Lest We Forget

It's Memorial Day, a time when we remember the soldiers who perished to secure our freedom. Our country is currently bogged down in two wars which is, sadly, creating lots more slain fighters to remember. Personally, I salute a great uncle of mine who was killed in WWII (obviously I never met him but I still pay him tribute).

It's probably the greatest service those of us lucky enough to be alive can render to those who no longer are: the simple act of remembering. Lest we forget.

But remembering and thinking of others shouldn't be limited only to one day or only to fallen soldiers (not that they don't deserve such a special day, clearly they do). It should be 24/7/365. And we should remember people who are both living and dead.

For example, let me give you a couple of NYC-centric examples. They're small tributes, really, but no less noble.

At the upcoming Tony Awards show, a special Tony will be given to the NYPD for their heroism in quickly thwarting and arresting the Times Square bomber. These cops not only saved a lot of lives but also a major NYC industry in the midst of a recession. I'm glad that Broadway is honoring these guys now.

And here's another act of remembering: TV actor Gary Coleman died this past weekend. He was a big star on the show "Diff'rent Strokes" in the 1970s and 80s but his life took a sad turned after the show ended. His parents stole all the money he earned, he had health problems and run-ins with the law. He was so deeply troubled, in fact, that he was turned into a down n'out character in the Broadway musical "Avenue Q." Gary's death has led to some tweakings in the show but his character will not be excised. Although he had a sad life he will be forever immortalized in a classic, joyous piece of theater that gives people as much joy as his TV character did to me a child.

Then there are those who haven't died or been killed but who are struggling. Because of the state budget crises, many adult literacy classes are being cut. Let's not forget these people who are being hurt.

So from soldiers to cops to adult students to TV actors, we naturally think of the poet Rudyard Kipling. He wrote a great poem called "Recessional" in 1897 (for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee) about how, when nations rise to great power, they often forget their God. "Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget--lest we forget! he opines at one point, or else we will go into decline.

Well, we all go into permanent decline at some point and we hope that we will be remembered long afterwards.

Si, Venice

Yes, we went to Venice. And it was great.

In an attempt to curb my usual long-windedness, I will do my best to sum up the trip as efficiently as possible.

First, the sights. We saw just about everything: St. Mark's Basilica, the Correr Museum, the Doge's Palace with the Bridge of Sighs, San Giorgio Maggiore, La Salute, the Campanile Bell Tower, Frari Church, the Scuola San Rocco (which houses an amazing collection of Tinterretto paintings), Ca'Rezzonico, the Accademia, the Jewish Ghetto, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. We also went to Murrano to check out the glass factories, spent an afternoon sunning on the beach at the Lido, and even saw a Regatta.

Second, the weather: amazing. The temperatures ranged from between 60 to 70 degrees and it was sunny every day (we did have a spot of rain on Thursday afternoon but otherwise the sky was blue and perfect). Italy gets really hot in the summer so this was a great time of year to go, just before the worst of it. Best of all, we got really tanned.

Third, the food: for the most part it was good but sadly our last night's meal was lousy. Venice is not known as a great restaurant town but most of the places we hit were pretty good. There are lots of places and finding a good spot is all a matter of luck. We also ate tons of pizza and even cooked some fresh pasta one night (we stayed in a little apartment with a kitchen).

Our favorite restaurant was called Trattoria de Marisa ai Tre Archi located on the Fondamenta San Giobbe in the Carnnaregio district. This is a small place where they have no menu and instead serve a multi-course meal consisting entirely of either meat or fish, depending on the night. It costs 35 Euros per person and includes dessert and wine. We came on an all fish night and had squid, ocotopuss, various fried fishes, and a delicious pastichio. If you are ever in Venice, you must treat yourself to this restaurant, it's charming and the food is excellent.

We also coughed up some money and treated out selves to drinks at Caffe Florian. This is a legendary cafe that has existed in Venice, right on St. Mark's Square, since 1720. It is very elegant and swanky and drinks were amazing (I had a Florian Martini and my wife had the Anniversiro Florian). Among Florian's customers over the centuries: Goethe, Lord Byron, Marcel Proust, Charles Dickens, Wagner, Ernest Hemingway, and countless others. (Talk about celebrity clientele.) It has also been featured in some great literature too, like Henry James' "The Wings of the Dove" and Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited." It's a truly legendary place.

Fourth (and finally), the city itself. Venice its a beautiful, stunning place. Building and after building, separated by a maze of canals and narrow alleys, is a feast for the eyes. The architecture of Venice is so unique and each structure was built with such care and attention to detail, with so many different flourishes, that after a while your eyes begin to melt from overload. Sadly, over the years, Venice's economy has shrunk to the point where there is practically no other business in town except tourism. Every place you go there are lots and lots of tourists and all the businesses exist to serve them. While this is convenient (and, speaking as a tourist, it would be hypocritical of me to complain), the city has become so "pimped" out to tourists that it only seems like a Las Vegas version of itself, not the real the thing. That said, I'll still go to the real Venice over the Venetian any day.

Arrivederci

So Mr NYC and wife have packed their bags and, despite the ash clouds and cabin crew strikes that temporarily threatened it, now have clear skies and smooth flying to a land that gave us the Mona Lisa and the Ferrari -- amongst a few other notable things. Hopefully I'll have some good things to share when we get back. And no, I won't be buying you all gifts. Where exactly in this country we are going? I'll leave that a mystery for now. Just take a look at this picture and guess. We'll be back in a week. See ya!

Is NYC Tyrannical?

Recently a scribe named Conor Friedersdorf wrote an article in The Atlantic called "The Tyranny of New York." His thesis: that NYC produces too much culture, too much news, too much stuff, that it attracts too many people and too much talent, and that it shamelessly waves all of this in the face of the rest of the country so as to make the American people feel alienated and resentful towards NYC. He believes the relationship between NYC and the rest of the country is "unhealthy." Hence the supposed "tyranny."

What a tool. What an utter tool.

In fact, his theory was so dumb that Conor himself basically retracted it a week later in a piece called "The Tyranny of New York Revisited" where he calls his initial idea "flawed." Basically, he revised thesis goes, wouldn't it be nice if there was some other American town that could hold its own against NYC? And isn't it a crying shame that there isn't? Yes, that would be so lovely, Conor, I'm sure you're the first person to have thought of it.

You gotta read these two very stupid pieces by this very stupid man -- if you can, if you dare -- in order to see how embarrassingly dumb someone can be who thinks he is smart. It proves that anyone, really, can get published (particularly in a respectable publication like The Atlantic) if they have the right connections, know the right people, kiss the right tuchus, etc.

Woody Allen was right: Conor's writing proves that there really is such a thing as "mental masturbation." I'll be the first to admit that Mr NYC (like all blogs) is basically a big act of mental masturbation but at least no one pays me to do it like Conor or that kid in "Boogie Nights"! Egads.

Look, Conor, and all you NYC "playa hateas": my city, my hometown, is not tyrannical. It is, quite simply, one of a select few of the great cities of the world, up there with London, Paris, Rome, Moscow, Beijing, and Tokyo. It's really big, really rich, really exciting, and really complex because it attracts amazing people from all over America and the world. They come here because it encapsulates everything that's so great about America and these are the people that make it so great. NYC is a place where dreams come true, always has been, always will be.

"If you can make it here" and so on.

Some of you might say hey, Mr NYC, why are you taking this so personally? He's just a jackass (and he certainly is) so why do you care? Well, it's simple really: you attack my city, you attack me. I don't care if you're an Arab terrorist or a douche writing for The Atlantic.

But it goes deeper than that and it's more sinister. It's part of what I call a "red state narcissism", a belief that big cities are somehow "un-American." I really resent this. Big cities are the most American places in America because, you know what, they have more Americans in them! Conor reminds me of people like Sarah Palin who not only knock big cities and praise small towns but also use derisive terms like "liberal elitists", "illegal aliens", and "welfare recipients", etc. Let me clear up something right now:

Welfare recipients = black people
Illegal aliens = Spanish people and other swarthy foreigners
Liberal elitists = Jews.

And being a white person I know my own kind very well and can tell you that this is what people like Conor and Sarah mean when they use terms like this or trash places like NYC as being "tyranical. NYC and cities like it, as well as the people who live in them, make white people feel insecure and threatens their position of privledge. I mean, after all, the president is black -- what do these white folks have left if not there own sense of their own superiority?

So, in closing, I will simply say this: NYC is not tyrannical. It's just a great place. And lots of people know this and "want to be a part of it." I'm not even saying it's the greatest place in the world -- it's just one of them. And if people like Conor have a problem with that, well, tough noogies.

NYC: Past, Present, Future

Ecclesiastes 1:9 "That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun."

Compared to the other great cities of the world, New York is relatively young -- around 400 years old. Rome, London, Paris, Beijing are thousands years old so NYC is a baby in relation to them. But compared to most American cities, NYC is quite old. And one of the joys of living here is discovering spots where the past isn't past at all but still very much present. Walking on the twisting streets of Lower Manhattan you can imagine what our city was like in Colonial times. Go to Staten Island and see the old homes and stately mansions of the pre-Industrial era. And on and on. Sometimes the past jumps out at you. There's nothing I like seeing more than a building with an generations-old advertisement for a product or business that's long since gone -- like the Corn Exchange Bank or Gimbels department store.

Preserving New York's past is a hard job and not all of it can be salvaged. Some wonderful old buildings have been destroyed and others have been gutted. There are even literally pieces of the old city that have been preserved -- but that are now being shipped away. But there are also movements afoot to revive the old city (or at least parts of it), to resurrect that Old New York flavor. And yet this is controversial. Many bemoan gentrification and argue that the city was so much better in the "good old days." Then again, some people argue that the good old days weren't so good.

Amazingly there has been a lot of debate lately about old and new NYC, about whether the city has lost its soul or is better than ever. Like anything, I think it's a mixed bag: in many ways, our city is safer and more beautiful than it's been in a long time, and with better schools! Our government is more efficient and less corrupt than it's been, well, ever. And people are moving here at a furious rate. At the same time, the middle class is being squeezed out, glass monstrosities are going up everywhere, and transportation is worse than ever before.

So I fall on the side of the argument that things are somewhat better than ever but there are still big problems in NYC. And while the problems past aren't entirely gone neither are its wonders ... so NYC will continue to evolve, devolve, improve, recede, and survive ... as it has, as it does, as it always will.

City Winery NYC

A Tale of Two Chiefs

In NYC, like any big city, the second most prominent and powerful official after the mayor is the police chief. Since their one and only duty is to fight crime and not beg for votes, many police chiefs become more popular than the mayors they serve.

This is certainly the case with our current police chief, Ray Kelly. He first served in this post under Mayor Dinkins and then was brought back by Mayor Bloomberg. Kelly has served in the job since 2002, almost a decade, and has an approval rating of 70%, almost ten points higher than Bloomberg himself. Kelly is given kudos for the city's ever plummeting crime rate. Whether he really deserves all this credit is a matter for debate -- Kelly is not without since critics. Some say he fudges the numbers. Some say he's just good at PR and manipulates the press. Some say he dispenses with things like civil liberties and engages in overly aggressive tactics. The man himself seems not to care a whit. In Kelly's mind, so long as crime stays low and New Yorkers are happy with his job performance, any tactics are fine.

End of story.

And Kelly's story is profiled this week in an extensive New York magazine article that takes you into the man's mind and life. It's an interesting read. You have to admire his intense discipline and creating thinking in fighting crime. At the same time, you can't help but be a little disturbed by his dictatorial attitude, his hardcore authoritarian streak. Also, it appears that he abuses the privileges of his office somewhat. He uses his job to enjoy a black tie, red carpet, celebrity lifestyle. And apparently the cops have been known to drive his wife around to collect his dry-cleaning and other stuff, using public resources for private purposes.

Hmmm? Last time we had a situation like this, with former State Comptroller Alan Hevesi having his sick wife chauffeured by state drivers, he was forced to resign and cop to a felony. But Kelly gets away with it. His popularity and the nature of his job permit it. It shows you the double-standard in politics that allows certain individuals to get away with stuff that others can't. Kelly is riding high ... and is apparently in no danger of falling off any time soon. As one of his defenders says in the piece, "Let's not break his balls."

Well, okay then.

Talking about balls, one NYC police chief who is most definitely not riding high tonight is Bernie Kerik. The erstwhile "hero of 9/11," Kelly's immediate predecessor, has officially started his four year prison sentence. He accepted illegal gifts and lied to the White House during his vetting for Homeland Security chief (which mercifully fell through). Kerik's story is really a Shakespearean tragedy of man who came from nothing to scale the greatest heights only to fail spectacularly. He's a reminder of the dangers of ego and hubris run amok, of letting power and its privileges taint your judgement and leading one to become the very thing one hates. Sad. I imagine that for the next four years, Bernie's gonna be getting his balls broke every friggin' day.

The Secret Life of Artistic Vendors in NYC

Read all about it here.

The Robert Moses Debate

A couple of years ago I reviewed Robert Caro's 1974 book The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. This Pulitzer Prize winning biography about NYC's "master builder" has been generating controversy for close to forty years. On The New York Times online, there has recently been an ongoing debate about the Moses' legacy that is captured in a new book called The Battle for Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs. The debate is monitored by the book's author Roberta Brandes Gratz and she provides some very smart answers to all sorts of reader questions about this man who continues to haunt NYC almost 30 years after his death.

Farewell Law & Order

Okay, Mr NYC is about to throw down, getting all East Coast-West Coast for ya'all.

Literally. But I'll get to that in a moment.

After twenty years, that venerable NYC institution, the TV show Law & Order has been canceled. Seems impossible. It's been on the air forever. When this show premiered, David Dinkins was mayor, the first President Bush was in the White House, the Internet didn't exist, and Barack Obama was still in law school. If you were born when this show premiered, you'd be in college now. But "to everything there is a season" and now Law & Order's twentieth season will be its last. This means the show is now tied with Gunsmoke as the longest running TV show of all time.

Wow. In a show-biz landscape that has changed many times in the last twenty years, that's about as spectacular a run as any show can expect to have. Only The Phantom of the Opera and The Simpsons have done better.

There are many reasons why L&O is DOA but the main reason, as usual in television, is ratings. For the last several years, the show's ratings have been very poor and it was getting tough to justify its continued economic existence. Granted this show and its spin offs have generated millions of dollars for NBC, particularly in re-runs (and re-runs of re-runs of re-runs) but the cost-benefit of new episodes had become prohibitive. So off the air it goes.

There are many conflicting stories about the show's demise. Some say it could have been saved, others that it was long, long past its expiration date. What's for certain, however, is that L&O's cancellation is yet another hit to an already lousy economy, since the show provided work for thousands of technicians, caterers, writers, administrators, and, of course, struggling actors. Now that spigot has been turned off. Sad.

But L&O will live on -- sorta. Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit will continue. And apparently NBC is planning a new series called Law & Order: Los Angeles.

Ouch.

This is where NBC gets gangsta. WHY? WHY? WHY? Why are they creating an LA version of this show? Does TV really need this? L&O is a New York show, L&O is New York. What made the show great was its real NYC grittiness, it was filmed on the streets and in the apartments of real New Yorkers, it has the city in its veins, in its heart, in its soul. Every frame of the past twenty seasons screamed NYC. And now there gonna transpose that to ... LA?

It won't work. It can't work. I hope it fails.

Count this as yet another example of Los Angeles getting greedy and outright stealing - yes, STEALING -- something great from NYC and trying to make its own. First, in the 1950s, it was the Dodgers. This classic Brooklyn team was uprooted and taken to LA by greedy managers and that prick Robert Moses' machinations. Then, in the early 1970s, it was The Tonight Show, which ditched 30 Rock for "beautiful downtown Burbank" (yuck). And now it's Law & Order ... The show itself is its own most tragic victim.

Yes, if you can make it here then ... LA will try to steal you.

We gave them a great baseball team, the greatest talk show in history, and now a classic crime drama. And what did LA give us? The "Real Housewives" -- ugh. New York has been a creative and financial pipeline to LA for years, LA is basically NYC's bratty younger brother. Schnooks.

So farewell Law & Order. You did New York proud. Our city won't quite be the same without you. You really will be missed (well, not really, it'll be in re-runs until the fall of man but you get the gist). Goodbye.