Help Wanted, Part 2
February 4, 2010
After grad school, I pushed and pulled my life so that I could immigrate to Manhattan.
I was in love. With everything here.
I remember telling my grandmother how I loved studying each different ethnic face on subways. My ardor was undiminished even when she worried from San Diego that I should move to a safer place.
These days, young people are still smitten with our city. But it’s almost impossible for recent college graduates to find gainful employment—even when they’re our best and brightest. Bottom line: They lack experience. [Read more]
“Charlie” the Charmer
January 21, 2010
“There is a God, and he love me longtime,” says “Charlie Harper,” suppressing lovely contagious grins.
I admit it. Unlike my friends, I love watching re-runs and more re-runs of Charlie Sheen’s warts-and-all autobiographical sitcom Two and a Half Men. (Perhaps I should say “freckle” and all—since TV “Charlie” confesses he’s got a freckle on his penis, which “Charlie’s” TV mother jokes is worn to a nub by his senseless womanizing.) [Read more]
Help Wanted, Part 1
January 8, 2010
I know a darling, super-competent, hard-working 2009 NYU honors graduate named Kate Berlant who’s in love with Manhattan, but confused about how to make a living. The turmoil of unemployment (above 10 percent in our area) hits new grads hard. Older applicants with more experience consistently trump even the best and brightest of them. Internships (read: unpaid employment) are pretty much how these youngsters get a toehold. Says Kate, “The religion of the internship promises the golden afterlife reward of your dream career. But what my friends and I are facing is the sobering reality of a hermetically sealed job market. It’s bleak.” [Read more]
Houseguests With Love
December 9, 2009
My friend Joe and I are redefining our domestic spaces. We’ve been turning ourselves, our high-strung ménage of cats and dogs and our sun-dappled apartment inside out. We installed two huge white bookcases (donated by our totally generous and ingenious neighbor Andrea Basile) to partition off part of the living room and thus create a sort of guest room. T’was Andrea who suggested pushing the bed against the wall to make the guestroom feel larger. [Read more]
Cool Britannia
November 25, 2009
Mayor Bloomberg and I love the British TV series Foyle’s War. He’s in movie-love with the demure leading lady in Army uniform, Honeysuckle Weeks.
I’m shocked!
Of course, the mayor owns this superb English TV series’ set of DVDs at about $50 a season (each DVD is at least three hours), and I rent them for $4.49 each (delivery and pickup from Video Room, the last classy film library left in the city, 212-879-5333). British TV miniseries are the world’s best comedies, action-adventures and romances—but hey, don’t take my word—call Video Room’s manager-buyer and urban treasure Howard Salen and ask for yourself. [Read more]
Turning Japanese
November 11, 2009
For years I’ve been flagrantly getting high—high as a kite—in a secluded store on the East Side. I open a nondescript door on Lexington at 61st Street, beneath a banner that reads “Things Japanese,” and make my way up a narrow stairway to the second floor. Suddenly, thousands of museum-quality Japanese antiques make my mood soar. The world-class institution (as I think of Things Japanese) is 37 years old.
A tip: I’ve never before seen such a huge, reasonably priced (read: inexpensive) treasure trove of art objects from the 18th century to the 1950s. [Read more]
Central Park Love Song
October 29, 2009
I love Central Park. As a very young person, I missed the spiritual lesson in the perennial beauty of blooming and dying flowers.
I’ve a long view from my living room of Central Park treetops to Harlem. Falcons glide on wind currents at my windows. Right now, fat leafy treetops look like bridal bouquets. Winters, I stare at naked branches edged with snow—and posed like dancers. Mornings, I smile as sunrises slowly color my white living room with intensifying pink light. When gray clouds settle down on distant trees, I photograph what look like mountains touching the sky. [Read more]
Works of Art on a Budget
October 15, 2009
For many years, I pressed my nose against windows displaying spectacular posters from all eras and countries at the Chisholm Larsson poster gallery, on Eighth Avenue at West 17th Street in the arty heart of Chelsea.
Alas, I believed these beckoning works of art were too pricey. I recently stared at a huge portrait of Arlo Guthrie on a masterpiece of an Italian movie poster for his iconic film Alice’s Restaurant. This poster of Woody Guthrie’s son brings a rush of fond feelings. I tailed Arlo touring Ohio and Pennsylvania when Alice’s Restaurant made him the singing star of the anti-war movement. [Read more]
Dave Gets His Due
October 1, 2009
Dear David Letterman,
This is no fan letter—it’s a love letter.
I’ve loved watching you for three decades. I’m writing because our paths are not likely to cross, even though you broadcast five blocks from my apartment. One night, to your displeasure, we did cross paths. Parked in front of my building was the most perfectly proportioned red sports car I’d ever seen. I circled it awkwardly, peering into it, trying to see what make it was. Suddenly, I felt someone fuming behind me. There you were, angular and angry and trying to figure out how to get me away from your car. I fled. [Read more]
Shane the Wizard Healer
September 17, 2009
I don’t want to brag, gentle reader, but I’m on excellent terms with a great and happy wizard: Shane Hoffman, who runs Turning Point acupuncture at 60th and Broadway.
Shane knows things.
The man has two doctorates: one in divinity and the other in the ancient Asian practice of acupuncture. This gives you a hint of how tender a healer he is.
Let’s back up a little; acupuncture’s not just about temporary relief from pain. It opens channels in the body and heals and energizes us. The practitioner is critical. [Read more]
