In early 1979 I first experienced Andy Warhol’s cinematic oeuvre when a campus film society screened the Paul Morrissey-directed Trash. Originally released in 1970, this plotless wallow in depravity accompanies a junkie hustler (Joe Dallesandro) and his trans roommate (Holly Woodlawn) on their daily rounds. To say Trash transported my Midwestern sensibility to an unexplored continent would be obvious, and besideContinue reading “The Prospector”
Tag Archives: Memoir
A Party On Every Page: The Star Hits Saga Part 2 (1984-85)
Since Star Hits readers were predominantly teenage girls, it makes sense that two dynamic young women helped to refine and redefine the magazine’s vision during the months following its successful launch. From the moment Alicia Keshishian followed Phoebe Creswell-Evans as art director in mid 1984, the already-spectacular pages erupted in a blinding, vivacious wash of full-spectrum colorsContinue reading “A Party On Every Page: The Star Hits Saga Part 2 (1984-85)”
Pull Up To The Bumper
Summer in the City 1981 My love affair with an idealized vision of The City began sometime in 1970. My friend Richard and I rode the bus from the suburbs to downtown Cincinnati on a Saturday afternoon. In the chili parlor off Fountain Square, all the other kids were right in our age range, 12–14,Continue reading “Pull Up To The Bumper”
So Far West It’s Nearly In New Jersey
My second NYC apartment sat on the edge of a then-obscure Manhattan neighborhood known as the Meatpacking District Pressure to move kicked in a day after those heroic firefighters pulled me out of the flaming building. I needed to find a new home in NYC ASAP. My third-floor room was, more or less, as habitableContinue reading “So Far West It’s Nearly In New Jersey”
“I used to get by on $5 a day but New York City has gotten so expensive”
So said my first mentor in Manhattan — without irony — in 1981 Moving into 78 Washington Place in mid-March 1981 didn’t take long. All I brought: two suitcases stuffed with clothes, briefcase, clock radio, electric typewriter. Luckily Apartment 3C came furnished. More or less. Fitted with a painfully thin mattress and itchy blanket, theContinue reading ““I used to get by on $5 a day but New York City has gotten so expensive””
Entry Level NYC 1981
Retracing my first steps and recalling a few stumbles Upon arriving in Manhattan, I checked in at The Chemists Club in Midtown. Basically a hostel for businessmen and scientists, The Chemists Club’s members included my father. When I left Cincinnati for New York in February 1981, with a headful of writerly dreams, he generously frontedContinue reading “Entry Level NYC 1981”
Onboarding NYC: 1981
A New Introduction To An Old Story Returning from work on a humid July evening in 1981, my first season in New York City, I wandered through the palpitating heart of Greenwich Village and paused on Carmine Street. I was in no hurry to return home to my humble-ain’t-the-word abode. After browsing esoteric disco recordsContinue reading “Onboarding NYC: 1981”
Book Review: Paging Dr. Mueller
Walking through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black: Collected Stories by Cookie Mueller “Firstly, you’re right about my mind being open, in fact it’s so open at times I feel the wind whistling through it.” — Cookie Mueller, “Ask Doctor Mueller” column, East Village Eye circa 1983 During her attentuated forty years on earth, the inimitableContinue reading “Book Review: Paging Dr. Mueller”
“It’s The Cobblestone Streets That Send Me Back”
Working in an office next door to my second NYC apartment - thirty years later Comprehending the pre-COVID makeover of Manhattan from grunge to gleam requires a deep dive into the recent past. Nothing captures the transformation of New York City in the 21st Century better than a walk on the High Line, an elevatedContinue reading ““It’s The Cobblestone Streets That Send Me Back””
Book Review: “Love, Not Just A Habit”
Originally Published In The Los Angeles Times Book Review February 24, 2008 Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction by David Sheff Tweak: Growing Up On Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff WHEN 18-year-old Nic Sheff fell in love for the first time, it hit him hard, the way it hammers many sensitive adolescents, aContinue reading “Book Review: “Love, Not Just A Habit””
Mark Coleman 