Results tagged “idiotarod”

                    

Another Idiotarod has come to an end, kids. The race began around 11:30 a.m. at the East 60th Street heliport and ended sometime around 3 p.m. in Greenpoint, with an after party and awards ceremony held at Public Assembly in Williamsburg. Did you run in (or run into) the race today? Here's our coverage from earlier, as the carts made their way to the finish line. If you have any photos, tag them with "Gothamist" on Flickr, we'll be adding photos as they come in.

            

Watch your back for adorned shopping carts today, the Idiotarod has officially begun! Seems like just yesterday that Team Danger Zone was running through the streets blaring Kenny Loggins and channeling their inner-Top Guns, but can they top themselves this year? We got our hands on some video (courtesy of NFGTV) of their shiny new carts, and it looks like the other racers have some major competition again. They're literally bringing the fire, with a pair of torch-led carts called Remus and Romulus.

As the annual Idiotarod approaches, last year's "Best in Show" winners, Team Danger Zone, have a Public Service Announcement aimed at this year's participants. Their message: "We all love running Idiotarod, but the people whose neighborhoods we run through hate us. Let's change that without being any less awesome." Which is all a long way of saying: "Don't Litter, Thetans!"

The annual Idiotarod is just around the corner, taking place on January 31st, and registration is now open (a spot costs $25). Free Williamsburg (whose scribe was part of a team called Kraftwerking for the Weekend last year) points to the good and the bad about the event, saying: "the Idiotarod is kind of fun because you get to act like an idiot but also kind of lame because people make a giant mess in other people's neighborhoods and don't clean it up." Clean up your acts this year, kids!

Video is finally surfacing from this past Saturday's Idiotarod. While the event did gain some enemies this weekend (mostly because not everyone cleaned up after themselves), there was one shining beacon, a team that stuck to the spirit of Idiotarod: Team Danger Zone. If ever a costumed conglomerate of people pushing a shopping cart were to have groupies, it would be this one. Here they are showing off their cart, and their guns:

Yesterday was the annual Idiotarod, which is both loved and hated by locals. We hear that this year the head honchos were tossing non-competitors out of the checkpoints, this coupled with the amount of jocks tackling people leads us to believe that this (sadly) may have been the last good run. There have also been a ton of complaints about the competitors and organizers littering the streets, leaving their paths trashed with no clean-up effort.

As of 8 this morning the starting points for this year's Idiotarod had already been changed twice. As with every year, the effort to dodge police and the scramble to find the most updated starting line is still underway, but the carts should be off soon...and we'll keep you updated. In the meantime, check out Team Danger Zone's ride!

Are you planning on joining the masses for Idiotarod this year? The race begins at noon this Saturday, and instead of having one starting point as in previous years...there are four! The pimped out shopping carts will be taking off from Long Island City, DUMBO, Williamsburg and Greenpoint. If you don't want to be a spectator, you can register here.

Happy horse news this Sunday. Last fall the city sued an upstate horse farm owner who was taking care of retired NYPD horses for not taking care of those horses. The city claimed the horses were "grossly underweight, had difficulty chewing, and were kept in stalls without straw bedding." The farm owner countered that the city did not give him funding to care for the horses. The lawsuit was dropped when it was agreed to move the horses.

Between fake terrorist alerts and scandals big and small, this just might be the Best Best of the -ists ever. We're exhausted just thinking about it.

Now that the NYPD has required processions of 50 or more "on foot, bicycle, or other 'devices moved by human power,'" per the Sun, people are getting ready for a rumble. At a rally yesterday, activists asked the City Council to stop this ridiculous rule from being enforced.

Tussletown, from our pal Cornershots.

Kuma Flowers, by Will at Untitled Name

• A cop killer Ronell Wilson goes through his penalty phase, we're learning a lot about him like how he sucked his thumb at 15 and how a kid he robbed 10 years ago (he stole his calculator and bus pass) is doing fine these days.
• Elmhurst residents will not only get new green parkland from a lot where gas tanks are - that boulder from Fort Greene will be added there too!
• A funeral was held for police officer Cesar Borja, who died of a pulmonary illness many believe was caused by working 16 hour shifts at Ground Zero.

The Umbrella, My Friend, Was Blowing In The Wind, by The Girl Who.

It's on! This year's Idiotarod, sponsored by Carts of Brooklyn, started in Brooklyn, and the craziness was on. Our report from the field:

THEATER: A one-of-a-kind theatrical event is happening this weekend only in a clothing store and barbershop on the edge of Chinatown. Called American Standard, this solo, seven character ‘sideshow’ is the work of Canadian-American troupe bluemouth,inc., which has been building a reputation for staging innovative theater in bizarre locales. (Other productions have taken place in hotel rooms and the basement of an office building.) In their latest foray, “a preacher, a tourist, a politician, an entertainer, an immigrant, a poet and a terrorist inhabit a storefront installation, spilling onto the street and lurking within the basement.” Martin Denton praises the show as “dense, artful, absorbing, and fun. The penultimate scene is so thrillingly unexpected that to say anything about it risks spoiling American Standard's neatest surprise; suffice to say that you've almost certainly never witnessed anything like it in any theatre of any description.”

Calling all Idiotarod enthusiasts and people who work in Midtown who might want a lunchtime spectacle. The Carts of Brooklyn Racing Association, aka COBRA, will be holding a press conference at 1PM today outside CBS's headquarters. The group, which is organizing this year's Idiotarod, will be protesting tonight's episode of CSI:NY and its "depiction of shopping cart racing," as the CSI spin-off has been using the Idiotarod name in marketing materials (in the show, it's called the "Idiot Run") without permission. "COBRA's Diabolical Mastermind" Oscar Owens says:

This is yet another example of the lack of respect with which the media treats the 'craft of the speeding trolley.' For years shopping cart racers have faced uninformed and distorted images of themselves. Now they want to paint us as thieves and murderers? It would be one thing if CSI:NY weren't so bad, but this Gary Sinise-led monstrosity is beyond the pale. Do you hear us, Les Moonves? We demand satisfaction."

Best email we've received today - aside from all the speculation on what the damn gassy smell is:

After contacting Carts of Brooklyn Racing Association (COBRA)* about this very issue, it appears that the producers of CSI:NY ARE using the name Idiotarod in press releases in regards to Wednesday's episode "Obsession." COBRA, and all shopping cart racers of New York and the country, will not take this disrespect. One, they used the name with out our permission. Two, they are portraying us as thieves and murders. Three, CSI:NY is a crappy show.

Continue reading "Idiotarod Vs. CSI: NY"

A look at some noteworthy programs this week:

Gothamist posts on the capture of a NYC perv thanks to Little Brother and a camera phone. They also scour the city for vodka martinis and Shamrock shakes and spot the friend from the Wonder Years at a city law firm. New York police think that Littlejohn is their man.

- New Yorkers mourn the death of Coretta Scott King (NY Times obituary)

- And playwright Wendy Wasserstein died over the weekend

If you missed our comprehensive Idiotarod coverage yesterday, check it out immediately! Then enjoy this roundup of photos and videos of the event. If you took some pix or video, please add a link in the comments and we'll put it in this list. Also enjoy the Idiotarod tag stream at Flickr and Vimeo.

After last night's crazy Critical Mass where two cops were hurt, the Idiotarod meeting place was moved from Willamsburg to Fort Greene Park (at the monument) at 2:30PM Everyone was alerted by text message. Looks like fears about the police trying to spoil the fun of pushing shopping carts while elaborately costumed were founded.

Oh no! Two cops were injured at Critical Mass ride last night, and seventeen cyclists were arrested. The problems started when a line of cops on scooters attempted to stop the ride, and two of the cops collided with each other. The Village Voice's Power Plays blog has a comprehensive report:

With all the trouble last weekend at the No Pants ride, we're wondering what's going to happen at the Idiotarod race tomorrow! The race has been very well publicized on all the New York sites, and the route has been published on the Idiotarod site (starts at Monster Island in Williamsburg tomorrow at 2:30pm [updated] the monument in Fort Greene Park at 2PM.) The NYPD seems to be cracking down on everyone recently-- first Critical Mass, then bikers in general, then No Pants. Will the Idiotarod be next-- will the NYPD allow thirty teams of wildly costumed racers to push their carts at top-speed through the city streets? Take our poll after the jump-- and please, Idiotarodders, be careful when you are racing. And don't forget to write your lawyer's number on the back of your hand!

The Idiotarod is sort of like the Iditarod, except the dogs are humans, the sleds are shopping carts and Alaska is New York City. And sometimes the humans are drunk.