Hiatus Over: It's Not Working

Well, fuck it, that was a hopeless waste of time.

Everything I wrote about the reasons for putting this blog on hold are still true. I’m still dealing with a problem that arrived out of the clear blue sky and is here to stay for a while (and hopefully only a while). My family is dealing with it, and we are in a better place than we had been with it. We’re on the road to recovery. It’s going to be a long journey to our desired destination, but at least the wheels are turning.

In the interim, while I’ve been preoccupied and miserable about that, I’ve also felt strangely out of sorts from not posting here (and, as a result, have probably been overdoing it on Facebook). So, what’s the point of my blog fatwa? I invariably derive more enjoyment out of composing this woefully indulgent vanity project than anyone else does from reading it, so why am I punishing myself? Yes, I’m in a different headspace these days, but blocking off one of my main avenues of pleasure right now isn’t doing me any favors.

Another reason to abandon the hiatus has been a veritable onslaught of topically-suitable potential content in the last several days, most of it of the unfortunately depressing sort. The news of closings has been as grim as it’s been stealthy, from the overnight shuttering of Milady’s in SoHo (one of my favorite haunts back in the 90’s) to the coming vanishing of the East Village’s 7A (pictured above behind my sneaker-clad offspring). Coming swiftly after the closing of Silver Spurs on Broadway, Jack’s on University Place, Sapporo in the East Village, Gray’s Papaya on West 8th Street and the mounting evidence that J&R Music World on Park Row is closing, it seems that the piecemeal destruction of what’s left of the New York City I know and love had reached a new, frenetic and omnivorous velocity. I stopped into Japonica (my local favorite sushi restaurant) and was chatting with a staff member there, and there were murmurs that it too may not be long for this world. How is this all happening??

So, anyway, the hiatus is over. I may not be posting as frequently, but there's no point in continuing this stupid ruse.

In the short term, thanks so much for your kind words of support and encouragement. Please keep reading.