I invited him to dinner. Miller, Edited by Kate Guadagnino and Thessaly La Force. On the east side of Lexington, between 78th and 79th, was the best fishmonger Ive ever known: Rosedale. He slowed and turned around: Yeah, you too.. The Landmarks That Made New York a Cultural Capital, Uptown or Downtown? Guthrie Inn on the other hand perfectly captures how living on the Upper East Side feels in reality; a bit isolated and quiet at times, a haven from downtown at other times, comfortable yet on the rise, and full of an interesting cast of characters. Hear Christopher Walken talk about seeing movies during the day: One evening Kenny Scharf and his whole group which included Jean-Michel Basquiat, and certainly Keith Haring were hanging out at the artists studios at the Clocktower Gallery [in the former New York Life Insurance Company Building at Leonard Street and Broadway]. My apartment was four stories up, and I got a place on the floor below for Kim Gordon. Peter had no small talk at all. Mos), a Tex-Mex slash surfer-themed bar with a totemistic statue of Geronimo the Apache Surfer hanging by the entrance and countless big screen TVs. Money was secondary to being able to have this playground we could create. Mexican chain, which while not the inventor of the slush/frozen margarita, was legendary for them, especially their "Ridiculous", which was the size of a smal. Honestly, my mind was empty, but I wanted to be consumed by that emptiness. Certainly at night, few people were there, and few were there on the weekends. And the food at Genroku was really cheap, which was the operative word. Jimmy Carters reputation was tarnished by the hostage crisis in Iran, and I feared that perhaps Norman Mailer, an Elaines regular, or some very politically active and argumentative individual, might stop by our table to express some unfavorable comments. I lived at the Olympic Tower, and Halston was downstairs.. 1982 Having introduced nouvelle cuisine at Ma Maison in Los Angeles, Chef Wolfgang Puck presents "California cuisine" to patrons of his new chic-casual Sunset Strip restaurant, Spago. I had half of the third floor, which was sort of the high-ceilinged fancy room, though it had long, long since stopped being fancy. Did you come to see the show? The silhouette I was doing broad shoulders and thin hip was my way of reinterpreting masculine power, but with humor. They were spinning on their heads, the cops said. We made an altar to a llama, and everyone dressed in kind of Greco-Roman outfits I wore a toga with sequins. I just left the house on a Sunday, went to make the record. I would go there every day to write. It was a walk-up. 1 place sorted by traveler favorites. [Kim] would work one day, and Id work the next. And by 1991 a good dozen of the neighborhoods bars were offering similar ladies night deals. The sidewalks along St. Marks over to Astor Place were just as lively they were a sort of souk where you could buy back what the junkies had stolen from your apartment. I chose a very mournful, elegiac, orchestral piece of music, and I created a gray-scale portrait of three heads: Bills head in the middle, and my two profile heads coming out of either side of his. It became a whole sh*t show, recalls Keith Block. My contemporary, the writer Ed [Edmund] White, had the apartment next door. I had no reason to stay awake or to fall asleep. It wasnt a rich peoples restaurant; it was a restaurant for people Elaine happened to like. I had a horrible graveyard shift at a coffee shop, one of the only places to eat in Chelsea, open 24 hours super crickets, deserted. He goes, What the hell are you doing to my theater? Bronwyn Thomas, she was like happy feet on her toes. To me it was all an art project. We were both rather exotic in each others eyes. Wheres Joe? Eventually youd realize that he died, and his family came and put his artwork in a dumpster. There were lines around the block the theater starting bumping it up to a second and third screening. CBs wasnt the best sound; it was such a long and narrow space that if it was crowded you couldnt really see anything, unless you were standing on the side of the stage, and then you just heard the stage sound. It made the general public aware that people were dying in Brooklyn, in Harlem, in the Bronx. My fantasy was to rent one of these theaters on 42nd Street and show my movie alongside Mad Monkey Kung Fu. In the 60s, it was only open to the high class and the rich, like authors up on the Upper East Side. By ajordahl123. When I crossed the bridge, I had my Saturday Night Fever moment the city was for the taking. So the artists would often have free rein, and would sometimes sneak up to the roof, especially for the Fourth of July and other events like that. Gracie Terrace, New York, NY (212) 535-3140 (212) 535-3140. The bodegas played loud salsa music late into the night, as Dominican men played dominoes on the corner. We used to have a TV with a VCR on at all times, playing MTV and the guys coming up. It was on 35th and Fifth, and it was a place where the sushi came around on a conveyor belt. His name opened every door for me. And then we said, We gotta do the real hip-hop that were actually doing at the block parties and at the house parties and at the park parties. So we decided to make it all beat no music, just me and Run [Joseph Simmons, another founding member of Run-DMC] doing the real hardcore, just rhyming on this record. Ann Magnuson performing at Kenny Scharfs opening atop his Ultima Suprema Deluxa Cadillac on November 14, 1983. These parties inevitably blur together in my mind, but I remember that night because a week later, Abbott stabbed and killed a waiter at the Binibon cafe, a few doors down the block. There's always a striking contrast to what it was and what it is now. Clear all filters. Theyd say, Yo, Dap, listen to that. All the hip-hop artists came [to the atelier]; there wasnt any other place that catered to rappers. The straight clubs became very, very straight. By 1968, 85 bars called the neighborhood home, like Gleason's, slightly further uptown near Yorkville, and similarly decorated to Friday's, with Tiffany lamps and the ornate wooden bar that had graced the Schaefer Beer pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair. We had a prom, a debutante ball, a ladies wrestling night. In a way, its ironic Ski Bar continues to have such a strong presence on social media as Block figures social media is the very reason why you dont see these types of bars and binge-a-rific drinking deals any more. Upstairs, the formally attired crowd (jackets required, gentlemen) dines on classic fare including the 21 Caesar Salad, Creamy Chicken Hash, and the ever-popular 21 Burger, which has been on the . In the summer of 1992, New York Magazine published a photo of the Slalom Shots alongside a brief blurb and, according to Block, That more or less started the anarchy in the neighborhood.. The deal with him was he never had to come and he never had to give any money, but he would give his name and a recommendation. This morning was no different than any other. It was very close to the Forward Building, which housed the important Yiddish newspaper. Harrys Hula Hut had bamboo walls, palm trees, and Nerf basketball available, plus all-you-can-drink beer. You couldnt do nothing stupid or bad because your friends mother was your mother, too. I couldnt, but I did turn around and walk with him for some blocks to the restaurant. Cramped beer and shot joints with names like the Blue Moon, Czar Bar, and Richters were all vying for the attention of this influx of recently graduated young adults who wanted to go out, but had little money to do so. That completely opened my mind. Or with only a few comments in between. And when she gave me the phone back, she went into [hysterics]. Photograph courtesy of Charlie Ahearn, whose groundbreaking hip-hop feature film Wild Style (1983) featured Grandmaster Flash, Lee Quiones and Fab 5 Freddy, among others. Having had an alcoholic mother, he did not like being around people who drank much. Youd press your lips to the bottom and Slalom Girls would pour a combo Jaeger/tequila shot that would shush down the slope and into your face. We could each get a full breakfast scrambled eggs, hash browns, whole wheat toast with an endless cup of coffee for $5 with tip. To me, the 1980s were incredibly liberating. I knew people who were dying as early as 79, and three months later their partners were dead, so by 1981 I had a clear picture, even if it hadnt fully sunk in, and it was an incredible life changer. (By the time we filmed Desperately Seeking Susan in 84, New York was already beginning to become more gentrified.) I was breaking up with somebody a long, slow breakup. The silence, as they say, was deafening. It was run by very old Jewish folks. But I had no idea what I was photographing. Those who set the tone you had to have an outfit from me. Sep 13, 2019 - Restaurants that I ate at as a child..most no longer exist. At one end of my block was J.G. It all depended on who was playing. Within 18 months, several more "singles bars" were opened on 1st Avenue. Everything had my initials on it, or the name of somebody else on it; it was really crazy. We also created a percussive orchestra that was all pots and pans and a lot of racket, and that was the debut of the band Pulsallama. Everyone associates me with Jesse Jackson, but actually James Brown is the person I consider most like a mentor. Carver came by, down from Syracuse on some publishing business. Silently. In 1981, I lived on 79th and West End; it was tiny but very comfortable. As told to Caroline Bankoff,Heather Corcoran,Nancy Hass and M.H. We would go till 4 a.m. Hell, we would go past 4 a.m. Hear Rosie Perez talk about her first time at CBGB: Six days a week I arrived every morning between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. At 11 to 12, Id had a nine-hour day. That's what Bennigan's, an Irish-themed bar and grill, offered in the 1980s. The all-you-can-drink deals just dont happen these days, because the rents are so high, says Block. As Brad Lauren, a 23-year-old production assistant claimed at the time, having just paid $3.50 for a Miller Lite that ladies were drinking gratis: Its the most socially acceptable form of discrimination., By 1994 lines were down the block at Ski Bar every night and the police started to put up barricades to keep people off Second Avenue. My habit must have appeared bizarre to my peers. If it was a Thursday, Id be rushing to get all my work done, because that was the night I went dancing. Not all these bars were necessarily beloved. The Ladies Auxiliary of the Lower East Side sort of a punk rock version of my mothers Junior League group, which I started with some other girls from the East Village hosted several events at the club. Nobody was talking to him, probably because they didnt recognize him. But where was the battlefield? It was a brilliantly sunny day, and standing outside was Dustin Hoffman. There was a studio near First Avenue in the 50s that used a dance technique that was a modified version of Pilates. When Canadian-born club impresario Peter Gatien came to New York City in the early '80s, after. Id walk to Cooper Union, where I was teaching. The rain came through, so the clothes were all messed up by brown streaks. There was a popular Puerto Rican dance club, Ochentas, and across the street from that was an Afro-Cuban spot, Club Broadway. Somebody might have called during the night to say they might have job opportunities, so you always checked your machine. In 1972, the New York State Human Rights Commission ruled that reduced-priced ladies days at Yankee Stadium discriminated against men. The infamous Upper East Side murder has yet to fade from public memory. No ID check, nothing. As Andy turned the pages, he said things like Oh, thats nice, Oh, that could be larger, Oh At the end of it, he said, Yes, I think we should do your book. Hip-hop artist Prince Whipper Whip of the hip-hop group Grand Wizard Theodore & the Fantastic Five at the Sparkle in the Bronx. And then we had Robert Rauschenberg, a rascal and a great man. May 6, 2009. Carina Finn July 6, 2022. Bob introduced us, and Dustin congratulated me on the film and told me my acting was naturalistic. It dawned on me that there are so many different styles of acting and you dont have to adhere to just one. Boozy, drug-fueled parties that lasted until dawn. Mozart. The apartment was big, but the hall was in very bad repair, or at least looked it. Meanwhile, 25 new bars had opened between 76th and 96th Streets in the first years of the 1990s as well. I was living uptown really the classic uptown, which, because I was young, seemed a little wild to some people with my kids and my mother (also, at that time I was in love with a Brazilian man Id met in Bali). The 1980s era of Wall Street expense accounts had evaporated as young professionals, for the first time in a while, actually had to pay for their own drinks. Youd have Chinese opera and then some kind of Russian circus act and then a punk band and then a drag queen. Linda Goode Bryant, founder of Just Above Midtown Gallery. Sometimes it was just me and my sister walking up to the velvet rope or the bouncers, or it would be a group of us, and they would let us right in. My life was spiraling downward. Being at the Carlyle was amazing, but I was still an undergrad at Yale at the time, and the whole thing felt unreal, as though I was living two lives. And why I got out.. The demographics of the tony Upper East Side were likewise going through some radical changes post-1987s Black Monday market crash. If you wanted fancy, youd go to La Grenouille. David McDermott and Peter McGough, artists. Back uptown, Mortimers restaurant was a huge place for me. It was pitch-dark. I felt like I was having the best entertainment of my life, because people were going up and down the aisle, going, Loose joints People were talking throughout the whole movie going, Yo, shut up! It was just like the kung fu movies they were the same audience. He was like the Jimmy Fallon or Trevor Noah of that era. Alanna Heiss, founder of PS1 and the Clocktower Gallery. These places were used largely by working-class men, white, black and Latino, people who thought of themselves as straight and gay, many of whom were amenable to sexual things. It was still a sort of wild west that far uptown, and the facility was quickly dubbed Dormandie Court for the raucous, college-like atmosphere it had created and then fostered. The venues didn't matter to me. Things were 50 times as bad in Brooklyn as they were in Manhattan. Part of how they paid us was they had to strip some wood the house had five fireplaces, and the foyer was original, and all wood. Landis shot the models one afternoon on the Upper East Side. At night, if you headed south through long dark blocks to the meatpacking district, there were clubs and leather bars. Im a child of the Midwestern upper-middle class. They were relatively small, rundown theaters; they tended to have a fair amount of drug use going on. While her friend Sara explained, We dont even like this place. The Mudd Club was one of my favorite spots to go out thats where I was introduced to James Chance and the Contortions and Talking Heads. During the day, Id get my paints at Canal Hardware or Pearl Paint. You could feel it turning, the tackiness beginning to creep in. But I had a new Mercedes-Benz, and Id leave it in front of the store when I was in Harlem so people knew they could reach me.