Ron Perlman Unfiltered

Ron Perlman is one of those actors who has been around forever, appeared in every movie and TV show, and even voiced cartoons. He's a real working, journeyman actor, a consistently great performer -- especially the Hellboy movies and the show Sons of Anarchy.

I remember as a kid he was on this very bizarre 1980s show called Beauty and the Beast, one of the weirder shows to ever appear on network TV. It's about a gorgeous woman who falls in love with a half-man/half-beast who lives in a secret world beneath NYC. Ron Perlman played the beast, the world sexiest animal.

And Ron Perlman is from NYC, a child of Washington Heights. And even though he's a big actor, he's a character himself. You should read this big interview where he talks about his career but also talks about his family, many of whom have worked for the city government their entire careers (like mine!). And he unloads on Trump -- oh man oh man, does he ever. It's a great read!

Also, listen to his WTF interview from a few years ago -- it's also wild!

Adam Schlesinger RIP

His great band, Fountains of Wayne, named a whole album after a major drag in Queens.

And here they are playing their biggest hit, "Stacy's Mom", at Webster Hall in 2003. RIP Adam, you were brilliant.

Please Stay Home!

This is quickly becoming a genre -- people walking around an empty NYC and then writing about mourfully it. The latest example, and it's a good one, can be read here. 

However, much as I love NYC, I won't be contributing to this new-fangled genre. 

I'm not walking around the empty city because 1) I have little kids at home that I have to take care of, and 2) going outside, unless it's for food or other vital necessities, is not a good idea, particularly in Manhattan or any densely populated part of the city. 

So yes, read and enjoy (if possible) these articles but, to anyone else thinking about writing another one, please don't and just stay home!

Marie Brenner's Letter from New York

The great Vanity Fair writer Marie Brenner has a powerful article about NYC during this pandemic, about how the city is mimicking, in its way, the time of the Great Depression.

She compares the make-shift hospitals in Central Park to the Hoovervilles that were built there, how desperation for survival invaded an area built for recreation. Brenner also write about how this crises compares to stories her father told her about the Great Depression -- and how a time and place that felt so distant feels so frightening recognizable today.

It'll be interesting to see what writing and stories about this time survive into another era. This piece might be one of them.

USNS Comfort Arrives in NYC

Empty City

These photos are haunting -- images of NYC during the pandemic.

They are both sad and encouraging -- sad because this crises has literally changed the face and look of the city but also encouraging because it shows that New Yorkers are taking it seriously and doing the right thing by "social distancing."

I never thought I'd see the city so barren, so empty, so drained of life. Streets with no cars or people, closed storefronts, plazas and open spaces vacant, a sprinkle of pedestrians here and there wearing facemasks -- a city of concrete and steel, haunted by ghosts, devoid of its great spirit.

There's nothing eerier than a big, empty, abandoned city.

Recently I was reading C.S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew (part of The Chronicles of Narnia) to my oldest daughter. There's a brilliant, chilling part of the book where two children suddenly find themselves transported into another world -- specifically, a once great city, now dead and crumbling, frozen in time. They walk through buildings and courtyards, deadly silent, before they happen upon an area with men and women, dressed like nobles, sitting in chairs, who have been turned into statues. Through dark magic one of the people, a woman, rises from the dead -- and all hell breaks loose. It's great storytelling and, as it turned out, deeply prophetic.

But we are not a city of statues, not yet. We live within ourevels. NYC will rise again better than ever!

Mark Blum RIP

A great NYC actor of the stage and screen, Mark Blum, has passed away from this terrible virus.

He had long and busy career, and appeared in classic movies like Desperately Seeking Susan and Crocodile Dundee as well as brilliant TV shows like Mozart in the Jungle and Succession.

A real loss to the culture of this city. RIP.

USNS Comfort Heads to NYC

Mr NYC Becomes a Teenager

So this must feel what it's like to celebrate a birthday in the hospital but I'll try anyway.

Today is the thirteenth anniversary of Mr NYC. 

Yes, you read that right, on this very date thirteen years ago this blog debuted. Mr NYC has now existed in three different decades, spanning over 2400 posts and nearly half a million hits.

Not bad for a little piece of cyberspace that has never spent a penny on advertising or gotten any kind of media love. 

If you read this list of 13 Truths of Being Thirteen, you'll get a good idea of the maturity level of this blog and its creator (since this blog is now a teenager, expect it to get very very horny).

So happy birthday to Mr NYC ... or me, sorta.

Here's to thirteen more!

NYC Public Housing During Coronavirus