Happy Birthday To Me

Celebrate with Madonna's new song "Celebration", filmed with some very interesting fans from Milan and Barcelona. And a special guest appearance by her now teenage(!) daughter Lourdes dressed like a virgin. Now...who says Madonna fans can't dance?

Kickin' It Old School With "Ghost Busters"

He's done it again...here's another video from the same editor who created the faux "Raiders" trailer circa 1954 that I featured here last week. Now he gives "Ghostbusters" the fake oldies treatment with hilarious results.

What is An Eruv

Time Out magazine has a weekly feature called "What's Up With That" where readers ask a question about some puzzlement of city life. This week's question deals with something I've wondered about myself for a while. Running down Bleecker Street and Houston Street, there are these lines of fishing wire strung up from lamposts. I thought it had something to do with the Christmas decorations that are hung across Bleecker every year. As it turns out, it does have some religious significance but not for Christianity.

The lines are marking an eruv, a boundary that runs from Houston to Harlem and marks the symbolic borders of the local Jewish community. There are 39 activities prohibited by Jewish law on the Sabbath and High Holidays (the highest of which, Rosh Hashanah starts today), one of which is carrying items outside the community. So with the erection of this community boundary Jews can carry things from the local deli or supermarket back to their apartment without breaking the law.

If you want to see the whole thing, it's here on Google maps. In 2007, the Manhattan eruv was greatly expanded from midtown down to Houston Street. I thought it was odd that it wouldn't include the Lower East Side, historically one of the cities largest Jewish neighborhoods. But some more Orthodox forms of Judaism do not believe in the eruv boundaries and will not carrying anything outside their own community, which without an eruv means their apartment building and walled courtyard.

Kickin' It Old School With "Raiders Of The Lost Ark"

When I was flying Virgin America recently, I checked out their in-flight RED entertainment system. They had a channel for BoingBoing.net, one of the first and foremost sites for pop culture junkies like myself which always showcases interesting geeky stuff. Yesterday, they posted a real motherlode.

Some genius editor has stitched together a fake trailer of "Raiders" circa 1951....starring Charlton Heston. All the real film nerds out there will know that "Raiders" is said to be an uncredited remake of the 1954 flick "Secret of the Incas", with Heston sporting the same fedora, pants and even half-shave as Harrison. Though there is a lot of "Secret" in this trailer, the crafty editor also used about 10 other films too, all referenced on his YouTube page. Check your movie knowledge and see how many you can name.

Me and The Prom on YouTube

Simon & Schuster has posted to YouTube an interview I did for their podcast about my first novel, "A Really Nice Prom Mess". Though I did this a couple years ago when the paperback was being released, I talked extensively about the biggest influence on my writing which was not another author.....it was John Hughes. Anyway, take a listen and if you're intrigued, you can pick up the book for under $10 on Amazon. Whatta bah-gain, right? :)

OMG--It's The Half-Birthday of Brian's Blog!

That's right...today marks the 6-month anniversary of my blog, started way back on March 15th of this year. Yay! Also, I'm reaching a big milestone and one that I didn't think I'd see so quickly. Sometime this week I'll receive my 5,000th page view. I mean, that's pretty cool, right? The Internet likes me....it really likes me! :)

So in celebration of my burgeoning "viewership" and my half-birthday today, I'm just going to post something I like that has no intrinsic news value or current cultural relevance or historical significance whatsoever. It's just one of my favorite YouTube videos of all time and I think you'll see why. So celebrate this mini-milestone with me and dance!

I Had The Time Of My Life

I can't think of any other film star in recent memory who truly made a name for himself instantly with 5 minutes of screen time. But that's exactly what Patrick Swayze did when he took his Baby for a spin in the ludicrous but utterly fantastic finale of "Dirty Dancing" (which I'd encourage you to watch on YouTube). Today, on hearing the news of his passing, I look back fondly on Patrick's star making moment.

I still remember quite vividly the day I saw that film (August 27, 1987), the place (White Flint Mall, Theater 1) and who I was with (both my parents, who I thought might enjoy the 60's angle....for the record they didn't). I also remember how, a week later when I returned to school in Boston, I went to Tower Records and asked if they had the soundtrack. Unbelievably, they didn't. The movie was such a surprise sleeper of a hit that the soundtrack didn't come out until October. I know this because I went to every record store in Boston for five weekends in a row looking for it. When it was finally released, it went to #1 on Billboard and stayed there for 18 weeks, going platinum 11 times over and selling more than 42 million copies.

Though Swayze had many roles in nearly 50 films and TV shows, with wonderful turns in "Ghost", "The Outsiders" and the mini-series "North & South", he will always be remembered for those 5 minutes and hey, there's nothing wrong with that. He walked onto that stage at Kellerman's just another cute, muscly aspiring Hollywood hunk and left it an icon. Not bad for few minutes work. Not bad at all...

New York Celebrates Its Quadcentennial

On September 11, 1609, Henry Hudson's ship sailed into New York's harbor and saw an extraordinary island fronting a massive river which now bears his name. Thus, today is the unofficial 400th birthday of what we now know as New York City.

The 13.5 mile island he found was named Mannahatta, which translated means "island of many hills". Though it didn't have anywhere near the 2 million people who live here today, Hudson did find some Lenape Indians who were its original inhabitants. They even allegedly killed one of his crewmen in what was New York's very first homicide.

Hudson also discovered a hard to imagine natural wonderland filled with soaring trees, countless streams and some gorgeous flora and fauna. To celebrate NYC's b-day, you can see what your block looked like 400 years ago by checking out The Mannahatta Project website and typing in your address. Most likely you will find a field of trees, maybe a stream and, if you're lucky, perhaps even a swamp.

The Art of 9/11

As we arrive at the 8th anniversary this week of the 9/11 attacks, there is a whole lot of construction going on at Ground Zero (which you can watch via these webcams) but the Memorial (pictured here) is not scheduled to open for 2 years and the museum another 2 years after that.

In the meantime, The National September 11 Museum and Memorial has opened a storefront preview site just east of the former site of the World Trade Center. It has models of the plans for the site as well as a comprehensive history of what was there and what exactly happend on Setember 11. The Memorial also has a great new website. One interesting feature, is that they have started an artist's registry on the site where artists have been posting works inspired by the 9/11. The registry includes everything from snapshots of the day itself to childrens' finger painting to some beautiful etchings and sculptures. It might be the best museum available until the real one opens in 2013.

The Wait Is Over--GLEE on Fox Tonite!

OK all you Gleeks out there....tonite is the night. After a four months long wait, Fox's awesome musical comedy series GLEE airs it's second episode at 9pm this evening. Yay! Things to look forward to: another pregnancy, musical numbers, more gayness for Kurt, and more musical numbers. Did I mention the show has musical numbers! :)

If you haven't seen it yet, below is a short preview of what to expect...a lil' Kanye via high school. Also, there's a newly released "directors cut" of the pilot episode available on Hulu. I just watched it to catch-up for tonite and there is some fun additional material that was cut out to make it fit in it's TV time slot.