Tag: New York
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Death of the Astor Place Kmart
So the Kmart at Astor Place in Manhattan finally closed. I honestly did not know it was still open. I think Kmart only has a couple dozen locations still remaining in the US, and none of them are anywhere near me. I haven’t been back to New York since 2013, and probably won’t be returning…
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The Deal (2021 edition)
So. It’s time to write another post like this one from 2010. It’s not LinkedIn official yet, but I’m leaving my current job, and going to a new one. And that’s always a good way to rustle the various nostalgic bits of the brain, especially when as much time has passed as it has with the current…
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Day 4
I’m not alone here in saying that things got weird fast here. I’ve been debating writing about any of this. I’ve seen every hot take possible on COVID-19, and I’m seeing endless posts about being shut in, suddenly having to work from home, losing work, panicking about food and medical care, and so on. And…
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Bourdain
Usually, these things don’t get to me. But for some reason, this one has. So Anthony Bourdain is dead. Suicide, hotel room, 61. I feel some need to extrapolate on this, front-loading this with a lede of what he accomplished or why this is so tragic, etc etc. I have no energy for that. You…
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Paul Auster – 4 3 2 1
Paul Auster’s new book, 4 3 2 1, was a slog. It had a payoff in the last dozen pages, but it took some effort to stay with this for the other 850. I’ve been reading a lot of Auster recently for some reason, and in the last six months have probably read at least…
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The Big Short
The Big Short is a film adaptation of the Michael Lewis book of the same name. But in a similar fashion as Dr. Strangelove being a version of the Peter George thriller novel Red Alert, this film is done as a dark comedy, directed by Adam McKay. It’s an oddly-toned film, not a ha-ha funny comedy, but more like…
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Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies
I remember buying a copy of Hated, the Todd Phillips documentary about GG Allin, in 1995. It was right after my last student loan disbursement, and I bought a copy on VHS at Karma Records for some outrageous price, like $40 or $50. Blockbuster didn’t have this one as a rental, and this was way…
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The Wolfpack
(I have a half-resolution this year to try to write down something about every movie I watch, which I’ll probably stop doing by mid-January, but it’s only the third, so bear with me.) The Wolfpack is a documentary about a group of seven kids who were never allowed to leave their New York apartment, and…
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Bridge of Spies
When I was a kid, maybe ten or so, I got a book at the school book fair called Is James Bond Dead? Great Spy Stories. It was a little 64-page book with an illustration at the start of each chapter, about various true spy tales, such as the story of Mata Hari, and Operation…
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New York, Again
It feels like I was just here, but I guess that was almost a year ago. And it feels like I just lived here, but that ended six years ago. Six years? Anyway. Woke up early. Packed a carry-on and a personal item. Drove to SFO and left the car at the wrong terminal, the…