by | May 2, 2019 10:25 am | Comments (2)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Dubuque, who fell in love with edible cookie dough in Texas.
Dan Dubuque is used to the curious look of disbelief on people’s faces when they walk into his new State Street shop and learn that unlike at their mom’s kitchen table, they can eat the cookie dough.
by | Jan 15, 2009 12:17 pm | Comments (0)
When the movie business changed, Arnold Gorlick adapted — and lived to spin the reel.
by | Nov 13, 2008 2:16 pm | Comments (1)
On October 5, 2008, The New York Times Magazine sent photographer Matthias Clamer to West Rock Avenue, in New Haven’s Westville section, to shoot a photograph of its residents; the photograph (part of which is reproduced here) 
accompanied my article about what it likes to live on the street. During the photo shoot, Lee Faulkner, the producer of the Castaway podcast, interviewed people who lived on the street, then edited the interviews into a podcast for the Times. But the Times insisted that he cut the 15-minute podcast down to three minutes, leaving many of our most fascinating New Haven interviews on the digital editing-room floor.
Continue reading ‘Castaway #8: West Rock Avenue, UNCENSORED’
by | Apr 11, 2008 12:03 pm | Comments (3)
“I’m Jewish, I’m blond, and there are things I can do that no one has tried.”
by | Dec 20, 2007 9:04 am | Comments (0)
Local journalist Nicholas Day has a secret past.
Years ago, before he began contributing articles on the environment and food to Slate.com and other publications, Day (pictured with Mark Oppenheimer’s dog J.J.) worked at the largest wine store in the country. He studied his reds and whites, his French and Italian and Australian grapes, aspiring to be a Master of Wines.
by | Oct 26, 2007 8:13 am | Comments (0)
She was Sharon Stone’s voice double.
Voice double? Yes, less glamorous than being a body double, but more crucial to the film industry.
Continue reading ‘CASTAWAY, Episode Five—Voice Artist Peggy Flood’
by | Sep 28, 2007 12:18 pm | Comments (0)
Some know him for his legendary local band Mighty Purple. Others know him as the son of a local preacher man. I’ve always been intrigued by the fact that he’s the nephew of one of my favorite novelists. Now he’s recording new music, solo. On the latest edition of the Independent’s “Castaway” podcast, a conversation with the great Jonny Rodgers, we hear a sneak preview.
by | Aug 21, 2007 5:11 pm | Comments (0)
Sandra Luckow directed Belly Talkers, a brilliant documentary about the weird, wacky subculture of ventriloquists and their dummies. But don’t call them “dummies.”
by | Jul 27, 2007 12:02 pm | Comments (1)
Can you win a Pulitzer after having failed your grad school exams? Apparently so. At least in the case of East Rock’s Debby Applegate (pictured), who won this year’s prize for The Most Famous Man in America, her biography of 19th-century preacher Henry Ward Beecher.
Continue reading ‘Castaway, Episode 2: Pulitzer Winner Debby Applegate’
by | Jul 11, 2007 6:46 pm | Comments (42)
Welcome to Castaway, the New Haven Independent’s new podcast series, hosted by me, Mark Oppenheimer, and engineered by fellow New Havener Lee Faulkner. Our first podcast will be somewhat unusual for the series. It’s an exclusive interview with John Carmichael, the president of the Church of Scientology of New York. In the past, Scientologists have been shy with the media, so an interview of this length and depth is rare.
This podcast is posted in conjunction with my article “The Actualizer,” which will appear this Sunday in the July 15 issue of The New York Times Magazine.
Continue reading ‘Castaway, Episode 1—Scientology Exclusive’