Results tagged “spring”

Mother Nature sure has a funny sense of humor, sending a snow shower our way almost to the minute of the vernal equinox. The shortwave pulse of energy responsible for the shower will quickly move through the region and the sun is likely to return late this afternoon. The clouds and northerly winds will keep today's high in the mid 40s.

Winter is ending with barely a whimper this week. The best the dissipated season can throw at us is a weak front later today and another minor cold front on Thursday.

Instead of another disappointing coastal storm that have been so common this winter, today brings us a storm that's much more spring-like in nature. The storm, which brought a killer tornado to Oklahoma overnight is bringing a variety of spring weather to the East coast today and tomorrow. For starters, it's warm air from the Gulf coast. Look for a high this afternoon in the upper 50s to lower 60s. Heck, JFK already set a record high of 61 this morning.

Staten Island Chuck proclaimed that spring is coming this morning at the Staten Island Zoo's Groundhog Day festivities. The Staten Island Advance reports that the interaction between Chuck and the mayor was pretty amusing, "Though Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried luring Chuck out of his house with an ear of corn, Chuck snapped at the mayor's hand, grabbed the tasty treat and ran back in. As Bloomberg reached for him, the groundhog tried hiding in the corner before eventually being lifted out." Heh! And phorget Phil: The Pennsylvania groundhog thinks there's six more weeks of winter—he's such a Debbie Downer!

After twelve years, 5,124 performances and a haul of $280 million, Rent's Broadway run has come to an end. The musical closed yesterday after a final sold-out performance packed with diehard fans (the "Rentheads") and a smattering of celebrities (a couple Gossip Girl cast members). Just before the curtain came down for the final time, members of the show's original company joined the current cast on stage to "Seasons of Love," one of the show's most famous songs, the Associated Press reports.

US surface weather map from Weather.com

       

The effect of a well-trafficked park under renovation really doesn't come into full relief until the spring, when the absence of greenery and flowers seems less like a normal part of urban living and more of a desecration of greenspace. The renovation of Washington Square Park continues at full tilt, however, as the fountain is reoriented centrally and the rest of the park is reordered to be greener and less anarchical. The Square used to be a potter's graveyard before it became a fashionable address. New York City's inexorable desire for change marches on.

Today's weather word is rain. The chance of rain will start increasing in the mid-afternoon. The city should see a steady rain beginning this evening and lasting until tomorrow morning. Up to an inch of rain is possible.

A pleasant day is in store for today and tomorrow, with a brief interruption in between. A gentle southerly breeze and a day of sun should warm the city up to near 60 degrees this afternoon. A decaying cold front arrives tonight and brings with it a slight chance of rain. The rain, if it even happens, shouldn't occur until after tonight's game at Shea.

Finally, a beautiful, warm spring day! It will be on the breezy side today, but the sun will shine and the high will be around 60. Although the city has been cooler than normal for the past few days, March is on track to be slightly warmer than average.

The last full day of winter is going to be wet. A low pressure system is moving up through Pennsylvania today as it heads toward the Canadian Maritimes. Steady rain and fog are expected to continue over the city through noon. The warm front that projects off the low should arrive early this afternoon. Once it does the steady rain will turn showery. Showers will last until a cold front sweeps through tomorrow morning. Late tonight some of those showers could be in the form of a thunderstorm. An excellent way to herald the vernal equinox at 1:48 a.m. EDT!

Of the four seasons, it is winter that departs most grudgingly. And that was an intense wind late Saturday night! Western New York and Ohio beared the brunt of the weekend storm, with Columbus receiving a record 20 inches. Across the Atlantic our weekend storm is now striking the UK, which was reeling from a weekend storm of their own.

Today's weather is a winner! Sunny and warm with a high in the mid-50s. Enjoy it if you can as tomorrow and Wednesday will feature varying degrees of wetness.

Elettaria: Hendrix shredded here once upon a time, when it was a music venue called The 8th Wonder, but now the stage is an open kitchen and South Asian-spiced American dishes are the stars. Decorated by the man behind Allen & Delancey, the seductive 72-seat interior (pictured) features a rustic reclaimed barn-wood ceiling, plush banquettes, old-world paintings and exposed brick walls. Appetizers include a dish of dayboat sea scallops with celery root puree, oxtail, Meyer lemon and cilantro leaves, while entrées like roasted chicken with sweet and sour tomato ravioli and smoked sunchokes sound irresistible. Behind the 14-seat steel bar, Death & Co. alums concoct their fancy cocktails. 33 West Eighth Street, (212) 677-3833.

No "Lost" spoilers in this post. Stephen Merritt doesn't bring the band around too often, so it's always a treat when The Magnetic Fields take the stage in town. Despite the band hailing from Brooklyn, this is the first local show they've played in quite a few years, and the sold-out 4 night run at Town Hall did not disappoint the anxious fans. While their latest album, Distortion, casts a fuzzy haze over the otherwise deliberate, straight forward folk/pop tunes; the live show stripped them down completely, leaving nothing but acoustic instruments and voices. Every song comes across sharp, witty and with complete confidence, and manage to sound universally better then they ever do on record. (pic via coeur-sang's flickr)

At the southeast corner of Lafayette and Spring in the SoHo-Nolita area, some sort of event (explosion?) occurred to knock off the heavy grates off the surface. The FDNY and NYPD closed down the street; it didn't look like a steampipe explosion or water main break (no water) - it looks more like an underground transformer vault (if anyone knows what these are, let us know in comments) explosion. The 6 line does run underneath, but there do not seem to be any delays.

Last decade's decrepit property along a foully polluted industrial canal is just next decade's prime waterfront lots, ready for development by one the nation's premiere luxury homebuilders. The Gowanus Lounge uncovered a "scoping" document filed with the Department of City Housing by the Toll Brothers construction company. The early renderings portray a spread of mixed-use development between 2nd and Carroll Sts. and bounded by Bond St. and the Gowanus Canal itself.

READING: Jeff Garigliano, Condé Nast Portfolio senior-editor turned author, will be reading from his debut novel titled Dogface. The story follows a rebellious 14-year-old boy who, like so many before him, gets sent off to a camp that specializes in "whipping mixed-up teens back into shape".

As we mentioned over the weekend, Staten Island Chuck predicted a Giants Super Bowl victory as well as an early spring. He got the football prediction right, but what's the deal with the snow, Chuck? We tried to talk to him but his publicist would not return our calls! That forced us to look at a few weather maps, which led us to see that the snow shower was actually a harbinger of warmer weather to come. Maybe Chuck was right afterall. The snow was the result of anxious warm, moist air riding up and over the departing high pressure system that gave us a sunny day yesterday.

Several hundred people, including Gothamist, gathered at the Staten Island Zoo early this morning to hear a well-fed rodent's forecast for the remainder of the winter. After the Tottenville High School chorus entertained the crowd local dignitaries and elected officials were introduced. Then, the moment everyone was waiting for. A Brownie troop member was enlisted to coax Staten Island Chuck out of his house with the aid of a few peanuts.

Rev up your Manolos (or, whatever), Fashion Week starts tomorrow! A little history: "Fashion Week originally began as 'Press Week' when a well-known fashion publicist named Eleanor Lambert organized the event in 1943. During the 1970s and '80s, designers began to show their collections in lofts, restaurants and clubs across New York City. It wasn't until Fern Mallis, vice president of IMG, the company that produces Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, searched for a venue where all of the shows could be held in a single location. In Spring 1994, Fashion Week as we know it was held in the tents at Bryant Park."

, hit shelves late last year. The tome delves into the cultural history of music since 1900, and even has Björk touting: "Alex Ross's incredibly nourishing book will rekindle anyone's fire for music." Tonight he'll step away from the printed word and you can catch him chatting with Stephen on The Colbert Report.

The tragic death of a construction worker at the Trump Soho building has put the spotlight on the spotty history of a contractor on the project. On Monday afternoon, a worker, Yuriy Vanchytskyy (pictured below), fell 42 stories to his death when the molds he and other workers were pouring concrete into broke, causing a collapse into lower floors.

RENT, the surprise smash hit musical that premiered in 1996 and went on to become the seventh-longest-running Broadway show in history, will close June 1st, producers have announced. Over the years the show cultivated a fanatical army of young repeat viewers (“Rentheads”) whose ardor has translated into profits of $280 million on Broadway, four Tony awards and a Pulitzer. Productions have been mounted on six continents, while an ill-conceived movie version of the show, filmed in San Francisco, opened in 2005 to widespread derision. And the musical was also famously parodied by the South Park creators in their film Team America, which depicts the faux-hip cast of the Broadway show LEASE belting the show’s climactic chorus, “Everyone has AIDS!”

THEATER: The salty, electric dynamo that is Elaine Stritch shows no sign of waning – about to turn 83-years-young, the show biz legend has kicked off 2008 with a reprise of her Tony-winning cabaret show. Backed by a six-piece band and performed in two acts for a dining audience at the newly restored Café Carlyle, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, co-written with the New Yorker’s John Lahr, is a hilarious, old-fashioned ride through star-studded post-war Broadway, bursting with stories from her roles in such legendary productions as Company, Bus Stop, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The Times raves: “Every story in her arsenal of seamlessly stitched personal anecdotes is illustrated with body language that erupts like lightning out of words spoken in the gravelly voice of a tough old dame with a tender heart. Because she has the gift of gab, this loudmouthed life of the party could go on forever.” It’s an expensive night, but worth it. Dining reservations are almost booked through the end of the run on Jan 19th, but they do accept walk-ins for the bar seating. – John Del Signore

When the weather outside is frightful, the risks are likely predictable--in high-wind weather anyway. Early yesterday evening, witnesses report that wooden planks broke free from a crane and crashed onto Spring St. at the new Trump SoHo building, reportedly crashing atop several cars. A collapse of steel from a crane at the WTC site early last week crushed a construction trailer where an architect was seriously injured when pieces of steel demolished his workspace after falling dozens of floors.

EVENT: Come feel the love at the hotel QT tonight, as the Love party returns. Get those swimsuits out of storage, because there's a pool! And don't worry, the open vodka bar (8-9) will help you warm up.

He’s made his list, he’s checked it twice and now we are going to find out who has been naughty and not nice. Former Senator George Mitchell's report on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball comes out at 2pm today. And besides providing us with the most complete look at the use of performance-enhancing drugs to date, the Mitchell Report will also name names. While it is just speculation at this point,...