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Observer Staff

It’s Barackfest in New York!

As election night neared, New York’s power elite—but also its creative class, its political class, its partying class, lurched to find the center of gravity for election night.

The premonition that New York’s obvious choice, Barack Obama, was likely to win was not the smallest consideration here.

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Fall Books: A Literary Leafpile

The Mural at the Waverly Inn: A Portrait of Greenwich Village Bohemians
Text By Dorothy Gallager
Pantheon, $15.95

“The thing about a mural in a restaurant,” swooping-haired Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter writes in the introduction to The Mural at the Waverly Inn, “is that, in a way, it Read More

The New F.O.B.’s

In mid-October, about three weeks to go before election night, Barack Obama found himself in the classy old Metropolitan Club on 66th Street with a group of his top New York fund-raisers.

He told them there was “extraordinary expertise” in the room. “Who knows?” he said. “There might be some of you Read More

Hey, Hey We’re the Manqués!

First of all, if you want to know, it’s manqué and it’s pronounced “mahnnn-kay”!

And it means not exactly that you’re a flop, but “short of or frustrated in the fulfillment of one’s aspirations or talents.” Which means chalk up one for most of the human population. It’s particularly true, or at least Read More

Sopranos

A.J. Soprano’s Improbable Second Coming

Of all the characters—and of all the actors—still around for this last season of The Sopranos, David Chase has not only chosen, but has actually succeeded in doing something with A.J. (Robert Iler).

Long the afterthought of the ensemble, A.J.’s only memorable contribution to the series was when he got his eyebrows Read More

NBC: 'We've Got the Class, Here Comes the Mass'

This afternoon, NBC goes before advertisers and the press to try to sell its 2007-2008 season to advertisers and the press. So this morning the network sent out the details of the season for previewing by the masses.

"We've got the class and next season we're ready to add some mass," said NBC Entertainment Read More

The Complete 1997 New York Observer 500

This Year’s Position, Last Year’s Position, Name, Total Mentions

1 1 President Bill Clinton 358

2 2 Madonna, singer 308

3 10 Diana, Princess of Wales 259

4 5 Mayor Rudolph Giuliani 234

5 4 O.J. Simpson, retired football player 195

6 16 Donald Trump, real-estate developer 182

7 7 First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton Read More

It Takes a Village

Voice: David Blum Is New New Editor

The Village Voice announced that David Blum is the latest choice for its hard-to-fill editor-in-chief post. The memo making the announcement is below.

DAVID BLUM IS THE NEW EDITOR OF THE VILLAGE VOICE

Veteran New York magazine writer and editor David Blum has been named editor-in-chief of the Village Voice.

Blum, who Read More