Lifes Rich Pageant

Manhattan Kisses

Tomorrow night, Barnes and Noble just across the road from home: author of one of my absolute fav novels: "Kissing in Manhattan"< David Schickler live, reading from his new novel Sweet and Vicious

Sometimes this city just takes your breathe away with the richness and diversity of its pleasures...even with the damned RNC in town.

Monsterous

Caught Party Monster last night - Macaulay Culkin and Seth Green attempt to capture the filthy debaucery and wicked fun of Clubland New York City in the 1980's and 1990's. This is the story of Michael Alig; his friend James St James; and the Limelight Club and owner Peter Gatien.

As one review said this film written and directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, makes "the charismatic look merely tiresome and dangerous decadence look deadly dull". Culkin's acting is poor and the accent that he and Green adopt seems merely fey. The digital cinematography and the outrageous campy costuming is visually stunning. The story is a sometimes touching reminisence of gayer, naive and more carefree times, but in the end failed to keep my interest.

St James still occassionally publishes in a blog some very funny transcripts of his telephone conversations with Alig who is enjoying his experiences in prison.

Bienvenido a Miami

VMA's were pretty lame i thought...especially for such a hot town. Obviously a lot of money had been spent on the multipile set staging (that must have been a pain for the stadium audience), but the gigs, in general, failed to live up to the sizzle - the gorrilla that is MTV seems to have forgotten that music is about challenging convention not perpetuating it....outrageous has been superseded by " 'hoe hum ".

Apart from aussies Jet and the incredible Keys, Kravitz and Wonder performance the music was pretty awful, especially Jessica Simpson and Polyphonic Spree...wtf is it with those guys. And finally my fav song of the moment Laid Back by Fat Joe and the Terror Squad was kick ass...but again wtf with Bruce Willis and P Diddy ...now that was just plain bad. And what sort of seagull shat in Naomi Campbells hair...gotta find that bird it crapped sparklers

Olympics

What a great show of sport. And frankly a pime example of how the Greeks always at the last minute pull something out of the bag ! I learned the lesson not to underestimate these proud but "very laid back" people when I studied my MBA with a group of them in London.

Anyway although i missed some of the action by being on Cape Cod and away from television coverage, and last night caught the VMA's from Miami instead of the closing ceremony...i caught enough to once again have that Olympic bug...Beijing I will be there !!!

Pics by SMH

Australia did fantastically...more gold medals than in Sydney...and according to this article second best (behind the Bahamas) in terms of medals per head of population: with 0.86 medals per 100,000 people.

Republican mainstream-ism

A lot has been made of the conversion of former Mayor Ed Koch and GA Senator Zell Miller to the Bush cause...but there has been a strong call from Republican Governors, Senators and Representatives calling for the Republican Party to move back toward less extreme and more popularist positions

....we just dont here too much about the Come Back to The Mainstream movement...

here are the main points from their public statement

Stop weakening environmental law - and once again protect our air, water and public lands as Teddy Roosevelt and other great Republican leaders intended;

Restore fiscal responsibility - with "pay-as-you-go" budget discipline to end record deficits that jeopardize economic growth;

Put the health of millions first - and clear the way for embryonic stem cell research;

Appoint mainstream federal judges - and respect the Constitution;

Make America safer - and protect cities and towns, still vulnerable three years after 9/11, by securing chemical and nuclear plants and shipping containers;

Rebuild our alliances – with real partnerships and restore America’s standing in the world

While this is an admirable stance I dont believe the party of Bush and Cheney will ever be able to accept these points. The Democrats and Kerry for all their faults are really the only chance for some sanity to prevail in this country.

Bush's Brain

hmmm... I didn't know he had one...anyway tonight at Lincoln Centre, a new film examining Karl Rove's impact influence on this malign administration...try to catch it to celebrate day 1 of the RNC....

protest banner

Fine blogger pics of the banner drop protest at the Plaza Hotel NYC....This protest would not be possible today. All street parking outside all hotels in midtown is not allowed. There are well armed police standing round all the entrances to the hotels along with strategically parked vans. Amongst all the blue of NY's Finest
are the ridiculous red white and blue hats and carnival clothing

Protest #3

from my friends at gothamist: Some of the pics from TV helicopters that show the banners on NYC rooftops especially welcoming Republican convetioneers flying into the city. Funny how new yorkers love their rooftops, for protests, catching the summer sun rays (instead of the beach) and of course for those rooftop parties - vodka, coronas and fireworks...

Protest time redux

Made the UPJ protest march yesterday - a hot steamy day that did not deter at least 500,000 people marching through the streets on NYC and past the conference venue: MSG

More than usually confused at Penn Station subway due to closed entrances, closed streets and steel barricades as far as the eye could see. Intimidated by the hordes of well armed police. Shouted at by a burly police man as we tried to jump the barricades near the beginning of the march. Finally got into the thick of things but decided to cross a few avenues to catch the head of the march and see Jessie Jackson and Mike Moore. On the waywitnessed some arrests and again unnecessary intimidation as the protestors were forcibly hancuffed by plastic straps and forced to sit on the hot pavement while they were photographed.

Made Union Square and watched the estimated half a million come down Broadway - a wide variety of protestors showing the broad base of the anti Bush coalition. Chatted with some very kind and informative marshalls. Overall yesterday gave me some hope that the Bush Administration will be thrown out of office as scurrilous liars and cheats.

Then wandered upto Central Park to catch the illegal gathering on the Great Lawn...the crowd was fairly think and again very peaceful, singing old protest songs or just talking over their experiences. Overall I think it was more impressive to walk the streets of the city rather than just congregate in the Park. Unfortunately the police presence was again palpable and intended to frighten.

my pics are in this album:

The Bravery

Along with Joe and Aaron caught the highly recommended The Bravery on saturday night at Mercury Lounge.

They were a welcome relief after:

- a god awful meal at a morrocan style cafe on Rivington (I didnt think any restuarant on that Street was poor)
- two god awful support bands
- and hearing the god awful news that Barramundi was closing down (where now to get the best mojitos on the LES).

Anyway The Bravery were like a strong guitar driven; Strokes come Duran Duran or a powerful punkish Cure with considerable stage presence. They sufferred from too much of a girlie following due to their good looks and infectious sound. But they are a band worth listening too and checking out again.

Afterward trudged off to Lukes on Leroy in the Village to mingle with the uber hipsters. This god awful trend must well and truly be over by now. The crowd's forced nonchalance and the crappy music seemed to indicate it was.