Tony Bennett RIP

Son of Astoria, Queens, lifelong New Yorker, citizen of the world.

Rest in peace, Tony, your voice will live forever.

New York Harbor In Perspective

"I have never seen the bay of Naples, I can therefore make no comparison, but my imagination is incapable of conceiving anything of the kind more beautiful than the harbour of New York. Various and lovely are the objects which meet the eye on every side, but the naming them would only be to give a list of words, without conveying the faintest idea of the scene. I doubt if ever the pencil of Turner could do it justice, bright and glorious as it rose upon us. We seemed to enter the harbour of New York upon waves of liquid gold, and as we darted past the green isles which rise from its bosom, like guardian centinels of the fair city, the setting sun stretched his horizontal beams farther and farther at each moment, as if to point out to us some new glory in the landscape."

                -- Fanny Trollope, Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832)

WGA/SAG-AFTRA Strike Hits NYC

NYC by ChatGPT

User: tell me the history of new york city

ChatGPT: New York City has a rich and fascinating history that dates back hundreds of years. Here's a brief overview of its history:

Early History:

The area where New York City now stands was originally inhabited by various Native American tribes, including the Lenape people. In 1524, Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano became the first recorded European to enter New York Harbor. In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch, explored the region and claimed it for the Dutch.

Dutch and British Colonization:

In 1624, the Dutch West India Company established a trading post called New Amsterdam on the southern tip of Manhattan Island. The settlement grew slowly, focused primarily on fur trading. In 1664, the British, under the command of the Duke of York (later King James II), seized New Amsterdam from the Dutch without much resistance. It was renamed New York in honor of the Duke.

American Revolution:

During the American Revolution, New York City was a strategic location and a major British stronghold. In 1776, the Continental Army under General George Washington attempted to defend the city but was forced to retreat after a series of defeats. The city remained under British control until 1783 when the Treaty of Paris ended the war and the British evacuated.

19th Century Growth:

In the 19th century, New York City experienced rapid growth and transformation. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 connected the city to the Great Lakes region and boosted trade and transportation. The city became a major center for finance, trade, and immigration. Waves of immigrants, including Irish, German, Italian, Jewish, and others, arrived in New York City, contributing to its diverse cultural fabric.

Civil War and Reconstruction:

During the American Civil War (1861-1865), New York City played a crucial role as a major hub for recruiting soldiers and supplying the Union Army. The city's economy boomed during this time, benefiting from manufacturing and trade. After the war, the city experienced further growth and urban development.

20th Century and Beyond:

In the early 20th century, New York City continued to expand and solidify its status as a global metropolis. Landmark events include the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, the opening of the subway system in 1904, and the construction of iconic skyscrapers like the Empire State Building in the 1930s.

The city faced numerous challenges, including the Great Depression, social unrest, and crime waves in the mid-20th century. However, it also witnessed significant cultural and artistic movements, such as the Harlem Renaissance, which showcased African American talent and creativity.

In recent decades, New York City has remained a vibrant and influential city on the world stage. It faced a tragic moment on September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center was attacked, leading to the loss of thousands of lives. The city demonstrated resilience and unity in the face of adversity.

Today, New York City is a global center for finance, commerce, culture, and tourism. It is known for its diverse neighborhoods, iconic landmarks (such as Times Square, Central Park, and the Statue of Liberty), and as a hub for arts, entertainment, and media. It continues to evolve and shape the world around it while preserving its rich historical legacy.

Alison Steele: Origin of the Nightbird

My adoration for the old-school NYC radio DJ Alison Steele "the Nightbird" knows no bounds -- she's been the subject of multiple Mr NYC blog posts over the last 16 years.

Her show was like therapy for me as a 1990s teenager -- a kind, soothing voice piercing thru the dark lonely nights, connecting with so many similar lonely souls.

So where did the "the Nightbird" come from -- how did Alison Steele create her moniker and become the voice of the New York City while it slept?

In this clip Alison herself talk about how her show and career came to be -- or as Alison might put it, she talks about how "the Nightbird" first took flight.

You'll fly on forever in our hearts, Alison -- even 30 years after you flew away forever. 

In Harlem

Probably no neighborhood in NYC has as much a hold on the popular imagination as Harlem.

For over a century, as the center of black American culture and power, these 30 or so blocks in northern Manhattan have punched above their geographic weight to define the immense promise and enormous perils of black life in this country. Books, documentaries, and movies have been made about Harlem life -- and the contribution of its residents to our civic and national life have reverberated far beyond its block and NYC. 

But enough about its past and its legacy. What about today?

Today, Harlem is an economically vibrant neighborhood that is still making history.

Recently, one of the wrongly convicted/eventually exonerated people involved in the 1989 Central Park jogger case won a landslide primary election for the NYC council. Yusef Salaam was just a teenager when he was arrested and convicted for a crime he didn't commit, serving 13 years in prison before his conviction was overturned. He has spent the last 20 years rebuilding his life and now stands poised represent the same neighborhood in the same city that once condemned him. To me, Yusef personifies the perils and promise of Harlem -- a terrible crime, leading to a hysterical, racist reaction that lead to his wrongful conviction, and then, after painfully achieving justice, achieving power. 

Then there's the culture -- and nothing says the culture of Harlem like jazz. In an age of streaming and numerous genres of music to choose from, live jazz performance is a special rare treat. A jazz great named Bill Saxton keeps the tradition alive, performing along with others at his club Bill's Place on 133rd street and, believe it or not, people (including white folks) come from all over NYC to catch performances with lines down the block. To me, this shows that the artistic, lively -- dare I say jazzy -- spirit of Harlem is not only still alive but will withstand the forces of crime, gentrification, technology or whatever dark forces might threaten it. 

In Harlem, the black American experience continues to thrive and redefine itself. 

"Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York"

Review: "Leopoldstadt"

The madness of the Holocaust -- the Nazi's mass extermination of millions of European Jews during the Second World War -- remains one of history's greatest crimes. Grappling with it has confounded humanity ever since. Numerous artists have tried to make sense of something that is fundamentally insane -- most famously by Steven Spielberg in the 1993 movie Schindler's List. 

The brilliant playwright Tom Stoppard, himself a refugee of WWII, makes his own attempt in his new play Leopoldstadt which I recently saw on Broadway.

Whereas other Holocaust stories brood on the horror of the camps and the brutality of the Nazis, Stoppard does something different but, in some ways, even more devastating -- he tells the story of a Jewish Viennese family from 1899 to 1955 and how their safe, beautiful, sometime scandalous life is upended and destroyed by genocide. It's an intimate story of the fabric of family being torn apart, rendered asunder, only leaving lonely strands behind. In the play this is literally symbolized by the string game cat's cradle -- the strings are pulled apart but still connected, forever bound together.

The plot concerns the Merz family, a wealthy family of factory owners. At the turn-of-the-century, the family is happy and thriving, although not all is clockwork harmony. Some of the family members have converted to Christianity in order to blend into Viennese society while others have held steadfast to their Jewish faith and identity. Their existence in precarious -- in some ways they are respected citizens of the then-Austro-Hungarian empire, protected by and pledging fealty to the Emperor Franz Joseph, living freely and enjoying their hard-earned success. But as Jews (or former Jews), they are still held suspect by society, kept at arms lengths -- as shown when one of them is denied membership in an exclusive Viennese club. Clandestine love affairs and old family squabbles are upended by the First World War. By the 1920s some family members have been killed and maimed by the war, several relationships are strained, and the mighty diversified empire they belonged to, that gave them safe (if sometimes sneering) harbor, is now gone -- replaced by a weakened republic. Eventually, in 1938, the Nazis come, annexing Austria with the "Anschluss" and literally beating down their doors, hauling many of them off to the camps. A decade after WW2, in the mid-1950s, only three of them are left alive, living in different countries, forever haunted and distraught at the lost lives -- some of which they aren't even old enough to remember. This is an intimate story of a massive crime, where we see the almost complete erasure of a family -- a tradition, a way of life, a whole world -- as the actors literally vacate the stage. We see it in the void, the absences of the people who are not there but should be. It hits home in a way that only great drama, great storytelling can do.

Haunting.

Leopoldstadt is the name of a largely Jewish neighborhood in Vienna but, in this play, it becomes something more -- the place in memory where family happiness and acceptance thrived before horror invaded it. As always, Stoppard's scenes and dialogues are superlative but unlike some of his past plays (like the Jumpers, The Invention of Love or Arcadia), it's less intensely intellectual and dense or more emotional and free flowing. Unlike most plays these days which have small casts, this one has a huge cast of 39, that fill the stage before, as indicated, they gradually vanish. Amongst the large cast, Josh Malina plays Hermann, the family patriarch, heading a great cast including Brandon Uranowitz as Ludwig, his brother-in-law and intellectual sparring partner, and Faye Castelow as Gretl, Hermann's unfaithful wife. All of the performances are excellent.

Even though a Stoppard play is a feast of smart dialogue, there's one moment in Leopoldstadt that is purely visual and deeply powerful -- before the time-jump to 1924, at the end of the 19th -century fin-de-siecle part, Hermann has returned home to a family seder. While he knows his wife has been unfaithful, while he himself has converted to Christianity, he joins the seder and recites the prayers. He realizes he cannot run away from his roots or his family, he cannot deny who he is. Then he and his wife embrace while the other family members come together and dance, spinning around in joy while wearing their elegant clothes, purely happy. Its shows us the accomplishments and happiness of this family that will soon be destroyed -- a reminder that we should always hold onto the people and things we love, and be forever vigilant to those dark forces that seek to destroy them. 

In that Leopoldstadt is, sadly, more relevant than ever before.

Remembering "My Two Dads"

If you ever saw the movie The Player, you learn how movies get made -- a writer or director or producer or someone goes to a studio executive and "pitches," saying something like, "So here's the idea: we team a daredevil cop who doesn't play by the rules with a rookie or a babe or a chimp" (okay, so I stole this line from a Sonic TV commercial but you get the idea).

Much is the same for TV shows: "Okay, so six friends in New York who hang out in an apartment and a coffee shop and joke about their love lives" -- such pitches are what make TV history.

At some point in the mid-1980s, a writer named Michael Jacobs pitched a show to NBC called My Two Dads and I'd love to imagine he told Brandon Tartikoff and Warren Littlefield (the guys who ran NBC at the time), "Okay, so two guys who live in New York banged the same chick back in the 1970s, find out that she died and that she has a teenage daughter and that either of them might be the father, so -- work with me here! -- they decide to raise her together because, you know, that's believable."

But that's exactly the premise for this late '80 sitcom that starred a post-Diner, pre-Mad About You Paul Reiser, some guy named Greg Evigan, and a girl named Staci Keanan who went onto greatness in the 1990s sitcom Step By Step. Each episode presented the two VERY NOT GAY men living together in a stylish NYC loft with lots of neon lights on the wall as they negotiate taking care of this wonderful young lady who has completed disrupted their previously swinging single lives -- and learning important life lessons about along the way. 

Much like Friends, My Two Dads existed in an NYC fantasy land of huge apartments and jobs requiring little work. Unlike other NYC series, the city existed in the background, making it an almost generic setting. But I remember when I occasionally saw this show as a kid  that it was the rare show (besides Kate & Allie, about two other VERY NOT GAY people, in that case women living together) set in NYC. 

What makes watching this show interesting is that, while it's painfully dated, it's a perfect time capsule from the 1980s: a sitcom about how great family is, even when that family consists of two men as parents but of course they are VERY NOT GAY (hard to believe but this show ran nearly 30 years before gay marriage was legalized and the idea of two non-straight men raising a family was unthinkable) plus lots of neon, pastels, and music with saxaphones. 

Believe it or not, as absurd as the premise for this show was, it actually ran for three seasons (from 1987-1990) during NBC's 1980s glory days of Cheers, The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Night Court, and LA Law. It was one of those shows that was a minor hit and, after it was cancelled, completely and totally forgotten about (until now). Today if you pitched a show like this you'd get laughed out of the room but it was perfectly in tunes with its conservative times. 

A few years ago I heard Paul Reiser on a podcast talking about how he came to be on My Two Dads. In the 1980s, Reiser had a big stand-up comedy career and was also acting in big movies like Beverly Hills Cop and Aliens. His agent told him that NBC wanted him to do this pilot but that it was so silly that it would never get picked up and he'd get a quick and easy pay day. Instead ... he found himself stuck on a show he didn't really like for three years but, he said, it made him realize that he'd like to create his own show and that eventually became Mad About You (a vastly superior and much beloved 1990s classic). 

If you're interested in this very odd piece of 1980's TV and NYC nostalgia, you can find a lot of full episodes on YouTube or watch the pilot here:

Remember -- VERY NOT GAY

Mr NYC in London's National Gallery

In a city as crazily expensive as London, one if its greatest treasures in totally free -- the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.  

A stunningly gorgeous collection of classical paintings, it's a feast for the eyes.

During my recent visit, I paid a short visit and saw lots of great stuff. What follow are just a few selections.

First was the special exhibit about St. Francis of Assisi, the 13th century Catholic friar and mystic who founded the Franciscans. Pope Francis takes his name from him, sharing with his namesake a commitment to a life of service and helping the poor.

There were lots of paintings and sculptures of St. Francis on display, including clips of movies that were made about him. My favorite was this -- a hollowed out tree that's an example of "poor art" or art repurposed out of nature. The hollowed out tree reveals its history, its dimensions, its deeper meaning. I really loved it:

Moving on, there was a large-scale drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus, being comforted by her mother St. Anne.

Another was a portrait of a woman named Christina of Denmark (who was also Duchess of Milan) whose family sent this portrait to King Henry VIII to consider her as his next wife (after Jane Seymour died). It goes without saying that she didn't get the gig -- and it probably saved her life (not to mention she didn't have to sleep with that gross monster):

Then I saw some other gorgeous paintings, including one of St Mark's Square in Venice by Canoletto and "Two Crabs" by Vincent Van Gogh:

Two of my favorite paintings were ...

A beautiful, peacefully serene portrait of a Finnish lake:

And just to bring everything full circle, a painting by George Bellows from 1912 that portrays ... drumroll ... New York City harbor! A painting of day laborers waiting to get picked up for work, the towers of lower Manhattan rising in the background. It was a happy surprise, and an example of the New World being heralded in the old.