Duncan Sheik RIP

"Barely Breathing" was a staple song of my late 1990s college days.

"On a High" kept my spirits up during some rough times.

And Spring Awakening was an important Broadway musical.

RIP Duncan Sheik.

Remembering "Six Degrees" (2006-2007)

Twenty-years ago, before they'd be on Furious, Hope Davis and Campbell Scott appeared together on another show, the short-lived Six Degrees.

Based on the premise first introduced in Six Degrees of Seperation, it's about six different New Yorkers whose lives intersect in various odd ways. They are: Carlos, a public defender struggling with his job; Mae, a recent NYC-transplant with a mysterious past; Laura, an interior designer mourning her husband killed in Iraq (very 2006); Damien, a limo driver and ex-con, trying to live a straight-edge life; Whitney, a high-powered PR woman, Laura's best friend, and with a cheating finance; and Steven, a photographer who just came back to town and who is struggling to reestablish a relationship with his ex-wife and son.

If you're an NYC-junky, this show was for you. But with a premise like this, it needed to be great and it just ... wasn't. It was okay. The main problem is that for a show centered around six people, they needed to be more interesting and their problems needed to be more dramatic. They weren't. The premise was cool but sadly the show didn't really make it compelling. The characters and their storylines were rather boring.

So why am I remembering it?

Well, obviously, because it was a very intensely NYC-show and, naturally, it caught my interesting. Even though the show's drama was underwhelming, it was one of the few shows that really made you feel like you were in the city, and that was unusual (outside of the Law & Order franchise).

Also, it had a great cast: the aforementioned Campbell Scott, Hope Davis, along with Bridget Moynahan (someone also nice to look at) as well as Erika Christiansen (who had been really good in Traffic a few years earlier), and other. They'd all go on to do better stuff.

Another thing is a little more personal: first, one of the creators was a guy named Raven Metzner who I actually went to school with. I also remember one day, leaving my house and walking to work, when I walked by this show being shot on the street early one morning -- and I saw Hope Davis and Bridget drinking coffee and waiting to shoot between setups.

Finally, another reason I remember this odd, long-gone and forgotten show: besides the fact that this show came out preceisely 20 years go, but it was also on just before I started this blog and moved in with my girlfriend.

Six Degrees ran for a few episodes between September and November of 2006, then was pulled from ABC's schedule, then came back in March 2007 and was finally cancelled for good (in fact its last episode airs on March 30, 2007, three days after this blog began). So I remember it here not because it was a great show but because it was truly NYC show and that it was on during an inflection point in my life -- and this was a show all about that!

Review: "Furious" (2026)

I'm happy to say that my life has been so busy lately that I haven't been able to watch much television. However, after returning from vacation, I caught up on the new Hulu show Furious and, damn, it's crazy.

It's rare that you see an NYC show set in NYC that crosses between the high and low of the city, that goes from domestic violence shelters to high rise luxury apartment buildings, and devles into a subject matter that we'd all rather look away from -- the horrors of sex trafficking.

This series is clearly based on the Epstein case since, at the center of Furious, is a wealthy man named Jay Easton. The story involves a young ex-NYPD cop/current FBI agent named Alice (the amazing Emmy Rossum) who pairs up with a cranky middle-aged agent named Nora (the even more amazing Quincy Tyler Bernstine) and her best guy-friend Danny (Scott McNair), a sad-sack cop, as they investigate a series of murders involving wealthy men. Their work leads to a realization that all of these men were attackhed to a sex trafficking ring, and are meeting their doom at the hands of a young woman named Catherine (played by an insanely talented actress named Lola Pettigrew), a former victim of the ring. Alice, Nora, and Danny's work is greatly complicated by their messy personal lives along with colleagues and supervisors who are interfering their work. 

Furious is a show about corruption, greed, sick lust, buried secrets, and how the misbehavior of wealthy and powerful people can leave a massive trail of broken lives and human destruction. This show is not for the faint of heart but it's incredible, stunning drama.

This show was created by Liz Merriweather which is a suprise since her previous hit was the sitcom New Girl. The cast is incredible, and it includes the always wonderful Hope Davis as Jay Easton's Ghislaine Maxwell-like daughter, Jake Lacey as Alice's abusive ex-boyfriend, and Campbell Scott as Easton's lawyer (and one of Catherine's victim). There's also an actor named Steve Wray who plays a disabled friend of Alice's and he is so good, so funny, I hope he gets an Emmy.

So watch this show. Then remember to keep your love ones close.

 

3 Million Plus

As they say, the first million is the hardest. It took 18 years to get a million clicks on Mr NYC but then, within a year, it got to two million. 

And now, just a few months later, here we are: three million clicks! 

Not bad. Onwards. Upwards!

NYC's Summer of '26 Part 2

This past summer in NYC was so eventful that I need to write a short second part about NYC's Summer of '26!

First, there were the political primaries where two incumbent members of Congress lost and a new generation of leaders won at the state and federal level.

Second, I spent a week in Brooklyn with friends and saw and did lots of great stuff on the cusp of America's 250 birthday. 

Third, I went to Maine and ate well and saw lots of natural beauty. 

Fourth, I saw massive helictopers during a boat ride and went to the craziest baseball game ever. 

One helluva summer!

Classic Mr NYC

Fifteen years ago this week Occupy Wall Street began. I blogged about it extensively at the time -- yes, I've been doing this that long -- and now what was real time coverage has turned into a piece of NYC and American history. You can read the entire Mr NYC OWS Archive if you'd like!

And you call also listen to this interview with the great late-night NYC cable TV host Robin Byrd and also read my own extensive archive of her. 

25 Years Since 9/11/2001

To remember this historic day, here's the parts of the memorial service and a story.

The Further Adventures of Mr NYC

 

NYC's Summer of '26

On this first day of September, the summer of 2026 is winding down. Soon the autumnal equinox will be upon us, vacations will end, the air will turn crisp, kids will return to school, the leaves will turn, and thoughts will drift towards the holidays and year's end.

And yet ... and yet ... the summer of '26 in NYC is one for the history books.

Unlike most summers that vanish from the public memory year-after-year, this soon to-be-gone summer has left some traces that will not soon be forgotten.

Even two months ago, at the beginning of July, some in the media were calling it The Summer of New York. Here's a roll call of what happened:

• The Knicks win their first NBA championship in 53 years!
  
  
• The World Cup opens and closes at MetLife Stadium!
  
  
• Taylor and Travis get married at Madison Square Garden, the wedding of the year!
  
  
• America celebrated its 250th anniversary on July 4th with Sail4th in New York harbor!
  
  
• Crazy weather (thanks global warming!) with massive thunderstorms, high heat, and the smoky orange haze that blanketed the city due to the Canadian wildfires.
  
  
• A naked man jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge!
  
  
• The debut of Sterling Point, a lovely New Yorkers out of (and in the) water series!
  
  
• A glorious tribute to Dolly Parton from a gleaming Empire State Building!
  
  
• Even a documentary about NYC's favorite adult star Robin Byrd!
  
  
• And soon we will have a more serious milestone as we remember the 25th anniversary of 9/11/2001.

What a wild, historic summer! 

And here's something that might make 2026 the Summer of NYC into the Year of 2026: this fall are the midterm elections. If, some way, some how, the Democrats take back control of both houses of the US Congress, that means that the President of the United States, the Senate Majority Leader, and the House Speaker will all be from NYC. That'll be even wilder and more historic!

"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.