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7’08"
Okay, he didn’t make it to his goal of nine minutes, but hats off to David Blaine for the culmination of another incredible piece of public theater. I was having drinks with a friend on the Upper West Side on Saturday night and walked down to Lincoln Center at 2:30 in the a.m. and there was a line a half hour long to see him underwater in his glass sphere. Tonight I watched the ABC special and found the seven-minutes-plus he held his breath impressive enough. But, most of all, I like that Blaine’s stunts, like Houdini’s almost a century ago, are great pieces of city spectacle, strange, galvanizing events that amplify the urban experience.
