There are lots of rich and powerful families that own huge swaths of NYC. The Rockefellers, the Tisches, the Trumps, the Lauders, and lots you haven't heard about.
One of those families is the Dolans who own, amongst other things, the Knicks and Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, and other big venues.
This short documentary about the Dolans is a hilarious and insightful summing up of this bizarre NYC dynasty that wields great power over the city -- and does it really badly.
I've been out of the country for the last nine days so blogging went on pause.
But Mr NYC is back and there are lots of topics I plan to blog about soon.
Keep coming back here and look for it!
One hundred years ago today, the third, relatively short, novel by F. Scott Fitzgeral. Titled The Great Gatsby, it got mixed reviews, sold poorly, and was generally viewed a failure.
Now, a full century later, its regarded by critics and generations of readers as one of the greatest novels ever written, and the greatest American novel of the 20th century.
The American dream -- its unending allure and its many dangers -- that the novel explores and lays bare, remains essential, more relevant than ever before.
The green light still shines bright. And tonight, the lights of the Empire State Building will turn green.
I've written a lot about Gatsby over the years so I won't rehash it here. But I always go back to this book, always re-read it, because the of the haunting final line: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
The national media gave these thousands of protests nationwide, that included millions of people, very little coverage. But see for yourself what happened in the streets of NYC. The people are rising up!
Of the fifty-something movies that Woody Allen has made over half-century, some are great classics, some are really good, some are just okay, and some are entirely forgettable.
One of my favorite of his movies that is often overlooked in his oeuvre is Manhattan Murder Mystery in 1993. It's actually really good.
The story concerns a middle-aged, empty-nest couple named Larry (Woody) and Carol (Diane Keaton) who live a good quiet Manhattan life with friends and work and culture and all that you could want from marriage and NYC. But Carol is bored -- and when she suspects that their neighbor might have murdered his wife, she takes it upon herself to investigate the "crime", dragging a very reluctant Larry along the way. What starts out as a lark becomes something much, more darker.
And, in the meantime, they talk a lot about the state of their marriage.
By the time Woody made this movie, he had been directing movies for almost 25 years and was already wildly successful and acclaimed. And he was still challenging himself -- he shoots this movie in a documentary, fly-on-the-wall way. He manages to make the filming look casual but there's a steady intention to each shot, a real vision at work, and it's one of my favorite of his movies as matter of pure directing style.
Then there's the cast -- Keaton, reuniting with Woody over a decade since Manhattan, is brilliant and Alan Alda and Angelica Huston, who had appeared, seperately, in Crimes & Misdemeanors a few years earlier, are excellent. And the movie manages to be both an intriguing mystery yarn while also a meditation on getting older and what you want out of the rest of your life.
And it's funny! Woody has made lots of funny movies but this might be one of his best. The humor is so understated that, when a joke arrives, it lands softly and firmly and really tickles your funny bone: "I can't listen to that much Wagner, I get this sudden urge to conquer Poland!"
This movie was also a bit of a turning point in Woody's life and career. When he made it, he was going through his nasty custody battle with Mia Farrow, and that's why Diane Keaton replaced her in the movie (although Farrow, weirdly, after accussing Woody of child abuse, then showed up ready to work; Woody understandable didn't want to work with someone trying to put him in jail). He also wrote the script with his old partner, the recently deceased Marshall Brickman and their magic chemistry shows.
Right after this Woody would make the classic Bullets Over Broadway and then begin an uneven series of movies until the triumph of Midnight in Paris in 2011.
So I highly recommend this often forgotten Woody classic. It's not just a good movie, it's a balm.
Whoever said "May you live in interesting times" was an asshole.
Actually, it was/is an old Japanese proverb and was in fact meant as a curse. The flip side to that is another Japanese proverb that states "May you have a boring life" and that was meant as a blessing.
As I get older, I see the wisdom in both sayings.
Here in NYC, we're living in the "interesting times" of Mayor Eric Adams -- the criminal who runs the city. Only now he's technically not a criminal any more -- the corruption charges against him were dropped -- with prejudice, meaning they can't be brought against him again -- and now Adams says he's running for re-election as an Independent.
I hope to heck he loses but who knows? These days the vox populi est imbecile.
Then again, in the 19th century there was Fernando Wood, in the 20th century there was Jimmy Walker -- so now, in the 21st century, we have Eric Adams.
Still, the whole thing is rotten and weird and depressing. New York City deserves so much better than this.
Wow, Mr NYC started eighteen years ago today.
Today Mr NYC is officially old enough to drive, vote, get drafted, have sex, pay taxes, and go to jail.
In short, an adult.
Happy to say, the real me has never been drafted nor gone to jail but I've paid a lot of taxes, voted and driven a bunch, and sex ... well ... I have two kids but my most constant partner has been ... Mr NYC.
Hope we'll go on for another few more years. This city never ceases to be a great source of material!
If you're a fan of the White Lotus series, you'll note that there are lots of scenes of characters lounging by pools or laying in bed, reading. Over three seasons, lots of different books have been used as props -- including Barbra Streisand's phonebook of an autobiography -- and they help to give the characters reading them another dimension.
In this third season of the show one of the characters is reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned -- a book I blogged about back in 2022. And there's a person whose whole job it is to get these books onto White Lotus, a sort of literary props master, that must be a fun job. (People on TikTok are chatting about it).
This remind me of a story -- albeit, a very short, rather underwhelming one. But it involves another noteworthy HBO show.
In early 2001 I was working -- miserably -- at a company that produced trade books. It was an awful job at an awful company with awful people, and I didn't last long there. But there was one fleeting brief moment that catapulted me into cultural relevance.
One afternoon my phone rang and I answered. A cheery voice said to me, "Hi! I'm calling from the HBO show The Sopranos!" I was floored. In early 2001 The Sopranos was, by far, the hottest show on TV. Everyone was watching and talking about it. This was while they were making the third season that included the legendary "Pine Barrens" episode.
Of course, I thought, "Why the hell are they calling this company?" But the friendly guy on the phone informed me that they needed books on real estate for an upcoming episode and could we provide some gratis. I said I thought that was possible, took down the info, informed my bosses, they went nuts, and off the books went to the Sopranos production company.
Months later, I'm out of this job horrible job and, one night, catch the show. And there, at the end of the episode, is Edie Falco herself reading the book I sent. That was weird, and cool, and my only connection to one of the best TV shows ever made.
I don't recall exactly which episode it was but it's towards the end of the third season. So, if you ever see it, remember Mr NYC himself masterminded this epochal contribution to the culture.
As seen on Riverside Drive and 122 street on March 8th, 2025 at 1:37 PM ...
... and in Northest East, Queens on March 17, 2025 6:45 PM ...
That is all.
I might be forgiven for claiming that I possess a crystal ball. I don't -- but I certainly have, over the years, written about things long before the mainstream media or others have.
That's why I created an entire section of this blog called Mr NYC Ahead of His Time with examples of my psychic abilities.
Two blog posts that I did were about the borough of Queens and how it's essentially the "swing" borough in NYC politics -- the borough where mayors are made, the true political pulse of the city. (I referred to Queens as the "Ohio" of NYC but these days it's more like the "Wisconsin.") Also, I blogged about the political dynasties in this city, families that have posessed power in NYC for generations.
Well, whatyaknow, there was recently a big article that breaks down exactly how Queens breaksdown politically and how volatile it is, and the role that political dynasties play in NYC politics.
Like ... wow! I was writing about this stuff LONG before the hotshot political reporters in this town did. I don't claim to be brilliant but yours truly sure does have a habit of noticing and writing about things before others, a kind of "sixth sense" about NYC.
I plan to continue doing this for a long time to come!
