The Sublimity of “The Rent is Too Damn UP”
New Yorkers are abuzz over this week’s gubernatorial debate, a 7-candidate affair which, in the words of the estimable Times, was “90 minutes of political theater verging on farce.” Beyond City Councilman/gadfly Charles Barron and former madam Kristin Davis (now suing the not-so-estimable Post for describing her as a “hooker” — there is no proof of that), the star of the show has been — as anyone following the papers knows — Jimmy McMillan of the Rent is Too Damn High Party. Highlights:
(McMillan’s comment at the end is, “If you want to marry a shoe, I’ll marry you” in response to a question about same-sex marriage.)
Mr. McMillan is now in the middle of his 15 minutes. You can read about his music in the Times, read about some anti-Semitic remarks he made in the Atlantic, basically get your fill of McMillan at the Observer, and you owe it to yourself to view his website. But the most sublime McMillan-related thing I’ve seen is the video remix “The Rent is Too Damn UP”:
It’s not really funny. But it works if you’ve seen UP, as a play on that movie’s musings on change and urban gentrification. These themes especially resonate in New York City, where entire blogs are dedicated to the vanishing city and the former counter-cultural capital’s fall to the yuppie Reconquista (note the storefronts at 0:53 of the video — Sushi Pronto and Laser Tan).
