Results tagged “clayaiken”

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on 120th St. and 3rd Ave. in Manhattan, a stabbing on West 31st St. in Brooklyn, and a fall victim at MoMA in Manhattan.
• The New York Yankees took first place in franchise spending, with a total payroll of $218.3 million last year. The World Series-winning Boston Red Sox payroll totalled $155.4 million to finish a distant second.
• The New York Water Taxi is terminating its South Brooklyn service between Sunset Park, Red Hook, and Wall St. at the end of this month.

Like Jay-Z's 40/40 Club before them, the NY Post reports that two more Manhattan clubs are now being drawn into a lawsuit for playing music they didn’t have a license to play. With the music industry in an increasingly sad state, you would think getting the tunes out to the public (not for downloading or stealing but for the pure enjoyment of listening) would be a good thing. However bars are finding they have to pay the piper to play the songs, lest they want to end up in court.

Last Friday The Wrens headlined a benefit show for Planned Parenthood, celebrating the 34th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. The band played their usual Meadowlands-heavy mix of old songs, and made an announcement that it would more than likely be their final show supporting their now nearly 4 year old album. They will be working on putting together something new this summer. It's always a treat to see the Wrens live, who for our money is one of the best straight-up rock acts around these days, but even more so in an intimate club such as the Knitting Factory. Speaking of which, perhaps nudged along by the Bowery Presents recent power play to control the live music scene in NYC, The Knit gave a serious makeover to their main room, significantly upgrading their sound system and adding a fancy new array of animated stage lights for the performers. As if it wasn't already one of our favorite local venues, (um, 2 years of Movable Hype?) it now has even further separated itself from the midsize club pack by creating an environment that has the bands looking and sounding that much better than ever before. The ball is now back in Bowery's court to see if any of their many new venues will step up to match this level of quality, or will they rest on their laurels as being the go-to venue empire. We'll have to wait and see. (More pics like the one above here.)

If Thanksgiving is over, then Christmas trees all around the city must be lit. Here are three events the Daily News notes:

The Times has a story about Brett Zwieback, the 27-year-old meteorologist who helps weather-direct the balloons in the parade. He works at a company that consults with film and TV crews about weather conditions for outdoor shooting; clients include Law and Order, Saturday Night Live and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog has gotten neutered, but for a good cause: He's starring in a PETA ad - one that slams American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken. Aiken told Rolling Stone, "I think cats are Satan. There's nothing worse to me than a house cat. When I was about 16, I had a kitten and ran over it." Apparently it was an accident, but Aiken needs to up the training for media requests, while maintaining the whole "straight" training.

On an optimistic note, as well as a lucky piece of re-election/ratings improvement PR for Mayor Bloomberg, the Times says that New York might actually be recovering from its fiscal crisis, which surprises many, due to "a formula consisting of higher taxes, service cuts, extra aid and greater government efficiency." Yeah, Gothamist would never have thunk that would help a deficit!

Looks like "alternative" music festival Field Day Fest is happening at Giants Stadium, at least according to Ticketmaster. Gothamist thinks it's funny how last weekend, Giants Stadium held Zootopia, the pop-hit heavy concert thrown by Z100 that had, according to their site, "Aerosmith, Kelly Clarkson, TLC, Mariah Carey, Ja Rule, Ashanti, Jewel, Third Eye Blind, Wayne Wonder, Simple Plan, Tanto Metro & Devonte, Daniel Bedingfield, JC Chasez, Bowling For Soup, Ginuwine... your American Idol's Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken, PLUS special guest-hosts BRITNEY SPEARS and LISA MARIE PRESLEY!"