Results tagged “civilwar”

You knew that the heated competition between street food vendors is getting increasingly acrimonious, but did you know that it's tearing families apart? Over the weekend, a Midtown Lunch reader spotted this sign on 45th Street advertising newcomer Fahima Halal Food, which is declaring its food to be Halal-of-a-lot-better than nearby vendor Kwik Meal.

       

If you didn't grow up with extended family members partaking in Civil War reenactments, then you always have the annual Civil War Weekend on Governors Island to familiarize yourself. This year's event took place on Saturday, and istolethetv's flickr has full visual documentation, also noting that "the National Park Service, 119th New York Volunteers, The GawdAwful Mess and Battery G of the First Pennsylvania Light Artillery, and the Soldiers of the First Minnesota provided family friendly activities, living history demonstrations, music and other programs designed to introduce people to the men and women of the Governors Island Garrison and Confederates imprisoned on the Island." In the early 1800s Castle Williams and Fort Jay were constructed on the island, and used as defensive structures from the Revolution onward. Also, here is a Tropic Thunder/Guns n' Roses "Civil War" mash-up.

Why is a Bay Ridge man hanging the Confederate flag from his terrace in a dreary 30-story co-op tower at 65th Street? It's NOT because he's racist, y'all, it's to send a message to those "sophisticated snotnoses in the north." You know, the region where he lives. Brooklyn Paper spotted the flag flapping in Union territory recently, and tracked down the rebel yeller, who would only identify himself as Mike. But he was happy to clear up any confusion over why he's displaying the Stars and Bars so far above the Mason-Dixon line: "I do it is because I’m against political correctness. People who are politically correct don’t agree with that flag — it’s my one-man protest. The left likes to say they celebrate diversity. I guess that’s what I’m doing.... [Northerners] make Southerners into bumpkins — and that’s not the case." Absolutely not, but Cletus Mike is kind of scaring the neighbors with that thing, and one nearby resident says, "I want to stay far away from those people [who have Confederate flags]. We’re free to fly any flag we want, but I’m not crazy about it. We won the war." Well, for now, at least.

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.

Proliferating in great number in the wake of the Civil War by freed slaves migrating north, who had little economic resources, "storefront churches" are primarily a black and urban phenomena, where small congregations could worship in smaller numbers. More recently, the ecclesiastic form has been adopted by other ethnic groups such as recent immigrants. The site Fotki has a collection of 100 images of storefront churches located in Brooklyn that makes for some interesting browsing. There are more photos after the jump. [via Satan's Laundromat].

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a ceiling collapse at Franklin Ave. and Union St. in Brooklyn, a pedestrian was fatally struck on Queens Blvd. in Woodhaven, Queens, and an unusual rescue on the south bound tower of the Throgs Neck Bridge in Queens.
• An undercover cop forgot to turn off the wire he was wearing while discussing 11 bags of cocaine he seized in a Brooklyn bust that were never turned in. He was also sure to repeatedly refer to black people using the "N-word." [No link yet, but we saw the story on NY1.]
• The mother of an escaped convict is telling him through the press to keep running, and knows some day he'll be exonerated of his crime. We foresee either a one-armed man eventually brought to justice or subsequent imprisonment in a South American jail.
• Civil disobedience on 5th Avenue. We did not realize this, but the city has offered free vendor licenses to military veterans since the Civil War. Dan Rossi is protesting the curtailment of the practice by parking his hot dog cart right in front of The Metropolitan Museum.
• There's an interesting installation at the Gavin Brown Enterprise on Greenwich St. created by artist Urs Fischer, who's dug a hole in the ground. It is an absolutely enormous hole in the ground.
• Michael Douglas is the new announcer for the NBC Nightly News. Anderson Cooper responds that he would also consider a celebrity announcer, like Fran Drescher, Clint Eastwood, Paul Reubens, or Cher.
• Macy's is going to stay open 24 hours a day until Christmas Eve. Those are going to be some tired elves.
• A siamese cat named Yoda was bludgeoned to death in an Upper East Side doorman building. Sarah Favorite, the girlfriend of Yoda's owner, was arrested and is being charged with aggravated animal cruelty.

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire.

Like many, whenever we traverse any streets along Grand Army Plaza, we basically run (or bike) for our lives.

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg announced a project to commemorate abolitionist activity that occurred in Brooklyn in the 1800s. He named a panel made up of community leaders, academics, and historians to aid the city and Downtown Brooklyn Partnership in asking for and reviewing commemoration proposals.

This weekend, you could take a trip back to the 1860s with a visit to Governors Island. It's the Civil War Weekend, and the 119th New York Volunteer Historical Association will "recreate garrison life on Governors Island during the Civil War, portraying officers, soldiers and guards in the Regular Army conducting drills, a guard mount and historic weapons demonstrations." Here's a schedule of events for both Saturday and Sunday:

10:00: Witness the morning calls (sick, breakfast, officers’) at the Garrison and Confederate prisoners being marched to Castle Williams under guard

Continue reading "Civil War Re-Enactment Weekend at Governors Island"

The state legislature in Albany is prepared to issue a formal apology for the historic practice of slavery and will be the first northern state in the Union to do so. Several states on the Confederate side of the Civil War have already issued similar apologies. Albany lawmakers are pushing to pass the resolution in time for "Juneteenth", which is an unofficial holiday celebrating the June 19th arrival of federal troops in Texas to announce the final eradication of slavery from the United States and its territories in 1865.

The store was founded by Ben Bass on what was known as Book Row, which at the time housed 48 bookstores. Today it's run by Fred and Nancy Bass. When asked how the business changed over the past 80 years and if people are still as literary as they once were, Fred Bass answered:

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a carjacking on 130th St. and 15th Ave. in Queens, an overturned auto on Spring St. and West Broadway in Manhattan, and a stabbing on Caton Ave. in Brooklyn.
• Remember when Paris Hilton forgot that she'd left her Tinkerbell with her grandma and papered her neighborhood with Lost Dog flyers? New Yorkers hire private detectives and publicists to get the job done right. A tiny dauchsund is missing.
• New York Magazine re-examines the "conceptual-Marxist street-art supervillain" daubed "The Splasher."
• We're no "law-talking guy", but find the Times' account of a police officer posing as a legitimate news outlet's reporter to lure a protester to an arrest fairly alarming.
• Roller skaters continue to boogie down in Central Park just north of the Sheep Meadow every weekend, and have been doing so since 1977. If you have never seen this in person, you must.
• A bolt out of the Jet Blue struck a plane flying into JFK yesterday and the passenger jet carrying 140 people made an emergency landing. There was no fire or injuries, but the passenger cabin was filled with the smell of ozone.
• The Daily News continues its report on Building Boondoggles, setting its sight today on disasters in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
• On Memorial Day, The New York Times examines the efforts of praiseworthy volunteers to identify and re-mark more than a thousand graves of New Yorkers who were killed during the Civil War and are now buried in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetary.

City schoolkids are woeful underperformers when it comes to taking a statewide history exam. Just over a quarter proved capable of passing an 8th grade exam that covered the U.S. Constitution, major wars the U.S. has fought in, and native cultures. The passing average for the rest of the state was 55%, which is hardly impressive, but twice as good as city kids' scores. We sympathize with the 2006 test takers, because we tried to take the test and quickly became incredibly bored around the time we reached question #7, which reduced an interesting subject to a stultifying two-tone diagram.

The NYCTV program "Inside the Archives" features a weekly hour of archival New York images set to music. A collection of photographer Bernice Abbot's mostly architectural photography of the city from 1935-38 called "Changing New York" is viewable at the New York Public Library's site. And the library also hosts a series of photos by Lewis Wickes Hines of the Empire State Building's construction in 1930-31. NYC Then and Now is an interesting pool of photos at flickr that documents alterations––sometimes small, sometimes dramatic––in streetscapes around the city.

A look at some noteworthy television programs this week:

If our global warming trend continues and dog days of January (yesterday’s high: 72) become the norm, one unanticipated side effect may be the prospect of a year-round stuffy theater season. Those who frequent off-Broadway theater have learned to accept their sticky fate in the summer, but the notion of theatrical sweat lodges through January is sure to separate the men from the boys.

Only a few more days until the end of the year (and the cut off for the 2006 Oscar season), so of course the movie theaters are glutted with choice new releases.

After The Real Deal reported that skeletal remains were found on the Trump Soho site Monday night, the Department of Buildings issued a stop work order on the building. Naturally the developers were surprised. The Post spoke to Julius Schwarz from developer Bayrock Group, who said, "Despite the fact that our counsel has advised us that there is no authority to issue this order, we are fully cooperating with the Department of Buildings and we'll be discussing the matter with them [this] morning." Dude, bones were found! We think you stop work! Schwarz added that the area where the bones were found will eventually be a landscaped plaza, not where the 45-story building will be built (so investors and future hotel guests, do not freak out!).

WCBS brands police shooting “50 Shots” then sanity prevails

In a move that was inevitable, NBC has now started to call the civil war in Iraq a civil war. On NBC News’ ”The Daily Nightly” Brian Williams writes, “We will also reference our decision today (after much consultation over the weekend with our colleagues, fellow journalists, historians, analysts and members of the military, both present and former) to describe the fighting in Iraq as a Civil War. We believe it is a more accurate reflection of what is happening there, and there was a fair amount of reaction to the decision today... even though a number of news organizations have already made a similar call.”

The New York Film Festival winds down this weekend, and what a wonderful, strange trip its been. We've been to late '90s Britain, modern day Korea and the rural area outside Madrid, but still have yet to wing our way to pre-revolutionary France and fascist Spain. Thrilling, n'est pas? Here's a few thoughts on some of the films from the 44th annual that we've sampled.

Mayor Bloomberg dedicated a monument to New York's "Fighting 69th" yesterday in Ballymote, Ireland. But much of the attention was on whether or not he will run for President in 2008 (it seems no, since he said he'd serve his second term) and discussed immigration reform, saying, "we need to inject some common sense into our immigration laws, and I'm doing my best to make that case in Washington." And amidst protesters, he emphasized the need to fight terrorists and defended Senator Joe Lieberman's pro-war stance.

Ah, the global community! Mayor Bloomberg, who put off a trip to Ireland last month because of a little ol' Queens blackout situation, is finally headed to Eire tomorrow. However, two groups who oppose U.S. policy in Iraq and Lebanon will be on hand when the Mayor will take part in a dedication ceremony for a Fighting 69th monument. The NY Times notes that the Mayor's support of noted Iraq war supporter Senator Joseph Lieberman as well as his support of President Bush's pro-Israel stance is warranting a "peace vigil" and demonstration tomorrow. Indymedia Ireland posters even note how much it costs to travel to the areas where Bloomberg is visiting, in case people want to join in. Well, it's good that the Mayor will have a bit of protest to follow him around - we wonder if the Ballymote and Sligo police have tactics akin to the NYPD.

PARTY: ABC No Rio is the 26 year old LES center for art and activism that has JUST received the title to their building. "Envisioned for the site is a multi-use community arts center with darkroom, silk-screen printing facility, small press resource center, computer center, expanded space for art, music, performance, educational and community activities, and meeting and office space."

Ah, there's nothing like coming on a Saturday night and to be treated to a CNN Breaking News alert that Angelina Jolie had given birth to her child with Brad Pitt. (We'll wonder why no one called or text messaged us later.) Baby daughter Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt was born in Namibia, and already, there's speculation about what Shiloh means ("personal appellation for Christ", "his gift" or "he who was sent", the Civil War town). Whatever - it's no Moxie Crimefighter or Pilot Inspektor. People.com has it's Baby Shiloh Arrives! site up and ready, although it's just packages of previous Angelina-n-Brad -n-Maddox -n-Zahara photos - which Gothamist cannot get enough of, we hate to admit. The next waiting game: To see which tabloid - and how much - was paid for the baby pictures - remember when New York magazine sorta punked people with their cover story about Brangelina baby pictures (just the bidding war)?

At least, that's what everyone at the New York City Beard and Moustache Championships told us last night at the Knitting Factory. The place was wall-to-wall beards-- it was like a ZZ Top fanclub convention. It was like a reenactment of the Civil War. It was like a restaging of Hair. Etc. We had to bust out before the winners were announced, but Tien is still there partying with all the hirsute heros. Presumably he'll update this post when he gets home.

Jeez-- just what the Village needs-- another Duane Reade! Kim's Video used to live in the basement of this building on the corner of Bleecker and Laguardia-- it was a dank, fetid, dark little hole, but it was the only place within ten blocks where you could rent a video or DVD, and the clerks knew what they were talking about. The facade of the building was decorated with strange plexiglass sculptures-- it's too bad that we can't find a picture of them online.

We really love it when people get down and dirty with massive amounts of numbers. A good round of number crunching, rather than a lazy one, can turn up interesting trends that might have otherwise been overlooked.