New York City Metblogs » nyc_dan

I love New York because…

nyc_dan — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 22:12:15 +0000

I just saw Mark Ibold from Pavement riding his bicycle down Bleecker St. I grinned.

Help Save Tonic

nyc_dan — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 15:51:01 +0000

Tonic, a great venue for creative music and video on the Lower East Side, is in trouble. On Saturday, its main sewer line ruptured, flooding Subtonic (the basement venue) and rendering the toilets inoperable. Despite this, Tonic staffers managed to open and make Sunday’s Share at Subtonic a success. This month there will be a series of benefit concerts to raise money to save Tonic, but to get these off the ground vital repairs must be completed as soon as possible. If you’d like to help Tonic, the best thing you can do is make a contribution. Here’s what Tonic has to say:

Since 1998 Tonic has been a haven for creative music. We have helped nurture the vital community of musicians and audiences who keep this music alive. Now we are in danger of closing and ask you to help us keep Tonic alive.

Over the past few years we have suffered a series of blows: our rent has doubled since 1998, our insurance costs have tripled, we

The Broken Kilometer

nyc_dan — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 18:54:45 +0000

Gentrified and 5th Avenue-ized as it may be, there’s still art in Soho. Today as I was walking back to work with lunch — more ramen, shame on me — a plain block of text caught my eye through a window: The Broken Kilometer, a Dia installation. I went inside. Rounding blank white walls, I stepped into the gallery space, where I was mesmerized by row upon row of shining brass rods lying on the floor. I walked back and forth, letting my eyes unfocus. On the way out I grabbed a flyer. The artwork, it told me,

is composed of 500 highly polished, round, solid brass rods, each measuring two meters in length and five centimeters (two inches) in diameter. The 500 rods are placed in five parallel rows of 100 rods each. The sculpture weighs 18 3/4 tons and would measure 3,280 feet if all the elements were laid end-to-end. Each rod is placed such that the spaces between the rods increase by 5mm with each consecutive space, from front to back; the first two rods of each row are placed 80mm apart, the last two rods are placed 580 mm apart. Metal halide stadium lights illuminate the work which is 45 feet wide and 125 feet long.

I’d love to go back on a really bright, sunny day; it was like an abstraction in metal of sun on water.

Apparently, this installation has been there since 1979, a companion piece to the artist’s Vertical Earth Kilometer (a brass rod sunk a kilometer into the earth, naturally). I find it fascinating to imagine the neighborhood changing around this bold, simple artwork over the last 25 years, going from true, down-at-heels bohemia to fashion flagship land.

One thing that made me fume on the way out was the little placard on the flyer table, which said “PHOTOGRAPHY IS NOT PERMITTED”. Why not? What would a few tourist/art student photos take away from this artwork? Well, you might say, De Maria probably makes money only off of photo prints and videos of his work. If so, he should work hard to make his photos the best out there. A little amateur competition would generate interest and drive buyers to find the best photos. Rrrr. I hate artificial scarcity. /end rant

Ramen

nyc_dan — Wed, 05 Jan 2005 19:40:30 +0000

Last night I was jonesing for some soup and out of my old standby, Top Ramen, so I ventured out in search of surrogates. At the outrageously overpriced deli at Hudson and W. 11th (Abingdon Sq Market), I browsed the imported Korean ramen section. A nice Asian girl warned me away from the one with kim chee in it and recommended the Shin Cup. I got it. It’s delicious. It’s head and shoulders above Top Ramen and torso and head above the vile Cup o’ Soup.

Today I went to Sunrise Mart on Broome and picked up a BIG Shin Cup for $1.09 — $0.41 less than Abingdon charged for the small cup. Down with Abindgon (prices)! Up with heart disease. It’s incredible how much salt and fat they manage to pack into these seemingly innocuous noodles. I didn’t use the whole seasoning packet and it was still super spicy/briny. Ah well. Unless you cook for yourself, the cheaper you eat, the more you die. ;)

Sara Schaefer Is Interviewed for You

nyc_dan — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 15:23:23 +0000

Sara Schaefer does a really funny, sweet talk show at Juvie Hall called Sara Schaefer Is Obsessed with You: it lightly spoofs officeland and latenighttalkshowland in equal measure, moving from guest to sketch and back with warm, easy grace. It features celebrity and musical guests and, without fail, an actor who’s been on Law & Order. Today, Gothamist ran an interview with Sara.

As far as guests go, I don’t know how it works. I guess [real TV talk shows] have this list of people who want to promote their movies and such, and you pick from that? I’d rather get people that I personally am obsessed with. Like practically everyone on the Food Network, except that lady Ina who does Barefoot Contessa. She really pisses me off. I’d also love to have Tori Amos as a guest. I am really obsessed with her, and she’s a complete nut, so I think it’d make for great entertainment. I’d be sobbing uncontrollably while she burns sage and ritualistically dry-humps the goddess of my desk.

The next SSIOWY is on January 14th. Enjoy the interview.

Catch the ebb tide at the Met; Learn to walk

nyc_dan — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 17:49:17 +0000

Each year, Mark Hurst writes a gift guide for POGs (Parents of Geeks), which tells the earnest parents of technophiles what camera/computer/cheaper gizmo to give their young cyborg this year. The Gift Guide is useful, though pretty standard (no-brainers like “get ‘em an iPod”), and the Almanac section is a humorous catchall ranging from good advice (How to Decide Which Seafood to Eat) to pedantic instruction (How to Leave a Telephone Message). Somewhere in between lay these two tips for New Yorkers, permanent or touristical, on When to Visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art and How To Walk in New York City:

“The Met” is one of the busiest tourist attractions in New York City, on weekends. If you go to see one of the more popular exhibitions, you can wait in a line minutes or longer, then only to be admitted into a gallery space packed with visitors. Here’s a way to see the Met with no lines, no crowds, and no fuss: go on the busiest day Avenue, the street outside the Met. This would be the Sunday in June of the Puerto Rican Parade, the most popular Fifth Avenue parade of the year. Once you make it through the crowd into the Met, you’ll find that you have the museum almost all to yourself. [...]

Walking in New York is like driving on a highway. There are rules, and there are safety risks if people don’t follow them. Even if you don’t live in New York City, you can apply walking rules to wherever you live and walk. Here is the most important walking rule: Don’t make sudden changes in course. Don’t suddenly stop, or change your speed. Don’t change directions suddenly for no reason, and don’t make a surprise about-face. Just like driving on the highway: don’t act unpredictably. If you have to walk (or drive) slowly, at least do it predictably, so that people around you can travel safely.

Download Uncle Mark 2005 (523KB PDF)
Learn more about Uncle Mark’s Gift Guide & Almanac

(found on BoingBoing)

Paper lanterns, wooden swords and impractical clutch purses

nyc_dan — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 16:23:54 +0000

Paper lanterns, wooden swords, and impractical clutch purses* are just a few of the modestly priced Chinese goods you’ll find at Pearl River Mart, an emporium formerly of Chinatown, now housed on the west side of Broadway between Broome and Grand. They’ve got mandarin tops, bamboo furniture, teapots, chopsticks, jade trinkets, origami paper and many, many decorative geegaws. I am told that it was dirt cheap at its former location (down a covered alley in a no-frills warehouse off Canal St) but I still find it very wallet-friendly. Plus, the Chinese know how to wrap a present: their many-colored sachets, cloth boxes, and papers are a great way to transform stocking-stuffer-level presents into real under-tree dynamite. Last year I wrote boyfriend coupons, e.g., a kiss, a long walk, a long kiss, on origami paper, folded them into roses and dropped them in little sachets, which I then used to fill the Korean chest I’d gotten for my girlfriend. In other words, a little imagination and a few inexpensive items from Pearl River can help you find something new for the man/woman who has everything. Their little tea gallery is a great place to take a load off when you’ve been tramping all over SoHo, too. Oh and lah dee dah, they even have a website now.

Now, granted, you might be able to find many of these items for a buck or two cheaper in a hole in the wall on Canal St, but is it really worth exposing yourself to such madness? Not to this father’s son.

(Challenge accepted, Nora!)

* Though that would seem to imply that other clutch purses are practical: a dubious proposition.

Inexpensive therapy in the city

nyc_dan — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 17:58:00 +0000

You’ve got [a dilemna|heartache|a substance abuse problem|existential angst|you're shy]. You need someone to talk to. You try your mom: she says you should move home. You try your best friend: she listens for a while, gives some decent advice, then brings the conversation back around to herself. You try your girlfriend: she gets upset and thinks you’re blaming her. You think, maybe I should try one of those — what do you call them? — professionals. Right. But you work two part-time jobs at a coffee shop and a bookstore, so you don’t have health insurance, the cash or the patience to pay for five years of intensive Freudian psychoanalysis. You want to talk to someone who’s impartial, knowledgable and discreet — a really good listener — two or three times so you can get your head straight about [life|the universe|and everything]. What do you do?

You call the Psychological Service Center, a non-profit organization that’s been connecting New Yorkers with professional therapists through their Volunteer Treatment Program since 1968. You’ll answer a few questions about your needs and be placed with a therapist for a daytime session. If you want to give some information to a friend, they can mail you a pamphlet. The therapists donate their services completely gratis — all you pay is a $35 flat fee per session, for scheduling and space.

The number to call is 212-268-5337 and the lady on the other end of the phone is very nice. They’re at 352 7th Ave in Midtown. (They’ll have a new website up in about a month at pscnyc.org.) Everybody could use a good listener once in a while.

One last word of advice: if you’re young, you might want to ask to see someone who’s close to your age.

Chengwin

nyc_dan — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 15:33:21 +0000

The story thus far…

A chicken falls in love with a skunk. They have a child, half-chicken, half-skunk: Chunk. Skunk abandons Chicken. Chicken puts Chunk up for adoption. Chicken meets Penguin; they fall in love. Chengwin (half-chicken, half-penguin) is born and raised with love and affection. One day, they learn that Chunk has run away from the orphanage and gone bad. Chengwin is set upon by Chunk and his posse. Chengwin and his posse defeat Chunk!

Tomorrow, one of the city’s wildest and most joyous street theatre events will return to the Lower East Side for Homecoming 2004, in which the Chengwins and the Chunks will battle for the love of Chove (half-chicken, half-dove). Come to the north corner of Houston and Lafayette St; the whistle blows at 3 pm sharp. Be there or be Chuare (half-chicken, half-square). This doesn’t suck.

More:
- Last year, Chunk and Chengwin raced each other.
- Two years ago, Chunk and Chove almost got married!
- There is also Chabio (half-chicken, half-Fabio). He is dreamy.
- Beware of Chixon! (Half-chicken, half-Richard Nixon.)

My Election Story

nyc_dan — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 17:23:06 +0000

::with bonus celebrity sighting::

I voted at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center on West 13th St this morning. The line stretched around the corner and halfway down a block on 7th Ave when I got there, but it moved quickly. It turns out I didn’t need to wait; the line led up to a lady in a purple sweater who divided all comers into those who knew their voting district and those who had to look it up. I was relieved to find the same old mechanical voting machines with curtains that I’d used in Astoria two years ago. Several people in my line graciously got a chair for an octogenarian gentleman and let him skip to the front. When it came my turn, I parted the curtain and read the instructions: “turn the switch to the right of the name of the candidate,” I muttered, nervous that I would accidentally vote for Walt Brown the Socialist candidate by mistake.

I am disappointed to report that I received no “I Voted” sticker. After I’d finished I walked out and addressed the line: “if you know your voting district, you can skip this line,” I shouted. Barry Levinson was right in front of me, in his rose-colored glasses. He chose to stay in line.

And now we wait. Will the youth vote give Kerry a sweeping margin or are the pollsters’ predictions accurate? If it’s as close as it was in 2000, how long will we wait while the partisans litigate? I’m hoping for a sea of black hoodies at the polls.