Results tagged “thegarden”

Yesterday this clip of Robert Plant catching a game at the Garden came out. It shows a younger reporter asking the Led Zeppelin singer about the band's possible reunion at the very arena they stand in. Will Led Zeppelin return to the Garden? The answer remains the same...

Now we know why there are still people heading to The Garden. There aren't any Knicks’ fans left, they are all paid actors. At least that’s the conclusion one could draw from a story in the New York Press. It turns out that the people in the "fan ads" (like the one pictured above), are mostly paid actors and their stories are made up for the commercials. The surprising thing is that apparently the Knicks didn’t know this.

Ooof. Talk about insulting. In today's Times, Clyde Haberman goes so far as to compare the Dolan clan to the Mario Puzo's Corleone family from his Godfather series of books. That comparison to the Dolans is clearly a slap in the face to the Corleones. Haberman says that any "enormously rich and influential business family would do as a replacement" and casts Jim Dolan, Chairman of Madison Square Garden, as "the hapless Fredo Corleone." If Jim is Fredo, where is Michael - and the kiss of death? There's gotta be some other unscrupulous families that to which the Dolans can compare (Spears family, anyone?).

You would think things couldn't get worse for Jim Dolan. After all, the Knicks stink and it seems like Isiah Thomas isn't going anywhere quick (perhaps due to Dolan's own doing). But the City Council started to look into Madison Square Garden's $11 million/year property tax exemption today. David Weprin of Queens sponsored the resolution opposing the exemption saying that "It's very unusual that you have a profitable institution like Madison Square Garden that's been profitable for quite a few years to have an exemption." If the resolution is approved by the City Council, the state legislature (and Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver) would also have to approve the change in status.

Isiah Thomas thinks he deserves more time. Not that much more, just two weeks, but time to show he can turn this club around. Of course, he has had four years already, but at this point who is counting? Maybe Isiah noticed that the next two weeks contain six games, but only two of those teams currently have winning records. The two-week timeframe came up as Thomas was asked what he would do to a coach with his record as GM. His response: "That's a better question in a couple of weeks. Not today, but in a couple weeks, that would be a fair question. We'll see if we can come out of this. If we can't come out of this, then those are fair questions. There's still a lot of basketball left in the season. There is time to turn it around."

A day after the tragic death of Stephon Marbury's father Donald, some more details have come to light regarding his final moments. Knicks officials insist that Stephon's family asked the team not to notify him of his father's condition until after the game. Apparently this was not the first time Donald Marbury had suffered from chest pains like these. Donald was taken from The Garden right before the third quarter began, but the team only...

While the NBA season is less than a month old, you wouldn't know it from the amount of press the Knicks have received so far. Between the well-publicized scandals and a tumultuous 8-game losing streak, there hasn't been much good to report on. But The Observer offers a glimpse into why the media often seems to take so much pleasure in reporting on the team's embarrassing demise. Turns out, The Garden doesn't think too fondly...

I'm Not There Nails It We went into seeing I'm Not There yesterday afternoon kind of expecting to hate it, thinking it would be vague and pretentious and a chore to absorb. But boy were we wrong! The movie avoids many annoying biopic clichés, presenting 6 separate, yet surprisingly straightforward stories based on the life of Bob Dylan. While non-linear, the narratives are complete and engrossing. The film is shot beautifully, and needless to say...

Tod Seelie’s stunning photographs chronicle the wild lives and raw vistas of the international DIY counterculture. On his must-read weblog Sucka Pants, he adds cryptic comments about his travels and other observations about life as a starving-artist Brooklyn cycling photog. Seelie has been spending the first part of his summer with the Miss Rockaway Armada, a collective of artists, dreamers and misfits who, for the second year running, build and sail a group of vessels down the Mississippi River. We recently spoke with Seelie from the trip about how the adventure has gone so far.

Whichever stadium/arena/field/theater/concert hall had the worst name, that title has been passed along. We're not sure what it was, but it now belongs to the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden. Not only is the official name obscenely long, but its short form, WaMu Theater, is just plain silly sounding. The Washington Mutual Theater has a much nicer ring to it, no? Madison Square Garden and Washington Mutual announced that they inked a long term agreement for the naming rights of the MSG venue formerly known as just The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Terms of the multi-year contract were not disclosed, but Cablevision and the Dolans probably padded their wallets pretty nicely. Maybe they can blow the money on the Knicks!

• Who could forget the bloody sock of Curt Schilling during game 6 of the 2004 American League Championship Series? Certainly not Red Sox fans and maybe not Yankee fans. To refresh - Schilling had ankle surgery after game 1 of the ALCS to stabilize a tendon in his right ankle. He returned in game 6, winning that game. Boston won the series and went on to win its first World Series in 86 years. On Wednesday, during a Red Sox-Orioles game, Gary Thorne, a former broadcaster for the Mets who currently works for the Baltimore Orioles, said Doug Mirabelli told him the bloody sock was actually a ruse. Thorne said, "It was painted. Doug Mirabelli confessed up to it after. It was all for PR." Mirabelli denies ever talking to Thorne and Schilling also denies that the blood was fake. From Schilling's blog: "It was blood. You can choose to believe whatever you need to, but facts are facts. The 25 guys that were in that locker room, the coaches, they all know it. In the end nothing else really matters. The people that need to believe otherwise are people with their own insecurities and issues." Schilling is even willing to bet $1 million with anyone (proceeds going to charity) that the blood on the sock hanging in the Hall of Fame is real (the original sock was laundered or is missing). So...how many "blood"-covered socks will there be at Yankee Stadium tonight when the Red Sox are in town?
• First, the NFL Draft moves from The Garden after 10 years and now the Draft may move out of New York City for good. The move from The Garden in 2005 was because of a dispute with Cablevision, owners of The Garden, who sued to stop a new stadium for the Jets on the West Side. After a year in Jacob Javits, the Draft is now in its 2nd year at Radio City Music Hall, ironically a Cablevision owned property. After next year, however, the NFL may change cities entirely. Cities that have approached the league to host the draft include: San Diego, Chicago, Cleveland and Canton. How exciting! Last time we checked, New York City has one thing those other cities can't offer - an insanely high concentration of media outlets. Sure, ESPN would travel anywhere to cover the 2-day event, but last we checked, the national morning shows based in New York have a greater reach than WEWS Cleveland.

Time At Tunnel: Approx 12:20 AM (Wednesday morning)

After Sunday night's melee that started at a high school basketball game at Madison Square Garden and spilled into Midtown Manhattan streets, MSG and Department of Education officials are examining the incident. The Garden may no longer host the Public School Athletic League's events, especially due to previous incidents of violence during PSAL games. The NY Times reminds us that there was a chair-throwing incident during a 1994 game (200 people were involved) and a whiskey-bottle-throwing fight in 1964, which led MSG to ban the tournament for 20 years.

Knuble escaped the collision with fractures to his cheekbone and orbital bone. He is expected to have surgery when the swelling goes down. Shanahan wasn't the only Ranger forced to leave the game because of injury. Goalie Henrik Lundqvist and defenseman Marek Malik both left the game with shoulder injuries.

Though we suspect he may have gotten some Jello pudding packs along the way, he isn't fat, and yesterday, Harry, the Dandie Dinmont Terrier, stole the show in the first day of competition at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

Henrik Lundqvist’s 29 saves may be lost in all of this, but it shouldn’t be. He was great in net and apart from one shot that hit the pipe, shut down the entire Lightning offense.

- If you like winter sports, do we have some good news for you! Not only is it bone chillingly cold out, but this weekend is the 2nd annual Winter Jam in Central Park. They are making snow for Saturday's event (from noon until 4). Activities include cross country skiing, snowshoeing, ice sculpting, an amateur rail jam, and free hot chocolate. Snowmaking began on Monday and continues through today. When done, there will be 2 feet of snow for Saturday.

No, no. That smell of shit coming from The Garden isn't the Knicks. After all, they have improved ever so slightly. It's actual bull feces because Professional Bull Riding's Versus Invitational is here. If you liked Luke Perry in 8 Seconds, this is the event for you. The two-day event will open PBR's 2007 season with competitions tonight at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m..

Holiday season weekends are filled with traffic, shopping and gift wrapping. Wind down after your hectic weekends this December by spending your Mondays at The Garden with this special holiday offer from the Knicks.

Continue reading "Like Putting a Lump of Coal in a Stocking"

- Rockets 97, Knicks 90: The state of the Knicks is so sad that their former coach has more wins at Madson Square Garden with his new team than the Knicks' current head coach does. Jeff Van Gundy is 7-1 against the Knicks with four consecutive wins at MSG and Isiah Thomas is 1-5 at home. Yao Ming led all scorers with 26 points and Tracy McGrady added 24. Jamal Crawford led the Knicks with 25 points off the bench while Stephon Marbury had a measly three points in less than 20 minutes of play. In unbelievable news, Nate Robinson (5'9") blocked one of Yao's (7'6") shots. Despite pulling out all the stops for the Chinese basketball fans in the area (BD Wong sang the National Anthem), The Garden was not full.

THEATER: Self-proclaimed “super-ultra-nerd” Brooke O’Harra has spawned Panic at P.S. 122. Written by Rafael Spregelburd, her production invokes the mood of low-budget horror movies to tell the tale of a mother and her two children as they attempt to recover the key to their safety deposit box - from the hands of the dead! Panic is part of the Buenos Aires in Translation (BAiT) festival, featuring the U.S. premieres of four playwrights from Argentina’s capital, which has become the theatrical “epicenter of Latin America”. The three other plays are also running through Sunday. - John Del Signore

-Eastern Conference 98, Western Conference 82: A day after the most popular All-Star Game in American sports, the WNBA's best took the floor at Madison Square Garden. Each year, the Wednesday following baseball's All-Star game is derided by sports fans as the worst day of the sports calendar. Despite the WNBA's efforts, Wednesday wasn't that exciting. The Liberty's Becky Hammon didn't play because of an injury. With the game out of reach in the final seconds, an impromptu slam dunk contest broke out. Alas, neither Diana Taurasi nor Michelle Snow could dunk the ball.

The movie releases list this week is determined to put the conception that summer is only about the blockbuster to the test. There are documentaries, foreign films and small indies about local hot button issues that are all worth a viewing. This weekend should be all about escaping the humidity with a quality flick.

When in crunch-time, most teams, most coaches, would turn to their star player, but not the dysfunctional Knickerbockers. As we all know, they are not most teams. They are a team with the highest payroll in the NBA and the team with the 2nd worse record in the NBA. Surely if the Bobcats played as many games as the Knicks have, our fine New York team would actually be the worst in the NBA. Last night, however, the Knicks provided The Garden crowd with a 121-117 double-overtime victory in what had to be one of their most exciting wins of the season. Not hard, considering they only have eighteen.

After Anucha Browne Sanders' lawsuit against Isiah Thomas and MSG came about last week, Courtney Prince, a former Ranger City Skater has stepped forward to tell her tale. Prince's lawsuit against the The Garden, filed in October 2004, claimed that she was sexually harassed and then fired after alerting others about her treatment.

Apparently the Knicks have decided to embarrass themselves off the court for a change. GM Isiah Thomas has been accused of sexually harassing a female marketing executive who is no longer with the team. Anuche Browne Sanders claims that Thomas referred to her in a derogatory manner and made unwanted sexual advances on her. When she sought help from MSG President, Steve Mills, she was warned that Isiah would spread rumors about her.

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.

The sumo show doesn't stop here at Gothamist. Dave sent us some photos of sumo wrestlers going into Madison Square Garden earlier today. Yay for the cameraphone! We can only imagine the faces of the people emerging from Penn Station on their way to work. Good thing it's almost 60° out otherwise there might be some serious sumo nippleitis.

ART: For The Garden of Unearthly Delights, Gary Baseman taps into the id, the psyche of primitive impulses. Influenced by “The Garden of Earthly Delights”, a renaissance masterpiece by Hieronymous Bosch, Baseman creates what he calls "pervasive art". He uses both the channels of mass media TV, Film, Print, and fine art. [Right: Anita 11" x 8.5" Ephemera, mixed media]

True, the Knicks have too many "power" forwards, but how much hope is there that Houston will return to the Knicks. And if he does, will it be the Houston of old or even worth $20 million a year? Probably not. Besides, if you've got an exception that seems tailor-made for your player, why not go ahead and use it? Then again, when was the last time the Knickerbockers did something that made sense?