Four Days of Valentine

Late afternoon. Garth Brooks comes on the jukebox.
"Please sing!" The woman coos to her husband. "Please?"
Charlie puts his Coors Light down on the bar and takes a deep breath.

Evening. Duncan stops his truck in front of a locked gate, puts it in park, and opens his driver's-side door. The light inside the truck comes on and he looks at me. "I can tell you're intelligent because you have dark, twinkly eyes," he says. "Intelligent people always have dark, twinkly eyes. My aunt told me that, because I have 'em too." He closes the door and walks smiling over to the gate with his keys.

My eyes are in fact pale: green and blue with gold flecks. The color of water polluted with gasoline.

The weekend. Sitting at a table in a VFW hall watching senior citizens dance to a blues band. The old cling to each other for dear life, holding each other up. I am in awe. Nothing compares to the intimacy of an ancient couple dancing in a deep embrace, keeping time with the music, ensuring the other doesn't disappear. Fred pulls me from the trance. "This is like 'Night of the Living Dead' meets 'Blues Brothers!'" he whispers loudly. I nod and write this down so I can remember it later.

Morning. I move closer to the man sleeping next to me and put my head on his chest. "I love you," I say. He doesn't answer. The back of my throat burns.

Charlie is still singing. "I could have missed the pain," he belts out in a magnificent baritone, "but I would have missed the chance." The other patrons have fallen silent, staring into their beers.

Spotlight On... Living Liberally

By Nicole Caldwell

I’m balancing a pitcher of beer and making my way to the backyard of Rudy’s Bar & Grill on Ninth Avenue in Midtown. It’s Thursday. People around me scarf down free hot dogs and pontificate on the state of politics today as I spot my group: a handful of Drinking Liberally members positioned across from four 20-somethings who’ve challenged us to a round of flip-cup. You can tell who’s who by the pins—Drinking Liberally’s master of services Justin Krebs has dutifully made sure everyone of his ilk wears a pin saying so.

Born of Necessity
Drinking Liberally was formed in 2003 by Krebs and Matthew O’Neill, a Harvard grad and Emmy-award-winning journalist and filmmaker, respectively. “After the start of the war,” Krebs says, “it felt like the Left had no voice, no leadership. But we realized even our friends weren't talking politics. So we decided to create an avenue to draw our friends into political conversation in their natural habitat.”

A year later, Cosmopolity, a social network Krebs and fellow Harvard grad David Alpert created, incorporated Drinking Liberally thereby offering online calendars and social events as a way to encourage political engagement. The next step was to establish the umbrella organization Living Liberally, which strives to incorporate a person’s political identity into his or her daily life. The program’s intimidating success lies in its brilliant simplicity. Through all of Living Liberally’s groups—Drinking, Laughing, Screening, Eating, Reading, and, more recently, Shooting, Crafting, and Singing—politics are brought to the forefront of what would otherwise be natural social interactions we take part in every day.

[Read the rest of this article here]

[Originally published in The Leaflet, December 2009, V1.7]

Former Editor: Playgirl's "A Relevant Brand Name Once Again," Thanks In Part To Levi

Former Editor: Playgirl's "A Relevant Brand Name Once Again," Thanks In Part To Levi

Levi Johnston is standing naked in a 13th-floor studio in midtown Manhattan holding a hockey stick.

He swivels his head and looks into the camera as -- click -- the photo is taken. This is the money shot: the one Daniel Nardicio is tweeting about right now; the one Levi's manager Tank Jones will gush about to Us Weekly; and the one Gawker and Life & Style and a cajillion other gossip outlets will mention as proof positive that, in the words of Tank Jones, "You'll see what you need to see in these photos."

Media Buzz: Levi Johnston tells Playgirl's E-in-C Thanksgiving with the Palins is a no-go

Gawker.com:
By Brian Moylan
... In an interview he just finished with Playgirl editor-in-chief Nicole Caldwell, Levi says of the invite, "You could tell by her laugh she was full of it." [See link here.]

AccessHollywood.com:
Levi told Playgirl Editor-In –Chief, Nicole Caldwell, in an upcoming interview in Playgirl that she was “full of it… you could tell by her laugh she was full of it.” He said the invite she made during her Oprah interview was “a nice gesture, but she didn’t mean it.” Levi said his presence at the Palin family Thanksgiving would be “awkward.” [See link here.]

MSNBC.com:
By Michelle Perry
According to a spokesman for "Playgirl" magazine, Levi Johnston said Sarah Palin was "full of it" to "Playgirl" editor-in-chief Nicole Caldwell in an interview in the upcoming magazine. [See link here.]

Zap2It.com:
By Andrea Reiher
The back and forth between Levi Johnston and Sarah Palin just won't stop -- Johnston tells Playgirl that Palin is 'full of it.' In previews for Sarah Palin's upcoming appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," Palin says that Levi Johnston is loved and is welcome at their Thanksgiving dinner table. MSNBC is reporting that a spokesperson for Playgirl says Levi has a different idea about that. Reportedly, in Levi Johnston's interview with Playgirl editor-in-chief Nicole Caldwell he says, "You could tell by her laugh she was full of it," in regards to Palin's interview with Oprah. [See link here.]

SoSoJuicy.com:
In an interview he just finished with Playgirl editor-in-chief Nicole Caldwell, Levi says of the invite, "You could tell by her laugh she was full of it." [See link here.]

Blood Surges Back to Playgirl With Johnston Shoot: Former Editor Dishes On Pub's Future


By Amanda Ernst on Nov 12, 2009 03:30 PM

The Internet has been abuzz about Palin-impregnator Levi Johnston's plans to pose for Playgirl, so let's just assume you know all about the photo shoot that's going down right now here in New York. It seems the magazine, which went online only after its January/February 2009 issue went to press last year -- with little success -- is planning a comeback of sorts.

So we asked Nicole Caldwell, who formerly served as editor-in-chief at Playgirl before its print edition was shuttered, to let us in on the behind the scenes workings at Playgirl today. Caldwell has been brought back on board to help put together one "special" issue of the magazine for this year and four more for 2010. She will be interviewing Johnston during his shoot today and tomorrow, and the whole package (ahem) will run online only -- and may be up on Playgirl.com by next week. She spoke to us about the relationship between Johnston and the struggling Playgirl brand, shooting down the idea that the magazine faltered because of a disconnect between the staff and the magazine's audience.

"What matters is Playgirl being back in the public eye if for no other reason than the one I joined the magazine in the first place for: Women should have every available sexual outlet men do," Caldwell told FishbowlNY. "Levi is symbolic: He's become a public figure, he holds allure for a wide cross-section of the American public, he knocked up the VP contender's daughter, and he's willing to pose nude at a time when most people stubbornly continue to consider male nudity more extreme than female nudity. He's young, he's hot, he's virile, and he goes against every stereotype out-of-touch people have for a magazine they've never read: that Fabio-type guy with locks down his chest who I've only seen in 1980s Playgirls."

[Read the rest of this article here.]
[Originally published at FishbowlNY.com]

Community Profile: Fort Greene/Clinton Hill

By Nicole Caldwell

(Note: These segments were written for a wonderful new, hyper-local Web site called My Little O.)
History of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill
The land on which Brooklyn’s Fort Greene and Clinton Hill neighborhoods sit was created more than 12,000 years ago by dirt and rock washed south by icebergs during the last ice age. Since that time, the area has withstood war, disease, and racial tension; all the while leading the way in diversifying New York City’s neighborhoods, urban park development, and the arts.

Vanderbilt Avenue is the dividing line between Fort Greene and Clinton Hill (east and west, respectively). The neighborhoods fall south of Wallabout Bay, north of Prospect Heights; west of Bedford-Stuyvesant, and east of Brooklyn Heights. Walt Whitman, Mos Def, The Notorious B.I.G., and Rosie Perez—among others!—have called Fort Greene and Clinton Hill home.

(Read the rest of this history here)

 Playing in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill
Museums, parks, community gardens, and neighborhood events make Fort Greene and Clinton Hill great destinations for daylong adventures, and help explain the influx of families choosing in recent years to make their homes in these historic neighborhoods.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) alone offers movies, plays, recitals, and concerts almost every night of the week. This neighborhood fixture, America's oldest continuously operating performing arts center since 1861, also has an in-house restaurant and bar. The Rubelle and Norman Schafler Gallery on Willoughby Avenue at Grand Street has rotating art exhibits. The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) on Hanson Place offers exhibitions, public programs, community outreach initiatives, and educational interactive tours. Then there’s UrbanGlass, the first artist-access glass center in the United States and now the largest. The space educates 900 students from around the world per year, and offers tours, classes, and studio space.

(Read the rest of this piece here.)

Eating in Fort Greene/Clinton Hill
Behind their sleepy residential exteriors, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill boast one of the widest assortments of food you can find anywhere in New York City. From South African to Indian to Italian or French , this brownstone-flecked area presents a selection rivaling most Manhattan neighborhoods. And the best part is that you can find any genre of food to fit any budget.

(Read the rest of this piece here.)

PRNewser Party Appearance

L-R Lara Drasin, Nicole Caldwell, Corinne Weiner

PRNewser Party Recap: How Many Flacks Can You Fit Into a Bar?
By Joe Ciarallo on Oct 15, 2009 12:48 PM

SideBAR was packed last night for PRNewser's latest happy hour party. Thanks to everyone for stopping by and enjoying the drink specials, complimentary appetizers, and of course, the good company.

[sic]

There were also a few journalists that snuck in, and some racy ones at that. Playgirl editor-in-chief Nicole Caldwell told us that she is consulting with the magazine on some projects including the Levi Johnston photo shoot. That's about as far as we got on that one.

[Read the rest of this story here.]