Posts tagged as New York City
Learning To DJ At Rock And Soul
Tucked on 7th Avenue, between 35th and 36th, sits the music store Rock and Soul, which has been providing the city's DJs with gear and vinyl since 1975. Over the decades, a number of influential DJs and musicians have made Rock and Soul their hub, among them Kid Capri, who deejayed for seven seasons of Def Comedy Jam and has produced tracks for Heavy D and Quincy Jones; DJ Funkmaster Flex, who played a pivotal role in introducing hip hop across the radio waves on NYC’s Hot 97; and legendary hip hop pioneer Kool Herc. READ MORE
Because Why Not, Snow
If the weather were an actor we would all be talking about its phenomenal range. There's a chance of snow tomorrow, and then it will be back up near 50 on Friday. Next week will probably bring temperatures in the 70s and ice storms. It's crazy, I tells ya.
Playing Tennis At Grand Central
Over the weekend, as Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic’s titanic battle at the Australian Open effectively put an end to the sport of tennis, I played an hour of the game inside Grand Central Terminal. Up until recently, I had no idea there was an actual, full-size tennis court inside one of the most famous train stations in the world. I would wager that many of the 70,000-plus commuters who pass through every day don’t know about it either (perhaps they missed these photographs, as I did). But there I was, tennis bag in hand, with a voucher to play for one hour at the Vanderbilt Tennis Club—so it had to be there. READ MORE
Tourist Gets Tour of New York City's Racist Prison System
Add yet one more reporter to the long list of those getting arrested in New York! The chair of McGill's daily publications society board of directors, 21-year-old Aaron Vansintjan, might be interested in Occupy Wall Street, according to his Google+ profile and Facebook, but he actually got arrested for climbing a hill to go visit the Cloisters as a suspect in a made-up robbery, in one of the best New York City cops-gone-wrong stories in recent history¹. Miranda rights? WHAT ARE THOSE? On his tour through New York City's holding cells, he got to see the city's ugly secret: everyone else being held was African-American and being processed on dumb marijuana charges. Welcome! READ MORE
Are You Jewish?
Because of my mixed heritage I have been confused for pretty much all of your swarthy, hirsute ethnicities at one point or another—Jewish and Italian, obviously but also occasionally Hispanic, Greek, and even once, by a cab driver who unrelatedly treated me to a crash course in Syrian profanity, as Lebanese. I am a dark and hairy man, and that's part of the deal. (This is also why I won't get bed bugs.) Still, I am irritated every time this holiday (this holiday is Hanukkah, or however you spell it) rolls around and I am accosted in the street by furtive Hasidic men who look at me with searching eyes and say, "By any chance are you Jewish?" My answer is always no—I am only Jewish when I am around Italians, and vice versa—but when it happened again last night I was particularly irked, and I wondered why. I decided that perhaps it has something to do with how abstract the assumption is. This idea that you can somehow identify a person's characteristics and ancestry simply by judging their appearance and looking for telltale racial markers... how does one even encapsulate the concept? There oughta be a German word for that, I thought to myself, before even more sadly realizing that there almost certainly already is. READ MORE
Restaurant Open
Finally, the people of Brooklyn have a place where they can buy hamburgers and hot dogs.
Are You Smarter Than a Cab Driver?
"You are at the intersection of 155th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan and a passenger wants to go to Jerome Avenue and 163rd Street in the Bronx. Which of the following is the closest bridge connecting Manhattan to the Bronx?" READ MORE
Streets Crowded
I was once walking across 31st Street between 6th and 7th when I heard someone shout at a slow-moving pedestrian ahead of him, in the deeply impatient and grievously inconvenienced tone that is the foundation of the New York City accent, "Lady, ya gotta move!" To my everlasting horror, I suddenly realized that the words were, in fact, coming from my own mouth. There's something very frightening about that loss of control when your inner monologue is given voice. Anyway, things are even worse now. And that lady really did need to move. I mean, come on, it's a goddamn sidewalk. Walk already.
Maybe This Explains Your Mood
If you are feeling a little bit down today but are unsure as to why, let me offer you a few possibilities. READ MORE
