A Shock That Unkinked James Levine’s Hair

Fine, Peter Gelb, you win — that little Times Square opera stunt seems to have worked:

The gaudy lights still doused the streets, and nothing could stop a waiter from the Bubba Gump Company from loudly trying to lure in customers — but the honks took a break, and those rushing home from the towers of Midtown stood to the side, taking in the opening night of “Madame Butterfly” on three giant screens. The opera was also broadcast on a screen outside Lincoln Center, though the crowd there was more black-tie than the spectrum of New Yorkers at 42nd Street.

“I think I’ll stay a little while,” a nurse at New York Hospital, Rose Chin, said. She had run into the sleek set-up — an array of more than 1,000 pure red and black chairs set up on the asphalt of Broadway — on her way from the bus to the subway. She said she had seen her share of musicals and movies, but never an opera.

A carpenter at New York University, Jean Demesmin, came across the broadcast on his way back to his home in Spring Valley, N.Y.

“It’s my first opera,” he said, leaning against a telephone booth with his arms crossed. “I’m going to stay for the whole thing.”

. .

The free broadcasts on the opening night of the Metropolitan Opera’s season are part of an effort led by the new general manager, Peter Gelb, to increase the appeal and access of the art form. Last night Mr. Gelb estimated that the opera was seen by more than 8,000 people, compared to the about 3,000 who ordinarily fill the opera house. The company gave out thousands of free tickets to the opera’s dress rehearsal last week.

. . .

A warehouse worker from Ashland, N.J., Don Mackle, stared up at the screen and said, “Never in my life.” By taking a seat he was delaying his commute across the Hudson for several hours, but it was a worthy diversion, he said. “I would never go to opera if it wasn’t free,” he said. “Who knows? I might like it.”

But Is That Brevity or Physicality?

On his recent trip to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Collie-fornia, Hizzoner receives rave reviews:

“I just think he’s refreshing,” said Preston Butcher, a real-estate developer who attended the first fund-raiser, at a hotel in East Palo Alto. “He doesn’t talk out of both sides of his mouth. He’s more interested in people than he is in the party.”

Katherine Alden, a hotel owner, said: “His answers are honest, direct, balanced. I was very, very impressed.”

. . .

Don Troppmann, another guest [at a fund-raising dinner at the Stockton estate of Alex Spanos], offered this succinct comment on the mayor: “He was great. He was short.”

St. Mark’s Place T-Shirts To The Contrary, Punk’s Probably Dead By This Point

Punk rock comes full circle as a former East Village club actually becomes a “dive bar”:

After a 15-year run on Third Ave. near St. Mark’s Pl., Continental celebrated its last night as a punk rock club on Sunday night. Trigger, its owner, plans to convert it into a dive bar, offering acoustic folk music on Sunday nights.

But for Continental’s punk finale, the volume was definitely higher than acoustic. Way, earsplittingly higher.

The final performers included such legendary acts as the Bullys, Lenny Kaye, Handsome Dick Manitoba with most of the Dictators, and C.J. Ramone.

. . .

Throughout the evening, the musicians made references to the neighborhood’s demise and the spread of New York University.

“Can you imagine in 40 years — this will be happening in Bushwick?” Kaye mused, envisioning the end of a future music venue on the current edge of gentrification.

C.J. Ramone, sans Ramones black mop of hair but with a clean-shaven head, blasted through Ramones favorites like “Blitzkrieg Bop” and “Chinese Rock” with Daniel Rey on guitar. As the familiar Ramones songs blared, young punkers in jeans and black T-shirts started diving off ledges into the crowd and surfing on top of the packed sea of punk fans’ hands.

“N.Y.U. just f—ked the whole area up,” Ramone said in between splashing the crowd in front with beer. “No offense to you guys paying a lot of money to go there — but this sucks.”

Not to ruin the mood, but it doesn’t seem like its NYU’s fault more than it’s just the fact that punk’s not as lucrative as it once was:

After the club’s last show ever ended, Trigger said what killed Continental wasn’t just the neighborhood’s change.

“A punk rock club in this neighborhood — so much has moved out to Brooklyn,” he said. But he also added, “There’s not such a strong scene as there was. I used to get 400 demos a week. Now I get five or 10. Kids are into hip-hop and electronica. S–t happens.”

And not to put too fine a point on it, but isn’t Dick Manitoba like 52 years old?

Backstory: No Local Bands From New Jersey But Boy That Plasma Television Has A Great Picture!

It Was For The Birds

Sure, spin it as a way to save the birds:

They spent $1.7 million to re-light the Parachute Jump earlier this summer — but the landmark will soon go dark to save birds.

Last week, the Parachute Jump became the first Brooklyn building to join the “Lights Out New York” program, which encourages tall buildings to douse their lights to protect migratory birds.

“On a foggy night, when the birds don’t have the moon or the stars as a navigational guide, they [can] start circling lighted towers,” said Yigal Gelb, of New York City Audubon.

Once the birds begin circling, they get disoriented, and crash into each other or the tower. And sometimes they get so tired flying around that they drop simply from exhaustion.

. . .

The Parachute Jump is the program’s only Brooklyn member, and one of only six members citywide, a group that includes the Chrysler and Citicorp buildings.

Parachute Jump lightning designer Leni Schwendinger said she was more than happy to re-program the tower’s lighting scheme during the fall and spring migratory seasons.

“I’m happy to be a poster child” for the “Lights Out” program, Schwendinger said.

But careful readers may remember that the lights weren’t all that bright to begin with:

The reviews from those assembled were muted. Phyllis Carbo, 70, who rode on the Parachute Jump as a girl, hesitated when asked for her opinion. “I’m running for Assembly on the Republican line, so I have to be very careful,” she said. “I’m impressed.”

Even the evening’s master of ceremonies, Dick Zigun, one of Coney Island’s leading boosters, pronounced the light show “very subtle.”

Others were less restrained.

“Did they light it already? Is this it?” asked Joe Joya, 63.

His wife, Jane, 61, said, “I thought it was going to be a lot brighter. I thought that the lights were going to be more of a Vegas type of thing.”

It’s Obviously The Pointer

Those who know me certainly understand that I am not one to talk, but what the hell is wrong with kids today? White socks and penny loafers should never be considered “hot,” no matter who your teacher is:

A ccording to the rankings published on ratemyprofessors.com, college students rate Andrew Beran, adjunct math professor at NYU, Pace University, and Marymount Manhattan, the tenth-hottest professor, male or female, in all of America—and the No. 1 in New York.

Beran explains what this all means:

I certainly get a lot of attention. Students tell me I look like Kirk Cameron, which is nice, because he’s a teen heartthrob, you know? So when one student said to me, “Professor Beran, you are so cute!” I said, “I am so cute . . . damn cute!” Just like Mike Seaver on Growing Pains used to say.

. . .

Once in a while, it’s hard to control the girls. One time I took out my pointer to show something on the blackboard, and a girl called out, “Professor Beran, you have a very large pointer!” I had to keep a straight face, but it was hard! And I put the pointer away, and another girl called out, “You might as well whip it out, we already saw it!” I never took out my pointer again.