145 stories from Mildly Bitter's Musings
I finally left New York City to visit my family who I had not seen in person since Christmas 2018. It was pretty stressful. A plane. An airport. Unmasked people. Just so many people. A r…
At what point does this stop being a pandemic diary? At what point does this stop being a pandemic?
I started to commute to my office a few days a week. It's been good for my mental health …
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I celebrated reaching "immunity" by taking the subway for the first time in 395 days. I also ate a muffin outside unmasked. It is a slow road for me back to public interaction…
Spring is springing and unlike last year which was a profoundly silent time…this year New York City is full of revving motorcycles. My dearest friend from college had a baby and despi…
It's been a fucking year. And I don't know what I am supposed to tell this pandemic diary…except I didn't really think when this started, we'd get here. I started counting the days I had n…
I felt oddly positive this month despite it getting colder and making it harder to socialize at all. Virus numbers were going up, but the vaccine roll-out began. Sure there was an insurrecti…
While the pandemic is far from over and our lives are not going to magically change as the clock strikes midnight on December 31, 2020, there is still something deeply satisfying with puttin…
A birthday present to myself
In March, I did not think I'd be having my November birthday during the pandemic. And yet, I did. Alone in my apartment. Eating a cupcake.
Middle age is for su…
What is time anymore? October was a week ago and I cannot even conjure in my mind what it looked it. Looking at my calendar, I packed up my office for an office move. I went to a beer garden…
The pandemic has changed me. It took away a lot of things I loved"travel, live performance, a writing career, and an overstuffed life. My life got small really quickly. It also got slower, q…
August has been heavily defined by suddenly having homework to do. I signed up for a Korean language class and now I make a lot of flashcards and recite them walking down the street. My brai…
Just to keep a ranking of the shows I've blogged about...all subject to change:Â
1) Crash Landing On You:Â Just the perfect blend of comedy, drama, and romance with a narrative that sus…
July was packed with personal self-care. I found a new therapist and said goodbye to my old elliptical machine. I hilariously tried to stop the elliptical from squeaking with a series of lub…
In July, I fell into FOUR shows which involved men with traumatic childhoods and the women who patiently put up with their nonsense and fall in love with them so they can heal. The woman may…
I've felt quite precious about some of the shows I've been watching during the pandemic.
Something about the vulnerability of the characters has made me protective of them. Maybe my heart t…
Things I learned watching K-dramas
My TV viewing in May was all over the map. This is probably a sign I'm not doing as well as I think I am doing. My brain pinging from place to place as I…
The one day I went for a big walk.
If March was a month of bittersweet longing (served up by Crash Landing On You) then April, when I started watching Mr. Sunshine, was more serious…
Talking someone into watching Crash Landing On You
March was the hardest month of the pandemic for me. Someone in my building was hospitalized with COVID-19 very early in the month. From …
By the numbers for 2019:174 shows seen (down from 203 last year)27% of work seen by artists of color (up from 25% last year) 62% of work seen by underrepresented artists (up from 50% last ye…
This tends to be the place where I've kept track of my yearly theater stats. And this year felt like a lot of work so I counted out what I did.203 shows seen (not counting duplicate visits)2…
(Photo: Joan Marcus)Mart Crowley's 1968 landmark play about gay men in New York does not feel like a 50 year-old play. While the film (from 1970) version is camp and heavy-handed, this produ…
Leaving Angels in America, I tingle. I am covered in tears and exhaling joy. The time has passed quickly. None of it has felt laborious. And I carry with me the feeling of religious devotion…
Due to job woes I was not able to get over to the UK much this year. So really...my list is a Top 10 of Edinburgh.1. Joan2. Lucy McCormick's Triple Threat3. Us/Them4. Letters to Windso…
Since I did not end up going to Edinburgh this year I did not have enough shows in the UK to make a separate top 10 list. So I'm combining US and UK shows this year because it's my lis…
Preserving performance is a challenge. How do you document multi-faceted work that involves sound, light, text, bodies, and music? Video may take images of it but rarely captures it. For Ann…
