Today, as several EVG readers noted, the Alamo off limits.
Per EVG reader Sheila: "Yesterday the Alamo was dedicated and today we can't even see it, let alone access it."
Here's what the deal is tomorrow and Saturday:
Game of Thrones® Comes to Life in Epic Fan Event at Astor Place!
The Emmy® Award-winning HBO® series Game of Thrones is known for many things: shocking deaths, breathtaking special effects and, when it comes to DVD releases, extensive and captivating bonus content. To celebrate the November 15 release of Game of Thrones: The Complete Sixth Season on Blu-ray™ and DVD, HBO is bringing the box set’s exclusive bonus features to life in three groundbreaking events with interactive experiences including photo, video and virtual reality that take fans behind the scenes and immerse them into the world of Game of Thrones.
The event is 12:30 to 8 p.m. each day. Find more details here.
Everything will be back to normal on Sunday, William Kelley, executive director of the Village Alliance, told me via email.
Updated 11/18
A view from this morning via Vinny & O...
"Quick, cut the damn ribbon so we can rent this hunk of junk out for corporate events. We got mouths to feed around here!"
ReplyDelete--Your Local Overlords and Permanent Keepers Of The Cube
Seriously? Is it April 1st already?
ReplyDeleteExactly Giovanni. Isn't it great how they sell out the cube... convert all the newsstands so the can sell out ad space... rent out "citibike" space.... put up TVs so they can sell ad space... etc...
ReplyDeleteThey are selling YOUR neighborhood, but you don't get the money.
When I was there @2 p.m. the cube was not covered, and I have the photos to show that.
ReplyDeleteActually it's not covered.
ReplyDeleteFuck all these private events using public space. Who approves this, and where is the $$ that's being paid for the use of it going? Somebody's pocket is getting handsomely lined here, it seems to me, unless it can be proven otherwise.
ReplyDeleteThanks xootrman & anon ... I amended the post to reflect that...
ReplyDeleteSo our tax dollars went to renovated a public space that is only available to us when some fucking corporation doesn't need to advertise so stupid shit on those days? Fuck City Hall and the stupid fucks dying to go to this event this weekend.
ReplyDeleteI am soooo annoyed by this I can barely contain myself. I've lived near the cube for 35 years and cannot recall any commercial events like this. With the reopening of the (now ruined with zombie architecture) plaza, there have been TWO! The last one being a couple of big shot eateries. The food was so small it was obviously not made for human consumption...it was tiny versions of their food so people could take pics and post it on social media. Total commercialism. That shitty little square used to be so good and so real. The crossroads into the east village. They literally took one of the roads away and now we have a generic pedestrian plaza. AND to add insult to injury THEY are now renting it out for fucking game of throne parties and pic ready mini food. THAT PLACE NEEDS TO BE EGGED!!!!
ReplyDeleteElitist Pricks
ReplyDeleteWhat on Earth does Game of Thrones have to do with the Alamo? Fuck HBO. These public private partnerships are BS. How shameful. This renting out of public space for cash happens way too much not to be further investigated. Disgusting. BOYCOTT HBO programming.
ReplyDeleteWith so much corruption in play at every level of government, how can we really truly pay proper attention to the selling out of public space? But it is worth the outrage. Who is directly benefiting?
Further, why has the public park (one of the two mirror parks) behind Beth Israel been closed for more than a year, feels like two.
Winter IS coming
ReplyDeleteThey call this an Epic Fan Event? You know what would be epic? Miniature versions of Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryan, riding together on her mini dragons, as they fly over a mini version of Westeros, to use their cute little fire-breathing snouts to blow miniature flames in order to roast tiny little soldiers made out of mini-marshmallows. And we get to eat the roasted mini-marshmallows. Now that would be epic. Otherwise I doubt there will be anyting "epic" about this at all.
ReplyDeleteWhat a joke. They really sold out this public space.
ReplyDeleteUgh, to the surprise of exactly nobody...even here in my current third tier metropolis this crap is going on...on Monday, they rounded up all of homeless in a park in my hood, told them to leave or be arrested. Turns out the park will be closed 12/18 months for a renovation some of its sponsors: an adjacent mega university, Wells Fargo, and Altria, aka cgatette maker Philip Morris, who by some coincidence bought naming rights to a historic theatre across the street. Please, quit privatizing public spaces!
ReplyDeleteShotout richmond virginia? Id like to agree with you but that park needed cleaning up, the one by cathedral? And wasnt altria group the only people that would save the theatre right there? There's a fine line of privitization for a decent enough cause, wheras here at astor place its just grandiose fuckery.
DeleteI have nothing® against HBO or Game of Thrones but what does this corporate™ event have to do with the local community? It's a glorified and sanitized version of a street vendor selling DVDs - you know, the very people they kicked off this new promise land. Keep this stuff in Times Square with the Guy Fieri Mountain Dew Theme Park and Shake Me Down Elmo.
ReplyDeleteThis is just the beginning of the second rate circus. Game of Thrones? more like moans from the neighborhood and commuters who had to cross a few more streets so the Village Alliance can make a few backhanders from this travesty. The best revenge fellow EVers is to write to Mendez, Holman, Glick and let them know how you feel. Sometimes you just have to throw down the gauntlet... and give them hell on every and all blogs open to political discourse.
ReplyDeleteCommuters on Saturday? If you say so
DeleteIf this is really public property, then a running total of fees paid by private corporate users should be made public, and I want my share of the fees mailed to me. If they had to give the $$ to the actual residents of the area, there'd be far less of this shit going on.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, the annual Holiday Market, which takes over half of Union Square Park on the west side, and which is an absolute nightmare for anyone coming out of the nearby subway, opens next Friday; who wants to give me odds on how long it takes before one of these space-hogging for-profit commercial enterprises shows up in Cement Place for 6 weeks, too?
ReplyDeleteIt's wonderful! It brings tourists that shop at our Kmart and Muji and eat at our McDonalds and Starbucks, and some, I assume, are good people.
ReplyDeleteCommenters, stop calling this a "public space"! It is no longer a public space and rather a "semi-privatized" space...
ReplyDeletehttp://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2016/10/controlling-astor-place.html
Hunger Games would have been the more appropriate choice. "Watch pedestrians scramble for their lives across the Amanda Burden-Christ moonscape, narrowly avoiding a fierce blitzkriege of speeding CitiBikes and acai-dipped arrows as they barely make it to the subway with their lives. Sponsored by Chase. Be sure to catch the Chase Bank Dancers this Saturday at noon."
ReplyDeleteWell said.
DeleteTo all, including Grieve -
ReplyDeleteIt's "Alamo" as in an Astor Place sculpture, not "The Alamo" as in "Remember" from the Texas Revolt.
This really sucks. What a joke calling it "public."
ReplyDelete"The box. You opened it. We came."
ReplyDeleteI loathe what they're doing with this so much. I agree, EGG IT!! and then email our reps as another commenter said. Semi-privatizing public space is complete bullshit. Let's take it back.
ReplyDelete@Gojira. The Union Sq. Holiday Market opened last night, making the upcoming anti-Trump protests even more challenging on days when the Farmers Market is in operation. I'm guessing if there's another march tonight or tomorrow that Union Sq will be an absolute nightmare. But The Cube would be a great place for anti-Trump and BLM protesters to gather, especially if there is a corporate event there, and what would be a better theme for a Trump protest than Game of Thrones? With SantaCon coming up soon, I can't wait to see how they interact with the Trump marches--last time a bunch of drunk Santas didn't get along too well with the Black Live Matters marches, yelling a bunch of obscenities, but the SantaCon idiots were so vastly outnumbered they were forced back onto their bars. It must be the holidays in New York again when there's so much chaos in the streets,
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about the Union Square Holiday Village Shopping Center, next year we'll have our own. It's all in the master plan. Kickbacks/Contractors and Christmas.
ReplyDeleteUpside of Union Square Holiday Market is that lots of small businesses get to sell things to a wider public. I personally know two merchants who live in the EV who have taken stalls there in the past few years. Yes it is expensive, but if some merchants keep coming back, it must mean they are clearing some profit (and profit is not a dirty word). Of course many of the naysayers about Astor Place (I would never sit there, etc etc) are now complaining how events are denying them access to public space. Something needed to be done to (a) the subsurface infrastructure around Astor Place,(b) to the vehicular traffic flow that converges at Astor Place, and (c)to make the space more than just that tiny island with Alamo on it (and that is precisely what Astor Place consisted of). I only wish they had installed escalators at the two subway entrances. Since I first came to the EV nearly 40 years ago the pedestrian traffic and the vehicular traffic have increased in and around Astor Place. Something needed to be done. Clearly, nothing would ever have satisfied the exacting expectations of posters on EVG. Now we must live with compromised solutions or spend the rest of our days complaining to no end.
ReplyDeleteFUCK CORPORATE CULTURE and the co-opting of public spaces.
ReplyDeleteANYTHING that happens to this and other non community-based events hosted by corporate interlopers is well-deserved....
From the Village Alliance website:
ReplyDeleteThe Village Alliance offers a wide range of sponsorship opportunities custom-tailored to your company’s goals and needs.
Package pricing starts at under $1,000 and varies depending on individual program cost and exposure. Sponsors receive benefits ranging from logo placement on advertising, promotional materials, event signage and social media to in-person sampling and data collection opportunities. Benefits may be tailored to meet your needs, and are listed in detail along with neighborhood demographics.
...
If you want to complain, you might start with the high muck-a-muck:
will.lewis@villagealliance.org
All events have to be approved by the Mayor's Office, so you could also contact them.