Results tagged “georgeplimpton”

Besides killing Mom ‘n’ Pop stores and displacing low-income residents, the rapid gentrification seen in some New York neighborhoods may be flushing the city’s famous working class dialect down the terlet.

Lea Thau, Director, The Moth

David Amsden, Writer

John Hodgman, Writer

Rebecca Lobo, WNBA Commentator

Greg Allen

Reading Thomas Beller's Newsweek essay about George Plimpton - part sweet remembrance of the man and part riff on the challenges of having a literary magazine, a la The Paris Review, or Open City, which is Beller's concern, we noticed a typo on his bio: "...Beller is the author of 'The Sleep-Overt Artist,' a novel..." which could very well be that title of some young literary hipster's book about a narcoleptic, but the actual title is "The Sleep-Over Artist." But we much prefer his short story, The Hot-Dog War which you can find on his site, Mr. Beller's Neighborhood, if you check out stories for the Upper West Side, specifically 73nd Street and Broadway, or in his book of short stories, The Seduction Theory.

The past week has had many notable deaths (Edward Said, Robert Palmer, George Plimpton) but Gothamist was most saddened about yesterday's passing of entertainer Donald O'Connor, whose most memorable work is the show-stopping song, "Make 'Em Laugh," in Singin' in the Rain. O'Connor appeared in loads of films, like Anything Goes with Bing Crosby and the Francis the Talking Mule pictures, but his role as Cosmo Brown in Singin' made you wonder why there isn't a movie about him, versus Gene Kelly's Don Lockwood who could be at times, let's face it, really boring and full of himself. There are two show-stopping moments, one being Kelly's song-and-dance in the rain of the title song, which is a dreamy, beautiful interlude. But it's "Make 'Em Laugh" with O'Connor defying gravity, talking pratfalls to a new level, fisticuffs with a literal dummy, and throwing out one amazing move after another that gives the audience a chance to laugh and cry aloud.