From the Zola System
alexzola
- Location
- New York, New York, USA
- Birthday
- January 30
- Bio
- I grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in the Zola System, my father’s philosophy of life. He taught my brothers and me the basic life skills: how to run a street hustle, perpetrate a con or recognize when you were being hustled or conned; information we needed so we could feed our families if another Hitler came to power. My father Aron Zola was a Romanian Jew, a holocaust survivor, a black marketeer, a gun runner, a successful entrepreneur, a true citizen of Detroit. When I was 18, I rebelled against the Zola System and moved to New York City. I was fascinated with cultural heroes – Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Jack Kerouac, Hunter S. Thompson and the aesthetic bohemian artist lifestyle that, in my naivete, I thought they lived. Now I see they were working their own hustles on the public, just like the Old Man. Even the Manhattan dating scene runs on the Zola System. To paraphrase Mark Twain, now that the Old Man is dead, I’m shocked how much he learned.
I wrote reviews for SPIN, an unpublished brunch guide for New York City, covered the death penalty, reviewed books for the New York Law Journal and profiled sports stars for the Jewish Forward. I have two crime novels and a bartenders guide to New York City that I am trying to sell. After dabbling in so many genres, I finally realized I’d been running from my subject: my father and the Zola System. The Old Man is gone now and I am his eldest son carrying on as he wanted me to do. This was not supposed to happen.
MY RECENT COMMENTS
- “I had this very argument
with an ex girlfriend once.
Perhaps
this is one
reason…”
November 08, 2009 12:23PM - “Tell your kids we killed
him because he didn't go to
law
school like his mother
w…”
November 06, 2009 02:17PM - “What a shame.”
November 06, 2009 01:56PM - “Another nice Jewish boy
from Detroit is gone.
Damn.”
October 23, 2009 03:56PM - “I wish the last woman I
dated would have just told me
no,
it's over the weekend
i…”
October 22, 2009 05:33PM
Alexzola's Links
- New list
- The Zola System
Now I Get It
Gambling was an accepted form of communication in the Zola home. If the Old Man said something that was response provoking, say Mondale won’t carry a state in 1984, and one of the families thought otherwise, it was accepted practice to throw $1 or $10 or $20 on the kitchen table/… Read full post »
There is a new social class that is making its way into the fabric of New York City, one that used to be weeded out by the street tax of violence, threatened or real. The time of the urban rube has arrived.
According to Merriman-Webster’s online dictionary, a rube is… Read full post »
The episode began when Tom, our sommelier, opened one of the six bottles of 2001 La Tache we had in house, although not on inventory. La Tache is one of top two, Richebourg being the other, Cru’s in Burgundy. A bottle of this specific Pinot Noir retails for over $400 and… Read full post »
My Bout With H1N1
For 36 hours, I ran a low grade fever, had some chills and no appetite. I fell asleep for 12 hours and felt somewhat right when/… Read full post »
I Blame Lou Reed
I have mentioned alluded to and now will finally come out of the closet with this bold declaration: yes, I have left New York. Currently, I am residing in the wilds of Scottsdale, Arizona while I make the decisions on my apartment, what to write next and how to sell wine to/… Read full post »
This item caught my eye as it came over the newswire. In Western Australia, a family learned about the death of their daughter via Facebook. The police were in the process of contacting the parents of the 16-year old girl. The speed of the internet wins out again. As social ne/… Read full post »
Miguel Cabrera - Asshole of the Month
Your name is Miguel Cabrera. You are a 26 year old baseball player, a first baseman. Your extraordinary talent with a bat has earned you an 8 year $152 million contract. Your team is in the midst of a pennant race. If you win one more game, you will clinch the/… Read full post »
She-Males Invade Gramercy Park
There is a Transvestite/Trans-Sexual night in a Gramercy/Flatiron bar.
Two and a half blocks away from my apartment, at 3:30am on a Sunday, I saw a gaggle of Asian T-girls smoking outside the Gramercy Tavern, one of the best and most popular restaurants in the City. The dichotomy struck me… Read full post »
New Yorkers have been portrayed as a neurotic strange breed in film and television. We move into our elegant cells, close the door and become somewhat secretive. Yes, there are those that come to the city to get away small town where everyone knows what everyone else is doing. The l… Read full post »
Training The Old School Way
Bartending is simple work. Remember your customer’s faces, what they drink and the names of their kids. It has nothing to do with making drinks. Anyone can follow a recipe. There are seven gorillas that are better bartenders than I am. I know. I trained five of them.
I was… Read full post »
Eight years after the 9/11 attacks, the mood in New York is somber. There’s an odd consideration for your neighbor, the guy next to you on the street or the person in front of you in line at the deli. Even the cabbies are staying out of the crosswalk when they stop fo/
… Read full post »Three of my co-workers kept telling me about a bar they found on 11th Street and the West Side Highway.
“It’s great, Alex, just the kind of place you’d like to hang out in. The Rusty Knot is sleazy.”
My interest was piqued. Ever since I/… Read full post »
Drab Expensive Cells
For a city faced with budget cuts due to a bad economy, declining population and the loss of a major tax base on Wall Street, New York is still going through something of a building boom. It seems that every avenue in every district of Manhattan has some sort of a residential/… Read full post »
A bartender is a social director, a matchmaker for his customers personally and professionally.
Gary, my first boss in the business, had a masterful touch when it came to introductions. He was responsible for two marriages and one business partnership. “Remember to always/… Read full post »
New York City poker clubs are an endangered species.
“This joint on 28th Street I was playing in a few weeks ago got raided,” my friend Steve told me “the cops came in, had us leave our chips on the table, questioned the players, detained the dealers and arrested the manager.&n… Read full post »
It was the busiest Tuesday of the year at the Park Avenue Cafe. We did 220 lunches and were expecting 500 people for dinner. I was working an open to close double.
4:30pm. I was trying to clean and re-set the bar for dinner service. Due to the ferocity of the lunch service period,/… Read full post »
On New Year’s Day 2008, my girlfriend and I broke up. I should have seen it coming. I managed to get reservations at a hot New York restaurant for New Year’s Eve and she cancelled with plans to stay home “alone” with a “cold.” Much like the rest o… Read full post »
She sat at the bar perched on a captain’s chair. While sipping on her white wine she starred at a BlackBerry. This was not the kind of woman we were used to seeing in this joint. It is usually filled with early twenty something dressed in oddly tight outfit/… Read full post »
Junkiedom Will Be Served - An Angry New York Moment
In March of 2003, New York City instituted a ban on smoking in all public venues. Although we live in Gotham, Mayor Michael Bloombergdeclared second-hand smoke a major health risk. Smokers had to go outside to the brown tinted air to feed their habit. Although extremely unpopular, the muni… Read full post »
Family Friends on OS
"I don't know if your memoirs are real or manufactured, but i don't care..."
Connie Mack. October 22, 2008. 'My First Trip To New York.'
Connie isn't the first person to ask if these stories about my Old Man and his life lessons are true. Honestly, if I hadn't lived them,… Read full post »
While reading this, I recommend putting on one of two early Pere Ubu tunes: 'My Dark Ages' or 'Final Solution.' The first song is self explanatory. The second is my attempt to be tounge in cheek.
Also, if anyone has any doubts as to whether my Old Man would have… Read full post »
Sleepless in LaGuardia
On Friday, I missed my flight to Seattle. Although most of the people who know me thought I missed the plane because of my fear of flying (check out my blog on this topic posted Tuesday on the Zola System), something I have done before, this time, the fault was actually not… Read full post »
In some circles I’m known as the Zola, in others as Aleek or A-lex and then there is the small but influential circle in which I am known as the Booger Boy. No, this nom de plume doesn’t date from 3rd Grade, it dates from December of 2007 while I was… Read full post »
Quick Note To Everyone on OS
It's been a very busy week for me guys and I'd like to apologize for not re-posting from the Zola System (www.alexzola.com).
I will return next week however, I will no longer be re-posting (most of the time) here. From now on, I intend to post only original material here on… Read full post »
Chickie’s dead. Please don’t cue Curtis Mayfield while reading this blog; Chickie wasn’t that kind of guy. The appropriate tunes for elegy would be found on Eric Clapton’s 1977 albumSlowhand, specifically track #1.
I found out on Wednesday from a nei… Read full post »
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