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Lucy rocks and knocks my socks off.

I had the pleasure of seeing “Now. Here. This.” live after my friend Ashley gave me a ticket in exchange for some artwork that (shh don’t tell her) I’d have probably done for free and then bought tickets anyway, because I absolutely adore this cast (Did you see “Title of Show”?) and this production completely amazed me. One of those amazing theater experiences that makes you rethink everything from your deepest thoughts to your current haircut. Anyway, the cast recording comes out at Christmas and I have to wait for it and waiting is basically the worst.

You can preorder the “Now.Here.This.” soundtrack here.

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Gosling knows the way to a musical theatre lover's heart. 

tinyurl.com/kickstartnht

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My friend Jeff (hi, Jeff!) wrote some beautiful music. He went around living with these sounds in his head for months (maybe even years) before we all sat during during the Now. Here. This. sitzprobe and finally heard them the way he did in his head -- textures of vocals, electric guitar, upright bass, mandolin, and drums. That first listening experience felt akin to staring at a Chuck Close canvas at the exact distance where you see the individual depth, color, and dimension of the image and the whole painting at the same time. It excited my senses and made me feel incredibly proud of my friend and his sonic vision. It also made me want to share his music with the world.  

This recording will offer you the opportunity to fall in love with the music, to marvel at talents of some really smart, funny and creative people, and to play the tracks you love wherever you are, letting the bars of music float out onto the street, through your headphones, and in the interior of your car (while you sing along, of course).

Being a part of this show and collaboration was a very special experience for all of us involved in the production, but now we need you to collaborate with us on getting the original cast recording made. Join the adventure and help us bring everyone into the Now. Here. This.

NOW. HERE. THIS. is raising money to record the original off-Broadway cast album.  Get intuit! 

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MasterClass: An MFA In Nora Ephron

I wrote this back in 2010, where it was published on the website, Mediaite. Though I'd encountered Nora Ephron several times (the first being in high school, when she gave me a great piece of advice), this time was like a masterclass with the best teacher you could possibly imagine.

New York is a city where you can learn 1,000 new things every day. It’s a place where you can get a grad school education without ever sitting behind a desk. Every venue is a classroom. The public library, parks, bookstores, theaters, restaurants, squares, streets, hotel lobbies, bars, subway cars. With the amount of information I’ve consumed, I should have my MFA by now.

One of my favorite classrooms in this city is the Barnes & Noble in Union Square. Last week, I attended a talk with Nora Ephron. Nora’s reading wasn’t a traditional reading, rather, it was a master class from one of the most creative minds in this fair city.

Nora was at B&N to pimp her new book, “I Remember Nothing.” She got up to the podium and said the thing most everyone wishes a writer would say: “I’m not going to read from my book tonight. Instead, I’m going to tell you about two of my most defining moments as a writer.”

Yes, Nora. YES.

She talked about how she grew up wanting to be a journalist, and how in high school, she joined the staff of the school paper. The teacher wrote the essential rules of reporting on the blackboard:

Who

What

When

Where

Why

How

and told them the following: On Thursday, during school hours, the faculty and staff of Beverly Hills High School will board a bus and take a trip to an educational conference in West Hollywood to see Speaker X talk about arts in education.

From there, Nora said they had to retype the information he gave them. The students clacked away on their typewriters. The teacher collected their papers, looked through them all and said they missed out on the most important part of the story: On Thursday, there will be no classes at Beverly Hills High School as all faculty and staff will board a bus and take a trip to an educational conference …

Flip the script. Find the angle. Tell the audience what they want to hear, or didn’t know they wanted to hear. Nora said journalism was like fitting together a puzzle. When you get it right, everything snaps into place. This simple exercise changed the way she looked at writing.

Ephron’s next lightbulb moment occurred when she was writing the script for the movie, Silkwood. She was working closely with the film’s director,Mike Nichols, who told her screenwriting was all about narrative. He offered up this story as an illustration:

There was a man and a woman who lived on an island peninsula. They were married. The man invited his mother to visit with them on the peninsula. Shortly after her arrival, he was called away on business. Since he was out of town, his wife used this opportunity to take the ferry to the mainland to visit her lover. They made love all day. She ran to catch the last ferry back to the island peninsula. She had just missed it. She begged the ferry captain to take her back, so her mother-in-law wouldn’t be suspicious. He said he would only do it for six times the amount of a ferry ticket. She didn’t have the money. He turned her away. She started to walk home to the island peninsula. On the way back, she was raped and killed. The question is: Whose fault was her rape/murder? The rapist/murderer? The ferry captain? The Woman? her husband? Her mother-in-law? Her lover?

Within seconds of hearing this question posed, I had constructed an internal narrative wherein the mother-in-law was at fault. The story I came up with was a long one, but it only took me five seconds to decide who was at fault … the exact amount of time Nora let the audience think about the question before she revealed that there wasn’t an answer; Mike Nichols told her it was all about whose story you chose to tell. Narrative is about perspectives. Who sees what and how they see it.

Nora’s stories were deceptively simple. Like some of her best movies, they revealed layers of intricacies beneath the surface of a standard boy-meets-girl plot line. Little rabbit holes of genius. After the storytelling, Nora signed books. I’m not big on the signed books, but I had a first edition of her book Scribble Scribble: Notes on the Media (still surprisingly relevant today) and I really wanted to get it signed. As she signed the book, she told me I could get a copy of it for three dollars on eBay. I replied back: “Well, now it will be worth four.”

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Age of an Empire

Empire State Building, New York

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More from the top of the Empire State Building

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I spent the last two weeks working on the observation deck of the Empire State Building. Even though I'm a born and bred New Yorker, this was my first time up there.

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As far as the eye can see Empire State Building, New York

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Rainy reflection Midtown, New York

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Chug it Flatiron, New York

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Flatiron. Backiron.

New York, NY

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Sometimes living in New York is like being in a Fellini film. Fifth Avenue (or just off Fifth Ave), NY

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Balloon parade West Village, New York

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Ominous (blue) sky Flatiron, New York

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Found faith on the 14th St subway platform

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Watercolor night

Union Square, New York

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Stand alone Grand Central Terminal, New York