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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on May 13, 2010. We’re re-publishing articles in this series so that we can share the wonderful Kimberly Sevilla’s knowledge and experience with you, because, hey, it’s spring! Again!
Photo by Jessi Bautista
Q: I’d like to create a garden, and I have a small balcony, what can I grow?
Photo by Jessi Bautista
By Kimberly Sevilla of Red, Rose, & Lavender Floral Design Studio and Organic Garden Center
Q: I’d like to create a garden, and I have a small balcony, what can I grow?
While he was talking to the real estate agent Jim Kirk on a pay phone, his neighbor, Mrs. Noily’s tenant—Lydia, was it, or Lynne—came up out of the steamy subway, her body revealed in a strappy tank top and short skirt, long legs shooting out. Her light brown hair, pulled into a ponytail, had slipped seductively loose. She looked taller than he remembered from seeing her outside the Noily’s. Emil quickly turned to face the other way, but she’d seen him and waved. Their block of houses was a fifteen minute walk from the hub, which was where he assumed she would go.
He hung up the phone and there she was standing in front of him, long, lithe, and barely dressed. “Hello there, Detective Milosec.” Emil nodded, keeping his eyes on the top of her head of shiny, smooth hair. An odor came off her, a whiff not just of sweat, but of something from fields and early morning. “It’s Loretta, in case you forgot.”
“Loretta, right.”
It’s not uncommon for an established, beloved and critically-acclaimed TV show to take a sudden plunge into generic, hackneyed, unwatchable dirge, never to recover. In fact, this is such a common occurrence on TV that there’s a term for it. However, from such depths or from a place of mediocrity, to one of sudden and undeniable brilliance, that is uncharted territory, until now.
Boardwalk Empire is a series that’s been met with major ambivalence from both TV critics and the viewing public. With its veritable dream team of HBO production mercenaries, spendthrift budget and ostentatious Marty Scorsese-directed premier, Boardwalk Empire needed to quickly make a splash in order to win over the public. It’s a condition being grappled with right now by NBC and Whitney Cummings due to their network’s overzealous support of her new sitcom, Whitney. Americans like an underdog story, and in the generation of the 99 and the 1 percent, a non-underdog has perhaps more to prove to a potential audience than ever before. As the first season of Boardwalk Empire played out, critics were mainly lukewarm on it’s efforts and while ratings were mainly high, the show’s viewership seemed as if they were waiting it out to see if something big was going to take place.
Virtual exhibition with artworks in the extant online gallery Scope, launched back in ‘95. (Photos courtesy of the the artist)
Ground Control to Linda Griggs: The long flight back from 90s “cyberspace”
By Sarah Schmerler