged by their overachieving habits that they become old beyond their years. Sad, right?
I wonder if Dan Radcliffe’s huge acting resume has Supergirl roots. I wonder if he is taking on all of these projects for the money, or to simply capitalize on the momentum of his career right now, or if he’s actually a little troubled. It seems like he is taking on a loooooooot of side projects that sounds simply emotionally suffocating.
So, here’s the question of the day? What to do when boys and men express Supergirl traits? Are they Supergirls? “Honorary Supergirls?” Or–wait for it–Superboys?!