Little Brett, Big City

After two weeks in New York, I landed a temp job for several days at the world headquarters for Citigroup on Park Avenue. I assisted the only executive remaining in a department that had already been downsized. So I basically just edited his resume and answered his phone for $15 an hour. A welcome gig that replenished my shrinking cash supply.  I was out of the building by 5:10 my first day, walking down Park Avenue, a half dozen wide avenues away from my YMCA. The faceless yuppies that sprinted past me that morning now raced back to Grand Central Station. But I took my time, meandering through Midtown's maze, then over and down to the Westside. Most blocks, already devoid of sunlight, were quiet,  packing it up for the day.  City icons appeared unannounced. Rockefeller Plaza's concrete-ringed valley brimmed with cafe tables instead of ice skaters. Beyond that, Radio City Music Hall's marquee lit up 6th Avenue announcing that Siegfried & Roy would soon reside there fo...

With her unparalleled ability to create controversy, Madonna scored her seventh #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 22, 1989 with "Like A Prayer."  I remember when the video first hit MTV the month before. The Catholic Church was not pleased. Stigmata! Burning crosses! Was Madonna kissing Black Jesus?! I was just as shocked when I saw it. Madonna with brown hair! More importantly, The-Artist-Formerly-Known-As-Material-Girl had upgraded her mission from pop star to "serious artist." She was now 30 and felt she had to grow up with her audience. Her marriage to Sean Penn had just ended. Broadway critics panned her debut in "Speed-The-Plow." Her films "Shanghai Surprise" (missed that one) and "Who's That Girl" failed at the box office. She needed a change.  "Like A Prayer" signaled her new, more personal approach to songwriting, addressing her feelings about religion. She told Rolling Stone magazine: "Sometimes I...

  When I got to New York in 1989 you had many newspapers to choose from: The New York Times, The Daily News, New York Post, Newsday, Wall Street Journal...But every cool New Yorker read The Village Voice each week. I studied every page my first year there, looking for clues on how to join their ranks.  The "Choices" section listed too many ideas on how to spend my time and money..."indie" films at the Angelika and the Waverly, museum exhibits and lots of art galleries in Soho. I loved all the music club ads for acts I used to play on my college radio show like The Mighty Lemon Drops and The Mission UK.  The classifieds in the back hinted at how Young New York really lived. There were a lot of "Help Wanted" ads for telemarketers, waiters, and store clerks — more like "rent" gigs for creative types than wannabe yuppies like me. Not many posts for PR jobs.  Finding an apartment in New York looked easy when you saw the sheer volume of "For Rent...