Results tagged “easterneuropean”

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on East 39th St. in Manhattan, a large fight on 2nd Ave. in Manhattan, and a child in cardiac arrest on Pitt St. in Manhattan.
• Police in Nassau County are conducting an active homicide investigation in New Cassel, after they were called to a home where three children--all under the age of seven--were found dead in a room. Their mother has been hospitalized.
• Ripples of Kosovo's recent independence are being felt in New York City's Central and Eastern European immigrant communities.
• Thousands of students fasted for a 30-hour period over the weekend to raise awareness of world hunger.
• To celebrate the system's 100th anniversary tomorrow, everyone can ride the PATH trains to and from NJ for free.
• A large number of the panels being removed from the stained glass window at American Airline's JFK Airport Terminal are going to the group lampooned as a cult that recruited members as they cleaned one's carpet for free in an episode of Seinfeld.
• A Greyhound bus traveling from New York City to Syracuse and then across the border to Toronto flipped over in northeastern Pennsylvania early this morning. 41 of the passengers were treated at a hospital and released.
• Grammy Award-winning singer Rihanna is working with an international bone marrow donor network to help Lisa Gershowitz Flynn, a New York City mother of two young children who has leukemia.

So if you remember correctly, Grand Theft Auto IV, the New York City crime simulator, was supposed to be in stores by now. But between production delays and the million other great games this season to compete with, they decided to just push it back till next Spring and get it right. But just in case you've you've still got an itch for some Eastern European organized crime this holiday season, here's a brand...

In 2006, at age 19, musician Zach Condon and his band Beirut exploded onto the indie-rock scene with a dramatic collection of Balkan-inspired arrangements for horn, ukulele, keyboards and strings. The bloggers raved, the venues got bigger, the haters left comments. But less than a year later, the teen’s too-sudden indie-rock apotheosis landed him in the hospital for “extreme exhaustion” and forced the cancellation of a tour that included sold-out dates at Bowery Ballroom. Condon has since rallied back and, in addition to a new album coming out next month, has picked up his touring pace again.

Get your creepy crawly on with two potentially frightening movies out this weekend. Yet another '80s horror staple is getting the remake treatment with Dave Meyers' , that it's ill advised to piss off Sean Bean. That Brit is one menacing looking dude on screen.

(Siles Press), which scored a blurb from Yoko Ono and set off debate within the chess world about the need for gender segregation. In the book, which features Shahade clad in a pink wig, scarf, and gloves on the cover, she examines high-profile female chess players from countries as farflung as Zambia, Russia, and China, examining the ways various governments support and nurture budding champions and how chess is or isn't valued, both financially and otherwise. She shares her own experiences studying with the likes of Garry Kasparov, and ultimately argues in favor of more women playing more chess, whether it's in all-female tournaments or mixed ones.

- After last week's post we heard via the inbox from Ann over at A Chicken In Every Granny Cart, seems she is amp’ed up about the recently arrived seasonal appearance of Christmas Borscht at Veselka. Bonus information provided: she visits other places in the ever shortening Eastern European alley along First and Second avenues. If you go down in the daytime don’t miss a stop at Kurowycky for some of the best old world smoked meats and Eastern European specialties.

Even though the weather isn't encouraging you to stay inside, there's still a whole host of new flicks to check out at the theaters.

Pizzerias in this city are so common that sometimes you wonder if they’re all legit. Is that place on the corner really just another Ray’s Famous, or is it a front for some illicit trade? On the surface, Tony & Tina’s Pizzeria in the Bronx seems ordinary enough. But if you look a little closer, you’ll discover there’s more than one kind of dough getting baked here. It’s nothing illegal; this just happens to be one of the few hotspots for bureks, the savory Eastern European pies made from phyllo-like pastry.

THEATER: The Debate Society's "Snow Hen" was a quirky, dreamy take on an old Scandinavian folk tale about the Black Death; now, in "The Eaten Heart," the talented trio of Hannah Bos, Paul Thureen, and Oliver Butler riff on an Italian view of the plague, Boccaccio's bawdy classic Decameron http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decameron as the second part of a plague trilogy. This is a workshop production, so while the group's work always seems fresh and engagingly inchoate, here you get to see it while it is that and then some (and with less expensive tickets!). - Mallory Jensen

It's Memorial Day and if you are are like us, your drink of choice is a little closer than usual this Monday afteroon. Seriously, Tuesday is eons from now. Our choice, vodka, has its usual detractors, including a cocktail connoisseur in New York magazine who recently called it "the grilled chicken breast" of liquors. But we like the versatility -- how else are we making our Bloody Marys? Not with Hendrick's, let us just say -- and being Eastern European, vodka is known to course through our veins anyway.

We were walking by the Eldridge Street Synagogue this morning, and we noticed they were putting four new towers on the roof. Back in 2005, Tien visited the synagogue and got some interior shots. He also found a little info on the temple: "The Eldridge Street Synagogue... was built in 1887 and one of the first built in the US by Eastern European Jews. It's already being restored and repaired with the bulk of funding from the city in the form of grants that total $2.9 million. Major improvements, besides roof repair, include the installation of an HVAC system."

Daily News calls them "Stringfellas" because one of their schemes was to sell a stolen Stradivarius violin and "then rob the buyer." That would be an ambitious but classic (no pun intended) cycle of crime: Claim to sell stuff only to pocket the cash and then take the object back for another "sale" - we just like that coveted musical instruments would have been used in the deals. The feds had been watching the gang, which dabbled in extortion, drugs and weapons trafficking as wells as stolen IDs, for over a year. The Brooklyn US Attorney said, "No effort will be spared to ensure that criminal groups like the Greenpoint crew do not gain a foothold in our communities." But there may have been someone in the NYPD who helped the gang (many gang members hung out at the Europa Club, which is near the 94th Precinct).

Following up last Friday's post about mysteries from the 8th Avenue and 42nd Street subway station:

A couple days after an Eastern European man appeared at the Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street subway station looking beaten up, police still don't really know that much about his case. Police say that the man was burned, bound and tortured, and probably held in the trunk of a Lincoln Town Car, but the man still hasn't spoken yet - he's been communicating with the cops by writing and drawing. The man is recovering at Bellevue, but Gothamist wonders if the police will make him retrace his steps when he's healthier - they might be able to pull surveillance tapes from neighboring areas.

) As patient as she is, Emily refuses to let dry vomit become a rat-magnet and wrote to the MTA that since her various calls and emails hadn't been working, that she'll be taking pictures of the vomit stairs and posting them online. So, dear Gothamist readers who don't like graphic pictures, you've been warned - and you're lucky some people advised us against posting Emily's photograph (apparently the cat picture was enough for today; also, go Emily!).

We hear about a lot of events each week and we can't write one post about each of them, because then you'd be here all day. So we're going to sift through and pick out some gems for the weekdays, here are some of the highlights for this week...

Quhnia, derived from the Polish word "kuchnia," meaning "kitchen," offers a medley of Eastern European style dishes, from blini and beef stroganoff to pielemini, or small, Russian meat dumplings served with spicy honey mustard and sour cream. Tucked in a cozy space on the same East Village street as The Elephant, Prune, and Starfoods, Quhnia's menu also boasts nightly specials and offers homemade infused vodka or a plethora of sipping wines. A good pick for Sunday brunch, Quhnia's homey-yet-elegant decor, marked by decorative pillows resting along the eastern wall, is also inviting for a casual dinner or early evening drink.

Okay, the name leaves something to be desired, but you can still sample a variety of German foods and beverages and view cooking demonstrations by chefs at Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall every day from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Red cabbage and spätzle? But, of course. Gummi bears? Got 'em. The event is sponsored by the German Agricultural Marketing Board, the German National Tourist Office, the German Information Center and the Goethe-Institut New York. For more information, visit www.germanfoods.org.

Gothamist must admit that we were one of those pasty, sun-deprived toddlers who merrily shunned the joys of sportsmanship and early childhood socialization for the more solitary pleasures of pop-up books and cartoon fantasy lands. To this day, the mere glimpse of a page from one of our favorite children's books will stop us in our tracks even faster than a shiny object, compelling us to re-read the book in question immediately.

Ladies and gentlemen, gourmands and those with expense accounts: The [AOL] Time-Warner Center Restaurant All-Stars! The Times' restaurant critic William Grimes looks at the wealth of cooking talent the new AOL Time-Warner Center boasts (but the Time Warner Center is NOT A MALL - it's One Central Park, okay?). The breakdown: