As COVID has raged across NYC, and the world, for almost two years now, so much of the city's life has been disrupted: the way we work, the way we play, the way we socialize, the way we negotiate our very lives.
But one thing hasn't changed -- the subway. No matter what, when we people need to get around NYC, they still use it. Even though I haven't travelled much around the city in 2021, when I did, the subway not only remained the best way to get around town, but provided me with a sense of normality, a sense of regularity, a link to the "before times", a link to my fellow New Yorkers.
It was like a second home within my home.
This article that chronicles the COVID year 2021 in the subway shows the good and bad of the subway. How it can be scary and comforting at the same time but that, at all times, reminds you of what a fascinating place NYC is -- even during the most difficult of times.
New York City is a magical place during Christmastime, streets and buildings decked out with lights and wreaths and signs wishing us a happy holidays, attempting to buck up our spirits. The holiday season becomes part of the NYC aesthetic, you see it everywhere, it becomes, in a way, our neighbor.
But like any neighbor, it's changed over the years.
This article, with lots of pictures, presents a thoughtful look at how Christmas in the streets of NYC have changed over the decades. It's a reminder, that in NYC, even something as unchanging as the holidays morphs and evolves.
I'll admit that I'm not a huge fan of Wes Anderson's movies -- I find them rather precious and not that funny (although I enjoyed the Grand Budapest Hotel and want to see The French Dispatch).
This lack of enthusiasm includes his 2001 flick The Royal Tenenbaums, about a dysfunctional family in NYC.
While I'm not a big fan of the movie, I totally agree with this article about how The Royal Tenenbaums is certainly one of the most unique NYC movies ever made. The movie takes place in a totally surreal, completely unrealistic and fake version of the city -- even though it was filmed entirely on location in NYC. Unlike other movies that are filmed elsewhere but are set in, and attempt to portray a realistic version of, NYC, this movie was actually filmed here but shows a totally unbelievable version of the city.
The movie is now 20 years but, whether its then or now, NYC is a place than can always be re-imagined.
Assemblyman Dick Gottfried, who has represented the West Side of Manhattan in Albany for 52 years, will retire at the end of 2022. He's the longest-serving legislator in New York State history, a link to this city's and state's past.
When he entered the Assembly as a twenty-something, Richard Nixon was President, Nelson Rockefeller was Governor, and John Lindsay was Mayor. The Watergate scandal was two years in the future, the NYC fiscal crises was 5 years in the future (as was Saturday Night Live), Son of Sam was 6 six years in the future, and 9/11 and COVID-19 were 30 and 50 years in the future. His long career was a part of and an undercurrent of this history, a source of stability in tumultuous times.
Politicians like Dick Gottfried are increasingly rare these days in that he was a public servant as much as a politician. He didn't want glory, fame, or money, and he didn't get into nasty scandals or say bombastic things -- he just served his constituents, faithfully and honestly and thoughtfully, for more than half-a-century. This city and state were lucky to have him and we can only hope that we'll get more public servants like him in elected office in the future.
The long awaited Sex and the City follow up series, And Just Like That, has hit HBO Max, and like the good New Yorker and yenta that I really am at heart, I've watched the first two episodes and look forward to the rest of them (and yes, I'm aware of the big twist in the first episode but I shan't reveal it here for those who haven't seen it yet).
Unlike the original series that existed in an NYC Wonderland, where people were magically transported about the city either in cabs or on their fancily-clad, Manolo Blahnik-ed feet, in this "woke" update, the characters actually ride the subway. In fact, there's more subway scenes than sex scenes in this reboot -- or, put another way, they're going down differently in this new series than in the first one.
Most surprisingly of all, the subway stop that's visited the most (so far) is the 116th Street stop on the 1 train. Let's just say that this is a subway stop that I know VERY well. So imagine my surprise, and continued bewilderment, that the 116th Street station in And Just Like That is ... not the REAL 116th street station! It's either a set or another subway stop dressed up as the 116th street station.
And here's what's extra confusing -- the REAL 116th street station is beautiful (or as beautiful as a subway station in NYC can be) while the fake one on And Just Like That is grungy and scary and smaller than the real one.
This is confusing -- for a show that's all about glamour, about beauty, about a fantasy version of NYC, why would they make this particular subway station so wretched when the real subway stop isn't wretched at all? Was the order from the producers, "Hey, make the subway scary for dramatic effect!"? Strange.
Anyway, go ahead and enjoy the station but, just remember, that ain't the real 116th street subway stop.
A native of Sweden, Garbo came to Hollywood in the 1920s and became an immediate sensation during the silent-movie era, then successfully transitioned to talkies in the 1930s. She became one of the highest grossing (and paid) stars of her era, the jewel in the crown of the biggest studio of the time, MGM. While the country was mired in the Great Depression, Garbo's beauty and talent and glamour lifted the spirits of a people that were otherwise struggling.
And then, in the 1940s, at the outbreak of World War II, at the height of her fame, Garbo quit Hollywood and never made another movie. She lived the rest of her life (she died in 1990) as a recluse on the Upper East Side, becoming dubbed "the hermit about town."
In 2011, I actually found the building that Garbo lived in, and took a picture and blogged about it. I've also written about Garbo (including one of her notorious lovers) over the years. Garbo was a forever mystery, in life and death, and nowhere did she seem more mysterious than in NYC.
As NYC recovers from the pandemic, one of the things that took the biggest hit -- and that New Yorkers of all stripes wish to recover -- is enjoyment of the nightlife.
Is there any town, anywhere in the world, that's better to go out at night in?
The restaurants, clubs, shows, events, there's more to do on any given night in NYC that no one can ever do it all.
We're the city that never sleeps, for reason. The greatness of NYC nightlife speaks for itself.
That's why three recent articles about going out in NYC caught my attention since they really summarize the drama and joy of nightlife in NYC.
There's the mayor-elect, Eric Adams, who declares that he plans to be omnipresent in NYC at night. Oh no, he won't shutter himself in Gracie Mansion when evening descends on the city, he'll be out rubbing shoulders with the great unwarshed, enjoying not only his power but his prestige as NYC night-lifer #1.
Oh course, one of the places where people go out at night are bars and clubs. Most cater to a certain clientele -- young, old, rich, poor, or scraping by. So that's what it was fascinating to read about how young New Yorkers are flocking to the Bemelman's bar at the Hotel Carlyle on the Upper East Side. This place is about as old-school NYC at it gets, it's hardly a place where the young and hip have congregated. Well, what's old is new or, in this case, young, again.
Finally, there's legendary NYC columnist (and past Mr NYC interviewee) Michael Musto, writing about what it's like to be an older man going out to the clubs and hitting the downtown scene these days. He shares his memories of what NYC nightlife was like when he was young and how it's changed -- but how he, an inveterate NYC "nightcrawler", has remained largely the same.
