Brianland

It was a grey newspaper day during “papers” week at Camp Cleanup — digging through layers of mounds of newsprint and letters and notes like an archeological dig, uncovering the strata of history in this ancient city of my life. Overnight, the cat tipped over an old Safeways bag full of newspapers from a closet […]

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Obama’s election night in New York City may have been my favorite single night / moment in 25+ years of living in Manhattan. (You can read about it here: https://brianhassett.com//2008/11/election-night-2008/ ) That feeling was extended to a week-long celebration in my second favorite city, Washington, D.C. — a home-game in the History League — And lo, […]

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The Half-Centennial Celebrations   Saturday June 18th on the Caddy patty-o    (also Sir Paul McCartney’s birthday!  😉 6:00 dinner — the food’s tasty and diverse with a great new chef doin’ mmm duck quesadilla … southern pulled-pork … New York Strip … ginger salmon . . . here’s the menu — http://www.cadillaclounge.com/the_menu.html All-night  come-as-you-may  hang […]

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. NYC, Dec. 8th, 1980 . . . the 3rd month and 3rd day in New York City, America, for this 19 year old kid.  My first week in town I went to the free Elton John concert in Central Park.  He played Imagine, and introduced it with, “He can probably hear us right now,” referring […]

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I’m just stunned. Speechless. Maybe it was the set-up, cuz i was thinkin early on … this ain’t happening, this is sad, capitalizing on their name and what they’d done. . . . and then . . . . . . . :-0 they were playing Dylan’s “Infidels” as the warm-up music!!!! The whole album, […]

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. {the piece painted onto the wall of the Artomatic+ Art Gallery in London} . Lights dimmed, room hushed, MC in silhouette at center stage blessing the packed room of book-reading edge-cutting hipsters from all over the world thanks to email and web sites and a collective unconscious that keeps them striving for the new, […]

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Sans Sons — a Song in Names Only . . . This the most complete, up-to-date and diligently researched list of childless people anywhere on the internet or in print. Just for fun — if you speak each name aloud or to yourself (rather than just scan) it takes you on much more of a […]

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  Henri Cru (1921-1992) was Jack Kerouac’s friend for more consecutive years than anybody else.  His childhood friends he later reconnected with had about a 20 year gap in their relationship.  In Jack’s adult life, good ol’ Henri pre-dated and outlasted everyone.  They met when they were students at Horace Mann prep school in New […]

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 The Secret Life of Winifred Mitty . With an affectionate nod to neologist and word-sculpting dreamer James Thurber.     Flashbulbs were popping all around her.  Photographers called her name from every direction so she’d turn and look them in their camera eye. “Winnie, over here!” “Hey Winnie, loved you in Dark Gables!” “Winnie, you still […]

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Torch  Song The Olympic Torch was passin through Oakville yesterday, had to go.  It was down at the huge “creek” that created the center of town at the mouth of the massive Lake Ontario.  There’s one main bridge, and at end of it is the town’s central library and performance center. Some guy from Oakville […]

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