A Year In New York

My colleague Rebecca and I stepped onto the Pelham-bound train with our eyes darting suspiciously this way and that. Just moments before we had left our seats at the Union Square movie theater, where we saw “The Taking of Pelham 123.” Taking the subway after seeing that movie is akin to watching “Deliverance” right before [...]

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New York has so much music that it regularly bursts out of the auditorium and into the streets. For your enjoyment, here’s a sampler of some of the best found performances I saw this year. Which is your favorite?

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I knew something was up when I biked by The Lake in Central Park and saw no fewer than ten rowboats afloat, each carrying exactly one man and one woman. And all the lovers were white. How strange. Also, what sort of romantic spark causes people to paddle out on a chilly, overcast Monday at [...]

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The other night I attended a fundraiser at Greenhouse, the SoHo club that claims to be New York’s first eco-disco. The rumors said Stevie Nicks would be there. Even more than her purring vocals, I sought a bigger hit:  Can a hipster nightclub really be “sustainable,” or is it an illusion?

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In March the Union Square farmer’s market is a meager proposition: onions, potatoes, and some apples. I spent a more fruitful time having a guy write me a poem.
“What do you want your poem to be about?” Benyomin Spaner asked.

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The announcement appeared on the refrigerator: “A Brazilian Television Show Is Here at 2 p.m. Today to Do a Segment on Paragraph. Anyone Interested in Being Interviewed, Tell Lila.”

The Brazilians didn’t arrive until three, I observed as I pretended to read a book in the corner of the lunchroom. They bustled in fresh and laughing, [...]

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Many moons ago, on my first trip to New York, some good friends (that’s you, Mike and Dan!) took me to see this new show in the East Village called the Blue Man Group. The Blue Men’s blend of vaudeville and gadgetry, combined with loads of toilet paper, just knocked my socks off. I wasn’t [...]

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Of all the genres on television, the one I dislike most might be the early-morning news show. It goes beyond the shallow banter and the insipid theme music and down to an issue of trust: How can I believe anybody who is that chipper and talkative at seven in the morning?
Nevertheless, there I was, rolling [...]

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Yesterday the foodies converged on the Lower East Side for International Pickle Day. What, you missed it?
I went by the merest coincidence and found that thousands of people had beat me to it, strolling Orchard Street in the sun and stabbing at the sample trays with toothpicks. A jazzy trio played. Sales of pickle-themed T-shirts [...]

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We’ve all been to one of those performances where the actors yank some poor unsuspecting schlub out of the audience and poke and prod him so that others may laugh. Today, in the carnival atmosphere of Battery Park, the woeful schlub was me.

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