Today is the midpoint of the New York International Fringe Festival, downtown arts showcase extraordinaire which I have covered for the past three years. Every year I fully expect to be surprised and delighted, if not by every show, at least by a few, and it's already happening amongst the 9 I've seen so far. (If you're reading this after 2pm, make that 10 shows. If you're reading this after 6pm, 11 shows... etc.) To give you an idea of its breadth, my first Fringe included both a solo production of "Hamlet" and a dystopian musical in which Wal-Mart took over the world.
Despite all the extra writing, the Fringe creates reading opportunities what with all the going to and from venues and the waiting; last year I read eight books in those two weeks without making any other change in my routine. (Sounds like an infomercial: Without diet or exercise!) But mostly this year I have been digging back into INFINITE JEST after I had to put the book down for a few weeks. Think I'll see any other Infinite Summerers about in the next week? C'mon, Village, don't disappoint me.
3 days ago
2 comments:
I'm sure you will, without realizing it - there must be many of them in the West Village. I am pretty certain that if the Russians bommed downtown Manhattan, northern Brooklyn, the Bay area, the North Side of Chicago, the South Side of Philadelphia, Austin, Madison, Ann Arbor and Athens, most people participating in Infinite Summer would cease to exist. But the same is true of most of the authors and musicians I enjoy, so whatevs.
If only Infinite Summerers (?) wore their membership in some sort of public fashion, like a Livestrong bracelet, or a red dot in the middle of their forehead. If such a thing existed, what would it be?
That is a tall order. My first thought, which I will preemptively rule out as offensive because it definitely is, was some kind of faux-AA chip. How about... a tennis wristband? An empty bottle of Visine in the front pocket? Now I'm going too narrow.
In practice you can probably spot them by the one shoulder they carry their books or bookbags on being noticeably lower than the other. It's like Orin's good leg for nerds.
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