The Village Voice gossip columnist Michael Musto -- one of the last of a great breed of smart and classy New York columnists who turned gossip into an art -- recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of his column. Managing to have a newspaper column that lasts 25 years in this town is nothing short of a miracle. Mr NYC wishes him a heartfelt congratulations.Here is my 2007 interview with Micheal where he talked briefly about his career and himself.
Even though the Guv has only nine months in office left and isn't running again, this whole nasty scandal with him apparently trying to squash an investigation into his driver (plus some other stuff) has left an already politically weakened governor politically dead. With no credibility and no support left, he basically can't govern. But if he quits, will a Governor Ravitch be able to lead the state effectively, considering that either Andrew Cuomo or Rick Lazio will be taking over as Governor on January 1st? (Now there's a depressing scenario.) There's no good option for Paterson, just a least worst one. And I have no idea what that is. What do you think? Should he stay or should he go -- now?
I heard a great interview on WNYC today with a sociologist named Sharon Zurkin. She's the author of a new book on gentrification on NYC called Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places.
The reasons for gentrification are not new. It follows a basic pattern: poor and working class areas (like Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan or Willamsburg in Brooklyn) became more expensive when upper-middle class and rich people started moving in. The people who lived there before are pushed out and the character of the neighborhood changes.
What's interesting about Zurkin's view of gentrification is that she belives it's driven by the desire of the gentrifiers for "authenticity", the "real" urban experience. As the book's online description indicates "the emphasis on neighborhood distinctiveness has become a tool of economic elites to drive up real estate values and effectively force out the neighborhood 'characters'" that make these neighborhoods so desirable in the first place. Her counter intuitive argument is that the more people try to preserve the "character" of neighborhoods, trying to preserve their "uniqueness", this turns into a racket by developers and "elites" to drive up real estate prices and open up expensive stores and restaurants that make these neighborhoods more and more unaffordable to anyone but the very wealthy. It's an interesting hypothesis -- and certainly to be a very controversial one amongst the NYC intelligentsia.
To get a better idea of Zurkin's theory, you can listen to her interview here.
Been very busy lately but will blog again soon!
Martin Scorsese is, without a doubt, one of the greatest filmmakers ever. A New York boy, he's made many movies set in his hometown. His 1980s classic Raging Bull may very well be his best film and it was considered by many critics the single best movie of the 1980s. The story of Jake LaMotta, a boxer with more rage than Mike Tyson ever had, is hard to describe. He was a great boxer, a tragic figure, and a fascinating character. He was proof that human beings are, despite millions of years of evolution, despite all our culture, education, and pretenses to the contrary, animals. Jake LaMotta's rage and extreme behavior showed how ugly and beautiful we all can be, and his story remains haunting. That his hard life became the basis for this film is probably its most redemptive quality. And it gave Robert DeNiro the role of his lifetime.
You should read this fascinating article about how this movie came to be made. It not only redeemed LaMotta but also Scorsese, showing that no one is beyond redemption.
It's Census time again and that means the Big G is trying to count every man, woman and child in the country. That's a challenge, needless to say, in a vast land with 300+ million living souls. It's particularly hard here in NYC where there are so many "nooks" and crannies, so many obscure places people live, that counting everyone here is especially daunting.Let's hope they do though. The more people they can count in NYC, the more representation we'll get in Congress and state government, and the more power our city will have.
In Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities, the father of main character Sherman McCoy is a partner at a prestigious New York law firm, hilariously called Dunning Sponget. The father is semi-retired but he still shows up to the office most days, does some work and makes some rain. He is called the Lion of Dunning Sponget, a man of sterling character and a lawyer of unquestionable reputation, who can never be fired and never quite retire. These Lions are real. The New York Times has a short list of them, including recently retired Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau.
Right after I graduated college I briefly worked at a law firm where I saw, roaming the halls every so often, a very elderly man. I didn't know what he did at the firm and he only seemed to show up there once or twice a week. Everyone seemed to ignore him and he seemed to ignore everyone else so I had no idea who he was but he had an absolutely huge office filled with an immense amount of paper and pictures and junk. Later I learned that he was an old partner who had represented kings, queens, vice-presidents, Fortune 500 CEOs, famous Old New York families, and was in fact the son (hard to think of him as anyone's son) who had served in FDR's cabinet.
Wow.
They may be lions in winter but they are certainly keeping warm in some very lucrative cages. And they are links to our history who we should appreciate while they're still here.
Recently some friends and I went to Clover Club in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. It's an old-fashioned cocktail lounge right in the middle of a residential neighborhood and, I must say, a real find. With an extensive menu, you can get just about any kind of drink you want. There are regular cocktails, wine, champagne, and beer as well as more exotic things like fizzes, Royales, and "Buck and Mules." I had an absolutely delicious cocktail called an Autumn Tryst which was made up of Cognac, pear brandy, and some other liqueurs. My wife had an Eastern Fizz which is made of Bourbon, orange, bitters, and soda. My friends had some drinks I can't remember the name of but they too were really good.Best of all, they have some reasonably priced and very tasty Savory Bites. We ordered the Crostini (a goat cheese spread on bread, very good) and the Sweet Potato Frites (awesome!) and they went perfectly with our drinks. The decor is very classy and the service is good and friendly. It is very dark inside but that's typical of most of these kinds of places. However, I really liked it and hope to go back soon. If you ever find yourself in this hip part of Brooklyn and want some good drinks, Clover Club is a must.
Remember the movie Wedding Crashers? Remember a few months ago when those people crashed that White House state dinner?"Crashers" aren't just people who go to events where they're not invited. They're also folks who pretend to be celebrities and use their "celebrity" to do things like get into exclusive clubs and restaurants, score free food and booze, and go backstage at shows. In short, to skip to the head of the line.
I've never understood why people become crashers. Why go somewhere you're not wanted? Is that really fun? It only seems to confirm that you are not someone you wish you were. But this hilarious piece from the New York Press sheds some light on why people do crash.
In February 2001, the author was hanging out at a bar with what he was led to believe was the actress Helena Bonham Carter's posse (she's been in a lot of Merchant-Ivory movies plus Fight Club and is now married to -- or living with -- Tim Burton and appears in all his movies). This led to a series of ridiculous events where the fake Helena and her friends almost got backstage at "Saturday Night Live." The author had some legitimate pull there and was used by these crashers to get in. I don't remember hearing about this then but apparently this incident ended up in Page Six and caused something of a hubbub back in those days just before 9/11.
What's great about this piece is that it makes you understand why people crash.
This fake Helena and her friends were at this bar, just hanging out, when one of the people working there asked if she was the movie star. When this woman lied and said yes, suddenly she and her friends were getting free champagne and exclusive seating. What was the point of being honest and just giving that up? Is a movie star somehow more worthy of free booze than a regular person just by virtue of being famous? Who was this hurting? The bar owners were dumb enough to give "Helena" and her friends free booze so why shouldn't these folks, they figured, get it too?
And that's what motivate crashers. It's revenge on those who give and are given things for free just because they're rich, famous, beautiful, powerful, connected, whatever. Crashing is about exposing how the world really works, showing why some people get the good stuff in life for reasons that have nothing to do with things like being honest, hardworking, virtuous, and good. You know, the things we were taught as children were important but, as grown-ups, find out really aren't.
Crashing is a form of terrorism in a way. It's the most harmless kind to be sure, but still a hostile act: outsiders lie and steal in order to become insiders -- if only very briefly -- so as to hurt and humiliate the very people they hate because they are not them. There's no excusing crashing just like there's no excusing any act of terrorism but the more you think about it, the more you understand why some people do go to that extreme: when people feel that they have no chance in life to get what they want or think they deserve well ... then they'll just take it without asking or hurt those who they think are denying it to them.
When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.
Interestingly enough, this week, I was invited to an exclusive party where there will be a few celebrities. I've never been invited to such an event before but why was invited now? Because I have a blog! And for no other reason. I may or may not go but, if I do, I'll blog about it here. Why might I not go? Because I've always felt like an outsider, I've always been one, and, unlike crashers, in many ways I'm more comfortable being on this side of the fence. And that's why I might not go: because even though I've been invited, if I go, somehow I'll feel like I'd be ... crashing ...
President Obama's been in office over a year now. In my humble opinion, he's doing a great job. I know this flies in the face of the media, the Republicans, and the political intelligentsia's consensus of him, in which he's doing a horrible job. Never mind that he still has a 50%+ approval rating -- according to these brilliant folks, everyone in America hates him. He's a huge "disappointment"; "What happened to 'hope and change'?" And on and on and on. Because these insiders hate him so much, in their line of thinking, so does the rest of the country.
They are America, and so can we.
But no question about it, President Obama's had a rough year. Healthcare reform has stalled due to the Democrats dithering and financial reform is facing vicious resistance from -- who else? -- the financial industry! (Never mind that they caused this economic catastrophe in the first place -- it's just so unacceptable to them that the government dare try to prevent such a thing from ever happening again. Dah' noive!). And even though the bailout and stimulus plans prevented this country from slipping into an even deeper economic crises, the economy is still in very rough shape. Like most people I found the bailout and stimulus plans -- plus the resulting deficits -- distasteful. However, I viewed them as the economic equivalent of chemotherapy: as awful as the treatment is, leaving you feeling even sicker afterwards, it's quite preferable to the alternative, namely (economic) death. So thanks to President Obama, Congress, and the Fed, America is now recovering from a nasty recession instead of wallowing in another great depression.
But Presidents don't get credit for preventing depressions, only booming economies, and one of those is a long way off. Also, in tough times, it becomes uber-fashionable to bash the government both for not doing enough to solve the problems and for creating the problems in the first place. Never mind, in this case, that it was an out of control private sector that caused this mess and it's the government that's mopping it up. We can only vote against the President and the Congress -- not against Wall Street or the real estate industry -- so the political deathmatch continues.
Still, President Obama admirably labors on. And not only in economic matters.
He deserves credit for banning torture, re-establishing the rule of law, and improving the nation's image around the world. Yet these are intangibles -- it doesn't give any one a job. And none of this is easy and all of it is politically treacherous.
Cleaning up the slime of the Bush presidency and years of Republican misrule has ignited heated opposition from -- guess who? -- the Republicans! This is understandable. After all, his election was a total rebuke to their party, their governance, and their worldview. And he has kept his word since taking office, trying to pull us out of their wreckage. Needless to say, the Republicans are offended by this and, more importantly, very scared that if he's successful he'll do great damage to their future electoral prospects. So they're currently doing everything they can to ensure he fails, in order to make themselves look more politically palatable -- specifically, this November.
The scary thing is, it might work.
The Republicans are, in the words Bill Kristol, one of their intellectual henchmen, going for "the kill." And the Democrats are predictably acting like lambs at the slaughter.
Predictably. After first, I didn't understand why the administration and Democrats in Congress were so caught off guard by the Republicans exasperating, mean spirited, destructive opposition. Did they really think the Republicans would behave any differently out of power than in? Haven't Democrats learned anything about how Republicans operate after all these years?
Then I realized something. Something fundamental about the differences in the DNA of both parties.
Republicans look at Democrats and think, "They're bad people. Whatever we do to defeat them -- break the law, violate longstanding norms, engage in violence, use hate speech, shred the very Constitution we supposedly love -- is fine because it helps put us in power. "
Democrats look at Republicans and think "They're not bad people. They're good people who just disagree with us. And we should debate them civilly, work with them when we can, and respect the political process."
And so this nation's existential nightmare continues.
It's not so much a partisan divide as much as an attitudinal divide that's wrecking our country. The Republicans want to destroy the Democrats while the Democrats want to work with the Republicans. One side is engaging in battle while the other side wants to ... debate ... In short, there's a political war in this country and one side doesn't realize it.
This is not a choice the Democrats have right now. Or ever. They have to fight! I hope they realize this and sometimes I think they do but more often than not I see they don't. They have to wake up and start fighting the Republicans like their lives depend upon it because lives do depend on it -- their political lives as well as the physical lives of their constituents. This is a political war and there are no rules, there are no norms, the gloves are off, and all tactics (except illegal ones) are acceptable. And until Democrats start looking at Republicans as bad people -- which is what they are -- and develop a war-like, take-no-prisoners, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead mentality -- in short, until they start hitting the Republicans harder than the Republicans hit them -- then the Democrats will keep losing.
And the people that the "party of the people" are supposed to represent will continue to suffer for years to come.
