I returned home this week to headlines describing violent bikers, a deranged scissor attacker and brazen yet-to-be-caught downtown parachuters. I voted for the loser in the Public Advocate\u2019s run-off and then met a police roadblock on my Tuesday afternoon bike ride up the west side. Cops shut down Riverside Park to reconstruct the rampage of scissors-man so I deposited my bike share bike in front in front of John Jay College while news trucks and newspaper photographers on foot scrambled away from the scene with their accounts.<\/p>\n
Back in my neighborhood, there\u2019s a sign in the window of the shuttered Cuban restaurant. Looks like the great Thai place Arunee will come down the block and occupy the space left vacant by Novo. This is a positive development. Arunee will fit right in on 37th Avenue. Novo drew the ire of nearby residents with their late-night scene and piss-in-the-alley noisemakers.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s funny, Roosevelt Avenue is just one avenue block south and buzzes bright and loud all night but the long tradition on 37th Avenue has been quiet by 10 PM. Silence. Darkness. Novo broke the code. Arunee is right there with Sripraphai as the best Thai in the city and will now occupy a more prominent storefront. I look forward to seeing how it pans out.<\/p>\n
-My employer and union jointly announced a new tentative agreement covering 28-thousand airport workers a week ago. We rejected the first proposal and appear to have won a better deal although we still haven\u2019t seen the full document. I\u2019m ready to vote yes and move on. Lock in.<\/p>\n
-I support Obama\u2019s determination not to blink at the blackmail while the so-called shutdown is applied in politically selective ways. This shutdown should more accurately be described as a partial freeze on certain federal government functions. The obstructionists will lose this one eventually with some collateral damage to their cause if the Senate and President hold firm.<\/p>\n
-The Rado performance in Big Sur still has a grip on me so I bought a ticket to the Foxygen gig in Brooklyn later this month despite strong hints of continuing uncertainty over band cohesion via their official Twitter page. While Rado is listed as the author on that outlet of missives it appears to me Sam France is the source of a flurry of middle-of-the-night nuttiness on Twitter the last few days. Rado is doing a couple of opening sets during CMJ (for White Denim and Real Estate) but both gigs immediately sold out. I figured if I can\u2019t get into those shows, I\u2019ll take a shot at Foxygen\u2019s Music Hall performance as a consolation. The outcome of Foxygen\u2019s pending commitments in Austin the next two weekends should serve as a good signal about whether the band makes its NYC dates on October 21 and 22. I really wonder whether Rado isn\u2019t better off with a full-on pursuit of his own thing. He\u2019s that good.<\/p>\n
-WBAI is again saying it\u2019s on the brink of financial ruin and listeners to the weekly Bob Fass program Radio Unnameable called in last week with a consistent message. The non-stop pleas for pledges using the station\u2019s imminent death as a rallying point will not work unless there\u2019s some transparency about WBAI\u2019s future plans to escape the red. Frustrated callers spoke of the station\u2019s failure to mail promised gifts in return for donations. Others urged more modest aspirations as it relates to the station\u2019s next studio location and some wonder whether programs (and the local news department) that have vanished from the air in recent weeks will ever return. \u201cThere are some people who are very dissatisfied with this station, clearly,\u201d said Bob. \u201cI\u2019ve been dissatisfied with some aspects of it for many years.\u201d In the meantime, Bob seems to have settled into a good place at the temporary studio on CCNY\u2019s campus in upper Manhattan after several rocky months of technical issues. Last week\u2019s show featured calls from night owls woven into the program two-at-a-time, a technique Bob uses to liven up the discourse. After discovering more than an hour into his show that invited musicians Jeffrey Lewis, Peter Stampfel and the Deposit Returners were waiting outside of the locked studio, the show veered into a short set of live music.<\/p>\n
-My Dad recently mailed me a full-page advertisement pulled from the Chicago Tribune\u2019s 9-22-13 print edition. It was a public plea by the brewer of Old Style beer to remain available at Wrigley Field in 2014. Pabst owns the Old Style brand. The brewing conglomerate apparently fears the Cubs and the contract outfit that serves food and drink at the ballpark will remove Old Style from its menu of options next season. As it is, Old Style has been hard to find at the Friendly Confines in recent years. Not that I have much of a stake in the outcome but I would hope for the sake of new Cub fans coming of age that the crisp and flavorful beverage integral to enhancing the ballpark experience on the North Side remains in place. An online petition has been set up at KeepOldStyleinWrigley.com<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I returned home this week to headlines describing violent bikers, a deranged scissor attacker and brazen yet-to-be-caught downtown parachuters. I voted for the loser in the Public Advocate\u2019s run-off and then met a police roadblock on my Tuesday afternoon bike … Continue reading