Jun 3Dirty Secrets of the Hidden IndustryMy Brief and Brutal Career in the Buried World of Trade Magazines Railway Age and Sugar y Azucar were merely the tip of the iceberg. There were hundreds of trade publications in New York City during the last century, specialized periodicals for practitioners of every profession, occupation and commercial venture…NYC8 min read
Mar 16Andy & Me: Living Vicariously Through The Andy Warhol DiariesAndy Warhol paved the way for so much current pop culture it’s impossible to measure his impact. He smudged the line between commercial and fine art with his silkscreen paintings from the early Sixties: the Elvises, Marilyns and Jackies that first made him famous (for longer than fifteen minutes). …Andy Warhol7 min read
Published in Human Parts·Oct 13, 2021Member-onlyStreet Noise: Unearthing Sonic YouthForty years ago, New York Rocker sent me to review a new, unknown downtown band. — About two days after I’d moved to the Meat Packing District in fall 1981, from my first NYC apartment in Greenwich Village, the urge to write about music resurfaced. Though I’d maintained a sporadic journal since leaving Ohio that spring, I longed for the motivation of an official assignment, not…Music8 min read
Aug 23, 2021“It’s The Cobblestone Streets That Send Me Back”Working in an office next door to my second apartment in New York City — thirty years later Comprehending the pre-COVID makeover of Manhattan from grunge to gleam requires a deep dive into the recent past. Nothing captures the transformation of New York City in the 21st Century better than…NYC7 min read
Jul 31, 20213/30/81: A Workingman At LastDoes a first job set the template for your career? Perhaps it does, in ways we can’t see until we approach the other end. The start date of my initial post-college job fell on the same day as the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. Simmons-Boardman Publishing occupied the 17th…Mwc Work7 min read
Published in New York Voice·May 13, 2021NYC Going Out Guide Spring/Summer 1981Music around town featuring PiL, The Clash and Noise Fest Once I started my first job in Manhattan, weekend evenings were exhilarating and daunting. I didn’t know anybody in town save for my middle-aged work colleagues and Jeff, the ageless and eccentric building super. No need to ask: none of…NYC8 min read
Feb 7, 2021All Aboard AmtrakScenic views of urban decay, glimpsed en route to NYC in 1981 My point of departure for New York City turned out to be less than romantic: a forlorn platform in the freight yards outside the grand old Union Terminal. One of Cincinnati’s architectural treasures, with murals by German artist…NYC3 min read
Oct 4, 2020There He Goes AgainRick Perlstein’s epic Reaganland examines American life and politics during the late 1970s, bookended by two Presidential election upsets “The Presidential election is just too stupid to watch…you see Ronald Reagan in these neighborhoods with poor people and you can just hear him saying ‘Oh my God what am I…History4 min read
Published in New York Voice·Jul 1, 2020Will The Meat Packing District Survive the Covid Lockdown?Not so long ago it was arguably the most obscure neighborhood in Manhattan Opened in 2009, the main promenade of the High Line park is a former railroad spur for the New York Central Line. The area below the walkway around West 14th Street is known as the Meat Packing…New York City8 min read
Published in New York Voice·May 27, 2020“Once You Go In You Can’t Come Out”Dangerous Reality and Dystopian Fantasy in 1980s New York City An acute sense of fear and panic pervaded New York at the dawn of the Eighties, due to the elevated crime rate. So it’s no surprise that a dystopian science-fiction movie and a murder haunted my first summer in the…NYC7 min read
