Sundays in the Times with George

How George Hahn, Urban Raconteur, Spends His Sundays He is devoted to his dogs, his tiny apartment and most of all these days, his city.

By Hilary Howard April 16, 2021 George Hahn loves New York. But in 2016, the writer, actor and sartorial pragmatist wrote an essay about how the city — his home for 22 years — had become unsustainable for his creative lifestyle. He decided to move home, to Cleveland, Ohio, where he marveled at his 1,000-square-foot apartment (with in-suite washer/dryer). But he grew to miss New York terribly. So when a Manhattan dermatologist offered him a full-time job, he returned — in January 2020.

By that March, he had been furloughed.

Mr. Hahn spent his newfound free time on Instagram and Twitter (he used to be the social media director for Joan Rivers), where he mostly expressed his reignited passion for New York.

“It might be going down as one of the best loves of my life,” Mr. Hahn said of the city. “To spend my money somewhere else when business is needed here would feel disloyal. To be among the counted when so many left, among those who stuck it out, is a privilege.”

Last summer Mr. Hahn recorded a satirical video of New York as hellscape — “The streets are lined with people doing things like … getting ice cream … gay ice cream” — which went viral. “Then I started feeling the pressure: Is this my ‘Citizen Kane’? Or can there be more of this?”

He started recording his walks and his shaving sessions — where he’d discuss anything from his sober, vegetarian lifestyle to politics — and posting daily “Good Morning” images, often with a film noir bent and involving coffee.

Mr. Hahn now has over 128,000 followers on Twitter, including entertainers like Jane Lynch and Wanda Sykes. “This is all a total surprise to me,” he said.

But he still has his day job — as a patient concierge for a cosmetic dermatologist — which he returned to full-time last June. Mr. Hahn, 50, lives with his two dogs, Smokey and Lenore, in a 360-square-foot converted hotel room on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. “It’s a very edited life,” he said.

GOOD MORNING My day starts with coffee. My coffee method is gloriously analog. I use a Chemex. There’s something great about making your coffee with something that is part of the permanent collection at MoMA. I take my coffee black, straight, like I took my vodka.

On Sundays I don’t set an alarm, nor do I shave. I’m very lucky to have two dogs that are not crack-of-dawn dogs. They are like teenagers. I have two cups of coffee. I read the Times on my iPad. The dogs wake up. We rally and head over to Central Park.

SHOE BOX CHIC My dogs eat this frozen raw food. I put the food in their bowls before the walk so it’s thawed out when we return. On Sundays, I try to do as much task-free and mask-free activity as possible. I wear a mask all week. So I spend time in this chic little shoe box. It’s the only place where I’m comfortable. I’ll pour another cup of coffee. I’ll read more. I try to put a dent in that growing pile of New Yorkers.

BRUNCH I like to go to the Viand or Tarallucci e Vino. I’ll put on a nice pair of jeans and either my Clarks desert boots or my chukka boots. I’m not a sneakers person.

STROLL I might go to the Strand, formerly Book Culture. Most of the books I acquire are in digital form; the last physical book I bought was Jerry Seinfeld’s “Is This Anything?” I love the smell of bookstores, and it makes me feel smarter just to stand in one. I’ll also go to Zabar’s to pick up items like rugelach, bagels, their lifesaving cream cheese, French/Italian roast coffee and maybe one of their prepared foods for dinner that night.

RIDE I may go on a bike ride in Central Park or down the river, if it’s not too cold or raining; when it comes to temperature and precipitation I’m a baby. I deliberately chose a bicycle that is neutral in terms of its attire requirements. It’s like a Schwinn that someone would have had in the ’70s. Leather seat, upright. I went to a formal event in a tuxedo on it.

REST The dogs might be due for another walk. After that, I feel so free to take a nap, because I’m so old. I love them. I don’t know what I was fighting in my childhood. My apartment is a hotel room, so I’ve set it up like a hotel room lifestyle. I’ll get on the bed and nap as if I were napping in the hotel room. There’s the TV, a desk, a lounge chair.

LISTEN Because I’m a podcast fanatic, this might be the time slot for that. I like Pivot, with Scott Galloway and Kara Swisher. I like On the Media. The New Yorker Radio Hour. The New Abnormal. Here’s the Thing With Alec Baldwin. The War on Cars. Sway. I also listen to a lot of NPR.

APPOINTMENT WITH MOM After my nap, I always call my mother. She’s in Cleveland. We usually talk about what she had to eat, the weather, what she’s watching on Netflix — if it’s got a British accent and a costume, or if there’s a murder, she’s a kid in a candy store. If she could live in the Agatha Christie universe she’d be very happy.

DINNER It bothers me that ordering apps take a large cut from restaurants. I’ll go to Viand or Motorino and get it and bring it home, so they’ll get all the money. It’s such a trick bag. Because the delivery workers need to work, too. But it’s my preference to pick it up and bring it home.

ON COOKING I have two burners and a convection microwave. It’s so limited. It’s like asking a flight attendant to make you lunch. Amy’s frozen burritos are actually really good. I never knew how much I enjoyed peanut butter and jelly.

ON CLOTHING My wardrobe is extremely edited. I have a standard closet with two rungs. My suits, my shirts that come from the cleaners, everything is on those two rungs. I have lighter-weather stuff on the other rung. I’ll swap out when the season comes. In the summer, my winter wear will go into a storage box under my bed. I have exactly five pairs of dress shoes. I use a cream called Saphir, it’s from France, to shine my shoes. I use an old T-shirt or an old pair of underwear if that’s not too gross. Then I use another T-shirt to buff them dry and a shoe brush. I’m very particular.

AT NIGHT I’ll often watch TV while I eat. The only surface in my apartment is my desk. I’ll move the laptop and eat there. Or I’ll eat in bed watching TV, like one would do in a hotel. There will be a last dog walk. A few laps around the neighborhood. They want to party after that last walk, so there’s an effort to dial down the mood. Smokey, who is little, sleeps with me, and Lenore sleeps on her bed or under my bed. We manage.

THE BEST MEDICINE As I’m doing my comedown ritual — I’ll get into my boxer shorts and T-shirt, wash my face, put on some night cream, brush my teeth — I love listening to stand-up: Jim Gaffigan, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, and one of my all-time favorites, Maria Bamford. And Tig Notaro. I’ll set the sleep timer on my Sonos. I’ll drift off, listening to comedy. It’s weird, I know.

Joan Rivers said that laughter is like giving someone a vacation. This pandemic has been hell. It’s been extremely lonely. Listening to comedy before going to bed has been really comforting.

That was a pleasant read. New York is so hard to live in. At least his shoebox looks clean and modern. When I think of my old ratty 4th-floor East Village walkup in the 80s, awful. Occasionally I have a flash of that old "New York" feeling, the glamour and excitement, but mostly I'm glad I moved to LA 20 years ago,

He's both pretentious and realistic about his station in life.

Seems like a very good guy who has wrestled some demons and come out on top. He's interesting, intelligent and humble and I like him.

Well, R8, at least he was on top with someone.

[quote]My day starts with coffee. My coffee method is gloriously analog. I use a Chemex.

A GenXer from Ohio who moved to New York uses a Chemex? What a time to be alive!

Oh, this poor soul. Forced to robe up in a hotel room for the gratification of a Times reporter. And then made to wear cufflinks (!) and a blazer to shop at a bodega.

I blush for him.

Sounds like a perfect NY day. Love the effort put into dressing well. So tired of athleisure and baseball caps.

I think he’s handsome, but being in a 360 ft apartment w/two dogs in my 50s would bum me out, Chemex with Zabar’s coffee or not.

Same R13. I found this one depressing. And he seems much older than his years.

[quote]But he still has his day job — as a patient concierge for a cosmetic dermatologist — which he returned to full-time last June. Mr. Hahn, 50, lives with his two dogs, Smokey and Lenore, in a 360-square-foot converted hotel room on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. “It’s a very edited life,” he said.

[quote]My day starts with coffee. My coffee method is gloriously analog. I use a Chemex. There’s something great about making your coffee with something that is part of the permanent collection at MoMA. I take my coffee black, straight, like I took my vodka.

Oh, Sweet Baby Jesus, give me strength. The perils of the edited life are so many and so deeply perilous: the edited wardrobe, and the edited apartment, the edited coffee routine (Chemex), and the edited list of independent bookstores, the edited dog-walking/feeding routine, and, well, the editing of one's life is ceaseless, n'est-ce pas?

Why does this guy keep posting his crap on here? No one cares.

He's quite witty on Twitter. I recently started following him when others' retweets kept showing up in my feed.

NYC needs old-school fabulous gay men, not boring little shits who are obsessed with--what, RuPaul's Drag Race? Pop music divas of the week? Uggh.

It's always interesting when someone looks "rode hard" and put away wet (with a pitchfork) obviously has never been ridden by anything except the pose of active ennui.

The mother should be calling him.

His comment about the Chemex at MOMA made me spit my (hotel room) coffee out.

But I’m so jealous of his hair!

OK, it’s Wanda Sykes and Jane Lynch that make him show up in my feed every day. He has a HUGE female following. He reports what Megan McCain says to me as I don’t watch that show. Yeah.

His looks and age make him fuckable, but when a guy has two dogs in a space that small it’s like he has a mother with dementia or an autistic brother.

Oh, that guy. I muted him on Twitter months ago.

He looks like Raymond Massey with a facelift and a lifetime supply of Just For Men.

Fun fact- he played Miranda’s hot neighbor who flashed her on SATC. She thought he was engaging in peak a boo with her and then was horrified to find out he was really cruising the guy who lived downstairs from her. He showed his ass. It was nice... 18 years ago.

George Hahn is wonderful. Urbane, witty, intelligent, engaging. Such a Renaissance man. If you’re not following George on Twitter, you’re missing out.

Is it an edited Twitter?

[quote]Urbane, witty, intelligent, engaging. Such a Renaissance man. If you’re not following George on Twitter, you’re missing out.

If Twitter is someone's medium, I'm missing out.

If they can't do better than that, fuck these "editor" and "curators," these "flaneurs" and "raconteurs," these "I am not a sneakers person" "sartorial pragmatists" with their musings on Chemex coffee and scratching up a little dignity in scraping by.

He adds video and he’s an example of the reason why I began using my twitter account.

Google pigeonholed me - giving me old white guy news from WSJ, NYT, WAPO. Twitter gives me senators/reps who refer to other news sources (some are batshit crazy) and It’s new.

I’ve had to follow/unfollow so many political reporters because I remember their names - but can’t remember if I hate them or not. It’s like remembering why I won’t shop at Target.

One thing he is NOT is humble.

I found it interesting. I always find how other people live, and their daily routines...no matter how simple or elaborate, fascinating. I like to hear other peoples' stories.

R25. Well aren’t you the mean, bitchy, pain in the ass who continually complains and puts others down but contributes nothing. George is wonderful. You’re not.

I enjoyed reading that OP. And thanks for thoughtfully pasting the entire life in here though I don’t subscribe but was able to read it all on the NYT site.

Anyone who livestreams themselves shaving is a narcist.

R31, sexygeorgelucas livestreams himself shaving and nobody has a problem with it.

Sorry, R31, forgot the link:

Thankfully sexygeorgelucas hasn't shown up on my feed, R32. Unfortunately Mr. Hahn and his shaving livestreams have.

"There’s something great about making your coffee with something that is part of the permanent collection at MoMA."

"To be among the counted when so many left, among those who stuck it out, is a privilege."

"On Sundays I don’t set an alarm, nor do I shave."

MARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mary shows her ass.

When I did follow him, he'd regularly go after people who left NYC during Covid, yet he left the city himself in 2016 because it "had become unsustainable for his creative lifestyle."

[quote] George Hahn loves New York. But in 2016, the writer, actor and sartorial pragmatist wrote an essay about how the city — his home for 22 years — had become unsustainable for his creative lifestyle. He decided to move home, to Cleveland, Ohio, where he marveled at his 1,000-square-foot apartment (with in-suite washer/dryer).

So he's not only a narcist, but also a hypocrite. And a MARY! of course.

[quote]Anyone who livestreams themselves shaving is a narcist.

[quote]So he's not only a narcist, but also a hypocrite.

Anyone who misspells "narcissist" twice is...probably not a narcissist.

I still don't know her....

[quote] Unfortunately Mr. Hahn and his shaving livestreams have.

It's a gimmick, right? props to him for making it work. The internet is full of videographers opening boxes, whispering ASMR, at least he found a way to connect with his audience and he has obviously lived through shit he doesn't talk about.

If the size of his apartment is disturbing or unsettling to you, don't watch him, but I would definitely look at that.

I met this guy when he moved back to Ohio. He was very nice and genuine, made a huge effort to connect to everyone he talked to. I can see how he would be a personable concierge. He stuck out like a sore thumb here though, it was clear he missed his life in NYC.

What a brave and interesting man.

George is a breath of fresh air on Twitter. Very witty, insightful, informed, cynical. And he goes after assholes like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Bobert, Lindsey Graham, Jim Jordan, etc.

Check out George on "Sex and the City" way back when:

He's fine. Very well dressed and tailored. Now undressed is another story. He looked good years ago, but now he looks like a plucked chicken. Too sinewy. Great face, though, but at his age, his body could use a little more weight to fill out. Sigh, we all get that thin skinned sag as we get older. I guess he stays that thin to look good in clothes.

George looks good in clothes, very dapper. However, naked he looks a bit thin and not toned. He looked good in his toned Sex and the City days, but I have watched him shave just recently and he should perhaps not let us see that. He does maintain his low weight and hasn't gotten fat, but he needs to get to the gym and add a slight bit of muscle. Not overdone by any means, but a bit of muscle and strength would improve his naked looks immensely.

After ready the NY Times story, he seems to keep himself very busy each day. He may have to give up one of those trips to the book store or coffee shop and head to the gym for an hour. And how does he have two fairy big dogs in that tiny apartment--or former hotel room as he describes it?

They’re currently running him like a bitch for not exfoliating his forehead on film.