Living on the NYC Fringe

The basic definition of "fringe" is the border or outer part of an area or group. It's the tassles around the rug, the frame around the picture, the person or thing at the very edge of the photgraph, the inside of something that's almost outside, someone or something peripheral to the main host, the mainsteam.

It's being a part of something -- but barely. 

In New York City, all of us probably feel like we're living on the fringe, whether it's our neighborhood, our communities, or our jobs. To live in NYC is to live on the edge, so of speak.

This is a city of, by, and for the fringe.

But when you read these two stories you realize how some people in this city truly live at the fringes of it, both literally and figuratively. 

First, this big story about the residents of Broad Channel, a neighborhood of islands in Jaimaca Bay -- between JFK airport and Howard Beach on one side and the Rockaway Peninsula on the other -- where people live in houses on the water, get around in boats, and are devoted to a quiet, simply life while peering across at the skyline of Manhattan, inhabiting a different world. The people of Broad Channel love and are completely devoted to it but climate change is challenging life there. The water levels are rising along with more frequent and nasty storms, and life in Broad Channel is under threat. How people are adapting to it in this "fringe" of NYC will tell us a lot about how much climate change threatens not just Broad  Channel but the city as a whole.  

Second, this fascinating profile of a young playwrite who is so devoted to his craft that he is literally staging plays in people's living rooms. In a city teaming with talented and creative people, who crave an audience for their work, this writer -- who is well outside of the mainstream of NYC theater -- is willing to go to the people, hunt for an audience. Instead of waiting for them to come to him, he goes to them. It's arguably a "fringy" way of being a playwrite but it shows you how far some people will go for the love of their art.

So I admire and respect those New Yorkers who live and work on the fringe of the city -- in some ways, this is a fringe blog, a weird outlier of the NYC media world. And I think that's cool!

Classic Mr NYC

I just stumbled upon this blog post from April, 2011 and, um, uhhhh, yeah ... it doesn't exactly hold up.

But you should still read it if only because it is a genuine historical curiosity. 

It's just a reminder that history is made in a fog, the fog of the present, the so-called "fog of war",  and that nothing is predictable, nothing is pre-ordained, and that history with hindsight is truly 20/20.

Culture Shock NYC

Bemoaning about gentrification in NYC has become a constant for New Yorkers -- and yours truly is no different. "This city ain't what it used to be" has probably been a refrain since Colonial times. Twenty, thirty years ago it was all about how the city was falling apart and raging with crime. Today it's about how the city is too expensive and how neighborhoods are being taken over by high-rises and chain stores.

Whatever's going on in NYC, its citizens will complain about it.

So that's what makes this article by Village Voice columnist, and early Mr NYC interviewee, Michael Musto so interesting -- he doesn't complain about gentrification, instead he looks at it from an historical perspective. Basically, he posits that the city is always changing, has always been changing, and businesses and buildings are always coming and going -- at first we hate them, then we fall in love with them, then we weep at their demise.

For example, as Michael writes about, the Astor Place K-Mart. When it opened in the 1990s, it was a hated example of encroaching corporatism, a vile chain store in the middle of the hipster community. But over the years it became a very convienent, and beloved, neighborhood staple. Now it's gone -- and Astor Place denizens are bummed.

Michael perfectly captures the feelings we have about the constant churn of NYC -- what was once new becomes old, what was once viewed with suspicion finally get embraced, and when it vanishes we get sad. 

Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose.

But one place that has remained strong in NYC for the last 50 years, and shows no signs of vanishing, is Film Forum. The downtown revival movie house is deeply beloved by many New Yorkers, and its survival and resilience in an era of streaming and COVID is all the more impressive. Prior to having kids, I went there all the time with friends and loved ones, and saw old movies by Goddard and Orson Welles, and many others. I even spent my 30th birthday there for a Woody Allen festival -- it's such a great place and, in a midst of constant economic and cultural change in NYC, it's still going strong.

In fact, my most popular blog post ever is about Film Forum -- this over 13-year old post has been viewed over 17,500 times! I can't explain it or understand why but, for me at least and in so many ways, Film Forum is the gift that keeps on giving!

So the culture is always changing in NYC -- and sometimes we experience culture shock -- but some culture remains the same ... which is somewhat shocking in and of itself.

Historic Votes in NYC History -- 1950 & 2022

Fifteen Years of Mr NYC

Well, I'm a tad late getting around to this but, egads, not only is Mr NYC a teenager (and been one for two years now) but now this blog has now turned fifteen years old -- that's half-way to an even twenty (technically a generation), a decade shy of a quarter century, and half-way to thirty -- a full Back to the Future trip. 

As my daughter would, that's "cray-cray." 

Also, clearly, 15 is evenly divisible by 5, and five-year anniversaries is when I've typically done "birthday" blog posts -- so go here to read the first ever post in 2007, the five-year anniversary post in 2012, and the ten-year anniversary post in 2017. 

Fuck I'm old! 

Next year will be another big anniversary when Mr NYC will reaches the age of consent! 

The Long March of Eddie Gibbs

Here's an interesting article on a brand-new Assemblyman named Eddie Gibbs who is the first formerly incarcerated person (i.e. convicted felon) elected to the state legislature from Harlem.

It's been decades since his time in prison and his life since then has been a textbook case of redemption and what someone can do with life if given a second chance. Needless to say he has strong opinions on criminal justice reform and sentencing laws but his positions aren't exactly what you might think.

It's an interesting look at someone who has experienced the law from both sides -- and a voice in our politics and our state that has never been heard in policy-making before. 

That Time Woody Allen Testified Before Congress

Woody Allen has never been a political filmmaker -- he has said that politics doesn't interest him so much as exploring how life is tragic, meaningless, and absurd. His best films look at life and love and, instead of reveling in the glories of them, concludes that love leads to sadness and life leads to nothingness.

Woody's greatest film, Crimes & Misdemeanors, basically says that God doesn't exist and there is no justice in the world. (So there.) He posits that only by trying to find some joy in one's daily existence can life be made bearable -- and this philosophy of life is expoused in the film by a character who commits suicide.  (So there, again.)

But on May 12, 1987, Woody did something highly unexpected and, in a way, political -- he testified before Congress with his fellow Oscar-winning colleagues Milos Forman and Sydney Pollack in support of legislation that would prevent film companies (mainly run by Ted Turner) from colorizing movies. Colorization of old black and white movies was a fad back then, and purists like Woody and others were vocally against it. They won -- colorization withered away along with Betamax.

So here is America's least political filmmaker speaking strongly in favor of the rights of artists. It's fascinating to watch. 

Interestingly enough, a few years later, Woody and Sydney Pollack would work together on the movie Husbands and Wives. 

Jazz Lives in NYC!

If you love jazz, and you love NYC, and you love to listen to jazz in NYC, then you're in luck!

You can go to Jazz at Lincoln Center!

You can find a whole variety of jazz clubs and other spaces where jazz performances ocurr regularly!

And you can even find it on the radio -- yes, NYC has its own jazz station, WBG0 88.3 FM (it's actually located in Newark, NJ but that's ok, the five boroughs doesn't mind)!

Jazz lives in NYC! Spread the word! 

21 Most Magnificent Mansions in New York City

 

March, 1972 in NYC: "The Godfather" and the Godfather of Soul

How's this for two days in NYC history fifty-years ago this week:

March 15, 1972: The Godfather, one of the very greatest movies ever made, opened in NYC. It went on to become the highest grossing movie ever made (displacing the Gone with the Wind's 33-year run until it was displaced by Jaws in 1975), winning the Oscar for Best Picture, and defining American cinema and the darkness of the American dream forever after. Yeah, kinda important.

March 16, 1972: the very next day the Godfather of Soul, James Brown himself, went to Riker's Island and performed two shows for the inmates there. You can read the full story of how and why this happened here. It was a glittering, uplifting moment in time in an otherwise sad and difficult place -- a reminder that great culture can and should exist anywhere and for anyone.