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April 06, 2005
NYU and New York Magazine No Longer Recognizable
NYU students are so spoiled these days it's obscene. First, they get prime West Village real estate. (My junior year dorm room was most likely the nicest nyc apartment I'll ever have -- it had a kitchen and two balconies, one on Union Square and one on a courtyard. True, I shared it with three other people, but still.) Now, NYU kids get gorgeous dorms AND instead of eating at Weinstein (an ugly freshman dorm), they can use their meal plan dollars at the Union Square Whole Foods. This is old news but I finally went there for the first time today and I'm so jealous. NYU was all bad taste and purple and mediocre classes 5 years ago. Now it's still all bad taste and purple but they have really good food. The classes are better, too.
Then again, there's the whole suicide/balcony thing. I'm an overachiever so I was pretty stressed out in school, but it's NYU! It's hard to take the place seriously when it's trying so hard. Students there now are obviously dealing with more pressure. Possibly because they're taking themselves way too seriously. (Gawker has a great parody of that last link here.)
Note to Whole Foods Columbus Circle Location staff: The Union Square WF has totally figured out the line situation. They have MORE THAN ONE LINE. Novel concept! Can you give them a call?
Finally, someone explained what's happened to New York magazine (and why they have lame articles like the NYU one above). When I worked for a literary agent in college, New York was a must have item simply for the socialite gossip. It gave people with money and people in the status-conscious publishing community something to talk about. Now, apparently, snooty New Yorkers on the Upper East Side are reading something else and somebody is trying to make the mag into a hybrid of Vanity Fair and The New York Times. It's not going well. The issue I picked up a few months ago was awful. I don't even care about gossip (except for Ben's), but without that and with mediocre writing I couldn't see the point of reading it.
Posted by csageday at April 6, 2005 01:01 AM
Comments
What a coincidence. I worked at the same literary agency when I was in college! Answering the phones and writing NFUs made me crazy, but towards the end of my internship, I was allowed to read some of the slush pile. I laughed and I laughed...
Posted by: Lloyd at April 7, 2005 09:14 PM
Wow -- I can't believe that! It's such a small place! We MUST meet and gossip. It was a good job for me -- and yes, the slush pile was entertaining. It's been hard for me to take writers seriously ever since.
Posted by: Cindy at April 8, 2005 01:04 AM