Sylvia

July 5, 2008

Actually, Sylvia deserves her very own blog today. Super dog that she is.

Last night Liz and Susan went to a friend's house to watch the fireworks. Their friend was out of town but offered her yard to them for the evening. Her "yard" is the yard of her beautiful waterfront property on the side of the island facing Manhattan. After a while they called and invited me to come over with Sylvia to watch the fireworks that were bursting into the sky seemingly everywhere. Off we trotted, entered the big steel gate and walked out across this really large grassy front yard to join Liz and Susan sitting in the gazebo. I turned around to look at the house and it was beautiful. Barbara's (their friend) house used for the setting of "Long Day's Journey into Night" starring Katherine Hepburn and Jason Robards in 1962. Looking back towards the water, the sights were beautiful. Hundreds of sail-less sailboats resting, rocking gently in the water with the fireworks erupting in the sky behind them. At some point Liz took Sylvia out into the grass where she did her crazy greyhound running circles and then Liz headed to the dock, Sylvia following. The dock sits five to six feet above the beach with a beautiful large stone/concrete breakwall separating the beach and the lawn, five to five and a half feet high. Sylvia was too skittish to walk onto the wood dock although it is one of the biggest strongest docks I have ever seen. So Liz carried her and down the steps they went to the beach. Sylvia had a great time, running and skiding all over the place. At one point she quite by mistake found herself in the water and starting drinking. My other dogs have also gone to the beach, tasted the salt water and stopped drinking it immediately. Not Sylvia. She just kept drinking it. And to seal the deal, when she was done drinking she also returned her contribution of liquid to the ocean. Good girl. The world's largest toilet for sure. Aesthetically, it was nice that it was not in the reverse order. Ready to come back to the gazebo, Liz called Sylvia over to the steps up to the dock but with one bolt up and forward, Sylvia jumped up into the air, flying right over the top of the five foot concrete wall. Like some kind of super-hero with one leap scaling that thing. Amazing. Sylvia got the blue ribbon for the night.

This will give you an idea of what I am talking about when I say we were watching the fireworks through the sailboats. The island on the left is City Island. All of those little dots in the water are sailboats. The land on the right is Rodman's Neck where the NYPD firing range is and where they ignite all of the confiscated fireworks they pick up in the city, as well as detonate any bombs they also retrieve. Needless to say there have been some rather large explosions the last few days and some pretty big "mushroom" clouds over there. Looking at this picture we were sitting on the right side of the island about half way down.

Liz and Susan spent part of the day painting sheets to make the backdrops for "Cinderella Wore Combat Boots" which Liz is directing next weekend. They painted the sheets until the rain came and then......more pictures to follow.

I've finished reading our chat book "Covert" by Bob Delaney.Am also reading "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain which is about what really goes on in the culinary world, from his perspective. It is pretty interesting. It seems the same with all gifted, talented, artsy people-so much opportunity and acceptance of out of control behavior and easy availability of all the elements necessary to support the lifestyle.

I became a part of the City Island Theater Group Play Reading Committee this summer. There are nine of us who have met once, each bringing a play that we would like to consider for next year's productions for the theater group. Liz developed a "circle" as the way we would pass the plays on to each other after we read them and write the pros and cons for each play. I feel like I have a summer reading list. We will meet again in six to eight weeks to talk about them and make out recommendations to the board. To date I have read "Virginia Wolf", "Fuddy Meers" and "Rainmaker". I am currently reading "Bleacher Bums" which although it is a great idea for a play, it is a tedious read. I am enjoying this and I do find myself developing the set in my mind, costumes, lighting, props. What am I doing?

"Virginia Wolf"