(photo: John Ambrosio)
The idea of regularly tuning into a late-night public access show could cause some to raise their eyebrows, but rest assured MNN’s weekly comedy/variety show The Special Without Brett Davis, which replaced The Chris Gethard Show upon its move to the Fusion network, is nothing boring. Unless it’s trying to be.
(Photo: Jaime Cone)
If you walked down East 2nd Street today you may have noticed retro cops wandering around for the filming of the HBO show Deuce, but unfortunately no sign of James Franco and his porn ‘stache. As with last week’s shoot, there were some pretty sweet vintage rides, though.
People say we’re living in a golden era of television and that’s apparently true: not only is Television playing a rare (free!) gig at the House of Vans in October (if you failed to RSVP, they’re also doing a Boston date), but the band’s ex-guitarist, Richard Lloyd, is playing Bowery Electric later in the month.
Jonathan C. Stewart, actor who plays Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel in the new AMC series,The Making of the Mob (Photo: Nicole Disser)
(Photo: Daniel Maurer)
The Fillmore East’s new plaque wasn’t the only historical marker unveiled in recent days — last week, while we were trying to score tickets for Television and Joshua Light Show (some footage of the show here), we noticed this stately statue of Mike Tyson outside of Skirball Center, across from Washington Square Park. After we did a double take like Little Mac getting clocked in the jaw by Iron Mike, it was obvious this was just a promotion for his new Adult Swim show, Mike Tyson Mysteries, which — as Tyson himself has noted — is a trippy version of Scooby-Doo meets A-Team. When we walked by yesterday, the statue had vanished.
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The Slap location-seeking flyer, spotted on Grand Street, Williamsburg (Photo: Daniel Maurer)
Gird your lofts. North Brooklyn is set to be enshrined (yet again) in the ageless portals of our most glorious medium—I’m talking of course of television—in a pair of NBC/Universal productions currently in pre-production. And the studio wants YOU to help make it happen.
Location scouts for both The Slap (a miniseries based on Christos Tsiolkas’ celebrated novel of the same name) and Mr Robot (a pilot about a young, socially awkward programmer who decides he can only connect to people by hacking them) have been loitering and flyer-posting in the Williamsburg/Bushwick vicinity.
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Photo: Kate Beaudoin
When the smell of horse shit blasted us in the face as we walked through the East Village today, we wondered whether Mayor De Blasio had given up the fight to ban horse and carriages. Turns out it was just ABC filming its upcoming TV show Forever.
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This has to be the next best thing to seeing the Shitty Pixies live: next month, you’ll be able to listen to the real Pixies on Output’s bone-rattling sound system. Classic Album Sundays, an international series of listening parties for classic albums, is back at Output’s Panther Room. Next up, on March 23: a session for Television’s brilliant Marquee Moon, moderated by Bryan Waterman, who authored the 33 1/3 book about the album (he’s also interviewing onetime Television member Richard Hell at The Strand next week).
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If you missed your chance to dine with Richard Hell, you’ll have a chance to see him for free tomorrow night when the punk-rock royal signs copies of his autobiography I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp (just released in paperback) at powerHouse Arena in Dumbo. The East Villager’s former band, Television, played its first show at CBGB 40 years ago this month.
That momentous performance may well be talked about during his interview Tuesday with Robert Christgau, who spent more than three decades as The Village Voice‘s chief music critic. Following the discussion, Hell will answer a few questions from the audience before signing books, according to powerHouse Arena’s events coordinator, Justin Levine.
Seating for the event, which goes from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., is available on a first-come, first-serve basis; reservations are encouraged via RSVP@powerHouseArena.com.
If you’d rather see him in Manhattan, he’ll be at The Strand on March 20, in conversation with Bryan Waterman, who penned the 33 1/3 about Television’s Marquee Moon album.
(Photos: Eileen Polk)
When Judy Garland, Kirk Douglas, Liz Taylor and the glitterati of the ‘50s wanted to walk on the wild side, they headed to the East Village’s Club 82, “New York’s After-Dark Rendezvous.” The notoriety of the basement club, at 82 East Fourth Street, came from its elaborate stage shows performed by 35 female impersonators. Strippers, dancers, comedians and singers, all men in drag, staged three shows nightly, seven days a week well into the ‘60s, when the novelty wore off and the club’s popularity faded.
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