Monday, September 15, 2008

*Everyday Chatter

The David Barton sales office is open at Astor Place. Maybe if that Barnes & Noble's catchphrase had been "Read Fucker!" they could've made it:


Remembering David Foster Wallace: "He talked about how difficult it was to be a novelist in a world seething with advertisements and entertainment and knee-jerk knowingness and facile irony..." [Salon]

...he "used his prodigious gifts as a writer...to create a series of strobe-lit portraits of a millennial America overdosing on the drugs of entertainment and self-gratification." [Times]

Novelist and playwright Arthur Nersesian on the new East Village: “Oh, God, we’re living in a hell that I can’t even begin to describe!” [Times]

Scary 57-story monster condo coming to Tribeca looks like a precarious Jenga tower just waiting for a strong wind to topple it. [EVG]

...and fully loaded with amenities, the monster condo will even squeeze out a giant mirrored poo (that some poor slob will have to polish daily):


Anyone remember that scene in Gattaca where Uma takes Ethan's hair to a DNA tester to see if he's a good catch? Well, 11 years later and we're already there. Choice quote (there are many): “I have a very low chance of becoming obese,” Ms. Trump said. “That makes me exceedingly happy.” [Times]

Celebs see High Line as a metaphor for Calvin Klein: "an old, functional thing that’s now going a bit wild." [Villager]

A StuyTown resident writes an open letter, boycotting the 14th St. Hot N Crusty that "killed David's Bagels." [ST&F]

Back in February, a VNY reader wrote in about their concerns for 89-year-old Jefferson Market. Now the owner is asking for "support during a rough patch." So go buy some quiche, already! [NYM]

Some little somebody in the shadow of the big old Toll Brothers tower is jealous--and undergoing Extreme Makeover-style surgery to compensate:

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

No mention of the LEHMAN BROTHERS collapse?

Mark said...

I noticed the extreme makeover surgery a few months ago, when I realized that the steel the owners were installing had absolutely nothing to do with the existing windows of the building. I have a feeling that facade will be peeled away to reveal yet another new architectural atrocity.

BTW, this was the site of the circa 1880's Comet Theatre, later re-named the Lyric Theatre and photographed as such by Berenice Abbott. Other incarnations included the Cinema Vilage 12 and as a gay porn house under such names as the Jewel and the Bijou. It was also the site of the original 1968 production of Jean Claude van Italie's "America Hurrah".

It was quite a grand little beauty in it's day.

Anonymous said...

Lehman Brothers vanished--Merril Lynch too--Charlie Merril must be rolling over in his grave--yunnies-you laffing now--2 more to come or go as it will be--
yip yip jones up yunnies-vongify this and that-have another 35 dollar martini--

Anonymous said...

Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch vanished in one day!!!! 2 more to come--

Jeremiah Moss said...

mark, very nice details! thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

A four-and-a-half percent dip for the Dow Jones yesterday. I was hoping that if the market keeps plummeting like this some of the fascists down on Wall Street would do their best Superman impersonations like they did back in '29, but I don't think any of the windows in those glass-and-steel abominations down there open these days.

Anonymous said...

The condo tower is a pretty beautiful building - the design and architecture seem fairly extraordinary. It's no soulless glass tower.