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NY Calling- Blackout To Bloomberg
From Publishers Weekly:
Berman (On the Town: One Hundred Years of Spectacle) establishes
the personal tone of this collection of original essays in his introduction,
recalling how New York City's very special form of peace, harmony,
and democracy... had unraveled in the 1970s and '80s. The bonding
of firsthand recollection to broader historical issues continues
throughout the anthology, co-edited by poet, critic and photographer
Berger. Joe Anastasio uses his morning subway commute to reflect
on his former life as a graffiti artist, while Leonard Levitt's
journalistic background informs his account of the lack of transparency
in the city's police department. For every quirky only in New York
moment, like Jim Knipfel's subway crazies or Luc Sante's East Village
commerce (both legitimate and not), there's hefty political discussion,
such as Leonard Greene's un-nostalgic look back at Ed Koch's record
on race relations. Not every contribution works: Richard Meltzer's
rant about the North American Calcutta has a creaky, outdated feel,
and Meakin Armstrong's essay about New York's literary culture is
little more than a string of authors and book titles. But with 230
photographs sprinkled throughout, this multivoiced collection establishes
itself as a unique document of the city's last three decades."
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