The last couple of times we saw Lee Ranaldo, he was out of town– first at an Inauguration Day show in DC where he and his former Sonic Youth bandmate Thurston Moore let their feelings about Trump be known, and then in New Jersey at the Montclair Film Festival, after the premiere of Hello Hello Hello: Lee Ranaldo : Electric Trim, a film that documents the making of the singer/guitarist’s next album.
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Forget Beauty Rest, Judah Friedlander’s Activist Barbie Is Woke As Hell
Even Barbie is snapping out of her dream world and mobilizing against Trumpism. During the past several months, comedian and “World Champion” Judah Friedlander, of 30 Rock fame, has been taking this woke Barbie to protests. “If the only people protesting are the ones who are the direct victims of injustice,” Activist Barbie explains in her Insta bio, “then progress will either never happen or will take much longer.” She was back in action this weekend, during anti-Trump, anti-racism marches that took over the streets of Manhattan. Today, she’s at the UN and Trump World Tower, rallying against war with North Korea.
How an Art Raft Gets Built For a Gonzo DIY Boat Battle in the Rockaways
This year’s Battle For Mau Mau Island, the annual art-raft extravaganza that raged last month in the Rockaways, was as crazy as we showed you last year and the “combatants” had wonderful weather to enjoy it. Nary a cloud could be found in the sky all day as rafts were built and launched into the calm waters of Jamaica Bay. By mid-afternoon enough of them were lashed together to make the Island of Mau Mau, where jousting, swimming races and flag stealing had each team on their pruney toes.
Eccentric Pop-Up Antique Shoppe Coming to LES
Credit: Dr. Jennifer Craig.
Is your apartment missing that certain something? Could that certain something be a turn-of-the-century slide projector? Or mother-of-pearl opera glasses? Or an original Singer sewing machine? Or some steampunk-esque optometry glasses?
Well, you’re in luck. There’s a pop-up antique store coming to the Lower East Side next week, and the highly curated roadshow shoppe, which bills itself as a kind of “cabinet of curiosities,” may have just the eccentric accent your staid apartment needs.
Vermin Got You Squirmin’? Here’s 10 Things We Learned at Rat Academy
Rat Academy graduates collecting their free rat-proof garbage bins. Photo: Shannon Barbour
In a city with as many rats as there are children, New York has taken on several methods of eliminating the pests from city streets, homes and sewers. Birth control, dry ice, and bait have all been employed to curb the ever-growing population. Just last month Mayor de Blasio declared a $32 million war on rats, which has already proven to be successful in the East Village. But rats aren’t going anywhere anytime soon and they’ve even been linked to a Bronx resident who was killed by leptospirosis this year. So last night, a few dozen New Yorkers scurried over to Midtown to attend the third annual Rat Academy and get schooled on all things vermin by a health department rat expert, Caroline Bragdon. Graduates of the talk, hosted by Council Member Corey Johnson, walked away with brand-new rat-proof garbage bins and two hours worth of rat facts. Here are 10 lessons we learned at Rat Academy.
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Bushwick’s Living Gallery Opens an East Village Outpost With BYO Art
(Courtesy of The Living Gallery)
Back in June, when Joseph Meloy and Alexandria Hodgkins saw an ad for a storefront at 53 Avenue B, they fell in love with the building, and understandably so: it’s light purple and its facade has palm tree, heart and animal shapes cast by the landlord, Antonio Echeverri. Within days, the married couple and their business partner, Nyssa Frank, had rented the 250-square-foot storefront to use as a Manhattan outpost of their Bushwick gallery, The Living Space.
Meloy, a native Lower East Sider, felt good about bringing a new art space “back home.”
A Mysterious New Netflix Show Is Filming at Cup and Saucer
It’s been nearly a month since Cup and Saucer went dark after over 75 years, but someone is basking in the diner’s old-school charm today. Specifically, a film crew. That’s right, the vultures location scouts have descended on the Chinatown diner and a new Netflix series is being filmed there. There isn’t much out there about Ronald, but a casting call for a September shoot indicates that the producers, Paramount Television, are looking for “Chinese shop workers,” a “Caucasian female toddler,” and “Japanese lab workers (scientists, doctors, assistants, etc.).”
City Council Passes Sweeping Tenant Protections
Credit: Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center.
The main target of the new legislation is the widespread practice of “construction as harassment,” whereby landlords use invasive, unsafe, and sometimes illegal construction to drive out tenants. Typically the landlords are trying to get rent-regulated tenants out so they can charge market rents.
Tim and Eric Return With a Surprise Special and New Episodes of Bedtime Stories
Bedtime Stories
Between the return of Broad City, Nathan For You, and Vice Principals, September is going to be a good month for TV comedy. And we won’t even have to wait that long for the comeback of one of our other favorites, Tim and Eric. Those who attended their 10th anniversary show at Town Hall last month got a surprise glimpse of this and were sworn to secrecy; now the duo has officially revealed a teaser for a half-hour special of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! that will premiere Sunday, August 27 at midnight on Adult Swim.
‘Search Party’ and ‘Broad City’ Return With New Seasons, Sex Toys
Last we heard about the new season of Search Party, co-creator Michael Showalter was saying it would return to TBS sometime this fall. Well, the new season– or, at least, John Early’s part in it– wrapped today, according to a hilarious Instagram from the show’s robot-dancing co-star. (By the way, if you haven’t seen Early in Showalter’s other recent release, Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later, stop what you’re doing and binge watch it now. Aside from Early’s turn as Camp Firewood’s drama-queen drama teacher, Kim’s Video makes an amazing cameo in the first episode.)
Meadows Fest Releases Food Lineup, Webster Hall Finale Tix
We’re still recovering from Panorama— maybe we spent too much time in the VR dome, but things still haven’t stopped spinning. But duty calls: The Meadows, from the folks behind Governors Ball, is right around the corner– it’s bringing acts like Jay-Z, Weezer, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Run the Jewels, Gorillaz, and many more to CitiField from Sept. 15 to 17.
There’s some news coming out of camp Meadows today: first off, some more tickets have just been released for the Action Bronson show that the fest is presenting at Webster Hall tonight– the storied venue’s last blast before it gets a revamp from its new owners, AEG.
It’s Showtime! Beetlejuice Screens Outdoors Tonight, and Gets a Doc
It’s showtime!
SummerScreen shows its audience pick tonight, and Beetlejuice has beaten out The Life Aquatic, She’s All That, and a few others in this year’s online poll. Either that, or someone said Beetlejuice three times in a row and Tim Burton’s 1988 classic magically appeared on SummerScreen’s slate. Either way, go see Alec Baldwin in one of his most enduring roles (this was way before his Trump impersonation turned his life into a “living nightmare”).