NewYorkology

Tribute in Light shining over Manhattan tonight

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 22:27:04 -0500

Ahead of Saturday’s ninth anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center, the Tribute in Light
is shining temporarily from Lower Manhattan tonight. As has been the case in previous years, the lights can occasionally be seen ahead of the anniversary as workers prepare them for the all-night tribute.

The Tribute in Light will officially be turned on at dusk on September 11 and fade with the dawn of September 12, according to the Municipal Art Society, a primary sponsor of the lights.

Picture credit: Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.

Broadway on Broadway on Sept. 12, free in Times Square

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:41:27 -0500

Celebrating the start of the fall season, the free Broadway on Broadway concert will take place this Sunday in Times Square with performances from upcoming new musicals “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical,” “Elf” and “Rain: A Tribute to The Beatles.”

Other current Broadway shows taking part include “Memphis,” “The Lion King,” “Fela!,” “American Idiot” and many others. Kelsey Grammer, who is currently starring in “La Cage aux Folles,” will host the event.

Broadway on Broadway will start at 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 12, taking over Times Square from 43rd to 47th streets.

Free dessert day at more than 100 NYC spots on Sept. 15

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:31:07 -0500

Reservations have opened for Free Dessert Day on Sept. 15, which will allow diners to choose a free dessert at more than 100 restaurants in New York City, including Le Cirque, Métrazur, Sarabeth’s and Nolita House.

The deal, which is a promotion for the TV show Top Chef Just Desserts, will be available at lunch and dinner at some locations. The catch is that it’s one free dessert for every two entrees ordered.

Some restaurants will offer a selection from their regular dessert menu, while others will do a special creation, such as the 24 Layer Chocolate Cake at Strip House, Bulle de Sucre a La Violette at L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, and Caramel Apple Soufflé with Brandy Hard at Beacon.

(Thanks to the Salli Vates NY Food Page for the tip.)

One-day deals: free John Legend, free coffee, $1 slices

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 06:38:50 -0500

This morning, Tim Hortons’ “back to the grind” giveaway will be handing out not ready-to-drink coffee but rather “home brew packs to try at work.” They’ll give away 7,000 coffee packs from 7 to 8:30 a.m. outside Penn station (at 34th Street and 7th Avenue) and Grand Central Terminal (at 42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue.)

Grand Central at noon today will also host Courtyard by Marriott’s new “lobby zones”. The surprise performer — whose name was under embargo until midnight — is John Legend. He’ll perform from noon to 12:30 in Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall. Enter at 42nd Street and Park Avenue through the South Side.

Also at noon, NYC Daily Deals brings word of $1 by-the-slice pizza at Pizza by Cer Te, 132 E. 56th St. between Park and Lexington. For two dollars youcan get two slices if you mention NYC Daily Deals at the register. (Sorry, no details on how long this deal extends past noon. Update: It’s all day, starting at noon.)

Update: The Street Sweets truck says that as part of Fashion’s Night Out promotions, they’ll be in a special black and white truck today, giving out sweets on 49th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenue from 9 to 10:30 a.m. and then at Park Avenue and 52nd from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

$19 Broadway deal at 'Scottsboro Boys' box office

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:30:08 -0500

When the Broadway box office opens Thursday for the Kander and Ebb musical “The Scottsboro Boys,” a limited number of tickets will be available for $19.31, the show’s publicists announced today.

The musical, set in 1931, tells the story of a group of African-American teenagers wrongly accused of raping two white women. It received good reviews when it played Off-Broadway earlier this year.

The $19 seats will be sold only at the box office and only on Sept. 2. They’re available for the mezzanine and balcony seats at the first preview on Oct. 7 and for balcony seats for performances through Oct. 14.

The Lyceum Theatre box office is located at 149 W. 45th St.

Regular tickets range from $39.50 to $131.50.

Last week, the box office for “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” opened with a similar stunt, selling all tickets to the first preview for $20. Both “Brief Encounter” and “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” also offered $10 preview tickets for September.

Earlier: $20 Off-Broadway ticket deal returns Sept. 7 to 19

Oyster festivals set for September, October in NY

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:01:50 -0500

It looks like September 25 is going to be the big day for oysters in New York City for 2010. That’s the day for oyster festivals in Midtown at Grand Central Terminal and downtown on Stone Street.

The annual Oyster Frenzy at the Grand Central Oyster Bar, from noon to 6 p.m., will feature 16 varieties of oysters, a professional shucking championship, a slurp-off eating contest and chef demos. Admission and some samples will be free.

In Lower Manhattan, the Stone Street Oyster Festival will start at noon on the same day. It will feature live bands and lots of beer.

]]> For the road trippers, the 27th Anniversary Oyster Festival at Long Island’s Oyster Bay is set for Oct. 16 and 17. Pirates are promised.

Two other 2009 oyster festivals haven’t yet weighed in for 2010: Riverside Park Oyster Festival and the Harbor Day Oyster Festival at Pier 84 in Hudson River Park.

Picture credit: Oyster midden. Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.

Earlier:
Four upcoming oyster festivals for New York for fall (2009)
When oyster bars were New York’s fast food

$20 Off-Broadway ticket deal returns Sept. 7 to 19

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:37:28 -0500

$20 Off-Broadway deals will return for two weeks in September, through 20at20, offering deeply discounted seats to shows including “Black Angels Over Tuskegee,” “An Error of the Moon,” and “The 39 Steps.”

The 20at20 offer, which runs from Sept. 7 through 19, allows anyone to walk up to the box office 20 minutes before curtain and buy a ticket for $20 (unless the show has sold out.) Buyers need to say “20at20” to get the deal.

The 20at20 website so far lists 26 shows participating in the program this season.

Tug & Barge Week begins at Brooklyn Bridge Park

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 11:15:02 -0500

Tug & Barge Week starts today at Pier 6 of Brooklyn Bridge Park with temporary visits by the floating Waterfront Museum and the Tug Pegasus.

The vintage vessels — both are listed on the National Register of Historic Places — will be open for free tours Saturday through Monday from 1 to 5 p.m.

Upcoming: 2010 Great North River Tugboat Race & Competition on Sept. 5.

Picture credit: The Waterfront Museum getting new paint earlier this year at its regular home in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.

'Saturday Night Live' ticket lottery open through August

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 11:11:28 -0500

Long-shot lovers and underdogs of the world, August is the one time of the year you can apply to the lottery to obtain Saturday Night Live tickets for the upcoming season.

Send an email to snltickets@nbcuni.com with all your contact details but don’t hold your breath. (Update as of Aug. 31: NewYorkology’s Twitter followers are getting bounced e-mails from NBC, indicating the lottery closed a day early.)

“Saturday Night Live” also does stand-by tickets, but be warned that people tend to line up starting on Thursdays (as pictured up top.)

Tickets are free, though they have shown up in the past on sites such as Charity Buzz auction with an estimated value of $1,000.

Tickets to other shows taped in NYC are easier to come by, and generally they’re all free. Here’s an updated list of shows that tape in NYC and offer audience tickets:

Late Show with David Letterman
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Colbert Report
MTV studio audience
Good Morning America
The Marriage Ref
The View
The Martha Stewart Show
The Rachel Ray Show
The Tyra Banks Show
The Dr. Oz Show
The Wendy Williams Show
Who Wants to be a Millionaire
Live! with Regis and Kelly
Comedy Central Presents
Other NBC shows

Other resources:
Related: The On Location Vacations blog crowd sources filming locations and compiles a daily list of what’s filming where.

The automated Twitter feed @DailyTix tweets every time tickets are available for John Stewart’s or Stephen Colbert’s shows.

]]> 1iota and On Camera Audiences often have free tickets to special events taping with a live audience.

A “sample” of current NYC productions from the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting.

Food Network tickets are not currently available.

Picture credits: Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.

Earlier: Free Early Show tickets for Usher and David Gray
Jonas Brothers kick off GMA free morning concert series
Today’s free concerts include Gaga, Bieber, Aguilera
Getting Letterman tickets, U2 in residence all this week
Food Network chops and crushes plans for public tours
Behind the curtain at ‘Iron Chef’ taping: ‘It’s a sham’

Hotel deals under the $208 NYC average room rate

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:31:08 -0500

Summer’s winding down and hotel deals are getting harder to find. New York hotels’ average daily rate climbed to $208, according to mid-August data from STR. Here are a handful of posted New York hotel deals below that price:

The come-out-and-play package at Morgans, from $179, includes two drinks per day and priority access to all of the hotel’s restaurants and bars.

Brooklyn Brewery package at the Hotel le Jolie hotel in Williamsburg goes down nicely at $194.

The Hotel Pennsylvania, which developers plan to tear down and in its place build a skyscraper to rival the Empire State Building, currently has rooms from $189 this weekend.

Apple Core Hotels in Midtown has rooms for this weekend from $140.

The cheapest room at The Jane go for $89 until Labor Day weekend and then settle at $99 for fall and winter. The hip but tiny rooms come with free wi-fi and a shared bathroom down the hall. Pricier rooms offer more privacy.

The Pod Hotel also has packages from $99.

Still celebrating its 80th birthday, the New Yorker has $80 rooms, but only if you too, are 80 years old or more.

The Ravel Hotel next to the Queensborough Bridge in Long Island City has rates from $159.

]]> The Hudson Hotel has a number of packages under $200, including choices of cocktails, breakfast or a fitness pass to Equinox Gym.

The Ameritania on W. 54th Street has rates from $116.

The Millenium Hilton next to the World Trade Center site has rooms from $189 this weekend.

Best Western Bowery Hanbee Hotel in Chinatown has rooms in August and September from $189.

The Andaz Wall Street, which opened early this year, has rooms from $200 for this weekend.

70 Park Ave has a pair of packages priced at $199 focusing on fitness and art.

Holiday Inn Express on Union Street at the edge of Park Slope has rooms from $189 this weekend.

Hotel 373 has rates from $179.

Quikbook’s NY hotel deals offerings only a smattering of rooms around $200 or less, and even then they’re only available on “select dates.” Among the offerings is the Distrikt Hotel for $199.

Earlier: New York City hotels - direct links to NYC hotels

Bicycle news roundup: bike share, Unicycle Fest, new path

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:19:06 -0500

Here’s a batch of bicycle news, events and maps for NYC:

Roosevelt Island will get a preview of a bike sharing program today from 2 to 7 p.m. (Roosevelt Islander blog)

Social Bicycle, a wireless bike-sharing system, may be coming to NYC in the fall. (via NYConvergence)

NYHarborway Bike and Boat NYC Weekend runs this Friday through Sunday, combing a bicycle rental with a New York Water Taxi pass.

The NYC Unicycle Festival begins Sept. 3 with a Brooklyn long-distance ride. The main event takes place Sept. 4 on Governors Island. (via @NYCParks)

The interim bike path last week opened along the water at Brooklyn Bridge Park. (BBP Corp.)

Free bike Fridays continues at Governors Island through Oct. 8.

Five upscale NYC bike boutiques. (Racked)

Earlier this year, Ride the City launched an iPhone app for NYC.

Google Maps also added biking directions earlier this year.

The NYC Department of Transportation has pledged to make annual updates to its free New York City Cycling Map.

Pedicabs are prohibited on NYC bridges, a judge ruled. (Wall Street Journal)

Envisioning a New York Where Cycling Isn’t Just for Cyclists, an American Institute of Architects panel, as covered by StreetsBlog.org.

Earlier: New maps of NYC for bikers, history buffs, geeks

NY Philharmonic open rehearsals rise to $18, one freebie

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:37:39 -0500

Individual tickets for the New York Philharmonic’s 2010-11 season are now on sale, including a big batch of morning open rehearsals.

The schedule begins with one free dress rehearsal on the morning of the season’s opening day. The free Sept. 22 dress rehearsal at 9:45 a.m. will feature Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Music Director Alan Gilbert. General admission tickets will be handed out that morning from 8 a.m. at Lincoln Center’s Josie Robertson Plaza.

All other open rehearsals cost $18 each, ($2 more than 2009,) plus handling fees.

All but two rehearsals start at 9:45 a.m. (The two exceptions are 1:15 p.m. rehearsals on Nov. 24 and May 3.)

NY Philharmonic’s open rehearsals for 2010-11:

Sept. 22 - Opening Day
Sept. 23 - Perlman Performs Mendelssohn
Sept. 29 - Alan Gilbert Conducts Mahler’s Sixth Symphony
Oct. 6 - Joshua Bell Performs Sibelius
Oct. 14 - Zukerman, Webern, and Brahms
Nov. 10 - Mendelssohn’s Elijah
Nov. 18 - Anne-Sophie Mutter Plays Mozart and Wolfgang Rihm
Nov. 24 - Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Stravinsky’s Firebird
Dec. 2 - Beethoven and Mahler
Dec. 9 - Elgar and Mozart
Dec. 14 - Handel’s Messiah
Dec. 28 - Alan Gilbert and Soloists from the Philharmonic
Jan. 6 - Mozart, Mahler, and a Thomas Adès Premiere
Jan. 13 - Bronfman, Schumann, and Brahms
Jan. 20 - von Dohnanyi Conducts Schumann and Dvorák
Feb. 10 - Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto and Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony
Feb. 16 - Branford Marsalis
Feb. 24 - Janine Jansen and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
March 3 - Mahler’s Fourth Symphony
March 10 - Hungarian Echoes I: Esa-Pekka Salonen and Pierre-Laurent Aimard
March 17 - Hungarian Echoes II: Salonen Conducts Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra
March 24 - Hungarian Echoes IV: Salonen Conducts The Miraculous Mandarin
March 31 - Anne-Sophie Mutter and Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony
April 13 - Masur Conducts Liszt, Gubaidulina, and Brahms
April 27 - Mahler’s Symphony No. 5
May 3 - Batiashvili, Bartók, and Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony
June 2 - Mutter, Beethoven, Bruckner, and a Sebastian Currier Premiere
June 16 - Gil Shaham and Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition
June 21 - The Cunning Little Vixen

Michael Jackson birthday party set for Prospect Park

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:36:28 -0500

For the second year on a row, Spike Lee will host a memorial birthday bash for the King of Pop in Prospect Park. The Brooklyn Loves Michael Jackson event with DJ Spinna on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. will be free to the public. The whole thing will be filmed by Lee’s production company, 40 Acres And A Mule.

The birthday party will be in Prospect Park’s Nethermead, the map.

On Facebook: The 2nd Annual Brooklyn Loves Michael Jackson Birthday Celebration

Earlier: Michael Jackson party rain-or-shine in Prospect Park (2009)

$1 US Open water taxis from Manhattan's Pier 11, 35th St.

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:02:25 -0500

The New York Water Taxi again this year will be offering nearly-free ferry rides to the U.S. Open from Manhattan, according to their website.

Sponsored by Delta, the ferries will make two trips per day on most days. The boats are scheduled to depart Pier 11 (at Wall Street) at 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. All ferries will also make a stop at E. 35th Street on the way to the dock at the World’s Fair Marina.

The logistics are nearly identical to the free Yankees and Mets water taxis, which are also sponsored by Delta Air Lines this season. The ferry is to the event only. You’re on your own for the return. Also, you must reserve your US Open ferry seat online in advance. The New York Water Taxi’s booking system needs $1 per reservation, so technically it’s not completely free. The boats carry 140 passengers.

]]> Tickets to the US Open, which runs from Aug. 30 to Sept. 12, are not included.

Resources: @USOpen on Twitter
@AAKidsDay on Twitter
@NYWaterTaxi on Twitter
Non-ferry directions to the US Open

Picture credit: Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.

Earlier: Free Water Taxi rides to US Open from E. 35th Street (2009)

$20 'Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson' Broadway tickets

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 07:13:26 -0500

The box office for the rock musical “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” will open at 10 a.m. today, selling $20 tickets for the show’s first Broadway preview on Sept. 20.

That’s a Jackson for Jackson.

The historical musical, a Public Theater transfer, mixes fact with fiction to an emo rock soundtrack. Off-Broadway, critics loved it.

The Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre is located at 242 W. 45th St., map. There’s a limit of two-per-person for the $20 tickets, which are good for the first preview only.

Regular tickets for the show will sell for $51.50 to $131.50. Premium seats are priced $171.50 to $251.50.

Opening night is scheduled for October 13. Tickets are on sale through Jan. 9.

“Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” isn’t the only Broadway show with cheap seats to previews this season. $10 Broadway tickets are available to the first previews of “Brief Encounter” and “Mrs. Warren’s Profession.”

Image source: Public Theater’s Off-Broadway logo for “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson”