Today is International Women's Day, a day where women and the movement for gender equality are celebrated.
All sorts of fascinating women come from NYC. There's no such thing as one type of proud NYC woman -- there many of them.
Here's a few impressive NYC ladies -- they couldn't be more different but they come from all walks of NYC life and each one is (or was, in one case) amazing:
There's Real Housewife Sonja Morgan, a glamorous NYC lady whose turned her socialite life into an art form.
There's Audrey Sanders, a legendary bartender and club founder.
There's the recently deceased Lois Carl, a Bronx girl who moved to LA and became a beloved on set tutor for the child stars.
And there's Anna Shechtman, a young lady from Tribeca, who is re-inventing the crossword puzzle.
Reading about each woman I got a sense of their fearlessness, their determination, their grit -- these are tough NYC negotiating a man's world and the exigencies of life. Whether you have sons or daughters (and I got two) they are role models for everyone.
Okay, so here's the deal -- I really, really, really, really, really, really want you to follow @MrNYCBlog on Twitter.
I post links to all the blog posts on there as well as constantly re-Tweet interesting, funny, informative, and sometimes just downright strange stuff about NYC.
It's a real-time, non-stop New York City's junkie's delight! Make it part of your regular Twitter diet and you'll feel nourished.
So please follow Mr NYC on Twitter and help fill that bottomless pit of need within me.
Wherever you grow up, wherever you spend your formative years from birth to adulthood, it stamps you forever -- no matter how far you may run away from it.
Think of Gatsby. The Long Island millionaire bootlegger is revealed to be, at the end of The Great Gatsby, what he always really was -- a poor boy from North Dakota trying to make good. Think of Ronald Reagan -- yes, he was a Hollywood movie star and US President but he never really stopped being the poor boy from small town Illinois whose dad was a drunk. It haunted him and his years in power, informing his dark view of the world.
You might not be able to "go home again" but your childhood home never leaves you -- no matter how old you get, no matter where you move to.
Being a kid in New York City is something special -- this city is so unique, so weird, so crazy, that growing up here defines you forever. You may move far away, you may grow old -- but NYC kids are always NYC kids no matter where they live or whatever age they are.
Here are two amazing examples of kids from NYC who grew up to define the culture: the movie director and author Peter Bogdanovich and the writer Diane di Prima.
Bogdanovich grew up on Riverside Drive (like me), fell in love with the movies as a kid and spent his childhood and young adulthood in the NYC art house movie scene. Eventually he moved to Hollywood and became a successful (and then not so successful) director of movies like The Last Picture Show and Mask. He had a wild life, dating Cybill Shepherd and Playboy playmates, being best buddies with Orson Welles, acting on The Sopranos -- just an amazing ride. He's an old man now but, as this big interview shows, despite all his successes and failures, despite all his adventures, he's still just the kid from NYC who wanted to be in the movies. And he did it.
I had never heard of Diane di Prima until now but I wish I had: she was the leading female member of the Beat generation. A child of Greenwich Village, she wrote books and poems, taught school and college, and was an innovator in what today we'd call "confessional memoir." She's over 80 now and has had a crazy life but, you get the sense from this article, that Diane is still a young girl from the Village who just wanted to write.
And here's something that all kids in NYC and their parents have to struggle with: at what age can they be allowed to ride the subway alone? Believe it or not, this is a matter of great debate. Honestly, I don't recall how old I was when I started riding the subway by myself (I was 10 when I started riding the bus by myself) but it's one of the "only in NYC" things that defines being a kid in NYC.
A new leadership team was announced today for the New York City Ballet. This might not seem like big news but, in a way, it is.
Since its founding almost 70 years ago, this important NYC cultural institution has only had two leaders -- George Balanchine and Peter Martins. Balanchine was not only the founder but also a brilliant, historic choreographer, the man who popularized ballet in NYC and America. It's not wrong to call him, in many ways, the godfather of American ballet. Martins, his successor, ran the company with an iron-fist for almost 35 years. He kept the company going but was, apparently, a bit of a tyrant, and he retired in late 2017 after he got all #MeToo'd.
I've blogged about my experiences with NYCB as a kid so, obviously, I took some interest in this story. It'll be interesting to see what the future for this company will be like.
Yesterday former Trump lawyer turned government witness Michael Cohen gave riveting testimony to Congress about his "dirty deeds" for Donald Turmp, the NYC real estate developer turned reality TV star turned POTUS. There was lots of shouting, grandstanding, bloviating, about Russian collusion, hush money payments, racism, etc. -- it was political theater par excellence, and mostly just rehashing of what's in the news.
Perhaps the most interesting, and most overlooked part, of Cohen's testimony was about something that hasn't been raised before -- specifically, insurance fraud as it relates to one of Trump's golf courses in the Bronx. This line of questioning came from AOC who lives in and represents the part of the Bronx where this golf course resides.
These revelations show how deep into the weeds of sleaze and corruption Trump and his cronies are and, more importantly, how Trump is like a virus, not only on America, but how he has always been one in NYC.
By the way, did you know that Michael Cohen once ran for the City Council back in 2003? Imagine how different the history of this country would be if he had won!
Here's a quick rundown, some lessons learned, from the special election for Public Advocate:
1. Strong candidates like Jumaane can win votes across neighborhoods and boroughs. Voters are not necessarily loyal to candidates from their districts or boroughs -- they vote for whoever they think is the best candidate, even in a field of 17. Candidates matter.
2. Oddly timed special elections = extremely low voter turnout. Not surprising.
3. For the all the heat and controversy, the failed Amazon deal played no part in the outcome. Voters did not revolt, did not rise up en masse in favor of corporate tax breaks/backroom deals/union-busting -- and thus Ulrich, the only candidate who supported the deal without reserve, lost big. Media hysteria doesn't necessarily translate into votes. People vote their core, unwavering values.
4. The New York Times endorsement is still hella powerful.
In case you didn't read the headline, today is the special election for NYC Public Advocate -- the first such special election since 1950. What does the PA do? Basically, he or she is the city's ombus-person, the watchdog, the person who keeps the machinery of city government honest and running as it should. It doesn't have a lot of formal power but a smart PA can make a difference. If you need more info about where to vote, go to the BOE website. The failed Amazon deal might play some part in who wins -- or doesn't -- this election. Some think it will, some think it won't. Whoever wins will probably win with a plurality of the vote, not a majority, since there are 17 candidates -- and, whoever wins, will have to run again in the fall and might wind up not being PA for long. My vote is for Jumaane Williams, the Brooklyn City Councilman. He has appeared to amass the most support and could prevent a Republican from winning. So please vote for him!
As a kid in NYC in the 1980s, when I was discovering music, I only listened to one station: WPLJ. It was, for me, the best music station in town, playing pop and rock -- all the hits! -- plus it was the home of "American Top 40" which I loved listening to every Saturday morning.
Songs like Madonna's "Cherish" or the Back to the Future hit "Power of Love" are, for me, the quintessential '80s songs that I associate with WPLJ. Then, in the summer of 1994, I actually interned at PLJ, spending weekends handing out stickers and shwag at promotion events, answering phones in the promotions department, and even logging the occasional "Rocky Allen Showgram." It was a fun experience.
Honestly, by the mid-1990s, by the time I interned at PLJ, my tastes had evolved to classic rock and I was more of a K-Rock listener, but I maintained a soft spot for the station of my youth and that let me intern.
By the time I went to college -- and certainly after I returned -- I basically stopped listening to music radio, especially when the IPod came into existence. I had no idea what was going on with WPLJ nor did I care. But the station felt like an institution -- it had been, and would always be, around forever. However, apparently, WPLJ was just sold to a Christian rock company and is, apparently, going to lose its call numbers. Now I'm sad. Really sad. Yet another part of my youth is gone. And yet another great NYC stations is vanishing, along with the likes of WNEW and WNBC and K-ROCK and others. And it's going to become Christian rock? Yewwww ... So farewell WPLJ. And, to quote a song that was played constantly on that station, "I-ye-eye will always love youuuuuu ..." And, most of all, remember you. P.S. I think one of PLJ's problems is that, let's be honest, it had a lousy name and lousy call letters. WPLJ means nothing. It's not like K-ROCK to Z-100 -- those had "zing", they had "edge." WPLJ has ... WPLJ. Boring. Easily the best call letters I ever heard about was for a rock station in California -- KOME (west of the Mississippi river, all the station call letters start with "K"). KOME, as you might guess, were awesome call letters and the station had a lot of fun with them. The station called itself the "KOME spot for great music", "You've got KOME oozing out of your radio", "Wake up with KOME in your ear", and "Don't touch that dial! It's got KOME on it." Brilliant.
