I was on line today at 7-Eleven buying a milk chocolate peanut Slimfast bar (I’m not dieting but I like the taste and it makes me feel virtuous) when the woman behind me shouted, “Oh my God! Put it down!” I’m a little jumpy lately since we haven’t nabbed the mouse/water bug hiding in my new office at home, so I tossed the Slimfast bar onto the counter immediately thinking maybe it was crawling with something.
“I’M TELLING YOU TO STOP IT!” I spun around to see what I was doing to alarm this woman and that’s when I noticed the My Favorite Martian plug in her ear and realized she was long-distance disciplining her kids who were possibly playing catch with her priceless Ming vase from Home Goods. I don’t know why it still surprises me every time I think someone nearby is being sociable or otherwise addressing me because they are almost invariably talking to a person they already know who isn’t there.
It’s at times like this when I think of Travis Bickle, the cult De Niro character from Taxi Driver, who obsessively practiced his response in the mirror in preparation for the day someone might actually address him and he could then shoot them. Bickle is one of cinema’s great psycho/sociopaths, and when you consider that nowadays everyone on the street around you is babbling to what looks like themselves, Travis doesn’t seem so bug nuts after all.
I’ll tell you something else that seems off and it’s happening in all the police stations and crime labs on TV. Every male cop or detective is wearing a suit or a long-sleeved shirt and trousers. But the female officer standing right next to him in the very same room is in a scoop neck tank top. All the time. If it’s winter outside the squad room, she just throws a down parka over the tank top.
I know when menopause hits and it’s not hitting these plunging neckline babies. They’re not hot like me and my friends are hot. In fact, they’re obviously cold. You can tell without even asking.
A wall in Daughter’s NYC studio is reserved for creative collaborations that put the art in apARTment
the artist family
the creative process
the shadows
the new wall