PicoBlog

This past Sunday, I received a text from a friend who told me he saw me on John Oliver's "Last Week Tonight" show on HBO. What I am about to say doesn’t apply just to John Oliver’s show, but to the media in general. As much as I enjoyed seeing my mug on this show and gaining street cred with my kids, the episode highlights the reason why I stopped watching Oliver awhile back.

The Portland and Gresham community is invited to my book launch for my 6th book, Lost Restaurants of Portland, Oregon,published with The History Press, out of South Carolina. The M&M Restaurant is located in Gresham, at 137 N Main Ave, Gresham, Oregon. 97030. You can enter through the front door, on the sidewalk, or the back lounge entrance next to the parking lot. I will not do a lot of reading from the book, but will be more interested in answering questions.

My cousin Jay Black of Jay & the Americans died October 23, 2021, at age 82 in New York. I have some stories. He wasn't born Jay. His birth name was David Blatt. In 1965, my friend Scot Brody and I were at the United Synagogue Youth of Conservative Judaism's convention in Washington, D.C. Scot was representing Jewish Community Center of West Hempstead, where my Bar-Mitzvah reception had been held two years earlier, at which Jay declined to sing.

In the absence of much time for writing my regular articles (and slightly more stringent requirements for doing so), I’ve begun a new weekly column for Mexico News Daily: Mexican memes, and their explanations! Enjoy! When it comes to learning about a culture, humor is often the last frontier. What do people find funny, and why? It’s often not enough to understand the language; cultural context, and sometimes even a healthy dose of local current events knowledge is key.

Hello to my Chef’s List community—I’m back. Thank you all for your words and support this month—it’s been a tough one for the entire World Central Kitchen community. If you want to check out the interfaith service that we had last week, I wrote about it on Monday on Longer Tables: The Best of Humanity Friends. I’ve been away from these pages for the last few weeks, and I deeply appreciate you all for your messages and words of support and empathy for the people of World Central Kitchen.

Memoirs are more often than not the worst way to get an accurate picture someone’s life. They’re self-serving and even at their most open and honest tend to shade things favorably towards the author’s favorite subject: themselves. Nevertheless, when the writer has actually led an interesting or noteworthy life, memoirs make for fascinating reads. Further, the first-hand accounts of different eras are like a travel through time. Yes, it’s colored through the filter of the memoirist’s own memory and experiences—isn’t that the case with us all?

Let’s get straight to it…I was flown to New York to do the makeup for a VIP attending The MET Gala 2024. The billionaire philanthropist, Sudha Reddy wanted me to do her makeup for the most anticipated fashion event of the year, The MET Gala. This is every makeup artist’s dream - to have the opportunity to do the glam on someone attending the MET. Although it’s always been a dream of mine, I didn’t think it was going to happen anytime soon.

My Hong Kong activism and writing are supported by optional subscriptions from readers. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to support my work. Thanks for your support. *** My intention is for this to be the first in a series of articles about my second stint in Hong Kong’s prisons earlier this year. In truth, I’ve found it more traumatic than expected to recall and write about these events, so I’ll make no guarantees about future articles.

Hi! Sorry it’s been a couple weeks since I last posted. It’s a combination of a lot of life events, but I’m excited to get back to writing, because this one’s a good one, and I have some more good ones in the chamber. As ever — I am not going to charge for this substack, but paying for a subscription allows me to do it more regularly! Either way, thanks for reading.