Knickerbocker Saloon Cultural Hotspot

I was pleased to be invited to the 35^th anniversary celebration at the Knickerbocker Saloon on a Sunday evening towards the end of April.  I had the good fortune to find myself at a table with three writers and a literary agent for yet another lively conversation at the Knick – cultural hot spot for all of its 35 years.

Nearly every discussion among creative people these days evolves into an exploration of changing media formats and this was no exception.  We moved from vinyl records and rare first editions to ebooks, intellectual property rights, concerts, photography, collaborative writing, history, music, concerts, the state of the music industry, assassinations, the de-sensitizing of violence and dozens of other subjects.

Peter Knobler sat to my left.  He specializes in collaboration and has written best selling books with James Carville, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, William Bratton, Hakeem Olajuwan, Sumner Redstone and others.  His current project is a book with ex-NYC Mayor David Dinkins.  He is the former editor of Crawdaddy Magazine.

Rick Woodward spoke extensively about his theories of photography and violence, and about how photographic images desensitize us to violence, beginning with iconic images surrounding the assassination of JFK, especially the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald, seen live across the country by so many.  His forthcoming book explores the subject.

Bruce Weber, a NY Times reporter, talked to us about the special art of writing obituaries for living people, except for the lead paragraph of course.  The recent collection of NY Times Obits in bookstores includes 75 entries he has written.  His book, “As They See ‘Em” is considered the definitive work on baseball umpiring.  Imagine my surprise to meet the author, since I happen to be reading his book; only after he mentioned the title, two hours into our conversation did the light go on for me.

Chris Calhoun of Chris Calhoun Agency, the businessman at the table, is a literary agent whose career of more than 20 years has included representation of such literary names as Billy Collins.  He opened his own agency in 2011 and represents some of America’s most prominent journalists, critics, historians, poets, and novelists.  He brought a worldly dimension to the conversation.

Champagne and hors d’oeuvres punctuated the talk in the best Knickerbocker fashion, as did visits to the table by Steve Jones, always completely at ease as the consummate host in a venue with original Hirshfelds on the walls.   I am happy to call him my friend of many years.