Good morning! Hello! How are you? How’s it going? Greetings from New York City, where I am currently holed up on the twentieth floor of my old regular hotel, the Nomo Soho. I got in yesterday afternoon. Via Laguardia. I am obviously insane because I was so relieved and happy to see that Laguardia was still under construction, that I did not miss it all, and I got to see the old Terminal C, that glorious garbage dumb, at least one last time. The cab line was slow, the drive was fast, the hotel exactly the same. At first, I thought that New York looked more or less like it did when I left, but the scars are still visible. The outdoor seating pavilions that dot the street seem awesome, but alas, no one is using them anymore, they are all empty. I walked around this morning looking for a breakfast sandwich, and the first three bodegas I tried were gone, the next two didn’t have delis anymore. I finally found a new one with a deli, so, you know, hakuna matata and all that, but man. That was quite possibly the worst bacon, egg and cheese on a bagel I’ve had in my whole life. Damn. So, yeah, scars.
Thank you so much to those of you who wrote me some kind words about my crypto essay. I really am sorry to have sprung that on all of you like that, all unsuspecting and crypto indifferent. I feel awful. I told myself that I was going to write it on Medium or something like that, but, I mean, I like this newsletter, and I figured I should just go ahead and use it. It wasn’t the fist time, of course. But I will try and keep it infrequent.
Anyway, yes. New York. Emma and I both agonized for a week over whether or not I should go through with this plan. Covid is not getting better — it’s actually getting worse in North Carolina. Hospitalizations are up, daily cases in our county is up. And of course we have this Omicron variant. Not the Omnicom variant or not the Omnicrom variant. But Emma had a strong vested interest in me going, because I was a useless horrible mope before I made the plan, and as soon as I made the plan, some three or four months ago, I instantly got much cheerier. I maintain that there is some chance that it was simply the existence of the plan that cheered me up, not whether I actually go through with it. And there was a chance that I could cancel and just make a new plan, without ever actually going, and it might actually keep me cheered up. I was legitimately ambivalent about wether or not to go.
Then we both decided that when I get home I will quarantine at our favorite (well, the only) local hotel for a few days to make sure I am not sick and not give Jane the rona. This is a great plan, unless I actually GET Covid, then god knows how long I’ll be stuck in that hotel for. Fingers crossed. I am being careful. As careful as one can. We had that whole spouse thing going on where we were both worried about the other one. I thought it would be AMAZING to hole up in a hotel for three nights after New York to, you know, detox and sleep, but I was worried about her, and Jane, and the workload. She thought it would be AMAZING to have me quarantine, but was worried I didn’t want to. Eventually we worked it out.
I got to the hotel yesterday, unpacked, and then left and walked around my old neighborhood. It is lovely. I missed it so much. Crosby and Howard streets are mostly unchanged. Broadway is, like, half empty, but who wants to walk on Broadway anyway.
Then I went to Flower Shop to meet my friend Laura for drinks, which was lovely and Laura is fantastic and it went about as you would think, three glasses of Prosecco in, going through the story of all the various tragedies in my life for the last two years. But I kept it together, It’s been a while, I wasn’t sure if I still had, like, conversational skills. It was a remarkably cathartic experience. Flower Shop is exactly the same and for some reason that amazed me.
Then I said goodnight to my wife and baby while standing on Delancey street and it was super cute, and Emma said “wow there sure are a lot of horns honking” like she never even lived here.
Then I went to a show by myself, kept my double masks on and stood in the back and watched Eleventh Dream Day and Yo La Tengo for the last night of Yo La Tengo’s annual Hanukkah run, of which I think I have been to… four? Five? It was great, I got the setlist I dreamed of, just fantastic. Autumn Sweater, Crying of lot G. So many great songs, covers I didn’t know, and some guests at the end, in addition to Eleventh Dream Day who played about half the set with them. There are surprise guests every night at the Yo La Tengo Hanukkah shows. I didn’t get the Dream Syndicate or Low, which happened earlier in the week, but I am very happy about Eleventh Dream Day I’ve always wanted to see them and never have.
Then I went to Tom and Jerry’s, alone, and met the new 22 year-old bartender. The place had 10 people in it when I got there, round midnight, and I was the only one there, when I left, around 1. It was glorious. They were checking Vax cards. One guy walked in, and ordered something, the bartender asked for his Vax card, he grunted a weird sort of Sasquatch grunt, and walked out. I asked the bartender how often they get people like that, he said that guy had tried a few days earlier, but other than him it’s only like once a week or so. He regaled me with stories about the various hookups a bartender in his 20s gets to enjoy, extolled the aphrodisiac virtues of some weird herbal honey supplement thing, told me that Balthazar is having their holiday party there tonight while I’ll be there, and was generally a good guy.
It really was fantastic to be back.
Emma and I finished Mythbusters before I left. What a run. Fourteen seasons? It was sad to see it go. Mythbusters ended in 2016, and Emma and I thought “wow, yep, maybe the exact year America started to get stupider. Maybe it’s not a coincidence.”
Crazy. Took us…. let me look it up. Wow we started in early May. More than seven months. End of an era. But just in time, too, because there is so much good TV happening, it’s kind of out of control. We also finished The Great and What We Do in the Shadows, so time to start lots of things. Probably check out Wheel of Time and Cowboy Bebop next, though no one seems to be extolling their virtues?
But that will have to wait until I get back.
Anyway, tonight more Tom and Jerry’s, then MSG for Genesis. The kid bartender at Tom and Jerry’s told me that he went to MSG a little while ago and he was checked for his Vax card three times, so that is reassuring. Apparently they mean business there.
I’m sorry I don’t have a picture of Jane to wrap this up. I have a nice backlog ready to post but I haven’t got my phone hooked up to this computer yet. I hadn’t used it in, like, more than a year and I mostly got it set up for this trip but I forgot a few things. I am working on it. Also I have a board meeting in an hour, so I gotta go do that. But I will console you with this picture of a piece of pizza on the street at the intersection of Delancey and Chrystie.
Today’s mix is a moody and quiet one. It starts with a lovely Yo La Tengo song I saw last night. And ends with another Spacemen 3 song from Recurring. I apologize for the screenshots, they’re not gonna be as good until I get back to NC and into the hotel there, where I am bringing a big monitor because I am a big baby and hate working on small screens.
Talk soon!