Author Archives: Felix

New York as dysfunctional Latin American nation

Posted on May 14, 2003 by Felix

When I’m not blogging, I spend quite a lot of time writing about Latin America. Latin Americans generally have political systems based on that of the USA: a powerful president with checks and balances provided by the legislature and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 2 Comments

Raising Victor Vargas

Posted on May 10, 2003 by Felix

I usually feel a strong affinity for films which are set in my home cities – Mona Lisa, say, or anything by Woody Allen. New York has way, way more than its fair share of indy filmmakers, so a lot … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 4 Comments

Cirque du Soleil

Posted on May 9, 2003 by Felix

I saw my first ever Cirque du Soleil show last night. Imagine that – 31 years old, and somehow I’d managed to avoid it until now. Snob that I am, I expected mass-market middlebrow entertainment, and went as much out … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 19 Comments

Woody Allen’s Writer’s Block

Posted on May 5, 2003 by Felix

Woody Allen has directed his first play, and it’s currently in previews at the Atlantic Theater Company in Chelsea. Actually, Writer’s Block is two plays: the first an absurdist take on marital infidelity set on the Upper West Side of … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 4 Comments

Topic [A] With Tina Brown

Posted on May 2, 2003 by Felix

Magazine editors are behind-the-scenes people, rather like central bank presidents. They should appear in public as little as possible, and, when they do, keep their mouths shut. Anna Wintour, of Vogue, has the right idea: only appear behind dark glasses, … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 10 Comments

Empire

Posted on April 30, 2003 by Felix

Sometimes, when New York gets too hectic, the best way to clear the mind is to go lie on the beach in Rio de Janeiro for a couple of weeks. Sometimes? More like always. It certainly worked for Nick Denton, … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment

Aureole Las Vegas

Posted on April 23, 2003 by Felix

I’ve just got back from a trip to Las Vegas – what a city! I went for my birthday, and one of the highlights was a trip to Aureole Las Vegas for my birthday meal. Although I’m really not qualified … Continue reading →

Posted in Restaurants | 4 Comments

Literary fiction

Posted on April 13, 2003 by Felix

A couple of weeks ago, I was quite rude about those who take their literature extremely seriously. Today, in order to redress the balance a little, I’d like to respond to the opposite tendency: the idea, as Michael Blowhard puts … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 10 Comments

Beacon, Barney and Baker

Posted on April 7, 2003 by Felix

If New York didn’t know about Dia:Beacon before, surely it does now. A massive Richard Serra piece dwarfs a black-clad gallery-goer on the cover of the New York Times Magazine, which inside runs a 6,500-word opus by Michael Kimmelman all … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 3 Comments

The Believer

Posted on April 1, 2003 by Felix

For a new magazine from the Dave Eggers stable, The Believer has had surprisingly little hype. It’s quietly arrived in bookstores without the Eggers name anywhere to be seen (although his influence is obvious and everywhere felt) and is clearly … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 4 Comments

Britain

Posted on March 30, 2003 by Felix

It’s been a while (over six years, to be precise), but I think I’ve been living in New York for long enough now that I can finally weigh in on the subject of Britain in general, and London in particular, … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 1 Comment

MemeFirst responds to Puma

Posted on March 19, 2003 by Felix

MemeFirst has responded to Puma’s cease and desist letter. Trademark lawyer Martin Schwimmer was kind enough to draft a response both for us and for AdRants, and you can download a PDF file of it here. If you don’t want … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 11 Comments

Bush and Beckham

Posted on March 18, 2003 by Felix

It is the eve of war, and the mood of the world is sombre. Some developments have been heartening. In the UK, the resignation of Robin Cook and today’s debate on going to war have shown the world British parliamentary … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 7 Comments

Puma’s cease-and-desist letter

Posted on March 14, 2003 by Felix

Memefirst received an official (and officious) letter from Puma today, telling us to "IMMEDIATELY cease and desist from all further display, use and publication of the offensive PUMA image". Why are they shouting? Why is "immediately" in all caps? No … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 5 Comments

The fake Puma ads

Posted on March 12, 2003 by Felix

Yes, they’re fake. They have no connection with Puma at all. They’re not real ads tweaked in Photoshop, they didn’t run in Brazilian Maxim, they’re not viral marketing by a top-secret Puma subsidiary. They’re fakes, and Puma doesn’t like them … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 48 Comments

Bush’s press conference

Posted on March 6, 2003 by Felix

The leader of the free world gave his second prime-time press conference today, and the world, or at least the US, was watching. For the best part of an hour, George W Bush basically ignored whatever questions were asked of … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 2 Comments

Frank Zappa

Posted on March 3, 2003 by Felix

Music has been becoming increasingly Balkanised for many years now. From the days of Gregorian chant to the present, there’s been an almost teleological progression: the number of different types of music has increased, while the audience for any given … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 5 Comments

Libeskind wins

Posted on February 27, 2003 by Felix

It was a close-run thing, but Studio Daniel Libeskind has won the competition to design the new World Trade Center site. Today was probably the biggest day of his career, but he got there not through shameless self-puffery, as some … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 5 Comments

American Airlines sucks

Posted on February 18, 2003 by Felix

I haven’t had a lot of luck with air travel of late. My flights always seem to be delayed – and for some reason, when a flight is delayed more than half an hour, it always turns out to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 279 Comments

The Oscar nominations

Posted on February 14, 2003 by Felix

I haven’t seen much in the blogosphere over recent days on the subject of the Oscar nominations. I’m a little surprised, since the big news is the way in which New York has triumphed over Los Angeles. Every Best Picture … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 2 Comments

A cruise around the New York blogosphere

Posted on February 13, 2003 by Felix

You probably didn’t notice, but I recently restructured my website. Entries which used to have unwieldly URLs like https://www.felixsalmon.com/mt-blogfiles/archives/felixsalmon/000067.html now have nice simple addresses like https://www.felixsalmon.com/000067.php – a change which has more than simply cosmetic benefits. Now, I can check … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 5 Comments

City of God

Posted on February 10, 2003 by Felix

At the beginning of City of God, the critically-acclaimed new movie about the slums of Rio de Janeiro, a young thug in the eponymous neighborhood is showing off his footwork to some younger kids. As he kicks a football from … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 2 Comments

The two WTC finalists

Posted on February 4, 2003 by Felix

The cliché about things designed by committees is going to have to be rethought. The committee in charge of deciding what’s going to be built on the World Trade Center site today announced its two finalists – and they were … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 8 Comments

Space exploration

Posted on February 3, 2003 by Felix

Anybody with an interest in space exploration has known, pretty much ever since the Columbia first launched in 1981, that the space shuttle was, scientifically speaking, a white elephant. It was designed as a workhorse capable of taking large loads … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 11 Comments

The new New York

Posted on January 31, 2003 by Felix

New York is changing. It’s getting smaller, friendlier, less corporate, less ostentatious and maybe even a little bit more geniune. The stock-market bubble has burst, the economy is turning rough, and people are less interested in what you do, more … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Restaurants | 3 Comments