I’ve been a fan of Woody Allen’s films, books, plays, and stand-up comedy for years. He’s led an interesting life, and I was looking forward to reading his book. Then it was announced that his publisher was pulling out of publishing it, bowing to pressure from the #MeToo movement and others, like Ronan Farrow. I’m a rebellious person by nature,…
Three years ago, I made the decision to retire from clinical veterinary practice. I slowly let most of my regular clients know that I was retiring, and a few of them gave me little gifts, which was very kind of them. One client, Amy Cohen, gave me a book: Robert Frank’s “The Americans”, a book of black-and-white photographs. She knew…
Manson’s first book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, was a huge seller that everyone was talking about, so I jumped on the bandwagon and read it. The sentences in the book made great sense when I read them, and I do remember enjoying reading it, but I retained absolutely nothing afterward. Earlier this year, I saw a…
Here in New York City, it seems as if everyone hails from somewhere else. In my social circle, native New Yorkers are a rare breed, but I’m proud to say that I’m the real thing. A Brooklynite, born and raised. I entered the world at Caledonian Hospital, in 1960. (Caledonian Hospital closed in 2003. It’s now a bunch of luxury…
I’m a big fan of Banana Yoshimoto. Her first book, Kitchen, is on my top ten all-time favorite books. This book, from 2002, has been out of print and is difficult to find, but I managed to find a copy on eBay, a special edition in both Japanese and English, with photographs and drawings by an artist, Yoshitomo Nara. …
I’m a huge music fan, but I’ve never thought much about the music industry and how it actually works: who makes the money, how they make it, and how much they actually make. This book was loaded with interesting facts about the music business and how it has radically changed over the past few years. Rock musicians used to make…
Moment is a company that makes photography and video equipment, including lenses that attach to camera phones, allowing you to step up your mobile photography game. I’ve written blog posts about their fisheye, macro, and anamorphic lens recently. About two weeks ago, I bought a fourth lens of theirs, the telephoto. Like their other lenses, it came nicely packaged, with…
Two years ago, I read “Waiting for The Man”, Jerry Reed’s biography of Lou Reed. The book covered Lou’s life pretty well, with the focus mainly on his albums. Last year, I read Anthony DeCurtis’s biography, “Lou Reed: A Life”, which some people think is the definitive biography. It was an excellent balance of music analysis as well as interesting…
I took a trip to Morocco several years ago, and just recently I was sorting out my folders of photos. I came across my collection of stray cat photos from Morocco.
A really wonderful coming of age memoir. Despite having a loving family and many good friends, the author John was plagued by a loneliness and self-doubt that he couldn’t quite get a grip on. In 2013, he seized the opportunity to acquire a half-share in a house in Montauk, having never done anything like this before. Nicknamed The Hive, the…
I’ve become obsessed with Moment lenses. I’ve stepped up my photography game in recent years, and with the iPhone cameras being of such high quality these days, I’ve elected to limit my photography solely to the iPhone. Moment is a company that manufactures photography and video equipment, including lenses specially designed for the iPhone. You have to buy an specially-designed…