Dave is…
Apparently living with the next great New York Times columnist.
Now you know my roommate Josh works for the Times. He’s been there almost two years now. In fact he started there immediately after he came out and joined me during my backpacking trip for a week of adventure in Transylvania. In fact he wrote a guest blog about how we inadvertently instigated the Brasov Spring, that beautiful day when the proletariat rose up and freed some idiot foreigners from the tyranny of socialist bus ticket takers. Anyway he does web production, putting together multimedia news pieces for the Times website and writing for them on the side. He’s good at it; he spent a few years writing about City Hall for the Gotham Gazette a downtown online newspaper. Since he’s been at the Times he’s gotten a number of stories published to varying degrees of prominence.
But today his most recent story was the headline story on the website…for about twenty minutes. Certainly not longer because that’s how long it took me to get to a computer and boot up the site after getting his text message. Still, however fleeting that’s got to be quite a rush for a young reporter.
Still not half as much a rush as the review his article got on NYTpicker. (Get it?) Yes this is a blog that exists purely to review and critique the New York Times newspaper. It clearly appears to be by insiders given its depth of knowledge, and it clearly is read by insiders (including I would expect some pretty high up insiders) and today it posted this:
Joshua B____ Wrote A Great Story In The Metro Section Today. Whoever He Is.
Every so often, a new voice shows up in the NYT to shake things up. It doesn’t happen as often as it did in decades past — when the paper could afford to hire new talent on a regular basis, and when it put as much emphasis on hiring writers with style as it now does on snapping up experienced reporters from other papers with recent Pulitzers.
Today’s metro story by Joshua B____ about the return of the Holland Bar on 9th Avenue — the best piece of writing in today’s NYT — brought back memories of those days. He’s had a few bylines on the NYT website and a few previous clips in the paper, suggesting that he may be a low-level clerk working his way towards a full-time reporting gig. A check of his Facebook page — where the current update reads, “Joshua B____ thinks that having to watch snowboarding on television while working on a Saturday is a terrible tease.” — implies that B____ hasn’t exactly earned reporter status just yet.
Too bad — because B____’s a better writer than just about anyone on the Metro desk these days. Every B_____ byline shows talent and promise. A piece last May about a shortage of migrant workers on local farms, next to a story from Stamford about trouble with a proposed new train station, reflect a gift at the tricky balance between reporting and voice.
B____’s story this morning is his best yet, at once an elegy to the past and a report from the recent present, that begins this way:
Three men appeared when Gary Kelly lifted the steel gate one weekday afternoon on what used to be the Holland Bar. They used to drink there, and were eager to know when their exile would end.
“I feel like a homeless person without a cardboard box,” said one of the men, who gave his name only as Harry because he did not want his girlfriend or boss to learn more about his drinking habit than they already knew.
“Don’t worry,” said Mr. Kelly, who had only stopped by that day to talk to his electrician. “I’ll get you your cardboard box.”
From there B____ delivers a funny, touching, and counter-intuitive look at a neighborhood institution that has returned to existence despite a rent increase that had temporarily closed its doors. It’s the sort of unexpected slice of life that reminds readers of this city’s endless supply of fresh yarns and characters.
Maybe B_____’s story will even rattle the cages of metro NYT columnists like Susan Dominus and Clyde Haberman, who pick topics as though there’s a gun pointed at their temples on deadline.
Maybe, even in the NYT’s diminished future, there will still be room on its staff for vivid stylists like Joshua B_____, a gift to readers who value a little voice with their morning coffee.
Strong words from people who clearly pay attention. Personally my favorite part is the fact they looked him up on Facebook and pulled his goofy ass profile picture which he clearly took in our heavily mirrored Scarface style bathroom. But seriously, for those of you who don’t normally peruse the metro section of the NY Times looking for “funny, touching and counter-intuitive look(s)” at closed down dive bars I highly recommend you check it out.
So congratulations to Josh. And congratulations to this blog, Josh’s post on the Brasov Spring means that now WhereDaveIs.com has not only appeared in The Guardian and been endorsed by a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist but has also featured the work of the next great New York Times columnist.
See you knew I’d make it about me eventually.
*Josh’s last name is removed not because I don’t think the intelligent readers of this fine daily diatribe couldn’t read his by-line but to prevent (for his sake) anyone googling him back to me and my frequently off-color opinions.