If I were ever to create a spin-off blog to this one, it would probably be about parks (yeah, real exciting I know but I'm a dork so sue me). Like most semi-normal people, I love parks. No matter how you're feeling, they are a wonderful refuge from the vagaries of life. Every time I've visited a park in NYC, I've always felt better leaving than when I entered it. Parks are the heart of this city, the yings to this cosmopolitan wonders' many yangs.There are over 1700 parks, playgrounds, pools, and recreation centers serving the 8.3 millions people who live here. But there are two parks in particular that are the big dogs in the park pound: Manhattan's Central Park vs. Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Both were designed by Frederick Olmstead and Calvert Vaux, both are huge, gorgeous, perfectly landscaped, and incredibly popular. Because of them, the cost of living even within a mile of them costs a fortune. They are the masterpieces of the New York City park system, the top of an amazing heap. So which park is better? That is a question that is explored in today's Times where a resident of Brooklyn and a resident of Manhattan engaged in a "smack-down" of sorts, each trying to prove that their respective parks (Prospect vs. Central) is the better one. Reading these exchanges, there are some interesting points made about each but, ultimately, it is an exercise in futility, pure mental masturbation -- neither park "wins" this rather silly debate.
And why does it need to be a debate at all? This is what drives me crazy about today's media -- everything is always a contest, everything is always a divide and conquer, mine is better than yours, playing-for-keeps battle. It's stupid. Instead of forming consensus, it's always about trying to prove some point. It's totally unproductive.
The nub of this debate is that Central Park is the tourist park of NYC while Prospect Park is the park of "real" New Yorkers. Central Park has all the culture while Prospect Park has all the fun. One park is pretentious while the other park is somehow genuine. But I think this misses the greater point.
The way I see it -- and I don't see it as one park being "better" than the other -- is that Central Park is the place that shows New York as the great international, cultural city that it is while Prospect Park shows New York as the great place for people to come together. Central Park is the park of the popular NYC imagination while Prospect Park is the park of the great NYC heart. Both are wonderful, both serve a purpose, and both should be embraced -- by New Yorkers and visitors a like.
So sorry for not blogging this last week, the life and times of Mr NYC have been busy -- not necessarily so interesting that it's worth blogging about, but busy. That's my first update.
The second update is that this past week has also been one of the hottest in New York City history. New Yorkers everywhere have been boiling and wilting under the strain of multiple days with 100+ degree humidity and heat. This weekend we're having a veritable cold front -- it's only in the 80s. But next week it's back to the 90s -- ouch.
And if New Yorkers weren't suffering enough from the heat, we got the double-whammy this week when the news broke about someone who will NOT be moving to NYC anytime soon -- LeBron James. The Cleveland basketball wiz kid declined to join our Knicks and is headed to Miami instead. New Yorkers are gnashing their teeth and bemoaning their bad fortune, sad that prince charming has slipped through their fingers and won't be taking us to the NBA ball. Adding to insult to injury, the coach in Miami that LeBron will be playing under is non other than Pat Riley -- the man who led the Knicks in their glory years. Double--ouch.
According to some, this is a lost generation for the Knicks who have become the black sheep of NYC sports. Think about it. This is an era when the greatest city in the world -- which is also the greatest sports city in America -- has had some amazing teams: the dominant and domineering Yankees, the formidable Giants, the ever striving Mets and Jets. They have either won or come close to winning championships but the Knicks ... they've just fallen through the floor. LeBron was to be our ticket out but sadly it was not to be. But hopefully the Knicks will learn that perhaps a star player isn't the way to victory -- it's building a great team.
One of the most famous and important painters of the twentieth century was Pablo Picasso, who's long career spanned many decades and even more artistic styles. Although he is most famous as the creator of Cubist painting (where he painted pictures of people and objects as cubes, giving his subjects a new dimensionality and complexity) his work spanned many different styles from neoclassicism to surrealism to even Asian and African influenced styles. His lived from 1881-1973, producing his first notable works around 1902 and he worked right up until the end of his life. He had an amazing, almost unmatchable artistic career.Running at the Met until August 15 is the first major exhibition of Picasso's works in the United States. The Met has pulled together all of the paintings, drawings and sculptures by Picasso that it has accumulated over the decades and is exhibiting them together for the first time ever. Walking through this huge exhibition, you see how Picasso's work changed and developed overtime, how new influences and experiences shaped his drawings and paintings. Picasso was a true romantic, with a turb
ulent love life and many ups-and-downs in his career, and all of this can be seen 
in his work. Because his career was so long, it had various "periods" where he would paint only one kind of painting: the most famous of these is the Blue Period, the Rose Period, Cubism, classicism and surrealism. Whatever was going on in Picasso's life at the time, that informed his work.He was one of those artists, one of those most amazing and exasperating of people, who managed to work all the time, be incredibly prolific, and also have a full and complete social and romantic life. The man must never have slept. One of the most famous paintings on display in this exhibit is At the Lapin Agile, a portrait of a harlequin looking sad and having a drink at the famous Parisian bar (which still exists today). This painting inspired a play call Picasso at the Lapin Agile written by, of all people, Steve Martin. If you have the ti
me, I strongly recommend that you check out this exhibit. It's an amazing art history lesson, a look at the one of the greatest painting masters of all time.
If you take a gander at the little weather meter on the right hand side of this blog, you'll notice one thing and one thing only: it's hot!
Crazy hot.
Starting yesterday and going through Friday, NYC is going to be experiencing a heatwave of historical proportions. It will be over 90 degrees everyday, and tomorrow the mercury is hitting the "century mark." I was out earlier today and the city is bathing in a steam heat that makes just standing outside like visiting a sauna. It's nuts.
So stay cool! The city is advising that people drape their windows and keep their air conditioners at a reasonable temperature. Best of all, the city has cooling centers around town, places you can go to beat the heat. If you want to find one near you, go here.
Also, if you have any problems with your electricity, make sure to call Con Ed at 1-800-75-CONED (1-800-752-6633) and have your account number handy.
And if this weather weren't crazy enough, how about the fact that one of the people who will be exposed to it tomorrow is Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. Yes, Queen Elizabeth II will be in town tomorrow, her first visit to NYC since 1976, and she'll living through this heat with all of us commoner. Talk about suffering in good company.
So this is literally a royal heatwave. Good luck to all New Yorkers in surviving it.
Interesting article today on Bushwick, a neighborhood that used to be the epitome of working class Brooklyn. Bushwick still is, to a large degree, blue-collar haven and it has some of the few factories left in NYC as well as thriving Jewish community. But in the last few years fancy cafes and yoga classes and yuppies are starting to appear. Increasingly it is getting gentrified. I've heard of people from Manhattan moving to Bushwick and buying big houses and renovating them. Just watch: in a few years, like Park Slope and Williamsburg before it, Bushwick will be the hot New York neighborhood that everyone wants a piece of. And don't say you didn't hear it here first. My grandmother was from Bushwick, and then and out now it was a neighborhood with lots of immigrants. It's one of those neighborhoods that make NYC such an amazing and unique place.
It's been over three years since The Sopranos went off the air but doesn't mean the real mafia went anywhere. Anyone who thinks that the mafia still doesn't exist like it used to is living in a dreamworld. There's a scary, revealing article in the recent Village Voice about a how a hip bar owner on the Lower East Side got shook down by the mob -- in this case, by a 93-year old gangster! This story is a must-read if you want to understand how the mob still operates in NYC -- and how anyone can become their victim. For other previous Mr NYC mob-related posts, you can go here and here.
Now that summer is upon us, the heat and humidity are pounding down without mercy. The most enjoyable way to relieve the stress, naturally, it to take a swim. Some of you might be lucky enough to have, or know people who have, pools in their backyard or in their buildings. But for the rest of us stiffs, we need to search them out.
There are two routes to this: you can find and go to one of the cities fifty-four public pools. The NYC Department of Parks and Recreation has a wonderful list of all the pools in the city with detailed information on each. Or you can pony us some cash and hit one of our city's hotels where you can pay for an all-day pass to use their pools. Some of these hotels include spa packages and range from as little as $60 to as much as $250 (including massages, etc.)
There's also the beach, which I blogged about recently, but if you're not a fan of salt water or sand, these are probably the best ways to cool off this summer.
