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A blog by someone who doesn't like or understand blogs.
A major theme of this blog is the love affair between the blogger and the city of New York.
Email me at david [at] danzig [dot] com.
Bloggers with whom I am personally acquainted, in real life, in alphebetical order by first name:
Caren L.
Dav C.
David D.
Eva J.
Jessica D.
Joclyn G.
Lauren P.
Sean S.
Steph T.
If you know me in person, and I forgot to put you here, definitely, please email me, and also please accept my apology!
Take a look at some of my nearby neighbors by clicking this button: 
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Friday, August 30, 2002
WHAT IS REAL? (A POEM BY ME).
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Hey, baby, what about you? What are the things that you wanna do? I'm drivin'. I'm driven. Scent drifts from my virgin lips. I need it. I bleed it. I believe it.
Who are you tryin' to fool, baby? What did you think this was all about? Did you think we could just walk away? Did you think it could just end this way?
Yeah, baby, I'm talkin' to you. You've got to give me the time. You've got to get into the frame of mind. We're there. We've always known it.
I hear the voices calling. Do you hear the references dropping away? I'm falling into a disparate paradigm. I tuck my reality away in a small corner of what I call my mind. I'm slipping into a logic where sense makes everything, rather than the reverse. I twist my thoughts, wringing meaning out of them. No longer the dreamer, I become the dream. I am being. I am becoming. I am undone.
Slices of time shatter, fall away. I taste the moment like a little girl suckling her mother's breast. I am infused with reason, and stripped of consequence. I am married to my flesh: I cannot look away. There is a little tiny machine in my skull and it's making me think that I can believe things. Do you understand? It's making me feel like I have emotions.
I am flailing between two worlds, each existing in the shadow of the other. I try to hold both of them in my head, but my mind is too small. Reality is just a metaphor in one. Consciousness is just a superstition in the second. Neither is complete, and yet neither will admit of the other. I am unbalanced, spinning toward the second world, losing sight of the first.
Who am I? What have I become? How did I get to be this way? I taste bile as I scream the questions that know no answers. What is truth? What is fundamental? What differentiates the experience from the thing experienced?
I am elemental, but I don't know what I am. I am central, but I don't know where I stand. I cannot see the shroud I wear. I only see through it.
There are too many ways to be to be just one. I know you believe me. But I do not know if I am strong enough. I do not know if I am brave enough to leap from my comfortable frame.
Is it better to suffer or to feel nothing at all? Is it better to want what you cannot have or to have what you cannot want? I have risen from the deepest despair. I was a child once. It was not always this way.
I am lost.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/what-is-real-poem-by-me.html
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SEX IS OVERRATED.
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Listen, I've got nothing against sex, and I'm sure I'm every bit as fond of it as the next guy. But, you know, it's not the only thing in life. It doesn't need to be the subject of every song and every poem and every novel and every movie and every TV Show and every magazine and every play and every opera and every painting and so on. I'm not against sex. I'm for it, but I tell you it is overrated. You don't think so? Ask yourself this: Do you think sex is UNDERRATED? Of course, it isn't. And do you think sex is praised only exactly the right amount? Well, statistically, what are the chances of that? No, sex is great, but it's overrated. I didn't just have a bad experience or something. That's just something I've been wanting to get off my chest for a long time.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/sex-is-overrated.html
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THE STORY OF THE MONTH (OR SO).
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Well, it only took me--wait, this can't be right--FIVE AND A HALF YEARS, but I've finally updated the Story of the Month (Or So) on my personal home page, www.creamy.com. This month (or so)'s story is "Mr. Jones, The School Teacher Mad with Power". It is purely a coincidence, I assert for legal reasons, that he has the same (extremely common) last name as my high school chemistry teacher.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/story-of-month-or-so.html
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Thursday, August 29, 2002
THE BEST BLOG YOU'RE NOT READING.
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The advice that I try out the Friday Five came from Blake N., whose blog, "Blake Got Blogged" is my favorite blog to read. There are a lot of clever, creative blogs out there, but they just can't compete with television and movies and books and magazines and professional Web pages for entertainment. But Blake's is really intimate and personal, and feels just like reading someone's diary. I aspire to the ideal of writing for myself and not for other people, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to do so with the openness that she does.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/best-blog-youre-not-reading.html
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THE FRIDAY FIVE.
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In keeping with the suggestion I received to answer more party-game type questions in my Blog, here's "The Friday Five".
1. What is your current occupation? Is this what you chose to be doing at this point in your life? Why or why not?
I co-founded Charge.Com with my brother, and we run it together. This is what I chose for myself, and I decided to create this, instead of pursuing a law career (I am a lawyer with a degree from Duke Law).
2. If time/talent/money were no object, what would your dream occupation be?
I hate to say it, but I dream of not working, and just traveling the world. I always used to want to go into politics, but lately I don't think it would be worth the loss of privacy. So, I think that if I have to work at all, then my dream job is the job that I have now.
3. What did/do your parents do for a living? Has this had any influence on your career choices?
My parents are retired, but they also started their own business, a very successful mail order company called NSMI. I have no doubt that their success inspired my brother and me to start our own business.
4. Have you ever had to choose between having a career and having a family?
I have not, and I'm grateful that I have a job that will not make me ever face that kind of choice.
5. In your opinion, what is the easiest job in the world? What is the hardest? Why?
Lately, I'm thinking the easiest job in the world is President of the US. I want to take a month off and relax on a ranch! It's like Will Rogers said: "My mother always told me that anybody could grow up to become President, and lately I'm beginning to believe it." I think my friend Jessica J. might have the hardest job in the world. She's a genetic counselor, and she has to tell people that their fetus (or occasionally their child) has a terrible, incurable genetic disorder.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/friday-five.html
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THIS OR THAT.
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I'm told I should try including these party-game type questions in my Blog, so I'll give it a try.
Here's somebody's "This or that" list that maybe I'll keep up with when I remember.
The theme of the list is "TV nostalgia".
1. Sesame Street or Captain Kangaroo?
Sesame Street, but Captain Kangaroo was cool.
2. Muppet Show or Fraggle Rock?
Muppet Show. Fraggle Rock sucked.
3. He-Man or Jem?
He-Man is the lesser evil.
4. The Smurfs or Muppet Babies?
Smurfs.
5. Archie or Josie & the Pussycats?
Archie.
6. H.R. Pufnstuf or The Banana Splits?
I don't know what either of those are.
7. The Partridge Family or The Brady Bunch?
I have never seen a complete episode of either.
8. Happy Days or Welcome Back Kotter?
Welcome Back Kotter, but I like both.
9. Punky Brewster or Small Wonder?
Punky Brewster.
10. The Facts of Life or Silver Spoons?
Silver Spoons!
Well, I hope that gives all of us, especially me, a little more insight into who I am. Maybe this one is a little light-hearted, and future ones will be more penetrating.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/this-or-that.html
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MICHAEL J. FOX'S AQUAFINA COMMERCIAL.
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Isn't that new Michael J. Fox commercial for Aquafina water kind of creepy? In it, he's animated and he looks like he's in his 20s, and it doesn't actually look that much like him, which is presumably why they put his name on the screen. But the thing is, you know he has Parkinson's, and you know the only reason it's animated is because he's shaking all over the place in real life while he's reading the script. And that's all I can think about while I'm watching him animated and not shaking at all even a little bit. Is it just me?
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/michael-j-foxs-aquafina-commercial.html
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Wednesday, August 28, 2002
FEARDOTCOM.
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The new movie "FearDotCom" has nothing to do with the Web site "fear.com", which has gotten a pretty huge windfall in traffic lately, I should think. The website for the movie is feardotcom.com. That seems pretty stupid to me. It kind of makes me not want to see the movie. Or, rather, that is, it makes me not want to see the movie, even more than the commercials for the movie make me not want to see the movie.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/feardotcom.html
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Tuesday, August 27, 2002
WHAT DOES "SINGLE" MEAN?
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About 3 or 4 years ago, I went out with Julia B.. We only went out twice. She lived about 3 hours north of New York, and I lived an hour and a half south, in Philadelphia, and we used to meet here in New York. I can't remember when or why we stopped seeing each other, but there must have been some reason. So, we really lost touch, except that she always sends me a Christmas card, and if she sends it early enough and if I'm un-lazy enough, I send one back. And every time she sends it, and every time she sends an e-mail to update my contact information for her, she always seems to go out of her way to mention her boyfriend, over and over and over again. "Me and my boyfriend" this, "we" that. So, it was interesting to get an e-mail from her saying that she had moved to the New York area, and "I" just went on a trip to Italy, and "I" just finished unpacking in my new place, and "I" would like to hang out with you on Monday. So, being the confrontational, shoot from the hip guy I am, I called her on it. I said almost word-for-word what I just wrote in this blog entry, and she said, "I was going to talk to you about it in person." But I pressed her. "Are you single?" I asked. Yes, she assured me, she was. "Well, now that's interesting," I said. "Don't you think that's interesting? That you are single, and we're going to see each other again?" And she allowed as that she thought that everything was interesting.
Okay, so I hung out with her Monday night, and it turns out that she, in fact, just moved in with her boyfriend a couple weeks ago. She insists that she thought I was asking whether she had gotten married. So does she really not know what "single" means? Or was she just lying to me? But why? Women.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/what-does-single-mean.html
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Sunday, August 25, 2002
PROFANITY.
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In writing that last post, I was made a little uncomfortable by having to type and publish profanity on my Web site. It's not like I've never sworn before, including in print and on the Web and on stage. But I've really cut down on it, especially in public. What happened was, I used to take classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and occasionally perform there in improvised (made up on the spot) student shows there. And I noticed that a lot of the people really swore horribly on stage, even though they didn't necessarily swear that much in real life. It was like they weren't allowed to swear in public their whole lives, and now it was okay, so they became like kids with a new toy. I swore on stage and when practicing when I thought it was appropriate, but I did so no more than I do in real life, and maybe less so. But after watching all this on-stage profanity, I reacted negatively to it, and started making a conscious effort not to swear on stage, which had the immediate and hitherto permanent effect of making me swear a lot less in real life.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/profanity.html
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THEATER REVIEW: A NIGHT OF SHITTY THEATRE * * * 1/2 (3 and a half stars out of 4).
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I just saw this show, part of the New York International Fringe Festival, with Danny B. and Graham M. The premise of the show is that the company takes actual plays that are really terrible, and act out scenes from these terrible scripts. The concept works brilliantly, and just never gets old. The opening scene, a late scene from the teleplay in which it was intended to appear, begins with something to the effect of "Amanda, step away from the time portal-- I love you!" I think my favorite was from "Superman, a Gay Love Story". It is word-for-word the scene in Superman: the Movie where Lois meets Superman on her balcony-- only it's with "Lewis Lane", instead of Lois. And I had to groan at "Columbine: The Musical." I think this show succeeds where the new TV Show "The Rerun Show" falls a little short. That show tries to make fun of TV Shows that are not really all that terrible, and puts ridiculous twists on the characters' attitudes and actions. The unfortunately titled show I saw tonight took scripts that were embarrassingly bad, and acted their hearts out, taking these terrible scenes much too seriously. I wish I'd seen more of the Fringe Festival, so that I could say with some confidence that this is going to be one of the break-out shows. But it really is great, and I think I've seen enough theater in general to know that this show really is special.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/theater-review-night-of-shitty-theatre.html
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Saturday, August 24, 2002
TUNNEL OF LOVE.
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The New York Sun reported Friday about a repidly spreading anonymous August 14 email that declares the front train of every New York City subway car to be the "singles car", where singles can mingle and strike up a conversation with one another. I think that's a pretty interesting idea. Anyway, I just wanted to give everyone a heads-up so you know to seek out that car or to avoid it, as the case may be.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/tunnel-of-love.html
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THEATER REVIEW: THE GRADUATE * * * (3 stars out of 4).
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I saw the Graduate on Broadway last night with Danny B. and his brother Bernie. Briefly, in case you've never heard of or seen the movie, both the movie and the play are about a recent college graduate who has an affair with his parents' friend, Mrs. Robinson, who has a daughter named Elaine. The play stars Kathleen Turner as Mrs. Robinson, Alicia Silverstone as Elaine, and Jason Biggs as the graduate. It went into a lot more detail than the movie, with a lot of scenes and confrontations that were skipped in the film. To me, the play, much more than the movie, is really about Elaine, and her transformation from a mouse who does as she's told to an adult woman, who trades her innocence and sweetness for freedom and self-determination. Of course, the play, far more than the movie, is also about the full frontal nudity of 48-year-old Kathleen Turner.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/theater-review-graduate-3-stars-out-of.html
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WHAT THESE STARS MEAN IN THE REVIEWS.
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I thought it would be a good idea to set out what the different number of stars mean in my reviews, more for getting it straight in my own head than for any other reason.
(no stars) -- "The worst." The worst of the worst. Absurdly bad.
1/2 (half a star) -- "Terrible." Practically no redeeming features. It should never have been made.
* (one star) -- "Bad." There may be something a little interesting, but it is far outweighed by the bad.
* 1/2 (one and a half stars) -- "Not good." Not recommended, but there's some small redeeming thing about it.
* * (You get the idea) -- "So so." Not recommended, but not lousy either. Something worthwhile, but not enough.
* * 1/2 -- "Disappointing." Not great, but there's definitely something good about it. It could be worth checking out.
* * * -- "Good." Recommended.
* * * 1/2 -- "Extraordinary." Highly recommended.
* * * * -- "The best." The very best of the best. Perhaps 1 or 2 movies a year get this rating from me.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/what-these-stars-mean-in-reviews.html
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BOOK REVIEW: EVERYTHING AND A KITE * * * (3 stars out of 4).
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Everything and a Kite by Ray Ramano was really funny and made me laugh again and again. I listened to the book on tape (which is usually the case with these book reviews, by the way), and I particularly recommend that you get it on audio, because it's read by Romano, and his delivery has a lot of the humor. I'm not too familiar with his show, but I had already seen a lot of his material from his stand-up routine, most notably his appearance on the animated Comedy Central show Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. If you're very familiar with his material, you may be able to skip it. But if you want to see what the fuss is about Ray Ramano, get this very funny book.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/book-review-everything-and-kite-3.html
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POTTED MEAT FOOD PRODUCT.
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I was at the drug store to buy some Dr. Scholl's insoles, and I saw a 3 ounce can of "Armour Potted Meat Food Product". It has no other name or description. On the can is a picture of some bright pink mush on a cracker, too undefined to have been said to have been "spread" there. I bought it because the name amused me, and because it was carb free. I opened it up, and it was just like the picture. It actually tasted okay, except it was really too salty.
But, yuck, I just looked at the ingredients:
"Mechanically Separated Chicken, Beef Tripe, Partially Defatted Cooked Beef Fatty Tissue, Beef Hearts, Water, Partially Defatted Cooked Pork Fatty Tissue, Salt."
At least they partially defatted the cooked fatty tissue, right?
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/potted-meat-food-product.html
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MOVIE REVIEW: RONIN * * 1/2 (2 and a half stars out of 4).
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My friend Stefanie C. said she really loved this movie. But when I rented it, my brother and both my parents each told me that they thought it was the worst movie they ever saw. So, I was really looking forward to seeing it and, for good or bad, having a strong reaction to it. So, I was disappointed to find that it was really just okay. There are some great car chases going the wrong way in traffic, and a really intense scene where DeNiro directs his friend on how to operate to remove a bullet from DeNiro's abdomen without anesthesia. But I don't much care for those mindless action movies, and the plot was a little too twisty. Also, it seemed a little violent to me. It doesn't have that much more violence than many action movies, but I think what bothered me was that so many innocent bystanders got killed.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/movie-review-ronin-12-2-and-half-stars.html
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LATIN FESTIVAL.
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My friend P. is now a prominent local politician in South Florida. He invited me to join him and his wife at a local Latin Festival. There were over a hundred thousand people there, I heard tell, which is a lot of people for South Florida. Even though the streets are very broad, it was almost as difficult to walk down the street as it is here in Times Square. We got to park in a great free parking spot reserved for VIPs, and we got free VIP food (nothing fancy, but it was good), and I got to watch him address the crowd.
A lot of the booths seemed out of place for a festival crowd. There was a place to sign up for digital cable, and an Army recruitment booth, for example. We stopped at a shaved-ice booth, and P bought his wife some flavored ice. It was taking forever, so I joked, "Hang on just a second, I'm going to go over there and join the Army real quick." P scoffed that I'd be a terrible soldier, because I wouldn't like to take orders. "Yeah," I agreed. "I would always be questioning my orders. Like, if they told me to jump, I wouldn't just do it. I'd be all like, 'how high?'"
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/latin-festival.html
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Friday, August 23, 2002
THEATER REVIEW: THE SUN RISES IN THE EAST * 1/2 (1 and a half stars out of 4).
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I just saw The Sun Rises in the East tonight with Jin K. as part of the New York International Fringe Festival. This one man show was disappointing, and not very good. It opened with an okay piece, where the performer pretended to be the teacher in a community school class on cultural relativism. But after that, it became totally disjointed and boring.
The show ended with the performer passing out cards and pens, and asking everyone to write down the answers to four questions, which he then read anonymously (though he didn't read mine). The questions were:
1) How much money do you need, in order to be content for one year? Not luxuriously decadent, but content.
2) What smell most makes you salivate?
3) What is the best compliment you have ever received, or can think of?
4) If you could sleep with one person, one last time, who would it be?
My answers were
1) $500,000.00
2) A bakery
3) "I love you."
4) I answered this at the time, but only because it was anonymous.
So, those two parts were marginally interesting, but the middle 40 minutes really went nowhere and had nothing worthwhile, I think.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/theater-review-sun-rises-in-east-12-1.html
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I'M BACK IN NEW YORK.
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I'm back in New York.
I know I haven't been keeping up with my blog too well lately. I make no excuse, and I make no apology.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/im-back-in-new-york.html
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Sunday, August 18, 2002
MOVIE REVIEW: LITTLE NICKY 1/2 (half a star out of 4).
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Ugh. I suppose it's possible that someone will make a worse movie someday, so I gave it that half-star instead of none. And I guess I sort of chuckled once or twice. But in the first five minutes, I could see that this movie was no good, and I should have just bailed out then because it only got worse. The story doesn't make sense, the characters are not even a little sympathetic or believable, the love story totally doesn't work, and the dialogue is just horrid. I've always been a big Adam Sandler fan, but there is simply nothing good about this unwatchable movie, and you have already wasted too much time on it just by reading this review.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/movie-review-little-nicky-12-half-star.html
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Saturday, August 17, 2002
BOOK REVIEW: OGILVY ON ADVERTISING * * * 1/2 (3 and a half stars out of 4).
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"Ogilvy on Advertising" by David Ogilvy is fascinating, whether you buy advertising (as I do) or merely find yourself occasionally exposed to it. The bulk of the book is taken up by detailing what specific techniques work the best, mainly for print advertising. He sites research showing which kinds of fonts work best, and where the headline should be and how long the ad should be, and so on. Why one thing works and another thing doesn't often seems so random, but it's difficult to argue with the numbers. My only complaint (and Ogilvy can hardly be blamed for this) is that the book was written in 1983, and much of the rules he has set in stone, may in fact have changed since then.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/book-review-ogilvy-on-advertising-12-3.html
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"NO EXCESSIVE STARING."
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At the Oasis, at the Sawgrass Mills mall in Sunrise, Florida, there's a sign posted of the rules for people who are hanging out there. They have the usual stuff about not swearing and not painting graffiti, and not panhandling. But early on, they have this rule against "excessive staring." Weird.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/no-excessive-staring.html
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ICE-9.
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Did you ever read Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut? In the book there's this stuff called Ice-9, which is water that is frozen at room temperature. And if it touches any other water, it turns it into Ice 9. It's the ultimate doomsday weapon, since a tiny drop could turn all the oceans in the world solid.
So I got this stuff yesterday called "The Heat Solution" from a company called Prism Enterprises. It's so cool. There's a plastic pouch filled with transparent liquid. Floating in the liquid is a small metal disk. You flex the disk, and suddenly the liquid turns solid at the disk, and the "solidness" quickly spreads like a blooming flower until the whole pouch is solid white crystal. It also heats up to 130 degrees F for half an hour, which is the selling point. Afterwards, you can boil it in water, and it turns clear again.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/ice-9.html
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Friday, August 16, 2002
MOVIE REVIEW: NOVOCAINE * 1/2 (1 and a half stars out of 4).
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I'm never clear on whether this Steve Martin movie is a murder mystery or a black comedy, and in trying to be both, it winds up being neither one satisfactorily. As a murder mystery, the plot is too contrived to be believed, but as a black comedy, it's to gritty and not that funny. Interestingly, I watched the deleted scenes on the DVD, and all of them had a much more comic bent than the movie. Without being laugh-out-loud funny, they each at least set a tone of macabre humor that might have made the movie more watchable. Still there were a few clever and amusing scenes (the scenes with Kevin Bacon are great), and also some really disturbing scenes at the end.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/movie-review-novocaine-12-1-and-half.html
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THESE ARE BAD HEADLINES.
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I'm about two thirds through "Ogilvy on Advertising" by David Ogilvy. He gives two tips for headlines, to make them easy to read and effective. 1) Don't put them in all capital letters; and 2) don't put a period at the end. Ah, well.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/these-are-bad-headlines.html
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Thursday, August 15, 2002
I SHALL RETURN.
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I just bought my return ticket to New York City. I'll arrive Wednesday evening, August 21. It will be good to be back. Florida is depressingly dull. I'm not really into the beach or the club scene, and there isn't much else to do. I should try to do a little shopping while I'm here. My New York dollars go really far in this part of the world.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/i-shall-return.html
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Wednesday, August 14, 2002
BOOK REVIEW: FROM BAUHAUS TO OUR HOUSE BY TOM WOLFE * * 1/2 (2 and one half stars out of 4).
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Tom Wolfe's From Bauhaus to Our House delivers a scathing critique of American architecture in the 20th century. It is fascinating to observe the disconnect between architectural theory and aesthetics. And Wolfe is surely correct that this disconnect is a bad thing. Yet, I think, there are some beautiful buildings out there that were built in the 20th century, and that doesn't really match up with Wolfe's view about how architecture gets built. Further, I am particularly a fan of the "glass box" skyscrapers he decries. Still, the book was fascinating and entertaining. It was probably my least favorite Tom Wolfe book, but that's still pretty good.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/book-review-from-bauhaus-to-our-house.html
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Tuesday, August 13, 2002
SAD CLOWN.
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I drew this sketch, and I kind of liked it. I think it would make a good tattoo.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/sad-clown.html
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Monday, August 12, 2002
I SHAVED OFF MY GOATEE.
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After about 8 years, or more than 1/4 of my life, I finally shaved off my goatee. This would be a very appropriate spot for a picture, but 1) I don't know how to upload pictures to my blog; and 2) I don't have a picture of my shaved face yet.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/i-shaved-off-my-goatee.html
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INSTITUTIONAL RACISM.
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My brother's girlfriend, Rachel C. has something to do with the Florida Department of Children and Families. She noticed the following language in one of their brochures which has the headline on its cover: "Having a family should be more than a child's dream." It says:
Who are the children waiting for families?
Children waiting to be adopted are of all ages. They are in foster care and cannot return to their birth families because they:
� are survivors of abuse and neglect.
� have been abandoned.
� are members of sibling groups who need to remain together.
� are of racially mixed or black heritage.
� are physically, mentally, or emotionally challenged.
So, what's up with that fourth one? "Children are in foster care and cannot return to their birth families because they are of racially mixed or black heritage"? That is the government of Florida talking. That is my tax money being used to print this brochure. I really don't think they should be saying that, at least without some further explanation of what on earth they are talking about.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/institutional-racism.html
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HAPPY ANNIVERSARIES.
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Yesterday, August 11, was my parents' wedding anniversary, and also my company, Charge.Com's, anniversary. My parents were married 34 years ago, yesterday, and Network Solutions completed the registration of our domain "charge.com" 7 years ago yesterday. "7 years ago yesterday" sounds just right, because it was 7 years ago, but it feels like yesterday. How strange that Charge.Com is more than a fifth as old as my parents' marriage, which, being before I was born, certainly does not feel like yesterday.
For their anniversary, my brother and I and my brother's girlfriend, Rachel C., took my parents to "The Melting Pot: A Fondue Restaurant", here in South Florida. It was delicious, but it's very easy to eat too much there. We also got them a combination VCR / DVD player. It was perfect, because they've wanted a DVD player, but had no place to put one, and they didn't even know such a device existed. I didn't either, until Friday. Plus, we hooked it up for them, which is the real present, because they are totally helpless when it comes to that kind of thing. Also, Rachel framed a very lovely photograph of them taken from my balcony in Manhattan when they visited me last month.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/happy-anniversaries.html
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Sunday, August 11, 2002
PITHY PARTY.
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My "insaaaane" friend Dav C. thinks that you don't know what the word "pithy" means.
Actually, I just wanted to give him a shout-out for being the first blogger to link to my blog that I know about.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/pithy-party.html
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TATTOO CONVENTION.
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My friend David B. is a very famous tattoo artist, and he is in Florida for the weekend for a tattoo convention. So, I went with him yesterday and saw the convention, and watched it walk by his booth. I know that anything I say about it (other than that people into body art are a very tolerant, accepting community, and that much of the body art is objectively beautiful) would piss him off. And certainly, that bit in the parentheses is true. But for me, I repeatedly got the same queer feeling that I get when I see the freak show in Coney Island. And when I say that I get that feeling, I'm not trying to say anything about the people there; I'm just saying something about me.
Oh, guess who I walked past while I was at the convention! Ron Jeremy, the famous porn star! I was going to ask him to autograph my chest, but he walked off into another room for some kind of photo or film shoot. I saw they had those silver colored umbrellas with lights shining into them that I associate with photography or video, but I won't presume to speculate about what they might have been filming there.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/tattoo-convention.html
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Friday, August 09, 2002
I'M LEAVING ON A JET PLANE.
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I'm off to South Florida for a couple weeks, where I grew up. I'm leaving for the airport in half an hour.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/im-leaving-on-jet-plane.html
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Thursday, August 08, 2002
RESTAURANT REVIEW: REPUBLIC * * * (3 stars out of 4).
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Jessica D. just took me out to dinner at Republic, on Union Square West between 16th and 17th. They have good, fresh Thai food at reasonable prices, with lots of dinner entrees under $10. My two complaints are that 1) it is much too loud, and 2) there is communal seating, where you sit at a table with a stranger, which I don't always necessarily love to do. Together, there is a decided lack of intimacy that would make this restaurant totally unsuitable for a date or even a very meaningful conversation, unless you can score a table outside, time and weather permitting.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/restaurant-review-republic-3-stars-out.html
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FRANK MILLER.
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I just met Frank Miller, the famous comic book writer and artist, at a book signing at Midtown Comics. It was from 5 to 7. I got there before 5, and only got to get my book signed because he stayed at least a half-hour late. That line just didn't move. How long does it take to sign "Frank Miller"? I can do it in about a second and a half, and it's not even my name! And he doesn't write out "F" "R" "A" "N" "K". He just makes an F with a squiggly line.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/frank-miller.html
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I HATE SPAM.
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I am so sick of spam. I get about three or four hundred spams a day to my various e-mail addresses, and it costs me hours every week. Just now, I got a spam advertising child pornography. I've gotten a lot of such spams before, and they, of course, are particularly upsetting, as far as spam goes. Normally, I just hit the delete key. But I felt so fed up that I decided to report them to the FBI. They gave me an e-mail address to forward the spam, and I did. I figured they must get thousands of complaints like that every day. But I kept getting transferred around, and nobody at first seemed to know quite what to do about my complaint. So, maybe not very many people do report this kind of thing. I think that's too bad, but it does make me feel like maybe my one report will make a difference.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/i-hate-spam.html
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Wednesday, August 07, 2002
MOVIE REVIEW: DOLORES CLAIBORNE * 1/2 (1 and a half stars out of 4).
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I recently rented this (See my July 31, 2002 blog entry on my Blockbuster experience), and I was disappointed. I'd heard good things about it, but I found the movie not very believable, even though I also found it very predictable. Also, it suffers from the all-too common fault of having the bad guy go silent when attacked, unable to think of a response. We all know, in real life, that no matter how clever we are, the person we're talking to will have a comeback, even if it's not a very good one. But here, Dolores's not-so-clever quips always seem to go unanswered. Likewise, her daughter's arguments at the end of the movie, are unanswered. Though, they are hardly unanswerable. There are some very clever lines "Don't ask me for help; all my money's tied up in cash" was my favorite, and Dolores does have a few zingers. But it's long and a little slow, and not very plausible.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/movie-review-dolores-claiborne-12-1.html
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BOOK REVIEW: RICH DAD, POOR DAD * * (2 stars out of 4).
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"Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money--That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!" by Robert T. Kiyosaki makes some interesting points about how our attitudes about money are shaped by our parents, and how this is part of the reason why rich parents have rich children and poor parents have poor children. My own father is a very successful business owner, and was also an accountant. We frequently discussed issues of money at the dinner table and during other social activities. Now, I am a successful business owner, and I agree with the premise of Rich Dad, Poor Dad that this is not a coincidence. But the book, while long on philosophy, is a little short on the specifics, in terms of concrete advice you can use. It talks about attitudes about money that rich people have and teach their children, but, it seems to me, the important thing is the nitty-gritty specifics about how to, say, leverage an arbitrage opportunity or factor in the cost of money or evaluate whether a stock is undervalued. In short, the only conclusion I'm really able to draw from the book is that, if you want to be rich, make sure to go back in time and have rich parents.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/book-review-rich-dad-poor-dad-2-stars.html
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GOT 'EM ALL CUT.
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Sid, the guy who cuts my hair at the downtown Vidal Sassoon on 5th Avenue at 14th is a genius. I mean, you know, about cutting hair. Not that he's dumb about other stuff. Just, you know, so, anyway, having curly hair, as I do, it is very hard to get a good haircut. Most stylists have relatively little experience with curly hair, and it's also just objectively very difficult, since it doesn't really stay where you put it. And when I first went to Sid, about 2 years ago, he confided that he wasn't as confident about cutting curly hair as he was about cutting straight hair. But he works magic with his little $400 scissors. The only downside is that it's a little pricey at $120, including tip. But compared to what many people spend on clothes, I think that hair, which is much more important to your appearance, is not the place to skimp. I recommend him highly. Vidal Sassoon downtown is at 90 5th Ave (212) 229-2200.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/got-em-all-cut.html
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A CRAZY MCDONALD'S COMMERCIAL.
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On my TV screen appears a picture of a Big Mac followed by a cartoon smile. Then, a picture of a super-sized order of french fries, followed by a cartoon smile. Next, a picture of a large regular Coke followed by the smile. A cheerful announcer asks, "What could make you happier than a Big Mac Extra Value Meal? An appetizer before it. Like our cheesy mozzarella sticks [pictured, deep fried] or a tasty fajita [pictured, dripping with cheese]. Happy now?" And then the cartoon smile integrated with the McDonald's logo, and the word "smile". Now, I'm not one of those people who tell other people what they should eat (although I certainly used to be). But this is nuts! A Big Mac, super-sized fries, and large coke already has about as much fat and sugar as I normally eat in a week. But apparently, if I want to SMILE and BE HAPPY, then I also should let them take some breaded cheese, and deep fry it, and eat that first, in order to whet my appetite for all that other stuff. And another thing: a fajita is not an appetizer! You know, when I heard about that guy suing all the fast food places because fast food was bad for him, I was not very sympathetic, but that commercial really made me think that maybe something should be done. I mean, there's probably hundreds of very obese people who saw that ad, who are going to start ordering some fried mozzarella sticks to go with their Big Mac Extra Value Meal from now on, because a commercial told them that that was an okay thing to do in order to feel happy. And they're not going to understand why they are so obese when they are just eating the same stuff it says in the commercial that it's normal to eat.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/crazy-mcdonalds-commercial.html
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Monday, August 05, 2002
BOOK REVIEW: THE TEMPTING OF AMERICA, BY ROBERT BORK * * * (3 stars out of 4).
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The book, by defeated US Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, is very smart and well-written, but plagued with logical inconsistencies. The "tempting" that he condemns is the temptation to use result-driven pseudo-legal reasoning to interpret the Constitution to say what liberal judges want it to say. To the extent that Bork's claim is that sometimes judges choose between a number equally plausible choices based on the policy result they may wish for, his claim is well-supported, and his argument against the practice is well-reasoned.
But Bork reaches much too far. Often his complaint with the Supreme Court is that their way of interpreting the Constitution isn't exactly the same as his way. Thus, he thinks that the Court invented new law when it found a Constitutional right of privacy implicit in the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 9th, 10th, and 14th Amendments. But here, I'm doing Bork too much credit, for he fails to acknowledge the 9th and 10th Amendments, stating respectively that "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people," and "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people," which are central to the argument. What do these two Amendments mean, if not that US citizens have other substantive rights, in addition to those enumerated in the Bill of Rights? And if those rights don't include a right to privacy, so implicit in the other rights of the people, then what specific rights does Bork think we do have? Now, I'm not saying that this argument ends the debate over abortion, but Bork's view, that the Supreme Court is just making things up that have no textual basis in the Constitution, is just overreaching. And so that leaves us with Bork saying one thing about what the Constitution means, and the Supreme Court of the United States saying a different thing about what the Constitution means. But the Constitution itself says that the Supreme Court has the authority to interpret the Constitution, not Bork. So, it really seems to me that Bork, and not the Supreme Court, is the judicial activist, making up new law, when he says that there is no right to privacy in the Constitution.
Bork's view is that when the Constitution is not perfectly clear about what it says and means, then the courts should defer to legislative majorities, which are the part of our government, unlike the courts, which is supposed to make policy decisions. So, it is ironic that Bork spends so much time at the end of the book expressing his disdain for the legislative process that defeated his nomination to the Supreme Court in the Senate. He complains bitterly of lawmakers' distortions of the facts, their unyielding loyalties to special interest constituencies, their backroom agreements to vote together in regional blocks, and--most ironically of all--of their lack of familiarity with and understanding of Constitutional law, sufficient to understand the issues involved in his nomination. It seems as though Bork's only occasional desire to defer to legislative majorities is, itself, result-driven.
This brings me to the fundamental dishonesty of the book. Bork insists that the Supreme Court's expansive reading of the Constitution is result-driven, and insists that his doctrine of original intent is result-neutral. I don't believe this to be true. The Constitution, it is often said, is "a floor and not a ceiling on individual rights". Thus, the more narrowly the Constitution is interpreted, the less freedom and rights for individuals, and the more power for states and for the other branches of the federal government to criminalize otherwise-protected conduct. And that's the conservative agenda-- to limit the right to privacy, to limit the right to free expression, to limit the right to speak out against the government, to expand the powers of the police, and to dictate Victorian sexual practices. Thus, I submit that the original intent doctrine is every bit as result-driven as any liberal reading of the Constitution-- the desired result being to curtail individual freedom.
There are many other errors in the book, some more obvious than others (particularly ill-composed is his attack on First Amendment protection for flag burning: he says that the law restricted only the manner, and not the content of the expression, even though burning flags with different patterns than the US flag would have been permitted by the statute, and even though burning any representation of the flag, no matter it's size or material would have been outlawed; yet he goes into a vigorous defense of why the image of the flag is so sacred in our culture and deserves special consideration, based on the content of the message it conveys). But Bork makes many good points as well, and, as I say, his early arguments against result-driven decision making are very thought provoking.
I am an attorney, and found the book easy to follow, but I think it may have been a little too dense for most non-attorneys.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/book-review-tempting-of-america-by.html
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THEATER REVIEW: A.S.S.S.S.C.A.T. * * * * (4 stars out of 4).
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The best show in New York City, for as long as I've lived here, is A.S.S.S.S.C.A.T. on Sundays at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. I just saw it Sunday night with Debbie W. It is totally improvised; that is, the performers make up their lines as they go along. Most weeks, at least two or three and occasionally all four of the performers from the Upright Citizens Brigade TV Show on Comedy Central are there performing: Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Amy Poehler (now of Saturday Night Live), and Matt Walsh (now of The Daily Show). Most weeks, SNL's Horatio Sanz is there performing. Other famous frequent performers include SNL's Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, and Jerry Minor. More rare guests that I have seen there have included David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, and Andy Richter. Conan O'Brien once participated, but I missed it. Collectively, they and many other guests do long-form improvised comedy better than anyone else in the world. The very worst A.S.S.S.S.C.A.T. shows I've seen (and I've seen more than 50 all together) are still better than almost any other comedy show I've seen, and the best ones are truly magical.
The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater is on 22nd Street, just east of 7th Avenue. There are two A.S.S.S.S.C.A.T. shows every Sunday. The 7:30 show costs $7, and the 9:30 show is free, with tickets given out at 8:15, though you'll need to get there no later than around 7:15 PM to get a free ticket. You'll need reservations for the 7:30 show, which usually disappear by midweek. Personally, I always prefer to just spend the $7 than to wait in line for so long. They have lots of other shows there, too.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/theater-review-asssscat-4-stars-out-of.html
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Sunday, August 04, 2002
FOREIGN LANGUAGES.
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Language is effortless to learn before you're 6, not that hard to learn before you're 13, and extremely difficult to learn after you're 13. I think that's a really big, important idea, and one of the half dozen or so major, big, important ideas that I personally don't think society pays near enough attention to. The dumbest guy in Mexico can speak Spanish, but I had to struggle so hard with it in high school, even though I'm a pretty bright guy. If someone would have just talked to me in Spanish when I was 4 or 5, it wouldn't have even been work to know it now, and I'd speak it today better than I ever could, even if I devoted the rest of my life to the study of the Spanish language. But instead, in America, we start teaching foreign languages when students turn about 14 or 15-- the worst possible time! I'm going to make it a point to make sure my kids (when I have kids) learn at least two foreign languages when they are very young.
Then again, language learning may be obsolete by then. Here's my idea. Here are four things we already have: 1) pretty good speech recognition software, 2) pretty good translation software, 3) pretty good text-to-speech software, and 4) pretty good hand-held computers. Hey, are you thinking what I'm thinking? We ought to have a hand-held computer that uses speech recognition in one language to make text, runs the text through the translations software, and then uses the text-to-speech software to say the result, in order to provide unlimited real-time two-way translation between any two languages in the world, for under two hundred bucks. Can you imagine holding up one of these things on the street in Bangkok or Tokyo or Paris, and being able to say anything you wanted to in English, and have them hear you in Thai or Japanese or French, and reply in their own language, which you would hear as English? Now THAT would change everything. And we already have the technology. Someone just has to put the pieces together.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/foreign-languages.html
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"THAT'S TERESTING!"
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I was talking to a friend the other day, and she said that an executive where she works was very ill-mannered. So I asked, "Would you say, then, that his manners are 'peccable'?" "Oh, as opposed to 'impeccable'?" she laughed, getting the joke. So, I made the same joke the next day to Andy M., and he laughed, and then he replied that he found my comment completely "turbing" (as opposed to disturbing). Staring at him intently, I warned him that I was easily "tracted" while talking with him. "This conversation is very 'teresting,'" was his witty reply.
We kept having to explain the joke to our friend Sophie W.,telling her that "tracted" was the opposite of "distracted" and that "teresting" was the opposite of "interesting". It only occurs to me now as I am writing this, that the problem was probably that she isn't a native english speaker. She speaks perfectly (though with a slight Shanghai accent), but English isn't her first language. More on this BIG IDEA to follow (above).
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BOOK REVIEW: THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS: SCIENCE IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY * * (2 stars, out of 4).
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It's hard to judge a book of essays as a whole. There are some four star essays and some no star essays in this book. But taken as a whole, there is very little flow to the book. Rather, it is both extremely repetitive and contradictory. Practically every writer has to mention Moore's Law, and define it again and again for you (it is the empirical prediction that computing power will double every eighteen months). Practically every writer has to rehash the same ramifications of the Human Genome Project. And practically every writer makes the same prediction: that the particular unproven hypotheses that they are currently working on trying to prove, will, in fact, be proven in the next 50 years.
One interesting theme of the book is that we know a lot about what's going to happen in the next 50 years, because it takes at least a generation for new ideas to be accepted in the scientific community, because what has to happen first, is that all the old people who've made and staked their careers on the old ideas, all have to retire or die. This makes a lot of sense when you think about psychology, or child-rearing, or even medicine, but the various experts claim it to be true of physics and mathematics as well. Only computer science and astronomy, it would seem, are genuinely open minded to receive totally new ideas. One researcher, for example, says that the evidence is already great that cancer and some heart disease are primarily caused by contagious infections, which could be treated. He says, the only reason that idea isn't already accepted is that too many doctors have too much invested in the old models. Amusingly, he points out that the refusal of the medical establishment to accept the idea of cancer and heart disease as being caused by contagious infections will hasten the day when new doctors more open to the idea will be at the helm of the medical establishment. This is because, ironically, their stubbornness will cause them to die of heart disease and cancer, which could be better treated with a new paradigm.
All in all, the book is too long and too often obscure. Cut the book in half (keeping the best half, and not a random half), and you might have a very good book.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/book-review-next-fifty-years-science.html
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MOVIE REVIEW: AUSTIN POWERS 3 * * 1/2 (2 and a half stars, out of 4).
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I just saw Austin Powers 3: Goldmember, with Jin K. She liked it a lot, but I was disappointed. Perhaps it's not fair to judge it against the other Austin Powers movies, which I thought were really great. But by that high standard, this one comes up short. It's really striking how much money they obviously put into the movie. There's one stunning, beautiful set after another, each appearing on screen for only a few minutes. But this constant switching from one scene to a new, almost totally unrelated one, gave the movie a dreamlike, frenetic pace, which made watching it a little bit of a chore. Still, it did make me laugh several times, and the celebrity cameos were really great.
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HOME-MADE SUSHI.
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I made sushi at home with my friend Jin K. I took a sushi-making class with Manny F. a couple weeks ago, and I've been making it a lot, lately, but this was my first time with another person. She'd made sushi before, too. It was delicious, nutritious, and fun. It's amazing how much cheaper it is to make yourself. Marginally, a California roll costs me less than 50 cents for the whole roll. That's less than 10 cents per piece! Sashimi grade raw fish, though, is surprisingly expensive. A spicy tuna roll or smoked salmon roll costs about $2, which isn't a huge savings, considering how much effort it is. I guess the real reason to make it yourself is so you can experiment. I need to make a peanut butter and jelly and banana roll or a ham and cheese roll, or something crazy like that.
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Saturday, August 03, 2002
SIXTH STREET.
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One of the coolest spots in Manhattan is "Curry Row": 6th Street from 1st Avenue to 2nd Avenue. On this one street, and wrapping around a little onto the avenues to the south, are more than a dozen Indian restaurants. For the most part, they are also incredibly cheap. During the week, many have dinner specials for $6 or $7, including soup, an appetizer, almost any main course on the menu, and dessert. On the weekends, the price "jumps" to $7 or $8. And the food is always great. I don't know how they make money, and I don't know why more people don't seem to know about it. But I see very few tourists there, and practically all the other New Yorkers I know who know about it, learned about it from me, and I just happened to stumble on it by chance. I had dinner there last night, with Andy M. Yum!
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Friday, August 02, 2002
THE DEFINITION OF "PSYCHOLOGY".
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I heard a funny thing yesterday. To paraphrase: Psychology is the study of the mental processes of laboratory rats and university freshmen.
It was in an essay in a book called "The Next 50 Years", which I'm in the middle of. But I won't even hint at a review until I'm done with it. That's my strict policy regarding book recommendations, in general.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/definition-of-psychology.html
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Thursday, August 01, 2002
GOING TO THE GYM.
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I recently joined a gym. Yesterday was my two month "lunaversary". Today, for the first time, I blew off a social invitation in order to work out. I'd had a very busy afternoon, so I hadn't been to the gym yet by about 7:00, and Manny F. invited me to a party, and I told him I wouldn't skip a day at the gym. I go to the gym at least 6 days a week, every week, for 9 weeks now. Do I have a problem? They say exercise is addictive. For me, it makes me feel good more when I look into the mirror than when I'm at the gym, but I also do get a rush after working out.
I started out normally enough, riding a stationary bicycle for about half an hour, and doing 3 weight-lifting exercises consisting of 3 sets of 10 reps for the same body part, which part changes each day. According to the bicycle computer, I'd burn about 300 calories, and indeed, that was my goal. I thought under 300 was a little low, and over 300 was a little high.
I haven't changed the weight-lifting part of the routine. But I switched from the bike to the elliptical machine, which burns calories a lot faster for seemingly the same effort, and works out both the upper and lower body at the same time. Now, I do that for at least an hour a day. At first, my goal was 900 calories on the machine's computer, then 1000, and in just the past few days, I've been shooting for 1100 calories, per day, at least 6 times a week.
Now, every time I describe my workout to someone, I get the same reaction: the person always says "that's crazy." Is it? I've heard that professional body-builders burn more than 2000 calories in their daily workouts. I feel better, I look better, and I think I'm doing the right thing. I mean, if somebody convinced me I was hurting myself by exercising too much, I'd quit and watch TV and eat chocolate cake all day, no problem. I'm not hooked the way people get hooked on drugs or danger or bulimia. I'm just doing it, because I honestly think it's the right thing to do. But then again, that's what people with eating disorders think. Speaking of which, I've also been dieting lately, eating about 1,500 calories a day, and watching my fat intake. So, I thought everything was cool, although I also thought I was doing a lot, but choosing to work-out instead of going to a party with my friend is taking one of those steps, I think, that people say to look out for when they talk about addiction. But if I'm addicted, I think I'm addicted to the health benefits of exercising, like in the way that stoners say that you're addicted to breathing and to food, to justify their addictions to drugs. Of course, there's a big difference between food or breathing and, say, heroine. But not so much between food or breathing and exercise.
I don't know. Send feedback to david@danzig.comDELETETHISPART. And delete the part that says "DELETETHISPART". That's so spammers won't automatically pick up my address.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/going-to-gym.html
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RESTAURANT REVIEW: HUDSON HOTEL * * * 1/2 (3 and a half stars out of 4).
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I just got taken out to lunch at the Hudson Hotel with Jessica D., by her friend Walid. That place is fantastic, enjoyable as much for the crazy-beautiful decor as for the food. It's pricey, but they have a $22 lunch special, which includes an appetizer, main course, and dessert, so come hungry! Also, see if you can get into the bar for a look-see. It's supposed to be for hotel guests only, but I managed to slip in a couple months ago with no problems. My friend knew how to get there exactly, which is probably important, since you don't want to ask for directions. But I suppose you could say you're meeting a hotel guest there, and get in that way. Don't say "I'm meeting a hotel guest". Say "I'm meeting my friend Robin; she's staying here," because, you know, that sounds more natural. Now, suppose the person says something like, "You can walk around and try to find her, but you can't stay here without a hotel guest." That's fine, because what you really want to do is walk around and look at this amazing place; not spend $10 a drink to sit there. Make sure and check out the bathroom!
Hudson Hotel is on the south side of 58th Street, just east of 9th Avenue.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/08/restaurant-review-hudson-hotel-12-3.html
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