Man. Hat In.

Irene - New York City - LIVE COVERAGE FROM MY BEDROOM

2011-08-28T15:35:00.006-04:00

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

2011-08-28T10:13:00.003-04:00

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

2011-08-28T08:38:00.003-04:00

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

2011-08-28T08:01:00.005-04:00

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.

2011-08-27T15:45:00.005-04:00

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

2011-06-19T13:32:00.003-04:00

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

2011-06-12T08:25:00.000-04:00

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

2011-06-11T13:32:00.003-04:00

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.

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

2011-05-22T10:55:00.001-04:00

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

2011-05-20T10:30:00.003-04:00

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

2011-05-18T10:11:00.004-04:00

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

2011-05-16T09:24:00.003-04:00

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

2011-05-15T21:11:00.003-04:00

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.

2011-05-04T09:36:00.000-04:00

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

2011-05-02T23:04:00.000-04:00

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

2011-05-02T22:59:00.002-04:00

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

2011-05-02T22:36:00.000-04:00

Dizzy's - A Finer Diner, Brooklyn

2011-05-01T22:21:00.000-04:00

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

2011-04-26T11:11:00.003-04:00

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

2011-04-23T07:55:00.000-04:00

(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

2011-04-12T21:05:00.004-04:00

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.

New Patrick Connolly Writer/Interviewer blog

2011-04-10T03:01:00.002-04:00

I have started a new blog on Tumblr to focus more on my writing and panel moderating. To showcase it, publicize it and just get it going a bit more. Man Hat In will continue, but it is more personal and
"Patrick Connolly" on Tumblr is, if you can believe I am even writing this - more (self) promotional.

My aim is to delve further professionally into writing and digital and social media. Tumblr seems to be a place that the folk are playing these days.

There is SO much out there in terms of social media and the places to get your stuff seen. Facebook, of course. And LinkedIN, and Stumbelupon and Digg and Twitter and Delicious. It is massive out there. And where to start and what to share and where to link and how to do that and what is the best way to express oneself professionally and what am I as a brand, as a person, as a tree?!

Too late in the night to be thinking about anything, but I got excited when I saw my latest Virgin.com post got published.

And why do it at all? Because I love to connect, create the conversation, pass on the conversation, be a part of the conversation. For example Honey Badgers are IN and I want to be the one to get them on the map!

So please go to my new blog site and follow me, link me, forward me. Thanks.

New York City - Scotland Week

2011-04-10T02:45:00.001-04:00

http://www.virgin.com/travel/news/new-york-city-scotland-week/

I wrote this piece for Virgin.com Please go to site and click ROCKED if you liked it or LIKE on Facebook or link it and spread it. But spread it fast as Scotland Week is coming to a close soon.

The Promise at 59E59

2011-04-03T19:34:00.002-04:00

Scotland Week is once again upon us. My first venture out this year was to see the Scottish play (not THAT Scottish play!) The Promise by Douglas Maxwell. Lisa and Carri and I were guests of Scottish Development International and had a wonderful time as the event surrounding the New York premier of this play.

What a play. Wow. It is a one-woman show, but not really, it is a full play with one actor in it, a woman. She is played brilliantly and untiringly by Joanna Tope. Ms. Tope is one stage for 90 minutes of straight dialogue sans water. They treat prisoners better than this! How she did it is incredible. Well, I guess that is why they call her a professional actress. There is no place for her to hide should she forget a piece of the rapid-fire dialogue. There is no break, no quick walk off stage. She is with the audience without a net and with an amazing story to tell which I will not ruin here.

Me with actress Joanna Tope at after party.

There was an reception afterwards. Lisa, Carri and I love receptions. They had Scottish whiskey, wine (not Scottish I do not think) and Scottish canapes. Scottish canapes?! WTF? Well, there were wee meat pies, Haggis with a turnip coulis on a bed of oats, Cock-a-Leekie soup in wee cups, and fish and chips on a poke. It was delightful a few pies I might add, but they were small.

We got to talk to Joanna Tope and she was so delightful. I found out the play originated at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow where I worked in the 1980's and I got to tell her so. She has performed this play in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh and now in New York.

Go see it through April 17th at 59 East 59th Street Theatre.

Wisco Girls Take Manhattan

2011-04-02T13:25:00.000-04:00

New York City is not for owning, it is for sharing. When friends visit it is okay to pass on joining them to the see the Statue of Liberty (but only if you have gone in the last 5 years) but to miss out on the joy of a visit and the joy of their joy of being here is a shame.

Many friends will say "I am here to see YOU, I do not need to do any touristy stuff." This I will not allow. You can see me, but you must see me while we are walking through Central Park or while we are strolling through the Frick or while we are strolling along the Hudson or taking a coffee a Joe. I insist. Think "Woody Allen Movie" before they got creepy.

You walk and talk, but New York City must be a backdrop for the conversation.

My friends Lisa and Carri came here to celebrate the "20th Anniversary of their 30th birthday" this week and it was so good to have them. I was going through "a thing" and they kept me buoyant and laughing and eating good food.

I had never goofily played in front of the jumbo screen in Times Square. (we are on the bottom left second row)

and we got to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge which is never not a thrill and meander through Central Park.

We also had one of the small town experiences that I love here: I wanted to show them my old beloved block on the Upper West Side where I used to live and we crashed into old neighbors and dogs and it was just a delight.

New York is for lovers and friends and is not to be hogged like Halloween candy when you were a kid.

A Manhattan Party

2011-03-26T17:59:00.001-04:00

It has been a while since I have been to a party in a highrise in New York where the view is that classic New York view of loads of cut out highrises with lights sprinkled throughout. Like they use for backdrops in Broadway plays about New York or in Woody Allen movies. There was a bartender serving cocktails and loads of New York type people all waiting to talk to me I am sure.

I didn't really know anyone as I was invited as a friend of friends. They were very nice getting me out and circulating and reintegrating. Tough, but I must. I talked to a few people including a guy who quite forwardly, well, I won't say.

At one point in the evening this woman in fishnets and a rose comes in with an accordion and starts belting out Edith Piaf. She was so fantastic that stopping a discussion about police watch in troubled neighborhoods was not a problem. (These are the conversations I swear our parents used to have and now I am at that age and I am having them. Wow.) Everyone just stopped and listened to this very talented woman. She sang flawlessly in French, English, German and Russian. While playing the accordion.

I was so taken with her as was everyone else. She really made the evening. Her name is Mira Stroika and if she gets a gig out of this post I would be very happy. Check her out here. She is quite amazing.

Mr. Beller's Neighborhood. It's a small one.

2011-03-25T17:27:00.002-04:00

Today I accepted a Facebook invite from a friend to Mr. Beller's Neighborhood. This is a website that supports writers who write on New York City. A monthly reading is held and this time it was at The Happy Ending Lounge in Chinatown. I swear this place looked like a front for something, not a cool cafe New York stories reading venue. I entered cautiously as I have white slavery issues and inside I saw my friend Steve and a friendly crowd of writerly types.

Steve Turtell is a writer who has a book of poetry published that is available on Amazon. I had never heard his stuff before it was quite fine. I loved his story and his poems. Way to go Steve! You can read his stuff on the Mr. Beller's site linked above.

Before I even went a friend wrote to me on Facebook that he saw that I was going to this and a guy from his work, Andrew, was going too and I should say hello which I did. Once again social networking makes the world smaller. A little creepy, but I liked it.

The first reader was a woman whom I recognized immediately. Leslie Nipkow. OMG. We used to both be in Weight Watchers together. I hope she doesn't mind me writing that. She is an Emmy Award winning writer and essayist. (Who needs Weight Watchers when you have an Emmy! Screw everyone else, I say!) She is also the one who told me about taking dance classes at Alvin Ailey. I had no idea mere mortals could do that and I did thanks to here. What an odd, small world way to reunite. It was really fun to see her and catch up. We are now Facebook friends. I loved her stuff too.

Mr. Beller's Neighborhood may become mine once I write some essays on my life here in the Big Apple. But meanwhile it remains less and less big! I keep running into people and meeting people in the darnedest places!

On my way out The Happy Ending Lounge had velvet ropes and a bouncer outside and was turning into a nightclub for the evening. I went home and turned in. Period.

I Choose to Be In Love.

2011-03-24T09:50:00.001-04:00

I remember when I lived and worked in LA and people would be out from New York on business I would think, "How glamourous. They actually LIVE in New York. What must that be like?" Well, now I know. I have lived here for 3 years. And it is like living anywhere else in some respects and like nowhere else in others: there is laundry, grocery shopping, and the gym. Except here everything is much harder and more expensive! But, no matter, I love it. And then I forget and I just exist in it.

Whenever I feel like I am taking living here for granted I put my ipod on RANDOM, make life into a musical and go. This morning I was heading to the subway for work listening to Sinead O'Connor and I passed by St. Vincent's Hospital. This hospital is now sadly closed due to bankruptcy and will be more luxury housing. It almost seems ironic, if it weren't so shameful. Anyway, I don't want to kill my buzz here. But as I was passing and the snow was gently falling I recalled how this very place took in Titanic survivors, 911 survivors and was one of the first major AIDS hospitals in the world. It was humbling and moving.

Down I went into the subway. A system like no other and I was happy to be in it among the masses. My music made it so much more palatable.

I alighted at 50th Street and just as Madonna's Vogue started I walked across the street to behold bright and shiny Times Square. Lately I have had nothing but disdain for this gaudy, tourist-infested tourist trap, but this morning thanks to Madonna I was empowered and inspired by it.

It all boils down to perspective. New York is either a crowded, expensive, filthy, crime-ridden dump or it is a bright, exciting, never to be outdone metropolis of possibility. Or both. I choose today to be in love.

Mom, I'm a real blogger now!

2011-03-23T10:55:00.001-04:00

Today, I just got publsihed on Virgin.com as a guest blogger writing about New York City. If you came from that link, welcome to my personal blog. I used this for 3 years as a test kitchen to learn about blogging. Still lack some focus for this destination, but that plays perfectly into my personality and NYC itself. I like to write stories about my gratitude for life in New York and I try to maintain some remaining puppy dog enthusiasm for the place.

Please check out my post on Virgin.com and rate or comment there if you can. I would love it.

Sing to me and bathe me in your beauty.

2011-03-19T22:33:00.001-04:00

More churches. Tonight I went to hear my friend Ron sing in a concert at The Basilica of St. Patrick's Cathedral on Mulberry St. in Little Italy. St. Patrick was supposedly Roman so I guess it makes sense. But this was the Cathedral of New York City before they built that swanky new place on Fifth Avenue in 1878. I did not know that.

Ron sings with a group called Cerddorian. They are a chamber vocal ensemble. I went alone. I sat alone and I listened to the beautiful voices fill up this lovely space with everyone else. It was freezing inside, but quite peaceful. I needed some peace and calm. It had been a tough few weeks. Ron urged me to come out with his friends afterwards. I didn't want to but the voice inside said "Go!" They were mostly doctors like Ron and his best biking buddy whom I recognized from Facebook. I even got to meet his parents. The night out at the tapas place afterwards was just the ticket for the blues. Even though the choir did not sing blues, they sang choral pieces both new and old, but for me they were the blues.

I had such a laugh. We just laughed and gabbed and ate lovely tapas. It was worth the big grease stain down the front of my nice midnight blue dress shirt. I had a good time.

A $4 Million Dollar Organ?! Why Thank You, Doctor

2011-03-13T18:26:00.000-04:00

So much goes on in one's neighborhood and one doesn't even know it. That is why we have friends, neighbors, Time Out New York and doormen.

For example, I had no idea the most expensive organ in the United States was being built right under my nose. By the French! Like the Statue of Liberty before, the French were gifting us once again. Well, actually it is the Manon Foundation. And the church did $2 mill in renovations so your total costs are more like $6+ mill. For really good organ music. If this doesn't get 'em going back to God, I don't know what will. God knew (first hand) that the guitar Mass was never going to do it.

But back to this organ. A friend told me that though the premiere is going to be in May (The organ's débuts officiels) there was a preview concert today and we should go. And we did.

Do you know an Episcopal service is just like a Catholic one? I mean they have the same playwright! The dialogue was almost word for word. And they sing more, well with a new organ and all, so it was even longer!! But the music was beautiful and the place is stunning. It is a jewel.

Anyway, lovely, lovely church with this most amazing mural by John LaFarge. There is a great New York Times article on the church. But organ, smorgan, Mark Twain was here?!

Social Media Week - New York/ A Boy in His Bubble.

2011-02-17T11:10:00.000-05:00

Social Media Week was here in New York on Feb 7-11. It was also in London, Singapore, Paris, San Francisco, Rome, Seattle. Almost any place you would want to chill and be fab with an iPad.

I managed in my continuing great tradition of "What Would Lucy Do?" to make my way into the opening party at the New York Public Library. Fab place for just about anything. It is such a cool space, it has Bryant Park for a backyard and appropriate lions guarding its entrance as opposed to the lions on every ramshackle in Queens ("Every man's home is his castle" - I know, I know.)

I met a woman who works for an app called BarSPace. She was 28 and lovely and right in it. She explained so much for social media to me except how to connect because I cannot find her info anywhere.

Then on Thursday I went the Far East to 1st and E29th for the Digitas party on Webcams and Tweeting at the Apella event space. I didn't want to go because I was in midtown west and had to get the Flatiron district after and then back to the West Village so this was Siberia. But I told myself I was not ready to be a provincial neighborhood-as-ghetto New Yorker. I am SO glad I went. It was a very cool space. Some futuristic vibe but in a "What's Up Doc" 60's party scene vein. I sat in a hanging circle and Tweeted.

At the bar area this guy came up to me and said "I read you." ("Reed" you or "Red" you.) It was RED you. Or maybe it was REED you. I felt like a New Yorker columnist. But it turns out he reads my posts on LinkedIn. He recognized my face and my name at a Social Media event! How amazing was that? And it gave us license to talk and for me to introduce Stan Friedman whom I met from Conde Nast. (Stan knows my friend Tom Kulaga a the New York Times!) The man who recognized me from the internet was former NBC reporter Glenn Zimmerman who is now the CEO & President of MadBear Productions. But it doesn't stop there. He knows my good pal Susan Kiel from NBC days and his business partner Julian Williams' wife grew up in Scotland with Peter Morris from BAFTA LA. They grew up in Scotland not far from where my mum grew up!

Social Networking, New York, me, it is all just a party! I love it. Would never happen like this elsewhere.

Thank you #smwny!!

Bad Weather

2011-01-20T00:05:00.000-05:00

Have you ever heard that expression, "There is no bad weather, just bad clothing choices"? I embrace that.

Facebook posts from friends in Southern California have them basking in superlatives about the 80 degree weather in January and "Ooh, I am cold, I think I will turn down the air conditioning." (I thought that one was pretty brilliant.) But I did not feel any envy- none.

One of the many things I like about living in New York is the weather. If you don't like this weather just hold on another kind of weather is just around the corner. I thoroughly enjoy the seasons. I was just ice skating in Central Park with the chill in the air, a scarf around my neck, warm gloves on my hands and the sun on my face. The other night I came in from the chill of the icy rain and ate hot soup as the rain clattered against my window. How do you get that feeling when it there are tank tops and flip flops passing by outside? You don't. And tank tops and flip flops will be soon enough.

In my mind January is for snow and chill and slush and layers and scarves and soup and taking a hot steam at the gym. I do not desire 80 degrees. I desire wool and hot cocoa.

Yefim Bronfman at Lincoln Center

2011-01-13T09:24:00.001-05:00

A view from my fenetre at intermission.

My good friend Ellie and I went to hear our fave pianist Yefim Bronfman at Philharmonic tonight. (There is no apparent need to say New York Philharmonic when you live here I am learning, but for purposes of my vast worldwide audience, it is the New York Philharmonic.) Like filing into a Yankee's game or the New World's Vatican of Tennis, the US Open, or wandering around the Met (Museum or Opera), the experience starts the moment you alight from the taxi or emerge from the subway. You will not only have a wonderful experience attending the thing you are paying for, but you will also be part of a collective New York experience. You will be one of the gleeful huddled masses. There is a lot of "huddlage" in New York. It is indeed a rat race, but I find, it is one where everybody wins.

I am off topic again.

What IS the topic?

I have two:

1. People watching. The Phil offers amazing people watching. It is for music, but also for looking at interesting faces, imaging the state of those two over there's marriage, queens in fur coats, ladies in fur coats and comfortable shoes, men who look like they would rather be elsewhere, wondering if a new generation will come, picking out people from Westchester. It is not for star sighting though last time I was there I body checked Caroline Kennedy on my way back from the men's room. I am endlessly fascinated by all of us. And I am not alone. We love it. And it a funny thing in New York, the giant metropolis, I ALWAYS expect to know someone, or recognize someone, everywhere I go! And quite often I do though not tonight.

2. Yefim Bronfman. I wish I could call him Yeffy, but we are not on that level yet. I first heard him at here last January playing Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op 16 and was so blown away. He is a genius. And I use that heavily. The Yefster rocks my world with his playing. Tonight was no exception though you never forget your first time. If you ever get a chance to hear this man where you are do go. (See his link above for international schedule of future Yef sightings.)

The Subway

2011-01-12T00:17:00.002-05:00

This evening I was sitting on the E train heading for a meeting in an office downtown. I was properly bundled and I was reading a torn and crinkled issue of The New Yorker saved from the crowded mess of my book bag. I am a New Yorker and I know it. After three years here I know the subway lines, I don't get offered double-decker bus tours anymore and I give directions to strangers and hail cabs. I am comfortable in my skin. As long as it is properly attired for the weather.

A woman sat next to me. She was carrying a step ladder. Folded. It didn't look like she just bought it from Bed, Bath and Beyond. It didn't have a security sticker; it looked like she just took it to use places. I could feel my body wanting to lean over and say something like "Do you need that to read the adverts on the subway?" But I just could not think of anything that was either 1. funny or 2. not too obvious. Unlike a REAL New Yorker, I felt compelled to engage with her. Just to engage? Well, I think I want to know someone who carries a step ladder with her.

She would always have a seat places. She could reach things at the grocery. Or a library. A liability at the airport surely.

I then thought about how great it would be to carry a seat with you wherever you went because you would always have one! I used to think it would be great to carry a parking space. And I also used to think of how great it would be to be able to shrink so tiny that you could carry your house with you and live anywhere! But the fear of cats would multiply. And unwanted grasshoppers knocking on your door with a loud bang. Don't think I would like that. I almost figured I didn't carry my house out of fear of getting eaten. I never even regarded that it was a real non-issue since I couldn't shrink.

My stop. I got off the train. The woman with the step ladder had farther to go. I mentally thanked her for getting my thoughts to go places. But I will never know where she is from and why she carries that step ladder. And I guess that will just have to be okay.

Blizzard, New York City

2010-12-27T22:52:00.000-05:00

Jeff and I came home from Christmas in Poughkeepsie. We left early because, like everyone else, we heard a storm was a brewin'. I immediately thought of a movie I had never seen - "Twister" But instead of racing from the eye of the storm we were driving into it. Still, Jeff thought of me as Helen Hunt and he as Bill Paxton. This time I didn't argue as we had to make tracks.

As we rolled into Astoria to Jeff's, the flurries were not yet furies (I just made that up right here on this spot. Damn!) so we had time to shop for pork tenderloin with baby spinach in sesame oil. What. A. Relief.

What a night. My first blizzard. I was so excited. As caramel swirls of Haagaen Daz Caramel Cone reached my lips I could see swirls of sideways snow passing by the window.

We downed two movies and some maple cookies and headed for a long winter's nap. As I drew the sash and pulled open the shudders in the morning, my wandering eyes saw a s*#t-load of snow! I was in love. Again.

While Jeff's car was buried outside we had scrambled eggs and coffee and downed another Beverly Hills Housewives ON DEMAND. That Camille is doing my head in! But Kyle! I thought she had way more sense than to argue back, especially with a drunk psychic at the dinner party. Disaster of blizzard proportions in Malibu I tell you.

It was time to say adios to Jeffy and head into the big city. I delighted in all the snow around me.

Because I don't have to shovel or dig I love the snow and a good blizzard for me is a good thing.

Pipes of Christmas Past

2010-12-22T00:00:00.000-05:00

My friend Merri from California invited me to see her perform in "The Pipes of Christmas" at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church at 73rd. It was SOLD OUT and got listed as one of the MUST DO Christmas things to do in New York. Well I did it.

First, what a venue. The place was decked like an Upper East Side deb and just shone.

And the show was wonderful. A lovely blend of pipes and organ and song and brass. I think I could be moved by a kazoo in this church, but wow, this was moving. And Merri is such a lovely person it filled me with even more joy. Joy, I tell you, Joy!

After the concert there was a reception with Robert Burns' "Address to a Haggis" It was wonderful.

You Better, You Better La Bête

2010-12-17T23:14:00.029-05:00

What a fantastic New York night. A night where I am in the 1940s and the city is buzzing and I am a three dot journalist...Met Cooper and Paul-Louis in from LA...Jeff got to meet them which I loved. Cooper and PL have a great deal to do with why Jeff and I even met...Job and all. We went to the Music Box Theatre to see our friend (well theirs and he knows who I am and he is totally a lovely guy) David Hyde Pierce in La Bête. A modern Molieresque play all in couplets. Harder sell than "Cop Rock"

I digress. I really enjoyed the play and David was excellent. Other David and Charlie met us there. I adore both of them and it had been a long while since I had seen them...Sitting in the row back were Cooper and PL's neighbors from LA. Small world. And Jeff and I saw our friends Henry, Peter and Charles... How does that always happen here?

The core group went backstage and I introduced Jeff to David and we hung out for a while. I peed in the same toilet as Lionel Barrymore, I imagined. Or at least Bert Lahr... Unfortunately David could not make dinner as planned and the 8 of us went to Orso for a late apres theatre supper like they did in the old days in my mind And next table over was Stockard Channing...Perfect...I wanted to tell her the last time I saw her (in that dreadful production of Pal Joey at Studio 54) was the night I got sick and got Bell's Palsy and Vertigo, but I think she might have taken it more wrong than historical...

Another grand night in Gotham.

Writing

2010-12-16T11:40:00.000-05:00

As my meagre cadre of fans of this blog know, I lost it about 5 months ago and stopped writing daily here for the first time in almost 3 years.

I have missed this forum, but could not get back into it. I felt like a blogger stuck in a bog in a fog and my computer was just out of reach. I could not bring myself to write here. Part of it was depression and joy. Both good writing moods! But I just could not.

I also wanted to start a new blog ABOUT SOMETHING! But that eludes me still. WHAT could I possibly be the expert on that I could write about and attach my blog to my Linked In and sell advertising and gather a HUGE following? Food? Too many do it better. New York City? Maybe, but I would need an angle. Fish out of water? Nah. Tucked away places? I am not consistent enough and would probably steal from Time Out New York. My take on NYC? Maybe, but I think I should be a celebrity first. Just Dunno.

But the more I work and ponder the more I realize I want to write professionally. I have heard so often "the secret to writing is writing." Of course I ignore that and use the procrastinator's mantra: "the secret to writing is doing research on writing and throwing money at it: computer, classes, Amazon.com.

So I bought two books. They are here at my beside. Bindings intact. Apparently "the secret to reading is reading. " They are "The Right to Wright" by Julia Cameron. Yes, Virginia, I still have permission issues and I am hoping this book gives me that. The secret to writing is permission? I also got "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynn Truss. A person I greatly respect who is not a writer, but a doctor and great procrastinator likes this book very much.

So now I have more books on writing, a blog that is aimless, and the desire to have the desire.

Go!

67 Burger, Brooklyn

2010-12-15T11:23:00.000-05:00

Just to make sure I could not jump up on stage at "The Hard Nut" and join in la danse I went to 67 Burger some few paces away from BAM to have a burger, fries and a chocolate shake. And I am working the Lose It App. This was my daily take to be sure.

But what a great find. 67 Burger, if you are going to lose it over Lose It, is a great place to commit calorie crime. The burger was perfection.

I may have this wrong, but New York is way more obsessed with burgers than California. Way more into eating and talking about burgers. There seem to be burger places everywhere and it is the default choice at every diner in town. "Burger deluxe (lettuce, tomato, fries) please."

The ordering process was somewhat confusing even though they have a Steps 1, 2, 3 ordering system. But still it was not good. And the woman taking the order at the register was not pleasant. "Not pleasant" in the service business (aka "the USA") is just not acceptable. She was not interested. Just unpleasant. And I saw her be that way with others. I did not leave a tip in her jar just because of her "dourosity." Shame because the wait staff were great.

And that burger! Excellent. So charbroiled and excellent served just with a wheezy, gasping "Moo" as I like it. The milkshake (sadly the extra in the metal canister seems long gone) came in a generous pint class and was delish. And the fries (too many) were adequate, but for me fine, but unmemorable.

I would go back. I would eat a burger there again anytime But I think I need to wait for 35 pounds to go off my body. Perhaps I should walk to Brooklyn next time to go to 67 Burger.

Oh and they have that napkin dispenser on each table that operates like a tissue box and you use as many napkins as you would tissues crying over a breakup.

The Hard Nut

2010-12-15T11:08:00.000-05:00

My friend Frank took me as his guest to see Mark Morris Dance Group's production of "The Hard Nut" at The Brooklyn Academy of Music, more familiarly known as BAM.

I had only seen the production on PBS many years ago and remember loving it, but just like basketball it is oodles better seeing it live. For dance it is the live orchestra, the 3-D immediacy of it and the shared audience experience. I love the packed lobby at BAM. People everywhere. Who are they all and how can I meet them?

I love dance more than most things and I love the theatre and I love Christmas events and the chill and the lights and the bundling up and the letting go.

December is magical mostly. And seeing this production made it moreso. Go see live dance where you are. Anything. Just go. You will be amazed.

Cold and Magic.

2010-12-10T13:08:00.001-05:00

Though we often think of magic as FIRE and SPARKLE and wands that ZAP things into frogs or bunnies, magic occurs in the cold for me. A sunset on a beach is stunning and pretty, but walking in the snow in a large city with Christmas lights everywhere and hearing the silence all around, that is magic. Being under loads of covers with a lover while the temps outside are in the 20's, that is magic. Skiing down a hillside and knowing that you are forced to be in the present and one with the mountain, that is magic. There is no time to create TO-DO list whilst careening!

Noticing people scurrying and kids throwing snowballs and Currier and Ives-style sleading in Central Park. That is SO magic. I have seen it and I wept. I feel alive in the cold. I feel exhilarated with the chill and the promise of warmth and home and hearth and soup. SOUP is magic. It just is! Lovers are magic. A tree with lights to me is simple joy. I feel so blessed to have experinced all of this. And being alive is magic in itself.

Bundle up. Put on gloves and a hat and a scarf and notice things. Really notice. Celebrate the magic. Take a lover. Get some soup! Marvel at lights. Wonder. Ski. Sled. Watch the snow outside the window of the Met.

Drone on....

2010-12-08T09:06:00.005-05:00

Today I like being a drone in New York City. By that I mean one of the many ants who funnel down the subway stairwells and huddle onto a sardine cansiter of a train car and reappear out of some other stairwell elsewhere to scurry into a building, flash a card and pack into an elevator to finally have some individuality in a cubicle overlooking a sea of other buildings with other individuals in cubes.

"Another Hundred People Just Got Off of the Train." Indeed.

By droning lately I feel part of the Manhattan (wait for it)...zeitgeist. I feel like saying to my subway neighbor who has her purse pressing into my thigh, "Hey neighbor, I commute too! Isn't it great?!" But she is listening to her ipod and reading a kindle. But I know, I KNOW we would have a great conversation if we met and her story of getting here to NYC would make me laugh and she would like mine. That is comforting.

Today right after we got to the 28th Street stop and newbies boarded, I heard "Hey Joe!!" I tell you New York City is a small town. It happens to me all the time. And I am a real newbie.

So today I will work in my cube and try to make eye contact with someone from another department in the break room and regardless of whether I am successful or not I will relish this day as part of the hive that is this buzzing, vibrant, thrilling Manhattan.

Put Up a Parking Lot

2010-09-22T08:15:00.000-04:00

Coming home from band practice on Monday night on the Southern State Parkway. Eddie driving. Me looking at my iphone and tapping on it like an obsessive monkey. The traffic comes to a halt. And that is where it stayed.

Usually there is a halt, then inching, then more inching and then you see that someone in a really short skirt is standing by while her boyfriend is changing a tire and that was the whole mishegas. But this night was different. There was no movement, like a cadaver. Finally some alpha car turns its engine off and eventually we all do. People get out of their cars to "see what they can see" and it looks like the setting of a sci-fi film.

I step out and look around. I see nothing but more and more cars all dark like we are in the Hollywood Bowl stacked parking. I call Jeff. We chat. He is in a comfy bed in a hotel in Chicago. I am standing indefintely on the Soithern State Parkway about to write a ballad about the whole thing.

Eddie is in the car talking to his girlfriend. When he gets off the phone I decide we need a photo so I can immediately Facebook it as if sending out a Bat Signal to be rescued as this incident has been totally ignored on the traffic report on the radio and we are in something with the dimensions of true carnage.

Why we are smiling I do not know.

Finally the police have everyone REVERSE on the parkway and drive down all the wrong ways and wrong entrances and we get back to dry land.

But now my 7 train is closed. Eddie drives me around like we are in the film AFTER HOURS and nothing. The poor guy who has to get up and teach early in the morning finally just drives me all the way home to Manhattan.

I get to bed at 1:30am.

White Christmas. Swellegant!

2010-09-16T21:45:00.000-04:00

Hello Folks. INCHING back into blog writing. I do miss it. And I miss YOU!

Tonight I had another "I Love this damn town where I live" moment. Through my friend David in LA I was invited to Philippe Lamesch's art exhibit at the Luxembourg Consulate on Beekman Place. Very, veddy posh address. It is the former mansion of Irving Berlin.

It was absolutely bucketing rain when I left my temp job at the law firm. Since I do not seem to check, I had no idea to even bring an umbrella. And I certainly could not bring the one I bought just the other day for such an occasion as I left it in a friend's car. Where it would be safe and I dry I am guessing. Nonetheless it settled down a bit and I made it across town to the swanky Beekman Place neighborhood.

Philippe is from Luxembourg but lives in Northern California. We became Facebook friends before we actually met tonight. So modern. What a lovely guy and talented. It was a great event all around. He introduced me to two other of David's friends, Jim and Carlos. We really hit it off and exchanged info. Carlos is even going to set me up with a work intro! How fantastic it is here!

The Best Night

2010-09-03T01:31:00.001-04:00

OMG. I just had the best night. I go to my friend Ed's 40th birthday. And I say friend because he is, but we only met once a few months ago at an Anti-violence fundraiser. (The pro-violence ones just gouge you at the bar, and the takeaway bags are shite.) Anyway, he is the cousin of a good friend of mine and it turns out he is an animation writer (Emmy nominated) and we know a lot of people in common including his agent. Today he got off a cruise ship with his partner and his parents and then he has this party at a restaurant tonight which I missed but I came for the after party at their apartment (they are bi-coastal) and there is a huge grand piano in this place and loads of people and it is not huge, but it is just a blast. I knew only Jorge, his partne, and Jeff. Jorge is a terrific host and my seltzer water is never low in the glass. We all get to talking and one of their friends has this condition where she can't forget anything. She remembers everything! Like the weather on June 7, 1983. She is going to be on 60 Minutes next month with 4 other people who have this "condition" (including Marylou Henner) and they are interviewed by Leslie Stahl. Can't wait. She was so nice and patient and interesting. Then a woman played this song that this guy sings about IKEA and her husband did voiceover work for Tippi Hedren and then we talked about speed dating and I explained how I met Jeff and about this small world story where his mother's best childhood friend was my mother's best high school friend. There was this guy named Chance and I told him that my sister always wanted to name her son Chance, but when she grew up and had a son she named him Mitch. He said Chance has been hard and he goes by his middle name David at restaurants because it is easier. And then I meet this woman who was in Alaska and Poland and is unemployed like me and we talk about spas in Arizona. The two of us leave the party together and run into this poet Rives in the subway whom she knows and we talk about poetry and that he is big in the poetry world (who knew?! ) and she was let go from TED and lives in Brooklyn and has no idea what she wants to do next, but she is funny as hell and pretty and I am convinced that she can do just about anything. The we get to my stop and I leave. Fin.

Cagney and Lacey Conundrum

2010-08-17T17:59:00.000-04:00

Using "Cagney and Lacey" as an example of anything certainly dates one. (But then why doesn't quoting Shakespeare date one?)

Thou digresseth too much...

Cagney and Lacey was cancelled in 1983 and there was such a huge letter writing campaign by viewers (Yes, Virginia, there was no email/internet) that CBS brought it back for 5 more successful years.

As I mentioned I had thought to stop this blog as I wanted to go onto another as yet not thought up, more directed, more marketable, about something blog.

I got an outpouring of letters from my 13 readers and this helped convince me to keep going. I have no idea if I will write every day as before, but I still want to talk about New York and New Media and New Me.

Thank you for the input all. And I value whatever else you got!

Remember, however, I am only one man, and Cagney and Lacey were two.

Thank you, Peter Brown

2010-08-13T11:51:00.000-04:00

It is a funny thing "giving up." It can go many ways. Just when Al Pacino is about to give up the mafia life in Godfather III he is "dragged back in." When Jimmy Stewart is about to jump off that bridge in "It's a Wonderful Life" and end it all, Clarence the Angel comes along and saves him from himself.

And just as I was about to throw away "Man.Hat.In" entirely after many years of daily posts I got a note from Peter Brown, author and writing instructor, whom I do not know from a farthing who said he liked my piece on The Irish American Historical Society. (Okay he didn't say he "liked it" he thanked me for my description of it, but still, SOMEONE READ MY BLOG and it had an effect. ) I was about to leap off the cyber bridge and Clarence in the form of Peter Brown saved me.

I do not want to give up blogging. I do not want to give up being an "incfluencer" in my small way. I want to get better at it and bigger at it.

So thank you, Peter Brown, for pulling my keyboard from the ledge and finding me in Google search and reacting to something I wrote.

"I love you old Irish American Historical Society!"

I am going to come back bigger and stronger and more focussed.

But on what? And when?

Dear 13 Readers

2010-08-13T11:36:00.000-04:00

Since September 2007 I have written every single day on this blog. Then this past month I just started to flag and feel lost in where to go with it. I really want to start a blog about something more specific, something more marketable that I could sink my teeth into and be an expert on. Any ideas? For some reason I think it will involve digital media and/or New York.

Rockland County Feis

2010-07-18T09:58:00.013-04:00

The pipe band I play(ed) in became Eastern United States Pipe Band Champions in Grade 3 yesterday. I wasn't there. I am only champion adjacent. But I was really happy to hear it.

Today they competed at the Rockland County Feis and won by a landslide let's say. They played really well. I was there. But on the sidelines. I am having medical difficulties - I can't blow. (Insert all your jokes here and let's move on.)

I could write a whole blog entry on the psychology of playing music and competition and group sports, etc. There is something in my brain that cannot get on board at this moment. It was so odd being here today and being on the team, but not really. No one made me feel not included except myself. They really are a bunch of great people who are truly keen. I admire that.

I think everyone should have to check back in with themselves every 5 years to see they are still wanting to stay in their job, marriage, pipe band, city, blazer with the different-colored lapels, etc. Sometimes we forget to check back in and sometimes we forget to leave.

I will always love the pipes, but I don't know if I can play with pleasure any more. That is a though one to get my ahead around. Am I just having a hard 15 years or do I really not want to play anymore?

Oh, here is their winning performance:

Census and Sensibilities

2010-07-17T09:47:00.012-04:00

Hot as hell in NYC today. Others are jumping in rivers and lakes and doing pagan dances around fire hydrants spaying water joyously.

I am sitting in a US Census meeting. One fan. And it isn't me. Drenched. My t-shirt looks like I entered a contest in a bar sponsored by Jagermeister. There is droning about Form #49283XBF and the matter of the RUV-83DE project. I just want my answer what do about the asshole doorman on 21st Street who is ruining my life. Instead I sit and fester and marinate.

Census work is not for the weak of heart. It is for the unemployed.

Empire State Building

2010-07-16T20:39:00.001-04:00

This is all I am saying about my night in New York City.

From Hand Wringing to Hand Holding.

2010-07-15T20:31:00.012-04:00

Holding hands in the movies should be the right of all people the world o'er. Holding someone else's hand, I mean.

Probably one of the lovliest things I have experienced in recent memory.

I looked down and noticed his hand in mine and all felt right with the world for that moment. Except for the film, frankly.

Jimmy Webb

2010-07-14T20:22:00.016-04:00

Went with my friend Ellie to see Jimmy Webb tonight as part of the wonderful River to River Festival that is put on every summer here in New York. It is one of those corporate-sponsored free summer concert series that cities put on to keep middle-aged white people off the streets and out of trouble during the hot months.

I had never heard of Jimmy Webb but I found out he wrote "Up, Up and Away" and "MacArthur Park." Wow. A bajillion people recorded him and he was fantastic. I crashed into my BAFTA colleague Gillian who was sitting with Jimmy's wife. Who knew?

Ellie and I then stole away for a fantastic dinner and post-game chat at The Palm in Tribeca. Wow, what a summer night. I didn't know I needed it, but I did.

Thanks, Ellie.

Up, Up and Away...

The Limelight

2010-07-13T22:33:00.008-04:00

Joni Mitchell wrote about paving paradise and putting up a parking lot and it was very strange to walk by the Limelight Marketplace on 6th Avenue and 20th Street in Chelsea. I had read that they had turned this former church into a shopping arcade and wanted to just go in and see for myself. I got an odd vibration that was not spiritual.

The place is full of coffee and pasta and cute rubber rain boots and probably candles and some handmade $7 greeting cards, but no batik. Lot of wee stalls that I will probably never need/use. But that is me. (If you want a tin of biscuits for $36 dollars or a handmade tailored shirt to get you over the hump until you finally get a job go here I guess. )

It was not weird because I use to worship here, but because I used to dance here! Okay, I danced here once.

Long before it was a shopping arcade this deconsecrated church was a popular nightclub called The Limelight. And long before I knew I was gay, I remember dancing here with my shirt off. And this was long before I knew I should not dance with my shirt off ever. It was full of disco music and sweaty men and probably Grace Jones. Much like my ipod is today.

Now it sells gelato. Which is far better than it being torn down for parking.

But boy looking up at the vaulted ceiling and remembering sipping a madras on a pew, I thought "What was I thinking?!"

Trader Joes Comes to Chelsea

2010-07-13T22:33:00.000-04:00

As a California boy and one who went to university in Los Angeles, Trader Joe's and I have been together a long time. In fact my CA friends and I call it "Trader Gods" because we kind of worship it. Moving to Manhattan was a SHOCKER when I found out there was only one on the ENN-TIRE, SEE-MENT island! Now there is another and what a welcome sight.

I went in and marvelled at the widest aisles I have seen in years and the high ceilings and the no snaking lines throughout the store. I will have affection for 14th Street, but I think Chelsea TJ's is my trophy wife.

Fire in the Hole

2010-07-12T22:11:00.006-04:00

Loads of firetrucks came to my corner this afternoon. Smoke was billowing. Okay, really maybe just wafting. Frankly it was simply rising out of the grills coming from the subway below. They sprayed and I think that did the trick. Jaded new New Yorker that I am I didn't hang out long enough to find out.

I am a CNN Talking Head. Finally

2010-07-07T23:31:00.021-04:00

Last week I was playing my pipes along the Hudson River (or trying to play them - this is a related story to my PANIC attacks.) and this CNN van pulls over and a guy comes at me with a microphone and a cameraman. (How MANY erotic dreams have I had over and over about this very scenario?! It so beats the dirty French maid or Caveman meets Octopus. Have a shared too much? )

Anyway, it is Richard Roth and it seems he wants to interview me about Queen Elizabeth coming to New York to speak at the UN and tour Ground Zero. I have to tell him I had no idea that the Queen is coming to New York. He is nonplussed about my cluelessness and procedes to ask me quesitons about my heritage, my bagpipes, the Queen, why I am so scruffy and wearing an Iowa Hawkeyes t-shirt and how I could possibly be single and unemployed with my movie star looks and clear talent.

Okay he didn't ask me all those things, but this is what ended up in the piece - my queeny wave.

Enjoy

Thanks Sean for shooting and editing this with iphone 4.

Panic in Penn Station

2010-07-06T23:24:00.005-04:00

I am in Penn Station waiting to take the train to band practice on Long Island. There are people swirling around like "Another 100 people just got offa the train" and my heart goes into my mouth, my head starts spinning, I feel like the right side of my face is falling back to January 2009 levels of Bell's Palsy sunkeness and I realize I cannot get on that train. I stagger like a drunk man holding a bagpipe case (this is not an unusual sight at all in Glasgow Central) and I make it back to the subway and home. Shaken. And stirred.

New York is getting under my skin.

Day & Night - Pixar Short

2010-07-05T11:38:00.002-04:00

Sean and I went to see "Toy Story 3" on a hot summer night in New York. They showed this short before the film (which is Pixarific, by the way) called "Day and Night." It was initially confusing to see where they were going with it and then it blossomed into just a lovely, lovely short. Wow. A major achievement.

Fireworks Along the Hudson

2010-07-04T11:35:00.005-04:00

Got home to New York to watch the awesome fireworks from my roof. I think this is the first time I have been in the city for this. Which seems impossible, but I think it is true. Loved it.

The Alamo, Day 2

2010-07-03T11:34:00.002-04:00

The Alamo

2010-07-02T11:32:00.002-04:00

Snow Globes

2010-07-01T11:11:00.010-04:00

Getting on an airplane at LaGuardia and this was the sign.

My friend Pat wrote on my Facebook wall when I posted this: "If they don't let us take our snow globes on airplanes, the terrorists have won."

Just sucks for all those tourists who carry on and collect snow globes. Oh and the snow globe industry. That has got to suck. But there is a silver lining. You can buy snow globes in the airport stores once you have passed the security check.

My globe is always half full.

Central Park

2010-06-30T11:07:00.004-04:00

I went to visit my friend Mary in hospital and passed through the northeast part of Central Park. This is the part I am in the least. What a beautiful day out and what a great feeling it was to be part of it. And the icing was seeing Mary recovering so nicely. All is well today in my New York.

The Kids Are All Right

2010-06-29T11:01:00.010-04:00

Went to a screening of "The Kids Are All Right" tonight. Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and the director Lisa Cholodenko were there for a Q &A afterwards. I cannot remember a film I liked so much in recent history. It was really well done and did not go to the eye-rolling areas it could have. It was so good in fact that it made me miss Los Angeles! That is really saying something.

Mental Health Walk - Washington Square Park

2010-06-28T14:25:00.005-04:00

Gay Pride - NYC

2010-06-27T14:19:00.001-04:00

A new form of advertising. Someone seems to like it.

Tammy Grimes

2010-06-26T06:02:00.001-04:00

Ellie, my connection to all things celebrity in New York, took me as her guest to see two-time Tony Award-winning Broadway legend and first wife to Captain Von Trapp/Leo Tolstoy and mother of madwoman from "Pulp Fiction" Amanda Plummer, at the Metropolitan Room in Chelsea.

Ellie and Tammy have been friends for years and we had amazing front and center seats to see her show. In the category of "New York keeps getting smaller for me" we sat right next to legendary Glasgow-born photographer, Harry Benson. I had met him at his show and reception in SOHO during Scotland Week. It was great to see him again and meet his charming wife Gigi. She is Texan and really wonderful. Anyway, this was supposed to be about Tammy, but click on Harry Benson and you will be amazed at the photos that you know that he shot. What a life!

Tammy Grimes has that distinctive voice. It was no wonder she was asked to replace Glynnis Johns in "A Little Night Music" She has a much better voice, but they both went to the warbly school of eccentric voices and it is an alluring one to hear.

I felt for her as she forgot lots of lyrics, but she was still in good voice at 76 and looks wonderful. It was a pleasure.

Dating

2010-06-25T08:32:00.031-04:00

I will be cryptic here. Intentionally. I always think cryptic is intentional, but often it is unintentional and sometime pathological.

No earth shattering news here:

I went out on a date. We played tennis and went to dinner. Normal. Fun even!

It was a fourth date if anyone is counting. I like dating.

That was not cryptic, that was lying. I hate dating.

Well, not dating so much. I hate the not being able to see the bubble over the other person's head and I spend so much time looking for it that I can miss the moment. And my own feelings on the matter.

I wrote on my Facebook status once what was in my head and I thought was a funny joke: "I'll like you if you like me!" Sadly, this is only half a joke.

Dating is about discovery. But I seem to think it is about destiny. It is not. It is about getting to know the other person and seeing if it is a match. Sadly I seem to need to be hit over the head. Nothing less than skywriting and a singing telegram (lyrics that you composed yourself) will prove to me that you are into this. Sigh.

But there is no bubble and there is no skywriting. I am flying solo on this thing and must learn that if it is working it is working.

But what does "working" mean exactly?

Ann Craven

2010-06-25T06:49:00.000-04:00

Ann Craven for you losers who are not hip and do not know is a really hot artist who had a show recently at Macarone in the West Village in New York. The New Yorker wrote up a really glowing piece about her and this show, but I cannot find it on line to link it for you. Who is the loser now?

I only say losers to elevate myself. I didn't know who she was until I was introduced to her by my friend Ellie. We had lunch with her and her artist partner, Peter Halley. What a great afternoon that was.

We went to see her show today and it was wonderful. Wonderful!

She painted a series of roses in a vase. These large scale, almost monochrome, paintings were hung in one room and in an adjacent gallery hung their mirror images that the artist did from memory. The whole effect was quite striking. I am sad for some reason that this whole rose family cannot stay together and pieces from the show are sold individually.

BAFTA Digital Media Panel

2010-06-24T08:19:00.001-04:00

Tonight was the night after mucho dates switches and hard work.

I produced (with the help of many) a panel called "Master Class: Who Changed the Channel: the Digital Media Landscape in 2010." It was for BAFTA East Coast. The event was held at this great space called The Scandinavia House on Park Avenue South which has a wonderful theatre and a lovely reception area with outdoor space. (Not to mention Scando store and restaurant!)

I could not have asked for a better panel or moderator. The conversation was lively, interesting and much more in depth that I had imagined. I learned a lot.

Here was my excellent line up:

Moderator:

Shelly Palmer. Host of "Digital Life with Shelly Palmer"

Panelists:

Rob Barnett, Founder and CEO, My Damn Channel

Albie Hecht,  CEO, Worldwide Biggies

Kenny Miller, Co-Founder, Starling TV

Emil Rensing, Chief Digital Officer, EPIX

They were asked by Shelly what one website they are excited about right now and here is the list for your perusal:

ob Barnett of "My Damn Channel" http://cheezburger.com/

Albie Hecht of " Worldwide Biggies' https://www.wizard101.com/

Kenny Miller of "Starling TV" http://cuteoverload.com/

Emil Rensing of "EPIX" http://www.cryingwhileeating.com/

Summer in the City

2010-06-23T09:37:00.031-04:00

Tonight was one of those magical, all-is-possible New York summer nights. My friend Jerry, who is on the board for the Anti-Violence Project, invited me to their summer fundraiser at the historic Stonewall Inn in the West Village.

The joint was hopping and once I got past "Everyone is SO young" and "It is SO loud," I met a load of really great people and had a ball. (Once again a good attitude is KEY, I find. And then I don't find and have to find again.)

A cousin of Jerry's is Ed Valentine. He is a writer and nominated for a daytime Emmy this year. In fact he is on a plane tomorrow to LA to see if he and his writing partners win. Good luck tomorrow, Ed.

From my years in children's television we knew so many people in common. I even know his agent!

I saw my pal Sam and met some dear Facebook friends. I met one guy once before and he told me he loves my postings! So modern this Facebook - To know me by my blurbs is to know me. He told me that he went to Kenya, but I knew that.

Christine Quinn, City Council Speaker, spoke and she was wonderful. What a good speaker. I was impressed how well she knew her audience, topic, etc. when she has to speak to so many different groups. To be on-topic, on-message and warm and friendly and compassionate and sensitive is a skill. believe. Or read about so many politicians who don't have an ounce of it.

I walked out into the summer night a BUZZ with people and life and the credits rolled and the camera lifted on a crane and I walked happily home.

New York City - No End of Rope

2010-06-22T10:53:00.002-04:00

If one were between jobs is New York City a good place to be?

It is expensive as hell. But you don't need a car.

It is a have/have not competitive jungle. But you can pay a dollar to get into the Met.

Central Park has benches/Central Park has benches.

Lately (like for a long ass while) I have had no new ideas. This makes me panic.

In the movie version of this there is an inciting incident (like war, kidnapping, switched briefcase, dropped glove, missing glass slipper) that gets the protagonist moving after being totally beaten in the knees and he then gets the job/girl/boy/houseboat/key to the city/release of prisoners/secret recipe/cure/magic powers/operation/buried treasure/recognition by his peers.

Someone asked me if I would go back to California since this is "not working out." Like jobs are falling off trees in California.

In many ways it IS working out. I love it here. I am happy here.

If one has to be between jobs, New York is an excellent place to be. When I crawl from under a rock in Central Park I see that there are endless possibilities here. It never ends. Something goes away, something else replaces it.

This includes careers. There is something out there for me. That I could love, that I am good at. Gotta keep looking.

Or get kidnapped by aliens and learn to love again.

Father's Day

2010-06-20T15:23:00.003-04:00

Oh right. It's Father's Day.

For me it hasn't been Father's Day for 15 years. Fifteen years I have been "fatherless." Funny, because writing it can only sound sad-sackish, woe-is-me--ish. I don't feel that way.

15 ties.

I feel hazy. I feel graspy, but not done wrong.

15 pair of socks.

I don't feel fatherless, as in lacking.

But I don't feel fatherful either. I definitely don't feel fatherful.

You have faded a bit, Dad. Can you even believe that? I can't hear you. Can you speak up? Maybe we got a bad connection.

I see your seersucker robe, I can feel your beard stubble, but your voice, it is distant Dad.

15 cards and 15 phone calls.

No disrespect to dear old dad. When I think about him, which is often, I miss him deeply. He was a huge influence in/on my life. Sadly a very untapped resource. I feel I could have learned so much, but I spent a good portion of time away from him trying to "fix myself." Sad because I really think we would have had some great times.

15 Cats. 15 Cradles.

Sure, we had great times, well good times, but how good can they have been when we were both hiding behind the dog or the tease or the Joe's of Westlake steak dinner?

Being back in Ireland at his mum's house and seeing the historic doorway where he told my mum something for the first time in 1970. Wow, I know why my mother said I was just like him.

Happy Father's Day, Dad. I miss you and I thank you. See you around? Come on over, I got nothing to hide and I can make you a sandwich and we can talk about New York back in the Day. I will even go to a Yankees game though I know you supported the Giants when you were here.

But like you, they left town. They went somewhere else.

popchips.

2010-06-19T15:45:00.000-04:00

My friend Michael works for popchips.

Very e.e. cummings.

I always photograph the bags in stores and send them to him. My fave is the one I sent from the desplay in the cafe at the Met.

I recently saw a discarded, empty bag of his product on the ground on 14th Street.

I thought it was good advertising and an idea for an odd marketing campaign where one would litter big cities with empty bags of popchips. People would see popchips bags discarded all over the place. It would get the name out there AND show people that folk were eating popchips by the cart load and what about you?!

"Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop, and Turn”

2010-06-18T13:49:00.000-04:00

A new exhibit opened at the National Museum of American Historian in Washington D.C. It is an exhibit about the art and history and how-to of pop-up books entitled: "Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop, and Turn.”

Some fantastic stuff is on display and I highly recommend you check this out.

I know this is not a New York event I am plugging, but a New York filmmaker and good friend of mine, Sean McGee, directed and produced the excellent video that loops during the exhibit.

The video explains in a straightforward manner how pop-up books are made and features another talent and friend, Chuck Fischer, a well-known pop-up book master.

The exhibit is on now until September 1, 2011, so no excuses! Plus it is DC so it is FREE!!

Play Me I'm Yours

2010-06-17T13:24:00.000-04:00

I was coming back from the Hudson River after a good practice session on my bagpipes (where else can a New York bagpiper practice? Ideas?) and I passed through the Chelsea Market to get some brown rice sushi. I saw a piano in there and a little girl was playing it. "How delightful," I thought.

It seems this is part of an art installation in New York by an English artist where pianos are placed all over the city now until July 5th. Check out locations and get more info here.

When we don't think we make a difference then you read that someone came up with this idea. And it is realized. And people connect with it.

I am always amazed by people and music. It is a love connection. And I really enjoyed this clip from England where this installation took place and they gathered all types and sang Hey Jude to someone playing the piano. It makes me realize how quickly it is all over and how lovely that meanwhile I can be a part of this.

Maybe we should leave bagpipes all over town?!!

Home

2010-06-16T20:30:00.000-04:00

Home for me is New York City. Today I am home.

But...Home is Ireland. Home is Scotland. Home is San Francisco.

I have a lot of homes (but no real estate!) for a lot of reasons, but where I choose to hang my hat (and not my head!) is New York.

That being said, when I was in Ireland outside my grandmother's house standing with my two cousins I knew that there was home there too. The "it's in me bones" factor happens in certain places for me very strongly and Ireland is one clearly. It is a longing feeling, but this time in a good way. A be/longing feeling, if you will.

****

Today I awoke not in Ireland as I had yesterday, but in Manhattan. Yesterday there were cows mooing outside my window; today, sirens. How can that be? It is called air travel, I know, but spiritually, emotionally it all seems wrong. Like one needs a detox or a re-entry program.

And people expect you to just get back into the swing ASAP. And I get that, but I can't do that.

But I picked myself up, started my day, got milk (from a deli fridge, not a cow) and no one gave two figs that I was walking through green fields thousands of miles away less than 24 hours ago. Nor should they.

These moments are for the individual only to cherish and notice. This bridging feeling and processing where I have been and what I experienced are for me alone.

As they are for you when when you go to Switzerland and try to tell me about eating muesli with Gretchen just 20 hours ago. I don't care, get back to work!!!

Cows

2010-06-15T18:05:00.001-04:00

I love cows. Don't get enough of cows in New York City.

La breithe shona dhuit, Tricia

2010-06-14T15:56:00.001-04:00

Patricia and I went to Lough Rynn Castle to have afternoon tea to celebrate her birthday today. What a place. Amazingly beautiful grounds, great service, and a glorious estate where people get married and have affairs. (But with sufficient time in between I am sure.)

This place was the home of Lord Leitrim under the British occupation. He did a lot to make this the magnificent estate and grounds what it is. But he was horrible to all his workers and tenant farmers. He, of course, was assassinated.

And now they have a lovely tea service.

All the best for a great year, dear friend. Happy Birthday.

My Pants - Leitrim, Ireland

2010-06-14T15:41:00.000-04:00

Gentleman Farmer- Leitrim, Ireland

2010-06-13T14:51:00.012-04:00

A hard day on the farm chopping wood and collecting peat for the fire. I worked up a big appetite for my breakfast.

Big City Boy

2010-06-12T06:55:00.000-04:00

I love, LOVE living in New York City. It is in me bones. I cannot imagine being away from the madness of it all for long. But being in the country where the cows replace the coppers and the subway is a good pair of walking shoes, well that gives me a sense of peace and a chance to regroup.

Here in Leitrim there are cows a plenty and peat fires and tea and toast and good craic. For today that is all I seek.

I leave the rest with the doorman.

Fidelma - Mythical Island Princess

2010-06-12T04:03:00.000-04:00

My cousin Fidelma will not allow me to take her photo. She certainly wouldn't want it posted here.

Though I cannot visually prove I even have a cousin Fidelma, those out there in cyberland will just have to believe.

This mythical cousin in this mythical country.

I would not really be here in Ireland if it weren't for our friendship in so many ways. I feel blessed that we got to know each other after my mum died and I was able to come back to Ireland to a family wedding. It started it all. She came out to New York City and here I am back for another family wedding.

This time we started our genealogy investigations and we got to have longer to hang out and chat. I liked that a lot.

I think she thinks I am insane and I think she is insane and that is why it works.

She is a woman of a lot of words and few words. Here are some: "Hm." "Mm." Mm-mm" and the two-syllable negation: "No-ah!"

Here are some expressions that I learned from her that I quite like:

A reaction to therapy: "Build a bridge and get over it."

A reaction to being taken advantage of: "I was born at night, but not last night."

Today I had to say goodbye after such a great visit. I will miss her, but I will see her again somewhere and that is good.

Fidelma's shoes.

Mm.

Carlingford, Co. Louth

2010-06-11T22:32:00.000-04:00

Fidelma, Declan and meself took a drive north of Dublin to the stunning village of Carlingford, Co. Louth.

I was happy because they had never been there before and then happier because I was there and got to see this place.

It is one of those towns that location scouts would check out as the possible place to shoot one of those cheesy romantic comedies where Gerard Butler is about to marry a local girl to please his parents who are convinced that these same nuptials will finally break the 300 year old curse against the family, but an antique buyer from Salem, MA (played by Jennifer Aniston of course) is on the run from a broken heart seeks refuge in Carlingford and knocks over Gerard's sausage purchase at the local victualler straight out his hands while trying to text her business partner back home about this amazing chest that they must buy from the craggy local innkeeper played by Milo O'Shea. Gerard and Jen fall in love, but the village is convinced she is a witch and come to wreak havoc. Comedy and romance ensues.

Newgrange

2010-06-11T15:10:00.000-04:00

Newgrange: created when Stonehenge couldn't tell time and the Pyramid of Giza was a just a twinkle in a Sphinx's eye.

Fidelma's, Dunshaughlin

2010-06-11T11:27:00.000-04:00

My cousin Fidelma and my common law cousin Declan took me to Fidelma's in Dunshaughlin this morning for a fry, or fry up or proper Irish breakfast. Whatever you want to call it.

This place already has deserved write-ups on-line and I heard from my other cousins that I would never be able to eat the large fry. (Like the Three Little Bears they offer the large, medium and small frys)

The large consists of:

Two eggs
4 rashers of bacon
4 sausages
Black pudding
White pudding
Tomato
Mushrooms
Brown bread
Hashbrowns
Toast
and.....chips!!

Save for some of the ample portion of chips I ate it all!!! It was a triumph. And not only is this breakfast HUGE, heart attack-inducing and all around piggy, it is excellent! I will think about this place and come here every time I come "home." It is that good.

Wicklow Mountains

2010-06-10T19:59:00.032-04:00

The Wicklow Mountains National Park was spectacular today. We went hiking in about 1/1000 of it and it was magnificent. The whole area was great: Glendalough, Laragh, Enniskerry. We saw the Powerscourt Estate and had a drink at the famous Johhnie Fox's Pub.

Life is grand...

Dublin

2010-06-09T06:44:00.024-04:00

Fidelma took me into the big city today. I love Dublin and all the people watching here. We walked all over and just had a ball. We went to the Dublin Writers Museum which is one of my favorite places here. And past the famous Gate Theatre.

And then to St Patrick's and Christchurch. We got to see the Book of Kells at Trinity and the magnificent library. They moved the book since last I was here!

(a rare photo of me cousin Fidelma. But in her natural habitat: on the phone.)

O'Connell Street and its bridge.

Lunch in Temple Bar area.

And a walk to Merrion Square and Oscar Wilde's house.
He and I have a LOT in common. Especially wit!

Back to the Future

2010-06-08T05:47:00.062-04:00

My cousin Justin took me and my cousin Fidelma on a journey through our family's past. My big hope was to find out more about my grandmother whom I never knew. And to find out more about her older brother John who moved to the States and according to us was never heard from again.

We set out for Cavan and went first to Mullagh where my Uncle Alphonsis and Aunt Annie are buried along with their son, my cousin, Father Michael. It was very moving on this wet day standing there and remembering them all.

Then we took off to my cousin Seán's house where I got to see my cousins Ann and Uná and 3rd cousin Shauna and Jack and Alex. Seán even took me out to show me his amazing Angus cattle. Black and sleek and beautiful.

My truly spectacular cousin Justin with a local friend.

Justin then took us to the Hyannisport of the Ward Family, Baileborough, Cavan This is where my grandmother was born and we got to see the house.

We also went to the grave of Fidelma and my great-grandparents, Michael and Maggie. It has a great story behind it about the stolen headstone of a priest! Ah, the Wards!

The biggest surprise was popping round to see our cousin Philomena. So many of our mysteries were solved. Our Uncle John who vanished? "Oh, sure he died in Ft. Lauderdale. He was married twice (his first wife died) and your cousin Dierdre knows all about it. Oh and here are his wedding photos." As my cousin Justin says, "UnbeLIEVEable."

Les belles tantes: Pat, Phil, Mona and Lou

But much like Dorothy when the Lion and the Tin Man and the Scarecrow are taken care of, I still did not get anything conclusive on my grandmother. Philomena showed me photos that she said were of my grandma and grandpa, but I don't think so. She is going to ring a cousin up the road who I found out my grandma used to write to his mum! This is key. So the trail is not dead.

Are you my grandma?

We finished off the day with an excellent dinner at my cousin Grainne's house. Such a great family, her husband Thomas and kids Amy and Kevin. Their house sits on a hill overlooking a lake and loads of green.

As sappy as it sounds, wherever you are here, you are home.

My great, great grandma's hoos!

Bloom, Dublin

2010-06-07T07:21:00.027-04:00

My cousin Fidelma and my common-law cousin-in-law, Declan took me to Dublin today to Phoenix Park to go to Bloom, the Chelsea Flower Show of Ireland.

Unlike the wedding day, today was a dreich, miserable kind of day, but we had a great time. The grounds were beautiful and the highlight for me was seeing the walled Victorian kitchen garden that Declan oversaw the creation of. Lovely flowers and rows of veg that are grown organically and sustainably to be used in the restaurant right next door.

Declan is the youngest foreperson in Phoenix Park's history and he and his colleagues did an amazing job with this garden. Declan had his photo taken with the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese AND he was interviewed on an RTE's programme, Nationwide about the President and the park.

I met a couple in the park sitting under a tree. The woman was holding an umbrella and they were having a picnic in the pouring rain. I thought it looked like such a classic "Irish picnic" I asked to take their photo and we got to talking. Sean gave me a radish he grew himself and Laura offered me some capers. We saw them later in the park and Sean said "Hello, Pat" and I said hi back to Sean and Laura as if we were old friends to the amazement of my local cousins.

The Dog, the Knight and the Castle

2010-06-06T07:00:00.008-04:00

As is fitting of Irish weddings we all stayed the night at the castle (ie NO DRIVING) and got up to a great Irish breakfast and a lovely luncheon. I tell you I have never had a better time laughing and telling stories than around the luncheon table. Brilliant. Gas!

Cabra Castle is and old estate and befitting it has an Irish wolfhound and a Knight. My newly married cousin Corinne posed with him like he was her knight, Denis.

Wedding Day

2010-06-05T04:30:00.021-04:00

T-shirt weather in Ireland is a rarity and to have it on your wedding day is a miracle. Corinne and Denis were definitely shined upon today. We had lovely weather at the church in Kilbride, Co Meath. So lovely in fact, my cousin Justin, Corinne's da had a ice cream van serving vanilla ice cream and fresh strawberries to all the guests upon exiting the church. (I think a Mr. Softee van could increase church attendance!)

Corinne was lovely and the wedding a wonderful.

I took off in the limo with the bridesmaids (planned, I was the piper!) and we crossed counties to Cavan and arrived at the reception at Cabra Castle.

I got see loads of rels and had a great time at such a wonderful feast and celebration.

My wee cousin Justin had the time of his life getting drenched in the chocolate fountain. He was quite proud of his messy self! What a lad.

What I Should Be Eating

2010-06-04T04:24:00.006-04:00

We jokingly served my cousin Corinne some lettuce and a cucumber slice the day before her wedding. I have been eating so much food over here I think I am still in Vienna! Must stop or I will never get back into my clothes, those ones hanging in the back of the closet remembering lighter days.

Arrival

2010-06-03T06:41:00.003-04:00

My lovely cousins Fidelma and Aileen were waiting for me at the gate. No fancy sign painted, but what do you want?

The sun was out in full blaze and I could not believe I was in Ireland in a t-shirt. And I could have worn shorts. Amazing.

We went out for lunch and here is my first meal in Ireland.

Meat - Check
Potato- Check
Boiled veg - Check

Airport

2010-06-02T06:34:00.010-04:00

What a gauntlet to get to JFK. I got on the A train at 14th Steet with a suitcase, a computer and a set of bagpipes all for one low fare of $2.25 to JFK. (there will be a $5 charge ahead for the airtrain, but at $7.25 this is the way to go.) It seems I always try this at rush hour. Loads of people and I have what looks like trunks for an Atlanitc crossing right at the door of the subway since there are no seats. I become one of those people I hate, but there was nothing that could be done.

I got to the airport and the queue for the baggage check (AFTER getting my boarding pass and having the nice lass allow me on with overweight baggage!) was around the block. They finally moved us to 3 other screeners before we got through. I left my house at 5:45 and was at the gate at 8:15pm.

This is all very fascinating. But I am here and ready to fly to the old country and see the rels. Excited.

Pathattanhenge

2010-06-01T08:50:00.001-04:00

I know there is a thing called "Manhattanhenge" that happens like twice a year where the sun lines up with the East/West Streets in New York, but I don't think today was the day. Though it looked like it to me. The sun was setting just as I was walking back home from Gramercy Park and there was this ball of fire in the middle of the street, or that is what it looked it. In the photo you can just see a taxi on the right. So though it was the not the proper day for the event, it was my own event.

And on your left, Obsession...

2010-05-31T08:54:00.015-04:00

You ever think about someone you don't want to think about because it causes pain and then you are out and about and hit all the spots that remind you of that person as if you are on a bus tour of their life? (Gosh, I hope you do, because I always do and I don't want to feel like a freak out here!)

Like "Oh here is the place where we had that pizza and then right on this corner we kissed when that guy was arguing with this wife and here is the Moroccan restaurant where he said that thing that I thought meant....."

Anyway, I had one of those days and it sucked, but I know from many previous obsessions that it passes.

Like gallstones.

Sweet Smell of Success

2010-05-30T16:32:00.012-04:00

Sunday night alone in the big city. A dog, a cat, me. The city shimmering at dusk outside my window. I pulled out the DVD "Sweet Smell of Success" as I had never seen it and it was wonderful. Great music, great lines, great acting and just awful people!

But the thing I loved the most was it was shot on the streets of New York. Real New York. Not backlot Burbank New York. And in 1957! Times Square never looked better. Burt Lancaster's character lived in the famous Brill Building which is still there. I am continually seduced by jazzy B & W New York. There were a bunch of scenes at 21 with its figures outside which still stand today. Fancy. I will go there someday.

It was all a rush and I loved it.

Then I took my teeth out and went to bed. Alone. In the big, mean city.