Try GOLD - Free
BRILLIANT CORNERS - Come Hell or High Water
Stereophile
|July 2023
New York is an ugly city, a dirty city," John Steinbeck wrote in 1953. "But there is one thing about it-once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough." Decades later, the novelist's insight about this appalling, incomparable city still feels true.

New Yorkers love to complain about the summers, with their wafting miasma of hot garbage and urine; about the superannuated subway system, which only sometimes resembles a psilocybin trip gone really wrong; about the purgatorial agony of finding an apartment; about the affronts of existing shoulder-to-shoulder with the stupendously rich.
New York will never make onto a "most livable cities" list, and it attracts a particular kind of person. Despite the influx of suburban corporate workers that has transformed it over the past three decades, the city remains a haven for the strange and those drawn to strangeness, for artists and obsessives, for people hooked on the pursuit of more than ample parking space and an affordable breakfast burrito.
This situation is alluded to in the title of Waylon Jennings's 1992 album Too Dumb for New York City, Too Ugly for L.A. and also by the odd fact that John Waters, the filmmaker responsible for underground art-trash classics like Pink Flamingos, once attended New York University. "I didn't go to class," Waters recalled. "I went to Times Square every day and saw movies. I stole books from their bookshop and sold them back the next day to make money. I took drugs. I probably should've been thrown out." Waters was eventually expelled, after getting arrested with a quantity of marijuana. I think about him every time I teach a class at NYU.
This story is from the July 2023 edition of Stereophile.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 10,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MORE STORIES FROM Stereophile

Stereophile
EAT F-Dur
TURNTABLE WITH EAT F-NOTE TONEARM
10 mins
November 2025

Stereophile
Hi-fi near and far
As the Spin Doctor, I tend to lead an analog life. I'm not just talking about my preferred ways of listening to music, but also my approach to other everyday technology.
11 mins
November 2025

Stereophile
HiFi Rose RA280
It's been said before, but the essential truth remains as shiny as a new 2A3 tube: A well-made, good-sounding integrated amplifier is a sonic marvel, a triumph of audio engineering. Sound quality is just the beginning.
14 mins
November 2025

Stereophile
15 FOR 50 1975 IN 15 RECORDS
WAS IT SOMETHING IN THE AIR, SOMETHING IN THE WATER? COSMICALLY INSPIRED BY THE STARS AND THE MOON? OR MAYBE THE DEVIL WAS FINALLY CLAIMING HIS OWN AS ROCK MUSIC IN ALL ITS VARIANTS WAS UNASSAILABLY ASCENDENT.
12 mins
November 2025

Stereophile
Doing it for themselves—and for us
Women have undeniably become the most dynamic and vital creative force in music today. Without their good energies and ideas, music, which in the digital age has become more background than art, would be much less interesting and inspiring.
3 mins
November 2025

Stereophile
McIntosh DS200 STREAMING D/A PROCESSOR
McIntosh, which is based in my home state of New York, has long been in my audio life.
14 mins
November 2025

Stereophile
The BEAT Goes On
Adrian Belew had an itch that needed some serious scratching.
7 mins
November 2025

Stereophile
Half a century in hi-fi
Not many hi-fi dealerships can say they've survived half a century of history. Natural Sound, which is based in Framingham, Massachusetts, about 20 miles west of Boston, is one that can.
3 mins
November 2025

Stereophile
The skating force phenomenon
At the beginning of last month's As We See It, I wrote that I've lately been focused on \"analog things.\" I proceeded to write about refurbishing and modding my old McIntosh tuner. That's \"analog thing\" #1.
4 mins
November 2025

Stereophile
Monk's tenor
In Robin D.G. Kelley's definitive, 450-page biography of Thelonious Monk, Monk and tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse first meet on p.100, in 1944.
4 mins
November 2025
Translate
Change font size