… called “Who Owns the Culture”. There were many conversations about artists particularly music since Jeff Tweedy of Wilco was one of the speakers. Look at hip-hop music. You have artists using other peoples music in their music as they also scratch albums of other musicans back and forth. Who owns that? Who created that …

… old insomnia.
Bedtime Beats might be something in your future if you need some help sleeping. People have been really happy with the results. Read the testimonials. Music that is geared towards sleeping. Interesting concept. Worse case scenario is that it doesn’t work and at least you get to listen to some mellow music …

… was right. I’m glad I bought the tickets for the fall that night.
Let me start by saying that I am not a big fan of musicals. I know that I should just go with the flow, enjoy the music and turn off the world for 2-3 hours but I can’t. I …

… mango pancakes were another story. Really good.
Got to the festival around 2ish. We were very lucky in getting 2 backstage passes at any stage for the musicians side. The sponsor side was treated with royalty. The musician side was a whole different story. In essence, you got to stand on the stage if the …

This had to be the hottest day but we probably saw the most music. We started off the day with a variety of new bands. Murder by Death was just amazing because of the woman who played the electric cello. Totally impressive.
Then we moved on to see some of my favorite bands. Nada Surf …

Friday morning we departed for Austin, TX. I had not been to Austin in 25 years. I am thrilled to report that Austin is still a very cool town.Austin City Limits is an alternative music festival. 3 days of music. The event takes place in a huge park. I’d say the average temperature …

It has been music, music for the past 5 days. We started out at Webster Hall Thursday night, in NYC, to see M. Ward. His past 2 albums have had significant play time in our house. His voice is mesmerizing. He was wonderful. The acoustics at Webster could use a little help but that is …

… and it would be a shame to lose sight of that.
Our school, LREI, basically puts on the concert in Washington Square Park. The teachers involved in music do an incredible event. Both the middle school and high school attended the event from 12:30-2:30 yesterday and participated. From different bands to poems …

… back and collect a piece of each of their work. Hopefully more in the future. Actually, definitely more in the future. He is also talented, artistically and musically. The two of them are a great combo.
We only hit up Isca’s show last night but I plan on going back to Chelsea in the …

… summer.
My hope is that a backlash is coming. Backlash to No Child Left Behind. What I mean by that is bring back the arts, gym and music. It has been proven that those activities actually enhance children’s learning habits in math and science. Stop living vicariously through our children, stop thinking that an …

… Not that it is like Amazon at all but when I first started using Amazon I went crazy ordering new stuff. Books I hadn’t heard of, music I liked, etc. This next has the same sort of appeal. People have lists of items that I am so glad that I know of now. Click …

… way of distributing them) have become over night sensations because consumers have said “i like them and am going to listen to them”. It isn’t a music executive or a TV executive deciding if the content is good enough to create an audience around it. The audiences are finding the content and creating communities …

I am so loving the Hype Machine. Rhapsody is over for me. Loads of new music that is never on Rhapsody. The site is an audio blog aggregator. It crawls the web for MP3’s that people are posting. Some come from MySpace others come from playlists. Great stuff.
I found a blog through the …

What a fantastic concert. I’m a little late on the post but these guys are great. Everyone sings, everyone gets a lead, pretty low on the ego scale. They appear to be having just a great time. Also, the Bowery Ball room is one of my favorite places to see music. Very low key …

… Clinton last week. Another part of the American Express series of live music around the city. It is really a wonderful thing that they put on. Free music, great locations. There really is nothing quite like sitting outside, in the midst of a small forum that has large buildings looming above listening to live music …

… go a few times before writing up the experience. I was so disappointed the second time around. The sushi wasn’t as fresh. The bar had the music up so loud that it was hard to think. We tried two appetizers this time. Barbecued tuna on a stick. Sticky ponzu sauce, well done tuna and …

… on the music. Yoga studios will give you information on each type of yoga that a particular instructor teaches. Spinning studios should tell you what type of music an instructor plays. If the music isn’t your taste, I find it difficult to focus. All I want to do is get off the bike and …

… Stamford), was intrigued with the film. It gave her some insight into the whole thing. What was interesting is the amount of lefties in the film. Also, musicians and mathematicians were abundant. It is connected to how ones mind thinks.
The other documentary I saw this past week was The Heart of the Game. In …

… had a lot of airplay at our house. After all, our kids to go LREI where Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie and Bob Dylan are the lords of music. Part of the curriculum is learning all the anti-war songs starting at age 4. How could you not love this cd?
Bruce’s band was big …

… strives continually to create the best learning environment for our school’s mission, watching the kids graduate is the ultimate thrill.
Our school is diverse. There were musicians, comic writers, dancers, film makers, politicians, potential doctors, book writers, painters, chefs in this class. Many had already taken college classes and worked as professionals in their …

… to me.
The Jap Chronicles was written by Isabel Rose. She also produced, wrote and starred in the one woman musical play. She is obviously a talented individual. That is the one area I must give her credit. The play however is probably the absolutely worst thing I have ever seen in a live …

… is Fred on top of our weekend home checking out the races. Fred writes about this past weekend on his blog too.

Before we went to the main event which is the first race and watching the Chili Peppers play ( of course there was music – Train played earlier in the afternoon ), we had some excellent

… know longer have diaries, we have laptops. Our diaries are on line. We can have live conversations taped on line about our favorites topics, or our favorite music – podcasts. Our lives can be eternal in the world through the digital age. Even though we are not able to live forever, our lives can. What a …

… over this morning to catch up and do a podcast. It was really fun and great to see them both. All and all a good way to spend the morning of Mother’s Day. No music but great chat.
Enjoy. If you want Fred’s input, go to his blog. To listen live, click here.

Maybe because it has become relatively easy and inexpensive to produce music and movies at home it has created a plethora of new film makers. I was thinking about this when I saw all of the previews today. Certainly the huge amount of film festivals has filled a void for Directors, Actors and Producers to …

… panels showing surfing. Plenty of hanging can be done.
They serve food starting with breakfast thru late night. You can order anything on the menu anytime. The music was fantastic. They get a A plus for that. Modest Mouse, The Clash, The Killers. Someone knows their music.
We found it hard to decide what to …

It has been too long. The kids have bagged it but Fred and I are on our own. Great new music. Jazzfest and politics all in one..
To listen to it live click here.
For more info, go to Fred’s blog.
Enjoy…I did.

Through the wonderful world of the Internet, we have made friends everywhere. Fred and Josh took in a Suns game when were in Arizona due to someone that reads Fred’s blog. We listen to a podcast called Mass Hysteria which is a great show outside of Boston by Paul and Janine. Good music, funny …

… Town Hall on Friday night. I really like his music. I would classify the music as 21st century folk. I actually have a few friends that if music was their profession, they could be Josh Rouse.
The problem with folk singers live is that you might as well be at home listening to their music …

My sister was working for Sony Records when they signed Harry Connick Jr. He was a young kid from New Orleans from a well known political family in the Bayou. He had been playing the piano since he was a kid with various jazz musicians. He came to New York with his high school girl …

Maroons lasted about 15 days on Bleeker Street this fall. Rare moved into the space a few months ago. Rare as in burgers a variety of ways.
School ended early today. We couldn’t decide where to go and the boys ( josh and his buddy) wanted burgers so we decided we would try Rare.
This …

… Sure. We have a continual open conversation about My Space, email and anything related to the web and their life in general. Life in general covers school work, friends, music they are into, their take on politics, sports, books, movies, their thoughts and how they feel. Just liked we’d talk with our friends …

June 1997, we decided to take a four day weekend to celebrate our anniversary, 10 years. Who knows what I was thinking when I picked the spot. It was June and we headed down to St. Marteen for the weekend. When I woke up the first morning, Fred was sitting in a chair and announced …

No reservations, open from noon to 4AM, take out available, sharing is a must. Those are the basics at Fatty Crab. But nothing about Fatty Crab is basic.
It has been some time since I left a restaurant (and woke up in the morning saying the same thing) being absolutely “wowed” by the food. The …

This was a fun podcast. Good new music too. To listen live, click here. For more info, go to Fred’s blog.

You never know who will get on stage at a Coffeehouse. Some random act that is not worth watching or something absolutely amazing that nobody was expecting. We got the latter on Saturday night.
Our kids school, Little Red Elisabeth Irwin, has a coffeehouse a few times a year. It is great. Music, readings, anything …

Our first podcast of 2006 is up. It is entertaining at least if you don’t love the music. You can listen to is live here. You can download it here. For more information, just go to Fred’s blog.

Our last day in Bangkok, we really hit up the stores and tried to get a feel for all the different neighborhoods. I think we even taught our travel guide a thing or two. The guides really have the places they know. They take you to the restaurants that they have relationships with, probably get …

… like music to our ears. It was the call because we didn’t get back until 5:30ish. We drove back in the standard people moving vehicle there. Small trucks that have horizontal seats covered by flaps in the back. No seat belts. They look like the vehicles you see in movies that move …

I’m a list girl. I have a list for everything. It is my organizational skills at work. So, no surprises that I love the end of year lists that appear everywhere. Best books, best music, best videos, etc. I have decided to compile my own book list. My favorites of 2005. I’m a …

During the rocking late 90’s, there were Internet parties galore. Granted I was about 15 years older than the majority of the people in the room, but it was a really wild time. There was a constant card swap. Everyone was on the move. We all felt that we were part of something big …

The album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was the first Wilco album we owned. We’ve been buying up anything that Jeff Tweedy does every since.
Jeff Tweedy is not only an incredibly talented musician and song writer, he’s smart and prolific. He’s always got something new going on. He was the first to make …

Weekly podcast is up. More new music. To hear is live, click here. As always, for more information go to Fred’s blog.

Little Giant opened a little over a year ago on the corner of Broome and Orchard. Two women, c0-chefs, with the help of their staff literally demo’d the place and turned it into a restaurant.
The restaurant sits on the corner and is surrounded in glass. There are banquettes that line the glass …

New podcast is up. We missed last week. Fred and I are solo this week. Good new music…Listen to is live..

Last night we went to a benefit for Katrina relief which was put on by my sister’s college roommate. My sister went to Tulane and after living their for four years still feel connected to the city of New Orleans.
The money from the event went to the Tipitinas Foundation. This money goes to …

Little Manhattan is a tiny sweet movie. No matter how many loves you have, you never forget your first. Also, you only have one first love. This film is through the eyes of a 10 year old played by Josh Hutcherson. He is absolutely adorable and lights up the screen. He is a total latch …

The best laid plans aren’t always perfect.
This past weekend we were going to Austin for the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Hurricane Rita was certainly a distraction. We knew that we’d be OK weather wise and travel wise but should we take the possible risk of tornado’s? 20,000 refugees in …

Our weekly podcast is up. It is much better being back in the city. We have more to talk about. Between Coldplay, Bloc Party, art, movies, school starting and stuff coming up, our conversations were rolling. Good music too.
For other ways to listen and download, go Fred’s blog. He always has more details …

Today was the 4th Anniversary of the bombings of the World Trade Center. The day was as beautiful as it was 4 years ago. Crystal clear skies, perfect temperature, low humidity, a perfect New York day.
We walked through Washington Square Park where you can see the empty sky, which was one full, through the …

Positively 10th street is up again. Last week solo – no kids. Good new music. Click here. And always, for the more information just go to Fred’s site.
Enjoy!!

Dinosaur Jr. played at Summerstage last night. The weather behaved. But it was one of those days when you just have a feeling that it wasn’t going to be worth the trip uptown. We had cab problems, we couldn’t find a bar just to sit at and have a drink (don’t attempt …

We have been listening to the Eels for 5-6 years. I have always been a fan but never saw them in concert until the other night. Wow. What an event. I wouldn’t even characterize it as a concert but more like a performance art musical event.
There was no back-up band. Instead …

Keane played at Radio City Music Hall last night. They have put out one album, Hopes and Fears, which has recieved rave reviews and many awards. We were only able to get 2 tickets and since Emily and I are the biggest fans, we got them. Seems fair, right? You can see from the picture …

The first time I had ever been to The Palm was when I was doing an internship in Los Angeles for a semester during college. My mom came into town and took me and my roommate there for dinner. It was a serious treat since I was living on ramen.
Over the years I have …

It is a beautiful day in New York. I’m sitting in front of my kids school, waiting for school to end. Da Silvano, the local celebrity restaurant hang out is right next door. All of a sudden, out of no where, there are paparazzi running up and down the street taking pictures at a …

We truly kicked off the summer on Saturday night. Not only was the weather spectacular, finally, we went to see our first Summerstage concert in Central Park. The Killers rocked. The place was packed to the gills. Since they only have one album, you knew every song. Although they did play a few new songs …

Our podcast is up again for the week. We have a definite groove going. Great music this week.
If you are interested click here…

Toady was supposed to be a beautiful day in May but instead it was cold and rainy and miserable. Major drag. We had tickets to see Ben Kweller and Fountains of Wayne in Central Park to support Sing for the Children. An organization that supports over 17,000 homeless children in New York City, that …

boys in the band Originally uploaded by GothamGal’sPhotos.
There is nothing quite like being serenaded by your good friends. These guys have been singing Bruce together for many years. We actually have quite a few friends who sing and play guitar and piano. It is always a highlight of the evening to hang out …

Fun podcast this week. We had a busy week. Concerts, bat mitzvahs, movies, parties, food. The life around the town with a little music intertwined. Enjoy.
Click here to listen to the May 21st Positively 10th Street show.

Last summer Jessica was interested in taking art classes. She has always been interested in art and her drawings are pretty good. I contacted Joshua Abelow. I had been to his studio and he is young, fun, smart and he paints but I thought his drawings were incredible. Josh told me to contact his friend …

Certain cookbooks look beautiful, you buy them, and then they hang out on the shelf and are never used. Molto Italiano will not be that kind of cookbook. I admit, I was going to buy the cookbook no matter what but did not realize how delighted I would be.
First of all, the book is …

Sadly to say, we will not be attending the Jazz Festival in New Orleans this year. We have gone every year for the past 5 years and this year was not in the cards.
I will miss the music, I will miss the heat, I will miss the clubs at night, I will miss the …

Last night was the Dead 60’s first performance in the US and they rocked.
When they walked on stage and started up the first thing that came to my mind was “wow, they are so young”. Maybe I am just getting older but I swear these guys look like they are 16. I think …

So, I’m sitting on the subway next to a guy who is silently rocking out to his iPod. The couple (girl and a guy) across the way are talking and pointing at it. The rocker next to me notices they are talking about his iPod. He takes off his ear pieces and waits for …

Fred and I went to see an intriguing event called “Who Owns the Culture” at the New York Public Library last night. It was incredibly thought provoking. Fred wrote a great post on this event too.
Larry Lessig, a brilliant left wing liberal who totally gets culture, future, Internet, etc. was brilliant to listen to …

I did it, I went to the Upper Westside for dinner. Even though it is a quick jaunt on the subway to 79th and Broadway, it seems like light years away.
We ate at Gari Sushi on 78th and Columbus. There is another Gari Sushi on the Upper Eastside too. Our friends knew the chef …

Ashes and Snow runs through June 6th, and I plan on taking the kids back. I went today with my pal. It is a very interesting multi-media presentation.
The space that has been created for this exhibition sets the tone. A huge cavernous space with a boardwalk that leads from one end of the …

Conversations about the future are always a hot topic in our house. The banter about ideas, technologies and the way we might live make for good discussion. It is really interesting to hear the insight from the kids since they are very computer/Internet saavy.
The next successful generation of Internet companies will define how …

My book club meets once a month. I really enjoy the group. Each month I get to know each of these women a little better. We have all come together from different worlds which makes this group especially interesting.
Everyone is extremely well read and very insightful. We discussed the Kite Runner last night which …

Tonight we went to a showing of movies created by the high school students at our kids school, LREI. The event was put on at the Apple Store in SOHO. Chris Reed, who is the head of the Media Arts program created this curriculum. The kids have even had some of their films shown in …

Going to Babbo is always a huge indulgence. I haven’t been in awhile so this past weekend we went with 2 other couples who had never been. Needless to say, they were thrilled!
As times passes, some restaurants just do not have the spark that they had when they originally opened. The food just …

My brother and I were discussing what we were listening to these days. He recommended William Shatner’s Has Been. My first reaction was “as in Star Trek?” Exactly. Who would have thought?
So, the first new CD of the year for me although it came out last fall, is this disc. The words are …

… presented over a mound of spicy green beans. The pork chop was cooked perfect and the mango sauce for dipping really completed the taste. Someone also ordered the skirt steak with a chili dipping sauce. Everyone said it was good. We also ordered the shrimp with eggplant in a curry sauce. This wasn’t …

I am a list lover. Is it because I am an organizational freak? Or was it David Letterman’s first top 10 list? Who knows but I always enjoy reading the “top” lists at the end of the year. My husband posted his this morning, so I figured that I would join in the action …

… pieces range in size from small to quite large. The works represent modern. They could have been made yesterday as easily as they could have been made 50 years ago.
This was an exhibit absolutely worth going to. I purchased the book of the exhibit as I usually like to keep books of the …

… business and I will buy it on line somewhere else today.
We still had some time to kill before our big event of the evening so we rambled around the small shops that are erected at the bottom of Union Square during the holiday season. It is reminiscent of Faneuil Hall in Boston or …

I belong to a book club. We meet monthly. I really enjoy the conversations and the group. Last night we discussed our last read, The First Desire by Nancy Reisman. It was a good first novel. The characters were a sad bunch but we discussed how the author could have given the reader more insight …

Halloween has always been one of my all time favorite holidays. The creativity of the costumes. The little kids going door-to-door for treats. Seeing all the neighbors strolling around the neighborhood. It also kicks off the holiday season.
It was quite an event this year. Everyone had a different agenda last night but …

I have always been a fan of Eminem’s from his first album. He is an incredibly talented guy. His music has made a big impact on the music being put out today. I downloaded his new video last night called Mosh. It takes a while to get it going and I have big fat …

I am one that peruses through the Arts and Leisure section, Style sections and movie sections so I can keep up to date on the latest and greatest. Doesn’t mean that I always get there but at least I know what is happening in the world of pop culture.
There was one movie that …

The last concert at Summerstage was last night. We saw Jack Johnson with the warm up band of G. Love and the Special Sauce.
We have been incredibly lucky this year. All the concerts we attended did not get rained on. The weather was magnificent each night.
G. Love and the Special Sauce are a …

Last night was a big music night in our house. I took both of our girls to go see Joss Stone at Irving Plaza and my husband took our son to go see Franz Ferdinand at Roseland.
I have actually seen Joss Stone before but not Franz. I would have liked to go see Franz …

Another night at Summerstage with the luck of no rain. We saw the Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue which consists of a variety of country artists which are Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Dave Rawlins and Buddy Miller. It was a bit of a mixed batch but the voices on all of these people are …

There is nothing quite like seeing an outdoor concert. U can hear the trees rustling behind the music. The sky is lit up in your small area. It is really wonderful. I grew up going to Merriweather Post Pavilion which is located outside of DC. I believe I saw Peter Gabriel, Jackson Browne, James Taylor …

We (my husband) went to see Modest Mouse last night at the Hammerstein Ballroom. They were really great. They have a terrific sound. A bit grunge, a bit southern twang, very rock and they use a variety of instruments from a cello to a banjo.
The lead singer, Isaac Brock, seemed to be a bit …

I keep having these conversations about raising kids today. We have become a completely media driven society. What to wear, what to listen to, how to decorate your home, what is happening in Chinese pop culture, what is happening behind the celebrity scene, what is sexy, what is not sexy. It’s out there for …

I think my entry into heaven is getting better these days. We took our kids to 6 Flags on Sunday and last night I went to see Wilco with my husband at Irving Plaza, his favorite band of the moment. Last time I was at Irving Plaza was to see Lauryn Hill give a concert …

Restauranteurs in New York seem to be growing and capitalizing on their successes these days. The owners of Bot and Bottino opened another B restaurant in the West Village called Bivio. Bot never worked out but Bottino has been around for quite some time in Chelsea. I always liked Bottino. The food is always good …

It is that time of the year, summer is just around the corner and the school season is winding down. I can’t help but think of that “Summer Feeling” by Jonathan Richman everytime the school year ends. One of the joys of having kids if you can continue to have the feeling of elation …

New York is a hub for artistic events. Thank god for the foundations and private people that support the off the radar events. Last night, I went out with 2 people who are thankfully involved in giving and creating events like Superpowers at the Adobe Theater.
First we rambled around Soho and had some appetizers …

Last night kicked off the first of Summerstage in Central Park. It is such a great forum. The crowd is pretty mellow. You are sitting in Central Park. It is lush and green. You can see the tall buildings in the distance looming over the park. But, here you are listening to rock and roll …

The New York Times (one of my favorite sources of information) had an interesting article in the Sunday Style section about children and parents of this generation. This article was about a mother/daughter bookclub in Greenwich and the relationships between the mothers and daughters. Bottom line, the daughter’s think their mothers rock. That …

We’ve decided to take it easier today. Not much playing that we want to see until about 3ish. We got up slowly walked around the French Corner and then had some breakfast. We went to the Coffee Kettle for breakfast. There were some serious omelettes being eaten. Oysters Rockefeller omelette with a shot of …

As always, a great experience. The one thing I noticed differently this year was how much older the audience is. Although the place was jammed packed, the audience seemed to be older. Maybe it was the music of the first weekend, who knows. But, it was a definite older audience. The place was packed.
I …

Yesterday I got up at the ungodly hour of 5 a.m. in order to get to our annual outing to Jazz Fest in New Orleans. If you have never been to New Orleans, the trip is well worth it. This city is completely different than any other place in the U.S. The food …

What a concert. The young divas. I went to the Garden last night to see Missy Elliot, Alicia Keys and Beyonce. Wow!
I liked the entire concept because you get to see 3 hot performers at one concert and noone plays for over an hour. It’s perfect. You hear all your favorite songs and …

Checking out the list of new restaurants takes time and energy. This past Friday night, we had only kid home and I figured we’d check out one of the new hot spots in our neighborhood. I had gotten good reviews from 2 people, so off we went.
Hue is located in the heart of …

As I member of the Whitney, I was given the opportunity to see the Biennial yesterday morning. I admit, I had absolutely no expectations based on the other Biennials which I had mixed feelings about. The presentations were almost trying to be in your face instead of embracing the art.
The place was absolutely packed …

I have just added 2 links to my blog. I have been reading 2 friends of mine. One is Jerry Colonna, who just started his blog. Jerry is smart, compassionate and is dedicated to social fairness in the world. Above all, he is a really great writer and incredibly articulate. So, I am excited about …

I remember the first time that I saw Fiddler on the Roof. I was 8 years old and the play was making its way across the country. We lived in Ann Arbor Michigan. We went in as the snow began to fall and by the the time we left there was about 2 feet on …

My kids love and live for Jingle Ball. Can’t say that I do but I admit that I have always had a liking for pop music. I actually knew more songs than I care to admit. For me, I can’t decide if the best part is that the bands only get to play …

Do you think that people would actually exercise if it wasn’t good for you? I am not sure I would. If I could take a pill or eat a particular type of food and the results would be the same, then I wouldn’t have to take time out to exercise. But, alas, exercise …

Every year we travel down to New Orleans for Jazzfest. The festival is fantastic. The music ranges from zydeco to the latest hot musician (counting crows, john mayer, ben harper) to gospel. You wander around at a huge racetrack going from stage to stage listening to music all for the entry price of (I believe …

I went to see Avenue Q the other night. I started reading about this production last spring. I never really appealed to me. But, people kept saying that it was worth seeing. I am not sure about that.
Personally, I prefer dialogue theater. Something interesting and thought provoking. I am not a big fan of …

I saw Gillian Welch the other night at Townhall. What a concert! She comes on stage with her husband, and only partner in her band, Dave. Dave rocks. Her voice is crystal clear. They have a very dry comical banter on stage which makes the audience laugh and feel really involved in their performance. Be …

Love a good book group. We had our monthly book group meeting the other night. Such an interesting group of people. Conversations went in some interesting directions. We had just finished reading a gem of a book WhenThe Emperor was Divine. The book was written in such a way that each chapter was seen from …

Greenwich Village is a halloween lover’s paradise. Since I am a halloween lover, last night was truly top. I have 3 kids – of all different ages. I started with my youngest at 3:30, right after school. We went with an entourage of people through Bleeker Street. The stores love it! My son decided …

Today I went over to The Affordable Art Fair at Pier 92 (52nd and 12th Ave.) This is the 2nd year of this event. The exhibit has run for a few years in London and Bristol England successfully. One of the gallery owners that I know compared the Art Fair to shopping at TJ Max …

If you are a new yorker (or live in the new york area) and have kids, you are probably interested in the cultural ongoings for kids around the town. If you haven’t already, check out the New Victory Theater. The productions are all over the place. Some of them are amazing and some are …

Last night we had a whirlwind night. First to the art opening of April Gornik’s latest works, then off to see Joss Stone open for Simply Red at the Beacon (does Simply Red actually still exist?) and then a late night dinner at the classic Cafe Luxenbourg on the upper west side.
April Gornik …

I have always been an avid reader. Love books. Truth be known, I read too fast but I get carried away and want to get to the end. It would probably be more intelligent to savor the book but it isn’t in my genetic makeup.
Every year, we go down to Jazzfest in New …

Weekends are always full. One one hand we want to hang out and relax, on another hand with want to enjoy NYC. Everyone has a different vision of what enjoying NYC means. But, we all agreed on one thing this weekend. School of Rock was a must see movie.
School of Rock completely held up …

This weekend was a food lover’s paradise. We had dinner at Babbo and AOC on Bedford Street.
Babbo is one of the best restaurants in New York City. The food is incredible. The atmosphere is great. The place hums. Mario Batali, who is quite the individual, has slowly made New York his oyster. Everyone …

There are over 450 municipal utilities and 600 cooperative utilities in the US. These utilities are private, for-profit companies that are heavily regulated and part of the public infrastructure.

The massive fire that destroyed over 1300 homes in California in 2021 had already pleaded guilty to 85 charges, including manslaughter, for starting a fire …

NYC can be very small for a city of over 8 million people. I love it when I bump into people I have not seen for a while, be it at events, a restaurant, a play, a gallery, or on the street. It’s always fun.

I do have one pet peeve that I would …

The media is broken. That began when blogging platforms started to take off at the end of the 90s. People began to espouse their own opinions, just like me. It is one thing for me to go to a restaurant and write a review, but it has become another thing since platforms are now being …

It will take years for us to truly understand the trauma that COVID-19 leashed on all of us. The list is long. People lost friends and family members, and education fell into an abyss with the onus on parents’ shoulders; we woke up to racism instead of the reality of classism, and most of …

What is happening with religion and conservative men right now is such an apparent fear of losing power. There has been a decline in religion since the mid-twentieth century. It is not shocking based on the sexual crimes, including their religious beliefs being imposed on all of us while chipping away at women’s …

When people rise to fame, such as sports figures, politicians, business people, community leaders, parents to their children, and anybody people look up to, they become role models. There have been role models forever.

I have heard many, particularly sports icons, say that people shouldn’t look to them as role models; they didn’t …

Over the years, I have had the privilege of meeting and seeing those not given the opportunities that most people I know have grown up with. There is not a time that I have not walked away in awe.

Years ago, I remember going to Carnegie Hall where, a non-profit organization that brings string …

Today is International Women’s Day, perhaps a Hallmark activity, but I bristled after seeing Katie Britt of Alabama deliver the “rebuttal” speech to Biden’s State of the Union speech. At first, I thought she wasn’t real and that it was all AI. This is a woman vying to be Trump’s running …

So, in Missouri, you can’t get a divorce if you are pregnant, with no exceptions. Alabama is banning IVF. Abortion has been rolled back thanks to the Supreme Court. Birth control is undoubtedly on the docket.

Let’s call it what it is: it is about rolling back women’s rights so that their …

Temu, SHEIN, TikTok, and CapCut are the top apps downloaded in the US, and TikTok is number one. Temu had a Super Bowl ad touting its low-cost products that are so low that there is no way that they are making money, especially when the products are being shipped from China. They are grabbing …

This past week, I spent much time walking the streets of NYC and attending events. The streets are alive. There are many new stores, restaurants, and art galleries.

At the start of the week, I went to the Shoppe Object trade show at Basketball City, where Gotham Goods had a booth. The place was booming …

I began building out the Women’s Entrepreneur Festival in the fall of 2010. My partner, Nancy Hechinger, was a professor at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) and believed there were not enough women in tech. I wasn’t convinced about that, but I did believe that women network differently, and they were out …

Our family is a group of content lovers. My brother and sister-in-law, their kids, my sister and our kids. It’s a family affair. 

Fred and I love making sure to see every film that we believe has Oscar potential so we can voice our opinions. It’s fun to discuss and talk …

Who doesn’t love Farfetch, or Net-a-Porter, or Matches? These sites have changed the way we shop. These companies have evolved because when you are public, you must continue growing or putting out serious profits yearly.

I always loved the Farfetch model. Farfetch gave boutiques across the globe a platform to connect with …

I bumped into someone who ran for office and has been involved in politics his whole life. Of course, I asked about the state of the world, and he said we have to make sure Biden wins regardless of his age. He believes that if Trump wins, democracy in the world will shift to something …

I have been living in a start-up land since 1990. Some were businesses where I was at the helm; others were as an investor, and others were as an advisor or board member. Each is very different, but the one consistent thing is how quickly things move, how much time is needed, and how …

One of my dearest friends in the world lost his Mom a few months back. The memorial was this past week. The event was a celebration of her life. Different views and relationships with people were part of her life, from children to friends to organizations such as the Rockefeller Museum, Carnegie Hall, and Lenox …

I am a huge lover of film and went to at least one or two movies a week when the kids were growing up. Due to streaming, I see countless films and try to see all the “Oscar” worthy flicks pre-award ceremony—nothing like chiming in from the couch.

Someone recommended I go back …

I have read some stories about future changes that cost significantly, but the reward came back in spades.

For instance, a school district installed solar panels that saved enough kilowatts of energy through a $250k expense that generated almost $2m in surplus. That allowed them to raise teachers’ salaries. Someone is thinking.

Then I read …

I read the other day that, on average, Americans read at a 7th grade level. That is not very uplifting. European countries do much better than we do. Have we ever wondered why? Does our country spend time looking at other countries’ education systems that solve issues that we should be solving?

Obesity is another …

Young girls are talked to differently than young boys. Girls are told they are beautiful, and if they aren’t good at something, that is okay, that they should try something else. Boys are advised to keep on trying no matter what. Hence the saying, boys will be boys. Boys tend to learn through physical …

My brother told me a story he had told me before, and I was happy to hear it again. It is a story about four generations and a brisket.

The youngest of these four generations was making a brisket. Of course, she had learned the recipe from her Mother, and then her Mother had learned …

Perspective is a gift. Decisions, expectations, careers, relationships, everything evolves, but being able to look back at some of those times that seemed so hard, but in the end, you get through it.

2023 was a wild year. I learned a lot about myself this year, and that is hard work. The ability to look …

Over the past fifteen years, a slow crescendo in the investment world sped up to insanity the last five years. Perhaps the end began when Yahoo died.

In 1998, we began to see some of the same insanity. I remember Fred instant messaging me after a meeting that someone just pitched him Ties.com, where …

What is wrong with change? Why do people hold on to their ideals versus letting themselves evolve as humans? Why does a small group of people get to make decisions that are out of line with the society they represent? Change always wins, period. Why must the fear of change create such havoc getting to …

This past Friday night, I met some friends at Gotham before we went out for dinner. They were in town from LA and wanted to check out the store and try out the NY cannabis products.

After smelling, looking, and talking to Gotham’s knowledgeable staff, we bought a tin of Sessions Peanut Butter Bombs …

When our kids were young, we would take two long trips during the holiday season and in March. We look back at all those trips with fond memories, yet each one of them had challenges. How could it not? Five people doing everything together for two weeks is a lot. How many people could any …

Watching Harvards Claudine Gay, UPenn Liz Maguill, and MIT’s Sally Kornbluth testify this past week swept me down a hole of utter disbelief, disappointment, and anger. These three women represent all women whether they like it or not. They rose up the ladder of academia to oversee three of the most powerful educational institutions …

I snagged a reservation at the new Indian spot, Jazba, that opened in the old Noodle Bar. I read about it at FoundNY, where Lockhart Steele, the original, who began Eater with Ben Leventhal. I went to the Noodle Bar countless times and was always delighted. 

David Chang transformed where and how we eat out …

The most important aspect of every business must be about the impact on our planet. Unfortunately, our economy is built on commerce. That applies to everything. Technology has impacted everything from golf clubs to ski boards, so you want to buy the latest and greatest. Styles reflect the times. Women no longer wear jackets with …

Have you ever noticed that when someone brings up an industry, be it current or historical, the first thing that comes to mind is what man is behind it, started it, or came up with it? Why? Is it because patriarchy is a Ponzi scheme?

A friend shared Anu Atluru’s substack with me that …

E-commerce has changed our lives, as have many technology innovations and companies, but I will focus on shopping.

Being able to order from a computer and have everything show up at your door within a day or more is game-changing. Whatever you need is at your fingertips. Sometimes, you don’t even realize …

Going away is always good, but coming home after a real vacation is the best. We got to walk, eat out, see art, buy a few goodies, read books, and work, vs. my everyday life of work, walking, eating out, reading books, seeing art, and buying some goodies pretty much in that order.

Walking lets …

The term helicopter parents was coined in 1969 by Dr. Haim Ginott. It describes overprotective parents who hover over their children, believing that these efforts will ensure they succeed and are protected from danger.

I have always wondered how these kids will survive on their own. How will they become independent adults when, throughout their …

Last week, I visited Strive. Strive is the beneficiary of Gotham and an organization that Gotham Gives has funded for the past few years. Strive helps those who have faced tough times, many previously incarcerated, educate and support each individual’s career.

We met a class of people who had only been there for four …

Last week, we had our first Found board meeting. It was quite civilized. We had all the numbers the day before we talked and dined at Il Buco Alimentari about where Found is now and where it is going.

This is the third company the four of us have worked on together. I have consistently …

I am old enough to go back in time and note change. I read about the fourth-generation butcher and sole owner of Albanese Meats & Poultry on Elizabeth Street, that turned 100 years old this year. It is the last of its kind in Little Italy, NYC.

How many mom-and-pop stores stood over …

Remember those days when marketing centered around print and TV ad buys? Then technology changed the way companies market to their customers. It allowed companies to target their customer wherever they hang out, particularly where you hang out online. How many of us used to be freaked out when, after having a conversation about a …

Pre-Covid, in the heydey of the start-up world, taking on debt seemed to be business as usual. But it rarely ends well when you can’t meet your debt payments.

One company that I invested in, the darling of secondary market investors, I know because I would get an email every week from …

Arkansas recently rolled back its child labor laws so that children under sixteen do not need a work permit. Looking at the huge smile on Sarah Huckabee Sander’s face while signing that document surrounded by children who looked ashen by the decision made me cringe. She believes this eliminates the parent’s burden on …

I am pretty sure I am not the only person blown away by how Trump has built a full-on cult in public.

It’s fascinating yet terrifying and unbelievable. Why? How did this happen? What are all these people looking for and appearing to have found in Trump?

He lies.  Everything coming out of …

In 2016, at the last Women’s Entrepreneur Conference we put on, I spoke about the history of women in our country. That our businesses are our voices. I started to see the rise of women being able to work and balance their family lives simultaneously during the 90s when companies began to create different …

In the past week, I have watched a few videos that speak to the next generation’s expectations and desires. They are concerned, as we all should be, about what havoc we have wreaked on our climate that has created global warming. It is scary and will continue to get more alarming in the future …

In the past week, I have been dealing with bank signatures. Dealing with banks is never fun. I am convinced they are all still operating on back-end systems built forty years ago. Considering how much money the banks have made in the past forty years, it is truly amazing.

This week, I had the …

Years ago, I had a steel Lego block made the size of your hand that I gave to Fred that says on the side, “because we love to build things.” It defines us in many ways.

I am in the midst of building a business, Gotham and Gotham Goods, and I am having the best …

We went to the second in the Spiderman series. The first one we really liked. The computer image graphics are amazing, and the storyline is just an updated original Spiderman. The second movie, Across the Spider-Verse. The imaging is incredible, and the film is quite long. I found myself getting frustrated with the storyline …

Consumers are changing how they react to marketing. Consumers are willing to pay an annual fee to read good content; consumers will become “members” of restaurants, becoming part of a community; consumers are looking to be different, and Generation Z has zero loyalty.

The last decade of consumer company building, aka direct-to-consumer, taught …

Multiple studies have shown that diversity works. It enhances critical thinking, working environments, creativity, collaboration, and acceptance. The only way to change our horribly undiverse past is through integration.

I thought that when diversity became a big buzzword around 2007, it was a step in the right direction. Schools and businesses began to hire diversity …

Years ago, when I sat on our kid’s school board, we wanted to expand the high school’s physical footprint. The Trinity Church owned a slew of buildings in the neighborhood. Fun fact, in 1705, Queen Anne bequeathed a gift of 215 acres to the Trinity Church after the British took over New Amsterdam …

We have entered a period where I want to believe that women can do what men do and get paid equally. Yet as I listen to and hear the men and women around me, those old-school voices continue to exist. It is the older men who tend to place labels on women and men …

The NY rent board just voted to raise the rent of those living in rent-stabilized housing.

Can you imagine being 80 years old, living on social security, and not having enough to eat? On the other hand, can you imagine being the landlord of a building costing you more to run than in rent …

Our Federal Government is the largest bureaucratic business on the planet. Two businesses come to mind, FEMA(aka insurance company) and student loans. There are also tax deductions from home ownership to growing corn, funding of programs from after-school activities to addiction centers, and transportation, including roads and bridges. I am barely touching on …

Companies are still very upset that their workforce is not returning to work five days a week. I think three days a week is plenty. People need to come in for meetings, face-to-face, and have conversations. It’s a different vibe, and other things get done, but life is different now.

Covid allowed …

I remember walking to lunch when I worked in the garment center, and a man was walking down the street with a phone in his hand that wasn’t connected to anything, and it was the size of his head. I remember thinking, is it that important that he needs to go outside in the …

Americans remember the present. We are not big on history….yet.

So what do these professional athletes have in common? They all walked away from their professions at the height of their careers. That had to be one of the most difficult but most satisfying decisions in the long run. They will eternally be remembered …

In the past week, we have received this year’s insurance bills, which have all increased dramatically. Nothing has changed on our end, but it appears a lot has changed in the insurance market. This is not your annual few points increase; this is 20-30%. We all know it is happening in the commercial …

Many of us are shaking our heads. How did we get to a place where guns kill innocent victims daily and other countries issue a travel warning about the US because of the gun carnage? How did we get to a place where the CEOs of publically traded companies’ annual packages are in another stratosphere …

Many documentaries are made by the people who star in them; Beyonce comes to mind. They are telling their narrative that they want the world to see. I have recently talked to a few people who have been documenting their journey of something they are working on. We have an ongoing joke at Gotham when …

Years ago I judged senior projects at ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program @NYU). This student had filmed TV on every channel, including advertisements, showing how diverse they were. It was fascinating. What was happening through the mouth of media differed from what was shown in streaming TV and advertising.

Continuing on that theme, I have read …

Can you imagine not having a place to sleep at night and feel safe? Can you imagine finding yourself at 74 years old, after having a full life and after a variety of missteps, you find yourself living on the street? Can you imagine having a job that doesn’t pay enough for you to …

When I was young and living in Ann Arbor, I drove my bike to the local store, met friends ice skating at the open-air rink near the school, and even trick or treated with friends. I was 8. At nine, we lived in Arlington, VA, for a year. I walked to school alone and …

Motherhood is the world’s most challenging and complicated job, with multiple stages. Stage one is pure love and joy. This little human is now part of your life. Their needs are basic. Loving, feeding, sleeping, pooping, and cooing are on the list. As they get old enough to sleep through the night, it can …

During Covid, many Americans had a hard time making their rent. The Federal Government provided emergency rental assistance with funds for each state. The acronym is ERAP. ERAP saved countless people from being homeless and landlords from losing mortgages on their buildings. It was a win-win for everybody except those in public housing.

People …

I have been watching the @meetcutesnyc, where someone asks random couples how they met. The stories are entertaining. I love a story about how a couple got together. It made me think about how Fred and I met. Since I have plunged headfirst into the cannabis space, I figured I would share our story.

I …

In the last few days, I have rewatched The Big Short, read Poverty by America, written by socialist and author Matthew Desmond, and read an Ezra Klein op-ed titled The Problem with Everything Bagel Liberalism. The combination of all three is utterly depressing, but at least the Big Short had multiple entertaining moments. These …

Countless articles about Americans packing up and moving to other countries have been written. I know a handful of people who have made the jump and randomly ended up talking to one on the streets of Mexico City. I was with two friends, and we were all fascinated with this charming man with his kid …

We spend time in Paris yearly. I read French newsletters similar to the ones that cover NY, so, unsurprisingly, we keep up with French politics. Macron forced a bill through parliament changing the retirement age from 62 to 64. The response was over a million people coming out to protest throughout France. Violence erupted in …

I recently read that only 6% of American monuments feature women as the subject. This defines “you can’t be it if you can’t see it.” Women’s health does not get the same funding as men’s. Women CEOs only lead 10% of corporate companies, yet female-led companies’ return rates are higher …

Why is sex treated as taboo? Why do young kids giggle and feel uncomfortable during those first sex education classes? What do we do in our society at a young age for that to happen?

Yet men talk about having sex while women are not supposed to. Birth control changed the game for women to …

An education is hands down the best thing you can give your child, period. The ability to make decisions after taking in the landscape is a gift. Our country’s lack of investment in education and educators is a crime, and unfortunately, children do not vote.

When people refer to educated people as the “liberal …

ChatGPT, cryptocurrencies, and AI are a few things that come to mind. When I listen to some politicians try and wrap their heads around it, I fear they will create laws and restrictions that make zero sense. It is the same with cannabis regulation; most of it makes zero sense.

The implosion of SVB this …

Not sure how I missed that the Mercer Kitchen closed at the end of last year. It took me on a trip down memory lane. I had been to that restaurant and bar upstairs countless times for a meal, coffee, or drink. I spent countless hours at only a handful of other spots in NYC …

In 1935, NYCHA was born to provide decent, affordable housing for low and middle-income families. Many were living in overcrowded tenements, making them ripe for disease. Housing reform was needed.

Many NYers don’t even know that NYCHA exists or that 15% of NYers live there, although the number is probably higher. There is …

We all have something to say about Elon Musk; how could you not? He did one thing that has changed the game for all of us, electrifying vehicles. Many have been waiting for this technology to return for decades. The car companies, not so much; they would have been happy not to pay a dime …

As my Grandmother used to say, “a minute on your lips, forever on your hips.” I was told from a young age to watch my weight. I never got the PBJ sandwich at lunch but rolls of turkey with a toothpick through it. I have been on weight watchers, taken awful drinking shakes instead of …

After WW2, the world was in shambles. It wasn’t just Government that helped people get back on their feet. Many active philanthropic people (families) helped the US get back on its feet, which included humanitarian, scientific, and medical aid. That time began the rise of new philanthropy.

Countless books, research papers, and alike have …

I woke up this morning thinking, what would our forefathers think if they were transported back to today?

How would they feel about the divide in our country? The lies told to hold on to power? The attempt to erase Black history or never speak about it? How has the electoral college played out? Having …

I overheard multiple conversations on the slopes these past few days, and one thing appeared to be loud and clear, is 2023 is feeling much better than 2022. Looking through the rearview window, it is crazy how a global pandemic rocked our world in countless ways, and we still feel the aftereffects.

My dearest friend …

This past week the College Board stripped down the A.P. curriculum for African American Studies. This course is for learning and researching the African diaspora to teach and understand our history. The African American journey has never been the focus of education. We are taught European history and early American history growing up. I …

Being an entrepreneur is hard, especially when you bring on investors. It is hard not to believe the hype when things are doing great. So many people sitting around the table now have a stake. It becomes easier to listen to everyone around the table telling you to build faster and raise at a valuation …

Have you ever noticed when you go out to dinner, they always ask if you have any allergies? Or if you get a coffee, the cup mentions how hot the coffee might be, aka don’t burn yourself.

The cannabis industry has been set up, thank you to the Government that without a stellar law …

The post-Covid world has had a serious long-tail impact on the movie industry. All production companies, from Netflix to Hulu, have gone through a shakeup. They don’t look any different than ABC or NBC, except you can watch their content anytime vs. a particular hour. Each channel’s search is not that …

The US Government paid for all our Covid shots once they were approved. Yes, there are plenty of naysayers, and yes, I know many have had post Covid issues, but the hospitals aren’t lined up with people anymore. The crisis has supposedly passed.

We all know the long tail of this. Some health providers …

Watching the House show the world how incompetent and vitriol our country has become makes it tough to be optimistic. It pains me. I also happen to be deep in the cannabis space. Watching the rules, regs, and the execution of an endless supply of checks and balances is mind-blowing. One day I will …

Over the past decade, we have seen more women at the top of the workforce. Perhaps it is just optics, but the push and conversation for diversity at every company level have elevated without question.

The onslaught of Covid has shifted the mindset, particularly for working mothers. The importance of having flexibility from mental health …

Someone said to me the other day, “you just love culture.” I never really thought about it, but he is spot on. My siblings are obsessed with culture too. I am not exactly sure why or where that came from, but it is one of our favorite topics to discuss.

We all do the crossword …

As one year closes and another begins, my mind wanders to the future. I am not one for “resolutions,” but I like to think about the year ahead.

This past year has not been easy, especially for many businesses, particularly those in the start-up sector. The inflated expectations, including the absurd amount of cash …

Cool Hunting posted this video in the past week. Fun and crazy fact, I have been reading Cool Hunting pretty much daily since it launched in 2003.

Something about this song that I grew up with as a teenager, just hit the spot. These Days by Jackson Browne. The title says it all.

I am …

I was at a holiday party this past week where I basically knew nobody there. That is one of the most amazing things about New York City. There are so many communities connected from all different angles. My friend is an incredible connector.

One woman recognized me from my blog, which is pretty cool, and …

I watched Amsterdam on HBO this week. The cast is stellar, and although the movie can be preachy at times and could have been so much better, there is a point swirling through the screenplay. History repeats itself, and people must be held accountable for change to happen.

The film is based on the mysterious …

I feel compelled to acknowledge how incredible my husband is on multiple levels. He is a fantastic partner in everything we have chosen to do.

What has worked for us is our respect, curiosity, zest for life, willingness to make changes, and a finger in each other’s careers hence what “we” have chosen to …

Term limits have been part of the discussion about Government forever. America restricts how many terms you can run for specific jobs in different states. The biggest reason for rethinking term limits is that people live much longer, so they stay in those Government positions for as long as possible. They are powerful jobs that …

I got a survey this week that asked various questions surrounding the responsibility of social media companies to monitor their audience. I thought about what that means, what expectations we should have, and who sets the rules.

On the one hand, I do not want Mark Zuckerberg to decide what is deemed acceptable content. What …

I am pretty sure there might be as many illegal cannabis stores as there are delis in New York City. It is crazy. It has become a free for all.

In the beginning, when NY State legalized cannabis, I would guess that many stores did not realize that they still needed a license to sell …

Countless people have had the same conversation with me. It starts with I got a great deal to rent an apartment during Covid. Then my landlord raised my rent by 70%. Yes, 70%. Can you imagine your landlord telling you they will increase your rent by thousands of dollars? It is so ridiculous that you …

There was a time when people worked for the same company their entire life. It was a safety net. They did their job, had healthcare, got an end-of-year bonus, were treated with respect, and had a community in their office. That world is over.

One of the reasons businesses can’t keep their …

I do not think I have the time or energy to name every corporation in America that needs to decentralize. Regulation is supposed to come from the Government, but many corporations in America are so substantial that competition is minimal. The frustration for the consumer is god-awful.

There is value in multiple businesses in …

Since she began, I have watched Deb Perelman, the woman behind Smitten Kitchen. Like everyone else in 2006, it started with a blog. I was watching the food industry change. Then in 2009, I invested in Food 52, and they would have an annual best food blog event. I don’t recall who won, but …

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. It is about giving thanks, hanging out with friends and family, eating the updated version of the same meal that has been served for generations, and, of course, the morning/afternoon prep.

This year we were in Los Angeles, the only thing different was the weather. I got …

Today’s high school and college-age students grew up in a highly connected technological world. They might live in Iran or China, where they have not had as much access as kids in the US or France, but they all know just enough about each other’s worlds.

People are living to be older …

When companies raise money, the founder only wants to give away a certain percentage of their equity. Makes complete sense. Founders would ask me all the time, how do I decide what we are worth? So if you raise $2M, you really would like the valuation to be at $8m with a post-money valuation …

These days I am taking in a fair amount of content around the cannabis world. I saw this headline the other day that Medical Marijuana Patients do not have Gun Rights. Not surprising there was a lawsuit. Nikki Fried, Florida’s 12th Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumers Services, brought the case to the Federal Government …

When we were in Paris, we had drinks with three people who started their careers during the mid-90s in Web 1.0. All of them are super smart and still deep in technology; interestingly, they all live abroad.

I started writing this blog on October 4, 2003, almost 20 years. One of the reasons …

I do not even know where to begin. Could it be that women’s abortion rights are being taken away? Considering the majority of men do even understand that the abortion procedure is not always about having an abortion. How many women have had a DNC, aka a “dilation and curettage procedure, also called a …

The anger that has taken over our country is frightening. Shockingly, one vile angry criminal was able to change the culture of America in four years. That is pretty much what happened in Germany before the rise of Hitler.

It doesn’t take much to look at the data, particularly in the full-on Republican …

I believe the Parrish Museum in Water Mill opened roughly ten years ago. An excellent addition to the east end of Long Island in a burgeoning artist community, but somehow we have never been. This past weekend, we went to a wedding there, and as long as you did not have a drink in your …

What a week! Admittingly we go out every evening. Luckily we started last Sunday with a meal at home before kicking off the week ahead. The delicata squash is perfect this time of the year. I roasted these slices at 400 for 40 minutes and then lightly tossed them with Frankie’s new Calabrian chili …

Artists share their work with other artists. Sometimes it is just a gift, and other times it is a form of payment. I have always loved this.

Recently, an entrepreneur told me that a few other founders had given each other stock so they could both lean on each other. I love this.

We are …

The Government has been giving students loans like credit cards regarding the debt they can incur. It has forced graduates to enter the world walking around with a weight on their shoulders. I know people still paying off their student debt into their 40s, and that monthly chunk of change takes its toll. As an …

History has shown us, as it repeats, that people look to leaders to create a culture of what they deem suitable for all to get in line, particularly regarding the war on drugs. There are so many players to blame, from Nixon to the media. Looking at old footage of the press interviewing anti-drug …

The High Line puts on two barn-raising dinners a year, the annual event and the art dinner. This past week was the High Line Art Dinner. On the one hand, I don’t love these events, but on the other hand, I do love the gathering even though I find myself lost on who …

As more transactions began on the web, data became a word bantered about. What kind of data should we be capturing? What are we going to do with this data? Can we sell this data to others? Does anyone even understand the information we are collecting? Was it time to get a Chief Data Officer …

Traveling is part of the narrative this fall and into the first part of next year. It feels good to see new spots and visit old haunts.

We went with our friends to Utah for a few days, including a stop at the Amangari. The Amangari is quite the experience, although the food is inedible …

This summer, I noticed a few things happening at the “elite” Aman hotels that made me wonder about the brand’s future. 

Amanpuri means place of peace. The first Aman, aka Amangari, opened in Phuket, Thailand, in December 1987 by Adrian Zecha. Zecha is the entrepreneur behind several hotels and supposedly had a particular strategy …

I am sitting outside at a Parisian cafe in the 11th arrondissement on the corner of a kid’s park. It is 730 and light out. One of the many things I love about Paris is the sun sets later. That changes the culture.

The park is filled with children playing games and sliding down …

When I was in high school, I worked for the Montgomery Country Department of Recreation in Maryland. When I was a senior, I realized that I only needed three classes to graduate, so I ran the office in the afternoons, and when school let out, I coached.

I loved this job. My car was filled …

This time every year, I begin to think about the year ahead. My head has never left the school calendar. September is a new start.

Perhaps it is age, maybe it is the moving parts of life, but these days I am looking at everything with a new lens. Taking a step back and looking …

Name an industry that’s running seamlessly right now. Travel sucks, restaurants are short-handed, stores are a mess, production is a disaster, the supply chain is backed up, etc., etc. The question is, where did everyone go?

Why did after ceasing life as we knew it for Covid completely screw up everything? Things appeared …

As summer winds down and the new season begins, many companies are thinking about who will return to the office. Instead of getting everyone back in one place, maybe we should think about how the balance between work and life might be better for everyone.

For the white-collar workforce, their head space has changed …

The other night we had a much-debated conversation around the question, “does capitalism work”?

Capitalism is a powerful driver of competition, wealth, innovation, and prosperity but can also create instability and inequality. Essentially capitalism works for some but not all.

I have always loved the saying “you can’t be what you can’t …

Over the past decade, the shaming of the advertising industry has created a fleet of new campaigns. No longer is everyone lithe and stunning. Ad campaigns are inclusive to all of us. It feels like the page in magazines that note celebrities shop just like us, they dress like us, they are us!

The venture …

Many businesses are struggling right now. It is a combination of weathering the economy, realizing the reality of each business that had been on covid cocaine, and the fact that funding right now can be expensive. There are plenty of bottom fishers out there taking advantage. We will more than likely see all of this …

Having health insurance is expensive yet needed. The average cost for an individual is over $7k a year and $22k a year for a family. The cost has doubled in the past decade. Healthcare is complex, and the administrative costs are high, making insurance even more expensive. Almost 50% of adults are not appropriately insured …

A recent study confirmed what all of us probably knew all along, kids who have wealthier friends than themselves benefit in the long run because they tend to earn a higher salary later in life. Who you know makes a difference.

It is no different than growing up with a positive role model in your …

Let’s begin with seat belts. How much money have we saved insurance companies for passing a law that we must wear a seatbelt? Enough that it was worth paying lobbyists to get this passed in our Government. Hate to be such a cynic, but what can I say? 

Law is passed, and it actually …

The esteemed Adam Platt did a Q&A with Flynn McGarry and wrote about their conversation for NYMag/Grub Street. If you haven’t heard of Flynn McGarry, he is the child prodigy who began cooking meals out of his kitchen at 11. He taught himself on YouTube.

The question and answer that kept me …

I have never been a fan of the concept that 40 is the new 30, but the reality is we are all living longer. Living older has an impact on other things besides ourselves. Living longer has fueled new medical breakthroughs and significantly drained the economic system. Unfortunately, the disconnect between Millenials and Gen-Z …

Suburban office parks and shopping malls have a few things in common. They are dying, but they have roofs, HVAC, and running water—Aka, housing.

Politicians continue to try and solve multiple issues, but if they can solve one big one, they will be applauded as a success. The biggest one is housing. The lack …

All the laws being made by the Supreme Court are religion-based.  Let’s think about religions and the havoc they have created on society. Shall we begin with the Catholic Church, which tried to sweep under the rug the countless priests who diddled young boys?  Yet somehow, the Conservative Christian Right sits as the …

I watched Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, this past weekend. It is a movie for women, older women. Emma Thompson is fantastic. Huge applause for her taking this role. This role represents a generation of women where many did not get pleasure, freedom, or equality. Many find themselves lost when their kids graduate college …

Urban cities are slowly returning to a time that was not that pretty. Yes, that is happening in NYC when people shoot up heroin in the streets. Where crime rose and scared people to flee their cities. Crime escalates when people can’t get food on the table, fill their addictions, or don’t have …

Prepping for the holiday weekend at the grocery store, I saw all the red, white and blue napkins, plates, and wrapped chocolates. Being festive is fun, but this year I could not bring myself to celebrate Independence Day as we have in the past. As a woman, I am beginning to feel less independent as …

The morning after Roe v. Wade was overturned, I got a text from my daughter. I hate this country. Sadly I was feeling the same way. What happened this past week was a gut punch. I am struggling to comprehend what just happened, even though it has been decades in the making.

Our Supreme Court …

Will parental roles ever change? I think about this every summer when I see friends navigate the end of school and what the kids will do this summer. Even if there are two female or male parents, one of them generally becomes the caretaker. Someone has to, and for some reason, the care falls typically …

We are living in a financial hurricane. Everything is swirling round and round, and it is still unclear where the pieces land. The valuations are plummeting. Companies in all sectors are rethinking their strategies. At least I don’t see those valuations heading back to nonsense land too soon, and I hope they don’t …

Patriarchy has been going on for a very long time. It has always been used for insults, sexual innuendos, and a comedic slant. How often do women ask themselves why do some men act like that? What is it? Sometimes it just comes down to the penis. It just represents something to give thought to …

Someone turned me on to Common Sense by Bari Weiss on Substack. Weiss is a journalist, writer, and editor. Common Sense was created with the thought that tens of millions of Americans who aren’t on the hard left or the hard right feel that the world has gone mad. Honest news for sane people …

Westbeth was conceived in the ’60s to provide affordable housing for the countless artists in the city. It is a non-profit run by the people who live there. Located in the west village on the block between Bethune, West, Washington, and Bank. It occupies the old Bell Telephone Labs headquarters.

Many things make Westbeth …

Women have all had a female breakup—a best friend who suddenly or slowly cuts out of your life. My sister noted that nobody talks about this, yet it has happened to many. Why?

Not talking about tough things from child-bearing to menopause to female breakups has been part of the narrative as far …

What is wrong with our country? What is wrong with us? How did we get here? What will it take to change our gun laws?

What will it take for the police not to be racists? To do their job and stop killing innocent people?

 It is pure politics, and the majority rule in our …

Freelance is on the rise in every industry. Companies are getting out of the business of paying for full-time people. They do not want to pay for healthcare or any over costs of having full-time employees.

When I think about food stamps, I assume it is more prevalent in underserved communities. Wrong. Professors …

As we move into the post-Covid world, it is becoming more apparent that more change has taken place every day than we realize. Smaller stores are popping up that strongly cater to each neighborhood. The bigger stores sit empty, priced at the same rent pre-Covid. Essentially, there is still a disconnect between commercial …

The other night we were driving up 8th Avenue, and there was a backup of cars down the street. It was a gas line. There are ten gas stations left in Manhattan, and one of them is on 216 Street. With development, the demise of gas stations in NYC has been accelerating for years. There …

I had drinks with a friend the other night who is working with Engage, a bipartisan nonprofit helping female politicians work with each other.  Agree to disagree.  Respect each other’s views.  Radicalism dies! Rachel Pearson, the founder, says, “Bipartisanship is the necessity of the new century. Instead of doubling down in anger, we must …

If you haven’t followed the Cooper Union story over the years, you have missed out on an extremely crazy institution’s story. I sat next to Laura Sparks, the President of Cooper Union, at a dinner the other night. She is intelligent, charming, and thoughtful with an incredible aura. She also gets shit done …

The math books in Florida. Mickey Mouse? Antisemitism in one of the most Jewish states. Anti-immigration, anti-LGBTQ, anti-abortion. Hostility towards Black, Asians, and Latinos. Complete disregard for Covid at its peak. How about that apartment building that fell down?

It is fascinating. How can Floridians let this guy be Governor and do …

There is such anger these days, and it continues to accelerate. I don’t understand why someone would get angry at a car coming them off to the point of grabbing their gun and shooting at the car and killing someone. That is no worse than robbing a store for $50 and killing the shop …

When politicians say, “we will take America back,” what exactly does that mean? Take us back to what? Where have we gone is what I want to know.

America loves the future; we are not ones to dwell on the past. Today’s news is old tomorrow. We read about the latest jello shot, compartmentalize …

The data was there a few years ago, and it has come to fruition. Wages for women are beginning to outpace men. Even though women make up 2/3 of the workforce, there is still a pay gap. Right now, it is impressive and changing generations coming up the pike, but what happens when all …

I love the saying you can’t be what you cant see.

When the Blacks moved Northeast and West in the diaspora, they showed up in white towns as free people. There is a great book I read years ago called The Promised Land: The Great Migration and How It Changed America by Nicholas Lemann …

I was a buyer for Macy’s at 25. I was responsible for a segment of Macy’s business. My biz was one of five that made up a department. That was run by a department head, a segment of 5-8 other department heads who reported directly to the four VPs who reported to …

23andme launched fifteen years ago. There were some bumps in the road, but they prevailed. It turns out that taking DNA and telling the consumer everything about themselves is a no-no. Regulation is a bitch.

The good news is the FDA agreed to let consumers know about ten medical conditions, including Parkinson’s disease …

My Grandmother used to go to the bank to clip the non-taxable Government bonds that could be cashed in after holding on to them for twenty years. We would go into a vault to pull out her safety deposit box. She would take out these ornate antique scissors, flatten the book, and slowly and …

Yesterday Charles Entenmann died. He was 92. He was an incredible entrepreneur who understood the importance of a consistent daily treat.

Entenmanns products were a staple growing up. There was always the white box of one of the treats sitting on the counter. And being able to peer into the box without opening it was …

The only people who have genuinely been affected by any of the wars we have put our foot in or created have been the young men, women, and the families or our armed forces.

Watching the Ukraine attempt to keep being taken over by Russia is terrible. Seeing the families, particularly those with children who …

Vanity Fair asked Oscar de la Renta years ago, “what was his favorite purchase”? The answer is spot on, “well, of course, my last purchase.” I get it.

What is it about the allure of retail therapy? Many of my favorite stores have closed, and I have found a few things on Instagram, which were …

I keep wondering, “what is the real soul of America”? There are 330 million of us who live here. Clearly, there are multiple universes spread across the country from the South to the East to the Right to the Left to Suburban to Rural to Urban.

There was a point in our nation when we …

When I was a kid, the Olympics was so exciting. I could hardly wait to see Olga Korbut and Mark Spitz at the end of the day. It was a hot topic of conversation. Over time, it seemed to change.

Cynical as it may be, I can’t help wondering how much China paid off …

If you were wondering where I have been for the past week, I was out for the count. A chain reaction of infections accelerated through my body, creating sepsis, putting me in the hospital for four days. Not something I’d wish on anybody.

My first experience (and there have been more) with hospital stay …

We were back up in Utah, and Vail Resorts has still not opened a handful of lifts.  The ski lines are long, and the grievances and anger are just starting there. The bottom line is they are pissing off the community.  Getting back that trust will take a long time.

Many people out here, like …

The Janes is a documentary about seven women who were part of an underground network that provided safe, affordable abortions for women in the 1960’s, right before Roe v Wade when abortion became a constitutional right. They interviewed many of the women who were involved. I am thrilled to see this film and others …

I love movies, for that matter, I love books too. Films of all kinds tell stories. We have been watching the Sundance flicks for the past two weeks. Listening to the directors talk about why they made a movie is always insightful, just like going to a gallery and understanding the work in front of …

I have never actually used Facebook. I first got a page to see what our companies were doing, starting with Zinga and Farmville. I never got it or liked it, but Instagram, which FB purchased, is a whole other story.

Instagram is a tremendous resource. On Instagram, I can take in design, recipes, fashion, and …

Growing up, politics was a mainstay around the kitchen table. At one point, my brother asked my Mom before going to sleep why he needed to go to school or follow any protocol since WW3 was coming. God knows what was rattling around my brother’s head at night. Very scary for a little kid …

Los Angeles still sends out a monthly note when someone will come read the meter.  How many people are paid to do that? What would it cost to change the entire system, so nobody needs to show up at your door? 

The new approach would be simple. Manually reading meters should cease to exist. Every …

Although I might be a Jewish atheist, let’s all cross our fingers and plead to the gods that the global pandemic ends. Then life will become the new normal.

I was having this conversation with a friend about how clothes reflect the times. Everything reflects the times, but clothing is easy to see. Indeed …

Vail Resorts owns 40 mountain resorts in three countries. Three divisions oversee the lifts, hotels, restaurants, lodging, and golf courses and are developing even more. Starting around 2015/16 they began gobbling up resorts. They created the Epic Pass that enables the skier or snowboarder to ski at any of the resorts owned by Vail …

A few years ago, at Sundance, we watched the premiere of the Edge of Democracy. The director, Petra Costa, earned an Academy Film nomination for best documentary. The film is a personal political memoir growing up watching the unraveling of two presidencies.

What stuck with me is how the Brazilian constitution is set up. It …

There are certain events that I will remember where I was when it happened. We can all come up with them depending on your age. When John Lennon died, when Michael Jackson died, when Reagan was shot, 9/11, etc. January 6 is also one for the records.

I was at my friends’ house, hanging …

One of the companies I am invested in is doing a secondary, allowing everyone to sell their common stock at a fixed price to inside buyers. For many, this is an excellent opportunity to cash out early. I have preferred, and common stock in the company and am selling my common. That common was given …

In the mid-1990s, when the tech scene was beginning to take off in NYC, South America began to follow our lead. Fred started to do business in South America with a few people who only invested in that area of the world. South America is relatively lax on intellectual property laws and, at that …

The last two years were just strange. Life moved on, but the constant white noise hits home every time you have to put the mask on. It’s pretty incredible how we have adapted. At first, Trump appeared to be a nightmare that we would never wake up from (although we seem to still be …

We got to LA, dropped our stuff, and went to meet some friends for a bite. As the year comes to an end, someone said, do you think we have hit rock bottom yet? Damn, those are NYer convos, not Los Angeles words. No wonder people want to leave the workforce. Nobody wants to operate …

Few are talking about the end consumer as one of the most extensive problems in the supply chain clusterfuck. I will be the first to acknowledge that retail therapy is sometimes what the doctor ordered. I like to wear what is in fashion. I find myself buying less and better, but that was not my …

The return to a simpler life began a while ago. As we all know by now, Covid accelerated everything.

What is a simpler life? That is all up for interpretation, but from what we hear is getting off the fast track of working like a dog seems to be resonating with many under between 20 …

Covid finally caught up with me. My oldest daughter said this is never-ending. My friend said we were all going to get it. They might both be right.

We got out to LA last Tuesday. I wasn’t feeling myself. I started with the dry hacking cough, cold chills, and an achy body by …

In 2007, 23 and Me launched with the mission for people to discover their ancestors and genetic predispositions. The concept scared the hell out of most Governments, and of course, the worries over Insurance companies finding out information and dropping one’s policy. But the company has prevailed. As time passes, there will be a …

In 1986, in our early 20’s, we went to the first of our friend’s weddings. It was held at the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh, a private club founded in 1873. Not shocking, women weren’t allowed to join until 1980. It was a big event. The only thing I remember is the bathrooms …

As a rule, I am quite an optimist. I keep asking myself, how did we get here? I am dismayed, freaked, scared, shaking my head, and unsure what to do.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has announced plans to establish a state militia of trained civilians “unencumbered by the federal government.” Mr. DeSantis said the …

What is web 3.0? I have been asked that question countless times. You have to understand Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 to understand 3.0 truly.

Web 1.0 was the first blast of using technology to build on the World Wide Web. Many content-related sites and the beginnings of e …

Every day we are all touched by the supply chain. Many of our products come from somewhere else. No matter how they get to the final stop, that last stop is loaded onto a truck, and that is where the problems lie.

We can go back in history where lobbyists, and big money, ensured that …

A new survey from the Pew Research Center finds that more adults report they do not want to have children — ever. About 44% of people ages 18 to 49 report it’s unlikely or “not too likely” that they’ll have children. In a 2018 survey, 37% of adults who weren’t parents shared those …

I had a procedure last week. This is not my first time going under anesthesia. The first time was at 13. I had dislocated my elbow at camp. It definitely shouldn’t have happened. Something that most would sue for but parents opted against. We are much more litigious now than we were then.

That …

What makes the blockchain and NFT’s so exciting is that these technologies give access to anyone. It doesn’t matter if you are from Paris, Dhaka, or Iowa. Everyone has an equal chance to succeed and participate.

These technologies allow anyone to flourish based on their talents, period. Today’s tools give access to …

Our workplaces are changing. They were changing before Covid, but like everything, new office structure accelerated. Not only is meeting in person or going into the office in flex, but the ages inside the office are also changing.

The youth is entering corporate America, and they don’t love what they see. They understand technology …

Covid has exposed the fragility of everything. Our supply chain, paychecks, education, housing, and the need for human interaction.

I keep thinking about why is everyone so disrespectful these days? Obama posted the question, “I don’t know what happened to our culture…I don’t know when we began celebrating bullies instead of looking …

My friend Tracey posted this quote earlier this week. I kept the tab open and have looked at it every morning since. This quote from James Baldwin, a man way ahead of his time, sums up so many issues of today. Just sharing.

I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so …

We are living in a new world. We are still living in a pandemic, and it is pretty unclear when it will indeed end. That would mean we could all go maskless, and I don’t see that happening anytime soon, at least in the urban areas that I hang my hat.

What we all …

We have a human work issue. It was bound to happen. The “fake” news has been spewed for years from the GOP and heightened about immigrants taking our jobs during the Trump administration. Those low-wage jobs from restaurants to anything at the bottom of the hospitality industry, including low-wage dangerous jobs in corporations …

I can’t decide which ongoing event is more upsetting these days.

Is it watching Dopesick, even though I already know the sordid details of the Sachler story? I know they got off for literally nothing based on their worth and the amount of money they made from OxiCotin. They should be in jail, and …

Maybe it is Covid, and perhaps it is the next generation, maybe it is just the shifting of time, who knows, but it appears that women are finally just taking over. There are a few things about women, we network differently than men, we tend to do something that nobody knows about, as in most …

Gotham Gives is Fred and my latest venture. I have written a few times about the organizations we have partnered with. Our tagline is, “we support programs that benefit NYC and the neediest of New Yorkers”. We have been doing this for years and have now made it a public organization. We hope to raise …

Painting by Todd Stone

The twentieth year of 9/11 still hangs in the air. Each year we acknowledge the date, but every time I read something or see something about 9/11, it brings me right back.

I had the pleasure of sitting on the LREI board, our kid’s K-12 school, with …

As much as I try not to dig too deep into the happenings around the world, I can’t help myself. The world right now is in a weird place. Currently, the average age of the Senate is 62.9; the Congress is 57.6, making it the oldest in the history of the United …

Birthday gift, piece by Sally Saul

Today I turned 60. That says plenty—sixty years of experiences. Sixty years of luggage continue to accumulate in my brain and body. Sixty years of relationships, some have come and gone, thankfully others have been around for a long time.

At my core, I have not changed that …

Motherhood is the state of being a mother. What does that mean exactly? The day your child is born, you become a mother for life. As your child gets older, your relationship with them changes. You can’t protect them every waking minute. They go to school, have friends, and have their own thoughts, and …

I am turning 60 in a week and digging into a new career. Still not sharing publicly until all the pieces connect, but it is fun, exciting and It keeps me happy.  I love having my fingers In multiple places, and perhaps at one point, I won’t.  But for now, I am going with …

What a breath of fresh air! Is she the woman we all wish we could be?

I could listen to Jen Psaki take questions all day long. She is articulate, sharp, and quick on her feet. Most importantly, she is in charge. I don’t have to be in the room to feel the confidence …

So where is content going?  Let’s begin with movies.  Guaranteed people particularly ones in the film industry are sitting around tables asking themselves “how do we get people back to the movies”?   The biggest question is what’s the next business model? How do you capture eyeballs without popcorn? 

There is so much content …

I have been trying hard to understand the hatred in America. Reading just what I believe in certainly doesn’t help, so I have been attempting to read and understand. It is not easy.

For some, on the right-wing of politics, it is about paying as little taxes are possible. Others want to feel …

Is it me, or has everyone else noticed that everything these days allows buying now and paying later? Affirm, a publically traded company is the bank that empowers online shoppers with paying solutions. I just don’t see this ending well. There are levels of living beyond one’s means. Sounds like a juicy rationalization …

The sky is as clear, and the air is as crisp as it was twenty years ago today. I am sitting in our kitchen looking out at the sky, hearing the roar of the cars coming up and down the west side highway. When I stepped outside this morning to walk Ollie, I turned left …

About six years ago, I was at a small event in Paris with mostly start-up founders. I walked out to the street to signal my desire to leave to Fred and struck up a conversation with a robotic maker. He was doing a deal with France Disney using his pizza robot to change the …

In the 50s and 60s, restaurants weren’t as abundant as they are today.  The socialization didn’t stop but took place in homes.  There were cocktail parties and dinner parties.  I love a good cocktail or dinner party. I was quite looking forward to entertaining heavily this Autumn, but it appears that is not …

I texted my friend the question I keep asking myself. “Ready for Fall”? Her answer sums up exactly how I feel “excited, scared, depressed, then excited again.” In other words, I am excited to return to the city and the beat of the street. I am scared of the masks, the ongoing pandemic, and the …

Remember the Jackson 5 lyric, “One Bad Apple Can’t Spoil the Whole Bunch”? Yet investors still look at female scientists building new technologies, wondering if they are like Elizabeth Holmes. You would have thought we were past that, but it appears we are not.

Adam Neumann took down a company and billions of dollars …

At the peak of my angel investing days, I was doing from 10-12 deals a year; in 2014 and 2015, I did 24 deals each year. I was in the thick of things. I loved it. But then I started not to like it so much. Perhaps I became jaded. I intimately saw and …

Yesterday I woke up cranky.

I got a few emails from friends who said the same thing I have been thinking. I am so over this pandemic. One of them is incensed that they woke up not being able to smell or taste. How the fuck did that happen? We all know the reason because …

There are abundant articles of changes taking place in our country, particularly around diversity. We have crossed the divide where the White population is receding and the Black, Latino, and Asian population is growing. There are still multiple challenges for many, such as buying a home, taking out a loan, not being treated fairly, and …

There is always a disconnect somewhere. The government takes time to catch up to the realities of the private world. Start-ups look to disrupt industries sometimes without having any true knowledge of the industry. I can point to several of those.

Starting in the mid-90’s one of the most frustrating things about …

Why do people cheer at a rally for being unvaccinated? They are so happy with themselves for not having Government in their lives? It just seems crazy to me that staying safe has become political.

I am vaccinated. Once I got vaccinated, I stopped wearing a mask. I realize that I can still get Covid …

Growing up, our back-end supply was limited. We were always buying the products needed when they ran out, such as Herbal Essence Shampoo. A throwback, right?

There have always been “notes to self” growing up when going to other people’s homes. I was talking to someone about this the other night. It sent …

The SEC approved Nasdaq’s proposal that would require companies listed on the exchange to hit certain diversity minimums for their boards.

I read this on one of the countless newsletters I read every morning. It seems like a much bigger deal than a few articles.

The target would be to have at least one …

We were wondering who the Lieutenant Governor of NY is? This person would be the next NY Governor if Cuomo is ousted or he leaves gracefully. The last time this happened, David Patterson became our Governor. He was definitely not equipped to be a Governor.

I told a story of a political player who went …

I don’t watch a lot of TVs, so my advertising investment is minimal.   Between the hospital and the Olympics, I have realized that the brands run the world—the large publicly traded food companies, car companies, and consumer products in general.  The narrative of all these ads is around saving the environment and being …

Think back to being a young kid. A young kid who had a home life with three other siblings that had been in and out of foster care at a young age. You find yourself drawn to a sport that you can personally excel. It is a place that makes you feel good. At this …

Technology has seeped into every industry. What happens when every vertical run on top of a tech platform? There is still plenty of room to go. How will that change everything else?

Will we be able to understand our individual bodies in a completely different way when prescribing drugs or plant-based medicines?  Will we …

In college, I took my first economics class. I loved it. It just made sense, particularly the law of supply and demand. Simply put, if the demand outweighs the supply, prices go up. We are seeing this right now, particularly in consumer products.

When I worked in the garment industry, we did business with Walmart …

With Covid, every day seems to be a shooting target. We are living through such strange times. Every meal, the discussion eventually moves towards what has changed, where are we going, when will this end, and how will our lives be different. The answers change daily.

The one constant is that people want to keep …

What happened in Florida shouldn’t happen, period. A building shouldn’t fall down. Someone said to me, who was not born here, said this happens in third-world countries where corruption is rampant. Remember watching the YouTube video of major buildings in China being put up in a few days. Would you want to …

Los Angeles has brought back the mask. I am pissed. Why should the vaccinated have to suffer because of the stupidity of others?

In France, Macron said enough is enough. It is mandatory to get vaccinated if you want to do anything, basically. A digital health pass would be required to get into a bar …

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) tweeted, “Heartened to hear that @SenSchumer and the Senate will soon take up marijuana decriminalization. Marijuana policy has long been used as an agent of racial discrimination, with its effects reverberating through nearly every sphere of American life.”

California’s attorney general said he thinks psychedelics policy reform is now …

Critical Race Theory has become a new topic of creating division in our country. I’d love to ignore the nonsense, but you can’t because people truly believe that we shouldn’t teach that racism has been baked into the foundation of this country. But it is.

These days we are watching an uprising …

There are a few game-changing post-Covid changes taking place. People are slowing down. Some people are deciding that they don’t really want to work. Unclear how that pays for the rent. It is how we want to live that is changing. It is about mental health. Pre-Covid, we were running at …

We spend time with lawyers.  Not shocking.  We are built on an extremely litigious society.  It is a huge piece of our economy. 

I truly enjoy the lawyers I work with.  Good people who understand the law, and I trust. I once got into a kerfuffle with a lawyer from one of the top corporate …

Years ago, we went to see the NBA All-Star games in Salt Lake City. I ended up sitting next to an NBA player who had played for the Bullets in 1979 and had gone on to be a recruiter for NBA teams. Super nice guy and I had zero ideas who he was so …

From the time I was ten, I lived in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. DC is a city built on a swamp. It is not so much about the heat; it is about the humidity. It is stifling.

When I went to college in Boston, it got hot up there, but it was …

A crazy thing happened during the pandemic, women (or one partner) took on the majority of responsibility for the kids’ childcare in the house. That includes laundry, school, meals, playtime, and the list goes on. The onus skyrocketed. It is 2021, and we still aren’t sharing the full responsibilities of raising a family inside …

Nobody is quite sure where the tax conversations will end up at the Federal level. But, one thing is clear; we need to fix shit. We should spend more money on the arts, education, transportation, public housing, and a medicare system that keeps everyone proactively healthy.

Why don’t we tax different asset purchases 1 …

A few years ago, I decided it was time for a new challenge, a new career per se. I was probably a chameleon in my other life. I am quite good at reinvention but always keeping the dots from my past with me. I started to think about getting on more mature private boards. So …

I would love to know who pulled the trigger and woke up over there at Victoria’s Secret. It is impressive. After all, they still own almost 20% of the lingerie market, stumbling down from about 35% five years ago. Countless DTC brands have been building in this space for the last 5 years. Could …

Violence is slowly escalating. Crime escalates for multiple reasons, but the biggest one has to be jobs. If you don’t have cash, even good people do crazy things. I fear that crime is going to become a huge issue for the next mayor. The choices they make will have generational repercussions. We have seen …

Maker:0x4c,Date:2017-10-25,Ver:4,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar01,E-Y

If you have Google photos, every day, they foist a montage of past photos at you. Sometimes I push the button, but most days, I ignore it. This past week I went on a trip down memory lane every day. Three …

Open-source software grants users the rights to use, study, change and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Take the concept and apply it to anything. What it can do is great better efficiencies. When it comes to non-profits, they should spend more timing thinking about the …

When I read that Naomi Osaka was fined $15K for not talking to the Press during the French Open, I thought I don’t blame her. Like an entrepreneur, she is a singular athlete, not part of a team who probably has in their contracts that they must give the Press access. I thoroughly understand …

Memorial Day kicks off Summer. It also a day to remember those we have lost serving our country. The first Memorial Day was in 1866. Today at 3 pm, a national moment of rememberance takes place, local time. I just read that today and honestly never knew that was part of Memorial Day. Considering all …

I got a good chuckle out of a story that Jason Calacanis told me when I was on his podcast a few weeks ago. It was something I said that kept with him throughout his career. It can be applied to anything.

We were working on growing Silicon Alley Reporter, a trade magazine covering the …

I have been working on a few projects where one of the conversations that continue to arise is about systemic issues in our country. How do we change systemic issues?

Companies start with an idea in the start-up land, and if all goes according to plan, of course, that would include a perfect storm …

Identity is the qualities, beliefs, personality, looks, and/or expressions that make a person (self-identity as emphasized in psychology) or group (collective identity as pre-eminent in sociology). … A psychological identity relates to self-image (one’s mental model of oneself), self-esteem, and individuality.

We each have our own identity. Getting up every …

The only true check on more diversity is data.

We are beginning to see more women finally being added to the boards of S&P 500 companies. As men retire, there is pressure to replace that person with a woman or person of color. It is beginning to happen. Not as quick as I would …

Back in the olden days of 1983, there was one female VP at Macy’s. She was one tough cookie. She knew more information about her businesses than any of the other couple men at her level. She created a bit of a cult around her in the company, essentially keeping her people tight and …

I love the quote of the day in the NY Times. This past week, Diane Swonk, a chief economist, said, “It turns out it’s easier to put an economy into a coma than wake it up.”

Here in downtown NYC, it feels like things are rolling back to normal. The laws are loosening, and …

65% of women have school-age children work. Over 3m women have dropped out of the workforce compared to a quarter of that for men. Why? It’s the children. Someone has to take care of the children. Data proves that the majority of the responsibility still falls on a woman’s shoulders. The only …

The first time I met Bill Gates, and pretty much the only time, was in Arizona. We were on Ester Dyson’s tech boondoggle in 1995. Fred pointed him out. He was wearing green striped sweat knee socks that I wore as a teenager in camp with Clark ankle wallabies, polyester, slightly beige knee-length …

When I first began blogging, one woman reached out to me from across the globe. She is an Afrikaner. She knew I was going to be in London, and she was in Europe at the time. She flew in, and we had lunch, kept in touch, and had lunch again in London a few years …

Will the non-profit world ever figure out how to stop being fiefdoms? Why must they try and reinvent the wheel when others organizations are doing the same thing? For instance, some incredible internship programs are being run in NYC. Why doesn’t every non-profit that represents underserved teens in NYC partner with the …

Entrepreneurs have been around since the beginning of time. At the core, all human beings have an entrepreneurial spirit—some more than others.

I have said this before, The Social Network, which came out in 2010, had an impact on this belief that entrepreneurship is the savior of everything. Facebook created massive wealth for many …

Reading about Scott Rudin this week just made my stomach turn. There were too many “screamers” when I worked at Macy’s out of college. I’d hear the same thing from friends in other industries. People would be abusive, they would scream, they would take pleasure out of making you feel like shit. Why …

Seeing intelligent, artistic, articulate leaders rise to the top of each industry is a breath of fresh air for those who have left-leaning or even moderate views.  For the Trumpians, not so much.  They see nothing of themselves in these leaders. I have a hard time wrapping my head around the Trump crowd. The …

“Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes,” Benjamin Franklin wrote to Jean-Baptiste Leroy on November 13, 1789. We have been trying to figure out how to avoid both since then.

Biden is proposing to raise …

There is definitely something about living in NYC and walking the streets to get a feel for where things are going.

We were downtown at Orchard and Canal. One of my favorite neighborhoods in town. There is a grit and edge down there that reminds me of the city when we first moved here. It …

Judith Thurman wrote an article called The Eye of the Needle for the New Yorker.  It is one of the countless articles coming out that highlights people, mostly women, emphasizing black, brown, and Asian people.

Many people have lived hard lives but managed to succeed and put their mark on history, although we are just …

And NY legalizes cannabis. We are the 15th state to do so.

The best part of the bill is that all marijuana convictions are wiped from offenders’ records. It is an attempt to repair the absurd war on drugs. Another bonus is that 40% of all cannabis-generated tax revenue will be earmarked and distributed …

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unit of data on a digital ledger called a blockchain, where each NFT can represent a unique digital item, and thus they are not interchangeable. NFTs can represent digital files such as art, audio, videos, items in video games and other forms of creative work.

There is a …

My cynicism is raging.

Watching the NCAA’s this weekend was exhilarating. The advertisements are depressing. If you were an alien from another planet trying to understand America, all you would have to do is watch TV. Consumerism, stupidity, simplicity, and skewed reality.

Then take a dip into the news role. The Republicans seem to …

It is time to return to NYC. Seeing people randomly bust our dancing in the aisles of Balthazaar at dinner makes my heart sing. I want to bust out dancing too.

The past week has been a win. I spent Saturday night up in Ojai with two of my dearest friends. We took a three …

I went to staples to find lightbulbs.  No lightbulbs. Fascinating. Every time I walk into a Staples or Home Depot, I am just amazed at this amount of space. I wonder what the turn is on every item, how much does each aisle make, and does that amount of space even make sense?

The Big …

I love movies. I have been on a serious roll watching a film almost nightly through the pandemic. I can hardly wait to go to the theater again!

I watched The Father last week. Anthony Hopkins is brilliant and so is Olivia Coleman. He plays a British gentleman living in his elegant yet comfortable mid …

I think of myself as ahead of the curve when it comes to technology. Yet every time we return to LA, the entire system requires a reboot. Some companies build amazing seamless easy to use technology, but many companies don’t. Frustration is an understatement.

I always wonder about people who grew up with lights …

It probably started in the late ’90s when the disconnect began. It took 20 years, from the advances in computers in 1970, before technology began to take off and never stopped. The Government always seemed behind the curve. Even today, how many people really understand cryptocurrencies and NFT’s? These are products of our times …

Many of us have either been vaccinated, half-vaccinated or have an appointment on the books. It is game-changing.

I keep thinking about the rope drop. When there is a big snowstorm on the ski mountain, everyone gets up early and waits at the top for the rope drop. All is safe. The flares …

This past week I watched a film made in 1999 called Office Space. It showed the bad representation of the ’80s and ’90s office situation. Certainly brought me back in time. It also made me wonder why women put up with that shit for so long.

After graduating from an all-women school with zero …

When our first daughter was born, she was this amazing pure human.  And then, over the course of the next two years, she was vaccinated from pandemic-type threatening viruses.  Basically bad shit.  Things you do not want your child to get.

The whole thing fascinated me.  It was a brilliant learning experience in the …

When we were in NYC over the past few weeks, we had dinner a few times outside. The first night we went to a restaurant that had built a bunch of small enclosures with a sliding door on each where you could have dinner alone or with friends who had also tested negative or soon …

Statistics are key to making decisions. Data should be collected at every transaction, particularly in the medical world. Factual information can help others in future endeavors.

I am not sure why the Government did take the opportunity to collect data after a vaccination has been given. Everyone is given a piece of paper post-vaccination …

I did not read the book. I only saw the movie. From what I understand, the book focused a bit more on the Amazon labor pool’s misery. The movie, not so much. Regardless, I can’t get the film out of my mind.

As always, Frances McDormand is incredible. I am not sure anyone …

The power had begun to shift from department stores to the brand. The path began sometime in the ’90s when brands got tired of the cost to be in a department store.

In 1987, I was a buyer at Macy’s. I started out buying large-sized women’s denim. At that time, Macy’s …

This has been an insanely stressful, anxiety-ridden twelve months.  I have an ability to just power through things and pretend all is fine and dandy.  It was survival skills as a kid.  Now I’m more aware, thanks to therapy, that these past twelve months have sucked in multiple ways

We are seriously pliable …

We are living longer. We are also seeing people, way past the “supposed” retirement age, stay in power longer. It is happening in Government and business. Instead of spending the last years of life, and if you dipped at 70, that could be 30 more years; taking it easy, people continue to work. I get …

Perhaps it is age. Age seems to make me more realistic and perhaps a little cynical. It could be from a variety of things, including the slog of the past year. Maybe I am becoming a curmudgeon.

Last night we were watching basketball and on comes an ad from Adobe. The plotline is Mom makes …

We have been back in NYC this week.  My entire disposition changes when I am here.  I have not put on a pair of sweatpants which I admit feels insanely good

As the vaccines roll out, there is a feeling in the air that the shroud is slowly being lifted.  Businesses didn’t stop, but …

I never liked the chicken dinner events. There are possibly one a week during the fall and spring when galas are held for nearly every non-profit organization in the city. These are serious social events. Reality is some are really fun and others are torture.

Getting dressed up is always fun. I am dying …

In 1934, FDR said “I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad and ill-nourished. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much of it; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

The country was desperate …

There are many reasons to love the gig economy. It allows people to make cash on the side while pursuing other avenues in their lives. That side hustle can be the only way that some can pay the rent.

Massive companies have been built on the back of the gig workers. A classic investment strategy …

Admit it, you are spending a lot of your time watching shows and movies. Lots out there to binge on or go back in time and see movies you missed.

As a kid, I watched all the TV shows. They were part of my daily life: cartoons, old Shirley Temple movies, and The Partridge Family …

There is a scene in the movie Sci-fi movie Frequency when Dennis Quaid, who has been to the future and back, tells his buddy to buy Yahoo. Of course, I got a good chuckle out of that.

So now, what would we tell people about where the future is going? Life is certainly changing …

When I was in 8th grade, home economics was part of the curriculum. I also got to take shop but not as many women signed up for that one. I am pretty sure that no men that I know of did the home economics route either.

I just finished reading The Four Winds by Kristin …

Let’s admit it. Life is dull. My daughter tweeted that out this week and I couldn’t agree more.

We are following the rules. We are not leaving the east coast until we get vaccinated. We see few humans and the ones we see must take a test before connecting. Good news we have …

How do we change the tax code? We must continue to inspire entrepreneurs to build new businesses that employ. But at what point how do we rethink the system completely?

So much wealth has been created for certain companies and in turn the founders. I don’t understand why people who have made unfathomable amounts …

The amount of content I absorb on a daily basis is ridiculous. It isn’t a new phenomenon. At one point, I probably subscribed to over 25 magazines a month, not including the indulgent People magazine I’d read while having a pedicure. Cocktail party fodder. That fodder is probably why my investment portfolio is …

How many hours have entrepreneurs wasted with investors who ultimately pass? I would love to see the data.

I have heard countless stories from founders who have been in conversations with investors for hours and hours with tons of diligence only to be turned down. Did the founder see this coming? Generally not because they …

Every film that shows city life, be it 1960 or 2010, makes me ache for city life. Someone asked me, what would you be doing if you weren’t locked down in a pandemic? Where do I begin?

We’d probably be in LA right now. What I miss, as everyone does, is going out …

I am so over Covid and was over Trump when he began.Thank god he’s gone, but somehow his power still reigns over the Republican Party.  This man has thumbed his nose at democracy, yet they don’t seem to have the wherewithal to convict.  Trump was right when he said he could shoot …

The last four years have been stressful. I felt that I had to check daily to make sure that Trump had not done something like start a war. Not that I could have done anything about it, but I felt it was my duty to stay on top of it. Now, I can breathe a …

I remember the mall growing up.  It was an entire afternoon or day activity.  Then came changes in the culture.  Arts, cities, e-commerce, social media, and YouTube, but the malls’ owners didn’t change.  The stores in them might have changed, but their business plans remained the same. They held on to their golden …