Tues. May 30, 2023: Climbing The Mountain That is This Week

image courtesy of James Wheeler via pixabay.com

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Waxing Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Sunny and pleasant

How was your holiday weekend (if you live somewhere that had one)? Ready for our catch-up?

Today’s serial episode is Legerdemain:

Episode 89: Gloria’s Opening Night

Shelley refuses to be distracted by a mysterious man’s attention on her sister-in-law’s opening night.

Legerdemain Serial Link

Legerdemain Website Link

Friday’s errands went better than expected: picked up some good stuff at the library. Picked up my mother’s prescription. Did a better-than-expected grocery shop within the budget. Mailed my residency contract. Picked up a bottle of wine.

The damn beeping heavy machinery over at the college made me want to explode. It’s been months. If I had that kind of equipment? I could have painted the whole thing in a week. They’re just dragging it out for money and the college lets them because they’re sulking about not being allowed to turn one of the dorms into a homeless shelter and getting 2.6 million from the State – money which  should, instead, go to the families so they can, you know, actually get OUT of homelessness. So now the college is just being an asshole, trying to be as lousy a neighbor as possible.

In the Westchester Archives Playland Photographs collection, I found a sketch artist named Dorothy Dwin, who had a concession. People would pay her to sit and sketch them. I believe it was part of the WPA’s Federal Arts Program (you’ll see why in a minute). I tried to research her. I found her in the 1940 census. She lived on Lexington Ave. in NYC, as “head of household” although she’s listed as married, but she was the only one in the apartment. She was 37 then (which meant she was 32 in the Playland photograph). Her profession is listed as artist, and as part of the WPA. She was born in Russia, and was a naturalized citizen, and had lived at that address since 1935 (that was a question then, where one lived 5 years ago). She is not in the 1930 census, at least not as far as I’ve found, Nor does she show up in the 1950 Census (although she could have remarried)? There are 24 of her sketches in the National Gallery in DC, but I didn’t find any information about her, so I emailed them.

She resembles one of my Playland Painters. I cropped the photo, and ran that, with her photo, through facial recognition software. I got a 70% hit on one program and an 18% hit on another, so it’s unlikely they are the same person. The hairstyle is similar, but they could both just be fashionable. And the smile is somewhat similar.

Saturday morning, I got my National Archives research credentials set up, because I hoped to find something in the WPA files, but I’m not sure how to search them. It’s not logical; it’s red-tapey. Hey, big surprise.

I did a search through the digital collections of the New York Historical Society, the Museum of the City of New York, and NYPL’s digital collection. The only thing that came up with at NYPL, in the correspondence of literary agent Emma Mills (who died in 1956), and her papers from 1920-1956 are in the collection. But there weren’t any details (in-person only access) and it might just be coming up relating to “Godwin” or “Edwin” and not actually Dorothy Dwin. Emma’s correspondence sounds fantastically interesting, but I’d need to set up in NYC for a few weeks, and I just can’t do that on something that might be a wild goose chase.

But then, THEN, I just put Dorothy’s name in the general archive record  at the National Archives– and found out that she changed her name on June 10, 1930 to Dorothy Dwin from Dorothy Golden. And she lived in Brooklyn in 1930. First the age says “34” but it was crossed out and replaced with “27.” So why did she change her name? And “Dwin” is unusual.

Tracking her back as Dorothy Golden to the 1930 census in Brooklyn, I found her by using the address on her change of name petition, at that age/birth year – married to a taxi driver named Benjamin, who was from Poland. On top of that, Dorothy was not born in Russia, as it says in the 1940 census – she was born in New York, and her parents were from Hungary. On top of that, she had a 2-year-old son named Howard.  I don’t know why she left her husband and son, complete with legal name change, but there’s some serious re-invention involved.

Moving forward to the 1940 census, I found Howard, now 12, living with his father Benjamin, still a taxi driver. They are now in Queens. Benjamin is married to a younger woman named Bettsy, from Romania.

In the 1950 census, Howard is still living at home. He’s 23 now. He’s a “Wholesale Ladies Dressman.” His dad Benjamin, now 45, is now an auto accessories salesman at a gas station. This time, the wife is listed as “Betty” and was supposedly born in Russia. I found an obituary for a Howard Allen Golden, born in 1928, died in South Amboy, New Jersey in April 2014, but there’s very little information in it, other than he died as an inpatient in the Perth Amboy hospital, the visiting and funeral information.

It’s all fascinating.

I wish I knew Dorothy’s maiden name. I have not yet been able to find the marriage records between her and Benjamin. I might have to go to the library next week to use Ancestry.

Anyway, Friday afternoon, I turned around two client projects. I also made notes on some stuff for the Heist Romance script. I’m starting to doubt myself in some POV areas – I’ve kept the POV of the script pretty tight on Ben – we’re on Ben’s journey here. But I’m wondering if I should open it up to others, especially Tara’s. But it feels wrong. So I’ll trust myself for this draft, and then play with it.

Trying to figure out that memorial scene for FALL FOREVER. I need to come up with a unique memory/anecdote around Lily for each character to share (and it has to be succinct, but in their unique cadence).

Saturday, I had to run out and get ink again.

I unpacked a couple of boxes, and found some interesting stuff, but not what I was looking for. I washed various pieces throughout the weekend, and decided what to put up and what to pack away again.

I was looking through the Cornelia True and Roman Gray stories, starting with “The Ramsey Chase” which needs to be re-released, and then “Miss Holton Apologizes” and then the third story have to be finished and released. They are very similar in tone to India Holton’s trilogy and a few other things that are selling well right now. They were ahead of their time. So I need to get my act together and get them out there while the market wants them.

I went through some old scripts. Some need to be retired; they are beyond help. But I found two: PARALLEL-O-GAME and MODERN CREATION MYTHS that are mostly solid, though unfinished – and without outlines. I need to spend some quality time with them and figure out where to go next, even if it’s different from the original intent. They go in the queue after the scripts that need to be finished, and the drafts that need to be polished.

I read India Holton’s THE WISTERIA SOCIETY OF LADY SCOUNDRELS, which was a lot of fun. And Erica Bauermeister’s NO TWO PERSONS, which is hauntingly beautiful.

I found more of my photos from the Playland Boardwalk Museum, which was opened in 1998 until the Westchester Children’s Museum took over the space. I contacted WCM last week, so hopefully, they can tell me what happened to that collection.

Up early on Sunday and baked biscuits.

I’ve been trying to get into the 1925 Census (which was a state census rather than a federal one) to see if Dorothy and Benjamin already lived in Brooklyn, but no luck so far.

I may have to go to the public library this week and search via Ancestry.

Wrote 23 script pages on the Heist Romance. They’ve been kidnapped to find the treasure and Tara has negotiated a contract for the treasure hunt. Because she’s not doing it for free or for threat.

I hung up summer sheer curtains in my bedroom. Tried to hang a painting and it didn’t work. I think the frame’s warped through all the decades of carting it around the country (it was painted by my college roommate back in the 80’s). Got some of the painting done on the windchimes. Hung up a summer curtain by the back door (it looked very bare without the winter fleece). Put away the flannel sheets and the winter curtains. Washed a bunch of stuff I’d unpacked, and am slowly finding homes for these things.

It was in the mid-80’s, but because there wasn’t much humidity, it was pleasant. Tessa stayed on the porch all day. Read India Holton’s THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEWOMEN WITCHES, which was delightful.

Watched BULLET TRAIN in the evening. What a hot mess. A good example of style over substance. Whatever writer came in to punch up the dialogue in the Lemon and Tangerine scenes did an excellent job – the comic beats built well and landed, without losing the heart underneath. And it was obvious those scenes were doctored by a different writer; they played like they were from a different movie. But there were too many tangents overall, and moving the reason for the big climactic sequence (The Elder vs. The White Death, the different views of family) from subplot into main narrative drive was clunky. There were too many throwaway scenes to give Brad Pitt screen time to do what’s become his signature schtick lately. The action scenes went on too long in every case, and the casual violence was lingered over each time a few beats too long, making it “look what we did!” instead of keeping it as casual violence that’s ingrained in the characters. Adding in the Wolf and the Hornet subplot was a tangent. Other than Pitt’s character being peripheral to the wedding sequence (without ever elaborating why he was there), it could have been cut without hurting anything. It felt like it was in there to add diversity for the sake of diversity, not to layer in the plot. The actors gave it their all, though – nobody phoned it in, and one could tell they were having fun. It touched on a lot of the tropes in train/chase movies, but again, didn’t do enough with them.

However, I learned a lot about what I don’t want to do in my own work.

Sandra Bullock’s cameo (which she did in exchange for Brad Pitt’s cameo in THE LOST CITY) was fun, and the genuine friendship they have with each other offscreen reads well onscreen. Channing Tatum had a cameo (which was also funny, but unnecessary and such a small sub-sub-plot it didn’t matter if it was cut or left in), and Ryan Reynold’s quick bit of a cameo was  in return for Pitt’s cameo in DEADPOOL 2. It’s a lot of fun to have those crossover cameos, and I probably wouldn’t have even watched BULLET TRAIN if I didn’t want to see the exchange cameo Bullock did for Pitt. I’m curious if the Tatum cameo was written specifically for him to be part of it, or if that just seemed like a fun place to put him, for those few lines.

The premise of Pitt’s character caught up by accident when he steps in for another agent who called in sick (and the agent was one of the White Death’s targets) was funny, but it didn’t fulfill the promise of the premise.

Up early on Monday. Wrote 13 pages of the Heist Romance script. Polished, uploaded, and scheduled 8 episodes of ANGEL HUNT, which gets me into early July. Adapted another ANGEL HUNT chapter into four serial episodes. I’m hitting a point where I have to insert some material for continuity’s sake; I started an arc that needs to be fulfilled. Not sure where I’ll put it yet. Uploaded and scheduled the promos for this week’s Legerdemain and Angel Hunt episodes where I could.

Finished painting the windchimes. Once they dried, we started setting up the Enchanted Garden on the back balcony. It still needs more work, as we add plants and hanging baskets, but it looks pretty. It’s a nice, peaceful space, and we will enjoy it this summer.

I turned around a client project, so that I wouldn’t be so overloaded with work today. I started reading my friend’s book that I promised to blurb, and got about half way through it.

Supposedly, there is a debt ceiling deal. It’s not as bad as I expected, although the Republicans, as usual, got too much. However, they are trying to stall and whine and drive us over the deadline cliff anyway. This is why bipartisanship is dead, and there can be no more capitulation to them: they pretend to “compromise” and then get everything they want, while still destroying as much as possible, and not living up to their side of the bargain.

They’ve held the country hostage with intent to take the ransom and kill the hostages anyway. On a very literal level.

The Democrats need to stop negotiating with terrorists, and Republicans are terrorists. There’s no such thing as a moderate or ethical Republican anymore.

Reading about what’s happening on Cape Cod, we got out just in time. There was a shooting over the weekend at the beach down the street from where I used to live. People are being forced into homelessness in order to make room for short-term summer renters. Someone I know there told me bridge traffic off Cape yesterday took up to six hours. People are being forced out of dune shacks their families have leased and poured money into for decades so the National Parks Service can rent them to gentrifiers.

Another beautiful place destroyed by greed.

Watched THE BOOK CLUB last night, with Candice Bergen, Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, and Mary Steenburgen. It was cute, although I felt the third act was rushed.

Barely got any sleep, because Charlotte had anxiety all night and woke me up every 20 minutes, wanting reassurance. Of course, now she’s curled up fast asleep, and I’m wrecked.

I’ve got a large workload this week, partially because I’m expecting the Republicans to destroy everything (again). I hope I am wrong; being wrong will take the pressure off me for next weekend. Since I didn’t really take the holiday weekend (much as I encouraged everyone else to do so), I hope to get some rest next weekend. If we’re not driven over the debt cliff, and I can actually take the weekend, I want to get some more plants for the Enchanted Garden on Saturday and sleep most of Sunday.

But next weekend is a long way away, and I have to get through this week first.

On today’s agenda: draft an episode of Legerdemain, work on the Llewellyn pieces, work on the flash fiction for the art call, finish my friend’s book so I can blurb it, turn around three client projects, and do the social media rounds for today’s Legerdemain episode. I also have to get tomorrow’s Process Muse post polished, uploaded, and scheduled, and get to work on the June posts. I’m not sure I’ll make it to yoga this afternoon, although I desperately need it. And get some filing done! I’m falling behind, and that will bite me in the butt if I’m not careful.

Have a good one.

Fri. May 26, 2023: I’d Rather Be Reading

image courtesy of  nini kvaratskhelia via pixabay.com

Friday, May 26, 2023

Waxing Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Sunny and pleasant

Are you ready for Memorial Day Weekend?

I am totally not.

Yet I am.

Today’s serial episode is from Angel Hunt:

Episode 36: Quarry or Guardian?

Is her host a hunter or the hunted?

Angel Hunt serial link.

I forgot to mention that Wednesday night into Thursday night, I had nightmares.

The first was that I was called back to work WICKED, because they were short-handed, only I didn’t have my running notes, and they wouldn’t give me a new set. I pulled myself out of that, totally disgusted with myself because: A) That’s not who they are, they want the show to work, and B) the last time I worked the show was in 2010 and my notes wouldn’t even be relevant anymore.

The second nightmare was that I was back in the Cape house, trying to clean it out and being totally overwhelmed. I pulled myself out of that sense memory stress and reminded myself that I am here NOW. I am in a different reality, and building a different future.

Meditation was cancelled, sadly. I should have just sat on my own, but I went down the Census rabbit hole again. Some Playland information, but also lots of other interesting stuff. There was an author. His English-born wife was an insurance researcher. They had four kids, including twins. Her sister, also an author, lived with them, and they had a lodger who was a librarian. Now, is that a dramedy in the making, or what?

There was the 63-year-old actress living as a “guest” in the house of a laborer at the Amoury, his wife, and their older children. There’s a story there. The teenaged “umbrella boy” at the beach, whose slightly elder brother is an office clerk for a film company, and whose father is a building inspector. The grand opera ballet dancer, born in Switzerland, living with her mother, her stepfather (a gardener at a private estate), her brother (who arrived from Basel, Switzerland and now works as a machine operator at an electric company), her four year old son, and her aunt, who arrived from Paris, and now works as a maid.

There were all the usual stone masons and carpenters and painters and office clerks and bank tellers and barbers and railroad workers. There was an increase in dressmakers and women working in dress factories (mostly Italian), and millinery places, along with more Germans, Poles, and Austrians (getting out before the war), and an uptick in “butcher” as their profession. A German painter and her Polish art dealer husband.  A young artist living with her parents (photographers), and her sister is a stenographer for a soap company. Then there were more unusual professions like gravedigger and religious ornamental salesman and marine pilot.

I heard back from the Archives. They are so excited! They didn’t have the photos I had, but they found photos of the same women , but they’re not named. They’re also pulling payroll books and other administrative records, and are thrilled that someone is trying to put names to these women.

So I need my grant money, so I can get down there and do some research! (Yes, I can use the grant for this stuff).

I also put together a residency proposal for next winter. Finger crossed. I’m using this project as one I’d like to work on in residency. If not, I’ll do it anyway. I worked on next week’s Process Muse post.

I did the social media rounds for Legerdemain, checked on the strike news, and the impending debt default. The fuckers decided the Memorial Day weekend was more important than doing their job. Disgusting. Even more disgusting is that the Democrats CAN fix this without caving to the Republican demands, and they CHOOSE not to. So we are going to default and all the people who actually work for a living, all the seniors, all the veterans, you know the people who actually make things WORK,  get screwed next week. This is unacceptable. The Democrats’ unwillingness to actually get in the trenches and fight is disgusting. All Congressional salaries should be frozen until they reach a deal AND they should be locked into the Capitol building until a clean debt ceiling raise is passed. Nothing else is even faintly acceptable.

In the afternoon, I did two client projects, and something came in for today (no four-day weekend for me). I may work on Monday, if something comes in; or try to just double down on work Tuesday and Wednesday, for this pay period. I’m making my calculations for the worst possible outcome; if I’m wrong and it doesn’t happen, then I can work from there. I’m also seriously exhausted and burned out, and don’t know if I can sustain without a break. However, I may not have the option to rest. We have bills to pay, and they’re not going to pay themselves, and if there’s a default, any owed monies won’t get here, and I have to make up the difference.

This is what happens when you don’t arrest the insurrectionist members of Congress the day they tried not to ratify the election. They continue with the insurrection. This is why you can’t give ANY of these Christo-fascists an inch and EVERY single one of them has to be completely destroyed. We need to stop negotiating with domestic terrorists.

Today’s agenda: upload/schedule the next 8 episodes of Angel Hunt (which will get me into early July). Maybe do some more work on it. Do the social media rounds to promote today’s episode. Go grocery shopping. Pick up my mother’s prescription. Swing by the library, to pick up a few things that came in. Do client work this afternoon.

Over the weekend, I plan to read the next book for review and also read my friend’s book so I can write the blurb and send it off to her next week. I also want to set up at least some of the Enchanted Garden on the back balcony, hang some pictures, and turn over from the winter clothes to summer clothes. And catch up on filing!

Writing-wise, I’ll do some work on Legerdemain, and, hopefully, tackle the memorial scene near the end of FALL FOREVER, so that draft 4 of that script is done. I’ll have to do some episode videos for the serials, too, and maybe some book recommendations. And do a rough draft of the flash fiction for the artist call.

Next week is about keeping up with the serials, getting ahead on The Process Muse, working on the pieces for Llewellyn, and getting back to “Labor Intensive.” I need to sit down and do a short outline on the story. Some of what I have is going too far into subplots that would work if this was a novel, but it’s a short story, so, nope. Keep it focused.

I’d rather spend the weekend in a book fort, but we’ll see.

Have a good holiday weekend, and I’ll catch you on the other side.

Tues. July 17, 2012: Planting at 6 AM

Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Day Before Dark Moon
Saturn Retrograde
Pluto Retrograde
Neptune Retrograde
Uranus Retrograde
Mercury Retrograde
Sunny and hot

Sorry I wasn’t online yesterday. I had a Mercury Retrograde-typical day, and there were things offline that needed my attention. Then, this morning, I was out there at 6 AM, planting before the big heat.

I’ve had to accept that the heather, which turned bright orange after the hailstorm, is dead. I dug it out of the barrel and put in a small star juniper, edged with yellow and orange marigolds. Took the unhappy pansies out of the urn — it’s got three kinds of petunias, a purple salvia, and more marigolds. Put some more annuals in the bed, and rearranged the back deck so it looks like an enchanted garden.

The workshops over the weekend went well. I keep adding resources to the companion handbooks and have to stop already and get them out. I love putting together lists of books and resources I’ve found helpful.

Today is a big push on the ghostwriting project, and I want to get the Billy Root short story out to the people who came to the Virtual Zombie Disco Party last night. Got some grocery shopping, too, and need to do as much as possible while it’s still cool out.

The writing is swirling — research from one project leads to ideas for another. I’m enjoying this creative buffet, but, eventually, I’ll have to focus back down!

Devon