Book Smart: Publisher of 'The Help' and Her Eye for Bestsellers
Confirmed: NADA New York Will Come to Former Dia Building During Frieze
Kathleen Rice's Fundraising Surges
Mayor Rings Union's Bell, Takes UFT to Task On New Teacher Evals
Roundup: Filing Day; Cuomo's Budget
From The Withered Tree, Flowers of War Bloom
Haywire? Relax Steven, It's Worse Than You Think
Paulo, Knight of Brazil, Serenades at the Café Carlyle
For Porgy and Bess, The Livin' is Easy on Broadway
Kathleen Rice’s Fundraising Surges
Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice brought in over $900,000 in contributions this cycle with an additional $350,000 in other filings, according to filings reported to the Board of Elections today. Her report is especially notable as they represent more than a ten-fold increase in her cash on hand over her last filing, suggesting that she could have her eyes on a higher office.
The number represents a huge haul for a down-ballot suburban lawmaker, especially considering that Ms. Rice lost the Attorney General's race to Eric Schneiderman in 2010. The figure announced today even outpaces what Mr. Schneiderman raised in this fundraising period. Read More
Mayor Rings Union’s Bell, Takes UFT to Task On New Teacher Evals
Michael Mulgrew stood in a drizzly rain last week outside Morris High School in the Bronx and grimly attempted to put a positive spin on what had just occurred or, at the very least, to mount a defense.
For the previous hour, thousands of heads in the high school auditorium had been scanning the seats for Mr. Mulgrew as Mayor Bloomberg delivered his annual State of the City address. Eight times in that address had Mr. Bloomberg mentioned by name the union that Mr. Mulgrew heads—the United Federation of Teachers—excoriating the city’s chief educators’ union as antistudent and the enemy of progress.
“When we sit down with the UFT, there are two groups in the room: the UFT and our school children,” Mayor Bloomberg said, adding that the latter group is “who we work for...We have an obligation to stand up for their lives, their futures.” Read More
Jaguar Presents 12 to Watch in 2012 Episode 11: Situ Studio – Using the Full Spectrum of Possibilities
Meet Bradley Samuels and Basar Girit, partners at Situ Studio, a design and fabrication firm based in DUMBO. The duo, along with their other two partners, met while classmates at Cooper Union. Together, they started the company in their third year of school, for the purpose of having their own workshop. They began their shop during the onset of digital fabrication in architectural practices, an environment that let Situ become a very experimental place, and allowed the studio to, as Mr. Girit puts it, "pretty much never make the same thing twice."
Presenting Jaguar for 2012: XK, XF, and XJ -Three ways to be moved like never before. Learn more at jaguarusa.com.
Roundup: Filing Day; Cuomo’s Budget
John Liu finally released his bundlers.
He's spending big money to deal with that federal investigation.
Governor Cuomo spent $45,000 in polling.
Peter Vallone's fundraising soars as Leroy Comrie's tumbles.
Mark Grisanti's campaign account continues to grow thanks to his gay marriage vote.
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From The Withered Tree, Flowers of War Bloom
In the dark history of human atrocity, one savage, inhuman chapter that is always missing from the textbooks in courses about the Pacific conflict in World War II is the Rape of Nanking. Except for the occasional documentary, this harrowing event has gone largely unexplored by filmmakers, yet it surges with historic value and the elements of heartbreaking drama. Ask history majors about what the Japanese did to freedom-loving civilians to alter the world and all they know is Pearl Harbor, Bataan and the Death March. Now the great Chinese director Zhang Yimou has made a valiant and compassionate effort to enlighten the ignorant. The Flowers of War is his best film since Raise the Red Lantern. It is emotionally shattering. Read More
Haywire? Relax Steven, It’s Worse Than You Think
Just what we need — another violent comic-book fantasy about another covert government operative (a catch-phrase that describes just about everybody in escapist-action franchise movies from incoherent Tom Cruise Mission Impossible flicks to Jason Bourne cinematic Xeroxes with Matt Damon). This one is called Haywire. The only difference is that this time the battering ram doing all the kickboxing, slicing and killing is a woman, more or less played, since she cannot act, by kung fu expert, karate specialist, martial arts star and Angelina Jolie wannabe Gina Carano. She’s a female boxer who was defeated in 2009 by Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos in the Strikeforce Women’s Championship, whatever that is. The men she beats the crap out of are an all-star bevy of camera-ready hunks baring their pecs in faceless roles to sell tickets. They are wasting their time, but, boy, do we need them. It is doubtful that the box-office flame exuded by Ms. Carano on her own could draw moths.
Haywire makes no sense whatsoever, which should come as no surprise. It’s the latest brainless exercise in self-indulgence from Steven Soderbergh, whose films rarely make any sense anyway. Read More
Paulo, Knight of Brazil, Serenades at the Café Carlyle
Opening-night jitters threatened temporarily to diminish the vocal capacities of Paulo Szot in his new cabaret act at the Café Carlyle. The first four numbers, all part of a well-deserved celebration of the 100th birthday year of composer Burton Lane, suffered from pitch problems. Then something clicked and the romantic Brazilian baritone, who won a Tony for his starring role in South Pacific at Lincoln Center, grew more at ease. As his voice gained strength, his vocal resources increased and so did his artistry. The rest of the show, which runs through Jan. 28, was pure delight. Read More
For Porgy and Bess, The Livin’ is Easy on Broadway
It’s bad form when critics attack each other in print, but after the shocking stupidity on display in the mixed reviews of the new Broadway production of Porgy and Bess, the temptation to open fire stretches from here to deadline. Cognizant of the boundaries of good taste and a dedicated defense of any critic’s right to an informed opinion, I won’t name names. But in this case, stupidity still reigns supreme.
It’s been years since I have been part of an opening-night audience so slam-dunked by greatness that people rose to a thunderous ovation the minute the opening bars of the Gershwin overture began and refused to stop screaming at the end, bringing back the entire cast for so many curtain calls that it felt like the applause might extend well into the night. The fear of paying union overtime to the stagehands was the only reason the cast and creative team ever left the stage at all. I am yelling “Bravo!” still and join the disillusionment of theatergoers who were crestfallen over the lack of enthusiasm in the next morning’s reviews. If there is any sanity left after The New York Times called The Book of Mormon “the greatest musical of the century,” I’d like to urge every living person who loves the theatre to ignore the critics and run to the Richard Rodgers Theatre immediately.
When the denizens of Catfish Row come alive in the dank ghetto of Charleston, S.C., they are not in Technicolor. They are black and white and real as breathing, scars and fake dreams in unison. Read More
Lil Wayne State: Weezy’s Board-core Men’s Line Rolls into Chelsea
A few minutes before Lil Wayne and his entourage walked into El Privado, a low-lit basement space beneath Chelsea’s Hotel Americano, a fellow attendee turned to The Observer and said what the rest of us were thinking.
“You know what would make this party even better?” she said. “If they were playing Aaliyah ... and I had some weed.” Read More
Rosemary Harris and Carla Gugino’s High-Octane Performances Fuel The Road to Mecca
It wouldn’t be accurate to label British-born Rosemary Harris “the first lady of the American theater” as long as Julie Harris (no relation) is still alive. But with all the other greats long departed, she’s pretty much in a class by herself. For a good example of just how rare her patrician yet persuasive ability can be in holding a restless audience spellbound in an otherwise painful and pedestrian play, all you have to do is get through the Roundabout revival of The Road to Mecca at the American Airlines Theater on West 42nd Street. For the record, it marks a celebration of her 60th year as a Broadway star. Even as a baggy, arthritic old eccentric with shapeless gray hair clinging to worn sweaters better suited to a dust bin, she is positively divine, but she deserves a better vehicle.
This dreary fugue about independence of the mind and soul in South Africa is a crashing bore by Athol Fugard, the overrated, long-winded playwright whose debatable reputation as the most important voice in South African theater has been inflated beyond justification simply because he’s just about the only voice there is. Read More
Uncanny Valley: The Real Reason There Are No Skyscrapers in the Middle of Manhattan
Among the reasons New York has the finest skyline in the world—consider that a statement of fact, not opinion—is not simply the skyscrapers running up the island of Manhattan but also their unusual arrangement. Like a great mountain range, the city is arrayed around the twin peaks of Downtown and Midtown. Perhaps the appeal is Freudian.
It has long been believed that New Yorkers could thank God for their unusual agglomeration of buildings (or, for those on the Upper West Side not believing in His good work, eons of geological development). It turns out that Manhattan has a bedrock unusually suited to the construction of very tall buildings, in many cases just a few meters below the surface. But that solid land drops away in the gooey middle of the island, long limiting the heights of buildings in the city.
Or so the aphocraphists have been passing down for decades, at least since noted geologist Christopher J. Schuberth released his seminal The Geology of New York City and Environs in 1968. Therein, he posited his belief in a correlation between bedrock and big buildings, and like the Empire State Building, it has stood the test of time. Until last month. Read More
Ms. Quinn’s Lousy Compromise
Perhaps it would have been better if Council Speaker Christine Quinn simply came out in favor of the so-called “living wage” bill without any changes or revisions. At least she would have been taking a stand. Not a very smart stand, but a stand all the same.
Instead, the speaker has cobbled together a bill that is being touted as a “compromise.” Read More
Real School Reform, Now
No more excuses. No more delays. No more double-talk. The time for changing the status quo in New York’s public schools is now. The teachers union will either be part of the process or will be crushed. It’s really that simple.
Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Cuomo have made it clear that they no longer will accept the union’s reactionary worldview that change is unnecessary. In separate speeches this week, Mr. Cuomo correctly noted that “we have to realize that our schools are not an employment program,” while the mayor argued that the “school system shouldn’t be run for the people that work in the school system.”
Both of the statements should seem obvious. To the union leaders who claim to represent the city’s public school teachers, the remarks by the governor and the mayor are nothing short of revolutionary. And it’s a revolution they continue to resist. Read More
Living for the (Long) Weekend
With temperatures dropping into the low single digits, is it any wonder that most of us would prefer to spend our weekends indoors? Sure, we could be doing something with our families and friends on these blustery Saturday and Sunday evenings: Throwing a fondue party, perhaps, or helping the kids put together a jigsaw puzzle with one hand, a glass of Malbec in the other. But how can you expect us to concentrate when there are so many amazing things going on inside that spectacularly flashing flat screen? Read More
Museum Pieces: Luxury Diamond Boutique Leviev Hosts Luncheon For The Jewish Museum
It was a sad, socked-in, cotton-gray day, the kind best suited to a good read, a cup of tea and a cashmere throw. As the rain began to fall, we picked up our pace down Madison Avenue, whose limestone facades seemed bleak and washed out on this dreary half-lit afternoon. We were in search of Read More
The National to Curate a Music Festival for BAM: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
A music festival grows in Brooklyn! Read More
