Category Archives: New York

Mob Mentality

GottiThe mafia took a step deeper into mythology today when John Gotti passed away. On the news, they showed images of Gotti in his heyday, parading down Mulberry Street in Little Italy, and that New York couldn’t seem further away — today Mulberry Street is an upscale shopping concourse paraded by fashion victims and moneyed hipsters.

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French New York

The French ConnectionLately I’ve been on a New York-on-film kick, inspired by James Sanders’ “Celluloid Skyline,” a hefty survey of Gotham’s cinematic history. Last week I watched “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three,” which may not hold up as a thrill ride, but it has a certain documentarian charm. Then yesterday I rented “The French Connection.” The last time I watched it I think I was twelve and it had been clumsily butchered up for the Saturday afternoon matinee on Channel 20. Its gritty details went right over my head but I remembered being floored by its brutal, epic sweep. That same feeling hit me with an exponential force this time, crystallized by the pristine DVD print, the ferocity of Gene Hackman’s performance, the gorgeously uncompromising cinematography, and William Friedkin’s pitch-perfect storytelling.

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Two on Nine

A. ChengThe street I live on, Ninth Street in Manhattan’s East Village, is lined with lots of little store fronts, clothiers, record shops, mom-and-pop restaurants. They’re nearly all cute as hell, but two of them have caught my eye lately. A. Cheng designs retro-modernist fashions for women, and Elaine Arsenault (whose in-progress Web site needs a little help — hint, hint) hand-makes remarkably attractive bags.

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Damn Yankees

As a cynic and general non-believer in the myths of professional sports, I’m nevertheless amused and warmed by the “mystique” of the New York Yankees. Their series-tying win over the Arizona Diamondbacks last night sent a jolt through me, and in the wake of September 11th, I can see that it does mean something very real to the city, something intangible yet very palpable. It’s the kind of emotional resonance that’s hard to argue with.

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A Three-Hour Tour

Circle Line CruisesMy dad is visiting from California for a few days. To keep him entertained, we took a cruise completely around Manhattan. It was actually and for real a three-hour tour, and it was a beautiful day to do it today too. I found out about it through Citysearch (which also, apparently just this minute, launched a redesigned interface), and at first I was a little wary of the overtly tourist-oriented air of the cruise’s operator, Circle Lines. While the guide on the boat was remarkably cheesy, he was also remarkably well-informed, and I found out a lot of things about Manhattan that I had never known before. Next time I find myself in a position of trying to entertain out-of-town guests, I’d happily take this cruise again.

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The City in Time/Space

Manhattan TimeformationsMaps are good. These maps are great — a staggering set of cartographic/temporal explorations of Manhattan’s urban-sedimentary layers by the architect Brian McGrath for the Skyscraper Museum.

There are four incredible views of the city’s physical growth mapped to historical contexts, all done with Macromedia Flash. But the one you must see is the last, “Perspectival Fly-Through,” which allows you to float through an onion-peeled Manhattan. In its sweeping motion and vectors-on-black aesthetic, this fly-through recalls piloting an X-wing fighter through the trenches of the Death Star in the original Star Wars arcade game.

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A Mean Town

I was sitting in my apartment working on my computer at two in the morning when I smelled smoke. When I went to trace its source, I discovered that some asshole had lit the trash can out in front of my building on fire. Here’s a picture that I snapped quickly. I swear, sometimes I have to really wonder why I live in New York City.

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