The Neighborhood

 Hey Neighbor! Welcome back to THE NEIGHBORHOOD!  This week’s story is a message of gratitude, one of my favorite things.   One of my favorite writers is Nora Ephron. I fell in love with her writing style as I watched  You’ve   Got   Mail  and  When  Harry   Met   Sally .  Julie   and   Julia  is a foodie’s Heaven. She knows how to pull at your heartstrings and she’s brutally honest. I also relate to her love of the city.  In the  You’ve   Got   Mail  dvd special features (remember those?!), Nora talks about each of the iconic Upper West Side spots visited in the movie. She talks about the idea of a third place. “You’ve got your apartment, your office and then you have a third place. Another place that you visit all the time.”  I’m paraphrasing, but you get the idea. It’s another place that is just as familiar as your home and workplace.  At the beginning of all of my tours, I t...

Hey Neighbor! Welcome back to THE NEIGHBORHOOD!  This week’s story is about magical NYC holiday tradition.   Every mid November, right before Thanksgiving, something magical starts to happen.  Wooden structures start to erect on street corners. Then, the day after Thanksgiving, their purpose is revealed. Trucks drive in from upstate, Pennsylvania and Vermont to bring Christmas Trees to lean on those structures. The hope is that they will be sold and grace the homes of city dwellers.  The fascinating part is that someone is always there 24 hours a day.   In the suburbs where I grew up, we would go to a farm or a tree vendor. There was a way for the owners to “close up shop” and go home. Not for the people selling trees in NYC. A few years ago, I saw a fascinating documentary on Netflix called  Tree Man . It chronicles a holiday season for a tree vendor from Canada. He leaves his family on Thanksgiving Day and makes the trek to NYC, where he sells trees ...

Hey Neighbor! Welcome back to THE NEIGHBORHOOD!  This week’s story is about memories and what makes them come to forefronts of our minds. I am working my morning shift at Levain Bakery and a song from my childhood comes on the radio.   It’s a Backstreet Boys hit and I can still remember every lyric, as well as all of the music video choreography.  It amazes me how things can be tucked into memory and it all comes rushing back in an instant.  Music and scents are memory triggers for me.   Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  A classic childhood lunch item.  The second I smell it now, I’m instantly transported back to my preschool.  I can picture the playground equipment that we would play on after lunch.  I remember my Dad picking me up after school and taking me to the gas station across the street for a push-up pop.   Cold brew.  I make it everyday at work.  The second I smell it, my memory triggers the early days at...

Hey Neighbor! Welcome back to THE NEIGHBORHOOD!  This week’s story is about home.   Home.  I love that word.  Home is New York City.  Most specifically, Hamilton Heights in Upper Manhattan.  It has been my home for the past 10 years and I love it.  My little corner in this massive city.  My cozy nook.  My safe haven.  It is my favorite place.   As an artist, a home can seem unattainable.  Artists constantly move around from gig to gig, it almost feels like you don’t have a home.  However, I crave one  I need it.  A place to set my roots.  A place that’s mine.   The day I move into the apartment, I start walking to the subway to go to work, and I hear a saxophonist playing on my block.  It’s like a movie and felt so New York to me.  To this day, I constantly hear neighbors playing the piano, or opera singers rehearsing.  A man down the corner reads tarot cards.  The street is lin...