Cities - Talking Heads

Think of London, a small city

It's dark, dark in the daytime
The people sleep, sleep in the daytime
If they want to, if they want to

I'm checking them out
I'm checking them out
I got it figured out
I got it figured out
There's good points and bad points
Find a city
Find myself a city to live in.

There are a lot of rich people in Birmingham
A lot of ghosts in a lot of houses
Look over there!...A dry ice factory
A good place to get some thinking done

Down El Paso way things get pretty spread out
People got no idea where in the world they are
They go up north and come back south
Still got no idea where in the world they are.
Did I forget to mention, to mention Memphis
Home of Elvis and the ancient Greeks
Do I smell? I smell home cooking
It's only the river, it's only the river.

Jeremiah Moss - On Cities Changing

Jeremiah Moss's Vanishing New York blog has served me, and countless other New Yorkers like me, of the city's change for the worse.

His new book Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul, has been extremely helpful as I put in perspective my departure of New York City.  Both Jeremiah and I have been New Yorkers for the same period of over 20 years.  I believe we've crossed paths multiple times as we took in the vanishing bars, movie houses, bookshops, cafés, concert venues, and specialty shops.

Here's a passage from the conclusion of his book, which really struck a chord with me...

For generations, New Yorkers have both celebrated a grieved the city's changeability.  Harper's claimed in 1856 that New York is "never the same city for a dozen years together.  A man born in New York forty years ago finds nothing, absolutely nothing, of the New York he knew."  More recently, Colson Whitehead declared: "You are a New Yorker when what was there before is more real and solid than what is there now."  Fair enough.  But as I hope this book has illustrated, the nature of urban change has changed.  As Adam Gopnik put it, "Cities change.  It is their nature.  Those which stop changing stop being cities.  Cities that change entirely, though, cease to be themselves."  For years now, New York hasn't been itself.  It is being de-urbanized.  

goodbye new york

You may have seen it on social media if you follow me there, but it's official.  We're moving to Los Angeles in a few weeks.

I've lived in New York City for almost 22 years, and in that time I've had some incredible experiences.  I've never lived anywhere else longer than here, and it's bittersweet to leave friends and family behind.

So, due to opportunity out West, we've loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly.  Okay, not really.  We have people loading the truck (and packing) for us.  And we're moving to DTLA, which like everywhere in Los Angeles is only a 20 minute drive away.

I'd like to say a studio has bought the rights to this blog for a new Netflix series, but I can't really go into the details right now.  Also, that's not true.  But, we're driving across country with three cats, and if that's not material for a Nat Geo or Animal Planet live-streaming special, I don't know what is. 

Keep tuned to the blog here for updates, and if you follow me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, you'll probably get some live-video on there during the move and after.

I Still Love YouNEW YORK

This past July I celebrated my 20th anniversary as a resident of the greatest city in the world - NEW YORK, NEW YORK.

On today's somber anniversary, here's a lighter reflection on just some of the amazing experiences my move to New York City has afforded me...

- I've been yelled at, and sort of fired, by Harvey Weinstein...

- I partied with Rudy Giuliani at Gracie Mansion on the Fourth of July..

- Um, yeah. Okay. Worked for Lorne Michaels...

- Ended up in an amateur Beat poetry reading in a Greenwich Village apartment...

- Modeled for the cover of an R L Stine book...

- Programmed the movies and Warner Bros. cartoons for the Bryant Park Film Festival for two Summers...

- Helped develop a float for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade...

- Hung out backstage at Carnegie Hall with John Lithgow...

- Co-Created and Co-Host of one of New York City's first, and longest running comedy podcasts, mentioned by The Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine ...

- Directed Omar Sharif in a voice-over for a documentary...

- DJ'd in the basement bar of Times Square's "China Club"...

- Screened Attack of the 50 Foot Woman on the roof of the Brill Building...

- Introduced my nephew to New York City one great activity at a time...

- Interviewed on camera horror icons Kane Hodder and Robert Englund...

- Trained for a marathon, though ran the actual one in Chicago...

- Restored my vinyl collection from childhood one record at a time...

- Joined the New York chapters of the British Film Academy and the Emmys...

- Roasted my friend and podcast co-host Rachel Weiss on her 40th birthday...

- Attended a private party at the Friars Club...

- Introduced my niece to New York City one great activity at a time...

- Biked around the entire island of Manhattan, just for kicks...

- Adopted a few cats...

- Grew a mustache for charity with hundreds of thousands of other New York men...

- Helped launch the first-ever LGBTQ Comic-Con in New York...

- Performed Improv comedy with the People's Improv Theater...

- Performed a stand-up comedy set in the East Village...

And of course, best of all, I met some of the greatest friends of my life, especially my husband Craig...

 

Comedy Virgin

So I get this call from a friend in LA asking if I've ever done stand-up comedy before, to which I automatically answered with "absolutely not, no way."

Nevertheless, his friend Nicole got in touch and convinced me to be in her upcoming show VIRGIN SACRIFICE at this year's Fringe NYC.

The show comes direct from the WESTSIDE COMEDY THEATER in LA, where on the second Tuesday of every month, well known comedians like Jeff Garlin and Howie Mandell open for someone who has never done stand-up comedy before, and probably won't do it again.

Sounds great.

Actually, no, it sounds terrifying.  But I have a creed passed on from generation to generation that when somebody randomly calls and asks you to do stand-up comedy, you say yeah, sure.

So, for the past couple months I'd been writing down random funny thoughts, jokes, and possibly offensive comments about Bill Cosby.  All of this in an effort to form some sort of five minute set ("that's how long you get on Conan") to be performed in front of a live studio audience.

By the way, I almost forgot the punchline.

My show was booked for 3:15 in the afternoon last Wednesday, a time where folks are usually just waking up in the East Village.

But, what the hell, right?  I did it, there was actually somewhat of an audience that showed up, and it was a total rush.

Stand-up is one of the hardest things out there.  I'd put it somewhere around solving the energy crisis and being able to see those hidden images in 90s mall art.

I am totally psyched that I pulled it off, and owe everything to a supportive fan-base of friends and family.  Special shout out to Nicole Blane though, for convincing me to do it, coaching me with pep-talk, and putting the show together.

Here's my set recorded on my husband's cell phone.

My mom thinks the audio sucks.

THE VOCAL FRY SMASH IT UP PODCASTBeware of the Babylon

BEWARE OF THE BABYLON returns to vocal fry and smash it up.

We're discussing three B's -

Bill Cosby

Bieber

Boyhood

And three C's - 

CES

Cats

Cowboy

Don't forget, you can subscribe to BEWARE OF THE BABYLON on iTunes FOR FREE and get instant updates when we do new shows.  Or binge listen to over 100 past episodes.

Follow us on Twitter - @bewarebabylon

Like us on Facebook - facebook.com/BewareOfTheBabylon

One Second Every Day - 2014

I shot one second of video every day in 2014.  

Here is the complete year...

Alan's Alley - RIP

And check out this nifty short film about ALAN'S ALLEY called "There Were Always Dogs, Never Kids"...

Riddle of the White Towera straight outta hell's kitchen adventure...

It looms over Hell's Kitchen like a mythical watchtower.  

No windows.  No indication of floors.  

Just one big slab of a building that architects classify as "brutalist."

For over 15 years I've lived under the shadow of this building and created hundreds of conspiracy theories around it.

And while I'd love to think it's one giant room with hundreds of robotic minions on steel platforms pushing glowing lights like in The Black Hole, here's the real scoop behind

AT&T's "Switching Center"

• The AT&T Switching Center was built to western Midtown as a New York Telephone Company's tele equipment building.

• Like all the other telecom fortresses, this was designed to withstand considerable nuclear blast and fall-out and be self-sufficient for long periods of time(!!!!)

• The building was completed with large openings at the top for the various antenna equipment, giving it a belfry-like appearance. Later, new openings have been added, as well as the antenna mast to the top.

• The building's main bulk is clad into striped walls and the tower's western elevation has twin black stripes rising from the bottom to the top.

• The 21-storey building (equivalent of 40 "normal" storeys due to the increased height of each floor) is predominantly white, in concrete and white enamel tiling, with black granite.

• Construction ended in 1964.

• The building was originally built for the New York Telephone Company.

• Everybody that works in the building is a cylon.

mix tapes reborn

I'm moving for the first time in over 12 years from my humble little apartment in the city, and I can't believe the amount of crap I've accumulated.

I've decided that moving is good if only to motivate you to purge unnecessary items from your apartment.  This is Spring cleaning on a massive level.

I found a draw filled with 80s cassettes, Cassingles and college mix tapes.

It's really hard to part with a mix tape, especially the ones you made.  There's a sentimental connection to the format, or should I say art form.  But there's also a sense of ownership to the creations.

As I was tossing them one by one into the garbage it dawned on me that I could recreate the mix tapes on Spotify.  These tapes were mainly for my listening pleasure, and each one represents a very specific moment in my life.

I'm thrilled though not only to rediscover the tracks for myself, but also allow anyone out there with Spotify to experience them too.

All of the following original packaging images below click through to the Spotify lists...

NEW YORK CITY MIX
I know.  Really original title for this one.  I made the mix when I had first moved to NYC in 1995.  It's the one mix tape I always had with me though and listened to it pretty much nonstop until MP3s...

I'M NOT MONKEY BOY
This has mid-90s all over it.  Collective Soul, The Rembrandts, Paul Westerberg, Bjork?!  Not all the tracks on this (or some of these other tapes) are on Spotify, by the way, but most of them are.  The title for this one came from something I'd mutter under my breath as a miserable Executive Assistant starting out in the Entertainment Industry.

YOU'VE NEVER SEEN ME VERY UPSET
The title comes from Tom Cruise's line in Mission Impossible, which I would quote pretty much daily in my 20s.  There's a ton of techno, trance and dance stuff on this one that didn't survive past 1999.  What ever happened to Deep Forest, by the way?

 

SILENT GLANCES FROM WAITERS

This one is dark, for the most part.  I remember the title came from the fact that I was really bad at realizing I was being hit on when I went out.  I got a lot of silent glances, sometimes from waiters, that didn't add up to anything ever.

MAGWITCH PROVIS BOOGIE
I never read Great Expecations in school.  It probably wouldn't (still to this day) be my favorite book of all time.  It had a profound impact on me reading it in my mid 20s.  The title of this tape comes from a major character in the book (known as both Abel Magwitch and Provis).

VICKI 4.0
My roommate Vicki came out of the closet exactly 5 months before I did. The range of emotions, drunken binges and broken hearts that occurred during the year we figured ourselves out was epic.  Joking about how she constantly was reinventing herself to be newer improved, I would call out each version, and right about Vicki 4.0, this was the soundtrack to our lives.  It's also, pretty much, the soundtrack to any gay bar in New York during the late 1990s.