A nice SLIDESHOW from James and Karla Murray's new photo book, "Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York." a subject Jeremiah's Vanishing New York has been blogging about for years.
Tuesday, April 01, 2014
Vote Yes!
I think I just found my Photo of the Day!
An Afghan policeman stands guard as supporters of Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai listen to his speech during a campaign rally in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, April 1, 2014. Eight Afghan presidential candidates are campaigning for the third presidential election. Elections will take place on April 5, 2014. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)
'Sweets' From a Stranger
Stumbled across a new -- competing -- gay memoir last night while navel-gazing on Amazon.
Broolynite Tim Anderson's "Sweet Tooth" is described as such:
What’s a sweets-loving young boy growing up gay in North Carolina in the eighties supposed to think when he’s diagnosed with type 1 diabetes? That God is punishing him, naturally.Can you taste it yet? I can.
This was, after all, when Jesse Helms was his senator, AIDS was still the boogeyman, and no one was saying, “It gets better.” And if stealing a copy of an x-rated magazine from the newsagent was a sin, then surely what the guys inside were doing to one another was much worse.
"Sweet Tooth" is Tim Anderson’s uproarious memoir of life after his hormones and blood sugar both went berserk at the age of fifteen. With Morrissey and The Smiths as the soundtrack, Anderson self-deprecatingly recalls love affairs with vests and donuts, first crushes, coming out, and inaugural trips to gay bars. What emerges is the story of a young man trying to build a future that won’t involve crippling loneliness or losing a foot to his disease—and maybe even one that, no matter how unpredictable, can still be pretty sweet.
Tim also blogs -- the aptly titled See Tim Blog -- where I learned that in addition to having cats. long-suffering hubbies, the love of Little Debbie snack cakes (he's Fudge Round, I'm Oatmeal Creme Pie) and narcissism in common, he too holds annual memorials to mark the untimely death of the great Kirsty MacColl. (But for the record, "Tropical Brainstorm" is not her best album. Have you never heard "Desperate Character" or "Titanic Days"?)
"Sweet Tooth: A Memoir" is available now via Amazon's Lake Union imprint at the incredibly low price of $3.99 Kindle and $8.97 paperback HERE. His debut, another memoir called "Tune In Tokyo: The Gaijin Diaries," chronicles the bored nearly 30-year-old North Carolinian's decision to shake things up by moving to Japan to teach English and can be purchased HERE.
P.S. Kudos for getting your Lost in the '80s cover to print. This is the original design I had in mind for "Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful?" but it was summarily rejected by my publisher, although it's still the jacket that keeps me warmest.
Empire Diner: Now and Then
Illustration: Lyndon Hayes
My friend Mark reviewed the new Empire Diner for Chow and writes:
Finally! Now I can retire from the fringes of the food media. Seriously, have you checked out the reborn Empire Diner? I've been just once and think she's on to something there.Read HERE.
P.S. If you missed this New York Observer piece abouut the history of the joint -- written when it closed back in 2010 -- you must check it out now:
One night in 1976, a group of four young men walked into the Empire Diner on 10th Avenue and 22nd Street and asked for hamburgers. It was clear they’d never been there before. “I told them we didn’t make hamburgers, that we had some other stuff,” said Carl Yorke, then 23, a novice actor who spent four months waiting tables at the Empire during the weird little diner’s first year of operation. The young men, who looked like “hormone-driven Jersey boys,” were not pleased. What kind of backwards diner didn’t serve hamburgers? “They looked around, and they went, ‘Oh, fuck! This place is full of fags!’ And the place just emptied out,” said Mr. Yorke. “This brawl broke out on the sidewalk. And these guys, the customers of the Empire Diner—they may have been gay, but they weren’t pussies.”Keep reading HERE.
It's (About to Be) a Mad, Mad, Mad World
I swore up and down when Season 6 of "Mad Men" began that I was going to stay on top of it, but by the time episode four or five rolled around, I was already hopelessly behind and my DVR started to delete them. So it's like every other year: All of Season 6 just went live on Netflix, and I now have until April 13 -- Season 7 premiere day -- to binge on it all so I can watch the new season "live" with everyone ... or wait until 2015 to see how it all ends.
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