Results tagged “2009”

       

Most people dig good wine and food, so the New York Wine and Food Festival seems like a guaranteed winner, with myriad events over the weekend devoted to savoring both things to the max. But the word "festival" is a little more ambiguous, and depending on which event you attend, that last F in NYWFF can sometimes stand for "Fuuuuuckingcrowded!" Last night's kick-off at Chelsea Market was swarming with foodiots and not for the agoraphobic; at times it got so packed that the festive vibe almost turned surly—particularly when a certain someone elbowed that woman's wine glass. (Sorry!)

Ugh, the economy. America lost 263,000 jobs in September, far more than analysts expected, and the national unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent, according to the Labor Department's monthly report. (Last month it was announced that 10.3% of NYC is unemployed, the highest rate since the Dinkins administration.) State and local governments across the country slashed 47,000 jobs last month, and now the unemployment rate is at a 26-year high.

            

Lebowski Fest rolled into town this week for three nights instead of the usual two, and it was probably one night too many. On Tuesday, there was a concert and screening of the Coen brothers comic masterpiece at Terminal 5, followed Wednesday by a bowling and costume extravaganza at Lucky Strike, and then... some sort of awkward what-have-you last night at Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg. By all accounts, the blowout at Lucky Strike was (like last year) the main event, attracting the most dedicated fans and creative costumes.

              

Park(ing) Day always goes by so quickly! One minute you're swimming in a ball pit in SoHo, and the next minute the tyranny of parked cars has returned to our city's streets. Viva la Park(ing) Revolution! Here are some more photos of yesterday's whimsical fun, which transformed over 50 spaces usually occupied by motor vehicles into imaginative urban oases.

Park(ing) Day is observed tomorrow in New York City and in other cities around the world. The international holiday, which turns boring old asphalt parking spaces into whimsical urban oases, was started back in 2005 by Transportation Alternatives and Rebar, a San Francisco-based art and design collective. It became an annual event, and every year the curbside creations have gotten more elaborate and inspired. Last year saw parking spaces transformed into such curiosities as a meditation garden, a geodesic dome, and an urban arbor.

Anticipation has reached a fever pitch for next Saturday's Fifth Annual Vendy Awards, the Oscars/Golden Globes/MTV Music Award/Olympics of street food, and now organizers have sprayed lighter fluid on the flames of our excitement by announcing the finalists in a completely new category: Rookie Vendor of the Year. The four contenders are NYC Cravings (Taiwanese), Schnitzel & Things (Austrian), Picnick Smoked ("Good for You BBQ"), and fabulous frontrunner Big Gay Ice Cream Truck (self-explanatory). But Big Gay is also nominated for the best dessert truck category, so voters could surprise the food world by honoring truck owner Doug Quint (right) in that category, like that time Kate Winslet won for The Reader, not for her devastating work in the superior Revolutionary Road. The nominees were selected by elite members of the food blog mafia, and the awards, which serve as a fundraiser for the Street Vendor Project, will be held on the 26th at the Queens Museum of Art. The tax-deductible tickets, which are almost sold out, get you food from the vendors and an open bar. Here's a look back at last year's Vendy's, which was a big win for Calexico.

It's been nine long years since Wallace Shawn's strange and haunting masterpiece, The Designated Mourner, was staged in a crumbling old gentleman's club on Wall Street—the perfect location for a play that so vividly illustrates how pampered complacency enables brutal tyranny. Now Shawn is finally back with another play—well, sort of. His Grasses of a Thousand Colours premiered at the Royal Court in London earlier this year, but a production in New York, his home town, is far from assured.

                   

The 2009 U.S. Open tennis tournament kicked off yesterday in Flushing with fireworks, Heidi Klum, an unseasonable chill, and a hotly contested match between Venus Williams and Vera Dushevina, a 22-year-old Russian who, despite being ranked 47th, gave the number 3 ranked Williams a serious run for her money. After narrowly losing the first set to Dushevina, Williams came from behind to squeak out a second set win, then pounded the white Russian 6 games to 3 to win the match—a victory she credited to all the fans shouting "Go Venus!" throughout the long two-and-a-half hour contest.

Looks like lovely weather for the kick-off to the second annual Summer Streets tomorrow! Starting at 7 a.m., the city will temporarily close Park Avenue and connecting streets from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park, displacing motor vehicles and welcoming pedestrians, cyclists, joggers, skateboarders and other non-combustion engine participants. Penny farthing, anyone?

As promised, last year's first Summer Streets series, which created a 6.9 mile car-free stretch of Manhattan pavement on three Saturdays in August, will return, despite heated objections from some merchants who said the closings hurt their businesses. Today Russell Simmons and Luis Guzmán joined Mayor Bloomberg, DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, and other officials to formally announce this year's events, which will take place in Manhattan on Saturday August 8th, 15th and 22nd from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Manhattan route will run from the Brooklyn Bridge via Lafayette/Centre Streets, 4th Avenue and Park Avenue up to 72nd street, while major cross-town streets will remain open to vehicles crossing the route. In addition, the Summer Streets program is being expanded to all five boroughs, with smaller stretches in a total of 13 neighborhoods. One such micro-version of Summer Streets, Williamsburg Walks, is already underway and will continue next Saturday and July 11th, unless the teenagers ruin everything with their skateboards! A full list of all the neighborhood Summer Streets events can be perused here, along with all the other free activities presented by the city.

Earlier this month, Sonic Youth dropped The Eternal, the band's 16th album and their first since fulfilling their contractual obligation to Geffen and moving to indie-label paradigm Matador Records. Recorded mostly in Northampton, Massachusetts, where front-couple Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon reside, The Eternal works as both an invigorating new turn in the band's 29 year journey and an ideal point of entry for newcomers, as the 12 tracks span the spectrum from tightly-coiled incendiary art rock to virtuoso mini noise odysseys.

The Rent Guidelines Board's annual carnival of cacophony—wherein hundreds of rent-stabilized tenants shout themselves hoarse as the board votes to raise their rents again—goes down tonight at Cooper Union. Speaking to the Daily News, board chairman Marvin Markus describes the always raucous affair as "one of the rites of spring," and quips, "Maybe we'll give out Valium." Ha ha, making a mockery of "rent stabilization" is always good for a laugh.

                            

"Hey, bro, take my photo! I'm addicted to adrenaline and I burst all the blood vessels in my eye doing back flips!" Such are the strange, close encounters that happen every few steps while one wanders the 700-acres of Tennessee farmland crawling with 75,000 people during this weekend's Bonnaroo music festival. Time and space don't permit a full accounting of all the bizarre sights, sounds, and smells observed during our three days here (there's still one last afternoon of Snoop Dogg, Andrew Bird, Erykah Badu, and Phish ahead), but click through on the photos here for a glimpse at the recession-defying bacchanal. (The adrenaline addict is in there somewhere.)

       

Some 75,000 people from around the world are currently swarming the 8th annual Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee, but from the way they all sang along with the Beastie Boys' classic "No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn," you'd think they were all just on vacation from the county of Kings. Last night the Beastie Boys brought their signature New York flavor to the 700-acre farm, throwing down with a well-balanced mix of crowd-pleasers, including "Paul Revere," "Pass the Mic," and "Shake Your Rump." The big surprise of the set—besides the comically butchered encore of "Sabotage," which completely fell apart both at the beginning and at the climax—was the appearance of Nas, "a special guest from Queensbridge," who isn't even on the Bonnaroo lineup.

       

The Tony Award broadcast usually amounts to a night of boring Broadway boosterism which most Americans happily ignore to watch basketball, but last night viewers actually got a few seconds of drama to go with all the backslapping, as Poison lead singer Bret Michaels got into an exciting accident with a piece of scenery. The "Rock of Love" star was on hand to perform a song with the cast of hair band jukebox musical Rock of Ages; but as you can see from the last few seconds of this video clip, that bit of cross-promotional synergy nearly cost him his life.

      

Every year Transportation Alternatives holds a commuter race to Manhattan between a cyclist, a subway rider, and a motorist to promote the efficacy of cycling. And every year the cyclist wins. When will the gaming commission investigate T.A.? The only difference today between the outcome of last year's race was that this year the car commuter came in dead last, taking 47 minutes, 11 seconds to get from Sunnyside to Columbus Circle in a taxi. Coming in second was NYC transit rider Dan Hendrick, who crossed the finish line in 35 minutes, 16 seconds.

              

The Village Voice OBIE awards are always a raucous affair; a sort of debauched downtown theater raspberry to counter the Tonys' mainstream proceedings. And because the OBIEs call attention to risk-taking, less-famous artists who succeed despite severely limited budgets, they're arguably much more vital to the theater world—at least, the part of that world that consistently pushes the envelope. Last night's bacchanal—the 54th—at Webster Hall was even more festive than years' past because after the awards (see below) were handed out, the club was taken over by a risque, gender-bending after-party hosted by Michael Musto. Pole dancing, body painting and short shorts were wall-to-wall.

The 2009 Tony Award nominees were announced this morning, and competition for a nod was particularly intense this year because the 2008-09 theater season saw the highest number of new Broadway plays, musicals, and revivals in 25 years—and an unusually large percentage of them weren't just flashy drivel. Take for example, reasons to be pretty, Neil LaBute's stirring relationship-wreckage play: the Broadway production nabbed three desperately-needed Tony nominations—including Best Play and one for Gothamist crush Marin Ireland—but the show is hanging by a thread at the Lyceum Theatre, filling just 30% of the house last week.

In the immortal words of Ween, Cinco de Mayo's on Tuesday. Which is tomorrow. It will be raining, but did a little rain stop some 4,000 Mexican soldiers from defeating almost twice as many French invaders back on May 5th, 1862? No, they vanquished their oppressors, just as we shall vanquish the temptation to stay inside watching Biggest Loser: Couples tomorrow night. Here is where you'll find us raising a glass to General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín, who we've been big fans of since we looked all this up on Wikipedia five seconds ago.

Over the past 25 years City Harvest has rescued vast quantities of excess food that the food industry would have otherwise discarded; they then deliver it free of charge to more than 600 community food programs. With the faltering economy leading to even greater demand, nearly 350,000 children and their families in NYC don’t have enough to eat. To raise money, City Harvest is holding its annual Skip Lunch Fight Hunger initiative on May 6th, asking individuals to donate their lunch money. Here's how it works: Participants sign up as a team captain for their company, organization, or school. By May 6, team captains receive brown paper lunch bags, posters, and facts about childhood hunger to help publicize the event, and the captains collect donations. Last year's initiative was a big success, with some 15,000 New Yorkers raising over $500,000 in a single day to help feed over 30,000 children and their families for the entire summer. The top 25 fundraising teams will have a chance to win one of five prize packages, including tickets to the U.S. Open, where the food is so expensive you may want to skip lunch yet again. Details here.

The 2009 Pulitzer Prizes were announced today, and the NY Times nabbed five, the second-most in its history, according to the Times. The paper of record won awards for breaking news reporting on Governor Eliot Spitzer’s hooker scandal, for investigative reporting into the Pentagon's use of retired generals to sell the Iraq invasion, for reporting on America's military and political challenges in Afghanistan and Pakistan, for Holland Cotter's art criticism, and Damon Winter's photographs of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

              

The festival continues through May 3rd, and while this year boasts less films than usual (approximately 150, down from roughly 200 last year), that also means it's a slightly more manageable festival. Last week Executive Director Nancy Schafer talked us through some of the fun events happening during the festival, which include free stuff like the drive-in movies and the fair street fair, the post-screening Q&A's with directors such as Spike Lee and Steven Soderbergh, and a "work in progress" premiere screening of the documentary, Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful.

                     

Every year on Easter, the city bans cars from Fifth Avenue between 49th and 57th Streets for several hours, transforming the avenue into a leisurely promenade filled with costumed revelers of all ages. And despite the cool temperatures, the throngs amassed outside Patrick's Cathedral seemed even more numerous than usual, perhaps because Cardinal Egan was inside delivering his last Easter mass as head of the New York Archdiocese. Of course, this being New York, the elaborate Easter attire on the avenue was irreverent as ever, ranging from men in pastel drag to Victorian-era dandies to a woman strolling around inside an enormous cake. Feast your eyes by clicking on Katie Sokoler's photographs above.

It's been seven years since the Tribeca Film Festival emerged from the devastation of 9/11, and during that time it's grown from celebrity-cultivated urban renewal project into one of the most anticipated cultural events of the year—not just in the neighborhood it was created to help, but throughout New York City and beyond. The big name items this year include the festival opener, the world premiere of Woody Allen's Whatever Works; the premiere of Steven Soderbergh's new film, Girlfriend Experience (starring gifted porn star Sasha Grey!); and the New York premiere of Spike Lee's Passing Strange.

Ha, remember how last spring that poor guy fell through Ruby's floor into a filthy, rat-infested basement? If this photo is any indication, patrons at the quintessential Coney Island dive should also use caution when stepping out of the bar. Or, at least they would if the place was actually open; after ongoing negotiations with controversial landlord Joe Sitt, the owners of Ruby's still do not have a lease.

Tip #1: Drink at home! As you may have noticed, the green-themed debauchery got to a raging start over the weekend, and there's currently no shortage of drunken yahoos (pictured) out there. Should you decide to join them tonight, you may want to consider avoiding the more obvious destinations like McSorley's (where the mob lined up to start drinking at dawn), Peter McManus and Farrell's—that is, unless you really want to get the full drunken mob experience. On the other hand, every bar, Irish or not, is going to be mobbed, so there's no sense going out tonight if you're not in the mood to bond with humanity. Here's where to find them:
• The epic Saint Patty's "Luck of the Irish" Pub Crawl began on Saturday and is still in full effect! For a $20 ticket you get drink specials at over 100 Manhattan bars, and a chance to help break the Guinness World Record for World's Largest Pub Crawl. So at least you'll be getting slaughtered for a noble cause.
• If a variety of green-colored beverages is what you desire, look no further than the Village Pourhouse. Besides the requisite green beer, you can also sip green martinis and pound green-colored shots. At the uptown location, anyone who recites a limerick gets a green beer for free; downtown the owners have hired a man to dress as a leprechaun to pose for photos and surrender his dignity to the debauched crowd.
• A more refined diversion will take place tonight at the Merchant’s House Museum in the East Village, the city's only family home "preserved intact—inside and out—from the 19th century." Bridget Murphy was the Irish cook who worked for the home's original occupants back in 1855; she'll be appearing tonight via wormhole to give visitors "a back-stairs look at the Merchant’s House Museum. Taste food made from 19th-century Irish-American recipes, sample Bridget’s famous ‘green’ tea punch—an old New York recipe—and tour the fourth-floor servant quarters (usually off limits to visitors)." There will be a bagpiper playing traditional Irish music, and, naturally, alcoholic beverages. ($30 for non-members; details here.)

      

Drum roll, please! The finals of the first annual US Pole Dance Championship were held yesterday at the Bleecker Street theater, where eleven female dancers competed for the coveted top crown. (It seems that not one man was able to shatter the glass heel ceiling to make the finals.) According to Time Out, there were originally 12 women chosen from more than 100 video submissions, but finalist Michula Renee Nunez of California tragically dislocated her elbow while rehearsing.

A spokesperson for Governor Paterson's office confirmed that talks were ongoing but stressed that no resolution had been reached. Governors Island has become an increasingly popular weekend recreation destination since it was opened to the public in 2003. It's run jointly by the city and state, but Paterson's budget does not include any money for the park this year, and yesterday the Governors Island board of directors imposed an austerity budget of $11.8 million, down from $18.8 million, while acknowledging that the remaining $550,000 in its operating budget will be exhausted by the end of the month.

Since 1989, the Allman Brothers Band has played at the Beacon Theater 177 times; they're currently in the midst of what's become an annual tradition: a springtime, multi-night residency at the Beacon Theater. This year's run at the newly-renovated Beacon is fifteen nights long and coincides with the band's 40th anniversary. As always, surprise guests are planned for almost every night of the run, and this year the list is heavily rumored to include Eric Clapton and B.B. King.

NYU's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy has released a massive report examining how the city's 59 community districts have fared during four distinct real estate periods: two upturns (from 1980 - 1989 and from 1996 - 2006) and two downturns (from 1974 - 1980 and from 1989 - 1996). Between '74 and '80, housing prices declined by 12.4% citywide; between '80 and '89 prices increased by 152%; then between '89 and '96, prices dropped by 29.3%; and in the last boom, which lasted from '96 to '06, prices grew by 124.2%. All in all, sales prices citywide grew by 250 percent during the 32 year time span!