[Orig published 12/31/17]
See what the Public printed on our group tix!
Some year-end gathering on a cold morning.
Last year one resolve was to write more for public venues, such as the Glasgow Review of Books, Stanford’s Arcade, and Hypocrite Reader. I didn’t keep at it as resolutely as I might have — 2017 was for me a year of not-finishing things and getting lost in the middle — but here are some beginnings —
He Must See Ghosts: Richard III, Trump, and the Future in Hypocrite Reader (Dec 2016)
Reads of 2016 (Jan) in the Glasgow Review: Irina Dumitrescu’s Roomba under Fire, Jeremy Davies Birth of the Anthropocene, Emily Dickinson’s Envelope Poems.
Motion Sickness for Stanford Arcade (Jan)
The Two Anachronisms for the Glasgow Review (Feb)
The Neologismcene for Stanford Arcade (April)
Sailing without Ahab for the Glasgow Review (April)
Reads of 2017 for the Glasgow Review (December): Joseph North Literary Criticism, James Scott Against the Grain, Jeff Goodell, The Water Will Come
I also kept up my flow of a dozen blog-review of theater & musical productions —
The Tempest at St Ann’s / Donmar Warehouse
Jersey Shore in June
Happy Days (Tfana) and Venus (Signature Theater)
Slices from Dylan’s Nobel Lecture (a kind of performance?)
Dylan on Father’s Day 2017 (Wallingford)
Passions of Bloom: Arts & Ideas Festival
Macbeth (Shakespeare on the Sound)
Hamlet (at the Public Theater)
Measure for Measure (Public Theater / Elevator Repair Service)
Richard III (Queens Theater)
A second response to Measure (Public / ERS)
Twelfth Night (Fiasco / Classic Stage Co)
Pericles (Hunger & Thirst Theater / Guerrilla Shakespeare Project)
I’ve already summarized four long posts on Newtown Creek, which I’ve been obsessed with all fall.
At the Folger (with Jenny Richards)
Other stats: 32 posts (same as 2016!), most in June (8) and Dec (6); least in May (0). 10,481 page views & 5900 users — a bit down from 2016. Maybe people aren’t reading blogs anymore? (Some of my web-writing has migrated to places like Glasgow Review and Arcade.)
During the messy middle of 2017, I lost track of my swimming progress, which means it’ll be the first year since 2012 that I’ve not hit my annual mileage goal. I estimate that I swam just a bit under 150 miles this year, well below the 250 I swam in 2016 and 225 in 2015, though still more than the 100-ish that I managed 2012-2014. I’m planning to start my weekly FLOG (Fitness log) again in 2018, aiming for at least 200 miles in the water.
Olivia outside the Public