Results tagged “nashville”

Former MVP quarterback Steve McNair was found dead inside a condo he rented in Nashville, TN yesterday, killed in what appears to be a murder-suicide with a woman he had been dating in recent months. The 36-year-old McNair, also known as "Air McNair," was found shot multiple times alongside 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi, who died of a single gunshot wound to the head. Police had not yet made an official ruling on the deaths, but a spokesman said, "At this moment nothing has been ruled out, but as far as actively looking for a suspect tonight, the answer would be no." The pair met while Kazemi was a waitress at Dave & Buster's and neighbors said that she had recently been seen coming home in limousines and had been driving an Escalade that she said her boyfriend had bought her. Kazemi had been arrested in that Escalade (registered to her and McNair) on Thursday for a DUI. An ex of hers told a local paper, "She did not deserve this. He was making her believe they were going to be together and everything would be perfect.” McNair, who led the Tennessee Titans to the Super Bowl in 1999 and retired from the Baltimore Ravens in 2007, leaves behind a wife and four children.

There’s usually not much mystery to a Be Your Own Pet show. You get about a half-hour of nonstop, rapid-fire post-adolescent punk, with lots of shouting and shimmying from Jemina Pearl. There are far worse ways to spend an early evening in February. This Wednesday, however, things went down a bit different. About halfway through the set, some older creep started talking back to the charismatic young front woman between songs. It seemed all in good fun, with the tiny singer (jokingly?) bragging about how she’s been kicked out of bars in Nashville for fisticuffs. The dude then gets up on stage, makes some sort of kissy move towards her, and promptly gets smacked across the face HARD as the rest of the band jumped in to take him down. So yea, it Got Awkward real fast. The band brushed themselves off, shook hands with the pervy perp to call a truce with the intruder, and continued on with the rest of their set. Interesting night, to say the least. (pic via Ryan Dombal's flickr)

Brendan Canty is the drummer for Fugazi, the rightly revered D.C. post-punk band whose page on the Dischord Records website still states "1987 - present." The group hasn’t played together or released an album since their phenomenal seventh LP, The Argument; in 2002 they embarked on what is looking increasingly like a permanent hiatus. Like his bandmates, Canty has been consumed by various other creative projects: he’s produced albums for Ted Leo and The Thermals, among others; recorded and toured with Bob Mould; composed soundtracks for film and television; directed Sunken Treasure, Jeff Tweedy's live concert documentary; and helmed an eccentric rock DVD series called Burn to Shine. Started in D.C. in 2004, each DVD is shot on a single day with a lineup of bands who each get two takes on one song in a house slated for demolition. Canty will be at The Kitchen Wednesday night to perform live soundtracks to Brent Green’s distinctive stop motion animation films; other musicians on the bill include Jim Becker (Califone) and Fred Lonberg-Holm (Wilco, Freakwater). The 8pm show is sold out; tickets for the 10pm show are still available.

Barack Obama won the South Carolina Democratic primary yesterday, taking 55% of the vote, winning by a greater margin than most pundits and recent polls had predicted. Hillary Clinton finished second with 27% and John Edwards came in third. The NY Times headline writes that he won by "forging a coalition of support among black and white voters in a contest that sets the stage for a state-by-state fight for the party’s presidential nomination."

Eight of the Jets' 12 losses have come by seven points or fewer. Too many of them have followed the script of Sunday's 10-6 defeat at the hands of the Tennessee Titans in Nashville. Jets fans have to be sick of a banged-up team not expressing confidence in its quarterback -- Chad Pennington wasn't named the starter but played over Kellen Clemens and his sore ribs -- and then going out there and laying an offensive egg. Without his most dynamic playmaker (Laveranues Coles is on injured reserve), Pennington still found a way to complete 81 percent of his passes and throw for 264 yards.

Yesterday in Bed-Stuy, the NYPD arrested a man accused of robbing eight cabbies in a two week period. Earl Evans, whose driver's license said he was from Nashville, is described as a "hulking country bumpkin" by the Daily News. For good reason too - his license said he's 6-foot-3 and 320 pounds. As if his size wasn't intimidating for the cab drivers he robbed, he also had a very realistic looking 9mm Glock. Evans would allegedly hail the taxis and get in the front seat before demanding money. All told, $1,000 was stolen in the eight robberies.

Four months after the opening of three much mulled-over Robert Moses exhibitions, the debate over his legacy shows no signs of waning. Yesterday’s NY Times delved yet again into the morass, this time wondering whether the two perspectives are simply creatures of their cultural moments – a city embroiled in decay vs. a city experiencing a growth spurt.

THEATER: The Scene, a black comedy by Theresa Rebeck that premiered at this year’s Humana Festival in Louisville, is now in previews at Second Stage. The satire is about an out-of-work New York actor (Spenser: For Hire’s Tony Shalhoub) — married to a news producer (Alien Nation veteran Patricia Heaton) — who has an affair with a fresh-faced Ohioan ingénue. Rebeck’s stated intent with The Scene is to skewer America’s “cultural collapse into narcissism”. - John Del Signore

-Nashville 3 Rangers 0: With most of the building either staying home to watch the Mets or not paying as much attention as usual to the action on the ice, the Rangers played a clunker at the Garden. The tone was set in the first period when Henrik Lundqvist let in a soft goal and the Rangers then failed to score with a 5-on-3 advantage.

-Rangers 4 Devils 2: Maybe all the Rangers’ defense needed was the return of Darius Kasparaitis. Benched since the start of the season for conditioning issues, Darius was put back into the lineup on his 34th birthday and played a solid game in the New York victory.

We feel it is especially appropriate to launch the national tour of our "A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City" exhibit in New York, home to thousands of people who have fled violence and persecution in other parts of the world. The launch of this public education initiative represents a major effort on our part to bring attention to the plight of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) worldwide -- issues that we feel are relevant and interesting to New Yorkers. A staggering 33 million people are displaced from their homes today, having fled violence in more than 60 different countries around the world--and the response to their plight remains inadequate. Until conditions improve, we must continue to raise awareness of the challenges faced by populations who have been forcibly displaced.

We're at the home stretch! Sunday was a bit of a quieter day for us, but by no means did the music disappoint. The plan was to make it a short day and get back to civilization that night, but due to some travel miscalculations we ended up sticking around till they kicked us out. Very glad we did.

An auto club, AutoVantage, found the NYC ranks third out of major U.S. cities for road rage. Considering that L.A. is fourth (number 1 is Miami, followed by Phoenix; Boston is 5th), that is quite an accomplishment. Yet it makes perfect sense. Roads are narrow, there's double-parking galore, pedestrians are pretty aggressive, out-of-towners try to turn on red - and throw in all the buses and taxis. So, who knew people were so angry in Phoenix?

THEATER: Mike Daisey, the versatile, unpredictable monologuist (and onetime Gothamist interviewee), has revealed a lot about his own past and personality over the course of his years of performing and writing. Now, in the last entry of the season at Galapagos' "Evolve" series, he's going after new material -- a select array of "Great Men of Genius" other than himself. Last week he explored the life

For New York moviegoers, this is a good week for those who worship at the cult of the director. In both the theatrical releases and the repertory columns, film fans of various established and up in coming auteurs will surely get their fill.

Remakes and sequels and genre formula, oh my! February is a great month for releasing exactly what the studios think the people will pay to see and this week's release schedule is a textbook example of this development by marketing focus group strategy. Oh well, doesn't mean Gothamist is ready to give up on moviegoing quite yet. Here's a few suggestions to guide your weekend viewing.

Peter Sykora was openly campaigning to join the Rangers. He had watched their early-season success and he wanted to get out of Anaheim. His wish was granted Sunday and he immediately made his presence felt in the Rangers 4-2 victory over Calgary. Sykora scored a goal, had an assist and manned the point on the Rangers’ power play unit. The win puts the Rangers five points out of first place with about half the season remaining.

After suffering a brutal loss to the Capitals on Saturday, the Rangers bounced back on Monday night beating the Minnesota Wild 3-1 at the Garden. Petr Prucha scored twice on the power play and looks very comfortable with his promotion to the top line. Martin Rucinsky playing in his second game since coming back from a knee injury had three assists while Henrik Lundqvist stopped 22 shots.

When we think of country music, Gothamist doesn't really think New York City, but marketing is marketing and the Country Music Association has brought their annual awards ceremony to our fair city. The CMA Awards are tonight at Madison Square Garden. Bringing the awards to New York was a major coup for the Bloomberg administration, who has sought to increase tourist dollars spent in the city. Shortly after announcing their plan for the awards in NYC, the CMA signed a multi-year deal to remain in their traditional home of Nashville.

- And last night's East River fireball was for the movie, Super Ex-Girlfriend - and you thought the asteroid was coming...psych!

Shonali Bhowmik, Leader of indie band Tigers and Monkeys, member, Variety Shac

The Press release notes that this is the first time the CMA's have been held outside of Nashville; there will be a gala leading up to the awards - "Country Takes New York City."

Fashion week is in full swing in New York, celebrating the irritatingly recurring time of year that all of the self-congratulatory super-socialites take the opportunity to stop patting themselves on the back and pat each other for awhile.  Last night, Betsy Johnson took the opportunity to share the limelight with the Great-Uncle of Glam, John Cale, the founding member of the Velvet Underground, to celebrate the release of his new record, "HoboSapiens."

Gothamist loves Clapton, we'll be going to check him out next Tuesday when he plays MSG. Last night, however, the guitar that Clapton bought in 1970 on a visit to Nashville was sold at auction for $959,500. On this same shopping trip in 1970 he purchased a total of six vintage Strats (with the going rate of about $300 a pop @ Nashville's Sho-Bud Shop). He gave one each to George Harrison, Pete Townshend and Steve Winwood. The remaining three were combined to create "Blackie", the auctioned guitar which Clapton played in the 70's and 80's (retiring it in 1985).

June Carter Cash's funeral was held over the weekend in Nashville. Johnny Cash attended in a wheelchair and was helped to view the casket. Singers Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow, The Gatlin Brothers, and the Oak Ridge Boys sang during the service.