Manhattan Style

Wasserstein, Wendy: Elements of Style: A Novel, New York Alfred A. Knopf; A Borzoi Book 2006
ISBN: 1400042313 Fine

Cloth, gilt, 307 pp.; 25 cm. AS NEW. Stated "First Edition." Dust jacket protected in a mylar book cover. "From the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and author of the essay collection Shiksa Goddess ('Utterly delicious' - Judith Thurman), a dazzling debut novel, a comedy about New York's urban gentry living in a post-9/11 world - the arbiters of fashion and the doyennes of charity balls; about the rich and the nouveau rich(er), the glamorous and the desperate to be. We meet Francesca Weissman, the Upper East Side pediatrician rated number one by Manhattan magazine, who takes us into the upper strata of privilege and aspiration (she's originally from Queens with a father in hosiery; life on the fringes of glittering New York is fine with her)...Samantha Acton, thoroughbred descendant of the Van Rensselaers and the Carnegies, who defines the social order in the great tradition of Mrs. Astor and Babe Paley...Judy Tremont from Modesto, California, daughter of a cop - her life's work, her obsession, is New York society and its richest families...Barry Santorini, Republican, moviemaker, winner of twelve Oscars, and his wife, the Italian supermarket heiress and former media rep for Giorgio Armani...and many more. As Elements of Style opens out, we see a madcap mosaic of the social lives and mores of twenty-first century Manhattan - of romance, work, family, and friendship. Satiric, fierce, touching - and deliciously Wasserstein. / Wendy Wasserstein is the author of the the plays Uncommon Women and Others, Isn't It Romantic, The Sisters Rosensweig, An American Daughter, and The Heidi Chronicles, for which she received a Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize, and of the books, Bachelor Girls and Shiksa Goddess. She was admired both for the warmth and the satirical cool of her writing; each of her plays and books captures an essence of the time, makes us laugh and leaves us wiser. Wendy Wasserstein was born in 1950 in Brooklyn and died at the age of 55." - Publisher. First Edition, First Printing Fine Hard Cover 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall Collectible

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Nash, Eric P. Manhattan Skyscrapers, New York Princeton Architectural Press 1999
ISBN: 1568981813 Fine McGrath, Norman (Photographs by)

175 pp., illus. (chiefly col.), bib., index; 32 cm. AS NEW. Dust jacket protected in a mylar book cover. OVERSIZE! No priority/air, except by special arrangement. A survey of New York's skyscrapers, presented chronologically, with informative essays on each building. "The city of New York is the city of skyscrapers. Every first-time visitor to Manhattan experiences the awe of gazing up at the soaring stone, steel, and glass towers of Wall Street or Midtown, and wonders how those structures came to be built. Manhattan Skyscrapers answers the question by presenting the 75 most significant tall buildings that make up the city's famous skyline. From Louis Sullivan's Bayard-Condict Building of 1898 on Bleeker Street to the Conde Nast tower currently rising above Times Square, Manhattan Skyscrapers lavishly presents over a hundred years of New York's most interesting and important tall buildings. Author Eric P. Nash profiles familiar skyscrapers such as the Woolworth Building, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the World Trade Towers, the AT&T (now Sony) Building, and the Seagram Building, while also championing several often-overlooked yet significant structures, such as the McGraw- Hill, the Metropolitan Life Insurance, and the Fred F. French Buildings. Nash's writing strikes an elegant balance between history, archi-tectural evaluation, and intelligent guidebook. For each building, Nash identifies the building style, gives the overall profile and image of the building, and discusses its construction; also included are quotes from the buildings' architects and the architectural critics of the time. Each skyscraper is illustrated with full-page color photo-graphs by noted photographer Norman McGrath as well as architectural drawings and plans, archival images of the original interiors, postcards, and other ephemera. Manhattan Skyscrapers is essential reading-or an ideal gift-for anyone interested in the buildings that make New York the ultimate skyscraper city. / Eric P. Nash is the author of four books, including New York's 50 Best Secret Architectural Treasures and New York's 50 Best Skyscrapers. Since 1986 he has worked as a researcher for the New York Times Magazine, and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review. He lives in a Gothic-style skyscraper apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan." - Publisher. Fine Hard Cover 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall

[SW: American::5. Modern, 1900-1945 Movements::Bauhaus Design::Industrial Architecture::Urbanism, Cities & City Planning Architecture::History Architecture::Public, Commercial & Industrial Photography::Subjects & Themes::Architectural XL: Extra Large]

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Cheren, Mel: MY LIFE AND THE PARADISE GARAGE, New York, N.Y. 24 Hours For Life Inc 2000
ISBN: 0-9678994-0-0 As New Condition

From the Publisher Keep on Dancin' is the story of the rise and fall of the legendary Paradise Garage, the underground disco that was ruled by the greatest DJ of all time and rivaled only by Studio 54 in its soulful and decadent magnificence. Set against the passionate love affair of two men who would both eventually rate as two of New York City's greatest style and scene makers, the story traces the hypnotic birth of disco, the Garage inspired technical innovations that changed the music industry, the erotic life of gay New York and the devastating rise of AIDS. What started out as a whisper of an idea between lovers - Garage owner Michael Brody and financial backer Mel Cheren - eventually culminated into a dance palace that existed for more than a decade and is still spoken about with reverence. Keep on Dancin' gives hundreds of private recollections from the people who were there: Tom Moulton, Francois Kevorkian, Grace Jones, Thelma Houston, Frankie Knuckles, Junior Vasquez and others help recreate the moment when love was the message. Library Journal "Nothing happens by accident," Cheren repeats like a mantra in unwitting tribute to his own survival. The "godfather of disco" is one of the few left who remembers the innocent yet repressed pre-Stonewall New York of the 1960s, the orgiastic heyday of disco of the Seventies, and the deluge of AIDS that swept it away in the Eighties. This is the stuff of two decades of gay history, but Cheren (with Rotello) redeems the familiar material with his unsparing candor and forthright energy. As a founder of the influential West End Records, Cheren was present at the creation of disco, and his glimpses into the recording industry are fascinating. Despite a tendency to telegraph future events too emphatically, he evokes the sleazy glamour of disco precisely, with its symbiotic relationships to drugs and gay sexuality, culminating in the brainchild of Cheren's ex-lover Michael Brody: the fabled Paradise Garage disco. Recommended for libraries with large gay studies and pop music collections.-Richard J. Violette, Special Libs. Cataloguing, Victoria, BC The Advocate - Alonso Duralde Return to the glory days of disco with the frank new memoir by Cheren, a financial backer of the Paradise Garage, New York's premier gay disco of the 70's and 80's. What People Are Saying Edmund White Edmund White, author of The Farewell Symphony This book is about the every night fever of disco in the 1970s, the splendors and miseries of the A-List-and the brilliant social and musical innovations of Mel Cheren, fantasy impresario of that delirious epoch. Michael Paloetta Michael Paoletta, Dance Music Editor, Billboard Magazine Stonewall. Gay Liberation. The early days of disco. The Paradise Garage. AIDS. House Music. Finally, a New York Story that is captivating, intriguing, and educational. The sights and sounds of Manhattan will never be the same. Synopsis Keep on Dancin' is the story of the rise and fall of the legendary Paradise Garage, the underground disco that was ruled by the greatest DJ of all time and rivaled only by Studio 54 in its soulful and decadent magnificence. Set against the passionate love affair of two men who would both eventually rate as two of New York City's greatest style and scene makers, the story traces the hypnotic birth of disco, the Garage inspired technical innovations that changed the music industry, the erotic life of gay New York and the devastating rise of AIDS. What started out as a whisper of an idea between lovers - Garage owner Michael Brody and financial backer Mel Cheren - eventually culminated into a dance palace that existed for more than a decade and is still spoken about with reverence. Keep on Dancin' gives hundreds of private recollections from the people who were there: Tom Moulton, Francois Kevorkian, Grace Jones, Thelma Houston, Frankie Knuckles, Junior Vasquez and others help recreate the moment when love was the message. Library Journal "Nothing happens by accident," Cheren repeats like a mantra in unwitting tribute to his Hardcover 24 cm.

[SW: Cheren, Mel, Sound recording executives and producers --, United States -- Biography, Gay men -- New York (State) -- New York --, Biography, Paradise Garage (Discotheque), Discotheques -- New York (State) -- New York]

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Frank, Dorothea Benton: The Land of Mango Sunsets A Novel, William Morrow 2007
0060892382

1.3 x 8.9 x 6.2 Inches; 352 pages; <p> Dorothea Benton Frank is one of America's most insightful writers weaving highly addictive tales of the conundrums of life with hilarity and heat. Now, in <i>The Land of Mango Sunsets</i>, Frank gives us one woman's journey toward a hard-won truth—life isn't always what it appears to be, and the sooner you realize that pride won't keep you warm at night, the happier you will be. Oh, and one other thing—a truly joyous life comes with a generous heart. </p> <p> Meet Miriam Elizabeth Swanson, in a full-blown snit, buoyed by a fabulous cast who run the gamut from insufferable to wonderful. First is the arrival of Liz Harper, Miriam's tenant from Birmingham, who sets a new cycle in motion. Then her other tenant, Kevin, stalwart companion with more style than Cary Grant, shakes Miriam out of her fog to see which battles are worth the fight. Next, her estranged son announces he's marrying a Jamaican woman. And what about her ex-husband, Charles, and that sordid lingerie model of his? Well, Harry, her African Gray parrot, has plenty of opinions. Finally, you'll laugh and cry when she meets a man named Harrison who changes her into a gal named Mellie. </p> <p> Miriam spins out from the revolving door of her postured life as a Manhattan quasi-socialite while she thirsts, no, <i>starves</i> for recognition. How did she become what she hates the most, and what does she endure to realize it? And where are the answers? It takes a few spins, dips, and one spectacular fall until Miriam gets her head on straight. Then in a whoosh she's off to the enchanted and mysterious land of Sullivans Island, deep in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. </p> <p> Told straight from the heart in Frank's vivid, highly entertaining style, <i>The Land of Mango Sunsets</i> just might be her finest work to date. If you decide to read this book, don't make plans to do anything else for a while. </p>

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