This newsletter (pictured) arrived early this afternoon in the mail....Shortly before I heard this on the radio.
While Miguel Martinez's political career probably can't be saved, this newsletter is definitely worth keeping.
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This newsletter (pictured) arrived early this afternoon in the mail....
According to accounts at least two women in Washington Heights have been robbed of their cell phones in the past week and a half on 181st. TUC is informed that two women, in two separate incidents, had their cell phones snatched from their hands while using the devices. In both cases the assailants were "kids" and ran up to the victims, snatched the phones, then continued to run away with the device in hand.
These are word of mouth reports that have not been confirmed.
NoMAA's Uptown Arts Stroll concludes this evening. From the little that I've seen it was quite successful. The only event I attended was a concert/show/party on June 20th thrown by Juan Mapu (friend of TUC), titled "Social Whist Party: The Visit," which was truly awesome.Mapu brought together some amazing artists, including a band by the name of "R-Tronika," who after finishing their set was encouraged... almost forced... into encores. Definitely check out their site and/or MySpace page.
Also something that was a lot of fun, though unexpected, was a performance by the "Surf 'n Turf" improv group. They asked the audience to give them a word to set them off into their first sketch (and perhaps to prove that it was indeed all improvised). After a few rounds of shouting from people in the room they narrowed it down to one word, which began a series of improvised train-of-thought sketches, which brought collective laughter from Mapu's attendees. Definitely check these guys out as well.
If the dozens of other events connected to this year's Arts Stroll were 1/2 as good as the one Mapu put together then I'm sure it was a major success. Anyone attend this or any of the other events?
Photo of Juan Mapu speaking to event attendees, courtesy of Sol Aramendi
...from it all. Friend to TUC and local singer Perry Payne is heading back to the stage next week to perform "Getting Away From It All."
With Michael Rice and his Travelling Three
Directed by Evan Pappas
July 1, 2, and 10 at 7:30
July 11th at 9:45
Music of Adair, Wallowich, Rodgers and Hammerstein, A.C. Jobim, Southerners including Trisha Yearwood, Michael Rice and Mike Craver, Steve Randoy, Ethel Waters, Mancini, Sting and Pink...Make your reservations and come on down! Time's a-wastin'...
The show is at the Metropolitan Room on 22nd street. For tickets call (212) 206-0440 or visit metropolitanroom.com.
As some may know I'm in the middle of a lot of (all good) things right now, but haven't had the time I'd like to post and develop the site further. That said TUC is very much alive, and in the weeks and months to come there should be more activity. Keep checking back, and make sure to subscribe to the TUC RSS feed (for when posts will be coming in more regularly).
There's one bit of good news, that will follow this post, concerning a fellow contributer to the site.
-Alex
Cows, seals... and chickens? Apparently all will moo, clap and peck through our urban wild at some point.And earlier this year it appears a chicken, bobbing its way through Fort Tryon Park, was rescued by two smart girls who took it upon themselves to catch the bird, accurately estimating that it should probably cluck along elsewhere.
"...Two young sisters discovered - a hen nesting under a bush - while walking their family's pair of rescued racing greyhounds around the park in late February. The lost bird was likely an escapee from one of the city's live markets, where chickens and other "food" birds are sold from storefronts and slaughtered on the spot. Holly, 15, and Emma, 12, probably saved the indigent hen's life by carrying her home, because a severe snowstorm struck the area that night."
The chicken, dubbed "Boba" by Holly and Emma, is now at the Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY.
Of course, things don't always end well for chickens who make their way into the park. Boba, however, is hopefully happy and having non-sky-falling thoughts up in Watkins Glen.
image and story via Farm Sanctuary
It's that time of year.If you're a soda drinker (celebrating Passover, or not) look for Coca-Cola bottles with yellow caps. The yellow cap means it's the real thing... it has actual sugar in it as opposed to fructose. These usually go fast, so stock up while you can. Doing a blind taste test between a red-capped Coke bottle and a yellow-capped one will be an eye opener for anyone who hasn't done so in the past.
If you miss out, fear not, Coca-Cola bottles imported from Mexico can be found in various stores and restaurants throughout the year, and like Passover Coke are filled with sucrose.
And if you are celebrating Passover next week, happy holidays.
The Dyckman Farmhouse Museum has released a gossip newspaper in honor of April Fool's Day.This thing is great. It's an 8-page National Enquirer-styled paper full of details about the Dyckman Farmhouse's past. Some is true, same isn't, but all of it is fun to read. After reading the paper you can test what's true/false in the "Crossword Puzzle of Truth" or... if that didn't work for you... all the facts get cleared up by the end of the paper.
You can download it here, but the link will expire April 6th, so get to it!
It's here. Our local paper has launched its new website.
Among the many new features:
- Commenting on articles.
- Individual pages for each new article (as opposed to one PDF of the whole paper - archives of old editions are still available).
- "Online Community" - relevant N.M. links.
- An archive of the paper's video featurettes.
- "Eat Uptown" - sure to become our own, more detailed, version of Menu Pages or Urban Spoon.
- "Shop Uptown" - same deal, but for stores, not food.
- The "Shhhh!" section of the paper has finally fulfilled its pre-blog destiny, and actually become a blog.
I was also pleasantly surprised to see that they've included an RSS item for TUC in their online blog watch, thanks MT!
There's more. Check out the new site.
Last Saturday The Uptown Current spotted a group of local bus riders mounting a protest on Broadway and 168th street. The group was angered by the sudden lack of free bus service in the area.
For over a year many weekends had consistently seen free service offered by the MTA, taking riders to their destinations on Fort Washington Avenue and Broadway. Despite the service being quietly pulled by the MTA, many of the riders have noticed and are upset.
Dr. Ted Daniels, an Inwood resident and emergency room physician at the New York Presbyterian Hospital on 168th street was leading the pack of protesters. "I'm on call for emergencies every weekend" said Dr. Daniels. "Two years ago I was forced to pay for a subway ride down to work whenever I got paged for an emergency. If I was lucky I would use the transfer swipe to take the bus back uptown after I had dealt with the patient... as long as the patient died or got moved to surgery within 2 hours." Then, to Dr. Daniels's delight, the MTA began offering free weekend bus service for Washington Heights and Inwood residents. "It was a dream come true. I was saving money on MetroCards and simply hopping on and off the free shuttle bus as I pleased. I was in heaven."
A source within the MTA, wishing to remain anonymous, gave The Uptown Current some insight as to why they began offering free weekend bus service. "When we set up the free shuttle bus line uptown we thought it would be a great way to showcase our bus system and encourage people to pay for bus rides once our 'subway repairs' [the source chuckled, while using air quotes] ended... we felt too many people were using the subway, and we weren't seeing enough revenue coming in from our bus services."
Unfortunately for the MTA, the plan backfired. Many riders are now refusing to pay for bus, and even subway fares, in many cases choosing to walk to their north-of-168th-street destinations. Our source at the MTA added "We never saw it coming, we assumed people would be so upset over the lack of consistent weekend 'A' train service that they would slowly fall in love with the buses, and continue to spend money on buses once the subway service... 'resumed' [again using air quotes]."
What's next for the angry shuttle bus riders? "Straight to the mayor!" says Dr. Daniels. "He's forced to shell out hard earned cash every day to get to work [Mayor Bloomberg is known for riding the subway to City Hall]. He will sympathize with our effort to make weekend bus service uptown completely free of charge again." While the MTA had no official comment, it is clear through their sudden "completion of repairs" to the uptown 'A' line that they are backing away from their policy of offering free transport as a way of advertising their bus system.
