Sweet Alyssa
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
Too bad that Alyssa Milano can’t go on tour. I’d pay big time money to see her in a live stage performance of Who’s the Boss? or maybe even Commando as long as she wore the overalls. She was, after all, the subject of my first love letter (my mom snapped a photo of me in a Hawaiian shirt and matching shorts that were all the rage in 1987), my first kiss (it happened in a dream that involved a rollercoaster ride and deep conversation), and then again my first brush with unrequited love (she never responded to my letter.) (more…)
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Tags: Downtown, Pop Stars
Faded ink on an old register receipt describes the time and place where I made a book purchase nearly a decade ago. The Barnes & Noble sales slip has been a makeshift bookmark for nine years and its been pressed between the pages so long that it has outlived the store from which it came.
The storefront that once displayed New York Times bestsellers is now filled with mannequins in bridal gowns. But at 10:34 p.m., March 1, 1999, I stood in line at 5121 NW Roanridge Road and bought a book that I wouldn’t read and that wouldn’t deepen my dedication to writing until 2007. (more…)
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Tags: Books, Pop Stars
On stage that night, Spalding Gray donned his trademark flannel shirt and sipped calmly from a water glass as I’d seen him do in two feature films. But off stage he wore a thick Abercrombie & Fitch sweater that swaddled his personality the same way it did his body in those cold northeastern winters he loved so much.
We said little to one another. I was just another autograph hunter, second or third in a line that stretched about 30 feet and he’d barely spoken to the few fans that greeted him before me. He’d come out to visit with the audience after his performance but had done so unprepared. He had to borrow a pen to sign with and, though he was far from impolite, he seemed reserved and not quite ready to talk after such a demanding stage show. (more…)
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Tags: Pop Stars
