From election coverage to hurricane warnings, we try to make sense of the lunacy.
At approximately 4:20 pm, Coral Towers dorm residents heard some sort of impact on the street below– a gathering crowd on the intersection of 14th Street and 3rd Avenue seemed to confirm a crash, as police cruisers, fire trucks, and an ambulance arrived. Eyewitness reports suggest a motorcycle collided with a Ford SUV. Both vehicles remained stalled, and debris was scattered over the street. The motorcyclist, a young Asian male who appeared unconscious, was carried by stretcher into a waiting ambulance. Onsite police and medical staff declined to comment on the condition of either driver.
A few (rather graphic) photos, after the jump.
Friday, November 6, 2009 17:16 - by Jake MooreLast night Mike Birbiglia had a show over at Town Hall, and unlike normal stand-up comics who would invite a decidedly less talented comic to go on as the opener, he had the Mates of State. If none of you are familiar with them, just think of the indie pop-duo you vaguely remember from high-school and you’ll be all set. Anyway, if the viewer was unfamiliar with Birbigs, as they call him on da streetz (and by “da streetz” I mean twitter), they might have thought it was weird when an awkward looking “olive-garden Italian” guy came onstage.
In fact, there are probably a few things people need to be prepared for if they’re going to see this guy. The first is that you have to understand that even though he’s a guy who’s pretty hip with all us awkward humor-lovin’, This American Life watchin’, whitewashed hipsters, if you go see him perform, you’re going to be sitting next to people who resemble your grandparents. That’s just the way it is. But if you’re the type of person who would find that juxtaposition comically awkward, then Mike Birbiglia is probably one of your favorite stand-up comics. You know how some comics will include some kind of universally pleasing anecdote about their life just so people will clap about it and he can go into a vein of relevant comedy, like “So anyway, I just got married…” or “So anyway, I’m a cancer survivor…”? Well Mike Birbiglia is the kind of guy who would instead say, “So anyway, I ironed my pants tonight…” and it elicits pretty much the same response.
Continue…
Thirteen people were killed and 30 wounded yesterday when a military psychiatrist opened fire at a medical center on a US Army base in Fort Hood, Texas.
Details of what exactly happened were initially misreported, but now that the dust has settled it appears the captured shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, is alive and in stable condition despite being shot four times by a female first responder. She suffered injuries during the incident, but also survived. Both had been declared dead in early accounts of the shooting.
The question remains whether Major Hasan acted alone or as a part of a terrorist plot. An army official said they were not ruling out the latter, but noted no evidence has yet been found to support such a claim. Major Hasan had recently voiced his dismay about his looming deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. According to the The New York Times, “Military records indicated that Major Hasan was single, had been born in Virginia, had never served abroad and listed ‘no religious preference’ on his personnel records.”
Friday, November 6, 2009 15:00 - by Surekha Ratnatunga
Adding yummy ingredients you normally wouldn’t associate with alcohol is a great way of jazzing up your drinking experience at minimal cost. Honey is one such ingredient and I like to believe including it in a cocktail makes consuming one before noon socially acceptable.
Ingredients
Seeing wide-release movies in Manhattan is generally a degrading and frustrating experience. Paying $12.50 to pile into the Regal Union Square, squeeze into a cramped seat, and end up with a lap covered with grease-splattered Cheezy Pretzel Bitez (I’ve been a victim. The shlemiel tripped. Nary an apology) is less than ideal. We’ve rounded up the best ways to score free passes to advance movie screenings in NYC—it’ll ease the multiplex pain, you’ll be ahead of the movie curve, and your wallet will thank you.
New York Observer: Free Reels
The Observer provides an ideal effort-to-free-stuff ratio: as soon as you sign up for the mailing list, you’re automatically notified for each upcoming screening. Fire off an email request for tickets, and you’re good to go. Free Reels caters more toward the indie-film crowd. Expect films like Away We Go, Whatever Works, or the latest Michael Moore flick.
NYCFreeMovieScreenings
Avoid signing up for the weekly newsletter—the real way for get passes is constant checking of their listings, which are updated pretty often. Films tend to be on the more mainstream/lowbrow side—I’ve snagged passes for Zombieland, Paranormal Activity, and The Fourth Kind, to name a few.
Friday, November 6, 2009 12:00 - by Jake MooreYesterday, Middle East expert and University of Michigan professor Juan Cole had a piece in Salon in which he suggested that a two-state resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict had reached a dead end. And it’s true, things look pretty grim right now. Sadly, the Obama administration, while initially signaling a promising shift in US policy towards Israel, has only exacerbated things by retreating to the reflexively pro-Israeli government posture of the Bush administration.
It started with the Goldstone Report, the product of a UN investigation which found evidence that both Israel and Palestinian militant groups (most notably Hamas) were guilty of war crimes. Needless to say, the Israeli government was displeased.
Pop quiz: Did the Obama administration A) acknowledge the slaughter committed by their ally, or B) do everything they could to suppress the report? The depressing answer is below the fold.
Continue…
In the midst of Fall, it can be quite difficult to find a good movie to see — studios have already released most of their Fall movies, and holiday/awards season movies don’t come out for another month at least. You can still catch some good ones before you run home for winter break, though, and they are:
Up in the Air – George Clooney stars in this existential movie about a disaffected corporate reaper with no human connections. It’s only going to be in limited release in LA and New York, so you should take advantage of the city (yeah, how many times have you heard that one) and go see it. If anything, it will make you feel better about your social life once you realize you have more friends than the main character.
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus – Terry Gilliam’s latest directorial project looks like it was made on an extended acid trip. In other words, it looks amazing. It’s the last movie Heath Ledger was working on when he died, and has a star-laden cast, so it’s going to get a lot of attention solely for those reasons. But I’ve heard from people who saw the movie in advance that the story is really great, too. (Unfortunately, the film’s press division has placed an embargo on all advance reviews, so you can’t actually read about how awesome it is until after it comes out.)
Continue…
In one hour, there will be a memorial service for Andrew Williamson-Noble, the student who died in Bobst on Tuesday. The gathering will take place on the east side of Washington Square Park from 8pm until 9 and the Facebook event creator asks that attendees bring a flower if they can. More information here.
Thursday, November 5, 2009 19:07 - by Lily Q
There are few things that will compel me to travel above 14th street, but when I heard that Ricky Gervais, creator of The Office and the star of the UK version, was performing uptown, I quickly realized that I had no choice.
The show started with opening act Todd Barry, perhaps most well known (at least by me) as guest starring in Flight of the Conchords as Todd, the bongo playing “third Conchord”. I thought he was terribly annoying in the show, so I wasn’t expecting much. However, his set was excellent and covered a spectrum of mundane yet hilarious topics including Tom’s of Maine deodorant, Californian’s Mexican food snobbery, and Spanish prostitutes in Barcelona.
Thursday, November 5, 2009 13:43 - by Samantha MooreThe surprisingly close race between incumbent Michael Bloomberg and City who-cares Bill Thompson sent the media and blogosphere into a firestorm. “New Yorker’s Rebuke of Bloomberg Sends a Message,” was Mara Gay’s headline at the Atlantic Wire. Even the Times said Bloomberg “No Longer Seems Invincible”. Have any of these groups even looked at the results for more than a second? The numbers should not have been a surprise to anyone, and certainly don’t show the public turning on Bloomberg in droves.
At first glance, of course, it looks like Bloomberg just squeaked through, and he did. He took home 50.6% of the vote, to Thompson’s 46.0%, much less than polls had predicted. The mayor was expected to crush Thompson, but won by just over 4 points. Thompson must have done something right … right?
Actually Thompson took home 506,717 votes, almost exactly the same amount as Fernando Ferrer did in his disastrous run against Bloomberg in 2005. In fact, the difference between the two is less than a percentage point. This year however, turnout was lower overall; 1,100,640 people voted this year, compared with 1,289,935 in 2005. The difference was 189,286. What is striking is how similar that number is to the drop in votes for Bloomberg.
Continue…
Loading ...
