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‘He’s One of the Good Guys’: Lower East Siders Recall Filming With Anthony Bourdain

June 14, 2018 By Tara Yarlagadda

Bourdain and Danny Fields (Photo via @anthonybourdain on Instagram)

Back in April, Anthony Bourdain visited some of his old stomping grounds (and new ones) in the East Village and Lower East Side for an episode of Parts Unknown, chatting with numerous local characters along the way. It’s unclear what will happen with this and other episodes Bourdain was filming prior to his unexpected death last week, so we spoke with some of the featured artists and business owners about their experiences with a reporter and raconteur who was known for keeping it real.

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Tags: anthony bourdain, Art + Culture, clayton patterson, Crime + Community, East Village, Lower East Side, Outlaw Art Museum, Overthrow Boxing Club, veselka

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Bushwick’s Marathon Free Rock Show Survives a Cancer Scare

June 14, 2018 By Nick McManus

The attendees of Color Me Bushwick 2017, 6/3/17 at 5p.

We Color Live celebrates their fifth annual Color Me Bushwick this weekend with 24 bands starting this Friday through Sunday. Held in Pickthorn Salon’s back room, the three-day concert will celebrate its fifth year as well as co-founder Chelsey Pickthorn’s recent recovery from breast cancer.

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Astor Place’s Insta-Famous Rhino Sculpture Trots Off

June 13, 2018 By Tara Yarlagadda

The empty Astor Place, where ‘The Last Three’ once stood. (Photo: Tara Yarlagadda)

“Oh no, Jerry!” The 93-year-old woman in Washington Square Park called out to her husband, who was similarly distraught. I had just informed the passing couple that The Last Three—an installation in nearby Astor Place featuring three bronze, life-sized rhinos piled topsy-turvy on top of each other—was about to be taken down. The anguish was evident on their faces—and mine.

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Tags: Art + Culture, astor place, East Village, sculpture, the last three

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Pretty Sweet: Williamsburg’s New Waterfront Wonderland, Domino Park

June 13, 2018 By Scott Lynch

(Photos: Scott Lynch)

South Williamsburg’s Domino Park is finally finished and open to the public, and it is a gleaming example of what approximately $50 million can do with six acres of prime waterfront property. Funded entirely by Brooklyn mega-developers Two Trees Management, who are also responsible for the mini-city of luxury apartments springing up where the Domino Sugar Factory once stood, this undeniably lovely quarter-mile park and esplanade amounts to a fantastic amenity to all new and future residents of site. Fortunately for the rest of us, it’s one amenity that they have to share with the public.

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Dog Haus Is Giving Away Free Franks at Its New Soho Pop-Up

June 12, 2018 By Daniel Maurer

(Photos courtesy of Dog Haus)

As you may have noticed on Instagram, a so-called Hot Dog Bus has been dishing out free franks in Brooklyn Bridge Park, and will continue to do so every weekend through August. But what about Manhattanites who don’t want to fork over their hard-earned ducats for a dog? Enter Dog Haus, a Cali transplant that’ll be giving away freebies when it launches today, June 12.

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Classic Japanese Studio Ghibli Films Like Spirited Away Return to the Big Screen

June 11, 2018 By Tara Yarlagadda

A rendering of the characters from the Studio Ghibli Film “My Neighbor Totoro.” (Image Credit: City Cinemas)

Fans of beloved Japanese storyteller Hayao Miyazaki, who produced some of the world’s most iconic animated films, will be delighted to see his quintessential works and others from the Japanese company Studio Ghibli returning to the Village East Cinema this summer. During the height of Miyazaki’s tenure at Studio Ghibli, the filmmaker was lauded for his visually stunning movies featuring gutsy female heroines that struck at the wide range of the human experience, spanning whimsical family tales in My Neighbor Totoro to grim government spies and giant robots in Castle in the Sky.

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Tags: Anime, Arts + Culture, East Village, Hayao Miyazaki, Japanese film, spirited away, studio ghibli

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How Hillary Clinton Inspired a Hilarious Reimagining, Everyone’s Fine With Virginia Woolf

June 11, 2018 By Angelica Frey

What do Tennessee Williams, slash fiction, and the comment sections of family-planning sites have in common? Well, they’re all widely discussed in Everyone’s Fine with Virginia Woolf, Kate Scelsa’s bitingly hilarious riff on Edward Albee’s 1962 classic Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

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Mad Props: Acme Studio Leaves Williamsburg For Bushwick

June 8, 2018 By Cassidy Dawn Graves

(image courtesy of Brian Colgan)

What may be the “most unique studio in New York” (and the only one to continually throw a party featuring a live llama) has left its longtime home on Williamsburg’s North 3rd Street and Kent Avenue. As of June 1, ACME Studio has moved its operations entirely to its Bushwick warehouse location on Meserole Street, as well as consolidated its business to focus on props. Keep Reading »

Tags: acme studio, brian colgan, Bushwick, moving, photography, prop rental, shawn patrick anderson, Williamsburg

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Meet the Artist Behind the Dreamy New Light Installation in Prospect Park

June 8, 2018 By Tara Yarlagadda

HEDERA (Grimanesa Amorós Studio)

When I met Grimanesa Amorós on a wet spring day, she was dressed in a cozy jacket, red scarf and thick galoshes perfect for sloshing around in the mud. The artist had come prepared.

Amorós greeted me warmly, like an old friend, as she gave me a preview of HEDERA, the latest in a long line of other-worldly light installations that have been displayed across the world from the Middle East to Latin America.

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The ‘Beard Bros’ of Beach Volleyball Are Winning Online and in the Sand

June 8, 2018 By Mathew Silver

(Photos: Mathew Silver)

The McKibbin brothers are changing the game of beach volleyball, though not necessarily for their play in the sand. Instead, the Hawaiian brothers, who compete together on the pro circuit, are slowly emerging as social media stars. Riley, 29, and Maddison, 27, also known as the “Beard Bros” for the grizzly facial hair that has become a part of their brand identity, create beach volleyball content that seeks to educate and entertain. They upload how-to videos, which explain techniques such as passing, hitting, and defense; or use vlogs (video blogs) to showcase life on the professional volleyball tour. Most recently, a video on their YouTube channel, which features former NBA player Richard Jefferson and current Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton, has registered more than 93,000 views.

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After Shutdown, Brooklyn Venue The Gateway Turns to Crowdfunding to Reopen

June 7, 2018 By Cassidy Dawn Graves

From left: Nelson Antonio Espinal, Rob Granata, Ned Shatzer (Photo: Nicole Disser)

Bushwick/Bed-Stuy venue The Gateway was forced to close on May 23 and has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise the money to reopen, according to an email from the space’s owner Ned Shatzer. Keep Reading »

Tags: bed stuy, Bushwick, closings, crowdfunding, diy, march, music, The Gateway, venues

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Snag a Free Bike Helmet Just in Time For Cycling Season

June 7, 2018 By Daniel Maurer

(via @NYC_DOT on Twitter)

If you’re planning to survive the L-pocalpyse by taking advantage of those new bike lanes and jumping on a two-wheeled steed for the first time, you’ll want to grab a helmet first. Biking in this town is not a breeze. (Especially when you get stuck behind an exhaust-spewing city bus– then there’s truly no breeze at all.) Lucky for you, the Department of Transportation is giving away free helmets this summer.

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