Coronavirus has taken away our freedom, lives, income, and so much more. One thing I didn’t expect this horrid virus to take away was my identity. But Angel, what do you mean, you are still you? Yes, I am still myself, but read on and you will understand.

Yesterday as I stood on line to go into my local C-Town supermarket, I wore a mask. I always wear a hat when its winter-ish as I don’t want to get sick, more so now. So as I stood there on line, I smiled and nodded at people. Though it took me a few seconds to realize that my disposition, my kind smile, my gentle nature, it was being blocked by the light blue mask which covered everything but my eyes. As I came to this realization, I wondered if they could still see the kindness in my eyes as I tried to “be myself.”

New Yorkers get a bad wrap for our attitudes and being tough, but we are also kind and gentle. Yes, I gave the stank face to the jerk who was trying to hustle his way to the front of the line. Yes, I told him to “please back up away from me and go to the back of the line,” but really, I’m still a nice guy. See, there is a difference between being nice, being a pushover, and being a sucker. That guy was trying to play me for a fool, so I had to turn up the Bronx, NYC attitude just a bit. He deserved it though, damned con artist. But yeah, that’s how you gotta be to survive in NYC. But it doesn’t mean we are like that to everyone and without just cause.

COVID-19 in NYC: Everything is weird and scary and I want to help by paying you to write for my blog

Everything is strange and so different than it was a week ago. The biggest event in my life right now is that this morning I yelled at my 77 year-old father to stop going to Trader Joe’s and then this afternoon, I took my 33 year-old self out to my neighborhood grocery store. And felt scared that it was so crowded. What am I up to this weekend? Oh, probably binge-watching Netflix…to stifle the guilt that I’m squandering this opportunity of time and not writing that book I’ve flirted with writing for, ya know, half a decade. You?

I can’t handle a book right now, I could barely write that last paragraph. Let me tell you, it was a struggle. (And that’s ok!) In fact, I wrote that paragraph 3 weeks ago… Not much in my day to day has changed since, but oh how the world has.

It’s a weird time, eh?

A bonkers, scary time. A how-is-this-real-life time. A WTF & WFH time.

March 12, 2020March 12, 2020

How to Get Last Week Tonight Tickets + What It’s Like in the Studio Audience with John Oliver (Host & My Celebrity Crush)

Every Sunday night at 11pm, I get sad that I don’t have HBO. Every Monday morning I wake up, go on Youtube, and feel better. Last Week Tonight, the only weekly TV show I give a hoot about, shares the lead story of each episode on Youtube – to the joy of all of us too cheap to spring for premium cable. Last week on Sunday night, I got an experience even better than an HBO subscription – I was in the live studio audience of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver!

I saw the March 1st taping that was all about Coronavirus. I only got tickets to the show because fear of Coronavirus made other people cancel.

How I Scored Last Week Tonight Tickets (They’re FREE!)

All tickets for tapings of Last Week Tonight are free! Thanks to the show’s popularity and numerous awards, these free tix are in high-demand and hard to get. Free tickets are available for the show only on Tuesdays at exactly 2pm through https://www.lastweektickets.com/. If you load that page at 2:01pm, you’ll be greeted by a discouraging message that the upcoming show is FULL and you’re out of luck. 2PM on the dot! The available tickets will be for a show that’s a month away, so you have plenty of time to plan.

March 5, 2020March 5, 2020

10 Reusable Bags You Need Now That the NYC Plastic Bag Ban is Here

It finally happened. On Sunday March 1st, the Plastic Bag Ban swept into full effect across New York City. Stores no longer carry plastic bags. If you do need a bag, it’s going to cost you – 5 cents and the only option is paper. My home town San Francisco banned plastic bags in 2007, it’s taken NYC over a decade to finally catch up! I am absolutely thrilled. If you’re not thrilled and instead struggling to adjust to the Bag Ban, the most helpful thing to do is go out and get a reusable tote (or three).

311 says the Department of Sanitation is hosting FREE give-aways of reusable bags. I’m sure they’ll get the job done but…there’s no way the Department of Sanitation is giving away FUN, SUPER FUNCTIONAL free bags!

I’ve rounded up some of my favorite re-usable bags. From totes to work-approps to bags that fold-up small enough to fit in your pocket.

Be TOTES Cool with the NYC Plastic Bag Ban!

February 19, 2020February 19, 2020

Stop-and-Frisk Story Time with Guest Blogger Andrew Sanford

With his surge in recent polls and the spamming of our social media, New Yorkers have been talking a lot about Mike Bloomberg. We think you should listen to us, we know this guy (we said the same thing about Trump). He was our mayor for 3 terms, over a decade. A lot of us have stories, especially about the stop-and-frisk “program” of policing that Bloomberg championed from 2002-2013, all eleven years he held the office.

My friend writer/comedian/actor Andrew Sanford shared the below stop-and-frisk story on his Facebook page. It manages to be both unnerving and funny at the same time. It’s a perfect personal story that illustrates this New York cliche of the early 2000s: If you were a brown or black man, you would be stopped by the police. You’d likely be harassed. And it was almost certainly for no other reason than the color of your skin.

STOP AND FRISK STORY TIME with ANDREW SANFORD

I was stopped and frisked about a decade ago. Spoiler alert, it wasn’t as bad as other POC have been forced to deal with but it went as follows:

At about 2:30 in the morning, me and a friend (who is white) were walking through Brooklyn from my old apartment to my new apartment. I was loudly and badly playing a harmonica, he was smoking a cigarette. A cop van slowly pulls up next to us, window down, like we were doing something wrong.

February 11, 2020February 11, 2020

New York Restaurant Week at Morimoto

New York Restaurant Week comes around twice a year, once in July-August, once in January-February. During this week, participating restaurants offer a menu of 3-course meals (appetizer/entree/dessert) for $42. In New York City that’s often the price of just an entree, so put it all together and it’s a pretty sweet deal.

Uncharacteristically, I planned ahead for Restaurant Week this winter – I was that excited about it. When I snagged a Saturday night reservation for Morimoto, of Iron Chef fame, I was thrilled. This was something I’d tried to do during previous Restaurant Weeks but always failed – Morimoto is one of those New York restaurants that you must book well in advance. I’d never watched an episode of Iron Chef, but with that kind of exclusivity and because this restaurant consistently appears at the top of every Best of Restaurant Week list, I knew it was going to be a good meal.

But before I get to the good stuff, let me share:

COVID-19 in NYC: Is Coronavirus stealing my identity?