Remembering "The Howard Stern Interview"

In the early 1990s, radio shock jock Howard Stern was becoming a cultural force. Based in NYC, he had been syndicated around the country and was becoming a national media figure -- dubbing himself "The King of All Media."

Even though he was the star of radio, he wanted to be on television. He had done his local NYC show on Channel 9 for two years (1990-1992) but he wanted to go national. So in 1992 Howard did an interview show on E! Entertainment cable television.

It was a weird show -- it was just Howard sitting on a couch in a room with warm lighting interviewing someoone. His radio crew (Gary, Robin, Fred, etc.) wasn't there, he wasn't taking phone calls or doing bits -- it was just a stripped down, one-to-one talk show, Howard Stern without "The Howard Stern Show." 

And it was awkward to watch. Brilliant on the radio, Howard's broadcasting genius stumbled a bit on TV. He was clearly more comfortable behind a microphone and not in front of a camera. His outrageous morning radio NYC shtick didn't quite translate into this nation-wide televised mileau. It was soon cancelled and, in 1994, E! started to broadcast parts of his radio show -- and it was a big hit that lasted until 2005.

"The Howard Stern Interview" is largely forgotten in the long, incredible career of NYC's biggest radio talk show host ever. But this particular episode, where he's interviewing great NYC singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega, is a great example of what this show so odd and interesting. Enjoy!

Remembering the Lufthansa Heist of December 1978

The original news coverage ...

The history and fallout as explained by a former James Bond ...

And as it's immortalized in cinematic history ...

Last Paragraph of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road"

"So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, and all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars'll be out, and don't you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all the rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what's going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty."

NYC Subway Action Scenes

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (1974)

Dressed to Kill (1980)

Nighthawks (1981)

Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

Carlito's Way (1993)

Money Train (1995)

The Devil's Advocate (1997)

Knowing (2009)

Safe (2012)

Joker: Origin (2019)

Scream VI (2023)

Wag the (Ex) Mayor

The sleaze of former Mayor Eric Adams, cleaning up the trail of slime he left behind from his four years in City Hall, is apparently something that Mayor Z's administration is doing, to varied success.

In his last days in office, Adams moved around a lot of his cronies in his administration to obscure city jobs so that he could continue to have a toehold in city government. The new mayor is trying to find and fire as many of them as possible but it's not always that clear cut. Just a reminder of the disaster we got rid of as mayor, and how lucky we are to have someone like Mayor Z in charge now.

But don't worry, Adams is fine -- he just became a citizen of Albania because, ya' know, that's not weird.

In the 1997 classic movie Wag the Dog the president's advisors create a fake war with Albania to help distract from a scandal and win an election. In this case, 30 years later, a very real scandalous mayor is actually going to Albanian and becoming a citizen! Wag the Mayor I guess. Dear God. 

Please, Mr. Adams, please stay there!

Hey, I wuz 'dere!

In the summer of 1996 I spent six weeks as a student at the London School of Economics. It was a nice experience, got some college credits, and enjoyed living in a foreign city (albeit one where people spoke English) on my own for the first and last time in my life (so far). 

My life in London during those weeks was relatively quiet -- I lived in a small room of a student residence and was either studying, writing papers, walking the streets, going to museums (falling in love with the paintings of Camille Pisaro), or reading books about Woody Allen and listening to the Velvet Underground. Also, I remember that this was the time and place where I learned that you could put oil and vinegar on turkey sandwiches (something I love to this day), that I could buy achohol legally at the age of 19, that the British smoke like crazy (every restaurant and bar and public space I went to was basically one big cloud), and that I might have been able to hook up with a really gorgeous Chilean lady but was too shy to do so.

Anyway, what I was not aware of, apparently, is that culturally 1996 was a big year in the UK -- as evidenced below by this interview with a journalist who calls 1996 the wildest year in the wildest decade. My experience in the UK in 1996 was far from wild but I wuz 'dere! at that time and it's weird to hear this guy give an in-depth historical perspective about a time and place that I remember well but wasn't involved in -- so close and yet so far.  

What I do remember quite clearly as that 1996 was a notable year for British filme: Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies won the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival that year and Trainspotting also came out giving the world Ewan McGregor and introducing the world to the Scottish heroin subculture. 

And that's not the only sense of deja vu I had this week. I was just listening to an interview with the actor Jon Cryer -- Ducky from Pretty in Pink, the not-Charlie Sheen character from Two and a Half Men, Superman's nephew in Superman IV and lots of other stuff. Anyway, in this interview he briefly mentioned that, when he was really young, he was an usher at Equity Library Theater on 103rd Street and Riverside Drive when he was a kid. That was hilarious because ... drumroll ... I also worked at ELT as a kid! I wasn't an usher, I worked concessions, but it's so crazy that we both worked at low-level jobs at ELTs in the 1980s. I only did it for a few months in 1989, years after Jon, but still ... I wuz 'dere! Again, so close and yet so far.  

Who Was NYC's First Mayor?

While the City Sleeps

 

Mayor Z and President O Hang with Preschoolers in the Bronx

This is just so beautiful and heartwarming, and a reminder that we have and had great, compassionate leadership in this city and country.

Mr NYC in Legoland

Recently took the family to Legoland, a theme park up in Westchester that opened in 2021. We had a great time -- lots of rides, lots lego stuff to do, and it had a chill, nerdy vibe that we all enjoyed.

My favorite thing, as you might imagine, were the big outdoor Lego builds of American cities -- Philadelphia, Washington DC, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles were featured amongst others. But the really big one, the really major one, was of New York City (no suprise there). Here I will provide you a short photographic tour of Legoland NYC -- it's really amazing to see and something that I encourage all city buffs to check out:

We start out to the north in ...

Da' Bronx

We zoom down into Lego Yankee's Stadium and then visit the Lego Bronx Zoo and the Lego New York Botanical Garden ...

Then we traverse into Manhattan and breeze by ...

The Upper East Side & Upper West Side

Here we see the Lego Guggenheim, the Lego Dakota and Lego Sam Remo as well as the Lego Central Park.

Now let's hop on ...

The Subway 

And go to ... 

Queens

And go through Lego Long Island City and Lego Flushing Meadows Park to a Lego Mets game at Lego Citi Field.

Let's go back into Manhattan and hit ...

Midtown

We pass by the Lego AT&T Building, the Lego St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Lego Times Square, the Lego United Nations, the Lego Empire State Building, the Lego Madison Square Garden and Lego Pennsylvania Hotel, and the Lego Flatiron Building.

Now we go ...

Downtown

We head south from the Lego Washington Square Arch and Lego City Hall to the Lego Castle Clinton and Lego 9/11 Memorial to the Lego One World Trade Center, Lego Lower Manhattan and, in the midst of the Lego New York Harbor pool, the Lego Statue of Liberty.

But what, dere's more! Let's dip into ...

Brooklyn

And we finish up our visit passing by the Lego Brooklyn Museum, the Lego Grand Army Plaza Arch, and Lego Coney Island.

As for ...

Staten Island 

It's not there (yet).

So that's my little tour of Legoland NYC -- but I highly, highly suggest that you go check it out, along with the whole park, yourself.