I was just minding my own business at work one busy night in the late summer of 1993; renting New Release VHS tapes to the weekend hordes of customers at my video store, Screen Memory. Well, it wasn’t mine exactly, the place was owned by the rarely seen, enigmatic and Horta-like owner Maureen. But I […]
The road to Savannah, Georgia from Atlanta is a long one, laid out like a bent outstretched arm with Macon serving as the elbow. While chewing up miles on that long drive on the highway one can’t help but wonder why the state of Georgia didn’t simply use the direct path that General Sherman and […]
When you’re ten years old you go where you’re told. You report for duty to places not of your choosing. Sure, you can have a little positive input, “C’mon Dad can we can we can we?!” But the rule of thumb is to keep negative feedback to yourself; at least it was like that for […]
It takes the efforts of not only the famous, but also those of the not-so-famous to make the Hollywood machine really work. The annals of filmdom are filled with many moments that today are unheralded, but at the time of production were vital to add coherence to the whole, whether it was a movie or […]
I love to uncover incidental history. There’s a big piece of it at the intersection of Lafayette, East 8th and Astor in New York City. I’ve always known it for the Starbucks I frequented, where I’d sit with my coffee at an outward facing window, gently mocking south-bound commuters as they hurriedly/exhaustedly exited the Astor […]
My brother Luis and his friend Jerry decided to go on a camping trip in late 1997. Luis had been camping several times and could be considered somewhat experienced, especially among the non-hardcore outdoorsy types (and especially for a New Yorker). He and Jerry planned it all through September leading up to October. I wouldn’t […]
OK, this one isn’t about long ago days in Hollywood or about growing up (finally) in New York. This one is a little bitter, maybe even caustic. It’s time to vent. I vent because some people think they can make you care, and….despite their cloying efforts, you just don’t.
There’s a store in Marietta, Georgia. It should be called a warehouse really; it’s bigger than it probably has a right to be. Perhaps conscious, or self-conscious of this fact, a few years ago store planners built additional walls ranging from 20 to 100 feet inside the originals, making effectively a store within a store, […]
Whether in a bookstore or a restaurant; or even SPEEDING ALONG on the highway, we are nowadays usually face down in a cell phone or tablet, typing out or dictating messages. Though often delivered without much forethought; intention is ACTUALLY EVERYTHING in messaging. This is because intention has always been everything in writing, and messaging is […]
This March my quixotic quest to regain entry to the courtyard of the Villa Elaine (an apartment building in Hollywood I lived in for less than a year in 1982) came to a sudden and surprising fulfillment. The building has always had a security gate but in my attempts to access I was mostly hindered […]