Good morning & hello Friday!

• Back from my travels. And I must say I do miss waking up in a hotel, breakfasting with fellow travelers, and planning daily adventures with the “insidery” input of restaurant/hotel staff. [Btw, I may only be traveling domestically for the foreseeable future based on the treacly pace of Immigration’s green card renewals! Never in the past, has “10-year green card renewal” meant it might actually take them 10-years to get around to issuing cards.]
• But not all is bleak. This week I also got to see the extraordinary Lila Downs (pic lower left) perform at Sony Hall. OMG!!!! So amazing. I have videos from the show in the blog with additional videos posted on my YouTube channel. Without a doubt, one of the best live performers of our time!
• And with that, please scroll down for more on Lila, the emergence of old skool rollerskating (pic upper left), and the soon-to-open Nine Orchard Hotel (pic, right above), a fabulous new addition to my neighborhood!

1. Video: Recap

2. Lila Downs at Sony Hall! Just Wow!!!

I discovered Lila Downs almost 20 years ago in Tucson when she performed with another of my favorite bands, Calexico. I have seen her perform once or twice since. SHE’S NEXT-LEVEL Her stage presence and her connection with the audience is pure magic. She’s touring now (links below). She’ll be in Los Angeles April 30 and May 1 – highly recommend her show to all my friends out there. NOTE: If you only have time to watch a couple of videos, I’d recommend you watch the ones above. However, if this kind of music grabs you, I have 17 short videos from the April 19, 2022 show on my YouTube channel.

Here are 2 links for tour dates/tickets. This link sent to me by Lila Downs herself (!!) and here’s the Ticketmaster link.

3. Retro Rollerskating: all the rage as we head into summer

• Stopped by Rockefeller Center on Saturday to check out the new rollerskating set-up and it was AWESOME!!
• Music was great – Michael Jackson is having a moment. I hear his music everywhere these days. And it seems to be great to skate to – especially when you have mad skills like the young couple I videotaped above.
• The rink is open seven days a week (til midnight on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights). Tickets for one-hour skate sessions cost $20 for adults who bring their own skates and $30 if you need to rent.
• Here are more details on Flippers Roller Boogie Palace at Rockefeller Center.
• While Rockefeller Center has gone 70’s, the Standard Highline is going ’60s with their soon to open Mod-Inspired Roller Rink. The TWA Hotel at JFK is also adding a retro roller rink as is Miami’s Faena Hotel.

4. Swooning over the new Nine Orchard Hotel on the LES (in the landmarked Jarmulowsky Bank Building)

First heard about this thru The Lo-Down and raced right over and met one of the guys working for Chef Ignacio Mattos who is heading up F&B for the hotel. I’m hoping I may get an invite to one of their soft-opening events. It’s going to be major.

• Guest room bookings are available starting July 1. There are 116 guest rooms, including three suites which include terraces.
• Mattos Hospitality (Estela, Altro Paradiso, and my fave: Lodi) has been staffing up. The hotel seems to be geared to locals as much as it is to hotel guests with a Food and Beverage program that includes an upscale restaurant, a neighborhood bar and lounge, a rooftop bar, and private event spaces.
• Per the PR eblast: “The lobby features a soaring, vaulted ceiling and large, arched windows; where bank tellers once worked, guests can check-in, lounge and enjoy a coffee or drink.”

5. ANYONE HEADING TO BENTONVILLE IN SEPTEMBER FOR The FORMAT FESTIVAL?

Intriguing (and I happen to love Bentonville) but…..

• First read about this on Artnet and thought it might be an interesting alternative to the Venice Biennale (since I’m missing a green card to get back into the country).
• However, the more I look into it, the more concerned I get about the organizers’ ability to run such a massive event. I absolutely don’t want to end up stranded in the boonies of Arkansas with no Uber, food, wifi, etc.
• Coachella reviews this year, by the way, have been less than stellar and the word on the Revolve offshoot has been downright dastardly. People comparing it to the FYRE Festival!!

#MyTake: I have until this morning (Friday) to make up my mind but at the moment I’m thinking I will give it a pass. $2800 for the hotel is a lot and 21-C is really the only place I’d like to stay. But if anyone has any insider info that might up my confidence, please shoot me a text. So far all I know is that the organizers have worked on Lollapalooza and on the Obama inauguration and it’s in collaboration with Crystal Bridges, the Momentary, etc.

6. Review: JetBlue Mint Service and its Pasquale Jones Menu

What I loved/ what I didn’t:

• I loved the Pasquale Jones menu. Everything was fresh and delicious. Way superior to what I’ve been served in First on other airlines.
• What I didn’t love was the service which was lackluster at best. Not once on a 5 hour flight did the attendant ask if I needed or wanted anything, e.g., a refill on my club soda.
• Also, I am NOT a fan of those plastic office cubicles that try to pass as private suites.
• And finally, I do not love the price. $1100 for one way from Vegas to JFK vs. $640 for AA First from JFK to Phoenix (granted, I booked AA before gas prices went crazy).

7. While I’m on the fence about Bentonville, I am trekking up to Columbia for their MFA Thesis Exhibition

Thank you Hyperallergic for putting this on my radar:

• It’s an excellent way of tapping into both emerging trends in the art world as well as who the next generation of art superstars might be.
• Although I regularly visit galleries and museums, checking out the MFA Thesis Exhibits gets you in on the ground floor in a way that even the most niche/indie galleries can’t. [That said, shout-out to M23 Gallery’s Todd Mauritz who has an excellent track record for being the first to show young, up-and-comers from Yale.]
• I will report back next week if this proves worthwhile.

8. trending on the bowery: “situationist spectacles”

Maybe this means the Bowery is going back to its absurdist, poetic, artsy roots?

• In January I noticed a Birds Aren’t Real banner on a building between Rivington and Spring.
• For those of you not familiar, Peter McIndoe‘s ‘deep state’ satire about how the CIA replaced birds with surveillance drones started in 2017, shortly after Trump was elected. The theory goes that every bird you see is actually a tiny feathered robot watching you. (Source: Guardian, link here)
• This month, at 208 Bowery, two more interesting signs. Dial-A-Poem is connected to the John Giorno Foundation. Giorno was a poet and performance artist who lived and worked in the nearby Bunker building until his death in 2019.

Dial-A-Poem 1968-’70 was unique in that it discovered the telephone as a venue of mass communication. On January 12, 1969, we received a quarter page review in The New York Times, which included the telephone number twice. We received millions of calls. If a caller was bored with John Ashbery, they hung up and called again, and got John Cage, William Burroughs, Jim Carroll. I also discovered that creating a desire that is un-fulfillable is the ultimate success. With Dial-A-Poem, I stumbled on the phenomena of the telephone as a new media, connecting three things: publicity, a telephone number, and content accessed by a huge audience.

John Giorno on Dial-A-Poem, 2012

• As for the “Nothing Recedes Like Success” sign, I have (yet) to discover who installed it. The quote is attributed to Walter Winchell. If anyone has any info, please pass along.

9. Trendspotting: new looks, new brands – locally and from my travels

• Spotted LOTS of this split-dyed hair in Vegas. Zero photos of my own unfortunately. The look has been around since 2019 but became super trendy after the release of Cruella starring Emma Stone. Since then, that hairdo has become one of the most requested according to colorists.

• Spotted this Heron Preston outfit on the Bowery this week. I was not familiar with the name but learned that he is an artist, creative director, content creator, clothing designer and DJ who has become a youth culture phenomenon for the Instagram generation (704K followers). He’s collaborated with Kanye West and Virgil Abloh (RIP), and debuted his namesake label at Paris Fashion Week in 2017.

• Cool “fast car” guys in Phoenix. Saw lots of Vans t-shirts but also discovered Lando Norris. This 22-yr old British-Belgian racing driver currently competes in Formula One for McLaren and his t-shirts are HOT!!

• Discovered these two at the Dolls Kill NYC sample sale last month. They were among the thousands of fans waiting in line for up to 5 hours.
• Dolls Kill features six collections represented by characters known as “Dolls.” Each Doll is a model that embodies the style of the collection’s theme, e.g., Coco (“frilly Kawaii“) or Kandi (raver collection that lives a lifestyle of PLUR).
• Everyone on line had some version of this look. The brand has grown in popularity as music festivals have proliferated. The Dolls Kill website is the #1 destination for kawaii, punk, goth, and festival fashions.
• Also quite a bit of controversy around the brand, e.g., accused of stealing designs from small creators. However, judging by these lines, it’s clearly not crimping their popularity.

10. Earth Day! Grab a large trash bag and clean up your block!

Here’s what I’ve been doing on my block:

• I decided (2 years ago) to actually DO something that would get noticeable results.
• Kept it local – I can’t change the world but I can control how my side of the block looks and that’s major!
• I take out a black trash bag every day and use one of those trash pickup grabbers, to pick up everything from liquor bottles, masks, drug paraphernalia, shelter food detritus, etc. I’ve become the “trash queen” of my little section of Rivington Street
• Only takes 15 minutes a day
• It’s very satisfying! Partly because you see immediate results. Even when the world is going crazy, there is this one thing you can do every day that puts you in complete control.
• Neighbors, tourists, shop owners, even the homeless dudes who hang out on the corner, all notice and have expressed their appreciation.
• It also keeps me tapped into what’s going on in my ‘hood (from new drug dealers to new businesses/pop-ups)
• Bottom line, it’s had a huge impact on my block and it’s been great for my mental health.

And that’s a wrap for today.

Wishing you all a great weekend!! I’m getting back into the NY groove. Lots of lunches/dinners on the calendar. Also checking out the Whitney Biennial this weekend and seeing my friend, Rob Mastrianni, at Mercury Lounge Saturday nite (when he’s not playing guitar, Rob’s a NYC park ranger and the city’s top raptor specialist).