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research project
23 Unidentified Modern Eccentrics
Last night, Ryan trailed Gawker's latest research project: the ultimate guide to New York's modern eccentrics. Thanks for all your suggestions in the comments; here are the nominations, 23 of the city's most obviously bizarre characters—including "Elegant" Eliot Offen, the Green Lady, Mr. Purple and the Earth Angel, but not counting the socialites and proto-celebrities who usually clog up these pages. We'll do some digging for photographs over the weekend. Any pointers—names, further description, links or images—would be much appreciated. More »
maps
New York's subway map is a monstrosity, the worst of all possible graphical worlds, neither visually legible nor geographically accurate. For his 1972 map of the system, Massimo Vignelli at least made a clear choice: he sacrificed scale to space out the stations and the lines and present a diagram that commuters could at least read, something along the lines of London's famous tube map. Vignelli has been commissioned to update his long-lost design—for Men's Vogue, of all places, which displays the full map. (Writes Jonathan: "I'm going to print it out and then make a show of obsessively checking it on the train. People will think I'm a tourist. Then they will see it, and know I'm a time traveler.")
Making New York's Subway Look Like London's
New York's subway map is a monstrosity, the worst of all possible graphical worlds, neither visually legible nor geographically accurate. For his 1972 map of the system, Massimo Vignelli at least made a clear choice: he sacrificed scale to space out the stations and the lines and present a diagram that commuters could at least read, something along the lines of London's famous tube map. Vignelli has been commissioned to update his long-lost design—for Men's Vogue, of all places, which displays the full map. (Writes Jonathan: "I'm going to print it out and then make a show of obsessively checking it on the train. People will think I'm a tourist. Then they will see it, and know I'm a time traveler.")
urban anthropology
New York's Greatest Modern Eccentrics
Every city has its special weirdos. Santa Cruz, California has Pinky Valentino, who wears clown makeup and carries a tin-foil umbrella. Detroit has a bearded older guy in a jean jacket called Papa Smurf. And Seattle has so many local characters, like a would-be green elf from Legend of Zelda and the "original hipster" in a large-brimmed black hat, that someone created a site called Seattle Notables, modeled on Gawker Stalker, to track them all. Shamefully, there's no such central clearinghouse for eccentrics New York, which must content itself with individual sites, like the one dedicated to chronicling the shirtless, brawny heroics of a guy called "He-Man. To get the fameball rolling, we've assembled a handful of key Gotham characters after the jump. Add to this surely-incomplete list in the comments, or via tips@gawker.com. Because there's no way Seattle should be allowed to out-weird New York. On to the freakshow: More »
things we actually like
In the harbor of Grand Theft Auto's Liberty City, there's a statue. It differs from the Statue of Liberty in New York in two respects: the landmark's name is the Statue of Happiness; and it contains at its heart... a beating heart, chained to the exterior walls. The makers of Rockstar's hit game are twisted—and brilliant. (More pictures at Games Radar.)
The Beating Heart Of Lady Liberty
In the harbor of Grand Theft Auto's Liberty City, there's a statue. It differs from the Statue of Liberty in New York in two respects: the landmark's name is the Statue of Happiness; and it contains at its heart... a beating heart, chained to the exterior walls. The makers of Rockstar's hit game are twisted—and brilliant. (More pictures at Games Radar.)
new york
NYC Still Black People-Arresting Capital Of World
Shocking fact: in New York City, "arrests for marijuana possession began skyrocketing in the late 1990s during the Giuliani administration." Oh, and that's "a trend that continued under Mayor Michael Bloomberg," the responsible soft-spoken billionaire who's continued many of the grossest aspects of Giulinai's reign of terror, just without the blustery hardman talk. And thanks to their team effort, New York now leads the world in marijuana arrests! But you probably don't need to worry, stoner—the vast majority of these arrests were of poor black people, because when they "decriminialized" possession of small stashes in the '70s they only meant it for like college grads and other responsible types. [WCBS]
pic of the day
This photograph of the Eastern Seaboard, taken from the International Space Station, shows New York City at the center, spreading tendrils along the Long Island Sound and down to Philadelphia. Like smog, light pollution is beautiful—when viewed from a distance. (NASA's Earth Observatory via Kottke)
The City That Glowed In The Dark
This photograph of the Eastern Seaboard, taken from the International Space Station, shows New York City at the center, spreading tendrils along the Long Island Sound and down to Philadelphia. Like smog, light pollution is beautiful—when viewed from a distance. (NASA's Earth Observatory via Kottke)
scandals
Roger Clemens: Baseball's Eliot Spitzer
Here on day two of the Roger Clemens Infidelity Scandal And Schadenfreude Festival Of '08, it's becoming more clear that the brawny former Yankees ace pitcher and full time jerk did in fact cheat on his wife with the wild country singer Mindy McCready. Because now she's admitted it! McCready said the two did have an ongoing affair, although the sex didn't start until she was of legal age. They first met when she was only 15, (Miley Cyrus joke). But the most entertaining aspect of this scandal is how Clemens—heroic, honored, self-righteous, dismissive of critics, a King of New York—is turning into an uncanny baseball version of another recently fallen hero: Eliot Spitzer. More »
video game week
GTA Ad Perfectly Captures New York Nightlife, Daylife
This fictional ad for the "Steinway Beer Garden" in "Dukes" is maybe supposed to be the Bohemian Hall Beer Garden in Astoria. Oh, and it's from the forthcoming Grand Theft Auto IV. Warm Beer and Misogyny! What New York—and video games—are all about.
parochial news
A Vision of a New York That Never Was
While adolescents and adolescent-at-heart adults across the nation anticipate Grand Theft Auto IV and its slightly skewed New York, we pause to remember the richly detailed and intriguingly off-kilter New York of the 1984 Activision classic Ghostbusters. A New York where Park Avenue runs alongside Church St, and they both go crosstown. A New York where Zuul may be found on the corner of Union and 3rd (3rd Ave? Street? Who knows!). More intriguing video game visions of New York, courtesy The Bowery Boys, below.More »
911 is a joke
Police State Party!
"It's a first for mass transit in the United States. NYPD officers, armed with rifles, submachine guns, body armor and bomb-sniffing dogs will begin patrolling the city's subway system thanks to a 50 percent increase in a homeland security grant." Well, good thing we're putting that to good use! Turning an already problematic police force into a paramilitary organization? What could go wrong! If there's any of that grant money left we should use it to create androids that subdue anyone attempting to dance at a non-licensed bar. With a force as restrained and well-trained and not-roided out of their power-corrupted minds as the NYPD armed to the fucking teeth, what could go wrong? Should we be grateful it's just a ceremonial show of force, like those speeding cop car motorcades that wailed through midtown after the bicycle bombing? Or should we be worried! More »
video
A Drunken Sidewalk Scuffle In Virtual New York
A gamer with an early copy of Grand Theft Auto IV, the videogame set in a hyper-realistic version of New York City, has already tried out the one new feature we were most intrigued by. Niko Bellic, the hot Serbian immigrant at the center of Rockstar's videogame, can now stumble around intoxicated, and make drunken booty calls. View a clip by clicking the thumb; the longer gameplay is at Gametrailers.com. And here, if you missed them, are screenshots of Liberty City, the alternate New York City in which the fifth borough is not Staten Island but an industrial wasteland loosely based on New Jersey.
shut up, brooklyn
Even if the Brooklyn Literary Scene is dead, or as Colson Whitehead put it, annoying and irrelevant, there still are a lot of writers kicking it in the borough of churches. In today's New York Observer, Fort Greene's own Doree Shafrir made an extensive list of the Brooklyn literarati, including neighborhood listings. Not to sound like an asshole, but even I didn't know about some of the writers and editors on the list. The Observer's non-college educated readership will be totally lost. More »
Gawker Stalker For The Ultra-Literary Set
Even if the Brooklyn Literary Scene is dead, or as Colson Whitehead put it, annoying and irrelevant, there still are a lot of writers kicking it in the borough of churches. In today's New York Observer, Fort Greene's own Doree Shafrir made an extensive list of the Brooklyn literarati, including neighborhood listings. Not to sound like an asshole, but even I didn't know about some of the writers and editors on the list. The Observer's non-college educated readership will be totally lost. More »
movies
What Does Ang Lee Know About Tripping Balls In Upstate New York?
When Ang Lee took on the task of bringing Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain to the screen, he famously asked, "What do I know about gay ranch hands in Wyoming?" The director will be better informed about his adopted home state of New York. He and frequent collaborator James Schamus adapt the story of Greenwich Village interior designer Elliot Tiber, the man who gave the permit for the legendary doinkfest Woodstock Festival, where your parents went to drop acid and have unprotected sex in tents. Seriously, just ask them. The festival has inspired several popular documentaries, but the expensive cost of licensing the music discouraged a fictional treatment until now. Tiber's book Taking Woodstock: The True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life was blurbed as "a queer memoir that puts the wood in Woodstock," source material that should entertain despite the lack of Joan Baez et al. In light of his recent comments against Canadian censorship legislation, he may want to use every sex scene the novel allows for, and several more it doesn't. With a small budget of $5 to $10 million, they may still be able to afford the penises of Jason Segel and Seth Rogen, which would be quite a coup. [Reuters]
nightlife
Would the downtown Manhattan nightspot Beatrice Inn like to shed its reputation as a coke den where insiders say that two of the Six Rules For Getting Laid are to flout the rules, then flout the rules some more? There should certainly be no rule-flouting in the presence of these small paper signs warning against sex and drugs, which are posted in the bathrooms, where they can do the most good. Of course, they might make an exception for Josh Hartnett and friends.
Beatrice Inn Shuts Down Sex And Drugs Forever
Would the downtown Manhattan nightspot Beatrice Inn like to shed its reputation as a coke den where insiders say that two of the Six Rules For Getting Laid are to flout the rules, then flout the rules some more? There should certainly be no rule-flouting in the presence of these small paper signs warning against sex and drugs, which are posted in the bathrooms, where they can do the most good. Of course, they might make an exception for Josh Hartnett and friends.
Graffiti "Scribble" On The Rise
Rudy Giuliani's legacy is being tagged away. Graffiti is back and more popular than ever &mdash complaints of taggings have risen 81.5% from 2006 to 2007. "It's not art - it's just scribble," said a random dude complaining to the New York Post. But even though graffiti has become more prevalent under Bloomberg's tenure, let's not forget that he has protected the rich from other eyesores like fatties and smokers. [NYP]
gross
Subway Etiquette: Pooping Is Too Much
The subway is maybe the only place in New York where you can pick your nose, eat McDonald's and read chick lit without shame. That's part of the magic of this city. But occasionally someone goes too far, and the pact of no staring, touching, or judging is broken. Like when someone openly pees into a cup in front of a steel column while waiting for the D train. But that was just the first transgression. After the jump, a picture of the same man about to perform transgression number two. More »
40-Pound Beaver Is Rescued From East River
We can't actually improve on that headline. Kudos, City Room. But yes, a giant beaver was pulled to safety this afternoon by NYPD scuba units, who "were patrolling the United Nations in connection with the visit of Pope Benedict XVI and said the beaver appeared to be struggling to swim." Also: "It was not known if the beaver was male or female. ('It has pretty big claws,' Lieutenant Harkins said.)" [NYT]
