More than a decade ago the writer and broadcaster Kurt Andersen did an interview for this blog. A native of Omaha, he came to NYC in the 1970s and became a real success story -- he worked as a journalist, co-founded the groundbreaking satirical Spy magazine with Graydon Carter, and wrote books. He has also hosted the very popular public radio show Studio 360 for a long time now.
Recently Kurt made a great appearance on Marc Maron's WTF podcast and it's worth a listen. Several of the things he talks about in the podcast he talked about in his interview with Mr NYC more than a decade go. It feels so good to be a forerunner.
This fall marks the 25th anniversary since the premiere of Friends, the eternally popular sitcom about six wise-cracking vaguely beautifully people who live in a vague-like NYC and who all seem vaguely to be in their twenties and thirties.
I remember watching the very first episode the night it premiered so the fact that it's not a quarter-of-a-century old makes me feel, well, old as F.
Friends was a great show but not a great NYC show -- the city existed merely as literal window-dressing, none of the characters looked or acted like real New Yorkers, they lived in apartments they couldn't have possibly afforded, and the show barely seemed to even acknowledge the city at all. Honestly, they should have just set the show in LA -- it would have been more accurate.
That hasn't stopped some people in this city from cashing in on the Friends NYC connection -- this fall there will be a "pop up experience" in SoHo that recreates the world of the show -- Central Perk, the apartment, the whole thing. If you want to part with your money for this, be my guess. And if you feel later on that you were gypped ...
Great read about a man who worked as a big-time publicist for Broadway show for more than 40 years. He did publicity for many big hits (Hamilton) and some notorious flops (Shogun). He's a real NYC success story, one of those"guy-behind-the-guy" guys. He's retiring now and leaving the city -- but not before sharing some interesting stories about his career.
The brand new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is an eccentric character who will either successfully take the United Kingdom out of the European Union or inflict one of the greatest catastrophes on that nation since the Second World War.
Them's the stakes, Game of Thrones style -- he'll either "win" or "die" (politically and economically that is).
The blond moppy-haired Johnson will be the economic equivalent of either Thomas Cromwell or Neville Chamberlain -- he'll either "deliver Brexit" with a deal from the EU or "crash out", the economic equivalent of going Cold Turkey. It'll be fascinating to see what happens.
On the great old show Yes, Minister there's a memorable quote: "Britain has had the same foreign policy for 500 years -- a disunited Europe." Mr. Johnson seems very qualified to help continue that policy.
For all his silliness, Mr. Johnson is the ultimate son of the British aristocracy and privilege which one small catch -- he was born in NYC and lived here for a long time. He has a foot in both the New and Old Worlds. Even though he was Mayor of London before becoming British PM, Johnson is very familiar with this country and city -- he could probably even navigate his way on the subway.
Talking about British leaders in NYC, you should check out this documentary that was produced in 1972 when King Edward VII -- the man who abdicated the throne in 1936 for "the woman I love" -- died. Fast forward to about 0:16 where he talks about how, in 1919, when still the Prince of Wales, Edward visited NYC and invited then-Mayor Hyland to lunch. Shockingly, the Mayor turned the Prince down! No lunch for you! Can you imagine -- being invited to lunch by royalty and bailing?
So why did the mayor do it?
Because the mayor was an Irish immigrant and depended on Irish votes and Irishmen and women back then hated the British monarchy because Britain ruled Ireland like a colony. So he stiffed the King! Hard to imagine a New York mayor doing the same kind of thing today!
A lot happened back in 1994 -- both for me personally and also in the life of this city and country. So much happened, in fact, that I have a link here to Mr NYC's complete 1994 coverage. It's exhaustive!
Memories of 1994, that gauzy time 25 years ago, seem to be forcing their way back into the public consciousness these days -- OJ Simpson is on Twitter, Quentin Tarantino has a new movie, and there may or may not be another Woodstock in August. Either way, 1994 is a year that never seems to end.
One nice memory from that time is below -- the great song "Stay" by Lisa Loeb. This song was a huge hit back in the summer of 1994, it played endlessly on the radio, people sang along to it ad nauseum, and I never got tired of it. It's just so catchy, so sweet, and has a totally original sound. It's a song of empowerment, of making the best of a bad situation, a real pick-me-up tune.
The video itself is interesting -- it's Ms. Loeb simply running around an empty NYC apartment, singing the song. That's it. The music is so good that nothing more is required. Interestingly, it was directed by the movie star Ethan Hawke.
It's a very New York video for a very New York song -- and both are classic.
The biggest news story in NYC right now -- besides Jeffery Epstein -- is the weather.
This past weekend it was scorching, brutally hot. If you went outside you became drenched in sweat within minutes. Well, the heat went away but now we're still getting drenched -- literally. For the past two days, the city has been pummelled with downpours, the heavens opening up and dumping water on us all. There have been floods and washouts galore across the five boroughs. It's wrecking havoc!
Global warming is truly having its fun with NYC -- massive storms are the new norm.
Two legendary New Yorkers just died -- Robert Morgenhhau and Paul Krassner.
Morgenthau, the longtime Manhattan DA, who prosecuted numerous high-profile cases (Bernie Goetz, Robert Chambers, Joel Steinberg, the Central Park 5, and many others) and, unlike many prosecutors today, also went hard after white collar and corporate crime. He was a child of great privilege who committed his life to public service, serving in WWII and a US Attorney before becoming DA in 1975. Famously, he was hanging out with then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy on November 22, 1963 when they together learned of JFK's assassination. He was 99 years old.
The other passing was Paul Krassner, the legendary satirist and social activist, founder of the satirical magazine The Realist and a brilliant mind. Krassner was a leader of the 1960s counter-culture, a member of Ken Kesey's Yippies, and a friend to people like Lenny Bruce. He knew everyone, went everywhere, wrote about and did everything, and lived an amazing, culturally-rich life. He was 87. Even better, Paul Krassner was kind enough to do an interview for this blog in April, 2018 (just last year!). He was funny, kind, and told us many interesting things about his long life and career -- including being responsible for having abortion legalized in New York State before Roe v. Wade. He was a real original, an NYC legend, and it's a huge honor to have done one of his last (if not his very last) interviews. At the end of the interview I asked him how he would like to be remembered. He replied: "Laughter from the satire I felt urged to share on Earth." Paul, you will be remembered thus. RIP.
In NYC, being a cop or firefighter is, for many, a family business. The sons, daughters, and grandchildren of cops and firefighters grow up to become cops and firefighters themselves -- generation in and generation out, decade after decade.
Not only are these good, secure, working class jobs with great benefits and pensions but there's an entire culture, an ecosystem of support, that comes with it. Someone enters the force and is mentored and looked out for by someone who knew his or her father or mother years earlier. It might seem like nepotism to some but these are, after all, very hard and life-threatening jobs, so having a family connection must make this grueling, emotionally draining much more bearable.
If you ever saw the show Rescue Me, the main character, firefighter Tommy Gavin, is the child of firefighters. This both helps and haunts Tommy, realizing that he is part of a legacy greater than himself.
That's why this particular story is fascinating: a man who works for the NYPD is the great-great-great-great grandson of the man who was the "high constable" of what is now the NYPD back in 1802. Can you imagine -- two people working for the same department more than 200 years apart? Now that's a legacy!
Generation after generation, public servants keep this city safe.
So a short man goes into a bagel shop and yells and screams about how women won't date short men and how he's the Martin Luther King of short men, then he threatens and incites another man to attack him -- and the guy does!
Because, as you know, MLK ranted like a madman in public and asked to be attacked. Yeah, that's what got him a Nobel Prize.
I was going to say that acting like this in public about how you can't score chicks probably isn't the best way to, you know, score chicks. But since this video has gone viral it appears that he's getting chicks! I was always taught that the best way to score chick was to act like a guy who gets chicks -- you know, fake it until you make it, if you build it they will ... -- and then the chicks will believe it and try to get with you. But, then again, what the hell do I know?
I grew up in a house full of books. In fact, you might say it was lousy with books -- there were shelves in every room (except the bathroom), floor to ceiling, full to the brim. We didn't really have walls, just bookshelves. My parents collected roughly 3000 books, including some that were over 500 years old.
You might say, they literally lived and breathed books.
So that's why I loved reading this obituary about a guy who literally turned a whole apartment into a bookstore. He used to own real bookstores in Brooklyn and Manhattan but, once he lost his leases and got sick of selling at book fairs and such, he literally set up shop in a rent controlled apartment. His domestic bookstore became popular for "those in the know", a "secret haunt" for the beautiful people as you might say. People would make appointments to go buy books, groups would congregate in this place to drink and talk about literature. It was a real-life salon, a throwback to another time.
The place went under in 2015 from eviction and the owner just died. But he was another kind of NYC hustler, the kind of person this blog loves and celebrates. Rest in peace.
Every so often a movie comes along that's more than just a movie but becomes a talisman for life. It helps you navigate your own path forward, your own relationships and feelings, and it becomes a part of your heart.
For my generation, it's When Harry Met Sally ... which came out 30 years ago this month. I was a kid burgeoning on teenager-dome, and this movie -- this great, brilliantly written, magically acted, beautifully made, perfectly executed film -- made me think about what it might be like to be a grown up, to date, to have different kinds of friendships, about what kind of person I might become. I can't say, by any stretch of the imagination, that I live a life like any of the characters in the film (well, maybe a little, once upon a time) but this movie, and the issues it raises about men and women, are as timely today as they were back then -- and, believe you me, this movie was the topic of many conversations I had as a young man with both men and women.
If you've seen this movie it's impossible not to fall in love with it. There are so many great scenes, hilarious lines and moments, such fascinating characters, that to try to describe it or sum it up here would be to do the movie a disservice. And, if you haven't seen it, stop everything and SEE IT NOW! You will fall hopelessly in love with it.
Naturally, When Harry Met Sally ... is a great NYC movie. It is a shameless "love letter" to the city, showing its full beauty, you might call it pure NYC p-o-r-n. While today NYC is a dream scape for many (or nightmare, depending on who you talk to), it's hard to remember that, back in 1989, NYC was perceived by most of America and the world as being in crises -- the Central Park Jogger, the crack epidemic, high crime, urban decay, political corruption. The city was seen as a scary place and this movie said -- "No! NYC is as great as ever!" In so many ways, this movie was far ahead of its time.
I've blogged about When Harry Met Sally ... over the years and you can find the complete coverage here.
So go out, get a pastrami sandwich, and watch or re-watch this classic NYC fable.
Hollywood, California has long been the capital of movie making in the United States, an empire of dreams and fantasies burned into celluloid, built in the desert West.
But like all American myths, its story begins Back East.
The movie business started in New York and New Jersey more than a century ago. Before California almost completely annexed film production for most of the 20th century, there was a thriving movie business in Queens -- specifically the studio spaces of Astoria. Movie stars like Rudolph Valentino even lived in that natural precursor to Beverly Hills called Bayside.
The Marx Brothers shot their earliest movies at the Kaufman Astoria studios and other movies shot here as well in the 1910s to 1930s. But soon thereafter movie making in NYC became scant, the exception to the rule.
That's all changed today. Thanks to tax credits and other developments, movie making in NYC is thriving as never before. Over 300 movies were shot here last year! And it's not just because NYC is a great natural location for movies -- there is now extensive studio space in Queens (Kaufman and Silver Cup with outposts in places like the Bronx) and Brooklyn (Steiner Studios). And now the great actor Robert De Niro along with his real estate developer son are planning to open a new studio called Wildflower, also in Queens. If this plan goes through, NYC will rival Hollywood for studio space -- a coming home for the business that started here more than 100 years ago.
Sidenote: I actually briefly went to school with Robert De Niro's son. I didn't know him at all but sat in front of me in math class. He didn't care about math all then but, I guess, that's changed now!
This is a post about my favorite kind of person, the NYC hustler -- in this case, a few of them. They include a poet, a movie theater programmer, a nasty guy who wrote nasty books, and a kooky faith healer. It's also about a structure that could have become one of our iconic buildings -- and was! -- until it wasn't.
They were (and are) regular New Yorkers who hustled in their odd respective fields and found great success -- and, in one case, great failure. All of them except one are gone now but let's remember them:
The poet was named Marie Ponsot who just died at 98. She was one of the last links to the Beat generation, a contemporary and colleague to folks like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg and others. Her poems were about the complications of love and existence and she won big awards and taught at Queens College. Interestingly, she took a long hiatus from her career to raise seven kids but then later resumed publishing and teaching to great acclaim. Then there's Ben Barenholtz who used to program the downtown Elgin and Waverly movie theaters before having a very successful career in film distribution and producing -- including taking a chance on a couple of young filmmakers called the Coen Brothers. Ben's biggest claim to fame, besides launching two of America's greatest cinematic talents, was basically inventing the Midnight Movie. In 1970, he started programming movies at or past midnight, a move that people thought was crazy at the time -- until it was met with massive success. The midnight movie is now a tradition around the world and this guy was the hustler who started it.
And then there's another writer, a wacky guy named Harold Robbins who died almost 20 years ago. A Jewish kid from Brooklyn, he migrated to Hollywood where he wrote trashy books that become popular trashy movies. He made tons and tons of money and lived it up in lavish style. Lots of coke, lots of booze, lots of broads, lots of craziness ensued. He was also a complete liar, trying to convince people that he was some kind of war hero -- his life was fiction as much as his books. Of course, it all ended in tears -- by the time he died he was broke, disabled, homeless. He's one of those guys who lost everything but gained every kind of amazing experience in life that most of us could only dream of.
Okay, so this one isn't gone, she's still alive and apparently thriving. She's another New Yorker gone Hollywood -- Audrey Hope, "crystal healer" to the stars! She apparently uses crystals on the bodies of celebrities to help them restore "balance" and achieve "wellness" and all sorts of crap and yet apparently she makes a great living and is very popular. Talk about a hustler but apparently she's totally legit. Gotta give her credit for that! And keeping with the crystal theme -- did you know that Bryant Park is only a park today because the structure that once stood there, the New York Crystal Palace, burned down in 1858 (part of it also burned down in 1856)? This was a huge exhibition space, domed and massive, based on a similar structure built and designed by Prince Albert in London. It was, at the time, the tallest building in the city. The Crystal Palace was deemed so impressive and major that, at the opening ceremony in 1853, it was dedicated by then President Franklin Pierce. Within just a few short years it was gone, a hustle that failed. But for a time it reigned in glory. (It reminds me that great speech Tywin Lannister gives in Game of Thrones about how the castle Harrenhal was supposed to be the great legacy of the lord who built it but then it was destroyed by dragon fire by Aegon Targaryen). These are my kinds of people, the hustler, the strivers, the people who took chances and made something. In many way, this little blog is my attempt to be one of these kinds of people -- people we should never forget.
This is a very dumb movie but it falls into the unofficial category of New Yorkers who leave NYC for elsewhere and get into crazy adventures in culture clash. It also falls into the it's-so-bad-it's-good genre as well.
The plot is absurd as almost to defy description: it's about a bar bouncer in NYC named Dalton, played by the late great Patrick Swayze, who is such a great bouncer that a bar owner from Jasper, Missouri comes to town to recruit him (as if this is likely to happen). After a two minute conversation offering him a huge amount of money, the bar owner convinces Dalton to pull up stakes, move to Jasper, and start bouncing at his "roadhouse" bar. This bar is so out of control, with drunken brawls breaking out every other minute, that it's amazing it hasn't been closed down by the cops or board of health long ago. Anyway, after some starts and stop, Dalton brings order to the bar -- and he does this through the practice of de-escalation, using the sage wisdom he's gained from (I can't make this up) his PhD in Philosophy from NYU to break up bar fights with overwhelming calmness.
But then, trouble: a greedy developer in town is threatening and exhorting local businesses, including the bar, trying to drive people out to create land for his ambitions. Dalton then comes to save not only the bar but the town -- and, of course, he falls in love with an extremely hot chick doctor along the way.
There's lots of violence and flesh in this movie, along with a plot that, dumb as it is, never flags. See if with your friends on a night when you're all a little drunk and want a movie you can make fun of and yell at.
The most interesting thing to me is the performance by Patrick Swayze. He had just become a big star a couple years earlier in Dirty Dancing and this was the first big movie he was in after that. It was a less than impressive follow up but, the next year, Swayze would star in the mega-hit Ghost followed by other hits like Point Break and To Wong Fu ... (much better movies than this). What's great about him, both in this movie and others, was his amazing "presence", the combination of masculinity and sensitivity he projected. He was a great actor, a real star, and I don't think he ever got the critical recognition he deserved. Sadly he died in 2009 from cancer, a great talent gone before his time.
I don't understand rich people sometimes which why I guess I'll never be one.
Today there's a big story about a guy who bought two small islands off the coast of the Bronx. One of them had a small former radio tower on it that he spent millions rehabbing into a beautiful house -- and he only spent one night in it. He also spent a fortune landscaping the island to make it beautiful (since the island is basically a rock being constantly pelted with saltwater). The other island is tiny and basically unusable. Now he's trying to sell the islands, apparently uninterested in living in his creation.
What the hell? He spent around $10 million on one island he'll never use and another he can't! Now he's trying to sell them for $13 and I can't imagine who'll want to buy them. Who the hell wants to live on a island that completely isolates you from the rest of the the city? It might be cool to visit but who'd want to live there? Insanity!
Meanwhile, in the more civilized world of Riverside Drive, there is a literal mansion for sale around $8 -- less than the cost of fixing up those islands. This Renaissance Revival mansion lies vacant, aching for a buyer. Now, it needs work, it'll cost a lot of money to rehab, but the pictures of it (check it out here) are stunning and mesmerizing -- this mansion even has its own ballroom! If I was one of those super-rich guys, I'd buy this mansion ASAP and fix it up to the "noines." It's the opportunity of a lifetime. And yet, for some reason, in a town of super-rich people, no one wants to buy it! This amazing piece of NYC real estate and history just lies empty! What the hell is wrong with rich people? Seriously, get your priorities straight: Rehabbing a mansion -- yes, yes, yes! Rehabbing islands -- no, no, no!
In the last couple of weeks NYC has experienced a lot of rain -- and more is scheduled for this week.
I remember that a few years ago I blogged about a period of almost unending rain and was surprised that it was almost exactly ten years ago. For almost the entire month of June, 2009 it rained every single day in NYC. This resulted in "rain rage", people living in perpetual fury that their plans and lives were being constantly disrupted by the weather.
Read here about a moment in time that's completely forgotten now but, at the time, seemed neverending.
Just over a month ago the pop station WPLJ 95.5 FM went off the air after being sold to a Christian broadcaster; now its sister station WABC 77 AM has also been sold -- to a local businessman.
This is an interesting development. For decades WABC was owned by big corporations like Cap Cities/ABC, Disney, and, more recently, Cumulus. Now it'll be the personal possession of NYC grocery store magnate John Catsimatidis (more on him and this purchase in a moment).
WABC used to be a huge radio station in NYC. It was a ratings powerhouse and hugely influential in the life and culture of this city. In the 1960s and 1970s it was the music station in town, producing DJs like Cousin Brucie and others, and introducing new bands and singers to NYC listeners. Then, in the early 1980s, it became a talk station -- and made history: its where Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity started their nationally syndicated radio shows, almost launching the conservative media universe that now rules our country. WABC's stable of right-wing radio hosts like Bob Grant and others were (probably) responsible for the election of Governors like Christine Todd Whitman and George Pataki as well as Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the early 1990s.
In many ways, we live in the world that WABC created.
But its been left behind, rattling in the dust. Limbaugh and Hannity moved their shows from WABC many years ago. The Internet and podcasts and social media overwhelmed it, making talk radio seem quaint. It became a victim of its own success. More importantly, as the times changed, as the city it broadcasted to became more diverse, WABC remained, no pun intended, static -- it didn't change, it just devoted itself 100% to angry white male talk, and its rating fell over time. Just as importantly, it was never able to fill the ratings void that Limbaugh and Hannity left behind.
And so, after decades of ruling the NYC radio ratings and government, WABC "bent the knee" to John Catsimatidis. Who is he? He's a businessman who made a fortune running the Gristedes supermarket chain. He's invested in real estate, oil, and other industries and -- like many rich and bored guys in town -- is also interested in media and politics. He gives money to the GOP and Democrats (he's a big Trump supporter), and even has his own radio show where he hosts politicians of all stripes. He's a complete buffoon, one of these guys no one would pay any attention to if he wasn't very rich. He even ran, very unsuccessfully, for mayor back in 2013, and lost big. He's the kind of person everyone mocks behind his back but genuflects in front of -- again, only because he's rich. What's fascinating about this sale, however, is that a station that was once a part of a huge corporation will be run by one man. It'll be interesting to see if John C. is able to make it into a vibrant local radio station, giving it a new life and relevancy -- or just erode it further. I'm especially amazed that he was able to buy it for only $12.5 million! For a once big-time station in the country's biggest radio market, that's a bargain basement, almost fire-sale price. There are apartments in NYC that cost more, a lot more, than that! It just shows how far the once high flying station has fallen, how irrelevant this once indispensable station has become. An exhausted volcano. Good luck, WABC. P.S. I listened to WABC back in high school and, a short while, after college. Most of the hosts were morons but there was one I loved -- Lynn Samuels, the screechy voiced liberal loudmouth. She was NYC to the core, loud and outrageous, funny as hell, the kind of person I can't imagine being on the radio today. She was very popular and ran on WABC for many years before going off to satellite radion. Sadly, she died several years ago (I even blogged about it here). What she would made of Trump as president is anybody's guess!