Wacky Woodstock

This summer marks the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, the legendary three days of "peace and love" music festival held up in Bethel, NY in August, 1969. It featured performances from (amongst many others) the likes of Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, Country Joe and the Fish, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Santana, The Band, Crosby Stills Nash & Young -- even Sha Na Na! -- and closing out with Jimmy Hendrix's classic version of the national anthem.

Woodstock defined a generation and has captured the popular imagination ever since. It defined the anti-war, pro-diversity counter-culture that "square" America has been fighting ever since.

Since that event 50 years ago, there have been two sequels to Woodstock -- first in 1994 for the 25th anniversary, and then in 1999 for the 30th. The 1994 event didn't generate a lot of excitement and the 1999 one was a legendary disaster resulting in rioting and rapes and chaos. It was, in many respect, a fitting end to the 20th century and a harbinger of the dark 21st century to come. 

Now, 20 years later, there were plans for Woodstock 50 this August but, in the last couple of days, it's all fallen apart. Financiers are dropping out, artists are pulling out, and there's a big "Will it or Won't It Happen" question mark over the whole thing. The event planners are desperately trying to salvage the festival but it seems like it might be for nought, the event doomed.

Sad! But it seems, in a way, fitting for this age of disruption, instability, venality, and short-term thinking. The fact that, despite having literally YEARS to put this together, Woodstock 50 is on a knife's edge feels somehow, in the bizarre times we're living in, almost ... appropriate.

Personally, I'm agnostic about Woodstock 50. I hate seeing any big endeavor fail, I love comeback stories, so I hope that they might get this saved.

At the same time, trying to recreate something that was so special, so unique, so of its moment, is also kind of sad. Woodstock in 1969 was something the whole country needed, whether they liked it or not.  In 2019? It feels forced, and the only people who need it are the ones making money.

It'll be interesting to see how this whole thing -- wait for it -- "plays" out.  

"Knock Down the House" - The Rise of AOC (And Others) on Netflix

Garry Winograd - NYC Street Photographer - American Masters

Recording NYC

The New York Times likes to call itself "the paper of record" but this city does a good job of recording itself -- day-by-day, moment-by-moment.

To whit: 

Did you know that NYC puts out its own daily newspaper? I had no idea! Admit it, you didn't either!

And yet since 1873, for almost 150 years, "The City Record - Official Journal of the City of New York" has been published every day detailing the city's business. It's used by government officials and contractors and anyone involved with the city's business to get thumbnail info of what the city government is actually doing. It records what the city is buying and selling, who got this or that contract, agency and department budgets, election results, tax rates, property condemnations, newly issued policies, etc. -- the minutia that rules NYC and its 8.6 million residents. It's a treasure trove for NYC junkies and not only records what the city is doing but is living history, an ongoing record of this town.

Then you have something that records even more.

Welcome to the Domain Awareness System. This is a platform that aggregates the city's CCTV cameras and the feeds of private security cameras that basically records every second of every part of this city. You can't move around anywhere in NYC without your movements being recorded. NYC is, sadly but (I guess) necessarily, a surveillance state. 

In 21st Century NYC, it's hard to keep secrets, there's a record of everything.

Of course, there are still some secrets in NYC -- I guess, as of now, the government hasn't mounted cameras in people's homes. 

But secrets endure. Did you know there used to be an old luxury train car from Europe that was then turned into a cafe inside Bloomingdales for years and years? It was a secret cafe of sorts, visitors to Bloomies had to suss it out. It's gone now so it's even more of a secret. At least there's a record of its bizarre and amazing history.

All Hail Dr. Ruth!

The legendary Dr. Ruth -- the funny short lady who has helped countless couples improve their bedroom activities -- has a new documentary about her life coming ... out.

A Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, Dr. Ruth came to America with nothing and made herself into a pop culture icon. Heck, she even played herself in a great episode of Quantum Leap where she gives Al love advice in the "waiting room"!

And Dr. Ruth credits NYC with her success: "New Yorkers accepted immigrants with accents like mine."

No one has ever put it better, or more succinctly, about what makes American and this city great.

UPDATE: When I was in college, Dr. Ruth visited and talk about how she counsels couples in their love life. She said that couples should do whatever feels good to them and gives them joy. She said that, for one couple she counselled, "zee vo-man told me zhe liked to lob onion ringz onto her huzband's erect peniz." Hilarious. Brilliant.  

The L Train Slowdown - Just the Facts

Mr NYC in D.C.

I've been to our nation's capital many times -- even lived and worked there for a summer -- so doing one post about it seems almost pointless. Yes, I've seen and gone to all the sites, many times, and recapping them would be boring -- but if there's a museum, a monument, or a big building in DC, I've probably seen it or gone into it (including the West Wing of the White House).

That said, it's been a while since I was in DC and it was fun to take the kids for their first visit. They loved the National Air and Space Museum, running around the National Mall, and we ended our visit at the best place possible -- the National Zoo, where we saw the gorgeous giant pandas from China.

My favorite/least favorite moment was when my family and I sat on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and listened to this huge uniformed brass band with spinning majorettes, the whole deal, playing various songs -- including, of all bizarre things, "Spaceman" by The Killers, a song we had just listened to on our drive down to DC the day before!

It was delightful, uniquely American, and the kids loved it -- until, just as we were about to leave, a family walked up the steps of the memorial wearing the grotesque red MAGA shirts and caps. Needless to say, it was a real downer, a beautiful moment ruined by hate -- and, by the way, how dare these or any people wearing those racist symbols while visiting the Lincoln Memorial, especially on the same day where their president called a traitor, Robert E. Lee, a "great general." Disgraceful -- but it also makes you realize that some people have no sense of irony or decency or history.

In that moment, at that special place, we saw the best and worst of America.

We also visited the American history museum which is full of all sorts of Americana including a First Ladies exhibit and lots of military stuff. I did see there one NYC related piece of history -- an original ticket booth from 1923 that was once used at Yankee Stadium in the days of Babe Ruth. 

So it's always fun to go to DC -- even in these bizarre, troubled times for our country.   

What We've Lost

We lost JFK Jr. almost 20 years ago.

We lost the old Penn Station more than 50 years ago.

Granted, they couldn't have been more different. One was a living breathing person and other was a train station. One died tragically in an accident while the other was deliberately and carefully destroyed. But this city lost them both, and we feel the lack of their presence to this day.

And what's crazy, in a way, is that their very existences were built on previous losses, previous tragedies. 

In the case of JFK Jr, he was the living legacy of a president who also died tragically. In the case of the old Penn Station, it existed on land that had once housed mostly black people and who were displaced so this Guilded Age monument could be built.

In their days -- in the case of JFK Jr, the 1980s and 1990s, in the case of the old Penn Station, the first half of the 20th century -- they helped to define this city's culture. They were beautiful, glamorous, awe-inducing, inspiring -- or, as we like to say these days, aspirational.

JFK Jr. created a magazine that fused politics and pop culture together at a time when this was a novel idea and not the horror show it is today. Penn Station was a tribute to American "ingenuity and know-how", an example of what this country could achieve, building something that rivaled the great palaces of Europe -- but that was "for the people" instead of the nobility.

Both scaled the heights -- and invited us to join them.

Then they were gone, and now all we have are pictures and memories. We lost something when they went away -- a piece of our collective hope was chipped away, our faith in humanity was dented, our joy in the world besmirched. Not destroyed -- but diminished. 

Certainly, this city lived to see another day -- even in the aftermath of something like 9/11 or Trump, we've survived -- but how much better could we have dealt with those horrors with JFK Jr and the old Penn Station still around?

That's what loss is all is all about -- wondering what might have been. But we go on ...

Return of the Queen

Suzanne Ferrell was one of the greatest ballerinas in the history of the New York City Ballet. She was the muse of the great George Balanchine, who choreographed many ballets for her, and she was the company star for many years in the 1970s and '80s.

She continued at the company after the great man died in the early 1980s and then, after she retired, she became a ballet master, teaching and coaching other dancers. But then, in 1993, she was fired and banished from the company by the NYCB director Peter Martins with whom she had a bad relationship.

Well, now, Martins is gone, and Suzanne Ferrell is back, coaching dancers for NYCB once again.

It's impossible to imagine that she was gone from the company from more than a quarter of a century since she did so much to define it. And it's great that she agreed to come back after so much time.

It's also a reminder that talent should never be discarded and she always be cherished and engaged, no matter how much time has passed. 

Less Cars + More Money = Better NYC

Coming to NYC in 2020 & 2021: Congestion pricing, a plastic bags fee, and mansion tax. This means less cars in NYC, more money in state and city coffers, and, one hopes, a better quality of life.