Sunday, August 18, 2024

Classic Mr NYC

A few years ago Mr NYC interviewed two people who were involved in the 1980s NYC adult film scene -- Barbara Nitke, an on-set photographer, and Lynn Paula Russel (a.k.a. Paula Meadows), an English actress who appeared in several films before returning to England and starting a successful career as an artist.

Both ladies worked, in their very different capacities, with a big adult star of the time named Siobhan Hunter. A gorgeous young woman with long brunette hair, she was a mysterious, alluring, and absolutely gorgeous creature of 1980s NYC adult cinema. She appeared in several films from 1984 until the early 1990s, working with all the big names of the era (men and women), and developed a huge fanbase.

And then ... she vanished.

The rumor is that she went to medical school in Mexico and became a pediatrician, living a quiet life far from her days -- in mind, body, and spirit --  from her time as a big NYC adult star. 

Recently there was a short bio of her Siobhan posted to Youtube. You can watch it below and also read my interviews with Barbara and Lynn here.  

If you're out there Siobhan, Mr NYC would love to interview you!

Keeping the Past Alive

I'm a lover of history, not just because it's the greatest story ever told, but because it links to and tells us so much about our present -- and where we're going in the future.

When you link past, present and future in something, you get a sense of timelessness, a touch of the infinite.

The ultimate links can be several things -- including documents or records of events created in real time in the past or of places where history has happened.

You might not think that a Greenwich Village political club would be a fascinating hub of history -- but it is. The Village Independent Democrats is more than 70 years old and has been responsible for producing very important New York politicians including Mayor Ed Koch. The club is now archiving its records, which include meetings with Jane Jacobs when she was fighting Robert Moses's Lower Manhattan Expressway and documents about other important political events both from Greenwich Village and NYC history. 

Also, a piece of NYC history that will hopefully see new life is the Metro movie theater on 100th street and Broadway. I remember this place as a kid and saw lots of movies there. It's a beautiful, unique, art deco theater with a beautiful stone insignia above it's huge marquee, the quintessential movie palace (it was even in a movie itself -- it's where Woody Allen goes to see a Marx Brothers movie at end of Hannah and Her Sisters, where he learns the meaning of life). Sadly the Metro has been closed since 2005 and multiple attempts to reopen it (including as an Alamo Drafthouse) have failed. However, there are currently negotiations to reopen it as a move theater/community space and it could be a great new addition to the Upper West Side which has, sadly, become something of a movie desert in the last several years. If it reopens, it will be a piece of NYC movie history living again. 

When past, present and future link together in NYC, you see and feel how truly timeless this city really is. 


Monday, August 5, 2024

Stranger Than Fiction

I know a lot of people think this story about Robert Kennedy Jr. dumping a dead bear in Central Park back in 2014 is funny ...


... but it's not. It's deeply disturbing and gross. 

He is a very sick man, a truly deranged individual, and to think that the scion of America's most famous political family would have done such a thing is mind boggling, truly stranger than fiction.

When this happened ten years ago it deeply confused and upset the city -- and this dude thinks it was a funny prank.

Now he wants to be president. Dear God. Here's the original story from 2014 -- ti wasn't funny then, and isn't now.