Results tagged “nativeamerican”

continues to embarrass the book publishing industry. Writer Margaret Jones, who told her publisher she was a half-white, half-Native American raised by a black foster family in South Central L.A. and former Bloods gang member, was exposed as Margaret Seltzer, white private school graduate from Sherman Oaks, California.

Fox’s New Amsterdam (Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., WNYW 5) sounds like a mashup of Pocahontas and Forever Knight, but with out the animation or the vampires. The story for this new series starts in 1642 when a Dutch soldier (Danish import Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) saves a Native American girl and is given the gift/curse of immortality and not ageing until he finds his true love. Fast forward to today and that soldier is now NYPD homicide detective John Amsterdam, who now has to deal with a new partner (British import Zuleikha Robinson).

New York may have a casino in Vegas, but it has never had one in...New York. Well, not in quite some time -- though it is documented that there were casinos on Broadway in SoHo in the early 1800s (and of course in the 1900s there were places like Chumley's that secretly served as gambling dens). To legally gamble within city limits these days you only have a couple of options: OTB or the NY State Lottery.

, an engrossing and greatly entertaining account of not just Fillmore's presidency, but also his life, travels, and observations of 19th century politics and social moirés. Alone, Pendle's work amounts to only small bites out of this great injustice; the real change comes when you devour this book.

A look at some noteworthy television this week:

When I think of the word clown, I think of Krusty, not a small theater in West Chelsea, but that's exactly where one of the premiere clowns of our time, Eric Davis , works as a teacher at The PIT . Davis, who was recently hired by Cirque Du Soleil, discussed what clowning means to him, how he became the clown he is today, and what he expects of clowning in the future.

The Met just opened a new exhibit called “Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall: An Artist’s Country Estate” on Tuesday. Many aspects of Tiffany’s home (which took 3 years to build, from 1902 to 1905) are represented. The 84-room, eight-level house was nearly 600 acres overlooking Long Island Sound, was in Oyster Bay, New York. Tiffany himself designed the home inside and out, and this exhibition is a window into his art, through design, furniture and landscape.

For those who plan on commuting to or from the Upper East Side many years from now, you have something to look forward to - oh, and those of you living along Second Avenue, you might be annoyed - the MTA is getting ready to award a tunneling contract for the Second Avenue Subway's first phase this year, with digging actually starting in 2008, which means there's still time to relocate! Phase 1 of the long-long-gestating project would start at East 96th Street and go down to East 72nd Street, and make a connection to the East 63rd Street tracks. The only thing standing in the way may be Native American villages and burial grounds. The Post reports that the MTA will have archeologists "on hand to halt the massive tunnel-boring machine at the first sign of artifacts dating back hundreds of years." The MTA probably learned their lesson after coming across the big wall in Battery Park while trying to expand the South Ferry station.

Via Kottke: AssembleMe put together a nice set of NYC population graphs for the NYC Demographics page on Wikipedia. What impressed us what how dominant Brooklyn has been in population for the last 90 years-- although it looks like Queens is closing in, having passed Manhattan in the late 1960s. Even Staten Island is closing in on Manhattan-- maybe it's the rent prices!

We've done tons of census race-data maps before, but this one at Webfoot is particularly well-built. One thing we learned right away: not too many Native American neighborhoods in the five-boroughs. There are, however, at least six high-density Asian spots. We've identified three-- can you name the rest? [Related: if you have Google Earth, Goth reader Phillip Gross suggests this cool census data overlay for similar information goodness.]

JC: ALL RIGHT! I just took extra Vitamin C - I'm waiting for some food delivery.

With fallen DC lobbyist Jack Abramoff's plea deal freaking out the Beltway, people would expect him to turn over Republican congressmen Tom DeLay and Bob Ney. But Gothamist wondered if any of our area politicians were involved. And, naturally, some were, which isn't surprising given money Abramoff had at his disposal (through Abramoff's organization, about $915,000 went to Republicans in Congress, while $770,000 or so went to Democrats; however, Abramoff's personal contributions seem to be limited to Republicans themselves - about $127,000 worth). Newsday reports that Representative Charles Rangel was the top New York receipient of Abramoff's largesse, getting $36,000; he was followed by "Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-Rochester) at $7,000 and Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Westchester) at $2,000":

Rangel, who has not been implicated in any wrongdoing, said he is unfairly in the spotlight because of Abramoff's actions. "Don't know him, never met him, never took a dime from him," said the senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

Continue reading "NY Politicians in Abramoff's Web"

See Fred on SNL this weekend, with host Christina Aguilera (expect a lot of singing, possible Britney and Kelly Osbourne spoofs) and musical guests Maroon 5, whose lead singer sounds like Jay Kay from Jamiroquai.

Taking a play out of fashion industry's notebook, the U.S. Mint continues its effort to sex up its image by introducing not one but TWO new nickels next year, one for the spring, the other for fall. The nickels will still have Thomas Jefferson's profile, but the backs are new, both with events from Jefferson's presidency. The Spring Nickel celebrates the bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States as well as displaced Native Americans, thus one Native American hand and one military hand. Fall Nickel celebrates Lewis and Clark's journey through the Pacific Northwest; the image on the nickel is of Lewis's Keelboat. The Mint has an explanation of the Keelboat, but it basically looks like a boat you use when you're trying to explore the Pacific Northwest in the early 1800s.

Tonight marks the premiere of Comedy Central's new show, I'm With Busey, where a Busey fan hangs with Gary Busey. Phil Gallo of Variety says it might be addicting: