Results tagged “thehouse”

MUSIC: Merkin Concert Hall is reopening, and to help celebrate some of the piano greats will be on hand for a free, six hour concert. Philip Glass and John Medeski will be amongst those who will perform. Get more details here.

It may be the off-season, but Yankees fans can look forward to something other than February 14th (that's pitchers and catchers reporting, not Valentine's Day). With the installation of an etched sign at the new stadium for the Yankees that says "Yankee Stadium," Opening Day, 2009 seems a little closer. The sign, etched in gold-leafed stone, was installed yesterday morning on the facade of the main entranceway to the new field.

CMJ is coming up next month, and as we've mentioned we'll be opening the doors to Gothamist House again this year. We've got a big announcement to share, along with some little details of interest if you plan to attend any of the shows:

A look at some noteworthy television this week:

- Gridskipper leads us to some of the city's best fried food including the fried mayo at WD-50 and the Chip Shop, which will fry any food you bring them.

For Yankee Stadium's last year - before a new park - Major League Baseball will be having the 2008 All Star Game in The House that Babe Built. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said, "One of the biggest factors was George Steinbrenner. He has made wonderful contributions to this city and to the Yankees. Clearly one of the primary factors was to honor the city, the franchise and George Steinbrenner." Man, Selig makes it sound like Steinbrenner's going to die at some point! But we suppose MLB wants to honor Steinbrenner for driving up salaries so much. The Boss, who wasn't at the City Hall press conference, said he was touched.

Though canvassing is still being done in Virginia in the Senate race between Republican incumbent George Allen and Democrat challenger Jim Webb, the AP and other news organizations named Webb the winner, with his narrow margin of 7,000 votes over Allen. And the Democrats seized that news excitedly. The NY Times reports Senator Charles Schumer, who headed the Democratic campaign to take back Senate seats, as saying,"It is virtually 100 percent that Webb is going to win the race. I think you can say without any hesitancy or doubt that Democrats are going to be the majority party in the Senate."

Thanks everyone so much for coming by and supporting all the unbelievable bands we had at The House yesterday. It really played out just as we could have ever imagined/hoped it would. Can't wait to get it all going again today!

The House of Representatives voted to reopen the Statue of Liberty's crown, which had been closed due to security concerns. (Today visitors can go to the pedestal, but that's it.) Congressman Anthony Weiner spoke before the House, "We figured out a way to open the Capitol. We figured out a way to open the Washington Monument. We figured out a way to open Hoover Dam." Good point, but he also said, "We need to break the ties that bind Miss Liberty and that continue to make her a laughingstock for al Qaeda." Anyway, the passed proposed will allocate $1 million from government salaries to security for the statue.

Plans for a new stadium for New York's two local baseball teams was approved by the Empire State Development Corporation's board yesterday. The two stadiums, with a combined stadium only cost of over $1.2 billion. Along with the preliminary approval, the board released some additional details on the two stadiums.

- Nicolette Sheridan does not look over-Botoxed with fish lips!

The Phantom of the Opera may be nearing the ripe old age of 18, but most shows in this city don’t even play 18 shows. That doesn’t mean that they’re unworthy, of course – far from it, at least in our book. For instance, there’s Clubbed Thumb’s new production What Then, which (including previews last weekend) has 16 showings at the Ohio Theatre. Written by Rinne Groff and directed by Hal Brooks, who recently got accolades for his work on Thom Paine, this is the story of a dysfunctional family and their attempts to stitch their relationships and psyches back not through therapy but rather through creating and exploring new realities through dreams and drugs. It’s a powerful vision that will leave you questioning your own perception of existence.

Friday the 13th stopped being scary for us when we were younger, rebellious and declaring things like "13, in fact, is our lucky number". We embraced the superstition and turned it in to our lucky day. Or, as it turns out, just another day. Anyway, we were hoping that some theater in this city would be showing Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan, but no such...luck. You'll have to deal with these other non-scary events:

With stories about the papacy finally tapering off, Gothamist was feeling a bit of withdrawal, and thought The House of Blue Leaves might help because it’s about the day in 1965 when Pope Paul VI passed through NYC. The play doesn’t, in the end, have that much to do with the Pope, but far from being disappointed, Gothamist found it to be a top-notch show from start to finish. Written by John Guare in 1970, it has dated only in some of its specific cultural references, like the feel-good tunes that greet you upon entering the theater, or the amusing go-go wardrobe of the female lead. In most other respects, though, the play is still fresh and powerful, and the fantastic cast contributes a great deal to that success.

Yes, we've seen trailers for it. Yes, we've read about it in magazines. Yes, we've seen David Duchovny do the talk show rounds. But Gothamist always knew we were never going to see his writing-and-directorial debut, The House of D, because, well, the idea of seeing Robin Williams play a mentally disabled janitor felt masochistic unless we were seriously medicated. And we think many people would agree with us - the people who cringe when we see Williams approach an awards show podium, when we are watching Access Hollywood, when somehow it's Jakob the Liar on cable. And today, A.O. Scott echoes everyone's fears with the first two lines of his review in the NY Times:

The reasons to avoid David Duchovny's unwatchable coming-of-age drama can best be summarized in a simple declarative sentence. Robin Williams plays a retarded janitor.

Our only problem is that David Duchovny seems like a genuinely funny guy (the deadpan, funny episodes of The X-Files were always the best in our book and he's always a brilliant talk show guest). And Gothamist liked that we learned that The House of D means the Women's House of Detention that used to be West 10th Street and Sixth Avenue in all the press he's been doing. But, still, given someone at the studio thought, "Yes! Robin Williams as a retarded janitor! Yes!" reminds us we can never count on Hollywood.

The town of Weehawken pulled out all the stops for the reenactment: Hamilton and Burr arrived by boat (from Floating the Apple), just as their forefathers did, for the duel, and arranged tours of Burr's and Hamilton's houses. And it was all-Hamilton this weekend at the NY Times: Ron Chernow's Op-Ed piece about Hamilton is excellent ("). Chernow has just completed a book about Alexander Hamiltion (Gothamist also recommends his books, The House of Morgan about J.P., etc., and Titan about John D. Rockefeller). The Times magazine's Hamilton piece by Ted Widmer referenced the move to replace Hamilton on the $10 bill with Reagan.

Tina Brown, Editor/Writer/TV Host

Many wonder what is the use of following these critics' awards, since they are only directionally useful in wondering who will win the Oscars, an imperfect process also. Gothamist ventures to say that when things move us, we want to talk about it, think about it, tell others about it. Movies are a reflection of who we are and become calling cards of ideas and dreams to other places, whether it's to a rural farm town in Nebraska or an emerging metropolis like Shanghai. Sure, there's an amount of unspeakable crap, but it's also nice to see that some exceptional work is being recognized.