Brad is offering three special tours (described below).

Joan Didion's New York: A Guide to Her Life in Manhattan’s Upper East Side

Beloved American writer and journalist Joan Didion called Manhattan's Upper East Side home for most of her life. The city and her apartment itself feature strongly in her later works, including The Year of Magical Thinking. On this walking tour, we’ll scout out her former homes and haunts while exploring their connections to specific passages from her writing. You’ll get a sense of the neighborhood where Didion lived and worked—first, as a young writer in the 1950s and ’60s, and then again, from 1988 until her death in 2021. (This tour is audio/GPS-guided on the app VoiceMap, at this link: http://voicemap.me/joandidion — Please email Brad at bradfraver@gmail.com if you would like to schedule a date and time to take this tour in person.)

Peter Schjeldahl’s New York: A Guide to His Writings on Artists of the East Village

Renowned Village Voice and New Yorker writer Peter Scheldahl (pronounced shell-doll) lived and worked on St. Mark's Place for most of his life. This storied neighborhood was also home to many poets and visual artists whom Schjeldahl knew personally and/or featured as subjects in his incisive writing published over half a century. On this walking tour, we'll explore sites in the East Village that are significant in the life and works of art critic Peter Schjeldahl, as well as the homes and haunts of artists that lived and worked in this neighborhood throughout the second half of the 20th century. (This tour is audio/GPS-guided on the app VoiceMap, at this link: http://voicemap.me/eastvillage — Please email Brad at bradfraver@gmail.com if you would like to schedule a date and time to take this tour in person.)

Rex Reed's New York: A Guide to Hollywood in the Upper West Side

Film critic, journalist, and author Rex Reed called Manhattan’s Upper West Side home for most of his life. On this walking tour, we’ll scout out the homes and haunts of Rex Reed and the Hollywood insiders and notable figures that he knew and wrote about, while exploring their connections to specific passages from his writing. The tour moves up Broadway and then down Central Park West, guiding listeners past storied architectural landmarks and stunning exemplars of prewar apartment buildings like the Ansonia, the Apthorp, the Beresford, the San Remo, the Langham, and the Dakota, where Reed lived from 1969 until his death in 2026. Along the way, we’ll chart the neighborhood’s deep ties to Hollywood (Old and New) and to particular movies, film locations, and historic celebrity residences. You’ll get a sense of the neighborhood where Reed lived and worked for over half a century, at the same time as Reed's writing serves as a kind of portal into 20th-century American history and culture. (This tour is audio/GPS-guided on the app VoiceMap, at this link: http://voicemap.me/rexreed — Please email Brad at bradfraver@gmail.com if you would like to schedule a date and time to take this tour in person.)