The classic, iconic movie about love and relationships in NYC was released two decades ago this month and became an instant classic. It stirred up the ages old debate about whether or not men and women really can be friends, about how sex confuses love, about how old relationships affect new relationships, about how love in NYC is a crazy adventure.
Everyone who loves this movie has favorite scenes, favorite lines. Some agree with the movie's philosophy, some don't but still enjoy it anyway. My personal favorite parts of the movie are the short scenes of older couples sitting on the couch talking about how they met and fell in love.
Also, this movie is an unrequited love letter to New York. Remember, this flick came out in 1989 when NYC was still viewed by many as a crime-filled cesspool. But this movie had faith in the city when a lot of people didn't, and had faith in the power of love and marriage when at times it can be very, very difficult.
Of course the most famous scene in this movie is when Meg Ryan fakes an orgasm in the middle of Katz's Deli. It never fails to be funny, no matter how many times you see it.
New York State has a new Lieutenant Governor -- maybe.
Governor Paterson just appointed former MTA Chairman Richard Ravitch to fill the empty post.
Normally the job of Lieutenant Governor is a do-nothing position who only casts tie-breaking votes in the State Senate -- but with a deadlocked State Senate, this means the job currently has a great deal of power.
It is not clear if this appointment is constitutionallypermissible but it's also not clear if its forbidden. Legal minds differ. The courts will decide. But if it is, our month-long political misery will be over.
So you're on the subway and get out at a given station. You locate an exit and head towards it.
You're supposed to be getting off at X street and Y avenue but you get out at the wrong exit and find yourself on Y street and Z avenue.
And suddenly you don't know where you are.
Sometimes getting out at the wrong spot can totally throw you off track. You can get lost on your way to your final destination. It can cost you time -- and time is money.
Exit Strategy NYC is a new app that you can program into your Blackberry, IPhone -- whatever -- and it helps you pinpoint exactly where on the platform you should get onto the train and where exactly you should get off of the train in order to hit the right exit.
Best of all, it doesn't require an Internet connection so it works underground (it would have too after all) and it's cheap (less than $3). Sounds like a pretty wise investment.
BTW I was not paid or anything to promote this. Just caught a couple articles about it so how could I ignore it?
Along with the name Rockefeller, there is probably no name more sterling in the history of NYC than that of Astor. The Astor family's importance and lineage in this town goes back to John Jacob Astor in the eighteenth century and, starting with its original patriarch John Jacob Astor, they have had a huge impact on this city's society, politics, finances, real estate, you know name it, they've had a hand in it.
Heck, without them there'd be no Astoria!
They were the doyenne's of Old New York Money. Even more than the Rockefellers, who made their money in oil (which used to be considered, both literally and figuratively, a kind of dirty business), the Astors first money their money in the fur trade and have always been the considered the very epitome of class. If the term "keeping up with the Jones" means anything, than the Astors were most certainly the New York Jones.
That's why the now unending story of the trial of Anthony Marshall, the late Brooke Astor's son, is so sad. Brook Astor was really the last of her kind and the allegations against her son that he looted her estate -- not only stole from his mother but basically trashed the Astor legacy. It really is the end, not only of a family or a legacy, but of a way of life.
And if you want to follow the whole saga, check out the extensive coverage in Vanity Fair and The New York Times. Never had a real life soap opera been so well written about. It may be the last time we ever read about a tragedy that, even in its squalor, is so ... tasteful.
As we head into this July 4th weekend and celebrate America's Independence, here are some observations that I made as a New Yorker looking at his country right after last year's presidential election.
Zen (noun) – “a Japanese form of Buddhism that concentrates on learning through meditation and intuition.” Free Online Dictionary
NYC is called the urban jungle for a reason: it’s an intense, concentrated place with all sorts of wildness and dangers and mysterious things lurking wherever you go. Our city is certainly comparable to a den of wild animals sometimes, and the population density has the same combustible elements of any diverse ecosystem or interdependent habitat. And like the jungle, you experience nonstop sensory overload in NYC. You can’t go anywhere without having people, traffic, noise … stuff! … coming at you ad nauseam, ad infinitum.
Sometimes you just want to get away from it all but you don’t have the time or cash for a trip outta town. What do you do? Where do you go?
Best idea: find Zen. Inner peace. Locate an internal mental/emotional oasis of relaxation. Take a vacation within yourself. Get calm. Chill out.
But how?
How can such a thing be done within the confines of the urban jungle? How do you get all Zenny in this city? When you’re paying a fortune to live in a pillbox with crazy neighbors and loud traffic outside your door, how in God’s name can you just escape into your mind and spirit?
Oh sure, you can go get a massage or take a Yoga class, and those things are great but they can be expensive. The question is, where can you literally go in NYC to travel into yourself … and get out of all the craziness for a moment?
Mr NYC took a small non-scientific Facebook survey of some of his fellow New Yorkers and got some ideas. These are places in our fair city, thusly dubbed Zen Spots, where you can go and find mental and emotional calm. These are places that are not only relaxing but that give you additional elements of … ahhhhhhh … mmmmmm … hmmmmm … ummmmmm … ommmmmm … zzzzzzzzzzennnn.
Based on my survey, I’ve just given what I hope are but a few of the best Zen Spots in town. If you, my dear readers, have any other good ideas of places to find Zen in NYC, please please please do share them. You will be doing your fellow New Yorkers a great public service.
So here it is, ZeNYC (so far):
“Used to love Carl Schurz park when I lived on the UES. Now I wander through the woods in Prospect Park. The lake at sunrise can't be beat and, oddly enough, I find inner peace right smack in the middle of Union Square. Consistently. No clue why.”
“The church yard of Trinity Church or the Japanese tea house at the Met.”
“Cloisters in Dyckman. A train to 190th. Walk up Fort Tryon park. Good, unique view of the George at sunset. OK medieval museum too...”
“Walking through the streets (usually the ones that are lined with townhouses and glorious trees rate higher on the peace than lets say Time Square) of New York City... isn't there a song like this?”
“Bethesda Fountain.”
Mr NYC’s own: the Brooklyn Promenade at night as well as the park just beneath the Brooklyn Bridge. The lake at the lower edge of Central Park. The Temple of Dendaur at the Met. The Astoria Park pool.
Twenty years ago this summer Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing hit movie theaters and sparked immediate controversy. Some saw it as a bold and insightful expose of race relations in NYC (and America beyond) and others saw it as nothing more than an angry Black Power rant.
Of course, when it was made, who would have ever thought there would be black a president within a generation?
Widely considered Spike's best movie, Do The Right Thing is still being talked about two decades later. Love it or hate it, it's made a lasting impact -- and is therefore one of the most important movies about NYC.
The Triboro Bridge is now the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge -- why it was changed, I'll never understand. Anyway, for any of your NYC junkies out there, here's a thumbnail history of this most legendary of public works.
