Results tagged “avalon”

It appears that it will be more difficult for New Yorkers to use the Jersey Shore as an easy, affordable getaway as courts are restricting how much of the beach is available to the public. State legislators had been attempting to free up more beaches along the Shore, but appeals courts lately have been overturning them, leading to what the State Island Advance says "may add up to a confusing summer next year, with people unsure of which stretches of sand they're legally allowed to be on, and when they're allowed to be there. "People come down to the shore, decide to party, get tipsy, go for a swim at 2 in the morning, and if they drown, the first thing their family will do is sue the town because we allowed it," said Avalon Mayor Martin Pagliughi about laws forcing him to keep his beaches open all night. Let's just hope that the mayor of Belmar doesn't get involved in this again.

Extra Place is a small East Village street, spanning only 30 feet wide and about 120 feet long, and The NY Times is taking a closer look at the mostly unknown nook of New York that remains invisible to many passerby, and has no street sign to distinguish it. The small street "runs north from First Street — without making it to Second Street — between the Bowery and Second Avenue" (map).

The former clubs housed at the 47 West 20th Street address have been shut down numerous times before fading into the New York nightlife history pages. The most famous, the Limelight, opened in the old church in 1983, and survived throughout the 90s before becoming Avalon in 2003, which shut down earlier this year. But who will haunt the building, which is "notorious for drugs, death, and destruction," next?

Has Bruce Willis left behind beer and barstools for wine and a more posh drinking atmosphere? The NY Post is saying yes.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an injured police officer at Floyd Bennet Field in Brooklyn, a gas leak on South 8th St. and Wythe Ave. in Brooklyn, and a bank robbery at the North Fork branch on 87th St. and Broadway in Manhattan.
  
• The FDNY will be stationing a battalion chief at the Deutsche Bank building until it is fully dismantled.
  
• Someone in the Clinton campaign said that there's a 5% chance that in the event of a deadlock between Obama and Clinton at the Democrats' national convention, Al Gore may arise as a compromise candidate.
  
• Plans for a Veselka on the Bowery may be on the rocks, as a liquor license for the Avalon building location looks unlikely.
  
• The 69-year-old man, who was killed after being sideswiped by a cab and then run over by a bus on West 57th St. yesterday, was on his way to deliver candy to Oprah's best pal Gayle King.
  
• A 500 lb. man is suing the FDNY for $5 million after ten firefighters, who were trying to take him to the hospital using a pulley-and-platform rig to get the man out the building, dropped him down a flight of stairs.
  
• Patty Hearst's French bulldog won Best of Opposite Sex in the breed's category (a male won Best of Breed) at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
  
• City Council Speaker Christine Quinn proposed a citywide network of water-borne mass transit, where boats could ferry New Yorkers from stop to stop all over the city's five boroughs.
  

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a possible abduction at 39th St. and 4th Ave. in Brooklyn, falling debris from 820 Columbus Ave. in Manhattan, and a stabbing on East 214th St. in the Bronx.
• Queens Councilman James Gennaro was fined $2,000 after admitting to the Conflict of Interest Board that he asked a staffer to volunteer on his campaign, although he says he has no recollection of the 2003 incident
• MTA CEO Elliot Sander has instructed his division heads to only cut costs by 1.5% next year, after concluding that there is no more fat to trim or inefficiencies to reduce at the agency.
• Madonna spent two hours at Bill Clinton's Harlem offices yesterday, possibly discussing an endorsement of his wife's run for President. She has yet to visit Hillary Clinton's offices.
• A GoogleMaps mashup illustrating the geography of Seinfeld.
• Free alt-weekly New York Press changes ownership hands again. It was sold by Avalon Equity Partners to Manhattan Media for an undisclosed sum.
• Whoopi Goldberg was chosen as Rosie O'Donnell's replacement on the female chat-show The View.
• The New York Times looks at bad behavior at four star restaurants, when well-heeled diners can't wait until they get home to vomit, get naked, or have sex.

On the night Lily Allen played her first post-bloghype show in New York, the ad wizards at Live Nation decided to officially rename the place The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza and drop some fake pseudo-hippie nostalgia to an already otherwise storied venue. It's an embarrassing and senseless stunt thought up by past their prime marketers in an attempt to make a consistent nationwide brand under the Live Nation umbrella. Irving Plaza is, and has been for a while, often the first step for a band that has grown out of its grassroots support and has begun its assault on the mainstream. So while the name change is really just that, it's another clear-cut sign that the homogenization of the New York rock scene in full effect. Any band playing at this new Fillmore now holds an even greater disconnect from the local scene that likely helped get them where they are in the first place. We hope the larger VIP section is worth it.

With 2006 coming to a close, there's a lot to look forward to in the new year. Some expected highlights:

All worship at the altar of...H&M? The church at Sixth Avenue and West 20th that was once the infamous Limelight nightclub (and not so famous Avalon) may be turned into retail space, according to Braden Keil in today's Post. Apparently, landlord Ben Ashkenazy doesn't want to deal with another nightclub, especially in the wake of the recent crackdown and trouble securing liquor licenses.

READING: Head to the New School to join the New York Times and their moderator, critic William Grimes, as Carl Hiaasen reads from his latest crime caper, Nature Girl, which chronicles the exploits of volatile Honey Santana who meets a wild cast of characters while en route to the Ten Thousand Islands. Show up early for a good seat - Hiaasen is a popular draw. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras

While not listed on the website, a small bird-shaped source tells us that the gigantic (website says 66k vs. 90k sq.ft. in reality) Whole Foods in the Avalon Christie on Houston & Bowery will open in April 2007, an almost 1 year delay. Same little birdie says that contrary to reports elsewhere, they will also get to build a Whole Foods wine store (maybe not liquor) to replace the one forced out of the Columbus Circle store.

THEATER: Less than a week post-Fringe, another festival is upon us: the Brick's new Clown Theater Festival, which starts tonight with a subway parade and "free-for-all pie-fight." Some of the participating local and international performers wear big red noses but these aren't the sort of clowns that kids get scared of at birthday parties, but rather the promoters of and participants in a vibrant physical format that's re-energizing theater; there are performances like Chiche Capon's Cabaret out of France and Fools Mass by NYC's own Theatre Group Dzieci, plus workshops for aspiring clowns. Even if the Fringe has you tuckered out, these will be different and delightful enough to get you going again. - Mallory Jensen

READINGS: Sebastian Junger (co-owner of the Half King) will be reading there tonight from his latest book, A Death in Belmont. The book ties into Junger's own life eerily - back in 1963 when Junger was a small boy growing up in Belmont, Massachusetts, Bessie Goldberg was murdered down the street from his home. Following the stories of the two different men suspected of committing the crime (and one of them working at Junger's family home the very day of the murder), Junger brings his inquisitive eye to the story, and its unsolved ending. Junger is a fascinating writer and the Half King is fast becoming one of the city's best reading venues, so it should be a great night. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras

For now, check out the newly launched website and trailer which features "desire, kismet and a wet dream." Quite a promise. Also, has a MySpace page, which sadly currently only has one friend, trusty Tom. Perhaps this is because Tom likes to pull out the fetish gear on a Sunday night. Bet he looks hot in a patent leather bustier. [Brooklyn Vegan reported on the filming and a proposed soundtrack earlier this year.]

Last year, you might remember, we were pretty worried about the future of the plants in one of the city's oldest public gardens, the Liz Christy Garden. AvalonBay was getting ready to build the second building of their Avalon-Christie complex on Houston between the Bowery and Second Avenue and was claiming that in order to "properly" build a basement wall it would need to excavate much of the garden. Such an excavation seemed to be to many the death sentence for the garden's trees, including the towering dawn redwood (the biggest in the borough) which was planted by Liz herself. AvalonBay swore that it would work to protect the trees, but if there is one thing Gothamist has learned over the years it is to never trust a developer.

The week is short and there really isn't a huge amount going on in the venues until the weekend. Plus, it's going to be about 1000 degrees, so packing in to a small sweaty venue isn't highest on our list of priorities. Here's what we do suggest, and as usual - feel free to list some shows in the comments.

In an article about finding the "great outdoors" in our cramped city, the Post has a nice feature on how much people love their community gardens. A couple moving to NYC from Pennsylvania were thrilled to have a community garden near The Octogan (pricelessly described as a "former insane asylum that's been converted into 500 rental units on Roosevelt Island") and are now number 11 on the waiting list. And a woman in Hell's Kitchen waited for four years to get a place at the Clinton Community Garden - another gardener had been slacking off, so the garden sublet his space to her! You can find out more about local community gardens by going to Oasis NYC and the Green Guerillas.

With KEXP in town there's a lot more music than usual. Check out their in studio shows online while you're at work this week. Off the airwaves there's a lot to see, hear and enjoy as well. Tonight and tomorrow night, Angels and Airwaves and I Am The Avalanche play Bowery Ballroom. If you walk by the venue to see a cluster of pierced tweens waiting to get in, it may help to know that the former band is Tom from Blink 182. Goldfrapp is also in town, playing Irving Plaza tonight.

Guess last night wasn't the best night in Gotham's Clubland, eh? As the culmination of a nine-month NYPD narcotics investigation it seems the city closed seven Manhattan nightclubs, completely shutting down five of them.

There are a ton of shows we want to catch this week, most of them fall on Tuesday night - so we'll be consulting the magic 8 ball and various street psychics on what show to go to. Let's get to it, shall we?

Last chance for Brokeback jokes and the Pita's Music Picks: Unlike Ennis, we know how to quit you. Next time it'll be someone else's picks. See you in the clubs![Ed. Note - This is Catherine's last week on the music roundup-- thanks, Catherine!]

- Cops are looking for a "brazen sexual predator" who attacked three young women in their apartment buildings in the Bronx this week.

ART: The NY debut of Guerra de la Paz is this weekend. The collaborative team of Cuban artists Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz creates among larger-than-life Pieta recasting Michelangelo's masterpiece to honor the pathos of the Gulf warrior. Tribute, a 2-ton rainbow pyramid of used clothing and more.

- Security camera's that turn and focus when they hear gunshots are coming soon.

The Plug Awards are coming up next week (February 2nd @ Webster Hall). "What the hell are those?," you may be asking. Well, they're independent music awards celebrating "artists who live and flourish in the margins." And YOU can vote on everything from Album of the Year to Music Blog of the Year to Internet Radio Station of the Year. So vote now!

If there's one week that folks might be at a loss for things to do in the city, this is the week. You might think not a creature was stirring, but how many times do we have to tell you? This is New York. The kids are definitely nestled all snug in their beds. What to your wondering eyes should appear this week? Take a look....

Not since the heyday of the Limelight has there been a crowd so out of their minds as there was last night at the old Limelight space. It wasn't for drugs, partying, and God knows what else, but for sneakers. Gothamist headed over for the Sneaker Pimps show at Avalon to ogle countless pairs of sneakers. Most of the sneakers there were no longer in their original form, but given a new look by artists from around the world.