Writing Work

Living In The (Not So Distant) Past

2011-12-31T14:37:00.000-08:00

Before you say goodbye to 2011 for good (or after you do it), take a glance back at the year that was in news stories. My Aol.com colleagues and I compiled a list of our 25 favorite stories that we covered on the homepage this year. Some of them are huge news stories you no doubt recall while others are on the obscure side, but are no less interesting or unforgettable. Perhaps you missed a few of them.

My favorite story basically came down to a toss-up between this amazing story and series of photos about a bunch of lions in the wild and the overall 'favorite' story on our list, which you'll have to click through to the article to see. Check out the entire list of 25 right here and bring on 2012. Happy New Year!

Exclusive Photos: Uptown Hoboken Waterfront Walkway

2011-12-11T13:47:00.001-08:00

Work began on the waterfront area of Hoboken Cove (or Weehawken Cove as many call it) in September 2010, and included the demolition of the few remaining ruins of what used to be the Todd Shipyard. Construction on the waterfront walkway to connect Hoboken and Weehawken began in earnest about a year ago, entailed some minor reshaping of the waterfront geography and is nearly complete. So, how's it looking? Pretty good, as these photos reveal:

Interview with New York Times reporter Diana Henriques for HuffPost

2011-05-01T17:55:00.000-07:00

Last week, I had a Q&A interview with Diana Henriques of the New York Times published on The Huffington Post. Henriques is a Times veteran and an award-winning writer whose book, The Wizard of Lies, was released last week. The book chronicles the epic Ponzi scheme perpetrated for decades by Bernie Madoff.

The interview mainly focuses on Henriques's experience getting to know Madoff, corresponding with him over the phone and e-mail and meeting with him in-person at a federal prison in North Carolina. Henriques was the first reporter to interview Madoff and the only author who's written a book on Madoff to have his cooperation. We also touched on the state of the SEC pre-Madoff and some of the changes the regulatory body has made in the wake of Madoff's arrest and imprisonment.

She also gave her analysis on just how much Madoff's wife and kids knew about the Ponzi. It's a fascinating interview and Henriques, who really dove deep on this project, provides some marvelous insight that you probably can't get anywhere besides Bernie Madoff. Check it out.

Tupac Look-a-like Story is Popular

2010-07-13T11:20:00.001-07:00

Surprisingly, one of the most popular stories I've ever written (in terms of Web traffic generated) is this piece about a guy who's known as "the Pathmark Tupac" that I wrote for The Hudson Reporter newspaper group. It's not going to be in the print edition till this Sunday--and I'm not even sure if it's going to be in the The Hoboken Reporter or The Jersey City Reporter--but it was published online two days ago.

The basic gist is that this guy looks exactly like the late Tupac Shakur and is trying to get movie director Antoine Fuqua to cast him in a biopic about Shakur. It's kind of interesting--I actually spoke with Tupac's dad for the story and an exec from Morgan Creek, the company producing the movie.

It's weird, though: 75 percent of the interview I did with this guy was completely inappropriate for a newspaper story and, therefore, unusable, but it was also completely interesting and amusing. I should probably look into doing another story about him for another publication.

Interesting Stuff for Summer in Various Pubs

2010-06-24T08:39:00.000-07:00

I've had a few interesting stories in the works and published of late. All are worth checking out, so give them a read if you have a minute.

First, I have a cover story (see left) in the summer edition of Palisade magazine, which you can read on pages 23-25 of the online version. It's a Q&A with Jason Cameron, the affable host of DIY Network's Man Caves. Jason is a great guy--this is actually the second story I've done with him--and his show is pretty good, too. Hopefully, he'll build me a Man Cave someday in return for all the good press I'm giving him.

Also, in the latest edition of Palisade's sister mag, Jersey City, I had a story about Anthony Amoroso, a local chef who ended up defeating renowned sushi chef Masaharu Morimoto on Food Network's Iron Chef America. You can read that story on pages 28-29 of the online version.

I also wrote for a story for The Jersey Journal about Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino making an appearance to promote a new tanning salon in Hoboken. He said he was "too tired" to answer my interview questions (which were great, I promise) that night, but I may catch up with him again at some point. Anyway, see below for a picture I shot of "Sitch" amusing (I guess) perhaps one of his eldest fans. Click here to see the rest of the pics from that night.

Continuing with the tanning theme, I wrote and photographed a story for Patch about the thriving tanning culture in Hoboken, NJ.

Prior to that I had two interesting pieces published about The Pit, a 2010 indie documentary film about the end of a time-honored practice known as open outcry trading that was used for over 100 years at NYBOT. The film made its east coast debut at the Hoboken Film Festival earlier this month.

The first piece was a Q&A with Johanna Lee, the film's director and it was published on New York magazine's "Daily Intel" blog. The piece comes complete with a cool trailer of the movie, so check it out.

Then, for Patch I wrote a feature about Jon Horowitz (or "Newbie"), one of the guys depicted in the film who lived in Hoboken and worked at Willie McBrides, a Hoboken bar, while also trying to make it big trading coffee futures on the NYBOT floor.

Q&A with Lou Dobbs in NJ Monthly

2010-04-20T07:13:00.000-07:00

Does Lou Dobbs prefer Jersey rock god Bruce Springsteen or Bon Jovi? And why does he seem to be softening on amnesty for illegal immigrants?

Find out in the May issue of New Jersey Monthly. At long last, my interview with the one and only Mr. Independent is available on the Web site of New Jersey Monthly and in the May issue, which should be on newsstands very soon.

I hung out in Dobbs's radio studio a couple of months ago and watched him do his syndicated show and then interviewed him for an hour afterward. No matter what you think of his politics, there's no denying he's a smart guy and a great broadcaster.

He was also a very nice guy--in fact, I made him bristle with a couple of my questions that didn't make the cut, including one about the John Deere hat he was wearing that day, but he took it all in stride and remained the consummate pro. Also not making the cut due to a lack of space was this question I posed to Dobbs:

Before leaving office, former Gov. Jon Corzine made N.J. the 14th state to legalize marijuana for medical use. Where do you stand on the issue?

I’ve got no problem at all with prescribing marijuana for a medical purpose to alleviate the pain of any patient. For personal, recreational use—we’ve got millions of lives being devastated in this country by addiction. We should come up with a solution to the current addictions that afflict society and then I’d be delighted to entertain legalizing whatever drug you want to discuss.

Hopefully I'll get to interview him again as he makes decisions on his political future. Also, I took the picture accompanying the piece.

Article on NY Mag about Facebook/IKEA Scam

2010-03-25T07:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I had a story on New York's "Daily Intel" blog about a scam being run through Facebook that offers a phony $1,000 gift card if you become a Facebook fan of IKEA and invite all your friends to do so.

Read it here and don't be lured by the $1,000 gift card.

Also, in the May issue of New Jersey Monthly, an interview I did with Lou Dobbs should be published. It's pretty interesting and I'll definitely post a link to it here when it's online.

Work on HuffPost, Patch & NJ.com

2010-03-12T13:29:00.000-08:00

In an exercise of obligatory soul-selling, I covered the meeting of a pair of reality TV stars. Snooki, an MTV reality star from Jersey Shore, paid a visit to Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop this week to shoot a scene for the hit TLC reality series Cake Boss. I know--reality cross-over madness! But, I managed to keep my poise and get some pics of the meeting and sold a story about it to The Huffington Post, which you can read here. For more pics of Snooki with the Cake Boss, click here.

Also, in addition to writing for Hoboken Progress, lately, I've contributed a few stories to Patch, a recently launched news site in Hoboken. For a story about a union using the universal symbol of labor grievance to battle drug store giant Walgreens, click here.

For a story about a man in a cow costume delivering lunch to the Cake Boss, click here. And for a story about Barnes & Noble ending its 15-year run in the Mile Square, click here.

And last but not least, I contributed a couple of stories to The Jersey Journal, which you can read here and here.

Intrigue. Celebrity. Deception. It's All In NYP's Flavor of the Week Column...

2010-02-17T10:48:00.000-08:00

...the latest edition of which was written by yours truly. This is a good little story from back in my NBC days--one that fellow former Pages will likely appreciate--of an encounter I had with an apparent Oscar nominee at Underbar in Union Square. Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote an edition of the New York Press's weekly "8 Million Stories" column, titled "Bus Justice," which you can read here.

Click here to read the full story in this week's New York Press.

A few more stories for various publications

2010-01-17T16:14:00.000-08:00

I've had a few more stories published recently in a couple of regional New Jersey publications. First, there is this interview with photographer Ben Fernandez, which I did for Palisade magazine, that turned out to be pretty interesting.

Then, a story about Hoboken, NJ getting its first 7-Eleven in December of 2008 for The Jersey Journal. Also for The Jersey Journal, a story about U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez being honored by a local nonprofit and a piece about A&E wanting to bring its reality series Parking Wars to Hoboken.

I have some more interesting stuff coming up in the next few weeks, so check back soon.

Story About Phillies Club for Hoboken Progress

2009-11-07T11:05:00.000-08:00

Well, it was a tough week. The Phils lost to the Yankees in the World Series, 4 games to 2. But, in the November 6th edition of Hoboken Progress, I had a feature about Sean Iaquinto, the founder of Hoboken's famed Phillies Club. The club gathers every Friday night during the regular season at a local bar to watch the Fightin' Phils. His group has over 80 regular members and, during postseason play, draws upwards of 200 Phillies fans to the bar to fraternize and watch games.

Iaquinto also founded an Eagles club, which preceded the Phillies club, and he writes the blog Philly2Hoboken.com. You can read the whole story about Iaquinto and his club by clicking on the picture of the front page above and clicking here for the second page and here for the third page of the story.

Small piece on NYmag.com

2009-09-11T14:06:00.000-07:00

While covering BGC Partners' Fifth Annual Charity Day--an event where famous people play the role of "celebrity investment trader" for a good cause-- for Hoboken Progress, I shot a picture of the adorable and newly engaged Ivanka Trump closing a trade over the phone. The pic features her enormous engagment ring, supplied by her fiancee Jared Kushner, and I sold it and a short post to New York magazine's "Daily Intel." You can read the article and see the photo here...and no, I didn't get any pictures of Lady GaGa. Unfortunately, I had to leave before she arrived.

The piece I wrote about the event for Hoboken Progress will appear in the September 18 edition of the paper. You can click here to see a few more pictures I shot of Ivanka Trump.

I'd like to thank the Academy...

2009-09-07T04:45:00.000-07:00

...for naming Cash Cab the best game show of 2008! The show took place at The historic Orpheum Theatre in LA and aired live on the CW Network last Sunday evening. After a couple of L.A. Times bloggers ripped Cash Cab for its production values and writing and predicted Jeopardy! would win the statue, we pulled out the award, which was sweet indeed. The pic above is our executive producer, Tony, giving the acceptance speech. Below is one of the Orpheum's awesome marquee.

Winning a Daytime Emmy was very exciting, to say the least. A big thank you has to go out to Ben Bailey--the host--who I think really carries the show. Also a thank you to the rest of the staff, every member of which does a fantastic job on the show.

I was also able to get a little press from the win. The blog Hoboken Now, did a small story on me and the same writer of that wrote a short piece about me in The Jersey Journal. And, on its blog, my hometown newspaper, The Intelligencer, ran a blurb about me last week.

Click here for a roundup of cool pics from the evening, here for the video of the Cash Cab team accepting the Emmy and here for a few more pics of our executive producer making the speech.

Cake Boss Story

2009-08-11T07:14:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned last week, I wrote a story on Cake Boss star Buddy Valastro for Hoboken Progress and it (and a picture I shot) will be on the cover of the August 14th edition.

You can click on the picture to the left to see/read the cover and then click here to read the continuation from page 6 of the newspaper.

Let Them Watch Cake

2009-08-07T15:52:00.000-07:00

I interviewed Buddy Valastro, the star of TLC's hit show Cake Boss the other day. The story I wrote should appear in next week's edition of Hoboken Progress. Buddy's bakery is nearly 100 years old and is located in Hoboken right across the street from City Hall.

Buddy was a very nice guy--and so was his sister, Mary, whom I also interviewed--as he took some time out of his busy schedule of baking and shooting the second season of the show to talk with me. Above is a picture I took of Buddy doing a scene for the show.

Hoboken's Cammarano Resigns

2009-08-04T13:57:00.000-07:00

Capping what was a wild week in Hoboken, Peter Cammarano bowed to pressure from the city's residents and the state's governor, Jon Corzine, and resigned from his post as mayor. That paved the way for the City Council President Dawn Zimmer to take over the office on an interim basis. Zimmer was defeated by Cammarano in a runoff election for the mayor's office by just 161 votes on June 9th. I interviewed Cammarano just days before he won the runoff election.

And I covered the events of the last week for Hoboken Progress, and, though it won't be out till this Friday, you can read the report I filed for the paper last Friday. Click on the above picture for the first page of the piece and the picture below for everything after the jump.

Drama In Hoboken

2009-08-01T05:58:00.000-07:00

It's been a pretty wild end of the month in Hoboken, with the Mayor getting arrested by the FBI on bribery charges and, ultimately, announcing his resignation yesterday. I interviewed Peter Cammarano, the former Hoboken mayor, for Hoboken Progress just before he was elected and I'm going to try to get another interview with him. His tenure was the shortest of any mayor on the city's history. You can read the first page of the Cammarano interview here and click here for the second page of the story. Also, I have an article recapping the whole week in Hoboken in the next edition of Hoboken Progress.

Before all the drama unfolded, though, I had a few other stories in Hoboken Progress. A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece on the closing of the Goldhawk, a popular rock and roll bar in Hoboken. Click here for the first page of the story and here for the second page.

The following week, I wrote a profile on Hoboken's new police chief. Click here for the first page of that story and here for the second. And I'll have the article about the resignation of Peter Cammarano up as soon as it's published.

More Scripts for Bon Appétit Web Site

2009-07-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

A while back I worked on another video project for the Bon Appétit Web site. The project was co-sponsored by Slowfood USA and Anolon Cookware and the gist of it is that a few high-profile New York City chefs used some of the Slowfood (a movement that's the opposite of "fast food") sustainability principles to prepare a gourmet, four-course meal. I wrote the scripts for the five-part video series, the first of which you can view below and the rest of which you can see here or by clicking on the name of the dish in the right column.

The four courses were: Butternut Squash Soup with Pancetta and Spice Creme Fraiche (prepared by Jonathan Lindenauer); Seared Diver Scallops with Cauliflower and Caper Gastrique (also prepared by Lindenauer); Herb Stuffed Leg of Lamb with Beans Confit (prepared by Bill Telepan of Telepan restaurant); and Heirloom Apple Tart with Almond Frangipane and Caramel Sauce (prepare by Galen Zamarra of Mas [farmhouse] restaurant). The last segment is a video of the chefs enjoying the meal and discussing the cookware and the virtues of the Slowfood approach to food.

Cover Story In Hoboken Progress

2009-06-11T13:22:00.000-07:00

Last week's (June 5th) edition of Hoboken Progress featured a cover story I wrote about Hoboken mayoral candidate Peter Cammarano. It was part of a preview of the June 9th runoff election in Hoboken between Cammarano and Dawn Zimmer.

Pete was a nice guy and he's very knowledgeable about all the issues facing Hoboken. The interview focused on quality of life issues, something Cammarano has strived to improve during his tenure on the Hoboken City Council.

The election was so close that it will be decided by the absent tee and provisional ballots scheduled to be counted on Friday, June 12th. Click on the picture above to read the cover story and here for the continuation on page 7 of the newspaper.

Guest Post On Hoboken Now Blog

2009-06-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

Check out NJ.com's Hoboken Now blog today for a guest post written by me. Many thanks to the supremely talented Carly, one of the reporters at The Jersey Journal, whose ubiquity around Hoboken makes the blog unrivaled in The Mile Square.

The post is about a minor cameo Hoboken made on last week's season finale of the NBC police procedural Law & Order. One of the bad guys involved in a political pay-to-play scandal--ripped from the headlines--was arrested at his apartment in Hoboken. Click here for the post.

Article On NYMag.com Today

2009-06-03T12:49:00.001-07:00

Check out New York magazine's Grub Street blog today for an article I did about the Oak Room restaurant at the landmark New York City hotel The Plaza.

After being closed for much of the decade, the Oak Room reopened, to much fanfare, in November of 2008. However, things didn't go so smoothly and several vendors, who wished to remain anonymous, claim they're owed thousands of dollars for food they supplied to the restaurant. I was able to obtain an e-mail from a French company that's been stiffed by the Oak Room to the tune of $35,000 plus. Of course, the Oak Room denied it's not paying bills and basically threw its former head chef under the bus.

Feature In Hoboken Progress

2009-05-28T06:32:00.000-07:00

I wrote a Memorial Day feature for last week's Hoboken Progress, a weekly newspaper that covers the mile square. The piece is a profile of Carmine Varano, one of Hudson County's most highly-decorated WWII vets still alive. Varano was an unarmed medic in WWII, who was injured as the war in Europe neared its conclusion. For an 86-year-old, Carmine is still very with it, has a great memory of the things he experienced in war and even has a bunch of interesting memorabilia, some of which I shot pictures of for the article, which you can see the first page of here and the second page of here.

Report In TV Guide Magazine

2009-05-18T00:51:00.000-07:00

Pick up a copy of this week's (the May 18th) issue of TV Guide, turn to page 19 and look for a report on shout-outs by TV writers which I wrote. It's a pretty cool piece about TV writers who've named characters after their friends and family. I talked to/e-mailed with a few cool writers--Shonda Rhimes from Grey's Anatomy, Ryan Koh from The Office, Terence Winter from The Sopranos and others. Everyone was very nice to take a few minutes to share their stories and all gave me interesting anecdotes. Check it out. There's no byline under the piece, but if you turn to page 20 you'll see a "reported by" credit. Also, the piece is only the magazine and not online. So, if you didn't pick up a copy, you can click here to see it and here to see the credit.

Nominated For Daytime Emmy Today

2009-05-14T15:02:00.000-07:00

Well, for the second time in my career I've been nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award by the National Academy of Arts and Sciences...this time as a member of the Cash Cab writing staff. If you've never seen Cash Cab, it's a game show in a taxi cab and you can check it out on the Discovery Channel. The show's hosted by Ben Bailey who actually does an amazing job of negotiating patience-challenging Manhattan traffic while quizzing contestants/passengers. We had a great team of writers (whose names you can see in the screen shot above--click it to enlarge) that came up with really great material that's played well. Cross your fingers for us, though I won't be holding my breath for a win. We're up against some stiff competish: Jeopardy and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, a show I used to write for.

Interview on Mediabistro.com

2009-04-27T07:00:00.000-07:00

My interview with Marc Rosenwasser, executive producer of Worldfocus, was published today on Mediabistro. You can see it here, however the interview is only partially accessible to non-members of Mediabistro. If you're not a paying Mediabistro member, I'll have the full version of it up shortly for anyone who'd like to sample my interviewing skills--see the sidebar on the right. Marc was a very nice guy and we had an interesting conversation that hit on a bunch of different topics. And congratulations to Marc and his staff are in order--they won the RFK Journalism Award a couple of weeks ago.

Article on New York Magazine's Web Site

2009-04-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

Also today, New York magazine's online arm published an article I wrote about the future of the New York City local news sports anchor in the wake of WNBC's Len Berman being let go by the station last week. For the piece, which appears in the "Daily Intel" section of New York's Web site, I interviewed Len Berman, who is a really nice guy. It's sad to see him go, but he told me he plans on working on his recently-launched Web site to bring his audience sports news. I also interviewed Ron Simon, the curator of Television and Radio at the Paley Center for Media, who is also a nice guy and an expert on all things T.V. Many thanks to both of them.

New Videos On Bon Appétit Web Site

2009-04-08T12:38:00.000-07:00

Some new videos, which I wrote the scripts for a couple months ago, hit the Bon Appétit Web site recently. The videos are hosted by contributing editor Dede Wilson and all of the recipes are easy to prepare and very delicious. Check them out at the three links below:

Salmon with Chile-Mango Salsa

Chicken Piccata

Spaghetti with Turkey-Pesto Meatballs

Marc Rosenwasser Interview Coming Soon

2009-04-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

Just finished an interview with Marc Rosenwasser for Mediabistro.com. Rosenwasser is the executive producer of Worldfocus, an international newscast that launched in October of 2008 and airs on most PBS stations across the country. He's a really nice guy and we had an interesting conversation that touched on Al Jazeera and Phil Donahue (yep, that one) among other things. It's slated to run on April 20th, so check in with MediaBistro in a few weeks to see it, or come back here.

8 Million Stories

2009-02-25T12:46:00.000-08:00

Good news! This week's edition of the New York Press, out today, features a piece written by me. I wrote this week's installment of the weekly "8 Million Stories" column. The story is about an unforgettable ride I took a few years ago on Manhattan's M96 bus. Suffice it to say, my days riding home from a Doylestown grade school on a bus driven by Pearl Roehrman never prepared me for the excitement of a ride on a New York City bus. If you didn't pick up a copy of the paper, click here for the story.