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!

Take A Ride On The Dubai Subway

Yesterday's post made mention of the Dubai Subway, which opened in September of 2009.  After doing a little research, it's not much of a subway as more than 80% of the system is above ground.  But with it's sleek design and pilot-less trains, it's still pretty cool.  And here's the video to prove it: a hi-speed, hi-def 3 minute journey from one end of Dubai's Metro to the other.  Sit back and enjoy the ride....

No Pants Day On The Subway

On a day where the temperature didn't break the freezing mark, hundreds of bold New Yorkers left their pants at home to ride the subway.  It was the Annual No Pants Subway day, put together by the wacky folks over at Improv Everywhere.  There are tons more pictures on their website and there should be some video of the event posted later today. This year, though, it looks like the pantless riders outnumbered the civilians.


Now I'd like to add a Cindy Adams-esque, "only in New York kids" but that's not exactly true. The event, which started 9 years ago, has now taken on an international scope as well.  Apparently, subway riders in 44 cities around the globe participated this year. I wonder if there were some wacky westerners riding the brand new Dubai subway san pants?  Then again, given that the temp there was a balmy 75 yesterday, the whole wintry point of the pants-off experience might have been lost.  

New Brooklyn Subway/LIRR Terminal Opens

After more than 20 years, Brooklyn finally has a new LIRR terminal at the busy intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush.  The previous station, a turn-of-the-century fortress opened in 1907, was demolished in 1988 to make way for a new, modern station.  A design was unveiled in 1997 and now, after years of temporary structures, cost overruns and construction delays, the $110 million dollar terminal is finally finished. 

The new station, known as Atlantic Terminal, connects directly to Target and the Atlantic Terminal Shopping Center.  So now a taste of the suburbs is only a subway ride away!  10 MTA lines run into the Atlantic Ave Terminal, in addition to 6 tracks for LIRR trains.  The new terminal looks great on the inside: clean, light-filled and spacious with some striking public art. And the facade is quite nice too.

However, a major blunder seems to have been made with huge slabs or rough rock strewn in front of the terminal's grand entrance. They appear to be some sort of anti-terrorism safety measure but one wonders why the MTA didn't just put traditional bollards around the corner.  These massive slabs practically ruin what should be a handsome cornerstone of the redevelopment of Atlantic Avenue and one can only hope the MTA will realize their mistake and fix it sooner than later. 

Movie Tix Trump DVD Sales

Here's a little bit of encouraging news for the movie biz that came out this week:  in 2009, ticket sales surpassed DVD sales for the first time in nearly 7 years.  But it is something of a case of good news bad news.  


Though the 2009 domestic box office is up by roughly 10 percent over the previous year, the reason it really beat out DVD and Blu-Ray is that disc sales dropped more than 13 percent, continuing a downward trend that began a couple years ago. And that trend is not likely to stop anytime soon given the number of cheap rental options (Redbox's 1$ per day) and new download options (Netflix streaming movies on X-Box).  


Still, with Avatar packing them in, and grossing more than 1 billion worldwide, people seem to be going to the movies more.  The key is getting them to see movies that aren't in 3D or don't blow up the world.  That's the challenge for the indie sector which, despite all this good news, is still struggling with a lack of screens and an audience that waits for the films to appear on DVD.  

Donny Osmond Remembers Colored TV and Hooks Up With Great People

In an interview about his new radio show, Donny Osmond gave some interesting quotes to the AP. While reminiscing about how he started out in show biz as a child, he had this to say about the '60s:

"I've been in this business since dirt was created. I remember when colored television came in." 

Now I know Donny is getting up there but dirt? The guy needs to give himself a little more credit. As for "colored television", I don't know what to say. But I'm guessing there weren't a lot of "colored televisions" in Utah where he grew up.
Finally, to wrap the interview up, there was this unintentionally suggestive line:

"It's an interesting ride to be in show business. It's even more interesting to keep that career going and thankfully I've hooked up with some great people.''

2010: The Year Jupiter Explodes

Back in the 80's, the sequel to "2001: A Space Odyssey" was released titled "2010: The Year We Make Contact".  I was in college at the time and saw it countless times...it seemed like HBO was running it constantly.  I remember the movie being fairly watchable as it had some of my favorite actors in it, namely Roy Scheider and Helen Mirren.  The best part though is the end where Jupiter blows up and becomes a second sun.  That was awesome!


Now that's it's actually 2010 (which seemed eons in the future back then), the movie has been on my mind.  I doubt it's worth watching again but, fortunately, someone has uploaded the last few minutes onto YouTube for your viewing pleasure.  One interesting detail is that this incredible intergalatic event brings peace between the US and Russia, as the filmmakers imagined the Cold War would still be on.  However, the bigger problem with the movies sun-plus-1 premise is global warming. We're already screwed with one sun heating up the planet.  With two, we'd be toast. :)  Happy 2010!