July 9, 2008
A two-alarm fire broke out at a 6-floor apartment building on West 148th Street and Riverside Drive around 8:40 p.m., and a man and a 5- or 6-year-old boy died after jumping from the sixth floor. The man, believed to be the boy's godfather, was pronounced dead at the scene while the boy apparently went into cardiac arrest and died at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital. FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief John Scudnik said they couldn't get to the fire escape, "The conditions were probably so unbearable that he probably chose to get out on the window ledge and fell."
Eight people, including two firefighters, were injured in the blaze. Another person, a woman believed to be the boy's mother, tried to get out from a sixth floor bedroom, but was unable to open the window because of the child safety bars and an air-conditioner. Scudnik said, "that probably saved her life."
The fire had started on the fifth floor, but quickly spread to the top floor, and residents said te heat and smoke were intense (the FDNY says the building's alarms were working). They also blamed the building's old wiring.
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Julia Nunes has impressed everyone from Molly Ringwald to Ben Folds to random YouTube spectators, and she's only 19-years-old. The musician composes original music (her debut album Left Right Wrong just came out), but has become an overnight sensation through her original covers of familiar songs -- which she sonically weaves together in upstate New York. Check out her YouTube videos here, her music (both original and covers) here, and catch her live at the Knitting Factory this coming Saturday. She plays the ukulele and beatboxes...which is all the convincing you should need.
How did the YouTube thing get started? I had videos that I was too embarrassed to upload on Facebook, so I'd just put them on YouTube and show them to specific people, as opposed to having every random person from my high school that has ever checked my Facebook page witness my semi-private warblings. That plan obviously didn't pan out the way I expected.
How did you get into the ukulele? Ukulele was a product of boredom. I found one at a music store while a friend was taking eons to pick out a guitar. I bought it and ended up playing it in the car a lot. I stuck with it cause... i mean...it's hilarious.
Are there any other instruments you play, that you plan to incorporate in your videos or live shows? I play guitar, the album's about 50/50 guitar and ukulele. I play piss poor piano, and mediocre melodica (the little piano-looking thing I play in some videos in lieu of a guitar/horn part) but I play them with enthusiasm none the less. I could fake my way through drums and bass, but I decided to let some higher caliber musicians take the reins on the new album, there's like 5 or 6 songs with Todd on bass and Dave on drums. Also, I'm a pretty sick (literally sickening, in a bad way) beatboxer, which is featured in a few videos, and perfected in one of my favorite songs on the new CD.
How long does it take to make one video? About 2 hours if I'm being a decent performer, but if it's one of those days I suck it ends up taking much longer... this is where I reveal my concerning addiction to making videos because I admittedly have canceled social plans or skipped meals to finish a song.
Continue reading "Julia Nunes, Musician"
Photograph of the third Times building climber (see the "T" in "The") by Evan Bindelglass/WCBS 880
So much for the security modifications outside: Over night, a third person managed a climb on the exterior of the New York Times Building on Eighth Avenue at 41st Street in Midtown Manhattan. The first reports of his presence were around 1:30 a.m., and the NY Times reports, "after staying on the building for about four hours, the man surrendered to police officers and was arrested around 5:20 a.m."
The climber is identified as David Malone (pictured). The Daily News says he contacted their paper and "acknowledged he was after the same free publicity the earlier pair [of climbers] received." Mr. Malone, consider it a done deal! From the Daily News:
He hung a banner over the first "T" of The New York Times sign that featured a picture of terror kingpin Osama Bin Laden holding President Bush like a puppet.The News goes onto to say that Malone calls himself a 29-year-old University of Michigan drop out (he dropped out "in 1995 to study Al Qaeda full-time").On it were the words "Bin Laden's Plan" - the title of his book and Web site.
He said he wanted to protest Al Qaeda's "crusader baiting," and that the terror group's "intentional provocation of the U.S." was the greatest threat to American national security.
Malone made it to the 11th floor, unlike professional climber Alain Robert who climbed the whole building first on June 5 and and Rey Clarke, who also scaled the whole height of the building hours after Robert. Apparently the cops cut a whole through a fifth floor window to try and catach Malone, but were unable to. The Times added, "The climbing episodes have at this point become something of an embarrassment for The Times." Or a resounding success to have the most climb-able building ever!
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July 9, 2008
There are signal problems at Times Square, so there are no Times Squard-bound 7 express trains, as of 8:30 a.m. The MTA recommends the E, F, R, and V at Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue as an alternate, as well as the N and W at Queensboro Plaza. Check the MTA's service alerts website for the latest details.
Andy Petitte led the Yankees to victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Mets' Mike Pelfrey shut down the Giants (the Amazin's are a game-and-a-half behind first place!)....
Continue Reading "Last Night's Action: "P" Is For Pitching"July 8, 2008
playing croquet in central park, by Paolo Mastrangelo at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a fire victim on Fountain Ave. in Brooklyn, a shooting on Jersey Street on Staten Island, and a person under a train on the B and D Line at 167th St. in the Bronx. The man who shot the mother of his two children at a NJ YMCA was found in Brooklyn today. Investigators found Kenneth Duckett via a...
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All signs pointed to Ugly Betty taking over DUMBO today (remember, this 3rd season the show has moved filming to New York), and even though the show infiltrated the cobblestone streets, no one really noticed in the sweet shadow of the Van Leeuwan Ice Cream Truck. For fans of Betty, here are some scenes that confused onlookers were treated to...the cast and crew should be out there til around 9 p.m. tonight. America Fererra, Becki...
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Bridal chain David's Bridal is opening its first Manhattan store on Sixth Avenue between West 24th and 25th Streets. Though it's just a few blocks north of Kleinfeld's, Crain's reports that the Pennsylvania-based company feel the area needs a "midtier" bridal resource to complement the upscale offerings. There is a David's Bridal store in Queens, as well as ones in Westchester and NJ. Rebecca Mead wrote about the store for the New Yorker and the wedding industry at large in her book One Perfect Day.
Drinking in New York has long been reserved for private homes or establishments with liquor licenses (or speakeasys!), but how well is the law enforced when it comes to drinking on a stoop or in a public park? Apparently, and unfortunately, the law is still being upheld very well. A few years back the tabloids wondered why cops looked the other way when it came to Chardonnay swilling audiences listening to the symphony in Central...
Continue Reading "Should Public Drinking Be Allowed?"
How much would you pay for free Jon Bon Jovi tickets? This much? As the big Bon Jovi concert approaches tickets to the free show are going for as much as $1500/pair, The NY Post reports. The show is going down this Saturday on the Great Lawn in Central Park, and an additional lot of tickets will be released at the Javits Center this Friday (more details at MLB.com). Hardcore fans of Jon Bon...
Continue Reading "Many Bon Jovi Fans Paying for Free Show"
An American Airlines flight from Miami to LaGuardia Sunday night was canceled due to the passengers' collective rudeness. Fox 5 has it that a flight crew was so late getting to the plane that upon arrival they were greeted with raucous booing from the impatient passengers. So the crew decided to teach the rabble a lesson in manners and refused to work the flight for the “hostile mob.” A replacement flight crew could not be...
Continue Reading "American Flight to LaGuardia Cancelled Over Booing"
Photo of a Central Park raccoon from ñ's flickr Human intruders aren't the only worry amongst New Yorkers--now wildlife is encroaching upon residences throughout the city, especially in Brooklyn. Many blogs have been reporting neighborhood sightings, and now the NY Times jumps in with a look at raccoons paying visits to human neighbors. One Midwood family who found raccoons in their attic laughed it off while they called in a wildlife trapper, cut down...
Continue Reading "Rocky Raccoon Checked into his...Brownstone?"
Tired of wasting their talents on such frivolities as Wii tennis tournaments and water gun wars, equities lawyer Franz Aliquo and Thrillist editor Steve Bryant have gotten serious with an ambitious “Rental Car Rally,” which will pit 60 teams of drivers in a road race from New York City to Montreal this August. Because with gas costing over $4.50 a gallon and global warming leaving civilization almost certainly doomed, what could be more amusing than...
Continue Reading "Rental Car Rally Planned from NYC to Montreal"
You knew it would come to this: Spitzer paramour Ashley Dupré is trying to parlay her infamy into regular fame with a career in reality television. Her lawyer says the former escort has “prospects for many exciting new projects” and she's headed to Hollywood. Though “a rep” for Dupre (presumably one rep on a team of many) admits she doesn’t quite have a TV deal yet, E! News is reporting that a dating show may be in development: "They are talking to MTV about Ashley being the next Tila Tequila." Anyone else relieved to have absolutely no clue what that means?
The former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, George Marlin, is urging federal investigators to look into WTC rebuilding delays, since seven years after the WTC attacks, Ground Zero is mostly still a giant hole. Marlin is recommending that the feds look into the delays as beyond a matter of bureaucratic wrangling and incompetence, but an issue of criminal wrongdoing that could include waste, fraud, abuse, and the the...
Continue Reading "Ground Zero Delays May Be Criminal"