In my grammar school we got extra credit for extra book reports. Lebowitz: Daddy. My mother taught me to say that so I would wake my father up instead of her. They were these huge hardcover books that were different aspects of Interview. screening with three movies and lunch. 19 January 2021. That tends to upset people. . Shes really not our type. I was home sick when I was expelled. LEBOWITZ: No. At the foot of his driveway in California, Jack Douglas had a sign that said Have you called these people? I also thought Oscar Levant was hilarious. Thanks for offering this from your Archive. I think I first came across it in one of the Bronts. Its like the two worst possible things you could imagine together. I hate money. My fathermy stepfatherhad gotten ill, and my parents had three boy children. So I wrote The Secret Castle and was very disappointed to discover that no one published it. It was charity really. OK, come on. It didnt rhyme. And thats the reason why a person of a certain age wakes up early morning with a slight sense of anxiety. This is why you have so much idiotic behavior among male writers. Bei/Shutterstock. Lebowitz: I dont remember. Fifty years later, she's still there, and the author, public speaker and humorist has a lifetime's . I used to like this guy Milt Kamen. In the early 1970s, Andy Warhol hired Lebowitz as a columnist for his magazine Interview, where she wrote a column, I Cover The Waterfront. And then I would go to the Factory and turn it in. Then I try to bargain with them to wait until I get to the absolute edge of the deadline. One of the movies was The Thing with Two Heads, starring Ray Milland and Rosie Grier. But then I found out it was fraud or something and I could go to jail, so I sent the money back and wrote to the people who sent it to me. I just dont want to hear someone else walking around. Good Books Books To Read Acceptance Speech National Book Award Wordsmith Great Words Ex Libris Reading Material Women Humor More information . I met one who used to go to Kennedy Airport, to the terminals where people were coming from Florida, and there were a lot of Puerto Ricans who had never been to New York; he used to have a bathroom scale in the taxi, and he would tell these Puerto Ricans that in this country taxi rates were by weight and that it was a quarter a pound or something like that. Fran Lebowitz: I Cover the Waterfront. It was terribly disconcerting because I knew that they werent going to cure me. - 48-page book (text in German) covering the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground in film and a discography, with many b&w and colour photos. The person who checks you in and takes your name and insurance came over to me and actually said, to me, Why did you choose Mass. Fran Lebowitzs trademark is the sneer; she disapproves of virtually everything except sleep, cigarette smoking, and good furniture. But a lot of people didnt like that piece and were angry at me. But I never liked pot much. If you can say 'I'll have that and a cup of coffee,' it's not art." 6. Then I switched to Carlton in an attempt not to smoke too much, and now I smoke nine times more Carltons than I ever smoked anything else. Light? Interview, at the time, six people read it, believe me. Black cigarettes, every horrible adolescent smoking gesture imaginable. Thats really interesting. And, first of . Three or four hours, okay, fine. When she started realizing cigarettes were missing it never occurred to her to accuse me, so she went to the supermarket where she bought her cigarettes and told the manager that the boys who worked there were stealing packs out of the cartons. CLEMENTE: No, I can sleep. I have a number of bookcases, big wooden bookcases with glass doors; most of them are 19th century. Why dont you just put some of your books in storage? And I always say the same thing: What if I told you I had four children? CLEMENTE: I know you follow politics, and I always thought you would make an excellent mayor of New York. There are these prototypes all over the place, mixed in with my own crummy furniture. CLEMENTE: One of my favorite quotes of yours is when you said that youve never been in a relationship for longer than six months, because you didnt want to switch from boredom to contempt. But I moved into that apartment in 1970 or 69; there was no ceiling in the bathroom. I would rather have a typist. Ms. Lebowitz was interviewed by Glenn OBrien, a longtime friend who has proposed marriage on several occasions. He wasnt a comedian, but he was the funniest talk-show guest. The other is that horses are hands. When I got to the hospital I was restrained. Dutton, is a collection of Frans columns. Im always sorry when I see that someone has tried out 11 new comedians and I wasnt there. I got on this list, and I went and discussed products. I like Mel Brooks, especially the 2,000-year-old-man records with Carl Reiner. Anna Rahmanan. When I was younger, I might have said six months, although I think the longest relationship I was ever in was three years. LEBOWITZ: That was later, for my next column, I Cover the Waterfront. That was after I met Marc. See, then, if you had no money, you had a horrible apartment. After gaining recognition for her I Cover the Waterfront, Lebowitz moved onto Mademooiselle before publishing her first two books, Metropolitan Life and Social Studies. I would stand in front of the class and report on a book I had made up. A Bic pen. American International made so many great movies that theyve all melted in my mind into one great A.I.P. Fortunately they didnt, so its not around to haunt me. The psychiatrist also had shoulder-length hair and Levis under his white coat, and I spent ten minutes arguing with him over whether Id taken acid or smoked pot. A sense of, Im all alone in the world, and I have integrity. Not just New York. CLEMENTE: What aspect of New York do you think has really fundamentally changed? Copyright 2023 Interview Magazine. There are musings about Times. CLEMENTE: There was a brilliant article by Rgis Debrayhe was a guerrilla guy with Che Guevarasaying that, since the election of the American president has an effect on the life of every citizen of the planet, all citizens of the planet should vote. SHOP NOW. And even when America is not working that well, it still works better than other places. More information I styled myself to look like no one else. Frans column was called The Best of the Worst; her job was reviewing the best of the current bad films, and she worked as hard as a Variety critic, taking in two or three screenings a day. The Broad Stage presents An Evening with Fran Lebowitz, star of the recent Netflix series Pretend it's a City directed by Martin Scorsese. It was 87. In the vein of Lebowitz's acclaimed Netflix limited series, Pretend It's a CityThe Fran Lebowitz Reader brings together two of the famed author's bestsellers, Metropolitan Life and Social Studies.In "elegant, finely honed prose" (The Washington Post Book World), Lebowitz limns the vicissitudes of contemporary urban lifeits fads, trends, crazes, morals, and fashions. Here's what started happening: A few years ago, kidsand by which I mean, my friends' kidsstarted coming up to me and saying, 'Fran, where'd you get those vintage glasses?' And I said, 'They . LEBOWITZ: Thats kind of backwards. People always say pop culture. As if we have some high culture to distinguish it from. Comedian and podcast host Bill Maher pushed back against author Fran Lebowitz in his upcoming "Club Random" podcast when she suggested that schools have gone off the deep-end because of Republicans. But what I cant be is monogamous. I got up every morning, brushed my teeth and went to the Village Vanguard and read poetry. Id just sit at a desk and talk. She is widely recognized for her collection of essays, including Metropolitan Life, The Fran Lebowitz Reader, and Social Studies. Everyone was paid in cash. In introducing Fran Lebowitz to a contemporary large audience, the combination of biographical perspective and quasi-vrit style addresses the opposition between private and public (Arendt and Habermas). Now, even if you have money, you can have a horrible apartment. She needed something bigger to disapprove of, and so her column became I Cover the Waterfront, and her beat became the entire universe of questionable taste. And as Fran took on polyester, landlords, press agents and pop psychology, her reputation grew. Famously known to have sidestepped buying into browsing the Internet or even owning a computer, the iconic humorist doesn't - nor will she ever . LEBOWITZ: It may just be the offers Ive had, but generally, I think theres just more to say no to. There were maybe 40 poems, the only poems I ever wrote. I cant remember the last funny thing I ever said. I met Marc in . Stay home! Bloomberg was always bragging how many hotels were being builtI remember seeing him on the news, saying, And this is the nine millionth hotel in Queens. Queens! Meeting James Joyce would be more on the order of sightseeing, like seeing the Washington Monument or the Jefferson Memorial. I wrote it in a loose-leaf notebook in pencil. Also a TV show that was on Sunday morning for four hours: I cant remember the name of it, but Sonny Fox was the emcee. He was the most inventive cabbie I ever met. My first school punishment was sitting in the corner in kindergarten wearing a Band-Aid over my mouth and holding up a sign that said I am a chatterbox. That was my first run-in with authority. I use them frequently. Twenty-five people sitting in the room staring at you while you are thinking. But you need more room to do that. But . This has never occurred. LEBOWITZ: I never remember saying that, but I would have to abridge that. To me, dictating a book seems impossible. And you know what we have enough of? This is why I have problems with books, because you cannot do that the night before. But when I say no kitchen, I mean no sink. I remember it because they gave me the topic: What was the effect of AIDS on the culture? In The Fran Lebowitz Reader, that first book has been re-released in combination with her second 1981 essay collection, Social Studies. Volume 1: Best of First Decade 1969-1979. I loved to smoke. Richard Robinson thinks there should be a TV station thats only the best commercials. At first Fran had to sneak in her own brand of humor. The other day I read that last year 58 million tourists came to New York where a puny eight million people are trying to live. Fran Lebowitz, the writer, cultural critic, and professional raconteur, spoke with me over the phone via landline, as she famously doesn't own a cell phone or computer. I wrote a musical comedy for my grandparents 35th wedding anniversary. LEBOWITZ: I used to. The idea of writing something without publishing it is too horrifying to me. CLEMENTE: And the illustrations were by Marc Balet? Not just in school; I count on my fingers still. And at that time he had every important movie, and that ended my movie-reviewing career. High Times: What was your best subject in school? For instance, I, unfortunately, take the subway a lot. Im happy none of it was ever published. My mother and father thought that because I didnt go to college Id probably end up working in the five-and-ten. But this was the 60s, and there were all of these Harvard medical students there learning to be doctors, so all the doctors in the hospital had hair down to their shoulders and granny glasses. I mean, I could wake up one afternoon with zero moneyI dont just mean in the house, I mean to my nameand know that by the end of the day, I would have money. Youre so judgmental I would find it helpful. Like love does. Bankers. Fran Lebowitz, ace epigrammatist, is further a first-rate conversationalist, a hall-of-fame bibliomaniac, a chronic self-caricaturist, a gal-about-town, the soul of the city, a snappish social . And its not just New York; its the whole world. And people sent in money. I picked up two famous people: one was Dr. Joyce Brothers, who undertipped me, and one was Rod Steiger. I hated the we. Were you expected to criticize what was going on? It was like the myth where if a girl gets pregnant and takes the boy to court, if three other boys come into court and say that they had slept with her, they would all get off scot-free. That was actually a job. To me, it would be even a slower way to write. I cant imagine what I could have done with it. [5] She is known for her sardonic social commentary on American life as filtered through her New York City sensibilities and her association with many prominent figures of the . Its almost as good as being a mechanic. Ive gotten lots of date proposals. Lebowitz maintains that she wrote the columns with the intention of building a distinct collection of essays. 1. That's honestly, that's love.". Fran Lebowitz. You see a young girl wearing a headscarf, and standing next to her is a Hasid. Ive never had a job I liked. The one I wrote myself was called House of Leather. Im a great relative. I ended up smoking Lucky Strikes, just because I liked the way it looked, the gesture. Fran describes Ralph Lauren's copying, and eventual embodiment, of Brooks Brothers WASP style. Did Lucy come out of a feeling that you needed to put your arrival to America in its place somehowto examine it, or to leave it behind? And especially the ones that I knew. I like Thurber. An interview with the late, great actor, comedian, and cannabis fan Richard Belzer (1944-2023). The whole time before I write I spend on the phone begging people for ideas and solace and sympathy. Lebowitz: Because I was 19 years old. I just talked it while a speed freak typed it. Kincaid divides her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she is a professor of African American studies at Harvard University, and Bennington, Vermont, where her large brown clapboard house with yellow window trim is shielded by trees. Its placing too great a burden on the average intelligence. LEBOWITZ: Yes, the night before. LEBOWITZ: I only know how many there are because for the last several years Ive moved every five minutes, so theyre counted. The writer and raconteur embodied the hip, downtown Manhattan of the 70s. I saw a lot of movies that were never released because people knew of my interest in that sort of movie, so I often went to distributors screenings and sat with 12 men with cigars. There may, in fact, still be no ceiling in the bathroom. I had never really read any poetry, so it was a completely invented style. Lebowitz: Ive had a number of interesting, colorful jobs. It was kind of adolescent-petulantsulking, rebellious. I read How to Be a Naked Bus Driver and My Brother Was an Only Child. It seemed cruel even to other people because I was known as what we called a bright child. No, there wasnt any cause for celebration, though my mother did make me a new dress and see me off to the airport. You can get this book in the Derby Library in Derby, Connecticut, where my grandmother lives.. I was mesmerized by The Modern Farmer. In an essay specially commissioned for the podcast, Aisha Sabatini Sloan describes rambling around Paris with her father, Lester Sloan, a longtime staff photographer for Newsweek, and a glamorous woman who befriends them. There are more male writers who own guns than any other profession except police officers. I didnt connect with the fact that her father was a lord and that he had it privately printed, and that my father was not a lordhe owned a furniture store and had no intention of having a book privately printed. The last one took me 11 hours to type. Then she published two books of essays Metropolitan Life and Social Studies - both wonderful. Interview was then a film magazine, and it reviewed almost every film that was released. LEBOWITZ: It really depended. The arrival of my youngest brother had plunged us into a kind of poverty wed never known. Monday June 7 2021. . I also went through a period of watching Name That Tune. I never had any skilled jobs because I never had any skills. I did not connect eating with staying alive, so I didnt think anything of eating the food. I dont need anything so snappy. There could be butchers and bookstores. Like a city. Okay? It actually works here. Fran Lebowitz has realised George Costanza is, in fact, an idiot. But I will go see any comedian. But perhaps it makes senseI grew up in a place where I saw the sea every day and, near the end of my life, Im living in a place where the water has run out. You dont have to pay me. She said, It is out of the question that this is going to come in without needing editing. And when I gave it in, she called to apologize. The study where she writes is a sunroom surrounded on three sides by windows. If you were going to have dinner with some of those older people you mentioned, say writers, which ones would you pick? I guess I could have gotten into driving school. High Times: Did you ever get any bad reactions from your bad movie reviews? They like machines because it makes them seem more masculine. Over some twenty years, Kincaid has made what my partner, the poet James Fenton, calls a plantsmans garden, full of rare species. Holding a grudge is the modern equivalent of having standards. Id read five or six each time I went on. High Times: Did you watch television as a child? We think his version of the navy pinstripe would fit right in Fran's rotation. Fran rose to her now-legend status starting at Interview magazine where she wrote a column called "I Cover the Waterfront," She is also the author of two books, Metropolitan Life and Social Studies, and the world awaits further writings. That doesnt exist any more. He was the only one of us to break out into the big time, because he got a job on the first gay cruise ship. You have to say fuck, you have to have these kinds of sex. . And I said, Well, I dont really care. It is boring and it is arithmetic. I didnt have any adventures. The essays were published inMetropolitan Life(1978) andSocial Studies(1981). But I thought it was a job. To celebrate, we're republishing Glenn O'Brien's interview with the living legend from the August, 1978 print edition of High Times. So he gave me enough Thorazine to put the entire college to sleep. . People ask me, Arent you interested in what theyre thinking? A pen. Ill also invent things, like I have to clean the entire apartment before I write. No, no, no. High Times: What writers have inspired you? You're only as good as your last haircut. . Karl Lagerfeld did this, I dont know what youd call it, this project, where he and his publishing company made this crate. Like there is an American family where someones supposed to be president. I mean, there are fewer good things than bad things. She was part Carib Indian, and they used to call her the Red Woman. Bankers. Its not an area of interest. 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