by Matthew Friedman | Dec 23, 2019 | Essays
“And now, Matthew will come up and tell us about Chanukah,” Miss Shultz said. “It’s the Jewish Christmas.” I froze in my chair, looking straight ahead at my teacher’s expectant smile. I felt the eyes of my second-grade classmates boring into me. It was one of those...
by Matthew Friedman | Nov 11, 2019 | Essays
I feel closer to my father in early November than at any other time of the year. It was always then, in late autumn – when the fallen leaves lay in deep mats, or raked into towering piles in the parks and yards of Montreal, following the first killing frosts, and just...
by Matthew Friedman | Oct 31, 2019 | Essays
The honor guard marched onto the field as patriotic music blared from the minor-league ballpark’s PA system. A contingent of US Marines wheeled smartly and marched to the infield under the billowing Stars and Stripes in their pressed dress blues, with their white caps...
by Matthew Friedman | Sep 4, 2019 | Essays
I. Zuccotti Park It started with a blinding light that flooded the encampment at Zuccotti Park at about 1:00 am on November 15, 2011. The angular shadow of the “Big Orange Thing” – Mark di Suvero’s ironically-titled sculpture “Joie de Vivre” – rippled in high-contrast...
by Matthew Friedman | Aug 30, 2019 | Essays, Photo Essay
The Oculus at World Trade Center in New York is a genuine, honest-to-god tourist attraction, at the same level as the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and to be honest, a couple of steps above the Brooklyn Bridge and Grant’s Tomb. Visitors from around the...
by Matthew Friedman | Jul 31, 2019 | Essays, Photo Essay
On any given morning, there is a trail of fish parts and entrails leading along the Liberty State Park boardwalk on the western bank of the Hudson river. The New York City skyline glows in the Golden Hour light like a picture postcard. A fish head here – its eyes...