Christmas In Hollis - 25th Anniversary

Gotta NOT love these New Yorkers

Election 2012 was one of the biggest progressive victories in American politics since the LBJ landslide of 1964. Americans not only re-elected its first black Democratic president, increased the Democratic majority in the US Senate, and reduced the Republican majority in the US House, but Democrats gained state legislatures, and liberal ballot initiatives -- pot legalization, marriage equality, tax increases to fund education -- passed in a number of states. 

It was a great progressive victory.

This included New York State. Obama won the state, our junior senator was re-elected in a record landslide, Democrats gained congressional seats, and also won control of the New York State Senate.

For decades, literally, through gerrymandering, Republicans maintained control of the state senate. They cut a deal with the Assembly Democrats to draw district lines where the Republicans had a virtually unbreakable lock on the state senate while Democrats had a similar lock on the state assembly. It was a sleazy bi-partisan disgrace and it kept our state government dysfunctional and, more importantly, our laws behind the times. 

But times changed. 

New York is more liberal and Democratic today. The Republican party is all but finished here. It hasn't won a state-wide race since 2002 when Governor Pataki won his last term. We haven't had a Republican senator or Attorney General since 1998 or a Republican comptroller since 1993. The New York State Congressional Delegation is overwhelmingly Democratic and our few Republican Congresspeople are way more liberal than Republican congresspeople from the rest of the country. The one last bastion of Republican power in this state was the State Senate and, despite gerrymandering the hell out of it, the Democratic tidal wave broke through in 2012 and Democrats won control of the chamber -- 33 to 30.

Until they didn't.

Last week, six so-called Democratic State Senators broke away from the Democratic caucus and agreed to create a "coalition" with the Republicans. These means that even though voters in this state went the polls and voted for a Democratic state senate, six "Democrats" cut a deal with the GOP to keep that party in power while also getting some power for themselves. 

Banana Republic time in Albany. 

This cabal -- sorry, coalition -- is absolutely breathtaking in its arrogance, venality, and dishonesty. It is undemocratic and wrong. Voters voted one way and the people they elected decided to go the other way. These six people presented themselves as Democrats, got the party to nominate them, got people to donate to and vote for their campaigns as Democrats -- and then gave power of the state senate to Republicans. Wow.

Of course, the leaders of this "coalition" see it differently. They talk about the glories of "bipartisanship" and "reform" and "putting politics aside" -- all a bunch of cynical, dishonest crap. They don't mean a word of it. They have put together a complicated, idiotic "power sharing" agreement where they will share control of the state senate and its agenda. They claim they will pursue progressive legislation like hiking the minimum wage and campaign finance reform. 

Well, if they want a progressive agenda, why not create a progressive caucus in the state senate? It defies logic because, of course, there is no logic there. Only greed and power.

The GOP and these six "Democrats" have warped the desires of the New York State electorate and continued the corrupt practices of Albany. They are unfit to serve. This is an attempt by a dying political party and six state senators to cling to power that the people of this state do not want them to have. Sick.

Let's hope that one day they will pay a heavy price for this.

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting 2012

Gotta Love New Yorkers

Great story today about a conductor of the Queens College Aarron Copeland School of Music. His name is Maurice Press, he's 82 years old, and has been working as a conductor and a teacher for over 60 years. These are the kind of NYC characters I love -- and whose company I could only hope to aspire to.

How Obama Won NYC

In the presidential election just past, it probably goes without saying that President Obama swept the vote here. In fact, "swept" is an understatement -- he got 81% of the vote, close to Soviet levels.

Romney got 18%. Ouch.

If Obama was running for mayor of NYC, he would have won the biggest landslide in city history.

So what were the demos of Obama's NYC win? This article tells the story.

Obama won every borough. He won every precinct in Manhattan except one. He did very well in Brooklyn, naturally, except in areas with high Orthodox Jewish populations. He did well in Queens but his margin in white neighborhoods was small and, perhaps not surprisingly, he did much better in black neighborhoods. In Staten Island, easily the most conservative borough, Obama won 50%-49%. And in the Bronx he got an an astonishing 91% of the vote.

Obama will never be on the ballot again but NYC can take pride that it sent him back to the White House for four more years. 

Along with Ohio. 

Classic Mr NYC

Now that winter is coming -- WINTER IS COMING -- it's nice to start thinking warm thoughts. And there's nothing warmer than a Turkish bath.

This clip from 2008 about the Russian & Turkish Baths should do the trick.

Truman Capote Reads From Breakfast At Tiffany's April 7, 1963.

Truman the Great

In America and NYC, no one united the worlds of literature and celebrity better than Truman Capote. In the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, he was a true American icon, a character of his media age, famous for his flamboyant personality as much as for his writings.

A poor boy from Alabama, he came to NYC as a young man and made good. He impressed literary agents and authors with his writings and quickly established a career. But he was beloved for himself as much as for his work. He appeared on talk shows, was seen at all the movie and art gallery openings and fancy parties in town; he knew everyone worth knowing, he was king of toute le monde. In 1966, he threw what has become one of the most legendary parties in town, the Black and White Ball at the Plaza Hotel that is still talked about to this day.

Truman Capote was also gay, an blatant out of the closet homosexual at a time when that was illegal in most of the country. Plus he was a quote machine, saying hilarious things like "Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act."

Imagine if Capote were alive today and had a Twitter account!

Capote was as entertaining as his work.

And what work he did! He published famous novels and novellas like The Grass Harp and Breakfast at Tiffany's (giving Audrey Hepburn her most famous role in the movie version). He also wrote In Cold Blood, a brilliant non-fiction work about murders in Kansas, that is viewed as his greatest book.  He wrote lots of short stories at a time when they were regularly published in magazines. He worked hard and partied hard, an inexhaustible human being.

Then, in 1975, it all fell apart.

Selections of a novel he was working on called Answered Prayers were published, satirizing some of the most famous people in New York society. Suddenly Capote, the very heart and soul of NYC society, was shunned, ridiculed, ostracized. He was no longer invited to the dinner parties of the rich and powerful, banished by his friends -- instead, he started doing lots of cocaine and hanging out at Studio 54. He wrote less. His health suffered and, in 1984, he died at the age of 60.

He didn't even get a third act. The story of how this happened is chronicled in this month's Vanity Fair and is a must read.

However, in many ways, Truman Capote has had the last laugh. His work and his legacy is secure. In Cold Blood has been voted one of the greatest works of non-fiction in the 20th century. His books have been turned into movies in the last several years. And he himself has been portrayed in movies like Capote (winning Phillip Seymour Hoffman an Oscar) and Infamous. There was also a stage play about twenty years ago called Tru, about the last years of his life.

It's sad that he didn't live longer and produce more work. But for all his wildness, Truman Capote gave this city and this country's literature gifts that will forever endure.

P.S. Capote allegedly got the title for Breakfast at Tiffany's when, after having picked up a young gay sailor from out of town, Capote asked him the next morning where he'd like to go to breakfast. The sailor, who knew little about NYC, allegedly said "Let's get breakfast at Tiffany's." And that was that.

David Durk, RIP

In the early 1970s, the NYPD had become a notorious, brazenly corrupt institution that everyone in the city feared.

Politicians, the public, even honest cops themselves, dared not speak truth to power to expose the maggots that was eating away at the world's greatest law enforcement organization. 

Until some people did.

You may have heard of Frank Serpico who blew the whistle on police corruption and was rewarded with a great 1973 movie starring Al Pacino called ... Serpico. 

But he didn't act alone. 

David Durk helped him and together the two braved exposing the corruption that led to the formation of the Knapp Commission. In many ways, he was even more responsible for it than Serpico.

Together, they saved the city.

David Durk died last week and the city should take a moment to remember and everything he did for it.  

TLC's Extreme Cougar Wives - First Look