Category: New York

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Costly Cuts

OZY-Fest cancelled in Central Park. It’d be bad to have a baked crowd on the Great Lawn. Costly for promoters A-Rod & Co. Park wasn’t happy anyway about the profit-making show. So.

An hour-long CNN event last night. To pick 20 names out of a hat. Seriously. Dems split debate July 30 & 31. Bernie and Lizzie with a light-weight first night. Second stage stronger with Harris v. Biden again.

Over at the British Open. Not many marquee players made the cut. Leaders going in beards & bellies. JB & Shane. And Woods. No not Tiger. Fleetwood & Westwood. Sad about Rory. It’d be great to see Lee do it. Joey3Sticks picks all still in the hunt.

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Black Out-ish

The biggest story of the night is not a tropical storm in New Orleans. Okay. The Rolling Stones had to move their concert to Monday.

The dominant national breaking news? A local blackout on the West Side of Manhattan. 42 years to the day since a 1977 event. So dire that Bill DeBlasio is jetting back to the City where he is still the Mayor. From Iowa where he is actually. Nothing.

When you watch Cable coverage, the greatest hardship in NYC besides people not being able to finish their steak at Del Frisco restaurant is the curtailed JLo concert at Madison Square Garden. Now that is a tragedy! Luckily we are just above the darkness. So far.

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Scaffolding Scourge Scars UWS

When I moved back to the Upper West Side in 2016, ubiquitous scaffolding was the most jarring change I saw to my former ‘hood. Yes. From the 1960’s to 1980’s there were some pretty skeevy streets above 69th. But. At least the mom & pop shops were in plain view. As was The Museum Café, Victor’s Cuban, Ruskay’s, then Ruelle’s. Bustling with outside tables and windows for people watching.

In 2019, the scaffolding scourge continues to spread. It’s rare to find a building not shrouded by dark cobwebbed metal and wood. Obscuring business signage and entrances, leaving al fresco spaces too dank to dine under. Even the stately San Remo has a newly erected shed. Sad.

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Pick a Lane

An expanded bike lane running up Central Park West has been approved. Displacing parking spaces. Oy. Whatta mess.

I’m in the not so cute camp. USA World Cup Women’s Soccer player Morgan sipping tea seemed like cheeky unsportsmanlike conduct.

The Bernie lane may have narrowed, but added together with Warren’s poll numbers, leftest lane is the widest.

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Know When To Fold ‘Em

Met Gala is an anachronism. But. It you want to grade ’em for CAMP.  Lady Gaga. Cardi B. Jared Leto. Katy Perry. Best in Show.

Tiger was emotional as he received his Medal of Freedom in the Rose Garden. If we cannot celebrate that, the country is screwed.

And. Please. Just go Hillary & Joe. Know when to exit the stage.

NYTimes Pick

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Chilly Tilt

A tilt in the winter air. Lunar eclipse could be seen by West Siders on a clear night. Yet. Nothing seems right.

Super Bowl teams decided by a bad call and a coin toss. HBO’s excellent Brexit with Benedict Cumberbatch sheds chilling light on what happened both there and here in 2016. The Mercer’s and Cambridge Analytica are responsible for it all. Steve Bannon, too. A must see.

True Detective music.    Season three.

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Facts Are Fungible

The Lifespan of a Fact. Daniel Radcliffe. Cherry Jones. Bobby Cannavale. Studio 54 Theater. Yes. That same old disco venue. Clever staging. The takeaway from the play. Facts are not truth. Yet truth needs some facts. Writing was the star. The ensemble inimitable. Without them. No reason to go. Radcliffe supplied the crucial electric current. Jones the cerebral publishing glue. Cannavale the stalwart artist. Called a farce. Disagree. A witty composition on the vagaries of life. Without going down trite emotional trails. Consistently true to the conceit. Great.

And. Not once did Harry Potter occur.

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Leftover Libs

What to do with all those leftovers? Boomer libs, that is. NYT columnist David Brooks contemplates the dilemma of the traditional liberal, now a relic at Thanksgiving dinner. College kids embrace anarchical progressivism, tilting at socialist ideals. Trumpian types are unrecognizable to the Ivy League alums as even those country club Repubs. Nothing seems familiar anymore. The old school lefties earned their way up the academic and jounalistic ladders. They got the top jobs. Yet. Today feel weak and beleaguered in the wake of a new wave.

Neither red. Nor blue.