Stole a couple of days with my spouse to get down to New York prior to the holidays. Cashed some Marriott points for a stay in a damn nice hotel. Took the Acela down on Wed, and the limoliner (bus) back on Friday.
In between, we walked our butts off. Saw the Rockettes, which was straight from the 30’s: “Girls in a line, kicking their legs up in the air.” Good times, but I had to suspend my thoroughly modern sensibilities – since I’m sure that whole feminist tracts could be (and have been) written about it. Saw the decorated window displays for the major stores – and the tree in Rockefeller center. It turns out that I totally have a thing for “empire” period architecture – of which Rockefeller Plaza is the stone-cold exemplar. Who knew? It’s the long vertical lines, and the belief in the triumph of humanity and knowledge over the forces of chaos, I think.
We also had lox on a bagel, Pickles, some authentic chinatown fare, and so on.
Today was a low key day of exchanging gifts, and then going to see Tron in 3d. My assessment is that Tron Legacy makes a great music video for Daft Punk – and it was a fine action movie. The fight scenes are good, and both the beefcake and the cheesecake are on full display. Great art, it ain’t … but I didn’t really go into it looking for great art – so all is well.
Check out Paul Krugman’s latest blog post for a decent holiday message. In fact, I’ll excerpt:
Nothing lasts forever, and there are times when I listen to the demagogues and fanatics, and fear that America as we know it is slipping away. But there is a basic decency to this nation. And in the end, I believe and hope, that decency will continue to prevail.
I find myself filled with a calm and abiding optimism today. I hope that it continues tomorrow. I hope that it continues much longer than that.
