NY State of Mind:
So last night I went a reading presented by Paul Collins at Housing Works Books. Dan Kennedy and Tom Bissell were there on the bill too. All three are going to be in my book so the event was more than a pleasant coincidence.
We had dinner beforehand, drinks afterward. The group swelled and contracted as friends and significant others came and went. Met Tommy Wallach, the “boy wonder” who started contributing to McSweeney’s at age 17 and was a steller fellow and Shana Berger, founder and editor of ReadyMade magazine, a fine Bay Area publication. Its editor is a total sweatheart. Matt Power, who contributes to Harper’s and this really cool radio show called “The Next Big Thing.” He lives in an artist collective in Queens called Flux Factory which is so rediculously well organized this it has its own web site and board of directors.
Somewhere in the midst of all this walking and corner turning and cab hailing, Shana said to me “to be lost and in circles and looking for a cab or someone to set you striaght is such a New York thing, terrifying and beautiful all at once. “
By around midnight, we ended up in the Soho loft of a friend of Shana’s. Nick Denton was there but I only saw his back. Somewhere around 1, Tom invited us back to his place for late night chat and a view of Ground Zero.
After waiting nearly an hour for a train and then riding home, I crawled into bed. It was nearly 4 AM.
This morning, I was awakened by the phone. It was my cousin Jonah. We had agreed to do brunch and ended up chowing at Barney Greengrass, a Jewish deli that hasn’t changed a lick since about 1939.
It was the New Yorkiest 12 hours of my entire life.