Ask CosmoLady anything, she has lived on 6 continents!

[CosmoLady]

Would you recommend Brave New World? I actually never read it.

Is it similar to Orwel's 1984 or Animal Farm?

Great book, it is also dystopian.

But unlike 1984, which is totalitarian, the regime in Brave New World is much more sinister:

decadent, liberal, permissive like the current one.

And there is a clear caste system, sex and decadence are widespread, and babies are created by the state, artificially, as needed,
and other interesting details. Drugs and brainwashing are widespread.

I did not enjoy the plot as much as Animal Farm or 1984, but the description of the regime and society was amazing!

Huxley was FAR ahead of his time, more insightful (about the West) than Orwell!

Brave New World is also the dark side of HG Wells' utopian socialism.

[Sylvanas]

Would you recommend Brave New World? I actually never read it.

Oh, you will love it, read

[Scarface F]

Thanks girls ! Sounds like a interesting read

[CosmoLady]

Long island is nice, and huge, was so bizzare see it from airplane first time, it has more people than my country!

I reccomend you explore Brooklyn and Queens, lots of nice spots there. In Manhattan my than boyfriend and me preferred Lower East Side, historic Chinatown and Little Italy, and atmosphere there. We would always meet up at Canal Street during weekends

We were in New York City in fall 2014 for 3 or 4 weeks with two Latin American girls from Miami.
We stayed near the southeast corner of Central Park, near the Park Avenue Armory (Park and E 66th).
We rented a townhouse from an old friend and business partner of our dad's,
who was about to sell his home, while we were trying to get in the NYC real estate market at the time.
Otherwise we would never be able to afford renting in that area.
In the evening (and during the day sometimes), we would shop for groceries,
bring our bulky groceries home in hiking backpacks, and prepare our own basic meals at home.
We did this in other cities as well, such as Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Tokyo.

The house was small, only 3 windows across, only 2 rooms per floor usually, 5 floors I think, so plenty of stairs.
The local real estate was absurdly expensive; we could enjoy a much higher quality of life elsewhere for a much lower price.
NYC may be a good investment but the urban environment and lifestyle was too alien and difficult, even for us!
We could not find any real estate that we wanted or could afford in NYC,
but we are in business further out on Long Island (near the Hamptons).

We did not rent a car in NYC, we took a taxi from the airport (crossing Queens),
which showed us how big and crowded the city was, and how terrible the traffic was, and how difficult it was to drive in NYC.
We used the subway a few times for fun, and we did not enjoy the experience.
It was dirty, crowded and full of hobos and thug blacks, and it smelled like piss.
We did not use taxis either. We walked everywhere, we knew that there would be a lot of walking.
Aggressive drivers almost ran us over several times. People in general were rude, impatient and self-centred.

For the first two weeks,
we were mostly walking from the southern end of Central Park all the way to Battery Park, the southern tip of Manhattan,
which was maybe 10 km one way. Sometimes we did this during the day AND at night as well.
Usually we would eat in Battery Park or at the nearby Ferry Terminal Market or Pier 11.
We walked all the way on every major north-south avenue, from 2nd to 9th I think,
but as the island narrows, all of the streets lead into Broadway or Bowery, so these were our main streets.

20 km of walking every day was normal, sometimes 40 km, and sometimes only several km (in Central Park).
So we walked hundreds of kilometers total when we stayed nearly a month in NYC.
We were sore and tired by the end of the trip, more so than usual.

We would stop at all the parks and squares and at all the major buildings,
but otherwise we did not explore the neighbourhoods much.
We passed through Chinatown and Little Italy and the edge of the Lower East Side, on Broadway, Bowery, etc.

We did not see much of the Lower East Side,
but we had a memorable experience when we stopped for lunch near 2nd Avenue and Bowery.
The cafe was on a shady residential street, and we explored the street a little,
and we discovered a private cemetery hidden between the buildings, rarely open to the public,
used by the old elite families of the city! We were able to go inside and explore the cemetery,
that was very nice and unexpected.

We fully explored Midtown and went shopping!
We passed through the Garment District, Hells' Kitchen, the Diamond District,
East Midtown, Gramercy Park, the Flatiron District, Union Square, Ukrainian Village, Little Italy, Chinatown,
and Chelsea, West Village, Greenwich Village, Noho, Soho, Tribeca, and other nearby districts that we do not remember.

We stopped at every park and square on the way. This was a wonderful way to explore the city and immerse ourselves in it.
We also walked up and down the major bridges, including the Brooklyn Bridge a few times (day and night),
and the Manhattan, Williamsburg and Queensboro Bridges and Roosevelt Island.
We would stop for lunch in Brooklyn at the end of the bridge, but the area was full of government buildings,
we never explored the trendy areas of Brooklyn or Queens.

We also went to the top of the Empire State Building. The new World Trade Centre observation deck was not open yet.
We also visited the Flatiron Building, Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Building, Woolworth Building, the UN Building, City Hall,
as well as the Museum of Modern Art and the famous department stores.

Almost every day we spent time at Battery Park, Wall Street, the Financial District.
On our days off, we would explore Central Park and relax in the park. We fully explored the park!
We also visited the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

We also stayed and relaxed at the Gramercy Park Hotel,
(Park Ave and E 21st, near Flatiron, Union Square) for two nights for a special occasion,
which was a very memorable experience. And we had never stayed at a hotel before, amazingly.
The interiors were very trendy, and we were able to explore Gramercy Park, which is a gated, private park closed to the public.
Many famous artists such as David Bowie, Madonna, Blondie, etc stayed at the Gramercy Park Hotel in the past.

We very much enjoyed riding the ferry repeatedly! We explored Liberty Island, Governors Island,
and the New Jersey waterfront (Liberty Park).

We also went on all of the ferry routes, and passed by all of Queens and Brooklyn from Astoria to Sunset Park.
We passed by DUMBO and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, I remember that, but we did not go ashore.
We even went as far as Staten Island, the Bronx, and Rockaway Beach with the ferry.
We enjoyed being on the water very much. We even took the ferry from Pier 11 to the waterfront Ikea in the port area of Brooklyn.

At the end of the trip, we took a few helicopter tours, day and night, from near Pier 11 near Battery Park.

New York was one of our most memorable trips,
the city's position is incredible, and the two helicopter trips and our many ferry trips were unforgettable!

[CosmoLady]

NYC had a good period while Giuliani was mayor (1994-02) and while Bloomberg was mayor (2002-14), despite 9/11.
I could sense that something was very wrong with the city and its inhabitants though,
and indeed the quality of life, public safety, and public services have deteriorated rapidly since 2014.
NYC is now regressing to how bad it was during the 1970s and 1980s.
Even in 2014, I had several disturbing and violent incidents with thugs or hobos.

Thanks to woke liberal policies,
there is now rapidly increasing crime, open drug use everywhere, even more homeless people everywhere (including migrants),
extreme mass migration, trash everywhere, a rat infestation, and collapsing public services.

Meanwhile the liberal elite INSULATE themselves from the consequences of their OWN policies.
Woke liberal policies seem designed to crush average people while protecting the elite.



Behind the Gates of a Private World for Only the Wealthiest New Yorkers (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/06/n...ate-clubs.html

Although everyday life has become increasingly unaffordable for almost everyone, a new class of private, members-only and concierge services is emerging.

It’s a great time to be rich in New York City.
Everyday life is increasingly unaffordable for most New Yorkers, but a new class of private, members-only and concierge services is emerging as a kind of gated community within the city.

Ultraexclusive clubs, laundry specialists, on-demand helicopter rides and services that allow users to bid hundreds of dollars for a restaurant reservation are transforming how those with lots of disposable income eat dinner, work out, see the doctor, look after their children, walk their dogs and get around — all without really having to interact with hoi polloi.

It all adds up to a city where the adages about New Yorkers of all backgrounds living and working shoulder to shoulder might now come with an asterisk.

The rich have long sought to avoid the inconveniences baked into city life. But something different is now surfacing. You don’t have to be a billionaire — just one of the city’s many run-of-the-mill rich people — to be able to buy your way into an easier but much narrower version of New York. Even the mayor’s favorite haunt is a members-only club.

Here are some ways that the city’s wealthy are creating a city that is largely accessible only to themselves.

House managers and rotating nannies

Demand for round-the-clock domestic help has surged since 2020, said April Berube, who runs the Wellington Agency, which helps place housekeepers, house managers and other staffers with wealthy families in the New York area — and in their second and third homes or on their yachts.

Ms. Berube said the volume of requests for nearly every kind of service is up dramatically even compared with three or four years ago. The going rate for a housekeeper is about $45 an hour, up from $30 prepandemic, she said, and it is now widely expected that families will offer health insurance and other benefits to staff members.

Keeping track of large staffs and several homes can, of course, be challenging. Some families hire an estate manager or chief of staff to run logistics and scheduling, and an experienced hand can make up to $350,000 a year, Ms. Berube said.

“The pandemic changed so much,” said Anita Rogers, the founder of British American Household Staffing, a domestic staffing agency with a large New York City presence, who has nearly doubled the size of her company in the last few years. “We are very busy.”

Instead of a babysitter working 40 hours during a workweek, Ms. Rogers says she now sees frequent requests for a group of two or three rotating nannies. They might spend four to seven days living with a family before passing the baton to the next nanny and rotating out for a few days. They typically make about $120,000 a year, she said.

Laundry specialists and private chefs

More wealthy New Yorkers are interested in full-time private chefs, according to leaders of private chef companies and domestic staffing agencies. The positions can command salaries of about $150,000 — and cover only lunch and dinner.

Breakfast is often handled by a housekeeper while the chef is out at the market, Ms. Rogers said. Chefs on the hunt for specialty items can use premium delivery services like Regalis Foods, where a $720 live Norwegian red king crab is only a click away.

Families are also increasingly interested in more niche roles, she said, like a laundress — a trained seamstress responsible for all matters related to clothes. An expert laundress might take 30 minutes to fully iron a button-up shirt, she said, and typically makes about $50 or $60 an hour.

While staff members can help handle pets, some New Yorkers prefer to send their dogs on daily hikes, often in wooded upstate areas where pets can run free. A private hike can cost $250 a day through the service Shape Up Your Pup, including a “report card” summarizing the adventure. The occasional group hike goes for $145 a day.

At-home I.V. drips and on-demand emergency rooms

Health — or at least spending a lot of time and money on feeling mentally and physically fit — has become one of the city’s most in-demand luxury products.

Sollis Health, which bills itself as the country’s first and only concierge emergency care provider, opened two Manhattan locations this year alone, and one in the Hamptons in 2021.

Memberships, which start at $3,500 annually and increase to $6,000 for those over 45, include same-day appointments, on-site lab testing and round-the-clock virtual care. House calls cost extra. Sollis is an “out-of-network provider,” according to its website, and is not enrolled in Medicare.

In-home services are also offered by NutriDrip, which offers I.V. vitamin drips aimed at revitalizing tired and stressed New Yorkers. A so-called NutriCleanse drip costs $355 for nonmembers and claims to combat “harmful toxins from urban exposure,” through a combination of vitamin C, magnesium, calcium, taurine and other elements. It costs another $100 to book the service at home in Manhattan, or $125 in Brooklyn or Queens. Members who pay $95 a month or $995 a year have access to discounted rates.

Healing through cryotherapy and crystals

Remedy Place, which calls itself “the world’s first social wellness club,” broke ground in the West Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles before opening its first location in New York last year.

A membership at the 7,000-square-foot club can run as much as $2,750 a month and includes unlimited access to a “hyperbaric oxygen chamber, lymphatic compression suit, ice bath breathwork classes, cryotherapy” and a red light bed.

Mental health tuneups can also be found at the Well, where memberships cost $395 to $495 a month and include an assessment by an in-house practitioner to evaluate 13 “aspects of wellness.” Treatments include mindfulness and movement classes along with infrared sauna and cold plunge sessions, an on-site lounge with free bone broth and a “crystal-charged meditation dome.” (Nonmembers can book services at Remedy Place and the Well.)

Remedy Place, the Well and one of Sollis Health’s newest locations are all located within a few blocks of the Flatiron Building in Manhattan, and have together created a kind of pricey micro-neighborhood for wellness.

$200,000 initiation fees for private clubs

While the city’s century-old social clubs have a reputation for being stuffy and old- fashioned, a new generation of private clubs have opened in the past few years.
Zero Bond in NoHo, Mayor Eric Adams’s preferred spot and the site of his 2021 election night victory party, charges $3,850 a year, plus a $1,000 initiation fee, for “general” memberships for 28- to 45-year-olds.

The Aman in New York, which is known as the city’s most expensive hotel, opened in 2022 with an in-house members’ club, which requires a $200,000 initiation fee and $15,000 in annual dues. The interiors are a “sumptuous cocoon of exquisite textures,” according to Town and Country, which likened the vibe to a mix of Bali and Tokyo.

The members-only Core Club recently moved from its headquarters on East 55th Street to Fifth Avenue, with initiation fees that range from $15,000 to $100,000 for a wine library, a speakeasy lounge, a salon, a barbershop, a juice bar and a gym, among other amenities, according to the Robb Report. A spokesman would not confirm any details about the space.

And Casa Tua, which has locations in Miami, Aspen and Paris, will open a restaurant with a private, members-only space at the Surrey, an Upper East Side hotel, early next year.

Heliports and $650 restaurant reservations

Casa Cipriani, which opened in 2021 across 110,000 square feet and five floors at the Battery Maritime Building, is “a social club in a modern sense where style, décor, privacy and respect are still appreciated values,” a spokeswoman said, in response to a query about menu prices and membership wait-lists.

The space includes two restaurants, a 15,000-square-foot health and wellness center, and a 9,000 square foot “great hall” that can accommodate 800 people for parties. The lacquered mahogany interiors recall “an elegant ocean liner” from the 1930s, according to a fact sheet prepared for reporters. It’s also just a block away from the heliport at Pier 6.

Zip Aviation, a private helicopter service, ferries groups of up to six from the pier to local airports, including Teterboro in New Jersey, the region’s hub for private jets, for $2,050 one way. Zip also flies to the Hamptons, with the priciest trip out to the easternmost point of the East End — Montauk — for $5,000 one way, plus “airport related fees.”

For those willing to eschew private clubs to eat and drink in public, it can feel impossible to get a reservation at some of the city’s most in-demand restaurants.
Those with disposable income can bid for reservations on websites like Appointment Trader and Cita Marketplace.

A recent offering from Cita included a prime time Tuesday evening two-top at Carbone for $450. That restaurant’s owners are opening a members-only club in Manhattan with a $20,000 initiation fee and $10,000 in annual dues, with a private dining room for the club’s “founding members,” who will pay a $50,000 initiation fee, according to Bloomberg, and a chef concierge who can whip up any dish a member craves with 48 hours notice. Cita also had a table for four available at Polo Bar on a Wednesday night at 5 p.m. for $650.

The reservation prices do not include the cost of the actual meal.

[Colonel Frank Grimes]

We were in New York City in fall 2014 for 3 or 4 weeks with two Latin American girls from Miami.
We stayed near the southeast corner of Central Park, near the Central Park Armory (Park Ave and E 66th).
We rented a townhouse from an old friend and business partner of our dad's,
who was about to sell his home, while we were trying to get in the NYC real estate market at the time.
Otherwise we would never be able to afford renting in that area.
In the evening (and during the day sometimes), we would shop for groceries,
bring our bulky groceries home in hiking backpacks, and prepare our own basic meals at home.
We did this in other cities as well, such as Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, etc.

The house was small, only 3 windows across, only 2 rooms per floor usually, 5 floors I think, so plenty of stairs.
The local real estate was absurdly expensive; we could enjoy a much higher quality of life elsewhere for a much lower price.
NYC may be a good investment but the urban environment and lifestyle was too alien and difficult, even for us!
We could not find any real estate that we wanted or could afford in NYC,
but we are in business further out on Long Island (near the Hamptons).

We did not rent a car in NYC, we took a taxi from the airport (crossing Queens),
which showed us how big and crowded the city was, and how terrible the traffic was, and how difficult it was to drive in NYC.
We used the subway a few times for fun, and we did not enjoy the experience.
It was dirty, crowded and full of hobos and thug blacks, and it smelled like piss.
We did not use taxis either. We walked everywhere, we knew that there would be a lot of walking.

For the first two weeks,
we were mostly walking from the southern end of Central Park all the way to Battery Park, the southern tip of Manhattan,
which was maybe 10 km one way. Sometimes we did this during the day AND at night as well.
Usually we would eat in Battery Park or at the nearby Ferry Terminal Market or Pier 11.
We walked all the way on every major north-south avenue, from 2nd to 9th I think,
but as the island narrows, all of the streets lead into Broadway or Bowery, so these were our main streets.

20 km of walking every day was normal, sometimes 40 km, and sometimes only several km (central park).
So we walked hundreds of kilometers when we stayed nearly a month in NYC.
We were sore and tired by the end of the trip, more so than usual.

We would stop at all the parks and squares and at all the major buildings,
but otherwise we did not explore the neighbourhoods much.
We passed through Chinatown and Little Italy and the edge of the Lower East Side, on Broadway, Bowery, etc.

We did not see much of the Lower East Side,
but we had a memorable experience when we stopped for lunch near 2nd Avenue and Bowery.
The cafe was on a shady residential street, and we explored the street a little,
and we discovered a private cemetery hidden between the buildings, rarely open to the public,
used by the old elite families of the city! We were able to go inside and explore the cemetery,
that was very nice and unexpected.

We fully explored Midtown and went shopping!
We passed through the Garment District, Hells' Kitchen, the Diamond District,
East Midtown, Gramercy Park, the Flatiron District, Union Square, Ukrainian Village, Little Italy, Chinatown,
and Chelsea, West Village, Greenwich Village, Noho, Soho, Tribeca, and other nearby districts that we do not remember.

We stopped at every park and square on the way. This was a wonderful way to explore the city and immerse ourselves in it.
We also walked up and down the major bridges, including the Brooklyn Bridge a few times (day and night),
and the Manhattan, Williamsburg and Queensboro Bridges and Roosevelt Island.
We would stop for lunch in Brooklyn at the end of the bridge, but the area was full of government buildings,
we never explored the trendy areas of Brooklyn or Queens.

We also went to the top of the Empire State Building. The new World Trade Centre observation deck was not open yet.
We also visited the Flatiron Building, Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Building, Woolworth Building, the UN Building, City Hall,
as well as the Museum of Modern Art and the famous department stores.

Almost every day we spent time at Battery Park, Wall Street, the Financial District.
On our days off, we would explore Central Park and relax in the park. We fully explored the park!
We also visited the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

We also stayed and relaxed at the Gramercy Park Hotel,
(Park Ave and E 21st, near Flatiron, Union Square) for two nights for a special occasion,
which was a very memorable experience. And we had never stayed at a hotel before, amazingly.
The interiors were very trendy, and we were able to explore Gramercy Park, which is a gated, private park closed to the public.
Many famous artists such as David Bowie, Madonna, Blondie, etc stayed at the Gramercy Park Hotel in the past.

We very much enjoyed riding the ferry repeatedly! We explored Liberty Island, Governors Island,
and the New Jersey waterfront (Liberty Park).

We also went on all of the ferry routes, and passed by all of Queens and Brooklyn from Astoria to Sunset Park.
We passed by DUMBO and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, I remember that, but we did not go ashore.
We even went as far as Staten Island, the Bronx, and Rockaway Beach with the ferry.
We enjoyed being on the water very much. We even took the ferry from Pier 9 to the waterfront Ikea in the port area of Brooklyn.

At the end of the trip, we took a few helicopter tours, day and night, from Pier 9 near Battery Park.

New York was one of our most memorable trips,
the city's position is incredible, and the two helicopter trips and our many ferry trips were unforgettable!

I always think of this scene in Kids when I think of Washington Square Park.



Colin Quinn has a great series where he visits NYC neighborhoods and talks with friends who grew up in those areas.

[CosmoLady]

I always think of this scene in Kids when I think of Washington Square Park.

Was that where it was? Next to NYU? I remember we got somewhat lost there.

Of course the white kids beat the random innocent black guy. Happens all the time, the reverse does not occur often, right?

An early woke film? A friend mentioned Crash recently.

Colin Quinn has a great series where he visits NYC neighborhoods and talks with friends who grew up in those areas.

What did you think of Kids?

I remember I watched that film when I was quite young, like 13 or so, with an older American girl who was into unusual films.

Kids impressed me at the time (2005), but it also disturbed and disgusted me, and frightened me about AIDS.
I watched it again recently and I reviewed it briefly.
https://www.theapricity.com/forum/sh...=1#post7944964
https://www.theapricity.com/forum/sh...=1#post7950124

So there was a subculture of delinquent white skater kids who behaved like blacks and Puerto Ricans, in Manhattan in 1995.
Was this common, or was this a very small subculture?

Have you also seen Ken Park?

[~Elizabeth~]

I always think of this scene in Kids when I think of Washington Square Park.

That's awful. I used to go to Washington Square Park when I was a little kid living in the area in the mid-1970's. I never saw boys fight like that in the park. What I did see was a man attacking a woman in the girls bathroom. Off-Broadway actors and actresses would rehearse in the park. I saw a performance of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. I saw the police arrest and take away a Christian preacher while leaving the drug addicts and dealers alone. I escaped a babysitter and ended up in the park during Halloween night when I was 7. Everyone wore elaborate costumes. A man dressed as Alice in Wonderland's Caterpillar gave me candy.

[Anglo-Celtic]

Do you know, or have you met, anybody with very extreme beliefs, from commies to Nazis to conspiracy theorists to cultists? I mean, besides the fine folks on this forum. If so, could you share some anecdotes? I was friends with a commie who shared my bizarre sense of humor, and my best friend hung around a for-real racist skinhead, but my friend wasn't a White supremacist.

[Colonel Frank Grimes]

Was that where it was? Next to NYU? I remember we got somewhat lost there.

Yeah, the park is surrounded by NYU buildings.

Have you seen Kids?

I saw it in 1996 when some kids I worked with told me about it. I was in high school.

I remember I watched that film when I was quite young, like 13 or so, with an older American girl who was into unusual films.

Kids impressed me at the time (2005), but it also disturbed and disgusted me, and frightened me about AIDS.

The screenplay was written in a week or so by Harmony Korine. There is no real story except the girl trying to track down Teddy to tell him he gave her HIV. It's just scenes of teens just being degenerate.

It's interesting in its weirdness, and it gets the slang right for the mid 90s.

I watched it again recently and I reviewed it briefly.
https://www.theapricity.com/forum/sh...=1#post7944964
https://www.theapricity.com/forum/sh...=1#post7950124

So there was a subculture of delinquent white skater kids who behaved like blacks and Puerto Ricans, in Manhattan in 1995.

They were all part of the same scene. Kids gravitate toward people with similar interests.

Here is a documentary of graffiti kids in the early 80s. You'll notice it's a mix of Whites, Blacks, and Puerto Ricans.

Was this common, or was this a very small subculture?

Those types of subcultures are small.

Have you also seen Ken Park?

I couldn't sit through the whole film. I remember thinking, "This is stupid." I forget the name of the director (same guy who directed Kids) but he often - or did in the past, I don't know now- would direct movies written by Harmony Korine.

I have no idea what people see in Harmony Korine. Even Werner Herzog likes the guy. He was in one of Korine's films, which was also so bad I couldn't watch it.