In the small world of New York City, there are certain people you see all the time. You know the same people, you travel in the same circles, you work in the same field, all of the above. You bump into each other on the street or at a party and you have plenty to talk about. It’s like your on the precipice of a bone-fide friendship- if the wind changed direction, the tides would turn from merely Facebook friends to let’s-hang-out friends.
That is the cliff I stand on with Laura, this week’s featured Other New York cliche. We see each other on a regular basis, we have very similar interests, a ton of mutual friends, but we don’t know each other all that well. As luck would have it, she reads my blog (which I was flattered to find out) and volunteered her time to answer my little questionnaire. Now I know her a little better. Not only is she lovely, passionate, and compassionate (you don’t need to know her well to know that!), she’s got some great stories to tell. Here, I leave her to call the show blog:
Name/prefered pseudonym: Laura
Borough and neighborhood: Crown Heights, Brooklyn
How are you a New York cliché?
A struggling artist, working multiple jobs, trying to make it in the big city?
Also I’m one of those women who always carry their heels to an event and have flats stored in their purse. So you will often find me on a corner before an opening or interview trying to switch shoes while standing on one foot.
They say no one who lives in New York is actually from New York. Where are you from?
Upstate New York. The real upstate. Ithaca. It’s one of my favorite places this time of year. The leaves and the angle of the light make everything so beautiful.
Bloomberg is banishing you from NYC. You have 24 hours before you have to pack up and leave for ever. How do you spend them?
I’d get a group of my close friends together and walk Broadway. Start early in the morning and go from the top of Manhattan to the bottom, exploring places along the way, talking, debating, exchanging ideas, with maybe a few detours to Central Park, the Met, and the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Hopefully we’d start early enough to get to Battery Park in time to watch the sun set. It’s one of my favorite things to do in the city regardless of weather or season.
Then we’d go out somewhere (a bar/restaurant, preferably one where you could find both karaoke and swing/latin dance music possibilities) and play til the 24 hours were up.
What restaurant/bar you keep going back to, even though you’ve been meaning to try a dozen others?
Heartland Brewery. My friend Amanda and I have been to every one in the city. It’s been our go to place for almost 3 years, even though we keep saying we should find somewhere new. I always get their raspberry cider.
Hot dogs or pizza?
PIZZA. Hot dogs are sketchy. I like “Sicilian” pizza. The kind with the thick crust and lots of cheeeeeese!
So you live in NYC, but what’s one super-touristy thing you secretly love?
I love Macy’s! It’s so silly but I love shopping at Macy’s. It’s what I do when I’m bored in midtown. I love wandering their floors looking at things, especially the 8th and 9th floors (furniture and household goods), and the evening gowns section. I never buy anything but it’s fun to kill time there.
Ever had a run-in with a celebrity (A-D List)?
Yes, literally.
I was interning on a show. It was opening night and I’d been sent to drop gifts off at the theatre before half hour. I was in a hurry to get back to the office so I bolted out the stage door and ran into Matthew Broderick, the show’s lead. Nearly knocked him back onto the sidewalk and probably scared the crap out of him. It scared the crap out of me. You couldn’t see anyone coming through that door. I ran away very quickly after that….
You totally saw something weird on the subway or street today (you may not have registered it was weird because you are jaded), what did you see?
A guy in a tunic in Times Square doing something that looked like it was from the Ministry of Silly Walks.
Later I saw a friend of mine posted that it was part of an SNL skit taping he was working on. Go figure.
What is your favorite fictionalized New York? How does it compare with reality?
I don’t know that it’s my favorite fictionalized version but when I was young I loved all the old 1930’s musicals there were set in NYC. The ones where the Vaudeville star made it to the Great White Way. I liked the idea that you could “get” there, that it was possible for the underdog artist to make it. And I loved the beauty and epic-ness of them with all the giant Ziegfield Follies type musical numbers.
I think I was almost disappointed the first time I walked into a New York theater and realized just how tiny it was. It was nothing like the movies.
Plug something! Be it something you are involved in, your significant other/roommate/cat is involved in, or just something you think is extra-special going on in NYC.
I’m producing/directing a short film called The Ticket Seller! It’s a sweet little short about the power of choice in a person’s life.
We have a lot of great artists working on this project already and will be doing casting in the near future.
CHECK US OUT here: https://sites.google.com/site/theticketsellershort/home
Thank you, Laura, for your insightful answers and being such a great feature. (Sorry it took me a while to publish it!) I’m really looking forward to seeing the progress with your The Ticket Seller project- it was awesome to see an audition notice on Playbill this week. Hope you got a good turn out! Good luck with everything!
What do you think of this series? Love it so much you want featured? Fabulous! Email NewYorkCliche@yahoo.com.
