Charles Addison Smith Waterman. Arrived in NYC, 25 July, 9:05 pm. 8 lbs 6 oz. 20 inches. Mom’s chin, dad’s nose.
Author Archive
So long, farewell
Gentle readers,
For the next while I’ll be taking a leave of absence from TGW. Other projects require a more single-minded attention for the time being. Of previous contributors who’ve taken a hiatus — Farrell, Trixie, Parrish, Pandora, West, Walker, Cedarbrook — most are still around, at least on occasion, and some of those [...]
Comfort food
Writing a weekly post can be a bit like needing to put a meal on when it’s your turn to cook. Good days, you’ll have adequate time to come up with something satisfying. But sometimes it’s like preparing a meal in half an hour. You need to pull out something fast, but you still want [...]
Angel of the Waters
New York seems, to me, to differ from other major world cities in the recyclability (is that even a word?) of its symbols — especially its architecture and public art. To get what I mean, consider the Louvre by contrast. You experience it as an art museum, and yet if you’ve given your tour book [...]
The anti-prophet
I wish I had time for this to be a proper and thorough-going appreciation for Dan Bejar (New Pornographers, Swan Lake, Hello Blue Roses) and his solo outfit, Destroyer, which E. Tan and I saw at Bowery Ballroom a couple weeks ago.
Alas, this being the end of the semester I’m afraid you’ll get little more [...]
For National Poetry Month: Hart Crane’s “To Brooklyn Bridge”
I miss Hart Crane this spring.
It’s not that I’m a particular fan of his poetry: sometimes I’m tempted to paraphrase Doctorow on Poe and call him our “best bad poet.” But for several spring semesters in a row I’ve included parts of The Bridge in my Writing New York class, and this year, for a [...]
A few observations on Patti Smith’s “Rock n Roll Nigger”
Or a few questions, at least. I’m curious about how you read (or hear) this song, performed last year by a 60-year-old singer generally regarded as the godmother of punk:
If you don’t know the song, check out the lyrics here. It closes out side one of the 1978 album Easter, which also included the top [...]
Vast conspiracies, old and new
Part 1. Did anyone else see this piece in the NYRB a couple weeks ago? I thought it did a fantastic job parsing the Clintons’ double-tongued approach to Obama and race, the issue that more than anything has turned me from a one-time defender of the Clintons into someone who’d only be able to vote [...]
Toughskins
The mud-colored water of Silver Creek — The Creek, though we pronounced it “crick” — would turn your tightie-whities red, the color of Arizona red rocks, the color of pueblo clay. Stains that would never remove. And so you’d score points with your mother if you took them off and left them somewhere else while [...]
WOW!: A conversation with Sam Amidon of Samamidon
I’ve seen the band Samamidon perform twice in about as many weeks. The first show was at Mercury Lounge, where they shared a bill with a number of other acts, including Doveman, a sprawling chamber indie ensemble that also includes both of Samamidon’s principals — the childhood friends Sam Amidon and Thomas Bartlett — [...]
