Roxy Music @ MSG, September 12, 2022 -- "Same Old Scene"

 

Blair Brown Introduces "Into the Woods" for American Playhouse -- March 15, 1991

Currently on Broadway there is a massively successful revival of Stephen Sondheim's 1980s musical Into the Woods, a brilliant integration and revisionist takes on the Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel fairy tales. It's a very funny, fast-moving show, the songs and music are incredible, and it's one of Sondheim's last great musicals, a master at the top of his game.

In the decades since, Into the Woods has been revived a few times on Broadway and elsewhere, and even become a hit 2014 movie. Apparently this latest revival is the best yet, and a whole new generation is discovering this brilliant work. 

In 1991, a few years after the original Broadway run, a taped version of Into the Woods was show on the now sadly defunct PBS series "American Playhouse." Back then, there was no streaming, no YouTube, you couldn't just search and dial up a recording of a Broadway show. So if you hadn't seen the actual production on Broadway, there was nowhere else to see it -- except if you tuned in for this special presentation on March 15, 1991.

March of 1991 was an interesting time -- in what was one of the first viral videos, motorist Rodney King was recorded getting beaten by the LAPD, the first Gulf War had just ended, and the now classic movie The Silence of the Lambs was burning up the box office.

Blair Brown was a television star at the time, her show The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd was still running (although about to go off the air). In an odd way, she and this show were both quintessential NYC cultural landmarks of the time, so it was appropriate that she would introduce this special airing of it -- which also includes an interview with Sondheim itself. 

So here's a look at a special moment in time more than 30 years ago -- for something that has proven to be truly timeless. 

Crises? What Crises?

Public service is generally defined as serving in a job, often in government, where your work is to better the lives of the general public. That's generally how public service has been understood throughout American history.

Elected officials, politicians, are two things at once: public servants but also celebrities of a sort -- they need to have a certain charisma, "star power", magnetism of some sort that gets lots and lots of people to vote for them (at least get more votes than their opponents) and often has little to do with their qualifications or competence for the actual work of the job.

Something interesting has happened in last decade or two -- now we have politicians who clearly have no interest in serving the public, who don't care about doing the actual job. They just want to be a celebrity. 

Sarah Palin and then Trump are classic examples. But we have one big one closer to home.

Mayor Eric Adams is the very model of a modern politician -- he doesn't actually care about governing, he's not much interested in policy. He likes to hang out at nightclubs and rant about crime but doesn't seem have any vision, any policies, any ideas about helping the general public.

There are twin crises in NYC today that Mayor Adams seems wholly indifferent to:

1. The fact that, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, generations of Hasidic children are not receiving a proper education or being prepared for adult life, all of which is being partially subsidized by taxpayers. The New York Times published a bombshell investigation about how a huge number of Hasidic children are essentially living in a mini-North Korea. Adams response? It's no big deal. To be fair, this has been a years-long, bipartisan disgrace but this has been fully exposed on Adams watch -- and his response is to do nothing.

2. The odious thing about the conservative political movement is to say that government doesn't work and then, when they get control of the government, make sure it doesn't. There is currently a crises in the staffing of the municipal government because the salaries are too low, there are no work-from-home options, and attrition since COVID began has been awful. Again, Adams doesn't see a problem with this and, in fact, has contributed to the problem -- he wants the city government to lowball salaries to applicants for city jobs and has been totally inflexible on them working from home. 

Ross Barkan, a three-time Mr NYC interviewee, has a great new article about how Mayor Adams doesn't see this as a crises because he doesn't see governing as a priority. The depressing thing is that Adams is not an outlier, not the exception to the rule: he is the rule, he's the standard of today's politician who do nothing policy-wise, claim to have no responsibility for anything, and preen for cameras and social media feeds. 

So if you wonder why problems in today's city, today's country, today's society remain unresolved, this is why.

NY1 & "Quantum Leap": 30 Years Old and Going Strong

This month, two totally unrelated but nonetheless interesting (to me) things on TV are happening:

1. The local cable news channel NY1 just turned 30 years old -- it first hit the air on September 8th, 1992 in a very different time and city. First something of a curiosity -- a 24/7 news station dedicated only to NYC news? -- it's become a beloved staple of city, a vital necessity to life for almost all New Yorkers. Here's what NY1 looked like in the early days:

2. If you've read this blog long enough you'll learn about some the of the music, movies, books, and TV shows that Mr NYC loves. One of them is the early 1990s show Quantum Leap about a time traveler who "leaps" into different lives between the 1950s and 1980s. The original brilliant series went off the air in 1993 but -- guess what? -- it's back! A reboot, more like a continuation, of the series debuts later this month and I'm eager to see it. I certainly hope it's good.

There were many episodes of Quantum Leap set in NYC and I've blogged about them. Also, a couple of years ago, I even interviewed the costumer designer of the original series who gave some great behind the scenes anecdotes of the show. You can read all the Mr NYC Quantum Leap coverage here. 

NYC Mourns Queen Elizabeth II

Sterling Lord RIP

One of my favorite books is Jack Kerouac's 1957 classic On the Road, the quintessential 20th American adventure story of two lost souls who have "Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the the road."

Famously Kerouac wrote the novel on a giant scroll in three weeks but it took four years to get published, thanks to a man named Sterling Lord. A brilliant agent, he managed to get the down-on-his-luck Kerouac $1,000 for the book that wound-up burnishing the writer, and Beat generation, into America culture.

Later on, Lord would represent, amongst many other writers Ken Kesey for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Nicholas Pileggi for Wiseguy that became the great movie Goodfellas. 

Born, raised, and educated in Iowa, Lord migrated to NYC as an adult to become the gold-standard for literary agents. His legacy was immense. He was the "guy-behind-the-guy," the patron and promoter of great work who recognized genius and then shared it with all of us. 

Sterling Lord has died at the age of 102 -- long-outliving some of his more famous clients who lived fast, hard and, like Kerouac, died much too young. 

What an amazing life and legacy Sterling Lord left us. RIP.

Mr NYC in an Undisclosed Location

 

Mr NYC: 500,000 and Counting

I don't obsess over the number of people who read or have read Mr NYC over the years -- this blog is such a niche thing and lives such an underground existence that it's amazing anyone besides me and two other people have read it.

But a lot more than two people have!

It took 15+ years but, as of today, Mr NYC has been read over half-a-million times. 

Considering that I certainly don't advertise, don't promote, or am heavily linked elsewhere, that's not bad. More people than live in the entire borough of Staten Island have read this blog and hopefully it won't take another 15 years to hit a cool million. 

Onwards!

Interview: Normal Bob Smith on the Wild Characters of Union Square

To say that there are lots of interesting and different kinds of people in NYC is an understatement -- and stating the obvious. But anyone who can find a way to capture of the life of NYC in a interesting and original way is always going to spark my interest.

One such person is someone who goes under the moniker Normal Bob Smith, who has run a YouTube channel for more than a decade, posting videos of the numerous and fascinating characters who populate Union Square. The videos are a combination of off-the-cuff interviews and observations of people who still dare to live offbeat, whacky lives in a city that's becoming more and more gentrified and square. 

Normal Bob Smith was kind enough to answer a few questions for Mr NYC about his channel and what he's learned watching the wild characters of Union Square. 

Who is Normal Bob Smith and what led you to create the Normal Bob YouTube channel?

Normal Bob Smith is me. And the YouTube channel was started after I moved to NYC in 2002 and started filming there. YouTube wasn’t born until 2006, but when it happened I realized it was a perfect place to start posting my videos from Union Square and elsewhere around NYC. 

How long has the channel existed and are still uploading new content?

The channel has officially existed since YouTube’s conception, however I did have two channels before that were deleted by YouTube back when their rules and regulations weren’t quite as clear. The present Channel has been around since 2012 I believe.

What is it about Union Square that attracts such wild characters?

Union Square has been attracting its wild characters (more than any other NYC park) because of its location. Between lower & upper Manhattan, East & West Village, along with being a major subway port and popular shopping area. Also the park faces out to the streets, where most of the other parks are fenced in or closed off in some way or another.

Your videos aren't just interviews -- it seems like each one is a narrative, a very short story, about the person you're talking to. Is that a good way to put it or are you trying to achieve something else?

All I was trying to truly achieve was documenting the things I saw unfold before my eyes every day as honestly as possible. I was dazzled by the show I went there for and knew I’d regret not capturing the people and stories.

What kind of unexpected wisdom have you learned from these people?

Honestly what I learned most from my time there was how to control my own behavior in wild situations. Trying to concentrate on documenting others while keeping my own opinions silent as well as I could. My earlier videos I do more trying to interject my opinions into the narrative, while later on I realized the stories are better the more background I remain. Restraining my ego was a lesson I learned, and continue to try and practice.

Thanks Bob!

If you want to learn more about Bob and particularly his art background, you can read his fascinating life story here.

New York Primary Results 2022