This weekend is President’s Day in the United States, which means lots of scholarly assessments of the country’s leaders and…all right, no. It just involves getting a three-day weekend and seeing a bunch of television adverts where men dressed like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln offer holiday deals. Fittingly, one…
Margarita Pracatan Sings For You
If you’ve ever wanted to see Cuban singing sensation Margarita Pracatan taking to the stage and wowing people with her unique vocal talents, now’s your chance. Margarita will be performing live Friday, March 23 at New York’s Beechman Theatre. Apparently for the cost of a $15 ticket with a $15…
Movin’ Right Along
I’ve updated my 2012 travel plans with some tentative locations. Although quite a few of the dates listed are subject to change, I’m interested in hearing from people in each of the places listed. If you live somewhere I’m visiting and would like to have dinner with a stranger to…
Julia’s Holiday Greetings
Happy new year and all that. My resolutions include going to the gym more than once before December, and finishing a 694-page headache of a book I’ve been reading since April, the title and author of which shall remain nameless. For the first update of 2012, here’s a holiday greeting…
Interview 41: Must Be Santa
Just in time for the holidays, here’s an interview with Santa Claus. All right, it’s actually Ed Downey, a Maryland resident who makes a living dressing up as the jolly man in a red-and-white-suit. As I learned over dinner, Ed’s got plenty of tales to tell — not only about…
Lars Stephan’s Christmas Card
I had a grad plan to send all my readers Christmas cards this year, but the cards were so elaborate and made of such high quality materials that I couldn’t get them finished in time. All right, that preceding sentence is a complete lie. One person who has managed to…
Interview 40: Shamia’s Fight Against Hunger
It’s been a while since my last dinner interview, but the middle of December turned out to be productive as I met two new strangers. The first of those two interviews is now online. Earlier this month I spent an enjoyable Saturday lunch with Shamia Hollway, learning about her role…
Vague Promises Of Updates
Hmm, almost a month since my last update on here. I’m going to just pretend that I wanted my dear readers to have time to savor my recent interviews with former New York City Mayor Ed Koch and actor/artist/write Burt Young. Yeah, that’s the ticket! So, please savor away. Meantime,…
Interview 39: My Brunch With Burt Young
Actor Burt Young doesn’t mind if people recognize him only from his role as Paulie in the Rocky movies. During a brunch interview in New York, Burt told me that he enjoys meeting fans of the boxing films and is grateful for the role. But there’s far more to Burt…
Dancing Through Life
The United Nations is throwing Julia Kulokova a birthday party. All right, that’s not exactly true. Rather, Julia will be performing at a UN gala later this month the same day as her birthday. She’s a dancer, specializing in Gypsy styles, and she told me all about her career during…