Introducing the Blankman List

A Monthly Newsletter of Curated NYC Events

This has been a long time in the making.

In one sense, it started in February 2023, when I asked myself the question, “what would I do if I could retire next month?” The result was a carefully planned imaginary month full of music, theater, film, and everything that makes me never want to leave New York City.

However, in a deeper sense, it started in elementary school when I begged my parents for piano lessons. My musical journey started with Mozart and Beethoven but soon meandered to Green Day and Busta Rhymes. For a while I was a metalhead, then into grunge and everything outside the Top 40, then into pop and everything inside the Top 40. I had a jazz phase, a trip-hop phase, a country phase, an avant-garde phase, and several variants of a musical theater phase. I had brief obsessions with French cabaret, Latin American salsa, and Japanese contemporary classical. For a hot minute in the early 2000s, my go-to CD was Chinese opera. In 2020, I attempted to mathematically derive the “most comprehensive playlist in the world.” The funny thing is if you asked me right now who my favorite musicians are, I’d probably say Mozart and Beethoven.

I bring that same endless curiosity into everything I do. I described my music journey, but I could talk too of how after realizing much of The Met’s collection was online, I studied the gallery layout and gave custom tours to friends. Whether the medium is music, art, dance, theater, literature, or any form of expression under the sun, I subscribe to the philosophy that if someone has a voice to share, I am willing to listen. As I approach 40, I must accept that this is simply who I am.

So what is the Blankman List? It’s not quite everything I would go to in retirement. Frankly, even with unlimited time and money, I wouldn’t have the energy to go to an event every day for a month. But I do think that my retirement—whenever it may come—will be full of music and art and theater and dance and many of the things for which NYC is known. There’s a lot of great art and culture in this city, and there’s a lot that’s not worth your time. It’s not always clear which is which. While I’ll be the first to admit that I get it wrong sometimes too, the Blankman List is my monthly attempt to separate the wheat from the chaff.

I would be foolish to think that you and I have identical tastes in every way. Many items make the list not because I think, “I would love to go to this event,” but rather because I seek to answer, “if someone asked me for where to go for [fill in the blank], what would I recommend?” Thus, the Blankman List extends beyond my immediate interests and includes everything from early morning hikes to all-night raves—but only so long my research points me to it being a well-executed, high-quality event.

There will always be at least one event for every day of the month, with some days having multiple events. In general, the list won’t have many large-scale events like those on Broadway or at Radio City Music Hall, but it will have some. After all, even answering “which Broadway show should I see right now?” can be overwhelming in the face of a few dozen options every week. Also there is no denying that the Blankman List will contain a lot of music—after all, that is what started it all.

The Blankman List is an ultra-curated list of event recommendations, making sure that no matter your budget, specific passions, or location within NYC, there will be something worth venturing outside for.