Monthly Archives: May 2021

Walking through downtown Portland, Oregon, in December 2019, I noticed a lot of empty storefronts. Id until recently lived in the city, and while one gets accustomed to businesses aging out of popularity (furrier, anyone?), about one-fifth of businesses Id seen open earlier in the year were now gone. Maybe landlords had gotten greedy? Or maybe Portland, which a decade earlier had been considered a youth magnet city, had lost its appeal.

Two months later, COVID-19 started to burn through the country. With the first cases next door in Washington state, Oregon locked down swiftly, a move that proponents believe kept the states infection and death rates low (192,000 and fewer than 2,600 respectively), if at an economic cost, especially to Portlands downtown: On top of 80-plus already unoccupied spaces, 190 closed temporarily or permanently.

Then George Floyd was murdered. While as many as 10,000 Portlanders marched in support of Black Lives Matter, a small portion50 on some nights, 600 on othersdecided the way to address Floyds death, to assuage something they felt was killing the American soul, was through destruction. These protesterssome self-identify as Antifa or black bloc, others call them rioters or anarchistsset fires, broke windows, and mixed it up with whatever authority figures they saw as standing in their way that day. Some Portlanders viewed these actions as justified, others considered them smashing for the sake of smashing.

Its just people breaking things, a commercial realtor told me. Theyre just criminals. With office towers emptied because of the pandemic, and storefronts busted up indiscriminately, downtown became both barren and unpleasant. With so little in operation, locals stayed away. So did tourists. The homeless population burgeoned. Crime shot up, including rampages that kept Portlanders wondering whether the next incident would be on their block, their business strip, their Boys & Girls Club.

To stay or abandon Portland? Its a real question, for those considering whether to spend their creative and financial capital in the Rose City. Almost every night since May 27, 2020, some area of the city has succumbed to violence. Much of it is centered downtown, at the federal courthouse and police station, but also at local landmarks like Powells Books, the Benson Hotel (where nearly every U.S. president since Taft has stayed), and the Oregon Historical Society (vandalized in October and again in April). The presence of plywood facing covering up storefronts along Broadway, where the citys main department stores and entertainment venues are located, now moves into its second year. This has not gone unnoticed by the outside world, and if I had a nickel for every person who in the past two months has asked whether Portland is a good place for a family vacation, Id be clocking about a buck twenty.

With the citys restaurants reopened for indoor dining on May 7, and the regions notoriously dreary winter weather giving way to the fecundities of spring, the city might reasonably expect to latch back onto the 126 months of economic expansion it had seen in January 2020.

It all comes down to confidence, right? Confidence in the citys ability to secure the basic services that make commerce possible, said Andrew Hoan, CEO of the Portland Business Alliance. Intel just announced there will be more factories here in the Portland region. So I think the question: do we still have economic swagger? The answer is yes.

Thats one way to look at it.

Personally, I am so happy to be out of that shithole, said Ron Avni, who, after operating a half-dozen successful Portland restaurants, divested from a city he saw as putting the welfare of protesters ahead of the needs of small business. The nihilists of Portland are always looking for excuses to ruin the productive segment. And the city does nothing to stop them.

Avni told me this in January, the day after his former restaurant Shalom YAll, which featured the foods of his native Israel and is currently under remodel, had its outdoor furniture trashed and the words Free Palestine, scum and murder spray-painted on its face.

The irony is one of the partners in the business is Palestinian, Avni said, from his new home in Austin. It doesnt matter. They come for you anyway.

Avnis fatalism is not unfounded, nor is the concern that Portland does not do enough to stop the destruction. When the violence started last summer, the Portland City Council demanded a $50 million cut to the $241 million police budget. (They got more than $15 million.) Did Portland mayor Ted Wheeler like that the citys main police station was being attacked every night? No, but he (and the vast majority of Portlanders) liked Trump even less and thus, when the Trump administration sent federal troops to Portland to protect federal property, the grudge match played out in the media, with Wheeler telling Trump to, Stay the hell out of the way, and Trump calling Wheeler, a fool.

What this meant in practical terms was a new district attorney who declined to prosecute more than 900 of 1,000 people arrested in the act of protesting in the second half of 2020, including many who committed property crimes. And so the violence not only continued, it grew more brazen; when protesters marched to Wheelers downtown condominium and demanded he resign, he chose to move rather than confront them. Only after Trump was voted out of office did Wheeler take a tougher stand on the continuing violence, asking citizens to help unmask the perpetrators. That request earned him the enmity of those sympathetic to the protesters and left an administration all but defenestrated.

We have a mayor that is hated by the right and has now become a favorite punching bag of the left, said Matt Kaye, who with his wife owns two Japanese restaurants on the citys east side. Portland has a proud history of political and social activism, but when it comes to the bevy of issues and the well-being of the business community, we are a city of handwringers, long-sighers, and eye-rollers.

I asked Kaye (who, full disclosure, took over a space of a business my husband sold in 2020) what made him decide to open a second location during both the height of the pandemic and the protest violence. We made the decision to expand before the shitstorm rained down on us, he said. We could have closed, or paused, but we were afraid of losing relevance.

Kayes locations are two miles from downtown, but both butt up against other areas that have seen considerable unrest, including a police station a mile away thats been attacked more than a dozen times. Even closer is Portlands Red House, site of a quasi-autonomous zone earlier this year. While the protest was ostensibly undertaken as a stand against gentrification and in support of a black and Native American family whod lived in the home for six decades (if more basically about a house that had been foreclosed on for nonpayment), the area became befouled with trash and human waste and, to the distress of neighbors, some occupiers open-carried rifles.

Our employees and loyal neighborhood customers buoyed our spirits, but it was really a tough, long haul thats not over yet, said Kaye, who, unlike Avni, has felt supported by the city. Theres grant money to be found and the street-side dining program has been very effectively administered, he said. Im optimistic about the long-term future of Portland businesses.

I havent heard many people leaving, said Vanessa Sturgeon, president of a commercial real estate company in downtown Portland. To be perfectly honest, the media in general has really overblown the Portland story. You have people calling from all over the country saying, Is it safe? Downtown is perfectly safe during the day.

Sturgeon does not deny its been a rough go. Its undoubted that business has taken a hit, she said. The retail tenants often have to leave their boards up because they dont have insurance for [the windows] anymore. When theyve gone to renew, theyre unable to procure insurance without a civil unrest clause. Almost every business thats getting hit by these rioters, its coming out of pocket, and most of them are small businesses.

With COVID on the wane and people getting vaccinated, downtown is starting to look less ghostly. From what I hear from restaurant ownersbecause downtown is a very good restaurant market when theres tourismis that its active, said Sturgeon. People can at least see the finish line here.

I do not doubt that Portland will regenerate. The people who came to the city in the aughts brought a love for making things by hand, things visitors also loved, whiskey and coffee and snowboards and bikes. The annual waterfront blues festival can draw more than 120,000 people. Wine country is thirty minutes away. Yet for the city to recover some or all of the $5.6 billion visitors spent in the metro area in 2019, it may need to project something of this image to the world, or some other image than the one currently being transmitted. A friend who visits Portland twice a year recently told me shell skip it this summer.

Last summer I was devastated to see the decline, she wrote. I was wondering if Portland even factored in the loss of tourist dollars when they allowed the chaos?

Am I optimistic or pessimistic about the city? Hmm on the pessimistic side, said Sally Krantz, co-owner of a CBD-infused beverage company. The trash situation is out of control. I know its partly because of the pandemic, but there are now rats everywhere. And Ted Wheeler is an ineffective dope. Everything from the riots to the amount of garbage and the fact that the homeless have taken over the city frankly reminds me of when I lived in [New York mayor] Ed Kochs Manhattan. I would have voted Wheeler out, but the alternative? A woman whose career was in food service and wore a Mao/Stalin/Che skirt to a campaign rally?

While Krantz said her business has not been affected by the protestors, her life has been.

I live only a couple of blocks from the Red House, which was a nightmare, she said. The amount of havoc generated by them, the buses had to divert because they had barricaded [the area], the businesses forced to shut because people couldnt physically get to them and then when they could, found them vandalized. And for what? For a family that didnt pay their mortgage. Life in Portland seems to be a constant battle between people unwilling to see reality and want to live like Ken Kesey on the magic bus, and those of us who understand that you have to pay your mortgage and get your kids to school.

From covering the protests all summer and fall, I know that the people doing damage to the city are little more than kids themselves. The argument that they are a tiny minority of the population is true. Still, a few hundred people a night busting things up beams a message that the city is okay with this, even if its not. I dont know how long it takes for perception to become reality, to, maybe, become its own form of attraction; a signal to people who appreciate the continuing chaos. And if the acts of violence are both ongoing and indiscriminate, if the enemy can be Trump or Wheeler or the police or an Israeli restaurant, then how do citizens regain a sense of equilibrium and security, and when?

Thats a complicated question, about a sense of security, said Portland Business Alliances Andrew Hoan. The first thing that we would look at is, what are the job impacts? What are the consequences to real estate? Have we reversed the economic and demographic trends that have benefited this region for a decade? If you went backwards in time to February of 2020, Portland, Oregon had ascended the economic ladder in every single category.

Hoan ticks off some hopeful metrics as of February 2020: Wed seen enormous increase in median household income, in the regional population, in the diversification of the job market. We had seen construction trends, both in commercial and residential, on par with places like New York City in terms of the number of cranes that were dotting our skyline. And so COVID hits. You add on historic wildfires, [you add] political violence, and you would naturally assume that those trends have been reversed. And at least as of January, when we conducted a massive economic analysis of the impacts over the past year, it has not. We continue to see massive inflow. If anyone questions the resilience of this region, then they gotta sit down and check their pulse.

Maybe. Maybe the people sticking with or moving to Portland dont mind unpredictability. Maybe they think its a phase. Maybe being a youth magnet city inevitably means drawing the equivalent of rowdy teenagers, maybe theyll grow out of it.

The reasons we all moved hereand chose not to move somewhere else in the last 15 monthsare all still here, said restaurateur Matt Kaye. We all want to go to our favorite shop or restaurant downtown, though sadly, many of them are no longer, see a concert at the Schnitzer or at the waterfront. I think, I hope [our] collective wills and desires, combined with more functional governance, will contribute to the return of a healthy business community. But short-term? We have a mess on our hands.

Nancy Rommelmannis an author and journalist based in New York. Follow on Twitter@nancyromm

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Can Portland Recover From a Year of Lockdowns and Nihilism? - The Dispatch

Novogratz is bullish. Photo: Getty Images for Friends of Hudson River Park

Mike Novogratz, once a partner at Goldman Sachs who went on to be a hedge fund manager at Fortress Investment Group, has found his biggest financial success in cryptocurrency. Now the billionaire founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital, Novogratzis building his own crypto-focused financial empire and has just sealed a deal to buy digital currency trading platform BitGo for $1.2 billion, the first billion-dollar merger in crypto. During a virtual interview at the Ethereal Summit Friday a few days prior to Elon Musks announcement that he was suspending Bitcoin payments for Teslas over energy-use concerns Novogratz discussed his perspective on the technology, how he ended up with 85 percent of his net worth in crypto, and why he keeps losing out on NFT auctions. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.Your company, Galaxy Digital, just acquired BitGo for $1.2 billion. It was the biggest deal so far in the industry. Are you looking at more billion dollar deals? Do you have that kind of dry powder?I do think bigger is better going forward for a bunch of different reasons. Something really cool for us crypto nerds happened in the last six months, like we went from hoping to be an asset class to being an institutional asset class like that. That means that if youre not long, youre short. So every institution we speak to whether its a corporate, financial or tech institution are trying to find their way into the space.

People think, well, whats the total addressable market of our space? Who the heck knows? Its growing so fast. Were making money in places we didnt think we were gonna make money in, and Im sure next year trying to predict my earnings is gonna be really hard. We didnt have an NFT business nine months ago, because almost no one did. But all of a sudden now, NFTs are in inning one of a nine-inning game.Something else thats changed this year is that Coinbase went public, which is a huge change on Wall Street, and Galaxy itself is planning an IPO later this year. How does that change things from your perspective, and what do you say to people who are concerned about seeing crypto go Wall Street?I spent my last six years literally trying to convince people that this revolution was worthwhile, because it was going to help us rebuild the financial infrastructure of our country to make it more transparent, more egalitarian, more fair, more efficient. We have a capitalism thats broken. I dont want to replace capitalism with socialism. We need to fix capitalism, because right now, its not working for a ton of people. When people ask me about Dogecoin, or GameStop, this is a young generation screaming out and basically given the middle finger to the system, and saying, Hey, screw you guys. Theres a nihilism almost to it.

And so Ive been trying to focus on the constructive side of that revolution. This is more than just a financial game. This is a revolution. And so I think the more people we can bring in the tent, the better. There are lots of investors whose first exposure to our space is going to be through public equities. Thats what theyre used to. Thats what theyre comfortable with. I think, to be in this business, youve got to be willing to eat your arm, and then grow a new one. Cut your foot off and grow a new one, right? Because youre not going to go from where we were to where we could go overnight.

But were a long way from, I think, a decentralized world. And the question I have, and its a real question its not a statement is, will the consumer care? Right? Its the back of the TV to the consumer. So does he even know the difference? And if consumers trust us, well, whats the big deal? Until one day we get really drunk and decide to play funny tricks on em? Youve got a lot of blockchains that I call BINOs blockchains in name only. A blockchain is not a blockchain is not a blockchain. Theyre not all the same. And I dont think the consumer or the investor has put a lot of thought into that.

Youve predicted before that bitcoin will hit $100,000 by the end of the year. You also predicted in January that ether would reach $2,600 in January, and weve already blown way past that its lately been trading around $4,000. So are you revising your projection for ether?

You know, hats off to all the ether-heads out there. I think we saw something really awesome in the last few months. And it was a confluence of kind of three tailwinds all at the same time. We already had payments and stable coins that really kind of gave ether the kick last year. But then all of a sudden, you have decentralized finance and NFTs both on Ethereum at the same time roughly, with wild accelerating growth. And you start believing, hey, this will be the supercomputer that authenticates all this stuff thats happening. Listen, all markets correct; almost 100 percent certainty it will happen its just the math. But its pretty staggering. And listen, ether looks likely to go a lot higher now.

How much higher, do you think?You know, its dangerous to give predictions on the highs. But could it get to $5,000? Of course it could.I remember talking to you at the end of 2017 and you were saying about 30 percent of your net worth was in bitcoin, ether, and some other cryptos. What are you at now? How are you thinking about your portfolio and the role of these things in it?

Like anybody in crypto, the last five months have kind of rocked our worlds in terms of what percentage of our net worth is in crypto. And I think Im up to 85 percent in crypto. I have lots of other investments that I love: the mushroom company that Ive been involved in, and Bojangles, the chicken company. Its just that cryptos had a move that is a once-in-a-generation move. And I think people should understand that its not going to keep happening over and over. Like this idea that weve gone from not-an-asset-class to an asset class only can happen once.

But this wild acceleration that were seeing, where things are up 30 times, 40 times, 100 times, thats not normal. It doesnt happen very often. People in the space should kiss their boyfriend or kiss their girlfriend and give each other a hug, because its fun to have been in the space when this stuff happens. Be prudent, take some chips and buy yourself a house if you can afford it, or a car, or at least at least a nice new jacket. You know, take some of those profits and put them into some joyful things.Does that mean youre selling a little bit now, or buying or hodling?Well, listen, Im lucky enough that I had wealth outside of crypto wealth. Im as bullish as Ive been on the space. But I see lots of people that have gone from one lifestyle to having the possibility of really having changed their life. And Im like, Guys, be prudent, take a little bit off the table.

We were talking about NFTs earlier and you mentioned that you havent actually bought any NFTs yourself yet, but you are excited about them. Tell me about that.

I bid on a bunch and I keep missing out on these auctions. Not the Beeple one, but I did bid on the Urs Fischer. Urs, hes an awesome artist. Ive been trying to buy one of his sculptures for a whole lot of money and the NFT seemed cheap. [Bidding on the work started at $1,000; it ended up selling for nearly $98,000.] I find this to be a fascinating space I think its going to revolutionize the way we think about IP, about creativity, about engagement. And I think we literally have no idea where its going, partly because how we display our NFTs, that part of the equation isnt even close to being started yet. Right? Im thinking, if you buy the $69 million Beeple, you want to show it off. Well, that means I want to be able to go to my house and have a giant screen in my living room thats cool as can be where my NFTs can show up. I want to meet you in the metaverse and maybe were having tea in my man cave, and I can pull down the Beeple and we can play each one of the 5,000 individual images that make it up and blow them up and look at them.

When I was talking to Urs Fischer, he was doing this egg with a big lighter in it. He loves to combine objects and it was really cool. Im bummed I missed it. But I was thinking, in the future, well wear these AR glasses and I can walk down the street with my Urs egg floating on my shoulder. And people will be like, Dude, he bought that fucking egg. You know, like an amusement park almost. But people were like, Dude, youre so wrong. Youre so old. Like, were gonna live in the metaverse starting now. So I tried real hard to be Gen Z but then I kicked right back into boomer mode.

The one story you shouldnt miss today, selected byNew Yorks editors.

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A Bitcoin Billionaire on When to Sell vs. HODL and Dogecoin Nihilism - New York Magazine

In our monthly columnLaughed to Death, Brianna Zigler looks at the marriage between comedy and existentialism. For this installment, she unpacks the idyllic, inane approach to nihilism, mortality, and the absurdity of existence in Harmony Korines The Beach Bum.

I could tell you that Ive been trying to cover the abyss beneath my illusory connection with the world. I could tell you that its all written in the stars. I could tell you that Im a reverse paranoiac; Im quite certain that the world is conspiring to make me happy. All three of which are true, but its a little simpler than that. I like to have fun, man. Funs the fuckin gun, man.

When we first meet Moondog, the most prolific poet in Key West, Florida, in Harmony KorinesThe Beach Bum, hes floating down the darkened, damp road of a night that has only just begun. Suddenly, through his eternally drugged-out haze, he notices a kitten, a pure white, little mewling thing that manages to catch his eye instantly. When no one comes to claim it at that moment, the aimless boozer takes over custody of the abandoned misfit, bringing the animal along with him to a dank, dirty dive bar that welcomes his presence with the enthusiasm of the local legend that he is. Kitten in one hand, notebook in the other, he proceeds to recite a poem for the fawning crowd about finding beauty in his penis that had twice been inside someone he loves that day.

He recites this same poem while wearing a beautiful womens ballgown as he accepts his Pulitzer Prize at the end of the film. Just preceding this concluding moment, he is bathed in a pool of indigo light and donning a floral womens swimsuit top, smiling serenely to himself as he tries to answer an interviewer asking the simple question Howd you pull it off?. Yes, how did this once-revered, has-been poet who pisses away his money on drugs, booze, women, and all forms of utmost pleasure and filth-encrusted decadence come back from the financial and artistic brink and craft another seminal work of art? His aforementioned explanation is one that, on the surface, seems to sum up the entire anchor of this existentialist, stoner comedy.

Korine, the notoriously provocative director of Gummo,Trash Humpers, and Springs Breakers, returns to the humid, hedonistic haven of Florida and centers his seventh film on the exploits of the man known only to us as Moondog (Matthew McConaughey in what feels like the laid-back, dirtbag role he was always born to play). Sometimes, the character can be found schmoozing in grimy bars and fucking patrons in the kitchen; sometimes hes hanging out on a boat called the Well Hung, surrounded by scantily clad women, guzzling alcohol, playing bongo drums, and draped in a live boa constrictor. Hes a beloved, native eccentric who is happiest surrounded by scum and sex, as opposed to the expansive, Miami villa housing his devoted wife Minnie (Isla Fischer), strait-laced adult daughter Heather (Stefania LaVie Owen), and their vast, inherited fortune. Moondog is a celebrated writer long past his prime, marked by his long, greasy hair, sun-kissed skin, clip-on shades, and perennially shirtless body, who thrives as a bottom-feeder in the Florida Keys. But Moondog isnt burned out hes only ever burning.

With its candy-coated cinematography drenching the world in shades of seafoam green, bubblegum pink, fuchsia, cerulean, and violet, The Beach Bum is saturated in color like a Lisa Frank-inspired neon fever dream. The film carries you along its effervescent atmosphere guided by the pleasure-seeking Moondog, who seems to want us to have as good a time as hes having. Moondog can never have a bad time, even in the wake of Minnies tragic, premature death, and the loss of his financial stability, and the alienation from his daughter and her limp dick husband; and even being sentenced to a year in rehab after trashing with the help of a parade of homeless people his former mansion home, which hed been barred from.

Moondog has to, in his own words, go low to get high, so, in his darkest circumstances, he is only ever reaching for the next glimmers of light. You see, just as Moondog loves to soak himself in the muck and the mud, among the salt of the earth and the saltwater expanse that lays ever before him, so too,is The Beach Bum permeated by cynicism just as it is by carefree, bohemian warmth. Part of Moondogs monologue to the interviewer isnt even his its a quote from author J.D. Salinger but thats not the first time he has plagiarized someone elses work on his mostly undaunted path to success. The Beach Bum exhibits an irreverent, nihilistic behavior that matches that of its protagonist.

On the night of his daughters wedding, Moondog discovers though he had had his suspicions that Minnie has been cheating on him with their family friend, Lingerie (Snoop Dogg). Moondog proceeds to get appropriately fucked up after seeing the two of them share a passionate kiss, and he vacates the afterparty. But the equally trashed Minnie, knowing and loving her husband more intimately than any embrace shes shared with Lingerie, leaves to meet Moondog at a bar somewhere nearby.

Buoyed by her delicate voice, Peggy Lees Is That All There Is? carries the two intoxicated lovers to Minnies accidental demise by drunk driving. From there, we learn that Minnie had been holding tightly onto an uncanny suspicion that she would die before her reckless husband, as foretold to her by a psychic, and without Moondogs knowledge, Minnie had it planned out in her will to keep her vast family fortune from him until he pulls up his bootstraps and writes the next great American novel that hes been slowly chipping away at in fits and spurts between his various acts of debauchery.

This throws a wrench into Moondogs life, which despite his own literary success has mostly been kept afloat by his wifes money. This has allowed him, up to this point, to indulge in the vices he allegedly requires for artistic inspiration. So, without them, he lashes out when asked by his daughter why he destroyed his own home after being cut off from Minnies money and their mansion, as he awaits the bus to take him to his court-sanctioned rehab stint, he replies, I dunnoboredom?

He continues on his path of disillusioned destruction by breaking out of rehab alongside the pyromaniac paint-sniffer Flicker (Zac Efron), a vape-smoking delinquent marked by a Bluetooth headset ever in his ear, tiger-striped facial hair, and the widest-leg jeans possible. Sometime after theyve escaped, they attack a disabled man on a motor scooter and steal his money. When Moondog exhibits guilt over their unwarranted cruelty, Flicker gets him back on track by explaining, in the only way a character like Flicker can, that Christ was even a sinner, so we clean man.

Herein lies the paradox of Moondog: death, pain, destruction, and suffering follow him wherever he goes, even if hes not always intentionally inflicting it. He is constantly surrounded by morbidity Minnies accident, his friend Captain Wack (Martin Lawrence) losing his leg in a shark attack, the random acts of violence he knowingly or unknowingly commits against strangers and all the while he cant help but feel his age as his young self clings to the periphery of his life like a ghost.

Its the ironic consequence of Moondogs carefree mindset, which hinges less on hippie love than negligence and distinctly bourgeois lack of empathy for other people. He knocks bystanders off boardwalks and laughs when they plunge into the water. He assaults Limp Dick at Heathers wedding by grabbing his genitals to check his penis size.

And despite the focus on fun and living in the moment that he appears to preach, Moondog is constantly preoccupied with his mortality, looking back on old videos of himself reciting poetry and reflecting on his younger years marked by consistent success. Aint that far down if we dont look, right? he asks Flicker at one point, a serene outlook on his path towards death that still bears a distinct notion of fear.

As if acting only as a glittering faade, the funny, blissed-out, ebullient film harbors a sickness underneath, just like its perpetually tranquil protagonist. Moondogs fun-loving mantra cannot be separated from his own misanthropic malice self-centeredness, carelessness, narcissism, and his deep distaste for his fellow man. You know what I liked the most about being rich? Moondogs previously beleaguered agent Lewis (Jonah Hill) asks him after Moondog has finally sprung back into the arms of success: You can just be horrible to people and they just have to take it. Moondog laughs in agreement.

Thus, The Beach Bum has been pegged as nihilism masquerading as a stoner comedy; a kooky, doped-up testament to our cruel, meaningless world wherein men like Moondog can skate past consequences and fail upwards on account of their perceived genius. But that read of the film feels far too obvious, and theres even a scene in which Heather says this as directly to her dad as if shes saying it to the camera when explaining to him that his genius not just love made Minnie stay by his side: Thats why youve always been able to get away with everything, Dad. Nihilism is a school of thought that negates aspects of life generally held to be true, such as knowledge and existence, and holds the grim belief that life has no meaning and people have no purpose. Which isnt really what The Beach Bumencapsulates.

The film flirts with nihilism but is more aligned with the Absurd. In philosophy, the Absurd refers to the clash between human beings inherent desire to find meaning in life and our inability to do so with true certainty. Possibly the most prominent quote from famous absurdist philosopher Albert Camus is this: Man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.

Watching The Beach Bum feels like a manifestation of this confrontation with the irrational, as we preoccupy and even frustrate ourselves with searching for the reason why Moondog can evade serious repercussion and thrive off his mediocre poetry, which hes twice admitted to plagiarizing. And its not just the viewers; characters in the film are searching for this answer as well. Howd you pull it off? now feels like a question desperately posed from the audience and from every other person in Moondogs world as much as it does this one journalist. Yet all the while, Moondog is having the time of his life, and life only ever goes on.

How can our world be so cruel, so absurd, yet conspire to make a man like Moondog happy? Why can a guy like Moondog get everything he wants and get away with everything else while so much of the planet suffers? But from the absurd is born lucidity, and in the film, it is the understanding that there is meaning in meaninglessness. The ironic beauty and absurdity of The Beach Bum is that happiness can coexist alongside death, that optimism and nihilism are not mutually exclusive, that joy can be found amidst meaninglessness, cruelty, and cosmic unfairness.

There is no real arc for Moondog. He never has any sort of revelatory moment when we witness him repent on his past behavior. Moondog stays exactly the same. He enters the film a carefree vagrant, and he leaves it in a similar fashion, this time wearing womens clothes and carrying a prestigious Pulitzer Prize. Not only does he not experience any internal emotional shift, but he doesnt suffer any retribution for his actions either. He is never truly punished for who he is and what he does; hes only ever rewarded for it. He is a black hole of consumption and greed, and yet he evokes joy from those lucky enough to know him.

Moondog does finally put his nose to the grindstone and finishes his book; he does subsequently regain control over Minnies inheritance. And then he sets it all aflame and burns it in the most bombastic fashion a guy like Moondog could: atop a brand new boat accompanied by fireworks shooting off in a deafening, colorful display behind him. Between Moondogs commitment to finishing his memoir of poetry (titled, of course, The Beach Bum) and the burning of his inheritance, it might feel as if he truly has had a change of heart. But this is an intentionally misleading sequence. Moondogs decision to rid himself of the wealth he once leaned on as a crutch is less an anti-capitalist act or disavowal of his upper-class roots than another display of total carelessness. Scorched cash rains down upon adoring onlookers who are only too eager to catch some of this ruined fortune, now robbed of any value to them.

Yet, at the eye of Moondogs storm of insanity and self-indulgence, of contradictions, indifference, and recklessness, there can be found calm. Everyone who knows Moondog is happy to have known him and to have been a part of his world, even if only fleetingly. Rich, poor, and everyone in between celebrate when Moondog reveals his sweaty face and greasy hair from out of the shadows that he dwells in. Amidst the chaos and decadence and apathy and cruelty can be found beauty and meaning. Moondog is only one man, but he encapsulates the absurdity of the human condition. The magnificent paradox of being alive. Being a part of what you did, Lewis tells Moondog soberly, maybe that means something now.

The realization that life is absurd cannot be an end, but only a beginning, said Camus.

Oh, what a fucking blast, says Moondog, as he floats off into the ocean.

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Is That All There Is? On Beauty and Absurdity in The Beach Bum - Film School Rejects

If you want to buy a bottle of Halston perfume, go to your local CVS and check one of those locked plexiglass fragrance cabinets that house ancient boxes of Liz Claiborne and Jovan Musk. The Halston comes in a beige box, with the late designers name on it in his signature all-caps, sans-serif font, and costs about thirty dollars. But both the plastic-necked bottle and the caramel-colored juice within it are only echoes of Halstons original 1975 blockbuster fragrance. That perfumewhich cost sixty dollars an ounce back then, roughly equivalent to three hundred dollars todaycame in an exquisite glass teardrop bottle designed by the Tiffanys jewelry designer and longtime Halston collaborator Elsa Peretti. The scent, created by the legendary French parfumier Bernard Chant, was tangy, feral, and almost too naughty to wear to work, but this mildly transgressive quality was a big part of the appeal. The seventies were an unbridled and messy time, when loucheness was a life style born of postwar nihilism and economic decline. If the city was crumbling around you, why not smell like death and sex, entropy and excess? The new formula does not smell like these things. It cannot clear elevators or persist through a night of heavy dancing. It evaporates quickly and smells a little like soap. Still, I bought a bottle recently, because I knew that a new Netflix miniseries about Halston (called, simply, Halston,) was coming, and I wanted to turn my viewing experience into a kind of Smell-O-Vision. As it turns out, the synthetic, exasperating reformulation was a perfect match for watching the series.

The life of Halstonwho was born Roy Halston Frowick, in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1932should make for potent television: a Midwestern, gay fashion obsessive comes to the big city, drops his first name, changes his aesthetic, dominates Bergdorf Goodman and Studio 54, sells his name, loses everything, and dies too young. At the height of his fame, Halston oozed courtly glamour out of his pores (which he tinted orange with heavy bronzer) and cut a striking figure in tight black turtlenecks and dark sunglasses, a cigarette perpetually dangling between his fingers. He flew too highhis final headquarters looked out over the spire of a tall cathedral in Manhattanhad too much fun, and then the confetti ran out. But the danger of a seductive story is that it is easy to become seduced while telling it. Halston, directed by Daniel Minahan, starring Ewan McGregor in the titular role, and with Ryan Murphy as an executive producer, feels as slick and indulgent as Halstons sprawling Olympic Tower officea cocaine-fuelled space that featured mirrored walls and tables, a sea of plush cherry-red carpeting, and a reputed forty thousand dollars per year in decorative orchidsbut it does not feel half as uncanny or daring as the actual world Halston created. Instead of presenting a shambling, complex tangle of ambition and artistry, the five episodes play out like a live-action Wikipedia article peppered with faux-campy contrivances. The dramatic plot points are all there, but the soul of Halstons workhis actual creations, and how they shaped the lives of the women who lived in themcomes through only as a faint note.

In the third episode of Halston, for instance, the perfume becomes a sort of heavy-handed metaphor for Halstons inner life and repressed memories. Vera Farmiga plays Halstons nose (a bit of creative license, as the real perfumer was a tweedy Frenchman), asking him to bring in three items that carry sensorial significance. Halston presents her a Lady of the Night orchid (his favorite form of flagrant excess); a box of cigarettes (I find it so comforting, McGregor says, with the exaggerated drawl that Halston started affecting after he dropped his first name); and a used jockstrap in a plastic bag. The jockstrap belongs to Halstons lover, Victor Hugo, a precocious Venezuelan party hopper whom many blame for Halstons descent into drug-bingeing during his later years. The Farmiga character eagerly takes the jockstrap out of the bag and drapes it over her head, then inhales deeply. The scene makes a dirty joke out of what Halston told the Times, at the time of the perfumes release, was probably the most complicated business experience Ive ever had.

The fragrance was a new experiment for Halston, an ambivalent tiptoe into high-volume, mass-market commerce after a career in high fashion. He got his start making hats in Chicago, in the nineteen-fifties, and became head milliner for Bergdorf Goodman in New York City. His big break was designing the pillbox hat that Jacqueline Kennedy wore to the Presidential Inaugurationsoon everyone who was anyone had to have a Halston chapeau. He channelled this momentum into launching his own clothing brand, in 1969, called Halston Limited, by convincing one of his regular clients, a Texas oil baroness named Estelle Marsh Watlington, to back him financially, with the promise that she would be funding the first truly American couture atelier (Halston was never short on bravado or the desire to spend other peoples capital). He found an early muse in Liza Minnelliwho to this day wears vintage Halston getups to many public outingsand he made his Madison Avenue workshop into a gathering place for the Manhattan demimonde. Warhol went there. Elizabeth Taylor went there. Babe Paley went there. The artist Pat Ast worked as a saleswoman (and, later, for one of Halstons early fashion shows, leaped out of a giant cake). His work became so popular that after just five years in business he was able to sell Halston Limited, along with his trademark, to the mega-conglomerate Norton Simon Inc. for an alleged sixteen million dollars, with the tacit agreement that Halston would retain full creative control over his output.

What separated Halstons runway designs from others was their ethereal quality (his later licensing work, when he slapped his name on everything from luggage to flight-attendant uniforms, is more uniform and pedestrian). He would drape jersey or chiffon over the body on the bias, relying on twists and tucks to create a floaty, gliding silhouette. The clothes were refreshingly simple and forthright, even if the life was a pulsating soap opera. Take Halstons Ultrasuede shirtdress, or model number 704, one of his best-selling items. In the show, Halston touches a prototype for a suede coat and suddenly has erotic visions of running his fingers along a mans bare buttocks. He fetishizes the texture, but is dismayed to see that the suede doesnt hold up to getting wet. In a later scene, showing off a new run of model 704s to the socialite Babe Paley, he claims to have invented Ultrasuede, a synthetic version of the real material, though some reports suggest that he gently borrowed the idea after seeing the designer Issey Miyake wearing it in Japan. Halston was, however, the first person to use the innovative fabric to create a womans day dress. What he created, in model 704, is a highly technical garment that could stand up to the washing machine. The design stole the best elements of a mens oxford shirtpointed collar, shoulder yoke, double-button cuffsbut also accentuated a womans form with a sash belt. The structured neckline, with buttons that start at the breastbone, was a provocative choice. As the fashion historian Patricia Mears wrote in the exhibition catalogue for a 2015 Halston and Yves Saint-Laurent retrospective at F.I.T., His shirtwaist dress was, according to some, the first low dcolletage seen on an item of daytime sportswear.

The freedom and undeniable energy to Halstons clothes were matched by the way he presented them. He allowed his models to sneer at or flirt with audiences during runway shows. He loosened up waistlines and let long dresses skim the floor. His vision of glamour was that of the butterfly: colorful, ephemeral, transitional. So many women talk of being changed by Halstons clothes, of feeling wild and dominant in them for the first time. But the women of the Netflix series are depicted as more pathetic than powerful. Minnelli collapses and heads to the Betty Ford Center. Peretti, one of the great jewelry innovators of her era (her longtime residency at Tiffany breathed fresh allure into the aging brand), has a grand meltdown in the Hamptons after secretly pining for Halston. Pat Ast, an infamously outsized character with a booming voice and a frizzy wedge of hair, has only one or two lines. Halston was one of the first designers to regularly cast Black models, including Pat Cleveland and Alva Chinn, in his shows. In Halston, no woman of color is given even a minor speaking part.

The shows high-strung theatrics are most entertaining in the final two episodes, in which McGregor chews through Halstons epic descent, clearly delighting in scenes in which he gets to scream at assistants to bring him more cocaine. In 1983, Halston signed a huge deal with J. C. Penney to design a diffusion line, called Halston III, which would allow the women from his Midwestern home town to have a slice of his satiny world. Some might say this move was visionarytoday, major designers do collaborations with Target and Adidas and Ugg boots without a second thought. But going downmarket ruined Halston in the high-fashion world at the time. His beloved Bergdorf dropped his line, and soon other department stores followed. At the same time, Norton Simon sold off Halston to Esmark, Inc., which had a Playtex executive take over the couture house. Eventually, Revlon bought the brand, but discontinued all products except for the perfume, which was still a cash cow. After a series of hostile brand takeovers, with executives who wanted to cut him out of the loop entirely, Halston was exhausted. He made a weak bid to buy back his name from Revlon, but it didnt pan out. He died, of AIDS, in 1990, the same year that Revlon ceased making Halston clothing altogether.

The Netflix series is not the first attempt to chronicle the Halston saga. Steven Gainess dishy biography, Simply Halston, provided the source material for much of the show. In 2010, the filmmaker Whitney Sudler-Smith released an indie documentary called Ultrasuede, in which he wanders around asking nosy questions of Halstons contemporaries. (Minnelli, in a rare and vulnerable interview, begs Sudler-Smith not to linger on the sordid details of Halstons life; he should focus on the solid stuff, not the gossip.) In 2019, a second documentary, also called Halston, from the filmmaker Frdric Tcheng, featured the writer and actress Tavi Gevinson as a fictional investigator hunting for the truth about Halstons rapid decline. These projects, too, have tended to linger on Halstons hard-partying Studio 54 years, on his torrid love affairs, and on his hot temper. What sticks most in my mind, though, is a short scene from Tchengs documentary, in which Fred Dennis, a fashion curator, shows off Halston dress patterns from the archives of F.I.T. One has the spiralled look of a Cuisinart blade, and requires only a single seam. Another looks like a tangrama long rectangle with triangles jutting out at awkward angles. Halston could glance at a lonely square of fabric and immediately know how to manipulate it (a sculptural skill held over from hatmaking). He often worked scissors first, trusting his hands to cut into precious textiles without a premeditated plan. This dynamism in his creative process was key to why women felt so dynamic in his designs. His customers wanted to feel uninhibitedno bra, no worries, and smelling of leatherbut also bolstered by his garments in other ways. He took away the cage, Pat Cleveland says in Tchengs film. In a Halston design, she adds, You didnt really need the structure as much as you needed the woman.

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The Freeing Fashion Behind the Halston Saga - The New Yorker

The film opens with shock images of violence erupting in Mexico City: Its not a revolution so much as a boiling over of underclass rage. Elsewhere, in the walled-off grounds and home of a wealthy developer, a wedding is taking place, and the guests arrive bearing envelopes of cash and the gentility of those protected by their wealth. The bride, Marianne (Naian Gonzlez Norvind), wears a bright red pantsuit, while some of the guests show up splashed with green paint, the color of the revolution. That those are the colors of the Mexican flag is not coincidental.

The first act of New Order plays as class farce with sharpened teeth. A political power player, Victor (Enrique Singer), arrives, and the other men obsequiously defer. The maids and cooks and butlers trade gossip. Rolando (Eligio Melndez), who once worked for the family, turns up at the gate needing a large sum of money to give his wife, also an ex-employee, a life-saving operation. Only Marianne heeds his pleas shes always been so good with the help and leaves the celebration with Cristin (Fernando Cuautle), the son of the maid Marta (Mnica del Carmen). They drive through increasingly chaotic city streets.

Back home the walls are breached and there are barbarians in the wedding garden, at which point Franco lets loose all constraints. The scenes that follow are horrifying in their depiction of social collapse, of servants turning against employers, of chickens coming home to roost, and of a city and a country devouring itself in an orgy of violence, rape, and revenge. If theres a message here, its that those who place their faith in human nature, no matter their class, are doomed, while those who seek out the centers of power will live to see another day. Also that a peoples revolution will almost certainly become a generals coup sooner or later. History rarely proves that last one wrong.

New Order invokes comparisons to Kubrick at his most dyspeptic; its also been likened to Bong Joon-hos Oscar-winning Parasite, a comparison that does no one any favors. Both those films address class war, but thats it; where Bong employs a scalpel, Franco wields a blowtorch. If anything, the new movie is a cinematic fresco with nods to Hieronymus Bosch and to the modernist artwork on the rich mans walls; according to the credits, the latter is by Omar Rodrguez-Graham and its called Only the Dead Have Seen the End of War.

Such undiluted nihilism can turn glib. The characters of the early scenes in New Order become the sacrificial stick-figures of the final moments, and the films dichotomy of a light-skinned European upper class versus a brown, indigenous underclass is simplistic enough that Franco was roasted by critics and commentators in Mexico for his perceived racism. Its easy to imagine a worst-case scenario for humanity without taking the trouble to imagine any solutions. Yet the film remains impossible to shake, so rare are the stories were told that refuse to cushion the blow and so close do this storys blows come to where we live now. The scariest aspect of New Order is that in 2021 it doesnt feel far-fetched at all.

NEW ORDER

Written and directed by Michel Franco. Starring Naian Gonzlez Norvind, Diego Boneta, Fernando Cuautle. In Spanish, with subtitles. At Boston Common. 86 minutes. R (disturbing and violent content, rape, graphic nudity, language).

Ty Burr can be reached at ty.burr@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @tyburr.

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New Order: When theres no tomorrow the day after tomorrow - The Boston Globe

"I know that some may say, 'DeWine, youre crazy! This million-dollar drawing idea of yours is a waste of money.' But truly, the real waste at this point in the pandemic when the vaccine is readily available to anyone who wants it is a life lost to COVID-19."

Gov. Mike DeWine, announcing five$1 million drawings for residents who have been vaccinated.

"He was exactly what we needed and more than we ever expected. We will miss him dearly."

Former President Barack Obama, announcingthe death of the familydog Bo.

"You got to treat yourself like fine wine. They say fine wine, it gets better over time. You got to look at it as you get older, you get wiser, and how to treat yourself, treat others. You learn what life is about."

Rap music star Calvin "Snoop Dogg" Broadus Jr., on turning 50.

"As I've seen working for a hospital in the county, recruiting to Canton, Ohio, is a little difficult compared to NewYork, Chicago, Miami, L.A., California, Hawaii. So those places, people want to go. How many people want to come to Canton, Ohio, who haven't trained here?"

Stark County CoronerRon Rusnak, on the challenges offinding and retaining a staff pathologist.

"What can you give someone who has received every type of award that could be given? Well, you give her a school."

YvonneParks,president of the Leila Green Alliance of Black Educators, onre-naming Allen School in Canton after Stephanie Rushin Patrick.

"A lot of these base voters are living in a post-truth nihilism where you believe in nothing and think that everything might be untrue."

Republican strategist Sarah Longwell.

"It's the job, right? 'Get on with it, grin and bear it.'When I was in my early 20s, I decided I don't want this job, I don't want to be here.I don't want to be doing this. Look what it did to my mum."

Prince Harry, explaining why he withdrew from royal life and moved tothe U.S.

"Im not interested in getting into political squabbles. Im not a politician. Im not an elected official. I dont expect anybody to give two(expletive)about my opinions. But I will say this: Those are lies. And peddling that (expletive) is an assault on every officer that fought to defend the Capitol. Its disgraceful.

Capitol Police Officer Michael Fanone, criticizingRepublican congressmenwho described the Jan. 6 insurrection as a peaceful event.

"Expelling Liz Cheney from leadership wont gain the GOP one additional voter, but it will cost us quite a few.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah.

"Freedom only survives if we protect it.We must speak the truth. Our election was not stolen. And America has not failed."

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, speaking last week before being ousted from her minority leadership by Republicans.

"We did not cheat to win the Kentucky Derby."

Horse trainer Bob Baffert, blaming "cancel culture" on his winning horse, Medina Spirit, being disqualified from his win following a post-race drug test.

"I used to work as a bartender and these are the kinds of people that I threw out of bars all the time."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, on being accosted by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia.

Reach Charita at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @cgoshayREP

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Commentary: The most memorable quotes from the past week - Canton Repository