Manhattan Offender

Weekend wills and won'ts

Friday night - Will:  Go out with coworkers and get tipsy in Madison Square Park.  Won't:  See Last Tango in Paris at American Museum of the Moving Image.  Not that I don't want to see it, but our small team is getting bigger by one person next week, and none of us were involved in the hiring decision.  Shivers.

Saturday - Will:  Spend at least four hours on personal appearance.  Gym.  Hair.  Face.  P.S.1.  Attend party of a friend of a friend who is supposed to be an amazing artist.  I've never seen her speak.  Mostly just nods her head.  Not sure what her deal is.  Won't:  David Matthews Band at Randall's Island.  I'm proud to say I don't know any of their songs.  I just know that they are very popular amongst people that dislike me.  That and Blow and the Hootie-fish.

Sunday - Will:  Fire Island (Pines).  The regular.  Maybe no Xanax this time.  Won't:  SummerStage.  Just not an appealing line up this year.  It wasn't many summers past that SummerStage would keep me from the beach.  This year is, well, dated.  Only appeal was Brazilian Girls, and that has past.

Brazilian rain for us

Possibly it was the karma of not paying to go to Bowery Ballroom to see the Brazilian Girls and waiting to see them at SummerStage for free, but it was probably more the blame of this horrid string of weather that caused a sudden downpour during what was a great set.  More interesting was the reaction to the very mixed crowd that was grooving to the show.

1. The free.  If life serves lemons, this crowd puts lemon slices in their vodka tonics.  Rain or no rain, they just kept dancing, if not more fervently. 
2. The destroyed.  Just wrecked.  Life sucks.  Hasty exits by this crowd.
3. The innovators.  Took the materials around them and made them work.  Picnic blankets, newspapers, and more made makeshift shelters.  (Offender was sexy, sexy, sexy in his Whole Foods parka/shrug.)
4. The prepared.  From under their umbrellas, I'm not sure what radiated more, the warmth and dry environment they had created for themselves or the utter self-righteousness of having lugged around their umbrella around all day just for that moment of satisfaction when they would be among the few that were dry.

P.S. - The photo is a total cheat.  That's a rainstorm in the Maldives, which is apparently a group of islands off of India.  There was no way I was getting my phone soaked in that rain!

New York, 2012

New York is awakening with a collective sigh of relief this morning as London has been chosen to host the Olympics in 2012.  So instead of renting out our apartments for the month in August 2012, we'll just be sweltering as usual. 

Since the Olympics will not be the dominant story for the next seven years, here's a few prediction for NYC-2012:

- Despite a burst in the real estate market bubble in 2006, rampant development will continue into 2012 with Trump Red Hook soaring 120 floors into the sky.
- The Fashion Industry will abandon Bryant Park for a more downtown feel, opening the tents for the first time in the shadow of the 'Freedom Tower' in the space that is currently ground zero.
- Gentrification (in other words the artists and the gays) will continue it's outward sprawl with Flushing being the new 'it' spot.
- Funding for the High Line will be revived but at a price.  The High Line will be the home of Manhattan's first Wal-Mart.
- Central Park will have a gate put around it and the Conservancy will model it as a 'member's only' area, similar to Gramercy Park.
- Mayor Bloomberg, in his fourth term, will be trying to convince us and the world that we really, really want to host the 2020 Olympics.