Interview: Lynn Paula Russell, Legendary Artist and Performer - Sex, Learning, and Videotape

As an artist and performer whose main subject is erotica, it was perhaps inevitable that Lynn Paula Russell would move into adult films. She became not only an artist of lust but also its subject matter – the creator, muse, and work rolled up into one. A gorgeous, sexy, voracious woman, Lynn performed in several features during the twilight days of the NYC Golden Age of adult films.

Taking the nom de plume Paula Meadows, Lynn’s beauty and acting talent made her a stand-out in films like Fashion Fantasies, Oddest Couple, New York Vice, Young Nympho and others. Her scenes with partners like Nina Hartley, Joey Silvera, Siobhan Hunter, Tom Byron, and others burned up the screen.

In the last part of our interview, Lynn tells us about her time in the 1980s NYC adult business, as well as her memories of some of its most notable characters like the notorious Al Goldstein. She also tells us why she left the business and what she’s learned about herself – and life – since.

In the 1980s, you had a career in the adult film business and made some movies in NYC. What led you to make adult films and what are your memories of the adult film scene in NYC back then? Do you have any favorite movies that you did?

After that ‘burst-out’ I described earlier, when I started modelling, I had a strong presentiment that this was part of a bigger issue … but not only for me. You have to remember the general hypocrisy surrounding sex that still prevailed back in 70s London, despite all the attempts to shift it. In erotica, women were the focus of attention as objects of arousal, but they did not have a voice of their own. Now the wave of change was upon us, driving us on inexorably, and looking back I can see that I was responding to this cultural surge, as well as to my own inner imperatives. There was an irrepressible desire to explore further and my career took off in a new direction. Erotica was MY subject and I needed to follow it through, wherever it led, and express it all in my art.

The adult film scene in the early 80s in the USA was just at the point where it was moving away from the so called ‘Golden Age’ when films such as The Devil in Miss Jones were seriously attempting to explore interesting erotic themes, and a professional actress like Georgina Spelvin brought a degree of reality to what she did, and genuine enthusiasm. One felt that she had consciously chosen to do it, rather than just drifted into it through exploitation. In the 80s there still were a few directors who were able to express their ideas in X rated films, but now they were aware that the industry was beginning to demand a formulaic approach. Having to stick to a formula makes it very difficult for directors to be creative. But the team I worked for were still trying. I was very lucky.

You worked with directors like Henri Pachard and some of the biggest adult stars at the time -- Danielle Martin, Joey Silvera, Siobhan Hunter, Tom Byron, even the legendary Nina Hartley! What are your memories of working with them? Was it a fun time or just work?

We were like a sort of porn repertory company. The same people turned up in different films and we became like a family, because of course we had shared intimate moments together on film. Henri Pachard was a very humorous character and had an infectious twinkle in his eye. Yes, he did make the work fun. It was he who explained to me that he always chose themes that sprang directly from an erotic situation, rather than trying to fit sex scenes around a complicated sort of plot.

Viewers will always fast forward the scenes that consist of just acting – usually bad acting – to get to the sexy bits. So, he constructed scenarios around ladies of the night and the hidden side of society. But speaking of bad acting – this wasn’t always the case in these films. I feel sure that Joey Silvera could have made his name in Hollywood movies. He was a very talented actor. Danielle had a delightful personality but seemed very young and vulnerable to me. She always brought her diminutive chihuahua with her at all times.

You mention Nina Hartley. I admired her a lot. She had deliberately chosen to make erotic films, as I had, and also spoke out enthusiastically where a pro-porn voice was needed. I too used to be interviewed on TV when I arrived home after my adventures in the US and sometimes had to hold my own with a disapproving feminist or member of a church group. Nina since devoted herself wholeheartedly to this work, but she was at the very beginning of her film career when I knew her. She took everything in her stride, and clearly enjoyed herself. We got along splendidly and became friends. I was intrigued when she told me about her ‘menage a trois.’ Having a husband and a wife seemed a very satisfactory arrangement if one happened to be bisexual, although marriage to one person can be complicated enough! I have kept in touch with her ever since.

You ask whether it was all fun – well, to begin with it was, probably mainly because I was enjoying exploring all my fantasies, but on my third visit, having to switch on the lust, regardless of how you felt, became onerous sometimes. Whenever something becomes repetitive, it begins to lose its spontaneity.

Is it true that you did an interview with the infamous Al Goldstein on his long-running show Midnight Blue? Tell us about that experience! 

Yes, that’s quite right, I did appear on Midnight Blue. I had met Al on one of his visits to London, in 1981. At that time, I knew nothing of his ‘infamous’ reputation and had never heard of Screw. The fact is, we really hit it off and became very good friends over the years. Later on I came to realize how abrasive and unpleasant he could be when rubbed up the wrong way, especially when haranguing certain people in his editorials, but from my perspective I always found him warm and affectionate – unbelievable though that may seem! I always joked with him that I would never let that secret out because it might destroy his reputation.

When you agreed to appear on Midnight Blue you took your life in your hands because you knew that Al was going to do his best to embarrass you by springing something on you out of the blue! He did not disappoint. I found myself reluctantly having to re-enact a scene from a video I made in London. When I looked at the tape afterwards I can see my hands shaking. But never mind – by Al’s standards I got off extremely lightly. However, it’s not something I would care to watch now. It seems a very distant memory, as if it happened in another lifetime. I look back on those years and am grateful for them, but would not care to revisit any of it. It was part of a journey that released creativity and brought new understanding. This would not be everyone’s way!

Al did not have a peaceful death, from what can be gathered, and I think he paid a heavy price for all the venom he directed at people. The fallout had to come, sooner or later, but it made me sad.

What eventually led you to leave adult films? Did you decide to dedicate yourself totally to your art? 

It was during my final stay in NYC that I woke up and realized with a start that I had strayed from my original plan. I had only ever intended to dip my toe in the water, and now here I was neglecting my art work. Sexuality was beginning to lose its power and it occurred to me that the drive was never intended to be used this way. Women can do damage to themselves by forcing their bodies to perform. I had to return home and reflect.

Further thoughts.

Going back over the 80s has certainly brought it all back. Perhaps I have left out some of the darker side of the experience in adult films. [AIDS] ... was beginning to be a fear, and I didn't mention drugs. I never touched drugs myself, but I was aware that some of the actors did. One of the girls I worked with said it was the only way she could get through the day. And as for exploitation of women, the only person I ever met from the porn industry who complained bitterly was a man – Harry Reems of Deep Throat fame. He had retired from the business when I met him but was still deeply disturbed by the way he had been treated.

… One shouldn't give a sugar coated impression, but I think when you enter any business with a positive attitude, it tends to reflect back what you put into it. I may have been rather naive when I set out on my adventure, but experience has now shown me things that have widened my perspective considerably. Having allowed myself to explore all that sexual freedom, I now know the dangers that really exist. Going against one's natural instincts for too long and completely separating sex from love does not lead to fulfilment but makes erotic activity meaningless and empty – this is what I found. But people must discover this for themselves. Porn can be extremely liberating for viewers to watch, when it is needed. I don't want people who see my films to think that I felt negative about it, because I certainly didn't. These were only the conclusions I came to much later on when I reflected on all the things I had done.

Debates and controversies around sexual harassment and sex worker rights are much in the news these days. As a woman who has had a successful career in male-dominated fields, I'm sure you've dealt with and had thoughts about these subjects. Would you care to share them with us?

In the last forty years or so relations between men and women have become extremely strained and there is a sort of war going on. I think this is a great shame. Strangely enough, I never resented the exploitation and rather blamed myself for going along with it. There were times when I wonder why I hadn’t simply said ‘No’. I wasn’t a Hollywood actress whose career depended on not offending the important guys. Or maybe I was just lucky – I wasn’t badly treated and worked with directors who treated me with some respect. I know there are many others who have quite different stories and my heart goes out to them. The developments we’ve seen lately were inevitable. If the power struggle can settle to a new equilibrium between men and women that will be wonderful, but it will take time for real understanding to grow. All the hate and resentment needs to be let out first before this can happen.

The youngsters today will find a new way.

Thank you Lynn for talking to Mr NYC. You’ve had an amazing life and we can’t wait to hear more from you some day. Best of luck!

You can visit Lynn Paul Russell’s website and an exhibition of her work at:

www.lynnpaularussell.org

https://www.talismanfineart.com/product/cat/current-feature-4

Interview: Lynn Paula Russell, Legendary Artist and Performer - An Englishwoman in NYC

New York City in the 1970s and ’80s has become almost mythical -- like Paris in the 1920s or London in the 1960s. It was an era of great danger and temptation as well as a period of artistic revolution.

Andy Warhol, Jean Michel-Basquiat, Julian Schnable, and others ruled the art world; Saturday Night Live and David Letterman were changing television comedy from the NBC Studios at Rockefeller Center; on Broadway, shows like Pippin, Evita, A Chorus Line, Cats, Lez Miz and the musicals of Stephen Sondheim were reinventing the American musical; Woody Allen was making classic films like Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah & Her Sisters, and Crimes and Misdemeanors; Studio 54 and disco culture captured the popular imagination; sex clubs like Plato’s Retreat and Hellfire were turning respectable middle-class couples into sexual adventurers; and the adult film scene in NYC still existed.

Lynn Paula Russell was part of it. 

Here Lynn tells us about her adventures with the Broadway theater and sexual underworld of NYC, and how her experiences in in the city changed her life.

You're an Englishwoman and, I assume, lived and worked in the UK most of your life. But you worked in NYC several times in the 1970s and 1980s. Tell us about your time as a children's theater actress in NYC in 1970 and as a painter of Broadway theater performers in 1979. What was it like, as an Englishwoman, to come to this big wild American city at such a crazy time in history? What do you remember most about the city back then?

Yes, let’s talk about NYC! My first visit in 1970 was really only a flying visit. As I mentioned earlier, I was part of a small troupe of actors who had been touring around England visiting schools and youth clubs. This group was part of a children’s theatre company that consisted of several groups so it was extremely exciting that ours was chosen for the first tour of the USA. And to add to this, it had been decided that the most economical way of transporting us, with all our props and costumes, was on the magnificent, newly built QE 2 liner. The fact that we travelled this way meant that I had one of the most memorable experiences of my young life, which has remained with me to this day. Sailing in to NYC past the famous Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty, I felt as if I were in a movie.

On that day in October 1970, the sky was unbelievably clear as the ship majestically made its way up the Hudson, sailing close to the West side of Manhattan. I had never seen such buildings before, and at that time the Twin Towers of World Trade Centre were just nearing completion. I couldn’t believe it! The height of it terrified me. It seemed to belong to another planet. We could even see the little figures walking around on scaffolding at the top. I felt dizzy just looking. That human beings could not only dream of creating such a building, but actually have the courage and skill to accomplish it, struck me as the big difference between my culture and the American way. Back home, everything was so much smaller and more tentative at that time. Whenever an ambitious idea was suggested, there would always be a hundred reasons why it couldn’t be done, whereas here in America, people would always find a way!

In 1979, I came with my partner to spend 2 months exploring and doing some painting. I had originally been encouraged to come by Martin Charnin, the director of Annie and through my connections with the production I was able to go backstage at the Alvin Theatre [now the Neil Simon Theater] where it was still playing. You asked about my observations of the city – well, here I have to say that there was a disappointment regarding the ‘Great White Way’ as portrayed in Hollywood movies. When we finally got to see it, it wasn’t very white at all! And when I was shown the slightly antiquated backstage equipment at the Alvin, I was amazed – compared to the lighting board I had operated for Annie, the American version looked utterly primitive!

But apart from this, we loved the city, it’s good humor, and the fact that everyone working in the service industry treated you to a broad smile and a sardonic quip. They were all entertainers! We had heard so many stories about NY being dangerous. There were dire warnings about going into Central Park after a certain hour, but nothing ever happened to us and we ignored the doom mongers.

How had the city changed, in your experience, between the 1970s and 1980s?

Not easy for me to compare experiences of the city because in the 80s I was seeing a completely different side of it. In the earlier visit, we explored 42nd Street and marveled at its lights and adult movie houses, but in the 80s I remember actually going into one of them to meet Henri Pachard, who had his office in the backstage area. It was a curious experience. Back then 42nd Street was still alive with those same cinemas, but had I visited in the next decade, most of them would have vanished.

Interesting that London’s so called ‘Red Light’ district, Soho, began to be ‘cleaned up’ at about the same time. If you go to Soho now you won’t see a single strip joint, sex shop or prostitute. All consigned to the past. But back in 80s NYC, it was all still very much alive on the legendary 42nd Street. Also alive and flourishing, in another part of the city, were the offices of Screw magazine, which I visited on several occasions and met the editorial team. During the last of my visits I did a couple of illustrations for High Society and was able to glimpse the inside of a plush office on 5th Avenue. This was a much more up-market publication.

Now I am remembering visiting Plato’s Retreat – a large night club, designed especially for swingers. We had nowhere like this in London. I remember being invited to be part of a little cabaret there, but have to say that during the day, when we were rehearsing, and the interior was not seen in sexy subdued artificial light, it looked decidedly run down. The man who had started it, Larry Levinson, had just come out of prison so probably in his absence, the vitality had begun to drain out of the place.

Does anyone remember Plato’s Retreat now?

Oh, people remember it -- and miss it! 

Before I leave this subject, I must also mention The Hellfire Club. In this case, being run down was quite deliberate. This place specialized in being dark, grubby and un-salubrious. I was invited to go there by a couple who were fascinated by the S/M scene and knew that I had an interest at the time too. They collected me from my hotel in a huge stretch limo, in which champagne was served as we made our stately way to the Club. When the chauffeur drew up at a shabby address in the Meatpacking District, I was utterly horrified, and even more horrified by the club itself. But I was there to experience it, so experienced it I did – having got myself decked out in a skimpy leather outfit specially for the occasion. I was led around the dark dungeons on a lead, and we were able to watch all the other slaves with their masters and mistresses.

Apart from these outings, most of the time we were filming and I saw plenty of interiors of huge loft apartments in the city or beautiful houses with swimming pools out on Long Island. However, to sum up, I have to say that being in NYC filled me with such a special sort of energy. I cannot begin to express the difference it made to my personality. I became more confident and more extrovert as a person.

In the final part of our interview, Lynn tells about her time in the NYC adult film world at the end of its Golden Age and what she learned from it.

You can visit Lynn Paul Russell’s website and an exhibition of her work at:

www.lynnpaularussell.org
https://www.talismanfineart.com/product/cat/current-feature-4 

Interview: Lynn Paula Russell, Legendary Artist and Performer - Creating an Artistic Career

Somebody should make a movie or, better yet, a mini-series about the life of Lynn Paula Russell. Her story has had a number of fascinating chapters that would translate into equally exciting episodes. Lynn has worked as a stage actress, model, and adult film star. But that’s not even what she’s best known for! Lynn has mainly had a long and very successful career as a portraiture and erotic artist. She has used her body, mind, intelligence, emotions, and overwhelming talent to forge a long, unique, and multi-varied artistic career, an amazing professional achievement.

If the biggest thing on Lynn’s resume was appearing in the revolutionary musical Hair, that would be enough. But after years on the stage, she moved into erotic modeling before starting her career as a graphic designer and illustrator. Lynn is best known for her highly explicit, charged, and extremely beautiful erotic art in addition to her portraits of the rich and famous. But whether she’s illustrating people or subjects that are naughty, nice, or both, her work blazes with color, sensuality, confidence, and a true appreciation of the beauty of the human form. To see her work is to see an explosion of love for people, for nature, for sex, and for the gloriousness of life.

Lynn is British and still lives in the United Kingdom but, from the late 1960s to the 1980s, she came to NYC several times. She had, to say the least, many interesting adventures and experiences in the city that most of us can only dream about. In this three-part interview, Lynn shares her memories and thoughts on her career of performing, art, sex, and, of course, New York City. 

Tell us briefly about your upbringing and what led you to pursue an artistic career.

Since it is virtually impossible to be brief when it comes to discussing one’s upbringing I will try not to get too deeply into this subject. I grew up in a small seaside town in the South of England. My mother was a gifted artist who had never been given the opportunity to pursue a career of her own, so she was determined that this should not happen to her four daughters. From a very young age, we all took dancing classes and appeared onstage in musical shows. These were the highlights of my young life. But in the early years I also loved to draw all the time and knew this was one of my best subjects at school. When it was time to choose a career direction, I was torn between my two loves – Art and Theatre. Eventually it seemed more sensible to go to Art School, and I specialized in Graphic design. But nothing is straightforward and soon after leaving college I found myself being propelled towards a career treading the boards.

You have acted and danced but also have spent most of your career as a painter and illustrator. Tell us about your experiences as a stage performer and why you decided finally to devote yourself to creating art.

Well, in my hometown I had become closely associated with a writer who was planning a musical production for the London stage. He had seen my appearances in the local amateur dramatics and wanted me to be in his production. This sounds mad, when I look back, because I had had no professional experience – and as it happened, I never did appear in that show, but it did provide me with a huge impetus to come to London. I was taken on by an agent who sent me up for all kinds of jobs. The very first one brought me to the US. What luck that was! Then the second job granted me the unique experience of appearing in the musical Hair, which had come over from Broadway to the West End in 1968 and caused a sensation. I had seen it as an 18-year old student and been quite shocked by its openness, and then three years later, in the National Tour of the show, there I was, the erstwhile prim, provincial girl, stripping off on stage and feeling proud to do so!

The breakthrough of these early days didn’t last unfortunately and although there had been a few high spots that were exciting, after 6 year’s work began to dwindle. It was as if some inner reserve was holding me back from fully engaging with my true feelings. My trouble was that I could only play emotionally inhibited girls, like myself, and couldn’t get beyond a certain inner block. But when doors start closing, others open to new possibilities.

You have had a long and successful career as an erotic artist. What inspired you to start creating erotic art and what are your favorite books that you've created and worked on?

The answer to this springs out of what I said about feeling blocked. I guess we all have to work within our limitations, but something was pushing me from inside to burst out and release myself. This burst-out finally happened when I was 30 – well, they say that hitting this age makes you review your life and take stock. It certainly heralded a change of direction for me. This is when I took the plunge and decided to model for soft-core porn magazines in England. I did not see this at first as a career move – it was more like accepting a dare. I viewed it as a sort of therapy. To my great surprise, I took to it like a duck to water. Being able to be honest at last and get my clothes off was a massive relief, and for a few weeks the modeling sessions took over my life. Since the things that move us deeply have to be expressed in art, I soon found myself drawing on my experiences to create new work. Then I started illustrating a magazine called Janus, which specialized in a very British subject – erotic corporal punishment. This also expressed my own area of interest since S/M was something that had intrigued me ever since discovering The Story of O.

Several collections of my work were published in the early 2000s by the Erotic Print Society, and I think my favorite is A Sexual Odyssey. That is the most comprehensive cross-section of illustrations and paintings.

Your erotic art is very explicit but it is also visually stunning -- colorful, elegant, sensual, and confident. It feels like you are both trying to arouse the viewers while also proclaiming the beauty and power of human sexuality. Is that a good way to describe your work or would you describe it differently?

I am glad that is how you see my work. Yes, beauty, and power are very relevant. That is what hit me when I started my adventures – sex is the fundamental power of life, which is always motivating people, whether they are aware of it or not. The expression of power, both negative and positive, is always related to the sex drive, which is why we have to be careful how we use it in our relationships. And yes, the beauty is there too. Orgasm is a way of connecting with the universe, with the very core of our being. Excuse me for waxing lyrical, but it is about time that we started to see and evaluate our sexuality in a new way and stop thinking in terms of ‘dirt’ and ‘smut’.

You're most known for your erotic artwork but have also done non-erotic art like portraitures. What is some of your most notable or favorite non-erotic art that you've created?

Before I entered the erotic scene my work was largely centered around the theatre. When I was no longer an actor, I illustrated a children’s book and painted some posters of vintage film stars. Then there was a stint working backstage, mainly on the show Annie, which was a huge hit in London. Andrea McArdle who created the part of Annie in the original production, had come over from Broadway to open the show, and it was her mother Phyllis who first commissioned a portrait from me. Thereafter, I received other commissions from the cast and production team, like Sheila Hancock, who played Miss Hannigan, and Charles Strouse, the composer of the music. Then other shows followed. A Chorus Line was one of these. Of course, since most of my paintings were supposed to be surprise presentations, I wasn’t able to paint from life. Two of my favorites were the portraits of Tommy Steele in many of his various roles, and of Monty Berman, the famous London costumier.

In 1979 I was once more in New York, painting such people as Liberace, TV chat-show host Merv Griffin and theatre producer Lewis Allen. Much later on, in NY, I met the publicist of "Masterpiece Theatre" and was asked to provide publicity portraits of actors in British TV shows that were widely shown in the States. The most memorable one of these showed the young Colin Firth heading the cast in his first appearance in a TV series. Remembering back, there was also a calendar to celebrate the Royal Wedding of Charles and Di in 1981. That really was miles away from my erotic creations!

Thanks Lynn! In the next part of our interview, Lynn tells us about working and having fun in NYC in the 1970s and ‘80s.

You can visit Lynn Paul Russell’s website and an exhibition of her work at:

www.lynnpaularussell.org
https://www.talismanfineart.com/product/cat/current-feature-4

Review: "The Great Beauty" & How to Love a City

Can you love a city like you love a person? Can the pure romantic ardor for a particular urban environment replace, or possibly distract from, the complicated and messy entanglements of relationships?

That question, and the quixotic attempt to find the answer, is posed in the brilliant and gorgeous 2013 Italian film The Great Beauty. Set firmly in the calamitous Berlusconi period, the movie follows the sometimes glamorous, sometimes dissolute, often quite empty life of man named Jep. Recently turned 65, Jep works as a celebrity journalist, 40 years removed from his one and only triumph as a novelist. He spends his nights partying or interviewing his article subjects and sleeps away the daytime. He hangs out with his pretentious friends, drinks and smokes, and walks -- a lot -- around the city that entraps him and that he irrationally loves and cannot escape -- Rome. His goal, for too long, was to be the king of the Roman high life, the man who went to every party and could "make them a failure."

Now that phase of his life has left him sad. Jep needs a new purpose.

The film is a series of vignettes, a necklace of tales wrapped about the throat of a city that cages a man trying to find a goal in his rapidly receding life. In walking around and enjoying Rome, Jep is running away from his emotions, from a long and now deceased love, from a past once full of promise that has become a present of aimlessness, hopelessly trying to replace it with a passion for the great beauty of the Eternal City.

The movie's love for Rome, and its wistful meditation on the ravages of time and misplaced priorities, captures exactly what this blog feels about NYC -- and the course of life. Both the film and the blog are about how the love for a city affects and distracts us, and how the simple love for a plac helps us to leaven but also sometimes exacerbates the complexity of human entanglements. You can love a city -- a great city, a great beauty, like Rome or NYC -- but ultimately it cannot fulfill you like the love of a person. It can supplement but not replace that kind of love, enhance but not complete it. In loving a city, there is ultimately a sadness because it cannot really love you back.

But even then, you still can't abandon it.

If the 1974 movie Chinatown is about the corrupt and disturbing undercurrents of a big city -- in that case, Los Angeles -- revealed by private detective Jakes Gittes (one of its more infamous citizens), The Great Beauty is about the unrealistic romantic promise of one -- in this case, Rome -- by one of its obsessive inhabitants. One is about the darkness, the other about the light, of an alluring metropolis. But the two films, along with morose and romantic Issac in 1979's Manhattan, look at the man in the city, about the city, and of the city -- and how the man and their relationships with others are defined and mixed up by the city.

It is both a great and awful thing to have a great beauty in your life -- whether it's Rome, Los Angeles, NYC or someplace else. And yet that love for a city is the seed that can grow into a love for a person, and for life in general, and for something that is forever timeless and can give us true happiness.

In some ways, that's what Mr NYC is all about for me.

P.S. This expression of a complicated and ultimately unknowable love for a place, its people, and life, is best expressed not in words but in music.

The theme of The Great Beauty captures the film's melancholy romance about Rome the same way that the theme to Chinatown expresses that film's sleazy gaze and understanding of Los Angeles or the way that Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue in Manhattan perfectly encapsulates the nervous energy and excitement of NYC.

You should listen to all three and you'll see -- or hear -- what I mean.

NYC Plans to Fully Reopen on July 1st, 2021

 

Magic & Loss: Bob Fass RIP and City COVID Stories and ... Start the Presses!

One of Lou Reed's great songs is called "Magic & Loss." He croons:

There's a bit of magic in everything

And some loss to even things out ...

Those words, to me, sum up life: life is magical, people are magical, nature and the world around us are magical, our creations our magical, everything and everyone contains magic ... but loss is magic's constant companion, it's sorrowful sidekick. And the best way to negotiate life is to love both -- the magic of everything and the loss that accompanies. They are both inevitable. If you can appreciate this paradoxical beauty of life, I believe, than you have achieved a simple yet greater kind of wisdom. 

This concept of "magic and loss" occurred to me recently when I read several disparate articles about occurences that, more than anything, have impacted the soul of New York City. As you read and think about them, you appreciate the magic of the people we have in this city, the loss of many of them that this last year has inflicted, while also feeling somewhat optimistic about our future.

There is the loss of the legendary NYC radio host Bob Fass. His show "Radio Unknowable" was broadcast on WBAI for 50 years, where he interviewed Bob Dylan and many other brilliant artists, thinkers, and public figures. He was the closest thing that NYC had to an "underground radio host", as his obituary describes him. His show was part of the gritty Bohemian spirit of the city, the subconscious turned into radio signals. As someone who writes an "underground blog" about NYC, Bob Fass was a weird kind of soul brother for me, a fellow restless spirit who never lost his fascination for the city, its people, and all its crazy undercurrents. Magic & Loss. 

Then there are these individual stories of New Yorkers who have been impacted by COVID-19 over the last year. These are the stories you don't see in the news but they are the quiet stories, the unique experiences, of people in NYC dealing with this global pandemic. It involves illness, death, misery but also survival and hope. It's about as clear an example of the Magic & Loss of and in life that I can think of. 

But then, in the midst of all this, a miracle! Something has come back to life! Specifically the Village Voice. Four years ago it went out of business, totally shuttered. Now it's back and even in print! This long history of the notorious free rag and how it came back to life is worth a read. It's a story of the city, of the press, and how the two inform and shape NYC. The Voice coming back to life after it seemed dead and gone forever is miraculous. It's a bit of magic after the loss that proves how Magic & Loss are forever intertwined, constant companions, and never predictable. 

New York City Is Back!

Actually, it never went away -- just indoors.

Last year was the Springtime of Our Discontent. As the city bloomed, the plagued descended. We weren't able to enjoy Spring in the city as usual, we had to stay inside and and stay away from each other. If March 2020 was the cruelest month, April and May 2020 were easily the most depressing and scary. 

The plague is not over but it's abating. New Yorkers are getting vaccinated in droves and the city is slowly but surely finding its spirit and joie de vivre again.

Yesterday, April 24, 2021, felt like an inflection point of sorts. It was a gorgeous Spring Saturday, and New Yorkers went outside in mostly masked droves. Outdoors I saw couples stroll, kids play, families congregate, people soak up the sun and the city and all their attendant joys. Mourners in Brooklyn turned out for the service of DMX and even though seem to be having fun. And best of all, the city government has announced that all New Yorkers over age 16 can go to walk-in vaccination sites with no appointment! 

Things are feeling slightly more ... optimistic. The city still has a ways to go back but the city is back!

Never count NYC out!

The Fishko Files and the Art of the Radio Essay

Blog posts are, in many ways, a bunch of essays of varying length that are collected, chronologized, and streamlined on this platform called "da blog." In the analog world, essays usually appear in newspapers, magazines, books, or other various tactile media, usually with a similar logic applied to their aggregation.

So where does that leave the radio essay?

For decades the radio essay was ephemeral, existing only for as long as it was broadcast across the airwaves and into the minds of its listeners. Then it vanished into the ether of time. Alistair Cooke, both before and after he hosted Masterpiece Theater on PBS, produced radio essays for the BBC called Letter from America. He broadcast thousands and thousands of them, from 1946 to 2004 (!), commenting on everything from the re-election of Harry Truman to the Second Iraq War. Most of those radio essays no longer exist but more than a thousand have been rescued and now, thanks to the Internet, are easily accessible.

The radio essay is now more lively and powerful than ever!

Which brings me to The Fishko Files, a wonderful oddity in the world of present day New York City radio. Broadcast on WNYC every Friday morning, and freely available online, they are short essays by culture critic Sarah Fishko. She covers the whole swath of culture in NYC and elsewhere, both past and present -- art, architecture, music, movies, TV, even unknown or recently discovered recordings. She "writes" about Leonard Bernstein, James Dean, Woody Guthrie, Scott Joplin, Andy Warhol, the architecture of the Old Penn Station, movies about the Holocaust, the new Whitney Museum, film composers, and many, many more. It's an audio feast of culture, a compendium of cultural essays from the cultural capital of the world.

Sarah Fishko has been producing these essays for WNYC for more than 20 years and you can listen to them all now -- whenever, wherever, however you want.

The radio essay is homeless no longer. 

Need a Wrench?

 

Future Theories

Who will be the next Mayor of New York City?

When will Broadway theater and the city arts scene be 100% back-in-business?

We'll find out at some point in the relatively near future but, right now, we can only guess. We can only ponder. We're currently in a kind of "silly season", when everything great and horrible seems possible, when there are a multitude of possibilities, when there seem to be many roads that NYC could take. What roads will we take?

We can only theorize. 

Recently I heard Alec Baldwin on his podcast talk with Robert Wankel, the head of the Schubert Organization. Wankel is one of the most powerful figures on the Great White Way, the man who makes many of the shows we love possible. He says that, at the moment, plans are to reopen in December but, obviously, this will depend on "herd immunity", infection rates, etc. that we can only theorize about ... at the moment. What's most interesting to learn from this podcast are some of the statistics that Wankel presents that make you understand just how much COVID-19 has devastated Broadway and the city's arts business. Along with finance and real estate, the arts business is in the top five of the city's economic engines. Did you know that the Times Square area alone is responsible for the employment of 96,000 people? The arts isn't just some sideshow in NYC, some economic add-on -- it's an essential part of the city's economy and identity, it drives tourism, and its recovery is vital to the future of NYC.

Then there's who will be running the city next year.

Right now there's a bunch of candidates running for mayor but Andrew Yang, for reasons that defy logic, is currently leading in the polls and getting all the media attention. He has no experience in government and, based on his public statements, no real understanding of the city, its people, or public policy. Many people, including yours truly, are sounding the alarm -- remember the last time the public bestowed great executive power on an inexperienced but media-savvy neophyte? The good news is that there's still time for another candidate to emerge and, at the moment, it looks like it might be City Comptroller Scott Stringer. He might, just might, overwhelm Yang and win the primary if he's able to make clear how his quiet competence and experience is much better than Yang's empty media spectacle. Stringer has been elected to city-wide office twice before and is well known to the voters. The primary isn't until June. I theorize that either Stringer, or possibly Brooklyn BP Eric Adams, will overwhelm Yang -- or Yang's support will just collapse anyway -- that one of them will be the next mayor (assuming victory in the general election). But if Yang keeps up his momentum, and wins the primary and general election ... then the city will then be in real trouble.

Fingers crossed the former scenario, the first theory prevails. 

This post will be an interesting one to read again a year -- or several from now -- to see if these theories are correct or totally wrong.