"I'm Waiting for the Man" -- The Velvet Underground in Dallas, October 1969

The greatest rock band ever to come out of NYC -- The Velvet Underground -- had a short life in the late 1960s. It would only be decades later that they would be considered one of the greatest and most influential bands of all time.

Still, during their brief existence, the Velvets toured the country. In the late 1960s they travelled to Dallas and their outdoor performance, and later another performance at a club, were recorded and can be seen/heard here.

There's actually very little footage of the Velvets during their time as a band so this is a rare and interesting treat, a small window into the past. 

Battle for the Pierre

Here's a fascinating article about the battle between owners and shareholders of the Pierre, the gorgeous hotel/apartment building on 59th Street -- across from its brethern the Plaza and the Sherry Netherland. It's a story of rich people vs. other rich people, corruption vs. stubborness, Old New York money and taste vs. global wealth and crassness.

It's an Only in NYC story!

FYI: the main dining room of the Pierre is where the legendary tango scene from Scent of a Woman took place.

NYC Remembers Dolly

Dolly Parton has died and I don't want to believe it but so it goes. Anyway, NYC is remembering the music legend by giving her the ultimate tribute -- illuminating the Empire State Building in her trademark pink.

And if you want to understand the true greatness of Dolly, a perfect example of her musical and performance genius, listen to her beautiful song "Butterfly" and watch her SNL monologue from 1989 -- part of it, uh ... doesn't really hold up but it shows you what a good sport Dolly was. RIP. 

Review: "Is This Thing On?" (2025)

Late last year a small film came and went that didn't get a lot of fanfare but is actually really good.

Called Is This Thing On?, it's about a middle-aged couples in suburban NYC who seperate. The forlorn husband finds himself accidently turning to stand up comedy to deal with his new, unwanted life, while he soon-to-be ex-wife tries to keep their old life and their kids lives going as before -- just without him.

This movie is something you don't get a lot these days -- a very funny, wonderfully acted story about regular people leading their lives. It was directed by Bradley Cooper, the movie star (who has a supporting role), and it stars Will Arnett and Laura Dern as the erstwhile couple and they excellent. Also in the cast are Christine Ebersole as the mother-in-law and the great actor Ciaran Hinds who plays the father -- and gives a beautiful, understated performance.

There are lots of movies about glamorous people in NYC living glamorous lives but this movie is about the regular, hardworking people dealing with their careers, their families, and their own sense of worth. You should see it!

Once Upon a Time ... in NYC

The Adventures of Mr NYC

Bret Easton Ellis's NYC

I've always had a love-hate opinion of the novelist Bret Easton Ellis. For the most part I don't think he's really that talented, most of his books are boring, and, in the interviews I've heard with him, he sounds like a massive asshole.

However, I do think his 1991 novel American Psycho is absoutely brilliant and, in a depressing way, it seems more relevant than ever. It's a classic.

Ellis is from LA and lives there now but, in the late 1980s and 1990s, he lived in NYC. He recently returned to the city after a long absence to promote his new TV show and, in this interview, he talks about his life in NYC.

What's funny is that, for many, the NYC of the '80s and '90s was a rough, terrible time of crime, crack, AIDS, and decay. But for Ellis it was a golden age, a wonderful fun time that he misses. Apparently he doesn't know how anyone could live in 2020s NYC!

It's a reminder than one person's paradise can be another person's hell -- and vice versa. 

Building the NYC Empire

Part of what makes New York City fascinating -- but also sometimes tough to talk about and understand -- is that this "city" isn't really a city in the traddional sense. The Merriam-Webster and other dictionaries define a city simply as a "large or important municipality in the U.S. governed under a charter granted by the state." 

That's it. And NYC certainly fits that definition.

But its size and geography and population make it unlike most other cities, both in the United States and the world at large. (This list gives 10 examples of the differences between NYC and just about every other city in the world.) As I've blogged about before, NYC isn't a single city -- its several cities joined up together. 

And that's what makes NYC not a city but an empire -- dozens of islands containing several different cites and towns and villages and arable land stiched together to become a whole greater than the sum of its parts. 

The size and scope and unwieldy nature of the five boroughs is so complex, so various, so wild and huge that the best way to understand NYC is not as a city but as an urban empire -- or, as the poet Emma Lazarus famously called it, a collossus. 

Empires don't just spring to life out of nowhere, they are built over time. And here's the story of building the NYC empire -- past, present, and future:

Review: "Sterling Point" (2026)

Over the years I've enjoyed posting short reviews of movies and TV shows about New Yorkers who travel far from the city and get into wild adventures.

Most recently, it was the show Tulsa King, and earlier it was movies like The Ninth Gate, Shaft In Africa, Angel Heart, Road House, Black Rain, even Ishtar. 

A new entry into this genre is the Amazon Prime show Sterling Point. 

It's about a prim and proper Brooklyn teenager named Annie and her dopey but funny brother Connor who inherit an island in Canada from their estranged grandfather -- and go to check it out.

Lots happens. Friends and lovers are made and lost and made again, buried family secrets are revealed, some pot is smoked, some sex is had, and some silly and serious situations ensue.

It's a great time. The main cast is young, gorgeous, and talented, the adult actors are excellent, and the show manages to be both very funny and emotionally dramatic at once. Really good.

I'll admit I'm biased because, yes, it's a show about displaced New Yorkers but it also takes place somewhere I know and love very well.

Sterling Point is a gorgeous, fun end-of-summer treat. 

Naked Man Jumps from Brooklyn Bridge -- and Lives!

Damn, I love writing these tabloid-like headlines, fun stuff. 

And now he's in trouble for a lot of stuff including lewdness and, even worse, messing up traffic when the cops had to close the bridge.

Considering how crazy this city is, it's amazing that things like this don't happen every day. And to quote The Wire, this is some Spiderman shit.