Daily Front Row

2010 April 1

New York, New York

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Chuck Close and Adam Moss
WILL RAGOZZINO/PatrickMcMullan.com View Gallery

(NEW YORK) Passover may mean this week’s party schedule has slowed significantly, but New Yorkers still had a reason to celebrate last night—namely, New York. New York magazine’s launch of the new book My First New York: Early Adventures in the Big City brought out quintessential Gotham types Parker Posey, Dan Rather, and Chuck Close, along with slews of media folk and ubiquitous NYC party presence Patrick McMullan, who captured le tout on film with shouts of “What’s your name, big boy?” and “Stunning, stunning, stunning!”

“When I was on a soap opera, there was a homeless man in Chelsea who I would see like every night,” Posey said of an early New York memory. “And I don’t know how he did this, but he watched me on the soap—I always wondered how he saw me at 2:00 on CBS. He called me Soap Opera. If you keep the ball in the air, you’re making stories with everyone you meet. People make characters of themselves.” The book of the hour, which includes more memories by the likes of Diane von Furstenberg, Liza Minelli, Mary Boone, Yogi Berra, Graydon Carter, Naomi Campbell, Mike Myers, and more, was right at home at the Paramount Hotel’s Library Bar, where stacks of graffiti’ed books lined the shelf above the bar.

New York EIC Adam Moss mingled with the crowds while attendees snacked on chicken and shrimp skewers—the usual song and dance, but perhaps because of the topic at hand (that’s New York, darlings) guests were feeling particularly reflective. “I think people in the city are constantly confronted with the unknown, and they can’t control what can happen to them when they walk out the door,” said Posey. “There’s a certain honesty to that awareness and that vibrancy.”
EMILY GYBEN