On Campus - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 10:00 - 3 Comments
NYU Students Prepare to Enter Evolving Music Industry
Three NYU students describe what it’s like to be going into a rapidly changing music industry.
Tomorrow’s Soundtrack from Kaela Rae Jensen on Vimeo.
City - Thursday, November 12, 2009 13:56 - 0 Comments
City Spends $95.7m to Preserve Coney Island’s Historical Tackiness
Not wasting anytime after figuring out how to be elected for a third term, Bloomberg has made one of his first big decisions about something I’m sure was at the top of all NYC voters’ minds — redeveloping Coney Island. Gothamist reported today that the city is spending $95.7 million to buy almost seven acres of land over at that end of the Q train.
The city has long been in negotiations with developer Joe Sitt, who has been asking for exorbitant prices over the last months for the land (seemingly knowing that New Yorkers would be dismayed to see Coney Island turned into a “Las Vegas style resort”). Playing the nostalgic foil to Sitt’s smarminess, the Bloomberg administration will keep most of the land they’ve purchased zoned for amusements.
On Campus - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 11:22 - 2 Comments
The Demise of the Twitter Fail Whale (Update: Fail Whale Still Alive!)
We were on Twitter when the site failed on us, a common sight on Twitter nowadays. But, unexpectedly, Twitter’s iconic Fail Whale (”Twitter is over capacity”) was absent. Instead, there appears to be a tiny, awkward robot informing tweeters of an error on the site. Does this mean a tragic death of the Fail Whale? Has the Fail Whale failed himself? Stay tuned.
Update: Although the general consensus is that Twitter is “over capacity” far too often, the Fail Whale appears to still be alive, according to commenters.
City - Thursday, November 5, 2009 11:14 - 3 Comments
Organization Paints Bikes White to Draw Attention to Cyclist Deaths
Ghost Bikes in NYC from Kaela Rae Jensen on Vimeo.
City - Thursday, November 5, 2009 11:12 - 2 Comments
Who Wants to be Miss G Train?
If you want to be a part of something publicized and demeaning, and reality shows just aren’t your bag, perhaps a pageant is perfect for you. Anyone who lives in Brooklyn or has ever even heard of it knows of the G train, and there’s a new title to win–”Miss G Train.”
The G train is a disgrace. It runs erratically, it runs only in Brooklyn and part of Queens, it only has four cars. But it’s the only way to get from Williamsburg to Park Slope or from Red Hook to Greenpoint, so like the town bicycle, Brooklynites are required to ride it at least once in their lives. If you would like to be the beauty who represents this miracle of public transportation, you can send a sexylicious photograph and a 200-word essay to missgtrain@cityreliquary.org. Oh, and this isn’t your promiscuous grandmother’s pageant, it’s open to all ages–and all genders. Get in touch with your ambiguous side–and do the G train proud.
Don’t forget, FreeWilliamsburg is looking for a contestant on the inside if you’re into that sort of thing. So kinky.
City - Friday, October 30, 2009 9:00 - 2 Comments
Two Stops on L Get Advanced Monitoring Screens
Despite taking the L train twice a day every day, somehow I missed hearing about the best thing ever, and maybe you did too.
According to Gothamist, the MTA has installed real-time video screens showing the exact location of individual trains in two different L stations: Myrtle-Wyckoff and more recently, the Bedford stop. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever made it to the Myrtle-Wyckoff stop, but it was probably the success of the screens there (installed back in February) that expanded the program to Bedford Ave.
The screens are neat. They have little trains, and the little trains move and it’s updated every 15 seconds!
Most Brooklyn commuters will still have to settle for the often inaccurate counters in all L stations, and commuters who take any other train in New York City will have to settle for nothing. Until the MTA puts little train screens in every station, we will all just have to feel envy in addition to disdain every time hipsters pack into the train at the last minute.
City - Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:30 - 2 Comments
GreenBox Makes Eating Pizza Eco-Friendly
As easy as it may be to grab a dollar slice of pizza at St. Marks, sometimes you just want people to bring your carbs and cheese directly to you. But what to do with the box? Ugh, it’s just so bulky and useless and ugh.
Well, in this day and age, everything must be environmentally conscious, so it’s not that surprising that somebody decided to update the pizza box. Introducing GreenBox, the eco-friendly cardboard contraption making a name for itself on the internet.
What the hell is it? Well, it’s a pizza box! It’s a leftovers container! It’s plates! We’re sold. Even the NY Daily News was impressed enough to interview the GreenBox’s inventor, William Walsh. According to Walsh, there are 2.3 billion pizza boxes manufactured in the U.S. alone each year. Since NYU students probably account for a good portion of that market, you might be seeing the innovative boxes sometime soon, most likely when drunk and hungry.
Uncategorized - Thursday, October 15, 2009 10:15 - 0 Comments
Nightmare: Vampires Worth Your $15, But Not Your Fright
Halloween in New York is fun enough by itself, but if you’re looking for a more concentrated Halloween experience, a haunted house is something you can spend your hard-earned recession dollars on. Kenny listed the notable ones in the city, and I took it upon myself to visit one. Because haunted houses are usually campy and uncomfortable, Nightmare: Vampires (Broadway & Houston) is predictably fun, but I was more scared waiting in line than I was exiting into the gift shop.
Every year, Nightmare features a different theme based on ideas submitted to them. Since Stephanie Meyer has now successfully turned the masses on to poorly-executed vampire porn in every medium, it’s not surprising they didn’t choose something more original. The haunted house begins as a tour for MoVA, the fake Museum of Vampyric Artifacts. It was a good gimmick, since the quiet and the fake blood felt properly suspenseful.
