My “Evening With Kevin Smith”

New York is shrouded in fog this morning. It is cloud city. The buildings have all but disappeared. The Hudson ends midchannel. New Jersey is a curtain of white. Still, for all its appearences of floating in space, I couldn’t help but feel grounded in cement as my running shoes carried me over the rain-puddled and snow-choaked terra firma. What I witness when I run along the edges of New York is more “French Connection” than “Breakfast at Tiffanys.”

This morning especially, the sidewalks are strewn with debris scattered by snow plows, garbage bags piled six deep in the absence of pick up, and deep piled of slate grey snow strewn with vomite and urine. Yet somehow it remains enchanting. So real. So viceral. So mine. And to survive, nay, thrive despite it all is somehow empowering, and exciting.

So what am I doing with myself? Lots of thinking and reading, mostly, resting up for tonight’s big Grammy push at the MTV. I spent Friday night — the hour between getting home from work and going to bed — reading Rolling Stone and Billboard, eating pizza and drinking three Pacifica beers. I ran Saturday morning. Then idled away the afternoon in the diner and at Starbuck’s, lazily reading the New York Times and watching the city hustle by beneath the relentless icey rain. My super spent the afternoon in my bathroom remedying eight years of neglect.

Then last I watched the hilarious and insightful “Evening With Kevin Smith” two dvd set, during which the director of “Clerks” and “Chasing Amy” touched on everything from lesbianism to Cathlolicism to his High Times magazine cover. I was laughing out loud, alone, in my apartment. That, coupled with re-screening some of the clips from last fall’s “Summer’s Gone” tour got me missionized again to get on with my filmmaking ambitions.

I have at least three projects in mind: a tourfilm based on last fall’s road trip, “Mo Hart,” my oft-discussed coming of age screenplay, and a Mister Rogers documentary (“Mister Rogers & Me”). And with my brand newG4 laptop (thanks MTV) and the rise of DV and non-linear editing technology (not to mention a brother who edits television shows, commercials and film for a living), seems like time’s awastin’.

I’ve also been giving lots of thought to my next musical release. I registered for two triathlons yesterday, the NYC triathlon (which I’ve done twice) in August, and the Nautica Malibu triathlon in September, which I’ve long wanted to do. So I’m endeavoring to coincide my ambition to release the new CD — invested, as it is with a most bi-coastal JFK/LAX theme — in New York and L.A. on subsequent nights that week in September. Which is always my favorite, busiest, and most productive month. Being that I was born in September. And it’s got that whole Indian Summer, Back To School vibe and all.

So there’s no shortage of time in my head. Not that there usually is. I oft endeavor for less, as I think too hard (as the dBs sang in the 80s). Hence my 1996 CD “Out of Your Head.” My heart’s still here too. Just a little tired. Focussed on pumping blood, keeping my running, and keeping the terra firma beneath my feet.