Lazy Thursday with my girl

Today was the first day of Anevay's spring recess... and it was a good one. I had told her that today would be a day for me to tie up loose ends (I had a couple of orders in my shop to get out, as well as a few other errands), and, true to form, my girl let me get my work done, and then we were free to roam the neighborhood (picture above is from Bedford Ave, here in the BK)!

When I had a job, Anevay's vacations were very difficult for me. I was forced to leave my girl with friends, and when I couldn't do that, I had to spend insane amounts on money to have other people watch her. It was heartbreaking. Not only did I detest my crappy job, but not being able to be with Anevay was very painful. I couldn't figure out how any of it was really worth it. When she was in school, I saw her for less than an hour in the morning, and then an hour and a half at night. And then Saturdays were taken up by grocery shopping, laundry, and other equally fun and exciting chores. Anevay suffered, she wanted me around, and I was so exhausted by my insane schedule that when Sunday finally rolled around, our one truly free day, I was too beat to want to do anything. Really, it was no way to live. Not for me. Not for us. But I was trapped. Writing a book (I woke up at 4:15 in the mornings to work on it), but still, trapped...

Until I was laid off.

Overnight, things were different. I didn't have to rush in the mornings. I could finally, for the first time, pick up my daughter from school. I can't tell you what that felt like, to be able to do that (without having the guilt for leaving early from a crap job, or skip out on classes before school, which is where I was before I worked said crap job).

Where am I left...

Well, I have no money, and have no idea if any of the things I'm working on will prove lucrative. But Christ, man, I get to be with my kid, right now, during her spring recess. And the way the economy is looking, I might get to be with her over the summer. And if I'm not living today, then when the hell am I living?

For the last few years at my job I wanted so badly to look on the bright side... Now I'm living on the bright side. Right now, as I sit next to my kid, watching the end of a crappy movie (too embarrassing to name, although she did redeem her bad pick by also picking out another Wong Kar-Wei movie for tomorrow), I feel lucky. If the economy hadn't tanked, I'd still be sitting at a desk in an office on Park Ave. where my CEO paid more a month for the rent of that office than he did for my yearly salary. Yikes. The thought gives me the shivers.

Hopefully this will be the year for small, grassroots businesses, and hopefully people will stand up to the standard of living that many of us became so accustomed to adhering to. Because I don't know, honestly, if I can go back to feeling so squalshed. I have too much, people. I'm too fucking talented and smart, the biggest thing I was lacking before was that I hadn't loved money above all else. I went to school for what I wanted to go to school for (although in hindsight I would have chosen a different program, in a different creative direction), and thought that to work hard meant one climbed that ridiculous 'ladder to the top' that I've been hearing about since bad 80's movies. But unfortunately, I learned the hard way that working hard wasn't enough. Maybe it will be now.

I'm not going to wait anxiously to find out. I'm going to enjoy this time I have with my kid, not matter what comes next. And so, here's our itinery for the next few days:

Friday: Going to the park with Anevay's bike and not leaving until she learns to ride it, once and for all (this has proven difficult). Have ice-cream. In the evening, either watch back-to-back Wong Kar-Wai movies or go gallery hopping with friends here in Williamburg, as all the galleries are open late (second Friday of every month...). My guess is that Anevay will want to stay in and watch the movies... Fine by me. Lastly, I expect we'll talk, hug, then go to sleep. I plan on writing tomorrow late into the night.

Saturday: Go to a friend's for brunch, then off to the Botanical Gardens to see all the flowers opening (I love, love, love flowering trees). Tomorrow night I'm going to work on a medium-sized convex canvas I just bought... Playing around with some ideas.

Sunday: Meet up with friends, have an Easter egg hunt, host a brunch (I make a mean strata)

Next week: Storm King, Dia:Beacon, Coney Island, all over the place... Point is, I'm able to do any of these things, with my kid, and I don't have to answer to a job that only gives me ten days off a year!

Bliss...

I F*%king love New York!!

What a beautiful spring morning! As I towed Anevay and one of her pals to school this morning, it occurred to me that there is no where I'd rather live than New York... Bathed in the morning light, neither the shrill sound of trucks backing up, migraine-inducing jackhammers, nor the stinky woman who stood behind me on the subway with her bag pressed full-stop against my spine, could shake my good mood.

It being a Friday, and me being the type of mom I am, we were running late. 20 minutes late, to be exact. There's something about being late that makes me move even more slowly... It's the feeling of heck, I'm already late, so instead of stressing out Anevay trying to make her hurry, why not just take our time and enjoy it!

See, New York has a pace that is a little faster than most other places. When we moved here from Wisconsin six years ago it took us a few months to adjust. I've always been a fast walker, but it was more than that. It was learning how to navigate my way through a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd of people without bumping a single person, and running to catch a subway train even though another one was only two minutes behind it (what a difference from Wisco, where a bus might not come for another hour). In New York, minutes count.

Or, in the case of one man this morning, seconds count.

Since this morning I had decided to slow the pace, it made sense to stop for coffee at the donut cart close to Anevay's school. The two men who run the cart are incredibly kind, know how I like my coffee (even though I rarely buy from them). They were getting my coffee for me when Anevay asked if she might be allowed a donut. I'm not big on junk food (in fact, although we're not vegetarians, we eat a lot of tofu and veggies in my house), but being in such a great mood, I told Anevay to pick something out. Two seconds later, and the man in line behind me hollered, "Hurry the f*%k up!"

My (American)Irish blood immediately blushed my cheeks, and even as one of the guys in the cart yelled, "hey, man, it's Friday, cool off," I spun around and proceeded to get all 'New York'.

"Don't talk to me like that. Can't you see I'm standing here with kids?" (note- Anevay and her friend were standing to the side of me, talking, and hadn't even picked up that any of this was happening)

Immediately, the man smiled, then laughed in a good natured manner. "Hey, how you doin'?" he said in his best New Yorker's accent.

It was one of the security guards at the Tweed Building, which houses Anevay's school (I seem to be having quite the time with security guards this week).

"Not bad, man, how you doin'?" I responded. After all, it had been me who had ignored the cardinal rule of the New York minute... namely that in such a large city, surrounded by millions of people, even when I want to slow things down, I need to understand that the rest of the city is still moving along at the same fast pace!

This is what I love about New York. Sure, the people are abrasive and confrontational. But most of them don't hold grudges. If New York were a person, it would be a PMSing woman... emotional, sensitive, alternately laughing and crying...

New York is my cup of tea. It's the bee's knees. I hang my hat every night on image of the Empire State Building. I call it my own. I'm raising my kid within it's stifling, sweaty, warm, and yet arm's length embrace. New York is home, man, it's home.

And so, a small list is in order (hey, it would be longer, but time is of the essence!!).




1) 'New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down' by LCD Soundsystem.

The title of the song says it all... My daughter and I sang it a lot this past winter on cold walks to the subway. Click here to hear the song. It's AMAZING.

(A little aside: Anevay's first love is the son of the drummer for LCD Soundsystem (nice guy). They used to buddy up at the park quite a bit. Now that I'm done hibernating for the winter, maybe I make a call to set up the playdate I've promised to Anevay!)

(Another little aside: One of the best big concerts I've seen in NY was the Arcade Fire/LCD Soundsystem show at Randall's Island two summers ago... SO. MUCH. FUN.)



2) 'Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Last night one of my best friends, a native New Yorker, came by for movie night. What we saw delighted both of us, and even elicited a few laughs from my roommate, Clare, who sat across the loft working on her computer).

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (see trailer here) is not only a well-written, witty screenplay, with great acting and amazing music, but it was so much fun to follow Nick and Norah on their adventures around the city to all of the music venues I love so much, as well as watch them foray into Brooklyn to see their favorite band play, which leads me to number three on my list...



3) 'Union Pool'

In Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, most of the characters were on a mission to find the secret location where the band 'Where's Fluffy' would be playing. At one point they all piled into a van and drove into Brooklyn, where they ended up at a location called 'Brooklyn Pool'.

Well, Brooklyn Pool is, in real life, the fabled Union Pool, where amazing bands and too much booze (at least that's been the case for me) meet on a weekly basis. Union Pool even has a photobooth (I have late night pics from that booth that will never see the light of day)...


...a huge patio, and, although the crowd has become younger (or maybe I'm just getting older), it's just a terrific one-stop venue for chatting up strangers about music, life in Brooklyn, and for seeing some great characters...

In fact, a couple of years ago I went to see some of my pals in TV on the Radio play a Hurricane Katrina Benefit- I went not only to support a good cause, but because I had heard through the grapevine that my all-time favorite, Will Oldham himself (Bonnie Prince Billy), would be playing a few songs... (He did, but unfortunately I was in the bathroom making out with my ex-boyfriend. Sigh. That's sometimes how it goes at Union Pool. Oh- that reminds me... That was the same ex- whom I had met through the Internet and eventually shared the loft I'm in now with- that I had my first date with at Union Pool. Go figure.)



4) Williamsburg Bridge

I live blocks away from the bridge, which is a suspension bridge that connects the Lower East Side of Manhattan to my Williamsburg neighborhood in the BK. I run across it, walk across it, and have even skateboarded across it. From the bridge one can see landmarks in both Brooklyn and Manhattan (duh), the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and George Washington Bridges, and, from that vantage point, the water of the East River looks *almost* blue... My ex-roommates from Germany (we miss you, Daniel and Eveline!!) used to celebrate birthdays and holidays with champagne in the middle of the bridge.

Good times!

(And not such good times... I remember a few years ago when the MTA strike happened and I had no choice but to walk home in heels from the Seagram Building on the corner of Park and 53rd to Williamsburg... By the time I got to the bridge I was not a happy camper... Have you ever had blisters on the bottoms of your feet? Not fun.)



5) 'This is New York' by Miroslav Sasek

This beautiful children's book from 1960 is filled with illustrations and brief descriptions of NYC landmarks. My daughter and I have spent many hours pouring over the book's pages...

(both notable and poignant is the absence of the World Trade Center... the book was written before the Towers were built and subsequently destroyed)


And that, my dears, is the shortest list in the world... Perhaps you could add some of your favorite New York places/films/music in the form of a comment? But hurry the f*%k up, wouldjya (written with a HUGE New York smile)?!

xo

Speaking of report cards...

Yesterday I mentioned my daughter's stellar report card.

Today there's an article in the New York Times that discusses how letter grades based on achievement have been replaced by a numerical, standards-based system based on approvement. Numbered 1-4 (with a 4 meaning a child has met the learning standard for a particular skill with distinction, and a 1 meaning she has not met that standard). Anevay, for example, received primarily 3s (which mean she is 'meeting learning standards'), and 4s, (which means she is 'meeting learning standards with distinction').

The New York Times article mentions that "the new grades are based on year-end expectations, 4s are generally not available until the final marking period." Hm. Conceptually I get it... Within this system, Anevay is working towards a year-end goal. This means that I can chart her progress as she jumps from a 3 to a 4, and that I can cheer as I see that the school system is shaping my creative, brilliant little girl into the sort of standardized learner they want her to be.

Right?

"Thomas R. Guskey," it states in the article, "a professor at Georgetown College in Kentucky and an author of 'Developing Standards-Based Report Cards,' a book that is soon to be released, said the new approach was more accurate, because it measures each student against a stated set of criteria, rather than grading on a curve, which compares members of a class with one another. 'The dilemma with that system is you really don’t know whether anybody has learned anything,' Dr. Guskey said of grading on a curve. “They could all have done miserably, just some less miserably than others.”

So does this mean that students are no longer compared with one another? That it's not as subjective?

Hm... I guess I need to know a little more about the ways in which my daughter's teachers came up with the numbers I find on her report card. What exactly is the criteria for a 3 as opposed to a 4? (And a brief aside: What were the determining factors for my daughter receiving a 2 for only 'partially meeting the learning standards' in the skill of 'understanding the cultural contributions of the arts'? I had to laugh over this one... hell, I went to school for art history, have a loft filled to the gills with art and theory books, and regularly expose Anevay to conversations and have her take part in community activities in which she is learning about 'the cultural contributions of the arts'. I'd go out on a limb, in fact, and venture that Miss Anevay has been exposed to more 'culture' than some of the teacher's she has had).

So are they really trying to tell me that this number system is not subjective? How does a teacher from an inner-city school grade using this method compared to a teacher from Westchester? Many of the children in my daughter's school have behavioral and learning issues that they're working on... Would my daughter, who is fortunate enough to not have any learning issues, and is, in fact, reading at a 5th grade level (she's in 2nd grade... and yes, the testing for this is also open to debate) have received lower numbers were she in a school with mostly children from the 'burbs? And what if, *gasp*, my kid is actually 'meeting learning standards with distinction' right now, but the reason she's been given a number of 3s is because if she had been given all 4s I would be unable to mark her 'improvement'?

Hard to say.

Without the lengthy comments teachers used to make on my own report cards (oh, sweet youth!), a number doesn't tell me much.

I agree with John, from Ohio, who made the following comment about the New York Times article.

"The time spent attempting to reach these goals winds up being counterproductive. The drive to provide more data and to 'ensure more consistent grading' is homogenizing instruction and finding teachers spending inordinate amounts of time collecting and communicating data on separate skills and 'learning behaviors' instead of planning and implementing inspired experiences for elementary children."

Amen, brother. John continues.

"Learning has its own rewards and does not have to have false rewards of A-B-C or 1-2-3. Teachers have only 24 hours in their days. I’d much rather see my child’s teacher spend time being creative and inspiring (and actually getting to know my kids) instead of designing ways to measure, collect organize, and communicate data on 39 separate skills. Have we lost all common sense?"

Any illuminating thoughts on this? I have my parent-teacher conference next week. In the meantime, please, let me know if I'm missing something...

Lichtenstein, the Tweed Building, and a disgruntled security guard...

In 2002 Bloomberg told the media that now that it looked like the Board of Education was about to be moved into the Tweed Courthouse (named after the corrupt NY politician), it was also his goal to also have the famous building house a school. "Do you know why we're going to put a school in the Tweed Courthouse?" he asked. "So that all of the administrators every day get reminded why they have jobs, what they're supposed to focus on. And if every day they see children getting an education, that will remind them when they go upstairs what their mission is.''

Well, Bloomberg might not be my favorite man on the planet, but he did follow through on this one promise...

This is Anevay's second year at the Ross Global Academy, a charter school fueled by Courtney Ross, who also started the Ross School in East Hampton. Despite the fact that I have some problems with the school, I think it is very cool that the Public Art Fund installed Roy Lichtenstein's "Element E" from Five Brushstrokes in the foyer of the building. Mrs. Ross is known for her artistic vision for the school, and Lichtenstein's enormous piece couldn't be more appropriate...

Today I happened to have my camera on me, and so I decided to take a few shots of not only the building, but of Lichtenstein's sculpture.



Imagine my surprise when a security guard approached me, all bluster and vinegar, told me it is not permissible for me to take photos of the sculpture. Then he asked me what I was doing inside the building. Um, first of all, duh! I'm standing there in the middle of a school with my kid standing next to me... It should have been pretty obvious that I was a parent or guardian picking up my daughter! Second of all, whaaat the flock?! I can't take pictures of PUBLIC ART?! The guard kindly mentioned that because the building didn't belong to the school, that I would first have to get permission before I started snapping pics. I was in too much shock to ask, from whom ought I obtain permission?!

Hm... doesn't this seem to defeat the purpose of Lichtenstein's sculpture being placed by the Public Art Fund for the public, if the public isn't allowed to utilize it as a public piece?

I couldn't help but take one more clandestine photo...



When we arrived home, I immediately went to the Public Art Fund website to investigate...

I didn't find many answers, but I'm going to send off a couple of emails and get back to you. I'm not (usually) a rabble-rouser, but this was just a little too much... I want my kid to feel that her school belongs to her, not that she belongs to her school... If she can't utilize the contents of the school, then what is all of it doing there?!