Everything You Wanted to Know About the Rockaways

Amongst the many worlds contained in NYC, the Rockaways is easily the most beautiful. It really is a world all its own. It's the pennisula of the archipelago that is the city, sprouting out of the southeastern part of Queens into its own magical land.

There are nine neighborhoods that make it up, almost all of them beach communities that feel more like Miami or Southern California than the Big Apple. About 130,000 people live there, enjoying a different kind of life than most of their fellow New Yorkers. The beaches are vast and beautiful, the streets mostly quiet. And, in a city that operates on high octane neuroses, it's a calm, chill, blissed out oasis.

There's A LOT to learn about the Rockaways. In fact, The New York Times did one of their "36 Hours In ..." features on just the Rockaways alone. The history of this pennisula is profound -- it literally began as a vacation resort for many city residents, a relaxed beachy escape contained within the city limits where people had second homes. Robert Moses, of course, got his mits on it, constructing roads and bridges that directly connected it to the rest of the city. And, more recently, it got hit hard by Hurricaine Sandy, and, although it survived, it is still recovering.

So, if you really wanna know more about the Rockaways ...

Read about its history.

Read about the experience of a young teacher who worked at a Catholic School there.

Read about what you can do there in 36 hours.

And read Mr NYC's own past Rockaways coverage and coverage of Sandy back in 2012.

New York City is a place you can never stop discovering.

NYC In Abstentia

I love a good Latin turn-of-phrase. Thinking about, and planning, this blog post, my first substantial one in several weeks, I thought about not only what I'd write but about what its theme would be.

You see, living in NYC during this pandemic, it feels like the city we love is so close and yet so far. It's there, right out our windows, the concrete and steel and parks and everything we love exists but ... not really. We're here, it's there, we live in it and we love it, but so many of the things we love to do and enjoy in NYC are either closed, cancelled, or, if they are open, extrememly burdensome, not to mention potentially dangerous, to enjoy.

So much of NYC right now feels in absentia -- its there but not here, its in our minds and memories and hopes and dreams but currently unavailable in our reality, our daily lives. 

Scanning the media these last several weeks, these stories defined for me this peculiar sense of absence. What makes it peculiar is that some of these absences are most definately permament but others either aren't permament but ... they might be ... we don't know ... they exist in a kind of purgatory ... in absentia ... forever for or (at least) for now. But some of these things also give me hope that a better day, Annie's "Tomorrow", is only a day (or few) away. 

Here goes, Mr NYC's peculiar feelings about COVID-19 in NYC, the feeling of being "in absentia":

- There's the great musician Johnny Mandel, a child of NYC, who wrote many great songs including "Suicide is Painless" from the classic movie MASH. He died last month at the age of 94.

- There's the memory of the legendary "Black and White Ball" that occurred on November 28, 1966 at the Plaza Hotel. This was the party of the century thrown by the great writer Truman Capote for Katherine Graham, the publisher of the Washington Post. It was also Capote's re-entry into New York society after he had spent years researching and writing his masterpiece In Cold Blood, living mostly in the mid-west. Everyone who was anyone went to this party, a list of legends. This oral history gives a full account of what was, in many ways, the last time high society was openly celebrated by the world. In captured a moment in time before the horrors of Vietnam, riots, Watergate, and so many other body blows would hit the American spirit and psyche -- the legacies of which we still grapple with today.

- Then there's the funky world of NYC theater. Who knows when it will ever live again? Live performances will be the last thing that can "reopen" for obvious reasons, so it may be a year or more before not only Broadway but theaters and shows and performance spaces of all stripes will be able to come back. That's why this other oral history, written in 1985 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Off-Broadway, is both a joy and also sad a thing to read. It reminds you of another NYC, a NYC that lives and breathes and performs and explores creativity. That NYC is on hold for the moment but we can always remember and honor it -- and that it returns ASAP.

- And then we come to the present moment. Many New Yorkers have left the city, quarantining in the country. An estimated 400,000 plus people fled. Some have already returned, some hope to soon -- but others think they might never come back. Others did stay (like yours truly) because the idea of abandoning their city in its deepest moment of need felt wrong. But I  shall not cast any stones. In a difficult situation like COVID-19, there's no right answer to any of this, no right thing to do, no perfect solution to a problem that persists and endures for the world. Should I stay or should I go? That's a question in a time and situation like this that only individuals can answer for themselves -- and we should all reserve our judgements of whatever decisions others have made. 

- And yet ... whatever you're doing during this pandemic, wherever you are, it's probably involving a lot of TV, particularly streaming shows. The wife got me watching this ridiculous show on Netflix called The Politician about a young man who aspires to one day become president and plots out his climb. In the first season he ran and (sorta) won the student presidency of his high school in California. In the second season, he and his friends move to NYC and take aim at unseating a powerful New York State Senator (most of which involves this young man giving speeches next to bridges in freezing cold weather). The plot is absurd but the acting, the writing, and the production values are first-rate (it also has Gwenyth Paltrow). It's a total guilty pleasure. Also, it's a total NYC love-fest, with numerous scenes filmed in restaurants and places that we love -- the kind of places that we can't go to right now. If you've seen or plan to see the second season of this show, you can find more about the glorious places where they filmed it in NYC here. 

- And yet, into the absence, into the void, comes some pure joy: a new show called Central Park on Apple TV. It's an animated musical show, pure fantasy, about a family that lives in Central Park and is trying to savev their home from a developer. The voice talent on this show is insane: Kirsten Bell, Daveed Diggs, Tony Shalhoub, Fred Armisen, even Ed Asner! And so many more! It's a wonderful new edition to the culture, an act of creation in a time of so much loss, that reminds us of why we eternally love NYC, even in the worst of times.

- Finally, there are the saviors. There are the front line workers healing the sick and keeping our city running at a time when it feels like it's frozen. They are saviors all. These saviors include the people at The Public Theater and WNYC radio who, for four nights, broadcast Shakespeare's Richard II in lieu of Shakespeare in the Park that was obviously cancelled. It's an amazing, beautiful experience hearing this great old play read by today's top talent. My family and I listened to it every night and loved it. You can listen to it here. Hopefully, in this time of destruction, Shakespeare on the radio becomes a new creation, a new light in the darkness, that lasts and shines on brightly.  

NYC is in absentia for now ... but never forever, and never totally. 

Mr NYC Will Return BLAZIN'

The problem with real life is that it gets in the way of blogging.

As you can plainly see, dear readers, Mr NYC hasn't been blogging much lately. That's because, lately, real life has gotten REALLY busy. Whenever I read about people's live in quarantine, trying to find things to do to fill the time, I admit to being a tad envious -- because nearly every minute of my waking days are jammed with activity. 

Anyway, Mr NYC will be on a (hopefully) brief hiatus until further notice. I have SO MANY things I want to blog about, so many ideas, so I hope to return soon, in style, BLAZIN'.

Until then, stay safe, stay sane, stay luvin' NYC.

"Hamilton" is Coming Back, "Hamilton" is Here, "Hamilton" is Forever

Actually, it never really went away -- but obviously performances of the much lauded musical have been shutdown ever since NYC went into COVID-19 related lockdown.

But something is going to happen soon that wasn't supposed to happen until October, 2021 -- a four-year old recording of the Hamilton stage show with original cast will premiere on Disney Plus this coming July 3rd. In a time when stage and movie theaters are closed, and the only things we can see are shows and movies streamed or beamed into our homes, this makes for a major blockbuster event.

It's important to remember that this is a version of the stage show, it's not an actual movie-version of it. This article gives the backstory of how this recorded version of Hamilton came to be, and why it's going to be shown to the world nearly a year-and-a-half earlier than scheduled. The show's brilliant creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, indicates that a movie version might come along one day but there's no plans for it yet.

For my money, I actually hope that there never is a real movie version -- look at what happened with Cats! And A Chorus Line. And The Phantom of the Opera. And The Producers. And Into the Woods. Mega-hit shows that turned into a big flops. I also thought the movie version of Les Miz sucked despite the box office/Oscar-love it got. In my 'umble opinion, some shows just work better -- much better! -- as stage shows, as a collection of people coming together and demonstrating the great power of live theater. This can't be replicated in a movie, the power gets lost, gets minimized by the intimacy of film. As the saying goes, "The medium is the message." Shows like Hamilton and these others are "big" -- big casts, big sets, big songs, big messages -- and theater is the best medium for them. So I hope this recording of the stage show remains the definitive version of this musical.

Wild Daze

These are certainly tumultuous times.

Last night was primary night, the first big election held in NYC in the middle of COVID-19. While most of the incumbents won, there were a few interesting outliers of upsets in the making -- and they are "in the making" because of the unprecedented number of absentee ballots cast (including my own) that won't be counted until next week. That means many of these races won't be "called" until then (or possibly later) but it's looking like, up in the Bronx, Congressman Eliot Engel will in fact lose to newcomer Jamaal Bowman and, over the East Side of Manhattan/Astoria, in a shocker, Carolyn Maloney is in a dead-heat with her young challenger. There are also a few state legislative races where incumbents are either down or tied with challengers -- so the progressive wave is very real here.

And, yes, let's record for the sake of posterity that AOC absolutely crushed it in her re-election. Some dopey former anchorwoman who is really a Republican challenged AOC in the Democratic primary, raised and spent $2 million, and now has nothing to show for it. Haha!

You can get the full (as of now) results for all these primaries here and here. 

And COVID-19 still is wrecking havoc on NYC, despite the "reopening." The mayor has indicated that mass lay-offs may be coming to city government, and the governor has announced quarantine restrictions for people coming to New York from states that have seen a spike in COVID-19 cases. Just a few short months ago NYC was the epicenter for the pandemic but smart rules "flattened the curve" and now the number of cases is very low. But other parts of the country that are run by morons are seeing their case loads shoot-up -- and we don't want them here! 

And then! ... There's the fireworks. Yes, for reasons no one can entirely understand, people have been setting off fireworks all over town. They started quietly in early June and now, right near the end of the month, they have become our secondary pandemic. They are going off in each of the five boroughs -- as this interactive map shows -- and it's driving people nuts. Now the mayor has said something will be done about it.

Oh yes, these are wild days putting us all in a daze -- and, for my money, life can't get boring enough soon enough!

"Live From Here" No More

The public radio show "Live From Here" has been cancelled.

For those of you who aren't public radio buffs, "Live From Here" was the successor to "A Prairie Home Companion", a similar variety show hosted by Garrison Keillor for nearly 40 years. Lots of music, lots of comedy, it was a fun and wacky hipster version of the Grand Old Opry. "Live" was hosted by the singer Chris Thile, and the show had recently re-located from St. Paul, MN (where "Prairie" and then "Live" originated from) to NYC.

The whole point of bringing the show here was so that it could attract lots of big name guests (it did!) but the financial impact COVID-19 was apparently too much for it to bare. It depended, in part, on ticket sales, and it's unlikely that live shows like this will return anytime soon. So now "Live From Here" is gone.

This is really, really sad. I loved the show. It ran on Saturday nights from 6-8 PM on WNYC, and was a staple of its Saturday night schedule. I'd listen to it either in the kitchen while making dinner or with my wife and kids in the car if we were going to or coming from someplace. It was a relief to turn it on and listen to some fun people having fun, being creative, singing and joking to their hearts content, giving us all a temporary reprieve from the horror-show of the world. "Live", like "Prairie" before it, was sort of an inverse to "Saturday Night Live" -- it was on radio early in the evening and had more music than comedy. It was a real treat.

A treat that has now been snatched away from us. It's another part of the cultural fabric of NYC that's unravelled and I hope that, maybe some day when this is all over, it can be resurrected. 

P.S. This is the show where I discovered Brandi Carlille! 

Dinner and a Show

One of the staples of the NYC economy is "dinner and a show."

In a town with the best theater and restaurants, this is a grand tradition for natives and visitors alike -- and, obviously, it's one of the things that has been rendered impossible by COVID-19.

This piece gives you some fond nostalgia -- and advice -- about enjoying dinner and a show. And the author gives good advice, namely that you should have dinner after the show, not before.

Totally agree. It's wonderful seeing the show, then going to a nearby restaurant and eating and drinking into the night, feeling like you are in the center of culture, the center of the world, the center of what makes everything great about NYC.

A Nutcracker-Less NYC in 2020

New York City Ballet has cancelled performances for "The Nutcracker" for December of this year.  There are very tentative plans perhaps to stage it in early 2021 but that's not certain.

"The Nutcracker" was first staged by City Ballet in 1954, nearly 70 years ago, and has been performed every year without fail since then. Not even terrorist attacks or economic crises has stopped it -- but a pandemic did. This is the original and definitive American version of this ballet classic, the American Mother of All Nutcrackers. 

This is a huge financial hit for City Ballet -- "The Nutcracker" is their Avengers, their Star Wars, their sure-fire hit franchise that just mints money without fail. It's the ballet that people who otherwise don't go to the ballet go to see. I was stunned to see that it grosses over $15 million a year for City Ballet, more than some movies.

It's also a big cultural loss for NYC -- along with the lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas tree and New Year's Eve in Times Square, it's one of the biggest holiday events in the city. So this is a big loss -- for now.

No doubt the Sugarplum Fairy will dance once more.

P.S. I was in "The Nutcracker" as a kid as I've blogged about before. 

(Political) Rumble in the Bronx

Next Tuesday is primary day. There are a number of progressive challengers running against longtime incumbents in Democratic primaries for State Assembly, State Senate, and US House races. Obviously these primaries are more important than the general election since the winners are 99% certain to prevail in November.

The most high-profile and brutal of them is in the Bronx.

Congressman Eliot Engel has held this seat for 32 years, winning cycle after cycle without any problem. Engel's district encompasses the north Bronx, including wealthy white Riverdale, as well some poorer, mostly black areas. Until recently he seemed a shoe-in for another term. But in this time of Black Lives Matter and social justice protests, as well as a strong challenge from middle school principal Jamaal Bowman, plus a huge dumb public gaffe by Engel, the race "is on."

The result of this primary will be fascinating. It's a classic example of experience vs. time for a change, a well-entrenched and well-financed incumbent who worked his way up in and works well with the party establishment vs. an un-bought and super-motivated outsider who brings consensus-busting policies (like Medicare for All, etc.) into the debate. It's quite reminiscient of AOC vs. Crowley two years ago (Bowman has gotten AOC's endorsement) so this primary could be another big progessive upset or yet another example of "the house always wins." Bowman is a compelling, interseting candidate but Engel has a strong and admirable record of service -- in a sense, they both deserve to win.

But only one will. If Engel does, it'll certainly be a huge blow to the DSA crowd but, if Bowman wins, it'll super-charge the progessive challengers in cycles to come -- and change the face and policies of the NYC congressional delegation for years and perhaps decades to come.

Whitestone, Queens - June 13th, 2020, 12:11 PM