Inspired by the previous “Tour de Brooklyn” and “Tour de Bronx”, about 500 cyclists will ride their bikes through parts of Queens this Sunday, June 8. Run by the group Transportation Alternatives, the Tour de Queens is expected to become an annual event. The 20-mile ride will start and end at the Queens Museum of Art in Flushing Meadows Park, and will pass through East Elmhurst, Astoria, Queensbridge, Long Island City, Maspeth, Middle Village, Rego Park, and Forest Hills.

Online Registration has ended, but there is there is some space for on-site registration [starting at 8am] on the day of the Tour. They also need volunteers. The Tour de Queens is not a race, but a leisurely ride, so families with children are encouraged to attend.

In the wake of the devastating earthquake in Sichuan province in China, the Chinese-American communities in NYC are opening up hearts and wallets to help victims. An estimated 20,000 are believed to be dead or buried, with the toll expected to go up as rescuers go into the more remote areas. Many of the survivors are sleeping out in the street, either because their homes are gone, or they can’t trust that any structures still left standing are structurally sound enough to not collapse on them. Food is in short supply, and practically depleted.

The New York Consolidated Benevolent Association, based in Chinatown, has raised thousands as a result of a letter-writing campaign to over 60 member organizations. According to the MSNBC website, they hope to raise $100,000. And City Councilman John Liu, who represents the Asian area of Queens [including Flushing, Elmhurst, and Bayside], urges New Yorkers to donate to the American Red Cross International Response Fund, which is also sending relief to victims of the recent cyclone in Myanmar.

There has been more than one unprecedented move by the Holy Father during his visit to the US. As I write this, the Pontiff is on is way to the United Nations to speak, after landing at JFK. His acknowledgment of the sex scandal rocking the Catholic Church, and meeting with some victims, has been an earthshaking move, although demonstrators outside the UN are protesting that it wasn’t enough.

Later today, the Pope will visit Park East Synagogue. This will not be the first visit to a synagogue by a pontiff. This is the second time this pope has visited a house of Jewish worship, and the third visit overall [his predecessor was the first]. What is significant is that this is right before Passover when the pope will meet the Jewish leaders. And this German-born pontiff, who was a young man in the Nazi era, will come face-to-face with the Rabbi Arthur Schneier of Park East Synagogue, a survivor of the Holocaust.

And so I wish Pope Benedict XVI a Happy Passover!

Salt. How much do you know about it? I kinda love it myself, but didn’t realize I had the massive holes in my salt knowledge that it turns out I do. After a long day of travel to NYC I ended up Brooklyn at a friends place expecting to just go to sleep but instead walked into a salt tasting. European, Hawaiian, smoked, flaked, etc - the variety was amazing and I walked away from it full of much more salty knowledge, and a bit thirsty. I mention this here because I got the private trial run, but the public full version is happening tonight right here in NYC. The Salt Tasting done by Petra Tanos and is part of the Umami Festival (with tonight’s event happening at Roulette). Here’s a little more about it, but I gotta say I was pretty blown away and highly recommend it for anyone who regularly reaches for the salt.

Musique a’la Mode
Composer Fast Forward is well known for including kitchen
paraphernalia in his performances, but to date he has never gone ‘all
the way’. That is about to change for the Umami Festival where he will
unleash the world premiere of Musique a’la Mode, a concert in which
ALL his instruments will be derived from the common day kitchen. Pots,
pans, bowls, cutlery, food, liquids and more will be part of the
battery for this sonic culinarian’s concert. It could change your
entire approach to home cooking.

Today was the first Sunday of the Brooklyn Flea for the year 2008. Brooklyn Flea is a flea market that meets every Sunday at Lafayette Avenue at the corner of Cleremont in Clinton Hill. From the pictures below you will see that the fair was packed today, the gusty winds not withstanding.

This is Brooklyn’s largest flea market in its hippest neighborhood. Its definitely worth a trip for all the non-brooklynites.

Check out more pics at Clintonhill

It seems that the much beloved Mac Apple cannot stay out of controversy for long. It is now challenging a patent that the Big Apple a.k.a our own NYC has filed for its green initiative.

Image copyrights Gothamist.com 

I initially thought this was some sort of an April Fools day joke, but I was wrong :)

Now there is  no way I am going to confuse one with the other. However creative Apple may be with their products…and I do love them for it…I think they are taking this apple thing too far.

Are they going to petition the changing of the name of the fruit too one day ?

I woke up this morning and the internets told me that Spitzer is planning to resign today, so I turned on NY1 to see what was going on. I figured I’d liveblog the resignation, because what better use of my lunch hour than watching this trainwreck? When governors bareback anal with hookers, everyone wins! Especially blind lieutenant governors!

11:10 am: There are a ton of reporters sitting outside Spitzer’s apartment building with their cameras zoomed in on the front door, waiting for him to leave for his 11:30 am press conference. The other people who live in his building that are coming out look pissed.

11:12 am: The reporter just said that people who “look like lawyers” have been going in and coming out of his building. WTF does a lawyer look like?

11:20 am: Helicopters are hovering over the Spitzer convoy and following it to his office. Jesus. His wife is with him, though!

11:22 am: Reporters are pontificating about what it means that his wife is there to support him. They are also pontificating about the traffic on Fifth Avenue. Hate.

11:25 am: Some analyst-type is making the point that this is a stunning fall from grace for the governor. He had a landslide victory in the election 16 months ago and had a 70% approval rating at the start of his term. He came into office with an anti-corruption platform and was planning to reform the embattled government. He let a lot of people down. (Uh, duuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh!)
(more…)

So, as most people probably already know, the Big News in NYC today is all about NY governor Eliot Spitzer being involved in a prostitution ring. Though some of the details in the media reports sound circumstantial, there were apparently wiretaps involved, and the governor has admitted to boning prostitutes (well, in slightly different words). Interesting, for a man who, as attorney general, focused all of his energy on getting rid of corruption. Not to mention that he ran for governor while riding on that anti-corruption momentum.

While I think that people’s personal lives are just that, personal, I also think that public officials, especially those who purport themselves to be on a higher moral ground, should, you know, refrain from doing illegal things. I’m sure people would be shitting bricks if he’d had an affair - for example, with an intern - but this is entirely different since he broke the law of the state that he is governing.

He hasn’t resigned yet, but I’m willing to bet it’ll happen soon.

At about 4 this morning, someone threw a small, “low grade” explosive device at a military recruiting center in Times Square. The perpetrator apparently didn’t do much damage aside from blowing the windows out and scaring some people in the hotel next door. There are a couple of witnesses, but not many, because nobody really hangs out in Times Square at 4 am, but one witness did see a man riding a bicycle “in a suspicious manner”, however the hell you do that. Cops are now looking for a cyclist wearing dark clothing, a hood, and a backpack. That narrows it down to… every cyclist in New York City. Good luck with that, guys.

The mayor is pissed, saying that the attack on the recruiting center was an insult to the country’s military personnel. Personally, I think it was just kind of a dick move by some kid who found a copy of the Anarchist’s Cookbook on the interwebs. If you want to disprove my assumptions, confessions (with a detailed accounting of what you did and how you did it) are welcome in the comments!

So, to the douchebag responsible, stop blowing shit up. And to the cops, well, good look hunting down your man, but you harass cyclists in this city enough already, so don’t be jerks about it.

This afternoon an abandoned building collapsed in Harlem on 124th St. causing the shut down of all three Metro North lines. All three lines stop at the 125th St. station only a block away. Service was suspended for fear that the rumbling of the Metro North trains would cause further collapse of the building and a few other surrounding abandoned buildings. According to information I can find there is no projected time when service will be reinstated, but keep checking your local news resource for any updates. Here is a link to an article on Newsday.com.

UPDATE: As of 8pm the MTA says the Metro north is back on schedule.