Come aboard, we're expecting you (well, not really...)

Andy Warhol appeared on the 200th episode of The Love Boat, which aired Oct. 12, 1985.

Week in Review: Bikini and underwear edition (with half-hearted apologies)

In dire times like these...

Wall Street on Monday (via Getty Images)



Jimmy Choo photo shoot on Fifth Avenue. Because no one would buy the shoes if she was wearing a dress or pants or something...? (Via Drunken Stepfather -- NSFW)



Amazin' Jane's Flickr page includes these shots...As AJ explains:
Tourists got an eyeful as they filmed the ridiculous reality show Make Me a Supermodel today at Fulton Ferry Landing. It was quite entertaining as they hoisted scantily clad models into the air by crane - inside a plexiglass cube. [Via Gothamist]

The Post does its best to cheer you up today

An abrupt change of tone from Tuesday's cover.

Nothing is forever in New York...

The Times has a piece today about people who have scattered their family members' ashes at Yankee Stadium and Shea Sadium. Given the fate of those ballparks...

When the two stadiums are being razed in the coming months, demolition crews will be working where Reggie and Mookie once played. But the ashes, apparently, will stay where they were scattered. And that means that relatives who believed they were giving their loved ones a resting place have had to accept that in New York, the quintessential tear-down-and-build-again city, nothing is forever.

For the soul

Here are the Fleshtones, the Queens natives who debuted at CBGB May 19, 1976.

It's "Soul City."

Nightmare: A culturally dead city that's still unaffordable

As always, thanks for reading...and leaving comments here.

Wanted to share a comment from this post:

ed said...
My nightmare is that the job losses on Wall Street turn out to have no effect on New York, since the city has basically turned into a place for the super rich to go and live, not as a place to have careers. That is what Venice turned into during the 18th century. Then the city will be culturally dead, with no recovery, and it will still be unaffordable.

October 9, 2008 1:24 PM

Daily News crime video almost bad enough to make local TV news

The Daily News has this exciting crime story! (Via Gothamist)

A shoplifter with a taste for designer threads was nabbed by police after he and his buddies tried swiping a pricey jacket at a Lower East Side clothing boutique.
Police arrested Christopher Foster, 22, after he and a group of friends tried stealing jackets from Unis, a trendy clothier on Elizabeth Street.
Although his buddies successfully fled the store, police nabbed Foster around 5 p.m. on the Bowery near Rivington Street, where a Daily News videographer taped the arrest.

Nominee for the worst video ever...? How harrowing! (Love how the store owner/manager/victim taunts the perps!)

Today's sign of the apocalypse

In these trying financial times, the Post has launched a ridiculous daily feature dubbed "Dire Straits," a collection of anecdotes about New Yorkers braving the economy. Here's an item from today's paper:

Folks can't afford a meal? Let 'em eat cake!

In the midst of the meltdown, the Magnolia Bakery opened up a new location at Sixth Avenue and 49th Street this week.

"When the market dropped 700 points last week, business was great," said owner Bobbie Lloyd. "Maybe people needed a pick-me-up. It's an affordable luxury, a small investment for a lot of happiness."

Many of the customers who were scarfing down cupcakes at $2.50 or more a pop said they were seeking a respite from the bleak fiscal news.

Life on Marzzzzzzz (a 20-second review)

As mentioned previously, "Life on Mars" made its debut last night. I'm not much of a prime-time TV person. But! I tuned in anyway. Was a little more curious about the show than I needed to be. So you know the premise: Present-day NYC detective finds himself back in time in "gritty" 1973 Manhattan.

And?

Eh. Or maybe Meh.

For starters, the lead fellow Sam Tyler (Jason O'Mara) is an annoying mix of Mel Gibson and, oh, Michael Sarrazin. Without getting into all the plot points, I understand the confusion...the anger...the feeling of helplessness that he felt, trapped in 1973 NYC while the eldest Cosby kid (Lisa Bonet!) is in peril in 2008.

Still! Think of the fun you could have! Porn in Times Square! Betting on sporting events that you already know the outcomes to! I don't know. Maybe check out some shows. Are the New York Dolls playing somewhere?

Savor the opportunity...revisit a now-vanished bar...go to the top of the World Trade Center (which they showed twice...)....Buy up a ton of buildings in Soho and become a real-estate baron!

Plus, I had so many questions...Did he travel back with money? They showed his East Village apartment...Where did he eat breakfast? Lunch? Dinner? Why wasn't anyone smoking during the scene inside 7B? Why did all the extras look like players from a summer stock production of Hair?

OK, this was only the first episode...maybe all this is explored in the coming weeks. I'll give it a another shot next week.

P.S.
I'll leave the critique of co-star Gretchen Mol to someone more qualified ...

Getting nostalgic 10 years in advance

I've been enjoying Alex's "things that aren't here now" series of photos. Made me think that I shouldn't delete any photos on my computer, no matter how insignificant they seem now. What if we're looking at the photos below 10 years from now? What might we be saying? (Oh, I did something similar to this during my guest stint at Curbed this past August...)

"Wow, this area was still called the Bowery."

"The last ATM that the government shut down!"

"$5 for a Subway sub? So cheap! And this was before Subway merged with Starbucks to create StarSubs (SubBanks?)."

"Who?"

"Freedom Towers should be completed in just another 7 years."

"Only $4.75 for a Coke at old Yankee Stadium? Bargain!"

"Ha! Look! No ads on the bridge!"

"How quaint! When there were shoe repair shops run by people who have been in business 40-plus years!"

"Pay phones....Wha....?"

"Wow, the Christodora was the tallest building on the block; and before Ford Models bought it for their girls!"

"No shopping mall on Grand and Clinton?!"

"The Staten Island Ferry was free!"

"Ha ha ha -- remember when there were newspapers?"

"Wonder when that $20 million will kick in for the repairs at St. Brigid's..."

"Ah, Coney Island..."

"Iggy hasn't aged a bit!"

"Wow, a corner on the Bowery without a high rise...and that was the best Bond since Thunderball!"