The Losers Lounge has inspired my writing since 1999. It took four years to write my first story and then I couldn’t stop. Each show rich tales are laid out in song. If you want a creative push see the The Losers Lounge at Joe’s Pub. Here is a photo album from Thursday night’s Elvis… Read more »
Do you know New York City has an extraordinary and diverse storytelling community? It’s all over the five boroughs, every night. And many of the events are free. All you need to do is check out newspapers and magazines and online sites like Time Out New York and NYC Storytelling. I’ve been part of this… Read more »
As we head into the holidays, New York is a city divided. It has always been a place of vigorous debate and contested policies, but the latest controversy over race and policing has dialed up the vitriol and indicates a further departure from civilized debate. The past summer Eric Garner, a black man on Staten… Read more »
Hello, I’ve been away from AANY for a awhile. My memoir, “I Hate the Dallas Cowboys tales of a scrappy New York boyhood” was released by YBK Publishers last month and I’ve been doing my best to get the word out. The book covers my first 18 years in the working class neighborhood of Yorkville… Read more »
People, no matter how uninterested they are in professional sports, should declare their sports loyalties. I have never been to an NFL game or an NBA game but I’m a Jets fan and a Knicks fan. I insist on children will be raised as New York Yankee fans even though we live about a mile… Read more »
A recent video posted by the organization Hollaback documents a women walking the streets of New York city and being harassed 100 times over 10 hours. It’s a mark of shame on the city that someone could have no trouble filming that. Creepy men can be found in every corner of the city and they… Read more »
Years ago, when I worked as an immigration inspector at JFK Airport, I would sometimes encounter celebrities that would come through my line. The first one I remembered was Joan Collins. People I mentioned this too asked me if I remembered what her actual birth date was from looking at her passport, but I didn’t… Read more »
The once-celebrated East Village bar the Yaffa Café announced that it is closing its doors for good. It was initially shut down in September by the Department of Health for health violations. The coverage sent up its standard lament; another “iconic” landmark crushed by cruel fate. It’s a familiar pattern now. A well-known music venue,… Read more »
About twelve years ago I was coming to the end of a long spell of unemployment. I had a job as a reporter/editor at an Internet publication that was on its last days. The publication’s offices were in a building in Hell’s Kitchen that also housed garment district sweatshops and offshore Internet gambling companies. There… Read more »
This weekend saw a very large demonstration in New York in favor of addressing climate change. Support for helping the environment is widespread and spans a lot of political and cultural chasms. You don’t need to be a climatologist to know which way the wind blows. Even if the case for climate change is oversold,… Read more »
