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Podcast delay!

Sorry, we’re experiencing some extreme technical difficulty with our podcast this week. We’ll post it here and on iTunes as soon as we get everything to work. Thanks!

KNOW YOUR MAYORS: Seth Low

We speed ahead over a hundred years after our last Know Your Mayors entry to that jovial man with the funny name, Seth Low. He holds a very unique place on the list of mayors, as he has been both the mayor of Brooklyn (from 1881 to 1885, back when it was a separate city)… Read More

George Washington slept here?!

You’ll be forgiven if the corner of Pearl and Dover streets does not happen to ring any bells for you. Although nearby a few South Street Seaport restaurants and bars — including the Bridge Cafe — its mostly unused given its proximity to the entrance of the Brooklyn Bridge and FDR Drive. But a sad,… Read More

History in the making – 1/5

Pizza in Park Slope Jeremiah gives us a (wonderful but depressing) rundown of all the New York history destroyed by redevelopment in 2007. [Vanishing New York] Roosevelt Island’s super-spooky Renwick Ruin, New York’s former smallpox hospital turned haunted mansion, is falling apart. [City Room] Corona, Queens’ Jewish community may get landmark status bestowed on its… Read More

More Things To Come: 1908!

The 1908 New York Yankees — Losers! Do you dare take a second glimpse into the crystal ball of things foretold of the upcoming year 1908? Observe and take care, for the following things will all happen this year: Baseball Scores Magically Appear … on Madison Square Diamonds! That’s dashing Willie Keeler above, in practice… Read More

Things To Come: 1908!

The New York City skyline, picture taken in 1908 (click to see detail) Welcome to the future of New York City — the amazing year of 1908! A look into the crystal ball find that the following things will happen this year: You Haven’t Yet Come A Long Way, BabyThe New York board of aldermen… Read More

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PODCAST: New Years Eve at One Times Square

The Times Square New Years Eve celebration would not be the same without One Times Square and its annual ball drop. But the quirky history of this sometimes abused building reaches all the way back to the naming of Times Square and its original tenent — the New York Times. Download this show it for… Read More

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Have a great New York holiday!

We’ll return with a new podcast and new blog entries next week. Happy holidays! By popular demand, here’s some pics from this years Dyker Height’s extravaganza. Photos courtesy of Kari Hoerchler.

New York ‘Nutcracker’ dances on

Above: a still from the original version of Balanchine’s show (photo from the New York Public Library Being as I was once a boy, nothing about Christmas bored me less than watching a bunch of girls get excited when the Nutcracker came on television. Its taken my deep appreciation of New York — and some… Read More

Fifth Avenue’s Unidentified Flying Ornament

One of Manhattan’s newest holiday traditions concerns that rather exotic looking snowflake hanging with a seeming precariousness 80 feet above the intersection of 57th and 5th Avenue, a crystalline piece of festivity greeting big spenders on their way into Tiffany’s, Bulgari and Louis Vuitton. This delicate knickknack is actually a bit of a linebacker. At… Read More

Dyker Heights outdoes the Griswolds

For eleven months out of the year, Dyker Heights is a quiet, unassuming section of Brooklyn, far from the blazing electicity of Manhattan. But every December, it threatens to create its own Times Square in lights. The “Dyker Lights” has become the unofficial center of Brooklyn holiday festivites, showing up the nation’s suburbias with elaborate,… Read More

FRIDAY NIGHT FEVER: The Slide / Kenny’s Castaways

To get you in the mood for the weekend, every Friday we’ll be celebrating ‘FRIDAY NIGHT FEVER’, featuring an old New York nightlife haunt, from the dance halls of 19th Century Bowery, to the massive warehouse spaces of the mid-90s. Past entries can be found HERE. The rapid transitional personality of a New York City… Read More

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Podcasts

PODCAST: Radio City Music Hall & the Rockettes

Behind the glamour of New York’s greatest stage Radio City Music Hall is a story involving a toothpaste tube designer, an allergy to Brazil nuts, a hydraulic lift protected from the Nazis, and a man named Roxy. PLUS: The Bowery Boys go backstage (well, figuratively) with the Rockettes. Listen to it for free on iTunes… Read More

The History of (Destroying) New York City

I apologize for the second post in a row about films, but I had to ask the question, when did destroying New York become hot again? This Friday is the opening of I Am Legend, an adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic thriller about the last non-zombiefied human being alive. In this case, he resides in… Read More

Still ‘Burning’ after all these years

Above: the phenomenal Willi Ninja BOWERY BOYS RECOMMEND is an occasional feature whereby we find an unusual movie or TV show that — whether by accident or design — uniquely captures an era of New York City better than any reference or history book. Other entrants in this particular film festival can be found HERE.… Read More