June 30, 2005
King Kong returns to the big screen in December. This still makes us wonder: how will it differ from the 1977 version? How much more exciting can the story be in this year of remakes, when we seem to think we know in advance exactly what we are going to see. We know the girl will get captured and Kong will climb the Empire State Building. At least that's what we think we know. A big beast and a big building. This story jumped the shark over 25 years ago.
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Posted on 6/30/2005
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June 28, 2005
The public loves the NYPD, according to published reports last week. But does the city?
Arbitration Points to 10% Raise for City Police
An arbitration panel is likely to award New York City's police officers a far larger raise than the Bloomberg administration wanted, in a development that could greatly influence the city's negotiations with other large unions, especially the teachers' union, according to three people who have been briefed on the deal.
The arbitration panel took up the pay dispute in November after more than two years of fruitless negotiations between City Hall and the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, and even at this late date, the panel's decision on the exact size of the raise could be adjusted because of last-minute pressures.
The panel's proposal is for a 10 percent raise - 5 percent in each of two years - and it has thus made certain that the deal will represent a major break from the pattern of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's negotiations with several municipal unions.(NYT)
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Posted on 6/28/2005
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June 28, 2005
Hilarious! Only a few months ago Newark was chided as one of the least safe airports in America because so many screeners weren't paying attention when weapons were smuggled through during test cases.
NEWARK: HIGH MARKS ON AIRPORT SECURITY TEST Security screeners at Newark Liberty International Airport scored among the nation's best in annual tests on checkpoint procedures, according to the Transportation Security Administration. More than 97 percent of the 1,234 screeners passed the tests between October and April; 32 screeners who twice failed exams on the procedures were either fired or allowed to resign, the agency told The Star-Ledger.(AP)
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Posted on 6/28/2005
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June 25, 2005
Demolition awaits the Deutsche Bank building, frozen in time:
The 34th floor is still hushed, a privileged cocoon of mahogany paneling, brass wall sconces, a meeting table longer than a limousine, carpeting the color of money and a men's room paneled in marble and granite.
In the bright-white data center five floors above, air-conditioners big enough to cool a battery of computers still command views of Upper New York Bay.
Smoothie prices ($2.85 for 12 ounces, $3.35 for 16 ounces) are still posted in the fourth-floor cafeteria, a maze of Vulcan ranges, EmberGlo grills, Groen soup vats large enough to bathe in and stainless-steel serving islands offering "Rice & Noodle Bowls" and "Chop Chop Salad."
But the escalators to the lobby are frozen. At 130 Liberty Street - originally 1 Bankers Trust Plaza and more recently the Deutsche Bank building - the clock stopped on Sept. 11, 2001.
It never started again.
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Posted on 6/25/2005
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June 23, 2005
Gif didn't have the votes to override Bloomy's veto:
Two weeks after delivering a blow to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's ambitious plan to ship New York City's garbage away by barge, the City Council yesterday abandoned its veto fight with the mayor over the issue. For Mr. Bloomberg, it was a major political victory in what had become a test of wills with Council Speaker Gifford Miller, who is running for mayor.(NYT)
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Posted on 6/23/2005
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June 22, 2005
Steve Florio may not call the shots at Conde Nast anymore, but that doesn't mean he's out of ammunition. Clearly, he saved some choice volleys for his book, a memoir-cum-management treatise that draws heavily on his time running business operations first at GQ, then The New Yorker and, finally, across all of Conde Nast (which, like WWD, is a unit of Advance Publications Inc.).
Legendary New Yorker editor William Shawn: "He was one of the most manipulative human beings I had ever encountered." Case in point: According to Florio, Shawn wheedled a generous retirement package out of Conde Nast, only to turn around and claim to his staff that he'd been pushed out.
Bonnie Fuller, former editor in chief of Glamour: "She damn near killed the magazine. She made it trashy as hell."
Anne Fuchs, former publisher of Vogue: "It was my view that Anne Fuchs had been serving less as a publisher than as a Park Avenue socialite."
Mandi Norwood, former editor in chief of Mademoiselle: "Within six months she took a century-old institution and put that baby out of business."
GQ's sales staff, circa 1980: "One guy in ad sales was a cocaine freak; another was a notorious sex fanatic. An out-of-town sales rep was a cross-dressing nut — hose, bras, hats and the works — with a wife and kids. At our first sales meeting, at the Montauk Yacht Club ... all the gay guys showed up in dresses. Strapless numbers." (WWD)
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Posted on 6/22/2005
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June 22, 2005
A lawsuit by a patron of the David Barton gym alleges he was horrified (shocked even!) that illicit activity went on in the sauna there, and nothing was done by the staff to stop it. Oh who's kidding whom here? You join the gayest gym in NYC and what do you expect? Look, when they were building this place, here is what their Mr. Marks told the New York Times: Mr. Marks said the gym would be a "one of a kind luxury spa." "They are planning a Turkish Room," he said, "with indoor waterfalls and eucalyptus scrubs done by men in sarongs, combined with afternoon tea." Hello??? Gaydar alert?
But even more amazing is that the New York Times then wrote an entire article about the subject, with juicy bits such as:
Men cruising men in the locker room is a near-century old pursuit. And the steam rooms, showers and saunas at health clubs continue to be meeting places for men seeking anonymous sexual activity, much as bathhouses in New York and other cities were before fear of AIDS prompted a widespread shutdown in the 1980's.
"It has always been there, and it has its ups and downs," Charles Kaiser, the author of the 1997 book "The Gay Metropolis," said of sexual behavior in locker rooms. "People complain, and they shut things down, and then it creeps back up again."
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Posted on 6/22/2005
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June 21, 2005
Three former waiters at the "21" Club are suing the restaurant, saying they were fired because of their age and because they are French. A lawsuit filed on Friday in State Supreme Court by the waiters - René Bordet, 68; Jean-Claude Lesbre, 63; and Yves Thépault, 68 - seeks more than $5.3 million. In court papers, they say their superiors made fun of one employee's accent and repeatedly referred to France in derogatory terms. Mr. Bordet and Mr. Lesbre worked at "21" as waiters and floor captains for 10 years, and Mr. Thépault was a waiter for 14 years. Diana Biederman, a spokeswoman for "21," declined to comment on the lawsuit, but denied that the restaurant was biased.(AP)
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Posted on 6/21/2005
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June 16, 2005
This skating craze is getting out of control!
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Posted on 6/16/2005
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June 16, 2005
say what you will about NYC, it won't be destroyed by a cataclysmic earthquake
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Posted on 6/16/2005
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June 15, 2005
Arf arf...it's election-year politics-as-usual in NYC: C. Virginia Fields, the Manhattan borough president, yesterday accused Council Speaker Gifford Miller, a rival in the race for mayor, of improperly using taxpayer money on his campaign.
Ms. Fields' campaign sent a letter to the city Conflicts of Interest Board requesting that it investigate a mailing Mr. Miller sent to 100,000 people, many of them outside his Upper East Side Council district, that Ms. Fields, one of Mr. Miller's three opponents in the Democratic primary on Sept. 13, suggested was thinly disguised campaign propaganda.
"A mailing of this magnitude going to so many people outside of his Council district still constitutes a blatant attempt to use his public office for private gain," the Fields campaign letter said, adding that the mailing amounted to "using his taxpayer funded office to fulfill his own private political ambitions."
Wayne G. Hawley, general counsel of the Conflicts of Interest Board, said that as a matter of policy it did not comment on complaints or even confirm whether they had been received or would be investigated.
Stephen Sigmund, a spokesman for Mr. Miller, said the mailings, which cost $37,000, were a lawful means of telling the public about the Council's progress. The mailings, which promoted Mr. Miller's goals to reduce school class sizes and addressed cuts to libraries and other services, were sent well before a deadline imposed by city law restricting the use of government money for such material, he said.
"The Council is united every year in budget mailings that fight for New Yorkers' priorities, and any political opponent who criticizes that work is just playing silly politics," Mr. Sigmund said. "Borough President Fields should know how effective these mailings are, since they've helped Gifford Miller's Council restore millions in the mayor's cuts to borough presidents' offices, funds that she has readily accepted." -New York Times
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Posted on 6/15/2005
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June 09, 2005
Space Invaders have been seen on the Williamsburg Bridge
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Posted on 6/9/2005
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June 07, 2005
Utterly hilarious gray lady take on Russell Crowe's phone abuse:
And Now, the 411 on the 011
By MICHAEL BRICK
Let's make telephone calls!
By now, everyone knows telephoning can be very, very exciting! You can ask that little sweetheart from geometry class to the prom, have a pizza pie delivered or even say "Whassupwhassupwhassup" to a friend on the far side of the world.
But slow down there, mister! Like the song says, you have to know how to hold them and fold them, and if you don't learn dialing, you could get unruly and find yourself in jail, where people will be even less interested in your rock band.
So in the interest of helping Russell Crowe avoid any future evenings locked in a New York City police station, here's a demonstration with a pretend person. We'll call him Mel. Mel has a room at the Brooklyn Motor Inn in Red Hook, and he wants to call Sydney, Australia.
Right away: trouble.
"They would have to use a calling card," Vinnie Patel, the manager, said yesterday.
This is a blessing in disguise, because calling cards tell you just what to do.
"For calls to any other country," one card says (Australia = another country), "dial 011 the country code the city code the telephone number."
Now Mel is cooking with gas. He puts the telephone to his ear. If he does not hear a hum, he turns it around. In the directory, he finds country code 61 and city code 2, and he knows his friend's 8-digit number. Telephoning is easy!
But already, Mel has made a mistake.
"To dial anywhere, you have to dial 9," Mr. Patel said. "Everybody knows that."
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Posted on 6/7/2005
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June 02, 2005
Too much fish at Takahachi TriBeCa last night, but a great parting shot at idiot J Crew couple at counter, whom manager and Mrs B from Bondi convinced that she had flown all the way from Sydney just to eat there. J Crew couple almost offered her their 'exclusive' plate of Canadian salmon and an ugly crustacean, which Bulldog shrugged off, declaring "our bellies are completely distended!" Bulldog then hopped in a cab and discussed the merits of BBC with driver Mr. Kumar.
Bulldog could not sleep all night from distended belly, got to café promptly at 7, only to find out the espresso machine was not heated up and had to wait 20 minutes for the belly-ungluing cappuccino. During this period, Bulldog digested both Wall St Journal and New York Times (see Ringelmatz' blog), and noted the traffic signal was out at West 20th Street and Ninth Avenue. Two vans of traffic control agents suddenly arrived to take charge.
Meanwhile, an elderly Chinese lady walked by and shadow-boxed a teenage girl's dingo with her cane. The lady was so clever, that she ultimately bopped the dingo square on the nose, giggled, then walked away. Score one for Cantonese granny!
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Posted on 6/2/2005
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