Josh and I are at La Guardia right now, on our way to Key West, Florida, on assignment for Passport magazine. We're excited, to say the least.
While we're in Florida, we thought we'd leave up the videos from our last assignment, in Copenhagen, Denmark, for you to check out.
Here's the first video from Copenhagen, and here's the second.
We'll both be Twittering from Key West, so check in if you want up-to-the-minute updates.
See you guys when we get back!
Josh & Josh
It's Josh K's birthday week, y'all. Feel free to join me in wishing him a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Met you when you were 21, kid, and I wasn't even of legal drinking age. Here we are all these years later. The stories we could tell. (And we do.)
Sendin' the love.
--Josh H.
Biography Bookshop, 11th St. and Bleecker St., West Village, NYC
They call it Biography Bookshop because (surprise!) they specialize in biographies, but the selection of books goes far beyond the namesake's genre. The tables of books lining the front of the store outside are must-browse selections, and at half off or more, they're nearly irresistible bargains. Thus, for the four years and change that I've lived in New York, it's been a dependable truth: If I'm in the West Village, I'm making a stop at Biography Bookshop (and, more than likely, not leaving empty-handed).
On Sunday night I ventured out into the neighborhood with my boyfriend, first for dinner at Moustache (an excellent, tidy spot on Bedford Street serving delicious Middle Eastern food) and then for a few show tunes over at Marie's Crisis, a piano bar steeped in West Village history and lore. It was a perfect fall night, streetlight streaming through leaves just beginning to change, and neither of us was quite ready to call it a night after carousing at Marie's.
We sauntered up Bleecker Street and ended up at Magnolia, the famed cupcake shop (hello there, Sex and the City fans), but after we'd polished off our cupcakes at the little park across the street (vanilla with dynamic swirly multitudes of thick chocolate frosting) my hunger had shifted.
Time for books. A few steps and we were there.
At Biography I like to grab books first and ask questions later. I snapped up four or five right away at the tables outside, hugging them to my chest as I perused the other goodies. After a few minutes I narrowed it down to two books and headed inside the studio apartment-sized shop, boyfriend in tow, to check out the new trade paperback offerings.
Just as I was about to pick up Wally Lamb's new book, I heard one of the workers talking to a customer, and the conversation stopped my fingers mid-air.
"Yep, we're closing at the end of the year," the young hipster-ish guy behind the counter said, ringing up a book.
The customer took in a sharp breath. "But why?"
"Well, just between us, the lease came up and the landlord raised the rent eight-fold, and when we couldn't keep up, Marc Jacobs swooped in and got the lease."
I turned to my boyfriend, wide-eyed.
"But doesn't Marc Jacobs have, like, six stores in this neighborhood already?" the customer asked.
The clerk shrugged. "I think this place will make the sixth. Guess they needed another location. But we're moving a few blocks down and reopening as Book Book."
Book Book? Really? I saw new bookmarkers on the checkout counter with the new logo printed beneath it.
I thought about all the books I'd bought at Biography over the years, tucking my purchases under my arm and taking them back to apartments all over the city, and on airplanes and vacations, stowed away in totes and backpacks and bags of varying shapes and sizes on my various adventures.
Those books had been with me through good times and bad, from one share apartment to another, into one boyfriend's apartment and then back out again, trailing around the city behind me like little literary ducklings. Biography Bookshop had always been a touchstone. No matter where I lived or what was going on in my life, Biography stayed the same, and it always kept me well stocked in little treasures that filled up my bookshelves.
I paid for my books (sixteen dollars for two great books!) and headed back into the fall night with my boyfriend. I stopped outside for a second and looked at the awning and the small group of people still pawing through the bargain tables.
"Ready?" my boyfriend asked me.
I nodded. I felt like I was leaving something behind. Irrational maybe, I know. But in my head I made a promise to visit one last time before I headed home to Minneapolis for Christmas to say a proper farewell to an old friend and, of course, buy a few last books.
* * *
The Two That Left With Me
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson and Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
--Josh H.
The media bloodbath continues as Conde Nast announces it's folding Gourmet, Cookie, Elegant Bride and Modern Bride. [Gawker]
The big cuts in magazines began in Fall 2008 and continued into 2009 (including my layoff in January 2009, along with 250 people in my company--all of us on the same day) and the cuts are continuing across the industry more than a year later.
We all know the heyday of magazines as they existed at the end of the twentieth century is never coming back. The real question is what the mag industry will look like once the economy begins to (supposedly) truly stabilize in the third quarter of next year.
I don't think the outlook, however, is particularly rosy.
It was a long, strange week, so I figured there would be no better way to wrap up the week than with an afternoon in Central Park with the pup and a good book. With the weather in the mid-70s, the warmest day forecast for the whole week ahead (hello fall!), I decided we definitely couldn't pass it up.
* * *
POST SCRIPT I'm loving Julia Glass's third book, I See You Everywhere. Julia shapes characters so fully that I feel like I'm actually spending time with them, and I want to know more about their lives and what will happen to them next. Her first two books, Three Junes and The Whole World Over, are highly recommended as well.
JUST FINISHED: Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Short stories aren't necessarily my primary literary love (though I do worship the stories of Lorrie Moore and Amy Hempel), but Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant Unaccustomed Earth is joining my brief list of favorite short story collections. Each of Lahiri's story in this collection is rich, vivid, and elegant. Lahiri may be writing primarily about the experiences of Indian American (or Indian) people as they navigate life in the United States, but the stories are individually so compelling, tightly composed and fully realized that each arc seems almost universal, transcendent. And, indeed, perhaps they are: stories of a parent's love for a child, a child's complicated love for a parent, marriage, divorce, step-families, and, in the end, finding a place of one's own in a sometimes dauntingly complicated world. I read the final pages of the book on the shuttle to IKEA Brooklyn and the ending of that last story took me by such breathless surprise that I cried right there on the shuttle, public be damned. A bit embarrassing, perhaps, but an authentic response to the conclusion of a great book. Recommended.
NOW READING: Official Book Club Selection by Kathy Griffin
I'm a third of the way into Kathy Griffin's new book Official Book Club Selection, and I've realized I have to be careful where I read it as I've been laughing out loud through most of it. Kathy (and her co-writer) have done a great job of capturing her distinctive, salty voice and covering familiar Kathy territory, while introducing us to personal, private stories from Kathy's life that most of us likely didn't know.
Beyond the generous servings of celebrity dish and comic anecdotes, Kathy digs into serious subject matter, including Chapter Four where she talks in no uncertain terms about her oldest brother, Kenny, who was a sexual predator with whom she had a very difficult relationship. Without giving away too many details, I'll say that I cried on page 49, for example, which is something I hadn't expected to do while reading Official Book Club Selection. But perhaps, in the end, that's part of Kathy's genius: she keeps doing the unexpected and takes us by surprise, in doing so, keeps her audience's rapt attention squarely focused. To have readers laughing and then getting emotional in the spate of a mere few pages is truly a talent.
My boyfriend, however? I think he's a bit annoyed with Kathy and her book--but not because he doesn't love her (he does--we've spent many an hour on the sofa together watching her Bravo series My Life on the D List). However, last night we were reading by each other and I kept laughing intermittently and he'd ask, "What? What happened?" And I kept trying to explain, but the context was never enough, and it kept happening, so I've decided I should probably just finish the book on the plane to Minneapolis tomorrow so as not to torture him further. (I'm sure he'll devour the book before I can get it back on the bookshelf when I'm done.)
Recommended. (In hardcover, but only $15 on Amazon--barely more than trade paper pricing.)
NEW ON MY BOOKSHELF: Jeannette Walls's Half Broke Horses, (her second book after her smash hit bestselling memoir, The Glass Castle), which I sneakily procured pre-release through a friend in publishing (thanks TL), and our friend Tom Dolby's new book, Secret Society. (Congrats, Tom!)
--Josh H.
I've wanted a dog all my life. From the moment that I could say the word "dog" I vehemently requested that our household become avec chien.
Alas, no luck.
That is, of course, until this year when I fell in love with a lovely man who happened to come with a dog. It was a pretty amazing package deal: great guy, adorable dog. I mean, what else could a guy want, right?
Butter, the 22-pound Border Terrier mix, a Katrina rescue who just turned four, leaped into my lap and-- sap alert--into my dog lovin' heart as well.
Butter just got groomed today, so I thought that I would share the very first dog pictures with you.
Amazing difference, right? Dogs don't need Botox--they just get one little haircut and it takes half their age off. He looks like a puppy again.
It's love.
--Josh H.
When Josh and I got to the US Open all the games were being held because of the rain. We were holding out for the big show, the 8 p.m. game between Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters. We waited, but we wondered if we'd get to see any tennis at all.
One of Josh K's friends hooked us up with box seats for the game, so while we waited for the rain to pass we stuffed our faces with catered cookies, hot dogs, chocolates and diet soda. Honestly, it's not the worst way to have to wait out the rain. Secretly I think we would have considered the night a success even if we hadn't seen the game. But . . .
Then the rain finally slowed and a synchronized team of guys with blowers started drying off the court. It looked like we'd see some tennis after all.
We were happy Joshes. (Josh H, left; Josh K, right)
Finally: the game.
Okay, fine, and a little celebrity watching, too. 30 Rock's Alec Baldwin sat nearby. Love him.
But all eyes were on the court as a minor tennis scandal rocked the US Open when Serena Williams lost the game on match point because she ran her mouth at a line judge. . . .
* * *
OUR EXCLUSIVE VIDEO Last night Serena Williams played Kim Clijsters in the semifinals of the US Open. It was an exciting, suspense-filled neck-in-neck game, riddled with sloppy playing by Serena, who threw her racket onto the court and busted it when she lost the first set (and earned a warning from the judges for her behavior).
Clijsters, who is 26 and only recently back playing tennis since she had a child 18 months ago, continued neck-in-neck play into the end of the second set. When it became match point, a line judge called Serena on a foot fault (which actually was a bad call and later determined to be inaccurate). However, instead of calmly asking for a review of the call, Serena lost it.
From our seats we could only see Serena getting up into the face of the line judge, waving the ball at the judge and looking ready for an all-out brawl, but The New York Times reports Serena yelled "you don't f**king know who I am" and threatened to shove the tennis ball down the judge's throat.
What's so interesting about the sport of tennis is that it's still a rather polite, gentlemanly (or in this case, ladylike) sport. The crowd began booing as soon as Serena lost her cool and continued to as her poor sportsmanship kept playing out on the court. If it were a hockey game the crowd would have been loving it; in a tennis match, the crowd won't abide by that kind of behavior.
VIDEO PLAY-BY-PLAY As the video begins Serena has just finished bawling out at the line judge from a few feet away, yelling "you don't f**king know who I am" and threatening to shove the ball down the line judge's throat (according to the NYT).
As the video begins the line judge approaches chair umpire Louise Engzell to explain what's going on. At 0:10 Serena also marches up to the conferring line judge and chair umpire and continues the altercation, her face contorted. The tournament referee, Brian Earley, joins in the discussion at 0:20 and at about 0:55 Serena is officially issued a code violation point penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. As it was match point at the end of the second set, that means Serena has lost the US Open Women's Semifinals.
At 1:05 Serena walks over to a confused Kim Clijsters, who hasn't been able to hear what's been going on from her side of the court, and Serena shakes her hand at 1:18. The match is over. The crowd is somewhat stunned by this finish to the exciting, suspenseful 91-minute game. It all didn't have to end like this if Serena hadn't lost her cool. Serena packs up her things at 1:38 and heads off the court at 2:00 as booing is still heard from the crowd.
PEREZ POST SCRIPT Our Serena video ended up on Perez Hilton! Crazy! It's the second time in a week that we've been on Perez after our Kathy Griffin post landed us on the site, too. Who knew?
--Josh H.
This summer Josh and I went on assignment for Passport magazine to Copenhagen, Denmark. Here are a few of the pictures from our adventures abroad.
Our plane to Copenhagen (above), on which we flew ...
... business class!
Josh K. (left) and Josh H. (right) enjoying one of the many public squares on a pedestrian-friendly series of streets aptly named Stroget (pronounced "stroll" in Danish).
Nighttime in Copenhagen.
Ridebane, Christiansborg Slot.
A rainy day on Stroget.
Bikes are the preferred method of transportation for the locals.
Josh H. (left) and Josh K. (right) catch a screening of Milk in Orsteds-Parken.
7 Eleven convenience stores on every corner.
Nyhavn.
Kongens Nytorv.
Kongens Nytorv.
Frederiksholms Kanal.
A couple canoodles at the gay pride booths.
Hanging out on the Frederiksholms Kanal.
Photos by Josh K. | Copenhagen, July 2009.
When Josh and I heard that Kathy Griffin was going to be at the Barnes & Noble in Tribeca tonight, promoting her new book Official Book Club Selection, we didn't even really have a conversation about it. We just knew we were going. Period.
Over the last four years Josh and I have been to scores of readings, and by now we have it down to a science: Get there half an hour early if it's a lesser-known person; get there an hour early if it's a relatively famous person and plop down jackets or bags if your friend(s) are late. If you want to be really safe--or if you're anticipating a lot of interest--maybe even go two hours ahead.
Tonight, though, we both had stuff to do and couldn't meet before 6 p.m. in Tribeca for the 7 p.m. event. We dutifully showed up an hour early, assuming we might have a crappy seat near the back, but at least we'd see her Royal Vagesty in person and get our no-holds-barred infusion of Kathyness.
Oh. Oh ho.
Oh no, child. Not even.
Ready for this?
No, seriously.
First of all, if you wanted to see Kathy Griffin at all, you were required to purchase a copy of her book, ringing in at a nice hardcover hefty $25. That was the first surprise. And it was a surprise because, in all of the readings we've ever been to, there has never once been one where book purchases were required.
Second, once you purchased a book, you were issued a wristband in varying colors. Certain colors guaranteed seating; others connoted standing-room only. If you were late to the game there were none to be had at all. (Wristbands? For a reading?)
And the game, my friends, started early: Kathy fans started lining up at 6 a.m. for the right to buy her book, get a wristband, and camp out in a maze of velvet rope penned-off waiting lines that rivaled anything I've seen before in New York (or Disney Land--seriously) before getting a non-personalized signature from Hers Truly.
Altogether nearly 1,000 fans (a thousand!) showed up at Barnes & Noble Tribeca for Kathy.
Just for perspective, an average reading by a lesser-known author might have 30-50 people in attendance (often many of which are friends, family, and/or publishing/PR folk). You can fill the seats for Dan Savage; you can go into overflow and standing for Augusten Burroughs, and over-overflow for a Nobel Prize winner like Toni Morrison.
But a thousand people? That was new. It's easily more people than the crowd at the last six readings we've been to all put together.
The seriously bad news for hoi polloi? If you didn't buy a book and get in line with the hundreds and hundreds of waiting fans, you wouldn't get a chance to even glimpse Kathy. The velvet ropes had been set up so that nobody could see Kathy unless they were getting books signed. Those at the end of the signing line couldn't even hear her as she addressed the crowd. They just stood near the B&N Cafe, shuffling their weight from leg to leg in their respective winding cattle lines, waiting to get their books signed.
On top of that, getting your book signed wasn't even guaranteed (but they did promise to really try).
All of that didn't stop Josh and I from strategically camping out near a pile of new fiction selections not terribly far from the event area, where we heard everything, even though we couldn't see Kathy (which was a strange phenomenon all on its own--she's just right around that corner, but you can't see her).
And, alas, Ms. Griffin spoke to her crowd of many (emphasis on many) for a mere ten minutes so she would have time to sign as many books as possible. During that time, she didn't read a single sentence from the book.
Then again, she didn't have to: Everybody already had the damn book.
So.
All of that said, do we love Kathy Griffin? To bits and pieces. Would we shell out cash for another of her stand-up shows at Madison Square Garden, or anywhere else? Without question. Worth every penny.
But wow, Kathy, can we talk? Honey, you're not D-list anymore. You're now officially on the A-list.
* * *
KATHY GRIFFIN HAS A BOYFRIEND FOR YOU
If you're single and ready to mingle, a Kathy Griffin book signing is apparently better than speed dating or match.com to put you in a giant pool of dating options. There was every shape, size, style, and flavor of gay present tonight at the bookstore. Deep v-cut shirts, scarves, shoulder bags, bulging biceps, strategically bared triceps, snug jeans, plastic-framed eyeglasses, and every other variation spanned as far as the eye could see. There were a smattering of ladies as well, and some heterosexual male stragglers (welcome, guys!), but there were gays o' plenty, as I'm sure nobody is surprised to hear. So if Kathy is coming to your town, get thee to a B&N. The fruit is low-hanging and ripe for the plucking. Have at it.
Kathy's book Official Book Club Selection--which looks pretty great from what we saw in flipping through it--is available for $15 on Amazon. That's a nice way to chop ten bucks off bookshelf price, no?
(And our two cents? Use the ten spot you saved on the book to buy a drink for your new boyfriend that you meet at the reading. You can thank us later.)
**UPDATE: KATHY SHARES THE JOSH & JOSH LOVE ON FACEBOOK
Whoa! Kathy posted a link to this blog post on her official Facebook page!
What can we say? We're honored. This is us sending Kathy a big Josh & Josh smooch.
P.S.
Like the new header? It's a Josh K. original, the first new one in a long time. Are you loving it? Cuz I'm loving it. It made me have banner nostalgia earlier today and I had to flip through our banner archives (on your left) and reminisce.
--Josh H.
Big news! Josh and I will be on assignment in Copenhagen, Denmark, for a travel magazine from July 23-29. Yay!
Joshie and I have traveled together before, but we've never had an international duo adventure yet, so we're very excited.
Josh & Josh friend Jaron Vesely (he was Baruch in Jonathan, Just Because) is doing a nightclub act for his solo New York debut! On Friday, July 10th and Saturday, July 18th Jaron will be crooning a set of classic standards and jazz versions of contemporary pop (with some show tunes thrown in for good measure) at The Metropolitan Room. Casual online stalkers, take note: Josh and I will both be there on the 18th. If you're interested, you can buy your tickets here.
Here I go! Off on a two-week cross-country trio road trip with my friend Adam and my boyfriend, Matt.
Where in the United States is Josh H.? How's the trip going? Find out on Twitter!*
*For NYC updates: Josh K.'s on Twitter, too.
On Friday, June 26, Josh & Josh amigo Asaf is teaching a 6:30 p.m. yoga class (featuring some fantastically gay music) at The Shala in New York City. All donations benefit Lambda Legal's fight for equal rights. Mark your calendars and check it out at 815 Broadway (between 11th and 12th Sts.). Go Asaf!
[via ilovelife]
Left to right: Kirsten Major, Broadway star Hunter Bell, Adam Lehman, and Josh H. at the New York premiere of "Jonathan, Just Because" on March 22, 2009, in Midtown.
Oh my god, it's hard to know where to start. All of this is so crazy.
On Sunday, March 22, Josh K. and I debuted our short film "Jonathan, Just Because" (which we made with Kirsten Major and Adam Lehman) at a swank little lounge in Midtown Manhattan in front of a standing-room-only crowd of more than a hundred very supportive, fantastic friends. The lovely and talented Mr. Hunter Bell, co-writer and co-star of Broadway's [title of show] (and presumptive Tony nominee), served as emcee of the evening, introducing the film and leading a Q&A afterward.
It was crazy, crazy, crazy.
And amazing.
The whole thing started on November 23, 2008, when, over burritos in Brooklyn, Kirsten and I thought it might be fun to make a short film with Josh K. at the helm as director. Two days later Kirsten had a draft of the script in my hands, then I spent some time rewriting it, and then she spent some time rewriting my draft, and then we handed it over to Josh K. He was all about it, ready get back into filmmaking, excited about the story and the characters, and ready to put his fancy little camera to use.
In December we started casting and first saw Adam Lehman and, after one reading, we knew he was the one we wanted for Nick. After a few table reads and rehearsals, and several rewrites, we began shooting in early January, beginning with a seven-hour shoot on the Brooklyn Heights promenade (the second scene of the film) in freezing weather. But, no matter: The film had started, and we were really, really excited.
Over the next couple months we had eight shooting days, some of them going long into the night, resulting in cast sleepovers at my place in Brooklyn, sprawled out all over my apartment. And then, the last few days before the film's New York premiere, Josh and I huddled up in the editing studio, working 10 hours one day, a few more the next, and then the final day--the evening before the premiere--we pulled a 19-hour all-nighter.
But, at last, we had a film.
And, by god, The New York Times covered it, Next magazine ran a big ol' picture and a listing (and HX magazine ran a listing, too), and--bam!--then we had the premiere.
I can't tell you how much fun we had making the film. I can't tell you how many trials we also had, but all of them, in the end, worth it. What we each learned about every facet of filmmaking--from writing to directing, acting to lighting, sound design to editing, set scouting to film promotion--is actually pretty phenomenal. In a way we created something of a graduate seminar in indie filmmaking, and having this project online feels a little bit like graduation day.
Josh and I hope you enjoy it.
Click here to watch "Jonathan, Just Because"!
Also, check out the film's website, JonathanJustBecause.net!
"So, Where Have You Two Been?"
I know, I know, we've been naughty little bloggers. We haven't been posting lately as much as we should have been. Josh K. ended up entirely wrapped up in the editing process for a while, as well as the process of getting the film loaded online and set for its release, both of which were rather Herculean tasks. I've been continuing the magazine job hunt, and also been quite busy falling in love with an amazing guy. Then, on top of it all, Josh K. landed a short-term position as a production assistant at a cable network (yay!). Between the two of us we haven't been around as much as we'd like, but now we expect to have a little more time on our hands, and we plan on posting more frequent updates here on J&J.
Want more? After the jump are a collection of mobile mini blog posts I wrote over the past few weeks that previously went unpublished. Check 'em out if you need an extended behind-the-scenes J&J fix.
Continue reading ""Jonathan, Just Because" Makes Its World Premiere!" »
Josh and I are still pinching ourselves about being in The New York Times this week, featuring our short film "Jonathan, Just Because." (Left to right above: Josh H, Kirsten, Josh K, and Adam.)
Crazy!
We're so, so excited about the New York premiere on Sunday in Midtown.
And, never fear: For those of you who can't make it to the premiere, the film will be showing on Towleroad soon.
Scavenger Hunt | Bonus points to the reader who can name the New York magazine currently featuring a photo of Josh H. and Adam Lehman nearly kissing, along with a blurb about the film and its premiere.
Monday
Home for the first time in days. Pajamas, Frosted Flakes, and Rachel
Maddow. Couch, blanket, and pillow. This is also known as the good life.
03.09.09 | 9.06p
Digging Kelly Clarkson's new album. Listening to "I Do Not Hook Up"
with the volume cranked way up. This better be the second single.
03.09.09 | 11.02p
Yay for late-night, meandering-yet-meaningful marathon phone
conversations with Josh K. Totally takes me back to our college days.
03.10.09 | 12.48a
What better time to start a new book? Next up: "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia
Plath. I've meant to read it for years, and when I saw it on my bf's
shelf I knew it was a sign that it was finally time.
03.10.09 | 12.53a
Tuesday
Rolled over my 401(k) from my last job to my Roth IRA over at Chuckie
Schwab. Spiffy! I feel like Gordon Gekko up in here. Now off for a
power lunch with Suze Orman to talk derivatives. ;)
03.10.09 | 12.38p
At the beauty parlor up the street, gettin' ma hair did. My stylist has
spent the last few minutes cooing about my "adorable little ears." Who
knew my ears would be such a hit?
03.10.09 | 2.02p
My first issue of The New Yorker arrived! Time to go and devour it.
Love Michelle Obama on the cover. (Love her, period.) But wait, is the
mag being snarky with this cover? Hmmm.
03.10.09 | 3.18p
I subscribed to The New Yorker for years, but had to cancel last year
due to a pseudo stress disorder from piled up unread issues.
Nevertheless, I'm trying again. Fresh start, people. Fearless!
03.10.09 | 3.20p
On the train, reading more of "The Bell Jar." In a way it feels like
"Catcher in the Rye," but with a female protagonist. (And an unreliable
narrator as well? Stay tuned.)
03.10.09 | 5.58p
Munching on chips and salsa while Josh K captures "Jonathan, Just
Because" footage. Saw part of the kitchen scene put together tonight
and got very excited. Twelve days till the premiere!
03.10.09 | 7.33p
Sent from my iPod Touch
Two gay best friends take on the world, one metropolis at a time.
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