Well, this could be good news for some nostalgic New Yorkers--or more correctly, for dreamy-eyed tourists who considered the now-closed Tavern on the Green restaurant in Central Park to be "real New York".
According to the New York Post Donald Trump to ask City to allow him to reopen Tavern on the Green - NYPOST.com the indomitable Donald Trump has once again ridden to the rescue of a bedraggled Central Park landmark (as he very prominently did in the 80's with the Wollman Skating Rink, which had fallen into disgraceful ruin under the Koch administration's bungling). The Donald is proposing taking over TOtG, which is currently being used as a makeshift "tourist center," after Mayor Michael Bloomberg, exercising a personal vendetta, basically drove the former long-time proprietors, The LeRoy Family, out of business. Granted, the restaurant was inexplicably in bankruptcy, despite being the "most profitable restaurant in the world," so there was clearly something fishy going on behind the scenes. One of the main sticking points in reviving the restaurant under new proprietorship has been the iron-clad union contracts with the Hotel and Motel Trades Council union. Trump claims to have loosed the logjam and is prepared to put up $20 million to make the landmark "more beautiful than it ever was in the past," as he put it in his usual understated fashion.
I, for one, am very heartened to hear this news. It's tough to find any Manhattan resident who will admit to being sad to see it gone. "A tourist trap with over-priced, lousy food," would be a typical New Yorker's review. But I always felt there was something really enchanting about the place. Not so much in the gaudy "Crystal Room" inside, but outside, on the patio beneath the thousands of twinkling lights and Chinese lanterns in the towering London Plane trees. On certain summer nights, they'd have live music and a dance floor overlooking the verdant Sheep's Meadow....well, one would be hard-pressed to imagine a more romantic setting than that. So, if he's sincere--and it seems that, in his own way, he is--perhaps we'll have Tavern on the Green back, and soon (he's saying he can get it all done in less than a year). Then maybe, while he's at it, he can somehow resurrect The Rainbow Room and Café des Artistes, too? New York could use some "white knight" action...and like him or not, we've got The Donald.
Last night's 19" snowfall (recorded in Central Park) makes this month the second snowiest month in NYC history, with 36" so far...with more on the way. Here are a couple of views out my back window this morning, looking toward East 75th Street.....snow in New York doesn't have a very long shelf-life of looking "pretty," so you've got to make the most of it while you can...snow angels, anyone, before it turns to toxic sludge?
Let's open this one to discussion....fill in the blank:
"Can someone please tell me, since when has it become acceptable to _______________ in public?"
I'll start things out: "....okay to clip your fingernails in public?" I was on the Downtown "A" train, which runs express from 125th Street to 59th Street in Manhattan, which is about 10-15 minutes, meaning if you're in a miserable car (no heat/AC, god-awful pan-handling musician, dead passenger next to you, etc.) you're trapped for a nice, long stretch. This guy next to me takes out a pair of nail clippers and starts clipping away, letting his goddamned clippings fly wherever they flew. Even with my headphones on with the Mahler Resurrection Symphony at high volume, that piercing metallic "SNAP" penetrated my brain. With each SNAP, my blood pressure rose 10 more points....but I was not in the mood to have it out with this slob, so I tried valiantly to ignore it....SNAP..........SNAAPP! No one else in the car seemed to acknowledge him (T.S.A.S.: Typical Subway Anonymity Syndrome, I believe it's called). Fortunately, I was getting off at 59th, so I didn't have to suffer this scenario all the way to Brooklyn or anything. For something as mundane as nail-clipping, I somehow found it grossly disturbing to witness on mass transit. I mentally vowed that I would physically attack him if he removed his shoes and started in on the toes, I swear I did. So, I'd really like to know: Is it really acceptable to do this? I think I know the answer....your thoughts? And your own answer to the question as well...
You're likely one of the (as of this afternoon) 3,059,544 people who felt compelled to go to YouTube to view the clueless idiot who proved that "walking while texting" (WWT) is a talent that not all of us share.
My sister, Lori, texted me herself (presumably, while seated), saying, "I just can't see that video of the woman texting and doing a header into the mall fountain often enough!" I'm afraid I heartily agree. It's a bit of techno-schadenfreude of which I find myself increasingly guilty. Navigating the crowded sidewalks and streets of New York City while nearly everyone is now glued to one electronic apparatus or another has become more and more rage-enducing. I'm finding it is now quite common for these Twitter zombies to assume that if they are clearly engaged in their machinery that it is the responsibility of others to move out of their way. To this, I say, uh, no. I've tried to be more patient and understanding as portable technology has mushroomed to an almost unimaginable level...and, to some end, I've chilled out...a bit. But damned if I'm going to go out of my way to avoid some texting automaton who's walking, facedown, on the wrong side of the sidewalk. I have a few standard responses as I stop in my tracks, face-to-face with these zombies: "Welcome to America....YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!" "RIGHT OF WAY, DUMMY!" works well, too. A few years ago, a friend of mine encouraged me to self-examine my techno-rage to try to find out why I got so worked-up by cellphone/texting device users, as my furor was clearly out of proportion. And I did. Why do I get so enraged? I've determined that cellphone/wireless device usage has lowered the
human I.Q. by atleast 15 points...and as far as "common manners" go, it's knocked society down atleast three distinct sub-strata. Basically, to me, what it boils down to is selfishness. The person in the endless post office line, carelessly yammering away on her cellphone about her gyno exam at full-volume, while you have no choice but to stand there and practically be there in the stirrups with her. The guy who stops dead in his tracks in the middle of a rush-hour sidewalk to change the playlist on his iPod. It just seems to me that as we all become more and more insulated in our own little wireless worlds, it is surely at the expense of basic good sense and awareness of the needs/feelings of others.
What's more, this week State Senator Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) put a bill before the New York State Senate and Assembly, wherein it would actually be illegal to cross a street in New York City while using an electronic device. Ostensibly, offenders would be fined $100 for said offenses. It seems highly unlikely that such a law would ever be passed by both houses, as it would be nearly impossible to uphold, as there would be so many gray areas. For instance, how can they prove that you weren't doing what I've done for years, which is to wear headphones, even when they're not attached to a device, but merely as "subway psycho repellant"? Does this include "boom-boxes" too, or only devices with earphones? Does it include pagers? (do people even use pagers anymore?). In any case, nice try, Senator...I'm sort of on your side, but you ain't going to win this one.
Meanwhile, back at the mall (ironically, in READING, Pennsylvania!),
poor Mrs. Cathy Cruz Marrero got out of the fountain and sloshed her sopping Uggs straight to her lawyer's office. "No one....NO ONE...offered to help me!" she whined on Good Morning America. God helps those who help themselves, Cathy. And you can kindly begin by looking out where the #%&!*%# you're walking, MORON! (oh my...I'm sorry....I'm working on that techno-rage....really, I am...).
Welcome to "Did You Just See What I Saw?"! I'm your host, Gregory Moore, a somewhat jaded, yet still curious New Yorker with a fascination with popular culture. I hope to provide an entertaining and sometimes even informative outlet on the web where we observe and recap some of the more interesting and bizarre events in the world as they happen. I welcome your comments and observations as well and hope you continue to visit me here. (Before you forget, click on "Favorites" and "Save to Favorites" right now!).
Let's begin with...the 2011 Oscar nominations, just announced yesterday in Hollywood. No big surprises there, right? The King's Speech, The Social Network, The Black Swan....the usual suspects. I'd rather discuss the all-but-obsolete category of "Best Song".
The Academy Award for "Best Song" was first presented in 1934, for the song "The Continental" from The Gay Divorcee. Subsequent memorable winners through the years have included, "The Way You Look Tonight," "Over the Rainbow," "White Christmas," "Moon River," "The Way We Were," and other classic tunes that were truly deserving of award consideration. Let's study the list of the Academy Award winning tunes for the past fifteen years:
1995: "Colors of the Wind" — Pocahontas • Music: Alan Menken • Lyrics: Stephen Schwartz
1996: "You Must Love Me" — Evita • Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber • Lyrics: Tim Rice
1997: "My Heart Will Go On" — Titanic • Music: James Horner • Lyrics: Will Jennings
1998: "When You Believe" — The Prince of Egypt • Music and lyrics: Stephen Schwartz
1999: "You'll Be in My Heart" — Tarzan • Music and lyrics: Phil Collins
2000: "Things Have Changed" — Wonder Boys • Music and lyrics: Bob Dylan
2001: "If I Didn't Have You" — Monsters, Inc. • Music and Lyrics: Randy Newman
2002: "Lose Yourself" — 8 Mile • Music: Eminem, Jeff Bass and Luis Resto • Lyrics: Eminem
2003: "Into the West" — The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King • Music and Lyrics: Fran Walsh, Howard Shore and Annie Lennox
2004: "Al otro lado del río" — The Motorcycle Diaries • Music and Lyrics: Jorge Drexler
2005: "It's Hard out Here for a Pimp" — Hustle & Flow • Music and Lyrics: Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul Beauregard.
2006: "I Need to Wake Up" — An Inconvenient Truth • Music and Lyrics: Melissa Etheridge
2007: "Falling Slowly" — Once • Music and Lyrics: Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová
2008: "Jai Ho" — Slumdog Millionaire • Music: A. R. Rahman • Lyrics: Gulzar
2009: "The Weary Kind" — Crazy Heart • Music and Lyrics: Ryan Bingham and T-Bone Burnett
2010: The nominees are:
- "Coming Home" — Country Strong • Music and Lyrics: Bob DiPiero, Tom Douglas, Hillary Lindsey and Troy Verges
- "I See the Light" — Tangled • Music: Alan Menken • Lyrics: Glenn Slater
- "If I Rise" — 127 Hours • Music: A. R. Rahman • Lyrics: Dido and Rollo Armstrong
- "We Belong Together" — Toy Story 3 • Music and Lyrics: Randy Newman
I'm not altogether unfamiliar with modern music, but as I go over this list, I find myself absolutely stumped to recall the tune to a single one of the winners of the past 15 years, except for "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic ("Jai Ho," anyone? I defy anyone to hum even four consecutive bars of this award-winning tune from from 2008). The absolute nadir for this category was most surely 2005, when the winning song--the acknowledged "Best Song" of the year--was a random collection of grunts and howls with the elegant title, "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp" (from something called Hustle and Flow).
Was this some kind of anarchic joke?
And it seems that nearly every year (since around 1994), there is the ubiquitous "Randy Newman Cartoon Song" nomination--he even won the award in 2001. And every single one of the songs sounds exactly the same as the last--sort of an ersatz-wry, "aren't I adorable?" ditty that one forgets the minute the tune ends.
(above: The Great Randy Newman)
In recent years, with the utter paucity of screen musicals, it seems that nearly ANY song featured in a major film is an automatic contender for "Best Song". Which makes one wonder about 2011's most prominent nomination "snub," which was the shut-out of last year's only actual "original musical film". Though Burlesque was one of the year's biggest bombs, and the music was largely forgettable, the main song, "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me," should certainly have been atleast given a nomination, as the song was one of the few highlights of a pretty dismal film. And Cher certainly put the song across with conviction (though I'm doubting we'll be hearing her performing it in this key "live," as it has all the earmarks of being digitally, er, "enhanced").
Well, in any case, Cher is pissed and bitter at the snub. She took to her Twitter today to lament the situation:
“We didn’t get a nomination 4 best song ! That sucks ! Diane’s song Is so beautiful ! It’s hard to understand how u win … The Golden Globe 4 BEST SONG & not even get nominated by the OSCARS? Oh well it is..what it is ,,,,the sun is still shining !”
The bottom line is that this category needs to be put out of its misery altogether. It's time to face the fact that the era of the "musical film" is lost and, seemingly, gone forever. It wouldn't be a precedent-setting move: The Academy has actually eliminated ten categories through the years, ranging from "Best Title Writing" (for silent films, which was only given out once) to "Best Scoring of a Musical" in 1957 (when the death knell for screen musicals had been tolled and heard by the Academy). In the meantime, we'll all be on the edges of our seats as we breathlessly await Alan Menken's 5th Academy Award acceptance speech, for his latest wonderwork, "I See the Light," from Tangled. What? You don't remember it? Yeah, me either....
