High Times at the National Arts Club

One of New York's finest cultural clubs, the National Arts Club recently hosted the world premiere of Jean-Louis Blondeau's photography exhibition, No Why. Blondeau was a collaborator with famous high wire artist Philippe Petit (who made world headlines in 1974 when he walked on a cable strung between the Twin Towers), taking photos of his escapades as documented in the acclaimed documentary, Man on Wire. For an upcoming article, I attended the gala hosted by actress Susan Sarandon (3rd from right), with Blondeau (2nd from right) graciously accepting the praise of a crowd that included Tim Robbins, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Six Feet Under's Jeremy Sisto.

Wilco's 'Golden' Boy

As legendary Chicago band Wilco record their follow-up to 2007’s Sky Blue Sky, the group's keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen (second from left) is also preparing the release of his debut album from side project, Pronto. Amidst recording sessions at the Wilco Loft, I spoke to Mikael about the heartbreak and honesty behind All Is Golden.

Read all about it here.

92YTribeca: The Arts go Downtown...

The 92nd Street Y is New York's leading community and cultural centre. It has served the local residents for 134 years with diverse programming across the arts, education and lifestyle, with the likes of Bill Gates, Kofi Annan, Yo-Yo Ma, Mikhail Gorbachev and Bill Clinton appearing on its stages.

This Saturday (Oct. 18th) the 92Y will open up its new arts and entertainment venue, 92YTribeca. Its opening showcase ''18 Nights of Inspiration" will welcome Lou Reed, the Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch, filmmaker D A Pennebaker as well as a huge variety of other artists to help establish the venue as an arts staple in downtown New York.

I recently interviewed some of the key figures involved in the organization regarding its latest venture. Read all about it here.

Cardigans & Forgiveness: An interview with Jonathan Lethem

One of New York’s most prominent authors, Jonathan Lethem garnered acclaim with his National Book Critics Circle Award-winning, Motherless Brooklyn in 1999 as well as for 2003’s bestselling The Fortress of Solitude. For his recent appearance at the Brooklyn Book Festival, I chatted with Jonathan about his habits as a writer.

So tell me about your writing routine?

I’m very prosaic and industrious. I’m a grinder – I don’t have any magic incantations, I don’t burn a scented candle. I like to go to work in the mornings as soon as I’ve had my coffee and until I’m written out. I keep it very simple: I’m not very fast so I have to be industrious. I’m the tortoise, not the hare. I don’t have any rules or strictures on myself except that I like to work every day. I try to dodge the obsessive work campaign or watching the clock or external markers. Along as I can sit there everyday and do something, I’m happy enough with that.

Are there any creature comforts to get the juices flowing?

Oh god I used to have a lucky sweater a long time ago – I wrote 3 or 4 of my novels in it. But it fell to tatters and I left my superstitions behind at that point (laughs). It was just a green, Mister Rogers cardigan, very suburban-looking. I think maybe it was my disguise in a way. There’s a great quote about the writing life of Flaubert’s where he says “Be orderly and bourgeoisie in your life in order that you may be violent and original in your work.” The combination of the two sounded very provocative to me. So the green cardigan’s my attempt to appear bourgeoisie. I don’t really have the bourgeoisie pedigree so I had to fake it.

Do you have a ritual to overcome writer’s block or exhaustion?

I’m not a great one for being blocked; I just tend to be forgiving with myself. Writer’s block always sounds sort of perilous, sort of dangerous in this high stakes game and I prefer to lower the stakes. If I’m waiting to figure out what the next thing is, fair enough, I’m waiting. It’s part of the work.

Have you been inspired by any famous writer’s habits?

I’d be terrifically boring if you had a spycam on my work site. [There’s] that story of John Cheever who I think at some point in his working life would dress up like a suburban commuter, take the elevator down in his building and then work in the basement for exactly the hours of an officer worker. And then at 5 o’clock he’d go back on the elevator. I don’t think that I could really hold a candle to any of the greats. As much of a hedonist I believe myself to be in terms of my work, I’m also very aesthetic.

What’s the most important ingredient for you for a productive day of writing?

I try and dispel the stakes for myself. When I look back at a manuscript or a published book, I very rarely know what’s written on the good day and what’s written on the bad day. It all ends up looking pretty much like the same kind of work. I don’t beat myself up. There are days when you feel like a genius and there are other days when you churn out something idiotic. But it all evens out…

Jonathan Ames: Booze, Blues and a Power Adaptor

For an article that appeared in The Brooklyn Paper, I recently sat down with New York writer Jonathan Ames to hear all about his new graphic novel, The Alcoholic. It's an excellent work, full of pain, laughter and the occasional night spent in a garbage can.

Ames managed to tape a power adaptor to his head in our interview and you can read all about it here.