Archive for March 2009
Doctor, Doctor
It’s Monday morning in Dr. Lisa Libertore’s East Side office. Four boxes of medium, sterile, powder-free latex exam gloves crowd the Victorian-themed waiting room here on 85th and Lexington. Eight of us wait restlessly, shifting in our chairs, evading eye contact, and tapping at our respective devices. I fill out a clipboard lousy with forms,…
Read MoreSomeday Soon
Not that anyone noticed, but I took Q1 off from rock ‘n roll. Dateline: December 31, 2008. Between my new job description, marathon training, long-delayed documentary, and never-ending aspirations to rock, I figured something had to give. I’m never gonna’ succeed at anything if I don’t focus up. Something had to give. I chose rock…
Read MoreMy Intrepid Nephews
Can you imagine New York’s $44M, 66-year-old gray behemoth, USS Intrepid, through my pint-sized, toe-headed nephews’ wide eyes? This thing’s 900-feet-long and 190-feet-wide and loaded with thirty aircraft, including a Navy F-14 Tomcat (as in, “I feel the need, the need for speed!), Harrier Jump Jet, F-4 Phantom, Israeli Kfir, French Etendard, Russian MiG-15, 17…
Read MoreOut In The Great Wide Open
I think about Johnny Depp a lot these days. No, it’s not some adolescent crush. It’s everything else. In the last five years, my life has rapidly evolved into a fairly stable, even boring one. Where an average Tuesday night once found me hailing cabs in remote corners of Brooklyn as the sun rose over…
Read MoreMarch (Going On April)
In February, I traveled to and from California three times in as many weeks (with a break in the middle to run a marathon. At the end of that red eye-inducing run, I decided that I could provide greater value to my colleagues, my wife, and myself right here in New York. So I put…
Read MoreExiting The Too Much Information Superhighway
I received an interesting email from an Editor at a Major Online Publication last week. “We’re collecting a number of short pieces written by people that have been written about in the New York Times ‘Modern Love’ series,” it said. “We are basically looking for a response to the original Modern Love piece — either…
Read MoreMcSweeny’s
If I remember correctly (and I have a hunch my mother will correct me if I’m wrong), my Grandma (Mildred Lawrence) Bolster’s lineage traces back to Cork County, Ireland. My grandfather, William Bolster, named his Waterloo, Iowa-based women’s clothier Sweeny’s after his Irish partner. The store’s logo was a bright-green shamrock. Aaaaah, Ireland. Few places…
Read MoreShooting U2
Frankly, my mind had been blown nearly half a dozen times already, and that was before I waltzed past the well-guarded barricades outside the Somerville Theater and bumped into U2 sound checking “Magnificent” just a few feet in front of me. First, there was getting tapped for the trip to begin with. It happened like…
Read MoreThe Proust Questionnaire
The Proust Questionnaire has its origins in a parlor game popularized (though not devised) by Marcel Proust (1871–1922), the French essayist and novelist who believed that in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature. Since July 1993, Vanity Fair has devoted the back page of its magazine to the Proust Questionnaire,…
Read MoreU2 Treat Boston Fans To Surprise Show
BOSTON — “It was an unwieldy event,” Bono told MTV News’ Sway Calloway just seconds after stepping off the tiny club stage at Wednesday’s surprise performance. “But that’s the way we like ’em.” No strangers to spectacle, U2 wrapped up their 10-day, four-city campaign for Biggest Band in the World — and celebrated No Line…
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