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It's spring in New York and the Met Museum has opened its rooftop gallery for the season -- this year featuring Jeff Koons sculptures.
For the next few days, you can catch Gabriel Byrne in the NY Philharmonic's production of "Camelot," and the cherry blossoms are still in peak bloom at the Brooklyn Botanic.
On Sunday, the Jewish Museum opened “Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976.”
For the city's ongoing shows and exhibitions, check the list at Now in NYC.
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Today in New York:
Broadway news: Tony Awards, Lortels, free plays
 First off, if you were planning on buying Broadway tickets soon, you may want to speed that up ahead of Tuesday's Tony Awards nominations announcement. The awards show itself, which will be hosted by Whoopie Goldberg, is set for June 15 at Radio City Music Hall. Tony tickets -- priced at $204.50 and $404.50 -- will go on sale (but only to Visa cardholders) the same day nominations are announced.
See the full list of this year's eligible productions as well as the New York Post's nomination predictions.
Variety's got your early Tony Awards controversy: CBS' pre-Tony special has bumped "Passing Strange" from the lineup because censors think the song "We Just Had Sex" would be inappropriate for broadcast.
"Betrayed" and "Adding Machine" were the big winners in the Lortel Awards.
Coyote Rep has free sound plays -- an "updated twist on the old radio plays" -- you can start downloading via iTunes as of May 11.
Gabriel of Modern Fabulosity was at the private preview of "Billy Elliot" and reports "it was pretty damn fabulous." He likes all three actors who will play Billy, but says David Alvarez is the standout. See his site for pictures and details.
The new new Elle Woods in "Legally Blonde" will be cast via an MTV reality show scheduled to air starting June 2. Snap.
Harry Connick Jr. will return to Broadway in March to start in the new musical “Nice Work if You Can Get It,” the New York Times reports.
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May 9, 2008 01:12 PM 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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Salvaged JFK stained glass for sale at Olde Good Things
Sharp-eyed Tropolism points out the exciting news that the lamented JFK stained glass wasn't destroyed, but instead much was salvaged by Olde Good Things.
 The company's website has an extensive feature about the salvage effort -- and how to buy sections for yourself.
In Manhattan, Olde Good Things is located at 124 West 24th St. in Chelsea.
Picture credit: (top)Brian Armitage, American Airlines’ Terminal 8 at JFK before the glass was gone.
(right) Olde Good Things website.
May 9, 2008 10:47 AM Comments (0)
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Original Winnie-the-Pooh now lives at 42nd & 5th
The original stuffed animals that inspired A.A. Milne to create "Winnie-the-Pooh" now live at 42nd and Fifth Avenue -- just a few feet behind a Gutenberg Bible that dates to the 1450s.
Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, Piglet and Kanga recently left the children's room in the Donnell Library Center, which will be torn down to make way for a luxury hotel/library.
The stuffed animals, loved up into a shabby, patched-up state, now reside in an elegant glass case in the Edna Barnes Salomon Room of the Humanities & Social Sciences Library.
They're actually easy to find -- head up the main stairs to the third floor as if you were headed to the main reading room. But at the top of the landing, instead of heading west into the reading room, head east toward Pooh.
The animals were given to Robin Milne (the inspiration for Christopher Robin) between 1920 and 1922. Pooh was originally acquired from Harrod's. They were brought to the United States in 1947 and found a home at Milne's U.S. publisher, who then gave them to the library in 1987.
Library entrance is of course free.
Picture credit: Pooh and Friends, taken by Don Hamerman. Image provided to NewYorkology by the NYPL.
Earlier: Original Winnie-the-Pooh to move to NYPL at 42nd St.
New "21" Club hotel would get its own NY Public Library
The original Winnie the Pooh lives in Midtown
May 9, 2008 10:17 AM Comments (0)
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Weekend on tap: Plácido Domingo, Bklyn Designs
Some of this weekend's NYC highlights include the Brooklyn Designs show in Dumbo, Bike to Shea Day and Brooklyn Heights Landmarks House Touron Saturday.
For culture, you've got Plácido Domingo in The First Emperor at the Met Opera as well as the NY Philharmonic's rendition of "Camelot" with Gabriel Byrne.
For the city's ongoing shows and exhibitions, check the list at Now in NYC. For more, see NewYorkology’s May calendar.
Events will be added through the weekend.
Friday
 Weekend-long Brooklyn Designs opens in Dumbo
Gowanus Transformations opens at the Brooklyn Historical Society
Mets vs. the Reds
An Evening with Michel Gondry, director of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Dave Chappelle's Block Party” and videos for Bjork, Radiohead and The White Stripes, at the TimesCenter at 7 p.m.
Meet the Editors: “The Tracey Fragments” at Apple SoHo store
NY Philharmonic plays Camelot with Gabriel Byrne, Marin Mazzie, Nathan Gunn, Christopher Lloyd, Fran Drescher and Marc Kudisch at 9 p.m.
The American Opera Theater makes its New York debut with Charpentier's “David et Jonathas” at BAM
Verdi’s Macbeth at the Met Opera
Vonda Shepard at the B B Kings Blues Club
Sarah Silverman at Columbia University's Alfred Lerner Hall
Lightbulb Theatre Company's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the 6th Street and Avenue B Community Garden at 8 p.m.
Stevie Nicks tribute Night of a Thousand Stevies at the Highline Ballroom
Last day of the free Made in the Bronx Film Festival
Open Studio, Afternoons with Artists: Adam Putnam at the Whitney at 2 p.m.
New York Academy of Science lecture: String Theory
Free music Fridays at the American Folk Art Museum from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The RSVP period opens for Downtown Alliance’s free May 15 Third Thursdays lecture: David Rockwell and Rockwell Group: Inspiration, Imagination and Innovation. Location: Federal Hall
Museums open after 7 p.m.: American Folk Art Museum, to 7:30 p.m. (with free admission from 5:30 to close;) and the Guggenheim to 7:45 p.m. (where admission is pay-what-you-wish from 5:45 to close.)
Museums open to 8 p.m.: Museum of Modern Art, (which is free from 4 to 8 p.m.;) New-York Historical Society, (with free admission from 6 p.m.;) Bronx Museum, (which is free all day;) and the Children’s Museum of Manhattan
Museums open to 9 p.m.: the Met; Whitney, (which is pay-what-you-wish from 6 to 9 p.m. and sometimes hosts Whitney Live dance parties;) Cooper-Hewitt; the Morgan, (with free admission from 7 p.m.;) Neue Galerie; and the Asia Society, (where it's free from 6 to 9 p.m.)
Closing at 10 p.m.: Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, (with free admission from 7 p.m. to close.)
More late night NY: Top of the Rock (last ticket sold at 11 p.m.) and Empire State Building (last elevator up at 1:15 a.m.)
Saturday
Plácido Domingo in The First Emperor at the Met Opera at 8 p.m.
NY Philharmonic plays Camelot with Gabriel Byrne, Marin Mazzie, Nathan Gunn, Christopher Lloyd, Fran Drescher and Marc Kudisch at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito at the Met Opera
A Tribute to the Big Bands at St. George Theatre on Staten Island
Bike to Shea Day
Mets vs. the Reds
Brooklyn Heights Landmarks House and Garden Tour through five private homes in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District
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May 9, 2008 08:09 AM Comments (0)
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Big Apple BBQ's Bubba Fast Pass only for AmExers
 The sixth annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party is set for June 7 and 8 at Madison Square Park and the Bubba Fast Passes are already on sale.
And here comes what will sound like a commercial: There are only 2,000 passes and you can only get them with American Express.
That doesn't mean AmEx cardholders merely get first dibs, like they often do with some theater and concert tickets -- they're the only ones getting dibs for fast-access to the ribs - and other 'cue.
That's the word NewYorkology received this morning via e-mail from BBQ organizers.
The $100 FastPass -- redeemable for food, beverage & merchandise at the festival -- "guarantees exclusive access to express lines for each FastPass holder and one guest to all food and beverage purveyors throughout the entire weekend." Everyone else will be stuck in the lines, which in past years have been as long as it takes an ornery, two-legged pig to walk a country mile.
Barbecue will be priced at $8 per plate. Sides and desserts will be $4 each.
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May 8, 2008 12:02 PM Comments (0)
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Waldorf's lost train off-limits, other tunnels offer tours
Matt Lauer of the "Today" show this morning got rare access into one of New York's City's best hidden spaces -- the abandoned rail platfrm under the Waldorf-Astoria hotel.
Most famously used by President Franklin Roosevelt to help hide the fact he was wheelchair-bound, the track allowed VIPs to enter Manhattan by train and take an elevator directly up to the luxury hotel without ever setting foot on the street.
In 2006, the Waldorf's general manager told NewYorkology that the hotel's entrance to the rail platform had been reconfigued and is no longer easy to access. He also debunked a few myths about who used the private entrance. Researchers at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum in Hyde Park also did some research on the matter for NewYorkology, making it clear that the abandoned rail car under the Waldorf isn't the polio-stricken president's famous Pullman car, the Ferdinand Magellan.
 So unless you're Matt Lauer, you're probably not ever getting access to the train cars under the Waldorf. But you can get access to a couple other abandoned rail stations in NYC. The oldest option is in Brooklyn, directly under Atlantic Avenue as it leads out to the East River. Tours of the 1844 tunnel are offered about once a month by the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association. But be warned that you do enter the tunnel by crawling through a manhole in the middle of the street at the intersection of Atlantic and Court.
 Your other option is to catch one of the rare tours the NY Transit Museum offers of the city's original subway station that opened in 1904 under City Hall in Lower Manhattan. The stunning station, with chandeliers, skylights and tiled, vaulted ceilings, is next open for tours on July 19.
Not quite as glamorous, but still cool, the old Knickerbocker Hotel on Times Square had its own stairs from the subway platform leading up to the hotel. See Forgotten NY for pictures. (In 2006, the Dubai royal family announced plans to convert the Knickerbocker back into a luxury hotel but the Post reported last week that instead they've decided to sell the landmark building which now houses offices and a Gap shop, streetview map.)
Also of note: Julia Solis' intriguing "New York Underground" recently came out in paperback.
Earlier: 1844 Atlantic Avenue railway tunnel reopens for tours
Waldorf-Astoria's private rail platform forever closed
NY's golden hotel era architects: Schultze & Weaver
May 8, 2008 10:26 AM Comments (0)
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Today in NY: Rock Center anniv., 'No No Nanette'
It is Thursday, May 8 and here are a few items from today's calendar:
 Skyscraper Museum’s tribute to the 75th anniversary of Rockefeller Center construction at 6:30 p.m.
"No No Nanette" begins its run at City Center Encores with Beth Leavel, Rosie O’Donnell, Mara Davi and Sandy Duncan
NY Philharmonic plays Camelot with Gabriel Byrne, Marin Mazzie, Nathan Gunn, Christopher Lloyd, Fran Drescher and Marc Kudisch at 7:30 p.m.
La Fille du Régiment at the Met Opera
Yankees vs. Cleveland at Yankee Stadium at 1:05 p.m.
The New Yorker Conference begins
Panel discussion on Art and American Culture at Mid-Century at the Jewish Museum at 6:30 p.m.
American Museum of Natural History lecture: Darwinism: Human Evolution and the Complexity of Living Organisms
Zhang Huan: Blessings exhibition opens at PaceWildenstein’s 25th and 22nd street galleries
Impressionist and Modern Art auctions at Christie’s and Sotheby’s
Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Annual Plant Sale
The New Museum has free admission from 7 to 10 p.m. today and the China Institute Gallery is free from 6 to 8 p.m.
Several other museums are open until 8 p.m. tonight: the Jewish Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Paley Center for Media, the Museum of Biblical Art and the China Institute Gallery.
For more ongoing exhibits and shows, see NewYorkology’s Now in NYC list, and for upcoming events, the May calendar.
May 8, 2008 08:45 AM Comments (0)
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More NY: civil disobedience, Veniero's, High Line
Berlin Wall sections on 53rd Street between 5th and Madison. Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.
Sharpton-led protest ties up traffic at Manhattan bridges and tunnels (NY Times)
Several hundred protesters briefly shut down traffic at entrances to the Queensboro Bridge, the Triborough Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge and the Holland Tunnel and Queens-Midtown Tunnel this afternoon as part of a coordinated series of protests over the acquittal of three New York City police detectives in the fatal shooting of Sean Bell in 2006.
Dept. of Health closes Veniero's (Eater)
Yesterday, the DOH shuttered the 114 year-old East Village pastry house Veniero's. A sign in their window announced that the health violations and pest problems were due to a "Capital Improvement Project." Sure, that could account for some of the violations, but no renovations should lead to mice droppings in the chocolate. Get it together guys.
High Line park to get awesome rolling lounge chairs on the tracks (Curbed)
No good train track should go unused, so the brains at the High Line have decided to install some loungers on wheels. High Liners will be able to slide them together for impromptu sexy sunbathing parties, or spread them apart for some quiet time in which to ponder the looming Standard hotel. This one is just a prototype, so the final results may vary, but your brain now has permission to explode.
Polar Bear Club, Coney Island USA among groups planning anti-developer freak-in (Post)
Community organizations with 4,000 members combined told The Post yesterday that they plan to turn the May 22 opening of Coney Island's beach into a freak show to protest the city's revision of a rezoning plan that reduces a planned 15-acre amusement park to nine acres.
Digging the "you go girl" graffiti around New York City (CityRag)
Sources close to Discosalt have told us there is just one prolific guy responsible, running around the country spreading his national message of girl power like some feminist Johnny Appleseed. You Go Girl!"
Airport cabbies get free thank-you concert from forgetful violinist (Reuters)
A Grammy-nominated violinist who left his $4 million, 285-year-old Stradivarius in a taxi repaid the driver who returned it with a free concert at an airport taxi stand on Tuesday.
May 7, 2008 06:54 PM Comments (0)
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'Glory Days' closes hours after opening-night reviews
 "Glory Days" opened on Broadway last night.
The bad reviews came out this morning.
The show closed this afternoon.
The coming-of-age musical had been in previews at the Circle in the Square theater since April 22.
(Thanks to Modern Fabulosity for the tip.)
May 7, 2008 06:40 PM Comments (0)
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Momofuku Ko is NYC's 'it' restaurant of the moment
 Everybody wants to go to Momofuku Ko.
To amp up the oft-unrequited love offering, there are only 12 seats in the restaurant and only two seatings a night. Reservations are taken online only, and to thwart scalpers, you must first provide your credit card number and e-mail address to create an account to merely enter the long-shot derby to secure a seat. Six days a week, the reservation form at 10 a.m. opens up all the slots for dinner six days hence. Seconds later, they're gone. (Ko is closed Tuesdays.)
Expect the competition to get even worse now that the New York Times has granted Ko three-stars.
Ko was opened March 12 in the East Village by 30-year-old David Chang, who last year was named best chef in NYC in the James Beard Awards for his Momofuku Ssäm Bar. (He also runs the nearby Momofuku Noodle Bar.)
The style of food is what Ko calls "delicious american food" and Frank Bruni of the NY Times describes as Asian-French. "You’ll love it, provided you ever get access to it," he writes. The paper isn't the first to fall for Ko.
From the Wall Street Journal review:
Mr. Chang has crafted an inventive menu filled with delightful dishes such as a plump hen's egg split open into a flood of caviar, and escargot and asparagus "lasagna" touched off with both crumbled and whipped ricotta. A simple amuse bouche featuring a miniature English muffin slathered with pork fat and topped with chives gave off a mouthwatering Sunday-brunch smell as it sizzled on the stove. Strips of soft fluke in a buttermilk sauce tinged with Sriracha, an Asian hot sauce, and filled with poppy seeds provided an incredible juxtaposition of varying tastes and textures -- crunchy, soft, milky and just slightly spicy all at once. From Bloomberg News:Over three visits, I watched as the chefs cursed, drank coffee, shouted, devoured pie, talked about cars and cursed some more. Some will find it juvenile and unpleasant, but those chefs also happen to cook. And that they do quite well.
This is food you haven't tried before. And New York magazine:“We charge cook’s prices” is how Chang puts it to one of the patrons at the bar. He is standing with the rest of his cooks, who look the way top-line restaurant cooks usually do, which is to say pallid and harried, with assorted random baseball caps on their heads and their sleeves rolled up to give their burn marks full display. The first impression you get at Momofuku Ko, in fact, is that this is a kind of kitchen slave’s revolt, an operation run by hypergifted line cooks for the benefit of their downtrodden, misunderstood, back-of-the-house brethren. And if you don't like choices, you'll do just fine at Ko. The eight-course menu changes daily and it's all chef's choice. The price is $85, plus an optional wine pairing for $50, $80 or $150. The restaurant's website also mentions a $15 corkage fee.
Ko is located at 163 1st Ave. between 10th and 11th streets. map.
Related coverage: Ko reservation tips (Wall Street Journal)
The Ko reviewers' spreadsheet (Savory Tidbits)
When Good People Do Bad Things to Get Into Ko (Eater)
The maligned reservation-seller speaks (Grub Street)
Image source: Ko.
May 7, 2008 10:30 AM Comments (0)
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Today in NY: Camelot, Top Girls, new Sports Museum
It is Wednesday, May 7 and here are a few things on today's calendar:
Opening night on Broadway for “Top Girls” with Mary Beth Hurt, Mary Catherine Garrison, Jennifer Ikeda, Elizabeth Marvel, Martha Plimpton, Ana Reeder and Marisa Tomei
 NY Philharmonic plays Camelot with Gabriel Byrne, Marin Mazzie, Nathan Gunn, Christopher Lloyd, Fran Drescher and Marc Kudisch at 7:30 p.m.
Protest led by Al Sharpton over Sean bell shooting verdict expected to tie up traffic near major bridge and tunnel entrances at 3 p.m.
Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy opens at the Met Museum
Grand opening of the Sports Museum of America, ($15 admission in May only when using offer code NYC15)
Yankees vs. Cleveland at Yankee Stadium at 7:05 p.m.
Impressionist and Modern Art auctions at Christie’s and Sotheby’s
Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Met Opera
Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Annual Plant Sale begins
Seminars with Artists: Daniel Joseph Martinez at the Whitney at 7 p.m.
Public Programs Julia Peyton-Jones on “Good Better Best: Perspectives on Connoisseurship” at the Guggenheim
Book signing at the Bronx Museum with photographer Jamel Shabazz at 5:30 p.m.
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Downtown Dinner at WTC 7 honoring Edward Albee, Kiki Smith, Michael Bloomberg and First Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris
Cocktail party and silent art auction to benefit openhousenewyork at The Explorers Club
NY Audubon’s Spring Migration Birdwalks in Central Park
Admission to the Bronx Zoo is by optional "donation" every Wednesday, and admission is free all day at the NY Botanical Garden and Van Cortlandt House Museum. The Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust has free-admission hours from 4 to 8 p.m. today.
Museums open late on Wednesday are the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, (to 7 p.m.,) and the Museum of Jewish Heritage, (to 8 p.m.)
For ongoing shows and exhibits see Now in NYC, and for more upcoming events, the May calendar.
May 7, 2008 07:49 AM Comments (0)
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