Linda Stein, R.I.P.
WCBS News is reporting the apparent murder yesterday of Linda Stein, one time co-manager of the Ramones, who in later years became known (and was profiled by this writer) as a realtor to the stars. Amusing and abrasive in equal measure, Stein was a unique and special New York character. The city is poorer without […]
Looking Down on Tina Brown
Welcome to Tina Brown and Sir Harry Evans’ nightmare — a rendering of the new condo going up at 441 East 57th Street, on the site of what used to be composer Cy Coleman’s townhouse. That’s the garden of the Brown-Evans maisonette to the right. Brown and Evans famously sued to stop it, but the […]
Papa Don’t Preach
There a fascinating story on the coverage of antiquities issues by several major American newspapers at savingantiquities.org. The piece also includes a quote from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s director that made me laugh as it seems to speak directly to my latest project, an unauthorized history of the museum, which has done everything under […]
Shiny Happy Bowery
Curbed declares “The Death of the Bowery.” (View of the former CBGB block of the Bowery at Bond Street courtesy of racked.com and curbed.com)
Ruby Ralph
Ron Mwangaguhunga at FishbowlNY just called Genuine Authetic: The Real Life of Ralph Lauren “a smooth, critical tonic to all that media ass-kissing going on over Mr. Lifshitz” on the 40th (ruby) anniversary of Polo Ralph Lauren.
Memory Motel
The New York Observer has just published my reminiscence of living on Bond Street back in the day. My duplex loft there cost $200 a month. Eat your heart out, Ricky Martin. Also in the Observer,740 Park gets a mention in an item about Ross school founder and Time-Warner widow Courtney Sale Ross.
Little Big Man
Speaking of the depressing decline of American glossy magazines (see this link and the post just below), as the hype over Ralph Lauren‘s 40th Anniversary builds to a cacophonous crescendo, with more mags paying cover-tribute obeisance to his advertising budget, er, fashion consequence, than ever before (since at least 2002), I hope I’ll be excused […]
Bile appeal
This week’s New York magazine attempts a psycho-social analysis-cum-hit job on Nick Denton‘s addictive blog Gawker (where I was once guest-editor). What’s missing is any attempt to explain its considerable appeal to those who are not members of the striving media underclass. Gawker’s voice is indeed often bilious, immature, belittling, disrespectful and critical-to-a-fault, and it […]
Back in the ‘hood
Someone was stabbed and killed last night on the Greenwich Village street where I lived until about a year ago. Which reminds me that a Washington Square Park drug dealer named Ringo was stabbed and killed there shortly after I first arrived back in the mad bad late 1980s. That night, the dogs howled at […]
Crabby Commentary
Dealbreaker’s comment on my Contribute column on Steve Schwarzman‘s philanthropy (or lack thereof) bears repeating: “Anyone with as much money as Schwarzman has is no doubt besieged by charity racketeers seeking to exploit feelings of charitable obligation to fund their favored causes. To stand up against this horde, to refuse to seek public approval lavished […]