Another day, another direction

Is it me, or is that crane hovering over Cooper Union move around by the minute? Particularly on weekends, when no one is working...



See some of my previous photos of the crane here.

New York TV party today

Inspired by a post by Rolando at Urbanite, I started revisiting some TV shows of yesteryear that were set in New York. Posted a few yesterday. EV Grieve commenter Eric suggested Bosom Buddies. As he wrote, "Pretending to be a woman to have an apt. in NYC, now that's gritty." Indeed! (Sidenote: It's too bad that both leads from Bosom Buddies faded into obscurity!)

Anyway, here are the intros to a handful of TV shows from the 1970s and 1980s that show some NYC scenery. I missed a lot. Feel free to offer any suggestions. (Oh, and I couldn't find McCLoud...)









Sorry, commercial break.






This includes the opening scene of Bridget Loves Bernie, one of my favorites -- a wealthy Catholic woman marries a Jewish cab driver. Ran for one year, 1973-74. Lead actor David Birney went on the play the lead in the understandably short-lived Serpico TV series.









Time for more commercials




Our sponsors insist we close with more commercials. Sorry.

Distrubing trend of the day: Golf clubs on the bus

My bus passes through the heart of the newish condo country on the LES. And, with greater frequency this summer, I see more young sporty sports getting on the bus Friday mornings toting golf clubs. Didn't see this many even, say, two years ago. Either these fellows are a year or two away from car-service privileges at the firm or gratuitous use of such car services have been chopped from the company budget. Whatever. Just don't take up three seats guys, OK?

"First of all, their hair rules"

That's the MC introducing Nirvana at the Pyramid Club on July 18, 1989. Nirvana made their New York City debut that night as part of the New Music Senimar. They played a 14-song set. Other bands on the bill that night were Cows, God Bullies, Lonely Moans and Surgery. (This information came from the Nirvana Live Guide.)

Here's some grainy footage of their NYC debut:



During "Floyd the Barber," a drunk gets on stage. He's eventually shoved off by Kurt Cobain and second guitarist Jason Everman, who was later kicked out of the band. (This was his last show with Nirvava, who were so disappointed in how they played, they cancelled their remaining four gigs on this East Coast tour. )



Meanwhile, here's a video for "In Bloom," some of which was shot in and around East River Park, the Financial District and the South Street Seaport the day before their Pyramid Club gig. The peformance footage for the video was shot in April 1990.



This article by Joe D'Angelo and Jem Aswad published on MTV.com provides more background about the performance at the Pyramid Club and the "In Bloom" video:

According to Michael Azerrad's "Come As You Are," the definitive Nirvana tome, the show was far from the band's best: One of the few who refrained from heckling was Iggy Pop, who cheered encouragingly. After the show, bassist Krist Novoselic was so disappointed with the performance that he shaved his head bald in the Jersey City, New Jersey, motel where the band was staying. This explains why, in the video, he's seen with hair in some scenes and resembles Kojak in others.

Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon stitched in the story's silver lining by bringing A&R man Gary Gersh to the show. Not long after, Gersh signed the band to Geffen Records, the company that released Nirvana's breakthrough, Nevermind, in 1991, after Moore convinced Kurt Cobain that signing to a major label wasn't selling out. The video, however, offers no indication that the band was on the verge of a bad night.

EV Grieve Etc. -- Time Out New York edition

New York City native David "deadpan" Duchovny is out pushing the new X-Files movie and is the subject of the Time Out New York Hot Seat this week:

Time Out New York: I hear you’re moving back to New York with your family this fall. How long has it been since you last lived here?
David Duchovny: Over 20 years. Has it changed?

TONY: Not at all. Especially not the East Village, where you grew up.
David Duchovny: [Laughs] Yeah, it’s very different. But the East Village was always struggling to have an identity. I think it always will.

Well, this short-n-snappy Q-and-A format doesn't lend itself to any thought-provoking, in-depth answers... he's a bright guy, and I'd like to hear more on why he thinks the East Village has always struggled to have an identity. (And I wonder if House of D questions were off limits?)

Meanwhile, this issue of Time Out features an "Activism for every attention span" cover package. "Inspired by a readers' poll of top concerns, we show you how to improve our city, no matter how much — or how little — time you're willing to give." Among the concerns tackled:

• Overdevelopment is killing your neighborhood
• Affordable housing doesn’t exist

Celebrating James Cagney

EV Grieve favorite James Cagney was born on this date in 1899. According to Wikipedia (oh, c'mon): Cagney was born on the Lower East Side . . . above his father's saloon on the corner of Avenue D and 8th Street to James Cagney Sr., an Irish American bartender and amateur boxer, and Carolyn Nelson; his maternal grandfather was a Norwegian ship captain while his maternal grandmother was an Irish American. The family moved twice when Cagney was still young, first to East 79th Street, and then to East 96 Street.

Cagney and Jean Harlow in The Public Enemy (1931)

Almost as effective as any developer or greedy politico

From Gawker: "Here are clips of the 15 best films featuring New York getting annihilated, curated by Nick McGlynn."

Oh, wait -- this wasn't one of the 15?

Looking at 1980s New York via network television

Rolando at Urbanite brought back a memory for me with a post on The Equalizer from 1985. As he notes, The Equalizer shows Times Square in all its pre-Giuliani glory. (Via Jeremiah)

Here's a clip I found from the show's opening (New York looks so SCARY!):



And where was the Olde Garden, which you see at the 21-second spot?

Oh, and all this makes me think of Cagney & Lacey from 1982 (and what happened to Meg Foster?):


Still, I prefer the gritty realism of other shows. (ACID RAIN in MANHATTAN! @ the 2:26 spot)

Fun figures of the day!

From the Times today:

After more than two decades, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and one of his earliest business partners, Merrill Lynch, are parting company in a deal that places a public value on the mayor’s private company, Bloomberg L.P.

That figure: At least $22.5 billion.

Gothamist reported yesterday that Mayor Bloomberg had an approval rating of 71 percent. To which Gothamist commenter Bingosbackup responded, "I think that's supposed to be 7.1 %."

The new world order, at least on the LES

Do you remember the Iglesia Pentecostal Arca De Salvacion (above) at the corner of Houston and Suffolk? Well, here's all that's left of it.




Wow, that seemed quick. (I'm told the church moved to a new location.) I haven't heard yet what's going in here. I'm sure something useful and new and different. As I mentioned Sunday, Vasmay Lounge has moved from the other side of Houston and Suffolk to Essex Street. More change is expected on the relatively quiet Suffolk Street. One resident told me they are waiting to be bought out by their landlord, who plans on selling the old tenement building. And what became of those Starbucks-to-Suffolk-and-Stanton rumors? (Based on what I read and what people told me, Starbucks was opening on every street corner in the LES. And is Starbucks even expanding these days?)

I thought about this as I crossed Houston onto Avenue B, where the name of this newish store on Avenue B between Houston and 2nd Street really hit me.