Thursday, March 31, 2011
Music You Have Less Than 48 Hours to Get Your Cloud Footage in LCD Soundsystem's Farewell Show
Posted by Lauren Beck on Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 4:11 PM
A few other random notes concerning LCD's goodbye: Pitchfork reported today that Arcade Fire-collaborator/SXSW buzzcatcher/extreme saxophonist Colin Stetson will be joining the roster of special guests for the remaining shows this week. Remember that Kickstarter campaign to fund a documentary following a group of friends trekking across the country to watch LCD play one last time? Well, it didn't reach its goal in time. On a more positive note, Pitchfork will be hosting an exclusive live webcast of the final show on Saturday for us ticketless souls, so at least we'll have that.
News NYU, In the Midst of a Years-Long Salary Freeze, Announces New Shanghai Campus
Posted by Mark Asch on Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 3:28 PM
In an email sent out to the NYU community, J-Sex called NYU Shanghai part of "NYU's evolution from being 'in and of the city' to being 'in and of the world,'" which is basically code for the enormous hard-on he has always had for the best and brightest puffs in the vaportrail of the tilting global balance—beginning with the celebrity-faculty hiring spree that began in the early aughts, and now manifests as this visionary commitment to the class that reads The Economist on frequent flights to exciting new repressive states. But at what cost?
Art New Museum's Festival of Ideas for the New City Has Worms, Farms and Koolhaas
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 2:47 PM
At a press event this morning the New Museum and a team of ten core partner organizations including the Center for Architecture, Storefront for Art and Architecture, and Drawing Center announced preliminary details of their inaugural Festival of Ideas for the New City (May 4-8), including lectures and workshops on progressive urbanism and architecture, performances, exhibitions and a huge street fair on Bowery (between Houston and Spring), Stanton, Rivington and Sarah Roosevelt Park on the 7th that, as the Bowery Poetry Club's Bob Holman put it, "is not a street fest for tube socks and sandwiches." There will be tubes of another sort, though.
Special Events Join Us at the New York City Opera Tonight and Stay for Act 4
Posted by Sarah Shanfield on Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 2:00 PM
News The Gayest Neighborhood in Brooklyn
Posted by Henry Stewart on Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 1:05 PM
News Cash-Strapped Forest City Ratner Sells 49% Stake in Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal Malls
Posted by Mark Asch on Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 12:15 PM
Madison International Realty is paying $172 million for their interest in the Ratner properties, which are valued at $852 million and carry $500 million in debt. As if the implications of the sale—the largest possible non-controlling stake in privately owned, healthy income-generating retail developments—weren't clear enough, graf 2 of the WSJ article notes, with killing objectivity, "The sale... comes as Forest City has been hobbled by major development projects that were started at the market's peak, when prices and expectations were far higher than they are today." (One thing they don't mention: this isn't the first time Ratner's sold off assets to keep Atlantic Yards moving. Remember that time he sold his basketball team to the richest man in Russia?)
Theater Legendary Experimental Theater Under St. Marks for Sale; Resident Company Looking To Buy
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 11:33 AM
The Horse Trade Theater Group operates the 45-seat basement theater Under St. Marks at 94 St. Mark's Place, a mainstay of the Downtown experimental theater and performance scene since the 70s, and now a hot real estate opportunity. EV Grieves reports that in response to news that their space could be sold out from under (or above?) them, Horse Trade is launching a campaign to raise funds and buy the building.
Music Hear a Live Recording of a Woods Performance from Sweden
Posted by Mike Conklin on Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 10:42 AM
On Twitter this morning, the Woodsist Records people shared a link to a high quality stream of a Woods show that took place in Stockholm just a few days ago, and man, it has made this otherwise dreary morning far more enjoyable than it has any business being. They perform as a three piece, so it's nicely stripped down, but thankfully not without some bursts of noise right there next to all those beautiful, aching melodies. Somehow, this band just keeps getting better and better.
Art Rob Pruitt's Andy Warhol Monument Unveiled Outside The Factory in Union Square
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 9:51 AM
Yesterday evening a huge crowd squeezed onto the pedestrian plaza at the northeast corner of Broadway and 17th Street at the north end of Union Square, in front of the building that housed Andy Warhol's legendary Factory studio from 1973 through 1984 (and a few steps from the building where the Factory was between 1967 and 1973), around a figure shrouded in a silvery sheet.
News Greenpoint Rejects Bazaar, Asks Williamsburg to Keep it Down
Posted by Henry Stewart on Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 8:58 AM
The brainchild of Aaron Brodou, Brooklyn Night Bazaar was envisioned as a flea market slash concert series, where visitors would find vintage duds, local foodstuffs and neighborhood rock bands in a vacant lot on West Street on weekend nights. Brodou raised $8,000 on Kickstarter, and had begun reaching out to concert promoters, the New York Post reports. But the local naysaying kiboshers weren't interested. "The idea [did] not have any real local support," Councilman Steve Levin told the paper, "and would have a serious impact on the surrounding neighborhood.”
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Music That Movie With Indie Deities Carrie Brownstein and James Mercer, Playing at MoMA Tonight
Posted by Sydney Brownstone on Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 4:31 PM
Some Days might not be the most feel-good of films, and yeah, we're familiar with how depressed and aimless we twenty-somethings are. But it's so easy to imagine James Mercer owning that sweet, lonely, beardy indie-man role. YACHT's in there too, and Matthew Cooper (Eluvium) composed the soundtrack. If Carrie Brownstein can handle characters like a stodgy, feminist bookstore womyn, a Harajuku girl and an environmentally-OCD free-range advocate, then her role as a heartbroken, reality-TV obsessed animal rights activist in Some Days seems about right on. Check out the trailer, see if you like!
News Marty Markowitz Now Basically Just a Talking Marty Markowitz Doll
Posted by Mark Asch on Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 4:08 PM
Losing the Army Corps of Engineers to Manhattan, the BP notes, could could bump Fort Hamilton way up the armed forces' list of possible base closures, which'd result a significant economic hit to the area—as well as, possibly, the opening-up of a unique public space previously owned by the federal government.
Reached for comment by the BP, Borough President Marty Markowitz stated, "“To think that they want to leave Fort Hamilton for the outer borough of Manhattan? Fort-geddaboudit!”
Music A List We're Happy to Keep Updating: More Japan Benefit Shows Announced
Posted by Sydney Brownstone on Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 3:35 PM
**APRIL 5, APRIL 15: BKLYN <3 JAPAN**
In two parts at The Bell House. On Tuesday, April 5, Ra Ra Riot will be headlining a show along with Sean Bones, Dimaond Snake, Todd Barry (Flight of the Conchords), Eugene Mirman, and DJ's Annie Hart (from Au Revoir Simone) and Baio (from Vampire Weekend). Friday, April 15's show includes comedy from Wyatt Cenac (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) and Kristen Schaal (Flight of the Conchords), along with Tim Harrington (Les Savy Fav), Arden Myrin (Chelsea Lately) and more. Liam McEneaney (Tell Your Friends! The Concert Film!) hosts both nights. Tickets are $15 for each show ($25 for both) and all sales benefit GlobalGiving.
Art / Film Kota Ezawa's Pop Art Ode to Nature in Movies Takes Madison Square Park Tomorrow
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 3:03 PM
Did you catch Jim Campbell's scintillating light bulb LED installation in Madison Square Park? After a whole slew of sculptors, the high-profile public art program's next artist is another moving image innovator: Kota Ezawa, who turns iconic images from film, television, photography and other mass media into cartoon-like lightboxes and videos. His new video, City of Nature, goes on public view tomorrow.
News Marty Golden Gives Money to Millionaires, Cuts it From Veterans
Posted by Henry Stewart on Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 2:11 PM
The biggest hit was $7,000 that State Senator Marty Golden supplied last year, but withheld this year because of cuts in the state budget to community groups. As a result, a third of the usual number of marching bands will participate, there will be half as many portable toilets, there will be no reception to thank donors, and veterans will squeeze into two buses, instead of four, to be carried through the procession.
News Park Slope Builds a Restaurant by Crowd Sourcing
Posted by Henry Stewart on Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 1:19 PM
The Park Slope Patch reports:
Prime 6 owner Akiva Ofshtein agreed to a series of compromises—including sound proofing the backyard and ditching plans for an outdoor bar if the community agrees to his proposed hours of operation. Ofshtein has also retooled the restaurant concept, now aiming to open a restaurant that focuses more on "local meats and lots of vegetables,” opposed to the original concept of a “steakhouse” or “California kitchen.”
News / Media To Silence Nay-Saying Slopers, City Starts Bike Lane-Boosting PR Push
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 12:28 PM
Notice how one-sided the bike lane backlash (or "bikelash") has been lately? It's all "Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes this" and "Former DoT Commissioner that," but the city is finally stepping into the fray to fight for their lanes.
Music We Should All Probably Watch This Video of Taylor Swift Rapping Part of a Nicki Minaj Verse
Posted by Mike Conklin on Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 11:40 AM
It's no secret that, thanks primarily to a series of unbearably disingenuous acceptance speeches, Ms. Taylor Swift lost most of the support she'd once gotten from the rock-crit world, but that was before we came across this video of her dropping a couple lines from Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass" during a radio appearance. It will be difficult, but for your own sake, please try to ignore the horrible DJ guy. Sheesh.
Music "Greenwashing" and Radiohead's Newspaper, The Universal Sigh
Posted by Sydney Brownstone on Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 10:49 AM
That page doesn’t explain it much better, but does include a sunny video about what CO2 molecules might look like if they had legs and bowler hats. Entertaining, but unhelpful.
Special Events Don't Miss Our Next ACT4 New York City Opera After-Party Tomorrow
Posted by Sarah Shanfield on Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 9:46 AM
