Actor Richard Kiel is perhaps best known as the villain Jaws from two James Bond movies in the 1970s. And now he can be known as the 51st person to be interviewed for Dining With Strangers. It’s like winning an Oscar! All right, it’s nothing like winning an Oscar. Nevertheless,…
No News November
Apparently I’m a fan of alliteration in these post titles. Anyway, to make sure the lead matches the headline, let me apologize to my handful of readers for the total lack of updates in November. That should hopefully change later this week when I upload interview #51, my dinner with…
Interview 50: My Visit To Storyville
The second of my two recent(ish) interviews in New Orleans is online! Late in August — yes, I realize that my turnaround time on these articles is awfully slow — I had lunch with Josh and Natalie Harvey, owners of the custom design t-shirt company Storyville based in the Crescent…
Interview 49: The Food Critic
An update! An honest-to-goodness new interview! Today’s article is my dinner with New Orleans restaurant critic Tom Fitzmorris, the host of a long-running radio show dedicated solely to talking about food, in a city famed for its great restaurants. He also operates The New Orleans Menu website that’s overflowing with…
Weaver Ward One (Again)
Community activist Bryan Weaver — my 25th dinner interviewee — is running again for the Ward One seat on the D.C. Council. Bryan, originally from Oregon, long ago made the capital city his home and at our dinner almost three years ago he spoke fondly about his adopted hometown, and…
Return Of The Sporadic Update
Well this site has certainly not achieved anything resembling regular updates this year. Whoops. Efforts to correct that are underway, with a possible interview this weekend in Chicago and a definite interview later this month in New Orleans. If you live in either city and are interested in an interview,…
The Windy City
I’m kind of obsessed with the New Orleans-set 1980s movie The Big Easy, featuring Dennis Quaid as a cop with an atrociously stereotypical N’awlins accent (think lots of use of the word “cher” to end every sentence, for example). So I was surprised to read online that it was originally…
Interview 48: A Matter Of Life O’Death
Last weekend I was in New York and had an enjoyable lunch with David Rogers-Berry, the drummer for the band O’Death. Over plates of Mexican food in Brooklyn, he told me about how he got into music from an early age and his goals for the band. There’s much more…
Horsing Around
A quick update to give a shout-out to British musician Lorraine Bowen (interview #47) who has updated her website with all kinds of bells and whistles. Give it a visit and listen to some of her quirky and catchy tunes. I can highly recommend a listen to “The Burger Song”…
Rest In Peace Ed Koch
Sad news out of New York City: former Mayor Ed Koch has died. In October 2011, I spent an hour or so with Mr. Koch in his corner-room office at the law firm where he worked each day. We shared coffee and cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery, and I quizzed him…