Vinho Verde and Berlin

My body cleaned of sickness, after 10 days I re-entered the world of drink, with a glass of the perfect summer wine, vinho verde, at a place with the perfect summer name, Shade. Okay, it's not Under the BQE. Nor is Berlin, whether in Germany or at Film Forum (I love it there...).

Lou Reed was so human. I think he's one of the finer examples (see: Johnny Cash) of artists whose pathos has grown huge over time and who can now, in age, evoke much with little. Having waited in vain to see Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, it was good to see his latest film and to imagine the reasons that Reed would pour out a passion in 1973 and then close up that piece of himself for 33 years (Berlin was not peformed live until 2006, at St. Ann's Warehouse in DUMBO - lest I lose my thread completely, check out this site, which fascinatingly traces the BQE through that neighborhood). It made me consider the pressures that would cause a man to bottle himself up, letting doubt and outside perceptions get in the way of himself...and then I thought about how easy it is to cling to notions of what is right while what is good and often truer (but harder) languishes or, at worst, is lost altogether. Since I'm writing again (poetry), I think these themes will pop up in something or another. For now, and on a lighter note, I'm eating crushed pineapple (crushed!) and getting ready for sleep. Good night, Brooklyn.