I ran down into Prettytown and got talked into spending a couple nights in a Hojo with HBO. No clams.

So right now it’s very early on the third day and I’m catching up a trio of posts all at once.

The first thing is this. Way way back in the day, maybe the eighties, there was a New Yorker cartoon that was just one Manhattanite saying to another: “I just wish my life was more like Sting’s.”

It caught my imagination at the time, though even back then I was a little dubious on the subject of Sting. I laughed, and repeated it many times.

Those days are gone. But I have a new version.

I caught an amazing film called Motherless Brooklyn. It’s good as a simple detective story with noir elements, but it’s so much more. It’s a historical period piece. A thinly veiled real person, Robert Moses, is the villain just like he should be; it’s a story I know a little about from afar.

But this was Edward Norton’s piece from start to finish. He’s a fully capable auteur here, and it’s all over the closing credits.

As I watched them scroll, I couldn’t help but think
That I wish my life was more like Edward Norton’s.

Anyway, if you get a chance, see it, relish it.