Tag Archives: NYC

The Soldiers and Sailors Arch in Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza serves as the main gate to Prospect Park, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the same team that created Central Park. The arch, meant to evoke Paris’ Arc de Triomphe, was designed by John H. Duncan, who later created Grant’s Tomb. It was formally unveiled by …

The Meatpacking District’s fancy new Standard Hotel straddles the also fancy, also new High Line Park, whose visitors have been treated to numerous sex shows from the windows of the hotel, including a few porn shoots. The New York Post is outraged: Disgusted neighbors say they’ve seen men masturbating, professional porn films being shot and couples engaging in sex in …

Just a reminder that Donna Summer’s free NYC concert is this Thursday in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach. The 31st Annual Seaside Summer Concert Series performances are held Thursday nights 7:30 pm at Asser Levy/Seaside Park at West 5th Street and Surf Avenue in Coney Island/Brighton Beach, across the street from the New York Aquarium. The public is encouraged to bring their …

This week New York City did another 24-hour crackdown on using cell phones while driving, issuing over 7000 tickets in one day, more than ten times the daily average, netting the city about $1M in fines. The tickets are $120 each, but $200 for cab drivers. The funny thing about this ticket blitz is that every New Yorker knows that …

New Order, Confusion, 1983. After the global success of Blue Monday, some New Order fans were dismayed by this foray into hip-hop/electro, but I loved it. In this clip, legendary producer Arthur Baker takes the band to Chelsea’s notorious Funhouse Disco so they can watch the b-boys react to his mix. (The Funhouse was two blocks from where the Eagle …

– Openly gay Tony nominee Gavin Creel has been sidelined from his starring role in Hair due to an onstage ankle injury. – Spike Lee’s documentary of the Tony winning Passing Strange debuts tonight at NYC’s IFC Film Center. Next week the film will be available on demand via Sundance Network. – UGH: Disney is in negotiations to turn the …

According to the second annual report from the Center For An Urban Future, the economic downturn has not hurt the number of national chain franchises in New York City, with 53 chains adding a total of 310 outlets and 62 chains closing 245 stores over the last 12 months. The most common stores in the five boroughs: 1. Dunkin’ Donuts …

The derelict Gowanus Building, an old power station in Brooklyn, has been on sale for $27M forever. It gained the above editorial last September during the Wall Street bailout, which hasn’t helped it sell, oddly enough. The building sits on the Gowanus Canal, one of the nation’s most polluted waterways. The EPA has proposed adding the Gowanus to its Superfund …

Protesters waved anti-Christine Quinn signs outside of an event where the openly lesbian NYC Council Speaker debated two other candidates for her seat. While City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn’s campaign experience showed in a debate among three of the Democrats vying for her seat, it was Maria Passannante-Derr who brought the heat to the August 13 event. “You’re the …

Hurricane Bill was just upgraded to Category 4 and is forecast to begin affecting the NYC area sometime Sunday morning. By then colder waters should have reduced its wind speed to a mere 115mph. Reverend Pat Robertson has not yet said whether he intends to pray Bill away from New York.

A gay nightclub/restaurant has opened on Staten Island, the borough’s first gay club in over a decade. Q-SINY’s owners Jim McKernan, 44, and his partner of 16 years, Ray Carr, 48, say they opened their venue in response to the LGBT community’s gaping need for a regular place to rock out. “They’ve been screaming for it,” says McKernan. The Castleton …

The producers of a film to be called Bear City has issued a casting call for extras for scenes to be filmed over three nights at the NYC Eagle. CASTING BACKGROUND BEARS & CUBS!!! Casting call for indie feature “BearCity,” a gay romantic comedy set in New York’s gay “Bear” scene. Being developed/produced in association with TLA Releasing (Another Gay …

The Ali Forney Center, NYC’s homeless shelter for LGBT youth, is naming one of their residences for the late Bea Arthur. Via press release: The Ali Forney Center (AFC), the nation’s largest organization dedicated to homeless LGBT youth, will formally announce it’s plan to name a residence for LGBT youth in honor of Bea Arthur at her memorial service on …

– Spider-Man: The Musical, the most expensive spectacular in Broadway history, is in trouble. The NYT reports that opening day has been put on hold and that stars Alan Cumming and Evan Rachel Wood have been released from their contracts. Producers insist the show will open as planned on February 25th once “cash flow problems have been resolved.” – Equity …

First & 69th, Friday, 10am I’m coming out of a bodega… Wild-eyed Homeless Guy: “Ooh! Look at you! You bought a paper! Hurray! Woo hoo! You can read! Whoop-dee-doo!” OK, then. New York City.

Gothamist tips us to this neat map showing how the population density of Manhattan changes by day and night. I think that giant spike above midtown is the Bloomingdale’s shopping area.

Well, this has got to be the strangest story of the year. Dwan Prince, 31, has sent an apology to the man whose 2005 attack in Brooklyn left Prince partially paralyzed, telling him that it was Prince’s own flirtatious behavior that brought on the assault and that thanks to the beating, he is no longer gay. Duncan Osborne at Gay …

With so many of NYC’s unemployed spending their idle time in coffeehouses, hovering for hours over their laptops, shop owners are beginning to put their foot down. Amid the economic downturn, there are fewer places in New York to plug in computers. As idle workers fill coffee-shop tables — nursing a single cup, if that, and surfing the Web for …

I’m not a fan but I know my homos well enough to expect a little bit of squealing about this. Forty-eight years after she first appeared in the club opening for Miles Davis, Barbra Streisand will celebrate the release of “Love Is the Answer,” her new album of jazz and popular standards, by performing a selection of its songs at …

Cafe FiGo, First & 68th, 1:30pm Woman 1: After the meeting, the VP of sales told me that I made two of the junior clerks cry because they didn’t make their targets. And then he smiled. Woman 2: You are SO getting promoted.