Birthday on Broadway

[ellenkushner]

Well, really; what did I think would happen if I carried a heart-shaped cake inscribed: "Happy Birthday, Ellen" down 87th St.?
- Are you Ellen?
- Is it your birthday?
- Happy birthday!
- What a gorgeous cake . . . . .

What I didn't expect, when I got to the bus stop on B'way and set it down on a bench, was for a gang of 60-ish tourists from Maryland to warmly enquire, and then start singing Happy Birthday to You (Dear Ellllllen), joined by various passers-by, shoppers and dog-walkers . . . . "We're not drunk!" they hastened to assure me. "We're here to see a show. We're going to see South Pacific!" Well, of course they weren't drunk. They were just high on the City; on the possibility that anything can happen, any time - that beautiful cakes will be sitting at bus stops , that total strangers will come up to you and wish you well and begin to sing. . . .

Here is the cake that caused it all, sitting at home on the new sideboard (next to a Rosh Hashanah card from Eve Sweetser, a photo she took on her trip to Japan). Chalk another triumph up to cake- (and film-)maker extraordinaire, conteurlisa! Yum.



Oh, and it isn't my birthday 'til Monday (10/6) - we just decided to start celebrating early.

On Monday night we are planning to go see beloved Red Bull Theater's reading of A Horse's Ass, "loosely adapted from Pietro Aretino’s Renaissance comedy Il Marescalco: 1526. Mantua. A homosexual man will be forced at knifepoint to marry a woman. He's tearing his hair out."

Comments

[queenbookwench.livejournal.com]

Happy Early Birthday, Ellen! That's a wonderful story too. It makes me think of the summer after I gradunated college in 2000 (I haven't been back since, which is really kind of ridiculous given that I live in DC--just haven't had time and money at the same time).

Anyhow, I'd never been to the city before, and without quite realizing it I'd imbibed some of the stereotypes about New Yorkers being cold, rude, etc.

Both my experiences were just the opposite--I had a couple of charming encounters with strangers, someone called me back to get my change when I'd forgotten it in a subway ticket booth, etc.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Happy early birthday!

[lynn-maudlin.livejournal.com]

My friends the Glyers celebrate 'birthday week' and often 'birthday month' so early sounds good to me!

Happy birthday, trust you've had a good Rosh HaShanah and will have an insightful Yom Kippur Wednesday/Thursday...

I was on a panel last weekend with Shweta Narayan and your name came up...

[zarhooie.livejournal.com]

Shiny cake, but DAY-UM, that's a gorgeous sideboard! Any idea where it was made? When? What's the wood?

...no, I'm not an antiques geek. Nope. Not me.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Well, since you ask - see:
http://ellen-kushner.livejournal.com/200668.html

[zarhooie.livejournal.com]

I thought I'd seen it before! I just couldn't place it in my house, that's why I was confused. It really is a gorgeous piece.

[anteye-hero.livejournal.com]

how touching! i can't wait to move to the city.

[anteye-hero.livejournal.com]

oh yeah, and happy birthday!

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

We can't wait to have you here!! Is there a timeline?

[anteye-hero.livejournal.com]

next summer! probably july

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

That is an awesome story.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

It really did happen, too - Terri was with me (guarding the cake against some dog-walker not looking where they were going - she was quite firm on this!); she can confirm!

[maryrobinette.livejournal.com]

Happy early birthday!

[ladyuranus.livejournal.com]

It's beautiful cake. Sounds like an event from an episode of "How I Met Your Mother."

Happy birthday!

[pameladean]

Happy pre-birthday!

You have Portmeirion plates!

P.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Delia collected them all, in her previous life. I only married her for her plates, you know.

[pameladean]

Obviously, the possession of Portmeirion plates is a useful marker for many valuable qualities.

P.

[ninstorage.livejournal.com]

That is such a lovely cake! And what a wonderful story to go along with it :)

[czakbar.livejournal.com]

I said Happy Bday on Facebook, but I have to say, the reading your going to see sounds like a tragedy, not a comedy at all! ;-) Happy Bday again!

[darklingwoods.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday Ellen! And yay to being serenaded by random crowds!

[dryfoo.livejournal.com]

I am still vibrating slightly from the display of raw courage it took to walk through the streets of any large city (no disrespects to the Apple) with an uncovered cake. Please tell me it was in a nice cakebox with a transparent top. Visions of (1) pigeons, and (2) a particular scene best left undescribed from a teen-comedy movie, it's all more than I want to contemplate.

So glad you and it arrived safely, and with greetings and song.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

I was vibrating, too - but I had Terri at my side, fending off distracted dogwalkers with her umbrella. The pigeons, we just had to trust.

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday, you wonderful fellow Libran you!

[j-bluestocking.livejournal.com]

It's after midnight here. Though I suppose "there" is more relevant. Happy Birthday, Ellen!

[j-bluestocking.livejournal.com]

I missed the sideboard before. Yummy! Marble like a slice of vanilla ice cream.

[ewein2412]

oh, man, how I wish I lived in New York.

HAPPYYYYY BIRTHDAYYYY!!!!!

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

I wish you did, too. I will have to eat your piece of cake for you. (The glass candlesticks you gave us for our wedding have finally found their place on top of our bedroom dresser, nestled amongst the perfume bottles. Lovely.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Many Happy Returns!

[lindorm.livejournal.com]

Having your birthday on Mad Hatter-Day is bound to rub off on everything I imagine!

Happy Birthday!

[karistan.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday, Ellen!

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday, early!

[oracne.livejournal.com]

ROFL!

This is awesome.

[jess-ka.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday!

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

I love your icon! Can I steal it, to use once a year?

[jess-ka.livejournal.com]

Absolutely!

[peregrinejohn.livejournal.com]

It is a beautiful cake! Here's to your birthday being as beautiful, and as randomly wonderful as that serenade!

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday!

[mneme]

Yay cake! Yay, extemporaneous singing!

(hey, I just went to a LARP based on broadways shows, I have to like extemporaneous singing. Plus, well, I do).

Also: Happy Birthday, Ellen!

[stardustgirl.livejournal.com]

What a happy story! And what a gorgeous cake (and plates... and sideboard... and candlesticks...)

Happy birthday! I'm sure it will be wonderful :-)

[usullusa.livejournal.com]

I can't tell you what an enormous inspiration you've been to me over the years. I really wouldn't be where I am now doing what I'm doing if it wasn't for you and some of the remarkable people you work with. So thank you so much and I wish you a year full of as much awe and inspiration as you instill in others!

Happy Birthday!

[oneminutemonkey.livejournal.com]

Well then. Happy birthday!

And just to make you smile: When you visited Hollins, I picked up signed copies of Thomas the Rhymer and Privilege of the Sword and Swordspoint, which I sent to a teen cousin I'd met recently. And she absolutely loved them, last I heard. :> Apparently, I'm now her favorite cousin for supplying her with quality books.

[stevenagy.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday. All of us 10/06'ers need to stick together. :-)

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday Back Atcha!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY !

[mikaelbard.livejournal.com]

the cake IS lovely.
what flavor ?

i hope your having a wonderfull day.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday!

[joannkatana.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday!