PRINT: ALIVE AND WELL ON 2ND AVE.
THOUGH WINE STORE CLOSES AMID SUBWAY HAVOC
By Sarah Liston
Amidst the subway construction chaos on a stretch of Second Avenue in the East 90s that has been described as looking like Beirut, a shop so shiny and beautiful has sprung up that it’s like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel that the T-line will someday occupy. B.J. Magazines, at 1819 Second Ave. between 94th and 95th streets, is as glossy as the magazines it sells. Like an Uptown version of SoHo’s Universal News & Café, the store carries a huge variety of both domestic and foreign titles, which line the walls from floor to ceiling. I imagine it is quite a challenge to open a business in this economy—especially in Read more
PREDICTIONS
OUR PANEL OF SOOTHSAYERS PONDERS 2009
Compiled by Dan Rivoli and Charlotte Eichna
As has become an Our Town tradition at the cusp of a new year, we like to ask for predictions from various illuminating personalities populating our neighborhoods. There was no shortage of responses this December, with prophesies for 2009 covering everything from the much-debated replacement for Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat to the new First Pet. We hope these forecasts are an enjoyable way to ring in the New Year, or at least a way to pass the time while nursing a hangover. Read more
BUDGET BLUES = LOBBYIST PAYDAY
FIRST CUTS FROM STATE, BUT THEY MAY NOT BE THE DEEPEST
By Alan S. Chartock
There is now officially hell to pay among the state’s agencies and not-for-profit community. Anyone with even tangential knowledge of, or influence on, the New York political system is hearing phones ringing off the hook, and for good reason. Facing a multi-billion dollar budget deficit for both this year and next, Gov. David Paterson has pursued a Sherman-like approach to slashing and burning everything. I run a network of public radio stations, and our funding from the state has been cut by 50 percent, with hints of even more to come. I spoke to my cousin, Lois Carswell who, among her other good works, Read more
LIFE TIPS FROM MTV’S ‘IT GIRL’
FOR GUIDANCE IN 2009, JUST ASK: WHAT WOULD WHITNEY DO?
By Lorraine Duffy Merkl
Here’s my New Year’s resolution: watch successful New Yorkers and do what they do.
I truly believe that if I follow this new path, the usual things that I resolve to do (lose weight, get more freelance work, lose weight, improve personal relationships, lose weight, etc.) will all fall into place.
I have decided to add to my list of those to emulate current It Girl and Los Angeles transplant Whitney Port, who has a new series on MTV called The City. Read more
GRATITUDE FOR DONORS
To the Editor:
We would like to publicly thank the fraternity Kappa Alpha Si, New York Chapter for its blood drive with New York Blood Center on Dec. 6. We collected 14 pints of whole blood, an amount capable of saving the lives of as many as 42 people. Read more
MTA CUTS ARE A DISASTER
To the Editor:
The proposed MTA service cuts will suck the life out of our city. More than an inconvenience, they will make New York a less attractive place for anyone to start, maintain or grow a business.
Bradford Goz
West End Avenue
Read more
VOTERS NEED A VOICE
To the Editor:
“Maloney Makes Her Case” (Dec. 18) makes me wonder if Democrats have taken real democracy away from the voters and returned it to Albany’s smoke-filled backrooms.
Remember former New York State Democratic Assembly member Tom DiNapoli? As a result of his faithful allegiance to Democratic State Assembly Speaker Silver, he was selected by a joint session of all 212 members of the State Legislature to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of fellow Democratic State Comptroller Alan Hevesi. Millions of registered voters were disenfranchised by this backdoor maneuver. DiNapoli had a free four-year term without voter approval. Read more
DEFIANCE
EDWARD ZWICK’S BADASS TITLE, DEFIANCE, IMPLIES A HOLOCAUST FILM WHERE THE JEWS FIGHT BACK— BUT IT DOESN’T TOP SPIELBERG
By Armond White
Torn between making an art movie and an uplifting entertainment feature, Edward Zwick can’t stop the gun-battles and genocide of his Holocaust movie Defiance from seeming like cheap thrills and mawkishness. It’s time for Zwick to man-up to his intelligence and go for broke. Defiance needed the moral and formal rigor of a Jean-Marie Straub film—if only to separate it from guilt-inducing memorials like The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Reader, Adam Resurrected, Good and Valkyrie. Misguided “escapism” is ruining Zwick’s high-minded ideas. Read more
TELLING STORIES
ADAM SANDLER CONTINUES HIS WINNING STREAK WITH BEDTIME STORIES
By Armond White
Imagination is Adam Sandler’s response to bad times. As Bedtime Stories’ hotel employee Skeeter Bronson, Sandler helps his single-parent sister (Courteney Cox) during her new job search by babysitting his niece and nephew. He tells them bedtime stories that spur their own fantasies and—magically—come true in his own life. This is an inspired metaphor for the way pop culture ought to work: It is handed down by one generations, taken up by the next, understood by all, and becomes a source of amazement and spiritual sustenance. Wall-E be damned! Read more
CRIME CHECK
Weekly, monthly and year-to-date crime stats from the 19th Precinct, on the East Side from 59th to 96th streets.
