Results tagged “photos”

       

Purgatorio, the new multi-level erotic haunted house from the people behind exclusive raunch den The Box, is open for business for just a few more days, disappearing permanently into oblivion after Halloween. We've already shown you the necrophilia promo video, but here's a closer look at some of what your $39.99 will get you. A couple weeks ago we were all set to attend the opening party hosted by Perez Hilton, but at the last minute we couldn't make it up to Times Square. Family emergency. NOT because we were scared... of just about everything in that last sentence.

       

In the same way that Radiohead's seminal album OK Computer perfectly articulated the industrialized world's millennial unease, one Gothamist reader's photograph of a rat stuck in an Upper West Side sidewalk has become a universal metaphor for the pitfalls of urban living. We are all rats, trapped by the, um, race—until the city swallows us up and turns our death into a ridiculous website meme. Our inbox continues to pile up with submissions from readers around the world, who are immortalizing the poor rodent's passing with Photoshop.

              

One of the season's more buzzed-about restaurant openings is The Breslin, which will soon be joining Stumptown in the trendy Ace Hotel in the Flatiron District. The hype in this case is not without reason, as the proprieters here are restaurateur Ken Friedman and chef April Bloomfield, of The Spotted Pig fame.

Saturday night's New York Wine and Food Festival dessert extravaganza, SWEET, wasn't a competition, but Anne Thorton's offering had people raving, and her table was cleaned out long before the night's end. So we're calling her the winner. Thorton's the pastry chef and event manager at Hotel Griffou, which has become both a trendy nightspot and critical punching bag (Pete Wells at the Times says, "I was treated worse each time I showed up.") We've never checked into Hotel Griffou, so we were pleasantly surprised to find Thorton's dessert—Salted Caramel Banana Pudding Pie—outshining chefs from such critical darlings as Locanda Verde and Per Se (not that their creations were anything to sneeze at, either.)

       

Most people dig good wine and food, so the New York Wine and Food Festival seems like a guaranteed winner, with myriad events over the weekend devoted to savoring both things to the max. But the word "festival" is a little more ambiguous, and depending on which event you attend, that last F in NYWFF can sometimes stand for "Fuuuuuckingcrowded!" Last night's kick-off at Chelsea Market was swarming with foodiots and not for the agoraphobic; at times it got so packed that the festive vibe almost turned surly—particularly when a certain someone elbowed that woman's wine glass. (Sorry!)

       

Those tabloid bottom-feeders at the Daily News are so desperate for page views that they've been reduced to publishing a gratuitous photo spread documenting the release of the 2010 Hooters calender. It's far beneath Gothamist's dignity to link to such lowbrow frat-bait, but we have taken the time to gather some photos from the event—just so you can fully understand the shameless hucksterism that's gripped the Zuckerman organization. We've also got some barely SFW video below, too... for reference.

       

Remember Center Cut, the eco-friendly but still murderous steakhouse that restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow opened last year? It looked spectacular, but some critics found the space cold, the menu uneven and overpriced. So Chodorow cut it from his portfolio and changed the emphasis to bounty from the sea. The new venture is called Ed's Chowder House, and the eponymous "Ed" is chef Edward G. Brown, who's well-respected for his meticulous seafood sourcing; he also runs the kitchen at Michelin Star-rated restaurant eighty one.

              

Park(ing) Day always goes by so quickly! One minute you're swimming in a ball pit in SoHo, and the next minute the tyranny of parked cars has returned to our city's streets. Viva la Park(ing) Revolution! Here are some more photos of yesterday's whimsical fun, which transformed over 50 spaces usually occupied by motor vehicles into imaginative urban oases.

     

It's Park(ing) Day, the most wonderful day of the year for people who like sitting in the street. Did you get everything you wanted under the Park(ing) tree? Here are the first photos from the day's festivities, which involve the imaginative transformation of over 50 drab, lifeless parking spots throughout NYC into spontaneous "park" installations.

Park(ing) Day is observed tomorrow in New York City and in other cities around the world. The international holiday, which turns boring old asphalt parking spaces into whimsical urban oases, was started back in 2005 by Transportation Alternatives and Rebar, a San Francisco-based art and design collective. It became an annual event, and every year the curbside creations have gotten more elaborate and inspired. Last year saw parking spaces transformed into such curiosities as a meditation garden, a geodesic dome, and an urban arbor.

       

Opening "softly" tomorrow, A Voce Columbus is the new big sister location of the cozier A Voce in the Flatiron District. The original location made a big name for chef Andrew Carmellini, who is currently saving Robert De Niro's restaurant reputation at Locanda Verde in the Greenwich Hotel. Then came chef Missy Robbins, who joined A Voce after her tour as Executive Chef at the Obamas' favorite Chicago restaurant, Spiaggia.

FDNY officials have confirmed that no one was injured in yesterday morning's spectacular taxi fire, but they have yet to determine the inferno's cause. According to the Post, a passenger was in the cab when it ignited around 9:30 a.m., while stopped at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 53rd Street. Apparently, the cabby pulled over at the light because his meter had stopped running, and both escaped the 2007 Ford Crown Victoria as it burst into flames.

Looks like lovely weather for the kick-off to the second annual Summer Streets tomorrow! Starting at 7 a.m., the city will temporarily close Park Avenue and connecting streets from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park, displacing motor vehicles and welcoming pedestrians, cyclists, joggers, skateboarders and other non-combustion engine participants. Penny farthing, anyone?

       

On the first non-rainy night in what seemed like centuries, DUMBO Fight Night made its outdoor debut under the recently-reopened Manhattan Bridge Archway. Fighters from DUMBO’s Gleason’s Gym and other corners of the Tri-State area hopped into the red, white, and blue ring for 16 bouts of amateur boxing to raise money for the DUMBO Improvement District.

Two female assistants to a hedge fund financier are suing for sexual harassment because he made one of them develop topless photos of his wife and, when she delivered the racy pics, allegedly gave her "a perverted smirk" and asked, "You liked them, didn't you?" Danielle Pecile, 26, and Cristina Culicea, 27, filed a joint lawsuit with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—Culicea says she was harassed when Titan Capital CEO Russell Abrams tasked her to develop a photo of him and his newlywed Sandra in a bathtub.

       

We thought our old roommate who left behind a used condom in a dust bunny after he moved out was disgusting, but he seems like a paragon of good hygiene compared to these revolting animals, who are competing for "bragging rights" (and $1,000) in a nationwide "Dirtiest Apartment" contest. Two of the finalists hail from right here in Brooklyn, and the Daily News gave one of them, 29-year-old Lisa Henderson, her 15 minutes of shame (photo #3). She wouldn't let the tabloid's photographer shoot inside, however, because her mommy had just arrived from Arkansas to clean up her adult daughter's mess. On the contest's website, Henderson explains the wretched squalor:

Continue reading "Brooklyn Slobs Make Finals In Filthiest Apartment Contest!"

     

Every year July we love seeing photos from the 12-day Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and San Paolino in Williamsburg. And this year we're enjoying an added bonus: video of the crazy “Dance of the Giglio,” during which, according to Giglio USA, a five ton platform bearing a five story hand-sculptured tower and a 12-piece brass band is lifted by 125 brawny men who carry it on their shoulders through the neighborhood in tempo to Italian folk songs. Or, as depicted here, the theme from Rocky, which at this point might as well be considered traditional Italian music. The video was taken right at the climactic moment when the Giglio meets "la barca"; i.e. "the boat." (More background on the tradition here.)

              

Confirming the worst fears of many hipster analysts, long-simmering tensions between rival cardboard tube factions erupted into full-scale war on Sunday, with many women and children caught in the crossfire. Photojournalist Katie Sokoler risked grave injury to bring us these shocking photographs from the front lines; she reports that the casualties were innumerable, and only one young girl (photo 2) emerged triumphant from the cardboard carnage, smiting her foes with pitiless cruelty: "The guys were scared of her, she had no shame in aiming for the crotch." Sokoler also reports that the remaining survivors "helped to clean up and recycle the cardboard after the event."

       

Down the block from the New York Stock Exchange, across the street from Claremont Prep School, and hidden behind construction scaffolding on the second floor of the Setai Hotel, you'll find one of the city's best new fine dining restaurants: SHO Shaun Hergatt, which quietly opened last month. And despite its elegant interior and formal service, it's not as out of touch with the economy as you might expect; at $69, Chef Hergatt's three course prix fixe is actually a good deal, considering the impeccable quality of the ingredients and dazzling execution.

       

Here's Bar Luna, the casual Upper West Side wine bar that opened recently in the space formerly occupied by the Neptune Room on Amsterdam Avenue. There was a bit of a delay last month when owner Turgut Balikci, who cut his teeth twenty years ago with Bella Luna on Columbus Avenue, sent out an email canceling the opening because of a liquor license issue. But a source tells the Village Voice that the opening was actually pushed back because the chef, Sean Chudoba (who ran the kitchen at Balikci's restaurant AYZA) quit at the last minute. Bar Luna is now up and running with chef Jacque Belanger (West Branch), whom Balicki says is "better suited for the style of restaurant, and more experienced in the neighborhood."

       

Charlie Palmer—chef, restaurateur, frequent Today Show guest and owner of a dozen restaurants nationwide—isn't afraid of a challenge, but his ambitious new endeavor must take nerves of steel in this economy: After two decades in a townhouse on the Upper East Side, he's relocated his popular restaurant Aureole to a flashy new home in the Bank of America tower at One Bryant Park. Unabashedly elegant, the new Aureole hearkens back to a more ebullient era, when opening a fine dining restaurant with a proven track record wasn't quite so fraught with terror. There's been a ton of money sunk into this baby, evident in the oak-clad columns, brushed zinc bar, walnut table tops, leather chairs, the wine mezzanine, and the five custom-made chandeliers. And the downstairs kitchen is massive.

    

Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on the ECO Saver IV! By the end of the year, five of these 42-foot-long hybrid electric babies will be rolled out by NYC Transit, which may purchase as many as 80 if they perform as good as they look. As you can see here, the sleek design is accentuated by a front windshield which curves upward into a smile of blissful environmental friendliness. The Eco Saver IV's electric motor is powered by a battery pack, which is charged by a turbine engine, and Joseph Smith, NYC Transit's bus chief, tells the Daily News, "It's so quiet you don't even know it's running."

       

With monsoon season seemingly on the wane, it's high time we welcomed P.S. 1's annual summertime Young Architects Program, wherein the Long Island City museum invites a design team to transform their giant courtyard into... whatever. This year's project, by the firm MOS, is drolly dubbed Afterparty, a sly nod to P.S. 1's popular afternoon "Warm-Up" music series.

              

We haven't tried the food yet, but The Standard Grill—the new restaurant that officially opened last week on the ground floor of The Standard Hotel—seems to have a lot going for it. Besides being really ridiculously good looking, the joint's timing and location are prime indeed, coinciding with the first section of the High Line park to open to the public. The restaurant, designed by Roman and Williams, is comprised of three distinct spaces: an outdoor dining section, a sun-soaked bistro with tiled floor and a full bar, and a white-tablecloth, fine dining room with red banquettes and orange leather armchairs.

     

As promised back in January, the Brooklyn Cyclones of Coney Island renamed themselves the "Baracklyn" Cyclones last night to honor the 44th President "with a night of patriotic partying at the ballpark." According to the AP, the line to get in stretched for two long blocks down Surf Avenue, with the first 2,500 fans receiving a free Obama bobblehead. Anyone who proved he or she was named Barack got in for free, anyone named McCain or Palin received free bleacher seats, and plumbers named Joe got two free tickets, har. (Like we said, this was announced back in January.)

This generation's obsession with instant nostalgia and visually documenting every part of their daily lives serves as the punchline in this Onion News Network piece. In the story, an NYU dorm is set ablaze during a party, and "after examining the evidence from the 25 iPhones, 15 Blackberries, 10 video cameras and 40 digital cameras obtained from the students who attended the party" the entire event was reconstructed, placing blame on chain smoking 22-year-old Danny Gordon.

                            

"Hey, bro, take my photo! I'm addicted to adrenaline and I burst all the blood vessels in my eye doing back flips!" Such are the strange, close encounters that happen every few steps while one wanders the 700-acres of Tennessee farmland crawling with 75,000 people during this weekend's Bonnaroo music festival. Time and space don't permit a full accounting of all the bizarre sights, sounds, and smells observed during our three days here (there's still one last afternoon of Snoop Dogg, Andrew Bird, Erykah Badu, and Phish ahead), but click through on the photos here for a glimpse at the recession-defying bacchanal. (The adrenaline addict is in there somewhere.)

       

Some 75,000 people from around the world are currently swarming the 8th annual Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee, but from the way they all sang along with the Beastie Boys' classic "No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn," you'd think they were all just on vacation from the county of Kings. Last night the Beastie Boys brought their signature New York flavor to the 700-acre farm, throwing down with a well-balanced mix of crowd-pleasers, including "Paul Revere," "Pass the Mic," and "Shake Your Rump." The big surprise of the set—besides the comically butchered encore of "Sabotage," which completely fell apart both at the beginning and at the climax—was the appearance of Nas, "a special guest from Queensbridge," who isn't even on the Bonnaroo lineup.

              

If you haven't explored the newly-opened section of the High Line park yet, then let Katie Sokoler's stunning photographs take you there. She stopped by last night and tells us they started "shooing everyone away" at 9:45 p.m., so keep that in mind. The first section runs from Gansevoort Street, in the Meatpacking District, to West 20th Street, in Chelsea, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues; here are details about the access points.

       

The Tony Award broadcast usually amounts to a night of boring Broadway boosterism which most Americans happily ignore to watch basketball, but last night viewers actually got a few seconds of drama to go with all the backslapping, as Poison lead singer Bret Michaels got into an exciting accident with a piece of scenery. The "Rock of Love" star was on hand to perform a song with the cast of hair band jukebox musical Rock of Ages; but as you can see from the last few seconds of this video clip, that bit of cross-promotional synergy nearly cost him his life.