Results tagged “npr”

                        

The new home of WNYC might not be much to look at on the outside compared to its old perch at the iconic Municipal Building, but it's what's on the inside that counts. Since June, the station has been in its own space for the first time since 1922, only taking about eleven years from when it became independent of city ownership. Still the two and a half floors of former printing plant at 160 Varick Street, just a few blocks from the entrance to the Holland Tunnel in sort of a nebulous confluence of SoHo and TriBeCa which developers want to call Hudson Square, is a welcome change.

Granted this story could have ended badly, it's nice that a heartwarming tale was the final result. NPR reports on New Yorker Julio Diaz, a 31-year-old social worker, who often frequents his favorite Bronx diner on his commute home. When a teenage boy mugged him at knife point on the subway platform one of those nights, Diaz offered him his jacket and changed the course of things.

As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."

Continue reading "Victim Takes Teen Mugger to Dinner"

Documenting the city in the snow apparently has its limits. Gowanus Lounge noticed this photograph of the Gowanus Canal, taken yesterday, by photoblogger Joe Holmes. Holmes wrote on his Flickr page it was "taken seconds before I was told that photography is prohibited on the 9th Street bridge because of 9-11 concerns." Oh, man, that should be a problem for the Toll Bros. marketing department. And what if there's another whale or seal spotted?

Italian pianist Stefano Bollani has been known to play everything from Pet Sounds to Prokofiev. As a kid he could keep up with Scott Joplin recordings sped up from 33 to 45 rpms, and even today the 35-year-old, classically trained, composer is nothing less than rousing (Check out Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on NPR.org).

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an explosion at Linden Blvd. and 220th St. in Queens, a homicide on Sedgewick Ave. in the Bronx, and a water main break on Prospect Place in Brooklyn
• Santa may have to bypass coalition troops stationed around the world today, but holiday presents will be appreciated even if they do arrive a few weeks into 2008. Newsday has a nice piece on gift-giving to troops and how to do it.
• U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner is in permanent campaign mode to become Mayor of NYC, as the office now seems to be a viable stepping stone for higher national office. Interesting fact: Weiner was a post-college roommate of comedian/news man Jon Stewart.

Michael Dory is expanding the definition of graffiti, with his non-visual sonic street art (presented last month at Conflux). His inconspicuous concrete crickets (pictured) recently got some NPR and Boing Boing love, and his own site explains:

Graffiti is one of the most powerful and most personal displays in the urban experience, and can be used to make statements, tag territory, spread messages — urban markup language in practice. However, the output is nearly always visual in nature, making this experience one-dimensional. Furthermore, rarely does the work have a brain of its own, and is usually incapable of reacting to anybody observing it.

Continue reading "Concrete Crickets Are Amongst Us"

Ira Glass is the brains, heart and larynx behind the wildly popular program This American Life; each show employs a theatrical, multiple-act structure to carve strange slices of life out of a unique thematic pie. The show began almost 12 years ago as a Chicago public radio program but has since mutated into an Emmy-nominated TV series on Showtime – a leap that prompted Glass and his team to relocate to New York City, bringing the radio version in tow. But Glass still keeps one foot in Chicago; he’s compiled a new book whose proceeds benefit 826CHI, the free writing program open to all students in Chicago. He’ll be appearing at Town Hall Monday night with Susan Orlean, Malcolm Gladwell and Chuck Klosterman, who have each contributed to the book, called The New Kings of Nonfiction. (Tickets cost $30; all proceeds benefit 826CHI.)

Grace Paley, New York's official state author from 1986-88, died at the age of 84 yesterday. She had been battling breast cancer for quite some time. The author, born in the Bronx on December 11th, 1922, still kept an apartment in Manhattan -- but was at her home in Vermont at the time of death. The NY Times recaps her life in literature:

Ms. Paley’s output was modest, about four-dozen stories in three volumes: “The Little Disturbances of Man” (Doubleday, 1959); “Enormous Changes at the Last Minute” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1974); and “Later the Same Day” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1985). But she attracted a devoted following and was widely praised by critics for her pitch-perfect dialogue, which managed at once to be surgically spare and almost unimaginably rich.

Continue reading "Author-Activist Grace Paley Dies at 84"

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: multiple auto fires at 51st Ave. and 11th St. in Queens, a fatal double shooting on Watkins St. in Brooklyn, and a fatality under a train at 47th St. and Queens Blvd. on the 7 line in Queens.
• A 12-year-old boy was arrested for throwing two plastic bottles filled with an unknown chemical at two women with toddlers at a Queens playground. The four victims were taken to hospitals for minor burn injuries.
• An 82-year-old woman died during a fire in her apartment, which firefighters said was in the "Collyers mansion" style, i.e., stacked floor to ceiling with clutter and junk.
• A short film that is ostensibly about a Coney Island boardwalk hustler, but the sights and sounds of Coney Island itself are the real focus.
• Five out of 12 restaurants visited by the NY Post were found to be using trans fat oil to cook their french fries, despite the recent ban. Only the Moonstruck Diner would fess up and admit it.
• NPR investigates the hidden bee hives of New York City.
• Tammy Faye Messner succumbed to cancer Friday night after a long battle with the disease. Her son now runs an unorthodox (in the non-ecclesiastical sense of the word) church in NYC.
• After fierce criticism the first time around, the Parks Dept. is showing its redesign plans for Washington Square a second time this Thursday (7/26) from 4 pm to 6 pm at City Hall.

Brooke Gladstone is the managing editor and co-host of WNYC’s On the Media which is heard throughout the country on National Public Radio stations and as an internet podcast. She has won several awards, including two Peabody Awards, for her coverage at NPR, which she joined in 1987. She has been a foreign correspondent for NPR covering the reemergence of Russia out of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. She recently returned to Russia to report for On the Media about the current state of the Russian media and the challenges it faces. The result of her visit aired on the June 22nd edition of On the Media.

Thirty years ago tonight, New York City lost electricity when a Con Ed substation was hit by lightning strikes and a "cascading effect" caused the system to shut down around 9PM. And NYC, as well as parts of Westchester County, were powerless for over a day in the sweltering heart of the summer. Subways were stuck, mobs set fires and stores were looted.

David Rakoff is the author of the hilarious and best selling essay anthologies Fraud and Don't Get Too Comfortable, countless articles that have appeared in publications such as Vogue, GQ, and Salon, and has contributed to NPR's This American Life. Gothamist sat down with the writer to discuss his genesis and his moments of doubt.

The prolific journalist and author David Halberstam died yesterday in a car crash outside of San Francisco. Halberstam, a New Yorker, was traveling in a car that was broadsided while trying to make a left turn. Two other cars were involved in the crash, none of the drivers were seriously injured. The NY Times obituary notes that Halberstam "was killed doing what he had done his entire adult life: reporting," as he was on his way to interview a football player for an upcoming book.

Got some Hot Sake for us? Send it our way, credit will be given...or not if you prefer.

Octopus Garden is a specialty seafood market located along the far reaches of Avenue U in Bensonhurst. Operated by Vincent and Pina Cutrone, the unassuming corner storefront long been known to chefs like Eric Ripert of Le Bernadin as the go-to place for fresh octopus and sepia.

The week of Arcade Fire shows at Judson Memorial Church is over, and mostly everyone who didn't have a ticket and showed up at the venue that night, got in.

VINYL SALE: If you're looking for some rare vinyl, you might want to check out this monthly event: Shakey's Record Fair. A meatpacking district locale seems...a little off, but as FreeNYC points out, if you're "looking for that super rare old school funktified 7"...Shakey's Record Fair is probably the only place you'll find it."

Wallace Shawn has long enjoyed a fruitful career as a character actor in mainstream movies (Clueless, Princess Bride, Chicken Little). He also happens to be one of the world’s most significant dissident writers. His plays The Designated Mourner, Aunt Dan and Lemon and The Fever – to name just a few – have garnered much praise (and controversy) for their unflinching examinations of brutality. Shawn’s plays are political but not polemical; through his writing he questions everyone’s complicity – liberal intellectuals especially – in the horrors unleashed out of sight and out of mind.

- Ever wonder why the produce in Chinatown is so cheap? NPR lets us in on the secret.

What's a polar bear to do when it is 72 in January? Well, if you're a member of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club, you stage a silent protest. The Times reports eight members of the club cancelled their Saturday swim, because the water was too warm. Perhaps more interestingly, the News reports it was nine members of the club and the Post says ten! According to Polar Bear Club treasurer Tom McGann, yesterday was the first time in more than a century that the club has cancelled a swim. Meanwhile, the News also reports that the real polar bears in the Central Park Zoo were largely unaffected by the warm weather.

Claude Monet's letters sold for $1.7 million yesterday at Artcurial, much more than the $600,000 expected. There were about a thousand in the collection. Some went to private collectors, while others went to the Musee d'Orsay, which recently also acquired Monet's Wind Effect, Series of The Poplars. Michel Cornebois, Monet's only living direct descendent, gave the letters to the French auction house.

We really can't beat this roundup of food gift roundups, courtesy of The Food Section. They've culled together gift suggestions from the likes of the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, Food & Wine, Epicurious, Time Out New York, Cravings, and Chow. Whether you're looking for cookbooks or food-related reads, kitchen gadgets, edible gifts, or something a little boozy, you're bound to find it here.

The food blogs were all in a buzz yesterday about the possibility of a foie gras ban, similar to the one recently enacted in Chicago, being instituted here in New York. It seems that Councilman Alan Gerson was poised to introduce a ban today; Ariane Daugin of D'Artagnan, a prominent purveyor of foie based in New York, sent an email to her food-related contacts urging action. Jennifer Leuzzi posted the email in its entirety on Snack. In addition to providing contact information for the councilman, Daugin provided "proof points" in an attempt to educate readers about foie gras.

Despite Fugazi's "indefinite hiatus", Ian MacKaye has been as busy as ever; in addition to recording a new album for his current group, The Evens, he’s been producing albums for other D.C. bands, touring, doing Q&As, managing the Dischord label and, as always, personally responding to all his mail. The Evens second album, called "Get Evens", is being released today. The duo features MacKaye on vocals and baritone guitar and Amy Farina on vocals and drums.

As the biggest city in the country, different New York City hospitals are claiming babies born in their respective maternity wards are the the 300 millionth American. The NY Post had a graphic of three babies - all coming in at 7:46AM yesterday. There's baby Emanuel Plata born in Elmhurst Hospital. Then there's baby Zoe Emile Hudson at New York Presbyterian Cornell. And teeny Joana Palaguachi, born in Flushing Hospital. Newsday also offers a fourth baby into the mix: Mystique Alyzha Agueda, born at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn. All hospitals are bragging, but Newsday found out some sobering news: Census Bureau spokesman Stephen Buckner says, "These are not actual counts, which makes it impossible to actually identify a 300 milllionth American." Well, all of these babies are number 300 million in our book.

Moving on, there are four bands used in this "scientific study": Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Tapes n' Tapes, Arctic Monkeys and Cold War Kids.

THEATER: The two most dreaded words in theater, "staged reading", get a shot at redemption with tonight's free reading of Stuff Happens. The show has cut and run from the Public Theater, so this is your last chance to catch David Hare's satire about the ramp-up to Operation Iraqi Freedom. In an interview with NPR, Hare described it as "a play about how a supposedly stupid man, George W. Bush, gets everything he wants..." Laugh the pain away. - John Del Signore

With the fifth anniversary of September 11 drawing near, many related books are being released this and next week. One of the most intriguing is The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon. Both have a rich history in comics: USA Today explains, "Jacobson, 76, created Richie Rich and was executive editor of Marvel and Harvey Comics, and Colon, 75, drew Casper and Wonder Woman" - but the book is a graphic interpretation of The 9/11 Commission's report on the events of Septemer 11, because they found it difficult to get through the 568-page report. Colon said, "For a government report, it was well written, but still hard to follow — lots of Arabic names, and a lot of things going on at the same time in different places." Slate has been excerpting the book, and from those excerpts, it seems to work very well.

If it weren't for our life as an -ist, we're not sure we'd ever leave our apartment. Fortunately, to fully -ist, one must seek out the new, the fresh, and the unknown. Brand new, or just new to us, that's what we're all about this week.