Friday, March 9, 2007

New York: How great is it to be a writer here?

Random thoughts from a trip to New York.

* When you look in people's windows - which is impossible NOT to do because some of these places are at street level - you see bookcases. But, unlike a lot of places in LA, those bookcases don't feel like they're for show.
You actually feel like at some point, somebody's having a conversation and goes "Oh... wait... hang on..." and pulls down a reference. Hell, they probably do that in the midst of Trivial Pursuits.

* I saw the apartment complex that Opie lives in. (The one that makes movies and was on the Andy Griffith Show, not the one that does morning radio.)

* Twice while I was out in the last two days I saw people showing proofs for their books - books that were mostly art, with some writing surrounding it. These were kid books, obviously, but still... interesting to me, considering some of the conversations here.

* In a 24 hour town, there are people writing on their laptops at coffee houses past two o'clock in the morning.

And finally, and probably most importantly:

* Regardless of where you are in the city, if you've got the flu, you can get Nyquil at any time of the evening. This isn't necessarily a writing observation, unless you're Hunter S. Thompson and need to see pretty swirly things, but I was still thrilled.

New York makes me a little wistful, as I lived here for a short period of time in the late '80s, and really loved it here. But I also knew if I wanted to write for television, I had to live in Los Angeles. But if you could do what you do anywhere, where would you choose to do it?

Me: #1 choice - Madison, Wisconsin. #2 choice - Manhattan.

Tomorrow: Off to see Avenue Q. Very excited.

- Steve

P.S. I do, very much, love New York. But then I saw an Olive Garden. In a non-touristy area. Where there are nothing but great Italian restaurants. It's like putting a PF Changs in Beijing for God's sake..

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey! what's your beef with PF Changs? Fucking writer jerk!

Steve said...

Ha.

Nothing. I like the Chang.

It could have just as easily been "Putting an Olive Garden in Italy."

But my response to "What's your beef with Olive Garden" would have been completely different...

Vincent Waller said...

Yeah go figure. Apparently Budweiser is popular in England.

New York high. Sitting on my rooftop in the middle of summer reading by the light of the Trade Center.
New York low. Six inches of frozen spit covering the sidewalks in winter.

Anonymous said...

Holy cow, Steve...you've never seen Avenue Q?

Anonymous said...

Uh, vincent...

About the World Trade Center...

Well, maybe you were out of town that day and didn't hear about it.

Oh, I don't have the heart to tell him!

Vincent Waller said...

Uh, crank. I didn't say it was yesterday that I was reading by the light of the towers. I just said it was a high point.
Have a better one....day that is. For those that need everything spelled out for them.