A New Day for City Ballet

A new leadership team was announced today for the New York City Ballet. This might not seem like big news but, in a way, it is.

Since its founding almost 70 years ago, this important NYC cultural institution has only had two leaders --  George Balanchine and Peter Martins. Balanchine was not only the founder but also a brilliant, historic choreographer, the man who popularized ballet in NYC and America. It's not wrong to call him, in many ways, the godfather of American ballet. Martins, his successor, ran the company with an iron-fist for almost 35 years. He kept the company going but was, apparently, a bit of a tyrant, and he retired in late 2017 after he got all #MeToo'd. 

I've blogged about my experiences with NYCB as a kid so, obviously, I took some interest in this story. It'll be interesting to see what the future for this company will be like.

The Virus of NYC

Yesterday former Trump lawyer turned government witness Michael Cohen gave riveting testimony to Congress about his "dirty deeds" for Donald Turmp, the NYC real estate developer turned reality TV star turned POTUS. There was lots of shouting, grandstanding, bloviating, about Russian collusion, hush money payments, racism, etc. -- it was political theater par excellence, and mostly just rehashing of what's in the news.

Perhaps the most interesting, and most overlooked part, of Cohen's testimony was about something that hasn't been raised before -- specifically, insurance fraud as it relates to one of Trump's golf courses in the Bronx. This line of questioning came from AOC who lives in and represents the part of the Bronx where this golf course resides.

These revelations show how deep into the weeds of sleaze and corruption Trump and his cronies are and, more importantly, how Trump is like a virus, not only on America, but how he has always been one in NYC.

By the way, did you know that Michael Cohen once ran for the City Council back in 2003? Imagine how different the history of this country would be if he had won!

Why Jumaane Won

Here's a quick rundown, some lessons learned, from the special election for Public Advocate:

1. Strong candidates like Jumaane can win votes across neighborhoods and boroughs. Voters are not necessarily loyal to candidates from their districts or boroughs -- they vote for whoever they think is the best candidate, even in a field of 17. Candidates matter. 

2. Oddly timed special elections = extremely low voter turnout. Not surprising. 

3. For the all the heat and controversy, the failed Amazon deal played no part in the outcome. Voters did not revolt, did not rise up en masse in favor of corporate tax breaks/backroom deals/union-busting -- and thus Ulrich, the only candidate who supported the deal without reserve, lost big. Media hysteria doesn't necessarily translate into votes. People vote their core, unwavering values. 

4. The New York Times endorsement is still hella powerful.

5. This is a 4-1 Democratic town.

Jumaane Williams Elected Public Advocate

Special Election Today for Public Advocate

In case you didn't read the headline, today is the special election for NYC Public Advocate -- the first such special election since 1950.

What does the PA do? Basically, he or she is the city's ombus-person, the watchdog, the person who keeps the machinery of city government honest and running as it should. It doesn't have a lot of formal power but a smart PA can make a difference.

If you need more info about where to vote, go to the BOE website.

The failed Amazon deal might play some part in who wins -- or doesn't -- this election. Some think it will, some think it won't. Whoever wins will probably win with a plurality of the vote, not a majority, since there are 17 candidates -- and, whoever wins, will have to run again in the fall and might wind up not being PA for long. 

My vote is for Jumaane Williams, the Brooklyn City Councilman. He has appeared to amass the most support and could prevent a Republican from winning. So please vote for him!

Farewell to WPLJ

As a kid in NYC in the 1980s, when I was discovering music, I only listened to one station: WPLJ. It was, for me, the best music station in town, playing pop and rock -- all the hits! -- plus it was the home of "American Top 40" which I loved listening to every Saturday morning. 

Songs like Madonna's "Cherish" or the Back to the Future hit "Power of Love" are, for me, the quintessential '80s songs that I associate with WPLJ. Then, in the summer of 1994, I actually interned at PLJ, spending weekends handing out stickers and shwag at promotion events, answering phones in the promotions department, and even logging the occasional "Rocky Allen Showgram." It was a fun experience.

Honestly, by the mid-1990s, by the time I interned at PLJ, my tastes had evolved to classic rock and I was more of a K-Rock listener, but I maintained a soft spot for the station of my youth and that let me intern.

By the time I went to college -- and certainly after I returned -- I basically stopped listening to music radio, especially when the IPod came into existence. I had no idea what was going on with WPLJ nor did I care. But the station felt like an institution -- it had been, and would always be, around forever. 

However, apparently, WPLJ was just sold to a Christian rock company and is, apparently, going to lose its call numbers. Now I'm sad. Really sad. Yet another part of my youth is gone. And yet another great NYC stations is vanishing, along with the likes of WNEW and WNBC and K-ROCK and others. And it's going to become Christian rock? Yewwww ...

So farewell WPLJ. And, to quote a song that was played constantly on that station, "I-ye-eye will always love youuuuuu ..." And, most of all, remember you.

P.S. I think one of PLJ's problems is that, let's be honest, it had a lousy name and lousy call letters. WPLJ means nothing. It's not like K-ROCK to Z-100 -- those had "zing", they had "edge." WPLJ has ... WPLJ. Boring. 

Easily the best call letters I ever heard about was for a rock station in California -- KOME (west of the Mississippi river, all the station call letters start with "K"). KOME, as you might guess, were awesome call letters and the station had a lot of fun with them. The station called itself the "KOME spot for great music", "You've got KOME oozing out of your radio", "Wake up with KOME in your ear", and "Don't touch that dial! It's got KOME on it." Brilliant.

Hooray for Gritty NYC in Hollywood

The Oscars were last night and two prominent NYC natives won big awards -- Manhattan's own Lady Gaga for her song from A Star is Born and Brooklynite Spike Lee for his screenplay for BlackkKlansman.

Always nice to see Gotham make its gritty presence known at the ultimate West Coast confab.

New Yorkers, in fact, have a long history of migrating to -- and ultimately conquering -- Hollywood. My favorite movie in this genre is the 1991 Coen Brothers' classic Barton Fink. Inspired by the life of Clifford Odets, it's about a socialist playwright moving to Hollywood and entering a hallucinatory nightmare in his hotel room. The best part of the movie is, early on, when Barton meets with the eccentric head of the studio that's just hired him. He declares, "I mean I'm from New York myself, well, Minsk, if you want to go all the way back." Brilliant line. 

One hotel that many New York travellers Hollywood stayed back in the day was the Garden of Allah where folks like Humphrey Bogart and Robert Benchley lived and partied. It's long gone but had a storied history, and New Yorkers found a little bit of gritty bohemia in La La Land.

And talking about grity and NYC and the movies, there's perhaps no NYC movie grittier than the 1979 cult classic The Warriors. A violent, crazy dystopian nightmare of NYC in the 1970s, it's now 40 years old and seems like a it was made less in a different time than on another planet. This chronicle about the making of the movie is fascinating to read. 

Hollywood would be boring if it didn't have a little bit of NYC grit. 

The British Monarchy & NYC

Like many people, I have an unhealthy amount of totally irrational interest in the British monarchy.

I love the PBS show Victoria, I'm almost as excited for the third season of The Crown as I am for the final season of Game of Thrones, the wife and I actually watched both royal weddings (in 2011 and 2018), I just watched the two-part documentary on Princess Margaret, I read all the click bait about the royals that I can. 

Basically, when it comes to the monarchy, Mr NYC is like an old bored housewife.

Pourquoi?

Well, I guess it's because the monarchy has "all the elements": politics, money, fame, glamour, celebrity, and history. The most amazing thing about the British monarchy, both in the UK and around the world, is how it's a chain that wraps around time -- it links to the past, present, and future. It's living history, it looks back and moves forward at once. There's nothing quite like it anywhere else in the world.

In a world of rapid change, the British monarchy basically doesn't change -- it's a perverse anchor of stability. Yet it does "refresh" itself -- marriages and babies bring new faces, new personalities, redefining and modernizing this very old institution.

Such is the case of Meghan Markle, the half-black American divorcee who married Prince Harry last year. She is the latest fresh face, the latest reset of the British monarchy, and she's also pregnant -- bringing a literal new face into the world.

The princess (or Dutchess as she's technically known) was in NYC this week for a baby shower. I'll let others say what they will about it. But she's basically getting good press, people are happy to see her here. She's getting better press than the old Edward and Mrs Simpson, the notorious ex-King and his American wife who used to blow into NYC every year, live it up in high-style at the Waldorf Astoria, and then get out of town without, apparently, not paying their bills. (Royals, apparently, can be deadbeats.) 

I think we can thus conclude: NYC, and the world, will be fascinated with the British monarchy and the British monarchy will always enjoy visiting NYC.

Lee Radziwill RIP: American Royalty

We don't have royalty in America -- after all, our entire nation, our constitution, was founded in complete opposition to monarchy, and we are the first real and most successful modern republic since Rome.

But still, there are some people who, if we had a monarchy, would certainly qualify as royalty.

No one defined American royalty more than Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Gorgeous, glamorous, patron of the arts and good causes, she was the First Lady of the United States, wife of the handsome, doomed President John Kennedy, a woman who knew great joy and tragedy in her life. After JFK's death, she moved to New York, married again (badly), and then, towards the end of her life, worked for a living as a book editor. She lived, she loved, she reached the heights of glamorous, money, and power, and she worked -- Jackie Kennedy was certainly "royal" in many ways but she was as American as a person can get.

Her sister Lee Radziwill almost did her one better -- she actually married into royalty and, like her sister Jackie, was a patron of good causes, the arts, and NYC. She was a pillar of society, a grande dame of NYC, and, now that she has died, the last of her kind -- the final connection to Camelot. 

Also, she and Jackie were cousins with the Beales, the wacky old lady and her daughter featured in the brilliant documentary Grey Gardens.

Did Robert Moses Destroy the Amazon (Campus)?

The real culprit, according to those in the know, for the failure of Amazon to build a new campus in NYC, is someone who has been dead for almost 40 years -- that's right, our friend, our buddy, our pal, Robert Moses.

Why?

Well, from the 1920s until the 1960s, the "master builder" rammed highways around the city and state, and built other projects in a totally irresponsible manner, wrecking neighborhoods and disposessing their residents. In the name of "progress", he warped this city to his car-centric, anti-poor priorities, underfunding public transit in the process, and basically ignoring the concerns of the communities he affected. Remember, this is the guy who wanted to destroy Soho and Greenwich Village by putting a highway through it -- that was stopped by Jane Jacobs, and NYC vowed never to let something so awful ever possibly happen again. 

By the time he left power in 1968, NYC was suffering a Robert Moses PTSD and new laws were enacted, including the little-known but extremely powerful public utilities committee, to prevent another Moses from building things in this city it didn't want, didn't need, and that would change it forever -- for the worse.

The result, today, is that it's practically impossible to build anything big in NYC as mayors and governors have learned to rue. It took 45 years to build three subway stops on the East Side, after all! You might call this an "overcorrection". 

So whether you were for or against the Amazon deal, this situation proves that NYC today is living in Robert Moses legacy -- in the city he shaped and in the reaction to that -- and his form of progress from yesterday makes progress today all the harder.