Results tagged “reading”

The NY Times profiles a woman who is on day 350 of her 365 day project to read a book a day—and review it here. Nina Sankovitch, a former environmental lawyer, "was inspired, in part, by the need to make sense of her oldest sister’s death," sticks to books 250-300 pages long and reads whenever she can get a chance (such as while waiting to pick up her kids). She says, "I’ve always thought great literature is all one needs to read to understand human psychology, emotions, even history. For someone sitting around reading books, it’s been a really lively year."

The NY Times and CityRoom have been collecting their readers' subway reading material choices, and there's an article in the Times with a little bit of what they've offered: "There are those whose commutes are carefully timed to the length of a Talk of the Town section of The New Yorker, those who methodically page their way through the classics, and those who always carry a second trash novel in case they unexpectedly make it to the end of the first on a glacial F train." Some are reading scripts—hoping for a part—while others are reading religious texts (the Talmud) and even 5-8 year-old summer day campers are reading (The Baby-Sitters Club). One CityRoom commenter said, "I don’t read newspapers on the subway — I might get depressed and jump in front of a train," which would obviously earn them the wrath of their fellow riders, while another said, "Newspapers are for online reading." What are you reading on the train? A few weeks ago, we were reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo on a 7 train...and noticed that the guy on the right was also reading it.

Attention sexy hipster kids, there's a new Craigslist poster that needs YOU...if you are, in fact, a young hip Brooklynite who has a penchant for blurbing and reading about the sexual encounters of teens. Interested? Read on...

Cool Brooklyn book publisher looking for cool 18-25yo hipsters to blurb our cool forthcoming book of sex stories for teens. We will send you a PDF of the book and ask for a blurb & headshot for advertising, website, publicity. Tiny honorarium of free books and our guarantee to read and consider your own book manuscript for publication.

Native Son. Not bad for a guy who at the time was barely 30.

Brooklyn writers are banding together to be the latest voice against Bruce Ratner's vision for Atlantic Yards. A number of local wordsmiths have contributed to Brooklyn Was Mine, an anthology consisting of short essays and stories put together by two Vogue editor to benefit Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (a non-profit that fights development while uniting the community). From the press release:

"Brooklyn has given birth to some of America's greatest literary voices," note the anthology's co-editors, Chris Knutsen and Valerie Steiker. "Today, a new generation of authors has grown up or resettled here, a testament to Brooklyn's unique quality of life. These writers simply want to protect a community that has provided them with so much. Fortunately, the passion they feel for the place has yielded a vibrant collection of essays—and we are delighted that, with each book sold, something will be given back to Brooklyn."

READING: Olympia Dukakis, who you know from such films as Moonstruck and Steel Magnolias, will be at Barnes & Noble tonight. She'll be reading from a brand spakin' new edition of Bertolt Brecht’s play Mother Courage and Her Children. She recently put down the Oscar and picked up a pen to write the forward to the antiwar classic.

There are some things needed while reporting for jury duty. Reading material, maybe some snacks, a lot of patience... but a sword and a dagger aren't on the list. But that's what a city employee, headed to Brooklyn Supreme Court, did bring. The Post reports that 40-year-old Vladislav Lisetsky, who works in the Human Resources Administration, brought in a cane that concealed not only a two and a half foot sword at one end, but...

Filmmaker Ethan Coen has left his big brother behind and written three short plays all by himself. Called Almost an Evening, the triptych will be produced by the Atlantic Theater Company with a terrific cast that includes Elizabeth Marvel, who was riveting in Ivo van Hove’s unforgettable revival of Hedda Gabler, and Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham. The plays “unsuccessfully tackle important questions. In Waiting, someone waits somewhere for quite some time. In Four...

The south Jersey town of Vineland – or “shithole Vtown” as some locals call it – will host a massive three-day rock festival with camping this August. The Vineland Festival will be presented in a partnership between the company that resurrected Lollapalooza in Chicago and U.K. concert promoter Melvin Benn, who has managed the Reading Festival. No acts have been announced but that hasn’t stopped promoters from setting their price: a three-day pass, which...

EVENT: In the book Love & Sex With Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships David Levy goes where no man has gone before. Hopefully. From the book's description: "Love, marriage, and sex with robots? Not in a million years? Maybe a whole lot sooner.From a leading expert in artificial intelligence comes an eye-opening, superbly argued book that explores a new level of human intimacy and relationships—with robots." We're not even ready to see Lars and...

EVENT: Berlin takes over New York this month with the Berlin in Lights Festival. Through the 18th you can soak up the German city through film, music, art, architecture and more. This evening you can check out a couple of Berlin-esque events. First up is the "Urban Design and Memorials" dialogue. A panel discussion which will touch on the "challenges of integrating memorials into the urban fabric, and how Berlin and New York address issues...

Greg Gutfeld is a funny guy. The only problem is that his show, Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld is on at 2 AM on Fox News. But that's not his problem; it's yours-- because you don't get to watch his show. You miss out on fun guests like Dennis Kucinich, Harland Williams, and Johnny Rotten providing rapid-fire commentary on the day's events. But just because it's on at 2 AM and on Fox News isn't stopping it from getting positive reviews from the The New York Times and The Guardian .

READING: It's the first Tuesday of the month, which means...there's a Sci-Fi reading! "Now In its 19th year, the New York Review of Science Fiction Reading Series has showcased some of the most prominent and upcoming authors in the genre. However, the series' commitment to providing a venue as an ongoing science fiction reading series in New York City, is open to all works of speculative fiction, whether they be works of fantasy, magical realism, horror, or science fiction." 40 years ago, Samuel R. Delany narrated a radio adaptation of his novella, The Star Pit, for The Mind's Eye Theatre, Baird Searles' ongoing series of radio dramas at New York's listener-sponsored WBAI-FM. Tonight the anniversary of the broadcast is celebrated with Delany himself.

Rugged celebrity George Clooney and his girlfriend were injured when their motorcycle got into an accident with a car in Weehawken, NJ yesterday afternoon. Clooney, whose has been filming the Coen Brothers film Burn After Reading in New York and New Jersey, has a hairline fracture of a rib and road rash while Sarah Larson has broken some of her toes. Both were wearing helmets.

Reading about the The Yes Men's activist exploits is kind of like reading about live action forum trolling. Their acts of identity correction, where they make outrageous, hilarious, and satirical claims while posing as spokespeople for companies such as ExxonMobil and Haliburton, have been covered by news agencies around the world and have helped expose the ludicrous behavior of corporations to the general public. Gothamist talked with Andy Bichlbaum, one of the leading members of The Yes Men to discuss one of their latest pranks- Vivoleum, which involved candles made of human flesh, a dead janitor, and a possible solution to the world's oil crisis.

THEATER: Len Jenkin's Kraken imagines the details of an actual 1856 encounter between Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Melville, his Moby-Dick long since met with a critical “meh”, was in the midst of a spiritual journey to Jerusalem – a trip that would, two decades later, yield the back-breaking, 2 Volume, 18,000 line Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land. En route he stopped to visit his old Berkshire homey Hawthorne, now the American consul in Liverpool. In Jenkin’s dramatization, the two literary legends – neither one legendary in their day – spend the evening together confronting their “fears, failures, things of this world and the next”, etc. According to Hawthorne’s diary, ol’ Hermy may have droned on a bit: “Melville, as he always does, began to reason of Providence and futurity, and of everything that lies beyond human ken, and informed me that he had pretty much made up his mind to be annihilated; but still he does not seem to rest in that anticipation; and, I think, will never rest until he gets hold of a definite belief.” Garrett Eisler, who reviewed Kraken for the Voice, writes that the voyage does “dock at a satisfying port.” - John Del Signore

• We got ourselves a note in the inbox from the folks who run the Big Apple BBQ to let us know that Bubba FastPasses are currently on sale from now till May 25 for the June 9 & 10 event. Gothamist was all over this event last year; look for more great coverage and photos coming up soon. This year should provide a bit of a pre-show glimpse of what local pitmaster Robbie Richter has in store for his new spot Hill Country - a place that should have you very excited. Hit the site to review other pitmasters participating as well as the impressive panelists for seminar series.
• Reading on Grub Street about Cones ice cream and one patron's fight to get Dulce de Leche con Brownie stocked as a regular flavor prompted a pop-in. After spotting the flavor and knowing we needed to order it to see what it was all about, we blew our test tries on corn (not good, very different from Claudia Fleming's seminal version) and pistachio (have you had Ronnybrook ?). Walking home we reflected back that this was probably not the best ice cream we have had and was not even up to snuff with Peanut Butter Ripple the ole' Shake Shack had earlier in the weekend.
• Congratulations to Ganda, who recently grabbed Ed Levine for her “You Are What You Eat” column, on her inclusion on a food blogging panel this Fall for the Gourmet Institute. With a wide variety of panels full of heavy hitter chefs and food personalities, this is a great opportunity for a fantastic food blogger.

FILM: A tribute to Jean Genet on film begins tonight at BAM. The focus will be on films inspired by the French writer, as well as Genet's own Un Chant D'Amour. BAM describes the festival further:

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.

“He’s a good designer and it’s an interesting map,” Mr. Boylan said. “The design is important, but the thing we’re concerned with is the best directional guidance. We design a map for use, not solely to look good, and we think it looks good.”Reading the profile of him in The New York Times, it's easy to see that Eddie Jabbour is not a man easily deterred. The graphic designer for Kick Design continues to work on his map nights and weekends, asking his 17-year-old daughter, Ellie, for feedback every weekend when he prints out another revised variation of his design.

Join Denise Landis, recipe tester for The New York Times, as she shares recipes and expertise from her newest cookbook, Dinner for Eight. Free tasting and book signing to follow the demonstration. Broadway Panhandler, 65 East 8th Street (between Broadway and University), 3 PM, free.

Leaving our local Key Food this morning, for the first time we heard the spare change guy's rendition of "Bad to the Bone" and then we turned to one of our weekend rituals: Reading the The Brooklyn Paper.

The good folks at The Spotted Pig are ringing in the Year of the Pig with, you guessed it, a pig roast. 314 W. 11th Street at Greenwich. Call 212-620-0393 for details.

CNBC's Maria Bartiromo has been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately. Not only are there reports that Bartiromo, a 39 year-old native of Bay Ridge, has trademarked the phrase "Money Honey," but Bartiromo's name has come up in the firing of a Citigroup executive.

January 13: Seasonal Game Cooking Class

Two months after Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village were sold by MetLife to Tishman Speyer for a record-breaking $5.4 billion, an epic review of the deal by Charles Bagli of the NY Times ties up loose ends and brings several underlying issues into sharper focus. Reading between the lines:

Twenty-eight year old Kemal Kolenovic was killed yesterday morning when an angry man drove into him outside a Bronx bar. Kolenovic had tried to calm down a fight between patrons at the Moonlight Restaurant and Bar. The NY Times says the fight was "apparently brought on by arguments over which Albanian clan was superior." When the argument moved to the outside, one of the men fighting got into his SUV, "made a U-turn in his SUV and jumped the curb outside" and hit Kolenovic, whose back was to the car, according to the Post. Kolenovic later died at St. Barnabas Hospital with massive head injuries. He was not the intended target, but the driver fled and the police are still looking for him.

READING: Mira Jacob and Alison Hart host yet another of Pete's Reading Series. Tonight they welcome Nell Freudenberger, author of "The Dissident", which focuses on lives in the aftermath of 1970s radicalism.

The laundromats of the West Village are disappearing! Or so the Times reports this morning. Harry Chong's closed almost a year ago after sixty years in business and the Stinky Sock didn't last much longer. Now the fate of the Cesmar Laundromat on West 11th is looking shaky. Cesar Garcia opened Cesmar nearly three years ago and the laundromat quickly became a neighborhood meeting place.

THEATER: A.R. Gurney’s new meta-play, Post Mortem, takes place in a future tyrannical America where a college student discovers a lost “masterpiece” by the largely forgotten playwright A.R. Gurney. In Post Mortem's cowardly new world, many believe Dick Cheney to be responsible for Gurney’s death, and the discovery of an unpublished memoir reveals Gurney affairs with Cameron Diaz, Katherine Hepburn and Katrina Kerns. (Okay, that last one's from our own meta-memoir.) The student’s willingness to defy the government by producing the banned play wins him both a shot at the Nobel Peace Prize and his hot professor’s affection. - John Del Signore