Check out this Red Bullshit. Coinciding with their big carbon-spewing air race over the Hudson River this weekend, Red Bull is trying to further increase their brand awareness with these promotional vehicles, seen here parked in the specially dedicated d-bag parking zone on Second Avenue. And what's really irksome is that they probably parked there knowing full well we'd take the bait and publish this photo, playing right into their viral marketing strategy. Nice moves, Red Bull; we'll remember this the next time we silently judge someone for mixing vodka with your vile swill. (Via Brian Van and Ohhleary.) more ›

Last night the big Red Bull snowboarding event finally took place at East River Park, with around 20,000 fans sticking it out in bone-chilling weather. 16 riders were lucky enough to drop in from a nine-story structure, but only one took home the 1st prize of $50K: New Jersey’s own Shayne Pospisi. Finland’s Torstein Horgmo took 2nd place, with 3rd going to New Hampshire’s own Scotty Lago and Terje Haakonsen of Norway taking home Best Trick honors for "dropping into the 90-foot tall ramp with his back foot unstrapped from the binding, pulling off a one-footed method air as he kicked his rear foot out." Anthrax brought the rock to the event, playing a few songs along with Brooklyn’s Black Gold and Valient Thorr...and according to Anthrax's Scott Ian, Chuck D also performed with them. Here's some video of the boarders: more ›

Bad idea snow pants! That giant, steep slope you see being erected on the Manhattan side of the East River will host professional riders this week...but Curbed (via Fast Company) is reporting they may leave it open for amateurs, too: "My sources at Red Bull tell me it might stay up and be open to city rippers throughout the winter!" Upon completion this thing is going to be 90 feet high with a "specially constructed kicker toward an immense 80-foot long hip" and a "massive 45-degree spine," according to the experts. We contacted the company to see if this was true, and to remind them of the litigious society we live in, but they only told us "no comment." Which isn't a denial! Get ready to sign one gnarly release form, New York! more ›

The Lower East Side is about to get cool again, at least for a couple of days. On February 4th snowboarders will start taking practice runs down the ramp that's being built on the side of the East River (you can get a nice view from the Williamsburg Bridge right now). Then on February 5th they'll compete in an hour long contest, followed by a 7 p.m. Anthrax concert, followed by another hour of riding for the finalists. Here's a look at how the ramp (and snow making) are coming along—would you take a ride down this? more ›

Snowboarding in Manhattan? Whatever! It's really happening though (it's actually happened before), thanks to the caffeine-pushers at Red Bull who will debut their "Snowscrapers" on the banks of the East RIver next month. more ›

FAIR: The International vintage poster fair has arrived. It's time to take that ironic velvet Elvis off the wall and class up your joint. The fair will include "over 25 international dealers with more than 10,000 original vintage posters." More info here. more ›

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. more ›

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. more ›

• Yankees 8 Angels 2: Don’t let the final score fool you, this was a much closer game. The Yankees scored in the fourth and the Angels scored in the sixth to make it 1-1 heading into the seventh. That’s where the starting pitching diverged. Andy Pettitte continued his brilliance while John Lackey ran into trouble. New York scored twice in the seventh and four-times in the eighth to blow the game open. more ›

It must be the warmer weather: there’s been a lot posted on Gothamist this week about drinks, from limey gin fizzes to detox smoothies; from aguas frescas to wine made in Queens. Today, as part of our continuing summer beverage coverage, we present some strange and fancy sodas. more ›

Let's take a look back at a week that raised this Zen koan: if Kevin Federline got into a wrestling ring with a wrestler, who would you root for? more ›

It took only a few days after "energy drink" Cocaine debuted at Fashion Week parties for local lawmakers to freak out. City Councilman James Sanders of Queens held a press conference and said:There are only two reasons that you would seek to use this infamous and insidious name to market your so-called energy drink. Either you are woefully ignorant of the horrors of cocaine addiction, or your god is the dollar bill, and not even human life is more sacred.”Cocaine the drink prides itself on being more caffeinated than Red Bull - but it's no match for a Starbucks coffee, as Newsday found out. And founder of the company that makes the drink, James Kirby, said, "People know the difference; I don't think people will look at our drink and say, 'Oh, I'm going to buy some real cocaine.' Cocaine is associated with energy, and we're allowed to do this." Obviously Kirby has a drink called "Heroin" in the pipeline that makes you really sedated and not much fun to be around. more ›

- Mets 6, Nationals 4: John Maine's scoreless inning streak surely couldn't last. Former Yankee Nick Johnson ended the streak at 26 with a home run in the 4th inning of last night's win against the Nationals. Maine's chance of winning his third game ended in the 6th inning when the Nationals scored 3 runs, chasing him from the game. The Mets scored two in the 7th to break a 4-4 tie with RBI from Jose Valentin and Michael Tucker. Billy Wagner pitched a perfect 9th inning for his 27th save of the season. And for those readers that like to place the Mets in the AL East for comparison (not sure why you would) - their 70 wins would put them atop the Yankees. more ›

- Marlins 3, Mets 2: John Maine was the tough-luck loser yesterday in the first game of yesterday's doubleheader against the Marlins. Maine allowed only 6 hits over 6 innings, but three of those hits were home runs. The Mets didn't offer up much run support in the loss, getting only 3 hits. more ›

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. more ›

Red Bull New York lost to FC Dallas, 2-1. While the loss was only the 2nd loss of the season for the Red Bulls, they only have one win. The rest of their games all ended in a tie. more ›

Movable Hype 7.0, our concert series, is TONIGHT! Come enjoy the music and some drink specials with us, won't you? Here's the lineup: more ›

For a few million dollars, you could be the majority owner of the Yankees. And you wouldn't really have to deal with a pesky owner too much. Why? Because you would be the proud owner of the Staten Island Yankees in the New York-Penn League. Unlike the big club in The Bronx, you could actually say you were champions last year though. The team is reportedly on the market for $3-5 million for a the 51% share that Stanley and Josh Getzler own. The two bought their share for $500,000. The remaining 49% is owned by Hal Steinbrenner, The Boss' son. more ›

SPORTS: Does it seem like everyone you know is suddenly wrapped up in their fantasy leagues? If you're fully engullfed in your own, or if you're feeling left out because you just don't "get it" - head over to Housing Works for a discussion on fantasy baseball. Experts Ron Shandler (Baseball Forecaster), Sam Walker (Fantasyland), and Nate Silver (Baseball Prospectus) will let you know what it's all about. more ›

Day 1 was long, but we managed to get a few hours of sleep and gear up for the rest of week. Last Thursday we started off our day at the South By Stereogum party. Brisket on white bread was served, Fat Tire beers were distributed and Aziz Ansari was hosting the show, which had a solid lineup: Aloha, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Thunderbirds Are Now!, Rogue Wave and Ted Leo. more ›

There is a super story in the NY Times about the recently discovered 1950s-1960s era bomb shelter discovered on the Manhattan side mooring of the Brooklyn Bridge. Work crews from the Department of Transportation stumbled upon the "dank and lightless room where the walls are lined with dusty boxes" while doing some routine inspection of the bridge, which just makes you wonder how routine inspection is if they missed it for five decades. But, anyway, it sounds really amazing, possibly more so because the city won't divulge where it's located (did city officials blindfold reporters and spin 'em around before they entered?):

For decades it waited in secret inside the masonry foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge, in a damp, dirty and darkened vault near the East River shoreline of Lower Manhattan: a stockpile of provisions that would allow for basic survival if New York City were devastated by a nuclear attack.... more ›

Major League Soccer and Red Bull announced today that the MetroStars were bought by Red Bull. Some reports put the purchase price at as much as $30 million. The team's official name is "Red Bull New York" and will be the New York Red Bulls on the pitch. It's the energy drink company's 2nd foray into soccer team ownership. Their other team, Red Bull Salzburg of the Austrian Bundesliga. In their announcement of the purchase, Red Bull said that their two teams will work closely together, and Alexi Lalas will remain as the GM of the team (see our interview with Lalas). The team's new stadium in Harrison, NJ will be "Red Bull Arena". more ›

Last year Gothamist headed down to Austin for SXSW to help launch Austinist amongst other things. This year we're headed back down to throw our own Austinist + Gothamist day party. We'll have a pretty flyer and more details to post on that soon, but for now we're going to tell you about the afterparty... more ›

You may remember Os Gemeos from the work they did in NYC last summer-- particularly their signage in Coney Island and colorful pieces all around Williamsburg. Today, WoosterCollective pointed out an amazing commuter train the twins hit in Brazil. It got us thinking-- if the MTA allows companies to wrap an entire bus in advertising, maybe they should allow artists to decorate specific train cars. It doesn't even have to be in paint-- they could use the same plastic wrap the buses use. We're not arguing for a return to the subway graffiti of the 1980s-- but how cool would it be to see a car like the ones above rolling in to your local station like they did in May? The program could be subsidized by wrapping a few trains in advertising-- which would be cool in its own way-- imagine an entire train wrapped in Red Bull ads! Frankly, it seems strange that the MTA hasn't tried a wrapped train already. more ›

ART: papermag.com celebrates it's 10th year with Manhattan! We recently had a chance to stop by this group exhibition which features over 75 Big Apple-based artists from past to present, and have never enjoyed a gallery show more (of course, it was the opening and they were passing out champagne with Red Bull in it.) The loose theme of the show is "People of New York." To the right is the Yeah Yeah Yeah's Nick Zinner's untitled work, taken in Brooklyn in 2000. more ›

In this heartily American week some of the most appealing things to see are foreign, at least in part. For a more delicate food-related experience than Thanksgiving usually turns turn out to be, consider Lao She’s Teahouse, set in a Beijing establishment over the course of some fifty years that encompass three important moments in modern Chinese history, beginning in 1898. Sixty-plus characters that embody the vast changes in China come to life via the Beijing People’s Art Theatre, in NYC for the first time. Performances are in Mandarin, but there will be both subtitles and simultaneous translation with headphones in case you’re feeling a bit rusty on the language. more ›

While New York City is the city that never sleeps, Gothamist is slightly jealous that DCist gets all the sleepover fun tonight. With all the Senators needing to debate important stuff, the Capitol staff has had to move cots into Senators' offices. And we're jealous because it's so absurd and we'd love to make fun of it. If you want to do the all-nighter the right way, you have lots of Red Bull, coffee, and a cozy space under your cubicle desk. Perhaps your jacket is rolled up into a makeshift pillow. And then you take a shower at the local NY Sports Club or Crunch and buy a different shirt at H&M or the Gap and you're done with it, get some super concealer at Sephora, and repeat the cycle of caffeine. It's that easy. Hell, go to a late showing of Revenge of the Nerds, we mean, Sith, while you're at it.
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What has your experience with token booth clerks been? Gothamist has to say that we've been lucky, they've been attentive, if a little tight with the subway maps (only one per person). Also, the NY Post tries to advise people on how many rides they need to get out of their new unlimited Metrocards; we can only assume reporter Clemente Lisi (whose subway reporting we do enjoy reading, alongside the NY Times' Sewell Chan and Newsday's Joshua Robin) checked out Grant Barrett's awesome subway fare analysis (here's the PDF) after we posted about it. Gothamist on bothering token booth clerks.
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