Short Takes
November 25, 2013
“None of us wanted to give our babies up, none of us. But what else could we do? They just said, ‘You have to sign these papers.’”
“Philomena” is tied with “Dallas Buyers Club” as the best movie I’ve seen this year. Another beyond amazing performance from Judi Dench. What’s it about? The less you know the better (whatever you do, do not read the Times review, which is an encyclopedia of spoilers.) Okay, this: In the 1950s, when she was 16 and unmarried and an Irish Catholic living in Ireland, Philomena had a baby. The nuns took him away from her. Half a century later, she meets a journalist who helps her search for her son. Many laughs await you, and many tears (seriously: I was a wreck for much of the movie), and just possibly a renewed sense of the magnificence of people. Well, some people.
November 24, 2013
Hunger Update: ‘There is virtually no more immediate way to affect the lives of the poor than to give to the agencies that help feed them, especially now when need has so greatly escalated.’
from The New York Times:
As a result of cuts to SNAP, the federal food stamp program, which went into effect on Nov. 1 (and precede further potential reductions of $4 billion to $40 billion), food pantries are already experiencing mounting burdens. One of the city’s largest, the Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger in Brooklyn, has seen more than a one-third increase this month in the number of people coming in, compared with November of last year. Another, the New York Common Pantry in East Harlem, was seeing a 25 percent rise during the five months before the cuts.Even before the cuts went into effect, matching supply with demand presented wounding challenges. According to a study of emergency food program participation released by the Food Bank last month, there are 100,000 more New Yorkers relying on these services today than six years ago, while there are fewer pantries to serve them. In another sign of distress, the term “emergency” now seems misapplied.
November 15, 2013
Madonna Badger: ‘I go to wherever the light is, because anything else is darkness, and it can be a deeply black darkness.’
You may not remember her name, but you know her story: On Christmas Eve, her house burned, and her three daughters and her parents died in the fire. Now Madonna Badger has written a piece for Vogue. It’s a tough read; prepare to weep. Prepare also to be surprised by what she has learned — and by what you can learn from her. Like this, about her trip to an orphanage in Thailand:
The garage behind the house in Stamford hadn’t caught fire, and I had stored old boxes of toys there that my girls had outgrown and a bunch of things I had saved for them for when they grew up. I took a bag of it all to Thailand, and on Christmas morning I gave the girls presents, and they were so excited. Thirty or so of them came and stood in front of me and prayed for me in Thai. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them we were all crying. When I looked into the girls’ faces, I saw my children. It broke me open in a way I still can’t fully explain. But if these little girls were living their lives with joy and happiness, I realized — and if they could give their love to me after all they had been through — how could I possibly feel sorry for myself? What they showed me was that what had happened to them had just happened. It wasn’t “done” to them, just as none of this had been “done” to me. I wasn’t being punished; I had not been singled out.
October 17, 2013
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October 16, 2013
Josh Ritter’s Acoustic Tour: Step right this way
Did you seriously think I wouldn’t slip Josh Ritter into my novel? If so, silly you. Here’s what I wrote:
I set my iPhone for random music, inserted my ear buds, and listened as I walked. There was even some striding — give me a crisp drummer and a bass player with wit, and I have to resist the urge to dance.
Then I was served a song I knew well: “Joy to You Baby,” by Josh Ritter.
The song came with a story, and because it was one of Blair’s favorites, I knew it. Fourteen months after he married another musician, Ritter was on tour, in some godforsaken hotel in some second-tier city, when his wife called and ended the marriage. He was crushed. All he could do was write, and that he did: bitter, angry verses, boxes of them.
I don’t know how he fought his way out of that gloom, but he did, and in this song, his only wish is joy — joy to the city, joy to the streets, the freeway, the cars, and “joy to you baby, wherever you are tonight.” Joy to his ex-wife? Yes. Even her.
I thought: We can set the rope down. It has been done. It can be done. Even by me. Certainly by me.
Josh will surely sing this on his Acoustic Tour. Info here.
And here’s ‘Joy to You Baby’ more as less as you’ll hear it in concert.