City Mouse

Lately I’ve been getting that feeling that I’d like to leave the city a little too often for my liking. Part of it is the itch to travel, part of it is wanting to experience living somewhere else. A couple months ago I went to visit my sister in Oregon. I’ve been there several times before, but particularly on this trip I fell in love with the place. I thought, Man, I could really live here I think. The nature and the landscape, the people, and the general feeling there was so wonderful and I just wanted to stay. But I live in New York, and I do love New York. It’s a strange feeling.

I’ve always wanted to live by the ocean, right by the beach. That’s a dream I have. To hear the waves as I go to sleep, to be able to walk to the beach, feel the sand in my toes and watch the morning sea as I drink my coffee. To sit in a sweatshirt and feel the winter ocean breezes. To smell salt in the air all the time. Even to have grains of sand in my shower and on my floors and between my sheets.

I can’t drive. Well, I can, I have a license. But I really, really do not belong behind the wheel of any car. I don’t like it. I don’t want to live anywhere that would require me to put myself through that anxiety everyday. So, I need to be able to walk or take mass transit.

I love movies. I need to have movies around me and be able to go to all of them.

My work is here, the things I like to do are here, I have great friends here. . . but sometimes, I just want to live somewhere else. Somewhere quieter. Somewhere with more trees where I can go barefoot outside. Somewhere that smells good.

So you see my dilemma.

It makes me sad to think that I might want to be somewhere other than I am. There’s so much out there for me to experience – new places! New people! Who knows what I might love or hate? My life is my own right now and I want to see what’s out there. There’s a little voice inside me that says “Don’t settle down yet! Keep moving! You’ve been here too long!”

But then there are those weekend mornings, before everyone gets up. When the West Village is so so quiet you can’t believe it and the sky is grey and the buildings are dark. And those evenings when the light is just so that you can’t take a picture of it, with warmly lit windows just coming on and sparkle in the concrete, the orange and purple sunset. . .

Well.

thanksgiving

Just a simple thanks, to all my family and friends, people I love and people that I don’t even know. Thanks for being in my life, for being in the world, and for all the wonderful things that you do. I am grateful for you all.

And I am grateful for my life. I am living the life I want to be living. I am so grateful to be alive and to be a part of this world.

I’m grateful for trees! And chocolate brownies! And movies! And popcorn! And pajamas! And my cat!

(And a lot of other things, but you get the idea.)

Thank You, and Good Night.

you know you (or someone you know) want(s) one.

Looking for a gift that is AWESOME and also within your price range? Try SHELF LIFE ISSUE #2! It’s lightweight, lovely, interesting and affordable. And it comes in 4 fantastic colors, so you can personalize it for your special someone.

Shelf Life issue #2 is available at Forbidden Planet (13th St. and Broadway, NYC) in the back indie section, and is only $5!

Buy it for someone you love, or like, or secretly admire.

Buy it for yourself! (Don’t we all deserve a $5 comic book treat now and then?)

While you’re at it, why not order a Shelf Life t-shirt? They’re stylish and unique – each one is custom made just for you! If interested, please contact annamolev@gmail.com.

Shelf Life issue #1 is also still available at Forbidden Planet. All issues also available directly through me (for you non-New Yorkers) by emailing annamolev@gmail.com.

something is beginning.

(Note: I wrote this post on October 9th, but never published it. Enjoy!)

An excitement began sparkling in my belly, and pulsing all though my body. Something in this weekend, the combination of the show, the people I was working with, the enormous amount of support and encouragement, I felt something was happening.

The Bennington Banner, my hometown paper, published a press release about the show (thanks to the amazing and generous Lani Stack).

This week I have been watching two dvds lent to me by my friend Logan Cunningham, who is one of the best actors I know and have worked with, Chinese Coffe and Babbelonia.

Thinking about Al Pacino starting out at my age, hearing him talk about acting, theater, movies, it has sparked this “Beginning” excitement feeling inside me. He is so articulate in his thoughts and ideas about the whole world of telling stories. I can’t help but fantasize about myself being interviewed in 20, 30 years about my beginning.

These people that I am working with – actors, artists, writers, directors – I can see a spark in them that I identify with. It’s as if I can almost see the future as a shadow of the present: all of us older and successful, looking back on this exciting start – the scary wonderful world of our twenties.

I don’t know what is going to happen. But, I know something is happening already. And I’m loving being in this moment, this moment of NOW and UNKNOWN.

shelf life #2: it’s here!

and in four fantastic colors!

Well, it’s what you’ve all been waiting for and it’s finally here: Shelf Life issue #2! It’s been a long time coming, but it’s definitely worth the wait. The love story continues…check out the excitement at Forbidden Planet (840 Broadway, NY NY, www.fpnyc.com), in the back on the indie shelves!

Read it on the Subway!

This is the star of Shelf Life, Ashley herself, enjoying her favorite page. She loves Shelf Life and you will too!

Will she or won’t she? Can a lonely bookshelf find love on the streets of New York? Find out (maybe), like this excited fan, in Shelf Life issue #2!

And don’t worry, if you haven’t read #1 yet, it has been restocked and is right there next to #2! See what everyone’s been talking about and pick yourself up a copy. Only $5 each!

If you’re not in NYC and would like to order Shelf Life, please contact me at annamolev@gmail.com.

feeling sad?

My new mini comic Sad Diana is now officially on sale! Limited supply of Sad Diana and Shelf Life issue #1 are currently available at Desert Island, 540 Metropolitan Ave in Brooklyn. Off the Lorimer stop on the L! So if you’re in the Williamsburg area and you love comics, stop in, they’ve got lots of other cool stuff too.

desertislandbrooklyn.com

And for you Manhattanites, Shelf Life issue #1 still available at Forbidden Planet, and if you don’t see it on the shelf, ask for it! More stock to be supplied soon. Keep on the lookout for Shelf Life issue #2…it’s almost here…

save the date.

Three More Nights

October 1-3 (Thurs.-Sat.) @ 7:30pm

@ UNDER St. Mark’s (94 St. Mark’s Place at 1st ave.)

Regular admission $12, Students $8 (Tickets available on SmartTix – make sure you get a seat, buy your tickets early!)

3 nights of 3 one-act plays! It’s going to be a great night of theater, so make sure you mark this on your calendar, folks! The opening one-act, The Photograph, is written and directed by yours truly, Anna Moriarty Lev! So save the date and tell all your friends!!!

more info at: www.themekkacollective.com

same cat time

I’ve been thinking a lot about schedules. Work schedules, rehearsal schedules, menstrual schedules, fun schedules, family schedules, life schedules. Times and dates and clocks and lateness. This idea that time is something we HAVE instead of…well, whatever time really is (it’s a mystery to me, but I know that we don’t HAVE it). With all these activities plotted out into our constructed form of linear time, sometimes I don’t know what I’m doing at all.

Certain slots of time are set aside for certain things. We give this portion of our time ot work, this portion to our family and friends, and this portion to ourselves. We fight within ourselves over which of these categories deserves the larges chunk of time, and berate ourselves for slicing the pie up wrong. If we spend to much time at work, we say we don’t spend enough with our family. If we take too much time off work, we say we are not working enough. If we spend too much time hanging out with friends, we say we don’t spend enough time alone, or working on our art, or vice versa, we are spending too much time alone and not hanging out with people.

What we have is what we’ve got, and we don’t know how much time that is. We’ve got to relax, and not try to control every little bit of time. If you’ve only got one day to spend with your family from out of town, then really spend it with them, and don’t waste it wishing you had more. If you’ve only got two hours to yourself, then enjoy those two hours without worrying about what you have to do once they’re over.

The world we live in requires these schedules, so I don’t know if we can just chuck ‘em and live by real time. I think we just have to balance, and give ourselves a break. Even as I write this I’m stressing about how to use my time this morning the most efficiently before I go to work. Then after work I will be rushing to catch a train that my dad is driving two hours to pick me up from at midnight to drive two hours home to see my family that is in town to visit who I only see once or twice a year. A day and a half later, I will be rushing back to go to work, and then to a reherasal that I probably haven’t prepared enough for. These are the schedules of our lives.

terminators need gal-pals too.

Even a robot needs a girl-friend to go dancing with after a long day of riding motorcycles and wearing sunglasses. Even when we feel we can do it all on our own, that we don’t need to (or want to) ask anyone for help or company, it sure is nice to have a friend who picks us up when we’re down. Someone who calls when we really need someone to talk to, but aren’t able to pick up the phone. Someone who’ll come get us when we’re drunk and crying, or lost. Who supports us when we are at our lowest. Even if you have a really great romantic partner, there is nothing like your best gal-pals.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of girl-friends. As a girl (well, woman, but here I will use the term “girl” because there is something in the nature of the word “girl-friend” which implies a different feeling than “woman-friend;” something silly and secretive, something arm-linky and partner-in-crime-y that I don’t feel when I hear “woman-friend.”), anyways, as a girl, I have always felt that my girl-friends are a very special part of my life.

I am really lucky to have some wonderful women and girls in my life and I just want them to know I appreciate them. My sister, my mom, grandma, aunts, cousins, old friends who I consider family, new friends who have recently come into my life, but who I have been looking for for a long time.

So, here’s to girl-friends. All those near and far, who are special in all of our lives.

a new drawing