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.
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.
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.
This Latin phrase could be applied to all things in life, but we thought about it recently, when walking past the community garden on Avenue B and 6th Street. We knew the famous Tower of Toys is dangerous, we knew it was way past its prime and not what it used to be when Eddie Boros, who was born and lived nearby his entire life, had built it. He died last year at 74, and the tower became the most visible and lasting reminder of his life. It is no more. We feel sad, and have to remind ourselves that “Worldly things are fleeting.” Here’s a little photo eulogy:
It’s a scorcher weekend out there, with temperatures reaching just below 100 degrees, and humidity making us sweat our pants off. You know how people down South are dealing with temps like these? They just don’t care, sit on their porches, fan their faces, munching on a nice, spicy/smoky barbecue and sipping their ice teas. Now, thanks to the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party in the city, we can do the same thing! The event brings together the country’s top pitmasters who cook up their award-winning food for over a hundred thousand barbecue enthusiasts.
Where? Madison Square Park. When? It ends today, at 6pm. Why? Cause it’s finger-licking-good, y’all.
Every city in the world has a special thing about it. New Yorkers are lucky, since we have plenty of those things here (you know, Brooklyn Bridge, Rockefeller Center view, Coney Island side show, Cyclone, Yankees, etc. – a full list would take way too long), but there’s one thing that makes Manhattan super special, and it’s called Manhattanhenge. Yes, it’s kind of like Stonehenge in England during summer solstice, when the sun aligns with stone structures, shedding a magical light on the whole site. Only it happens all around the city, twice a year, and tomorrow is the first of those evenings.
This is a special photo opportunity, with parts of Manhattan’s canyons getting illumination they normally don’t get.
On Thursday, May 29th, the Sun will set in exact alignment with the Manhattan grid, fully illuminating every single cross-street for the last fifteen minutes of daylight. The other day is Saturday, July 12th. These two days give us a magical view with half the Sun above and half the Sun below the horizon – on the grid.
“For best effect, position yourself as far east in Manhattan as possible. But ensure that when you look west across the avenues you can still see New Jersey. Clear cross streets include 14th, 23rd, 34th. 42nd, 57th, and several streets adjacent to them. The Empire State building and the Chrysler building render 34th street and 42nd streets especially striking vistas. Arrive a half-hour earlier than the times given below. Thursday, May 29 – 8:17 p.m. Saturday, July 12 — 8:25 p.m.
Over the weekend, Brooklyn Bridge was celebrating its 125th anniversary. it was a great party, full of light, fireworks and music, and it lasted 4 days! Not bad for an old man, huh
There are only two days left for thousands of Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen from U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard to dock their ships on the Hudson for Fleet Week New York. Wednesday marks the annual (since 1984), celebration of the sea services. So don’t be surprised if you see white-clad men and women walking around in groups or solo, drinking in your local pub or looking at your favorite painting at the Met. They will be here for a week, starting Wednesday the 21st of May. Fleet Week also includes dozens of military demonstrations and displays throughout the week, as well as public visitation of many of the participating ships, if that’s your thing.
Yesterday’s Gothamist rose an interesting question: are New Yorkers rude?
April’s Smithsonian Magazine has Joan Acocella’s (New Yorker’s dance critic) article in it, where she writes that we are just misunderstood by the rest of the nation. Hence our bad reputation. The city – she writes – is so small, that everyone is in everybody else’s business all the time. You sit at your tiny home, divided from your neighbors by a paper-thin walls, and then you walk out of the house, where there’s so many people around you, you can’t help being annoyed by them. Not to mention cars honking all around us 24/7, cabbies dropping the F-bomb left and right (did you read about a cab driver by the familiar-sounding name Sobczak, that was fined for cussing?) and Jersey tourists throwing their trash on our stoop.
Can you really blame us for having low tolerance towards other annoyances? Gotta problem with that?
But in all seriousness – are we rude, or just honest and ready to give just about anybody a piece of our minds?
First there was KFC in the West Village. Then they closed Ray’s Pizza. Now the time has come for Veniero’s. The famous, goomba-oriented Italian pastry shop and café was closed by the Department of Health (of course, the sign on the door says the 114-year-old patisserie is undergoing renovation. Yeah, right). According to a report obtained by New York Magazine, “over 300 mice droppings were found in six separate areas of the café. Two dead mice were found, live roaches were observed, and mice droppings were found in a 10 lb box of chocolate.” Eeeeeeewwwwwww!
Fughedaboudit! As much as we love Cannolis, we’re definitely not going to eat there any time soon, even after the “renovation”. Unless they get a cat and give us a baker’s dozen cannolis for free. Or at least a few of those pine-nut cookies.
Oh, who are we kidding? Mice or no mice, we still love Veniero’s, no matter what anybody says. May the Health Department burn in hell! Pthu!
Posted by ikadora 
Posted by ikadora 
Posted by ikadora 
