It's New York City Marathon day, and every year my thoughts drift back to life on 1st Ave., to my first two years living in NYC. I lived in a second floor apartment near E.70th, and the marathon went right under my window. More than the unending throngs of people, more than the triumph and inspiration of unbelievable human accomplishment, more than the heart-melting spectacle of people cheering on their friends and fathers and sons and mothers and daughters and complete and total strangers, more than any of that my overwhelming memory of the experience and privilege of living right on the marathon route is...the horrible bar band that set up in the plaza directly across the street to play the same eight Bon Jovi and jam-bandy covers over and OVER AND OVER AGAIN, ALL DAY.

The Schwartzes moved to Central Park South last December, into an apartment just two floors above the street, and having to listen to the cover bands across the street all afternoon is giving me major flashbacks. (And to the question of what is a more inappropriate song for a bar band to play along the marathon route than "Material Girl", the answer is "Video Killed the Radio Star".)



Thankfully, this guy does a lot better.