Irene - New York City - LIVE COVERAGE FROM MY BEDROOM

Well, the whole hurricane thing has blown over as it were. I was just on the Skype with a friend in Ireland and she told me my mayor said we were not allowed out until 3pm. I broke the rules and went out earlier than that for a walk.

I have to be honest, I was looking for wreckage. There really wasn't any. I did see a twig had broken off from a tree.

I also saw some busted police tape. No doubt the awful wind or a homeless person seeking shelter.

I walked out to the mighty Hudson River. The water was choppy, but like Vegas wave machine choppy. Not tsunami choppy.

Then I saw parents with their kids playing soccer and people jogging. Something was really wrong. Where is the hurricane? I filled my bathtub with water! I bought extra ice cream!

I must be honest and still give kudos to everyone that told of the complete annihilation that may lay ahead. I think they did a good job and even though it didn't warrant shutting down the subways or Broadway it was a good idea. Much better to react like this than to react like they did with Katrina. So kudos all. And me? Well, I just have some extra bottles of water. No harm. And now foul.

I even met a lovely couple from close to where I lived in LA. She is here because her mum is dying of cancer. I told her about mine and how tough it was but how much she is doing all the right things. Lovely people. I wish her well.

So folks, this about wraps up my Peabody-worthy news coverage of Hurricane Irene Comes to the Big Apple. And the apple didn't fall from the tree, but it was a fun event and thank God really there was minimal damage.

(One tree. Okay, I saw one tree down.)

This just in....3:48 ET and ther wind has really kicked up. I wouldn't be in a skirt out there. (Well today or any day really, but to each his own, but I just mean it is really windy.)

Irene - New York City - LIVE COVERAGE FROM MY BEDROOM

Ho hum. Is this a break in the weather and I venture out and then get immediately swept out to sea never to been seen again? Will I stick my head out and get thwumped by a passing STOP sign? Is it over? Or is it just a tease?

Folk are out walking dogs, strolling. Like it was just a blustery day. WTF? Where is the Hudson at my doorstep? Where is Anderson Cooper in a canoe on 7th Avenue? Where is:

• an old lady knitting calmly in a rocking chair.
• a cow
• debris
• two gentlemen steadily rowing a boat (they doff their hats)
• Miss Gulch, madly pedaling her bicycle through the air. Suddenly nightmarishly transformed into a cackling witch with a pointed hat and cape on a zooming broomstick

Where are these things?

Irene - New York City - LIVE COVERAGE FROM MY BEDROOM

I had to rely on my field reporter Anderson Cooper for this report. East River Tops Its Banks. I cannot see the East River from my bedroom window. When the East River comes pouring down the streets of the West Village I will be all over it, but until then I must rely on outside sources.

What I can tell you is it is still raining and people are still not going to brunch. Of course it is early for brunch.

Irene - New York City - LIVE COVERAGE FROM MY BEDROOM

Awoke to the sound of the wind, like a dog howling. No, a coyote howling. A coyote from NW Utah. Soulful, but confused. That was the sound I heard mixed with the wailing siren calls of emergency vehicles.

8:07am ET Sideways curtains of rain blow down 13th Street into the scalloped, cantilevered etages of St. Vincent's O'Toole Building. An American flag waves outside. To no one in particular. Well, to no one as that is what is on the street.

(O'Toole Building right, American Flag left of blue still standing awning)

Yes, not man nor NW Utah coyote on the ground save for the emergency vehicles outside the Donut Pub on 14th Street . I do not say this in jest as that is exactly where I would be if I was an emergency vehicle waiting for duty.

(Donut Pub, lights far right)

We are currently in the eye of it right now for the next few hours. Heavy rain and wind. I will hold judgement on Irene, but to me so far she us just full of bluster.

Hurricane Irene, the Waiting.

I have not blogged in forever and thought "baby's first hurricane" was a good way to start back in. It is dynamic, it is unprecedented and it is New York. I say unprecedented because never in the history of the city has the whole MTA subway system been shut down. Not to mention the airports and ALL the shows on Broadway.

I took a walk to get some air and saw a lot of tape. Reminds me of the Scotch tape skit on SNL when the Scotch Tape store was doing a booming business because every other store needed tape to hang up their "GOING OUT OF BUSINESS" signs.

From my view in the West Village, all seems calm before the storm at the moment. I went to the gym this morning before it closed at 11am. Then I tried to get some last minute stuff from Duane Reade but the doors were closed. In a city than never sleeps there is nothing to be done than to do just that.

Stay tuned to The Weather Channel or Manhatin.blogspot.com

From Britain with Love

My pal Marica and I went to opening night of "From Britain with Love" at Lincoln Center.

First we ate at Cafe Luxembourg which I had not stepped into since I celebrated my 22nd birthday there with my friend Craig when I last lived in New York. Wow. Loved it. It has not changed a bit. I have.

The event at Lincoln Center was a screening of Toast, based on early life of Guardian food writer Nigel Slater. I had read the book and quite enjoyed it. The director SJ Clarkson was there for a very fun Q & A. She is just a stitch and a storyteller. Marica and I got a chance to speak with her at the reception and she was someone I could have talked to all night. I am attracted to peoples' "delivery" and their take on life. She was one for certain.

A fun night out of dining well and then watching a movie about food.

In the small town that is New York I saw my friends Tom and Philip at Cafe Luxembourg (I had seen Philip earlier that day at the drugstore in the West Village) and then at the film! What fun.

Met some really nice people at the reception and just had a fine night out in New York.

The HIgh LIne - When You Need a Lift

Nothing says New York like the opening of the second phase of a rusted elevated train converted into a park. I was there. Well, not for the opening, but one the opening weekend.

The High Line rocks my world every time I walk on it. Probably because it is urban, enviro, groovy, close to my house (house meaning apartment, just another sign I am not a native) and mostly for the...wait of it.... perspective.

This has been a tough year for perspective for me.

But the perspective I get from walking on the High Line always bedazzles. It is not looking from high atop the Empire State Building (a magnificent view though I like the top of the Rock better) and it is not street level looking up. It is that "just a little bit" lift like your father putting you up on his shoulders when you were a kid that changes your whole view of things.

I love seeing the tenement buildings from up here. I look at their detail as I never did "on the ground." In "part deux" I really enjoyed looking down the leafy Chelsea streets as if I was on a camera crane shooting down or I was in a bird's nest (or whatever you call them) working on a telephone pole. The world is just a bit different from up here.

Please when in New York wander/meander through the High Line and change your perspective.

From Britain with Love

My pal Marica and I went to opening night of "From Britain with Love" at Lincoln Center.

First we ate at Cafe Luxembourg which I had not stepped into since I celebrated my 22nd birthday there with my friend Craig when I last lived in New York. We were young. They wire trees on the table with hard boiled eggs. We had champagne. This time no wire trees. No champagne, but I loved it. Other than the wire trees it has not changed a bit. I have.

The event at Lincoln Center was a screening of Toast, based on early life of Guardian food writer Nigel Slater. I had read the book and quite enjoyed it. The director SJ Clarkson was there for a very fun Q & A. She is just a stitch and a storyteller. Marica and I got a chance to speak with her at the reception and she was someone I could have talked to all night. I am attracted to peoples' "delivery" and their take on life. She was one for certain.

A fun night out of dining well and then watching a movie about food.

In the small town that is New York City I saw my friends Tom and Philip at Cafe Luxembourg (I had seen Philip earlier that day at the drugstore in the West Village) and then at the film! What fun.

Met some really nice people at the reception and just had a fine night out in New York.

Horse Sense and Sensibility

My friend Ron and I went to Delaware after attending a fancy and lovely Bat Mitzvah in mainline Philly. We got changed into our suits for the event in the men's room of the science building at Haverford after chowing on cheesesteaks and gelato in town. The first of a few costume changes that day.

Our friend Kara who was urban cool in Philly has chosen the contemplative life of a horsewoman in the country. And we were the beneficiaries of this "inner city school kids go to summer camp" experience of being out of Big Apple and on the grassy paths of the DuPont Estate to walk Kara's horse.

Our next costume change: guys who walk with a woman who walks her horse.

I loved the whole thing. Fresh air is inspiration. After I had my fill I was back in Manhattan for a 7pm curtain in the East Village. Ahhh.

All good.

Lost Bohemia - the Doc

Josef Astor, Editta Sherman and I can't remember his name but he fought hard for the artists.

Sean and Peter and Diego and I went to Sean's friend Josef Birdman Astor's documentary about the ousting of the last residents of the apartments high above Carnegie Hall first requested to be put there by Andrew Carnegie himself as a place where artists could be artists. Writers, painters and dancers all lived. My idol Bob Fosse was one. Isadora Duncan another. And Caruso and Marilyn Monroe. Mark Twain hung out there. It was that kind of place. And now it is a place with cubicles and warrens with no light. Sad.

We saw the doc on opening night at the IFC on 6th. Editta Sherman, photographer, a.k.a. "The Duchess of Carnegie Hall was there. She is 97, I believe, and is still on the ball. She signed a book that she and Bill Cunnigham, NY Times man about town with his camera and fellow Carnegie Apt. evicted resident, did in the 1970s. I bought one. I now cannot find. Lost Bookhemia.

ASTOR
Editta signing my misplaced book.

The Arcos Orchestra - Highlights of the Lowlands

My friend Patricia (friend from high school, friend from college, friend from early years in New York and friend from early years in Europe) was in town from Amsterdam with her partner Ym. I adore them both and we had the good fortune of being able to go to a concert of Dutch music composers at the Temple Emanu-El on 5th Avenue. Patricia is kind of a big deal in the Dutch music scene in Amsterdam both as a singer and a radio show host.

The space alone is so beautiful and the music was wonderful. Patricia's mother from San Francisco and brother John who lives in New York were there as well.

It was wonderful to see Patricia's mom again. I had not seen her since college I think. She always insisted on clearling the plates at dinner and would not allow help as she doesn't like them to be stacked due to mess getting on the bottom of the dishes. I thought of this while listening to "Lullaby of Young Girl Dreaming" by Patricia's friend and fellow Yank ed-pat in Amsterdam, Vanessa Lann. She was at this event and we had a chance to talk before and after the concert.

Patricia's brother John told me as we walked up to the aisle of the massive temple to our seats that he knew my ex-boyfriend of sorts, Dr. Ron. They both went to Yale together. New York is a small town. And Yale is a village. But what I have to do with either constantly amazes me. I am having a renaissance with Dr. Ron and grateful for his friendship. So here this Catholic-grazed boy from San Francisco culturally via Scotland and Ireland sits in the biggest temple in the world listening to Dutch music and muses about Patricia, Dr. Ron and dirty plates in San Francisco all the while it buckets and buckets rain outside.

And I sadly beg for it to wash away the previous time I was there.

Hunter College, NYC Distinguished Writers Series

My head has gone from "I want to write" to "I am a writer" to "I need to get a masters in Creative Writing." Clear signs that I am 1. on to something and 2. I need to take some baby steps as the "All or Nothing" monster is lurking.

I am interested in taking the program at Hunter College on East 68th Street. They have a top program and it is affordable. AND it is hard to get into. But so was "Modern Love."

My baby step was to go to Hunter College tonight and hear Nicole Krauss speak and read at the Distinguished Writers Series they have. She has written three novels and numerous essays and short stories. Her bio is quite impressive and so is she for that matter.

I was taken with her the moment she began to read from her novel GREAT HOUSE. There was a Q & A afterwards and I was so struck by her intelligence, tranquility and humour. She has the voice that I could listen to on a meditation tape, but she is not at all boring. She is a wonderful speaker: articulate and insightful. Her writing process is one of complete abandon to letting ideas and characters evolve. It almost sounds aimless, yet there seems a relief in not trying to force the page. I found it all very interesting, inspiring and daunting.

The "all about me" bubbles were: "I don't read enough." "I don't write enough." "She is way smarter than me. Or is it I?" "Damn."

You can go here and read some of her New Yorker essays. etc. Well worth it.

Anti-Social Media

My location.

This weekend I was at Columbia University at the Journalism School attending Social Media Weekend. I was thrilled to be there to learn about more about the world of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare and beyond.

The best thing you do is learn by doing. And in this environment typing and texting in session was, of course, encouraged.

As much as I love the world of "I am now taking a sh#t, read all about it" I have to admit that sometimes immediately chronicalling ones life can detract from actually living it. But I Tweet out of both sides of my mouth.

Before I get to the invent I must tweet that I am going in less than 140 character. "Going to #smwknd @Columbiajourn. Will keep you posted."

I arrive. Now I must use Foursquare to document my location and earn points and maybe become a "Mayor" on Foursquare. That is for somebody who checks in a lot to one place, I believe.

The Social Media Doctors' Quque. The Doctor is In, LinkedIN.

I hit my Foursquare app in my iPhone and the GPS finds that I am at Columbia. But I want them to find me at the specific building (Later on I learn there is a Foursquare location especially for this specific event. But I am still at #grasshopper.) Before I post my location info to everyone on Facebook and Twitter who is just #dyingforthenewsofmywhereabouts I must take a photo to accompany it. What? I do one quickly. Ah, it loaded. Done.

Now I can enjoy the event. Wow everyone with the hashtag #smwknd is Tweeting about what the guy just said before I can. Whew I get one in : "@brianstelter puts his office and cell #s on his @twitter page. #smwknd Maybe use Google/voice instead." Good going. Wait what did he say now? I missed that. I will find someone else's tweet in the #smwknd thread and RT it. Done.

And it goes and it goes like that. And it seems that everyone has been on Tumblr eons longer than me? Where have I been? Playing tennis maybe? Dating perhaps. Look where that got me. Maybe I should have been virtual ages ago.

I met this guy Joe. We talked about the muffins at the break and the coffee. We exchanged ecards on Hashable. Then I wanted to take a photo of the muffins and coffee and tweet with tweetpic of the snacks that I just met joe and here is the ACTUAL muffin and coffee I was holding when we talked about the #muffin and #coffee @columbiajourn.

Someone stop me...

"Reading with Robin" - On Radio in Rhode Island.

One of the many amazing things about getting published in Modern Love in the New York Times has been the feedback and the contacts.  Besides my excellent friends and family, I have received emails from perfect strangers who connected with my piece.  That is SO gratifying. A drug almost. A lovely drug. To think that people who don't know me at all wrote and said they laughed and cried was just electric to me. And believe me, I have mostly cried, so receiving these emails has been wonderful.

One person who contacted me was Robin Kall who hosts a radio show where she interview writers on 920WHYJJ called "Reading with Robin."  She so enjoyed me piece that she wanted to interview me on the radio!  Hey it was at 7:10am on a Saturday and for the smallest state in the Union, but it was a wonderful experience. And it is global on-line so I am sure it has a wide following because Robin is a great host.

Robin was so nice and really celebrated me and my writing.  She plugged my piece and this blog often which I guess is what writers want -to be exposed in order to be read.   I someday hope to be back on her show with a book to plug. 

Thank you, Robin! 

Check out the interview here and click on "Robcasts."  And check out her excellent show where she talks to writers. You can listen on-line every Saturday morning 7-8am. 

Jeni Aron Performs at Rockbar

From the Upper East Side to way west Christopher Street in the West Village.  I was all over town this evening being uptown fabu and downtown cool.  Oh and midtown working.

My friend Jeni is a stand up comic and this is the first time I have seen her perform.  I made it in time to see her go ow.  Oh.Em.Gee.  She was fantastic. Filthy, yes, but FANTASTIC.  She killed as they say in comedy club parlance.

The venue was Rockbar.  It is well, a bar, where Christopher Street almost falls into the Hudson. Very friendly and a lot of fun. I will not repeat Jeni's set here because I would blush, but I am still laughing. I hope she goes on to great things. She should.

Louis the Plant Geek

This evening I was up high in the penthouse of a 5th Avenue apartment on the swank Upper East Side overlooking Central Park.  It is beautiful up there. No wonder people want to live there!

It felt like I was in an Italian villa.  Lovely bites went around and I met lovely people.  Just a perfect escape from my mood. Which in plant terms was droopy and needing sunlight and water and some new soil.  I need to be repotted!

This was a launch party for Louis Raymond's new website - Louis the Plant Geek. Check it out here.
The site is full of gardening tips, trips and snips.  I do not garden, but I learned a lot from looking at his wonderful website.  This is a go to place for anyone with a thumb any shade of green.  On the front page now is a video shot on the Amalfi coast (Italian villa tie-in) and one on pruning.  The whole magilla of gardens and gardening is here. 



My friend Eve who is wonderful and supportive and just, well, lovely invited me to come along and I had a ball.  Everyone was so nice including Louis and his partner Richard. ( FOEs - Friends of Eve's!).  I even met a book editor from Good Housekeeping who knows my friend Trent. Imagine having a small world at the top of the world.  It was great. 

Richard and Eve.  She is so wonderful she has her eyes shut thinking good thoughts for everyone!

I wish Louis every best wish with his new website.  Check out www.louistheplantgeek.com and tell them Patrick sent you.

Times Square, The Day After

Dizzy's - A Finer Diner, Brooklyn

Seems impossible to get into a rut in New York City.  But it is SO possible.  "Here is your grocery store, here is your dry cleaner, here is your post office and here is your restaurant, or restaurants. "

"What? You mean in the most dazzling city in the world and I have to go just here to eat?"

My friends and I usually meet for brunch in the West Village. It is a great way to catch up and have a lovely afternoon, but it sometimes get ruttish.

My friend Sean proposed doing something out of the box, something different. His idea was venturing to the outer West Village. The wilds of the outer West Village. 

I suggested Brooklyn.  Park Slope. The idea seems so "two days by coach" but once you are on the subway and spend 20 minutes you are in a whole new world. It is worth the time to see something new every once in a while, no?

When we popped out of our subway rabbit hole on the other end we were in tree-lined Park Slope and there was our destination,  Dizzy's , straight ahead.   A long way to go for eggs, sure, but it was the spirit of something new we were after.



Dizzy's is this great funky brunch place with good food, really friendly service by waiters in "Got Bacon" t-shirts and a free basket of muffins and excellent coffee and OJ included with your $12.50 breakfast. Really, really not a bad deal. And the food? Really, really good.

Sean and I opted to share our heart attack so we split the steak and eggs and the biscuits and gravy. I  have never thought of myself as a biscuits and gravy person and I don't want to start, but these were fine: sausage and bacon mixed into a lovely, creamy white sauce and slathered (you have to use that word here) over a fluffy biscuit and eggs. All your food groups: fat, cholesterol and some grease.  But you are closer to heaven! Literally.  I would say that another biscuit to soak up the gravy would be nice, but that is my only complaint. Otherwise a great brunch.

"How I Learned..." at The Happy Ending, New York City

Tonight I went back to The Happy Ending in Chinatown. This is one of those places that seems illegal or a front for something you don't want to know anything about.  I could swear it is a poetry club, bar and illicit massage parlor where naughty things happen.  It is the sort of venue that confuses me. And I like that.

Tonight I was there to to hear writers read for the 'How I Learned" Series. This is a format where writers can get up and read on a certain topic. Tonight's was "How I Learned...It's Not Me, It's You (or Maybe It's Me)"  Boy I could have read at this one!

Some great people got up. But first the hostess and creator, Blaise Allysen Kearsley, MC'd and started the night by reading about her love affairs from high school in her diary of the time. Brilliant. She is a very personable, off-the-cuff funny MC.  I really enjoyed her.

The readers were wonderful.  Jim O'Grady (The Moth) was one.  Maybe someday she will ask me now that I am a published New York Times writer and essayist! Ha!

The next one is about "How I Learned About Sex."  That would be Kevin Bennett. (Not with him, he just told me about it and it was gross! Sometimes still is.)

WHEN + WHERE:


Every 4th Wednesday

8 PM / FREE!

HAPPY ENDING

302 Broome Street

between Forsyth + Eldridge

J, M, Z, F to Delancey

B, D to Grand

{Directions}

(212) 334-9676

"Modern Love" - The New York Times. Easter Sunday, June 24 2011

 (I was illustrated in the NYT! My piece was professionally illustrated. Calm down, Sally Field...)

I have written about New York City in this blog for over 3 years and tomorrow I am getting published in one of the most widely read newspapers in the world, the paper of record, the Old Gray Lady, The New York Times.

I feel like I got off the bus with $3 in my pocket and tomorrow I hit the big time. Whoa, there Mr. Hyperbole. 

The breeze off the Hudson whispers, "Keep going, keep going."

Dan Jones, the amazing and wonderful editor of "Modern Love" in The New York Times told me when he wanted to publish my piece that they get 300-400 submissions a month.  And here I was one of only 4 of them that got selected.  He actually told me I was a really good writer and he loved the piece. This better shut up "Mr. I Never, You Always."  Starting tomorrow I am a paid, freelance writer. Well and truly. I am a professional writer. I am a writer.  I write. 

I am very proud of this Modern Love piece.   I do think it is well-written, funny and emotional - everything I wanted to convey.  This, for me, is a triumph.  I have suffered from "Other People" syndrome ie "other people write, are doctors, get married, build skyscrapers, win gold medals, buy houses."  The thought is a crippling one.  But it is time to shed this. 

I have trouble with the word "deserving" as in I am deserving of happiness, success, etc.  I prefer "worthy"  I am worthy of love, success, getting published.  It seems to require more effort on my own part that "deserving."  So today I am worthy and I celebrate.

But it is a bittersweet triumph because I don't get to celebrate it with the Jeff in the piece. We did not make it.  We made it 9 months, we delivered the baby, but it was DOA.   I still shake my head at this, but I have to be grateful that our meeting was worth it and I was worthy to be in the relationship and so was he and we move on.  I wish him well. 

The breeze off the Hudson whispers, "Keep going, keep going."

Pure - 9th Avenue

My friend Anthony took me to this amazing Thai restaurant on 9th Avenue today.  There are loads of Thai restaurants in the area, but this one is special.  I am not a food writer, and, sadly, a TERRIBLE food photographer, there are way better bloggers that do this especially, but I just have to tell you about this place.

The place is called Pure.  It it located at 766 9th Ave (btw 51+52nd) 


It is a tiny place, but is decorated with warmth and a clean feel to it.  The service is great and polite and the food, well,  the food was amazing. First off, the place makes its own noodles.  Any place that makes its own noodles is fabu in my book, but on top of that the flavors are wonderful.

I started off with vegetable dumplings.  They were green and round and looked almost as exquisite on the table as they tasted in my mouth.




My main was homemade egg noodles with pork and real crab.  Make sure you mix this as the sauce seems to be waiting for you at the bottom.

Even the tap water is served in this lovely long, Euro-style water vessels.  The water sits at you table and just adds to the ambiance. For a work lunch hour I felt miles away from Midtown.
Go here. 

Photo Credit: Anthony, hand model.

My friend Yoshie blogs on food on Ramen and Friends.  Check out her review here.