Come together over "Push Me, Pull Me," my latest single, premiering Friday, May 17th on all music channels. I think you'll like the touch of sax. Thanks for listening!

New York and L.A.: Parallel Universes?

parallel universe - noun - a world conceived of as coexisting with and having certain similarities to the known world but different from it in some fundamental way (Google).

In the early 1980s, I knew New York well as I worked and lived in Manhattan. Obviously, over a period of roughly fifty years, it has grown into something other than what it was back then, something indefinable, at least to me. At present, I reside in Los Angeles, nearly 3,000 miles west. Even though I have been a resident for just a week, I can say that these American hubs are the same, only different...parallel universes in a sense. 

What are the similarities? For one, there is commonality of origin. Just about everyone I have met here so far either was born in the New York Metro area or arrived here relatively recently, cementing my theory that L.A. is just a suburb of New York, a grouping of cities tied together by freeways at the southern end of the continent, a continuum of vast, uneven topography. To exemplify this observation was a cashier at Target from Brooklyn who actually admitted that he missed the weather in New York; for some unfathomable reason, he was actually mourning the loss of snow shoveling. To which I replied, "The grass is always greener" or in his case, whiter (with snow). Yet only a native New Yorker would complain about the near perfect atmospheric conditions in L.A. Another similarity (other than the recent earthquake in the suburbs of New Jersey, which seemed to come as a gift direct from SoCal) would be the traffic. Most in New York would swear that the traffic is worse here; but for the most part, it is the same, the difference being that there is equivalent volume but fewer roads merging into each other, accounting for the jams. Yet if you migrate here fully prepared for the stop and go, go and stop on the 405 or the101, PCH, etc., it isn't irking at all, well, not terribly so anyway. It is just another test of patience. As for the cost of living, it is pretty much the same albeit the gas is more expensive here (and you will pay a lot for car registration) and the utilities, yet the apartments are cheaper (and much nicer as many come with pools and fitness centers at no extra charge). Some restaurants are not as expensive as New York eateries; however, car washes are twice the price albeit experts will wash your car by hand. Give or take, everything balances out. 

Conversely, there are a few noteworthy differences. One monumental dissimilarity would be in the disposition of the inhabitants. Perhaps due to the prevalence of sun, individuals here are kinder, more polite. And like the sun, they shine; their ebullience sparkles. While some envious New Yorkers condemn L.A. congeniality as "fake," it feels pretty real to me. Unlike most New Yorkers, liberal or conservative, people in L.A. seem to take the climate crisis a lot more seriously and work to curb it. For example, the garbage collectors here go through your trash with a fine-tooth comb. If there is something in the circular file that doesn't belong there, you receive a warning and a checklist of what you can or can't include in it. In addition, the DMV requires all gas cars, no matter how new, to go through a smog test for sixty dollars at places that look like they used to be gas stations. Although this has nothing to do with the environment– even though I have been driving for fifty-five years (I started when I was ten...don't ask)–I had to take a written driving test like I did when I was seventeen in Jersey. And it was hard being that it was on nearly one hundred pages of material. Apparently, some of the laws governing the roads here are outside of the norm. In terms of these polarities, balance doesn't come into play.

Parallel or not, the universes known as New York and L.A. will always have their arguable pros and cons. The truth of the matter is that both cities are magical enough to fall in love with at first sight. If you can't afford to live in either, at least you can visit. From what I know, there are about thirty flights going back and forth between the two cities daily. If you book in advance and don't mind flying steerage, you might pay below $300, which is pretty cheap, all things considered. Flights might even be a bit less to either depending upon where you call home in the U.S. Wouldn't it be nice to formulate your own tale of two cities? 

Hold on! My latest single, "Push Me, Pull Me," a bit of smooth jazz will premiere on Friday, May 17th. Catch it on all music channels. Thanks for listening!

"Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you." -Charlie Parker

"Push Me, Pull Me," Gwyn English Nielsen's new smooth jazz single will premiere May 17th. Catch it on all music channels.

Pre-save my new jazzy single "Push Me, Pull Me" to premiere on Friday, May 17th on all music channels, including Spotify.

Lots of rain in the New York area. What better time to soak in my single "Rain/rain" on all music platforms, including Spotify and YouTube. Thanks for listening!

Side-Stepping Pedantry to Get Along With New Neighbors

pedantry - noun - excessive concern with minor details and rules

In this current vastness wherein political correctness rules, pedantry has pushed its way into the populace, particularly real estate attorneys. If you have been following this recent short string of blogs, you have probably figured out that I am selling my house to two nouveau yuppies, now labeled Millennials. Although they are wet behind the ears (meaning young in case that idiom escapes you), I like them. It is their legal representation that leaves little to love. Why? One word: PEDANTRY.  Okay, okay, I get it. The lawyer is doing her job, and Goodness knows that in this climate of litigiousness one with the master key to a law office has to be extra careful. But to what avail? 

Case in point: As any lender must have a property surveyed before a mortgage can be offered, on Monday, an industrious set of two uniformed surveyors flagged my property in hot pink plastic price tags sans prices and measured every inch and boundary of my lot with their collection of transit levels, tripod rods, bluetooth laser distance meters, etc. Just when I thought I'd make it to the end of the game (the closing) without any more complications, two days later, I received a call from my attorney, informing me that two of my three neighbors have been encroaching on my land. One unknowingly erected a privacy fence up against my own privacy fence three feet onto my property and the other, a relatively new neighbor, put up behind my fence a children's play set, half of which is taking up four feet of the portion of my backyard that I can't see. Ugh. Getting the one neighbor to remove her fence was easy albeit I had to rely on an ex-boyfriend to do the job; however, convincing the other one that the survey was/is indeed accurate and he would have to move the one side of the swing set that his kids never use anyway, was a herculean feat. I struck out, but my real agent agents seemed to make it to first and second base. Who knows if they will manage to find their way to home plate. After much cajoling on the part of the agents, the disgruntled neighbor promised he'd move the set but was inordinately angry at the buyers, exclaiming, "That's no way to start out, bossing a new neighbor around. I know I won't ever speak to them unless they come over here with a peace offering." Perhaps he made a valid point.

Adverse possession laws aside (because they require thirty years of proven encroachment in New Jersey), I realize that the lawyer is thinking that if some child falls out of the jungle gym portion of the set, it might just be the buyers' responsibility to cover hospital fees. But isn't that what homeowner's insurance is for? If the neighbor's kids don't even use the monstrosity, is it worth starting off on the wrong foot with someone who is probably not going away for at least twenty years? I don't know about you, but I say to heck with pedantry. Messing with minutiae is just aggravating to everyone except for the one doling out the aggravation. "Don't sweat the small stuff" may not be advice that legal eagles embrace, but perhaps their clients should remind the professionals that stepping outside the bounds of pedantry and making concessions to insure domestic tranquility between neighbors may not be such a bad idea. 

The catalog tunes on Spotify are still doing well, especially in Scandinavia and Germany. Danke!!!! One of seven new songs is coming soon!

You can still listen to Gwyn English Nielsen's "Smile, You've Sure Got What It Takes" on all music channels, meaning YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music. So smile, and enjoy the sound of good music.

A song for the season: "Rain/rain" by Gwyn English Nielsen, now streaming on your favorite music channels.

Veneration and Its Converse: Renting an Apartment in L.A. as a Retiree

veneration - n. - great respect; reverence

Although I have probably touched on this before, I feel I must state the obvious one more time: veneration is rare these days. It used to be that if you were a halfway decent person (meaning kind, compassionate, etc.) had money in the bank, the world was your oyster. Well, let's put it mildly, if you consider yourself to be venerated today, chances are you may have the attributes aforementioned, but you aren't sixty five or over.

Over the past weekend, I was hit with ageism head on while trying to rent an apartment in Los Angeles. Mind you, L.A. likes to bask in the often obfuscated light of a democratic state, well aware of the hazards of discrimination. In fact, there are placards posted in myriad places reminding the public reader that it just won't tolerate prejudice of any kind. Funny thing, though, every possible example of bias is mentioned except ageism. 

Case in point: admittedly, I, like many of my kind, am a senior citizen with a healthy portfolio and income coming from several sources. Fortunately, I can afford to lease an apartment in both New York and Los Angeles, albeit not simultaneously. In Los Angeles as in many other hot spots in the U.S., in order to secure an apartment, you must prove that your income is three times the monthly rent, which is not easy if the rent is 3K or more. The main problem, though, is that if you happen to be retired, there is no separate application for you. These conglomerates that own the luxurious resort hotel apartment complexes operate on a "one size fits all" policy. Basically, they are not interested in you if you do not have a steady job that pays you a high weekly salary, not even if you are a multi-millionaire sans an occupation other than gardening and golf. Their computer algorithms are created to accept only those who are gainfully employed, blind to the probable possibility that if they are living paycheck to paycheck, they could get laid off at any time, rendering them unable to pay the rent. Contrarily, New York real estate operates on the basis of common sense. In New York City, you have to prove you have fifty times your monthly rent in the bank, which is hard to do when the average price of a one bedroom is $4,500 (or $225,000 in the bank), of course, but most of the young renters have wealthy parents who can and do co-sign their leases for them. The real estate moguls in the City know that money in the bank pays the rent on time, not an iffy weekly salary. 

As for me, I liked a complex in the lush, tropical, yet pragmatic planned community of Playa Vista just south of Marina del Mar (both in L.A. county) and applied to rent at Runway, a sleek resort-style complex with all of the amenities you can think of in tow. Because Runway's rental application completely disregards retirees, I was rejected not once, but twice. After much frustration, I gave up on renting there (even though the leasing manager finally emailed me offering me the apartment and apologizing for the ineptitude of his colleagues and data base) and signed with a competitor who took one look at my portfolio and said, "You're approved with verification from your bank." Smart man. He did the mental math. 

Regardless of your particular age, it should not be so incredibly hard to rent an apartment these days. And landlords of any kind should not discriminate against cotton tops turned Clairol box tops like me who slaved for many, many years yet cannot boast that they are earning a consistent weekly paycheck. Correct your websites, people in this biz. Add a separate application for retirees or very lucky independently wealthy scions before you continue to embarrass yourselves. You're losing business due to your dearth of common sense. Money is money regardless of its source. That being said, as a new renter, I am still thrilled to be free of all the complications associated with homeownership. The algorithmic aggravation was well worth the transition from money pit to someone else's responsibility. To me, that is a taste of veneration right there.

"Know Me Well" is back streaming on Spotify and all other music channels. Don't ever be afraid to be vulnerable. It's what love is all about. #newmusic #Spotify #Spotifyartist #acousticmusic #indiemusic #singersongwriter #singer #AppleMusic #YouTube

One of my first releases "I Lie, You Lie" is still streaming on all music channels. Have you heard it. Tell the truth :). #newmusic #newindiemusic #indieacoustic #acoustic #singersongwriter #singer #Spotify #YouTube #AppleMusic

Cueing up some hope with my single "Looking For the Light," now streaming on all music channels.

Eat French fries and do some smiling because "Smile, You've Sure Got What It Takes" is now streaming on all music channels. #music #indiemusic #folkrock #singer #singersongwriter #singersofinstagram🎀🎵💜 #Spotify #YouTube #AppleMusic

Time to get whisked away. Get on the dance floor and enjoy the weekend with the right soundtrack. My single "Whisk Me Away" is available for listening on all music channels.

Thank you, Spotify listeners in the U.S. and the Netherlands for streaming "Last Chance at True" the most times out of any other countries.