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March 31, 2008
Perhaps an Uptown versus Downtown battle would have worked better, as The NY Times says only 100 people showed up at this past weekend's "Battle of Manhattan," which pitted the East versus the West side of town (perhaps they were all at the Scotland Run). Organizer Steve Bernstein (a concert promoter) teamed with some sports-minded entrepreneurs for the event. Bernstein said that "after New York City lost out in its bid for the 2012 Olympics,...
Continue Reading "An East and West Side Story"
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Television is coming back to life, with several shows (mainly on CBS) returning to the air this week with post-writers strike episodes. Amongst them, the comically inaccurate CSI: NY returns (Wednesday, 10:00 p.m., WCBS 2), with an investigation of a dead assassin found in a warehouse, no doubt filmed in someplace like Culver City. While it does shoot some scenes here, CSI:NY mostly films on a studio back lot or in downtown LA. Since...
Continue Reading "Faking New York, CSI:NY-Style"
Coming to a newsstand near you this Wednesday: Madonna's hate mail to New York City. Well, sort of. In this coming month's issue of Vanity Fair the material girl says New York has lost its magic."It's not the exciting place it used to be. It still has great energy; I still put my finger in the socket. But it doesn't feel alive, cracking with that synergy between the art world and music world and fashion...
Continue Reading "Madonna Thinks NYC is Boring"
Do certain band's fans tip better than others? Sasha Frere-Jones does an uncontrolled study at Bowery Ballroom -- and Chromeo fans, you're busted.“When Chromeo played, their crowd drank house vodka and Budweiser. Didn’t tip. Some of them did what I’ll call the slide-backs. They put a dollar down on the bar, wait until you turn your back, then palm their buck and walk away. Classy. When your night starts out with “What’s your cheapest drink?”...
Continue Reading "Who's Tipping What at NYC Venues?"
THEATER: Theatrical innovators The Civilians, who you may remember for Gone Missing, their funny reportage play about stuff people lost, is giving people a taste of their forthcoming production, Paris Commune. The cabaret-style show is inspired by the actual events that took place in Paris during the 1871 working class revolution in the wake of the Franco-Prussian war; the full production will be presented next month at the Public Theater. The one-night-only preview tonight...
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March 31, 2008
Photo via Minicloud's Flickr. As mentioned late last year, Flux Factory (LIC's beloved art space) is being forced out of their home under eminent domain to make way for the MTA's $6.3 billion East Side Access project. They report on their (hopefully temporary) end online:Now it must all be destroyed. Our entire block will be razed by the pitiless bulldozers of the MTA. Everything Must Go. Alas, such is the fate of all terrestrial...
Continue Reading "Everything Must Go at Flux Factory"
For those who want more time with a furry friend than a visit to a dog park can provide, and less of a commitment than a full-time pet would bring, enter: FlexPetz. The company rents out real dogs and opened in New York last October...and yesterday's NY Times article has proof that people are actually using it.Ms. Stevenson explained why she was a customer: “I’m single and moved here from Scotland two years ago, and...
Continue Reading "Commitment Phobe? Rent a Puppy"
Real Emotional Trash, the fourth post-Pavement solo album by Stephen Malkmus, is arguably his best, and at the very least rivals the acclaimed Pig Lib for inventiveness. A well-crafted balance of catchy pop, multi-part prog rock compositions, heady guitar shredding and his signature lyrical whimsy, the album is sure to stymie Pavement fans on a nostalgia trip and the skinny jean set appalled by any song that dares last longer than five minutes. Joined by...
Continue Reading "Stephen Malkmus, Musician"March 30, 2008
Photos: Carol Rosegg Writing about Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s marvelous Boom is going to require a bit of bomb squad finesse: after the first twenty minutes, the action takes such an unexpected left turn that to describe it without spoilers won’t be easy. And that’s not to say those first twenty minutes are very conventional, either; the play begins when a woman with a nametag that reads Barbara (Susan Wands) welcomes the audience with all the...
Continue Reading "Opinionist: Boom"
Photo via perhapsslam's flickr. A few years ago Langhorne Slim played our Movable Hype show, and even got the typical New York still-standing, arms-crossed audience to dance. His charismatic country-rock makes you want to join a jug band, and tomorrow you can be a part of it all for a few fleeting hours.Langhorne Slim is shooting a video for "Rebel Side of Heaven" this Monday, March 31st at The Box (189 Chrystie, between Rivington...
Continue Reading "Be in Langhorne Slim's Video @ The Box"March 29, 2008
WNBC’s Sue Simmons is known as a big Mets fan, so it's no surprise she was tapped to host a look back at Shea Stadium in its final year. So expect Sue being Sue along with some amazing Mets moments, concerts and some Jets (and we aren’t just talking about those coming into LaGuardia). The Amazin' Shea (Saturday, 7:30 p.m., WNBC 4) also will feature some interviews with some of the Mets greats. It is...
Continue Reading "Noteworthy Television This Weekend: Amazingly Looking Backwards and Forwards"
As the creative class has grown in Brooklyn, it has been equally growing in the East Bay area of San Francisco. The NY Times is reporting on a bi-coastal trend that has Brooklynites flocking to the Bay Area, and vice versa, as both of the locales appeal to the DIY generation of freelancers. But what's this, SFers are calling their East Coast doppelgänger ugly? One Facebook employee residing on the sunny side of the...
Continue Reading "Are Brooklynites Living a Double Life in SF?"
Photograph by Jake Dobkin Today between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., people in timezones all over the world will be turning off their lights for Earth Hour. World Wildlife Fund started the event as a way to "deliver a powerful message to the citizens and leaders of the world about the need for action." Twenty-eight cities are officially participating--in San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge will go dark--others, like NYC and LA, are not....
Continue Reading "Lights Out: Earth Hour at 8 p.m. Tonight"March 28, 2008
According to the NY Times, the Metropolitan Opera decided to restage Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde to bring leading "acclaimed Wagnerian" tenor Ben Heppner and soprano Deborah Voigt together for the first time in a staged production. And for those of you who haven't been able to buy tickets, you can see them in tonight's final performance because it will stream live from the Met's website. (Here's a link that will launch the Met's RealPlayer...
Continue Reading "Tristan und Isolde Streams Live Tonight"Coming up on April 29th is the latest Grand Theft Auto extravaganza. The game wreaks havoc on Liberty City, which is essentially a not-quite-gentrified New York City (though it takes place in the current year). The latest leak from the anticipated game is a city map (we spy Roosevelt Island) and a map of the subway system, which has everyone opining. How does the Rockstar Games version of our 722-mile, 468-station subway system with 22...
Continue Reading "Grand Theft Auto's MTA System is...Different"Advertisement: Gothamist Continues Below!
March 28, 2008
Helmed by Boys Don’t Cry director Kimberly Peirce, Stop-Loss follows Texan soldier (Ryan Phillippe) from a firefight in Tikrit to life back home, where his army buddies start to crack up and he goes AWOL upon learning he’s going back to Iraq as part of the military stop-loss program. The Voice thinks it’s too derivative of Vietnam PTSD movies like Deerhunter, but admirable for its measured contemplation of the Iraq fallout. The trailer for...
Continue Reading "Weekend Movie Forecast: Vegas vs. Veterans"
The Sirens Return For One Last Year (again). Rumors of Siren's demise have been greatly exaggerated. The annual Coney Island music festival will be back for at least one more go this summer, despite rumors to the contrary that persisted all winter long. Coney Island is currently undergoing a major facelift, to help revitalize the area, so the old neighborhood may not look the same as you remember, but this, combined with at least one...
Continue Reading "Gothamist's Week in Rock: The Summer's Around the Corner Edition"
MOVIE: Was there a West Coast Factory scene paralleling Warhol's? Morgan Neville's new documentary, The Cool School, argues that there was. In it, he explores those who transformed LA into more than just a celebrity-driven town, and taught its residents to love modern art. Various Times // Cinema Village [22 E 12th St] // $10 THEATER: Kevin Augustine’s astonishing new show at P.S. 122 is wowing critics and audiences alike, so act fast on...
Continue Reading "Pencil This In"
Jazz in New York is lingering in a precarious state. It’s certainly not for lack of musicians, or audiences -- but it’s something that has been plaguing New York for decades: there just aren’t enough venues. Last summer, Adam Schatz, a jazz studies student at NYU, and organist in the band The Teenage Prayers, started a rock series in Brooklyn called Zombieville. After a successful first few months, some of his buddies suggested he start...
Continue Reading "Adam Schatz, Bringing Jazz Back"March 27, 2008
Photos via NY Daily Photo and lizthegirl's flickr. The Frying Pan, the party boat known for its rusty charm in a sea of slick Chelsea nightclubs, hasn't invited anyone to come aboard in quite some time. Last year it moved from Pier 63, its home for a decade, to Pier 66...but never reopened due to lack of permits. While at Pier 63, the complex the boat was a part of included a bar, dance...
Continue Reading "The Frying Pan Reopens this May"Seems as though the Staten Island Ferry riders have had enough of the preachers that give unsolicited sermons during their daily commutes. Today one of them stood up to a preacher, and garnered much applause for the act. The Ferry Forum has been abuzz about the preachers, and today one poster explained the above video: "This morning I'm sitting in the back of the boat and the preacher is preaching telling us what sinners and...
Continue Reading "Video of the Day: SI Ferry Preacher Faces Criticism"
Photos © John Coffer Noah Kalina, the photographer who made a splash by taking a snapshot of himself every day for years, now has some unusual competition: John Coffer, a master of nineteenth-century tintype photography, is unveiling his series “The Daily Tintype” tonight at Gerald Peters Gallery on East 78th Street. The willfully anachronistic exhibit features 365 tintypes from his daily life, one per day from 2007. Coffer (pictured above) himself is quite a character,...
Continue Reading "John Coffer, Master of the 19th Century Tintype"
EVENT: Artist space is quickly diminishing in the city, and tonight a talk about the crisis is going down in Williamsburg -- home of the recently shuttered 475 Kent lofts. Panelists include John Jasperse and Jonah Bokaer (Founders for the Center for Performance Research, a new affordable space in Williamsburg for rehearsal and performance); Guy Buckles (Founder & President of the Art Building a new company dedicated to real estate solutions for artists); and...
Continue Reading "Pencil This In"
Spencer Tunick and a crowd of volunteer naked people brazenly defied the dress code at the Four Seasons restaurant last Saturday for Tunick’s 75th installation documenting the human form in unexpected places. Other New York locations where Tunick's models have gone au naturale include Grand Central Station and Times Square. Tunick’s Saturday shoot coincided with the day the Pool Room at the Four Seasons changes its seasonal décor to a Spring theme. This 20X24 photograph...
Continue Reading "No Jacket Required: Spencer Tunick at Four Seasons"
NYC TV's New York Noise just returned with a slew of new episodes for their 8th season. The show has been on the air for 4 years, having quickly become an institution for music fans and a place for bands (local and otherwise) to showcase their videos. This season promises a mix of new and old, with everyone from Yeasayer to Les Savy Fav popping up throughout in unique sonic-driven segments. We recently got some...
Continue Reading "Shirley Braha, New York Noise"