October 2013

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Martha Gavron Vanity Fair screenwriter over50 beauty at any age

Martha 1: Why on earth am I standing on the hood of my car?

Martha 2:  I’m happy!  I’m reveling in the light by the water.  I wanted my red velvet opera coat to make friends with my old blue Chevy. M 1:  The Chevy that breaks down.   The car that doesn’t let me know how much gas is in the tank. M 2:  She’s pushing 60.  She needs tender loving care. M 1:  All those rust spots! M 2:  She still gets me to where I need to go.  So what? M 1:  They remind me of my own spots.   I’m haunted by the red spots multiplying on my aging body. M 2:  But they’re part of the map of me.   I played dot to dot with India ink.  I liked the dots after that.   How wonderful that I can run and stretch and swim and hug, all my limbs alive. M 1:  My body’s growing old. M 2:  I’m growing up, inside and out.  My heart’s getting bigger. M 1:  But my bum isn’t really that big.   It must be the lens of Kristin’s camera, right? M 2:  What a shape, whatever the lens!  A bum that big behind the wheel of the Chevy?   That’s a very happy car. Martha  1:  I give up.  I’m on your side. Martha 2:  Hooray for the Marthas in me.  Let’s go for a drive. We’ll catch the light at sunset.   And find it again in the morning.   Martha Pichey Writer February 10, 1957   What are you reading?

Plays, plays and more plays by:  Lanford Wilson, Tracy Letts, Jez Butterworth, David Lindsay-Abaire, Sarah Ruhl, Paula Vogel, Horton Foote.

What are you seeing? Artist William Kentridge charcoal drawings as animation, sculptor Ned Smyth  turning to photography with his powerful large-scale portraits of stones. Who are you listening to? Michael Franti’s song ‘I’m Alive’, and Treetop Flyers first CD, The Mountain Moves. What’s good for body, heart and soul? All of these and more, in any and all combinations:  Eating almonds and blueberries, walking my boyfriend’s dog on the beach (boyfriend included!), running instead of walking, visiting my mom and my sisters and brothers (US and UK), watching my sons take flight, writing every damn day. Who is your favorite fictional character? Oh, I try hard to knock her off her post, but it’s still probably Holden Caulfield’s little sister Phoebe in The Catcher in the Rye. In my friends I treasure: BEING THERE, with energy and openness and a sense of humor that pulls me out of my own little world. Clothing from? An obsession with second-hand clothing shops that started with my French Canadian grandmother hunting for wool to make her braided rugs.  My Givenchy opera coat was a 40th birthday present from my father-in-law and his wife (note to self: must wear more!); and Viva stocked me with vintage treasures from the Covent Garden Market.