Sarah Goodyear

Rainbow seen from Court Street

2009-02-12T13:37:00.002-05:00

This is what I woke up to this morning. Roused the boy from bed just in time for him to see it too.

Late winter light, Van Brunt Street

2009-02-10T09:19:00.003-05:00

Home of Eagle Clothes

2009-02-04T14:39:00.003-05:00

This sign is one of my favorite things in Brooklyn. Of course, the building underneath is no longer home of Eagle Clothes, or home of anything, I don't think.

Faces of Brooklyn

2009-01-20T14:39:00.008-05:00

Watched the inauguration at BAM.

It's a new day.

Sky over the East River

2009-01-09T19:00:00.002-05:00

Rode the Brompton over the Brooklyn Bridge today. Took the new camera. Glad to be able to do these things, see these things. Thankful for the sky over the East River.

Behind the bar at Sunny's in Red Hook

2009-01-04T18:11:00.002-05:00

Behind the bar at Sunny's in Red Hook
Originally uploaded by sgoodyear

I went to the Sundays at Sunny's reading this afternoon for the first time in a long time. Gabriel Cohen runs a fine series down there. Best thing today was Steven Johnson talking about his book on the 18th-century inventor Joseph Priestley, The Inventor of Air.

It was so crowded that I had to sit on the floor for much of the time. My best view was of these guys, up behind the bar.

Happy Days Diner

2009-01-01T19:49:00.006-05:00

Happy Days Diner
Originally uploaded by sgoodyear

Last night, New Year's Eve, was terribly cold. We were invited to a party at a friend's house in Brooklyn Heights, about a mile from our house, and it would have been much easier not to go.

Still, despite the rude wind's wild lament, we decided to bundle up and make the trek. We stopped just after the halfway point to warm up and eat supper at this slightly depressing diner on Montague Street.

The food was meh, but we had a fine time, and went out into the darkness well fortified.

Happy New Year.

Expect more of this in the New Year

2008-12-30T17:32:00.005-05:00

The best thing in Dyker Heights this Christmas
Originally uploaded by sgoodyear

I'm promising myself that I'm going to make more things this year. Here goes.

You can't really tell in the video, but the cherubic child petting the polar bear looked like it had blood around its mouth. It was pretty wonderful.

Riding the Summer Streets

2008-08-23T13:57:00.004-05:00

Today, the city gave a big chunk of New York streets to the bicyclists--and the pedestrians, and the scooter riders, and the skaters. I've been waiting for this all summer and I almost missed it because we were out of town for the first two Saturdays. But we caught it today and had a great time. My biggest thrill may have been snapping the picture above, of the beautiful statue of Mercury above Grand Central Terminal. Not a view you're usually privileged to see.

It was a beautiful day, and a great ride. Relatively few conflicts between people. Here's hoping the city does more of the same next year.

My honey on the railroad tracks

2008-08-21T18:48:00.002-05:00

Here's my girl waiting for the train that brought us home from the Adirondacks last week. Gosh I'm lucky.

New BPP Book Club selection

2008-06-11T12:10:00.003-05:00

Very excited about the next book we're reading for the BPP Book Club, Anya Ulinich's Petropolis. She's an amazing writer. Also, this enables me to think in Russian a bit, something I don't get to do enough these days. Amazing how much I remember after all these years.

A day in the country

2008-06-09T11:42:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we went to Harriman State Park. After a swim at a crowded beach, and much grumbling, Nathaniel consented to go on a trail walk. Within five minutes we were far from the crowds. A few minutes later, after scrambling up some beautiful boulders, we came out at the top of a ridge and saw this view. A good day.

Happy Birthday, Brooklyn Bridge

2008-05-30T13:34:00.002-05:00

Having a kid who is happy most of the time is probably the best thing that ever happened to me.

Farewell to a great lady

2008-05-22T09:49:00.001-05:00

Aunt Helen
Originally uploaded by sgoodyear

My Great-Aunt Helen died yesterday. She was one of the funniest, most vital people I've ever known.

In this picture (taken at my father's 65th birthday party a year and a half ago) you can see how she sparkled.

Rest in peace, Aunt Helen.

Two posts in one day?

2008-05-19T11:13:00.002-05:00

Peter Miller of Freebird has written a very nice blog post about the reading...it includes a podcast link.

Thanks, Peter!

This says it all

2008-05-19T10:58:00.002-05:00

What better way to update my extremely moribund blog than with this all-too-accurate portrayal of the modern author. Thanks to Peter at Freebird Books and Goods for cluing me into this at the reading I gave there last night...which, of course, I didn't post about here or even on Facebook.

Hey, I did tweet it, though.

So I'm Running a Book Club

2008-03-01T20:23:00.002-05:00

Very excited about my newest project--moderating a book club for NPR's Bryant Park Project (yes, that's the show Laura works for). Our first selection is a wonderful book by Hisham Matar called In the Country of Men. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2006, it tells the story of a nine-year-old boy coming of age under the Qaddafi regime in Libya in the late 1970s. We'll be doing some online discussion that will culminate, a little over a month from now, in an on-air talk with the author.

This is going to be cool because we're going to be trying new things as we go along. It's really going to be what the readers and listeners make of it, a very participatory multimedia project. I'm thrilled to be involved.

To find out more, go to http://www.npr.org/blogs/bryantpark/book_club/.

I Love LA (Really I Do)

2007-12-09T18:22:00.001-05:00

This was the view from the interchange between the 10 and the 405 when I was on my way to the reading. Fortunately, I managed to get there on time despite the traffic, and it went very well.

Two Fun Things

2007-11-28T10:16:00.000-05:00

I'm heading out to LA on Friday for a long weekend that will include a reading at the Geffen Playhouse. I'll be appearing under the auspices of my publisher Red Hen Press with Jennifer Egan and Janet Fitch.

Also...my second book of 2007 is available! My serendipitous collaboration with the delightful Ed Weissman, Episcopal Haiku, is for sale on Amazon and from Church Publishing.

Yes, I'm an Episcopalian, and a sometime poet. This was perhaps the most sheer fun I've ever had writing professionally. And it looks terrific. Many thanks to all who made the project possible, and so pleasant to participate in.

Peruvians Sickened by Meteor Strike

2007-09-18T12:37:00.000-05:00

Lazy blogger, I am.

Anyway, a friend sent me this story about a meteor strike in Peru because it reminded her of my book:

Villagers in southern Peru were struck by a mysterious illness after a meteorite made a fiery crash to Earth in their area, regional authorities said Monday.
Around midday Saturday, villagers were startled by an explosion and a fireball that many were convinced was an airplane crashing near their remote village, located in the high Andes department of Puno in the Desaguadero region, near the border with Bolivia.

Residents complained of headaches and vomiting brought on by a "strange odor," local health department official Jorge Lopez told Peruvian radio RPP.

Strange stuff.

Northern Exposure

2007-07-28T15:00:00.001-05:00

The time has come for me to take this show on the road. I'm headed to Maine.

Next Thursday, August 2, I'll be reading at Books Etc., 38 Exchange St., Portland, 7pm. That morning at 8am, I'll be on Steve Hirshon's radio show on WMPG (90.9, Portland) promoting the reading.

And on Saturday, August 4 at 2pm, I'll be at the Fertile Mind Bookshop at 105 Main St. in Belfast.

I have to admit, I'm feeling some apprehension. I love Maine, and I've had some amazing times there. I learned a lot there—how to stack wood, how to recognize the song of a white-throated sparrow, how to drive on snow. And of course my first book came from my Maine experience.

But it is a dark place in my mind, too, where I went off the rails more than once. I haven't been back for three years, since I went to see my grandmother a few days before she died.

So in a way I feel like I'm facing some demons on this trip.

I'm trying not to dwell on the demons, but instead on the old friends I hope will be there the cheer me on. Or at least applaud politely after I'm done reading.

Here I come.

Alan Johnston is Free

2007-07-04T13:20:00.000-05:00

Great news today. BBC journalist Alan Johnston has been freed by his captors in Gaza. How fine to have a good outcome in this case. It gives one hope.

Seen in NYC: Master of War

2007-05-18T10:33:00.000-05:00

So there I was, minding my own business, walking with my son and my lovely wife down West 56th St. last night, when I saw a large party of smartly dressed people entering one of the swank restaurants on that strip. I idly looked them over, trying to figure out what kind of folks they were — they included a very butch blonde woman in a crisp white shirt and trousers and a tiny, wrinkled grande dame type.

And bringing up the rear, buttoning his suit jacket with a self-confident little smile, was Donald Rumsfeld.

I just had time to pinch Laura and draw her attention to him and then we walked past his shoulder. He was close enough I could have — could have done what? Reached out and touched him. Said something that he would have had to hear.

I kept my mouth shut, of course, and my hands to myself. And then caught the eye of the Secret Service guy in the enormous SUV parked at the curb. He gave me a smile that said, Yeah, I see you looking at him. Pretty strange, isn't it, to be that close. You know I'd have to smack you down if you got any ideas. But you don't look like the type.

As we walked away I was surprised by how rattled I felt. A little sick. Like I'd witnessed a bad accident. We had been laughing and joking around, and it was a lovely evening, and to our five-year-old it still was. But Laura and I were chilled right through.

Ever since then, the lyrics to Bob Dylan's song "Masters of War" have been knocking around in my head. Dylan wrote it in 1963, when Rumsfeld was serving in the United States Congress as a representative of the 13th District of Illinois. Here are the first three verses:

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

Cornelia Street Thursday

2007-05-08T09:45:00.000-05:00

If you missed my readings this past weekend (the one at Sunny's was particularly exhilarating), you'll have another chance on Thursday the 10th, when I'll be appearing with several other Red Hen authors at the Cornelia St. Café, 29 Cornelia St. in the West Village.

Hope to see you there.