Nikola Tesla In Midtown West

While staring off into space this morning, I noticed this placard on 34th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenue. It turns out that Nicola Tesla died in Midtown West, not far from where Madison Square Garden is today.

Tesla's story always fascinates me, especially his ongoing feud with Thomas Edison. This TED Talk sums up his life well.

She Adored New York City....

A few weeks ago while at that wedding in Utica, I went on a bit of diatribe about how I could never live on the Upper West Side, because out of every neighborhood in Manhattan, it had the least amount of edge. And this was coming from a gal who lives in Murray Hill.

A friend rolled her eyes and said, "Who are you? You're like something out of a Woody Allen movie."

Perhaps. I've lived in Manhattan proper long enough to have legitimate opinions about the place. So today, I was thrilled to find this playlist of musical selections from Woody Allen films. It includes "Rhapsody in Blue," the music that plays during the opening scene of Manhattan. I know it is cliche to live in New York and say you love Woody Allen films, but few people capture the mundane details of the city like he does. (And everyone has a Woody Allen sighting.)




If anyone wonders what it's like to have spent the past 14 years in this town, which is long enough to have still used subways tokens and known when neighborhoods still had some grit, this perfectly sums it up.

"Manhattan" - Opening Scene from ajr on Vimeo.

Oh, hi.

Just hanging out at the Minetta Street playground. I got a lot of sun this weekend.

This Is Why I Love New York

After dinner at the Shake Shack, and then a stroll up the Hudson River waterfront, I came home to a random fireworks show over the East River. These were Fourth of July quality. Perhaps a test run? Could this also mean that fireworks are coming back to the East River?

Spirit Of The Marathon II

Yesterday, when the weather was idyllic, I went on my first big run since having pneumonia back in April. (I've only been going to weights classes since getting my lungs back in working order.) The day was perfect for a hop through the East River Park and even though my thighs are aching today, it felt good to get out and about.

This morning I found the trailer for Spirit of the Marathon II, a documentary that follows a handful of runners as they train for the Rome marathon. If you haven't seen the first one, it's well worth it.

Perhaps this is a sign that I need to get back into running races. Once all this rain stops. Grrr. Worst spring ever.

A Beautiful Body: The Book!

Here is a Kickstarter campaign to support: A woman named Jade Beall in Tucson, Arizona is putting together a book called, "A Beautiful Body."

It's going to be a book of 100 or more black & white photographs of mothers. Each photograph will be accompanied by an essay, a narrative or a poem written by the women in the photograph exploring her personal journey with what beauty and feeling beautiful means in a culture that alters over 90% of all media.

Watch this video and give this gal some clams. The more donated the more women can be photographed for the book.

Sevilla Wedding

Just when I think I've seen everything when it comes to weddings, I stumble across this wedding video from a couple who tied the knot in Spain. I don't even know these people and I wish I had been there. Romance oozes out of every single scene in a hip, non-goopy way.

Sevilla Wedding // Meagan & Conrad's SDE from Elysium Productions on Vimeo.

This TED Talk Will Make You A Better Person

TED talks are wonderful nuggets of information, offering new perspectives on topics most of us don't think too much about -- that's why experts and academics often give them. (The parodies of TED Talks are also quite funny.)

This talk by Andrew Solomon about parents who love children who are wildly different from them, be it disabled, autistic, etc., is an absolute must watch. If by the end of it you don't feel more compassionate and kind, then you are made of stone.

Solomon wrote the book Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity It's an enormous book but after this talk I'm keen on reading it.

Casual Yiddish

Today at my Columbia alumni fiction group, I got probably the best comment ever on the first chapter of a novel I am working on:

"If your protagonist has a reason for the casual employment of Yiddish, it will need to be explained for the general reader."

You know you're a real New Yorker when casual Yiddish starts showing up in your recreational fiction projects.

En route to the meeting I noticed that on 113th Street someone had the sense to use a chain link fence around a parking lot as a trellis for roses. Oh, Columbia. You're so civilized.