The first time I ever came to New York by myself, I snuck to New York on a bus and bought a pair of bongo drums with all the money Id saved my whole life, which was $12. Id rather have people shooting up in my apartment; at least I dont have to smell it. 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. Im not a nervous person. At my high school they employed a woman known as the matron whose sole job was to go into the girls bathrooms and catch people smoking. The last one took me 11 hours to type. By Susan Devaney. But letting people get on and off the 6 train without stabbing each other, thats good. High Times: Didnt you write some pornographic books as a struggling artist? Theyre all right-wing nuts. I didnt know that there was anything about me that had a name, that could be diagnosed. Speaking to celebrated New Yorker Fran Lebowitz over the phone is an experience as hilarious and eye-opening as one would imagine it to be. That never used to happen. The Broad Stage presents An Evening with Fran Lebowitz, star of the recent Netflix series Pretend it's a City directed by Martin Scorsese. But you could live in New York. Immigrants are good, tourists are bad. I like Richie Rich comic books. At the age of. Everyone I know says, Fran is a Luddite, she doesnt have a computer. But I never had a typewriter. As a child I kept the opposite hours. Lebowitz: I was 19 at the time, so I thought it was entertaining. ' Thats how I feel. Fran Lebowitz has realised George Costanza is, in fact, an idiot. So just think, if there were, say, only 10 percent of the hotels that exist now, there would be all these apartments for people who live in New York, as opposed to people visiting New York. I remember what year that was. Exec Producer, Star, "Pretend It's a City" Having previously starred in and produced a documentary with pal Martin Scorsese (HBO's "Public Speaking"), Lebowitz knew what type of . The first thing I did was a movie review column, just bad movies, called Best of the Worst. There used to be a company called AIP, American International Picturesthey mostly made movies for drive-ins; some of them would come to Times Square. Not so much to put anything in its place as to give an account of what had happened to me. Ray Millands head was on Rosie Grier. The novel is reputedly about rich people who want to be artists, and artists who want to be rich people. She takes one. I finish things now, and I think, Who was the last person who typed for me? 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 . Jamaica Kincaid is a generous host. America is a great idea, so thats why its a great country. And thats why Frans first book, Metropolitan Life, has become a smash hit. But her crankiness betrayed a heart of gold. CLEMENTE: If you were going to run for office in New York, what would be your program, and what kind of qualifications would you declare you have? Or I would call people on the telephone and have their responses broadcast. That tends to upset people. LEBOWITZ: The first thing I would do is say, I dont care if New York avoided bankruptcy by substituting tourism for the garment business, which is what happened. Capitalism, pretty old-fashioned, too. But, third of all, I used to say, I just cant go into a deli and order a roast beef sandwich and give them this.. During the time that I read poetry, because I was such a wonderful reader of it, people who actually had a legitimate interest in poetry would hear me and ask me to send it to them because they thought it was good. FRAN LEBOWITZ. Used Planes comes out every single month. AS NEW.' Known for her white shirts and blue Levis jeans, Fran Lebowitz was named one of the most stylish women by 'Vanity Fair's 68th Annual International Best Dressed List in 2007. 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. General in Boston. High Times: What was it like being a cab driver? Lebowitz: I like Marshall Brickman. But to this day I have never seen a worse movie. Now she is winning new . I also wrote plays for my cousins to perform at various family gatherings. Me and, like, five of what I then thought of as old menthey were probably 40smoking cigars, watching these movies. Its the thing that Im most criticized for. I believe Im a great friend. I never write anyone letters. It is boring and it is arithmetic. I played cello in the school orchestra, but I was so horrible that I soon got over the notion of being a cellist. I never saw those issues. And a piano player is sitting there as well. I would have liked to have met Nabokov. I used to be ashamed to be seen with her because she was so sexymen of all ages would stop her and talk to her. After that I switched back to Larks, and I smoked those for a really long time. They thought I made them up. All rights reserved, 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. LEBOWITZ: Thats kind of backwards. She cooks with flair. And if you asked them, Do you like that Jew? She would say, No, I hate him. Do you like that girl in the head scarf? No, I hate her. But heres the great thing about New York: They leave each other alone. The years have gone by, but she is still tall. Im a horrible girlfriend. The way the admissions director of Harvard decides who goes to Harvard, Id like to decide who comes here. And he did those illustrations. Since 1974, High Times Magazine has been the #1 resource for cannabis news, culture, brands and marijuana legalization laws. SHOP NOW. Unless they own a hotel chain, I dont think a single one of these eight million people are happy about this. Holding a grudge is the modern equivalent of having standards. 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. Fran Lebowitz. Over some twenty years, Kincaid has made what my partner, the poet James Fenton, calls a plantsmans garden, full of rare species. One of the other ones was a Manson-type film, a hippie death cult. Fran Lebowitz was born on 27 October 1950 in Morristown, New Jersey, USA. One day I went downstairs to eat Polka Dottys food, my mother told me that Polka Dotty had flown south for the winter. I believe Im a great friend. And then I would go out, get Marc coffee and a Danish, bring it to his apartment, and he would type it for me, because I never had a typewriter. At the beginning, every day, you asked me a hundred questions about myself. People say, "All the things that we like about New York are gone.". Lebowitz: Daddy. My mother taught me to say that so I would wake my father up instead of her. A brief follow-up conversation took place over the phone to Lebowitz, who had decamped to Princeton, New Jersey, where she was renting the house of a noted architect and sometime furniture designer. To celebrate, were republishing Glenn OBriens interview with the living legend from the August, 1978 print edition of High Times. And I feel this way more and more about the Republican candidates, certainly. But I just cant smile at people for money. We went to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Connecticut and interviewed the star of the play, and I wrote this incredibly bitchy Rex Reedish interview with her and got an outraged letter from her press agent. Children played marbles on it. "It would have been . BUT.she has plenty to say and has absolutely no problem with verbal expression and is brutally honest. And in order to do that, you have to change it so they like it. - 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. On the Boston University phone you dialed N-E-E-D and a concerned Jewish graduate student came over and took me to Mass. Fran Lebowitz: I cover the waterfront. Rare Vintage Andy Warhol's INTERVIEW Magazine, September 1981, featuringCover: FRAN LEBOWITZ w/ feature interview by JOHN WATERS (HYSTERICAL! So forcing people into a situation where theyre supposed to adore each other is probably bad. And I would always give it back. I have two animal theories. LEBOWITZ: I would talk to them, but luckily when you drive a cab there are two things: You dont have a boss in the cab with you, and you are not facing the people that you are making money from. 19 January 2021. Fran Lebowitz photographed in Chelsea, New York, January 2021. Another time I saw a real pretty girl standing in front of the mirror with a little tiny cigarette butt hanging out of her mouth, teasing her hair. I saw a group-therapy movieand the whole thing took place in redwood hot tubs with people screaming their problems at each other. Even ones that preceded me. texted me, 'Crazy idea, but I think you should play Fran Lebowitz on "Update,"'" he continued. 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. Two rare items of Andy Warhol: 1) Pop goes art - Institut fr Popkultur - 1990 - Box - Contains several items: - Glossy folder of loose-leaf art-paper reproductions. The rest of them were mostly folksingers and blues musicians and other horrible poets. She has published the novels Annie John (1985), Lucy (1990), The Autobiography of My Mother (1996), Mr. Potter (2002), and See Now Then (2013). I also have the Family Feud home game, but I cant figure out how to play it. Now, even if you have money, you can have a horrible apartment. High Times: Tell me about your writing habits. It's such a ridiculous idea. My mother and father thought that because I didnt go to college Id probably end up working in the five-and-ten. There was nothing televisiony or psychological about it. No ones supposed to be the president. High Times: What was your best subject in school? I always was.FRAN LEBOWITZ. When I was young, I liked romance. This is why I have problems with books, because you cannot do that the night before. I like people older than me and children, really little children. Oh, now I remember my favorite TV show from my childhood. Anna Rahmanan. I had been spending all of my time with drug-addict college students. This guy came in and showed all these fake advertising campaigns and fake brands of vodka. Especially really horrible ones. Her father, Harold Lebowitz, owned a furniture store and upholstery workshop. CLEMENTE: But if you drink a little bit of coffee before you go to sleep, this doesnt happen. CLEMENTE: You failed to describe your qualifications to be mayor of the city. Its placing too great a burden on the average intelligence. When I started writing Talk pieces at The New Yorker, I tried to get away from the anonymous we they used. Fran Lebowitz: I Cover the Waterfront. 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