It's pretty well known that I am very much anti-meth. Not because people are addicts with it or it ruins there lives. Not even my often classist argument, "Meth is for poor people". No, my case against it is that it just isn't very fun.
On one hand you can count the times I've done it, and each except the first was by accident. Read about the first time in this week's Past, Over.
Unusual it is not that yet another building in the Meatpacking District is being overhauled to become, golly, maybe a J.C. Penney's or a Spencer's Gifts? The loss of Western Beef doesn't really affect me in any way and the continued path of retail mallification to the area is unsurprising. What is curious about the marketing for this particular property is the signifigance that the gigantic billboard plays in the advertising strategy of the building as displayed on the scaffolding banner. What a catch! What a find! A true landmark. The famous sky-obscuring billboard of Fourteenth and Ninth!
No clues to offer this week, except that I was out on a walk with a camera and this week's article just sort of happened. It totally just wrote itself. Writing it made feel dirty and, well, like a bad person. The stating of which hopefully absolves me of guilt. The link will be up later now.
This probably isn't a popular opinion and it's rather after-the-fact at this point, but is revitalization of the High Line just sort of a bad idea? With Barry Diller donating $5 million and everyone from Hillary Clinton to Ed Norton behind the idea it seems that there has not been much in the way of skeptical thought applied to the project. Although the financing has been brought together mostly by outside groups, there remains over $30 million in contribution from the city and the ongoing maintenance of the park seems to be in taxpayer hands as well.
The park will be a pretty road to nowhere and although much of the aesthetic idea of a swath of green cutting through developed space is widely appealing, that aesthetic, strongly influenced by the views afforded of the Hudson River will be greatly changed by speculative residential projects rapidly shooting up around the former rail line. What will remain is an unwide sidewalk path down the west side which will be parkland for, well, the wealthy.
Consider the same amount of funding being put into some of the large available spaces on the west side to develop a larger, more user-friendly green space with large fields and play areas. Consider the same amount if put forward to a space more appealing to a wider range of citizens from diverse economic backgrounds, not just the strolling aesthetes.
While many will point to Paris's Promenade Plantee, photos of the Promenade are distinct in one respect: it is always sans pedestrians. To a large degree the park will replicate the stroll afforded by the Hudson River Park, yet one will not be genuinely connected to the other.
It's obviously too late to stop the project from proceeding, but the real benefit of the space will come in ten or more years. Will this be still regarded as an amazing idea or just an outdated folly?
The initial run of Amanda Lepore dolls by designer Jason Wu have sold out after having been available at Jeffrey less than two days. Rumor has it that more dolls will be produced for the DIFFA fundraiser. (For which party pictures will be posted April 11.) Among those that wanted dolls, but couldn't get them, are Pamela Anderson, Hugh Hefner, and Mister and Mister Elton John. Maybe if enough people ask
more will be produced so that people (like me) can obtain their own Amanda Lepore.
Even if the doll is unattainable there is another way that Amanda may find a way into our homes soon. In the latest step toward having her own television show la Lepore has signed with Classic Entertainment Group (of Gastineau Girls and others) to create a reality show, tentatively titled Amanda Cross Country.
