Category Archives: friends

Barney Johnson LIVING FOREVER

January 30, 2013 – 10:10 pm

Last night I attended a wake for a fellow atheist. The service was at a Ukrainian Funeral Home in the East Village. Barney and I had met in 1978. He was my boss at Hurrah, a punk disco on West 62nd Street. He survived the era of errors to be a proudly gay man with […]

By Peter | Also posted in 70s, NEW YORK, RIP | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

THE REUNION OF BAD BOYS by Peter Nolan Smith

January 6, 2013 – 10:38 am

Two years ago I passed a long Thursday at the diamond exchange. Manny was worried about money and Richie Boy showed up late and shikkah or drunk. His father checked his watch. It was a little before noon. They argued the rest of the day about business and family. I stayed out of it and […]

By Peter | Also posted in NEW YORK, semi-fiction | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

A Letter For Ralph

November 26, 2012 – 7:42 pm

Last October Ralph Jawad of Ralph’s Meats on Lafayette Street in Fort Greene was arrested by the NYPD for possession on marijuana and two guns. The neighborhood mayor is out on bail after a period of incarceration on Riker’s Island. The NY Post today heralded the approach of legal marijuana sales in New York, yet […]

By Peter | Also posted in brooklyn | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

THE BACK OF MIDDLE AGE by Peter Nolan Smith

November 5, 2012 – 3:07 pm

Three years ago my friend George Wrage celebrated his 50th Birthday. I’ve known him since 1978. We worked together at Hurrah. I was the doorman and he was the ticket taker. We came up with the scam of reselling tickets for sell-outs. It was a good gig until another doorman snitched us out after we […]

By Peter | Also posted in East Village | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

STELARC- E11th and Ave. B NYC 1985

October 26, 2012 – 6:55 pm

For the last two weeks I’ve been working at a high-level metal shop in Greenpoint with a friend from the East Village. Tim has been kind enough to employ me, even though I’m a threat to life and limb in a heavy machinery environment. Today was the final stage of my stint at Studio 40, […]

By Peter | Also posted in 80s, Art, East Village | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)