I loved her when I was in junior high, but she's the kind of thing you move on from...
― Exotic Flavors of the Midwest, available in corn, bacon, or beef (suzy), Sunday, 21 November 2010 15:18 (thirteen years ago) link
Born and raised in Morristown, New Jersey,[1] Lebowitz is best known for her sardonic social commentary on American life through her New York sensibilities.
― ice cr?m, Sunday, 21 November 2010 15:21 (thirteen years ago) link
I have no idea who this broad is
― Onigaga (Princess TamTam), Sunday, 21 November 2010 15:25 (thirteen years ago) link
i read her books when i was a little kid cuz they were lying around the house
so many weird age-inappropriate things i read at that age because i liked to read and i was bored and antisocial
― shirley summistake (s1ocki), Sunday, 21 November 2010 15:28 (thirteen years ago) link
lol yah thats how i ended up reading Frank Zappa's autobio when i was 6 ¯\(°_o)/¯
― Onigaga (Princess TamTam), Sunday, 21 November 2010 15:31 (thirteen years ago) link
that + woody allen books + this big 'jewish humour' compendium i read 1000 times meant that at age 8 i talked like a neurotic '60s-era jewish tv writer
― shirley summistake (s1ocki), Sunday, 21 November 2010 15:36 (thirteen years ago) link
Never heard of her. I think I'm unfavorably predisposed to her by her name, which makes her sound like some menopausal synagogue matron that my parents would have asked to keep an eye on me.
― portrait of the artist as a yung joc (Hurting 2), Sunday, 21 November 2010 15:38 (thirteen years ago) link
She was on Letterman a lot in 1982-83 (always with cigarette, I believe). Liked her presentation/look more than the content.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 21 November 2010 15:42 (thirteen years ago) link
my father went to high school in morristown. he grew up in summit. just like law & order's ice-t!
― scott seward, Sunday, 21 November 2010 15:45 (thirteen years ago) link
I used to go to Morristown a lot for work. It's a nice town. Lots of hot moms hanging out in the cafes.
― portrait of the artist as a yung joc (Hurting 2), Sunday, 21 November 2010 16:08 (thirteen years ago) link
i like where this is going
― shirley summistake (s1ocki), Sunday, 21 November 2010 16:11 (thirteen years ago) link
my 6th grade history teacher was named mr morris and he lived on morris ave in morristown nj
― tween-justin-bieber-riot-of-09-pandemonium-arrests-terror+tweeting (Edward III), Sunday, 21 November 2010 16:22 (thirteen years ago) link
at age 8 i talked like a neurotic '60s-era jewish tv writer
If only you posted like one! :)
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 21 November 2010 16:23 (thirteen years ago) link
this big 'jewish humour' compendium i read 1000 times meant that at age 8 i talked like a neurotic '60s-era jewish tv writer
― shirley summistake (s1ocki), Sunday, November 21, 2010 7:36 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark
i read that book a thousand times too!
― lyrics is weak, like taco bell drive-thru speakers (symsymsym), Sunday, 21 November 2010 16:53 (thirteen years ago) link
was that the leo rosten one? read that all the time at the library when i was a kid. i read an asimov joke compendium too. i think? rings a bell.
― scott seward, Sunday, 21 November 2010 16:54 (thirteen years ago) link
between woody's books and that book and the big marx brothers books at my library that i devoured i was also steeped in jewish lore.
― scott seward, Sunday, 21 November 2010 16:55 (thirteen years ago) link
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/6179ZJX647L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg
^ knew this by heart
― shirley summistake (s1ocki), Sunday, 21 November 2010 17:05 (thirteen years ago) link
I went thru a major Marx Bros phase in high school but I led such a blinkered existence I didn't identify them as "Jewish humor" or even Jewish, necessarily
this book blew my mind a couple years later, not sure how it would read now
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/90/36/3f90225b9da01a67a76a2110.L.jpg
― hubertus bigend (m coleman), Sunday, 21 November 2010 17:14 (thirteen years ago) link
so did any of you play The 2000 Year Old Man LPs? Brought Jewish humor in the American mainstream to an even more overt level.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 21 November 2010 17:27 (thirteen years ago) link
holy crap, I think we are THE SAME SARDONIC MIDDLE-AGED JEW.
Formed an opinion at the time that FL was one of the great American geniuses, haven't read the books in years but see no reason to deviate from my original judgment.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 21 November 2010 17:29 (thirteen years ago) link
Always heard tha, that it was like she was some untouchable genuis. She got her own Paris Review interview, she was in party photos every month in Vantiy Fair and Interview (maybe still is).
I just want to know how she makes a living.
Have wondered this too. Family money, or is she a colorful New Yorker who, like Bill Cunningham living above Carnegie Hall, has a rent controlled hole in the wall?
Born 10/27/50, so those books came out young.
Since it's Scorcese too, very interested in the documentary.
― no place running the schools (Eazy), Sunday, 21 November 2010 17:37 (thirteen years ago) link
According to Wikipedia:
On November 17, 2010 Fran made a return appearance on Late Night With David Letterman after a 16 year absence. She discussed her years-long writer's block, which she jokingly referred to as "writer's blockade."
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 21 November 2010 17:46 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DLgoKejUVE&feature=channel
― no place running the schools (Eazy), Sunday, 21 November 2010 17:59 (thirteen years ago) link
I walked past her on 6th Ave. in the Village a few nights ago. She was dressed exactly as she always dresses and looked mean.
― A happenstance discovery of asynchronous lesbians (Capitaine Jay Vee), Monday, 22 November 2010 00:34 (thirteen years ago) link
i.e. always in character?
i read an asimov joke compendium too.
I read this one!
― tokyo rosemary, Monday, 22 November 2010 00:40 (thirteen years ago) link
I went to school in Madison, so I am familiar with various towns in Morris County.
― tokyo rosemary, Monday, 22 November 2010 00:43 (thirteen years ago) link
I went through a Marx Brothers phase too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujjJlT9cCts
Lebowitz on Austen and writing does not wow me.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 22 November 2010 02:16 (thirteen years ago) link
i don't get what she does, just say obvious/meaningless things and make faces? m coleman's list of quips made me cringe
― john water (harbl), Monday, 22 November 2010 02:27 (thirteen years ago) link
^^^this
― portrait of the artist as a yung joc (Hurting 2), Monday, 22 November 2010 02:28 (thirteen years ago) link
like "In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra." is pretty funny, is what you do considered "real life"? lol
― john water (harbl), Monday, 22 November 2010 02:34 (thirteen years ago) link
I don't get what she's saying about Austen at all. People think she's a Victorian who writes romances? What?
― portrait of the artist as a yung joc (Hurting 2), Monday, 22 November 2010 02:53 (thirteen years ago) link
i think that's kind of true tbh, but not an earth-shattering observation.
― horseshoe, Monday, 22 November 2010 02:55 (thirteen years ago) link
she could have expressed it much more clearly and less digressively too
― horseshoe, Monday, 22 November 2010 02:56 (thirteen years ago) link
TBF I remember something about a director of a Jane Austen film describing it as a "bodice-ripping romance" (in the context of a discussion of how stupid and shocking the quote was), but I think anyone who ever read a Jane Austen book in a college or even high school course knows better if they were paying any attention. And I find it hard to believe that Jane Austen is "popular" among people who don't actually get the books at all.
― portrait of the artist as a yung joc (Hurting 2), Monday, 22 November 2010 02:58 (thirteen years ago) link
like, in my undergrad jane austen class, which was packed with young women, we went around the room saying why we were taking the course and 3/4 of the students were like "i love these books they're so romantic!" which...seems like an incomplete reading if not a misreading. but that's how she's been taken up.
xp i think the cultural pull of the romances for girls safe version of Austen is really strong
― horseshoe, Monday, 22 November 2010 02:59 (thirteen years ago) link
i am cringing at this video clip, though, like jane austen does not need anyone to point out her intelligence, thank you very much
― horseshoe, Monday, 22 November 2010 03:00 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm not the biggest reader of Austen, but I always thought of her more as like an anti-Bronte. Instead of doomed passion you get smart, complete but tempered love that works out in the end.
― portrait of the artist as a yung joc (Hurting 2), Monday, 22 November 2010 03:03 (thirteen years ago) link
i don't think Leibowitz is arguing against some notion of Austen as writing bodice-rippers. no one thinks that. Leibowitz is pointing out that the books seem less affirming of romantic love than ironically focused on the tension between a certain ideology of romantic love and the economic necessities underlying it for women of a certain class.
― horseshoe, Monday, 22 November 2010 03:06 (thirteen years ago) link
except she refuses to actually talk about what the books are about; it seems like she's just identifying with Austen, so she doesn't say much except she was an ironist! she was smart! which, duh.
― horseshoe, Monday, 22 November 2010 03:07 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah
― portrait of the artist as a yung joc (Hurting 2), Monday, 22 November 2010 03:08 (thirteen years ago) link
also
― shirley summistake (s1ocki), Sunday, November 21, 2010 10:36 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
<3
― horseshoe, Monday, 22 November 2010 03:10 (thirteen years ago) link
totally the same book i read. think reading so many jewish dirty jokes at a young age did some very strange things to my understanding of sexuality
― lyrics is weak, like taco bell drive-thru speakers (symsymsym), Monday, 22 November 2010 08:57 (thirteen years ago) link
Just saw the Austen clip and liked it a lot, for what it's worth. Her comments on irony, philistinism, etc, are nothing Gore Vidal hasn't said many times over the years more caustically.
― look at it, pwn3d, made u look at my peen/vadge (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 16:17 (thirteen years ago) link
This is an interesting show and she strikes me, as ever, as equal parts compelling and insufferable.
― Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es. (Michael White), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 16:21 (thirteen years ago) link
First time I've ever heard her.
― look at it, pwn3d, made u look at my peen/vadge (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 16:23 (thirteen years ago) link
equal parts compelling and insufferable
Which is why she is the epitome of Manhattan culture.
― Two and a Half Muffins (Eazy), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 17:00 (thirteen years ago) link
Metropolitan Life and Social Studies are my initiation into F.L. Love the stuff there is in there. It doesn't get predictable, but it does get samey after a while. Still funny.
― argosgold (AndyTheScot), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 17:11 (thirteen years ago) link
I thought this was terrific, and I'm no fan of hers.
Best part may not be Liebowitz herself, but instead the archival footage of James Baldwin, Truman Capote, Noel Coward, and the rest. Reminds me of how I don't remember much of No Direction Home (also Scorcese) but vividly remember the John Jacob Niles clips.
But even Liebowitz herself: what I enjoyed here was not the one-line zingers that felt like urbane Erma Bombeck, but her fuller arguments and thoughts.
― would like a calmer set (Eazy), Monday, 13 December 2010 03:25 (thirteen years ago) link
Don't forget William F. Buckley. Holy crap, that guy really existed! It's hard to fathom. (But also kind of important to fathom.)
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 13 December 2010 04:39 (thirteen years ago) link
same with Michael O'Donoghue and vintage NatLamp, Roseanne uncensored
― The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 01:00 (seven years ago) link
love her
“You are a white person who is boring … you are deeply embarrassed by your complete lack of interesting qualities … humility is no substitute for a good personality … this will not change.”
― calstars, Wednesday, 5 October 2016 02:07 (seven years ago) link
The halfway point between Virginia Woolf and Travis Bickle.
― otm in the rain (Eazy), Wednesday, 5 October 2016 02:35 (seven years ago) link
I'm actually kind of surprised she liked Hamilton
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 6 October 2016 17:57 (seven years ago) link
i don't own a phone and i know next to nothing about hamilton and i'd like to keep it that way. i do own a computer though...
what is the last thing she actually wrote? like an essay or whatever.
― scott seward, Thursday, 6 October 2016 18:03 (seven years ago) link
http://cdn03.strandbooks.weblinc.com/images/products/partitioned/9/f/0/0679860525.1.zoom.jpg
― scott seward, Thursday, 6 October 2016 18:05 (seven years ago) link
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/09/13/t-magazine/13tmag-seventies-t-slide-M9RP-copy/13tmag-seventies-t-slide-M9RP-facebookJumbo.jpg
― scott seward, Thursday, 6 October 2016 18:10 (seven years ago) link
Legitimately confused as to whether that's Fran Lebowitz or Sandra Bernhard
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 6 October 2016 21:51 (seven years ago) link
the real star of that photo is the wallpaper
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 6 October 2016 22:00 (seven years ago) link
Her hilarious takedown of Bernie Sanders ("who leaves New York when they're 18 to go to Vermont?!") on this week's Real Time with Bill Maher was the most Fran Lebowitz thing ever.
― the general theme of STUFF (cryptosicko), Sunday, 17 September 2017 17:40 (six years ago) link
haha
― calstars, Sunday, 17 September 2017 18:05 (six years ago) link
Uh, New Yorkers like Fran may think that New York is the omphalos of the world, unsurpassed by any place on earth. I'd guess that most of those New Yorkers are well-to-do, have nice living spaces they can easily afford and they feel their lives have a measure of big-city glamor. Many other people would find it loud, smelly, crowded and ugly compared to Vermont.
― A is for (Aimless), Sunday, 17 September 2017 18:15 (six years ago) link
You're not a NYer are you
― calstars, Sunday, 17 September 2017 19:04 (six years ago) link
Yes. I share that distinction with 99.9% of the world's population.
― A is for (Aimless), Sunday, 17 September 2017 19:07 (six years ago) link
lol
― calstars, Sunday, 17 September 2017 19:39 (six years ago) link
"Immigrants make the culture and tourists ruin it."
Great interview from Sydney Opera House:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvmRbq-5h-o
― Josefa, Monday, 19 March 2018 14:58 (six years ago) link
For me she is emblematic of a particular type of NYC bore, a person with nothing going for them other than being smart and an avid culture consumer, who thus either lacks the imagination or defensively refuses to acknowledge that there could be anything more to life than living in NYC and consuming culture.
― Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive), Monday, 19 March 2018 15:59 (six years ago) link
like what?
― Screamin' Jay Gould (The Yellow Kid), Monday, 19 March 2018 16:02 (six years ago) link
posting obv
― Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive), Monday, 19 March 2018 16:03 (six years ago) link
I like her Photos
― Rabbit Control (Latham Green), Monday, 19 March 2018 16:37 (six years ago) link
Frannie Leibovwitz
― Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive), Monday, 19 March 2018 16:43 (six years ago) link
to the first question "what did you have thought you would have done with your life" she answers, "well, i wanted to be a writer... and now I am" which begs some serious questions.
― Heavy Messages (jed_), Monday, 19 March 2018 22:28 (six years ago) link
"what did would you have thought you would have done with your life?", rather.
― Heavy Messages (jed_), Monday, 19 March 2018 22:31 (six years ago) link
I kinda like her but I know what man alive means seems like her whole worldview is kinda obsolete
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 19 March 2018 23:47 (six years ago) link
Yeah, thirded
― Whiney On The Moog (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 19 March 2018 23:48 (six years ago) link
Netflix series with Martin Scorsese premiering January 8.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MClMxqD-HNA
― Langdon Alger Stole the Highlights (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 6 January 2021 18:04 (three years ago) link
Will watch
― calstars, Wednesday, 6 January 2021 18:47 (three years ago) link
Blew through the first three episodes this morning, laughing hard enough to wake my sleeping husband at least twice. I'm as worn down by the world as anyone else right now, but the presence of Lebowitz, Scorsese and, in a few interview clips, Spike Lee just makes me feel overwhelmingly grateful that we have these people right now.
― Langdon Alger Stole the Highlights (cryptosicko), Friday, 8 January 2021 18:44 (three years ago) link
Love the moment in ep 1 where she talks about being on the subway and observing her fellow man
― calstars, Sunday, 14 February 2021 19:07 (three years ago) link
Felt her 90 mins in the movie previously translated better than several episodes
― scampsite (darraghmac), Sunday, 14 February 2021 20:49 (three years ago) link
best thing about it is scorsese’s uncontrollable laughter at every single thing she says
― flopson, Sunday, 14 February 2021 21:01 (three years ago) link
A friend has been bugging me to watch this.
― clemenza, Sunday, 14 February 2021 21:02 (three years ago) link
I only saw the first ep a few months ago and I’m still thinking about some of the things she said
― calstars, Saturday, 6 March 2021 02:22 (three years ago) link
https://cultmtl.com/2022/03/fran-lebowitz-on-will-smith-chris-rock-and-the-slap-heard-round-the-world/
“No one should hit people because they don’t like a joke. First of all, this is a terrible precedent because most comedians tell lots of jokes that are bad, most jokes are not funny, most people are not that good at their job.
― Never Mind the ILX, Here's the Blecch Pistols (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 2 April 2022 11:45 (two years ago) link
Thank you for posting that here and not in the will smith thread
― calstars, Saturday, 2 April 2022 15:35 (two years ago) link
Author Fran Lebowitz is in attendance for tonight’s game. #WNBATwitter pic.twitter.com/jFhQ5UfFeW— Her Hoop Stats (@herhoopstats) August 28, 2023
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 29 August 2023 06:55 (eight months ago) link
I saw her live and she made a sincere parallel between that Will Smith slap and Putin invading Ukraine.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 29 August 2023 08:56 (eight months ago) link
I think of when authors like Mark Twain spent as much time on lecture tours and the Chautauqua circuit as they did actually writing. She's making her living in a job that hasn't existed in 100 years.
― Hideous Lump, Tuesday, 29 August 2023 12:55 (eight months ago) link
the slap heard round the caucasus
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Tuesday, 29 August 2023 13:32 (eight months ago) link
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, August 29, 2023 3:56 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
i feel like you have to explain more
― budo jeru, Tuesday, 29 August 2023 14:41 (eight months ago) link
As best I can remember: Leibowitz was talking about Ukraine, and making it very clear she thinks Putin is a tyrant and the war an act of unprovoked aggression, "there are no two sides to this!". And this then segued directly into "just as there are no two sides when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, there is no two sides to this", delivered without the slightest hint of irony. I found the idea that I should bring the same amount of moral clarity and conviction to an actual war and some silly showbiz event puzzling.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 29 August 2023 14:56 (eight months ago) link
i feel like launching into some baudrillardian thing about the surreality of both events and their identical function in the american media as a locus for the affirmation of certain kinds of moral convictions but i won't do that actually, even if i kind of think that
which wouldn't make the FL thing any less silly but idk
― budo jeru, Tuesday, 29 August 2023 15:29 (eight months ago) link