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Apr. 27th, 2003 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmhttp://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/27/fashion/27VIEW.html
I think criticizing wealth for the sake of doing so is extremely trite. And I really would like the economy to suck a great deal less, but this is an extremely perceptive piece on life here right now.
I've lived here pretty much my whole life, and I'll tell you, one of the weird side products of the boom times in New York has always been that the city stopped being for the people who lived here, and that's always been frustrating to me, even as, sure I appreciate that I can live where I do and that the subways are not the war zone of my childhood.
I can't stand this stupid smoking ban, because it means the streets of my neighborhood are filled in the evenings with people smoking outside of bars, and flicking their cigarettes about carelessly and obnnoxiously. I do get a kick out of all the places that are ignoring the whole thing, but I certainly don't get a kick out of going to a cabaret night and listening to the MC go on about smoking as if it were some naughty and exotic vice. Have we gotten that boring?
Speaking of which, I love this moment of cabaret and burlesque resurgence. And I love that I am not alone in the things that amuse me, but gods, do I think it's trite that burlesque and girls kissing are some sort of magical solution to our national sexual ennui.
Right now, we're a nation and a city desperately in need of a lot of things -- art, frivolity and sensuality all being high on the list. And they're there, they're creeping up on us certainly. But we're applying ourselves to them with such a grim necessity. Like going out on a Saturday night just to prove we now have the lives we didn't in high school.
We just, need to be a little freer with ourselves right now. There's so much keeping score these days, here at the so-called and not really end of the world.
I think criticizing wealth for the sake of doing so is extremely trite. And I really would like the economy to suck a great deal less, but this is an extremely perceptive piece on life here right now.
I've lived here pretty much my whole life, and I'll tell you, one of the weird side products of the boom times in New York has always been that the city stopped being for the people who lived here, and that's always been frustrating to me, even as, sure I appreciate that I can live where I do and that the subways are not the war zone of my childhood.
I can't stand this stupid smoking ban, because it means the streets of my neighborhood are filled in the evenings with people smoking outside of bars, and flicking their cigarettes about carelessly and obnnoxiously. I do get a kick out of all the places that are ignoring the whole thing, but I certainly don't get a kick out of going to a cabaret night and listening to the MC go on about smoking as if it were some naughty and exotic vice. Have we gotten that boring?
Speaking of which, I love this moment of cabaret and burlesque resurgence. And I love that I am not alone in the things that amuse me, but gods, do I think it's trite that burlesque and girls kissing are some sort of magical solution to our national sexual ennui.
Right now, we're a nation and a city desperately in need of a lot of things -- art, frivolity and sensuality all being high on the list. And they're there, they're creeping up on us certainly. But we're applying ourselves to them with such a grim necessity. Like going out on a Saturday night just to prove we now have the lives we didn't in high school.
We just, need to be a little freer with ourselves right now. There's so much keeping score these days, here at the so-called and not really end of the world.
