Mr NYC in London

I've been to London, England many times, most recently in 2008 (I even blogged about it at the time). But I never really took a lot of pictures when I was there until I travelled there quite recently and did just that. 

I didn't have a lot of time or energy to do anything too ambitious so I did the typically tourist route of walking from the Houses of Parliament up to Buckingham Palace (making a stop at the National Gallery along the way). Here are some of the pictures of my walk, starting at Big Ben and walking up Whitehall, the enormous city block that contains many of the government ministries including Number 10 Downing Street, the residence and workplace of the British Prime Minister:

Along Whitehall there is a giant arch leading to the House Guard Parade which is a massive field, right in the heart of central London, where you can see where the royal horses are trained and "paraded" around (most recently for the King Charles III coronation).

Then up to the palace, crossing under the Admiralty arch, where I caught the tail's end of the changing of the guard, and saw the outgoing regiment march along the Mall and vanish into nearby St. James' Palace:

Around the palace, in the nearby parks, are some other interesting things to see, including the Canada Gate (a gift from the Great White North to its imperial masters), Clarence House (where the King and Queen currently live, and which is interestingly not on any public maps of the area), the rather dull and old pile of St James' Palace, statues of King George VI and his wife, the Queen Mother, and a huge monument to a forgotten 19th century Duke of York (the Prince Andrew of his day) who was a great battlefield commander -- and the joke of why his monument is so high up is because he had huge debts so he didn't want his creditors to be able to get to him:

I went back to Trafalgar Square, the very center of London, where I stopped for a bite to eat a Pret'a'Manger (there are Pret'a'Mangers EVERYWHERE in London) and I saw a rally of sorts of Iranian dissidents who seem to want to bring back the Shah:

Right off Trafalgar Square is the beautiful small church St Martin's-in-the-Field (an interesting name for a place that's in the heart of a huge city). It's shockingly small and intimate, and not crowded at all -- and very beautiful and quiet (it also has a restaurant downstairs in its old crypt and it holds outdoor concerts during the summer):

I especially love this somewhat hokey, somewhat profound public art structure that contains the words, "Here times leaps up, and strikes eternity." 

Then I went to the National Gallery which will be a whole other blog post. 

Afterwards, I walked north and stopped at Sicilian Avenue, a small little side-street with a restaurant that I remember going to with my mom on my first night in London with her 1986 (I even remember what I ordered -- fish). It was nice to go back and check it out 37 years later:

Finally, I stopped off and had some gelato in Russell Square, a big park-like place with a beautiful fields and restaurant and benches -- and right next to it is a huge gorgeous (and expensive) hotel called the Hotel Russell (my mom and I had dinner there one night in 1986 where I ate more food in one sit-down then any other time in my life):

And that was my day! I always enjoy going to London and hope to be back there someday -- although I'd like to see many other cities in the UK sometime soon. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Glenda Jackson & Robert Gottlieb RIP

This week two titans of their respective crafts -- the legendary book editor Robert Gottlieb and the famous actress/British politician Glenda Jackson -- passed away at the ages of 92 and 87, respectively. 

Just a few months ago I blogged about the wonderful documentary Turn Every Page about the career of Robert Gottlieb -- and the countless great authors he worked with and their books that he published, especially his special working relationship with Robert Caro. A New Yorker to the core, Gottlieb not only edited books but also fundraised and helped run the New York City Ballet and was a huge part of the cultural life of this city. RIP

Glenda Jackson was not a New Yorker -- she was English and acted in movies, theater, and TV for decades except for when she took a 23-year break from acting to serve in the British House of Commons as a Labour MP (she even served as a minister in Prime Minister Tony Blair's government). She won two Oscars and many other awards and, if you've ever seen it, the 1971 mini-series where she plays Queen Elizabeth I is one of the best things I've ever seen. Fortunately I got to see her on Broadway -- twice -- in Three Tall Women in 2018 and King Lear in 2019. You can read my reviews of them here. She was a giant of acting and politics. RIP.

Remembering the Sullivanians

Perhaps this shouldn't be a Remembrance post because I had never heard of the Sullivanians until quite recently but, when I did, my jaw metaphorically dropped. 

Apparently this was a cult that operated on the Upper West Side, just a few blocks south of where yours truly grew up, for almost thirty-years -- from the early 1960s until around 1991. And it attracted such people as the writer Richard Price, the singer Judy Collins and even Jackson Pollack in the years before the cult formally took shape. 

Living in multiple buildings around 100th street and Broadway, right around where the great Metro diner is today, the Sullivanian cult was founded by a neo-Marxist couple that claimed to practice psychiatry even though they weren't formally trained or certified in psychiatry. They believed that the nuclear family and monogamy were the root of all social ills so they started, as so many cults do, a polygamous commune. Like so many cults, it was one-part of a free-love gathering, another part an authoritarian, fundamentalist organization. The leaders controlled their followers lives, said who they could and couldn't hook up with, sent their kids away to boarding schools (because, you know, the nuclear family was bad in their opinion), and did all kinds of other weird-culty stuff.

Also, there was violence -- as reported about in this fascinating article about the Sullivanians. Eventually the founders died, people left the cult, there were lawsuits -- the usual mess that such cults find themselves in. And now there's even a new book about this cult, with some of the surviving followers sharing their memories.

In 2018 there was a popular multi-episode documentary on Netflix called Wild Wild Country about the Rajneeshee cult in Oregon that lasted from roughly 1981-1985 (I even interviewed someone who visited back then). But in terms of longevity the Sullivanians have them beat -- by a lot. And the fact that this cult operated in the heart of sophisticated, cosmopolitan Manhattan -- not way out in the middle of nowhere -- makes it all the fascinating.

I hope there might be a multi-part documentary or podcast about the Sullivanians -- and about how smart, successful people can get sucked into something dark and bad. 

Queens Man in More Trouble

Mr NYC in Heidelberg

Last year I went to Germany for work and blogged about it here. It included a short trip to the university city of Heidelberg, where I wrote about and showed pictures of the big castle (or shloss) that I saw there.

Recently I returned to Heidelberg and got to see more of the Old City area. It's really beautiful and, while it might call itself "old", it's a lively, vibrant, ever-alive part of this great city. The main part of this city lies along the Haupstrasse, a carless street, that includes the old and new living in perfect harmony:

I also saw some interesting statues of the great 19th-century German chancellor Otto von Bismark, Professor Buntsen (who worked at the university and invented the Buntsen burner) as well as a very interesting looking fountain and another statue of a man looking very depressed -- which was appropriate since he was sitting outside the department of psychiatry:

I also saw a beautiful small church along the street that I had a few minutes to take pictures of -- until I was kicked out by the guy who was locking it up as he waved me out, saying "Schnell! Schnell! I schnelled but not before getting these pics:

I saw some other interesting buildings, including a brand-new one built in an old-German style, a trolley, and some interesting English-language signage:

Finally, the city of Heidelberg is located on a big river called the Neckar and also surrounded by mountains. At twilight, it makes for a gorgeous sight:

All in all, a great trip, and beautiful city in an amazing country.

Remembering HBO's "Family Bonds"

In the early 2000s, when George W Bush was president and America was fighting two wars, America entertained itself with two things: The Sopranos and reality shows. 

So it was the backdrop of this milieu that HBO, for some inexplicable reason in 2004, produced perhaps its oddest reality shows ever -- Family Bonds.

It was about the professional and personal lives of the Evangelista family from Queens that was in the bail bonds business. The episodes would cut back-and-forth between the domestic lives of the Evangelistas (lead by the patriarch of the family and business Tom, along with his wife who was getting breast implants, his daughter who was getting married and having a baby, and Tom's brother/employee who was a perpetual incompetent) to scenes of them arresting people for breaking their bail.

Much like its fictional HBO sibling of the time about the mafia, Family Bonds was a look at a blue-collar tough guy business (in this case, a real-life legitimate one from NYC) where ordinary family life was contrasted to the rough business that supported it. 

I remember seeing a few episodes of it at the time and wondering why this family and its business was getting a reality show on a prestige network. Some people found it offensive (like this screed) but to me it just looked dull. And after one season it was cancelled -- and completely and totally forgotten (until just now, by me).

I can't find clips of the show on YouTube and it doesn't seem to be streaming anywhere. To a certain extent, it's almost like this show never existed. But if you ever see, you'll get a peak into a certain NYC slice-of-life that had very brief moment in the sun.

All Hail Thelma Schoonmaker

The great NYC director Martine Scorsese has a new movie coming out called Killers of the Flower Moon. It's set in early 20th century Oklahoma and is about how the Osage tribe, which had become incredibly rich due to the vast amount of oil located on their reservation, were systematically murdered by white folks -- some of whom married into Osage families to get legal title to this land. It looks incredible with an amazing cast, and I can't wait to see it.

As a lifelong fan of Scorsese's movies, I realized something: as brilliant a director as he is, his movies probably wouldn't be as good if his editor wasn't Thelma Schoonmaker. She's edited all of his movies since Raging Bull and has won three Oscars for her work (for Raging Bull, The Aviator, and The Departed). The fights scenes in Bull, the pool playing shots in The Color of Money, the last day as a wiseguy sequence in Goodfellas -- all those and many more brilliant feats of editing in Scorsese movies -- is all because of her.  

So all hail Thelm Schoonmaker! And, to give you a sense of her great career, here are her three Oscar wins from 1981 to 2007.

NYC Subway Record Holder

So this is a thing: there's a Guinness Book of World Records holder for the fastest trip around the entire NYC subway system. And as of May, 2023, there's a new certified record holder: someone named Kate Jones who is, interestingly enough, a native New Yorker living in Switzerland (but who made a trip home to beat this record).

Ms. Jones completed her record-setting route in 22 hours, 14 minutes, and ten seconds. To get a sense of this daunting mission, it required hitting all 472 stations in NYC that covers 665 miles of track. Her journey started way out in Far Rockaway and ended on the far west side of Manhattan. Interestingly enough, the previous record holder completed this mission in less time in 2016 (about 21 1/2 hours) but, since then, three new subway stations have been added to the system (the 2nd Avenue line) thus the obstacle was a little higher. 

So congrats to Kate Jones, this is an amazing achievement! And if you want to read more about what it's like to travel around the entire NYC subway system in a whole day, read this previous blog post from 2018 (the republishing of a Daily News article from 1974). 

NYC & the Airborne Toxic Event

Paging Don DeLillo! Just got back into town from a week away and flew into this:

Stay safe out there!