REAGAN AND THE POLITICS OF CYNICISM I would like to amplify Ramon Cernuda’s assertion that the Reagan team in the early Eighties “wanted to counteract the policies of the Carter administration with regards to Cuba” (“The Art of Exile,” July 29). After eliminating or drastically reducing funding for many established…
So I call up the source: Me: “Sir, is it true that you embezzled thousands of dollars from tax coffers?” Him: “I categorically deny those allegations. But listen, while I got ya, do you have any idea how I might be able to get tickets to the Smashing Pumpkins/Chainsaw Kittens…
Club columnists just want to have fun, not provoke the fall of Western civilization, but some readers — and a few friends lately — horrified by our shocking lack of moral/political/intellectual consciousness. Correspondents in particular offended and disgusted, which, ironically, pretty much sums up our usual frame of mind. One…
CERNUDA: A VOICE IN THE DARK I felt a great sense of belonging reading Mike Clary’s interview with Ramon Cernuda (“The Art of Exile,” July 29). I am an American-born Cuban (my parents are from Cuba) and espouse the same views as Mr. Cernuda. Although I am not actively involved…
Summer, the cruelest and definitely nontrendiest season, the fashionable world still plowing along heedlessly, cranking out low-grade fabulousness. A surrealistic beginning to a whirlwind of cut-rate glamour with the United States launch of a new fragrance, SalvadorDali’s “Laguna,” a joint effort by Salvador Dali Parfums of Paris and Fine Fragrances…
No theme this week, just lots of pain, most of which will probably be forgotten by the time you read this, just as this is forgotten as soon as you finish reading it. It’s very sad and unfortunate that an innocent woman was killed in an accident involving a jitney,…
MUSIC TO HER EYES I liked Tom Austin’s article about Russel Frehling (“Music without Melody,” July 22). I have admired the composer’s work for a long time. Austin’s was probably the only credible article about a serious contemporary artist New Times has ever printed. Previous to this, I have been…
I’m tired, real tired. But this theory seems so straight-up simple: If, as the fascist censors insist, listening to the 2 Live Crew will turn you into a rapist and if listening to Body Count’s “Cop Killer” will make you murder an officer of the law, then couldn’t the opposite…
In earlier, more innocent times, parties were simple community celebrations, brave stabs at civilization, sweet as the frontier weddings in John Ford movies. Like everything else, the movieland version of parties degenerating with the onslaught of the modern era. The Nazi homo romps in The Damned. The decay and decadence…
A MOUSE IS NOT A HOME I was a victim of the Morton Towers low-maintenance, high-rent syndrome (“Totally Rent Out of Shape,” July 15). My first rent increase was $30 — no problems, no complaints. Then came the mice, followed by mildew that ran rampant throughout my apartment, clothing, furniture,…
More nightclubs spreading across the terrain. Mambo madness. Rave fever. A serious music spot opens, geared to the “normal people” market. The anti-yuppie movement takes hold, promoters in a death grip with club owners, and general nastiness abounds. A city run amok, but still, comfortable in its amokness. All the…
On language: So the other midday I’m sitting at a bus stop in Westchester, waiting. Some middle-age guy, a 38-year Miami resident originally from Albany, New Yawk, strolls up and begins yammering. The main thing we talk about is distinguishing characteristics of Latin, or Hispanic, dialects and accents worldwide. He…
NOT AN ORGANIC BUREAUCRAT IN SIGHT Not a bad article at all by Mr. Semple regarding the demise of the Grove farmers’ market (“Pave It to Save It,” July 8). The mind-numbing lack of foresight that the city administrators habitually show never ceases to amaze me. They, in fact, bewilder…
People say life’s the thing, but reading is just so much more rewarding. Most of the problems of the world begin with the human inability to sit quietly in a room. But then, life on the hot bottom of the Earth demands a little agitation and distraction. Plenty of both…
I remember it, vaguely. Pete Townshend was right, and not just about himself. That old movie Logan’s Run hit the tip, too, with its premise that an unsurpassably happy and pleasure-soaked life ends — must end, literally — at age 30. Heck, mine certainly did. Heck, I even have younger…
EMMA LAZARUS IS TURNING OVER IN HER GRAVE A pat on the back to John E. Brown (“Letters,” July 1) regarding the Haitian Refugee Center and advocates like Cheryl Little, and especially Ira Kurzban. He is not going through the traditional channels as is U.S. law, but, as Mr. Brown…
It’s real life, getting out of the house and confronting a rich bounty of irritation wherever you go. What with the press of events lately, following the plots of mini-series is becoming problematic. Brain damaged, shattered, but in the perfect state of mind for metropolitan life. A blessedly nontaxing evening…
As mentioned last week, dead is the word for the Rock Box. A decade ago there were few higher compliments than being called a “punk.” We were white punks on dope, we were punk rockers, we were punked out and proud of it. But kids today, oh yeah, too many…
FIRST-CLASS POLITICAL JACKASS Urban League president T. Willard Fair is a first-class jackass to sit on his stupid political ass and say that the Pride campaign (“Germ City,” June 24) was not to empower community residents. No wonder the campaign was such a resounding failure. Empowering your citizens is not…
How does a song like the sweetly languorous “Make U Sweat” end up on the same album as the hip-hoppity, Gary Glitter-ized scratch-and-grab “Bad to the Bone” and an unlikely cover of Neil Young’s “Down by the River”? Yes, skank tops, Inner Circle is back with a new one, Bad…
Summertime, and the living is hard. And in clubland, the range wars are terminally competitive and increasingly nasty. Messages sent between rival clubs through intermediaries. The insidious French/Eurofilth colonization of the Beach, the new Nice mafia, continuing apace. Warsaw and Paragon battling it out for the local gay market, all…
Uptown, downtown, just one big amorphous herd lately, feeding on fame and cheap thrills, letting the old distinctions slide. It used to be that uptown people actually acted rich, did their drinking quietly at home, avoided ostentatiousness, devoted themselves to an arcane mythology of taste and class that outsiders could…
