I ❤️ NY

Middle-aged dad influencer launches Substack. Says New York is a fabulous city. Groundbreaking.

First, who else was shocked by Memorial Day’s arrival 10 days ago? Totally snuck up on us! Here in New York, it was freezing, too cold to even think about wearing my white jeans and matching Proenza Schouler for Birkenstock sandals. And wasn’t Christmas, like, six weeks ago?

Second, Interview magazine asked Oscar-winning actress, style stunner, and all-around living legend Angelica Huston to revisit her 1972 cover story. Her life goal in her 20s: “My biggest ambition is never to be bored.” Looking back 53 years later on that time in her life (when she was living in New York, intermittently at the Hotel Chelsea), she observes now, “I wasn’t bored. There was always something going on. There were always new people and some mystery around the corner.”

What do these two things have in common? Between Angelica’s nostalgic, wise words and the sudden arrival of Memorial Day, I was reminded that spring days are fleeting. It’s easy for New Yorkers to forget we’re living in one of the best, most exciting cities in the world, and become complacent in our daily routines. But not for me. Get off your duff, Derek!

I spent the last 10 days trying to cram as much city living as possible into them. I did one thing, and then another thing, AND ANOTHER THING:

I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see Sargent and Paris for the third time. The exhibition explores the formative years of painter John Singer Sargent in the French capital. Born to American parents in Florence, he arrived in Paris in 1874 as a naturally talented, precocious 18-year-old art student and stayed until the mid-1880s, when his infamous "Madame X" painting debuted at the Paris Salon exposition in 1884.

The most recent Sargent biography, The Grand Affair, was my last year’s beach read, so I was counting down the days until this show opened in April. My third trip was by far my best trip because it included a tour with curator Stephanie L. Herdrich on a Wednesday, when the museum was closed, so a small group of us could feast on Sargent’s splendor. Everyone should have a friend as fabulous as

Dr. Samantha Boardman

, who invited me to join this tour.

The exhibition concept: Over an extraordinary decade, Sargent joined a group of artists, writers, and patrons and began to forge a path through the French exhibition system, earning critical acclaim and international commissions. In the first gallery, Herdrich clarified that the title of this show is Sargent and Paris, not in Paris, which is why there are some of his most incredible paintings from other travels, including to Venice, where he loved to paint the smouldering, handsome gondoliers. For the record, there is no absolute, total proof that Sargent was gay, but as a gay person, let’s just say the work speaks to me, and I know what I know. (I bought this book and it was case closed.)

Sargent is my favorite; his portraits are so lush, beautiful, and his attention to the fashions and style of that era is in a class of its own. The exhibition has many of his greatest hits: In The Luxembourg Gardens and its most incredible depiction of a lit cigarette I’ve ever seen in a painting; Fumée d'ambre gris (Smoke of Ambergris), which features a woman wearing a hooded cape that looks like an original Balenciaga, except it was painted 40 years before Cristobal was born; The Daughters of Edward Darly Boit, a family portrait that rivals Velázquez; and the show-stopping Dr. Pozzi at Home, a sensual picture of the era’s leading gynecologist wearing a crimson red dressing gown. (Do we know a pajama company that makes sleepwear as sumptuous as his? If so, tell me in the comments ASAP.)

Of course, Sargent’s most famous painting, Madame X, a highlight of the Met’s permanent collection, is here. It is exquisite—arguably the most famous image of a woman in high fashion ever painted. Herdrich is quick to dispel some persistent myths about the work, including that it was ejected from the 1884 Paris Salon—it wasn’t. (Sargent refused.) Another rumor was that his subject, Virginie Gautreau, became a social pariah when the painting debuted, which is untrue, as evidenced by her continued appearances in photographs, press clippings, and even other paintings, including those by Paul César Helleu. Sure, Sargent had to repaint one of her dress straps to rest back on her shoulder—it was initially slipping off, which was far too vulgar at the time—but ‘Madame X’ was not a scarlet letter.

Sargent sold Madame X to the Met in 1916 for £1,000, a relatively reasonable price for a painting Sargent himself called “the best thing I have done” in a letter to the museum director. The show will be up until August 3rd, 2025, and then it’ll travel to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

I went to Broadway twice. And, apparently, I wasn’t the only one. Broadway grossed $1.89 billion (!) for the 2024-2025 season, a 23% increase from last year, and set a new record, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Isn’t it wonderful to know that live theater is thriving again in this town? Even if a central theme in several of the plays is the country’s slow descent into fascism?

My first foray was seeing George Clooney in Good Night and Good Luck. It’s a sleek dramatization of journalist Edward R. Murrow’s televised takedown of Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare. Clooney oozes charisma, and it was a thrill to see him in person. (On the other end of our aisle, Amal was sitting with U2’s Bono, so that was a thrill, too.) I loved the sets, which were a tribute to TV’s early golden era, and there’s a photo montage at the end that rips the audience into the current state of censorship and fascism. I won’t ruin it here, but the last frame shocked the crowd into silence.

Last month, I saw Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray, which I loved, even if my theater-snob friends thought the use of video and pre-recorded elements compromised the concept of live theater. Good Night and Good Luck also relied on archival footage; we see numerous vintage clips of McCarthy, and, much to my amazement, an original interview with a pre-plastic surgery Liberace. My take on the screen debate? I go to the theater for drama and inspiration. If Shiv Roy from ‘Succession’ or Booker from ‘Roseanne’—yes, I went there!—want to incorporate tech into their shows for our benefit, go for it. (FYI: ‘Dorian Gray’ closes on June 29.)

Wait! Before I forget! Some essential service announcements:

• George Clooney and the cast will perform Good Night, and Good Luck live on CNN tomorrow, Saturday, June 7, at 7:00 PM ET. Broadway is going live for the first time, so set your DVRs. (OMG, remember TiVo?)

• The next night, Sunday, June 8, the Tony Awards will broadcast live on CBS and streamed simultaneously on Paramount+ at 8 PM ET. I love George, but I think Cole Escole from Oh, Mary! has got this in the bag. Don’t you?

• While we’re here, if you haven’t already read Michael Schulman’s interview with Patti Lupone in the New Yorker, how do you even call yourself a theater fan? This is the story that kicked off a Broadway firestorm, which eventually humbled Lupone into making, according to New York magazine, say “sorry for the first time in her career.”

  
  

The other show I saw last week was & Juliet, a modern take on Shakespeare’s classic story about two star-crossed lovers, with a plot twist: Juliet didn’t fake her death to run away with Romeo. Even more appealing to me was Max Martin, the prolific pop songwriter and producer, as the musical mastermind, which meant I got to hear the hits from my favorite acts from the early 2000s, including Britney, Xtina, the Backstreet Boys, and *NSYNC. Nothing says artistic license like Juliet Capulet belting out “…Baby One More Time”.

It’s not like I need to come up with a good excuse to see this kind of musical—I was at opening night of Mean Girls on Broadway in 2018, thankyouverymuch—but this outing was to celebrate one of my dearest girlfriends’ daughter’s bat mitzvah. But, yes, I was thrilled to take her so I could show off that I know Charli D’Amelio. Am I out here trying to impress teenagers? Absolutely. Who else will take me clubbin’ in 20 years?

I met Charli in 2020, just when TikTok was taking off. I was the Head of Fashion and Beauty at YouTube, and she was America’s Teen Sweetheart; I invited her to her first fashion show with Prada in Milan. A surreal trip—it was right before Covid’s lockdown, our last taste of the real world, and she taught me how to make a TikTok. Whoever cast her to be a part of & Juliet in an all-dancing, non-speaking role is a genius. (The WSJ feels the same way.) On the way out, I pictured Shakespeare rolled in his grave—and voguing.

I took Alison Mosshart on a tour of some never-before-seen Picassos. Hands down, my coolest friend, Alison, was in town for 22 hours on her way to Portland, Maine, from Nashville, so I took her to see the Picasso: Tête-à-tête show at Gagosian's Madison Avenue location. Alison’s a bona fide rockstar: frontwoman of The Kills (who are on tour this summer; get tickets on their official website) and member of the all-star band The Dead Weather with Jack White. I love when she floats in and out of my life, always with different colored hair but the same infectious giggle.

We had an hour and a half together, so we kept it moving. First stop: Brett Robinson’s furniture show at Ashleigh Harrison’s gallery on 70th Street. Then we went to see Picasso: Tête-à-têt. Our last stop was coffee at Via Quadrono, which was a big deal for me. As I revealed in my previous newsletter, I’m a Starbucks loyalist. Fight me in the comments!

Disclaimer: I've worked with Larry Gagosian in various capacities for more than a decade. (Working on a Richard Avedon centennial retrospective in 2023 was one of the highlights of my career; check out the catalog from that show, which includes an essay I wrote about Avedon’s legacy.) But, even if I didn’t work at the gallery, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that this Picasso show, which includes presented in partnership with his daughter Paloma Picasso and features over fifty rarely seen paintings, sculptures, and drawings from the artist’s entire career—1896 to 1972—is one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

“You see me here, and yet I’ve already changed, I’m already elsewhere.” Picasso said that in 1963, 10 years before he died. It’s relevant to this show because the body of work is so impressive, and there’s so much of it that it can feel like a group show. One man did all of this? The Cubist portraits, of course. But also the little dolls for Paloma, the family portraits, the sculptures. It’s surreal to see all of this in one space, especially a commercial gallery. Speaking of: This is the final exhibition to be held at Gagosian’s flagship 980 Madison Avenue gallery, which closes on July 3rd. RIP.

Are you still with me? Am I rambling? Those were the big cultural pursuits of the week. I can zoom through the other highlights:

• On Saturday night, I had a date night with Nick at Bar Bianchi, the latest watering hole from downtown restaurateur Jon Neidich. He promised me a perfect martini and the most delicious cacio pepe pasta—a perfect weekend splurge—and he didn’t disappoint. But! Jon! Let the record show it’s a testament to our friendship that I went all the way down to Houston and Avenue A on a Saturday night to see this spot. Can you hurry up and find a place uptown now?

• On Sunday, we went to Amy Schumer’s birthday party, which, as expected, featured comedy, chaos, and live music. I thought she said “bring your kids” on the invite just to be polite. She was not. There were breakdancing teachers, face painting, and a live band that gamely let toddlers wail on their instruments. My kids were in heaven. I needed earplugs. But how awesome to make her birthday a kids’ party?

• On Wednesday night, I celebrated Sotheby’s collaboration with FRAME, marking the auction house’s first-ever fashion collection. My friend Kristina O’Neill, now Head of Sotheby’s Media, co-hosted alongside the aforementioned Lauren Santo Domingo, who moonlights as the founder of Moda Operandi when not seeing plays about social justice with me. Together, they brought the worlds of art and style with a live auction. (Why don’t more parties have competitive shopping?) Get the collection before it’s going, going, gone on Moda’s site.

• Before dinner, I made a pit stop at Le Veau d’Or to celebrate an online stationery collection at Paperless Post designed by Emilia Wickstead, the Kiwi designer based in London. I’m a stationery junky, even online stationery. Fun fact: I created my online collection of stationery with Paperless Post, too! (An even more fun fact: We celebrated the launch of my collection at the late, great Hogs & Heifers bar.) Emilia is one of the sweetest, most beloved designers in fashion, and Le Veau d’Or, which opened last year, is still causing a stir among my neighbors.

• My cultural pursuits ended on Little Island last night. This spectacular pier, designed by Thomas Heatherwick, is a remarkable gift on the West Side of Manhattan. If you haven’t been to it, you must. If you’ve been and you want to know more about it, check out the interview I did for the Wall Street Journal with Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg, the visionaries behind most of that part of New York’s cultural resurgences, including the High Line. My favorite quote from Barry: “If you walk up that bridge, leave New York behind and enter our little Oz, and it pleases you, it was all worthwhile. It’s not cancer-curing, but it’s good for the spirit of life.”

  • Last night was the opening performance of ‘The Counterfeit Opera: A Beggar’s Opera for a Grifter’s City’—a surreal performance to see on the day that Elon Musk and Donald Trump declared war on each other, which no one saw coming, right? I can’t wait to watch the story of this failed bromance as a Broadway musical one day.

Wow, thanks for reading all the way to the bottom. This was a long one. I WAS BUSY!

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Have a great weekend, and I’ll be back soon.

Derek C. Blasberg

PS. One last thing: I gotta say Central Park looked like a rom-com movie set this week: crisp air, sunny skies, and a gentler breeze, which was ideal for layering looks. Here’s one last pic of my kiddos at the Conservatory Pond.