Upper West Side
Tonight's NYC hotel price check: $90 to $895
 HotelChatter.com today notes that rates at Robert DeNiro's new Greenwich Hotel have dropped to $550 a night, and that seemed like a good enough excuse to see what other NYC hotels are currently offering for tonight.
The Plaza, despite the fact that some publications are still bantying-on about that $1,000-a-night rate, actually has rooms from $755 tonight. (While there, you can hit up the newly opened Rose Club restaurant for the likes of a $21 pomegranate and cucumber mojito, the $34 Angus beef burger and the $17 chocolate pot de creme. For more practical: there's a $45 prix fixe menu.)
Nearby, the Ritz-Carlton Central Park has rooms from $895 tonight.
The Radisson on Lexington has a "hot deal" for $179.
Kimpton's Muse Hotel rates for tonight start at $539.
The bookophile-friendly Library Hotel has a bed from $489.
The once-budget Hotel QT has rooms just off Times Square from $339 tonight.
The normally-budget Pod Hotel has nothing less than $239 a night. (All hotel rates for this feature are what's listed on the hotel's own website, except for the Pod because the online reservation system won't accept bookings unless the arrival date is about a week out.)
Even the Carter Hotel -- which TripAdvisor.com called the dirtiest hotel in America -- has nothing less than $116 for tonight.
In Brooklyn, the Hotel Le Jolie in Williamsburg will put you up for $219 tonight.
The Hilton Garden Inn on Staten Island, which has an indoor heated pool, starts at $225.
And then there's the 45-room Howard Johnson in the Bronx, which the New York Times features today. That's $90 for tonight - including free wi-fi.
May 12, 2008 11:38 AM Comments (0)
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Must-see list of NYC's newest important architecture
Historian, lecturer and architectural biographer of Manhattan and Brooklyn, Francis Morrone returns to NewYorkology today with a list of the most important newish buildings to see in New York City. See the Flickr photo set and map.
 Nine recent New York buildings the visiting architecture buff will not want to miss:
LVMH Building
19 W. 57th St. between Fifth and Madison avenues
1996-99, Christian de Portzamparc
I once described Ely Jacques Kahn's great Bricken Textile Building (1929) on Broadway and 41st Street as having "a bias-cut effect, like a Vionnet gown." I wonder what Kahn would have done if he had had access to the media with which Christian de Portzamparc created this dazzling building, perhaps more Comme des Garçons than Vionnet.
IAC Building
West Street and 19th Street
2005-07, Frank Gehry
A billowing white sail, people like to call it. It's in the right place: a nondescript stretch of West Street where an object building does not do battle with its surroundings. I hate hate hate hate hate hate Gehry's plans for "Atlantic Yards" in Brooklyn, but it's good to have smaller-scale, appropriately sited buildings, like this one, by him. It is said to have major constructional flaws and I suspect building a Gehry building is never a straightforward proposition.
Carhart Mansion
3 E. 95th St.
2003-06, Zivkovic Associates with John Simpson & Partners
New York's own Zivkovic firm, with some small input from Britain's esteemed classicist Simpson (of Queen's Gallery fame), created this splendid limestone town house. Note the thick walls, the deep window reveals -- this is the real thing, not some plasterboard knockoff. Also note how reverently, yet without relinquishing its own singularity, it plays off of Horace Trumbauer's majestic Marion Carhart house next door.
15 Central Park West
Between 61st and 62nd streets
Completed 2007, Robert A.M. Stern Architects
The first apartment tower since -- when? -- with an all-over limestone coating. This is a very elegant building with a brilliant roofline and neighborly gestures all around, as only Stern, a master of both traditional and modernist idioms, can pull off, thus making hodge-podgey parts of cities into coherent wholes.
Westin Hotel
43rd Street and Eighth Avenue
2002, Arquitectonica
It is perfect for Times Square. It would be a nightmare anywhere else. I love that this totally go-to-hell building is two blocks from Renzo Piano's oh-so-elegant NY Times Building.
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May 12, 2008 08:28 AM Comments (0)
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Philharmonic sets free concert at Cathedral of St. John
 The New York Philharmonic will play a free Memorial Day Concert at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine on May 26.
The 8 p.m. concert will feature Schubert's Symphony in B minor, "Unfinished" and Mendelssohn,'s Symphony No. 4, "Italian."
The cathedral, located at Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street, will begin at 8 p.m. though doors will open an hour earlier. All seating will be first-come, first-served, with overflow seating (weather permitting) on the Pulpit Green and from the Synod Hall.
But note, the cathedral's website warns there will be limited seating due to restoration work.
Image source: Cathedral's website
Earlier: NY Philharmonic sets free summer park concert dates
NY Philharmonic to play free July 5 Gov. Island concert
Met Opera plans free June 20 concert in Prospect Park
May 9, 2008 12:35 PM Comments (0)
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Bon Jovi to play Central Park in mid-July or later
 Jon Bon Jovi will play Central Park this summer sometime in mid-July or later, he told Sports Illustrated in an interview.
The magazine was talking to the Jersey-born rocker mainly about his ownership of the Philadelphia Soul Arena Football League team and then this came up:
SI.com: I know the Spectrum and the Wachovia Center serve as the homes of the Soul, but if Bon Jovi were a team, Giants Stadium would certainly be its home. What are your thoughts on Giants Stadium being torn down in 2010? You always close out your tours at Giants Stadium, do you plan on having a couple last shows there before it's demolished?
Bon Jovi: Actually I'm not going to do it this year. We always end every tour at Giants Stadium, but we're going to do Central Park this year. That hasn't been announced yet, there you go, we're doing Central Park. I think it's a great stadium, but in this day in age when it's all about those sky boxes and those revenue streams, I could see why they would want to get rid of it, but it's too bad. I think it a great place and a great place to play and I have nothing but good memories there. Bon Jovi's concert schedule currently lists his final tour dates as July 14 and 15 at Madison Square Garden, where tickets are on sale for $49.50 to $304.50.
This summer, Central Park SummerStage and other Rumsey Playfield shows are already set to include performers including Sheryl Crow (May 29,) Duran Duran (May 30/31,) Mavis Staples (June 13,) Vampire Weekend (June 14,) Santogold (July 20,) Crosby, Stills & Nash (July 29,) Sonny Rollins (August 6,) and Battles (August 16.)
Earlier: Ted Leo, Sonic Youth to play free River to River '08
Early SummerStage: Duran Duran, CSN, Seun Kuti
Met Opera plans free June 20 concert in Prospect Park
NY Philharmonic sets free summer park concert dates
NY Philharmonic to play free July 5 Gov. Island concert
April 30, 2008 07:30 AM Comments (0)
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Shakespeare in the Park to give tickets away online
People with day jobs all across New York City, rejoice! Standing in line for hours and hours to maybe get free tickets to Shakespeare in the Park may be a thing of yesterday.
Details from Playbill:With the new virtual line, the Public allows individuals who are registered at the Public Theater website to log on and submit a day-of request for tickets beginning at 12 AM ET. Each individual entry is able to request up to two tickets for that day's performance. At 1 PM registered users can log on to the Public website to see if their names have been randomly selected. The day-of tickets will be held at the Delacorte box office. However, most tickets will still be alotted to the legions who line up in Central Park the day of each show; only "a limited number" will go the online route.
Of course you can also "buy" the free tickets by donating $160 or $165 to the Public Theater.
This summer's first production is "Hamlet" -- set for May 27 through June 29 -- with Michael Stuhlbarg, Sam Waterston, Lauren Ambrose, Andre Braugher and Margaret Colin.
The second Shakespeare in the Park production for 2008 will be "Hair" -- from July 22 through August 17 -- with Jonathan Groff, Will Swenson, Patina Renea Miller and Allison Case directed by Dianne Paulus.
Image source: That's the front of the line for "Hair" in Central Pak on Sept. 24, 2007. They'd arrived at 11 p.m. the night before. Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.
(Playbill story found via Playgoer.)
Earlier: Shakespeare in the Park summer '08: 'Hair,' 'Hamlet'
'Hair' in Central Park for Summer of Love anniversary
April 28, 2008 07:17 PM Comments (0)
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Lifebooker.com for easy spa appointments in NYC
 What OpenTable.com is to free restaurant reservations, Lifebooker.com now is to easy reservations to spa and fitness appointments.
The site lets you pick a service -- including mani/pedi, bikini wax, massage (with a male- or female- preference option,) accupuncture, cupping and men's shave. You then pick a day, time, and if you want, a neighborhood to narrow your reach. The site then reloads with all your options, including prices at each location, alternate times and types of services within the topic you've selected (such as Brazilian, landing strip, bikini updo, Bermuda Triangle basic, etc.)
You can book on the site for free, but you need to provide a credit card number to hold appointments. (But only the spa itself ends up paying Lifebooker a percentage, which is where the website makes its money.)
The site launched six months ago and currently offers appointments only in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The goal is to offer appointments at about 1,000 spas, salon and fitness providers from the tri-state area by the end of the year, a company spokesman told NewYorkology. Eventually the service will launch in other cities as well.
Companies already offering appointments inlcude Allure, Delluva Day Spa, Rita Hazan, Townhouse Spa, Paul Labrecque, Spa Chinois and White Tea Spa -- and some with special discounts for Lifebooker users.
The site also lets you read reviews written by other members who have actually booked past appointments at the spas. And you can earn reward points for future services.
Lifebooker is independently owned by 26-year-old entrepreneurs Andrew Unger and Dana Reichman.
Earlier: $50 massages, facials during Spa Week, April 14-20
April 28, 2008 01:37 PM Comments (1)
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NY Historical Society brings epidemic to life in 'Cholera'
NewYorkology contributor Christina Ziegler-McPherson is a public historian in one of New York's "sixth boroughs" -- Hoboken, New Jersey. A specialist in American immigration and social welfare policy, she regularly crosses the river to partake of New York's many historical sites, institutions, and events. She's the author of the upcoming book "Americanization in the States: Immigrant Social Welfare Policy, Citizenship, and National Identity in the United States, 1908-1929."
The New York Historical Society’s new exhibit, “Plague in Gotham!: Cholera in Nineteenth-Century New York” is a good example of how small can be beautiful. Packed compactly into two-thirds of a long wall in the Society’s Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture, “Plague in Gotham!” tells the story of the first cholera epidemic in New York City in 1832.
With just a few strategically selected items – a map, city health broadsides, homeopathetic remedies, gruesome portraits of victims and other artifacts – the exhibit details how New Yorkers confronted a terrifying disease that killed 3,515 people (out of a total population of 250,000) in the summer of 1832.
Cholera, a gastrointestinal bacterial disease spread by contaminated water and food, causes severe diarrhea; death can occur within a few hours if dehydration is not properly treated. But the cause of cholera was unknown in the early 19th century, and theories ranged from “miasmas” (noxious fumes created by rotting organic matter) to immorality and alcohol consumption.
Poor New Yorkers lived in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions, and so died of a wide variety of contagious and water-borne diseases at a much higher rate than wealthier residents. This higher death rate on the part of African-Americans and Irish immigrants in the 1832 epidemic led to theories emphasizing individual morality and behavior.
The Society has also developed a cholera blog, which includes an audio clip from historian Kenneth Jackson and a Google map of 19th Century cholera hotspots in NYC.
The “Plague in Gotham!” exhibit is part of New York’s first annual World Science Festival, which runs May 28 through June 1.
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April 24, 2008 12:48 PM Comments (0)
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Dessay in charge in 'La Fille du Régiment' at Met Opera
 A new production of Gaetano Donizetti's comic "La Fille du Régiment" makes its gala debut at the Met Opera tonight, but Open House guests were treated to a sneak preview Friday during the final dress rehearsal.
This season's Open House featured no free lunch and no offer to walk across the Met stage like they did for the fall Open House, but the performers and creative team did sit for a Q&A session after the rehearsal.
Natalie Dessay on the advantages of the physical comedy of the role: "When I am so physical, I forget that I'm singing. So it helps. ... That's why I hate concerts."
Agathe Melinande, on getting to write the dialogue for the opera, specifically with Dessay in mind: "It was possible to do everything I wanted because I knew she could do it. So I just let it go and let go and let it go."
Tony-winner Marian Seldes, who will tonight make her Met Opera debut: "I feel I'm among some of the finest actors I've ever worked with on the stage."
The new Laurent Pelly production co-stars Juan Diego Flórez as Tonio.
The run of the production is sold out except for student rush and standing-room tickets. On April 26, "La Fille" will broadcast live in HD at select theaters across the United States.
Earlier: More free Met Opera tix; huge sale at Met Opera shop
Free tickets for Met Opera's Friday dress rehearsal
April 21, 2008 08:55 AM Comments (0)
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Central Park curfew sweep nets CNN talent, drug bust
 You might not have known, but technically Central Park is closed from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m., 365 days a year -- even if you're an annoying reporter for CNN.
The New York Times is reporting that CNN's Richard Quest was arrested in the park around 3:40 a.m. and today faces a misdemeanor drug possession charge. From the Times:
As he was being escorted out, he volunteered, “I have meth in my pocket,” according to an official briefed on the case. Stay tuned to see if he mentions it on his business travel blog.
Update: Qust avoided jail time by agreeing to six months of drug counseling, according to the Associated Press.
Earlier: NY Philharmonic sets free summer park concert dates
Noir thriller will be staged in Central Park restrooms
Shakespeare in the Park summer '08: 'Hair,' 'Hamlet'
April 18, 2008 03:55 PM Comments (0)
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More free Met Opera tix; huge sale at Met Opera shop
 All the free tickets for Friday's free Met Opera Open House dress rehearsal of Donizetti's "La Fille du Regiment" are spoken for -- but there's a very good chance more will be availble at the box office after 5 p.m. this evening.
That's the cut-off time for people to show up with their confirmation numbers and pick up tickets they ordered last weekend. But if they're not there by 5 p.m. today, those tickets will be back up for grabs at the box office.
A Met Opera ticketing agent advised that you may want to start lining up before 5 p.m. for your best chance to get a pair of freebies. The box office closes at 8 p.m. tonight.
The Open House begins at 10 a.m. Friday, with the curtain rising at 11 a.m.
Also worth noting, the Met Opera's gift shop is having quite the blowout sale in advance of its April 30 closing for a major renovation. All CDs and DVDs are 40 percent off (except for new releases and the season's repretory;) librettos are 40 percent off, jewelry is all 50 percent marked down, and most other merchandise (like the Diva-branded cosmetics bags and shirts,) are also 50 percent off. The online shop has many of the same items on sale as well.
Image source: From the stage of the Met Opera at the end of the Met Opera Open House in September 2007. Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.
April 16, 2008 10:30 AM Comments (0)
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