Skyline Haze: Western Wildfire Smoke Hits NYC

Gotta Love New Yorkers

Read this great story about a volunteer group of people bringing cheap, non-commercial Internet -- or "guerilla Wi-Fi" -- service to low-income residents of the city. 

People like this give me a shred of hope for humanity. Find out more about NYC MESH. 

"And Just Like That" Starts Filming in NYC

"The Plot Thickens" Podcast: "The Bonfire of the Vanities" and a Look-Back at a Very Different NYC

Last year I blogged about the 1990 movie The Bonfire of the Vanities based on the 1987 bestselling novel of the same name by Tom Wolfe. The book was a big success -- the defining 1980s novel about greed, ego, lust, institutional corruption, etc., every cardinal sin -- but the movie was an historic flop, so historic that a book was even written about it.

The book was called The Devil's Candy, written by journalist Julie Salamon, and this book has now been turned into a mutli-part podcast, hosted by Salamon and produced by Turner Classic Movies, as part of a series called "The Plot Thickens."

While I made clear in my review that the movie is bad -- really bad -- I also indicated that it was worth seeing because, visually, it captured NYC in very original, beautiful ways. And this podcast is very much worth listening to because it not only tells the story of the making of this classic bomb but it also vividly brings back to life what NYC was like 30-odd years ago -- a very different city from today. 

So read the books (both the original novel and the making-of book), listen the podcast, and, if you're brave, watch the movie -- and, while you'll eventually be "Bonfired"-out -- you'll also be brought back to a New York City that is both quite familiar and very distant. 

Classic Mr NYC

Big article today about the "other islands" of NYC where people live or visit -- namely Roosevelt Island, City Island, and Governor's Island, and some others -- and how they're fascinating, self-contained communities unto themselves.

As usual, Mr NYC has been well, well, well ahead of his time -- I've been blogging about the islands of NYC, the Gotham Archipelago, for literally more than a decade. So read the article and this blog's previous coverage of our islands here and here. 

Queens Night Market

The best part about New York City reopening is that the communal activities which, until last year, we took far too much for granted are now back -- and more appreciated than ever. And if you want to do something that truly captures the spirit and excitement of NYC -- and that is decidedly not a tourist trap -- then the Queens Night Market is for you. 

Recently I went to the market with some friends and family and greatly enjoyed it. The market is a vast collection of food stands from different restaurants around Queens, selling dishes from nearly every country and cuisine in the world. Just a sampling of the food fare at the fair: Afghani, Bengali, Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mexican, Persian, Venezuelan, Norwegian, Indian, and so so much more. You can get fried ice cream, craft beers, and all kinds of baked goods. It's truly a cornucopia of great eats and culture, a festival of food and everything that makes this city great.

There are even bands that perform but you can still hear yourself think and have conversations. 

The Queens Night Market takes place every Saturday night through October, from 4 PM to Midnight, at Flushing-Corona park right near the New York Hall of Science. Warning: the crowds are big, the lines are long, you need to bring cash, you'll want to bring water and a blanket to sit on the grass, and you'll be getting up and down a lot. Also, no doubt, your eyes will be bigger than your stomach -- once you start eating, it's hard to stop. 

Oh yes, a fun place in NYC no tourists and lots of great food. What's not to love?

A "Gossip Girl" Reboot & A New Velvet Underground Documentary -- Old NYC Pop Culture is New Again

Jeremy Irons & Bob Odenkirk: A "Saturday Night Live" Memory

On March 23, 1991, two days before he won the Best Actor Oscar for the movie Reversal of Fortune, Jeremy Irons hosted Saturday Night Live and performed this wild monologue: 

Irons has said in interviews that hosting SNL was one of the most terrifying things he ever did -- which he why he's probably never hosted it since then. 

Almost exactly thirty-years later, the man behind the sketch, the man who wrote it, then-anonymous comedy-scribe and now current Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk told the story behind this monologue, and how Irons originally didn't want to do it and yelled at him:

Great story! The story behind the scenes is always more interesting than the scene itself. 

Funny Photos from the NY Hall of Science "The Happiness Experiment" Exhibit

Recently saw this great exhibit at the New York Hall of Science which I highly recomend. These pictures were part of it: 

Elsa Hits NYC