Entries Tagged 'New York City' ↓

Something’s gonna have to be done about Tina Fey, who was profiled in the NYT about her surprising hit show 30 Rock. She admitted that America’s Mayor is her weakness:

In writing for Liz, Ms. Fey said, she drew somewhat on her own experiences in television. In one episode Liz is called a vulgar name by a subordinate, an incident that Ms. Fey said was based on something that happened to her.

In another episode, in which Liz reflects on things about herself that others wouldn’t know, she says, “There is an 80 percent chance” that she will “tell all my friends I’m voting for Barack Obama, but I will secretly vote for John McCain.”

Ms. Fey, who wrote that line, said it was semi-autobiographical, a way of “admitting I have a lot of liberal feelings, but I also live in New York, and I want to feel safe, and I secretly kind of want Giuliani.”

As I was saying just recently …

The Democrats in general, and MoveOn specifically, seem not to realize that in order to deliver politically correct votes, you need to do a lot more than kneecap people into spouting politically correct attitudes in the public square. You can lead a horse to water, etc.

My point about Rudy Giuliani was that he knows a lot about the kind of public political correctness that elects a “fascist” to a second term in a huge victory in decidedly not-”fascist” New York City.

Anybody paying attention?
Nah, I didn’t think so.

Sullivan Street, SoHo, May 2007

Distance usually helps clarify that which was murky.

I’ve made some minor edits*** to “What am I documenting?” … if you’re interested.

————

*** Why is this important? Because unclear writing is evidence of unclear thinking. And since I spend a lot of time on this blog pointing out the logical flaws in the arguments of others, it is only right that I try to keep my own house clean.

For those of you who like to pore over such things, although I can’t imagine why you would want to, here’s a reprint of my original post:

1800	2007-04-29 8:40:20 pm	what am I documenting?

My son borrowed my camera the other day.

“What are you documenting?” he asked when he saw the pictures I’d taken.

Good question. I’m not quite sure, except to say that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction—in this case, the bold and fast-paced transformation of a formerly sleepy neighborhood via striking (and sometimes strikingly incongruous) architectural statements (some of which are artful and most of which are gut-wrenchingly bad) have propelled me out into the streets of Lower Manhattan with my camera. When the inevitability of change gets in your face every time you walk out your door, it seems like a natural reaction to want to document those changes.

There is nothing conservative about me. I come from a long line of rebels. I am not afraid of change—as long as the rush to change isn’t so great that we are tempted to throw out all of the old to make way for all of the new.

So: I have taken to documenting the changes in my backyard. It’s an accompaniment to the hints of changes that I’ve picking up in the culture but cannot possibly document because of the dizzying pace of change.

and here it is in context

Canal and Renwick Streets

Half-measures are not my thing. Yesterday, I took 116 pictures for my photo project without a name.

This is how the old and the new can live side by side in harmony:

and here it is in context:

way west on Spring Street, by the river, April 30, 2007

Konrad Fiedler

The first stop for many immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island was a room and/or a job on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and hundreds of prominent business and civic leaders grew up in this community. Now, it is undergoing an unexpected renaissance.

“Until fairly recently the Bowery always possessed the greatest number of groggeries, flophouses, clip joints, brothels, fire sales, rigged auctions, pawnbrokers, dime museums, shooting galleries, dime-a-dance establishments, fortune-telling and lottery agencies, thieves markets and tattoo parlors, as well as second and third rate theaters,” the director of Eastern Consolidated Properties, Alan Miller, said.

The flophouses of the Bowery and Lower East Side are being replaced

(New York Sun) 

I can attest to that. I’ll take my camera outside one day and will show you the evidence.