Are You a Carrie or a Samantha? Fuck That — I'm an Ilana at 60-somethin'

The pose … Ilana style

Bingeing on Broad City — in denial that it's over — savoring every morsel during yesterday’s crap weather. In the last season, when juicy brilliant sexy Ilana squats a perfect Carrie pose — I was in sheer orgasmic joy to indulge in a Broads/Sex and the City comparison …  Let's get into it.

I loved Sex and the City — and this feels cringey given how it went so wrong in the last seasons. But early on Sex was a heady cocktail of glitzy FUN and a love letter to NYC when it was still grimy around the edges. But have we come a long way in 15 years …

Now, I need to somehow be BFFs and date Ilana and Abbi. I never felt that way about Carrie and crew. Sure, I vicariously enjoyed their glam brunches — but all that man-focused banter got stale. Even my girl Samantha became a cartoon — a wise-acre stalking vagina. Trust me, 15 years ago IRL, we talked about our big LIVES — plus dating, but often men were passing appetizers — exactly the way Broads uses them. Five seasons in, I NEVER got bored with the Broads' adventures of discovery — self, city, art, men, drugs. In Sex they were about jobs, boyfriends, and apartments. With Broads, they are all about each other (and Molly) …

“ I’m 30 plus years older than these two beautiful GBs, Ilana and Abbi, but THEY are who I relate to ...”

In that last episode of Broads, when Ilana and Abbi walk forward for themselves, NOTHING to do with men, EVERYTHING to do with their badass friendship — and we pan to the women of New York — bopping along with their BFFs — well, I had a tissue fest goin’ on. I’m 30 plus years older than these two beautiful GBs, but THEY are who I relate to. Comparing that to the idiotic end of Sex, when they all “get their men”— and live happily ever after — I have no connection to that BS then or now. I am a Broad at heart — I love my women friends — we put each other first — and are sexy, funny and free — with or without men.

We can blame the 90’s for a lot of Sex and the City’s bizarre decisions and shitty last episodes, but did Sex’s man obsession have something to do with being created and produced by a man, Darren Starr (even with Sara’s input) versus created by two women, Abbi and Ilana, and produced by Amy Poehler? “I Can’t Help But Wonder” ...

That Core Thang ...

Daisy Duke and friends …

I always like to ask GBs in interviews: has your core changed?

They mostly say no. Core has not changed, but they've learned a whole lot along the way … mostly a deeper sense of self.

I look at this photo of me and my sisters and old lovers from 1,000000 years ago. And I think: I am absolutely in agreement.

My core has changed but I’ve learned so much.

Like, I would not dress like Daisy Duke any more. I mean, really. And I don’t wear my sexual power as the only power I have.

I wear all of my power for me, and sexual is just part of it.

It really was a matter of not knowing my full worth.

Always on the hunt … but for what?

A waste of that young woman’s energy — and a depletion of her talent … 

Not saying some adventures weren’t FUN ... but often clueless.

Aren’t we happy to be glorious grown-ups?

Two LIONESSES Up for the Tony's

Killin’ it…

My Glorious Broad Head blew up last night watching Elaine May in The Waverly Gallery on Broadway. So many of us have memories of loved ones we’ve lost to dementia. For me, my mother.

To sit there with my jaw open and watch Elaine transform from a sophisticated urban woman of the world to the bits and pieces and fragility of that disease … too many crushing moments  came back but important to face them again — somehow respectful ... Here Elaine May is, at 86, icon of my youth but in a whole other comedic role, OWNING the stage like no one I have seen recently, except maybe Glenda Jackson, 82 in Three Tall Women.

It’s gonna be two lionesses up for best actress in the Tonys this year: GLENDA JACKSON, 82 and ELAINE MAY, 86. Fucking glorious ….

An Icon (and Piece'a'Work) Sorely Missed ...

Photo Leah Runyan

I thought she would last forever. But nothing, and no one does. 

Dinah Paisner, a remarkable woman my sister introduced me to. She was one of the first Glorious Broads I interviewed. An actress, a model, and a true GB. She “approved” of the project when we met one year ago. She said when I explained it to her “Sign me on. I like to stay involved. ” That is how Dinah talked. That is how she acted in life.

She didn’t tell me her age, "you'll make assumptions". I now know she left us at 96. But her VERVE... I have chased her for the past 9 months to show her the full array of spectacular pictures we took of her…and she was TOO BUSY for me. Yes, her calendar was FULL. 

“At 96, I’ve chased her for the last 9 months — she’s been too busy — wha?”

When she wasn’t USHERING at the theatre, she was acting, when she wasn’t seeing dance, she was dancing in a group. Non stop. 

I am sorry I did not put her interview up sooner. I was waiting for “the perfect moment” because she was so special. Now, that’s a lesson. The perfect moment is NOW.

RIP Dinah Paisner. The village will not be the same without you. And I wont be either …

A Meaty Memoir Brewing ... Thanks Diana!

My latest idol…

The most delicious obituary I have read in a very very long time. A true Glorious Broad who makes me only aspire to have something like this as the opening for my "final page” — minus the English bit: "Diana Athill, an Englishwoman who wrote a series of critically lauded memoirs chronicling her romantic and sexual liaisons over much of the 20th century, but who attained international literary celebrity in her 90s with the publication of an installment about the waning of desire, died on Wednesday in London. She was 101.”

Wow.

My favorite line, however, was:
Jenny Diski reviewed the volume, "Somewhere Toward the End” with:

“Such a book is in itself a rare enough thing, but a book about old age written by a woman with a cold eye for reality and no time for sentimental lies is as rare as — well, as rare as a thoughtful discussion about a woman’s sexuality after the age of 60.” That was written in 2008.

Ah, those days are a changin’ — I may have started with the the book DUMPED and lots of sex pieces for HuffPost and AARP, but I see a meaty memoir in my very very very near future churning ... Thanks to you, Glorious Diana Athill

My Glorious Big Sister

I wish it was my hand holding yours …

When I started Glorious Broads, I made this decree: NO SISTERS ALLOWED — I have many.

Today’s an exception — an homage — to my beautiful eldest sister Dolores, as she leaves us. Sending you love, sending you peace, sending you tranquility. I'm sending you everything. I wish it was my hand in yours here. Thanks for being the most kick-ass fierce take-no-prisoners-big-glamorous-sis and Glorious Broad a baby girl could ever ask for. You shaped me Dee. Please hear this as you lie there crossing to the other side. I broke my commandments for you, girl ... hear this.