The town, it is a'changin'

It's only April, but it feels like some important things have already changed in NYC in 2013. 

And I'm not including my own circumstances, where yours truly and family moved into a new home.

Specifically, it feels like the cultural and political axis of this town has moved a few degrees

Two months ago former Mayor Ed Koch died, and I indicated then that the city would be a different place without him. It seems like his passing was a forerunner:  a number of things -- some notable, some subtle -- have happened in the last few weeks that shows how our city is constantly evolving. 

Let's start with politics. This past week, our city's political scene was rocked when a Democratic State Senator and a Republican City Councilman were arrested for -- ready for this? -- trying to rig the NYC mayoral race.

Truly. Weird.

Apparently the State Senator, Democrat Malcolm Smith, was trying to bribe GOP party bosses in the city to let him on the Republican party ballot for the 2013 Mayor's race. The go-between Smith and these GOP guys was City Councilman Dan Halloran, a Republican. Mr Halloran was willing to help Smith get on the line in exchange for several thousand dollars in bribes.  This plan was so ridiculous that it defies description -- first, that Smith would ever get on the GOP line ahead of Joe Lohata, second, that anyone in NYC would vote for Smith for mayor.  

A couple of years ago I blogged about Mr. Halloran and what an odd duck he is. Apparently I understated the case -- he's an odd criminal duck.  

Too bad Ed Koch is dead. I would like to know his opinion about this "conspiracy" to win his old job.

It's still very early but it looks like the 2013 mayor's race is gonna be one for the history books.

Moving on, our city's cultural life is particularly fascinating right now.

First, this past week, the late great Nora Ephron's last play premiered on Broadway. Called Lucky Man, it marks the debut of legendary actor Tom Hanks playing the legendary New York reporter Mike McClary. McClary was a police reporter who uncovered corruption in the NYPD in 1990s and won himself a Pulitzer Prize in the process (he died on Christmas Day, 1998). Needless to say, he had powerful enemies but in the years since he passed, our city has come to realize that we owe him a debt of gratitude. And, of course, he owe Nora Ephron a debt of gratitude for giving us movies like When Harry Met Sally ... and for being an original New York voice. 

This play is a tribute to a great reporter by a great writer both of whom did so much to make our city a better place. Their pens our now silent forever. They left us too soon.

And, sadly, someone else is leaving us -- the amazing Elaine Stritch. The singer/actress has decided that, at the age of 88, she wants to go live with her family so she's leaving town and going back to Michigan. As she said in a TV interview recently, she gave his city a good 71 years. Mr. Strich originated one of the roles in the musical company and she's appeared in countless movies, musicals, and TV shows -- most recently on 30 Rock and in "A Little Night Music" which I saw her in 2010 and blogged about here.

Goodbye Elaine. This city won't be the same without you. 

But not everything is sadness. Not everyone is leaving NYC. In fact, something very big is coming into town.

"From 30 Rock in midtown Manhattan, it's 'The Tonight Show' with Jimmy Fallon!"

Yes, that's right -- after over 40 years, NBC's "Tonight Show" is coming back to NYC with a new host -- the current host of "Late Night" Jimmy Fallon. The show is expected to move here with Mr. Fallon as host in 2014. This is, as Ed Sullivan might have said, really big. After more than 20 years, Jay Leno is out as host and a new generation is taking over TV most legendary talk show. Most important of all, by bringing it to NYC, the "Tonight Show" is rediscovered its roots -- and once again showing that NYC is the cultural capital of America.

So the city is changing -- our politics are getting screwy, some legends are leaving us, and an old legend is coming back. 

Rapidly fadin'

And the first one now

Will later be last

For this town is a'changin'

Douches Rush In ...

Since I'm not cool, Mr NYC has never really done the city's club scene. 

Oh, I've been to some trendy bars and lounges (usually after being invited by some of the few "beautiful" people that the wife and I know) but, otherwise, the exclusive clubs in this town exclude a wretch like me. 

Which I'm okay with. Really.

The few times that I've ever been to one of these trendy places, I'm always overwhelmed by the douche factor. The guys all wear ugly expensive clothes or $500 blue jeans with holes in them, and the women are all dressed like prostitutes. These places are always overcrowded, the music is always blasting (making conversation impossible), the drinks cost a fortune and aren't that good, and I never get the sense that anyone is really having a good time. 

Especially me.

And since these places are so hot and crowded, there's always this nauseating perfume of sweat in the air -- that should be bottled and called Scent of Douche. These places are just awful. 

And apparently they are getting violent.

Last year, at one of these clubs that is so exclusive that you either have to be a celebrity or come from a family of billionaires, a bunch of people got into a brawl. This was no small deal. These were very rich people punching each other out and it has now caused lawsuits to be filed and media stories to be written -- like this one from Vanity Fair. It caused the club to close down and is causing ruptures in NYC club life. 

The horror!

When I read this, I couldn't help but laugh. These clubs are just douche magnets and I'm actually not surprised that fights like these break out -- in fact, I'm surprised that they don't break out every night in NYC. Now that I'm married and have a kid, I don't go out much so it's good to know that I'll probably not be in this club -- or any other -- where people are knocking each other out. 

It only goes to show that douches rush in where daddies fear to tread.

Childhood in NYC

This past week, New York magazine had a great special section on Childhood in New York.

This feature has articles about what it was like to grow up in NYC in the past and today, and it has numerous interviews with various famous New Yorkers about what it was like to grow up here -- as well as interviews with kids who are growing up here today.

We think of NYC as many things -- an international capital of culture, media and commerce, a place where immigrants come to realize the American dream of freedom and opportunity, a place where kids from the rest of America come to "make it", and an exciting place just to have fun.

NYC is many things and it can be whatever you want it to be.

And it's also home to 8.2 million people, including several million children. 

I was one of them, and I'm currently raising one of them, so it's great to see what growing up in NYC was like for others.

For me, growing up in NYC meant so many things that it's hard to sum it up easily. But if I had to give one example about what made growing up in NYC so special, it would be this: 

When I was 10, my parents allowed me to start taking the bus to school by myself. I went to school on East 79th street. At the time, I loved to skateboard. So on most mornings, I would get off the M4 bus at 89th street, right in front of the Guggenheim museum, and skate down Fifth Avenue, right past the Metropolitan Museum, and then down to 79th street. 

These were the happiest 15 minutes of my day and, looking back on it, I realize how lucky I was and how special it was to be able to have a little fun before school -- with some of the world's greatest cultural institutions as my backdrop.

Only in NYC.

Mr NYC Lives!

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost TWO MONTHS since I last blogged -- and believe me, it's not because I haven't wanted to.

No, the reason is because I've been moving -- the wife, baby and I have packed up and moved to a house -- a real honest to goodness house! -- in northeast Queens. 

It's been, to say the least, a huge, major, enormous endeavor. Moving from a small apartment to a fairly sizable house is like taking your life, pulling it apart, throwing the pieces into the air, and them trying to catch them and put them together all at once.

Needless to say, it's exhausting -- and sadly has left little time for blogging.

But, as busy as I've been, I've been keeping a keen eye on the happenings in this town. So much has been going on, it's hard to keep up! However, I plan to start blogging about them very, very soon. Like today. Or tomorrow. Or the day after that. But soon, darlings, soon.

Don't fear -- Mr NYC is here! 

New York - Bloomberg Gives Final State Of The City Address

Kathryn Bigelow: The NYC Years

You may have heard of the movie director Kathryn Bigelow -- the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar (for 2009's Iraq war film The Hurt Locker).

Ms. Bigelow is much in the news today for her current hit Zero Dark Thirty, about the 2011 killing of Osama Bin Laden. This film has generated a lot of controversy since it depicts the use of torture which, according to those who helped find the world's worst terrorist, was never used. Zero Dark Thirty claims to be, oddly enough, a journalistic take on this historic operation but also "just a movie" which supposedly allows it some creative license. The debate rages on.

And if this article really is accurate (hopefully no creative license was used), Ms. Bigelow has always been very creative.

Sure, she's been making movies for a long time (Point Break, Strange Days, etc.) but the first woman to win a Best Director Oscar in history got her start as an artist in NYC in the 1970s. She was part of the last great generation of Manhattan-based artists that spawned giants like Cindy Sherman and Julian Schnabel (also a movie director). Not only was she part of "the scene", creating avant-garde art and going to shows, but she was also part of a the emerging world of cinema studies, even writing for obscure movie journals. 

Before she conquered American cinema, she learned a thing or two in the NYC art-world. 

Seeing Kathryn Bigelow's big, glossy, action-packed movies today, it's great to think that she really got her start right here in the downtown art scene.

As the late Mayor Ed Koch said, NYC is where the future comes to rehearse. And in Kathryn Bigelow's case, that is most definitely true.

Bloomberg's Next Mission: London

Mayor Bloomberg has less than a year in office left and the big question is: what will he do next?

When you have north of $20 billion, you don't exactly need to find a regular job to pay the bills. However, Bloomberg is a super Type A personality and isn't exactly the type of person to retire so he can go play golf and catch the early-bird special. No, he's a driven man -- first he built a global corporation and then he reshaped NYC. What's left? 

How about another major city in another country? Like London.

No, it's doubtful that Bloomberg will become mayor of London. After all, he isn't a British citizen (as far as I know), so there's no point. But according to this article, he has an eye on conquering the town with his enormous wealth and influence in other ways. He wants to be a "player" in that town, as much as he is in NYC.

In many ways, he already has conquered London. His company is building a huge office building there and Bloomberg is already part of the top echelon of British society. Most of all, the British Prime Minister and the Mayor of London have looked to Bloomberg for advice on how to govern -- so his influence is already there. But the rumor is that Bloomberg, after he leaves office, plans to spend more time there and become less of American citizen and more of a global citizen. When you have homes all over the world, after all, that's easy to achieve. It'll be interesting to see what he does.

But that's the great thing about NYC -- when you live here, you are a global citizen of sorts. The world comes to NYC. Of course with Bloomberg's billions, it's easier to be more of one than others, but in this town of global citizens, at least he's in good company.

NYC Anniversaries

Last week saw the passing of former Mayor Ed Koch, an NYC institution if there ever was one. At 88 years old, it seemed impossible that he wouldn't be around forever.

But there are a couple of other NYC institutions that are still going strong.

Most notably, Grand Central Terminal. The great train station on 42nd street on the east side has been shuttling Americans from our city to the rest of the country for 100 years -- it opened on February 1st 1913 at 12:01 AM. Grand Central is the gold standard of American train stations, a monument to American ingenuity and an icon in our city's landscape. Thirty-five years ago it was almost torn down but thankfully New Yorkers of all stripes pulled together to save it. This beautiful station -- sorry, terminal, since trains terminate there -- has almost a million people passing through it every day. It also has amazing history and you can read about it here. 

Then there's the music of the night that's been playing continuously for 25 years. 

Ed Koch was still mayor when "The Phantom of the Opera" debuted in January, 1988. The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical based on an old movie about a phantom that haunts a Paris opera theater is not only the biggest hit ever to be on Broadway -- by far -- but also the single most successful entertainment enterprise ever. It has grossed billions of dollars in NYC and around the world. Many shows, including some big hit musicals like Rent, have come and gone in the time that "Phantom" has been on Broadway. Heck, if you were born when "Phantom" first opened, you would be old enough to star in it! Here's to 25 more years, an NYC icon that keeps going strong. 

Megacities New York

Ed Koch RIP

The 105th Mayor of NYC died on February 1st of heart failure at age 88.

Ed Koch was mayor when I was a kid, the first that I remember, and at the time it seemed like he always was -- and always would be -- mayor. After it left office, it felt like he still was mayor, always appearing on TV and radio, giving his voluminous opinions.  

Koch was a larger than life figure. He is credited with saving the city from fiscal calamity when he took office in 1978, and he piloted the city throughout the 1980s before losing his bid for a fourth term in 1989. He had a mixed legacy -- good fiscal management, much needed housing projects, along with ignoring the AIDS crises and vast corruption within his administration. But he lifted the city's spirits at a tough time for the city and continued to do so in the nearly quarter century after he left the mayoralty. 

The city won't be the same without him.