by Julie D. Andrews
| Occupation: Writer
Age: 32
Address: East 87th Street
Status: Single
It was after midnight when we first met. He had climbed into a window and was leaning forward, shaking his backside for the world to see. He was wearing his signature gray pageboy cap. A wide smile overwhelmed his face ... until the bouncer came over, chastised him, and told him to get down. |  Bob in gray cap to the left | | The whole thing was visible from where I stood in line outside the bathroom. I laughed. Bob Hill radiates a joyful, playful presence. Somehow, we started talking. On hearing it was my birthday, he rallied his cohorts, insisting they shout – in unison, of course — “Happy Birthday.”
I must not have been sufficiently red in the face. Again, two more times, their voices rang out, “Happppppppy Birrrrrrrthday!”
He told me I looked confident. He seemed to be reading me like a book. When I asked what he did, “I’m a writer,” he said. In big letters he scribbled across the front of his business card: Good stuff. Read it. He handed over the tattered card. There was something in the delivery that made me hold onto it.
It was somewhat surprising to hear that Hill lived on The Upper East Side.
Here we were down at Niagara, a bar on the Lower East Side, churning up good times on a Saturday, knowing that when the night ended it was uptown we would head to our respective apartments.
I later realized that Bob Hill is just one of a collection aspiring artists who, for one reason or another, reside on the Upper East Side. In this series of Your Neighbor profiles, get to know a few of the characters that share your neighborhood. What drew them here – and not to Williamsburg, Soho, or the Lower East Side known historically as artist havens? And, where will these aspiring go from here?
Over coffee at the Starbucks at E. 91st St. and Third Avenue, Hill told me he had always been somewhat of a writer, dabbling in music reviews news stories and columns at newspapers in Philadelphia. But, it wasn’t until he left his home and friends in Philly that his dream really took hold of him, when he decided to take his writing career up a notch and make this work his life’s ambition.
It was by chance that Hill and his two roommates ended up living on the UES. He had wanted the village. His roommates – Nick, a friend since elementary school, and Dana, Nick’s girlfriend of three years – had wanted Brooklyn. When a broker showed them the apartment on E. 87th St., the first place they saw the day they came to look, they fell for the place immediately. Only now, he said, does Hill realize how defining a person’s neighborhood selection is in New York City, admitting that he’s received more than a few looks like he “lives in a Turkish prison” on telling people in other neighborhoods he’s an Upper East Sider. And, he gets a kick out of hearing about the East side vs. West side nanny wars.
It’s the everything-is-within-three-blocks convenience (laundry, food, beer, books), proximity to the park, and safety he likes best about the UES.
“You can walk out at your door at four o’clock in the afternoon or four o’clock in the morning and you never have to worry,” said Hill.
Dana’s acceptance into the acting master’s program at The New School triggered the threesome’s Big Apple move. Friends left behind were supportive of the endeavor.
Said Hill’s former colleague, Jen Vu, “The technical /newsletter writing style didn’t give Bob the creative outlet he desperately needed. I read all his articles in the Philadelphia Weekly, Inquirer, and even his blogs on Philebrity. Philly had been good to him, but he needed to take his writing in a new direction … he needed a bigger challenge.”
Although she said she missed her practical joke partner-in-crime at the office and Hill’s mischievous pranks, she understood why the move was important for him. “Bob Hill has a larger-than-life personality and an uncanny ability to make other people’s lives richer just by making them laugh,” said Vu.
“I really wanted to do this,” said Hill. “I’ve always wanted to live here, but if I didn’t have other people to do it with, I probably would have pushed it off.” Although it was a risk moving in with a romantic couple and leaving all he had built behind, for Hill, taking on New York City was the right decision. Just three days after unpacking, a feeling struck him, he said, that he had been standing still his whole life.
“I came here to write, and this city energized me. It electrified me,” said Hill. “I need to be in a city to see the underbellies of life and people who overcame certain obstacles and disadvantages. You don’t find those stories a lot in the suburbs,” said Hill, who got bored by his hometown of Swarthmore, P.A.
In Philly, Hill had become disillusioned with the alt-weekly Philly newspapers for which he was writing. “It was like having a crush on somebody from afar and then meeting that person only to have them totally let you down. As much as I had gravitated toward the publication, the people there were incredibly jaded up-close … and very territorial,” he said.
Now, he’s setting out to write for the big-boy pubs he’s always admired, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, etc. Apart from that, moving here meant he would have time to write a book. Commuting to work two hours daily in Philly had left him little extra time to devote to that massive undertaking.
What’s the plot? While he likes to keep the bulk of it under wraps, Hill did say it revolves around heroes, villains, and second chances set against a backdrop of Atlantic City, N.J. and Philly.
“Every time I start a new chapter the excitement rolls over and is born again. It’s this kind excitement I haven’t had in a very long time – about two years,” said Hill.
“A lot of times the plot takes twists and turns and I don’t even realize where it is going to go. People write books because they feel like they have something to say. I guess I do,” he said.
If you’re neighbor to Hill, you’re used to seeing his light on at all hours of the night. He has adapted well to the New York’s nocturnal lifestyle, typically working from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at home on his day job as editor for two bi-weekly trade publications: “What’s Working in Sales Management” and “The Selling Advantage” to pay the bills … and from 12:00a.m. to 5:00 a.m. on his book.
“One odd thing about living with Bob is his working hours,” said roommate Nick. “It’s not uncommon for me to be pouring myself a bowl of Cheerios and see Bob still awake writing away frantically.”
Hill said he writes best without noisy distraction and just the subduing hum of classical music in the background (even lyrics from his favorites, Dylan and Springsteen, trip him up when he’s working on the book).
“With me, few things that are constant. Writing is one of them. I am tremendously confident in my ability. It sounds cocky, but it’s the one thing I can do. My style is different. It’s quirky, childish, funny at times – in certain ways sophomoric,” said Hill, who added that as an adult there are fewer and fewer after Christmas morning thrills fade, leaving you to cherish the passions that are left.
And yet, behind the buffed exterior, there is quite a bit of self-doubt and Hill can be hard on himself, said roommate Nick.
But, for all the passion, it still doesn’t come naturally. Hill works hard at this. He keeps the fire inside alive by devouring work by writers he admires —KurtVonnegut, Truman Capote, L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez, and P.T. Barnum.
This move for Hill was huge. His life hinges on this hope of making it as a writer in the city and consists mostly of reading or running when he’s not writing or drinking (which he says is often prerequisite).
New York City thus far exceeded Hill’s expectations. New Yorkers, he said, are nicer than Philly folks. They’re not rude, but fast-paced, without time for people ignorant of their culture.
“If you come off like you’re green or have no clue which I didn’t when I first moved here, they are very patient. These people opened their arms from the moment I got here,” said Hill.
Nearly four months after we first met, Hill is now eleven chapters deep in his book and enrolled in the Gotham Writer’s Workshop to further hone his voice and get direct feedback from readers. “I’m definitely behind my initial chapter-a-week schedule,” said Hill. “But, I’d rather fall behind deadline than complete a work that’s poorly executed.”
He’s still in search of the perfect day – running, not much on the day-job plate, a solid steak and potatoes dinner, producing 12 pages of something, and getting to sleep before 6:00a.m. – a realistic goal that’s attainable.
The next few years in New York are sure to be telling for Hill. Says Hill’s ex-colleague Vu, who refers endearingly to Hill as the Tom Cruise of writers, “There is no doubt in my mind that he’ll be incredibly successful in New York City.” With friends like that, it’s hard to go wrong.
Look for Bob Hill, wearing a gray pageboy cap at his favorite UES haunts:
Bar: Tin Lizzy at 1647 Second Avenue
Bookstore: Barnes and Noble at 240 E. 86th St.
Secret Spot: Alice in Wonderland statue commissioned by philanthropist De la Corte in 1959 that’s located in Central Park at E. 73rd Street. |
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