AARON GETS PERSONAL – WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

Could we please just slow the hell down. Seriously. August flew by. September is nearly half over. And I really can’t tolerate this anymore, so someone just put a little bit of freeze on the timeline if you could. I’d appreciate it.

Danke.

No, the “Gothamist Movie Guide” does not take me an entire week to write — just several late night hours. Instead, I was helping out with this which finally happened and ended on Saturday. And it took up the majority of my life last week. I also have a Gothamist Interview week forthcoming (and I’m chatting this week with three huge names, to my mind, covering the worlds of New York theater, film and TV), and the New York Film Festival popping-up with the press screenings (yay press accreditation!) starting tomorrow. And of course, the continuous job hunt.

Add to all of that, I now find myself in a position which every New Yorker dreads, probably more than anything else other than actual catastrophic tragedy that might involve death, injury, etc. Namely, while I am still unemployed, I now also need to find a new place to live … within the next 17 days (and counting).

I’ve been in my current apartment in MILFland (a/k/a the Upper West Side) for five years. That is the second-longest I’ve lived anywhere, EVER! I don’t mean in the 17 years (oy!) since I moved away from home; I mean in my one-week-shy of 34 years (double oy!) of life. My mom and I lived in one apartment for nine years from the time I was four until 13, but otherwise, neither of my parents stayed in an apartment for more than 3-4 years while I lived with them, and until now, the longest I had spent in any one place was my first studio apartment in Westwood while at UCLA. I moved in during my third year and was there for three years. (And WOW would I kill for that studio now. Other than facing the cement foundation of the next building and becoming pitch black by 3:30 PM during the summer, it was enormous by NYC standards, with a large separate eat-in-kitchen and a sleep-in (way bigger than walk-in) closet with a built in dresser/armoire.) Ever since then it’s been two years tops — until W. 83rd Street.

I’m out of practice, and, of course, I’ve accumulated more stuff (primarily of the books/CDs/DVDs varieties) than ever. Other than my ex-girlfriend who lived here with me for 2-1/2 of the past five years (until May), I haven’t shared an apartment with anyone in nearly a decade — I’m pretty sure my last roommate and I moved out of our gorgeous yet dangerous LA apartment (it was smack-dab in between the Korean gang- and Latino gang-turfs — I got mugged a block from it at knife point while in my car … but that’s a story for another time, or hell, maybe I’ve already told it) in early 1996.

Anyway, I digress … or at least slightly. I sent out a mass email last night to just about everyone I know in NYC (although it was late, I was tired, and I may have missed a few), and now I’m going to do something from which I usually refrain on this blog: not rant about movies and TV and instead just throw out my little request for help to the blogosphere. I will certainly be returning to far more interesting items (the new TV season is here! the new TV season is here!) very soon — or at least a return to the stuff I do usually write about on this blog. Labelling it “interesting” might be too much, of course.

With that said, the email I sent out last night (mentioning essentially the whats and wheres of what I’m looking for) said this:

Dear just about everyone I know (even barely) in my email address book:

FIRST, I’m sorry — sorry for sending out a huge mass email like this, especially to some of you I know less well than others (read: barely). Hopefully you won’t hold it against me (even if I haven’t spoken to you in a bit) because I need a little assistance. Sure, I’m still looking for a new job, and hopefully I’ll find something permanent soon. However I also now need to find a new living situation and move by the end of the month. That makes it sound a bit like this is a sudden development, which it isn’t, but it is now an urgent situation — just 17 days to go.

I’ve been in my current apartment for five years, but when my girlfriend and I broke-up in May, I knew I’d have to move at the end of the lease. I’m looking to preferably move back downtown — below 14th street, above Canal, river-to-river. Knowing that I’m probably priced out of being able to do that, I’m looking at hopefully finding a (preferably multiple) subway accessible place in Brooklyn — Ft. Greene, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Clinton Hill, Park Slope, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights … maybe East Williamsburg. Chelsea is also OK. Hell’s Kitchen or the lower (72nd st) or northern Upper West Side (Morningside Heights to Columbia, preferably near 96th or 125th — express trains, you know) might also be OK, although not preferred.

Here’s the rub — although I don’t have a job, I’ve for some reason arbitrarily determined that I can afford $1300 rent. (Hence, bye bye Manhattan … and even most of Brooklyn.) That is based on almost absolutely nothing. Go figure. Ideally I’d love to move into another 1 BR, but a studio would be OK. I’m trying to NOT move in to an empty room in someone else’s apartment, but as I don’t have much time (or, again, that nasty permanent full-time job that landlords and brokers love so much), I realize I may have to look that way as well.

Anyway, I’d appreciate any suggestions, referrals, etc. any of you might have. Feel free to pass my info along to friends or friends-of-friends who may know or a place or be moving themselves or looking for a new roommate. And thanks in advance.

I hope everyone had a great summer, and thanks in advance for any potential help.

Best,
Aaron