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Am I turning into a radioactive mutant? Yesterday I was worried about getting brain cancer from my cell phone but now I'm worried about getting it walking down Bedford. Toxic Williamsburg is scaring me! Can somebody assuage my fears? Or should I abandon my overpriced apartment immediately?
This is what Bedford Avenue will look like if Emil Choski has his way, and succeeds in realizing a car-free initiative that would ban automobiles on the stretch of the road from McCarren Park to Metropolitan. We'd finally get dozens of patches of astro-turf, an old timey brick road, and more visits from guys with dreadlocks. But that's not all. As he writes on his website, Choski says:
Remember that the possibilities are endless. With the cars eliminated there is room for grass, trees, flowers, sculptures, installations, fountains, etc. All possibilities will be investigated.
Never mind that there are stretches of Bedford that don't even have streetlights, taxpayer money should certainly be devoted to this unjust plight (from the site again):
Only one out of 5 New Yorkers own a car yet every single street in New York is entirely devoted to automobiles. It's time to end this grossly unfair distribution of public space.
Thank you, Mr. Choski, for fighting the good fight. Other than addressing poverty, homelessness, crime, a growing cocaine trade, struggling small businesses, a housing crisis, massive pollution problems (like a still un-addressed oil spill), and a shoddy, unreliable subway line, I'd say putting in a dainty European esplanade on Bedford should definitely be the #1 priority for the neighborhood.
Block Magazine has the full story.
Japanther, taken from the band's Myspace page
A call for help in Todd P's charmingly low-tech email blasts:
==\/== NEW NOT-FOR-PROFIT PA LENDING SERVICE NEEDS YR HELP!!! ==\/==
We (Nathan Ritholz, & me, Todd Patrick, & Edan Wilber & Joe Ahearn & other friends & --anybody-- who wants to be involved) are starting a low, low cost not-for-profit PA / aka 'sound system' borrow / rental service!
----> it's called BROOKLYN>>PA>>HELP
The big idea is to pool all the unused sound equipment we all have floating around in this community & offer it at low low low not-for-profit, sliding scale cost to folks who want to put on do-it-yourself shows. We want to encourage more people to throw shows in their houses & other not-in-the-clubs sorts of spaces -independently-, & any show that is free or cheap & is all ages & open to the public can borrow the the gear at the low price. We will only charge as little as is possible to keep the gear in working order! We'll also put you in touch w/ soundpeople who will work for charity prices if you need 'em, too!----> Do YOU have unused equipment that you'd like to be part of the gear pool?
----> Do YOU have fix-it skills and would like to contribute one weekend afternoon a month to help fix what gets blown out / broken?
----> Are YOU skilled at running basic sound & wanna contribute your time to help run sound at a discounted wage for indy all ages shows?
----> Do YOU have basic management skills & would like to donate time to be a coordinator?contact us!
EMAIL -- bklynpa@gmail.com
MYSPACE -- http://myspace.com/bkylnpahelp
==/\== NEW NOT-FOR-PROFIT PA LENDING SERVICE NEEDS YR HELP!!! ==/\==
There are some things that God should have left uncreated, like potato bugs and two-headed mutant snakes. Now you can add Sparks to that list. I'm pretty sure it was created by God, because no man could conceive of such an abomination, besides perhaps some kind of genetically engineered Super Hitler.
What's Sparks? Let me try to explain. Take one thing you hate, say, the cloying, unnatural taste of an energy drink, and mix it with something else you hate, like low-quality malt liquor. There, now you have Sparks! It's like you put a Red Bull and a bottle of Olde English together in a bowl and then peed in it.
Coffee, Red Bull sans malt liquor and yey are all alternatives, although I'd only really recommend two of those. Sparks is most commonly found in Williamsburg bodegas, Bushwick house parties and concerts sponsored by Sparks.
Next week: In Defense of PBR
According to Eater, the new Pies 'n' Thighs will have 40-50 seats and will be open by July. Thank you Jeebus, for allowing this to happen. [Eater]
Those hyperactive kids from the Death Set are ripping things up tonight at the Glasslands (289 Kent Ave, nr. S. 1st St, $7, doors 9pm), where there will be free Sparks from 10pm-11pm.
Also, roller skating is back at Studio B (259 Banker St., Greenpoint) with the Down and Derby party ($7 at the door, $3 skate rental, doors 10pm), which will be as packed as usual so get there waaaaay early.
Is the Nike Dunk the most important artistic muse of our generation? Can true meaning be found in the sole of a basketball shoe? Seriously though, this kind of stuff is confusing. I obviously want to support this roster of talented photographers, but grandiose bullshit about the Nike Dunk being an "icon of self-expression and a symbol of democratic style" makes me want to punch someone. It's a fucking shoe. Yet, if the government doesn't give two shits about funding the arts, where else is there to turn besides the commerical sector? Never working in a gallery myself, I guess I have a lot of questions about how the system works. Anyhoo, the "Being True" show opens at the Journal Gallery tonight.
There was a time before the Lower East Side was a velvet rope, frat boy-infested nightmare. This is reflected in the abundance of art galleries scattered throughout the 'hood. Williamsburg, while it has problems of its own, has a moat around it called the East River, which prevents trainloads of visiting Murray Hill bros from throwing up on its streets. It also has plenty of galleries.
Now both neighborhoods are trying to capitalize on excess traffic from the Armory Show, which is in town this weekend. From Artnet:
Is there a shoving match for art-attention between Williamsburg and the Lower East Side? The 36 galleries of the Williamsburg Gallery Association have announced that they will be staying open late, 7-11 pm, on Saturday, Mar. 29, to coincide with the Armory Show bonanza of fairs. To promote the initiative, copies of RAW, the guide to the Williamsburg art scene, are being handed out free at the Armory and satellite fairs like Scope and Pulse. According to the website, "Artgoers can find out who's who and where to go in the world's biggest emerging art scene."
No sooner was the ink dry on that announcement, however, than the 30-plus galleries of the Lower East Side declared that the following day, Sunday, Mar. 30, they would be offering a special open house, 12-6 pm, staking their own claim on Armory weekend and bringing those same art lovers to the "burgeoning downtown gallery scene." A map, specially created for the day by artists Adam Shecter and Joe Winter, lists all the participating locations and shows, and is available at the Armory’s Pier 94 location, the Volta NY satellite fair and the New Museum, which is celebrating the last day of its "Unmonumental" show the same day.
I think there is only one solution for this: Performance art off! I'll bring the nachos and dolls splattered with chicken blood.
I think we can all agree that if Williamsburg is lacking one thing, it's a suitable nickname. The proper four syllable moniker doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. Yet it's better than any epithet I've heard suggested thus far. "Billyburg"? If hearing that doesn't make you cringe, then perhaps neither does hearing someone say, "I really like Bono." "Wburg" (Pronounced Dub-Burg or Wa-Burg) is equally embarrassing, though thankfully far less frequently used, and its utterers are typically too busy washing vomit stains out of their polo shirts and attending NYU business school classes to bother us too often. "The Burg" or "Burg" is less offensive, but sounds too much like a trendy I-banker backed bistro that serves some kind of international fusion food. However, let it be noted that any of the above mentioned are passable if uttered with the requisite amount of irony (corollary, of course to the lameness of the sobriquet).
So. I hereby put a call out to anyone who would come forth with a decent substitute for Williamsburg. (Acronym friendly Lower East Side had it easy) Come! Save us from lameness!
williamsburg bridge opening from jessica on Vimeo.
What is it about old-timey video footage that captivates me so? Is it because I secretly wish I was Marty McFly and that I could travel back to 1903 to view the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge? Yes, yes it is.
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