• City Stories

    A Date with NYC

    In just over a week, I head off for a long weekend in NYC. Returning just about a year after I moved away, it’s the first time I’ll be back to the Big Apple since then (with the exception of a whirlwind 24 hour trip for a film event late last summer). I’ve stayed away until now for several reasons, not the least of which was because I really needed to make a clean break from the place in order to fully appreciate my new digs in Chicago. Budget was also a consideration – not much time for weekend getaways when I’m busy furnishing an apartment and what not. And…

  • Cinephilia

    Watch This: Brooklyn

    In January, as I trudged through mountain snow between theaters to catch what I could at Sundance, I kept tabs on my phone, trade alerts pinging every few hours with the latest deal-making news: what’s hot, what’s not, what’s selling, who’s buying. This was the year Me and Earl and The Dying Girl caused a ruckus when the production team turned down a bigger deal in favor of a more creative one. And it was the year Brooklyn, an unassuming mid-century Irish love story, found its way into the hearts of festival audiences and to Fox Searchlight, where it’s been handled with such care that it will do the same…

  • City Stories

    From Midtown to Williamsburg (in 5 days flat)

    Some women post birth stories – those detailed, moving chronicles of how their child entered this world. This is not that story. Not exactly. This is the story of how a new apartment birthed a whole new version of daily life for a single girl in the big city, and how it all happened astoundingly fast. With a lease expiring at the end of April, I’d started casually looking for May 1 available apartments early in the month. But between how busy I was (see previous post) and how quickly real estate goes in this city, it really didn’t make sense to start looking in earnest until closer to the end…

  • City Stories

    Rabbit Holes and Tea Parties

    Last week, a coworker offered up a ticket to a show he couldn’t make it to anymore – and at a steep discount, to boot. Without plans and with a newfound insistence on soaking up every experience to come my way, I snapped it up. Which is how I found myself setting out at 10pm on a Tuesday night for an immersive theater experience in a converted out-patient hospital in Brooklyn. Because of course. The show is Then She Fell (NYTimes Review), and it’s akin to the likes of Sleep No More, the kind of theater without stage or seats or curtains or concessions. The kind of theater with a…

  • City Stories

    NYC List: OUTDOORS

    This is one of many posts in my NYC List series, in an effort to keep myself exploring the city. See where it started, and keep an eye on this tag for more posts. I wouldn’t exactly call myself an “outdoorsy” type. And yet, as the days get longer and the sun gets warmer, it’s next to impossible to stay inside in this city. It’s stuffy and cramped in those small apartments! From markets to wander to parks to explore to street fairs to stumble into (which I’ve done more than once just by leaving my building…), New York knows how to take advantage of a lovely day.

  • City Stories

    Weekend Adventure – Saturday

    Assuming you stop by this space every so often to see what latest New York adventure I’ve been on, I thought I’d post quickly about last weekend, the weekend I managed to fully inject myself into life in this bustling hive of a city and enjoy every stinkin’ minute of it. It started with a day of volunteering, plans made on a whim when I got an email from the 20s/30s group at the Catholic church near my place. It mentioned they’d be volunteering for New York Cares Day and there was still time to get involved. What’s that? Back up? Yes. Yes, I did say church group.