In the fall of 1992, John moved into Bert’s rental apartment on East 11th Street. Between Avenues A and B, it was a stone’s throw from the Life Café, pop-culturalized through the musical Rent, which opened on Broadway in February 1996. They would end up seeing the show because of and together with their niblings, Aimy and Tihani, who they happily hosted during the summer of 1996. Incredulous to Bert, John developed into a ‘Rentaholic’ and would end up seeing Rent live 13 times.
Though they lived just around the corner for almost three years, they rarely ate at the Life Café. Then, less than two weeks after moving across town, they returned to their old neighborhood to toast Bert’s 37th trip around the sun.