Results tagged “vh1”

Earlier this week it was announced that Foxy Brown would be released from prison after serving a drama-filled eight months behind bars. The first stop on her own personal freedom (publicity) tour, she said, was church, where "I've got to get on my knees." But what really came first was shopping in Harlem, followed by a trip to her mother's home in Prospect Heights.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person trapped under an automobile at 9th Ave. and 55th St. in Brooklyn, a missing delivery man at De Kruif Pl. and Dreiser Loop in the Bronx, and a scaffolding incident on 7th Ave. and 25th St. in Manhattan.
• NYC's Dept. of Health wants pharmacists to be allowed to administer flu shots, citing the death toll of the disease and underutilization of vaccination supplies.
• A female pedestrian was struck and killed by a sanitation truck early this morning at 50th St. and 7th Ave. in Manhattan. A few hours later, a male pedestrian crossing the street at 23rd and 7th Ave. in Manhattan was struck and killed by a U.S. Postal truck.
• Publication synergy at News Corp. as Gawker notes downtown vendors selling The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post together for just $1.
• Plans for a City Jail in the Hunts Point area of the Bronx have been nixed.
• The rap artist known as Snoop Dogg will be performing in Greenpoint, Brooklyn on March 13 as part of a VH1 special. Greenpointers has the 420 411 on how to win tickets.
• The Town of Huntington on Long Island has banned vendors from selling 'silly string' within 1,500 feet of a parade route; but people can bring their own if they want. Firefighters complain that the novelty substance damages the paint on their vehicles.
• And "Danny Boy" is too depressing for Foley's Pub in Midtown, which is banning the song for the entire month of March.

In 2006 Brooklyn photographer Noah Kalina had a lot of eyes on him. After posting a video online containing a photograph of himself taken each day for six years, he went down in viral video history. That video, called "everyday," was scored to original music by his ex-girlfriend Carly Comando, and both have the world's attention again after The Simpsons parodied it a couple of weeks ago. If you are one of the few who haven't seen the original, you can do so here. This Friday marks the 8th year he'll be taking a photograph of himself every day! And today Jen Bekman is offering one of Kalina's prints for sale through her 20x200 website.

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television:

You know you’ve finally arrived when your name appears in an Onion headline. The satirical paper of record paid that respect to the decades-spanning indie-rock phenomenon Yo La Tengo some years back with an article titled “37 Record-Store Clerks Feared Dead In Yo La Tengo Concert Disaster.” Since 1984 the band, started by husband and wife duo Georgia Hubley and Ira Kaplan, has been blazing an independent trail of restlessly inventive guitar rock. Their most...

As is the custom around these parts, we would like to take a moment to thank this weeks' advertisers on Gothamist.

EVENTS: Both Open House NY and The New Yorker Festival are upon us. You can check out more of OHNY's event here, and The New Yorker Festival here. Some picks:

The summer of 1977 was host to a serial killer, a day-long blackout and a crime rate around 75% higher than today's. The NY Sun reports that "politicians, police officers, and reporters are gathering together to remember that time and celebrate." John Jay College of Criminal Justice's Eugene O'Donnell is the one holding the press conference today which will focus on the anniversary of the capture of David Berkowitz, aka the " Son of Sam."

Customizing your wedding is standard these days, and wedding planning businesses aren't the only ones who are benefiting. There's been a boom in people applying online to be ordained to officiate friends' and families' weddings. But there's an unexpected catch: Sometimes those Universal Life Church ordinations aren't legal in the county or state where the wedding is being performed!

Jen Kirkman does it all. Hilarious stand up, talented improviser, and a terrific writer. She's in town to do some stand up and to perform at UCB's 9th Annual Del Close Marathon and Gothamist sat down with this triple threat from LA to discuss growing up on a golf course, the pursuit of fame, and sassing customers.

A look at some noteworthy television this week:

Julian McCullough's a highly sought after comic in the New York scene. He just recorded a killer set for Comedy Central's Live at Gotham and this month he's opening for the likes of Colin Quinn and Richard Lewis. But it's not just headliners that love him. His peers sing his praises too. Just ask VH1 Commentator and comedian John Mulaney. "What makes Julian so damn good is that he is a comic with smart, really well written jokes. You can put him in front of any crowd and he can gauge the room, work with it, and then crush with his material."

There have been rumors about TRL ending its run this year (most likely by the summer) and now comes news that MTV will cut 250 jobs and invest in digital. By now we're all aware that the firing spree started yesterday.

THEATER: Should we be trying to protect our children from the man in red? That’s the premise of Jeff Goode’s much-performed The Eight: Reindeer Monologues, in which Santa’s vices are exposed by those on the receiving end of his lash. A scandal erupts when Vixen accuses Santa of sexual harassment; in the subsequent media frenzy, the other members of the sleigh team demand to share their perspectives, and a sordid tale of corruption comes to light. - John Del Signore

When your boss is a billionaire mayor, there are probably some risks. But who knew that getting carjacked in NJ would be one? This morning, one of Mayor Bloomberg's personal assistant was carjacked and beaten while running an errand for the Mayor. According to the AP, a woman asked the assistant for money somewhere in Hackensack; the assistant declined and rolled up his window, but a man got into the passenger side and punched him! Lock your doors, drivers. He was forced out and the pair took the car. Police found the car abandoned in Fair Lawn and are still looking for the carjackers.

Wouldn't it be funny, Mayor Bloomberg and his girlfriend Diana Taylor, and Ice-T and wife Coco, enjoying a meal out? Alas, it's just a fantasy inspired by the Mayor's and the rapper-actor's appearance announcing that VH1 Save the Music and Time Warner Cable had donated $1 million of musical instruments to NYC public schools. Studies have shown that music education can positively impact children's lives, which raised some questions about the Mayor's musical abilities:

Reporter: Did you ever try to play a musical instrument, which one was it, and what was your success?

Continue reading "Mayor B and Ice-T, New BFF?"

THEATER: 2 Husbands is a multimedia work in progress, but don’t let that scare you. It’s the budding creation of Brian Rogers and Ken Urban, whose innovative play I ♥ Kant made a big splash last month. His new collaboration is being developed at Long Island City’s Chocolate Factory and five bucks gets you a ticket and one complimentary drink. (We recommend the Bacardi and Ovaltine.) The production explores themes arising from the recent Terry Schiavo controversy and a true event from the mid-20th century in which a deceased black woman's cells were seized for scientific research without her family's knowledge. - John Del Signore

Patrice Oneal appears frequently on Comedy Central and VH1, has his own HBO half hour comedy special, a Comedy Central half hour comedy special, a Showtime half house comedy special, and is a nationally touring headlining comedian.

- And all three of you Love Monkey fans, VH1 will air the unaired episodes, in timeslots when it's not showing a "The Fabulous Life of Someone Not That Famous"

Gothamist is very grateful that we didn't have to witness Bloomberg's Hip Hop Press conference yesterday. OK, well, actually we kinda do wish that we'd been there, if only to see Bloomie chatting it up with Ice-T and Russell Simmons, but considering some of the soundbites that made it into today's papers we suspect that even that charm would have quickly worn off ("Welcome to City Hall, or my crib, as I like to call it... Not everybody here understands our language.").

Bob Castrone and Brian Levin, Creators, The Post Show

Okay, so awards shows have gotten out of hand. You’ve got the People’s Choice, the VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards, and now the Video Games Awards. Who really deserves props most? It’s that guy down on the street corner that you see every day, standing out in the freezing cold serving New Yorkers their food on the go. This November kicked off the Vendys, the new annual awards for New York City street vendors . Gothamist queued up on the sidewalk to try one of the finalists, The Best Halal, on 53rd St. and 6th Avenue.

December is a special time for comedians. Not only are they trying to scrape together enough money from the commercials and VH1 shows they booked this year to buy presents for their family, but it’s also Aspen audition time. The U.S. Comedy Arts Festival held in Aspen is a Mecca for comedians. Auditioning and being chosen for the USCAF and mingling with the comedy elite (past performers have included…basically everyone famous) is a career maker for many who attend. This weekend, check out the shows that just might end up catapulting these New York comics toward sitcom deals, Hollywood scripts or at the very least, a Sierra Mist ad. All shows are free.

Elliott Wilson, editor-in-chief, XXL magazine

Christian Finnegan, Comedian

More and more bizarre details (even more than yesterday) trickle out about suspected fake-firefighter-rapist Peter Braunstein. The freelance writer is belived to have an apartment in Harlem, watching coverage of his crime from a midtown hotel. His father, Alberto Braunstein, continues to feel guilty and apologizes to the woman who was attacked by a man disguised as a firefighter; the police believe it was Braunstein since he worked with her at Women's Wear Daily and has a history of stalking and looking for the spotlight. And following up on yesterday's news that he'd fabricated a story about an ex stalking him to get in PAge Six, he also threatened other women that he'd plant unflattering items about them in Page Six if they turned on him. The Post adds that he lied about his lifestyle, saying he lived with a wealthy woman on Park Avenue but it was really his' mother's place in Kew Gardens: "'It's a two-bedroom, and it's prewar, so it does have oversized rooms, but they don't even have an eat-in kitchen,' a neighbor said." Gothamist hopes that the media attention on Braunstein will lead him to turn himself in sooner or others to alert the police to his whereabouts, because this story doesn't seem to be going anywhere good.

Paul Scheer, Actor/Comedian

Bex Schwartz, Writer/Director/Comedian

Aaron Karo, author, Ruminations on Twentysomething Life

We hope your Fourth of July experience in Battery Park was better than ours. At least we saw a Turkey. (Zelda the Turkey to be exact.)