"New York State of Mind" by NYCNext

"Liza with a Z" @ the Lyceum Theater -- May 31, 1972

Hot on the heels of the release of their hit movie Cabaret, acting and singing star Liza Minnelli and director Bob Fosse reteamed to produce this legendary TV special, Liza with a Z.

Recorded live at the Lyceum Theater in the heart of the Theater District (Broadway & 45th Street), Minnelli and Fosse staged this brilliant, one-night only concert where Minnelli sang, danced, rapped with the audience, and displayed the full range of her incredible talents. Some of the songs that Liza sang and danced to include "God Bless the Child", "Son of a Preacher Man", "Bye Bye Blackbird" and several songs from Cabaret. 

This event was recorded live and broadcast on television on September 10, 1972. Subsequently, in 1973, Minnelli and Fosse won Oscars for their work on Cabaret and Emmys for this special -- and Fosse also won a Tony for his direction of the musical Pippin, making him the only person to ever win an Oscar, Tony, and Emmy in the same year.

When you watch this, you're looking at major talents performing at the top of their game -- a moment in time, a moment in cultural history, that's nothing less than lightening in a bottle. 

BOOM! (Shaka-laka) or Meet the Bigger Apple

Oh, the wailing. Oh, the nashing of teeth. Oh, the predictions of doom and despair!

Didn't you hear? It's over! New York City is over! We're dying, people are fleeing! 

They just can't take the crime and unaffordable housing and rotten public transportation and liberal tax-and-spend policies and just all the mean awful nasty stuff that this city doles out. 

Get out while you still can!

Well, you'll be in lonely company. The Census results are out and ... drumroll ... in the last ten years 629,000 people came to live within these Five Boroughs. 

Six ... HUNDRED THOUSAND ... people. 

Put another way: 100,000 more people than live in all of friggin' MIAMI came to live here. More people now live in Brooklyn than Chicago -- the nation's third biggest city. More people than the population of whole states found a home within the city limits in the last decade. 

The city's population is now at 8.8 million. If that's decline, well, I guess I have another idea of decline than you. 

So, yes, NYC is dead. Long live NYC!

Great Performances on Live from Lincoln Center: American Ballet Theater's "Romeo & Juliet" -- May 7, 1988

Ever found a great old photograph or video from a long time ago? It's like discovering an ancient artifact from your past, a sort of personal archeological dig, unearthing living history. 

You stare at your younger self -- or the younger selves of the other people in the picture or video -- and you experience a kind of headrush. The past becomes present, a memory turns vivid, something in your head escapes and becomes real before you -- and the thoughts and emotions you held at the time that have vanished suddenly well up again, like a pipe bursting from underground.

It's both amazing and unnerving, a unique mental and emotional sensation.

So that's how I felt when I recently found a 1988 performance of Romeo & Juliet on YouTube that was performed by American Ballet Theater on May 7, 1988, broadcast across America from the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. (Shakespeare's famous play is danced to from a score by Sergei Prokofiev, one of the greatest ever written).

See, yours truly, Mr NYC, was in it -- as an eleven-year old boy with a funny wig in the background. You'll see there's two little boys in funny wigs in the background -- I'm the handsome one!

I have some memories of this night, mainly that it was just another performence (we did several) only this time I had to sign a release allowing my visage to be televisually blasted across the Fruited Plain -- and there were cameras in the balconies and audience staring at us. When I saw a recording of this later, I saw that I one point I scratched my nose (which all of America saw, how embarrasing) but my embrassment was trumped by the dancer Kevin McKensize (who played Romeo) rushing out for the dramatic finale -- wearing his sweatpants. This was a faux pas extrodinaire and, if you watch this, and has gone down in television history along with that Starbucks cup that popped up on Game of Thrones.   

Anyway, this brought up some fond memories but I still feel the tension, the anxiety of that night. And it's hard to imagine that I was ever 11-years old!

Here's more info about this Great Performence. The recording appears to have been done by someone in San Diego who, for whatever reason, threw it up on YouTube. I saw in the comments section that one of the chaperone's for the kids (i.e. me and the other one) weighed-in on the sweatpants fiasco. Sadly I don't really remember her -- but I hope she's doing well! 

Dragon Boat Festival NYC

Last weekend in Flushing Meadows-Corona park was the annual Dragon Boast Festival. It's called a "festival" but it's actually more of a race -- various teams compete against each other in long sporty paddle-boats in Meadow Lake got up to look like Chinese dragons. An all-day event, the teams engage in various "heats" where the team with the best racing time wins. 

There are Dragon Boat races all over the country and all over the world. The Dragon Boat races are a tradition that comes out of Ancient China, specifically from the Hong Kong region -- around 300 BC an official who was advocating reform yet being ignored by the king jumped into a river to commit suicide. The Chinese people took to their dragon boats and sped along the lake to find and rescue him. To prevent his body being eaten by the fish, they threw rice into the lake -- and rice cakes, a great Chinese delicacy was born, and they are consumed at each Dragon Boat Festival. 

I don't know if they ever rescued the man but, more than two millenia later and on the other side of the world, his attempted rescue has become a traddition is still being honored.

If you want more information about it, go here. And here are my photos of the 2021 NYC Dragon Boast Festival. 

Classic Mr NYC

Last month, when the primary winners in the NYC muncipal elections were announced, I indicated how interesting it was that the winners for all three city-wide offices -- mayor, public advocate, comptroller -- were from Brooklyn. Assuming they win the general election in November, Brooklyn will cement itself as the center of political power in this city.

As usual, Mr NYC was ahead of his time -- only now are other political analysts examining this fascinating phenomena, the Brooklynization of the whole city. I did more than a month ago!

As far as I know, until now, NYC has always had at least one city-wide elected official from Manhattan -- now it will have none.

About 123 years ago, Brooklyn was its own city until it begrudgingly got annexed into Greater New York in 1898. It became just another "outerborough", one of five oddly connected political entities, instead of being its own glorious metropolis. Now, a century-plus later, Brooklyn will rule its conqueror, the servant will become the master, la chassure est sur l'autre pied (the shoe is on the other foot, in case you were wondering) -- and Manhattan now is, at least in NYC power terms, the outerborough now. 

Oh, and talking about politics, this happened today:

Remembering the WMCA Good Guys

In the early days of "Top 40" pop/rock music radio, the family-owned WMCA 570 AM radio ruled the city's airwaves and ratings. It was due not only to the popular music it played but to its personality-driven DJs known as the "Good Guys." 

From 1960 to 1970, the Good Guys rocked and entertained New Yorkers with their clean-cut and family friendly (and very white male) shtick. They gave the station an identity, a brand, a community who listeners who became like friends on the radio. In the 1960s, the Good Guys were NYC music radio, the be-all, end-all of what was cool in the city's culture.

The Good Guys were, mainly, Joe O'Brien, Harry Harrison, Jack Spector, Don Davis, Jim Harrison, and others.

But then WABC music radio, with a stronger signal and a better spot on the dial (770 AM) came along. As did FM radio. By 1970 WMCA's ratings had tanked. It became a talk station (it's some kind of religious station today) and faded into radio obscurity. (WABC's time as a talk station would end about a decade or so later). 

And the WMCA Good Guys faded into radio history.

Some of these guys, most notably Harry Harrison, continued in NYC radio in later years (I think Jack Spector literally died on the air in 1994). But there would never be a line-up quite like that in NYC radio ever again.

Interesting Tree Stump @ Flushing Meadows-Corona Park - August 7, 2021 1:07 PM

 

Gotta Love New Yorkers

In this case, gotta love New Yorkers who left the city and can't get over it.

Long story short: I read a big article today about people who moved out of the city during the pandemic for various reasons (mostly professional or familial) and are missing the city like crazy. 

Even though they moved to a place that often has more space, a lower cost-of-living, and sometimes family members that're closer by, these folks can't help but be deeply nostalgic and longing for the city they left behind. 

And not only do they miss and are haunted by NYC, but they try moving to places that replicate many of its greatest traits: mixed-use neighborhoods, walkable streets, good public transporation, culture, culture, culture, and so much more! 

Once NYC captures your mind and soul, your spirit and psyche, it's impossible to let it go, to leave it 100% behind, no mattter where you go. 

It's why New York City is not only the biggest city in the country but possesses an outsize imprint on the rest of the country and world's imagination. The excitement, the energy, the liveliness, the busyness, the beauty, the atmosphere, and, most of all, the people -- it's all so immense, so dynamic, so amazing and diverse, that it makes everywhere else, no matter how great, seem ... just a little small. 

That's the power of this city, the greatness of it, and that's what makes NYC the colossus of America. 

Dramatic Subway Rescue!