New York City Books

[Merry]

Inside, Rivers of Blood

By MICHAEL WILSON




slide show

It looks so cute and small and quaint from the outside. Is that classical music playing? How nice. The only real hint of the vast and bloody body count behind the door at 44 Greenwich Avenue is the wee bit of crime-scene tape that decorates the display window.

There simply is not enough of that trademark yellow tape in New York to block off every crime depicted within the four walls of Partners & Crime, a 16-year-old survivor in the shrinking world of independent bookstores.

For readers of mysteries and crime fiction, a visit is a must. I first ventured down that little staircase eight years ago, and I’ve lost a lot of shelf space, sleep and dollars to the store ever since. I literally have a line of credit there, a gift card from my brother-in-law that I am rapidly burning through.

The employees at Partners & Crime pride themselves on their breadth of knowledge of the genre. But for the shy customer who does not feel like chatting them up, there are the “shelf talkers,” as they are called in the business — little handwritten notes of praise for books or writers that, chances are, you’ve never heard of.

“Five thumbs up for a thriller that really thrills!” reads the card below Michael Gruber’s debut, “Tropic of Night” (2004). “Author’s first novel blends anthropology, scholarship, voodoo and violence in a story that will keep you spellbound from the opening scene to the last page — and beyond.” (Sold! I devoured it and ran back for the sequel.)

There is a shelf marked “Serial Killer Thriller.” Another is marked “Great Tough Guys,” near one for “Great Tough Girls.” Another shelf moves on hinges — secret entrance! — to block off a room for monthly live performances of old-time radio plays.

I stopped in recently and saw a new little section labeled “Scandinavian.” A friendly clerk, Steve Viola, approached. “This guy’s terrific,” he said, holding a book by Arnaldur Indridason called “Silence of the Grave” (2006). I scanned the first sentence — “He knew at once it was a human bone, when he took it from the baby who was sitting on the floor chewing on it.” — and felt a brisk Icelandic chill.

One of the store’s owners, Maggie Griffin, 53, said the ability to make informed recommendations set Partners & Crime apart from bigger — and admittedly less expensive — chain stores. “Someone comes in and says, ‘I read a book where a guy dies on a boat in Boston Harbor. I can’t remember the title.’ Our staff does,” she said.

People tell Ms. Griffin that they read every kind of book, “and I say, ‘Well, I’ve got this great book where the cat solves the crime,’ and they’re like, ‘No, no,’ rejecting it. I say, ‘Tell me two books you wish you could read again,’ and I triangulate” to help them choose.

I tested her: I like Mo Hayder, she of the twisted “Birdman,” a serial-killer-shelf discovery. Ms. Griffin stopped me there: “Val McDermott. ‘The Mermaids Singing.’ ‘Wire in the Blood.’ ”

I tried again: “I liked that ‘Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ book.”

“What did you like about it? The plot? Or the setting?” I said the setting, and she said, “You probably should try ‘The Redbreast’ or ‘Nemesis’ by Nesbo.”

Try having that conversation with a Kindle.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/ny...l?ref=nyregion

[Merry]

Good on 'em .


Top 10 Bitchiest Architecture Reviews in the New AIA Guide

June 2, 2010, by Joey

Somebody finally has something nice to say about controversial architect Robert Scarano, and surprisingly, it's the gatekeepers of one of the most respected texts on NYC architecture! This week the fifth edition of the AIA Guide to New York City gets dropped on the brains of archigeeks everywhere (careful, it's 1,055 pages), and this latest version of the beloved manual is full of surprises—such as the praise not only for Scarano projects like ScarBow and Long Island City's Vere (which the authors already let us know they were digging), but also the hilarious ways in which the book takes swipes at those buildings deemed unworthy.

You may have noticed that the city went through a bit of a building boom in the decade since the book's previous edition came out, and authors Fran Leadon and Norval White (who passed away late last year; original co-author Elliot Willensky died in 1990) go after the new stuff with gusto. While the majority of the book celebrates the good, the AIA Guide is at its most entertaining when applying its witty and pithy critiques to things considered by the authors to be crapitechture. Here are some examples!

The book tackles over 6,000 buildings across all five boroughs, so we haven't been through the whole thing just yet. But while flipping we took note of our favorite catty remarks made about new buildings. For those without the book (order it already!), we've added links to photos of the buildings being panned to serve as visual aids. Enjoy!

10) 15 Central Park West (Robert A.M. Stern): "A stage set: an attempted re-incarnation of the spacious, luxurious apartment architecture constructed along Central Park West between the two world wars. Everything's exaggerated, retro and gigantic, from the marble lobby to the bathrooms, from private screening rooms to wine cellars. The Century, next door, was a founding father of this Central Park West apartment row, and the real thing." [photo]

9) One Ten 3rd (Greenberg Farrow Architects): "Another Blue Tower? Scarcely. More an incoherent construction of glass." [photo]

8) Chelsea Enclave (Polshek Partnership): "The new building includes some space for the [General Theological Seminary's] theological pursuits, and has helped the seminary financially, but architecturally it's a real intrusion. What had been a secret, and sacred, garden is now the shared back yard of yuppies." [photo]

7) On Prospect Park (Richard Meier): "A massive beached whale...Fortunately, it's not actually on the park; it just seems that way." [photo]

6) Avant Chelsea (1100 Architects): "A glassy high-rise offering five-star hotel living, but the floor to ceiling glass and chiseled blue shell has nothing to do with the street to which it belongs. The sales pitch is 'Your Life Here.' Is that an offer or a threat?" [photo]

5) William Beaver House (Tsao & McKown Architects): "The Post-It Note Building." [photo]

4) The Chapin School (Farewell Mills Gatsch Architects, 2008 addition): "Said the modernist addition to the neo-Georgian brick school: 'Sorry! I landed on your roof! Pardon me! Now I seem to be stuck to your cornice! Oh, well...'" [photo]

3) Astor Place Tower (aka the Sculpture for Living; Gwathmey Siegel): "It might be more at home on the skyline of some other town: Stamford, Charlotte, Tampa all come to mind." [photo]

2) Palazzo Chupi (Julian Schnabel): "This 12-story eruption is a mess of competing balconies, arched windows, faux-Venetian details, and hot pink stucco. At a smaller scale it might be funny, but it's too big to be a good joke." [photo]

1) These three consecutive Williamsburg entries: Northside Piers (FxFowle): "Three glass towers along the East River. This is Brooklyn?" The Edge (Stephen B. Jacobs Group): "More towers along the water, just north of Northside Piers. Presumably named for its proximity to the water, not for the Irish guitarist. Again, this is Brooklyn?" 20, 30, 50 Bayard Street (Karl Fischer): "Mr Fischer, of Montreal, has been busy in Williamsburg. These three glass boxes, with a few curves thrown in here and there, stare down at the park. There are dozens of other similar projects in the neighborhood, and a stroll west and south will reveal them, but seeing these three is probably more than enough." [Northside, Edge, Karl Fischer Row]

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/0..._aia_guide.php

[Merry]

I've started a leisurely, long-term browse through the new AIA Guide to New York City.

Space has been maximised this time, with no wasted margins. Entries are arranged in 2 columns instead of one for the first time and a new condensed font has been used.

The thumbnail photos arranged in the margins of the 4th edition have largely been replaced by larger photos of varying sizes inserted into the text (as with the 3rd edition), including the occasional full page spread. I always found it a bit annoying that photos often don't appear on the same page as the related entry, but needs must with this format, I suppose. Don't toss out your old editions, folks; the photos are all different.

The footprint of buildings is shown on the new maps. Designated Historic Districts are shown, as previously. I don't agree with this assessment of the maps, or photos.

To save space, the index is now arranged in 3 columns and a very handy Address Index is now included.
Architectural style symbols have been retained, as have the apples to signify landmarks.

Instead of a separate Necrology section, as in the 3rd edition, entries are included at the end of each section. Unfortunately, these entries aren't numbered and included on the maps. They perhaps could have used the same numbers as the replacement buildings where applicable, as a useful geographical reference for further information. It's interesting that along with an entry for the new 2 Columbus Circle, which "wears a fancy gown for another ball", there is also an entry in the Necrology for the old lollypop version.

As with previous editions, there are maddening omissions. The Graybar Building is still not included. Too big to ignore, surely? And how dare they, it's Art Deco! Just a personal thing :sigh: Oh well, there's always Google and other books. A more recent building surprisingly not included, I just discovered, is One Jackson Square (I was actually looking for nearby 80 8th Avenue, also sadly missing).

A small gripe with the hardcover edition: I was expecting it to come with a dust jacket (as with the 1st edition). Although illustrated as being the same red, white and blue cover as the paperback edition on Amazon and other places, my copy is sadly under-dressed, especially for the price.

I think the new format could have benefited from a little more colour, similar perhaps (not necessarily the same) to the Access guide, to delineate entries and provide visual markers, for Historic Districts, for example. Going overboard? It is already quite a busy format. Along with the symbols mentioned above, the Necrology entries and other general commentary are in the browish colour also used in the maps, which helps a lot, especially with the new condensed format.

The writing style is as enjoyably informative and entertaining, often amusing, as ever, even with new blood. It's a blessing that we have the benefit of Norval White's contribution, submitted just before he died, but it's very sad that he didn't get to see the finished product and won't be with us for future editions. I hope Fran Leadon and friends carry on the tradition.

Does all this really matter? To someone like me, who lives on the other side of the world (and loves books), yes! To those lucky devils whose home is NYC, especially those frequenting this forum :jealous:, probably less so.

[ablarc]

Thanks for your review, Merry. The previous edition was somewhere between unusable and lousy.

[Merry]

^ In what way/s did you find it unusable and/or lousy?

I guess the sheer volume of information will always present difficulties in presentation and ease of use.

If it weren't for the narrow width of the book, and the now maximised use of margins, perhaps some tabs down the side, even just in different colours, would assist navigation and enhance the usefulness of the headings across the top?

Is it supposed to be a reference work or a tour guide? Lugging it around on the suggested walking tours is not very practical. At least this edition doesn't have very confusing maps (3rd edition).

Although the opinions expressed are entertaining, I'd rather just see more facts, often frustratingly missing when I've looked things up.

Something I didn't mention before is, in addition to the Necrology entries, there are now also headings like "Unbuilt, but Inevitable", "As Good as Dead", "Probable" and "Doubtful", which offer brief tidbits about the future.

[Merry]

Author Sheds Light on Fort Greene Park Designer

By MITCHELL TRINKA – CUNY J-SCHOOL

Frederick Law Olmsted is often called the father of modern landscape architecture. His landscape designs stretch across 25 states and three Canadian provinces. In New York alone, he played a part in developing 24 parks, including Central Park, Prospect Park and the entire Buffalo public parks and parkways system. A lesser-known park that he designed is Fort Greene’s.



Fort Greene Park was the first time Olmsted worked with Calvert Vaux to make a small park, said Robert Twombly, an expert on the architect who has just edited a collection of his writings. Before then, the pair had built large, destination parks.

“It was not viewed as a park for the city as a whole, but for a specific neighborhood,” Mr. Twombly said of Fort Greene Park.

Olmsted was commissioned with Mr. Vaux to design Fort Greene Park in 1867. Though the area was small, Olmsted found ways to make the 30-acre space feel large, Mr. Twombly said.

“Olmsted didn’t think a park should reveal itself in totality from any given place,” Mr. Twombly said. “He thought the park should unfold itself constantly as you walk through it. So there’s always a surprise, there’s always something new.”

One fact that may surprise many, Mr. Twombly said, is the park originally had rustic shelters scattered around the open space. He said the shelters, removed before the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument redesign in 1908, were an important part of the park’s design to Olmsted and Vaux, who wanted to give people places to rest and contemplate life.

“Olmsted said there were two types of recreation to do in the park — one is contemplative, the other is exertive,” Mr. Twombly said. “The rustic shelters were meant for thought.”

Mr. Twombly has collected Olmsted’s thoughts on cities, small residential sites, urban parks and landscape architecture in his new book, “Frederick Law Olmsted, Essential Texts.” The book, published by W.W. Norton & Company, is set to come out on August 16.

http://fort-greene.thelocal.nytimes....park-designer/

[Merry]

The Flatiron Building as Metaphor and So Forth

By Nick Juravich




Skyscrapers make the best metaphors. Whether fortress or phallus, they offer the urban writer an unparalleled literary device for capturing the audacity and arrogance of the people who build and finance them. They're not half-bad for synecdoche, either, standing in for whole American cities in more than a few popular histories. In her new book The Flatiron: The New York Landmark and the Incomparable City That Arose With It, Alice Spareberg Alexiou strives, as the mouthful of a subtitle indicates, to accomplish both of these things, to capture the spirit of the freewheeling financiers who built the pride of Madison Square and, in the process, to tell the story of all New York at the turn of the last century.

full review

[JanetJay]

That's great. While I'm deep my favorite has to bee Mr Cheap's New York. Can't beat it for fun reading and great bargain hunting.

[Hof]

I finally got my copy of the new AIA Guide. I was a little slow on the uptake, then I found a copy on Amazon for only 23 bucks. It's a perfect edition, unmarked in any manner.
It arrived today, and the first thing I did was compare the size of the book with the last edition; I was surprised to see that the new one occupies the same space as the old one, same format save for one interesting difference. The 2010 book is SLIMMER, compared to the 2000 publication, DESPITE having the same page count--1055. What alchemy is THIS ???!!!

They both weigh about the same, despite considerably more content in the new edition, which feels denser.

The differences--the upgrades-- are immediately noticible. There are now TWO columns of print on each page, and while most of the photos are still stamp-sized, there seems to be more of them, with quite a few in half-page size. Some photos are of Olympian size, owning a full page. They STILL employ a nasty editorial shortcut-- using florid, detailed descriptions of some buildings, with NO PHOTO to accompany it, leaving me hungry as a wolf for more information. Thank God for Google streetview. Didn't have that back in 2000, but still.

I am disappointed that there is no DVD available, something you can plug into a laptop when you cruise the neighborhoods, looking for that one certain building that you just read about...maybe with some interactive stuff, like overheads or pans of certain neighborhoods where you can click on interesting buildings and get immediate feedback as you stand, gawking, on a busy sidewalk...with a music track made up of NY-themed songs. Aah, it's but a dream...

The Necrology has re-appeared, showing up in a nice dried-blood print, to remind you that it's BACK...
Which is really a gift, but, GRRR... same oversight here, as well--there are few photos of what was there, before.

They didn't evade the destruction and changes wrought by 9/11, mentioning it when appropriate, finally devoting a couple pages to the site.


Navigation is much better. The rat's nest of maps in the 2000 book were horrible. They got easier to decipher, thankfully, almost simple, and the different neighborhoods in the new maps have little ghost outlines of all the buildings along the way. A kind of fill-in-the-blank neighborhood guide. As you walk down a street, observing, you can fill in all the ghost blanks, like taking a test or voting on paper, and you will have a record of what you have seen.

I have only scanned the book so far, and I'm really looking forward to plowing through it.

[Merry]

The 2010 book is SLIMMER, compared to the 2000 publication, DESPITE having the same page count--1055. What alchemy is THIS ???!!!

It's just printed on thinner paper .

[Merry]

Queens Through the Ages

by Macy Halford

Ah, the enigma that is Queens. Why have only Twenty-third Avenue when you can also have Twenty-third Drive, Twenty-third Road, and Twenty-third Terrace, all in a row, and all of which intersect with Twenty-third Street, but not with Twenty-second Street, because there is no Twenty-second Street? This, however, is just part of a broader mystery: neighborhoods with no hard boundaries and no real centers, so that one can live, as I do, in Astoria, which is also Long Island City, though Long Island City is in no way Astoria.



full article

[lofter1]

Garden Guide: New York City (Revised Edition)

Terrific and compact (6.1" x 4.5") overview of gardens throughout NYC.



Product Description

A horticultural escape and guided tour through all the best- and little-known gardens in New York City’s five boroughs. Tucked inside venerable museums, perched on rooftops, concealed behind sleek midtown facades, and waiting beyond unassuming gates you may have passed a hundred times, if you know where to look, remarkable gardens welcome visitors in almost every corner of New York City.

From the windy bluffs of The Heather Garden in Fort Tryon Park to the bold, contemporary Gantry Plaza State Park in Hunters Point, Queens, to the innovative, recently-opened High Line, this pocket-sized guide tells the stories of more than 100 gardens in New York City’s boroughs. In addition to presenting the flora and fauna of New York’s urban fabric, it also chronicles the history, events, and personalities behind the green spaces visited by generations of New Yorkers. More than 50 color photos showcase the gardens, with each garden entry offering complete visitor information, clearly-labeled maps of each borough or region, and lively anecdotes sprinkled throughout.

[Merry]

Review> New York, Guided By Voices

by Matthew Postal


Adding a rare appraisal of industrial architecture, the Guide includes the so-called Egg Digesters
by Polshek Partnership, a waste treatment plant in Greenpoint.


St. George's Ukranian catholic Church reflects off the facade of Morphosis' 41 Cooper square.


Bernard Tschumi's Blue Building (left) and Office Da's Switch Building,
recent additions to the Lower East Side and the AIA Guide.

About every ten years, a new edition of the AIA Guide to New York City arrives. Published in 1968, 1978, 1988, 2000, and now in 2010, it has grown to more than 1,500 densely packed pages, chronicling the city from the days of Mayor John V. Lindsay, who contributed a “message” to the first edition, to the present.

In the first four editions, Norval White and Elliot Willensky, both architects, received credits as editors and writers, working with a team of architects, critics, and historians to research and write the text. Now, with the death of Willensky in 1990 and White in 2009, the baton has passed to Fran Leadon, an assistant professor at the School of Architecture at City College. To prepare this fifth edition, he worked closely with White, who had been living in France since 1993, and 22 student research assistants.

For all its quirks, the guide remains a “one-of-a-kind” read. Written in haste (reportedly six or nine months) to coincide with the 1967 AIA convention in New York City, the original volume was conceived to be portable, with scattered commentary about local history, stores, and restaurants, as well as routes for walking tours.

Over the years, the number of entries has quadrupled, and though this edition has 20 percent more than the last volume—over 6,000 in all—the spine is slightly slimmer and the number of pages is approximately the same. To accomplish this, a tighter, two-column layout was adopted. The new maps are generally strong, clearly designed and easy to read, with building footprints for each structure. When sites are close, in Manhattan or parts of Brooklyn, one can easily devise a personal itinerary.

In recent years, many excellent books have been published on New York City. Websites and blogs have also made significant contributions, the latter of which the AIA Guide frequently resembles in tone. Though many entries are identical or slightly updated, most of the new entries, especially along the transformed waterfront, appear to have been written by Leadon.

Here, he is completely on his own, sometimes astute and concise, and other times merely riffing on his predecessors. A great effort has been made to keep the text as current as possible and to extend the book’s usefulness—an enviable goal but an impossible task, especially in Lower Manhattan, where the map of the World Trade Center is at least two years old and lacks entry numbers.

A “necrology” section of varying length now follows each neighborhood, paying respect to buildings that were included in previous editions but have been lost or significantly altered. These somewhat poignant, brown-tinted entries do not appear on the maps, and would be more useful if integrated into the main text, allowing users to better evaluate their successors. Gone are the vertical rows of thumbnail images that populated the 2000 edition, replaced by fewer and more prominent photographs that make the page design more appealing but, perhaps, less useful to armchair readers.

The AIA Guide has always been a lively, informative, and opinionated publication, but it is hardly authoritative, and should be referenced with care. For instance, when the text says that LEED stands for “Leadership in Energy and Everything Designed,” are the authors trying to be clever, or just sloppy? And in describing new construction along West 18th Street, Leadon smugly writes that there is “a startling collection of cutting-edge architecture (ouch! the building cut me!).” Moreover, as years pass, the tone has become predictable as the authors lament the continued conversion of historic office buildings to condos (“what else?”) and the transformation of neighborhoods by “yuppies”—arguably a dated and meaningless term.

Attractive and generally well designed, the AIA Guide features excellent indexes that make it possible to find a building by its name or address. Yet it still tries to achieve too many things. Do we really need to know a museum’s hours, phone number, and web address? Readers with a strong interest in New York City and architecture will continue to value this single volume as an essential point of departure, but it is by no means the final word.

http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=4735

[Merry]

Not strictly about New York City specifically, but great for Mad Men fans and maybe "children of the '60s" .

Mad Men Unbuttoned, by Natasha Vargas-Cooper

Entering its fourth season on July 25, AMC's critically acclaimed TV series Mad Men takes place on Madison Avenue during the early 1960s in the fictional Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce ad agency. Inspired by the TV series, L.A. freelance writer Vargas-Cooper launched a nicely designed and engaging blog, the Footnotes of Mad Men, to survey not only the show but also the real-world historical and cultural artifacts of that period. Now her attractive blog has been adapted into an equally attractive book. As Vargas-Cooper sees it, the series is "about the culture clash and contradictions that occurred during the twilight of the Eisenhower era, the great societal shake-up of the 1960s" and its impact on modern America. She focuses on advertising, design, films, literature, politics, sex, style, and the workplace in order to probe "the most dramatic cultural shift in the 20th century." She begins by detailing all the series' regular characters and then moves on to profile real-life ad man Leo Burnett (Tony the Tiger, the Pillsbury Doughboy, the Marlboro Man), followed by everything from skinny ties, condoms, John Cheever and Frank O'Hara to Jackie Kennedy's White House tour on CBS and The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. All are neatly linked with specific TV episodes, making this both an entertaining read and the definitive companion book for the series.

Look inside

Natasha Vargas-Cooper's blog

[Merry]

http://www.amazon.com/Maxs-Kansas-Ci...4633407&sr=1-1

Max's Kansas City, hottest cultural melting pot of the 1960s and 1970s, celebrates 45th birthday

By Jim Farber


Debbie Harry is seen at Max's Kansas City in its heyday.


© Bob Gruen / www.bobgruen.com
(L. to r.) Dee Dee Ramone of the Ramones, Vera Ramone,
Richard Robinson and Lenny Kaye in stairwell at Max's Kansas City in 1979.


Bruce Springsteen at Max's Kansas City as a young musician.

Imagine Andy Warhol trading barbs with Halston in one room while artists Jackson Pollack and Willem de Kooning mix it up in another. At the same time, Lou Reed, Diana Vreeland, and Janis Joplin drink, gossip, or hook up with whatever bright young things catch their fancy.

This isn't some star-struck fever dream from beyond the grave. It's a snapshot of an average night at Max's Kansas City - club-house to the coolest people on earth during New York's most out-there era, the ‘60s and ‘70s.

"Max's was the place where those who stood at the tip of every pyramid hung out," says Danny Fields, the legendary manager, writer and p.r. man who spent many a night there.
"There was never a more exciting time, culturally, in New York, and all of it was brewing at Max's," says Steven Kasher, editor of a book published this week called "Max's Kansas City: Art, Glamour and Rock ‘n Roll" (Abrams Image $24.95).

Comprised mainly of stark black and white photos of the scene's bold-face names, the book nails Max's unrepeatable mix of grit, sex, glamour, and creative mania. The tome arrives amid a rush of events meant to toast the 45th anniversary of this arty oasis created, and nurtured, by its late owner Mickey Ruskin.

Wednesday, an exhibit opens at The Steven Kasher Gallery (521 West 23rd St.) featuring over 100 vintage photos shot at Max's, as well as sculptures and paintings by the visual Gods of its day. A simultaneous show takes place at the Loretta Howard Gallery (33 East 68th St.), focusing on the club's peak, from 1965 to ‘74. Later this year, we'll see a film documentary covering the demimonde. For those who want to sport the aura of Max's on their own bods, a new T-shirt is being manufactured emblazoned with the club's iconic logo.

While the original location of Max's (near 17th Street and Park Avenue South) now bustles with ritzy restaurants and high priced lofts, back in the day you could roll tumbleweeds through the area after work hours. "There was no street traffic after the insurance companies closed up for the night," explains Fields. "So no random people showed up. People came there as a destination - and for a real reason."

Mainly the reason was to mingle with other hipsters of the day (if you were established), or to try to pry your way into that company (if you weren't). Young wanna-bes Patti Smith and photographer Robert Mapplethorp hung around the club's less exclusive areas hoping to be invited into the inner sanctum: the back room. As observers tell it, the club's front and back rooms had very different characters. Crowding the front was what Fields calls "the abstract-impressionist heterosexual alcoholics" - like Pollack. The back got the more androgynous, and outrageous, Warhol "superstar" crowd.

To Kasher, the split between those two worlds captured a key shift in the notion of hip. "At Max's we go from this older, more macho model of cool, from James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Miles Davis to one with Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, Janis Joplin and Andy Warhol. That's a very different model of what cool is."

While both the front and back room scenes involved lots of booze and sexual hook-ups, drugs were a no-no. "You went around the corner to smoke a joint - out of respect for the club," says Fields.

Owner Ruskin got the artists to come to his club by wooing them at earlier Village bars he owned. He kept them there by setting up a barter system in which they could drink on an endless tab in exchange for works of art. Later came the Warhol crowd. Ruskin credited Fields with bringing in the music people, from Jim Morrison to The Velvet Underground.

Ruskin, who died of a drug overdose in 1983, abandoned the club in ‘74, at which point it became a very different place. In the late ‘70s, Max's functioned as a kind of adjunct to CBGB, hosting many of the same punk and new wave bands. At the same time, Studio 54 became the new star petting zoo. Which leads to the inevitable question: Can a place like Max's ever happen again?

"Only if there's a huge cultural revolution," Kasher says, "The model of cool would somehow have to shift from Western models to Japanese or African or Middle Eastern models. Whatever happens, you can be sure New York would be the last place it would happen."

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...#ixzz0zgi66Czs