{"id":1009,"date":"2006-06-29T17:28:01","date_gmt":"2006-06-29T22:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/relief-effort\/"},"modified":"2006-06-29T17:28:01","modified_gmt":"2006-06-29T22:28:01","slug":"relief-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/relief-effort","title":{"rendered":"Relief Effort"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, after busting my ass for a couple of weeks on this writing-heavy issue of the magazine, with plans to work through the long weekend in order to get the pages out Wednesday morning, I discovered that another magazine at our company is way off schedule and is shipping with ours from the printer. So, according to our production coordinator, I have more time (like into the week after) to get this issue wrapped up.<\/p>\n

So there’s a profound sense of relief going on, with me and my associate editor. We haven’t said anything to our salespeople; so no telling!<\/p>\n

But an ever weirder feeling of relief comes from the fact that I finished reading The Power Broker<\/a> this morning. I started Caro’s epic biography of Robert Moses in the middle of May, and 6-7 weeks is a long<\/em> time for me to spend on a single book (let’s leave out last year’s reading of Proust, which sorta breaks out into 7 books). As I told Amy a few nights ago, “I think this is the first book I’ve ever read in which the page count reaches four digits.”<\/p>\n

The book was absolutely amazing. I recommend it to anyone who’s interested in how New York City “got that way,” as well as anyone who wants a good illustration of <\/p>\n

a) how your good intentions can lead everyone else to hell;<\/p>\n

b) how city authorities function(ed) a lot differently than elected officials, operating like a kingdom (complete with dark tower);<\/p>\n

c) how idealism can get squashed like a bug;<\/p>\n

d) how much of a douche Robert Moses could be; and<\/p>\n

e) how one can be a creative visionary force, and be completely wrong.<\/p>\n

That said, it’s a giant<\/em> book: 1,165 pages of not-so-great typography. But the portrait it paints is fantastic. <\/p>\n

Now, as I said, there’s also a relief factor. See, for weeks now, I’ve been bringing that volume with me to work. Lately, I’ve been going out for take-out lunch, parking in a lot, sitting in the back of the car and listening to Howard Stern replays while eating, then, when I’m through, turning off the satellite-radio and reading 15 or 20 pages of the book. It’s been pretty consuming.<\/p>\n

Today, about to head out for some sushi, I thought, “I have nothing to read.” Walking in the door tonight, I thought, “I don’t have to kill myself on the magazine, and I don’t have any more of The Power Broker to read. Wow.”<\/p>\n

Anyway, that’s Life As I Know It. I watched a little of the NBA Draft last night, but no one wore any really breathtaking ensembles (Amy & I were waiting for the 18-button, triple-breasted suit and vest, but gave up and watched an episode of Buffy instead).<\/p>\n

And now it looks like I actually will get out to that staging of Measure For Measure<\/a> this weekend.<\/p>\n

Unless I start another book. . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, after busting my ass for a couple of weeks on this writing-heavy issue of the magazine, with plans to work through the long weekend in order to get the pages out Wednesday morning, I discovered that another magazine at our company is way off schedule and is shipping with ours from the printer. So, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Relief Effort”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,12,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature","category-pharmaceuticals","category-urban-issues"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-gh","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1251,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/sweet-relief","url_meta":{"origin":1009,"position":0},"title":"Sweet Relief","author":"Gil","date":"December 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"It's over: the year-end issue clocked in at 406 pages, and it's all out the door (except for a couple of house ads that our art dept. is putting together)! I officially apologize to everyone whose e-mails I've failed to reply to, and I also apologize in advance for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5625,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/who-am-i-3","url_meta":{"origin":1009,"position":1},"title":"Who Am I?","author":"Gil","date":"October 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm the guy who's been trying to simplify his life a little. Recently, I concluded that Sports Illustrated and ESPN (the) Magazine are two magazines that I rarely get around to opening. SI has been sending me increasingly desperate renewal offers, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to resist.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports"","block_context":{"text":"Sports","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":869,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/honeymoonin","url_meta":{"origin":1009,"position":2},"title":"Honeymoonin’","author":"Gil","date":"March 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Flew to San Francisco last night, via Houston, picked up our rental, and drove on up to Sonoma. For our first dinner as husband and wife, we stopped at the In-N-Out Burger on 101 north of SF. Now we're staying in an artsy villa with a really weak wireless connection\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/california"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/sluggo","url_meta":{"origin":1009,"position":3},"title":"Sluggo","author":"Gil","date":"May 6, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"No updates lately; sorry. Since returning from Puerto Rico (loads of fun, informative press tour, the discovery of rum and mofongos), I've been overwhelmed by the new book, the June issue of the magazine, and an impending move (less than two weeks from now). More soon.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1035,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/everyones-a-critic","url_meta":{"origin":1009,"position":4},"title":"Everyone’s a critic","author":"Gil","date":"July 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"NYTimes movie critic A.O. Scott wonders why people go to bad movies, and why the hell he gets up in the morning: For the second time this summer, then, my colleagues and I must face a frequently \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and not always politely \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u009d asked question: What is wrong with you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4899,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/lucky-seven","url_meta":{"origin":1009,"position":5},"title":"Lucky Seven","author":"Gil","date":"February 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"On this day seven years ago, I was single, living in an apartment that was getting overrun by books, in the midst of losing 30-odd lbs. on an Atkins regime, a week or so from receiving the typescript of a 9\/11 novel by Paul West, working on the 30th issue\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0966599853","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}