Displaying all articles tagged:

Steampunk

  1. transit
    Will Red Hook Get a Street Trolley? A Journey Into Brooklyn’s PastSort of like steampunk, only not.
  2. neighborhood watch
    Park Slopers Indignant Over Hypothetical CrimesBedford-Stuyvesant: Does a yoga studio on “murderous Myrtle” portend for still-gritty Bed-Stuy an increase in serenity, gentrification, or both? [Bed-Stuy Blog] Coney Island: Those with a primal need to purge societal misfits can rest easy. Coney’s much-loved “Shoot the Freak” attraction will survive another year, despite surrounding demolition by dervish developer Thor. [Gowanus Lounge] Elmhurst: Built in 1906 with funds from Andrew Carnegie, the charming local library is slated for demolition to make room for a bigger facility. [Queens Chronicle via
  3. grub street
    Daniel Boulud Chefs Where He Eats So what does a chef actually eat? Grub Street dared to ask the question of Chef Daniel Boulud. Turns out he eats regularly at his own restaurant Daniel. But he also spares twenty minutes for sushi at Sushi Yasuda, samples new spice mixes, and previews his upcoming spring menu. Sunday means brunch at Balthazar and the occasional Citymeals-on-Wheels gala, where Boulud can sample hors d’oeuvre from the city’s finest chefs. So work, eat, and raise $1.1 million. Not a bad gig. To find out who makes Chef’s favorite tart flambé, check out Grub Street. Chef Daniel Boulud Eats Sushi at $10 Per Minute [Grub Street]
  4. in other news
    Make Way for White Kids God knows we got as much mileage out of the “Park Slope is a yuppie-kid Petri dish” meme as anyone. Part of its appeal, to be completely honest, is that it allows us to report on parental foibles while holding up the fraying illusion of Manhattan as a swingin’$2 21-and-over club. Well, time to face facts: New Times research shows that the number of kids under 5 on the island has grown by an astonishing 32 percent since 2000. Responsible for at least half of that are white families with a median household income of — get ready — $284,208 a year. Which, we suppose, makes sense, since who else can afford to procreate in Manhattan these days? What we didn’t know is that there are enough white-and-wealthy toddlers out there to outnumber, for the first time, the area’s African-American and Hispanic kids. (The study, sadly, does not provide stats on black kids “mistakenly” born into white families.) In Surge in Manhattan Toddlers, Rich White Families Lead Way [NYT]
  5. gossipmonger
    PETA Sets Its Sights on JakeJake Gyllenhaal has his fans in an uproar after he remarked that he likes going to farms and watching pigs get slaughtered in an interview with GQ. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez finally edited enough sex and gore out of upcoming flick Grindhouse to get it an R rating. (In an unrelated note, Tarantino also once boxed Bob Dylan). Spike Lee’s wife D.J.-ed his 50th-birthday party with an iPod. A movement is afoot in Hollywood to get Al Gore to run for president, but he says he’s “99 percent” certain he won’t. Lil’ Jon will be in the next edition of the Guinness Book of World Records for “biggest bling.” Radiohead may record their next album on Starbucks’ record label. Island/Def Jam chairman L.A. Reid and Jay-Z may be having difficulties negotiating Jay’s salary, but Reid denies it.
  6. the follow-up
    The Irresolvable Argument Heard Round the WorldIn this week’s New York cover story, we considered the merits of both New York and London. Who has better food, fashion, and nightlife? Is New York still the world’s financial capital? What about progressive city planning or juicier gossip? We were hesitant to cede some of these points, but London got more credit than we knew we could give. And judging from the reactions of British papers and blogs, it’s about bloody time. (But we still have better sex.) After the jump, opinions from around the world.
  7. intel
    Jared Paul Stern’s Lawyer Loves Suing the Clintons For conservative legal gadfly Larry Klayman, suing Bill and Hillary Clinton has been almost a life’s work — some would say a consuming passion. So it’s no surprise that Klayman is doing it again, this time on behalf of Jared Paul Stern, the fired New York Post freelancer at the center of last year’s “Page Six” scandal. The former president and the current presidential candidate, along with their playboy-billionaire pal, Ron Burkle, the New York Daily News, and Daily News reporter William Sherman are defendants in Stern’s just-filed lawsuit. He alleges that they conspired to slander him, deprive him of a job, and inflict emotional distress by accusing Stern of trying to extort money from Burkle in return for more respectful coverage in the Post’s “Page Six” column. The suit claims that Stern remains unemployed and suffers from depression, back pains, dizziness, hypertension, and other maladies months after a federal investigation of him fizzled. “Jared contacted me a couple of months ago and asked that I represent him,” Klayman said after the suit was filed Thursday in New York Supreme Court. “I took the case because I sympathized with Jared’s situation. I’ve always been for the underdog.”
  8. the morning line
    What’s the Catch? • Bill Clinton raised funds for Hillary by hosting a $2,300-per-bike spinning class (and didn’t even exercise). Since the total take from the event was a mere $70,000, the SoulCycle studio seems to be the real winner here. [NYT] • Our future First Lady Judith Giuliani attempts to divert attention from her husband’s two previous marriages by discussing her own two previous marriages — the first of which was a Las Vegas elopement at the age of 20. Not with a cousin, sadly. [NYDN] • Speaking of multiple marriages — polygamy! In New York! Unveiled, in a bitter irony, by the tragic fire in the Bronx (the victim paterfamilias had two wives at home) is a “soaring” practice among immigrants from West Africa. [NYT] • Was Houdini poisoned? His relatives are asking to dig up the magician’s Queens grave to find out. That’s on top of the annual séance to invoke his spirit. Leave the guy alone. You don’t want him angry. [amNY] • And, OMG, free Netflix: The Brooklyn Public Library is thinking about teaming up with the red-envelope peddler to develop a no-charge home-delivery system for DVDs. We’re a little confused as to what’s in it for Netflix, but that’s none of our business, is it? [NYP]
  9. party town
    It’s Curtains for This JokeCurtains opening night. Hirschfeld Theatre, 302 W. 45th St., nr. Eighth Ave., 7 p.m. David Hyde Pierce stars; Liza Minnelli, Jeff Daniels, Alec Baldwin, Kelly Ripa, Mary Louise Parker, and others are expected to attend. Curtains is a play within a play and a whodunit. Its main character is a dinosaur trapped in the body of a Russian spy. (Note: Party Town accuracy guarantee only applies to 50 percent of musical plot synopses.) Or check out our Agenda listings for tonight, selected by New York’s culture editors.
  10. cultural capital
    Arcade Fire Is Coming Back to New York, This Time Way Uptown Arcade Fire played five shows in a Greenwich Village church last month, and now the band is set to announce tomorrow that it’s coming back to New York at the beginning of May — and to an equally head-scratching venue: the United Palace Theater in Washington Heights. The former movie palace at Broadway at 175th Street — currently home of the Reverend Ike’s Christ Community United Church — will start hosting rock shows next week, when Bloc Party becomes the first band to play the way-uptown venue. And Modest Mouse, Björk, and Iggy and the Stooges are booked there in the next few months. (Okay, fine: Arcade Fire is doing a Radio City show in May, too.)
  11. show and talk
    At Marchesa Show, Harvey’s Girl Wishes Halston Well The Bergdorf Goodman parade of trunk shows continues, and today it was Marchesa’s turn. Designers Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig were there to talk about their line of feathered, beaded gowns, seen often at red-carpet events. But we were more interested in asking them about a different label. Chapman dates Harvey Weinstein — which might have something to do with why you see their designs on those red carpets so frequently — and Harvey just bought Halston. A new opportunity for the Marchesa girls, perhaps? “That’s nothing to do with us,” Craig was quick to say. And Chapman was quick to position it as someone else’s project. “I’m very excited for them,” she said of the new Halston family. “I think Tamara” — that’s Tamara Mellon, the fashion exec Weinstein installed to run the brand — “is a fantastically talented woman. I mean, what she’s done with Jimmy Choo is just incredible, and, um, I keep my fingers crossed for them.” Got that? For them. Not for her. —Kendall Herbst Earlier: Proenza Schouler Comes to Bergdorf Goodman, Finally
  12. intel
    Pols Come Out to Support Saigon Grill Workers; Delivery Service Still SuspendedThe battle of Saigon Grill rages on. Two weeks after the Vietnamese mini-chain locked out its delivery workers, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund has filed a lawsuit on behalf of 36 of those workers — and today a gaggle of New York politicians joined the Chinese Staff and Workers Association’s daily protests at the Upper West Side location. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer called conditions for delivery workers “a dirty secret that needs to get exposed.” “Being paid $1.60 an hour, sometimes getting robbed and told to reimburse the employer … is unacceptable in today’s society,” he said. State Senator Eric Schneiderman, who spoke in both English and Mandarin, said he believed there was “strong evidence” that Saigon Grill’s Chinese-Cambodian owner, Simon Nget, was trying to get the workers to sign “an illegal contract” before he locked them out. A state assemblywoman and a city councilwoman were there, too, and Congressmen Jerry Nadler and Charlie Rangel sent representatives. And while all of this is going on, there’s also this bad news: There’s still no delivery service. —Mary Reinholz Earlier: Labor Troubles at Saigon Grill Mean No Delivery for You