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Editorial
B.P.C. bucks
Battery Park City, built on city public land more than 30 years ago — actually on landfill from the original Twin Towers construction — was always going to bring more affordable places to live in New York City. Originally, two-thirds of the apartments were going to be for middle- and low-income people, but 20 years ago, the state and city promised to use money from neighborhood ground rents to build affordable housing around the city.
Brooklyn Banks
One of Lower Manhattan’s quirky treasures, the Brooklyn Banks, is going to close for at least a few years in order to allow for extensive renovation work on the Brooklyn Bridge and its ramps.
Letters to the Editor
Scoopy's Notebook
Notebook
It’s scary what some folks think about New York City
By Kate Walter
I was riding New Jersey Transit from the Shore to New York City, and we’d just switched trains in Long Branch. The purple-haired woman in the seat in front was settling a large, odd-shaped contraption into the overhead shelf. I figured it was an art project made from white plaster, but when two young African-American women across the aisle inquired about it, Purple Hair described an elaborate Halloween costume. This was its mask and headdress. She was a part of a theme group from her dorm.
Talking Point
The hounding of Polanski
By Jerry Tallmer
I don’t know whether it was Robert Towne or Roman Polanski (or both) who wrote that memorable fragment of “Chinatown” (1974), but I do know that I once heard Polanski say, in answer to a television person’s numbskull suggestion that Faye Dunaway didn’t have to be killed off at the end, “Yes, but then we wouldn’t be sitting here, talking about it.”
FEATURED COLUMNS
Scene
Ira Blutreich
Mixed Use
The A List
In Xinjiang, Chinese are bulldozing away a culture
After outbreaks of ethnic violence between Han Chinese and minority Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang, China, in July, globetrotting East Village conflict photographer Q. Sakamaki visited the province — China’s westernmost — in August.
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Serving West and East Village, Chelsea, SoHo, NoHo, Little Italy, Chinatown and the Lower East Side
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Villager photo by Tequila Minsky
Mike Bloomberg speaking at the Union Square Greenmarket last Friday.
Bloomberg narrowly avoids upset, holding off Thompson
By Julie Shapiro and Lincoln Anderson
Despite outrage among many New Yorkers over last year’s extension of term limits and the fact that he spent a jaw-dropping $90 million on his re-election campaign, Mayor Mike Bloomberg squeaked out a victory on Tuesday against Bill Thompson. With more than 1 million votes cast, Bloomberg got almost 51 percent of the total and Thompson, 46 percent.
The mother of La MaMa and so many others turns 90
By Wickham Boyle
Ellen Stewart, the founder of La MaMa, doyenne of experimental arts in New York City and around the globe, turned 90 on Sunday — and she was thrown a fete commensurate with her station.
Photographing food line was nourishing for the soul
By George Cohen
I begin every day, weather permitting, in Tompkins Square Park, reading The New York Times, keeping my audio journal current, conversing with the regulars, meeting new people, feeding peanuts to the squirrels, getting my head together and just “watching the wheels go ’round,” as John Lennon sang a long time ago. I’m a professional photographer, recently retired from a 25-year day job.
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 Universal truths yield ‘weirdly interactive’ work
By Jerry Tallmer
Never buy a red coat…
I know that Nora Ephron’s mother used to say this to Nora — because Nora once told me so; and if Phoebe Ephron, a forceful woman, said it to daughter Nora — then she presumably also used to say it to Nora’s sister Delia.
Superior Donuts’ denizens comtemplate race, class
By Scott Harrah
Playwright Tracey Letts — who won the Tony and the Pulitzer Prize for “August: Osage County” — has followed up that acclaimed work by creating one of the most elegantly written, exquisitely acted and directed dramas on Broadway this season.
 Skilled star shines as pseudo psycho
By Scott Harrah
Jude Law is perhaps the only reason why this reverent revival of one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays is on Broadway. Direct from an acclaimed run at London’s Donmar Warehouse, the 37 year-old British movie star is one of the youngest actors to ever play the classic role — which has been performed in previous stage and screen productions by everyone from Richard Burton to Sir Laurence Olivier to Ralph Fiennes.
Dated ‘Oleanna’ still ‘packs a controversial punch’
By Scott Harrah
Seventeen years after its original 1992 Off-Broadway production, this revival of David Mamet’s “Oleanna” still packs a controversial punch by vividly exploring male dominance, testosterone-fueled pride, and women’s issues.
Women on the verge of a nightly breakthrough
By Scott Harrah
Nora and Delia Ephron’s Off-Broadway stage adaptation of Ilene Beckerman’s 1995 memoir is a breezy, entertaining, 90-minute look at femininity and how clothing offers insights into women’s psyches.
Women share laughs, dress
By Scott Stiffler
Before his sprint to the podium to pick up that screenwriting Oscar for “American Beauty” — and before he created the belated HBO show “Six Feet Under,” Alan Ball penned this considerably less dark tale.
Sheridan Square to Shylock
By Jerry Tallmer
A funny thing happened at the Alvin Theatre, one night in 1962. A delicate elephant of a man named Zero Mostel — playing a freedom-minded Roman slave named Pseudolus — turned himself momentarily into an erotic Greek frieze, and a critic named Tallmer fell out of his aisle seat, laughing hysterically. BUMP! on the floor, I kid you not.
Dixon Place rides (and reads, and performs) again
By Travis. D
Dixon Place has been a downtown fixture ever since 1986 — when founder and artistic director Ellie Covan began inviting strangers into her Alphabet City apartment to watch performances and poetry readings.
Limecat and Literally Alive: Kids stufffor whole family
By Paula Rosenberh
When she founded Literally Alive, Brenda Bell was able to combine her two childhood loves of theater and reading . Now in its tenth season, the children’s theatre company produces original musicals based on classic children’s books and fairy tales. Bell, the company’s creative director, collaborates with composer Mark McGee.
Villager 2009 Theater Supplemet |
Villager Arts & Lifestyles
Koch on Film
By Ed Koch
“Storm” (+) This interesting movie could have been much better; nevertheless, it is worth seeing. The plot centers on the war crime trial of a Bosnian Serb general who during the civil war in Bosnia (part of the old Yugoslav Tito-run Balkan state which was settled during the Clinton presidency) allegedly committed acts of ethnic cleansing against the Bosnian Muslims.
“The Maid” (-) I was looking to see a movie that had been around for a while, since the week’s new openings did not read very well in the reviews. The Daily News gave this film four stars so I thought, what have I got to lose. Regrettably, plenty in terms of time — and at the age of 85, time is very precious.
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