Robin William as a mime in Central Park during the summer of 1974. “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.”Robin Williams The last few days had been quite eventful in New York City and the United States. On August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit performed his incredible tightrope walk between […]
Chapters
You’re An Irish Poet by Mark R. Elsis
I was driving my taxi in Manhattan on a beautiful summer evening in 1981 when a man flagged me down. When I stopped, a woman and a man of about 60 years of age entered my taxi. As soon as they were seated, the first thing the man said to me wasn’t what their destination […]
Terminological Inexactitude by Mark R. Elsis
I was driving my taxi in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, when a man and a woman flagged me. As I approached the couple, I realized the man was Alexander Haig. Immediately, I felt bad energy, but kept a smiling poker face on. They both got in, and Alexander said, take us to McMullen’s. […]
Something by Mark R. Elsis
It was not too long after the assassination of John Lennon. I was driving my taxi, going west on 72nd Street, approaching Park Avenue, when the light at the intersection turned red. I was waiting behind many cars for the light to change when I saw a vision of beauty from afar, with her hand […]
The Genesis Of Beat It by Mark R. Elsis
It was about 5 a.m. on Sunday, November 29, 1981, and I was standing near the back of the first-floor bar at the famous Manhattan after-hours club, AM-PM. Interestingly, I was at the same spot where, a few months earlier, I met and talked with John Belushi. I was standing by myself having a drink […]
Two Irish Poets by Mark R. Elsis
I was sitting in my Peugeot 504 taxi, first in line, waiting for a fare outside of the renowned Mudd Club late one night during the magical summer of 1980 when a passenger got in and said he wanted to go to the Berkshire Hotel on 52nd Street and Madison Avenue. He spoke with an […]
Driving Brian Doyle-Murray To The Mudd Club by Mark R. Elsis
It was in the latter part of the magical summer of 1980. I was driving my taxi, and for the first time, I asked my opera singer girlfriend, Julia Madison, if she would like to go out with me for a few hours while I worked. Julia said she would love to go out driving […]
Bill Murray Leaving The Nursery At Dawn by Mark R. Elsis
It was either a very late Saturday night or a pretty early Sunday morning. But that depended on who you were and how you looked at the world. The one undeniable thing is that this brief meeting occurred on the first full day of the magical summer of 1980, June 22.I worked hard that night, […]
Fifteen Seconds With Andy Warhol by Mark R. Elsis
It was May 5, 1982, a beautiful mid-spring Wednesday evening, and I was taking my girlfriend Kimberly Manning out to attend a concert. We were going to the Ritz nightclub on 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue. This section of Manhattan, southeast of Union Square Park, was called the East Village. It was […]
Thank You, Curly Neal by Mark R. Elsis
It was February of 1970, and I had just turned twelve years old a month earlier. I lived and breathed basketball since before my first intramural game, which didn’t happen when scheduled on November 9, 1965, because that was the evening of the Great Northeast Blackout.Since it was the dead of winter, I was playing […]