The news last week about Tower Records re-opening (online) triggered happy memories about visiting their store right by NYU on 4th and Broadway. I rode the subway down to campus each Saturday my first year in New York, feeling more at home there among the students my own age. Washington Square Park was like an urban beach where guys with concave chests played Hacky Sack, street magicians worked the crowds for tips, and stoners strummed guitars, singing their parents' folk songs. Poorly. If needed, my first stop would be a haircut at Astor Place Hairstylists , the New York icon that just announced that it's closing on November 25 after 75 years. Another victim of today's pandemic. The sprawling subterranean shop was like a daytime club where barbers of all ages yelled at each other in all languages while swaying to booming dance music or Latin rhythms. Magazine cutouts and Polaroids of celebrity clients like De Niro, Warhol, and Sinbad plastered workstation mirrors. T...
A rewind of my coming out and coming home to New York City in 1989.