"High End NY Hairdresser on Upper West Side...Clients of Woe!" PBS/American Experience

[KoKo]

Incredible watch...there's a transcript at the site. It's unusual to see this view...and incredibly sad as to how bad things are out there.

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"Close to Home"...American Experience, PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/closetohome/

As the U.S. unemployment rate hits a 25-year high and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hits a six-year low, award-winning FRONTLINE producer Ofra Bikel chronicles the recession's impact on one unlikely American neighborhood -- New York's Upper East Side.

In Close to Home, Bikel sets up her cameras in the hair salon she's patronized for 20 years. It's an intimate space where she has come to know well the surprisingly diverse clientele -- from athletic trainers and housewives to high-end bankers, actors and opera singers. Despite expectations that this neighborhood is a secure bastion of privilege, these days, when clients get in the chair, they offer a window into the country in recession: Some are broke, others don't have a plan, and they're all looking to commiserate.

Deborah Boles, the owner and sole hairdresser at Deborah Hair Designs, started the business in 1985. "I wanted a place where people can go and they can feel comfortable," she says. "They know they belong here." But it's all on the line with the current downturn -- clients come less often; some skip coloring or skip the trim -- and as Deborah watches neighboring businesses go under, she wonders how long she can survive.

Barbara, Deborah's sister, helps out at the salon, but she has been struggling with her own economic crisis. After buying a home in Florida at the height of the market, she now has a subprime mortgage that she can no longer afford. Unable to pay the exorbitant interest, she has had to take in four tenants, each with their own stories of foreclosure and unemployment.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/closetohome/

[murray hill farm]

1. I have seen it!

And...it is very, very worth watching. Don't miss it!

[corpseratemedia]

2. +1

Saw most of it last night. The former ballet star, foreclosed on when his wife died in hospice... 4 or 5 professionals, one at least formerly wealthy, renting out rooms and helping the owner keep her house..

It's either the banks or it's us.

[KoKo]

3. Thanks for the "Rec's"....it's really an interesting watch...and what's going on all over America

probably given what's going down...