The Basics
Age and occupation. How long have you lived here, where did you come from, and where do you live now?
Age: 29 (turning 30 in June, and looking forward to it) Occupation: Managing Editor of indieWIRE and do the occasional freelance writing. Lived here since June 1996 (and spent a summer interning in 1995) I live in Brooklyn, in Prospect Heights, in a ghetto building adorned with an advertisement for a now-defunct chicken restaurant.
Born in Winston-Salem, NC, lived there 4 years, moved to Greensboro, NC, lived there until I went to college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Also spent a college semester in London.
Three Cues
1. indieWIRE has started to host blogs on its website. (Hmm, is there a teen fad sweeping the nation?) Besides the usual premiere party hellabaloo, what can film lovers expect and are there plans to bring any star power to the table?
indieWIRE started back in 1996 (well before my time here), as the evolution of iLine, which was a community of people that loved independent film. We think the blogs enhance the community aspects of what we do...we're going to give film directors (including some big names, look out for one very soon from Mr. "Super Size Me," Morgan Spurlock), our writers, film industry folks, film festival staffers, and other members of the film community a way to connect to each other and also to connect to indieWIRE's readers. I think the great thing will be to see what kind of interesting debates we get into (we've already got a "Passion of the Christ" is or isn't-indie exchange heating up), and hearing straight from the horses' mouths what people are passionate about -- what a certain film exec thinks is the best movie of the year, or what a film director just ate for lunch.
2. If one were to plot the inverse relationship of the cost of drinks in a dive bar with the presence of aberrant humanity, there would most likely be a "sweet spot" to maximize a good time on $20. As the author of New York City's Best Dive Bars, where would you suggest I go to get my Hank Chinaski on?
Rudy's for pitchers of beer, especially when they are on special at certain hours of the day and you can head back to the "garden." And factor in free hot dogs and all the crazy day laborers and jazz fans in that joint.
Blue & Gold is also dirt cheap: $3 cocktails! You pay more than that for the coat check at Crobar I'm sure. Pleasing Ukranian bartenders, a pool table, a decent jukebox, and drug dealers hang out there if you need that sort of thing.
Holiday Cocktail Lounge is also cheap and entertaining, but I feel like the college kids in there are too young for me. The bartender, however, isn't so young.
I'll be updating the book for a revised 2005 edition, so if anyone has dive bar suggestions, email divebars -at- hotmail.com
3. Besides your obvious love of movies and gutter whiskey-induced blackouts, you also count music in your many feathered NYC culture cap. As managing editor of Jason Calacanis's Digital Music Weekly way back in the pre-millenium Internet boom, did you ever expect moms and sons in Kansas would have the ability to mix Neil and King Diamond?
I'd also like to give myself a little street cred by also mentioning that I worked at CMJ and at Rolling Stone Press before I started with Calacanis. So I was coming at that job from a music lover perspective as well as from the tech/business perspective. I was at Digital Music Weekly during the height of the Napster lawsuits (I swear Shawn Fanning made eyes at me during one press conference). It seems so crazy to think back that all these companies were trying to figure it out in 2000-2001, and iTunes (in my opinion) is the only one that's really gotten it right now in 2004. I like the fact that it was a computer company, Apple, that led the charge rather than these technology and music companies that have been working at it for 4-5 years now, because they were all getting too greedy.
Proust-Krucoff Questionnaire
Please share a personal (and hopefully interesting) NYC taxi story.
Just the one time I was really broke, and the cabby was too lazy to go to an ATM, so I tipped him with postage stamps. (What's worse is the time I tipped one of my favorite bartenders with Ranch One coupons.)
Time travel question: What era, day or event in New York's history would you like to re-live?
I'd love to live during the 1920s during the era of Fitzgerald and Dawn Powell's novels. Just wearing flapper clothes and drinking lots of champagne and not knowing what a recession is like.
9pm, Wednesday night - what are you doing?
Watching "The O.C." or out living my life and taping "The O.C."
Best celebrity sighting in New York, or personal experience with one if you're that type.
This one is recent, I do see a lot of celebs for work but usually don't talk to them unless it's a set-up interview, and where's the exciting serendipity in that? But a few weeks ago I was at this MoMa party for Sofia Coppola and I crashed the VIP room (walked in, head held high, works like a charm). So I spotted Bill Murray in there, then reminded Jimmy Fallon who I was (he is a Siberia regular like myself), and then I was standing next to Jim Jarmusch. So I was tipsy, I was headed to the bar, and I noticed Jarmusch's wine glass was empty, so I offered to get him a glass of wine, and he thought I was potentially crazy but said "yes." So I go to the bar, but they are only serving celebs (now my head-held-high trick isn't working so well), so Quentin Tarantino is next to me, so I start poking his arm and saying "Quentin, Quentin, we need more wine!" And being the guy he is, he got me more wine. Oh and I asked him if he knew indieWIRE, but he says he doesn't have a computer. So I brought it to Jarmusch but didn't really talk much to him, cause by then I was gushing to Ms. Coppola. To top it all off, Thom from "Queer Eye" complimented my stockings. A momentous night.
What's the most expensive thing in your wardrobe?
As much as I am a clotheshorse, I am also a poor clotheshorse. I just got a pair of $200 BCBG heels on sale, plus I used Sundance schwag gift certificate for $100, so I only paid $25 for 'em. Otherwise, I try to be stylish on an H&M/Old Navy/Macy's/wholesale-jewelry-store budget. I've been known to go ghetto and shop at Conway for chrissakes.
Where do you summer?
My roof, that cool strip of grass in DUMBO, Prospect Park, Battery Park City, or Central Park if I'm feeling adventurous. Actually there is a ferry to Sandy Hook that you can take from lower Manhattan that I think is one of the best summer activities in the Big Apple. But I don't want everyone to find out about that. And whatever free film festival trips I can talk my way into (last summer I lucked out and went to the Czech Republic).
If you could change one thing about New York, what would it be?
Those rude folks wouldn't be able to start pushing their way onto the subway til we're all off. The subway is bad enough without that, my friends.
The End of The World is finally happening. What are you going to do with your last 24 hours in NYC?
I'd sleep late (hey, don't want to be tired and sluggish on my last 24 hours), have a big bagel for breakfast, take somebody I love up to the Cloisters and look at the tapestries and the Hudson. I'd get nostalgic and go visit every apartment I ever lived in here (the one in "Hell"boken would be skipped). I'd go on a Circle Line cruise (but only with people I invite...no tourists). I'd eat my last slice of New York pizza then I'd call my favorite friends to come to Siberia Bar, where we'd rule the jukebox and get stinking drunk reminiscing and celebrating until the big bang.
More of her musings can be found at WendyWIRE.
