FROZEN BORSCHT SALON

ByGary De Mattei February 9, 2013July 12, 2015

Yesterday I heard a man say something in Russian to his children. I imagine he was referencing the storm we were walking through as compared to winters in his native cheery Siberi-a. Probably went something like, “Why, when I was young we didn’t have clothes, we had to wear the snow to keep us warm!” How do they push their strollers filled with plastic bags through a blizzard? Plastic bags and kids. Walk. Trudge. Drag. I’ve never seen anyone so pale. Dark circles on his dark circles. Oh, wait, that’s me I’m looking at in the stylist’s mirror. Pale. Drawn. Gray. Until she finishes cutting my hair and then…she must step on a button or something because all of a sudden when she’s through I look new. Tan, even. Like when the butcher switches on the pink light in his refrigerated display case so the old rotting flesh he can’t move looks fresh and new again. You know what sounds fun? Vitamin D. And a train bound for the sun.

Stories

I WANTED TO BE JOE ALLEN

ByGary De Mattei February 12, 2024June 14, 2025

PHOTO: Director Bartlett Sher (and me) at Joe Allen Restaurant in Manhattan Many years ago, while filling salt and pepper shakers after a busy graveyard shift in a corporate-owned fun-themer restaurant near the college I was attending, I was having one of those show business chats with a budding actor standing next to me filling…

Stories | Writing

RHINOCEROS! The Musical

ByGary De Mattei September 27, 2013July 12, 2015

Stories

Skill Is Not An Illusion

ByGary De Mattei November 6, 2019June 14, 2025

I’m in mourning this morning— Barneys closed. Did you hear? I never watched Sex In The City but I used to hangout at the old Barneys on Seventh Avenue when I was here in New York in the 80’s. I’d hangout at the espresso bar, I think it was downstairs, and just marvel at the…

Nuts And Chews | Writing

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, QUEENS, NYC

Bygdemattei September 5, 2012July 12, 2015

Noxious night. No air. Breathing impaired. Hot. Humid. Put it this way, you know how when you get loaded in the boats on Pirates of Caribbean, And you start your “voyage”, And then you drop down that first ramp, And then you float into the ride and you feel that blast of humidity, And you…

Stories

Red Eye

ByGary De Mattei July 11, 2017July 11, 2020

Got off the JetBlue jet plane at 7:30 AM. Driving through Queens is a throwback to all of those gritty films shot in the NYC of the ’70’s. Queens was untouched by the 80’s Disneyfication of Manhattan. Queens still flaunts the rust and rawness that you’d expect to see from the window of a beat-up…

Stories

Theodore Bikel

ByGary De Mattei July 22, 2015July 22, 2015

I don’t think he was aware of it but the fact remains that Mr. Bikel was one of my greatest teachers. The word “Teacher” in Hebrew is Rabbi. Thank you, Rabbi. Rest in peace. So, there I was, doing the Russian Soloist in Fiddler On The Roof starring the president of Actors Equity Association (at…

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