Matt Frassica » New York Observer

Bankrolling transportation reform

Matt — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:19:39 +0000

My profile of financier and transportation reformer Mark Gorton appears in this week’s New York Observer, you can read it here. Gorton’s been profiled before, mostly for his financial wizardry (the quantitative hedge fund he founded needed trades so fast none of the electronic brokerages he worked with could satisfy him, so he started his own), but this piece focuses on the role he has played in the recent massive changes to New York City’s street design – notably the blocking off of Broadway in Times Square to traffic. Gorton’s non-profit runs Streetsblog, probably the best and most influential source for opinionated news on transportation issues in New York and D.C.

Splendor in the Glass: Shards in the Carpet at NYPL Party

Matt — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:00:30 +0000

The New York Public Library’s Young Lions benefit party Monday night got off to an innocuous start. Library donors in their 20s and 30s gathered under the glass dome of the Bartos Forum in the main branch at 42nd Street, avoiding the dance floor while the DJ spun hits from their youth (Whitney Houston, etc.).

The night was optimistically titled “A Bright Future,” and a giant inflatable light bulb suspended from the dome’s peak reinforced the theme. More>

Designer Jacobs Lauded by Pratt as Trustee is Carried Out on Stretcher

Matt — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:57:46 +0000

“For me, a legend is someone I look up to and I respect and admire, and I guess I’m not there yet for myself,” said designer Marc Jacobs humbly on Thursday, Oct. 29, at the Pratt Institute Legends award benefit, where he was one of the evening’s honorees.

“Just because they give me this prize doesn’t mean I am one,” added Mr. Jacobs, who wore black leather boots with white socks, a red tartan kilt, a white dress shirt open at the collar and a black sport jacket with roped shoulders. More>

At Wild Things Premiere, We Could Eat Celebs Up, We Love Them So!

Matt — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:25:15 +0000

“Since I was a kid, I’ve been hoping that I could get kids on my side, because they’re the coolest and smartest,” said Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the New York premiere of Spike Jonze’s movie version of the Maurice Sendak children’s classic Where the Wild Things Are, held at Alice Tully Hall on Tuesday Oct. 15. “They know better than all of us.”

Ms. O was speaking about recording the film’s soundtrack with a chorus of children. But she could just as easily have been talking about Warner Brothers’ hopes for the film, which went on to do very well in its opening weekend. More>

Oxford UP Goes All Out as Harper’s Book Man Brings Clarice Lispector to the U.S.

Matt — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:44:36 +0000

“When I met Ben many, many years ago, the first thing he told me was about Clarice,” said Dutch novelist Arthur Japin. “I don’t know if it was our first date, but it might have been.”

Mr. Japin was talking about his partner Benjamin Moser, the “New Books” columnist for Harper’s and the author of Why This World, a new biography of the Brazilian author Clarice Lispector. The publication of Mr. Moser’s book was celebrated last night in the grand lobby of Oxford University Press on Madison Ave. at 34th Street, in the form of a party co-hosted by Oxford and the Brazilian consulate that improbably drew a crowd of around 200 people. More>