Well, Wicked's running in Chicago, and I'm willing to bet they've already seen that and The Lion King (both of which are amazing, and I hate musicals, especially CATS. Blegh.). Also, no indication that the kids are gonna be with them, so you can rule out the bullshit like The Little Mermaid, Mary Poppins, and Shrek. They already lived through coming-of-age tale Avenue Q, and they could go see Jersey Boys in Vegas. They could go see the decidedly femme Billy Elliot or 9-to-5, or the socialist-happy, somewhat anti-American West Side Story and Hair revivals, but really: do the Obamas strike you as musical people? Nah.

So they're gonna see a play. Well, August: Osage County is about a dysfunctional family of sociopathic pill-poppers and alcoholics, and Obama's heard enough about the Bush administration, he doesn't need to deal with them on a date. Also, it's three hours long. He's not really a Waiting For Godot guy, even though the revival has John Goodman in it. Does that make impatient, though? God Of Carnage, with James Gandolfini, is about class struggles. Do not want! So what play could he see that's both fitting and can't be politicized? Well, it ain't the one he's gonna see: August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone.

Wilson's the pre-eminent African-American playwright, period. The show's about a boarding house in Pittsburgh post-slavery; it takes place in 1911, and you can probably guess some of the radical ideas and commentary on race-relations it had when it premiered in 1984 that still resonate today. This pick more than any other could probably be parsed and analyzed and surely someone will have something stupid to say about it (my bet: Glenn Beck, first), but it's nice to see that our president doesn't give a shit either way. And at the end of the day, he's probably going just to see a good show: it's up for a Best Revival Tony, and is a favorite to win. Who doesn't like a good night out on the town?

Hopefully, he'll also walk through the new wonderful, traffic-castrated Times Square, stand in the middle of it, and say something about the rise of community, and let the word "socialism" slip in there for fun, and New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser's horns would pop out of her head. That'd be neat.

First Couple to Hit Broadway This Weekend [NYT]

NYC closed down Times Square to cars. It's for the people now! Andrea Peyser despises the people.

Yesterday, as New Yorkers dragged themselves back to work, they found cheap beach chairs thrown into the middle of Times Square, replacing buzzing, honking, vehicular traffic with gas-producing tourists, who really ought to lay off the Starbucks venti chocolate mint frappuccinos, anyway.

She just thinks it's dumb, okay? And stupid as well. It attracts foreigners, for one thing:

I spied a group of fit, tanned men smoking up a lung, and immediately determined they were from Europe.

"It's very, very inviting," said Bertjam Van Der Molen, a tourist from Holland.

"We have a four-hour layover in Newark," he said. "Enough time to come over here" — and stink us out.

You close Times Square to traffic for one day and what happens? A motherfucker from Holland comes out and smokes a cigarette right there, in Times Square. Hope you're happy, Hollandaise-swilling surrender monkeys.
There was no hot teen sex to be had, either.
[NYP]

Image: LIFE © Time Inc.

It seems some people are less apt to stop for fear they may want to put a dollar in my box that they can't afford... kind of like a smoker who knows if he sees a pack or goes into a store selling them, he will buy it, even if he knows he shouldn't.

The biggest drop off is in Times Square. People seem less interested in me—hopefully it has just been a bad few weeks for me, which happens. But this occurred earlier this year after a bad economic downturn...

Won't someone please, please think of the mimes?! [The Apiary]

Boomp3.com

Ms. Betty Suarez herself AKA America Ferrera continued to haunt and torment her Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants co-star Blake Lively during a Gossip Girl shoot in Times Square on Tuesday morning. Lively thought that Ferrera’s gigantic eyes were rolling each time she spoke and was unable to concentrate on the scene. A crafty collective of interns and production assistants concocted an elaborate stack of apple boxes, c-stands and light reflector boards to block the nerve-racking billboard.

[Photo Credit: Splash Pic]

*A Call To The Bullpen is a work of fiction. Although the pictures we use are most certainly real, Defamer does not purport that any of the incidents or quotations you see in this piece actually happened. Lighten up, people ... it's a joke.

To the staff

As part of our continuing efforts to reduce spending, we will be discontinuing the late-night shuttle van service that runs between 620 Eighth Ave., Penn Station and Grand Central. The van will make its last run on the night of Friday, March 21.

This expense cut is made possible, in part, by a welcome development: the increased safety and security of the Times Square area that we have seen over the last several years. This, combined with our move to the new building, which eliminated the need for people to ride to the Port Authority, has led to sharply diminished use of the van, and regrettably it is no longer a service we can afford to provide to the few remaining riders.

Bill Schmidt

Hundreds of Teens Rally in Times Square to Change Pop Culture as We Know It, Feb. 8

While Presidential Candidates Promise "Change," Thousands of Teens Are Enacting Change and Asking the Candidates to Help

NEW YORK, Jan. 30, 2008—Representing a movement of more than 400,000 teens, hundreds of teenagers will rally on Military Island in TIMES SQUARE, FEB. 8, 3:30 p.m. ET.

The rally will highlight teens' concerns about the toll today's pop culture is taking on their generation—the largest generation of teens in U.S. history.* The teens oppose the "cool factor" pop culture entertainment associates with substance abuse, violence, premature sexuality, Internet porn and more. The rally, called RECREATE '08, will showcase the thousands of TEEN MANIA teens who are out to RE-create entertainment, fashion, the arts, and the Web into products that build up, not tear down, their generation.

"I want to use film and television to give this generation hope that they can break free from depression, substance abuse and hopelessness in their lives," says 19-year-old Katherine Haller of Baltimore. Haller, an organizer of the RECREATE '08 rally, is currently receiving film and television production experience through Teen Mania's Center for Creative Media.

Fueled by their faith, these Teen Mania teens have sparked a movement of more than 400,000 like-minded teenagers who have gathered at arena events from coast to coast over the past two years to impact pop culture for the good of their generation.

The RECREATE '08 rally in Times Square will feature teens in the act of RE-creating some of their generation's favorite products including:

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MTV videos
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Teen-produced TV shows and movie-shorts running on the Panasonic jumbo-tron in Times Square
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Tag/Graffiti artists
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Dance and more . . .

CALLING ON THE CANDIDATES
The teens will also issue a list of 8 QUESTIONS for the presidential candidates that reflect their top concerns including: youth exposure to Internet pornography, media glamorization of drugs, sex and alcohol, and the AIDS pandemic.

Following the rally, more than 10,000 teens will gather at New Jersey's Izod Center for a two day RECREATE '08 event featuring: New York Yankee pitcher Mariano Rivera, six-time GRAMMY® Award winner Kirk Franklin, the David Crowder Band, Bishop T.D. Jakes, and TEEN MANIA founder, Ron Luce.