A.R.T. Newsletter #02
Picture me holding a red and black pencil, singing I Love Living In The City by Fear.
The inaugural CLASH CLOWN MOVIE CLUB (link) is Friday May 9 at 9:45pm. We’re going to watch Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times. Pay what you want, or don’t!
Two Weeks ago, I saw Oh, Mary! On Broadway and it rocked. It’s very funny and stupid. It’s rightfully nominated for a handful of Tonys.
Before the show, I found Mala Kitchen on 47th street. Sichuan Food is one of my favorites. If I’m treating myself to dinner, I pine for numbing hot tingle that only Sichuan offers. Matt Klinman indoctrinated me years ago when we were on the Harold Team Rocks together. Sichuan food is absolutely in the top 5 best things to happen to me as a result of being too invested in improv. Anyway: Mala Kitchen’s spicy beef noodle soup had me in my blissed out spice trance. ellena got dan dan noodles and we shared delicious sesame filled dough balls for dessert.
Before dinner, I called ellena to tell her where to meet. As we talked, I noticed a window with hanging gold letters: CHEERS TO 50 YEARS. It was Phil’s Stationary. I peeked inside and I knew right away: this is a beautiful, unassuming time capsule and a treasure trove. Every size and style of Rhodia notebook you could want. A wall of little bins full of markers and pens. Shelves of vintage ledger books to the ceiling. A glass counter full of gorgeous fountain pens on display. I asked Frank behind the counter if they had refill cartridges for Fisher space pens, and he showed me a beautiful bullet space pen with an orangeish copper finish. I told him how much I liked it in there and he told me about the place. He had jokes about ancient floppy disks for sale behind the register.
I was so impressed by Phil’s that I took ellena there after we ate. We talked with Frank again, who told us they have a warehouse of vintage office supplies stored somewhere in Brooklyn. They sell to TV and movie productions in search of period-accurate props for offices. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas bought a ton of stuff from Phil’s.
We had such a good time talking, he kindly showed us the pencils that we don’t leave out for everybody. I thought, how nice could these pencils be? Frank pulls a box of gorgeous German pencils from the 60s. They were pale green with shiny silver lettering down the side. Frank gifted me an editor’s pencil that I believe is also from the 60’s. You sharpen both ends: one is black, one is red. Walking to the Lyceum theater, ellena laughed when I got carried away preaching about this Real New York City Experience. “You have a conversation with a guy in a store, and he gives you a pencil!”