On this day in February 2005, New York City was aruffle over Mayor Bloomberg’s pet project: a piece of public art called The Gates by the artist known as Christo and his lady love, Jeanne-Claude.

I’d heard about it and had seen it in the news, but I had no idea how much controversy it had caused. Tonight I got the inside scoop at a sneak preview of the HBO documentary The Gates at St. Paul’s Minnesota Museum of American Art.

Christo is known for wrapping public buildings in fabric or in plastic—not always to the most glamorous effect, and for reasons that not even he can explain. “Do you ask a mother why she loves her baby?” says Jeanne-Claude.  read more »

The rugs that I’d sent out for cleaning last week were due for delivery at noon Friday. After several botched scheduling attempts (neither his fault nor mine), Larry showed up at around 4 p.m. with my rugs.

Larry looks like a rug delivery guy: low-hanging pants, faded sweatshirt, baseball cap, substantial paunch. The look is deceptive. Larry is a rug delivery artist.

Before placing the Persian onto my dining room floor, he asked if I’d intended for the Dan Mason painting on the wall to be centered there. “It…well, yes…,” I stammered. “Hmph,” he replied, critically surveying the painting.

His eyes darted from corner to corner of the space. Hoping to be useful, I tugged at the carpet pad. “Uh-uh-uh,” Larry said. “Let me do that.” Tap dancing over the pad, he put it squarely in place. I watched him place the heavy log of carpet at the narrow end of the room, lifting and dropping repeatedly until it was centered and straight. Then he rolled it out with his hands, and I knew better than to interfere.  read more »

Wow, I’d forgotten what it’s like to give birth! All that labor and then, bloop! The baby’s out and screaming. That’s what it felt like to finally get on the air today. And now I’m on that high you get when the baby falls asleep and you think, “I did it!”

But of course the birth is just the beginning. Then you’ve got to feed, clothe and nourish the new offspring until it takes on a life of its own. For tonight, though, mom and baby are resting and we’re both doing fine.

Many thanks to funsters Gail Weber, publisher of Exploring T.O.S.C.A., and Kathy Berdan, arts and entertainment team lead at the Pioneer Press, for their midwifery today. I wish we’d had four hours instead of two.

Gratitude also to my producer, Dave Harrigan, who played excellent music, from The Cars to U2, and even Boy George, just to humor me. At 21, I’m sure he’s accustomed to being embarrassed by us mom-types. He liked my reference to Cash Only night at The Cabooze, though. I saw fists in the air on that one.  read more »