99 Luftballons in Manhattan

Well, we suppose there’s only going to be one of them, but we could not help ourselves. The fact of the matter is that you can go up in a hot air balloon and see Central Park as you have never seen it before – from bird’s-eye perspective!

For that we have to thank to the Central Park Conservancy and New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, who want to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Olmsted and Vaux’s Greensward plan (the original design for the park) in a really cool way. Every day from 7 am to 10 pm, until August 22nd, an anchored, helium-filled AeroBalloon will ascend to 300 feet with up to four passengers on board. If you want to chat with the birds for 10 minutes or just have a moment of silence in the midst of crazy Manhattan, simply pay $25 ($17.50 if you are a kid taller than 40″) and fly away! You can catch a ride at Cherry Hill, Central Park at West 72nd street, West of Bethesda Fountain.

Reach For The Skies

How many times did you dream of flying? Or doing something crazy and extradordinary to the point of unthinkable, something that people will remember forever. Like, say, going to the moon. Or walking suspended 1368 feet up in the air, on a metal wire hanging from the tallest building in the world, with just balance stick and no protection. Well, there are at least few men that flew to the moon, but only one that had walked between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.

If you still don’t know what we are talking about, you simply HAVE TO see James Marsh’s movie about Philippe Petit, “Man On Wire”, which is showing in New York theaters since Friday. We’ll spare you details and will only say that the movie is inspiring, beautiful and moving. Oh, and did we mention beautiful? It touched us, gave us a whole new perspective on the Twin Towers and reminded to not give up on our dreams. And we owe it to two men, the one who “walked the line” and the other – behind the camera. Thanks, guys.

“Man On Wire” is playing at Sunshine Cinema and Lincoln Plaza Cinema.

Crowded House

We thought New York city’s swimming pools were crowded. That, due to a) hot weather b) schools over all over c) multitude of NY population. Boy, were we wrong! British Daily Mail reported today on THE most crowded swimming pool in the world. Can you guess where it is? Hint: this country is hosting Olympic Games. Let’s hope that competitive swimmers will have more room to breathe:

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Today is a historic moment for all the Yankees fans and the team’s home ballpark. The all-star baseball game is going to take place tonight, for the last time at the old Yankee Stadium, before it’s going to be replaced by the brand new facility just a few yards away. Ask New Yorkers what they are going to miss about the old stadium and they will tell you that it is a historic site, home to so many beautiful wins and memories. Sure, the tradition is great, but we liked what The New York Times did today – they have asked people most affected by the stadium’s archaic amenities – the players themselves – what they won’t miss.

“When it rains, the smell that comes up through the drainage system is not pretty,” said Jason Varitek of the Boston Red Sox. The Chicago White Sox’ Joe Crede won’t be crying over “Hitting my head on the dugout. Every time somebody scored or got a hit, you jumped up and forgot how low the ceiling is in there.”

Well, as much as we are not baseball fans, we’ll miss the stadium, too (after all, it was there where we saw our first and only baseball game). But on a cheerful note, the field where Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and Reggie Jackson had scored home runs, will now be a place for the youngsters to learn how to hit that ball right. So wipe your tears and be happy for them. Oh, and don’t miss the game – it starts at 8.30PM.

Let’s Dance

It is not clear how many people realize this, but it’s a fact: dancing in most of New York City’s bars is illegal. Even if the music’s blasting and playing “Saturday Night Fever’s” soundtrack. This according to an old, Prohibition-era cabaret law, that forbids three or more people dancing, unless the establishment they shake a leg in has a special, difficult to obtain and pricey, license. According to the Daily News, mayor Bloomberg wants to give us a chance to dance freely. “We either want to eliminate the license or establish a different one so that it would be less onerous for people to engage in dancing,” said the newspaper’s source close to the mayor. “New York is the only city in the world where there is a law that makes dancing illegal,” said John McGarvey, a spokesman for Metropolis In Motion, a group fighting to change the law.

There are only 181 licensed cabarets in New York, according to Consumer Affairs, and most are limited to dance clubs in Manhattan. If one would like to know what’s the total number of bars serving liquor and playing music here in Manhattan, it would take a life time of research. But one thing is for sure: in a free country, dancing should be free, too.

NYC bike friendly?

This came as a surprise to us, so at first we laughed out loud: New York City and Burlington, Vt., are the only Northeast cities to be recognized as a “bicycle friendly community”. Our laughter was, of course, bitter-sweet, cause we would really like it to be true, but judging from the “ghost bikes” that are installed all over New York (you see them practically everywhere, white bikes full of flowers – memorials to bicyclists killed while riding in NYC streets) we thought it might be a cruel joke. So skeptically, we read the whole article in Metro and we found out that the Department of Transportation has made some progress over the past 12 months. They installed 1,000 bike parking racks and four protected parking shelters, giving away 12,000 bike helmets and 200,000 redesigned bike maps, and installing 70 new bike lane miles. Next year, the DOT will create 90 new lane miles, according to their press release.

The agency is opening seven miles of car-free streets to cyclists and pedestrians on three August Saturdays. The first of its kind protected path on Ninth Avenue, physically separating bikes from cars, will be further extended and get a companion path on Eighth Avenue.

We are very happy to hear that. Oh, and one more thing: maybe drivers could also give all the bike riders and pedestrians a break. It’s not a race.

Bon Jovi For Free

This one is for you, all Bon Jovi fans: today, at 9am, tickets to the band’s concert in Central Park will be handed out, absolutely free, at Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, KeySpan Park and the Staten Island Yankees stadiums. All the hard-core fans are probably queuing as we speak, but to all of those who want to go, but are working today, “free tickets can also be obtained on a first-come, first-served basis, two per fan,” – says a Bon Jovi’s website. Additional tickets are supposed to be distributed in Manhattan. Gothamist had confirmend ticket distribution on July 11th at the Javits Center. Bon Jovi will be performing July 12th, at Central Park, for free. More details on the gig, and how to get in, can be found at MLB.com.