You are currently viewing the stories for July, 2005

Subway Redemption

by 07/30/2005
Neighborhood: West Village

It happened on an unseasonably mild February night around 9:30 between 23rd and Christopher Streets on the No. 1 train: I fell in love all over again on the New York City subway. I was on my way home from seeing a movie alone in Times Square, a depressing Oscar-nominated flick about a woman stuck […]

My Name in a Book of Matches

by 07/30/2005
Neighborhood: Brooklyn

I have lived in Brooklyn my entire life, but my name and number appear on little black books of matches all across the city. No, I’m not a slinky sultry hot babe whose name and number decorate bathroom walls and little match books in bars. You don’t “Call Sairy for a Good Time.” On the […]

The Crayola of Misfortune

by 07/30/2005
Neighborhood: Uncategorized

“Hey, can you spare some coin?” The guy sounded pleasant enough as he approached our car. Todd was tucking his spare keys into the ashtray and I was applying Mac lipstick (ooh baby) to the sounds of John Briggs (a local jazzy techno artist). We climbed out of Todd’s shiny 1998 Pathfinder, we were summer-drunk […]

Goose Bumps: Oil Fields and Air Conditioning at Film Anthology

by 07/24/2005
Neighborhood: East Village

It had been quite a long time since I’d last visited the Anthology Film Archives, that temple of avant-garde and everything cinema in the East Village. Last night, however, I lost my own personal battle with the heat and decided, fatigued and irritated, that a movie in the dark and cool of a film theater […]

Inhaling the Distractions on the Yellow Interstate

by 07/15/2005
Neighborhood: Uncategorized

Cops. The left lane is for passing only, did you know that? I must have forgotten since driver’s ed class, like I’ve forgotten to take speed limits seriously. Even when you literally can’t afford not to, even in daylight. Which I can’t and which it is. But I’m going ninety in the left lane and […]

Fairway, Once Green

by 07/15/2005
Neighborhood: Upper West Side

I go in the afternoon, before the hordes set in and children are let out from school. Your Fairway, my speedway, basket in hand, I dash past soft, yielding cheese;/crisp baguettes and spears of tender green, fast as I can. Racing through the crowded market, I avoid the stew of white-haired ladies with heavily laden […]

Justice at the Parking Meter

by 07/15/2005
Neighborhood: Upper East Side

12:15: Heading downtown in car for two o’clock appointment with lawyer. Half-listening to Leonard Lopate on WNYC. Callers telling stories of bizarre summonses for unfair parking tickets. Mentally pat self on back for six months ticket-free. Cop calls in. Defensive. Won’t give name. Claims cops have no ticket “quotas” to meet, just “production goals.” Claims […]

Bowling and Betrayal in 1964

by 07/12/2005
Neighborhood: West Village

Emil Schupp always sat on the same stool at the end of the counter in Artie’s Luncheonette at 223 West 14th Street. Artie was my father and he let me help out at the grill one summer. Every morning, same time, same stool, same toast and tea and tomato juice, Emil sat there for exactly […]

Rear Guard: Right Guard

by 07/12/2005
Neighborhood: Upper East Side

I stink. It’s not a good stink, musky, that hints of a hard workout but doesn’t offend. I’m offensive. I’ve been in New York for a month-and-a-half. I still haven’t done laundry. The one suitcase I brought held seven shirts, six pairs of boxers, four pairs of pants (one pair only for occasions), two pairs […]

Detroit Tourists

by 07/07/2005
Neighborhood: Uncategorized

For reasons that involve politics, religion and the pursuit of life’s persistent questions, I found myself gardening in front of my Church one Sunday afternoon in June 2005. First Church is located in Detroit, on the side of Forest Avenue where students rarely park, lest their cars turn up missing when they return from class. […]

My Life as a Kid: A Nostalgic Look Back on Raves in the 1990’s

by 07/07/2005
Neighborhood: Uncategorized

The first time I ever went to a rave it was in the old Packard Plant. I didn’t know the name of the Plant at the time, nor did I know where it stood in relation to the city at large. I was told that the event was “at Packard,” not realizing that this was […]

The House of Carpati

by 07/07/2005
Neighborhood: Midtown

For 10 years I lived in New York City in the House of Carpati. Moving to New York after college was an ideal next step for a person who wanted to be a magazine editor, so that’s what I did. After spending the summer post-grad as a nanny in Scarsdale, and then six weeks house […]