Sloth, Maybe?

  As you can see for the umpteenth time, I registered negative for Covid. I live in a sparsely populated area in Yonkers.   When Covid hit New York, guns blazing, I immediately ensconced myself in my apartment.   I counted my “blessings”… I work from home.   There’s no need for me to go in a densely populated area like the city. As I said above, I work in the middle of nowhere.   Odds are I won’t bump into someone who might be carrying the bug. I learned basic hygiene as far back as nursery school.   I probably learned it even earlier since mom bordered on germophobia in the presence of a newborn babe. Sure and I stocked up on masks and hand cleaner sprays, courtesy of New York State. We had a decent amount of toilet paper, so we wouldn’t wind up wiping our asses with issues of the New York Post. As an aside, what was the BIG DEAL about stockpiling on toilet paper?   There was an airborne virus that attacked the lungs, and we were obsessed with not hav...

As a teenager, I was a student majoring in "visual art" at the LaGuardia High School of Music, Art, and Performing Arts in Mid-Manhattan.  It's an unsightly block of concrete and glass hidden behind Lincoln Center.  Hidden within the unsightly block is a hive of painters, sculptors, pen and ink, charcoal pencil journeymen.  Included are students of the performing arts:  Dance, Vocal, Instrumental, and Drama.  It was and is where aspiring artists gestate. Some students continue in their artistic pursuits.  Others set aside their youthful pursuits to work in other professions - perhaps continuing in their passion as an avocation.  Others, like me, sought other avenues of expression, leaving our brushes, pallets, canvass and sketchpads to die on the vine. After I graduated from LaGuardia, I moved on to study film at Hunter College CUNY.  I had the passion, I learned the technique, but I did not have the connections to enter the field.  Undeterre...

In my dream, I was walking through Central Park when I came across a traveling band of actors.   They asked their audience, “We need someone to play Cyrano DeBergerac!   Anyone willing to take up the challenge?”   I stepped forward and said, “I’ll do it!   I’ll play Cyrano!”   One of the actors laughed.   “Your nose is too beautiful.”   I replied, “All I need is some papier-mâché, glue, and tan paint!”   In a few minutes, I had my own Cyrano nose.   The director asked me, “Can you duel?”   I said I practiced ken-jutsu.   They handed a stage sword to me and we went through some forms… slowly.   The actors said I was quite good at blocking, parrying, striking and thrusting.   I was also expected to sing.   For the life of me, I could actually sing in the dream! The play started, and I was allowed to read directly from the text while I handled the sword with my left hand.   I performed the “ Then, as I end the refra...

Andy Serkis and Diego Luna in Andor  Disney Plus/Lucasfilm Andor , the latest Star Wars series on Disney Plus has been an uneven slog for me.   The protagonist isn’t as iconic in appearance or character as The Mandalorian, Boba Fett or Obi-Wan Kenobi.   Some fans, such as Jayne Theory’s YouTube channel, say that Andor’s adult themes and the sketchiness of the protagonist “isn’t true Star Wars .”   Other YouTubers, like the published author Will Jordan (aka The Critical Drinker) are engaged by the series for the very same reasons, saying that the non-iconic character isn’t burdened by the same expectations as Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi.   The series revolving around the bounty hunter and Jedi knight, respectively, have met a lukewarm response from critics and an outright disliking by fans.   This can be seen by reviews on sites such as Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. I watched the first three episodes of Andor, which were released on Disney Plus at the s...