NYC Imposes the First Curfew since 1943

The last time we had a curfew, more than 77 years ago, was also in response to race riots, after a black WWII veteran was killed in Harlem. LaGuardia thought it was a good idea then, and De Blasio thinks its a good idea now.

Plus ca change ...

The Frogs of Alley Pond

NYC Protests Injustice

The Soothing Kindness of Alison Steele

In these deeply troubled, confusing, weird times, there's nothing like the soothing, calming voice and wisdom of the late, great Alison Steele -- proof that humanity is better than we think, and that the world is, in fact, a great place we should be grateful to be alive in. 

We miss you Alison - but your voice and kindness will live forever. 

"The Power Broker" on TV!

Believe it or not, I haven't been watching much TV during this pandemic -- I spend so much time working at my job, taking care of my kids, keeping my house in order, cooking, and occasionally blogging, that my TV time is severely limited. When I do watch something, it's usually for only an hour or so before bed, usually some show that I've recorded or get off a streaming service.

But on the rare occasion when I do catch the news, I've noticed a trend: people who are broadcasting or being interviewed from home, a bookcase behind them, with a copy of Robert Caro's The Power Broker prominently displayed on a top shelf. Just last night I caught two minutes of Erroll Louis on NY1, and there was the mighty tome looming over his shoulder. 

I'm not the only one who's noticed this -- today there's a big article about how numerous politicians, journalists, and other assorted NYC bigwigs who appear on TV regularly are making sure that The Power Broker can be seen by the audience. Some politicians, like Congressman Max Rose of Staten Island, downright admit that they put it there just be seen. Displaying this book so clearly to the public is an perfect example of what we might call "intelligence signaling" -- it says, "look how smart, informed, sophisticated, and New York I am. Oh, and I really, really like to read." 

Unlike many of these people who've probably never actually read The Power Broker, yours truly has -- I even blogged about it twelve yearss ago. So there!

Other suggested big NYC books to have on your bookshelf to show what a super-sophisticated New Yorker you are: The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe, Underworld by Don DeLillo (might want to throw in White Noise or Mao ii for good measure), maybe some older books like The Great Gatsby, Sister Carrie, and The Age of Innocence, and anything by Vonnegut. 

And here's 1977 interview with the "power broker" himself, Robert Moses!

Review: Forgotten NYC Movies - "Welcome to New York" "Exiled" and "Parting Glances"

There are so many NYC movies that reviewing the famous ones is pointless because they've been written about ad nauseum (and much better) elsewhere. That's why I like, here at Mr NYC, to review some of the forgotten NYC films, as I've been doing recently. Here are three very, very different NYC movies that are probably forgotten but worth checking out:

Welcome to New York (2014): This movie is a collaboration between legendary NYC director Abel Ferrera and French superstar Gerard Depardieu. A chamberpiece of a film, it is based on the 2011 incident involving former World Bank head Dominique Strauss-Kahn and a black maid in a Manhattan hotel room. Depardieu plays a world famous economist who has just left his big job in DC and, before heading back to France to run for president in an election he seems certain to win, goes to NYC to visit his daughter. While staying at a fancy hotel, he rapes a black maid and is soon arrested and confined to imprisonment in a Greenwich Village townhouse with his wife. While there, he ponders his life, his ambitions, thinks about how no matter how powerful he has become he is actually quite miserable, and how life is meaningless and only lust seems real to him. Eventually the charges against him are dropped -- but his repuation and life are ruined.

Exiled: A Law & Order Movies (1998): This is an old TV movie from back in the day when the major networks still did TV movies. It stars Chris Noth (just before he became Mr Big) reprising his Law & Order character Mike Logan. Logan (and Noth) left the show in 1995 when, in the season finale, he hit a politician in the face on the steps of a courthouse. Logan isn't fired from the force but he exiled from detective work in Manhattan -- the patroling the streets of NYC's Sibera, Staten Island. The movie is about how Logan is trying to break a big case, while romancing a young lady, in the hopes that it will revive his career and bring him back into Manhattan. 

Parting Glances (1986): set over a 24-hour period, mostly at a farewell party, it was one of the first movies to directly address the AIDS crises. It stars Steven Buscemi in his first movie role as a gay man dying of AIDS. This movie was part of the rough and tumble independent NYC movie scene of the 1980s, before such movies became big business in the 1990s. The director, Bill Sherwood, never made another movie because, shortly after this movie was released, he also died of AIDS. But this movie was well ahead of its time and gave us one my generation's greatest actors -- recently profiled here for GQ.

South Street Seaport in the Age of COVID-19

An Auditory Love Letter

As NYC remains in lockdown, the normal multitude of sounds that we hear when we're out and about are missing from our ears. The noise that we took for granted, and often found irritating, is suddenly gone and making us sad and nostalgic.

So The New York Public Library has made an "auditory love letter" to the city that compiles various sounds like traffic and street noise that seem both all too familiar and all too distance.

Enjoy it here.

Old NYC Car Dealership Commercials

At Home in New York City

Gosh darn it, those Bowery Boys have done it again -- another great podcast episode (two this time) called At Home in New York City, about what it's actually like to live in NYC, and about what makes it home for the millions of different people that live here.

This story captures what makes every New Yorker's story of living here both unique and universal, both personal and public -- about the city we all see and the city we all feel inside us all. It's heartwarming and uplighting to listen to, especially in this dark time. 

These episodes also read from E.B. White's famous 1949 essay Here is New York where is writes about the three types of New Yorkers and also how NYC gives people both a great sense of privacy and a great sense of belonging.

Enjoy both the podcasts and the essay, and you'll remember why we all love this town.