The Great Society

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

NY Observer, Oct. 8, 2003
Seinfeld’s Dumb Porsche-Haus
by Ron Rosenbaum

Jerry’s Garage. Jerry’s Porsche-haus. I didn’t believe it until I saw it 
with my own eyes. I’d read about it here in The Observer a year or so 
ago and immediately went into a state of denial. No. Jerry Seinfeld 
can’t be just handing me material like this. It must be a joke. Jerry 
Seinfeld is a "comedian," isn’t he? I mean, that’s how he’s identified 
in the media. Just because I don’t find him funny; just because I think 
he may be the worst stand-up comedian in recorded history, one who’s 
generated a devil-spawn of unfunny "observational" comedians who make 
interminable "cutting-edge" jokes about, you know, Starbucks calling its 
smallest size "tall"—stuff like that. (Roll over, Sam Kinison!) But hey, 
some people find the guy funny. Live and let live. So the whole 
Porsche-haus thing could have been Jerry’s attempt at a joke.

And then I saw it. After years in the planning, construction is going 
forward, even though (we’ll get to this later) the city’s Department of 
Buildings says the applications have not been fully approved. But I’ve 
been there. I’ve been to the site! It’s almost like being able to say I 
was there when they put the capstone on the Great Pyramid of Cheops. I 
was there when they were building Jerry’s Garage, Jerry’s Porsche-haus, 
the entire building he’s constructing on an Upper West Side street to 
house a very special few of Jerry’s Very Special Collection of Porsches, 
the one he’s building three blocks away from his $4.35 million duplex in 
the Beresford, so he could be close enough to say nighty-night and 
beddy-bye to his beloved German sports cars whenever he wants to.

I was there when it was close to completion. It’s just too good to be 
true. Nearly a million and a half dollars to provide housing for 
homeless … Porsches! Poor Jerry. I’m sure he’s very deep. But it suggets 
that he is just as superficial and self-absorbed as the character he 
played on his sitcom. More so! Even "Jerry" would have ridiculed Jerry 
for this tribute to childish grandiosity, this monumental folly: 
Porsche-haus. The Great Pyramid of Dumbness.

full: http://www.nyobserver.com/pages/frontpage3.asp

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