UWS's Barbao w/ P, D, C & A

The past delivered a big hug to the present Sunday night as I reunited with dear friend Cynthia Neuwalder, alongside mutual pals Perry and David, for dinner at beautifully appointed Upper West Side Vietnamese restaurant Barbao.

I also held my own little reunion with the nabe I first lived in when I moved to NYC in October 1995. In fact, Perry and I shared the second-floor apartment for six glorious weeks at 214 West 82nd Street, which I took over from her when she and David married at the end of the year (where she gave my daily outfits a nod or a no... with mostly no's! I pretty much completely transformed my wardrobe within those first couple months transitioning from D.C. to NYC). (Photo above today; below is then. Note new windows.)

My rent then: $610 for a two-room 400-sf studio. That was market value... then. Sadly, today, a newcomer to the city couldn't afford the space. Realtor Perry tells me that it now rents for more than $2,000 a month.

Ayhan joined us at the end of dinner as we moved to tavern The Dead Poet on Amsterdam, just a block from said apartment. P and I were chuckling over the fact that when we both lived in the hood, there was no such thing as a Verizon Wireless store, since cell phones had yet to become ubiquitous. Who knows, perhaps in five or 10 years, signature 20-something bar Jake's Dilemma on Amsterdam will become a destination for mobile brain implants.

Here's the gang: meese, P, David, Ayhan & Thia.Cynthia, meese & Perry.And Cynthia & meese (god, I look dreadfully homo here).

Flashback: Deb Gibson

As a child of the ‘80s, one of my fave acts of all time is Deborah Gibson. She forged most of her hits before I arrived at Billboard, but delivered some kick-ass dance staples in addition to meaty roles on Broadway in the mid-1990s, giving me a grand opportunity to get to know Debs and write about her activities. Our first meeting took place at a Starbucks at Astor Place, where we sat for an interview before I joined her down the street to watch her rehearse dance steps for an upcoming performance.

We saw each other several more times, at Time Café in Manhattan, during her wondrous performance in “Caberet” and when Deb posed for Playboy in the millennium(!). Every time, a loving presence. I simply could not adore her more.

What fun Tivo’ing VH1 Classics “Totally ‘80s,” which delivered a half-hour block of Deborah’s hits, including “Foolish Beat,” “Lost In Your Eyes” (featuring the signature hat-wearing Debbie) “Only In My Dreams” and “Shake Your Love.” Damn, the only one missing is my all-time fave “Electric Youth,” but no worries… I have that from a previous episode, in addition to Sheena Easton, Richard Marx, Human League, Scandal Elton, Belinda Carlisle and Paula Abdul—not to mention Deborah Debs on multiple iPod playlists of my all-time faves. Ah, feels so good!With Timmy at Time Cafe in Manhattan.

My Final R&R Feature

April 3 issue. Oddly, I feel... nothing. Then again, not so odd at all. Some bygones are surprisingly easy to tie to a balloon and let go. Begone, R&R, before someone drops a house on you!

BBMak: 'Back Here,' Baby

Back in the early part of the decade—amid the musical youth pop boom of Britney, 'N Sync, Christina, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees and the like—Brit trio BBMak stormed the states with single "Back Here," which reached the top 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 at AC. Follow-ups "Still On Your Side" and "Ghost of You and Me" were also top 40 hits, the latter reaching the AC top 10. In all, the trio of Christian Burns, Mark Barry and Ste McNally sold nearly 3 million copies of full-length "Sooner Or Later" and "Into Your Head" in the U.S.

It was also a boom period for me at Billboard, covering the hell out of the youth explosion through my weekly radio column "Airwaves" and throughout the mag. I gave BBMak its first stateside press after dinner with the guys and manager Diane (album "Into Your Head" was my No. 8 critic's pick of 2002), and I was able to witness their rise in a more personal way than I had covered any artist: warming up for Britney, scoring their hits, playing top 40 Z100's stadium Zootopia concert—with countless lunches, dinners and nights out with the guys, including a celebration of my 40th bday. In short, they became friends.

Alas, all good things in the pop pantheon reach their peak and BBMak eventually moved on and are now working on solo projects. Publicist Brad Taylor is now repping Christian Burns on his debut album and brought him to Lunasa Friday for a wondrously warm reunion that absolutely made my night.(Above, Mark, Ste and Christian with Ayhan and me, 2002.)

Lunacy @ Lunasa/April 3, 2009

A lean and mean Friday. Sparse but quality crowd, cool cats.

Karla Bonoff @ BB King

One of my favorite singer/songwriters of all time, Karla Bonoff, performed to a sold-out crowd Thursday at BB King in Times Square. I last saw her live before I moved to New York in Arlington, Va., at the Birchmere. Her classic song "New World" brought brand new meaning to me. Ayhan & I were backstage before the show to say how-do.

Listening Session With Zorba... To The Melody of Mojitos!

Sunday night, with Mitch Zorba in NYC from San Juan, recording final vocals for his upcoming project with Ayhan Sahin, we hosted a critical listening session with a handful of smart ears. Mitch provided mojitos and Donna cooked a Spanish feast... as you'll see, the evening admittedly disintegrated into a swirl of the spirits.Donna, clad in apron (her new look: urban housewife?), waves her magic cooking wand...As Mitch, Ayhan and meese look on...And Emre joins, as the feasting begins.Add Tinatin to the party. Hiccup, uh, pardon me.Trouble brews, with Mitch's first batch of mojitos.Tinatin and Emre drank most of them, I swear. Belch. Mercy, I'm terribly sorry.Onward to the business of the evening, as we listen critically to a good dozen English songs and another half-dozen in Spanish.Add Mitch's fun, fab pal Priscilla to the mix... An hour later and another pitcher of mojitos. Giggle, um, I mean, yes, very intelligent lyric.Tinatin and Ayhan break to record Russian vocals for her winning entry to the Icelandic Eurovision contest, coming in May!...As the rest of us head to the rooftop. What a view...Heavily colorized views looking from rooftop to river...Donna and Priscilla, hazy night, by the light of the moon.A neighbor happened to be walking his doggie just as we reached the Promenade. Love this pic, especially given that Priscilla is precisely one-head's-height shorter than I!I offer no apologies. Just blame. Damn you, Mitch, and those mojitos.Cheers!More cheers!And again!Chearearszzz! Um, yeah...The evidence, in hand.Order restored, as Emre begins softly playing guitar. Nice artistic moment.So much talent in a three-foot square block of space.Final strategy session...And fond farewells. Hell of a night, cool cats!

Happy Birthday: Ali MacGraw

In the millennium, we are blessed to have Maggie Gyllenhaal and Kirsten Dunst as two of the most consistent actresses: for bad, piss-poor and laughably lame performances.

Now, it'd be one thing if these two were sexy ladies—say like Darryl Hannah or Rene Russo in their day—but not only are Gyllenhaal and Dunst incapable of acting their way out of that little visual above to the right—but let's be honest, they'd be prettier wearing said paper bag over their heads.

Looking back 30 or so years ago, the mid-1970s boasted a pair of equally appalling "actresses" whose performances were so dead-on bad-ass bad that just thinking about "The Gradudate" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" sends me into gales of pained laughter. Thank you, Katharine Ross! Sadly, in the final scene, as we hear the call of "Fuego!" ("Fire!"), Ross' character Etta Place is apparently spared. Better aim next time!

Then there's Ali MacGraw—who celebrates her 71st birthday on this April Fool's Day—who made "Love Story" the ultimate tear-fest: only because her performance was just killing me. Har har.

The ultimate crossroads in bad acting came when both Ross and MacGraw, their careers in tatters, were given recurring roles on fab nighttime soaps and "Dynasty" and "The Colbys," respectively, in the 1980s. Ross played Francesca "Frankie" Scott Colby Hamilton Langdon, with all of the emotion of a damp paper towel; while MacGraw played Lady Ashley Mitchell, a woman of alleged great sophistication, as convincing as a bag lady wearing lucite pearls. Thankfully, mercy prevailed. The Lady was eventually gunned down by revolutionaries. Hurrah!

Happy birthday, you kidder, you!

Montague Street, 1976

An exhaustive survey of Brooklyn Heights' Montague Street in 1976, as posted on one of our fave sites, the Brooklyn Heights Blog, cites a hearty list of improvements to make the area less of the dumping zone for discount stores and overloaded pedestrian traffic. Among the proposals: A grassy promenade along the avenue and an underground parking deck to relieve traffic congestion. Nope, neither ever happened. At that time, rentals commanded a staggering 76% of the housing market, quite a diff. in the pre-coop era that was to come within a decade.

Personally, compared to today's relative lack of variety (read: no bars or creative restaurants—and brand name chains—I rather prefer the slightly seedy feel of the nabe then. Perhaps if I was walking the street in the era, I'd feel differently...

Pictured at the top is a tiny view of Montague from Hicks to Montague Terrace, then two views of Key Food. Below is today's Key.And here, a morning view along Montague above Henry Street.

The Way Jeans Are Supposed To FIt (4)

Part IV. Shot on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights. Bravo, boys.

Kathy Griffin: No Joke

Fab comedienne Kathy Griffin joined a Proposition 8 protest march this week to condemn same-sex marriage foes.

Towleroad reports her speech: “I've got a few questions for those who supported Proposition 8. What the fuck is it to you? Why are people in this state—when we have so many things on our plate, a fiscal disaster going on—why does anyone waste their time with this issue? Why does anyone care if gay people get married? You would never in a million years go up to a person of color and say, ‘Well, you know I hear that black people want to get married now. I mean, it's fine if they live together.’ You would cringe, would you not? ‘I hear that Mexicans want to vote! There goes the neighborhood!’ Right? It would sound absolutely silly. And yet across the state, people are having dinner conversations saying, ‘Well, do gay people really have the right to get married?’ Yes. Domestic union, domestic partnership is not the same."

Then saying that she was channeling the spirit of Sally Field in “Norma Rae” and that her friends call her "Norma Gay," Griffin held up a sign with the word "union,” scratched out with "marriage" written above it.

Thank you, Kathy. And just know, girl, I voted for you for the Best Comedy Album—though you clearly understand this is no joke.