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Jack Szwergold
Verified
Journalist, Mr. Beller's Neighborhood
New York
Beats
Biography
I am a skilled web developer who has worked for Artforum and the Guggenheim Museum. I founded the Onion’s website in 1996 and currently works for the New School. I also dabble in personal writing in my free time.
Health , Nature , Science
Content
By Jack Szwergold| Mr. Beller's Neighborhood@ One day back in the early 1980s, when I was a young teenager, I was hanging out at a friend’s apartment. We both had Atari computers, I had the 400 and he had the fancier Atari 800, and spent a lot of time copying games and trying to figure out how to play them. You see, if you pirated a video game back then — in the pre-Internet age — you didn’t get an instruction manual telling you how the game worked. Were there keys on the keyboard you had to use?
By Jack Szwergold| Mr. Beller's Neighborhood@ It was 1978. Or 1979. I was 10 or 11 years old. I’m a little vague on the exact year, but I was definitely aware of the fact I was too old to be riding my Big Wheel around the block. Catching myself in the reflection of the windows of Speedway Drugs, as I scooted by, I realized I looked slightly ridiculous. But I didn’t care. I liked riding that Big Wheel. One weekend, I rode it to the corner of Ocean Parkway and Brighton Beach Avenue and ran into the neighborhood drug dealer and his kids.
By Jack Szwergold| Mr. Beller's Neighborhood@ I got the scalper’s number from a neighborhood friend who worked for him. The tickets I wanted were for Rush’s 1986 “Power Windows” tour, and this scalper was the guy who could help. When I called him, it was immediately one of these frantic and sketchy “Who are you? Why are you calling?” things. I mentioned my friend’s name, and he started to calm down a bit. Then I gave him my phone number, told him I lived nearby, wanted to buy a few Rush tickets and already had the money for the tickets.
Company Info
Mr. Beller's Neighborhood