Here Comes The Restaurant Week Truck

File this under inevitable: Restaurant Week, NYC's annual  feast of bargain eating at the city's top restaurants, has jumped on board the current foodie truck-trend.  This year, there will be actually be a Restaurant Week Truck serving various soups from the city's fanciest eateries.  


The truck will be in three locations over the next two weeks, starting at Broadway and 51st through 1/29, Fifth Ave and 19th from 2/1-2/3 and Greenwich and Warren from 2/4-2/5.  Today's featured soup: City Crab's famous New England clam chowder.  The Restaurant Week Truck website has the full menu. Also, a dollar from each soup will go towards relief efforts in Haiti. 


As for regular old-fashioned Restaurant Week which takes place in an actual restaurant, it started yesterday and goes til Feb 7.  Lunch is $24.10 and dinner is $35.00 at more than 100 restaurants throughout the city.  I'm kicking my Restaurant Week adventures off today with lunch at 10 Downing, the new Jason Neroni joint (he created the famed 71 Clinton Street).  You can look at menus for a number of restaurants this year on the Restaurant Week website and make online reservations for most of them as well. 

Madonna Turns It Out For Haiti

Friday's Hope for Haiti telethon raised nearly $60 million dollars for the earthquake relief in that devastated country. The multi-network marathon featured many remarkable performances but, I gotta say, Madonna truly turned it out with a simple, nearly acapella version of "Like A Prayer" backed by a church-like choir of singers.  


The song will be available on iTunes soon, both as a single track and a whole album including other performances by Alicia Keys, Sting and Jay-Z. So, if you missed the show, buying the songs are a great way to continue to help the people of Haiti in their time of need.

The Art of Meeting Men, '80s Style

Today's bizarre video comes from the good folks at EverythingIsTerrible.  It's a self-help dating VHS from the '80s which provides some really helpful hints for finding the right guy...like speaking in a whisper so he'll lean in closer.  Or maybe carrying around a "small stuffed animal" as, you know, a conversation starter. Oooookaaay--maybe if you're 12.  


My favorite bit here, though, is the staged meeting on a park bench. It reminded me of those terrible but intensely watchable acting competition scenes from the old "Star Search" which, 4 out of 5 times, took place on a park bench and always ended up with the two actors kissing.  Now I know Rosie O'Donnell got her big break on "Star Search" but did any of those actors ever break out?  Or maybe they just got cast in dating videos like this one.

Gay WWII Musical YANK! Announces Cast

Last fall, I posted about a new American musical called YANK!  Today they announced their stellar cast on Playbill.com for a production next month at The York Theatre.  Previews start Feb. 16 and tickets are on sale now. Also,  discounts are available if you join the YANK! fan page on FB. 


Bobby Steggert, who recently wowed critics in the "Ragtime" revival, is playing the lead, a young Army recruit named Stu who falls in love with another solider. I saw Bobby in this role a couple years back at the Gallery Player's production in Brooklyn and he was fantastic.  He's a true song and dance man (as they used to say) who's got charisma to spare...easily a superstar of tomorrow. Originally, he was not scheduled to be in the new YANK! but then "Ragtime" got cancelled and, as they say, a door closed but a window of opportunity opened.  :)  


There are a number of people from the Gallery cast returning, like Nancy Anderson and Tally Sessions who were also fantastic.  There's also some new "draftees" from the Great White Way, including actors from the recent productions of "A Chorus Line" and "Spring Awakening".  All in all, this is shaping up to be a great show....which, personally, I cannot wait to see again.  

Blowing It Up Back In The Day, Part Deux

Last summer, I posted some video of me and my friends blowing stuff up circa 1981.  I've put together another short clip, this time with a little parental intrusion just for laughs.  The voice in the background is my neighbor's mom, not to pleased with us destroying a train set, asking "Who is shooting?"  The response is classic.

So, from the way back video vaults, I present another early gem of my filmmaking career with a special introduction to kick things off with a bang. :)

GLEE Rocks The Globes

That's GLEE creator Ryan Murphy at the center of the love scrum after the show won Golden Globe for TV's best Musical/Comedy.  I believe it's the first time an actual musical has won that award since the 70's heyday of variety shows.  Anyway, seeing the GLEE gang win was my favorite moment of the Globes this year. 


Today there's a roundup of GLEE news over at Andy Towle's blog.  I'd heard about the inevitable all-Madonna episode but it has been revealed that Jane Lynch will finally get to to a little song & dance herself in that episode, with her take on "Vogue". There's also upcoming guest stars galore, including Neil Patrick Harris and maybe even J-Lo. Genius!  


There is also some big news about casting for the recently greenlit Season 2.  Kurt is going to get a boyfriend, and not just some 3-episode arc kinda deal but the real thing.  With creative choices like this, Ryan Murphy and co. are cranking out the most unusual and groundbreaking show on TV in years.  April can't come soon enough. Go GLEE!

Forest Hills: The Stuff Jewish Dreams Are Made Of

Billy Eichner is one of my favorite downtown, gay male comedians. How's that for specific! Anyway, he has a new YouTube video up that is a hilarious rewrite of the Jay-Z song "Empire State of Mind" all about growing up Jewish in Forest Hills.  With Rachel Dratch guesting as his Alicia and an amazing cameo of Billy as a baby, I guarantee you will get your laugh on.  And you don't have to be Jewish or know what Forest Hills to enjoy it.  But as Gilda Radner once said, "it wouldn't hurt!"

Tower Records Is Back...Sorta

Last year, I blogged about how unused real estate in the city was being utilized as temporary gallery space. Today, the biggest of these repurposing schemes opens on Broadway in the storied home of Tower Records.  


Starting with an opening from 7-10p tonight, the old Tower HQ is being reborn as "Never Records"; a real world mashup of store, art gallery and performance space, all of it put together by the creative folks at NoLongerEmpty.com.  The new store will have some records for sale (in bins!) for those feeling nostalgic for the vinyl, as well as tons of art work too.  There's a cool looking graphic novel-style tribute to Vanilla Ice that takes up of a whole wall on PAPER mags preview of the space.  Talk about nostalgia!  I might have even gotten his greatest work there on cassingle...remember those?  


Anyway, I will be there for the kickoff.  If you can't make it tonight, the new space will be open daily, 12-7p until February 13th.

The MTA Website Goes All 2.0

It's been almost 8 years since the MTA website had a full overhaul. Every other major transit system in the country has easy to use "trip navigators" prominently featured on their home pages, except the MTA.  Fortunately, when Jay Walder took over the authority last fall, it was his number one priority.  Now, after nearly four months, there are some lovely results.  


The new MTA website went live yesterday and it is filled with true functionality. It's also got info on the current conditions on all 25 subway lines, as well as the LIRR line and the NYC bridges and tunnels. There's also a handy link to a site that's built for PDA phones like the Blackberry or iPhone.  All in all, a great makeover that was long overdue. 

The High-Line Goes West

The infamous Oakland Bay Bridge, a section of which collapsed during the 1989 quake, is finally being replaced by a modern structure.  Construction is under way on a single-tower suspension bridge that is projected to open to traffic in 2013.  This will leave a large chunk of the 1930's-era bridge left with nothing to do but be dismantled....at a cost of some 200-plus million dollars.

A teacher at UC Berkely has a better idea.  Inspired by NYC's success with the abandoned High-Line, he assigned his students to come up with some creative alternatives to demolition.  An article in todays San Francisco Chronicle presents some of their plans, including the one above which is closest to the NYC approach.  Other options included futuristic hotels, housing and even farming.  Only in California, folks!