Memo from NYC

One of my heroes is the great 13th century traveller and chronicler Marco Polo.

A native of Venice, a man of his city, he ventured far away from his hometown, with his father and uncle in 1271, into the vast rich world of Asia. He travelled to China, served in the court of the great Kublai Khan, worked as a representative for him in modern day India and Vietnam and other places, accumulated wealth and myriad experiences, and then returned to Venice in 1295.

Marco subsequently dictated his story to a writer named Rustichello and soon after published history's first bestseller, The Travels of Marco Polo. This book changed history -- Europeans learned about the mindblowing civilizations of the East, their huge cities, their sophistications in money and printing, and so much more. Eventually it inspired other Europeans to travel far and wide -- including Christopher Columbus 200 years later. 

Yours truly, Mr NYC, has actually read this book, probably one of the few people alive who has. 

But first and last, Marco was a Venetian, and for hundreds of years before and after Marco Polo's life, it was the NYC of its time -- an exciting city of islands where "things happened" and fortunes were made -- Venice was the original Crossroads of the World. This BBC article makes the case plainly:  

"Venice at the time was the New York of the world," explained historian Pieralvise Zorzi, whose family traces its roots back to Polo's time and beyond. It was an openminded and multicultural metropolis, a vibrant centre for trade between the East and the West, where the only true religion was business – and the Polo family excelled at it.

Marco Polo died in January, 1324, approximately 700 years ago. But his legend and his city persists. Today there are celebrations in Venice commerating one of their favorite sons. But the Venice of his time no longer exists. As this other article states:

As with all great centers of wealth like London and New York today, Venice glowed even as it slid into political and economic senescence; its residual riches continued to finance art, architecture, music and, though evanescent, a sense of authority and grandeur. Still, at the very end, Venice was becoming little more than a souvenir … the ghosts of the city persist — in Shakespeare’s Othello and The Merchant of Venice, in Thomas Mann’s novella [Death in Venice], J.M.W. Turner’s paintings, in the canals and piazzas clogged with tourists, each looking for a personal Venice.

And so it is today in NYC -- we are a great city of wealth and excitement, people travel here far and wide to find their NYCs, but we risk sliding into being a souvenoir if we don't keep this a city where people can afford to live and work. 

This city must preserve what's great about it -- and not become its own legend.

Marco Polo remains one of my heroes because he experienced a great life, loved his city, and shared it with the world. That is what this blog, in many ways, is all about. 

NYC & Venice: Sisters Forever

Some of you may be familiar with the so-called Sister Cities concept, the idea that certain cities share enough qualities to make them sibling-like entities. This movement began, like so many global initiatives, after World War II, and is run by a group called Sister Cities International. It might not come as a surprise to you that NYC's main sister cities are, among others, London, Beijing, Cairo and Madrid, big international cities all, that set the world's socioeconomic and political agendas.

Makes sense. But I have a different take: if NYC has a real bosom-like sister city, then it can only be one place -- Venice.

Dig this. 

Right now I'm reading (and also watching the Netflix show) about Marco Polo, the famous 13th century adventurer. In 1271, at the age of 17, he traveled from his hometown of Venice deep into the wild world of the Mongol Empire. This was the largest land empire in history to that point, swallowing up all of Mongolia and China and much of what became the Russian Empire (and later the Soviet Union, etc.). Marco spent two decades in service to the empire's great ruler, Kublai Khan. Marco's duties took him all over China, Mongolia, and Asia, including modern day Indonesia and Japan. He was one of the world's first global citizens and his book Travels set imaginations ablaze of distant worlds to be discovered (this book became Christopher Columbus' inspiration and personal bible). Without Marco Polo, history would have unfolded very differently.

And why did Marco hike across Asia, the so-called Silk Road, and into history? What motivated him? 

Money. Business. Trade. Marco came from a family of merchants in a city of merchants (The Merchant of Venice anyone?). 

Unlike other great cities, Venice was not founded primarily as a political or military capital: it was founded for commerce. It's primary raison d'etre was economic, financial, and commercial, not domination and power. It was literally built on water to facilitate the export and import of goods. Traders from around the world could easily land in and depart from this archipelago of trade. And from Venice, Marco Polo found a new world.

Sound familiar? Remind you of someplace else?

Unlike other big international cities, NYC is not a political capital (only temporarily more than two hundred years ago). NYC is and always has been a city of business. A city of commerce, not power. A city more interested in productivity, not ruling. 

And what made NYC the New World's business capital? Same thing as Venice -- water. 

Without the vast harbor, New York would never have become a business leader and America's economic engine. Even today, in this age of airplanes and the Internet, the harbor is one of the city's greatest economic asset. Cargo and cruise ships, and all sorts of commercial vessels, come and ago every day, a whole other city floating off the waterfront. 

   

And NYC is also not only a place for business but a point of entry and a point of departure: for centuries, into the current day, people come to America through NYC and then out into the rest of the country, the Wild West, to discover their futures and fortunes. Manifest Destiny, and so on.

And so I think it's fair to conclude that NYC and Venice have more in common, are more sibling-like, than any other two cities in the world. They are cities of islands, business built on water, beloved by their inhabitants, visited by millions every year, that people come to and sometimes leave to discover the wider world, motivated by the adventurous spirit of these cities. 

They are also, not surprisingly, cities of culture (think of the Met and the Tintorettos), cities of great architecture (think of the Empire State Building and the Doge Palace), cities of lust (think of old school Times Square and Venetian Seduction masks), and cities of diversity (think Chinatown and the Jewish Ghetto). They are cities built upon imagination, yearning, ambition, personal accomplishment -- and, ultimately, hope for a better world.  

So without NYC and Venice, without the drive and determination of their people and the people they've inspired, without creating a culture where human initiative is its primary purpose, the world would be a different, lesser place. These two great cities fit each other perfectly. 

Sisters Forever. 

And I'm sure Venetian Marco Polo would have loved NYC. 

P.S. Here's all my Venice related blog posts from years past. As you can see, it's a city that's always captured this New Yorker's imagination and interest.

  

Si, Venice

Yes, we went to Venice. And it was great.

In an attempt to curb my usual long-windedness, I will do my best to sum up the trip as efficiently as possible.

First, the sights. We saw just about everything: St. Mark's Basilica, the Correr Museum, the Doge's Palace with the Bridge of Sighs, San Giorgio Maggiore, La Salute, the Campanile Bell Tower, Frari Church, the Scuola San Rocco (which houses an amazing collection of Tinterretto paintings), Ca'Rezzonico, the Accademia, the Jewish Ghetto, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. We also went to Murrano to check out the glass factories, spent an afternoon sunning on the beach at the Lido, and even saw a Regatta.

Second, the weather: amazing. The temperatures ranged from between 60 to 70 degrees and it was sunny every day (we did have a spot of rain on Thursday afternoon but otherwise the sky was blue and perfect). Italy gets really hot in the summer so this was a great time of year to go, just before the worst of it. Best of all, we got really tanned.

Third, the food: for the most part it was good but sadly our last night's meal was lousy. Venice is not known as a great restaurant town but most of the places we hit were pretty good. There are lots of places and finding a good spot is all a matter of luck. We also ate tons of pizza and even cooked some fresh pasta one night (we stayed in a little apartment with a kitchen).

Our favorite restaurant was called Trattoria de Marisa ai Tre Archi located on the Fondamenta San Giobbe in the Carnnaregio district. This is a small place where they have no menu and instead serve a multi-course meal consisting entirely of either meat or fish, depending on the night. It costs 35 Euros per person and includes dessert and wine. We came on an all fish night and had squid, ocotopuss, various fried fishes, and a delicious pastichio. If you are ever in Venice, you must treat yourself to this restaurant, it's charming and the food is excellent.

We also coughed up some money and treated out selves to drinks at Caffe Florian. This is a legendary cafe that has existed in Venice, right on St. Mark's Square, since 1720. It is very elegant and swanky and drinks were amazing (I had a Florian Martini and my wife had the Anniversiro Florian). Among Florian's customers over the centuries: Goethe, Lord Byron, Marcel Proust, Charles Dickens, Wagner, Ernest Hemingway, and countless others. (Talk about celebrity clientele.) It has also been featured in some great literature too, like Henry James' "The Wings of the Dove" and Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited." It's a truly legendary place.

Fourth (and finally), the city itself. Venice its a beautiful, stunning place. Building and after building, separated by a maze of canals and narrow alleys, is a feast for the eyes. The architecture of Venice is so unique and each structure was built with such care and attention to detail, with so many different flourishes, that after a while your eyes begin to melt from overload. Sadly, over the years, Venice's economy has shrunk to the point where there is practically no other business in town except tourism. Every place you go there are lots and lots of tourists and all the businesses exist to serve them. While this is convenient (and, speaking as a tourist, it would be hypocritical of me to complain), the city has become so "pimped" out to tourists that it only seems like a Las Vegas version of itself, not the real the thing. That said, I'll still go to the real Venice over the Venetian any day.

Memo from NYC

Great cities don't just have beautiful buildings, fun neighborhoods, vibrant economies, wonderful culture, and diverse populations -- they also produce fascinating people. 

New York City has produced so many such people over the centuries that it's impossible to fathom -- just look at this list and it'll blow your mind.

Recently I blogged about Marco Polo, the great Venetian explorer and chronicler. Venice is, obviously, one of the world's greatest cities -- a beautiful city of islands and business, just like NYC -- and not only did it produce history's most famous traveller, it also produced history's most famous lover -- Casanova.

And here's what's crazy to realize -- while Marco Polo lived in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, Casanova lived in the 18th century. That means there was a nearly five-hundred year difference between the lives of these two historic Venetians! And both men are my heroes because they did what any man would love to do -- travel the world, far and wide, and make love to numerous women.

What more could a man want in life?

So it made me happy to learn recently about another fascinating Venetian who lived between these two men -- and was a woman.

Veronica Franco was a 16th century poet and courtesan. She came from a modest, middle-class family in Venice, and into a world where the only thing expected of her was to get married. She did marry -- briefly -- and had several children, but she pursued a career as a high-class, intellectual courtesan in order to have her own money and control her own life. And while she was very beautiful, she was also so smart, so witty, and so intellectually vibrant that men not only paid for her sexual favors but also her company, her conversation, and her humor. 

She also published books of poetry, including one called Familiar Letters to Various People, which was dedicated to the Franch King Henry III (with whom she shared a night of passion and who subsequently gave Venice ships to protect the city from invasion).

Franco was popular but also hated by puritan factions and was eventually put on trial for witchcraft -- but acquitted. She was a fascinating, self-made woman, a real feminist trailblazer.

The legend of Veronica Franco has persisted to the point where, in 1998, a movie about her life was made called Dangerous Beauty. She wasn't royalty, she wasn't rich, she didn't travel far and wide, but she was a one-of-a-kind original, a fearless advocate for herself and all women, as well as fierce patriot of her city, and that's why she's remembered so many centuries after her death. 

P.S. If I had any playwrighting talent, I'd write one about Marco Polo, Veronica Franco, and Casanova meeting in heaven, discussing their amazing lives and life in Venice during their respective centuries. I'd call it the Venice Trio -- any playwright is free to take my bright idea and run with it (I just expect an invite to the premiere). 

Classic Mr NYC

Over the years I've blogged about my love of Venice, the great Italian city of isles that, in some ways, is the true spiritual sister of NYC.

And like NYC, Venice is a city of beauty and inspiration. 

That's why it was fun to read this article about the legendary designer and business Diane von Furstenberg who has recently taken up residence in a Palazzo on the Grand Canal. Like many brilliant people before her, who came to NYC to realize their dreams, she's done the same with Venice. It's a fascinating story.

And, in some ways, she follows in the footsteps of those other great Venetians Marco Polo, Veronica Franco, and Casanova -- as well as countless New Yorkers -- who take their destiny into their own hands.  

Mr NYC in Milan & Italy

The thing about Italy is that, like all great places, it isn't just one place or one thing. There are so many parts of Italy that are so distinct and special, so unique unto themselves -- cities like Rome, Naples, Florence, Naples, Turin, Venice and others; areas like Tuscany, Lombardi, Sicily and others -- that visiting just one of them is an amazing experience unto itself. 

And, of course, NYC and Italy have many historical links. 

Of course, a big reason why Italy is so diverse and fascinating is that for roughly 1500 years -- after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and the unification or "risorgimento" in the 19th century -- Italy as a country didn't exist. It was a collection of small kingdoms, duchies, city states, and republics -- and thus each city and region fashioned its own identiy.

I've visited Venice and Rome multiple times but, until recently, had only spent one night in the city of Milan. That changed last month when I visited the city for almost a week -- first for work, then for fun, with my wife. We had an amazing time and here I'll tell you all about it!

First, a few things to understand about Milan. It's very far north, very close to the Swiss border, and it's not only the biggest city in all of Italy but it's one of the biggest cities in all of Europe. It's also really rich, one of the biggest banking, fashion, and chemical capitals of the word. There's even a couple of jokes about this -- "For every church in Rome, there's a bank in Milan" and "Milan works so the rest of Italy doesn't have to."

While Milan has an ancient history, its doesn't have quite the same feeling of antiquity that Rome obviously does. Milan lives in the future. But it's still replete with history and we saw a lot of it.

The center of the city, what "ties it together", is the Duomo Cathedral. A massive structure, the Duomo is the biggest cathedral in Italy -- except for St. John's Basilica in Vatican City, technically not Italy -- and all the rest of Europe. It took 600 years to build -- between the 1300s and the 1900s -- and you can see why: it is the most ornate, intricately designed house of worship that you'll ever see. It's drench withed marble statues, beautifully carved, on the walls of Duomo and on the top of the cathedral -- that you can visit and that also provides amazing views of the square and city beyond the Duomo. We spent a long time there and this is what we saw: 

Across from the Duomo, as you can see, is the King Victor Emmanuelle statue and the entrance to the Galleria which has lots of high-end stores. After we walked around the Duomo and the Galleria, we treated ourselves to a lovely Aperale Spritz:

That night we went to a ballet at the world famous La Scala Theater. It was under construction when we got there but, along the way, we saw a beautiful LED exhibit and headquarters for the 2026 Winter Olympics which will be held in Milan:

In fact, as the wife and I were crossing the street toward La Scala, a young guy behind us asked if we were American and, when we said we were, he excitedly told us that he was from East Flatbush, Brooklyn and was in Milan visiting a friend -- small town, small world!

Then we saw the ballet that consisted of three seperate pieces choreogrpahed, ironically, by Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine of the New York City ballet. Here's the program of the show we saw as well as the stunning interiors of La Scala (from our nosebleed seats):

Next day, we went to the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie to see one of the most famous paintings in the world -- the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci. Along the way, we saw some lovely architecture and an interesting little fountain:

Painted on the wall of the church, Da Vinci created the Last Supper between 1494-1498. You shoud read about it at the link above but a few interesting things to note about this painting: 1) Because it's painted on a wall, many people think the Last Supper is a "fresco" but it's not -- it's a "deco" or a mural. A fresco is something painted on wet plaster, which means it's captured and dried, much like a photograph. A mural is painted on dry wall -- like the Last Supper was. 2) You'll notice, in looking at the painting, that almost everything is grouped in threes and that Jesus himself looks like a triangle. This represents the Holy Trinity -- Father, Son and Holy Ghost. It's a stunning painting and, according to our tour guide, his greatest painting ever, even better than the Mona Lisa in Paris.

The church protects the Last Supper like a nuclear warhead -- it's in a air-controlled room, only a few people can visit it at a time for about 15 minutes, and you can go to through a few rooms before you get access to it. Also, there's another painting across from it, The Cruxification by Giovanni Donato da Montorfano, that is also an amazing thing:

Also, during World War II, Milan was heavily bombed by the Allies. The Last Supper was protected by a whole bunch of sandbags that kept it safe. In addition, there's a lovely little garden behind the church is a fountain with a some frogs that, our guide told us "No kissa, no prinza."

That afternoone was visited the stunning Sforza Castle. It was built by the family the ruled Milan in the 15th century and it's a huge fortress with massive battlements, courtyards, and walls:

On our last day, we visited the funky, vibrant, artistic neighborhood of La Brera -- it's like a Soho, Williamsburg, Upper West Side place -- full of culture, history, good food, and highly walkable. While there, we visited the Palazzo Brera which is a big building full of art academies and cultural institutions. It also has a beautiful garden in the back that was built by the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa in 1775 when Milan was part of the Habsburg Empire:

And, nearby, we also found another cute little church:

As you can see, there's so many fascinating and beautiful things to see in Milan that it's hard even to comprehend it all. Just so you also know, Milan has a really great Metro system, it's a super easy city to get around. 

Finally, the food! We ate two really great meals in Milan that signify everything that's great about Italy -- the nouvelle restaurant 28 Posti where we ate a delicious tasting menu (and where we met a lovely couple from Chicago who were having a last big trip before the expected birth of their child in 2025) and the Boeucc, an amazing place that's been in business for 1696 -- it's older than the country of Italy itself! We had a dinner than included an incredibly good truffle pasta -- super good!

And then we left. Back to NYC. Just so you know, the airport is quite far from the city of Milan -- it's an hour by train. It's always painful to be in a train station in Italy because you can see all the amazing cities that are just one ride away, and it's tempting not to just hop onto one of them and go to Venice, Verona or so many other places:

But Milan is a great place and totally worth seeing. 

I've been to Italy a few times now but, as indicated earlier, mostly in Venice and Rome. As a kid I spent some time in Florence and saw the David Statue and the Duomo there but I haven't been back since. One day I shall return there and also go to many other great places in Italy. And, when I do, I'll be sure to blog about it all here!

Pacino in the Park

Great news! Hear ye! Hear ye!

Next summer the one and only Al Pacino, one of the greatest actors to have ever breathed air, will be performing FOR FREE in next summer's Shakespeare in Central Park in The Merchant of Venice.

Very exciting. Being a huge movie star and all, Pacino's stage performances are rare but the Bronx native started his career in New York theater so he's really a theater actor at heart. I believe he's done Shakespeare in the park before, like twenty years ago, so he's not unfamiliar with this terrain. And I'm sure all theater fans are happy he's returning.

It's hard to believe that it's been almost FORTY YEARS since The Godfather. Pacino's career has had its ups (The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, ...And Justice for All, Dick Tracy, Angels in America) and downs (Revolution, The Godfather Part III, The Recruit) but he always gives a great performance.

The Merchant of Venice runs from June 9 to August 1, 2010. Start planning to camp out for tickets now, the demand is going to be insatiable. This is an offer that can't be refused.

They come, they see ... they spend money

One of the biggest businesses in NYC is the city itself. This town is quite literally a magnet, snapping  tens of millions of people towards it each year. 

In these hard times, tourism has become one of the few growing sectors of the NYC economy.

And oh boy, do they come. This year the number of tourists flocking into our city will top 50 million for the first time. Yeah, that's a lot of people. That's the population of Australia and Canada combined plus a few million. That's basically the entire equivalent of France. As big as our city is and as huge as our population is, it's virtually impossible to conceive how many people come here each year just to visit.

Here are some of the stats, according to New York magazine:

• Of the roughly 50 million visitors, roughly 10 million of them are from abroad and roughly 40 million of them are from the USA
• The typical American visitors stays two days and spends less than $500 
• The typical foreign visitors stays a week and spends almost $2000
• Ten percent of all foreign tourists are British
• Visitors from Scandinavian countries spend the most money here
• The fastest growing demographic of foreign tourists are Brazilians

As economies around the world boom and the dollar remains weak, foreigners love to come to NYC and drop coin. It's cheaper for them here than at home (if you can believe that). And surprisingly, most of the American visitors to NYC actually live about 30 miles from town.

Obviously, we love tourists. They pour tons of money into our economy and keep up afloat. 

But is this a good thing? 

The obvious answer is yes. Mo' tourists, mo' money. But there's always a dark cloud.

The dark cloud is that tourism is replacing real economic growth. Mayor Bloomberg himself says that in this article, apparently without any worry about it. But I worry. NYC's economy must always been dynamic, growing, evolving. We don't want to become a Venice or Colonial Williamsburg, a once great city existing purely on its historical reputation or famous sites. We want to be a thriving city, a metropolis on the move.  

Also, as this article points out, tourism has boomed in the last several years thanks to a cheap dollar and low crime rates. But what if the dollar strengthens? What if crime goes up or there's another horrible terrorist attack? Then tourism will plunge and what will replace it then?

So when it comes to tourists, I say the more the merrier (and the more money, the much merrier). But let's also not turn into a city of navel gazers, thinking we're so great while the city crumbles about our ears. Let's create new businesses, attract new industries, and keep the city's economy dynamic. Then we'll really be something to see.

Review: "Six Degrees of Separation" and Its Legacy

In 1981 a deeply disturbed black seventeen year-old named David Hampton ran away from Buffalo to NYC to start a career as a con man. He had nothing, knew no one, and was lost in the big city. But he was determined, in his own scary way, to "make it there."

He did -- sort of. 

A decade later his bizarre story resulted in a hit play, a movie, and the popularization of the "six degrees of separation" concept into American culture.

In 1983 David Hampton showed up at the home of a wealthy Upper East Side couple, claiming that he had just been mugged in Central Park. He said that he was friends with their children at an Ivy League college and that he was also the son of Sidney Poitier. David "Poitier" was extremely charming, funny, insightful, and he won over the couple instantly. They allowed him to stay the night at their apartment -- only to wake up the next morning to find him in bed with a gay hustler.  David vanished before the police arrived and soon the couple found out that David was a con man who had infilitrated their lives. The playright John Guare knew the couple and, after learning their story, wrote a great play about it -- Six Degrees of Separation -- that eventually became a so-so movie.

The fictional drama expands upon the real story. In the play, David's name is Paul and, after he escapes, the couple try to help the police to find him -- meanwhile he continues to seduce men and con them and others out of money (Paul/David had found this couple in the first place after he had, earlier, randomly seduced a troubled rich kid who really did know this couple's children). But Paul's interuption of this wealthy couple's life makes them realize how fragile, how fake, and how empty their existence truly is. They realize that Paul has, in a strange way, made them examine their lives, their marriage, their relationships with their children, and the whole world that surrounds them -- a world that people like David covet without truly understanding, a world that this couple comes to realize doesn't give them any real happiness. The couple comes to understand the pain that motivates Paul and the pain that they feel but can't acknowledge to themselves -- until Paul forces them to. They come to realize that everybody in the world feels pain, and that randomness, that chance meetings between people, plays a huge role in everyone's lives, and changes their fates. The climax of the play is a monologue that the wife gives. It concludes with:

"I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation. Between us and everybody else on this planet. The president of the United States. A gondolier in Venice. Fill in the names. I find that A) tremendously comforting that we're so close and B) like Chinese water torture that we're so close. Because you have to find the right six people to make the connection. It's not just big names. It's anyone. A native in a rain forest. A Tierra del Fuegan. An Eskimo. I am bound to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people. It's a profound thought. How Paul found us. How to find the man whose son he pretends to be. Or perhaps is his son, although I doubt it. How every person is a new door, opening up into other worlds. Six degrees of separation between me and everyone else on this planet. But to find the right six people."

Heavy.

The play takes the always uncomfortable issues of race, class, privilege, socioeconomic advantage and envy, and puts them front and center. It makes people look at themselves, think about themselves, in ways that are both uncomfortable and illuminating. And thirty years ago, this was an even bolder thing to do than now -- John Guare was ahead of his time. 

I remember as a kid when this play was being staged at Lincoln Center. I was going to school near there and remember seeing the enormous banner for it on the street every day. I also heard ads for it on WQXR -- "See ... Six Degrees of Separation" -- and on TV. It ran from the fall of 1990 to early 1992 -- and a straight play that runs for more than a year is a big hit. The movie came out in 1993 and wasn't a big hit -- but the legacy of Six Degrees of Separation is immense. 

The success of the play caused David Hampton to threaten John Guare with violence, try to get a cut of the play's profits, and eventually sue the playright (unsuccessfully) for $100 million. And Hampton continued his con man life well after the play and movie were produced, using his newfound celebrity as well as new identities to con people. Eventually he migrated, at least for a time, to Seattle but wound up back East, dying in New Jersey in 2003 from AIDS. His life was tragic, obviously, and ironic -- the most legitimate and successful thing he was ever a part of was something he didn't create, wasn't actually involved in, and didn't get to enjoy the money from. He was like the gangster Henry Hill -- a truly bad guy who's life inspired a truly great work of drama. 

The original 1990-1992 NYC run also inspired a lot of careers from actors I love and who found great success afterwards. The most famous person in the cast at the time was Stockard Channing who had already done Grease and would later be on The West Wing. She was one of the only people from the play to do the movie -- and got an Oscar nomination for it. Courtney B. Vance originated Paul, and others in the cast included Anthony Rapp (Rent), John Cameron Mitchell (a huge actor and playright), Evan Handler (Sex and the City, Californication), David Eigenberg (Sex and the City), and Robert Duncan McNeill (Star Trek: Voyager). Later on Kelly Bishop (pre-Gilmore Girls) replaced Stockard Channing, James McDaniel (pre-NYPD Blue) became Paul, and a very young and totally unknown actress named Laura Linney also joined the cast. Another replacement actress was Deidre Lovejoy would later be on The Wire. In the movie, a young actor nameed JJ Abrams had a small part -- and now he's one of the biggest directors in the world. 

But the legacy of Six Degrees of Separation goes beyond the life of this man and the real and fictional drama he inspired: the concept of "six degrees" became popularized, it became conversation fodder, it became an idea, a meme, part of the popular lexicon -- that we're all seperated in this world, in this life, by only six people. It gripped the public imagination. So much so that a popular game called "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" was created (finding actors who worked with him or worked with other actors who worked with him) that has saved many an awkward conversation. There was even a bad TV show called "Six Degrees" several years ago (that had nothing to do with the play).

Before social media and COVID-19, Six Degress of Separation reminded us that we're all connected to each other, directly and indirectly, one way or another.

I'm pretty sure David Hampton didn't realize, in 1983, that so many great careers would be spawned, and American culture altered, by his one-night con. 

The world truly is a random place. 

Postscript: I never saw the play when it ran in NYC but I saw it a couple of years later in Washington, DC with Marlo Thomas in the lead role. She was great but sadly I don't remember much else about the production.

You can read all of the various articles The New York Times wrote about Six Degrees of Separation here. 

Mr NYC in Iceland

Once upon a time I went to Iceland -- "once upon a time" being almost 30 years ago.

I was 12, and had never heard of this country before my dad thought it would be a good idea to take me there for a two week tour.  I remember people asking us, "Why would anyone go there?"  When I returned to school from summer vacation and told my schoolmates that I'd gone to Iceland, I was mocked for doing something so boring and dumb. Whatever its name implied, going to Iceland was not "cool."

Well it turns out that my hopeless square father was ahead his time -- today, Iceland is a very popular tourist destination. 

In fact, like so many places that become popular quickly -- leading to big influxes of people and cash -- the small Arctic country is struggling to adjust to their newly "cool" status. There is a run on hotel rooms, restaurants, tours -- the demand is outstripping the supply. Like the city of Venice, more people now visit Iceland every year than live there and its straining this modest country's resources. 

So what makes Iceland so popular these days? Why the sudden tourist boom?

Well, here's my theory: it's a GORGEOUS country with volcanoes and natural hot springs and glaciers. Simply being out in nature there is a wondrous, therapeutic experience. Then there's the people -- they're very nice, extremely friendly, and HOT. Oh my god, Iceland is nothing but gorgeous people, even their ugly people are gorgeous, it's just a country full of unbelievably good looking people -- which naturally makes people, especially men, want to go there. And the people in Iceland like to party --  the capital, Reykjavik, is a big party town. And it's cheap (or was). And, in the summer, it's cool and comfortable -- not hot and gross. In short, Iceland is just a very nice place to go and kick back, experience nature, hang out, and feel zen.

My trip was a tour of the natural wonder of this beautiful place -- lots of glaciers, volcanoes, and such. We ate lots of lamb and fish (the staple foods) and bought cheap, incredibly comfortable  wool sweaters. On our last day, we even flew to the very end of the island and saw the coast. All in all, an amazing experience.

I'd highly recommend going to Iceland if you can -- it's only about a four-hour flight from NYC and it's a great stopover if you want to go on to Europe (Iceland is technically part of Europe, the country closest to our shores). 

Interesting fact: Iceland has the world's longest operating Parliament, going strong since 930 AD. Iceland is a democracy that takes amazing care of its citizens and is extremely politically progressive.

Iceland is an amazing place -- and seems to be finally getting its due.