09.29.2016
A DREAM COME TRUE: METRO EDITOR MEETS LIFELONG HERO, ELVIS COSTELLO
The New York Times: Wendell Jamieson: September 28th 2016.
Wendell Jamieson, the editor of the Metro section, shares his experience at the Algonquin Hotel with his idol, the musician Elvis Costello.
We were chatting in a booth in the lobby of the Algonquin Hotel in July for a story I planned to write for Arts & Leisure about a long-held theory of mine: that though Mr. Costello grew up in Liverpool and London and has lived in Dublin and now Canada, his music has a certain New York sensibility — sharp, honest, to-the-point, but with beauty and affection below the surface. And I wanted to get to the bottom of his New York story: The city has appeared at important moments in his life and in his music.
Relaxed and funny, alternately sipping cappuccino and sparkling water, our conversation dipping serendipitously in and out of different phases of his career, he was intrigued by my theory, though, as I say in my story, not initially convinced. He warmed up to the idea, however, as our allotted 45-minutes stretched to nearly two hours, and additional bottles of sparkling water arrived at our table. Maybe he was just pleased to undergo a line of questioning he’d never encountered before. Or maybe it was so hot outside that he didn’t want to leave the hotel.
But I had a bigger reason to be there than the story. I was meeting a lifelong hero.