This essay originally appeared on The Huffington Post for the launch of the New York section and was recorded by WFUV for the award-winning “Cityscape” program. You can find a recording of me reading it for the July 11, 2009 show here! Merci! When I went to France one summer, I came back with a …
Tips On Finding And Dating French Folks In New York City Read More »
This is the happiest Matt Berninger has ever been. Sitting backstage in his dressing room at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Saturday night, about to play a sold-out concert and begin a year-long tour around the world, the baritone frontman is enjoying fatherhood and the fact that The National, after ten years of producing …
The National’s Matt Berninger on Dirty Lovers and Even Dirtier Politics Read More »
How do you get Google CEO Eric Schmidt to pose for a picture in Times Square? Tell him you love Burning Man! (I took this iPhone photo yesterday evening. He’s a nice guy.) Schmidt got his job because he was the only candidate who had been to Burning Man, a favorite destination of Google founders …
My resolution for spring is to take more photos, even with my iPhone. I live in one of the most exciting cities in the world, in one of the most exciting neighborhoods–the East Village, where my parents grew up, met on the night the Beatles landed at JFK, and fell in love in Little Ukraine …
Many significant artists and great media minds today worship at the Church of George Lois, the legendary art director who captured the turbulent 1960s on the covers of Esquire magazine. Don’t credit the rich material, iconic characters of the decade Lois had to work with; it was his disdain for bullshit and love of cutting …
What repression can do for art: The Yellow Dogs are an amazing rock band in Iran, where rock bands are illegal, along with other important things that make life worth living. I don’t think I’ve felt this way about discovering a band since the White Stripes. My God– the Yellow Dogs are brilliant. You wouldn’t …
The Yellow Dogs: An Illegal Rock Band Breaks Out Read More »
One of my favorite museums in the world is the Frick Collection in New York — and I am a museum junkie. A lavish early 20th-century mansion built by industrialist Henry Clay Frick to house his priceless art collection, the Frick is also one of the most beautiful. My mother, a former art teacher who …
“But as much as I love New York, New York refuses to be loved. Whenever I’m all warm, fuzzy and ready to give the city a carefree, trusting bear hug, it repels me with some crazy, only-in-New-York type of crap to deal with–like our cab, suddenly speeding up and swerving from lane to lane as …
Chronicles of New York: Because Everyone Has a New York Story Read More »
Friday night, in the razzling-dazzling Waldorf-Astoria, Bette Midler entertained a packed ballroom of ghostly and goofy guests, raising over a million dollars and counting, for the New York Restoration Project. Dressed as a Moulin Rouge madame, Midler and comedienne/gay rights activist, Judy Gold–a theater-joke crackin’ Abe Lincoln–worked the crowd, shaking people for $2,500 a tree. …
At Bette’s Hulaween: Mayor Bloomberg “Dressed” as Matt Damon Read More »
Two years ago, while at Portfolio.com, I was moved by my colleague’s review of the Webby Awards — the Oscars for the Internet. She was disappointed that, given the great democratic premise of the web, the ceremony was held on Wall Street. Silicon Valley and web stars alike ditched their t-shirts, sandals and jeans for …
At the Webby Awards: Can the Internet Revolution end? (No.) Read More »