tarring | S NYC the magazine
Premiere Issue | May 2012
Sci-Fi
Make-Up
5
IN minutes: Secrets behind the blood, bruises and broken bones
PlusWhat Mad Men says about NYC’s ad world
City Glam The chicest New York street fashions
Who will survive
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the literary battle: the Kindle, the book or the shop?
Commited to covering New York-inspired music, literature and performing arts.
Starring | NYC Maane Khatchatourian Editor-In-Chief
Art Director • Myeisha Essex Photo Editor • Charley Steward Vertical Editors Screen • Anne Cohen
Cover photo by Jens Karlsson
Scene • Carly MacLeod
Starring NYC is committed to covering New Yorkinspired music, literature and performing arts. Our stories balance a depiction of the known with the unknown, the successful with the aspiring, and the talented with the unrefined. We work in all forms of media and aspire to the highest standards of accuracy and aesthetics.
Style • Lindsey Wagner
GET CONNECTED
Sound • Esteban Illades Stage • Ali Leskowitz Story • Ilana Kowarski
And Introducing • Paolo Lorenzana Assistant Vertical Editor • Danika Fears
Copy Editor • Alison DeNisco
/StarringNyc @Starringnyc /Starringnyc
Research Editor • Neha Banka
.com
Video Editor • Sabrina Buckwalter Social Media Editor • Aby Sam Thomas
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism 2960 Broadway New York, NY 10027 Room 801 starringnyc@gmail.com www.StarringNYC.com
Faculty Advisers
SLIDESHOWS Cyndi Stivers Alison Hockenberry Michele Wilson
VIDEOS
MAY 2012
contents
30
Battle of the brushes Artists compete for trip to Poland
Zombies in ‘Silent City’
A look into an apocalypse web series
06
04 Letter from the editor
Screen 08 SFX for TV and film A look behind the makeup
New York street fashions
Photo essay of graffiti hub
44 Revolving world of cocktails
Why he moved production overseas
Stage
14 Let’s talk about porn
42 5Pointz to be demolished
24 Sidewalk Chic
The making of a jazz doc
12 Woody Allen’s dying love for NYC
40 Meatball mania The latest New York food trend
22 New York’s new Super!Market Independent desingers set up shop
10 From NY, the pursuit of jazz in India
Scene
STYle
46 Naked, hairy and happy
26 Art of the New York joke Why comedians pick on the city
Visit to an X-rated art show
The future of getting wasted
Profile of a nude model
28 Salesman comes to life
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29 The dullest game of all
And Introducing . . .
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Review of The Yeats Game
31 Life after the big move Why artists find success in NYC
Filmmaker Rob Hugel
Story
Review of Death of a Salesman
Sound
And Introducing . . . Singer Trishna Helmick
16 The Kindle, the book & the shop Bookstores struggle to survive 32 Bleecker Bob’s closure Unsteady future of record stores 18 Review of New York Diaries Teresa Carpenter shares secrets 34 Breaking into voice acting 19 The city’s hidden past
Review of New York: The Novel
20 In the mood for love?
Romance fiction reading series
30
How to make it in the industry
36 A Fulbright scholar with rhythm
Profile of a Ugandan dancer
Mad about Mad Men
Letter from the editor I hope our paths cross again — sometime soon. I wish all of you the best of luck in your future endeavors.
T
he last five months at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism have marked some of the most stressful and rewarding times of our premature journalistic careers. Producing an online magazine focused on New York arts and entertainment allowed us cultural affairs enthusiasts to finally tackle stories in line with our career trajectories. It tipped the scale toward the rewarding end. After a semester of RWI, most of us yearned to break away from the oppressive one-sentence lede and two-sentence nut graf that characterize standard news stories. Starring NYC granted us that creative freedom: we were able to abandon the inverted pyramid and develop a personal voice. Our professors Cyndi Stivers, Alison Hockenberry and Michele Wilson helped us find and eloquently express that voice. Their sharp edits, constructive feedback and gentle probing allowed us to assert our personal style, yet maintain the language that formed the backbone of our publication. And although our profession is competitive by nature, producing Starring NYC was a collaborative process every step of the way. From the vertical editors to the photo editor, every person in class played a pivotal role in shaping the site. Anne Cohen, our screen editor, wrote some of the most New York-centric stories, which discussed how the city has transformed over the years. As music editor, Esteban Illades documented the songs New Yorkers listen to during their daily commutes and compiled a summer concert guide. Stage editor Ali Leskowitz somehow managed to attend and review three of the most anticipated Broadway plays. Our resident bookworm Ilana Kowarski encouraged everyone to con-
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tribute to her story vertical; she wrote a great review of Teresa Carpenter’s New York Diaries. Carly MacLeod had one of the hardest jobs on staff, editing scene — the most popular section — while writing countless articles herself (meatballs, anyone?). Lindsey Wagner oversaw the growth of one of Starring NYC’s newest sections, Style, by profiling fledgling designers and brands. Paolo Lorenzana discovered emerging talent for “And Introducing” and wrote some of our quirkiest pieces on cocktails and a “gay hotel.” Danika Fears edited stories for each of these sections on rotation and reported primarily about art, film and zombies. Then there were the people behind the scenes. In addition to authoring several articles and producing photo slideshows and videos, the following editors ensured that our magazine was publishable. Alison DeNisco tirelessly copy edited every single story. In conjunction, Neha Banka fact checked these pieces. Charley Steward was the queen of Photoshop who made sure our pictures were aesthetically pleasing. As art director, Myeisha Essex designed our new logo and helped give the site a facelift. Charley was the mastermind behind this print publication; she and Myeisha designed the entire magazine. Social media guru Aby Sam Thomas publicized our articles to make sure our work wasn’t in vain. Sabrina Buckwalter was our video editor and sole investigative journalist of the bunch. Two of every staff member’s best stories are featured in the print magazine. We’ve also included our class project on Mad Men, which consists of 12 reviews on the same episode. The magazine also includes Q&As with some of the artists spotlighted in our “And Introducing”
section. But dozens of other stories are not available in print and can only be accessed at www.starryingnyc.com. This class wouldn’t have been the same without our faculty advisers. I feel honored to have received instruction from such prominent journalists and to have worked with such talented peers. I’ve enjoyed reporting on topics that genuinely interest me and know that I won’t be blessed with another opportunity like this for quite some time. I’m relishing every last minute of it. And I know I won’t get the chance to work with such an amazing group of friends and colleagues again. I hope our paths cross again — sometime soon. I wish all of you the best of luck in all your future endeavors. All the best,
Maane Khatchatourian
Editor-in-Chief
Zombies Loose Screen Style Screen
in Silent City by Danika Fears
T
he night Hurricane Irene threatened to blast through New York City, filmmaker Rubidium Wu was making a delivery in Times Square. What he encountered there was like a scene in a disaster movie– –one of the city’s most congested areas had transformed into a temporary ghost town. Wu was instantly drawn to the silence of the scene. After all, sights, sounds and smells abound in New York, but in that evening of impending doom, the city fell silent. It was that hushed night that inspired the Australian Wu to make a zombie-apocalypse web series, called Silent City and set in New York. Only in an apocalypse would the city ever remain that quiet, he mused. As a 33-year-old independent filmmaker with a smattering of corporate commercials and shorts to his name, Wu lacked the funds to clear out a space like Times Square. But he started exploring outside of Manhattan and discovered parts of the city long forgotten––the dilapidated warehouses overgrown with weeds and the skeletons of mental institutions locked tight. “I really wanted to use the city itself as the location because there’s this amazing underbelly in New York,” Wu said. “I mean, this is where it’s been at for hundreds of years––it’s Gotham City.” Wu wrote three-minute long scripts for the first season’s five episodes, but before he could nail down locations and start shooting, he needed to raise $12,000 for a budget. Wu turned to Kickstarter, which he considers “even more revolutionary to filmmakers than digital technology,” and within minutes users started donating. An imagined silent city of zombies resonated with the online Kickstarter community. One anonymous donor gave $1,500
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and only about a dozen of the 269 backers knew the filmmaker personally. They met their original goal within two weeks. “Maybe it was niche enough, but it was really exciting to pre-sell a dvd for a movie that hasn’t even been made,” Wu said. “It’s a bit like ebay, I think people love the excitement of bidding for it, getting in on the ground floor of something.” By February, Wu was ready to start choosing locations, which proved challenging on a budget of $12,000. An abandoned power station in Yonkers was prohibitively expensive at $8,500 for only a day’s worth of shooting in and around the facility. He soon found out that public land in New York falls under the jurisdiction of a few different government departments, each with their own way of doing things. “It can be very expensive, even on public land,” Wu said. “The Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Sanitation have different rules. We’re trying to do it the right way, but if we don’t get the permits, we’ll do it the wrong way.” Or they’ll resort to Plan B: filming outside and using a green screen to replace interior shots. For now Wu has settled on four locations––Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, Iona Island and Letchwood Village in upstate New York, and what once was the New York City Farm Colony on Staten Island. On a sunny Monday morning, Wu and his producer ventured into the eerie woods of the Farm Colony on Staten Island to scout out interesting spaces. Carrying a heavy load of expensive equipment, they heard voices off in the distance and paused in their tracks. It was the perfect place for something terrible to happen, and Wu, in apocalypse mode, feared the worst. “I thought, someone is here to bury a body,”
Rubidium Wu he said. “It’s one of those places where if you called 911, no one would find you.” The voices turned out to be a small group of 13-year-olds messing around. It’s a rite of passage for many Staten Island teens to poke around the abandoned Willowbrook State School, a facility for mentally disabled children that was closed after then-Senator Robert Kennedy decried it as a “snake pit.” Once the site of so much horror, the brick shells of buildings that made up Willowbrook are now falling into decay. And despite his own fears of the area, Wu decided it would be a fitting place for a face-off between his protagonists and the zombies. But don’t expect blood or gruesome zombies to take center stage in the Silent City web series. Wu loves action and spectacle, but finds excessive violence unnecessary. “I don’t like how horror elicits that adrenaline rush. What are you going to do with it?” he asked. Wu and his team start filming in the first two weeks of April, and for now he’s hoping that he’ll be able to secure the necessary film permits. Still, no matter what happens, he will be filming in New York, the city he believes has a symbolic power in disaster films. “There are certain structures that make us think, if that’s in trouble we’re all in trouble,” he said. “New York as a city is at the top of that list.”
Wu location scouts in overgrown and abandoned spaces around the city. Photos by Rubidium Wu.
Sfx how-To: wound
What you’ll need: Illustrator Ink palette Brushes Wedge (for blending)
Step 1: Start with the Illustrator Ink palette (you can also use a bruise wheel). For the various stages of bruising you’ll need the colors red, purple, blue and maybe yellow and green, depending on skin tone. Take your brush and dab red in the center of where you want the bruise to appear.
Step 2: On the outside of the red, dab some purple. Each color application should be lighter than the previous.
Step 3: Add blue around the outside of the purple you’ve just applied. If demonstrating a black eye, stretch the blue in between where the eye and the nose meet.
Step 4: If working with light skin tones, add a touch of a yellowish green color. Typically, Jeremy says, a yellowish green color doesn’t appear until the third day of a real briise
Step 5: Using a clean wedge, blend the colors slightly. Tap, don’t rub. You want the center of the bruise to be the darkest and then as you move outward it should fade out.
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SFX for TV & film: How it’s made by Charley Steward
H
e scalped Jackson Parkhurst. Repeatedly shot young Mary Hatchet. Twisted a night nurse’s head. Beat George O’Neill to death after knocking him unconscious with a wrench. Gruesomely murdered a group of teenagers with axes. The list goes on. Jeremy Selenfriend has been creating the realistic casualties and wound effects seen in film and television for 10 years as a professional, but says he’s been playing around with woundmaking since he was a child. “The first film I can remember just looking with bright wide eyes was E.T., and Jaws still terrifies me. I still think twice when I stick my toe in the water,” says Jeremy, referring to the films made by his favorite director Steven Spielberg. His innovative work on the hit HBO TV series Boardwalk Empire and in the Lionsgate film Blood Night: the Legend of Mary Hatchet, to name a few, has made him a frequently booked special effects artist in the film industry. Jeremy, 34, and a 2002 graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, is the owner and head artist of Monster in my Closet, a special effects makeup and prosthetic company based in New Jersey. Bodiless heads—some covered in fake blood and others in slime—and foreign creatures seen only on the SyFy channel hang against the walls of his shop. “I like to think that I’m a jack of all trades– from sculpting, to mold making, to running appliances, to application, to painting. I feel I’ve got a very decent grasp of all aspects,” he says. However, he admits that some artists are stronger than he is at certain effects, such as inserting strands of hair into prosthetic heads. “I don’t have the patience for that,” says Jeremy. “So I’ll have people that’ll come in, sit and stare at these silicone heads for 10 hours at a time, punching one hair in at a time. And they are amazing at it. It makes it look a thousand times more real.” With nearly 40 mainstream and independent titles under his belt—nine of which he either is currently on or just wrapped—Jeremy has plenty of work and says this time of year can be especially busy, and exhausting. “It’s pilot season— there’s 25 new pilots shooting in New York,” he says. “I’m bouncing around from show to show.”
Photos by Jeremy Selenfriend Jeremy demonstrates a slit throat with brush and paint. Below: Prosthetic heads from Blood Night: the Legend of Mary Hatchet. TV is much faster-paced than film work, says Jeremy. In the film industry artists are usually given several weeks, even months, to create certain effects. However, in television they often find out what scabs, scars or bloody messes they’ll have to make only days beforehand. While TV gigs can be exhausting, they can also mean a steady paycheck for months. Jeremy says his most challenging project was the CBS cop show called NYC 22, starring Adam Goldberg and produced by Robert De Niro. “It’s the longest project I’ve ever had—five months of every day, 12 to 16 hours,” says Jeremy. “Every eight days, new script, new actors with new challenges.” His good friend Craig Lindberg, who is also a makeup and special effects artist and has
Photos by Craig Lindberg Craig applys makeup to Tommy Sweeney for the 1999 movie Naked Fear. worked with him on Royal Pains and Boardwalk Empire, agrees. “Every seven days you have a new script—but you’re still working on the old script,” says Craig. “You don’t know what’s coming to your door. It could be something as simple as a little scratch or something where someone has malformations.” Craig, who has been an artist for 27 years and has worked on nearly 50 films and television series, is known as the Wound Wizard, a nickname he earned on the FX show Rescue Me. Like Jeremy, he, always knew he wanted to be in this business. “I had a love for monsters,” he says. “I actually blame my mom for it, because she used to take me to see horror movies when I was a kid. I saw more people get their heads cut off before I was nine years old.” He’s currently working on the NBC comedy show Saturday Night Live. “The one thing about live TV is that you can’t stop anything from happening. Literally arms are going in and out to get them ready in three to four minutes. You don’t have the time to touch it up,” says Craig. “I’ve finished makeup on the floor right before the camera starts to roll.” On SNL, each cast member has a hair person, wardrobe person and makeup artist. Craig start-
ed as the makeup artist for Bill Hader. He then moved on to Will Forte, and now he’s the artist for Taran Killam. Although Craig refers to SNL as an “oasis in my desert” because it is such a great place to work, he is most proud of his effects on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, specifically episode four of season nine. “There was a girl who had what’s known as Williams Syndrome [a rare birth defect]. I had to make a set of fake teeth for her and I had to make a set of eye bags,” says Craig. “Everybody kept talking about the teeth, and no one knew I had put eye bags on her. To me, that’s a great achievement in makeup when people forget that it is makeup.” Even on a high-production-value show like Law and Order, the pace is frenetic, with artists given less than 20 minutes to set up their stations for the day. “Then morning rush hits,” says Jeremy. “All your principle actors need to be ready in as little time as possible. Generally for men: five to 10 minutes. For women: 15 to 20. For specialty and prosthetic makeup [it’s] a case by case basis, but for simpler things like bruises and cuts you really only have like 10 to 15 minutes to sell it as best as you can and have it look good on big screen HDTVs. It’s a very intense challenge.” Jeremy says the special effects makeup industry is evolving. “The good thing about this field is that you’re in a constant position of creating. Sometimes it is someone else’s vision and that’s fine. But you usually get to put your own style into it, and a lot of times the designs are your own,” says Jeremy. “At the end of the day there’s no other field I can think of where creativity is so prevalent.” Craig says he cannot draw; his approach is more that of a sculptor. He got into special effects makeup by chance, at the urging of a friend who was a film student at NYU. “He asked me to come do makeup on a movie that he was on and it just progressed from there. I really had no experience. I learned as much as I could in a month [from] books and talking to people.” He says that most jobs in the field come by word-of-mouth and good connections. “It’s not an easy thing, but it’s not a hard thing either. There are opportunities. If I got in, anyone can get in,” he says with a big smile. “It’s just having the patience and practice.” In addition to SNL, Craig is working on his fourth season of the USA show Royal Pains and the TBS show Person of Interest. Jeremy is currently working on Premium Rush, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Showtime’s Masters of Sex. “There’s enough [work] to go around, and there’s always going to be a little competition,” says Jeremy. “But all of us are working and all of us are able to support our families.” As of April, he is booked until November.
SFX How-to: Bruise What you’ll need: alcohol brush metal spatula stage blood orange sponge (two pieces) 2 unused popsicle stick Skin Illustrator Ink palette makeup foundation third degree silicone putty flocking clean, non-porous surface
Step 1: Clean the surface of the skin with alcohol to get rid of any dirt and oils.
Step 2: To create a 3D cut, take
one popsicle stick and scoop out a small amount of third degree putty A and put it on a clean surface.
Step 3: Take another popsickle
stick (to prevent hardening, be sure not to dip the stick used for A into B) and scoop a small amount of third degree B. Spread on the surface of A.
Step 4: Take another popsickle
stick (to prevent hardening, be sure not to dip the stick used for A into B) and scoop a small amount of third degree B. Spread on the surface of A.
Step 5: Mix thoroughly. (There will only be a minute window before the mix harden.)
Step 6: Using a metal spatula,
scoop some of the putty mix onto the ara where you want the wound to appear.
Step 7: While it’s drying, take
your finer and smooth out the edges of the line, blending it into the skin. Clean up any excess silicone with a dry paper towel.
Step 8: Take a clean sharp object
and carve a shape down the center of the silicone to create the contours of a wound
Step 9: Spray a little alcohol
over the area and then dab with a sponge to create texture. Add stage blood. MAY 2012 / StarringNYC.com
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From NY, the pursuit of
jazz in India by Sabrina Bulkwalter
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usheel Kurien was never a filmmaker. He’d been a partner at KPMG, a managing director at an international consulting firm and collected various other hard-won titles, but for most of his life, he just wanted to be a jazz guitarist. Following a significant point in his life, priorities shifted, and it was time to move forward with his passion. His love for jazz drove him to pick up a camera and soon he was on a plane to start filming the elderly jazz musicians still left in India. They are, sadly, a dying breed. Making the documentary wasn’t easy for a first-time filmmaker, but unexpected support for the project from all directions kept Kurien going. His vision was suddenly shared by all those around him, marking a milestone of sorts in the discovery of finding reinforcement and success in following his dream. That’s the message Kurien discusses today: the importance of being true to one’s passions and goals. Though the documentary took center stage at a recent film screening at Columbia University, the path to its completion was Kurien’s most important point to those in the audience, as he provided encouragement to thrive in the pursuit of one’s passion. For more information visit www.starringnyc.com.
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Finding Carlton: Uncovering the Story of Jazz in India
Filmmaker Susheel Kurien screened his documentary Finding Carlton: Uncovering the Story of Jazz in India earlier this year at Columbia University.
Woody Allen leaves NYC for greener pastures Faced with plummeting box office revenues and rising costs of filming in the city, Mr. New York himself recently moved production overseas. by Maane Khatchatourian
T
he opening scene of Woody Allen’s film Manhattan epitomizes the legendary filmmaker’s love affair with New York City. “He adored New York City,” Allen’s character Isaac Davis narrates as shots of city landmarks and New Yorkers flood the screen. “He romanticized it all out of proportion. To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin...New York was his town and it always would be.” The scene concludes with the New York City skyline erupting in fireworks, timed to the musical pyrotechnics of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Movie critics argue that the character of Davis is an extension of Allen himself and his idyllic description of the city reflects Allen’s own feelings. Born in the Bronx and raised in Brooklyn, Allen arguably filmed the version of New York he wished he had grown up in. However, the last seven years have marked a change in his career trajectory as he’s abandoned “his town” for cities like London, Barcelona, Paris and Rome. New York City was the backdrop for almost every Allen movie shot from 1977, when his career skyrocketed with Annie Hall, to 2004. But in the past seven years, Allen has filmed only one production in New York. That single NYC-centric film, Whatever Works (2009), earned only $5.3 million — a third of its production budget and one tenth of the box-office total of Allen’s latest film, Midnight in Paris. Whether a deliberate move or happy coincidence, Allen’s decision to shoot more movies abroad has boosted their earning potential. According to Peter Bailey, author of The Reluctant Film Art of Woody Allen, Allen wrote the script for Whatever Works in the 1970s for actor Zero Mostel and resuscitated it during the 2009 actors’ strike. In the film, Larry David’s character Boris Yellnikoff breaks the fourth wall regularly and rants directly to audiences about religion and mortality. He strikes up a relationship with runaway Melodie St. Ann Celestine, played by Evan Rachel Wood, and ultimately overcomes some of his pessimism. Whatever Works “seems literally and symbolically the end of a
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line,” Bailey said in an e-mail. “It’s so insularly Manhattan that it’s claustrophobic and at the center of it is elderly Boris Yellnikoff, kvetching his head off to his inferior friends. The one-dimensional out-of-town characters with whom he’s surrounded just prove the superiority of New York and there’s no news from Woody this time, except that he’s tired.” Midnight in Paris may have been more of a hit with fans because Allen depicted an idealistic vision of the city. “From lovely beginning to lovely ending, [Midnight in Paris] is so much warmer and so much less cynical than [Whatever Works] that its 10 to 1 audience ratio makes every kind of sense,” Bailey said. “In it, Allen does to Paris what he did to New York for years, turning each into a place that never existed, but which we and he wish did.” Despite his films’ change in scenery, Sam Girgus, author of The Films of Woody Allen, said Allen still employs the same tropes he used when filming New York by immersing his characters organically in their new urban environments. “One of the ways for him to put a spin on his repetition of themes and routines is to change the setting,” he said. “It’s a smart way to do it. … It gave him an opportunity visually to do what he loves, which seems to be to show beautiful cities.” One of Allen’s New York films, Husbands and Wives (1992), featured a scene shot at the Hungarian Pastry Shop on Amsterdam Avenue at 111th St. In the film, Allen plays a Columbia University literature professor, Gabe Roth, who becomes infatuated with his student Rain, played by Juliette Lewis. Shop manager Philip Binioris, whose father and his two partners bought the café in 1976, said he’s proud of his family establishment’s role in the film. “The shop is populated by characters that represent the true nature of New York City,” he said. “New York kind of is hospitable to neurotics like Woody Allen.” Adjusted for inflation, Allen’s most iconic NYC films, Annie Hall, Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters, are also his highest grossing productions of all time. Without factoring in inflation, Midnight in Paris is his most successful film to date. Four of the five movies he filmed in New York in the new millennium — Hollywood Ending, Anything Else, Melinda and Melinda and Whatever Works — failed in
France’s first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and Owen Williams star in Midnight in Paris, Allen’s highest grossing film to date. (Photo by AP) comparison with their 1970s and 80s counterparts as well as with films set abroad. The four movies collectively earned less than $23 million, while Annie Hall alone made over $134 million and Midnight in Paris earned more than $56 million. Cindy Lucia, an editor at Cineaste who has interviewed Allen countless times, attributes his decision to shoot more films in Europe less to his interest in generating more revenue and more to the fact that he can no longer afford to shoot in the city. Filming in New York costs him an average of $15 million per film, while London costs $5 million. Richard Brick co-produced three consecutive films with Allen in the late 90s, Deconstructing Harry (1996), Celebrity (1997) and Sweet And Lowdown (1998). According to Brick, Allen told the Producers Guild of America several months ago that he moved production overseas in order to retain complete creative control of his films. “Typical New York budgets were no longer financeable so he was working in Europe with the same creative rights he always enjoyed, [but with] a lower budget,” Brick said. “That’s just the difference of production realities. He’s shot in England, France I think Spain. Films can be made there less than in New York City.” Brick said Allen has the best creative rights package of any producer in America. “Woody has always had total control of his films: control of who he wants to cast, control of where he shoots, control of the final cut, control of the music, control of the still photos used to promote the movie, control of the DVD covers. … He would go [abroad] and keep his creative rights, which he’s earned.” Allen’s been inclined to feature local stars in his overseas films in order to attract the home markets of the respective countries. For instance, Allen’s decision to cast France’s first lady Carla BruniSarkozy as the museum tour guide in Midnight in Paris was an explicit attempt to attract French movie-goers. Marion Cotillard’s starring role was also a strategic move. Match Point’s almost all-
British cast, which included Emily Mortimer and Matthew Goode, is another example of casting to appease a local audience. Shooting films abroad may also be Allen’s attempt to disassociate himself from his romantic relationship with Mia Farrow, which ended in 1992 when it was revealed that he was having an affair with Farrow’s adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. He later married Previn, causing an uproar among fans and industry professionals. “There simply seems to be an energy that he’s drawing from these locales that was no longer happening in New York and it may not be too simplistic to wonder whether the Mia/Soon-Yi scandal ultimately destroyed his ability to idealize Manhattan anymore,” Bailey said. Despite this decade’s movie flops and Allen’s exploration of new cities, Bailey said Allen’s career is unmatched by any American filmmaker. “It needs to be repeated what an extraordinary feat it is to write, direct and film 42 films in 42 years,” he said. “Because he wanted each new film to simply be an annual event, Allen created the circumstances of their mixed reception: Here’s the 2010 Woody Allen film and it’s better or worse than all the others.” Allen’s 2012 film, Nero Fiddled, is set in Italy. Allen returns to the screen after a six-year acting hiatus, joining the all-star cast of Ellen Page, Penélope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg and Alec Baldwin. The movie is scheduled for release in late June. Brick said the success of Midnight in Paris has made Allen a hot commodity. People will now line up to fund his films, allowing his to return to the city he loves, Brick said. “That’s what will affect how much financiers are willing to pay up,” he said. “It puts him in a different league than he’s ever been in....He’s proven that he’s relevant, that he has an audience. He’ll be able to get larger budgets if he wants. I wouldn’t be surprised if he comes back and shoots in New York...He makes a movie every year. He’s going to give us at least 20 more for sure.” MAY 2012 / StarringNYC.com
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Let’s talk about
porn by Aby Thomas
A Tribeca art show attempts to strip porn of its taboo status.
H
ave you seen Rezervoir Doggs? No, that’s not a typo; that’s the movie’s exact title. How about Kung Fu Beauty? Truth, Dare or Bare? Fresh Flesh? Co-workers Gone Bad? Debbie Does Dallas? If any of those movie titles rings a bell, then you represent a part of the multibillion-dollar enterprise that is the adult entertainment industry. But chances are that you never spent much time thinking about what happened when the cameras stopped rolling, or what these actors feel when doing such explicit scenes. Despite the large number of people who enjoy it, porn remains a taboo topic. But an art show in Tribeca is attempting to change just that. Apexart, a non-profit contemporary visual arts organization on Church Street, is showcasing “Consent,” an exhibition comprising a series of video interviews the curator, Lynsey G., has conducted with various performers, producers and enthusiasts of the American porn industry. Lynsey got involved with the industry four years ago when, while looking for a writing job, she found work reviewing DVDs for a porn magazine. Despite her profession, Lynsey says that she still isn’t very much into porn, although she’s interested in its sociological aspects. “For me, porn is a serious topic that I critique, and it is also my field of study,” she says. Lynsey calls porn a distorted mirror of society, explaining that although porn isn’t always what consumers want to see, it’s what those who make it think people want to see. “People have never really been asked to talk about pornography and their own personal relationship to pornography. And I found out that when I asked people, it was like the floodgates had opened. People really, really wanted to talk,” says Lynsey.
“Consent” occupies a rather bare space in the Apexart gallery, with four screens showing the different sections in the series on the themes of “Industry,” “Society,” “Morality” and “Reality.” For each section, Lynsey has tried to get different perspectives on the business of porn by talking with both the “insiders” and “outsiders.” As a result, the videos feature both Nyomi Banxxx, the 2011 winner of the Urban X Female Performer of the Year award, and Albert, the anonymous male porn consumer whose presence is indicated by a solitary lit lamp. For instance, April Flores, an adult film star, decries the notion that porn degrades women. “I always say that I felt much more degraded as a receptionist than I did, ever, in porn,” she says. Kelly Shibari, a Big Beautiful Woman (BBW) porn star, dismisses any emotional quotient in the sex she has in front of a camera. “It’s sex, because there’s actually penetration and because a guy ejaculates at the end,” she says. “Besides that, it is so not sex.” Originally from Japan, Shibari is a fairly new entrant in the porn movie business, having been part of the industry for six years now. Billing herself as “the only Japanese BBW XXX performer in the United States,” Shibari used to work in mainstream film and TV crews until she ventured into an “experimental” phase to work in adult entertainment, which eventually turned into a career. Shibari hopes “Consent” will make people become more open to both the porn industry and to performers like her. “I honestly think that if society could see adult entertainment as that—entertainment—then other things could be more openly discussed as well,” Shibari says. “Relationships, body image issues, being individual, not feeling like you have to conform because society tells you to—that sort of thing.” The plus-sized Shibari has earned a following among fans of what she calls “chubby adult entertainment,” and hopes that the visitors to “Consent” will realize that they don’t have to be a size zero to be considered sexy. Another show interviewee, Brittany Andrews, also wants to be perceived differently. Andrews, an adult film legend who has worked in the porn industry for more than 20 years, has been a staunch supporter of the Los Angeles campaign to enforce condom use when making adult films. Andrews says she hopes that “Consent” will spark more conversation on the rights of porn actors. “Quite often people look at porn as a fantasy, and while that may seem all fine and dandy, it’s not,” Andrews says. “They are not just fantasy sexual objects. It’s real people in front of those cameras doing real action, and they need real protection,” Andrews says. “Performers should be able to protect themselves.” Shibari adds that she wants people to stop thinking of actors like her as “slutty whores 24/7.” With the porn industry often portrayed as “this billion-dollar industry made up entirely of broken people,” she says she thinks “Consent” will showcase a more accurate depiction of those who work in the industry. “We’re normal people,” she says. “We just happen to be more open with our sexuality.”
And Introducing . . .
Rob Michael Hugel When a guy breaks up with his lover, the last thing you expect him to do is laugh, but filmmaker Rob Michael Hugel turned his heartbreak into comedy. Hugel based his Web series, I Hate Being Single, on his experience getting dumped within months of his 2006 move to New York City. He envisioned the series, which premiered on Valentine’s Day, as a rebuttal to Sex and the City and other TV shows that glamorize the lifestyles of single New Yorkers. Hugel’s brutal honesty about the loneliness of singlehood paid off: The I Hate Being Single pilot just won the New York Television Festival’s Bing Audience Choice Award, one of the highest honors given to aspiring television producers. Age: 28 Work: Actor, writer, producer of Web series I Hate Being Single; host of local comedy show “Bread and Butter at the Gutter”; co-produced and co-wrote comedy Web series Broad City. Whereabouts: Raised in Annandale, Virginia. Currently lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken? Creating I Hate Being Single and choosing to pursue this series on my own, because I had stopped working at Broad City, a show that was really well-established and on the rise. Less than a year after I left, they were pitching to FX, and I knew stuff like that was on the horizon, so it was tough to start from scratch and do my own thing. Winning at the New York Television Festival was a huge door-opener for me. I feel like that was my coming-out party. How has chasing your dream affected your closest relationship? Having something that you’re really passionate about and working on, that’s good for a relationship. My girlfriend knows that, and she has been incredibly supportive. When I started working on the show, she said, “You have a lot of ideas but don’t follow through with them. If you don’t finish this, I’m going to break up with you.” It was kind of a joke, but I could see the truth behind it. What made you decide to pursue comedy? As a teenager, I worked on this high school TV show where I had the opportunity to release really stupid stuff without censors. The advisor would sign off on anything unless it was insane. So we basically went crazy doing sketch comedy, like Jackass parodies and weird movie spoofs. That was my first time putting out videos that would be seen. Whenever the show came on, I could hear people laughing in different classrooms, and that was huge for me. What would you buy with your first $20,000 check? Plane tickets somewhere. Once you start working as a comedian, you don’t really have the time to take a break and travel. It’s all about continuing to do what you’re doing and keeping those connections. It’s hard to get away. You feel like you’re going to miss your opportunity, your big break. - Ilana Kowarski
Style Story Story
The Kindle,
the book and the shop by Esteban Illades
W
hen I moved to New York City last year, I didn’t bring any books. My luggage was already full, and the weight of all the books that I wanted to bring with me would have probably broken both my arms and left a sizable hole in my wallet too. During my first three months in the city, I mostly bought paperbacks. I would read them and sell them back to one of the bookshops nearby, because my tiny grad-student room couldn’t fit anything that could be loosely called a book collection. I also bought magazines and the paper from the stand at the end of my street, and became friendly with the guy who ran it. We weren’t close, but we would share a mutual hello and he would save me a copy of The New York Times so I could pick it up in the evening if I hadn’t had time during the day. A nice man. Then, in November, I bought a Kindle. It had been so heavily advertised—Color! Touchscreen! Magazines!—that I couldn’t say no. It immediately saved me money because I stopped buying the paper and my favorite magazines at a newsstand price. I was also able to download, for free, a bunch of classics that I told myself I would read once school was over. (They are still there, gathering digital dust inside the Kindle.) The length of the books changed from page numbers to megabytes. They didn’t have numbers, they had percentages. Instead of knowing that I was on page 100 of A Journey to the Center of the Earth, I knew that I was 33 percent through the book. It was a strange transition. One day, a few months later, someone gave me a print copy of Rolling Stone, which I now only read digitally. When I turned the pages, that familiar feeling of my fingers running over the glossy paper came back. But it felt weird. I had grown used to reading through a screen. It happened faster than I thought it would. I wasn’t alone. When I went on the subway —in particular the 1 train, which runs through the Upper West Side— I would find more people using ereaders instead of reading physical books. One time, I counted 10 people with ereaders out of 12 who were reading. In the middle of my conversion to the ebook world, Borders closed. That left Barnes & Noble as the only national bookstore chain in the country, and even it was closing stores. The New York Times ran an article on January 28 that pinned the entire book industry’s fate solely in the hands of the ailing Barnes & Noble. And independent bookstores aren’t doing well, either. Five years ago, a Yelp user named “Camp Master” compiled a pretty useful list of the best independent bookstores in New York City.
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StarringNYC.com / MAY 2012
Photos by Esteban Illades Partners & Crime in Greenwich Village is among the numerous bookstores losing its ongoing battle with Amazon. Of the 30, ten were closed, last time I checked. Is it because of people like me that the book industry is being brought to its downfall? Yes and no. It turns out the industry is not really doing badly. A 2011 report from the Association of American Publishers says that revenue is in fact growing, both in physical and electronic formats. Ebook sales are growing at a frantic rate: more than 150 percent from 2010 to 2011.They have outpaced print sales in growth, but not in revenue. But make no mistake: while sales are still strong, it’s the publishing business that’s thriving, not the bookstore business. Publishers don’t care who sells their books, as long as they sell. It’s not about tradition; it’s about profit. And the Internet is the cheapest way to sell. Since 1995, Amazon has offered worldwide distribution, one click away, luring more consumers away from bookstores. Book sales are doing well, but bookstores are not. And those who are being hit the hardest are independent bookstores which, in a very optimistic sense, “compete” with Amazon. Think of the movie You’ve Got Mail, which was released almost 15 years ago. Meg Ryan’s bookstore, The Little Shop Around the Corner, fought and lost to Fox Books, Tom Hanks’ Costco equivalent of a bookstore. Maggie Topkis, one of the owners at Partners & Crime, a
Greenwich Village-based bookstore that specializes in crime and mystery novels, says that it’s not ebooks that have affected independent bookstores the most; it’s the online world. She says that her business “is more of a commodity business.” She’s not fighting against the giants to sell best sellers. She’s selling books that can’t be found somewhere else. Objects that people consider special. Partners & Crime still sells rarities, first editions and outof-print books in its store, but it has had to shift operations to accommodate the online world: its titles are available through Amazon Marketplace. Think of the Costco analogy once more. You go online and Google a book. Three different options show up. You go for the cheapest. It doesn’t matter that the seller is all the way across the country: the shipping offers are enticing, so you buy from one of them instead of Partners & Crime. Bonnie Slotnick, who owns Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks on West 10th Street, specializing in old and rare cookbooks, is all too familiar with this phenomenon. “People come in and look at things, and sometimes take pictures when I’m not watching, then order them online and get a great sense of triumph because they’ve gotten it two dollars cheaper,” she says. She charges what she thinks the book is worth, and factors in the time and effort spent in restoring it. But to some customers, that isn’t important. They just want the cheapest option. Although Slotnick’s shop is just a stone’s throw from Partners & Crime, their vibe is very different. Partners & Crime is located in an almost underground space on Greenwich Avenue. It has a reading area at the back where patrons can sit and read for hours at a time. The books are divided by theme —categories include “Tough Girls” and “Tough Guys” — and by country (who knew the Scandinavians wrote so many detective novels?). It has the feel of a cellar in which a crime could be committed. Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks, on the other hand, is at street level. It’s located in an apartment building, and you could easily miss it if it weren’t for the sign. The store has a section devoted exclusively to bread, and one to sauces. It’s very cramped; its single aisle barely fits two people. The cramped atmosphere is a conversation starter, says Slotnick. “One person comes in and asks me for a recipe, and it can be overheard by someone else who says, ‘Oh, my uncle from Toledo used to make it like this… I’ll give you the recipe.’ There’s synergy among the customers.” Something similar occurs at Three Lives and Company, which is also nearby. The small, cozy space is also a place where conversations between strangers can easily begin. But Three Lives isn’t a niche bookstore; it stocks a full range of new titles. It’s a local business in competition with the rest of the book-selling world, unlike Slotnick and Topkis, whose competition is not as broad. Slotnick says that Three Lives offers “incredible” service to customers, but that might not be enough to keep it going. She admits, with some guilt, that she’s glad she doesn’t own it. If Three Lives closed, it would probably be replaced by something more impersonal. Case in point: Left Bank Books, which had to move from its West Fourth St. location. It has been replaced by what Slotnick refers to as “some kind of big, empty espresso bar where people can just sit and stare into space with their computers.” Three Lives could soon run the risk of running adrift in the Amazon ocean. Slotnick’s and Topkis’ shops are still afloat, at least for now. Their target audience is different to that of Three Lives and Company:
The problem is, of course, that their loyal niche clientele is not renewing itself as it should. Their customers are aging. “The people who still buy books are those who grew up around them,” says Topkis. She recalls growing up in an apartment lined with bookshelves from wall to wall and a grand piano. She describes this as the traditional decor mid-20th century middleclass families in Manhattan. Books provided intellectual content, but they also had an aesthetic component to them. But few people still see books that way, she says. She envisions a future in which physical books will become “collectors’ items,” limited to small print runs bought by people who like objects. It’s not just the customers who are growing old. Book sellers too: “There are very few young book sellers in New York,” says Slotnick. “There’s a hole. The ones I grew up with are either retired or dead.” Landlords are the final part of the challenge, says Slotnick. “In New York you never know. They can do whatever they please with a commercial tenant. They can just say goodbye, or ‘we’re going to multiply this by 10.’” Slotnick is quick to note that her rent isn’t “astronomical,” but it’s still “a little bit more than what I’m making.” She’s been at her current location for 12 years, and has just renewed her lease. She’s still skeptical about how long it will last, though. If she faced a “move or close” moment, she’s certain she would close. Her closure would sorely affect Leonard, a man who she refers to as a “picker.” Leonard lives in New Jersey, and takes the train into New York every day to buy books. He walks around the city all day long. He buys and resells, hoping to turn a small profit. “He’s the ground zero of book sellers —Finds a book for a quarter and sells it for a dollar,” says Slotnick. As for Topkis, she runs her own publishing company, Felony & Mayhem Press, out of her apartment. Thanks to her very low overhead, Felony & Mayhem is profitable. She sells the books online. Both women are part of the book industry out of sheer love for the printed word. Topkis recalls that her father gave her a book about King Arthur when she was growing up. She goes into an almost dreamlike state when recalling scenes from the book. Topkis says that books are the most important part of her life. She even plays parlor games about them, especially one based on Fahrenheit 451, the dystopian Ray Bradbury novel in which books are burned. When I visited her at her store, she asked me which book I would save if they were all to be burned and I could only keep one. I told her about Fever Pitch, by Nick Hornby, the book that made me want to write in the first place. Feelings flooded back. A similar thing happened to Slotnick, who first got into collecting cookbooks because they were a link to her mom, who passed away when she was a teenager. “My mother died when I was 14. It was at an age when a girl needs a mom, so looking at these domestic things made me feel connected and comforted,” she says. She shows me books that are close to her heart, including a title just like the one her mother used to own. Her copy of the book —The Settlement Cookbook, the Way to a Man’s Heart—is from 1904. She brings out a book she is restoring. While running her hands through the pages, she comes across an old leaf that has been used as a bookmark. She pulls the leaf up to her nose and tries to get a smell. It’s no use, the aroma is long gone. Still, her eyes light up. With a sly smile, she says: “You don’t get that with your Kindle. MAY 2012 / StarringNYC.com
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Review:
New York Diaries
D
by Ilana Kowarski
espite the crowds in New York City, residents often feel lonely, and many choose to confide in their diaries. There they reveal their secrets–things they do not dare say aloud in front of neighbors and friends–and now we have a chance to read them, thanks to the detective work of journalist Teresa Carpenter. She read the diaries of hundreds of New Yorkers and published her most delectable discoveries in a book, aptly named New York Diaries. Carpenter’s anthology condenses four centuries of history into a single volume, allowing readers to experience a calendar year in New York City through the eyes of diarists from eras as disparate as the 1960s and the 1690s. In this book, you will find the confessions of the famous, the infamous, and the relatively obscure, and these accounts are juxtaposed in a way that underscores the difference in their authors’ fates and perspectives. This is a book where the dying words of an AIDS victim are followed by the gloating of an awardwinning artist, and where a lover’s mournful epitaph is preceded by a cynic’s critique of romance. It is a collection of stories as eclectic and bizarre as New York itself—a smorgasbord that lacks a cohesive narrative, but which offers something else: a vibrant discussion of city life, full of provocative ideas and strong personalities. But be forewarned, you might not like everyone you encounter in this book. Jotham Post, a doctor from the 18th century, suggests that rapists should not be punished for their crime. “Is it just that a woman should be allowed such liberty as to swear away the life of a man?” he writes. “No man is absolutely safe if women are disposed to injure them.”
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New Yorkers say the darndest things when they think no one is listening. With breathtaking honesty, they explain their motivations and reveal their prejudices. And, because of this, the intimate writings in Carpenter’s collection are a treasure trove of psychological insights. We hear poignant confessions from Judith Malina, the famed dramatist, after she attends a party full of beautiful women and realizes that the man she loves is not looking at her. She writes: He tells me stories of magic and bewitchment. I should not mind bewitching him in a much simpler sense. But no, the resplendent Jean Erdman is wearing a red dress. And I am quite powerless, even in my black satin. No, especially in black satin. Such honesty about sexual jealousy is unusual, and yet here it is, out in the open, an emotion that we all have felt at some point in our lives—probably more often than we would care to admit. The book is filled with incisive social commentary, and some of it is quite funny. For instance, a British tourist wrote this quip about New Yorkers on the Fourth of July: “Why on this day of independence, should they become so dependent upon posts and rails for support?” Though these words were written more than 100 years ago, they still ring true. Nevertheless, Teresa Carpenter’s collection has its flaws, the most significant being that it seems somewhat random. Besides the fact that the featured diarists all lived and wrote in New York City, there is no connecting thread between their writings, which would not be so bad if all of the entries were interesting, but some of them are not. George Washington’s diary entries are surprisingly dull—he typically gives us his schedule for the day and provides little comment—but at least he is brief. Police inspector William H. Bell is infuriatingly longwinded—his bureaucratic language can make even the most lurid crimes sound mundane, and it is truly a shame, because with that kind of material to work with, there is no reason why he could not tell a compelling story. Even so, Teresa Carpenter’s book takes us on a fascinating journey through time, giving us a microscopic view of New Yorkers’ personal lives. We learn, for instance, that Tennessee Williams hated the first production of his classic play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”—he described the play as a “disaster” before it opened on Broadway. Like many artists before and since, Williams was hypercritical of his creation. He is one of many perfectionists that have walked the streets of New York, and among that ambitious set, self-doubt is common. One of the book’s clearest insights is that most New Yorkers struggle to make it, and even the most successful worry that they do not have the grit to cope with the competition here. Before he was president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt doubted his abilities and wondered if he would achieve anything in the City That Never Sleeps. He wrote, “Looking back on my father’s life, it seems as if mine must be such a weak useless one in comparison.” The insecurity of city icons is a reminder that those who have lost faith in themselves are not necessarily doomed to failure. Worrying about the future is understandable, especially in a down economy, but jaded New Yorkers can find hope by remembering their past.
Review:
NYC comes alive in New York: The Novel
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t its birth, New York City was a tiny colony on the tip of Lower Manhattan. Today, the city has a population of 8,363,710 and spans 305 square miles. In his book, New York: The Novel, Edward Rutherfurd captures the magnitude of this change by tracking the evolution of a fictional family. Emblematic of the New York “up from the bootstraps” success story, the Master family rises to fortune and influence, becoming part of the city’s elite over nearly five centuries. Using a cast of characters that blends fiction and fact, Rutherfurd weaves a narrative as complex as the city itself, which includes a myriad of historical tidbits about the Big Apple. Along with the constant Master family, each generation gets a new set of characters that represent social, economic or political changes occurring at the time. The story begins with the Van Dycks, Dutch settlers in the New World, who intermarry with the Master family when the British take over. Their descendants live through the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Gilded Age, World War I, the Roaring Twenties, the Depression, the decline of New York in the 1970s, and the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. Throughout these historical ups and downs, the Master family’s fate
by Anne Cohen
is tied to that of the city: when times are good they prosper; when times are hard they suffer. To complement his fictional family, Rutherfurd peppers the narrative with facts and historical figures that bring the city to life, and documents the social rise New York’s leading families: from fresh off the boat, to presiding over Fifth Avenue palaces—the typical New York story. The longest living character, Hetty Master, embodies the spirit of the novel: “She might be ninety, but Hetty believed in moving with the times. She’d seen so much change. She’d seen the canals come, then railroads, gaslights, then electricity, steamboats and now the motor car. She’d seen the old crowd at the Academy of Music yield to the rich crowd at the Metropolitan Opera, and families [she’d] never heard of, like the Vanderbilts, get into Mrs. Astor’s Four Hundred.” As the story unfurls, the reader gets swept up in New York; from small trading post, to British stronghold, to first capital of the newly formed republic, to corrupt financial capital, and finally, to a world power. The message of Rutherfurd’s book is clear: nothing brings New Yorkers down.
The iconic Empire State Building (left) stands on the site of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (right). Photos by AP. MAY 2012 / StarringNYC.com
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And Introducing . . .
Ean Miles Kessier Ean Miles Kessler was 10 when he was first beckoned to the bright lights of the stage. Today, he is a co-founder of Foxhole Entertainment, a Brooklyn-based theater and film company that will debut its first fulllength play, King’s River, in May. Here, he describes his musings on life in New York City and the distortion of the American dream. Age: 23 Work: Playwright and actor; co-founder of Foxhole Entertainment; part-time caterer Whereabouts: Raised in Hamden, CT; currently living in Brooklyn What made you realize that this is what you want to do with your life? One of the first movies I ever saw was Aladdin. I spent a week telling my mom that I wanted to be Robin Williams, because he was just so funny as the genie. She said I couldn’t be him, but I could be like him, which translated to me wanting to act. I’ve spent 13 years straight doing plays. College [at Rutgers], with the performance ensemble, changed my whole outlook on theater, and made me realize I really wanted to write. There’s a great quote that I’m going to bastardize, but it’s something like ‘Acting and writing are the same thing, of the same impulse,’ and that’s something I’ve latched onto very passionately. Describe your play King’s River. It’s grounded in a fictional town in the South called King’s River. In one storyline, a young politician is figuring out to what degree he’s willing to give up his morals to win. Another storyline follows a black jazz trio, and how [the musicians] try to define themselves in their own lives and art. Another is about a father and son who fall in love with the same woman. The basic scene is kind of a meditation on Americana and the American dream. Who do you most admire and hope to emulate? In terms of writers, three of the biggest influences on me have been August Wilson, Arthur Miller, and Tennessee Williams. Death of a Salesman is the best play I’ve ever read. And every time I read Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom I get depressed and sit around thinking about how I should call all the writers I know and tell them to just give up, because the best plays have already been written. In terms of actors, two of my favorites working today are Sean Penn and Daniel Day-Lewis. And character actors like Steve Buscemi are really great working actors who show that you don’t have to be Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie, that you can be a great artist and not be on the cover of People magazine. What’s the best thing about living in New York City? It’s not Connecticut [laughs]. No, the best thing is the same thing I’m sure for a lot of recent graduates. When you first live on your own, there’s a great sense of freedom. I’ve finally found a job where I can make enough money to buy a beer and meet up with friends. It’s a great place to meet people; the art hub of the world. I don’t think I’d be able to do the same kind of theater back home—or anywhere else. It’s a great place. But I would like to travel some more. - Alison DeNisco
Are you in the mood for romance?
by Neha Banka
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t a time when most booksellers and authors have difficulty attracting readers, the genre of romantic fiction seems to be managing just fine. According to the Romance Writers of America, steamy romantic fiction constituted 13.4 percent of the U.S. consumer market in 2010. And those readers have their own passionate community. Lady Jane’s Salon bills itself as “Manhattan’s first reading series devoted to romantic fiction” according to its website. The Salon is similar to a book club, but not a book club, says Salon co-founder, Maya Rodale. “Since we knew there was an audience for romance fiction, we decided, why not start a reading series and see who would come?” says Ron Hogan, the Salon’s other co-founder. At Lady Jane’s Salon, “people who come don’t necessarily read” the books that are being discussed during that particular meeting, says Rodale. Three to four authors come read their books every month, and people can come and listen and chat with the authors and their friends there, and maybe buy the book. There’s “more of a performance aspect than just a straight-up book club, where everyone is reading the same book and talking about it,” says Rodale. Lady Jane is named after the “lady” character in the regency sub-genre of romantic fiction, who is always a member of the British society upper class. The Salon evokes resemblance to the salons prevalent during Regency England, and the Jane is named after Jane Austen. “Lady Jane’s Salon is more of a gathering in which fans come together to meet authors and hear them read from their books,” adds Rodale, who is an established romance author herself, as are her colleagues and Salon co-founders Hope Tarr and Leanna Renee Heiber. Hogan, the fourth co-founder, is a blogger and the creator of an online platform called Beatrice that helps connect readers to writers. The salon was established three Februarys ago, born over drinks after another literary event. It meets on the first Monday of every month at a bar and lounge called Madame X.“ We were rattling off names that we thought would be cool and had a good vibe,” notes Rodale laughing, “and it has really comfortable couches.” “It has a very moody atmosphere and they were really excited to partner with us. And the upstairs space [where the Salon holds its monthly meetings] has a stage and sound system. We thought of it because it seemed like a good fit and it turned out to be a very perfect partnership,” says Rodale. The decor of the bar conjures a Parisian bordello: Dim red light
spills over red velvet couches and tables; heavy curtains bound by gold tassels adorn doorways. The walls are dotted with racy posters, and the harlequin theme carries over to the indecent sounding menu, with drinks like Dirty Cherry Manhattan and Sticky Fingers. It is the perfect setting for literature packed with secret liaisons, rogue males, matchmaking mamas and strong female heroines swishing around English manors and castles in their voluminous skirts, the scent of scandal always lingering behind them. A typical meeting of the Salon divides into two segments, hosted by Hogan. Two authors read from their books—either newly released titles or snippets from upcoming novels. Then there is a break for drinks and interacting with members of the Salon to transition into the next segment where two more authors read from their books. Attendance averages 10 to 15 people per month, but has been as high as 70—a mix of authors and fans, according to the salon’s co-founders. “I’m very good friends with two of the founders and when they told me about Lady Jane’s Salon, I couldn’t wait,” said
Elizabeth Mahon, a romance author. “I’m so excited at the way that it’s taken off, with the satellite salons in Denver and North Carolina.” “We get a good diverse crowd of newbies, regulars, serious romance addicts or people who are casually interested,” said Rodale. Admission to the Salon costs $5 or “a gently used romance novel.” “From the very beginning we had wanted to do something with a charitable component. So as admissions cost we have either $5 dollars or a gently used romance novel,” says Rodale. Those books are collected each month and they “go to various women’s charities, some homeless shelters, they’ve gone to the prison. And the five dollars that we collect are donated to various women’s charities,” adds Rodale. “I began attending the Salon two years ago, after a friend told me all about it,” said Mala Bhattacharjee, a Salon member and the features editor at RT Books Review. “Being surrounded by women who love romance novels and listening to authors read from their works? Sign me up!” she quips.
Occupy
Poetry
Photos by Aby Thomas Stephen Boyer at the Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology reading at St. Mark’s Church.
Pay close attention There is a conspiracy Occupy Wall Street s a conspiracy Can’t you see, the conspiracy It’s on our hands! And it’s in our tea! It’s a conspiracy!
New York’s new Style Style
Super!market by Carly MacLeod
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n a cold and rainy Saturday morning, Soho is unusually quiet. Between coffee shops and unopened store fronts, a small yellow tent pokes out of the doorway of St. Patrick’s Youth Center on Mulberry Street. “Come into Super!Market!” an enthusiastic girl calls through a chattering smile to passersby, trying to shield herself from the freezing rain in an oversized coat. The girl with a grin, undeterred by the freezing rain, fits right in with the spirit of Super!Market, a collective of independent designers that set up shop two months ago. The 32 vendors, brought together by creative entrepreneurs Andrew Gori and Ambre Kelly, sell only handmade, locally produced clothing, jewelry and accessories. The market wares range from the very obscure (recycled jackets and nerd-core t-shirts featuring Spiderman and Kermit the Frog made from children’s bed sheets) to the totally trendy (leather and gold bracelets that have been featured in high fashion magazines). The neighborhood has had its share of celebrity: director Martin Scorsese grew up attending St. Patrick’s cathedral, and and the Youth Center is next to the cathedral where Scorsese’s Mean Streets was filmed. The church now rents out the Youth Center, a former Catholic school, and Super!Market sets up every Saturday morning. The old gymnasium, with basketball hoops hanging from the ceiling and peeling wood floors, is well-worn but warm. Vendors sell their creations at folding tables with sheets or tablecloths draped over them. There’s something charming in the earnestness of it all: homemade oatmeal cookies in a Tupperware sit next to an email signup sheet by the entrance. A mix of eclectic Swedish pop and Motown plays from unseen speakers, and a 1960s film is pro-
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jected on the back wall while a few customers mill around the booths. Delicate necklaces featuring pinwheel charms decorate foam boards on one table. The designer is Virginie Millefiori, a young jewelry designer who trained for seven years in her native France, who bubbles over with enthusiasm about her collection and the market. “Everyone is so nice! It is a very relaxed atmosphere,” she says, placing a delicate green and yellow bracelet on a stand and smiling widely at a couple walking by. They smile back, but continue strolling. “There is no competition between the vendors, because we all have different styles. I was very pleased to be so welcome.” From a wooden bench by the entrance, Andrew Gori, a creative consultant in his late 20s, watches the vendors and customers with a small smile. Gori sports a dapper suit and spectacles as he enthusiastically explains the motivation behind the market. “We wanted to create a space for independent, local designers,” he explains. To him, the market isn’t about cramming as many vendors as possible into a room: it’s about a careful curation of the unexpected. “We look to be surprised – the curse of New York City is the oversaturation of ideas, and that easily lends itself to becoming cynical or bored. We’ve turned away numerous [applicants] because they were not up to standards, or not at a place where we felt the work was comparable to the [quality of] other work in the space.” The products are difficult to be bored by: intricately designed terrariums in vintage teacups with spacemen in the grasses, gargantuan hats with cascades of violet fabric, leather bracelets studded with precious stones, soft cotton t-shirts with The Incredible Hulk’s face lovingly stitched
Photos by Carly MacLeod
onto them. Gail Travis of line NFP, who has been on board since the market’s unpublicized test run in October, stands behind a table of cozy, muted color scarves that morph into arm warmers and hoods, and talks with a duo of Italian men who are visiting for Fashion Week. With smiles, they exchange business cards. As she sorts through the rack of sweaters beside her, Travis, a veteran of the New York independent designer scene, seems unsure but hopeful about the market’s future. “So far, it’s been great. I think it will take off soon, with more vendors. The quality is improving, the team who runs the place is fantastic. They are full of energy and ideas.” Gori wanders in and out of the gymnasium with his codirector, Ambre Kelly, who wears a yellow dress and one of Millefiori’s bracelet-rings on her left hand. The duo has a lot of faith in the market, and believes that its strength lies
in its humble beginnings. “We don’t want to become overcrowded; we really want it to feel considered,” says Gori, who admits to a sense of pride in providing something that is in between Soho’s decadent, unaffordably chic boutiques and the vendors selling knockoffs on street corners. “We are looking to grow, but by the same token, by no means are we going to make compromises.” Kelly stands by the door. She apologizes for the light turnout, promising later today they will have more customers. “It’s just too early,” she explains with an earnest laugh, Millefiori’s bracelet on her hand catching the light. “Everyone’s still having their Saturday brunch… but we’ll have a lot more people soon,” she emphasizes with positive, clear conviction. Super!Market is open Saturdays from 11am-7pm at 268 Mulberry Street.
MAY 2012 / StarringNYC.com
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Sidewal
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New York Street Fashion at its Best Photos By: Charely Steward, Myeisha Essex and Maane Khatchattourian
Stage Stage
The comedy troupe Political Subversities performs one of their satirical musicals. (Photos by Political Subversities) 26
StarringNYC.com / MAY 2012
The Art of the New York joke by Ilana Kowarski
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ou think New Yorkers are tough? Sit them in front of comedians making fun of their hometown and you’ll discover they can have pretty thin skins. Ask Emma Tattenbaum-Fine, a comedian who got angry comments on her website after she posted her routine about picky eaters in New York City. She started her act with a confrontational question: “Do you really have a gluten allergy? Really? Or are you maybe just a little bit fat and sad about it?” Tattenbaum-Fine is a member of Political Subversities, a New York comedy troupe known for its iconoclastic musicals about city politics. She refuses to apologize for bruising egos. “If you make fun of other people but can’t make fun of people in your community, then you’re a hypocrite,” she says. However, as Tattenbaum-Fine admits, it is difficult to mock people without making them angry and harder still to make people laugh at their own expense. One of the perils of controversial comedy is getting booed offstage, but some New York comedians succeed at getting applause even when they skewer city life. How do they do it? Political Subversities performers describe their work as a careful balancing act between diplomacy and irreverence. Sometimes they tell audiences what they want to hear, such as when they mock commonly-resented traits of New York, like its cramped apartments. But at other times, the comedians admit, they are deliberately offensive, surprising audiences by challenging commonly accepted beliefs and behavior. The result is humor that is both affirming and
critical – a combination of bravado and self-deprecation. At a recent Political Subversities performance, the tension was palpable. At one moment, the troupe delivered a crowd-pleasing quip about the inefficiency of the shuttle bus, and in the next, they used black humor to show how cruel city dwellers can be when they interact with homeless people. As if ranting at a panhandler, performer Andrew Butler sputtered, “I thought Guiliani had you all removed.” The audience chuckled and cried at the same time. The New York Neo-Futurists take a similar approach. They’re the group behind the long-running show Too Much Light Make the Baby Go Blind, a fast-paced extravaganza where comedians rush to perform 30 plays in 60 minutes. Some of the Neo-Futurists’ jokes are lighthearted, but many are scathing. During one of their performances, an upbeat skit about dancing through city streets was followed by a roast of women who wear excessively high heels called “The six inches of space where our head should be.” Wobbling on stilettos, comedian Cara Francis mocked the notion that women could forget their problems by buying shoes. After making a list of things that are difficult to do in sky-high footwear, such as catching the train and running from muggers, Francis asked “What exactly can you escape when you’re wearing these?” Women in the audience gave each other knowing looks, finding humor in an experience most had endured at one time or another: tripping through the city for the sake of fashion. Turns out it’s not just a New York thing — the best jokes are the ones that make us laugh at ourselves.
MAY 2012 / StarringNYC.com
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Review:
Salesman comes to life by Ali Leskowitz
W
illy Loman is not a great man. His wife Linda admits this right in the first act of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Later, Willy’s son Biff corroborates how commonplace his father is. “I’m a dime a dozen, and so are you,” Biff declares to him. Yet regular old Willy remains one of the most enduring characters in American culture. He personifies the American dream falling short, the battle against the ordinary, and the struggle to leave a meaningful legacy — and he has been thrillingly brought back to life onstage by Philip Seymour Hoffman in a production of Salesman running at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre through June 2. Directed with precision by Mike Nichols, the play starts slow but quickly generates momentum as it races toward its devastating, stunning finish. Miller’s 1949 classic follows Willy’s descent into delusion as he strains to preserve the middle-class life he feels he deserves. Willy finds himself obsolete in his salesman job, his bills taken care of with the help of his neighbor Charley (Bill Camp). His grown-up sons Biff (Andrew Garfield) and Happy (Finn Wittrock) have failed to live up to his dreams for them, as neither possesses a job or a family. His wife Linda (Linda Emond) unhappily watches the men in her life sink into insignificance. It’s no spoiler to say the play concludes on a melancholic note; the ending is right there in the title. Knowing Willy’s fate
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from the start, though, doesn’t make the production less gripping. Its power rests in watching this man gradually collapse; his burdens and failures pile on until he can no longer bear the weight. While Willy’s downfall takes place in the late 1940s, it might as well be situated in the present; his difficulties are all too relevant to a modern audience dealing with economic decline and a fameobsessed culture. Willy’s desire to rise above his mundane existence certainly resonates at a time when anyone can get on a reality show and luck into 15 minutes of notoriety. Hoffman convincingly portrays Willy’s alternating optimism and depression. As he relives the past in his head, joking with his young sons and bringing Biff to a potentially life-changing football game, Hoffman radiates confidence and cockiness. But by the time he tries to frantically plant vegetables in his yard while discussing suicide with the apparition of his successful, deceased brother Ben (John Glover), Hoffman is a man unhinged. Willy’s delusions are translated beautifully to the stage. As the play enters the fraught space of Willy’s mind, lighting designer Brian MacDevitt melts away the backdrop while the shapes of leaves bathe the stage in a warm glow. Miller calls for the actors to behave differently in such scenes, to dissolve the rules of reality as they traverse the previously established boundaries of the set — and the actors rise to the challenge. Nichols’s decision to replicate Jo
Mielziner’s groundbreaking set from the original Broadway production feels fitting. Perhaps Nichols could have introduced something new to the show visually, but Salesman’s success onstage is closely tied to the skeletal house Mielziner created. Willy’s residence, with its sinister trees and sharp outline, comes as close to a perfect marriage of form and function as a set can. The first sight of its meticulous recreation is a breathtaking moment that is only enhanced as the scenery becomes more and more effective in the staging. This measured build is reflected not only in the scenery, but also in the show’s pace and several performances. Hoffman, Emond and Garfield take a bit of time to find their footing, but when they do, they are unshakable. Garfield in particular matches Hoffman’s performance — and then transcends it. Although the boyish Garfield, 28, feels too young to be playing 34-year-old Biff, this incongruity is all but forgotten once he hits his stride, particularly when he faces off against Hoffman. As he tells his father that neither of them is special, Garfield breaks down with heartrending honesty and frustration. While the audience’s sympathies regarding Willy and Biff might depend on individual ages and experiences, Garfield presents more than a compelling case as to why Biff is every bit as tragic and complex a figure as Willy. Both men might be a dime a dozen. As for the production, this Salesman is more than average; it’s extraordinary.
Review: The Yeats Game
Toby Wherry, Jennifer Silverstein, Lucius Wall and Susan Stout star in the play. Photo by Off-Off PR.
by Esteban Illades
T
here is something wrong with a play when the most memorable thing about it is a corpse that never makes an appearance. Especially if the program promises a lively comedy of mix-ups, word games and “ridiculous consequences.” The Yeats Game is a two-act farce in which two long-married couples retreat to a cabin for a weekend to do what the clichés demand: play board games, get into some ill-advised sexual liaisons and discuss life and death. The weather is foul and the cabin is cozy. “Quaint” is how a realtor might describe it. The couples are old and reluctant to venture outside. Everyone seems happy at first — drinking, toasting. Even the audience is lured in. Until they pull out the board game. The game in question — “The Yeats Game” — is a contrivance devised by Jack (Lucius J. Wall), a literature professor who is prone to quoting obscure poetry and Britney Spears with equal gusto. It is also a poor excuse to move the plot along. Margaret (Jennifer Silverstein), a therapist and part of the other marriage, rolls six
straight sevens in her first turn and she wins the prize: swapping partners. Margaret and Jack fall in love that night, while Ellie (Susan Stout) and Bobbie (Toby Wherry), the other two spouses, are in the final stages of a five-year affair that will conclude that evening. For reasons that aren’t quite clear, they decide they’ve had enough. From then on, the play, billed as “a farce of improbable darkness,” follows an implausible path back to where it all started: with an unseen corpse, which has no real reason to be there in the first place. It is neither a plot point nor an allegory, just a far-fetched attempt to tie things together. The script is the major issue here. While it is clear that playwright John J. Ronan is aiming for wittiness, speed and sometimes laugh-out-loud jokes, the wordplay falls flat. Ronan is caught up in the sounds of the language, which would generally be fine, but his script is so heavy that the words feel overwhelming. The actors have to plow so hard through some of the lines that the strain to deliver and make sense of what they’re saying shows in their faces.
In a farce, the story doesn’t necessarily need to matter, as long as everything that goes on around it eclipses the plot’s shortcomings. But when that “everything” fails — as it does here — the structure is completely exposed; the play is wearing no clothes, so to speak. The characters are not developed, either. They are living — well, sort of — stereotypes. Jack knows about literature, so he speaks in quotes. Ellie is overshadowed by her bleached blond wig; cancer is implied, but never mentioned. She is also the mayor of a town but that is brought up only in passing. How can a mayor be so gray and second-rate? Maybe that’s a joke within itself. Bobbie is a businessman, so he chews on a cigar and wears a shirt with a team logo on the weekends. And Margaret is a therapist, so she talks in self-help platitudes. They are so different in theory, so resentful of each other, and have such little interest in what the others have to say, that one can’t help but wonder why they became friends — and lovers — in the first place. There is a sliver of a silver lining, though. The set design is very well done. MAY 2012 / StarringNYC.com
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pieces from past battles around the world. Anyone can buy the ArtBattles paintings. They are either auctioned off at the end of the show they were created at or at “gallery events” where all of the art from past tours or series are displayed for $300 to several thousand dollars. “We’re always happy to speak with interested buyers,” Leveto said. “It helps grow the company and puts money back into the pockets of the artists we’re trying to support, as we share proceeds.” Artists from around the world, especially those with experience in graffiti, murals and live art, are invited to take part in the shows. They are chosen in a number of ways. First, artists can submit profiles online at artbattles.com. If the work raises eyebrows, the artist has a following or ArtBattles believe that the person can shine onstage, they are given a shot to compete. “We have headhunters all over the globe who keep their eyes and ears open,” said Lexi Bella, who first got involved with ArtBattles in 2008 after competing in an all female battle called Femme Fatale. “I knew it was a really amazing concept so I just volunteered to
by Lindsey Wagner
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ress rewind. Head back about a decade when denim jackets made a comeback, you listened to music on your discman and watched TRL with Carson Daly. At the same time, graffiti artists were raging war on the streets of Brooklyn, nasty rivalries were developing and fellow artists felt out of touch. Enter: Sean Bono and his good friend and artist, Max Bode. “Sean and Max wanted to bring the beef off of the streets,” said Greg Leveto, CFO of ArtBattles. “Influenced by hip-hop and battling as an artist and person his whole life, as soon as Sean thought of ArtBattles he knew it was worth all of his time,” he added. Born out of Bono’s life experiences and the New York City art environment at the time, ArtBattles came to life in 2000. Often referred to as the poetry slam of art, ArtBattles made its way back to New York City, after traveling worldwide. It’s important to first know what ArtBattles is in its simplist form. Two or more artists create art live in front of a crowd, which ultimately chooses a winner. Taking place in exciting venues where the crowd is pumped with music, dancing and live hosts encouraging and educating them, it creates a powerful connection that is forged between the artist and the viewer. “The viewer feels differently about the art then they would have if they simply viewed it after the fact,” Leveto said. “The artist creates something different given the energy of the crowd and stakes.” These “stakes” that Leveto refers to are what makes ArtBattles so enticing today. Winning artists get to move on to another battle. If an artist in New York wins a battle, he or she will have the opportunity to battle other winners from around the world. The artists’ travel and costs are covered through ArtBattles as part of their participation. From the first battle held at an abandoned lot on Houston Street between Mulberry and Mott in September 2001, to recent shows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum, ArtBattles has performed over 100 live shows in NYC. After events in France and Spain, ArtBattles came home and set up the ArtBattles Pop Up Gallery in the West Village at the end of January. The three-day exhibition featured original ArtBattle pieces created by artists from the U.S., France and Spain. Art lovers had the chance to watch live battles and bid on some of the best
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Photos by Lindsey Wagner. help any way I could for years, and was lucky enough to be in more battles,” she said. “I’ve worked for ArtBattles ever since.” By the time Bella won an ArtBattle at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in Summer 2010, ArtBattles had expanded to Europe and founder, Sean Bono, needed someone to run things at home while he went to Spain and France to oversee production. Besides being an artist in ArtBattles, Bella is now their Project Manager and Social Media Coordinator. For some battles, artists who receive the most fan votes on artbattles.com get a shot at competing. After a recent online open call for all NYC artists, artists, Danielle Mastrion, Kevin Ragnott, Erin Cadigan and fan favorite, Pesu, got the chance to battle for a spot on the U.S .team heading to battle in Warsaw, Poland in May. Ready to represent fans, New York City and ArtBattles, Danielle Mastrion proved to be the recent crowd favorite after the audience went crazy. Mastrion and the rest of the U.S. ArtBattles team will pack up their brushes and head to Warsaw in just a few months. After that, it’s off to Prague, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. “There are several other shows in the pipeline in Eastern and Western Europe and we can’t wait to get going in South America and Asia,” Leveto said.
Life after the big move to NYC by Myeisha Essex
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efore Madonna sold 140 million records worldwide, she was just another struggling musician in New York working odd jobs to get by. She had dropped out of college and moved to New York City with $35 dollars saved from working at a Michigan Dunkin Donuts, and big plans. She has said it was the bravest thing she’d
ever done. Mariah Carey moved into a Manhattan studio—which she shared with four roommates—the day after her high school graduation. She waited tables as she recorded her demo tape and two years later signed her first record deal. Carey has gone on to win five Grammy Awards. You haven’t heard of Rebecca Muir yet, but if she has anything to say about it, you will. Muir, 29, often dreams about the day she will win her first Grammy. Her vocal style is a mix between classic blues and pop. She has the type of voice that hits you in your chest when you hear it—the epitome of blue-eyed soul. Originally from Canada, Muir received a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she moved in 2005. She navigated the Boston music scene for seven years, booking gigs at local jazz clubs and singing background for local artists. She felt like she utilized all that Boston had to offer her, and just three months ago, she decided to make a move into the bigger New York City market. “I was here over Thanksgiving and I went to Smoke in Harlem, and there was an incredible group there. I was like ‘I have to just get here,’” she said. Within a week she made arrangements to move to the city. “I was that hungry.” She now lives in a Brooklyn apartment with three male roommates. Muir says the move was all worth it. “This is the best music scene in the world here. I knew I wanted to participate in that,” she said. “I am in search for the biggest opportunities I can find.” From open mic nights, to jazz clubs, to singing in the subway, there are innumerable opportunities to perform in New York. Music is everywhere, but how exactly to cross over from a nightclub and street performer to a big name still boggles the mind of many musicians. It takes a tough skin to work in New York. It’s expensive, unforgiving and forever changing so, to a new New York City resident, simply surviving can be a task in itself. Muir spends her weekdays practicing and writing music. Her expenses have doubled since she moved to New York so, to pay the bills, she’s picked up a wedding singing gig on the weekends. She travels to Boston to perform at an average of three weddings a week. Back in New York, she said, getting a gig is very difficult. “If they don’t have a built-in audience then they expect you to bring your own crowd,” she said, “and I don’t have friends and family here to bring into the room.” Jessie Davis agrees that bringing in a crowd is not as easy as it may sound. The 24-year-old jazz singer moved to the city from Salt Lake City in January. Her Facebook wall is filled with Jessie Davis flyers and pictures from her late nights in the studio. “Building your fan base from the ground up is very hard,” she said. She describes it like a Catch- 22 situation: to book gigs you have to have a fan base; but to build a fan base you have to perform at gigs. Despite the odds, Davis recently booked the biggest performance of her career—she opened for comedian George Lopez. “The whole thing happened in less than 24 hours,” she said, smiling. “He
came into my bar, and the next day I was on stage at the Best Buy Theatre in front of a sold-out crowd.” The two met earlier this year at the midtown bar where she works as a waitress. “And he brought my CD for 100 bucks!” she cheered. While booking a gig is a triumph, it doesn’t mean a musician can rest on her achievement. Clubs and restaurants pay performers as little as $60 a night, while private gigs tend to pay an average of $100. Many times artists play for free and consider it an investment in building their fan base, or just an opportunity to do what they love. Even for no pay, it’s still a thrill to be playing New York. But thrills don’t pay the bills. Laura Brunner, 29, is one of the many musicians pursuing fame while making something less than a fortune. This is her second time around in New York. Brunner first moved to the city in 2008 and went broke after a year. “It took me awhile to understand how the city works and how to get work here,” she said. A stint singing on cruise ships took her away from New York for a year and a half. She moved back in May, and since then she has put herself in a better place financially. She teaches music at an Upper West Side high school, and although she plays mostly in New York, she lives in New Jersey, where the rents are more affordable. “The first time I thought I could rely on old contacts,” she said, but soon discovered she needed to constantly hustle: going to open mics and meeting as many people as possible. She’s even cut
Singer Jessie Davis opens for comedian George Lopez at the Best Buy Theatre in March. Photo by G. Burnett AH&B Llc.
back on the cost of printing flyers and resulted to using Twitter and Facebook to promote herself instead. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Brunner specializes in jazz arrangements. Her vocal range and control are evidence that she’s studied her craft. She also attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she lived before her first move to the city. She said she tried to have a day job. Her parents are both lawyers so she spent a few years working as an administrative assistant at a law firm. “I tried, but I was just so miserable,” she recalled. As long as she is singing, she’s “more happy without money than having money.” She is currently trying to raise $7,000 to record her first record. In December she launched a fan-based fundraiser on YouTube. Even though Brunner loves to find new cafes and street fairs, sometimes, she says, “I absolutely hate it here. I tell everyone that when you move here, think of the hardest it could possibly be and it will continue to surprise you. It’s a love-hate relationship.” She admits that there are more good moments than bad. She’s been fortunate, booking a weekly Monday gig at a restaurant in Astoria, Queens. Davis said competition is what drives her. “Everybody in New York is trying to be something,” she said. “It’s not discouraging at all. This is the type of city that you know there will always be someone better than you, but that inspires you to be better. You go home and try to change up your game a bit more.” MAY 2012 / StarringNYC.com
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Bleecker Bob’s record store faces the Sound Sound
blues
by Maane Khatchatourian
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the store on and off for years. He returned for Customer Lawrence Bowman said Bleecker alking into Bleecker Bob’s a more stable gig three months ago only to Bob’s is a cultural institution. The musician Golden Oldies rare record store discover the store was about to be closed. visits the store almost every time he makes is like taking a tour of previHe recently noticed the “For Rent” sign the trek from New Jersey to New York. ous decades. Nestled between while minding to a diverse display of tobac“It has the look of an old-school record a pizzeria and the “Village co paraphernalia and jewelry in front of store, a mom-and-pop-feel,” Bowman said. “It Psychic” on a block populated by music instithe shop. “I’m very sad about local tutions, Bleecker Bob’s has been record stores closing,” he said. “You a neighborhood establishment have to do your shopping on the for 45 years. From vintage neon Internet, which is [crap]. It’s a bit clocks seemingly plucked out of an escape, browsing around for of a 1950s diner to a poster of records.” Andy Warhol’s John Lennon silkThe customer base is diverse, screen from the 1970s, the store ranging from locals and first-timers is a den of memories. to families and tourists. Two childHowever, the shop suffers hood friends on a day trip to New from modern woes. Exorbitant York stopped by the store almost rent prices will lead to its cloimmediately after arriving to the sure in April. If store owner Bob city. Plotnick can find the money, “This is my birthday present — he hopes to move the store to getting a record and poster from a cheaper location in the East here,” Devin McGuire said, picking Village. out Frank Sinatra’s “This is Sinatra” According to manager Chris and a “Nightmare Before Christmas” Wiedener, who’s been working at 3D theatre re-release poster. the store sporadically since the Employee Ed Dalley watches over a display of tobacco parAnother patron brought his daughmid-1970s, the store can’t afford aphernalia and jewelry. Photo by Maane Khatchatourian. ter to the store for the first (and probto pay its over $10,000 monthly ably last) time. Bob Dolan, an NYPD rent — an amount that’s expectsergeant, said the store was iconic, “a rare will be just another piece of old New York ed to increase in coming years. Eliya Barak find.” being killed off. … New York used to be so Eliyahu, who works for the real estate com“Even touching the records, I’ll miss that,” cutting-edge. It used to create trends; it’s now pany that leases the space, said the shop is he said. “This is what we grew up on. The artkilling them.” on the market for $20,000 per month. Despite work’s so great, compared to a CD. Even that This Greenwich Village mainstay, which speculation that a Starbucks will open in its is gone now with the Internet.” opened in 1967 as Village Oldies Records place, the space has not yet been rented. Wiedener said the shop even attracts on Bleecker Street, moved to two other loca“I’ve known [about the closure] for a while,” young customers who are unfamiliar with tions before settling at 118 W. Third St. in the Wiedener said. “It’s always been month-tomost of the artists whose records are sold at early 80s. As friends, Plotnick, Led Zeppelin’s month with us.” the store. guitarist Jimmy Page, Frank Zappa and Lenny Aside from a recently posted “For Rent” “We have young people come in with their Kravitz tended the store’s register irregularly sign on the door and “Store for Sale” banner parents who are discovering artists for first in its early days. David Lee Roth of Van Halen, hanging on the fire escape of the aparttime, like the Beatles,” Wiedener said. “They’re Carlos Santana and John Sebastian visited the ment above, there’s no notice of Bleecker buying record players, which sets them apart shop in the last month. Bob’s imminent closure. Most customers were from their peers. They aren’t downloading Employee Ed Dalley has been working at shocked to hear the news.
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music, which is ephemeral and temporary. Records tend to get really listened to.” Misha Tselman is one such patron, perusing the shop for Beatles and Paul McCartney records. Tselman is visiting his home country of Russia and was asked by his friend to bring back records for his 11-year-old son. Bleecker Bob’s is one of several struggling musical institutions. Large-scale retailers like Tower Records on East Fourth Street, Sam Goody on Sixth Avenue and the Virgin Megastore at Union Square shuttered in recent years, while Park Slope’s performance venue Southpaw closed last week. Across the river in Clifton, New Jersey, Ronnie I’s Clifton Music — a store specializing in doo-wop — will close this month after 40 years on Main Avenue. Bleecker Bob’s neighbors doubt the landlord will actually make any money on the eviction. In fact, Larry Cerrone, the manager of Groove — a live music bar and grill that’s across the street from Bleecker Bob’s — predicted that the space will remain empty for 3-6 months, then take another 6-9 months for a new business to move in completely, costing the landlord almost a year’s worth of rent. “Landlords in this city have been so nonresponsive to the recession,” Cerrone said. “It shows extreme short-sightedness on their part. … Landlords aren’t concerned with the neighborhood, with people in general or the city.” Bleecker Bob’s and Groove share the block with other music locales, including Village Underground, Blue Note Jazz Club and Fat Black Pussycat. The store may relocate to the East Village and downgrade from a 1,280-squarefeet-space and basement to a smaller place between 800 and 850 square feet. It hopes to share the shop with another business that would help contribute to the rent. At least seven small businesses, including a vintage clothing shop, tattoo parlor and, most recently, comic book store, have occupied the back space of the store. The comics shop closed in 2008. “We’d like to share this space, but nothing’s ever worked out,” Wiedener said. “When we had a business in the back that could pay a significant portion of the rent, we could get the rent paid.” Customers who learned about the upcoming closure felt obliged to make a final record purchase from Bleecker Bob’s. “Now I have to buy something,” Nicole Melillo said. “This sucks. … I’ve come here, like, so many times.” Melillo went with a classic — a 45 rpm vinyl record of The Rolling Stones’ “She’s So Cold.”
And Introducing . . .
Trishna HElmick Trishna Helmick was in ninth grade when she auditioned for American Idol at the local mall in Bristolville, OH. Now she has graduated from the Berklee College of Music, is living in Brooklyn and working with Global Music Brand, ex-model Tyrone Edmond’s recently founded record company. Though singing is her passion, she hits the trifecta as a model and a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild (watch out for her in Adam Sandler’s new movie, That’s My Boy, in theaters this June). Here, she talks about moving to New York, Disney songs, and Beyoncé. Age: 23 Work: Singer, songwriter; cocktail waitress at TSQ brasserie in Times Square. Whereabouts: Born in India, adopted and raised in Bristolville; currently living in Bushwick. What made you realize that this is what you wanted to do with your life? I started singing when I was real little, like six or whatnot. Actually, it’s really weird but when American Idol came out, that’s when I was, like, really inspired, because I watched the show and was like “Oh I wanna do that!” I was singing a lot, especially in my ninth grade year and thought, ‘okay, this is really going to be my profession. I want to focus on singing.’” Why did you choose New York? It was between New York and L.A. I thought “Let’s try it out and if it doesn’t work, I’ll try L.A.” So far it’s going really well. I come from Ohio where it’s like, the country. So the difference between
the people here, and the culture, and the religion… everything is so different. It’s an eye-opener for someone like me who came from Ohio. Do you have a particular memory of you following your dream? A kind of “Aaha!” moment? In ninth grade, I auditioned for this local American Idol contest. My parents knew I could sing but it wasn’t like “Okay, we’re going to send her off to music school.” It was at the Eastwood Mall, which is our local mall. If you won the competition, they sent you to the real American Idol. I had just hit 16, and I was standing there, and I was like, “Oh my God. No, mom, I think I should go home.” It was finally my turn to sing, and I got up there, and just belted it out. It felt so great, and I got into the top 10. I was the youngest one there out of the couple of hundred that tried out. What’s your favorite Disney Song? I was so obsessed with The Little Mermaid. I had the sheets, toothbrush, I had the sleeping bag, I had the plates, silverware, I had the Barbie… But I would have to say probably Aladdin. You know, “A Whole New World.” I’ve been told by kids in Walmart, “Look there’s Jasmine!” They pointed at me! Any other guilty pleasures? Will and Grace and Sex and the City. Tied. I have every single episode of each one, and I’ve seen them thousands of times. I have to put a [disc] on before I fall asleep every night.
-Anne Cohen
Breaking into voice acting by Alison DeNisco
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t’s a Thursday night at Edge Studio, and a group of nine first-time voice acting students are learning to talk like big-armed, no-necked monsters. “Everyone say, ‘Hey, how are you?’ like you’re a big monster who wants to sound tough,” commands voice coach Kristen Price as she hunches her shoulders and clenches her hands, as if baring claws. The students respond with deepened voices, and mimic Price’s arm movements. “Great. Now say it like you’re a big monster, but really inside you’re shy and want the other monsters to like you.” Ranging in age from 20s to 50s, the students go through a variety of such exercises to determine if they have what it takes to make it in voice work. In an era when everything from the subway to the iPhone talks to us, voiceovers are so pervasive in our everyday lives that we hardly take note of them. The explosive growth of online media in the past 10 years, including corporate PR videos, instructional aids, textbook supplements and iPad apps, has led to a boom in demand for this kind of work. “The Internet is the best thing to happen to voiceover since the invention of the microphone,” Price says. A thirtysomething woman with a short blond ponytail, Price has a bubbly personality and voice that one can easily imagine narrating a children’s video game. The nine students of varying ages, races and professional backgrounds gather in a light blue room with black speakers and audio equipment adorning the walls. A soundproof recording booth sits at one end of the space. Sounds of city traffic seep in through an open window from 10 stories below. Edge Studio on Seventh Avenue offers both voice acting classes and professional production. Its clients range from Disney and National Geographic to local banks, and the studio has a pool of about 600 people around the world that these clients may tap. Edge director and owner David Goldberg opened the studio after graduating college in 1988, and for more than a decade it was primarily used for music recording. But Goldberg says he never fit in well with the sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle of the bands he worked with, and knew it was time to change the pace of his business. “It became a drug-free studio, and I lost half of my clients. Then it became smoke-free, and I lost the other half,” Goldberg says, which fueled the switch over to voice work in 2000.
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Most students come to the studio hoping to provide the alluring voices for TV commercials, but don’t realize that those represent only about five percent of the industry. Voiceover is all around us, coach Price explains at the beginning of class, and is defined simply as any time you hear a voice without seeing lips moving. Student Juan Perez, Jr., 54, of southern New Jersey, currently works in sales at a Nissan dealership. In his youth, he dreamed of being a stage actor, and earned his associate degree from the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he took classes with the omnipresent suited man from the Geico commercials. But soon after graduation he found himself with a wife and three children to support, and the difficulty of breaking into acting led him to another career path. “You know what they say: Once a thespian, always a thespian,” Perez says in his booming voice, which easily fits the ad for Traveler’s Insurance that he reads in front of the class while in the sound booth. “I love it, and I want to get back into it in some way. I love the whole concept of entertainment.” He hopes to find his niche in the world of automobile advertising. Goldberg stresses the importance of voice coaches who are honest with students about their abilities, or lack thereof. He is one of these coaches. And the competition is tough. “We only greenlight about 50 percent of the people who come in here,” Goldberg says. “You need to really make sure you understand the intersection of your voice, your interests and your ability.” For example, a past student thought he wanted to work on commercials, but his evenly paced voice didn’t quite have that certain advertising quality. Then Goldberg learned that the student had studied art history and was a museum buff. He ended up finding success recording audio guides for museum tours. Voice acting is “a big commitment,” said Kristen Thornton, the studio’s production manager. “We liken pursuing voiceover to starting your own small business.It takes effort to train and practice, take the courses, and provide the finances for classes, a website, etc. All of it takes time, energy, a little bit of money. For some folks it might not be the best option for them, with their resources. But we’ll absolutely work with someone who really wants to do it.” The $99 introductory session is meant to help students understand the effort required by the profession. During the four-hour class, each student records two takes of a short script in the sound booth, while the others in the audience act as the clients, directing the voice talent and giving advice. As with any group of strangers, the students are quiet at first, but the atmosphere grows warmer with each exercise. Everyone is encouraging, and eager to offer constructive criticism. There is a range of talent and confidence; some seem as if they were born to share their voice, while others are more hesitant. Nerves arise for some when reading through the script for the first time, and many stumble over wording.
First-time voiceover student Chris Doyle gets set up in the sound booth. Photo by Alison DeNisco.
Voice coach Kristen Price advises a student in her Thursday night class. She plays back and critiques the students’ recordings. Photo by Alison DeNisco.
One of the first up in the sound booth is LaMarjora Rivers, 53, who took a four-hour bus ride from Boston, Mass., to attend the class. She wears a flowered shirt with a black sweater over her shoulders, and a pair of open-toed red platform heels with silver studs, black socks peeking through the toe hole. Rivers enters the booth, and with Eartha Kitt-like distinction convinces us that “at Revlon, we believe that looking good means feeling good about yourself.” Her reading is almost flawless, and her fellow students are captivated by her voice. A former health care management consultant, Rivers has always performed in community theater on the side. The expansion of opportunities available for voice acting created by new technology convinced her it was time to give it a try. Next up is Gloria, 24, a thin woman with glasses and dark skin, who has the quiet, high-pitched voice of a shy five-year-old girl. Price assigns her a script for a children’s computer game, and she records a short lesson on the letter “B.” She is hesitant, and stops to begin again after making a mistake, saying, “I’m not doing it right.” Price encourages her to continue, and, after taking a deep breath, she is able to read her lines straight through. Peak incomes for the industry vary, but unless a voice actor is already a celebrity, he or she probably won’t be raking in any six-digit paychecks for voice work. Price says financial success is more about the quantity of work than the quality, and finding clients who will hire you for regular sessions. For example, she works for Vitamin Shoppe, and records a phrase for the end of every commercial announcing the opening of a new location. Price also does voice work for a southwestern pizza chain, updating the specials menu every few weeks. Her work, primarily for corporations, earns her a comfortable middleclass salary, she says. Audio book work, though it takes the longest, usually pays the least, while promotional work for TV shows, concerts and plays
is the most lucrative. It takes about five years to get established in the industry, Price estimates. The last hour of class is spent reading one script that Price chooses, and another that each student picks for him- or herself. Chris Doyle, 32, a short man from Manhattan with spiky brown hair, reads an ad for Liquid Plumber. Price first instructs him to sound gruff, like a blue-collar guy in need of some drain cleaner. Not entirely satisfied with that take, she asks him instead to try a nasal voice. “What else can I have you try,” Price muses, racking her brain for a new character. “What’s something really bizarre?” “I can do a cranky old Jewish lady,” Doyle says. “That’s great! Go for it,” Price replies. Doyle then launches into a grandmotherly tirade about drain clogs that had the other students chuckling. It’s a voice that might sound at home in a cartoon, and Doyle says he plans to get an animation evaluation later that week. “I answer the phone at work like that sometimes,” he says with a grin when he finishes. By 9 am the next day, each student will be emailed a written report from Price detailing his or her strengths and weaknesses, plus whether or not she believes it is worth their effort to pursue the field. From this particular class, only a couple of people were encouraged to pursue specific areas of voice work. A few others were told that they had some potential, but would need a good amount of training to hone their skills. None of the students were evaluated as having full-time potential in the industry. Price says that this is unusual, and often at least one person in the class stands out. “Sometimes you get a super-talented group, and sometimes the group as a whole is ‘not ready for prime time,’” Price says after the class. “You never know who you’re going to get.” MAY 2012 / StarringNYC.com
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Dancing by the books Orignally from the Mpigi district of central Uganda, Mabingo Alfdaniels teaches intercultural dance and East African dance at New York University, where he is a graduate student. He is here on a Fulbright scholarship and upon graduation plans to return to Uganda to help make dance a commerical product. Here are photos of him in action.
Photos by Myeisha Essex
And Introducing . . .
Victor Rasuk Victor Rasuk came of age while acting in the 2002 indie film Raising Victor Vargas. Ten years later, he’s buddies with former costar Benicio del Toro and starring in the upcoming De Niro drama, Being Flynn. Sure, he’s not into the whole Twitter scene, but with this kind of company, why would you need followers? Age: 28 Work: Screen roles in The Lords of Dogtown, Che and the HBO show How to Make It in America. Whereabouts: Raised in the East Village; shuttles between New York and Los Angeles. You’re in the new De Niro movie Being Flynn. Can you talk about your character? The movie takes place in a homeless shelter in New York, and I’m the main guidance counselor. Basically, De Niro becomes a resident there and Paul Dano is the new employee there, and they play father and son. There was one scene where I have to pretty much manhandle Robert De Niro. For being an older guy, man, he’s still really strong. He’s still got his boxing Raging Bull days — he plowed right through me. You once said you rolled with a dangerous crowd, growing up in the Lower East Side. How’d you get sucked into that and how’d you get out? We’re talking 13, 14, all the way through 16, where you’re very susceptible and very naïve to negative people. They were never killing people or anything like that. It was stealing candy from a store or taking an old lady’s purse — that kind of extent. But I didn’t do any of that. The thing that’s interesting is that, somehow, I never had to prove myself in the actual gang.
At the same time, you were in the indie movie Raising Victor Vargas. Did that affect how people in your neighborhood treated you? I was 18 when I did that film and so when we shot it, I was already a year into really becoming serious about acting. I was in a high school called Professional Performing Arts High School. Jesse Eisenberg was one of my classmates, we both graduated together. I was already making a change in my life, you know? But the character was very much a composite of not only the bad people — obviously he’s a bad kid — but also all the cool guys in the neighborhood. Since then, have there been roles you’ve turned down because they were playing too much to Latin stereotypes? I don’t get mad at Hollywood. Yes, I get frustrated, but I don’t get mad because I understand that if the scope of what they see is not wide enough, people like Benicio, John Leguizamo, Raoul Julia — so many actors — they’re the ones that broaden their eyes. Hopefully I do the same when I play roles like the Cam Calderones and the Tony Alvas. Your most memorable character, Cam Calderone in How to Make It In America, was all raw ambition. Can you relate to that as an actor? Honestly, I wasn’t too crazy about How to Make It when I first read it. Why can’t Cam be the one with the ideas? Why did it have to be Ben? In between the first and second season, I told the writers, ‘Look, man, I think Cam needs to get a lot more.’ I did that and, by the end of [the second season], Cam was sort of becoming the brains of the whole operation. You don’t have a Twitter account. Not one for self-promotion, huh? I’ve just always been a private person and I’ve never been the type of actor who does something for the sake of accolades. Artists who seek out attention for those reasons, I’m opposed to it. - Paolo Lorenzana
And Introducing . . .
Svet Radoslvof While most 3-year-olds were singing their ABCs and blurring LMNOP into one letter, Svet Radoslvof was playing classical violin in Bulgaria. When he moved to the U.S. at age 11, he initially experienced a culture shock, but hip-hop revived him. Soon he began merging the traditional, mellow sound of the strings with an up-tempo rhythmic beat, forging a unique new style and earning a full scholarship to the Eastman School of Music for kids in Rochester. By his early 20s, he shared stages with such performers as Jamie Foxx, Kanye West and Jadakiss. Age: 25 Work: Hip Hop Violinist/ Singer/Rapper/Producer Whereabouts: Born in Bulgaria, Europe; Lives in upstate New York. Why hip-hop violin? When I came to the States, I was introduced to hip-hop and I just fell in love with it. During high school was when I really started to produce music, write my own music, sing. During my senior year, [I thought] why not just combine the violin and the hip-hop together? At the talent show I went onstage and started playing classical violin for about 30 seconds. Then I just completely stopped. I was like, “Guys, I’m sorry, I can’t do this anymore. I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” and walked offstage. Everybody was like “Aww, come on. Come back on.” After that, the music just dropped, and I started singing and rapping, and people went nuts. I got the violin and started playing it to the beat. People went even more crazy. It was a very memorable experience. When did you know this is what you wanted to do? I finished my college career with economics and marketing majors, and when I got out I started working for this marketing firm. And after six months, I quit. It was like hell for me. I just kept going to music because music was what I really, really wanted to do. I started traveling, doing a lot of different shows, different college tours, going overseas. The more I did it after college,
I really realized, you know what, this is what I’m going to do. What’s your dream performance? To be in a stadium in front of 40 or 50,000 people all chanting my name. Getting up to that level being in front of all those people, you know you achieved what you wanted to achieve. It’s the best feeling in the world. I did the Jersey Nets game versus the Miami Heat about two months ago, which was about 18,000 people and was probably the biggest stage I’ve been on. So that was definitely big. Have you ever been recognized on the street? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s weird, because when I go to the mall or something just random people, some would just walk up to me. It’s a small world. So people are starting to—of course I’m not famous yet, but a lot of people are beginning to recognize Svet music and are beginning recognize me, especially in New York. The more I perform, the more followers I get on Twitter, the more likes I get on Facebook. So I’m definitely getting there. Has anything made you reconsider your goals? Music was always the place I went to every time I had troubles with anything: girlfriends, school, financial difficulties. Music was the thing I always looked forward to. It calms me down. I was born to do music regardless of whether I went to school or not. School is something I did just to make my momma proud; music’s always been in my heart. What will you purchase with your first big check? First big check, I’ll tell you right now, I’m going to buy my momma a house. (Laughs.) She’s always wanted a house. Ever since we came to the States. She’s always wanted a home. -Charley Steward
Scene
Meatball Mania
by Carly MacLeod
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eatballs. Warm and tender, slathered in sauces, stuffed between buns, adorned with sides of mashed potatoes, risotto and mesclun greens. Food lovers crowd around tiny tables and groan in ecstasy as they bite into their juicy hunks of meat. This moan-inducing deliciousness comes from the rustic-chic interior of The Meatball Shop, one of the new meatball-focused businesses that have opened their doors in New York City in the past two years. The scene started out attracting the city’s young, hip and broke in hipster haunts such as Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and Manhattan’s Lower East Side. But now all sorts of people are indulging in this most budgetfriendly food trend. No one can quite put a finger on what it is about these spherical, saucy blobs of meat that makes them so popular. Is it nostalgia for Mom’s home cooking? A longing for a sense of home in an anonymous city? The newest trend in comfort food? No matter the answer, meatball joints continue to throw open their doors (or takeout windows), and are here to stay. There was a “Meatball Madness” event at New York’s Food and Wine Week last fall, and restaurants are definitely packing customers in: The Meatball Shop averages 400 to 700 customers on weekdays, with sometimes double the numbers on weekends. Here are some of New York’s finest (and trendiest) outposts. The naked balls: The Meatball Shop The Meatball Shop opened its first location in February 2010 and has already expanded to three locations. Mike Chernow, half-owner and part-time J. Crew model, says that the shop “took off running from Day One. We immediately had people asking us to open up more shops all over the country.” Known for its almost-too-cozy communal dining table and casual atmosphere, The Meatball Shop offers a check-off menu, with options like “sliders” (mini meatball samplers), “smashes” (two balls slammed into a bun and loaded with sauce), and my personal favorite, “naked balls” (four meatballs in a bowl of sauce). For each option, you choose one of six sauces, and sides that range from salad to eggs. Meatballs are the only thing on the menu, and Chernow is determined to keep prices below $10 per plate. All three of its locations are constantly packed. The Meatball Shop, Lower East Side: 84 Stanton Street The Meatball Shop, Williamsburg: 170 Bedford Avenue The Meatball Shop, West Village: 64 Greenwich Avenue
Photos by Carly MacLeod The fancy balls: The Meatball Factory Caution: The Meatball Factory does not want to be compared to, or confused with, the aforementioned Meatball Shop. “We offer so much more,” says Mackenzie Mahoney, who handles the somewhat swankier restaurant’s media relations. She is quick to point out that its meatballs are unique: the Factory’s most popular creation is a turducken meatball (yes, made from turkey, duck and chicken). But the menu is more focused on comfort food in general, not just meatballs; crispy flatbread pizzas and truffle macaroni and cheese are some of the specialties crafted by the owner, former Top Chef contestant Dave Martin. Why he chooses to bill meatballs as the main event is a mystery, perhaps proving the advertising power of the culinary buzzfood. Mahoney does say that Martin is trying to create more ball-shaped items. The Meatball Factory: 231 Second Avenue Balls on the go: Meatball Obsession The latest company to jump on the ball-wagon is cashing in on quick service. Unlike the Meatball Shop and the Meatball Factory, you can get in and out of the new Meatball Obsession in less than 10 minutes. The takeout window in Greenwich Village offers up to three meatballs in a Styrofoam cup, topped with tomato sauce and optional other goodies for an extra dollar. If you’re looking to keep the ball rolling, this lunch destination is an ideal spot. Meatball Obsession: 510 Sixth Avenue What’s next? These trendy venues are going balls-out to come up with new recipes. The Meatball Shop is debuting a chicken marsala ball, and also recently developed a Mediterranean lamb delicacy. Over at The Meatball Factory, the emphasis is on shaping new foods into balls, like the cheesecake balls with sea-salt caramel and chocolate fudge. And although Meatball Obsession opened just a few weeks ago, it is already dishing out crazy toppings, like pancetta and crispy pasta. No matter your taste or dietary restrictions (most offer vegan and gluten-free options), try one today. I promise, you’ll have a ball.
Graffiti Hub 5Pointz to be demolished
Photos by Charley Steward
As its name suggests, 5Pointz represents the five boroughs of New York City. This year marks its 10th anniversary of the block-long, five-story, 200,000-square-foot, abandoned factory in Long Island City, Queens. The owner, who has allowed artists to use the space since 1992, will transform it into two high-rise residential towers and a combination of shops, restaurants and other retail outlets.
The Future of Getting Wasted New tastes and techniques in the cocktail world have gotten many big city bartenders drunk with possibility. by Paolo Lorenzana
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At new East Village cocktail bar Booker & Dax, a bartender dunks a 1,500 degree-hot rod into one of the buzzed-about “red-hot poker” drinks. High heat raises the drink’s flavor profile. Photo by Travis Huggett.
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f the movie Cocktail were made today, Tom Cruise would need a lot more than an aggressive smile and a flip of the cocktail shaker. In place of acrobatic bottle juggling routines, there would be chemistry lab equipment: a rotary evaporator, maybe, or an 18inch metal rod with the amber glow of high heat at its tip. This fiery rod has put on a riveting sideshow at Booker & Dax, a new cocktail bar in the East Village. From the young, after-work crowd that’s materialized, an order is placed for a “red-hot poker drink” called the Friend of the Devil. Introductions to this fiendish “friend” are made by Dave Arnold, the bar’s co-owner, whose Baldwin-brother features and sharp sport coat stand out among those dressed in their slapdash Brooklyn best. Arnold dunks the rod into a mix of rye, campari, sweet vermouth and bitters, causing the sugars in the alcohol to caramelize. As the heat intensifies the flavors, murky bubbling suddenly spouts into flame. The roomful of smart-sweatered twenty-somethings deep in casual-intellectual discourse is distracted for a moment, upper-middlebrow life dramas paused as glances toward the side bar turn out satisfied smirks. Drinks created with such science and spectacle, whether frozen with liquid nitrogen or cooked in 1500 degrees of heat, are part of a cocktail renaissance that’s part of the craze for anything craft- or artisan-made. Bartenders don’t merely pour or mix drinks anymore—they “muddle” them too, using ye olde wooden pestle to mash ingredients into cocktails for a lot more quality and complexity. As Andy Samberg so hilariously parodied, the concept of “mixology”—or elevating a drink by muddling everything but the kitchen sink in it—has entered the amusingly affected world of hipsterdom. But beyond the wave of bartenders likening themselves to alcohol-manipulating artistes, people like Arnold are simply putting more thinking into drinking. “They really are serious cocktails,” says Tristan Willey, bar manager at Booker & Dax. “We spent a lot of time working on new techniques and tools. We’ve been buried in Dave’s lab for months, taking these things and [asking], ‘How can we improve our drinks with this?’” Of course, the experimentation may be influenced by the fact that Booker & Dax shares space with Momofuku Ssäm Bar, the pork bunslinging capital of renegade restaurateur David Chang’s food empire. Chang has turned something as simple as wrapped pork into a delicacy worthy of pilgrimage—and this sort of innovation seems to be having an effect on the drinks at Booker & Dax. “We’re working with all the in-season fresh ingredients,” says Willey. “It’s really neat when I have a chef holler, ‘Look at what we have!’ At the moment, I have amazing Thai basil. Well, what can we do with that? We have the whole team working with liquid nitrogen, muddling Thai basil into powder and blowing it up into a new cocktail. “A lot of people have commented that there have been a lot of classics that have been tweaked,” says Willey. “We took drinks that were very
familiar—old-fashioneds, Manhattans, daiquiris—and we’re still dialing in the potential.” “Basically, a lot of the cocktails you’re seeing now are derived from, if not mirroring, classic recipes or pre-Prohibition,” says cocktail-centric events producer Brian Quinn. “I think people’s interests were piqued when the speakeasy came back in New York and major cities,” says Quinn of the dimly lit drinking dens that seem to have gotten more buzz after East Village speakeasy PDT (Please Don’t Tell), a haunt among professional bartenders, opened in 2007. PDT is known for drinks as unexpected (bacon-infused bourbon) as its entrance, an old phone booth embedded in an all-night hotdog joint. Last year, eminent trade publication Drinks International awarded it “Best Bar in the World.” Before the boom of neo-speakeasies in New York, cocktail culture seemed to have gone into a haze somewhere between the late 90s and mid-aughts. It wasn’t bartenders that were setting the sophisticated standard of getting sauced, but four ladies clinking Cosmos and the army of rappers that popped Cristal and Grey Goose into mass consciousness. More visible than the few hubs of high-end cocktail creativity was the wasteland of bottle service clubs, where bars became assembly lines of dull Vodka-Sevens or -Tonics. We’ve now come to a new age of alcoholic enlightenment: drinksmiths are intoxicated with new possibilities and drinkers are looking for a shot of adventure with a twist of deliciousness in their cocktails. What works with meats works with mixes: At Saxon + Parole, the sous vide technique raises the flavor on bananas vacuum-packed and cooked with Appleton Reserve rum. “The rise in technology and social media has certainly helped, so people are more in-tune with what is ‘good’, whether it’s a good Manhattan, good ice cubes, or fresh lime juice,” says Naren Young, whose website forkandshaker.com documents his dynamic life in the spirits world, from food-and-beverage freelance writing for a spate of top-shelf magazines to making holiday punch on Martha Stewart. “Also, bartenders have taken a more studious approach to the profession, so they can educate the customer more. It’s a nice circle of knowledge where everybody’s learning at the same time.” With Top Chef a top show and “molecular gastronomy” a part of the colloquial tongue, you can be sure the American palate has evolved. And as educated eaters are now more discriminating drinkers, Michelinstarred restaurants are putting the culinary art in their cocktails, as well. “Major kitchens realize they can also be large innovators in the cocktail world,” says Quinn of notable New York restaurants such as Eleven Madison Park, Blue Hill, and molecular maestro Grant Achatz’s Aviary in Chicago. As the bar manager of downtown dining spot Saxon & Parole, Young’s ties with the chef have certainly boosted his beverages. “That’s where the sharing of knowledge comes in,” Young says of incorporating culinary techniques like sous vide, vacuum packing ingredients like bananas in rum and then cooking them in a device called an immersion circulator. Even pink peppercorns make spicy sense in a daiquiri through a process called fat washing, where an ingredient like peppercorns is fried up in good ol’ grease, infused in rum, and then strained so that you’ve got booze with lots of body and a hint of buttery zing. The new bottle service club: Saxon + Parole has a “cocktail cabinet” program where a monthly membership fee gets you a new cocktail to try each month, bottled and with your name on it. After acquainting his customers with barrel-aged cocktails, Young is now working on using smoke on drinks to create a “classically American depth of flavor,” as in barbecue. “All of this is helping me essentially create better drinks,” says Young. “If it’s done through weird scientific techniques, fine. If it’s done through cool stuff in the kitchen, even better.” Willey agrees. “It’s not about the giant rockets of flame or the smoking glasses, it’s more about just having a good time with a whole bunch of
people, using new tools,” he says. Arnold and Willey are making sure the use of a red-hot poker doesn’t just make for a novelty act customers get tired of but literally add spark to any bar’s drinks—a device as streamlined and necessary as a soda gun. Certainly with this circle of knowledge expanding, Young himself delights in the idea of even old saloons, pubs, or places at which you wouldn’t think to order a mojito making great cocktails. We might even reach—or return to—a time when a way to unwind at home isn’t cracking open a cold one but hitting the liquor cabinet and mixing oneself a drink. “I think back to the Mad Men days where cocktails were a big part of American culture for a while,” says Quinn. “I think it would be great to see people creating their own bitters, syrups, or spirits for home consumption. I just read an article the other day about people in the Italian community that have been creating limoncello for a very long time. It was a normal thing, like baking pie.”
What works with meats works with mixes: At Saxon + Parole, the sous vide technique raises the flavor on bananas vacuum-packed and cooked with Appleton Reserve rum.
The new bottle service club: Saxon + Parole has a “cocktail cabinet” program where a monthly membership fee gets you a new cocktail to try each month, bottled and with your name on it. MAY 2012 / StarringNYC.com
45
The art of nude modeling by Ali Leskowitz
T
In this sense, she considers her craft to be a performance rather than simply art modeling. “I suppose it’s the amount of energy and attention you put into it,” she says. “Sometimes models will just plop up there and they don’t give a crap about what they’re doing and what it means. They’re just doing a service for cash. So artists often remark that I’m such a good model because I understand the process that’s going on.” Magario tries to find a character or attitude to lock into. “Finding a way to keep it interesting within yourself is a huge challenge,” she says. “If you keep it alive and interesting in yourself, that shows in your body, and the artist will see it and they can capture that.” Magario found this scene accidentally, after moving to New York from Massachusetts in 2005. In 2007, she happened upon an ad for nude art models on Craigslist. She signed up and found herself at a “weirdo performance-type modeling event” where she was given only a fur sash to wear. The room was freezing, and her nervousness was overpowered by her desire to stay warm. “At one point there was a kid in a buffalo costume sitting at a typewriter,” she remembers. “I envied him so much. He had the big head and fur. At the end of the night they made us do a beach scene, like nude beach. I was in a reclining pose and I stayed there for an hour, freezing cold. I was just trying to think, ‘It’s sunny. It’s a beach.’ I was trying to keep the idea of warmth. I would just think, ‘This is a good thing. I’m in a good place.’” The cold didn’t deter Magario, and she kept agreeing to modeling gigs for art schools and various drawing events. To her, this was show business. “It’s stage and performance and wow, I’m participating in it. Me, who people would think was going to be some librarian,” she says. Her supplementary jobs aren’t far afield; Magario does secretarial work at two dance studios Hugo Crosthwaite paints on Theresa Magario in the December 2010 exhibition to help pay the bills (she jokes that running be“Drawing Theresa” at Noel-Baza Fine Art. Photo by Josue Castro. tween the two keeps her fit for modeling). Unlike with most other areas of show busiget up there and be myself—long hair, warts, and all.” ness, however, Magario feels that nude art modeling actually eliminates She’s not speaking literally; no warts are visible. Magario perhaps the ego. “It’s never about me,” she says. “It’s about the thing that’s being isn’t a classic beauty, but with her waiflike body, narrow nose, and big made in space. It’s completely egoless performance.” brown eyes, it’s easy to see her onstage appeal. In a small coffee shop in For her, it is also devoid of eroticism. “You see a naked person; that’s Williamsburg on a rainy day, she’s bundled up in a sky blue sweatshirt just the natural state of their being”—but she concedes that conveying and brown corduroy newsboy cap, her brown hair tied back and her eyes that matter-of-fact quality to her audience requires her to be intentional hidden behind brown-framed glasses. Her soft voice matches her mousy and deliberate. “If I intend to get up there and be like, ‘I’m a human beappearance, and she takes long pauses before speaking in clipped sening and human beings move like this and stand like this,’ then artists tences, giving her a sort of nervous, twitchy energy. get that and they then can read into it however they want to. The erotiThis meekness melts away when Magario is onstage. There, she is cism is connected to the ego part of it. I’m doing an extra service of reforceful, focused. She projects peculiarity. “I try to go for strange shapes, training their brains to think that a naked person doesn’t [necessarily] unusual angles, lines, negative space,” she says. “I have this distance with equal something sexual.” the other models, who are like, ‘Oh, that’s Theresa, doing her weird thing.’ Nude modeling feels natural for Magario, but she still appreciates the The goal is: how do I not kill myself doing something that looks imnovelty of her career. possible?” Magario acknowledges the value of poses that mimic classic “There’s so many surreal moments,” she says, “There’s naked people, statues or appear more natural, but feels models in those positions are there’s people drawing, there’s somebody attempting to do a handstand. taking the easy way out. She prefers to test herself by finding a stance I’m an art person, and to have found a place on the planet where these that’s comfortable enough to maintain, but then tweaking it. A twisted weird things can happen—you know what?—my life is good. It feels ankle here, a bent hand there. Magario believes such looks are more fun good to be in this odd place.” and more challenging for artists to draw. heresa Magario doesn’t shave. Anywhere. And she’s quite happy to volunteer that information with no prompting. It’s a decision that doesn’t go unnoticed. “I walk down the street in a skirt and people are like, ‘Oh, that’s gross,’” she laments. “Gandhi has that quote, ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world,’” she says, adding wryly, “but Gandhi was never a woman.” Magario, 29, hates the reactions she gets in public, but is deeply committed to the authenticity of the human body in its natural state. She is a nude art model—although she considers herself more a nude performer—and such decisions matter in her line of work. When Magario is performing, the insults of the outside world vanish. “It’s a self-esteem boost,” she says. “I don’t have to be a woman. I can just
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StarringNYC.com / MAY 2012
And Introducing . . .
ed by some of the best artists, musicians and performers in the world. Luckily, they more or less all love booze, so it keeps me involved in their worlds every day and night. What are some insider hangover cures? Easy. More booze. Especially any drink made with tomato juice, red snapper [Bloody Mary with gin] and Caesar [Canadian Bloody mary with Clamato juice]. How did you know this was your calling? I first moved to Switzerland when I was 19 to pursue my ski career. I fell in love with the food/wine/spirit culture and the way it played into Europeans’ daily lives. Thirteen years later, I’m still living the dream. What are some of the city’s hot cocktail trends? Trends come and go, of course. Mezcal and Tiki were hot for awhile. Sherry is very strong on the scene, and housemade everything, such as bitters and tonics, are huge. Put us in your shoes for a day. Daytime is office work time. E-mails, cocktail recipe writing for events and bar menus, and a chance to get to the gym to help rebound from the previous night’s work. Nighttime consists of visiting accounts all over the city, which brings me to hotels, bars and restaurants in every neighborhood. I haven’t had a night in in six weeks. Would you share one of your recipes? One of my favorite cocktails is East of Moscow, the gin version of a Moscow Mule. It’s spicy, refreshing, cleanses your palette—and ginger is one of the healthiest ingredients in the world. Some people use ginger beer, but I prefer fresh. East of Moscow Ingredients:
Andrew Mirabito Pick any New York City hotspot on any given night of the week and you’re more than likely to bump into Andrew Mirabito. Voted one of the country’s “Most Inspired Bartenders” by the United States Bartenders Guild, Mirabito first started slinging drinks as a 19-year-old professional skier in Switzerland as a way to pay the bills. For the next 10 years, he worked in different kitchens worldwide, but eventually traded in his knives for a cocktail shaker. He’s come a long way since his first sip of Budweiser in his Boston backyard as a six-year-old kid. Mirabito now helps run one of the largest gin companies in the world, Bombay Sapphire. He can make one hell of a drink… and it doesn’t hurt that he looks good doing it. Age: 32 Work: Brand Ambassador/Gin Baron, Bombay Sapphire Where: Boston-bred, New Yorker at heart What’s your drink of choice? My go-to cocktail is the Negroni. It’s a classic gin cocktail created by Count Negroni of Italy back in 1919. It’s equal parts Bombay Sapphire, sweet vermouth and Campari, stirred and served over ice with an orange peel. I also love a classic whiskey sour but made with Yamazaki 12-year single malt, which is an amazing Japanese whiskey. It’s a great alternative when I am junipered out [juniper is one of the botanicals in Bombay Sapphire]. What inspires you? I find inspiration from many walks of life. Here in New York, we’re surround-
1½ ounces Bombay Sapphire East 3/4 ounce fresh lime juice (squeeze 1 whole lime) 1/2 ounce agave nectar 4-5 pieces fresh ginger, rough chopped Sparkling water Pomegranate juice (optional) Directions: 1. Muddle the agave, lime and ginger aggressively in a mixing (pint) glass. 2. Add Bombay Sapphire East and ice. 3. Shake and strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass. 4. Top with sparkling water, and float a splash of pomegranate juice (another amazing anti-oxidant). - Lindsey Wagner
Mad About Mad Men There are some topics one simply can’t avoid in conversations with New Yorkers. For instance, the subway, and why is it “always” late. That “quaint” hole-in-the-wall that “you must absolutely try out.” The “tragedy” of running into tourists every time you are at Times Square. That sexy brunette who was “at that party” the other night. A new entrant to these topics has been the AMC television series, Mad Men. Everyone seemed to be watching it, and everybody was talking about it. Everyone, that is, except for some very unfortunate folk at Starring NYC: me and my fellow reporters. “Oh, that’s sacrilegious,” cried a friend, when I told her that I didn’t watch Mad Men. “It is, like, so awesome… You do not know what you are missing!!”
Breaking up with Mad Men Dear Mad Men,
I’ve tried to like you. You’ve got nice costumes, good music, pretty decent plot lines, and an overall fantastic cast. But for some reason—and correct me if you think I’m wrong here—we’ve never really had that spark. You know? No real chemistry. Our attempts at forming a relationship were earnest—you being a big, award-winning TV show, and me with my rabid appetite for cultural consumption. On paper, we sound like a good match. But I just wasn’t feeling your attitude, and I know you were disappointed in my casual Sunday-night-sweatpants attire. I’m sorry, I don’t think we should see each other any more. It’s not you; it’s me. I bring too much baggage to the table. You see—and I didn’t tell you this on our first rendezvous, it’s true—I have a confession: I have a background in advertising. And not your kind of advertising: modern advertising. I’m no Don Draper or Peggy Olson. I was only a lowly intern for two summers in different advertising departments, the first for American Express Travel, the second for the American Red Cross. But I’d like to think in my combined eight months of advertising experience, I can pick up on a few quintessential differences on which we’ll just never see eye to eye. 1. The whole “woman” thing. I am a woman. I like work, and I hope I will always
48
StarringNYC.com / MAY 2012
Luckily for us, our bosses at Starring NYC seemed to know exactly what we were missing, and staged an intervention of sorts in our lives. The third season of Mad Men was launched with much fanfare a few weeks back, and we at Starring NYC embarked on a unique reporting experiment. Each of us were asked to watch the third episode of this season, “Tea Leaves,” and then write our impressions on the same. Did the show live up to its hype? Did we agree with the depiction of New York of the past? Has advertising changed since the Mad Men era of the sixties? Were we impressed with the likes of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce? Read on to find out.
have a career that allows me to improve and climb the ranks. In the Mad Men advertising realm, however, the highest I could ever hope to climb would be a copywriter like Peggy (after starting out as a secretary, which I’m not sure my master’s degree would handle too well), and I’m not sure I can deal with that glass ceiling dividing us. In today’s industry, we have women in all positions, from secretary to the most advanced. The high-ranking positions at American Express Travel weren’t split evenly by gender, but I had male and female supervisors. And at the Red Cross, my immediate boss was male, but both of his bosses were female. And it may be this diversified leadership that brings me to my next point… 2. Things have gotten a bit less sexy. Or more sexy, depending on how you look at it. Even during our first encounter, your opening credits, the sheer number of semi-nude, beautiful women in corsets, holding cigarettes, smiling and winking from their respective advertisements was enough to make me blush. I’m not sure I can handle your rather misogynistic advertising tone. Sure, sex still sells today, but it tends to be more targeted: scantily clad women sell cars, beer, etc. But it’s rare to see a woman in a corset with a seductive wink selling a refrigerator or cleaning solution. Notions like humor have started to replace the overt sexuality that your brand of advertising falls back on consistently. We also—and I know this will come as a
shock—occasionally have men portrayed performing household tasks. Please try to contain your shock. This season’s third episode featured the two advertising execs going to a Rolling Stones concert to sign them for an advertisement. One gleefully announces he got the band—except the band he got wasn’t the Stones, it was their opener. That’s not to say that sexy still isn’t on TV. Believe me, it is. Today I saw a bikini-clad Kate Upton writhing on a beach, her suit made from about as much fabric as a wash cloth. The advertisement was for DirecTV. Relevant? No. Full of female flesh? You bet. Though there may be fewer overall advertisements using sex to sell non-sexy things, the ads that go there go all the way. There is no power of suggestion: nearly-bare breasts, close-ups of red lips, and unsubtle innuendo make the ads that you mad men-ers create seem tame. Except for the Ginsberg fellow Peggy interviewed for a copy job: his “would you blow me at halftime ad” sounds straight out of a modern-day Marlboro campaign. Though there may be fewer overall advertisements using sex to sell non-sexy things, the ads that go there go all the way. There is no power of suggestion: nearlybare breasts, close-ups of red lips, and unsubtle innuendo make the ads that you mad men-ers create seem tame. Except for the
Ginsberg fellow Peggy interviewed for a copy job: his “would you blow me at halftime ad”
Mad Men: a non-fan’s perspective Over the past two weeks, I’ve experienced
sounds straight out of a modern-day Marlboro
a type of shame I did not know existed. Its
campaign.
catalyst would creep up unexpectedly during
3. Celebrities are different. And they will do ANYTHING for money.
conversations, an unavoidable pop culture topic along with the likes of The Hunger Games
The young groupies are proved right, that
and Justin Bieber’s new song.
the Stones would never sell out and do a com-
“Wasn’t the Mad Men premiere great?” a
mercial for Heinz. Today, however, celebrities
friend/acquaintance/person standing next to
are everywhere—schilling us makeup, sodas,
me on the subway would ask. “I’m so happy
hair dyes. To make matters worse, many of
it’s back on.”
Jon Hamm, cast member of the television series Mad Men. Photo by AP. The question I was left pondering was: Has it
them now have their own product lines—mal-
“Um, I actually don’t watch it,” I would say
all really changed? White men are still occupy-
odorous perfumes and cheap jeans for teens
meekly, looking down at my shoes. “But I really
ing higher positions than women and blacks.
that they tweet and Facebook and G-chat and
want to get into it. I know it’s on Netflix….” At
Teenagers are still smoking pot and going to
everything else about. Oh yeah, that reminds
which point I would take in the familiar look of
Rolling Stones shows (though nowadays they
me…
incredulity on my friend/acquaintance/subway
are likely amid pot-smoking baby boomers as
stalker’s face.
well). Even modern clothing and decorating
4. The Internet. Twitter. Search Engine Optimization. Facebook. Unique users. Google+. Click through rate. Foursquare. Any of this
“You don’t watch Mad Men?! But a life without Don Draper is not worth living!”
trends hark back to the days of Brigitte Bardot and geometric chairs.
making sense? No? Well, when you’re in your
These types of comments (and, I’ll admit,
Particularly intriguing was the plot line
80s around the millenium, your grandkids will
a writing assignment) led to me to watch my
involving Peggy, a copywriter trying to hire
explain it to you.
first episode, and I uncertainly ventured into
another member for the team. She’s looking for
Advertising is such a big part of both of our
the fifth season’s mod world of 1960s adver-
raw talent as she searches through portfolios,
lives, and if we can’t see eye to eye on that,
tising executives and the women who tolerate
though the men in the office recommend she
how will the conversation go when it comes to
them. I was quickly hooked. The characters,
chooses someone mediocre—because if he’s
buying a house or what we should name our
the costumes, and the tension brought on by
better than she is, he’ll be her boss within
line of baby clothes? I wish you all the best in
knowing it’s all on the brink of major social
months. Instead she goes with her gut and
the future, and I hope we can stay friends who
change made for a meaningful hour of televi-
brings in the young Michael Ginsburg, a quirky
occasionally glimpse each other when nothing
sion (or at least more meaningful than the
character who will certainly shake things up at
else is on TV.
hour of Glee I watched this past week). The
Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, especially after
attention to detail and realistic dialogue trans-
we learn that he is Jewish.
All the best, Carly McLeod
ported me to an earlier time. Or did it?
One strength of Mad Men is that this one episode already had me rooting for the 1960s underdogs—for Peggy, Michael, and also Dawn, the new African-American secretary whose presence perturbs many of the men at the agency. These characters hint at the bra burnings and race riots lurking in the distance of Don Draper’s world. The notions that things are changing and that he’s getting older are beginning to hit him: His ex-wife Betty has a cancer scare, and in his crisp suit he is noticeably out of place among the rising generation of hippies at the Rolling Stones concert. As his fellow ad exec Roger says toward the end of the episode, “When is everything gonna get back to normal?” We as the audience have the future insight that the world as these mad men know it will soon come crashing down. But for now, I think I’ll pull up my Netflix account and go back to
Models showcasing the Banana Republic Mad Men collection. Photo by AP.
the beginning. - Alison DeNisco
Mad Med: style and substance
releases to great acclaim, most recently the
girl in conversation. The girl scoffs at him for
Academy Award Best Picture winner The Artist.
thinking that he can get the Stones to promote
fields of advertising and marketing can say
Cruise and Weinstein lack the charm of
Heinz. Don mentions that they did an ad for
for certain what it’s like to be in that business
someone like Don. They make up for it with
today. One thing seems clear, however: the line
their products though. As Don moves closer
In fact, they did do an ad in real life.
of work now is probably nothing like its depic-
to contemporary times, he realizes that sub-
Slate found it. It’s only 30 seconds long, and
tion on Mad Men. The difference between the
stance is more essential than personal style
the band is never shown. The group plays a
1960s and today, it seems, comes down to style
in the advertising world. What needs to be
jingle mentioning the cereal, while the cam-
versus substance.
memorable and likable is the work—and not
era interposes sharp cuts of the words “snap,”
necessarily the person behind it.
“crackle,” and “pop” while milk’s poured into
Only those who have been employed in the
Mad Men is all smoky offices, men in crisp
- Ali Leskowitz
business suits pouring tumblers of scotch,
Rice Krispies in England.
the cereal. There’s also an older man wearing
and female secretaries sauntering around the
headphones and getting a headache from the
office in pencil skirts that highlight their
Stones’ song. It’s obviously meant to imply that
curves. The pull is the panache, not necessar-
older people are not “hip” and don’t get what
ily anything of substantial import. Sure, the
younger people do.
characters themselves have depth—especially
Ironically, the ad itself doesn’t get it either.
regarding their interactions with each other.
It feels designed by an agency like Sterling
But the work done at Sterling Cooper, and later
Cooper Draper Pryce. You can just imagine
Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, relies entirely on
someone in his 50s producing something that
style. Don Draper’s triumphant presentation
he thinks kids will like. (“It’s fast! It’s got pop
to Kodak at the end of the first season played
stars! It’s snappy!”)
to superficial feelings of nostalgia without
Flash forward to 2012: Advertisers still do
really hitting any deeper notes. His speech
the same thing. Look at this ad for Frosted
was flashy and cheesy—and in that sense,
Flakes. It uses the same techniques: fast visu-
effective—but it wasn’t the makings of a truly great advertising campaign. Don’s later concern about his article in the magazine Advertising Age typifies his agency’s reliance on its flair and his progress as a businessman. In the piece, Don comes across as
January Jones and Jon Hamm, cast members of the television series Mad Men. Photo by AP.
Advertisers still don’t get it There is an interesting scene in this sea-
als, short words, and loud music. This means one of two things: Either old people do get kids and know how to sell cereal, or television ads don’t play an important part in selling it. Or maybe I just don’t get it. - Esteban Illades
disagreeable and enigmatic. Clients become
son’s
worried that the man they’re working with isn’t
Draper and Harry Crane try to get the Rolling
the most affable, and some start to drop their
Stones to endorse Heinz baked beans. They
accounts. Don is frustrated; the focus should
both drive out to the Stones’ concert to talk to
be the work Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce does,
the manager to see whether they can work out
The critically acclaimed television show
he argues, and not the people doing it. He
a deal. Don and Harry never do meet Jagger
Mad Men glamorizes the advertising industry.
almost stands his ground, chastising a swim-
and company, and Harry even offers a deal to a
The male characters spend the majority of
wear company for not being forward-thinking
band he thought was the Stones.
their time smoking, boozing, and fraternizing
Mad Men episode, “Tea Leaves” : Don
Mad Men: more reality than fantasy?
enough about his approach to its advertising
Don and Harry are both dressed in suits.
at work. The modern-day advertising scene
campaign. Yet at the end of the episode Don
They are some of the only men backstage. They
may be less sensational, but the advertising
gives another interview, now with The Wall
are probably also the only two people older
tactics remain the same.
Street Journal—and this time he presents him-
than 18. The rest of the crowd is composed
The third episode, “Tea Leaves,” revealed
self as warm and gregarious.
of young girls—groupies—who just want a
that celebrity endorsements were just as cov-
glimpse of the Stones.
eted in the 1960s as they are now. And as the
By this point, Don is trying to be an advertising man of the modern age, concentrating
As expected, there’s a clear disconnect
episode also suggested, targeting the appro-
on the work rather than his own persona,
between the girls and the mad men. They don’t
priate demographic is the most important
but those around him resist. Public image is
know what’s appealing to the girls. And though
criterion of a successful ad campaign.
significant in today’s society; Lindsay Lohan
it’s their job, they don’t seem to care either.
Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and Harry Crane
and Mel Gibson have demonstrated that. Yet
They do advertisement for older clients and for
(Rich Sommer), following the suggestion of
it isn’t crucial. Tom Cruise proved it with the
a different market. It’s important to remember
a Heinz executive, set out to persuade the
enormous box office and critical success of
that during the ’60s, teenagers weren’t viewed
Rolling Stones to sing “Heinz is on My Side”
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Harvey
as a potential market for advertising.
set to the band’s hit song “Time is on My Side”
Weinstein confirms it with every movie he
While Don waits for Harry, he engages a
for a commercial promoting the company’s
baked beans. Although Don and Harry don’t
appetizing for the college crowd.
workplaces have been around for as long as
meet the real band, they both recognize the
Instead of securing greater interest from
people have been working together—i.e. since
power of celebrity appeal. Heinz wants to reel
its existing customer base, who actually cared
the beginning of recorded history—and the
in the younger market by associating its prod-
about the product, the company mistakenly
petty bickering at the advertising agency in
uct with rock stars who exert influence over a
decided to arouse interest in people who rare-
Mad Men is a prime example of this kind of
teenage fan base. Now musicians like Usher
ly bought beans. Heinz was out of touch with
obnoxious behavior.
and Rihanna—contemporary sex symbols—
reality.
If you want a vision of hell, take an odys-
lend their names, voices and faces to brands
As the previous two seasons exempli-
sey to TV Land and make a pit stop at the
like MasterCard and COVERGIRL, respectively.
fied and this episode solidified, the future of
AMC Channel at 10 p.m. on a Sunday night.
Other celebrities, including actors, athletes
advertisement is in television commercials.
Welcome to Mad Men—enter if you dare. Say
and socialites, endorse products ranging from
The staff’s transition from conceiving print and
hello to Sterling Cooper, a corporation where
Vitamin Water to Proactiv Solution. Audiences
radio ads to TV commercials is equivalent to
nice guys are as rare as panda bears. Why?
who strive to emulate them flock to these
todays’ industry transitioning into online ads.
Because, among Wall Street sharks, sweet peo-
products.
The Bye Bye Birdie commercial for Patio Diet
ple get eaten alive. In a world where assholes
However, as Don realizes when talking
Cola from a previous episode proved that the
finish first almost all the time, there is little
to a Rolling Stones fan, celebrity association
switch from one medium to the next is chal-
incentive to play well with others. Shameless
alone can’t sell a product. Assuming that the
lenging. Today, advertisers find that successful
self-promotion is rewarded. The result is that
Stones agree to shoot the commercial, their
print ads and commercials don’t translate into
employees take credit for colleagues’ work
teen fans might not necessarily react to the
profitable online ads. So though the medium
and sleep with their bosses to get promoted.
product because it’s not related to their image.
has changed, the ensuing problems are simi-
Few people seem to follow Google’s company
The band also exerts no authority over the
lar.
motto, “Don’t be evil.”
brand. If the commercial was for a guitar or drum manufacturer, on the other hand, the product would align with the group’s persona. Association through the mere linking of two
- Maane Khatchatourian
New York, competitive? Don’t be surprised.
So it goes until somebody makes the radical decision to be ethical. That good egg would be Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), who can be forgiven for believing that she should hire
ideas (celebrity with product) doesn’t suffice.
People often complain about the dog-eat-
the most qualified job applicant. Peggy’s col-
Lance Armstrong’s RadioShack commercial
dog competitiveness of New York City, and
league, Stan Rizzo (Jay R. Ferguson), attempts
and Donald Trump’s Macy’s ad are two recent
some blame the Millennial generation for this
to disabuse her of that notion in the episode
campaigns that made the same mistake.
scourge, saying that we young’uns are infect-
titled “Tea Leaves,” with what later appears to
Like current failed advertising campaigns,
ing Gotham with our “me mentality.” Next time
be sage advice: “Stick to mediocre. You’ll sleep
Heinz targeted the wrong consumer group. The
you hear someone say that, tell him or her to
better.”
company turned down Peggy Olson’s (Elizabeth
watch the TV show Mad Men, a historical drama
But Peggy stays true to her convictions and
Moss) bean ballet commercial because it feared
about 1960s New York. The show reveals that
chooses to interview her favorite applicant,
only an older audience would appreciate the
backstabbing office culture is hardly a recent
Michael Ginsburg, a Jew who her midcentury
idea. Heinz wanted music and a concept more
development. My bet is that mean-spirited
colleagues suggest she should not hire (an event which would be less likely in 2012, I hope). Peggy explains that she finds it “inspiring” to work with talented people, a comment that makes Stan roll his eyes, as if to say: So long, sucker. When Michael comes in for his interview, he makes Peggy regret considering him for a job. A male chauvinist, he treats Peggy like a secretary, assuming that she is one, but even after he is told that she is his interviewer, he continues to talk down to her. Michael asks to see Peggy’s boss, ranting, “Wouldn’t you want to talk to the person who could hire you?” That sort of sexism would never be tolerated nowadays, but Peggy shrugs it off, and
Models wear Mad Men-inspired apparel from the Banana Republic Mad Men collection. Photo by AP.
why not? Subjugation is an undeniable fact of MAY 2012 / StarringNYC.com
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life for women in the 1960s. Earlier in the episode, Peggy is told that she “needs a penis” to get certain clients, since some object to hiring female ad copywriters. In fact, gender discrimination is the only reason Peggy is recruiting Sterling Cooper copywriters: as a woman, she is not allowed to finish the projects she starts because that would involve meeting clients— a no-no for the ad agency’s ostracized female workers—so she must hire a man to do the meet and greet. Michael’s job interview continues to take a nosedive until he has an epiphany that he might have destroyed his employment prospects. So he resorts to eloquent begging. Earnestly, he promises to do nothing but work: “I have no hobbies, no interests, no friends,” he says. “I’m one of those people who talks back to the radio. No girlfriend, no family. I will live here.” Unimpressed, Peggy replies, “Then you’re like everyone else.” What a sad commentary on the sweatshop working conditions of New York City in 1965. Unfortunately, little has changed since then. - Illana Kowarski
Welcome to the ’60s: Mad Men as a reflection of ourselves You don’t need to focus on the creeping hemlines of Megan Draper’s skirts to figure out that the swinging ’60s have reached the Mad Men universe. Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce can now count an African American secretary and a Jewish copywriter among its ranks, the Rolling Stones have come to town and are scooping up the girls that used to flock to Don, and pot-smoking teenagers are a force. At first glance, this season’s third episode, “Tea Leaves,” didn’t have much to do with advertising. There was drama galore, starting with the first scene in which we see the formerly Grace Kelly-esque Betty Draper trying to stuff herself into a gown after having gained roughly 50 pounds. But die-hard Mad Men fans see ads wherever they go. Last season ended with impending disaster for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce when Lucky Strike pulled its account to consolidate its business at BBDO, causing an exodus and leaving most of the revenue in the hands of Sugarberry Ham and Vick’s Chemical. One of the underlying storylines of the past two episodes has been Pete and Roger’s quest to
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convince Mohawk Airlines to return after they chased them away three seasons ago in pursuit of American Airlines. Mohawk finally saves the day, as Roger declares to Lane, “Lane, smile. We’ve got an airline!” with the same glee as a modern advertising company would have saying “Look, we have Apple!” The 1960s were the lift-off period for the advertising industry. People had money and they were willing to spend it. It was also a time of change within the industry. One of the most common debates in Mad Men is where to spend advertising dollars: TV or print? The former starts to become the clear winner. Our generation is certainly no stranger to technological changes. Perhaps that’s also part of the appeal of the show. We see our own struggles to transition to an all-online world in the previous generation’s struggle with similar issues. Which begs the question: How has advertising changed in the past 50 years? Has it? In an interview with Ad Age produced in collaboration with the Newsweek’s retro Mad Men special, Liz McCarthy, Senior VP of New York Life, said that while the medium may have changed, the goals of advertising have not. “It’s storytelling,” she said. “Obviously it’s the media that have changed.” The Internet has forced companies to be more interactive with their ads, making them more attractive for the public; magazine ads have become almost indistinguishable from the rest of the content. The “big fish” to reel in have also changed. Technology has become “the airline” for advertising companies to pursue. But some techniques have not changed at all. The first ad in the aforementioned Newsweek was for Triumph Motorcycles featuring Steve McQueen covered in grease, sexily wiping his face with a towel, presumably after riding or fixing his bike. In a survey conducted by Ad Age which called for people to vote on their favorite retro ad in the magazine, 24 percent voted for Triumph, with Allstate trailing behind with 10 percent. One comment read: “This is a nobrainer. Triumph Motorcycle’s retro ad features Steve McQueen!” One thing’s for sure, celebrity endorsement worked then and works now. The Mad Men obsession that’s swept the nation for the past five years calls for self-reflection. Why are we so fascinated by advertising? Perhaps that’s not even the right question. Maybe the question really is why are we so fascinated by ourselves? Because that’s
the real issue here, isn’t it? Mad Men manages to show us a reflection of our past. It’s more than the beautiful details: the clothes, the drinking, the skipping black and white television. It’s about what we valued and how we have evolved or in some ways, stayed exactly the same. It’s full of nostalgia, but also holds the somewhat comforting notion that every generation faces change and gets through it. As Roger Sterling put it toward the end of the episode, “When are things going to get back to normal?” Heads up Roger, things will never be normal again. - Anne Cohen
What Mad Men tells us about celebrity endorsement There’s a scene in the third episode of this season’s Mad Men during which a dapper Don Draper and the always awkward Harry Crane, surrounded by mostly teenage girls blowing puffs of smoke, stand backstage at a Rolling Stones concert in the hope of signing the band on for a Heinz beans commercial. On hearing of Draper and Crane’s intention to sign up the band for an advertisement, a young, Bambi-eyed girl smoking a joint dismisses the two, saying that the Rolling Stones would never deign to sell themselves out like that. Draper is quick to rebut with the revelation that the band did record a cereal commercial in England three years ago. This is a true fact: the Stones had indeed made a catchy jingle for Rice Krispies in 1963. As the Mad Men series rightly showcase, celebrity endorsement has been an advertising ploy since the early ’60s, and the use of celebrities to endorse both the mundane and marvelous is considered a major advertising tactic today. A cursory look at the television advertisements telecast during this year’s Super Bowl validates this notion. Be it the camera’s adoration of David Beckham’s athletic build as H&M launched a new underwear line, or a strangely angry Clint Eastwood making the case for vehicles from Detroit’s Chrysler factories, it was clear that most companies believe celebrity sells, regardless of how appropriate the stars may be for the product. But advertising agencies cannot be blamed for running after celebrity stars. It is a proven trick, after all. It is not possible to discount the impact of celebrity endorsement on a brand. Everyone wants to be as cool as their idols, and because imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery, starstruck fans are more than willing to use products touted by their favorite stars. There are several legendary stories of celebrity endorsement that are revered in the advertising sector. The collaboration between Nike and basketball legend Michael Jordan became so successful that the company launched a new brand variant, Air Jordan. A more recent example shows a blemish-free Justin Bieber holding a bottle of Proactiv Solution. One can be fairly certain that many when those commercials hit the screen, preteen and teen girls pestered their mothers to get them the same solution to tackle their own acne problems. Running with a celebrity to endorse a company or product does have its dangerous pitfalls, too. Golf star Tiger Woods was at the top of his game when his dalliances with various women other than his wife made tabloid headlines in 2009. The disgraced sports star was then quickly dropped from high-profile ad campaigns like that of software giant Accenture, because the company could no longer have him represent the values embodied in its “High Performance. Delivered” brand. But such instances of celebrities breaking down and their whimsical demands are usually overlooked by the cut-throat competitive world of advertising, as evident in the stylish yet morally loose ideals of the fictional agency shown in Mad Men. While the likes of Draper and Crane are blissfully unaware and almost condescending of the Rolling Stones, they still wait around for them in a smoky, teenagerfilled corridor. As Daniel Boorstin famously said, “A sign of celebrity is that his name is often worth more than his services.” Corporations seem all too ready to wait in line and pay big bucks for those names in the spotlight. - Aby Sam Thomas
Mad Men and advertising today: nothing’s changed If Mad Men is an example of what advertising really was in New York in the ’60s, then nothing has changed. Advertising companies still run after big stars, and celebrity culture seems like the lifeblood of these agencies even today. They claim it’s what sells. Apparently competitiveness isn’t a product of the fast-changing times. In one scene of this season’s third episode, Sterling Cooper wants to hire the Rolling Stones to play in a Heinz ad. The idea is that
because they did it for a cereal in England, the Rolling Stones would do it for Heinz beans too. Furthermore, the exchange between the teenager and Don Draper waiting backstage for the Rolling Stones evokes the surveys these companies carry out through phone ins or standing around main street corners, trying to figure out what people like, consumer trends, etc. The scene is also a commentary on the people running the business at that time, and probably even today. At one point, Harry Crane tells Draper that he’s almost got the Rolling Stones to sign, until the gaggle of girls crowding the backstage surges into a narrow corridor when the real Rolling Stones arrive. “Who were you talking to?” asks Draper. It reveals just how alienated these executives are from the consumers and market they are catering to. Even today, executives from older generations struggle to keep up with what is new and appealing to the youth. Not much is different in the real world in the way the companies hire people, either. It is what the individual brings to the table regardless of whether he or she is a douche bag. Having been initiated into Mad Men via the third episode of the fifth season, it seemed that the episode focused way too much on the personal lives of the characters, without much plot about advertising. But what has really not changed in advertising today is the need to create smart, readable, consumable copy. While the platforms for advertising may evolve from print to digital and the pace may become faster, the principles of advertising will essentially remain what they have been since the very beginning: finding the best way to sell the product. - Neha Banka
Mad Men: now and then Mad Men’s “Tea Leaves” episode made two things clear: drinking at work is very much in but being a working woman in a man’s world is still out. At an ad agency these days you probably won’t catch your boss halfway through a highball as soon as the clock strikes noon (“we leave that for after work,” a young copywriter told me). And if you’re a woman, fear not, no one will immediately write you off as the secretary. At first glance it seems as though the only similarity between ad agencies of yesteryear and those of today is the sleek, mod office furniture. But on closer inspection you might
notice something else, namely Draper’s desire to keep Sterling Cooper young and fresh. It’s a perennial problem among advertisers, who must keep their ads in tune with today’s youth culture while satisfying a group of middle-age executives in suits. Draper looked uncomfortable and out of place backstage at the Rolling Stones concert. He and Harry Crane had arrived on a mission: Sign the hottest band in rock ‘n’ roll for a commercial spot. Even Draper couldn’t grasp the absurdity of the idea until he confronted the Stones’ adoring teenage fans face to face. Backstage he probes a teen girl for answers. “What is it about them you like,” he asks. She can’t articulate it, but neither can he. Ad agencies must work with what’s new, and last century that meant adapting to technology. Today it’s no different. In Draper’s ad world, television ushered in a new way to advertise, and his firm had to keep up. Now the challenges are much the same, as advertisers experiment with social media and different platforms to sell products online. Today’s art directors may know less about drawing than how to manipulate graphics and mock up video spots on a computer. Advertisers are eager to hire young and innovative people with distinct voices, and last night’s episode showed us that this is nothing new. Draper hires the office’s first Jewish man, a character who doesn’t necessarily fit in with the slick suits of Sterling Cooper, and expresses that the find was fortunate considering every other agency already employs Jewish people (or one—sadly it’s still 1966). The line articulates Draper’s concern for not appearing backwards or stiff in an increasingly progressive decade, albeit one where change happens slowly. The list of similarities and differences between today’s advertising world and that of five decades ago goes on and on. Perhaps it’s best to judge for yourself when AMC airs The Pitch. Yes, the reality show will air after Mad Men on Sunday evenings and portray what “really” goes on inside an agency’s sleek doors (if you believe what you see on reality television, that is). It’s billed as “gripping” and “intense,” not exactly the two words I would use to describe Sterling Cooper. But with a steady stream of cigarettes and booze (a joint even made a cameo in last night’s episode), how could it be? - Danika Fears MAY 2012 / StarringNYC.com
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Mad Men: meet the Don Drapers of the future Cigar smoke, dirty martinis, the infamous Don Draper and the rest of the Mad Men crew are finally back in our lives after a mini-hiatus. Every Sunday we can now look forward to the one hour when AMC gives us a chance to slip back into a different era—when advertising was born and life was simple. In the third episode of the fifth season, the creatives at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce try, and fail miserably, to get the Rolling Stones to represent their client, Heinz beans. In an attempt to please Heinz, Don Draper and Harry Crane try to catch the Rolling Stones when they stop in New York for a concert. Their client wants the ad men to work their magic and snag Mick Jagger and the Stones to do a cover of their song, “Time Is On My Side,” but change it to “Heinz Is On My Side.” Harry ends up meeting a hippie backstage who claims to be the Rolling Stones’ manager. At the end of the night, the ad men never meet the Stones, and their drive home consists of a moping Harry snarfing down burgers. Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce also decided to diversify its rather WASPY (pardon my language) staff by hiring not only a black receptionist but also a Jewish copywriter from Brooklyn. Roger decides to bring on Michael Ginsberg because “everybody has one nowadays,” implying that all the other big ad companies have Jewish copywriters and it will make SCDP look even more modern. Gaining insight into different cultural groups has been and will continue to be an important tool in marketing. The advertising era of the 1960s came during a time of change. Originally, ad companies catered strictly to white males and white housewives because they had the purchasing power. When the ’60s rolled around, these companies had no choice but to consider new demographics or become obsolete: youth, professional women and African-Americans became the target demographic. Youth counterculture was on the rise and advertisers were beginning to realize the shift. Advertising is ever changing. Unlike the ad men of the 1960s, today’s advertisers don’t have complete control over what consumers watch and listen to. Today, the audience is in the driver’s seat. Consumers know what they want. If they aren’t looking for it, it’s quite unlikely that they wouldn’t skim past an ad
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in a magazine or close a pesky pop-up ad on their computer for a product of no interest. As much as we’d like Don Draper himself to come into our living room and personally invite us to try a product or service, it’s not going to happen. Sorry to break it to you ladies. But the advertisers of today are including consumers on a more personal level. “Digital advertising is enabling integration between mobile, tablets, and TV spots to allow for ‘social TV,”’ said David Barwig, the digital strategy manager at Aspen Marketing Services. “This allows for real-time interaction.” At the end of the day, no matter what era you live in, advertisers want to sell a product. While the premise has remained the same, marketing tactics have changed for brand teams. Today’s advertising has shifted to a digital and social focus within communities as opposed to the one-off consumer it was back in the day for the men at SCDP. “Today’s consumer is more savvy and accustomed to marketing tactics, so advertisers need to be more innovative in their approach to really connect,” said John Cicero, Vice President of Client Development at Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners, whose clients include BMW and HomeGoods. One thing remains the same: a push toward the future. Sure, technology has opened up countless windows of opportunities for brands to showcase what they are made of, but the need for innovation has always been apparent in the advertising world and will continue to for the future mad men. - Lindsey Wagner
Mad changes: selling people to advertisers The year was 1965, and Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce had just started consulting with a marketing research firm. One of the first things it needed to know: What do women want? Pond’s was a new client, and the agency’s aim was to sell cold cream as self-indulgence rather than the prerequisite for snagging a husband. Still, the results of the focus group conducted by marketing research analyst Dr. Faye Miller declared that women still prized matrimony over autonomy. Don Draper wouldn’t have it. “Not only does it have nothing to do with what I do, it’s nobody’s business,” he told Miller, who he’d got under his sheets after her data got under his skin. In today’s advertising world, Draper would
have to work a lot more closely with market research analysts, and not just by bedding them. Gone are the days when people had to sit through advertisements and offer up their hippocampi to commercial hypnosis. Through the Internet, choice is at consumers’ fingertips: now they can choose to mute, skip, or exit an advertisement as they please. To avoid this, ads now have to tiptoe around their viewers, to earn even just a few seconds of attention before they’re clicked off the screen. Unfortunately for Draper, the customer now has everything to do with advertising. Not all is lost for the creative implanting of ideas that Don Draper takes pride in. The hard sell may be extinct, but antics in advertising are still very much alive. If Draper and Co. weren’t above the occasional publicity stunt, publishing a tell-all letter about cigarette advertising after they were dropped by Lucky Strike or getting two elderly ladies to fight over ham at a supermarket to get the product in the papers, then the agency will be pleased with the Net’s viral atmosphere. Advertisements don’t just need to engage consumers in conversation, but need to be part of their discussion as well. Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce would need to relocate to Hollywood, maybe, considering the high entertainment value that ads need to come packed with these days. Old Spice comes to mind with the new spice it’s using to season its branding: absurd bro humor delivered by a ’roid-raging black guy who appeals to the same part of young men’s brains as Chuck Norris jokes do. The ads were as quotable as Judd Apatow movies. They practically buddied up with their viewers, getting as close to them as the deodorant they’d end up slicking on. And even literally: The Old Spice guy sent personalized video responses to fans that sent him messages through social media. Draper, man of mystery, could handle whambam entertainment but might get squeamish with an ad age that’s gotten real with its customers, as well. Oftentimes, an ad’s got to own up to being an ad. If one is selling beauty soap, well, it can’t look like any sort of sale, whether that of easier marriage or a self-boosting regimen. Take for example Dove soap’s Real Beauty campaign. Dove told girls they didn’t need to change anything about themselves, that they were beautiful as they are. Dove knows them, therefore they should know Dove. - Paolo Lorenzana
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