Livin’ in New York City Post 23: Housesitting in Queens and Seeing So Many Legends

During the past few weeks, I changed my residency from Bed-Study, Brooklyn to Long Island City, Queens when I was housesitting for friends.

As of writing this, the atmosphere in New York has cooled significantly. As much as I love summer, the heat overstays its welcome. Now that it’s fall, all of my favorite things are beginning to come back including the changing leaves, sweaters and seeing just how many items Trader Joe’s can put pumpkin in. How I survived this summer is a mystery. Even though I got an air-conditioning window unit in my bedroom, I felt this sort of emotional distance from my apartment that still makes it a passable yet unfeeling living space. After living here for over a year, this place has never felt like home to me. The walls are this heartless white and the trim is gray and makes you feel like you’re roommates with Winston Smith. 

But I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much. After all, it’s a roof over my head with a kitchen (something I desperately wanted when I was living in my college dorm), WI-FI and cheap rent and it’s located in the heart of a neighborhood I love. However, I do wonder what it would be like to live in a space that felt more homey and inviting. This was made real when my friends asked me to house-sit for them in Long Island City, Queens. 

One of my jobs that I have is as an assistant for a couple named Karl and Catherine. Living just down the block from the café where I work, I not only have a consistent commute but working with them always offers something different from day to day. With Karl being a filmmaker/computer wizard and Catherine running a resort for writers, it’s a delightfully unpredictable experience to be in their world. I’ve helped them organize parties, bring items to and from storage, drop off equipment throughout the city and many other chores. Not only have I enjoyed it, but it’s also led to some good connections with both Karl and Catherine introducing me to their friends, many of whom work in creative fields. 

This August, after working with them for a year, they asked me to watch over their house while they went on a cross-country trip to the middle of the desert in Nevada to participate in Burning Man. It had been eight years, and two children, since they had been to the festival and now they were making a triumphant return. However, they had bookings for two of their bedrooms (which had been converted into listings on AirBnb) and they needed someone to check guests in and out as well as to keep their home in order and their plants alive. So, they asked me and I made Queens my residency for the three weeks they were gone. 

Unlike my apartment in Bed-Stuy, the house they had in Long Island City felt so warm and inviting. Of course, I knew all of this going in since I had been to that house so many times that I had my own set of keys. The walls were all painted with vibrant colors with one room having a dark blue hue and another room having this warm red paint on the trim. Unlike my living room, every room of the house had natural light coming in and there were so many plants. Since it was down the street from my job, I didn’t have to get up as early and I didn’t have to worry if I was going to miss the G Train. It all just felt like I was in this freeing, bohemian space where creative expression came to me easier. After all, when you’re in a house that has a Polish poster of David Lynch’s classic film “Blue Velvet,” you’re probably in a good spot. 

Staying in Queens for three weeks was this massive weight off of me that allowed me to really focus on writing as well. Plus, my commute to the café was much shorter.

Unlike in my apartment, where writing felt like a chore and I had to really force myself to accomplish anything, writing came much easier to me in Long Island City. I found myself in a better headspace and the walks I took felt more invigorating, especially when I made my way to the East River waterfront. 

While I did go out and have my little adventures while staying in Queens, I did it less frequently. It seems that when I’m in my apartment in Bed-Stuy, I can’t wait to get out and just do something but, in Queens, I feel like I could spend a day indoors, just relax and maybe cook something and not go crazy. The more time I spent in this house, doing laundry without having to go to a laundromat or not having to wash all the dishes because the people I live with consistently let them soak, I realized that this experience was all about showing me what I could have in the next ten years, God willing. Right now, I’m making minimum wage and just trying to get something off the ground but, hopefully, if I keep working I just might find myself getting out of my apartment and moving into another. Maybe I’ll get lucky enough to afford a house but that’s a long ways down the road. 

When Catherine and Karl came back, I had heard all kinds of crazy stories about how the vast amounts of rain had trapped everyone at Burning Man and no one could get out because the roads were all muddy messes. However, while people on the outside were freaking out, people that were at Burning Man were having a great time sharing their resources and keeping the communal hippie spirit alive. For those that did get out before the festival was over, Karl was glad that they were gone because “it separated the real Burners from the posers.” This is why you never trust squares on issues that concern bohemians. 

As I helped them move their stuff back into the house, I noticed that Karl and Catherine’s kids were just walking around the car and on the sidewalks barefoot. Catherine noticed too and proclaimed “my children have become feral” and I said “no, they’ve become hobbits.” They had gotten their first adult dose of the hippie lifestyle and I can only imagine what that all was like. After I gave them back control of their home, I took the train back to Bed-Stuy and, as I settled back into my apartment, I felt better about my current living situation. Perhaps it’s because I know it’s only temporary. I’m bound to afford something better in the future. Something that, hopefully, has a kitchen with natural light and some decent air circulation. 

The strike has seen much support from all kinds of voices including Teamsters, actors, non-union workers (like myself) and even greats like John Turturro.

While I certainly stayed inside more often and wrote more while I was in Queens, I still couldn’t resist the compulsion to continue exploring this city. With the WGA strike having been ongoing since May, I needed to spend more time on the picket line to support the writers and the union that I hope to join one day. At one particular march, we stopped to give some speakers the attention they deserved to talk to us and to remind us why we were fighting for the rights of these writers. 

Among the speakers were two screenwriters whose work I really enjoy: Tony Gilroy and James V. Hart. With Hart having written “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” “Contact” and “Muppet Treasure Island” and Gilroy being responsible for the screenplays for “Dolores Claiborne,” “Rogue One,” “Andor” and the first four films in the Jason Bourne series (“The Bourne Legacy” was also directed by Gilroy), these two writers have written films that I hold very dear. It was especially reassuring to hear Tony Gilroy’s speech. Not only has he been present for several of the WGA strikes over the year, but his father, Frank Gilroy, was a playwright, screenwriter and WGA member who won a Pulizter for the play “The Subject Was Roses.” Writing runs in his blood and he was so excited to see all of the youthful support the strike was getting from young guild members, young writers seeking guild membership or just civilians looking to show support. Regardless, none of these people, myself included, had ever been on a picket line and Gilroy gave us credit as well as the many other people who consistently have shown their support for the struggles of this union. 

As he wrapped up his speech, Gilroy ended things on both a humorous and meaningful note when he said “I never thought I would see people stop smoking in restaurants, I never thought I’d see people pick up dog shit and I never thought I’d see writers on top. But we’re there. It’s our show.” He then harkened back to a famous line from his “Star Wars” series “Andor” where liberated prisoners began to chant “one way out.” After we chanted along with him, the picket line began to move again. As we all returned to marching, I came across Gilroy and shook his hand, thanking him for his words. Instead of shaking hands with the guy that wrote “Rogue One” and “Andor,” I instead felt that I was shaking hands with a writer who was trying to make a better life for his fellow writers. 

Oscar-nominated screenwriter Tony Gilroy gave a speech at a WGA rally reminding us why we were striking and inspiring the next generation of writers. If you look at the top left corner of the photo, you can see me wearing an orange shirt and brown cap. I had just shaken hands with Gilroy.

As much as I love Christmas and Halloween, I think I have another favorite holiday. On August 27, movie theaters across the country were selling tickets for $4 (their average price in 1993) for National Cinema Day. But since I have an AMC Stubs A-List account and pay $25 a month to see three films every week, I didn’t want to use this opportunity to see a new film. Instead, I decided to go to the IFC Center to see a new restoration of the South Korean classic film “Oldboy” which was rereleased in theaters for its twentieth anniversary. While I has seen the film before, it’s a whole new experience to see it in a theater with a packed house with the ending resulting in my jaw dropping. Come next year, I absolutely will be booking my tickets weeks ahead of time so that I can make the most of National Cinema Day. 

Before I finished housesitting in Queens, I also went out to see some live music from my friend Pat Irwin. After a few years on hiatus, Pat and his two friends, drummer Sasha Dobson and bassist Daria Grace, reunited to perform some songs as the PI Power Trio at Sunny’s Bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Months earlier, I had gone to Sunny’s with friends and fell in love with the old-fashioned, working class vibe of the place, feeling like the kind of bar you’d see in an Irish novel. I knew that the music of Pat and his friends would sound fantastic in this location. After taking a subway and a bus from Long Island City to Red Hook, I ran into some friends from LIC and we had a few drinks as we listened to some great music. 

The PI Power Trio reunite at Sunny’s Bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn, one of my favorite venues in the entire city.

I had seen Pat perform with his band SUSS and I’ve listened to several of his scores for films like “But I’m a Cheerleader” and shows like “Rocko’s Modern Life,” so I knew that he’s a phenomenal musician. However, the country ambience sound of SUSS’s music was definitely different from the sound of the PI Power Trio. Not only did the group revive songs that Pat played with the B-52s but also played some instrumentals, with excellent vocals from Sasha and Daria, that felt like a bizarrely intriguing combination of surf rock and cinematic scoring. There was a more subdued energy to the whole affair that complimented the atmosphere of Sunny’s. The final song of the night was a fantastic rendition of the classic instrumental “Sleep Walk” by Santo and Johnny with Pat really bringing it together. As great as a night at Sunny’s is, I wish I could go more often but Red Hook is more out of my way. Thank God one of my friends, an older New Yorker with a car, was able to give me a lift back to LIC because I was not feeling a midnight G train ride. 

One day, when I was going home from seeing a movie in the West Village, I found myself wandering around the streets before I would take the subway and I remembered something important. Bob Dylan lived in Greenwich Village during his early years of fame, when he was playing gigs in local clubs like the Gaslight or Café Wha? with his first four albums catapulting him to fame as this rising voice within folk music. So, after a quick internet search, I made my way to 161 W Fourth Street which was where Bob Dylan lived during the early days of his career with his girlfriend at the time Suze Rotolo. The album cover for his second album, “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” was shot just a hundred feet away over on Jones Street, featuring both Suze Rotolo and Bob Dylan walking on the street with Dylan shivering because he’s wearing such a thin coat in winter. I never tried to find that location so I’ll just save it for another day. While the apartment building appears to be in the same shape it was in back in 1963, the lowest level is now a sex store. I can only imagine what onlookers might have been thinking as they saw me taking pictures of the building. 

Bob Dylan’s first New York City apartment at 161 W Fourth Street is still a residency and now rests on top of a sex shop.

After I began living back at my apartment, a few of my friends and I decided to go to the Financial District on September 11 to truly honor the 9/11 terrorist attacks. While we were living in New York last September, the sky was much too cloudy to see the Tribute in Light from Bed-Stuy. Not wanting to take chances, we decided to go to a bar called O’Hara’s which is right across the street from One World Trade Center. Months after the attacks, the bar was able to reopen and has since become a haven for law enforcement with patches from police precincts and fire departments across the country. 

When we went to the bar, it was raining and the inside was full of cops and firefighters. You could feel the unconditional love all of these people from around the country had for each other. Plus, where else can you find so many cops openly breaking the law against public intoxication? As the sun was setting, the rain finally broke with the sky becoming this brilliant orange before things went dark and the Tribute in Light began. Seeing those two pillars of light is nothing short of awe inspiring as you’re reminded of the colossal buildings that were toppled in a couple of hours by our enemies. The light was so powerful that, after my friends and I split up to head home, I made my way to Greenwich Village where I could see the light from Washington Square Park. 

Despite not remembering 9/11, I could still feel this massive weight of grief that was over the city on the anniversary. When I was talking to my boss Annie about it, she said that every New Yorker was somehow affected by the attacks. “If you didn’t lose someone you knew, then you knew someone who had lost a friend or a relative.” There’s also a certain kind of honor that you feel when you’re in New York on that day. Even if you weren’t a New Yorker back then, it’s a kind of collective grief that transcends time. Feeling that grief and trying to be there for everyone every September 11 is part of what it means to be a New Yorker. 

The Tribute in Light, which is lit every year on the anniversary of 9/11, can be seen 20 miles away on a clear night and from nearly every part of the five boroughs. Here’s the view from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village.

Throughout the summer, the Culture Lab, a non-profit arts organization, in Long Island City has been having live music on the weekends with free admission. For a few weekends, I have gotten to hear some incredible music ranging from salsa to jazz to marching bands and I can’t recommend it enough to anyone who can make it to LIC. When I saw that the PI Power Trio were going to perform at this outdoor venue, I made sure to be extra efficient when I closed up the café so that I could make their set after work. Their setlist was pretty similar to the one that they played at Sunny’s but the outdoor venue and larger amount of room on the stage gave them more space to exist in and they could be louder. 

Following the trio’s performance, I found a group that I think might be one of my favorite indie bands to see in the city: Camp Bedford. Mainly performing a combination of folk, rock and pop, this group (composed of Roxanne Quilty, Mariela Flor Olivio and Tallen Gabriel) had such a remarkable mix of covers, with a more uptempo version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” and some great original songs, including some that are due for release on October 20. One of their songs, “Our America,” came off as this subdued protest song that both celebrated and criticized the United States in an intelligent manner that felt reminiscent of 60s folk artists like Joan Baez. 

What gives this group an edge is just how versatile they are with the members of this band all switching up instruments to give each song a new flavor. While mainly playing acoustic guitars, Roxanne and Mariela also brought the ukulele and banjo in, respectively, for certain songs, adding the flavors of Pacific/surf music and bluegrass. Tallen also has given the group a leg up by playing the cello on all of their songs. How many rock bands do you see using cellos? Not many and that’s what I like about Camp Bedford. It’s the perfect combination of what we’ve seen before with new possibilities and it’s all brought to us by this talented group that has this natural chemistry and comradery. So, come October 6, I’ll be seeing them perform at another venue and I can’t wait to see this band again. 

When it came to exploring live music, I didn’t even take a day off because, the day after seeing the PI Power Trio and Camp Bedford at the Culture Lab, I went to Forest Hills Stadium to see one of my favorite music icons of all time: Willie Nelson. Being from a small rural community, I was raised on Willie Nelson’s music and how can you not love the guy? He’s the ultimate liberal redneck hippie. This is the guy who smoked a joint on the roof of the White House with Jimmy Carter. Sure, President Carter said that it was only Willie who puffed but we all know what really happened. Since he’s 90-years-old, I knew that I probably should see him soon. Granted he’s probably going to live for another 10 years but you don’t want to press your luck. 

What made the ticket I purchased even better was that it wasn’t just for Willie Nelson. It was for the Outlaw Music Festival which would last for six hours and have Willie and his family band as the finale. When I got to Forest Hills Stadium, my only references for what it would be like were from a couple of films like Alfred Hitchcock’s “Strangers on a Train” and Wes Anderson’s “The Royal Tenenbaums.” While initially a tennis stadium which also hosted live acts like The Beatles and Frank Sinatra, the stadium was renovated as a music venue. Despite having pretty cheap seats in the uppermost tier, the place had this small, intimate feeling that made me feel like I wasn’t too far from the musicians. 

Not only would Willie and the band be playing, but groups like Waylon Payne, The String Cheese Incident and Los Lobos started off the first few hours of the festival with a combination of country, bluegrass and Spanish rock. When Los Lobos performed their final song, a mix of “Good Lovin’” and “La Bamba,” everyone was dancing in the stands and you could feel this stadium coming to life. What made the concert so interesting was how dynamic the attendees were. Not only were there more straight-laced country music fans, but there were also plenty of hippies and bohemians, further showing the diversity in Willie’s audience. There were also many tie-dyed clad Deadheads in the house because, between the opening acts and Willie Nelson, Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and his band, Wolf Bros., took to the stage. In traditional Dead fashion, they jammed continuously for two hours. 

Since I had seen Weir perform earlier this summer as a member of Dead and Company, I knew what to expect from his style of music. Seeing Weir perform with such a large audience is one of life’s great pleasures with everyone just moving and vibing to the music. After two hours of hearing incredible music from the Grateful Dead’s catalog, Willie’s band took the stage and the audience was starting to become very excited. We were losing our minds when one of the musicians took Willie’s famous guitar Trigger onto the stage. When Willie arrived, we were all so excited and then, when it seemed as if we couldn’t go any more crazy, the giant black curtain behind the group collapsed to reveal a gigantic American flag. We went nuts.

The next hour-and-a-half was nothing but pure bliss with Willie and his group going through all the hits like “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys,”  “On The Road Again,” “Good Hearted Woman” and “Always on My Mind.” While Willie can’t hold the notes like he used to, his older voice still sounded nice and his guitar playing has only gotten better. What everyone fails to address when they praise Willie is just how great of a guitarist he is with jazz picking being a clear influence. With his natural charisma, Willie held the audience in such a strong grip. When he performed his hit song “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die,” the audience followed his instructions explicitly. You have never seen so many clouds of marijuana smoke simultaneously erupt. 

Towards the end of his set, right before Willie and his family went into a bunch of gospel songs, it began to lightly rain. Between the fresh water falling on us and Willie singing songs like “Will The Circle Be Unbroken?,” it felt like baptism. Being able to see Willie Nelson live is one of those experiences that I know I’ll tell my kids about. Some legends you get to glimpse if you’re lucky enough. 

As if my week couldn’t get any more exciting, I went to the AMC Lincoln Square Theater on the Upper West Side a couple of days later to see the film “Dumb Money” which I enjoyed. When I was in the bathroom, washing my hands, there was a guy at the sink next to mine who looked very familiar. When we both went into the lobby and the guy rejoined his wife, that’s when I realized who I was with: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick. Since it was obvious they were just trying to have a nice afternoon out at the movies, I didn’t bother them but I love just how one day you’ll be seeing a movie and then you’ll run into people who’ve starred in some of your favorite films like “The Edge of Seventeen,” “A Few Good Men” and “Apollo 13.” Before making it big with “Footloose,” Kevin Bacon was a struggling actor in New York City waiting tables and having small roles in films like “Animal House” and the original “Friday the 13th.” Then he made his Broadway debut in 1982 with fellow up-and-coming actors Sean Penn and Val Kilmer in the play “Slab Boys.” It’s nice to see that Kevin Bacon is still a New Yorker all these years later, never forgetting the city that made him. 

The first week I was in New York, my family and I went to the Statue of Liberty and to Ellis Island. Now, over a year later, I found myself back on Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Back in Illinois, my mom is a member of the Shakespeare Club and she’s going to be giving a presentation on Ellis Island and the state of immigration back in the early 20th Century. Since I live in New York and know how to edit photos and videos together, it was only fitting that I take the ferry over and get as much video as possible to help with the project. Since it was on a September weekday, both islands weren’t as busy as they were when I first arrived in New York. The intimate footage I was able to get of Ellis Island was amazing and I was especially happy with what I was able to capture of the trial room, the registry room and the shots out of windows that showed Manhattan in the distance. There’s this quiet dignity to both islands that I hope comes through. 

Exploring Ellis Island a year after I first visited the island was kind of a full circle moment as I walked through the quiet halls and collected footage.

My desire to see musical spectacles is not only found in live acts but in cinemas as well. Just this past week, A24 released a remastered version of the 1984 concert film “Stop Making Sense” by Talking Heads. While I did enjoy their music, I had never seen the film, only clips on YouTube. So, when I saw the film Friday night on an IMAX screen with a large crowd, it was like a musical atom bomb. I was so taken with the energy of the film and just how much fun the audience was having with this music. So, I decided to see it again the next night which I rarely do since I see so many new films every week. 

On Saturday night, I saw the film again on IMAX with Pat Irwin and it felt much more personal since Pat came up during the New Wave and No Wave movements of New York in the late 70s and early 80s. He even knew some of the guys that were stagehands for the concerts that were the subject of the film. The second time I saw the film, even more people were moving to the music with two guys in front of me constantly banging their heads. When the film was over, all Pat could say was “wasn’t that great?” It was. So great that I turned to him and said “I think I need to see it a third time.” And that’s how I ended up spending my weekend: by going to late-night showings of “Stop Making Sense” even though I had to work the next day. I may have been somewhat sleep deprived but it was totally worth it. 

The Sunday showing was especially joyful because, when the film was over, I took out my phone and discovered that my messages and social media accounts were blowing up with friends and family telling me that it was all over. It turns out that they were referencing the WGA strike. They had reached an impressive deal with the AMPTP. So, after five months of picketing and joining the line several times, it was over with the SAG-AFTRA strike hopefully ending very soon with the actors getting a great deal. 

After some much needed rest and work, I received an email from the SoHo Playhouse where I had seen “Race: The Movie: The Play.” They were hosting a small, intimate one-woman show centered on the life and music of Joni Mitchell called “Take Me As I Am.” Starring Rainee Blake as Joni Mitchell, the play focuses on her playing songs to a small crowd after a year of soul-searching and traveling in 1976. Instead of coming off as kitschy, what makes the play work is how committed Blake is in showing us the deeper side of Joni Mitchell by having her talking about her most personal problems in between songs. Not only could Blake sing and speak like Mitchell, but she even learned her unusual guitar tunings with these songs sounding so wonderful. 

Blake used several of the classics like “A Case of You,” “California” and “Both Sides Now.” During the chorus of the lattermost song, which was used excellently at the end of the Best Picture-winning film “CODA,” she invited the audience to sing along with her. Being in the basement of this theater, having an audience softly singing about not knowing life at all was so beautiful in the most tender way. Like Bob Dylan, Joni also went electric with much less resistance and some of the songs reflected that like “Woodstock,” a song written in tribute to the iconic music festival that was covered by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and “Coyote,” which Mitchell would famously perform with The Band during their concert The Last Waltz on Thanksgiving Day, 1976. 

When the show was over, Rainee Blake came out for one last song and, to prove how well she knew Joni Mitchell’s music, asked for a request. After several conflicting songs, Blake ended her show with “Big Yellow Taxi.” After that song was completed, she talked in her normal voice and it was so jarring to see that she was actually Australian. You would have never been able to tell by her performance in the play. 

The past couple of weeks have seen Jewish people all over New York celebrating the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. So, with that in mind, I got a ticket to see “Fiddler on the Roof” at the Village East by Angelika cinema and, before then, I went to Katz’s Deli for a nice selection of Pastrami, Matzo Ball Soup, half-sour pickles and a black-and-white cookie. However, before I could do any of that, I figured that I’d kill some time in the Village after work. After getting off of the E train, I walked through the West Village to this bookstore I enjoy called Three Lives and Company. 

Sometimes I’ll see something just on the ground in New York and I feel this compulsion to take a picture. Usually it comes out good.

As I was looking through the stacks, I noticed a familiar looking woman wearing a pink baseball hat. She just looked so familiar and I thought I recognized her. When she went over to join her partner and her baby, I found that I recognized both of them. It was Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, two incredible filmmakers who just recently garnered critical and commercial acclaim for cowriting “Barbie” with Gerwig directing. Since its July release, it’s become the highest grossing film of 2023, the highest grossing film directed by a woman, the highest grossing comedy film of all time and the fourteenth highest grossing film of all time. Besides that, they’ve also worked on several films I love with Gerwig having directed “Little Women” and “Lady Bird” and Baumbach having directed “Marriage Story,” “Frances Ha” (which he cowrote with Gerwig) and “The Squid and the Whale” while also cowriting films like “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.” 

Since they had their young child with them, I figured it was best to let them have their space even though I just wanted to thank them for making so many great films that have inspired me as well as congratulate them on all of the success “Barbie” has accumulated. But seeing these two successful filmmakers just enjoying life was enough for me. To celebrate this sighting, I went a few blocks over to the First Presbyterian Church on 12th Street where Gerwig shot the ending for “Lady Bird.” With the rain that had fallen earlier that day, it looked so beautiful. 

Now that fall has arrived, I sincerely hope that the actors' strike is resolved so that more opportunities to work in the film industry can hopefully open up for me. But, regardless, I know that the next few weeks in New York are going to be as fun as usual. Especially since the time of Halloween is upon us which can only mean one thing: every small, independent theater screening old horror films. I live for this.