(Photo: Michael Garofalo)
It’s impossible to ignore it—this is a weird, weird day in New York City. The Trump-fueled angst is palpable. Subway cars are eerily silent. Everyone is avoiding eye contact. Masses of people are moping around like their dog just died. But a few positive thinkers are channeling good vibes at an impromptu gathering that started this morning in Union Square. More →
(Photo: Nicole Disser)
The mood was shifting just as I made my way toward House of Yes around 10 pm last night. Commentators on NBC, CNN, and anywhere else were starting to look flustered– especially Wolf Blitzer (a guy who looks like he passed up coffee to stick his fingers into an electrical socket) whose discombobulated outbursts and spastic reportage were only adding to a slowly-building sense of panic. Many battlegroud states were still too close to call, but Trump and Hillary were now neck-and-neck. That menacing meter on the New York Times site, which measured the probability of a Trump victory, was jumping up from its position at “we’re cool” to “we’re so, so fucked.”
Anthony Atamanuik as Trump. (Photo:)
While the candidates continue to campaign with just hours left on the clock, two of Donald Trump’s biggest critics, Bill Maher and Anthony Atamanuik, made their final appeals to NYC voters during separate appearances at the New York Comedy Festival. Maher did his “whiny little bitch” routine to a packed house at the Theater at Madison Square Garden on Saturday and Atamanuik brought his scary-good/good-and-scary Trump impression to NYU on Thursday.
(Photo: Daniel Maurer)
“Last night was—pardon my French—batshit crazy,” said Jon Vanco of IFC Center, referring to the surprise premiere of Michael Moore in Trumpland on Tuesday. “It was the most circusy, bizarre night on Sixth Avenue that I think we’ve ever had here.”
Finally, the American public got an October surprise that didn’t involve forcible fondling or 400-pound hackers. Monday night, Michael Moore basically dropped some balloons on everyone by announcing that his new movie, Michael Moore in Trumpland, would be premiering Tuesday at IFC Center. Little was known about what promised to be the Beyoncé of agitprop cinema, but that didn’t stop hundreds of people from storming the theater like they had decided where to invade next.
“Why I Want To Fuck Donald Trump” on view now at Joshua Liner Gallery (Photo courtesy of Joshua Liner Gallery)
Last week’s video of Donald Trump bragging about sexual assault threw a giant dildo into a campaign that seemed impervious to shame, just as the candidate had almost started seeming more presidential (at least, in light of the spotty track record of previous presidents). As screwed up as the whole thing is, nothing in the video was all that surprising. The “locker room talk” only confirmed Trump’s image as a billionaire playboy who trades skyscrapers (his most phallic assets) like Pokémon cards, and gets whatever his little Trump desires.
“His whole image is vulgarly sexual in a way,” agreed Alfred Steiner, the curator of a very timely new art show. “And he’s played right into that the whole time.”
Milo in the tub. (Photo: Emma Russell)
“This is the new punk. Republican is the new cool,” said Milo Yiannopoulos at the reception for #DaddyWillSaveUs, a pro-Trump art exhibition that opened Saturday at Wallplay’s Gallery 151 in Chelsea.
The Donald Trump tombstone that artist Brian Andrew Whiteley planted in Central Park in March is now on display in Bushwick. Friday night, we stopped by Christopher Stout Gallery’s pop-up to pay our respects to the man who “Made America Hate Again.” While we were at the opening, we asked attendees to come up with their own epitaph for the Trump campaign. Click through the slideshow to see their responses.
(photo: Cassidy Dawn Graves)
When you tune into the first presidential debate next week, expect a few pot shots.
Longtime yippie leader Dana Beal intends to march with a 51-foot replica of a marijuana joint at Hofstra University in Long Island. He’s hoping it’ll get the attention of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has thus far failed to respond to a letter that pot activists hand-delivered to her Brooklyn campaign office in June. In it, they called on the Democratic nominee to remove cannabis from a federal list of dangerous drugs should she win the White House in November.