Going, Going ... Gone?

Today was D-Day for "Spiderman: Turn off the Dark" director Julie Taymor. The Tony-winning star director has apparently left the show and it's not clear if she walked or was fired. Anyway, this saga of a musical will apparently continue to enthrall Broadway gossip mongers for months to come -- the show is allegedly going on hiatus for a couple of months (maybe even three) as the brains behind this debacle try to pull gold out of garbage. Well, best of luck, and best of luck Julie in whatever your future holds for you.

Another person having a lousy day is State Senator Carl Kruger, a powerful Brooklyn politician who just turned himself into the authorities for apparently being a bribe-taking, influence-peddling scumbag. This has been a long time coming and it couldn't have happened soon enogh. Kruger is a really bad guy who has basically used his office as a private business and he has helped kill more progressive and reform legislation than probably anyone else. This is great news -- hopefully he'll be replaeed by someone better. We shall see.

Hotel Seville - 1970s NYC Commercial

Ask Mike Anything

Well he only has a couple years left in office but Mayor Mike is still doing new things. Now he has a Twitter feed call #AskMike Anything where New Yorkers can send their CEO any questions they like. 

I can't really think of anything I'd like to ask the Mayor besides why he decided to appoint Cathie Black school's chancellor (but something tells me he wouldn't answer that).

The Way Around Town

When someone or something becomes controversial, it's either because they're doing something incredibly good or incredibly bad. Either way, they are shaking up popular consensus, challenging commonly held practices and assumptions, saying to people "no, don't go this way, go that way."

This directional metaphor for controversy fits aptly to Janette Sadik-Khan, our city's transportation commissioner. 

Since her appointment a few years back, she's installed pedestrian plazas in Times Square, Madison Square, and Herald Square, routed bike routes around town, and reduced the number of parking spaces around town. She is probably the only transportation chief in any major city today (or ever) who has publicly said that the car should take a back seat (pun totally intended) to public or alternate transportation options. If Robert Moses was the quintessential 20th century transportation chief, trying to make NYC a car-centric town, Janette Sadik-Khan is 21st century transportation chief, trying to do the opposite.

Her efforts have ruffled quite a few feathers amongst some politicians and car owners in NYC. For them, bike lanes and pedestrian plazas are nonsense. They don't understand why the streets don't exist completely for them. They think they should be able to drive pollution spewing vehicles anywhere and everything in this town. They don't want this city's transportation infrastructure to change.    

But Sadik-Khan does and she's showing the leadership to do it. I think, years from now, people will look back at what she's done and be grateful that our city's transportation policies changed, taking us in a better direction.

Still Here

Apologies for the week's long radio silence, life has a way of throwing several things at you at once that force blogging to take a back seat. Fear not, however, all is well and all is bright, just been very busy with doing boring but important stuff. Now back to blogging!

The King's Visit

Tonight are the Academy Awards and many people expect The King's Speech to win several major awards, including Best Picture. I certainly hope it does. I'm a big Anglophile and this was an excellent film, shedding new light on some otherwise well-known history.

The film is about King George VI who came to the British throne in 1936 when his older brother King Edward VIII abdicated to marry "the woman I love," American divorcee Wallis Simpson. George was shy, awkward, and had a terrible stutter (his attempts to cure being the subject of the film). George never wanted to be king but he did his best. Along with Winston Churchill, FDR, and Stalin, George was one of the leaders who led the Allies through WWII and helped to conquer fascism. He died in 1952 and was the father of the current British monarch, Queen Elizabeth.

After his abdication, however, Edward became something of pariah. He and Wallis traveled the world, living in luxurious exile, and generally becoming the first couple we might call "celebutards." Allegedly they were sympathetic to Hitler and engaged in financial shenanigans and were generally just awful.

They also had a connection to NYC. Every year they would come here and stay at the Waldorf-Astoria, bringing loads and loads of luggage, including their own serving china. Edward was actually staying in NYC in 1947 when then Princess Elizabeth married Prince Phillip. And after they left town, rumor has it that this outlaw royal duo would never pay their hotel bills.

That said, they weren't so truly horrible. Apparently, in 1941, Edward visited a tenement on the Lower East Side. For all of his wretchedness, Edward always cared a great deal about the poor and working class. During his brief reign as King, he actually went into working class neighborhoods in England and talked face to face with commoners, even saying at one point "Something must be done" (like Princess Diana fifty year later, who was one of the first public figures who bravely shook the bare hands of AIDS patients). Edward may have been an SOB, and a creepy guy, but he was not totally without merit. And here in NYC, at least at one time, he showed that to be true.  

Wisconsin Protest in New York City

We Won't See Their Likes Again

Former Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett and former Screw magazine publisher Al Goldstein, couldn't be more different. 

One is a deeply respected journalist who shone a bright light on the dark doings of New York's political world. The other is an infamous pornographer who published a very filthy magazine and hosted a really dirty cable show here in NYC called Midnight Blue. Love or hate this saint and sinner, they were both amazingly good at what they did, and both made a real impact on the worlds of politics and sex in NYC.

Now they are both out of work. 

Wayne Barrett is no longer with the Voice (as I blogged about here last month) and Al Goldstein's magazine and TV show folded up a few years ago. Both in their golden years, the times have changed and conspired to pass them by. Part of it is the decline of print journalism and the rise of the web (devastating both to newspaper and porn finances), and part of it is the fact that NYC is no longer the gritty, dirty city it once was -- and Wayne and Al were most certainly gritty New Yorkers. Instead, guys like this have been superseded by the likes of Gawker and Burning Angel, slick sites that are more representative of this increasingly slick city.


It's hard to believe how long these guys practiced their respective trades in this town. For thirty-plus years their work was read and consumed by New Yorkers of all ages, races, colors and backgrounds. Now they've been replaced by a new generation who owe them a debt they probably don't recognize. And NYC is a little the lesser for it.

We'll probably never see their likes again.

Carmelo Comes to Town

For those of you still broken hearted that Le Bron James snubbed joining the Knicks last year (he decided to take his "talents to Miami"), you may now dry your eyes. Our savior has come!

His name is Carmelo Anthony.

The superstar basketball player for the Denver Nuggets was traded to the Knicks in a complex deal that involves other players being traded from the Knicks to the Nuggets, a few others players being traded to the Knicks, and then some cash (roughly $3 million) trading hands. 

So now the Knicks has another big-time player and sports experts are calling this a blockbuster deal that could our city's sorry NBA team's fortunes around. In the last few years, the Knicks were doing so badly that the team was literally bribing New Yorkers to come to games. I went to a game in late 2009 where, for $20, I not only got a decent seat in the Garden but also a t-shirt and a free popcorn and soda.  

Last season, however, the Knicks got its act together and now such deals are gone. And now that Carmelo is joining the Knicks, suddenly b-ball will be cool in NYC again in a way it hasn't been since the glory days of Patrick Ewing. 

Best of luck, Carmelo, and best of luck Knicks. We're counting on you to make our city supreme in all sports once again!

Woodstock Minute With Larry Fine (Narrated by Allison Steele)