Time for another self-indulgent, all-about-me entry.
Midnight to 12:30: Watched a freakishly excellent movie called Five Obstructions (in Danish: De Fem Benspænd). I usually don't have the patience for Lars von Trier, but this film kicked ass. Jørgen Leth has to recreate a movie he made 25 years ago, but he had to do it under all sorts of obstrictive rules that LvT sets up for him. In one version, each shot can be no longer than 12 frames (1/2 second) and has to be shot in Cuba. In another, Leth has to play the main role himself and has to shoot the film in the most horrific place he has ever heard of but can't depict the place itself in the film. Another version has to be a cartoon. The final version is directed by LvT but credited to Leth who has to read the narration sight unseen. I loved the challenges the director faces and how each one, seemingly impossible, makes him grow and expand his vision. I was hugely inspired.
12:30- 02:30. We sleep.
02:30. I wake up and can't fall asleep again. Jet lag. And a two hour afternoon nap. I think about taxes and skin cancer and Jørgen Leth.
03:00- 04:30. I turn on the TV and watch Schnabel's Basquiat. Patti and Joe stay asleep. I love this movie and have seen it so many times. It is sweet and sad. I wish I could make huge colorful canvases. I want to go and see Basquiat's show at the Brooklyn Museum. Maybe next weekend.
04:30. Patti wakes up briefly and hugs my wretchedness. I turn the TV off.
05:00. I fall asleep, I think.
08:50. Jack asks me if I am awake and want tea. I am and do but I feel like shit.
09:30. I eat cereal and stagger around.
10:00. We talk about Patti's ongoing project to re-hang all the art in our house. At first we are vaguely argumentative but then agree to collaborate properly. We also decide to put bookshelves in our vestibule. We force Jack to stop reading Art Spiegelman's Maus and help water the plants and do other chores. Patti works on our taxes and I set up my new ink well and pull crap from behind Jack's desk.
11:00. Patti and Jack agree that my new orange rubber clogs are really ugly.
12:30. We finish choring.
12:35-13:30. I work on the illustrations for the next installment of Peanut. Jack makes a model NASCAR. Patti sorts receipts.
13:30-14:00. Joe and I eat tuna and eggs. Jack grimaces.
14:00. I read James Kochalka and decide I need to record more minutiae of my life. Jack arranges action figures while Patti walks Joe in the sunshine.
15:00-16:30. We head out to the P.S. 41 Talent Show. Some of the kids are talented; most are indulged. I am impressed by a 4th grader who, accompanied by her dad on guitar, sings a song she wrote that totally sounds like Lou Reed, circa 1972. I am horrified by a group of white third-grade boys who rap, breakdance and throw out various gangsta moves to a song by Usher. Then their grandmothers rush the stage with bouquets of roses for them. Even Jack is mortified.
16:30- 17:15. I read James Kachalka, volume 4, in the back of the darkened auditorium as more under-tens sing 'Tomorrow' and play chopsticks on the school piano.
17:15- 17:30. We walk home; it's a beautiful Spring afternoon.
17:30 - 17:45. I read my new purchase Sketching School on the living room couch.
17:45 - 18:30. We escort Joe to the dog run and, while Jack rides his long board and Patti chats on her cel phone, I watch Joe hump a pug.
18:30- 20:00. We eat dinner at a sidewalk restaurant. I plan to eat a cheeseburger but end up ordering a Greek salad. I have gone down two belt holes recently and plan to continue on the path to middle-aged Adonis-hood.
20:00. Patti cleans Jack's ears while I write a blog entry.
20:30. I head for bed with a book.
20:30. I hope to read, doze, then sleep til 0630 am. Monday. Then back to my office for the first time in about a month.