Hello from the back right table at the temporarily relocated (across the street) Ben’s Chili Bowl, the restaurant that’s like if an old NYC 24/7 diner decorated a Philly steak joint, the chef subscribed to Chicago’s lax restrictions on hot dog toppings, and even more inkjet photos of celebrities sitting where you are sitting adhered to walls—all wrapped with good chili and black DC.
This is Geistlist. You met me (Jacob Ford) somewhere, somehow, and now you get this thing sometimes. Unsubscribe at the bottom.
I missed Leith Ross’s Brooklyn concert last week because I was hosting the inaugural world-famous Bridge & Tunnel Brewery Musical Bingo, so I this morning hopped a PreviousGen and found a $60/night cyberpunk porta potty to sleep in, so I can see Leith at Howard Theatre tonight before she departs the Right Coast.
Fun fact: last time I was here (2014) it was because I overslept a free NYU bus trip to see the new NYU DC campus, but managed to grab a Bolt Bus myself and find the crew, where we got a tour of Barack Obama’s favorite Ben’s seat (there’s a plaque).
¶. 8pm: Leith Ross but leave me alone
Howard Theatre, U Street, DC, $33
I guess say hi if you’re here, but then with all due respect I’ll want to hang out in the bar in the back (assuming there is one, never been to Howard Theater) by myself with a wheat beer.
¶. Thursday 7pm: launch of the (updated) book of everything made within 100 miles of NYC
Locavore Variety Store, Greenwich Village, NYC, free
Now in its second edition, and now with 100 collectable trading cards.
¶. Thursday 7:30pm: Millennial/Boomer Drinking Club
Lynn’s apartment, Greenwich Village, NYC, free
We are back after summer hiatus. At my boomer friend Lynn’s place.
¶. Monday 7pm: The Pennsylvania Bearding Man 2014 Headliner
Irish Arts Center, Hell’s Kitchen, NYC, $? (sold out)
According to my friend Jason and my addled memory of a story he told me in August, a song that Josh Burnside performed at Bearding Man 2014 (you had to be there, in Shippensburg, PA) has now become quite a hit and he’s on a world tour.
¶. Monday & Tuesday 7:30pm: a play about the Rat Czar that Never Was
Loading Dock Theatre, Downtown Brooklyn, NYC, free/donate ❦ Monday / Tuesday
I met these playwrights at my NYC Rat Pack coronation ceremony, when I was deputized by NYC Rat Czar Kathleen Corraldi. Now Kathleen is gone, but I’m aiming all the channels in my power at Zohran to see if we’ll get a new one (see below). Anyway this is an early version of an upcoming play about a struggling rat czar, written over the past two chaotic years of rat mitigation.
¶. Tuesday 10:30am: the Schamonchi floats again?
Newtown Creek, East East Williamsburg, NYC, free but bring a boat if you have one
The MV Schamonchi was an abandoned Martha’s Vineyard cruise ship moored permanently in America’s largest oil spill behind a gravel pile in Brooklyn, and home to some of the most serene mid-to-late-COVID you-had-to-be-told jazz nights lit by a laundry line constellation of thrifted lampshades. Now it is an abandoned Martha’s Vineyard cruise ship and former underground party scene, capsized and half underwater. Lindsay Arden (formerly of the mythical speakeasy in a water tower, recently of Tell No One) ran it, and it looks like with her blessing these standup bible-study-aesthetic twins are invested in turning it into something with a tree growing out the top top. Life floats on.
I maintain a small archive of frowned-upon photography from a few times I was welcomed aboard.
¶. Wednesday Nov 12, 7pm: tour that museum in an elevator shaft
Mmuseumm, TriBeCa, NYC, free for Poster House members
I’m leading a private tour for members of Poster House, part of their really neat habit of reciprocal museum visits. One of the most worthwhile museum memberships I’ve ever held.
¶. Thursday Nov 13, 7pm: pigeon party with PBS
The City Reliquary, Williamsburg, NYC, free
Tonight on your local PBS, a new episode of Nature airs about pigeons, featuring some friends of mine (human and avian). PBS asked if I would host a little launch celebration, and of course the answer is yes. I’ll be restaging a miniature version of my 2022 exhibition BIRD SHOW, and hosting pigeon trivia with Gabriel Willow. Beers on PBS.
∞. Me booing Zohran Mamdani
Weirdly the most “love your hat”s I ever got was last night by three separate stairwell ushers at Waiting for Godot. I earned the beanie canvassing yesterday, where two strangers recognized me, but not for my face: one (another volunteer—not Wallace Shawn) as the first person Marvin Anderson followed, and another (passerby on our MiniVAN turf) for my Pigeon Post tote bag.
Fun fact: you can faintly hear me boo Zohran (calm down—persnickety NYC bike policy weedery) at 36:24 in this live-taped interview from last week.
Repealing 15mph ebike policy (I will settle for keeping the Citibike speed limit, but please not the law), the status of Rat Czar, and Sliwa for Cat (& Parade) Czar, and can I curate a Rama Duwaji show. That’s my letter to Zohran.
Just learned Czar comes from Tsar, which comes from Caesar.