The Journal News from White Plains, New York • 64

From page one www.thejournalnews.com 14E Sunday, August 31, 2003 The Journal News WP Hamilton believed the purse, not politics, bestowed power ton and Rachel Fawcett Levine, a French who struggled to support herself, Alexander and her older son, James, by running a small dry-goods store. She died of yellow fever when he was 13, and he went to work as a clerk in the Christiansted (St. Croix) office of a New York-based import-export business. John Adams, no Hamilton fan, would later call him "the bastard brat of a Scots peddler." Regardless, the circumstances of Hamilton's birth and early life in the Caribbean, where women were held cheap and slaves even cheaper, gave him an insight into the suffering of others and taught him that a man must rise by his own wits, if he is to rise at all. Through the patronage of his employer, Nicholas Cruger, and the Rev.

Hugh Knox, the minister of Christiansted's first Presbyterian Church, Hamilton was sent to America to be educated and wound up in perhaps the one place where what you do is who you really are. "New York has always had that character, right from its foundation by the Dutch," says Carol Berkin, author of "A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution," in which HAMILTON, from 1E Hamilton plays a huge part. "We don't care who you are. If you're good at commerce, you can come here." Hamilton, who learned how to keep accounts from his mother, would prove to be very good indeed. Long before the invention of the New York minute, there was Hamilton, completing three years of schoolwork in one at the Elizabethtown Academy in New Jersey and eschewing Princeton for an accelerated course of study at King's College (now Columbia University).

"He had the astounding ability to get to the core of ideas Berkin says. "He wrote a guide to studying the law that distilled the essential main points. That's very New York." At age 20, Hamilton left school to join the colonists' fight against the British, forming his own militia and attracting the attention of George Washington, a leader, Steve Laise says, "who recognized talent and trusted it." The rest is our history. Mark Journal News The grave of Alexander Hamilton at Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan. "Hamilton had a real genius for fi- York's nance," Laise says.

"He argued for lishing putting the federal government on a the sound economic basis, making the and states' debts into the national debt measure and issuing treasury bonds." society To achieve that, he struck what ities has come to be known simply as ered "the deal" with his rival Thomas Jef- The ferson: Hamilton would support removing the capital of the new Unit- Russell ed States from New York to a parcel thers. of land on the Potomac River if the federal government would assume tempered, the states' debts. As he concluded: fools "Power without revenue is a for bauble." tion. The effect on Hamilton's beloved Burr city would be beneficial and far- ton reaching. He "This freed New York up from not having to appear as the government center with all the pomp and circumstance that implies," Carol gy or Berkin says.

July And it left New York to become cliff the money town, beholden to no ing one but itself. Henceforth, New who York would be the place where peo- ing ple from all over the world would come to test their ideas. And New into Yorkers would say yea or nay with wise. their wallets. He If Hamilton consolidated the of city's independence founding its Wall first bank, the Bank of New York, much and its first abolitionist society, as well as paving the way for the New ton, York Stock Exchange the city self gave him much in return.

He mar- In ried the demure Elizabeth Schuyler, a daughter of one of New been Ben Coccio's "Zero Day" focuses on tal diary of their shooting plans so the electronic victims in the back. "Zero Day" feels like an off-shoot of "Elephant," in which, rather than examining a cross-section of the school's population, the director has chosen to focus solely on the killers. In Ben Coccio's version of this story, his lead actors (Andre Keuck and Cal Robertson) even bear a strong resemblance to the killers in "Elephant" (Alex Frost and Eric Deulen). In "Zero Day," Andre and Cal spend months planning their attack, while capturing themselves on digital video. They create a kind of diary of their thinking: "We see more than you do," Andre says.

"We are more powerful than gods." Their advance worki includes the forethought to put the videotaped diary in a safe-deposit box so no one will accidentally stumble upon their plan but where the media can find it after the fact. What's chilling in "Zero Day" is that, in making their diary, Andre and Cal also film themselves joking and hanging out with their parents and families, who seem take them at face value: normal kids, obsessed with girls and their jobs. This, even as the same teens describe to the camera the death and destruction they hope to mete out on Zero Day. It's interesting to look back at how shocking it seemed when Sal Mineo, as a frightened and confused teen named Plato, pulled out a handgun in "Rebel Without a Cause." A kid with a real gun? Where in heck did he get that? In 1955, it was such a jarring image that it was seen as an ex- HBO Line Features Alicia Miles in "Elephant," which won top prize in Cannes. wealthiest families, estabhomes at 57 Wall St.

(now site of the Regent Wall Street) on 32 acres in Harlem. It was a of the fluidity of New York as well as of Hamilton's qualthat the marriage was consida good match on both sides. peddler's brat had arrived. Hamilton might be called the Crowe of the Founding FaHe was arrogant, though not unreasonably so, charming, quickincapable of suffering gladly and ultimately, a sucker damsels in distress. You don't have to be Freud, Berkin says, to see his downtrodden mother's hand in that.

Hamilton married and loved one Schuyler but also adored another (Elizabeth's more vibrant sister, Angelica) and got caught up in a tabloid-style affair with Maria Reynolds and her blackmailing hubby. To Hamilton's credit, he took the "published and be damned" approach, acknowledging the liaison while noting that he approached the office of the treasury with the same honesty. He was less lucky in his relationship with bitter rival Aaron Burr. The odd man out after the 1801 election made Jefferson president and Burr vice president, Hamilton created the New York Evening Post partly to attack the new administraHe used his clout to ensure that lost to incumbent George Clinin the 1804 gubernatorial race. called Burr "a dangerous man," to be trusted with the reins of government.

Burr demanded a written apolothe satisfaction of a duel. On 11, 1804, the two faced off on a in Weehawken, overlookthe Hudson River. Hamilton, had lost his son Philip to dueland had been instrumental in outlawing it in New York state, fired the air. Burr did not do likeHamilton died the next day. was buried in the graveyard Trinity Church, Broadway at Street, a place that has seen so change.

But change is the lifeblood of the city in which Hamilthe social outcast, made hima player. contemporary New York, Hamiltonians insist, he would've right at home. Avatar Films Avatar Films high school killers who make a digimedia can find it afterwards. treme cry for help (one that was answered by a hail of police bullets). But in these films, the cries for help only seem to come after the shooting starts.

In the wake of the school shootings at Columbine High School and elsewhere in the past few years, there was considerable discussion and hand-wringing about how the schools and the parents could have missed the signals before these tragedies occurred. Was it neglectful parents, paying so little attention that they failed to notice firearms and explosives in their children's bedrooms? Were the schools inattentive to warnings or cries for help? That sort of discussion implies that any adult worth his or her salt parent, teacher or school administrator should be able to instantly spot a troubled kid on the verge of exploding into a mass murderer. Yet, as has been demonstrated by everything from Leopold and Loeb to Charles Whitman to the Columbine massacre, evil does exist in the world. And evil humans including teen-agers can be inscrutable and deceptive when they choose. These movies point out that no one can know what is in the mind of another; it's wishful thinking to believe that we should be able to prevent something like this before it happens again.

These aren't the first movies to depict nihilistic teens with little regard for life or even the first movies this year. Movies as diverse as "River's Edge," "subUrbia," "Kids" and this year's "Better Luck Tomorrow" have captured the "whatever" aesthetic of teens who see no future and set fire to the present. Most often, movies on serious topics such as this at least the ones Mark Journal The former country home of Alexander Hamilton, Hamilton Grange on Convent Avenue in Harlem, is a National Historic site. Following Hamilton in life and death Georgette Gouveia The Journal News 0 Alexander Hamilton, it was northern purchase "a sweet of 32 Manhattan project," acres the in on which he would build a home that would be a haven from the grind of life on Wall Street. Hamilton commissioned architect John McComb Jr.

to design a house in the uncluttered Federal style that characterized the turn of the 19th century. The result was a spare but elegant structure with a wraparound porch punctuated by graceful columns. The house overlooked a grove of 13 gum trees one for each of the colonies a gift from George Washington, who had always championed Hamilton's abilities. Hamilton called this place "the Grange," after his ne'er-do-well father's ancestral home in Scotland. Unfortunately, he didn't live long enough to enjoy it, dying in 1804, two years after it was completed.

You, however, can enjoy a visit to the house, now known as the Hamilton Grange National Memorial, in Harlem. Inside you'll find a small exhibit on Hamilton's life as. well as a parlor, dining room and study containing period reproductions. Among the original furnishings and objects are six chairs, a pianoforte and a wine cooler. The Grange is located at 287 Convent but this is not its original address.

In 1889, the house was moved from Convent Avenue and 143rd Street to make way for West 143rd Street. Today, it stands on Convent Avenue between 141st and 142nd streets. To accommodate the new locale, the porch was removed and the house was turned sideways. (The gum trees were cut down in 1912 for a development.) One day soon, Hamilton's home will be on the march again, says Steve Laise, chief of interpretation for the National Park Service's Manhattan sites, which include the Grange. The Park Service and the City of New York have reached an agreement to move the house to an acre of land at the north end of St.

Nicholas Park. This will enable the Park Service to restore the porch and the house's original orientation. (It will still be within the bounds of Hamilton's property). Site preparation is scheduled to begin this summer. The Grange is open 9 a.m.

to 5 p.m. Fridays through Sundays, except national holidays. Admission is free. 212-283-5154. Hamilton and his wife, the former Elizabeth Schuyler, are buried in the graveyard of Trinity Church, Broadway at Wall Street.

The churchyard is closed for security reasons. A free tour of the church is conducted daily at 2 p.m. 212-602-0800. The fateful duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr took place on a cliff in Weehawken, NJ. overlooking the Hudson River.

On Weehawken's Boulevard East, you'll find a bust of Hamilton, a monument to him and the boulder on which he collapsed after being fatally shot. 'Heathers' now seems like Andy Hardy TEEN MOVIES, from 1E tilation. Tracy's mother Melanie (Holly Hunter), a recovering addict, seems baffled by the combative, moody stranger who has taken over her daughter's body and mind. Hardwicke and Reed's depiction of Tracy's transformation is scarily effective because, though it happens incrementally, the change: from teen to tart is total: the low-cut jeans and tight tops, the overamped eye makeup and pierced tongue. Before she knows it, Melanie (who struggles financially, and with her recovery) has lost whatever control she had over her daughter.

She's been able to get along by being her daughter's friend, but now faces a serious struggle to regain the parental upper-hand. At least Melanie recognizes that a change has occurred. In "Elephant" and "Zero Day," the parents (or, at least, the parents we see) probably feel that they have a handle on what's going on in their kids lives but they don't have a clue. "Zero Day" (co-written and directed by Ben Coccio) and "Elephant" (written and directed by Gus Van Sant) could be companion pieces, variations on the theme of school shootings in America. The similarity between the two is eerie and the idea of watching the pair as a double-feature is downright unnerving.

"Elephant," which won the top prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, at first seems to be an almost documentary look at the overlapping, intersecting lives of a group of students at a suburban high school. None of them is involved in anything too deep as they wander the halls, exchange greetings and go about their business on what otherwise appears to be a normal day. Then one of them exits the building and crosses paths with two classmates who are just getting to school, clad in camouflage gear and carrying suspiciously heavy-looking duffel bags. When he asks what's going on, they tell him something bad is about to happen. Before this pair begins its shooting rampage, Van Sant doubles back, looking at more of the students as they unwittingly move toward their rendezvous with sudden and arbitrary death.

The characters are preoccupied with the minutiae of daily life; most are candidates for a serious discussion of what they would do differently if they knew they would die before the end of the day. Van Sant offers no explanation for the shooters' actions. There's nothing obvious about why they would do this, beyond the suggestion that they've been the targets of bullying and that they like to play violent video games that allow them to shoot Posting while others gawk mere four years. nalistic pedigree, analyst with a Duke University. "Outsiders New Yorkers predecessors tional examples.

as cognizant GAWKER, from 1E ten a reputation as a gossip site bolstered by the fact that gossip columnists at New York Post, And far from boasting a jour- Daily News and Salon.com have picked up items Spiers is a former Wall Street in the last few months. (Recently, Spiers was degree in political science from asked to fill in for vacationing Page Six scribes at the Post.) have done New York better than In fact, Gawker got its highest number of hits have," says Spiers, citing literary (more than 120,000) in April after linking to pholike author Tom Wolfe as inspira- tographs of a topless, very pregnant Catherine "If you grew up here, you aren't Zeta-Jones smoking a cigarette. of how different it is from other Almost immediately, Spiers got what's consid- places." In real life, Spiers is actually a shy person, who hates having her picture taken and talks a lot with one hand in front of her mouth almost as if she's afraid of what might come out. She says that her onscreen persona is "an alter ego" who doesn't hold back on Gawker. Here's her take on whether a recent New York Times article about Vogue editor Anna Wintour's desk was newsworthy: "We heard a rumor that next week there'll be some serious column inches devoted to Ms: Wintour's personal choices between Tampax and o.b.'s," she writes.

What did she think about New York magazine's fall fashion issue? "It's a mess The women's shoes spread is an abortion. Hideous boots are not, repeat, are not in On a report that Britney Spears hooked up with a woman at an L.A. nightclub who turned out to be Cameron Diaz's long-haired exboyfriend? "She was merely making out with fembot Jared Leto. Same dif." Few are exempt from Spiers' caustic keystrokes, though she says she won't pick on other blogs or tiny, independent publications. Massive mainstreamers like Vanity Fair, Vogue and their larger-thanlife leaders are fair game, however.

"I just feel that if you're gonna talk about media people on a site like Gawker, your job is to take on the playground bully. And Nast is the playground bully," says Spiers. Another part of Gawker's appeal is that Spiers doesn't take herself, or the site, as seriously as her counterparts at, say, celebrity-obsessed US magazine. That publication's exclamation point-laden headlines puts the shton romance on par with 5 W's: Gawker Who? Gawker is published by Nick Denton, a former Financial Times of London correspondent. It is written and edited by Elizabeth Spiers, an ex equities analyst and freelance joumalist who grew up in Alabama.

What? Gawker is a Web log focused on Manhattan pop culture, which chronicles media industry antics, posts celebrity sightings and offers sharp commentary on New York City life. Recent obsessions include: Anna Wintour, Graydon Carter and Nast; SoHo House; trucker hats; metrosexuals; Williamsburg; oddball filmmaker Vincent Gallo. When? Gawker will celebrate its one year anniversary in December. Where? Check it out at www.gawker.com. Why It's hot: In only nine months online, Gawker boasts a daily readership of at least 30,000.

Gossip columns in the New York Post, the Daily News and Salon.com have picked up items from it. Time magazine listed it as one of this year's 50 Best Sites. Gawker was also included in Entertainment Weekly's 2003 "It List." ered a medal of honor for windmill-tilting writers; a cease-and-desist letter from the actress' lawyers. "She didn't have a case at all, because we were just linking to a site in France," says Spiers. "Apparently, her attorneys didn't actually look at (Gawker) because they said, Take down the 'We said, we can't take them down.

We can de link it." Soon after that threat, Spiers cattily coined a new verb, "to zetajones." The definition? "To eat ravenously, as if downing last bowl of Sally ovided rice in the midst of a famine." (Presumably an allusion to the curvy actress' weight gain.) And if you're thinking -who cares? know that the mention got enough word-of-mouth attention that William Safire dissected the term in his weekly New York Times Magazine column. Spiers met Gawker's publisher, former Financial Times of London reporter Nick Denton, shortly a after he moved to New York last year. She was blogging on her own a little, hating equities analysis and looking to make a switch to journalism. Reporter friends were discouraging. "They were all, like, 'Don't do it, it will take you three or four years to get a says Spiers.

So when Denton brought up his Gawker idea, Spiers thought it might be a way to enter the industry through the back door. It's worked, too. Thanks to Spiers' online work, she's written for the Times, Salon, Radar, Black Book and The Face. "All the assignments I've gotten SO far are from (editors) who are reading Gawker and contacting says. The Gawker gig isn't something she wants to do forever.

Ideally, Spiers would like a full-time staff produced by Hollywood end on some sort of grace note about the power of love and the need for human interaction. These movies do not; they unflinchingly observe that someone who is determined to commit a senseless act of violence is hard to stop, unless he's extremely obvious about his intentions. Reach Marshall Fine at or 914- 694-5034. al Qaeda a arrests. But when an- position at a magazine.

Long-term, swering Gawker reader's ques- she'd like to pair her reporting skills with her tion, "Are you as shallow as you appear?" Spiers business background. has a deadpan, smarty-pants sense of humor. Right now, though, she says, "I'd sacrifice pay "Sometimes I find myself not really caring if I wasn't heavily edited and got to do a lot of what which book Nicky Hilton's reading or whether I wanted." she's remembering to color inside the lines, and Then, with a wry, Gawker-worthy smile, she I feel momentarily guilty," she writes. "Happily, a adds, "On the other hand, I'd probably write Xanax, a martini, and a couple of lines of moder- hamburger reviews if you paid me enough." ate quality coke seem an effective remedy." Though it's just as likely to list blurbs about Reach Heather Salerno at trucker hats and metrosexuals, Gawker has got- nalnews.com or 914-696-8561..