Guitarist Romero Lumbabo performs
“I feel like we’re yuppies,” I said, pointing out the pencil skirts and linen blazers in the crowd already gathered in MoMA’s sculpture garden for the museum’s weekly Thursday night concert.
“Yuppies? It’s free,” my friend responded, pointing to retired couples in jeans and students in sundresses. “Everyone’s here.”
And everyone was there. Word has certainly gotten out about MoMA Thursday Nights, a summer program combining modern art with music. The museum will stay open until 8:45 p.m. every Thursday this July and August while a diverse lineup of musicians performs live in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. In July, MoMA Music featured performers from Brazil, in conjunction with the film exhibition Premiere Brazil 2009. In August, the music’s origin will switch to China to suit the exhibition Project 90: Song Dong, an installation appropriately visible from the Sculpture Garden. Musicians perform two sets, one at 5:30 p.m. and one at 7:00 p.m.
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No Comments | Posted on July 31, 2009 | Categories: Attractions, Event-Related, From the Blog, Midtown West, Nightlife
tags: alcohol, art, classy, Food, guitar, moma, moma thursday nights, museum of modern art, music, romero lumbabo, sculpture, sculpture garden, thursday
Images of Venezuela and a large Venezuelan flag adorning the walls make this a homey setting in which to consume delicious arepas and Venezuelan specialties. The beef of the pastelitos’pink, tender meat in a fried pastry’will melt in your mouth. Arepas offer a little something for every taste: vegetarians can try the Miss Venezuela (avocado and tomato), while adventurous types can sample the baby shark. No knife is required for the deliciously slow-cooked Asado negro, which mixes its juices with earthy black beans and rice as it falls apart on the plate. Finish with a creamy bien me sabe sponge cake, which drips with sweet, sugary coconut milk.
228 W 18th St (near 7th Ave) 212-206-8930. Mon, Wed 11am-10pm, Tues, Thurs, Fri 11am-11pm, Sat-Sun 11am-9pm. 1 to 18th. Average entree $10.
No Comments | Categories: Chelsea, Dining
tags: Venezuelan
The entrance to Pier 54, site of the River Flicks summer film festival
Sometimes no matter how early the bird is, it will never get the worm.
My friends arrived at Hudson River’s Pier 54 at around 7:00 p.m. for an 8:30 showing of Vicky Cristina Barcelona, last summer’s Woody Allen rom-com. I appreciated their willingness to arrive early, lay a blanket on the black top, and enjoy their Bleecker Street pizza while waiting for the rest of us, but I couldn’t hide my irritation when I realized that despite their attempts to get a good spot, I would still have to squint to see the film.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona is just one of seven films showing this summer as a part of the Hudson River’s weekly, Wednesday night River Flicks film festival, not including the children’s version of the summer program, River Flicks for Kids at Pier 46. With a fluorescent sun setting against the fading sky and the newly constructed High Line glowing behind the crowd of movie-goers, the Hudson River itself is the ideal setting for anything, whether it be a first date, a family outing, or a picnic with friends.
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10 Comments | Posted on July 22, 2009 | Categories: Chelsea, Event-Related, From the Blog
tags: film, hudson river, hudson river park, movies, not fun, pier 54, vicky cristina barcelona, woody allen
A crowd of adrenaline-pumped twentysomethings gathers in Williamsburg to begin an urban "Capture the Flag" match
O.K., so they didn’t help the multitude of roaring crowds carry the flag safely around enemy territory, but they were definitely one of the major, if unwanted, players of the night.
Hold on, though. Wait. Capture the flag? In Williamsburg? Yes, brought to you by Newmindspace, the same group that organized the pillow fight in Union Square and coordinates lightsaber fights, subway parties, and massive bubble bath battles all over New York City and Toronto. Last Friday promised an event never held before in New York: a massive capture the flag extravaganza set in the crowded nighttime streets of Hipsterland.
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No Comments | Posted on July 21, 2009 | Categories: Brooklyn, Event-Related, From the Blog, Greenpoint, Nightlife, Williamsburg
tags: capture the flag, excitement, games, Hipsterland, N.Y.P.D., Newmindspace
Scene from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Potterheads, rejoice: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opened in theaters across the country at midnight Tuesday. This latest installment of the series has received amazing reviews, but Inside New York hit the streets to find out if people in the city are as excited as the film critics.
Tawanna, a student at BMCC, compares the excitement of the new Harry Potter film to the fanaticism surrounding another fantasy movie franchise.
“It’s as big a deal as Twilight,” she says, relaxing on the steps at Columbus Circle. “I just want to be able to talk about it! You know, Harry Potter’s a big deal and I don’t want to be one of those people that didn’t see it and everyone will be like, ‘Oh my God, did you see the movie?’ and I’m just sitting there like, ‘No…’”
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No Comments | Categories: Attractions, Brooklyn, Event-Related, Manhattan, Uncategorized
tags: film, harry potter, movies, theaters, tips
The concert stage at Brooklyn's East River State Park this past Sunday
Once Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz had his heroes, once he had his dreams.
Those heroes never included Clint Conley and Roger Miller of Mission of Burma, and—excepting nightmares—no politician dreams of introducing a band called Fucked Up.
But Markowitz’s speech, though laden both with song-title quotations more tedious than above and ‘Republic of Brooklyn’ borough pride, was well enough received to provide an auspicious start to the rebooted Pool Party concert series.
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No Comments | Categories: Uncategorized
Lamberto Maggiorani, the Italian Jon Hamm of Ladri di Biciclette
After a gloomy June where umbrellas were more common than summer dresses, the sun was finally out last weekend. So when a friend of mine suggested we go to brunch, I half-expected to pack my wicker basket—yeah, I have one, so what?—full of brie, pear slices, and baguettes and roll out my blue-checked blanket in a secluded area of a park. That, or sit under the awning of some trendy downtown joint, sipping mimosas and waiting for crepes.
I got the downtown and mimosas part, but it wasn’t the company or the sun that illuminated the experience so much as the flicker of a movie screen in the downtown den (Le) Poisson Rouge. Indeed, every Sunday at 1 p.m. until August 9, (Le) Poisson Rouge will be hosting Cine-brunch, a screening of a free classic film served with a less-than-free but justifiably priced brunch.
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No Comments | Categories: Event-Related, Greenwich Village
tags: breakfast, brunch, cine-brunch, films, le poisson rouge, movies
Which is better—Twitter or Facebook? Who was the best boy band—New Kids on the Block or N*Sync? What do you like better—fake boobs or the real things?
From the trifling to the tasteless, these are just a tasting of the topics that were mulled over at VH1’s The Great Debate: Ivy League Throwdown Kick Off held live in Herald Square on Monday. Debate teams from the nearby Ivy Leagues—the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Harvard, and Columbia—paired up to duke it out verbally. Sillier prompts like, “What’s the best dance craze—the YMCA or the Macarena?” started the first round, in which top debaters from UPenn and Columbia pitted their pop culture wits against each other.
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No Comments | Posted on July 9, 2009 | Categories: Event-Related, From the Blog, Greenwich Village
tags: columbia, debates, free, fun, harvard, penn, television, the great debate, vh1, video, yale
The Bronx Culture Trolley (courtesy Bronx Council On the Arts)
Though a “trolley ride” may have connotations of a quaint meandering through town, do not be fooled. The Bronx Culture Trolley zips through the edgy South Bronx on the first Wednesday evening of each month to explore the hidden treasures and authentic Bronx styles of local artists.
Your best bet is to catch the trolley when it leaves from Hostos Community College at 5:30 p.m. This is the earliest slot, and it will allow you to keep hopping back on the trolley as it circles around the neighborhood.
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No Comments | Posted on July 7, 2009 | Categories: Attractions, Event-Related, From the Blog, Nightlife, The Bronx
tags: art, artists, bronx, Bronx Culture Trolley, free, karaoke, ldr studio gallery, luis d. rosado, tours
The Columbus Square Whole Foods opens at the end of August
“Can we visit the Whole Foods of Amazingness?”
This is an actual lunch suggestion from one of my closest friends, I kid you not. She’s visiting from Washington, D.C., where, while a Whole Foods does stand green and proud, its selection can’t quite match the variety and splendor of the outlet in Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, with all its “amazingness.”
But there is nothing really that unique about the Columbus Circle Whole Foods. The chain itself has become ubiquitously upscale, with the very same Indian Bar at every store. The same yuppies and tourists crowd the aisles, snapping up organic this and local that, and enjoying their sushi in the café section where no, you will not get a seat.
So it is with a bit of trepidation that the Upper West Side prepares to welcome its own outlet of amazingness. Construction on the new Whole Foods at Columbus Square (40 blocks uptown from Columbus Circle, despite the too-close names) is nearing completion—already workmen are painting the walls bright green—and the store will open on Aug. 27.
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No Comments | Posted on July 6, 2009 | Categories: Dining, From the Blog, Upper West Side
tags: columbus circle, columbus square, coming soon, construction, groceries, supermarkets, whole foods
