Waiting in Line. . .

. . . for Harry Potter!!

Read Newjack

Over the summer, I went to the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies national conference in Little Rock, Ark. (Y'all may remember the photos.) Anyway, while I was there, I attended a seminar given by Ted Conover, who talked about his experience writing his most recent book, Newjack. In the early '90s, he was working on a story for the New Yorker about the lives of corrections officers at Sing Sing. The NY Department of Corrections absolutely refused to let Conover visit the training academy (which is here in Albany), or with any of the officers in the prison, so he applied to become an officer himself. When he gets accepted to the academy (like a year or so later), he goes, trains, becomes an officer, and guards Sing Sing for a year. People like this are so inspirational to me. Anyway, needless to say, I bought his book and (eventually) read it, and I suggest you do, too. It's simply fascinating. I liked the book so much that I emailed Mr. Conover and told him so. (I often do this with authors I enjoy, and they always email back, which I think is very cool of them.) I wrote:

Hi Mr. Conover,
I heard you speak at the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies in Little Rock, Ark., last summer, and bought Newjack shortly thereafter. Though it took me a while to get to it, when I started reading, I flew through it. I'm fascinated by prison culture, and I found your book gripping from beginning to end. I just wanted to drop you a line to tell you how much I enjoyed it, and how much I respect what you do as a journalist. Thank you for the opportunity to gain such rare insight into a part of life that few even take the time to consider.

Sincerely,
Kathryn Lurie

He wrote back:

Hi, Kathryn,
Thank you for the kind email. I appreciate it--and glad to know of the connection to the AAN meeting. It will be interesting to see how/whether NYSDOCS changes under the Spitzer administration: I hope he has the guts to challenge that giant, mindless system ...
Best,
Ted Conover

Lending Library

I wrote a scenery piece about a knitting group that meets at Slow Jed's Mudhouse in Averill Park (a suburb of Albany). They meet on the second floor of the coffeehouse, in the lending library. Such a sweet, cozy little spot. Here are the rules of the lending library:

Three of My Favorite Places

1. The Spectrum
2. The Bookhouse
3. Zabar's


What's your favorite place?

FUNNY Rotten Scoundrels!

Oh my god, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels could very likely be the funniest thing I've ever seen. And I've seen some funny things in my time. In addition to making the audience hoot and howl, Jonathan Pryce and Norbert Leo Butz (who just won a Tony for his role) kept cracking each other up, which made watching them even funnier. It was absolutely, perfectly hysterical.

And the Darwin exhibit at the Museum of Natural History was great--if you go, allow yourself a LOT of time to make your way through the exhibit. An hour minimum, I'd say. There's a lot of information to absorb and lots to see. Including some giant turtles and iguananas. Which, I now know, are both pretty yummy as dinner.

I added to my book collection this weekend. *Cringe!* I'm so bad. I keep promising myself the madness will stop! I think I'm really going to have to break down and buy another bookcase. This weekend I acquired two T.C. Boyle books and The Ghost of Hannah Mendes by Naomi Ragen (thanks, Gram!!); while in the city we also bought The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, Newjack by Ted Conover, and The Jewish Kitchen by Clarissa Hymen (this one in particular is super, because this book will actually teach me how to make hazelnut rugelach! I can't even tell you how exciting this is).

We had a nice, respectable kosher lunch at Fine & Shapiro in the Upper West Side, and dinner at Ollie's. Yum. Till next time. . .

I've Been Busy!

. . . So I haven't posted a couple pics from last week.

From Wednesday's book club meeting at Noche: Here's Melissa, enjoying a glass of sangria while we try to listen to Sarah (the blonde in the background) discuss the book over the din.

Thursday night was rockin' at Valentine's thanks to two of my favorite local bands: the Suggestions and Hector on Stilts. Here's Brodeur, being a rock star:

I Want Jennifer Gonnerman's Career

Listening to a debut EP from a local guy and sipping my coffee, resenting that I have to work at the restaurant tonight. The DC conference was really inspiring. I am halfway through a book whose author conducted a seminar about "Giving a Voice to the Voiceless." Her name is Jennifer Gonnerman and I am just so intrigued by her dedication to her work. She works for the Village Voice and she's written for the New York Times Magazine and other distinguished publications. The book is called Life on the Outside--it tells the story of Elaine Bartlett, who served 16 years for a first-time offense under the stifling Rockefeller drug laws. It's an interesting read, and I can't imagine the amount of research that went into it. I am in awe.