Bongorama New York City

Early Music Videos by David Bowie hosted by Thurston Moore

2008-11-25T12:30:00.000-08:00

Held in conjunction with MoMA's Looking at Music exhibition, this retrospective of David Bowie's early music videos features classics like "Life on Mars," "Heroes," and "Ashes to Ashes," among others. Thurston Moore, alongside Barbara London, Associate Curator of MoMA's Department of Media, selected each piece from the complete works of Bowie's videos, and the ubiquitous noisemaker provides commentary on the films throughout the evening.

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Cazals @ Hiro Ballroom

2008-11-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

Flowers of Evil in NYC this thursday....

2008-11-04T07:54:00.001-08:00

THE FLOWERS OF EVIL
STILL BLOOM

CUETO PROJECT

Opening Thursday November 6th, 2008
Reception from 6 to 8 pm

551 West 21st Street
New York NY 10011

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Two Rooftop Murders, Decades Apart

2008-08-08T23:48:00.000-07:00

The murder of a young woman on Sunday who wanted to see a rap star up close and personal revived memories — in some of its grisly details and in its brush with celebrity — of a sensational New York murder less than a mile away but more than a quarter-century ago.

On Sunday night, the authorities said, a bartender’s assistant lured a young woman to the rooftop of a karaoke club in Times Square, attacked her, and killed her.

The 1980 case involved a promising violinist at the Metropolitan Opera, who was taken to the roof of the Metropolitan Opera House, attacked and thrown down an air shaft — nude, bound and gagged — to her death.

In this week’s case, the cultural backdrop was hip-hop. In the 1980 case, the performance was by the Berlin Ballet. The tabloids called it the “Murder at the Met.”

This week’s victim was Ingrid Rivera, a 24-year-old airline employee who attended a birthday party for the rapper Lil’ Kim at Spotlight Live, a club on Broadway at 49th Street, on Sunday night. The 1980 victim was Helen Hagnes, who was 31.

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Peter Hujar @ Matthew Marks Gallery

2008-04-18T03:06:00.000-07:00

Peter Hujar

MATTHEW MARKS GALLERY
523 West 24th Street
March 15–April 26

Interest in this show, which arrives just over twenty years after photographer Peter Hujar’s untimely death from AIDS, could at first glance be chalked up to something like sociological curiosity. Shot between 1969 and 1985, nearly all in the artist’s East Village studio, these thirty-one photographs make up a fascinating study of a highly specific, highly mythologized era in New York City’s cultural history. The exhibit includes intimate portraits of downtown figures such as Hujar’s lover, the artist and writer David Wojnarowicz; the stunning, wistful Cookie Mueller; and an impossibly young, rumple-haired John Zorn—not to mention a suited-up Warhol, who, by this 1975 portrait session, was, admittedly, wholly uptown.

But what a strictly sociohistorical approach might miss is Hujar’s enormous gift for presenting beautifully lit and classically formed compositions that are nonetheless shot through with the decidedly rougher (though no less seductive) texture of the corporeal. The mark of the body serves as the punctum that provides a frisson of lyric realism. This combination of the rough and the smooth is, arguably, a trope that reached its ultimate articulation in the work of Mapplethorpe, but Hujar’s own practice is decidedly more modest, and, as such, more human and appealing than that of his well-known follower. In these portraits, texture can be as light-touched as the downy traces of mustache and the glint of a beaded rope belt on a homeless woman (Girl in My Hallway, 1976) or Mueller’s lustrous locks and faintly pitted skin (Cookie Mueller, 1981). In other cases, the subversion that texture enacts is more overtly political, as in the gender-bending, hirsute resplendence of a bearded Cockette (1973) or the erect member of a male nude (1978). With these disruptions of the conventionally beautiful, Hujar’s work points to the beauty that is inherent in disruption itself.

Photo: Girl in My Hallway, 1976, black-and-white photograph, 14 1/2 x 14 1/2".

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DESIGNER OPENS BOUTIQUE AT SITE OF LEGENDARY CLUB CBGB

2008-04-07T15:56:00.001-07:00

CBGB has cleaned up its act and gotten a new infusion of style - menswear designer John Varvatos launched a shop at the old site of the rock landmark over the weekend.

And punk preservationists will be glad to hear that the Bowery site - which once hosted such pioneers as the Ramones and Blondie - hasn't been sanitized beyond recognition.

PHOTOS: Tour the shop.

The stage is gone, replaced by a tailoring shop, but it's encased with gold Alice Cooper records.

And those who remember the walls encrusted with posters and stickers will be relieved to find them intact and preserved behind glass.

With the designer's head-banger cred - he counts MC5 as his favorite band, writes a music column for British GQ and features Alice Cooper, Velvet Revolver and Cheap Trick in his ad campaigns - Varvatos has made the site equal parts museum and retail space.

"I wanted to combine music, fashion, memorabilia and really make it like a cultural space," he told The Post.

Varvatos is doing just that by featuring his lines of clothing and accessories, and his work for Converse, while also offering for sale items such as vinyl records, new and vintage audio equipment from the '70s, rock-photography books and memorabilia from his personal collection.

Imagine what guitarist Slash's living room might look like, and you'll get the picture.

"I like it. I'm relieved," said Arturo Vega, creative director for the Ramones, who has lived around the corner from the club since 1973.

"We were expecting a drug store in the space," he said. "So when I found out it was Varvatos moving in, it was a relief."

Mutual acquaintances put Vega together with the designer to add memorabilia to his decor.

The space had been empty for a year when Varvatos asked the landlord if he could look at it.

"Within 15 seconds, I thought, 'It's gonna be a bank. I gotta do something here,' " Varvatos recalled.

The designer takes his music seriously. The space has a small, movable stage where he will promote upcoming artists at monthly concerts, and the company is working on partnering with a radio station to broadcast from the store.

"Last week we were working and two kids from Stockholm came by, backpacks still on, just from the airport, and for their first stop, they wanted to see CBGB," he said.

"I want those kids to come here. They don't have to buy anything; that's not the intention. I want them to come in here and feel like, 'Wow, this is really cool. I can still feel it, I can still smell it, I can still get that aura.' "

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THE KILLER GUIDE TO K-TOWN

2008-04-05T17:04:00.000-07:00

By Carol Lee
First published in Paper Magazine

In case you haven't heard the news, PAPER will be leaving the Tribeca/Chinatown 'hood that we have called home for 9 years, for a different ethnic enclave: The one in the 30s. Oh, yes, we are moving to Koreatown or K-town (if you are down with the lingo)! PAPER's own Kim Hastreiter dubbed the 30s the "new downtown" because it's the only place in Manhattan where the rents are not jaw-droppingly loco. Despite its scary proximity to Herald Square -- the most hairy square of them all -- K-town is two blocks of non-stop fun and food. Many of the joints are open 24-7. I, myself being of the kimchi blood, am a veteran K-street crawler and even though I'm not a carnivore, I treasure this delicious BBQ hot pocket with all my heart. So in tune with the upcoming overhaul and to jump-start PAPER's initiation into the 'hood, I took it upon myself to break down K-town for easy digestion and share my secret spots. In short, I'm giving you my key to the side door.

Koreatown is not a tourist stop like Chinatown. It's pretty insulated still and likes its aloofness. You won't find any souvenir shops that carry Korean tchotchkes except during the World Cup. (Koreans are nuts about soccer and during the Cup the national pride kicks into high gear and you'll see the streets flooded with people wearing "Red Devil" shirts.) Basically, K-town consists of restaurants, karaoke bars and spas, and they are, as I mentioned earlier, almost always open which is really great for de-toxing after a long night of eating and boozing. Korean food, for those not in the know, is best known for table-grilled meat, kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage) and bibimbap (it literally means "mixed rice"), which my vegetarian friends love: a bevy of saut�ed seasonal vegetables and roots over a bed of rice served in a big bowl with chili paste and a fried egg. So without further ado, here's the creme de la creme of K-town!

RESTAURANTS

Kum Gang San, 49 W. 32nd St., (212) 967-0909

Though it's not the oldest chip on the block, this one is the mother ship of all Korean restaurants. Kum Gang San is the most beautiful and the most fabled mountain in all of Korea (it's in North Korea) and like the name, this two-floor restaurant is grand and sprawling with artificial falling rocks and a waterfall. There's also a baby grand and sometimes they'll bring in a pianist or a traditional Korean harpist to help you work up your appetite. Their gigantic menu, like a cruise brochure, is chock full of options and pictures. It's a good place to go when you don't know what you want because KGS is famous for serving up consistently good dishes for any mood and occasion. They also have really good "banchan," small side dishes that you get for free with every Korean meal. It's not rude to ask for seconds of banchan, just so you know. Koreans do it all the time!

Shanghai Mong, 30 W. 32nd St., (212) 629-6450

Shanghai Mong is my new favorite! It's only a couple months old but has already established a cult following thanks to the hip and cozy Chinoiserie setting and good food at good prices. As the name suggests, it serves Korean-Chinese cuisine. Chinese food is a staple in Korea but it tastes slightly different from the American version. There's a lot of "fried and sauced" varieties that are mouthwatering but I suggest you follow your "When in Rome" instinct and order JaJang Myun (noodles in black bean sauce) or Jjam Bong (noodles in spicy broth with seafood). They are just about the most popular dishes in Korea after kimchi. In America, they would be burgers and pizza. You don't get banchan here, just some kimchi and daikkon (pickled radish).

Wonjo, 23 W. 32nd St., (212) 695-5815

Wonjo is one of the last two BBQ joints in K-town that still fires up its grill with charcoal -- the other being New York Gom Tang House, the oldest Korean restaurant on the block in the old Bergdorf Goodman building across the street. Gas-grillin' is run of the mill on 32nd but if you want the real deal you should go here. They also have a decent sushi bar and baby octopus for the grill. So go for the surf 'n' turf action. It is "Yum-O" as Rachel Ray would say. I love the waitstaff here.

Gahm Mi Oak, 43 W. 32nd St., (212) 695-4113

This restaurant is famous for its kimchi and ox bone soup, a hangover cure devoured by all hard-drinking Korean men and women. If you are vegetarian, there's not much for you here. But I heard that their bibimbap is to die for!

Shilla, 37 W. 32nd St., (212) 967-1880

Shilla is also new. This three-story food emporium definitely flexes its muscles on many levels. The food is pretty stellar and the d�ecor is slick and modern and they also have a good selection of banchan. Here the waiters hurry about with headsets like publicists during Fashion Week. If I were the owner of Kum Gang San, which by the way is only two stores down, I'd watch out for Shilla.

Emo's Kimbap, 2 W. 32nd St., (212) 594-1466

Emo means aunt in Korean. Kimbap literally means "seaweed rice," basically the Korean equivalent of a sushi roll. This tiny hole in the wall makes sushi rolls laid with spicy squid, cheese or kimchi on the spot, to go. Emo also makes all-veggie rolls if this sounds too weird for you. Mmmm, makes me hungry just thinking about it!

Kun Jip, 9 W. 32nd St., (212) 279-3075

If you are craving a big fat strip of grilled pork belly, look no further. This is the place. Not only is Kun Jip good for gas-BBQ-ing at your table, it serves delectable banchan and has all kinds other yummy Korean staples. I especially love their grilled mackerel and egg custard. There's always a wait here for dinner but it's well worth it.

Cho Dang Gol, 55 W. 35th St., (212) 695-8222

Cho Dang Gol is one of my all time favorites and the only place on the list that's not on the main K-town drag. They have the freshest homemade tofu. Whenever I'm here I always get grilled pollock with spicy sauce, soondubu soup, which is a spicy soup made with soft culled tofu, and makguli, unfiltered milky rice wine. I love the down-home atmosphere and service, and the food is really, really good. In the winter, I think about coming here all the time.

Ah Rang, 9 W. 32nd St., 2nd Fl., (212) 947-3028

Ah Rang is located on the second floor above Kun Jip and has a homey rustic feel and a good view of the strip. The menu is Korean tapas- and sushi-heavy so it's good for late night munching and drinking. I love coming here for some makguli and spicy snail or hwe, the Korean version of sashimi. Lunch and dinner are served buffet style. The selections are fabulous and fresh -- definitely a good bang for your buck. I had my last birthday catered from here and everyone loved it! Also, I think this is a great place for any Korean food neophyte because you can just sample dishes without making big commitments. Lastly, the waiters here are super-cute!

Mandoo Bar, 2 W. 32nd St., (212) 279-3075

Mandoo is Korean for dumpling and from the street you can look through the window and see uniformed Korean ladies making mandoo with different kinds stuffing at this cute, narrow eatery. Mandoo is more like Japanese gyoza in that it's lighter than the Chinese dumpling. The veggie mandoo is made with spinach skin. It's healthy and totally delish. Obviously mandoo is the main attraction here but they are also famous for a popular dish called, "Table Dukbokki." It's basically a casserole of rice cakes stirred in super-red, super-spicy chili sauce with chopped-up veggies and oden (fish cake) and ramen noodles (sans the sauce powder). They bring you a gas stove and a big ol' pot ready to go and you cook it on the table. This concoction, if you can believe it, is considered a snack and all Korean kids have grown up on it. You have to be at least half-Korean to like this dish; it's definitely not for everyone. In case you haven't noticed the pattern, Koreans are way into table cooking. But MB also has many other no-frills noodle dishes that are good. Don't foget to start out with their famous egg-fried tofu!

Han Gawi, 12 E. 32nd St., (212) 213-0077

Koreans are big-time meat lovers but there's also a gentler side to the peninsular cuisine and Han Gawi is an excellent example. This beautiful and serene all-vegetarian place is frequently placed at the top of the best vegetarian restaurant list by local magazines. Coming here is like time-traveling to another era: You have to take your shoes off and sit Indian-style. Whether you go prix-fix or a� la carte, every morsel is made with the freshest ingredients that are fit for a king, quite literally -- they specialize in dishes that were served in the royal palace back in the day. You'll either love this place or be slightly turned off by it -- sometimes the dishes can be a little baby food-y.

Woori Jip, 12 W. 32nd St., (212) 244-1115

Woori Jip means "our house" and this house is all about the cheap buffet and pre-packaged takeouts. This fast food joint is always hopping with young cute kids or workers on the go.

Woo Chon, 8-10 W. 36th St., (212) 695-0676

I almost forgot about Woo but I'm glad I didn't because the lady who owns this off-the-beaten-path nook is so nice. This is actually another joint that's not on 32nd. Last time I was here she brought me these delicious raw oysters on the house for no reason. They serve up Southern Korean fare and their array of banchan is plentiful and eclectic.

OTHER ATTRACTIONS

Han Ah Reum, 25 W. 32nd St., (212) 695-3283

Han Ah Reum is like the Stop & Shop of the Korean grocery chain scene in America. You can come here and stock up on your ramen noodles, mandoo and frozen eel, replace your old broken rice cooker and be cruised by creepy white guys... just kidding.

Koryo Books, 35 W. 32nd St., (212) 564-1844

If you are looking for Korean novels, cookbooks and magazines, this is the place. They also have a video room in the back where you can rent all the latest Korean new wave movies and popular TV shows on DVD.

Juvenex, 25 W. 32nd St., 5th Fl., (646) 733-1330, www.juvenexspa.com

Juvenex is by far the best spa in K-town. Korean spas are known for non-stop service, especially full-body exfoliations done by butch Korean ladies. They peel and peel until you are literally shedding skin on the floor. You haven't experienced a Korean spa treatment 'till you've been manhandled by a pair of strong woman-hands. Juvenex is also known for its jade (hot) igloo. This gem is open 24 hours and it's unisex. There's no kinky business here -- just fresh and clean clean.

Chorus Karaoke, 25 W. 32nd St., (212) 967-2244

Koreans go cuckoo for karaoke and that's no joke. There are tons of karaoke joints in K-town but Chorus is my favorite because their signage on the street has a singing dog coming out of Steven Tyler's mouth and also the decor is very Fifth Element. Each room is decked out with a disco ball and you can ask for tambourines that light up at the desk. They have songbooks in five different languages, including Farsi and English, and disposable gauze mike covers are provided for sanitary purposes.

Players, 25 W. 32nd St., 2nd Fl., (212) 868-2029

Players is the sports bar in K-town. During the World Cup I came here to watch the Korea vs. Switzerland game but got turned away. The bouncers wouldn't let you in unless you had RSVP-ed and the place was packed to the gills. It's located directly below Juvenex, which is how I found out about it in the first place. I topped off a six-hour spa session with a nice cold cocktail at Players overlooking 32nd Street.

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Obama in Brooklyn...Right Now!

2008-03-25T08:22:00.001-07:00

Barack Obama has popped up in the form of street art in Brooklyn, and AAVR Magazine points out the Grattan Street mural near the Morgan L stop. That's part of his More Perfect Union speech in the background, and yes, it looks a little bit more like Fred Armisen's Fauxbama than the real thing.

Less detailed Obama murals can be found on Carlton Avenue at Dean Street in Prospect Heights (photos here and here). How long before Clinton demands Obama apologize for promoting vandalism of public property?

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Frozen New York

2008-03-25T08:16:00.000-07:00

Sightseeing Cruises To Offer Up-Close Look To Waterfalls Exhibit

2008-03-24T14:27:00.000-07:00

There will be plenty of places to view this summer's waterfalls from the shoreline, but one of the best ways to see the exhibit up close is from a sightseeing boat in New York Harbor. NY1's Valarie D'Elia filed the following Travel With Val report.

When the New York City Waterfalls public art exhibit opens this summer, a couple of the city's sightseeing cruise lines will be offering sailings to give visitors an up-close look.

Circle Line Downtown, in association with the Public Art fund, will float past the waterfalls for a personalized view of the liquid art installation. Fourteen daily 30-minute cruises aboard both the Patriot and Zephyr, which depart from the South Street Seaport, will be dedicated solely to viewing the spectacle, featuring a recorded narration by the artist, Olafur Eliasson. In addition to featuring other sights along the Harbor, Circle Line's regular one-hour Zephyr Seaport Liberty Cruise will also offer views of the waterfall, as will the 30-minute Shark speedboat ride. For Circle Line rates and schedules, go to www.circlelinedowntown.com .

New York Water Taxi is offering as many as eight one-hour cruises with daily departures from South Street Seaport. It is also offering a two-night hotel package from $275.00 per person. For New York Water Taxi, its www.nywatertaxi.com, and for hotel packages, its www.nyctrip.com.

The four waterfalls will be spouting off by mid-July in four locations on the lower harbor, from 7a.m. to 10 p.m., and will be lit up after dark. The $15 million project will be funded by private donors. The city estimates it could bring in more than $50 million in tourism revenues. For more information on The New York City Waterfalls, go to www.nycwaterfalls.org.

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Art Gallery To Open At Former CBGBs

2008-03-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

Later this week, the legendary punk music venue CBGB will be rocking a different kind of art form.

A portion of the Bowery space will open Thursday as the Morrison Hotel Gallery, featuring art that symbolizes the place where punk rock music became a part of American culture.

The gallery has promised to respect the history, neighborhood, and generation that became defined at the location, which closed in 2006.

One of the artists whose work will be displayed says the art reflects the simplicity that embodied the legendary club.

"It was a lot easier than it is now," said photographer Steve Joester. "The access to acts then, it was just an easier feel. There wasn't the division, not a lot of the public relations people, and they really didn't realize the kind of value of the image that they do now. A photograph is worth a lot of money to people, back then it was just, you know, like get the shots done and have fun."

Some aspects of the original club remains untouched, including the logo out front, and the bathrooms, which remain the same. Some hidden walls from 1983 just discovered by renovators will also be on view.

The other part of CBGBs will be turned into men's clothing store John Varvatos.

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Ruby Tuesday to Open in Times Square

2008-03-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

MY NEW YORK: FAT JOE

2008-03-23T15:07:00.000-07:00

"What people don't really, really, really realize is how much this city is better than any other city in the world. I've traveled the world and could tell you this is a fact!"

Fat Joe is a born and bred Bronxite who still speaks in the singular city accent: "When I get to South Africa, they tell me, 'Yo, South Africa is beautiful, it's like a little New Yawk.' And, when I get to Chicago, they tell me 'Yo, this city is incredible, it's like a little New Yawk.' But New Yawk is New Yawk. You feel me?" The rapper born Joseph Antonio Cartagena proves his love of the city by immortalizing its streets and vibe in rap songs. His new album, "The Elephant in the Room," which he says is like a "coming home," hit stores this month. This is his New Yawk.

1 El Bohio Lechonera, 791 E. Tremont Ave., at Mape Street, The Bronx

"This is my favorite restaurant, and most tourists would never see it. They serve Spanish food. This place specializes in pernil [suckling pig.] There are lines of people waiting to get pork, and I don't even eat pork! I go there for my pulpo [octopus] salad. Whenever I get homesick, I go there, it's classic New Yawk."

2 Dominick's Restaurant, 2335 Arthur Ave., at East 186th Street, The Bronx

"A landmark restaurant. It's old-school Little Italy from The Bronx style. You don't even get to order [there is no menu]. They'll throw the plate on the table. And whatever they serve you is tremendous. I love the chicken and peppers."

3 171st Street at Third Avenue, The Bronx

"My father used to own a bodega, Castro Bodega. It's not there anymore. As a little kid, I grew up in that store since I was 4 to 14, helping out the old man. Across the street, there was this park and they used to play jams. That's how I got to know the music. It's where I fell in love with hip-hop."

4 145th Street and Broadway

"When you're looking for your hip-hop gear, the stores on this block are the place to go. They always have the latest leathers, the Pele leather, hip-hop clothing in general. Fly gear for real."

5 Make My Cake, 2380 Seventh Ave., at 139th Street

"I'm not rocking with the sweets now [he's been on a diet and lost 30 pounds just this month] but I can tell you this is the best bakery. They got that red velvet cake and now they got the red velvet cheesecake. If you wanna fake a diet, go for the sugar-free, fat-free sweet potato pie."

6 Uptown Jiggie Sports (formerly Pegasus Sports), 1982 Third Ave., at 109th Street

"This is the best darn fitted-hat store in the city. If they don't have it, it hasn't been made. They're ahead of the trends. I've never walked in there trying to match something and not found it."

7 J Sisters, 35 W. 57th St., between Fifth and Sixth avenues

"I get a real manly manicure and pedicure. No nail polish, just cleaned up and good to go. The Brazilian chicks, those are my girls."

8 Jacob & Co., 48 E. 57th St., between Park and Madison avenues

"Of course we know Jacob is the premier jeweler in the world. If you want quality diamonds, the flyest and the latest in the jewelry department, he is the best. I just got a new red and white Jacob watch - the bezel is huge. I needed a watch to match a chain I got. When you get spoiled enough, you match jewelry. It's a problem, man - this is getting out of hand."

9 Sofrito, 400 E. 57th St., at First Avenue

"If you want a little more upscale Spanish food, go to Sofrito [where the poster at right is from]. They got that sexy flavor - uptown meets downtown. The food is terrific, the customer service is the best. The owner, Jimmy Rodriguez, makes everyone feel like a CEO. He keeps the place proper. The beef sanchoco [beef stew] . . . OMG, it's just the best! The mojitos are good, too!"

10 Burkina Entertainment, 177 E. Houston St., between Allen and Orchard streets

"It's a music store owned by some African brothers. They got some hot s - - t. Stays open 24 hours a day!"

11 Katz's Deli, 205 Houston St., at Ludlow Street

"I love delis and now am able to afford Katz's Deli. You can't be in a recession going to Katz's Deli. I love the pastrami sandwich, but lately I just get the turkey on wheat. They ain't supposed to serve you wheat, but some of the guys slip it in for me."

12 Flight Club, 120 Nassau St., between Beekman and Ann streets

"I'm a sneaker fanatic, damn near addict. Sneakers are my high, my drugs. I got two bedrooms full of sneakers. You could never have enough. My house is almost like a Footlocker, my wife wants to throw me out. I told Michael Jordan I got Jordans that he ain't got! For real. I collect the rarest and the most exclusive, and one thing I do, I got to be able to wear 'em. This place has the hard-to-find, most exclusive sneakers in New York City."

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The Brooklyn Bunny Cam

2008-03-23T15:01:00.001-07:00

Shoolbred's

2008-03-23T14:55:00.000-07:00

When five-time Tony-winning costume designer William Ivey Long ("The Producers, "Hairspray," "Young Frankenstein," etc.) decided to partner with Robert Morgan of Uncle Ming's club in the East Village, the stage was set for an upscale pub serving an audience, er, patronage of well-dressed, smart and surprisingly subtle boozehounds. Thanks to a grueling five-month, $1 million construction process, the Scottish-themed bar named for Long's grandfather is a highland among Manhattan bars in only its second month of operation. Here's your VIP tour.

For the past 75 years, this space housed the Chinese restaurant Jade Mountain.

The most popular table in the mid-size bar is a six-seater in front of the working fireplace.

Try and spot the Louise Bourgeois works among the otherwise traditional Scotty sketches covering the walls.

Though the décor reflects the designer's Scottish heritage, some of the abundant antiques come from his hometown in South Carolina.

In the back of the room behind a curtain of beads is the very private "Opium Den," which seats eight.

From a ceiling that was once the floor of a Massachusetts Inn, to woodwork framing the bar and windows that were stripped from a disused 1880s church, all the building materials are salvaged.

The kitchen's open daily from 4 p.m. to midnight, serving $6 bangers in a blanket, chips and vinegar, and "bacon & eggs" (smoked paprika deviled eggs with candied bacon).

There are 10 beers on tap, including Shoolbred's Ale ($5 a pint), which is brewed in Massachusetts specifically for this bar.

Thirty types of scotch are sold here, ranging from $10 to $16. The bar frequently hosts scotch-tasting events.

Shoolbred's
197 Second Ave.
(212) 529-0340

[Click to enlarge illustration]

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Katz Deli

2008-03-23T14:49:00.000-07:00

Katz's Delicatessen is the best delicatessen in New York. To be the best in the city known for delicatessen is to be the best in the country.

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Nice Tower! Who’s Your Architect?

2008-03-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

THE HL23 tower, planned for a site on 23rd Street in Chelsea, is the kind of commission Neil Denari has being waiting for his entire working life. Mr. Denari, a Los Angeles architect who once ran the Southern California Institute of Architecture, has labored on the profession’s periphery for decades. But because of a recent demand for name-brand residential architecture in New York, he is finally getting a chance to test his ideas in the real world.

And Mr. Denari is not alone here. His building is part of an eruption of luxury residential towers already constructed or being designed by the profession’s most celebrated luminaries. In the last five years more than a dozen have been completed; maybe a dozen more are scheduled to break ground this year. They range from soaring, elaborately decorated towers by international celebrities like Jean Nouvel and Frank Gehry to smaller but equally ambitious architectural statements by lesser-known talents like Mr. Denari.

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What Will Be Left of Gehry’s Vision for Brooklyn?

2008-03-21T08:26:00.001-07:00

NYTIMES.COM: The growing possibility that much of the multibillion-dollar Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn will be scrapped because of a lack of financing may be a bitter pill for its developer, Forest City Ratner. But it’s also a painful setback for urban planning in New York.

Designed by Frank Gehry, the project was a rare instance in which the architectural talent lined up for a New York project matched the financial muscle behind it. When it was unveiled in late 2003, it seemed to signal a genuine effort to raise the quality of large-scale development in a city still stinging from the planning failures at ground zero.

So if the decision to proceed with an 18,000-seat basketball arena but to defer or eliminate the four surrounding towers is defensible from a business perspective, it also feels like a betrayal of the public trust.

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NEW YORK PHOTO FESTIVAL 2008

2008-03-19T16:02:00.000-07:00

Photography, one of the most important visual media of our lives, has been surprisingly uncelebrated, particularly in the United States. New York City, home to the most influential commercial and fine art photography community, has lacked—until now—a large-scale event dedicated to photography.

PowerHouse Books and VII Photo Agency have joined forces to launch the new, annual New York Photo Festival, the first international-level festival of photography to be based in the U.S.

The inaugural New York Photo Festival (May 14–May 18, 2008) promises to deliver a dynamic, high-quality event in what is arguably the photographic capital of the world. The festival will celebrate both contemporary photography and the creative, inspirational talents of the people who produce this work.

The New York Photo Festival will be headquartered in DUMBO, an off-the-beaten-track, but easily accessible neighborhood on the Brooklyn waterfront between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.

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Open Studio, Afternoon with Artists @ Whitney

2008-03-19T07:42:00.000-07:00

Open Studio, Afternoon with Artists
Wednesday, March 19 at 2pm
Whitney Museum

About the Artist

Mika Tajima: Born 1975 in Los Angeles, California; lives in New York, New York. Howie Chen: Born 1976 in Cincinnati, Ohio; lives in New York, New York

New Humans, a collaborative founded by Mika Tajima with Howie Chen, explores the intersecting strata of sound, installation, and performance within the context of Tajima’s visual art practice. The elements making up Tajima’s projects slip from foreground sculptures to background props, staging markers, and functional structures, their status in continual transition and production. Challenging the audience’s expectations of sculpture as a static presence, Tajima combines multimedia installations with serial performance elements by New Humans including sonically spare noise music grounded in Minimal composition and evoking a post– John Cage mayhem. A constantly changing roster of collaborators from different disciplines contributes to a relentless layering of visual and aural textures, creating a discordant dialogue.

Appropriately, the web of collaboration is itself frequently the subject and object of New Humans’ cacophonous sonic, optical, and material mash-ups. The two New Humans performances that punctuated Disassociate (2007), an installation by Tajima at Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York, were created in collaboration with poet-artist-architect Vito Acconci and violinist C. Spencer Yeh. This multilayered work responds structurally to Sympathy for the Devil (1968), Jean-Luc Godard’s closeup film documenting the Rolling Stones’ fractious, collaborative open studio sessions recorded just prior to the moment when the band’s first leader, Brian Jones, went absent from the group (and drowned shortly thereafter). Using the film as a reference point, Tajima notes, the installation and performances reflected the process of working together, with all of its contradictions, takes, trials, errors, and transparency of production.

The installation of sound-baffled modular cubicles in which New Humans performed—instruments included drums, bass, violin, and Acconci’s visceral, poetic voicing—was constructed as what Tajima calls essentially “double-sided paintings on wheels.” These screenprinted and roller-painted works, depicting diagrams for various modular structures (geometric manuals for stacking chairs and fractured schemata for building champagne glass towers), doubled as bulletin boards papered with related graphic work by Tajima and three invited artists joining the collaborative mix.

Giving visual and aural structure to the serial elements of their collaborative creation, New Humans’ time-based performances culminate, like Godard’s film, in a structure of dissolution: in the collaboration with Yeh, Tajima hurls a stack of 1960s-era Eames chairs into a tower of glass champagne flutes, simultaneously creating an instrument and sound from the obliteration as the glass smashes to the floor. It is this problematizing of expectations and formalisms through destruction and transformations that is the heart of the continuing project. TODD ALDEN

Mika Tajima / New Humans, Disassociate, 2007. Performance with Vito Acconci, Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York, February 24, 2007

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New Landmarks Include Webster Hall

2008-03-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission today designated five new city landmarks — four of them in the East Village — and created a new historic district, Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park, in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Descriptions of the five new landmarks and the new historic district follow. The commission held a hearing last October on the four East Village sites, which were identified as worthy of preservation in a 2006 commission study of the East Village’s historical heritage.

Webster Hall and Annex, 119-125 East 11th Street

Webster Hall, a 19th-century East Village assembly space where F. Scott Fitzgerald once reveled and Emma Goldman urged social change, was designed by Charles Rentz and built in 1886, with an annex added in 1992. The Renaissance Revival structure is clad in red Philadelphia pressed brick with brownstone trim and red terra cotta ornamentation. (A mansard roof was destroyed in the 1930s.) The hall became famous for masquerade balls after a 1913 fund-raiser for the socialist magazine The Masses and became a hub not only for Village bohemians but also for gay men and lesbians. The artists Charles Demuth, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald used the hall, as did political and labor leaders like Goldman, Samuel Gompers, Margaret Sanger and Dorothy Day. The Progressive Labor Party was established there in 1887, and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in 1914. In the 1950s and ’60s, RCA Victor operated a audio recording studio, where performers included Arthur Rubinstein, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Julie Andrews, Harry Belafonte, Ray Charles and Marian Anderson. Webster Hall was a rock club in the 1980s. The structure is currently used as a nightclub and concert hall.

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Jeppe Hein @ 303 Gallery

2008-03-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

Jeppe Hein

303 GALLERY
525 West 22nd Street
March 1–April 12

In a corner of Jeppe Hein’s first solo show at 303, a hole a few inches off the floor spews a screw each time someone triggers a nearby sensor. Elsewhere, a white plastic cube less than one inch high spins on a tiny turntable; strobe lighting makes it look like three white cubes. Hanging above the gallery attendant’s desk, a piece titled Almost Nothing, 2008, consists of a foot-wide sphere of glass that contains a feather bobbing in the currents of a little fan. Clearly, modesty is a central conceit of this work. What, Hein seems to ask, is the minimum it takes to hold a viewer’s interest in an age when a Richard Tuttle piece of wire already does the job so well? The answer, of course, is almost nothing: Hein’s works, for all the small scale of their effects, are surprisingly engrossing.

Technology has something to do with it. We’re so acutely attuned to the power of machines that even when they’re used to achieve so very little—especially when they’re used that way—it’s hard to pull away. The tick of Hein’s falling screws recalls the millions of mouse clicks we’ve heard; his Multiplied Cube, 2008, is all of industrial society’s wasted energy and effort, writ small. Other similar works—Tom Friedman’s tiny speck of his own shit comes to mind—rely on a compressed absurdity to do their job. Their modest means are meant to be at odds with their emotional ambition. Tuttle-like, Hein’s modesty is modest through and through.

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Twitter at the MoMA

2008-02-26T21:29:00.000-08:00

Twittervision, a popular Twitter API project, is included in a
show at the New York Museum of Modern Art titled "Design and the
Elastic Mind." The show explores the relationship between science
and design and is open from February 24 to May 12, 2008.

Gold Bar, Broome Street

2008-02-20T11:40:00.000-08:00

FROM SPIN MAGAZINE:

We pull up to the club. There's a crowd of about 50 people waiting to get in. Kravitz gets out of the car, and he's met immediately by a large black bouncer who has the physique of two washing machines stacked on top of each other. The bouncer leads as we bypass the line and make our way through the club. Men and women stare at Kravitz, and some reach for him, just to touch him. They look at me, wondering what a human fishhook is doing with Lenny Kravitz.

We make it to the back of the club, and there's a VIP setup of banquettes. A small group of people are standing and dancing in this area, and the bouncer introduces Kravitz to a fellow with a weakish chin. I realize that it's Zach Braff, but he must be a lesser VIP, because he doesn't get a seat at one of the banquettes, but Kravitz and I do.

We sit down, and the bouncer points out to Kravitz a loose-limbed, frat-boyish fellow dancing with an attractive blonde a few feet away. The bouncer recedes, as well as two stacked washing machines can recede, and Kravitz calls out to the frat boy, "John!" This John doesn't hear him, and so Kravitz repeats himself: "John!…John!…John!" By the last "John," the guy finally snaps out of his goofy dance and peers over. He comes and shakes Kravitz's hand and mine, smiles, and goes back to his blonde.

"Who's that?" I shout over the din.

"That's John Mayer," Kravitz shouts back.

I recognize the name and know that he's famous, but I'm not sure why. "Is he a musician?" I shout.

"Yeah, he's a great guitar player."

I look over at John Mayer and realize that the blonde he's dancing with is Cameron Diaz. She's doing a version of her Charlie's Angels ass wiggle.

"Do you drink tequila?" Kravitz inquires, opting now to scream into my ear. "Sure," I shout back into his, worried that my breath is probably as bad as Donald Sutherland's at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

"They have great truffle fries here," he shouts. "Want some of those?"

"I'm not against truffle fries," I scream, trying to let go of the death-breath paranoia. A pretty waitress is in front of Kravitz, and he orders tequila shots and fries.

I sniff the air -- it's loaded with perfume, emanating from the dozens and dozens of beautiful girls.

"It smells really good in here," I scream.

"Really?" Kravitz screams back.

"It's all the perfume from the pretty girls."

"You have a sensitive nose."

"I guess I do. Did you read the book Perfume?" I ask, referring to the German novel about a serial killer who's obsessed with scent and kills women to claim their odors.

"Yeah," he screams. "I loved it. But I didn't see the movie."

"That guy from Perfume would go crazy in here. He'd have so many pretty girls to kill."

Luckily -- after making a comment like that -- the tequila arrives, halting conversation, and Kravitz generously prepares a shot (with lime) for me. He raises his glass. I raise mine. We clink. We drink. More shots arrive. I'm drunk by the third one, and Cameron Diaz and John Mayer are in the banquette next to us. Two beautiful girls are dancing in front of Kravitz and me, like girls at a strip club, except that these girls are dancing for free. We drink again, and I toast: "To all your friends!"

There are now more girls dancing just for us, or rather, just for him, and two have sat down, one next to him and one next to me. We're squeezed in close and my knees are touching Lenny Kravitz's knees, as if we're old pals. I find this to be endearing -- he's a sweet guy being kind to a journalist with bad breath, bad teeth, bad hair, and bad debt.

"You like this place?" shouts Kravitz.

"I feel like I'm in Saudi Arabia!" I reply, happily. I'm no longer insecure, but I'm tipsy with a rock star in the kind of club I've never been to before, and Cameron Diaz is dancing again, and she's not even the prettiest girl around.

And the girls come and go -- models and actresses from Brazil, the Netherlands, Denmark, Russia, Japan, France, and New Jersey. Some of them sit and talk with Lenny, and if the girls come in pairs, then one of them talks to me. They'd rather be talking with Lenny, but I must be his friend, they reason, so I must have something to offer.

At some point, I meet a girl with a name that sounds like Samitra, and so I cry out, "Nice to meetcha, Samitra!" and Lenny laughs. Then a Russian girl is doing some kind of amazing belly dance really close to him, and her stomach is exposed, and her rear is a thing of beauty, and Lenny is dancing in his seat, and then she switches to me and is putting that rear right in front of my chin, and Lenny laughs again and says, "What's that look on your face?"

"It's my bachelor-party look," I scream. "Where I act like I'm really cool, but I'm really not! This girl is amazing!" She looks over her shoulder at me and smiles and keeps rotating her rear, mimicking the movements of the earth and the sun, all the things that spiral and are infinite, like the swirl of a beautiful girl's fingerprint on a martini glass which she puts down just before kissing you.

Lenny wrote about this bar on his new album in the song "Dancin' Til Dawn," and he got it just right:

"She takes her time as she approaches me / Then she gives me the sign as she moves her behind / That only God would design… / The night is young, GoldBar's the place to be."

So we sit there dancing in our seats, knees touching, the girls in front of us, and then I say, out of the blue, "By the way, I'm Jewish, too." It must be the tequila that makes me blurt that out, along with some insane wish to spend more nights like this with him, but Lenny takes it in stride and says, "That's cool. I'm half-Jewish." Which of course I know.

Then Lenny goes to the bathroom, and a blonde Danish model, who looks like Tiger Woods' wife, is sitting next to me, and we're watching Cameron Diaz dance with John Mayer.

"I wish I had the courage to ask her to dance," I scream.

"You should," screams the model.

"I can't," I scream. "You ask her to dance. She'll dance with you."

So the Danish model goes up to Cameron Diaz, and they're talking, and then the model points at me, and Cameron Diaz looks over, and I astrally project myself onto the ceiling, like I did when I was a kid during tense family moments. I mentally disappear for a few seconds, and then the model is sitting next to me, and I shout: "What did you say to her?"

"I told her that you wanted to dance with her, and she said she would. Why didn't you get up?"

"I astrally projected myself onto the ceiling."

"What?"

Then Lenny is back, and he says to me, "Give me some titles of books to read, man. I need some new books."

"Have you read Raymond Chandler?"

He shakes his head no.

"I thought maybe you were referencing him with your new song 'The Long and Sad Goodbye.' Chandler has a book called The Long Goodbye. I'll get you a copy. You'll love Chandler; he writes all about L.A. in the '40s and '50s."

"Cool," Lenny says.

The Danish model gets up, whispers in my ear, "I'm going to an after-hours bar. You and Lenny should come if you want. I'll be leaving in about ten minutes."

"Okay, I'll find you," I say. It's nearly 3:30 in the morning; we've been at the club for more than three hours.

A Brazilian girl starts dancing in front of Lenny, and then he says, "Let's get out of here. I've got to get some sleep."

And somehow, telepathically, the gigantic bouncer knows that Lenny wants to go, and he's leading us through the club, and then we're in the car, and Lenny tells the driver to take him home and then me. We get to Lenny's building, shake hands, and I say, "Thanks for a great time, and I'll see you tomorrow." I'm to formally interview him the next day, and he smiles good-bye, and then the door is slamming and the driver is taking me to Brooklyn, to my home, and I think about the Danish model and the after-hours club, but I've lost Lenny Kravitz, my access to power, and so as if I were a male Cinderella, it's time for me to leave the ball.

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Coachella promoters launching New York festival

2008-01-16T05:09:00.000-08:00

The promoters of the annual Coachella music festival in southern California are planning a New York-area version this summer, sources say.

The event, which will not carry the Coachella brand, will take place at Liberty State Park, just across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan in New Jersey. The park has hosted a handful of concerts in recent years, most notably a Radiohead show shortly before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The new event gives promoters AEG Live/Goldenvoice a major summer presence in the area, where it will compete with the new Vineland festival, which will be held August 8-10 on a 500-acre, farm in Vineland, N.J., about 40 minutes outside of Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, an announcement is expected in the coming days revealing the lineup for this year's Coachella festival, to be held April 25-27 in Indio, Calif.

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