(Photos: Summer Cartwright)

If you’ve ever wanted to physically walk into a jar of Nutella, you now can at its new cafe at 116 University Place.

Though what you’ll walk into isn’t physically a thick hazelnut-chocolate compote, what you’ll ingest surely will be. The menu is all about the cult classic spread — crepes are filled with it, espresso is combined into it and whipped cream is colored just like it.

The concept isn’t new — there’s one in Chicago and brands bring real-life spots to the city all the time — but the impact might be. Nutella’s demand has soared in the recent decade, giving peanut butter perhaps its only major competition for the title of toast’s favorite topping; the potential for this location in a city filled with foodies is high.

Instagrammers and neighborhood residents alike lined the street for the storefront’s noon opening Wednesday. Judy Zhao came for the pictures (she runs an Instagram called @NYCfoodiesquad) and she racked up a $70 bill, all for the ‘gram.

Zhao said the NYC store is an Instagram dream. There’s a wall mural perfect for portraits and marble tables made for aesthetically pleasing pictures. As for the food, Zhao didn’t eat it. “Pictures first, taste second,” she said.

Among the photographable menu items is take-home goodies like jars of the spread ($6.95, a $2 hike from Amazon prices but the store jars have a secret special message that could potentially be worth the eight quarters lost) and official Nutella spreaders ($20 knives). Also, USB drives ($19.95), because nothing goes with uploading a PowerPoint quite like Nutella.

Residents and workers in the Union Square neighborhood wonder more about the long-term impact than the Instagram impact. Alice Ho says the Nutella Cafe replaced the bowling alley where she used to throw her kids’ birthday, but stood in line on opening day nonetheless.

The Nutella Cafe is doors away from local stop Blue Stripe Coffee, but unlike other newcomers on the block, the cafe isn’t entirely corporate (though its property owners are). “At least it’s cultural, unlike Kellogg’s,” Ho said, using the rationale the Nutella is an Italian company.

Aside from the tourism traffic the location will drive, locals are mostly interested in what it could mean for their morning routines. Sabrina Shalim and Shanique Jackson work at Ricky’s, down the street, and say their Nutella obsession skirts the line between spooning it into their mouths plain and hiding the jar under the bed for emergency use.

As for the cafe’s potential impact on them, “it’s gonna be bad,” Shalim said, adding their work’s daily Starbucks runs might be changing to Nutella runs.

“It’s affordable,” she said, laughing.

Espresso drinks run from around $3 to around $6 and food items like crepes start at $5.95 (extra Nutella is a buck).

As for the rest of cafe essentials: there is guest WiFi, colorful pillows to sit with, and coffee-shop music by artists you would definitely recognize if their hit song was playing but definitely don’t recognize with the slow jam Pandora station live in the store.

Hours are 7 am to 9 pm and the location has 4.4 stars on Google with every review from before it actually opened.

(Photos: Cassidy Dawn Graves)

When I got off the L train at Bedford Avenue a little after 9 am this morning, the platform was surprisingly empty. This may foreshadow what’s in store for North Brooklyn when the 15-month shutdown of the L train between Bedford and 8th Avenue begins on April 27, just five months from now. Less people means less money-spending; a 2017 survey estimated 40% of small businesses expected to lose up to half their business. To prepare, the L Train Coalition held the first of what will be monthly informational meetings aimed at business owners along the L line.

This morning’s meeting was at Wythe Avenue venue National Sawdust, where general manager Alex Johnston admitted they’re having meetings “constantly about how to survive” during the shutdown. Some suggested multi-business block parties or advertisements for certain areas of North Brooklyn to boost local traffic.

For much of the meeting, a slide was projected with estimated statistics for the shutdown, including that “71% of riders will have no more than 10 minutes additional travel time” at rush hour. This prediction was almost unanimously deemed too optimistic—Samara Karasyk, executive vice president and chief of staff at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, said it’ll surely be “more painful,” but “we’re New Yorkers, we’ll figure it out.”

In addition to increased service on other train lines like the G, J, M, and E (Broadway Junction and Court Square are expected to become even more crowded), there will be 1,250 new Citi Bikes and 1,000 pedal-assist Citi Bikes, plus additional bike lanes.

A predicted 80 express buses per hour will travel over the Williamsburg Bridge, starting from the Grand Street and Bedford Avenue L and going to either 1st Avenue and 15th Street or Soho. From 5 am to 10 pm, the bridge will be open to only buses, trucks, and vehicles with three passengers or more.

Additionally, a ferry separate from the NYC ferry (but still operated by the MTA and accessible by MetroCard) will take passengers from Williamsburg and to Stuyvesant Cove in Manhattan from 6 am until midnight on weekdays and 2 am on weekends, though the Coalition said they’re advocating for an earlier weekday start time and the ability to bring bikes onboard. The capacity for these was recently increased from 149 to 240 passengers.

People using more than one of these alternatives need only pay one $2.75 fare, something the L Train Coalition said they worked for. However, they said the MTA is currently “not willing” to offer transit assistance from the train to the ferry shuttle, which is past Kent Avenue on North 6th Street, over three avenues from the Bedford stop.

Chariot, the carpool van startup once deemed a “bro bus,” is still very much in the picture, and has reportedly had meetings with the MTA and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s office about their role in the shutdown, which may include providing low-cost transportation from the train to the ferry.

Natalie Mendell, program director for the Grand Street Business Improvement District, explained the north side of Brooklyn’s Grand Street will be for buses and local thru traffic only during the shutdown. Deliveries will only be able to be made one block at a time, which means drivers must “enter from a side street, turn right, and then right again.” The south side will be open to full traffic, with less parking; the north side will be open for loading and parking.

However, many industrial and commercial businesses are dependent upon roads like Grand Street to accomplish tasks like loading and delivery via truck, something the shutdown could throw a wrench in.

“We are very supportive of the buses need[ing] to get through, but we can’t be put out of business by the fact that we can’t load and unload in front of our business,” one business owner said.

Leah Archibald and Karen Nieves from Evergreen, an organization that “champions” industrial businesses in North Brooklyn, said they were “blindsided” by the full extent of road restrictions despite attending multiple presentations regarding the shutdown. They worry this will “compound congestion” on Metropolitan Avenue and that trucks will have difficulty safely using side streets.

“We were not aware this was going to heavily impact the industrial businesses, otherwise we would have been hollering,” noted Nieves, who said workers who receive tickets for violations pre-shutdown should contact their office.

One woman noted many of her 400 workers come from other areas of Brooklyn, which often requires going into Manhattan then back into Brooklyn on the L. Because the shutdown will disrupt so many of her employee’s commutes, she wondered if any incentives like tax credits will be offered. A rep from Evergreen says they have been advocating for this, but is not optimistic it’ll actually happen.

Sarah Evers from Small Business Services and Rob Piechota from the Brooklyn Small Business Development Center said they’re planning on engaging with individual businesses both face-to-face and through webinars. Piechota said that even if businesses are doing well now, they should still brace for losses and prepare for the possibility of needing a loan.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had unity like this when we faced challenging government decisions and problems” in the neighborhood, said Felice Kirby, of the North Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and former owner of Williamsburg’s oldest bar Teddy’s.

As much this may be true, Paul Samulski, a Coalition member who is also president of the North Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, sidestepped any optimism. “It’s not going to be really pleasant,” he said. “This is going to be something that we’re all gonna look back and hope that we never have to go through again.”

Westin at the microphone.

“Strap yourselves in and get ready,” said State Senator Michael Gianaris of Queens. “We are not giving up until we scuttle this deal: scrap it, throw it in the garbage, and start the conversation all over again.”

Gianaris was speaking to a crowd of roughly 150 New Yorkers earlier today in Long Island City’s Gordan Triangle. Under a bright blue sky and amid near-freezing temperatures, Gianaris was one of a long roster of politicians, activists, and labor leaders who had assembled to speak out against the new Amazon headquarters in Long Island City.

Gianaris and Van Bremer, center.

City Council Member Jimmy Van Bremer, whose district includes LIC, was another key figure in the protest. He introduced several of his council colleagues—“the same City Council [Cuomo and de Blasio] didn’t trust to be able to grease the wheels for Jeff Bezos.”

One of those colleagues was Stephen T. Levin of Brooklyn. “We need a better deal,” said Levin. “In the neighborhoods that I represent—right over the Pulaski Bridge, in Williamsburg and Greenpoint—every single day, I have somebody come into my office from one of those communities who’s losing their apartment because the landlords are jacking up the rent.

“We’re already fighting a housing crisis—this will make the housing crisis that much worse.”

Jonathan Westin, the executive director of New York Communities for Change, also addressed the effect Amazon may have in what’s left of working-class LIC and beyond. The proposed 25,000-40,000 new highly-paid employees will all need places to live, and they’re certainly not going to be moving in to the Queensbridge Houses. “What happens to the Bronx?” he asked the crowd. “What happens to the rest of Brooklyn?”

“The jobs will not go to people who actually live here,” Westin later told Bedford + Bowery. “They’ll go to white techie bros from across the country. And the people of Queens, and people across New York, will be pushed out.”

A few minutes later, as if on cue, a white male millennial in a passing Dodge pickup truck leaned out the passenger-side window and shouted, “Amazon Prime, baby! Yeeaaaaahhh!!!”

The agreement between Amazon and the city stipulates that in order for Amazon to receive up to $1.2 billion in tax credits and $505 million in construction grant funds, “new positions may not be filled by transferring employees from other New York State locations.”

Cuomo and de Blasio’s joint announcement Tuesday came about a week after the plan started leaking to the press. It followed a high-profile search for “HQ2,” a second headquarters to be built somewhere in America. 238 cities applied for the honor.

As it turns out, Amazon will be expanding to both Queens and Northern Virginia, promising at least 25,000 new jobs to each, along with a small expansion in Nashville (5,000 jobs). Of course, NYC and the DC area were arguably the most predictable locations for an expansion all along. And neither can now rightly claim the title of “HQ2.” As State Assemblyman Ron Kim and professor Zephyr Teachout put it, the supposed contest allowed Amazon to gain “untold amounts of economic data from each bidding city.”

Mayor de Blasio has said that the Amazon jobs “need to go to everyday New Yorkers; those jobs need to go to public housing residents.” On Morning Joe today, he said the city drove a “hard bargain,” and insisted that “we are going to see in New York City alone over $13 billion in tax revenue coming to our city so that we can do things to help all New Yorkers.”

Governor Cuomo said Tuesday, in announcing Amazon’s expansion to Queens, that “the total state and city revenue that will be produced is estimated at $27.5 billion [over a decade]. The revenue-to-incentive ratio is nine to one.”

Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio appear to have circumvented the state legislature and the City Council in their highly secret negotiations with Amazon. But we now know that the company is set to receive billions of dollars in tax credits, subsidies, and grants, a.k.a. public dollars that could otherwise be spent on, say, schools, the subway, or public housing. (Also, they’ll get a helipad.)

“One of my concerns is the lack of transparency through this whole process,” said State Assemblywoman-elect Catalina Cruz. “This should have gone through the ULURP process that every other business like this one goes through. If it’s so good for the community, why didn’t it go through the usual process?”

Salazar and Cruz

Her complaint was a common one. “You should engage more people in the conversation before you make these kind of deals,” said Albert Arroyo of Warehouse Workers Stand Up.

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson sounded a similar note in a statement yesterday arguing that the process had taken place “behind closed doors, with zero community input” and that he was “skeptical” and “very concerned.”

Yesterday, Cuomo said that Empire State Development, which will oversee rezoning and land acquisition for the 800,000-square-foot campus, “will do a project plan in cooperation with New York City and in consultation with the [Long Island City] community.”

With or without community input, the anticipated real estate boom may already be here. StreetEasy searches for LIC apartments are up about 300% since the word got out, and brokers are apparently selling units to buyers via text without ever actually showing said units.

And in case you were wondering, no, Amazon will not pay a little extra in taxes if affordable housing declines and homelessness increases as a result of their outsized footprint.

Jim Dillon, a 40-year LIC resident who lives in a rent-stabilized apartment, carried the lone physical sign of counter-protest. “Welcome Amazon!” it read. Dillon seemed unconvinced that the company would bring nearly as many new employees as it has promised, and was therefore skeptical about the impact the move would have.

But the crowd’s mood was clearly in line with the perspective of State Senator-elect Julia Salazar. “This form of corporate welfare, Salazar said, is “deeply unjust,” and “we have a responsibility to fight back against it.”

Here’s one thing Jeff Bezos might like to know about his new tech hub: in between interviews, I stood on the outskirts of the assembled crowd and looked down at my phone. I had no service.

(Photo: Daniel Maurer)

If you’re walking down Orchard Street on the Lower East Side, you’ll see some laundromats, coat shops and a corset store — all of which look like they very much belong on the Lower East Side (kinda sketchy, a little dirty, but charismatic in the way Williamsburg pretends to be). If you continue your walk down Orchard, you’ll notice that one shop doesn’t quite seem to fit.

It might be because of the crystal-like sign or perhaps it’s the posh display of mannequins, but Snidel sticks out the way boyfriends do at a Shawn Mendes concerts — the presence is cute and all, but does it really belong?

The answer lies within the store’s major partnership, and it’s prominently displayed on a number of graphic tees. Because, mixed in between corduroy non-gendered collared shirts costing $130 and one-size-fits-all dresses (size F), there are Rage Against the Machine t-shirts, sweatshirts and iPhone cases. 

That’s right. The ’90s woke rap-metal group is selling merch at a fashionable Japanese store in its first U.S location. To clarify, the rock band did not pluck tour shirts and put them on a rack amongst quality fabrics. The partnership allows for RATM to slither its way onto objectively cool cuts and designs.

It’s basically like those $100 Wham! tees at Nordstrom. You wouldn’t go into a store looking for them, but somehow the atmosphere inside filled with potential is drawing you to the cash register, Wham! shirt (in this case, RATM shirt) in hand.

Born in Tokyo’s uber-hip Harajuku neighborhood in 2005, Snidel made a list of 10 Fashion Brands That Japanese People Love; Culture Trip wrote that the brand “focuses on making stylish but feminine silhouettes popular with women in their twenties and thirties.” Perhaps Rage Against the Machine found the trendy Japanese brand before the rest of America, or perhaps their management team got extremely lucky in pitching to Snidel before it opened in New York. Regardless, the store inside seems like it could find success in the midst of the LES.

Inside, you won’t hear Zach de la Rocha snarling the lyrics to “No Shelter”: “Empty ya pockets, son, they got you thinkin’ that / What ya need is what they selling / Make you think that buying is rebelling.” Instead Harry Styles and Taylor Swift played back-to-back, as if the Top-40 Gods were smiling upon the human making the playlist. As for the prices, they aren’t empty-ya-pockets expensive (by New York standards, anyway).

There’s a wide range of unisex tops, as well as skirts and checkered pants, typically ranging from $50 to $150. (The RATM hoodie is $111). And, for a store that opened in the U.S. two weeks ago, the clothes seem to go with fall fashion in the states — there’s an abundance of oversized sweaters, camel coats, knee-high boots and faux-fur jackets.

And, if that’s not enough to convince you to pop in, there’s one more partnership the brand has. The partnership perhaps makes even more Lower-East-Side sense than RATM.

It’s Hello Kitty™.

Pfahler and Bourdain (via @anthonybourdain on Instagram)

The finale of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, which aired on CNN this past week, was a bittersweet love letter to the East Village and Lower East Side of the ’70s and ’80s. Which seemed like an appropriate send-off for a guy who was punk rock till the very end. When Bourdain filmed the episode in June, we knew only that it would feature neighborhood legends like filmmakers Jim Jarmsuch and Amos Poe at Max Fish, photographer and historian Clayton Patterson at his LES home, hip-hop visionary Fab 5 Freddy at El Castillo De Jagua, and hardcore musician Harley Flanagan of the Cro-Mags, who, after visiting Ray’s Candy Store in the episode, recalls living in fear of a local street gang that, um, listened to Kraftwerk.

Even then, it was hard to imagine how artfully the episode would explore the neighborhood’s transformation from a gritty bastion of bohemia to the domain of “projective-vomiting frat boys with baseball caps on backwards,” as Bourdain put it. Bourdain didn’t dwell on gentrification, even if there were pointed cutaways to luxury gyms, juice bars, and under-construction Target stores. Instead, he celebrated the holdouts, visiting writer and punk pioneer Richard Hell of Television in his book-lined apartment on East 12th Street, dining with Chris Stein and Debbie Harry of Blondie at old-school red-sauce joint Emilio’s Ballato, and hanging out in the kitchen of painter-musician John Lurie of the Lounge Lizards.

Several of the episode’s subjects have been lionized many times over. Danny Fields, who meets up with Bourdain at Veselka, is the subject of a documentary and has talked at length about signing Iggy Pop and managing the Ramones. But it was good to see deference paid to less prominent neighborhood characters, such as photographer Alex Harsley of 4th Street Photo Gallery, whom B+B profiled back in August, and firebrand musician and actress Lydia Lunch, whom we interviewed a few years ago (true to form, she makes a move on Bourdain while dining with him at Public Kitchen). One segment highlighted the work of Jim “Mosaic Man” Power, who continues adding his mosaics to the Astor Place area. (Last week, local Mac-repair shop Dr. Brendan got immortalized on his light pole at St. Marks and Third Avenue, as you can see to the left.)

Early in the episode, Bourdain interviews artist-musician Kembra Pfahler at the East River Park Ampitheater, near her all-red apartment in the East Village. She calls her adopted home “a wonderful amusement park of good and bad ideas, all happening at once.” But while there’s some fun footage of Pfahler’s long-running shock-rock project, The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, her segment quickly gives way to another one about fellow performance artist Joe Coleman. (One of the episode’s most memorable moments: A cut that jumps from young Coleman biting into a live mouse, to present-day Coleman enjoying a classy pasta dinner at John’s of 12th Street.)

If you want to learn more about Pfahler (our first question: what’s up with the giant disco phallus?), you’ll have a prime opportunity to do so when Steven Blush, the journalist and filmmaker who wrote the book and directed the movie American Hardcore, interviews her at East Village bar Coney Island Baby on Dec. 20 at 7:30pm. The free chat is part of Blush’s Art of the Interview series, wherein he sits down with “the greats of rock culture.” Tonight at 7:30pm, he’ll speak to Patti Smith’s longtime guitarist, Lenny Kaye.

THURSDAY

Compost Bin (A RadicalASS Cabaret To Deal With the World)

Thursday, November 15 at Starr Bar: $15

Brave the snow and go to Bushwick for Brass (Brown Radicalass Burlesque)’s latest Compost Bin, a monthly showcase of queer, trans, and POC burlesque, drag, and performance art that earned the inclusive, boundary-pushing group a feature in the New York Times. (That’s not something all shows happening in back rooms of bars can say). It’ll be their last show of the year (though they’re returning in 2019, fret not), so come warm your frozen self with steamy and stimulating shows by Miss Aurora BoobRealis, Regal Mortis, Juniper Juicy, Exhotic Other, sister selva, Munroe Lilly, and more. Plus, Starr Bar has a new selection of food that looks pretty good, so you don’t just have to warm up with booze.

FRIDAY

(image courtesy of Performance Space New York)

Acephalous Monster
Now through November 17 at Performance Space New York, 7 pm: $25

Ron Athey may not be a household name for the average person, but he’s a pretty big deal in the performance art world, gaining notoriety and acclaim in the ’90s for his intense performances involving themes of self-mutilation, queerness, BDSM, ritual, punk, and the AIDS epidemic, and collaborations both curatorial and artistic with artists like Vaginal Davis, Kembra Pfahler, and Catherine Opie. He’s most known for extreme physical acts—1993-4’s Four Scenes In A Harsh Life featured Athey (who is HIV-positive) slicing into the skin of an HIV-negative collaborator, wiping the blood with towels and suspending these soaked towels over the audience. Acephalous Monster, Athey’s newest piece premiering in New York, focuses less on shock, swapping live violence (there’s some on video) for musings on fascism and French intellectual Georges Bataille, someone The Guardian once deemed “a surreal pornographer and a proponent of human sacrifice.”

SATURDAY

(image via Tessa Skara / Facebook)

High Notes
Saturday, November 17 at Cloud City, 8 pm: $6 advance, $10 doors.

It’s legitimately getting cold out now, so your temptation to stay indoors with blankets and some booze or maybe a joint is surely increasing. Rather than succumb to hermitdom, why not experience those same hazy-chill vibes at a Williamsburg art space when queer comedy rock performer Tessa Skara’s High Notes comedic variety show comes to Cloud City. While there’s no smoking indoors as far as I know, you may very well leave feeling as giddy as if you’d toked up after witnessing performances by Sydnee Washington, Karolena Theresa, Jes Tom, Catherine Cohen, Lena Einbinder, and of course, Skara and her band.

(Photo courtesy of Waave)

Yellow taxis throughout New York are clapping back against the influx of Uber and Lyft drivers.

App-based cars outnumber taxis by a four-to-one ratio, and yellow cab drivers are complaining about financial strains as a result of decreased business. Earlier this month, 58 year-old Roy Kim hanged himself in his home, becoming the eighth taxi driver to commit suicide in the past year; the New York Post reported that he was over $500,000 in debt after purchasing his taxi medallion last year.

“This tragedy underscores the importance of finding new ways for government, the industry and lenders to work in unity to address the financial challenges that are weighing so heavily on our licensees,” said Taxi and Limousine Commission head Meera Joshi in a statement. “Modifying, restructuring and lowering loans would go a long way in providing relief and keeping taxi services available to New Yorkers for years to come.”

News of the suicide came yesterday, on the same day that Waave, a recently launched app that helps New Yorkers hail taxis via phone, announced that it was offering a permanent 50-percent discount to commuters going to Manhattan during morning and evening rush hours. Waave gives riders the ability to request rides and get upfront pricing, basically applying the Uber and Lyft models to yellow cabs. 

Before you get too excited: This doesn’t mean that you’re getting half off of the metered fare. Unlike Curb and Arro, which base their fares on taxi meters, Waave uses its own pricing algorithm. A spokesperson didn’t provide the exact formula when asked, but around noon today (so, after rush hour), we used some popular ride-hailing apps to price a ride from the Bedford stop to the Bowery stop. Curb gave us an estimated fare of $15. Waave quoted us $14.20, Lyft quoted $12.13, and Uber quoted $17.45. Arro gave us an “unknown error” message, proving that sometimes throwing a hand in the air and whistling is the way to go.

What’s more, Waave’s discount isn’t on all cabs driving from the outerboroughs to Manhattan from 6am to 10am and from 5pm to 8pm. It’s only on cabs that would otherwise be empty during those hours as they commute into Manhattan to pick up their first fare. You won’t get a discount if none of those happen to be on the road. (A spokesperson says they’re more likely to be available at, say, 6am than 10am.)

Meanwhile, the city has announced, according to amNY, that a new task force will be set up to study the fact that, since 2013, New York City’s taxicab medallions have lost their value by as much as 90 percent. City Council member Ydanis Rodriguez introduced the bill in hopes of coming up with ways to help struggling drivers.

Over the summer, the city began efforts to inhibit Uber and Lyft’s domination on ride sharing by issuing a one-year moratorium on the issuance of new for-hire vehicle licenses, pending a study of the rapidly growing rideshare industry and its impact on yellow taxis. But many taxi drivers complained that this measure did not go far enough in helping them compete.      

(Photo courtesy of North Face)

Yoga studios, crossfit gyms and barre classes are popping up in every corner of Williamsburg and, somehow, people are finding a way to look flawless and trendy on their trips to and from the gym (yes, even in the freezing cold). It seems only natural that athleisure-wear brands would set up flagship shops in the neighborhood.

(Photo courtesy of North Face)

Outerwear brand The North Face opens the brand’s prototype location at 134 N 6th St on Friday, offering a selection of lifestyle items and collections exclusive to the Williamsburg space. The Black Series velvet collection contains waterproof, crushed velvet pieces (which, how?!); the Kazuki black series is a collaboration with Japanese designer Kazuki Kuraishi, incorporating Japanese streetwear with classic, clean lines and durable materials; the metallic Christmas collection (for this year only) can be found right at the entrance of the store.

Christmas collection. (Photo: Erica Commisso)

As Tim Sedo and Mark Parker shared their vision for both the store and the collections during a recent preview, they consistently returned to the notion of community. They’ve acquired the outdoor space next door, Sedo says, to host block parties and other events, and the indoor area can quickly convert to an event space as well.

The store is readily Instagrammable, right down to the circular tent in the middle and the suit owned and worn by Kendrick Lamar. It’s also scented with a fragrance specifically designed for The North Face, intended to remind certain customers of California’s Yosemite National Park.

There are collections that pay homage to the North Face coats of vintage times (read: the ’80s and ’90s), with jackets and vests in colors that Parker says are iconic for the brand. There’s also state-of-the-art outerwear designed with partner athletes who took a two-week trip to Antarctica. Across from the collection specifically designed to endure colder temperatures, there are photos of athletes who were vital in the development of this Summit Series–some renowned, like Conrad Anker, and some up-and-coming, like Anna Pfaff.

It’s all well and good, but it remains to be seen whether the puffy coat compete with the camel coat.

A visit to a jeans store in the heart of Times Square is normally something I wouldn’t subject myself to even if my Spanish cousins had begged me to take them there during the height of their denim-mania in the early ’90s. But when Levi’s throws an opening party for its new flagship and promises performances by Lauryn Hill, De La Soul, Raekwon, and Chic, plus DJ sets from Questlove and Justine D, you’re going to make the trip come hell or high water. (And by high water I mean some nasty slush puddles).

I wasn’t the only one who made it out to the new 16,902-square-foot store at 1535 Broadway last night: Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs was among those who heard Lauryn Hill belt out Fugees classics like “Killing Me Softly” and “Ready or Not,” and Ansel Elgort, Hailey Baldwin, and Dylan Sprouse also passed through. Hell, Jake Dell, the owner of Katz’s, was even there as everyone binged on free deli meat and bourbon.

While the night leaned toward ’90s hip-hop, indie-rock fans got a treat when Julian Casablancas hit the stage. After telling the crowd that he was just an actor playing Lou Reed, the Strokes frontman slipped into a cover of “Walk on the Wild Side.” (Watch the video at the top of this post.) As the song’s iconic bass line continued, Casablancas passed the mic to Q-Tip, who segued into Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It.” Here’s that:

After introducing Nile Rodgers and Chic, Q-Tip stayed on to accompany them in what sounded like a very off-the-cuff cover of “Let’s Dance,” the hit Rodgers wrote with the David Bowie. (Put on your red shoes and dance the wha now?) Later on, Princess Nokia joined in on one of Chic’s many disco hits, “Le Freak.” Check out the Bowie cover below and decide whether The Abstract can kick it like the Thin White Duke.

(Photos: Liz Clayman)

It’s been nearly four years since we first caught wind that The Williamsburg Hotel was planning to install a bar inside of a faux water tower atop its roof, and now that crazy little dream is finally a reality. The Water Tower, as it will henceforth be known, launches tonight atop the hotel’s recently opened pool deck, and a look at the photos indicate this is not the kind of water tower that’s going to give you Legionnaires’ disease.

If you imagined something along the lines of those illicit art parties in a Chelsea water tower, sorry, this place is billing itself as more of a straight-up lounge and nightclub, with regular live acts and DJs. You have to reserve one of the 45-or-so seats by emailing watertower@thewilliamsburghotel.com, and walk-ins are “at the discretion of the door.” If the doorperson doesn’t keep you out, the prices just might: cocktails are $22 to $150 and bottle service starts at $500. Yes, you read that right: there’s a $150 negroni. But, hey, a publicist assures us it’s “really cool” and has truffle-infused Aperol and shaved truffle on top.

As for food, prices range from $20, to $525 for caviar service. We haven’t gotten a look at chef Nic Caicedo’s full menu yet, but we’re told items include a seafood plateau, a bowl of crudite, and a white-truffle grilled cheese on Brooklyn Bread Lab brioche.

I’m just going to quote from the press release here: “The lounge is accessible via a VIP elevator, and colorful murals painted by a local artist line the walls, offering an apt mix of grit and glam that pays homage to the neighborhood’s history.”

You can experience all that grit and glam for yourself Wednesday through Sunday, 10pm to 4am.

Interestingly, thousands of New York City’s actual water towers were built right across the street at the Rosenwach Water Tower Factory. That site was sold in 2009 and is now the site of, you guessed it, another one of Williamsburg’s new hotels, the Hoxton.

Derek Smalls, the massively muttonchopped bassist for Spinal Tap, just released a solo album titled Smalls Change (Meditations On Aging), in which he ponders the fate of bands that stay together too long: “the drummer OD’d; lead singer got fat; bass player’s on IV, he likes it like that.” Other songs are titled “Hell Toupee” and “MRI” (“50 years of rock-n-roll fun, now I’ve got a bad limp and can’t feel my bum”).

Ok, so clearly the blokes of Spinal Tap—including Harry Shearer, who plays Derek Smalls and went on to Simpsons characters like Mr. Burns and Ned Skinner— are getting up there (and we’re not talking about turning it up to 11). This coming March, This Is Spinal Tap will turn 35. To celebrate, the Tribeca Film Festival will screen the seminal mockumentary and host a q&a and a performance by stars Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and director Rob Reiner. Clearly, this is not to be missed; the band’s last shows of note were in 2009, for their Back From the Dead album.

The festival runs April 24 to May 5. Hopefully no one spontaneously combusts before then.

Tribeca’s announcement comes just days after Spinal Tap’s stars agreed to mediation in a $400 million fraud suit they brought against production company Vivendi, which is accused of withholding money owed on music and merchandising.

Tribeca will also screen another comedy classic— Ben Stiller’s Reality Bites, the quintessential ’90s hipster dramedy with the rockin’ soundtrack (or was thatSingles?)— on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, with a discussion to follow.

Venues for the anniversary screenings have yet to be announced and tickets are expected to go on sale in late February or early March; keep an eye on Tribeca’s website for more info.

(via House of Yes)

Weather people are saying the tall buildings on the Thanksgiving Day parade route from Central Park to Penn Station could funnel “frigid wind” straight into the faces of 3.5 million people. Plus, Al Roker will be riding a motorcycle all over the place this year. “He will be very mobile,” the head of NBC’s parade telecast said. Avoid this icy hellscape and the inevitable MTA delays with these Thanksgiving events.

House of Yes (2 Wyckoff Ave, East Williamsburg) was just named the #2 best thing to do in the world by Timeout, and it’s open on Thanksgiving for the first time ever. They’re holding three holiday-themed events between Wednesday and Friday: Thanksgiving Eve’s “Thank you for everything” party will feature performances, a circus, and “surprises.” Thursday’s Dirty Turkeys event starts at 10pm and features a “food coma nap zone, scrumptious beats and dance floor gluttony.” On Friday, “Unicornicopia” will have a “glitter unicornification station,” food for unicorns, and performances by unicorns.

Looking to combine the gratitude of turkey day with the austerity of Central Europe? Head to Loreley Restaurant & Biergarten (7 Rivington St., Lower East Side) for a German Thanksgiving. Brunch is $25, and everyone gets a baked soft pretzel and a drink with their entree. The dinner menu is $35 and features wiener schnitzel, sauerbraten and spatzle, plus happy hour drink prices and apple strudel for dessert.

Why spend the night before Thanksgiving with people from high school when you can pass Drinksgiving “mingling amongst champagne-drinking models, waifs covered in tattoos and other beautiful people vamping for photos?” Public Arts (215 Chrystie St., Lower East Side) is having a party at PUBLIC Hotel off the Bowery for $20, brought to you by “the creative forces behind Studio 54” (co-founder Ian Schrager developed the hotel).

Push out the weak polar vortex with a Caribbean-inspired feast at the Jamaican restaurant Miss Lily’s (132 West Houston St., Greenwich Village). It’s at 2:30pm Thursday for $38, and there will be sweet potato puree, callaloo cornbread stuffing, and Jerk Turkey.

DJs Andy Pry and Lloydski of Tiki Disco are playing house and disco music on Thanksgiving Eve at Output (74 Wythe Ave., Williamsburg), and tickets are $20. The venue discourages “egocentricity” and glow sticks, but they’re pro-respect and equanimity–what’s more Thanksgiving than that?

Here’s another chapter of Book Hawks, in which we meet the sidewalk booksellers who brave the elements to bring you good reads.

(Photos: Jess Rohan)

D, who asked that we not use his full name, is a poet and fiction writer who sells books on the sidewalk by Union Square. He splits his time between New York and New Orleans, where he does street poetry for people on a typewriter.  

How’d you start selling books?

I came to New York in 2009 for writing, and I was thinking about going to law school. I thought about selling books wholesale, and then my friend explained the rules of selling books on the street, and I started doing this.

What’s your favorite book?

It varies each day — today it’s Jazz by Toni Morrison. I’m thinking about the last chapter, it opens with “bolts of lightning, little rivulets of thunder.”

What’s the rarest book you’ve ever found?

A map from 1850 of the railroads going out west. It was signed by Allan Pinkerton [the security official who served under Lincoln during the Civil War]. I keep stuff like that.

What’s your biggest goal for your business?

I just hope it funds my writing later in life.

What’s the biggest challenge in your business?

Finding the books and dealing with people — not just customers; I’m dealing with the general public, I deal with everyone.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen out here?

A guy stole 20 of my books once and tried to re-sell them back to me.

Another time, I was thinking about ancient Egypt and an Egyptologist came to my table and I asked him a question. Then the next day another Egyptologist came, and I asked him my follow-up question. That’s one of the best things I love about New York, is there’s masters of all things here in the city, and they walk around all day.

(Photos courtesy of Industry City)

Mitsuwa Marketplace used to be an obligatory pilgrimage for NYC foodies, but as of this week you won’t have to trek out to New Jersey for a massive Japanese food complex. Japan Village is bringing a supermarket, 11 food vendors, and an in-house izakaya to Industry City in Sunset Park on Saturday, Nov 24.

Described as the Eataly of Japanese food, it’s being opened by Tony and Takuya Yoshida, owners of Michelin-starred East Village restaurant Kyo Ya, and will include an outpost of their specialty market chain, Sunrise Mart, as well as a liquor store and cocktail bar.

Tony Yoshida says they aim to “highlight all 47 of Japan’s prefectures,” and the vendors will be offering an impressive array of Japanese foods and styles, including noodles, sushi, yakitori, tea, rice bowls, tempura, bento boxes, and omakase.

The Sunrise Mart will go beyond even the East Village, Soho and Midtown locations, with a tofu market and cuts of wagyu and washugyu beef from Noho specialty butcher Japanese Premium Beef.

Here’s a rundown of the food vendors, courtesy of Industry City (a map and directory can be found on Japan Village’s website).

• Obentoyasan: Daily-made bentos and made-to-order onigiri, featuring different Japanese rice. The eatery will also offer a miso soup station, where visitors can choose from three different kinds of miso and select from a variety of toppings, including scallion, fried bean curd, egg, and chicken.
• Café Japon: Bakery with Japanese bread and cakes crafted on-site, as well as teas, matcha lattes, and drip coffee.
• Mika N’ Momo: Japanese juice and salad bar, featuring fresh vegetables including shiso, mizuna, kabocha, mitsuba, and komatsuna.
• Hachi: Japanese street food, serving okonomiyaki (savory pancakes), takoyaki (octopus balls), yakisoba (pan-fried noodles), taiyaki (fish-shaped sweets filled with red bean), and obanyaki (round cakes with assorted fillings).
• Setagaya: Ramen noodle shop serving tonkotsu ramen with black garlic.
• Gohei: Soba and udon noodle shop, where visitors will be able to view the production of the buckwheat and flour noodles on-site. Many of the toppings will feature a variety of tempura, as well as honeycomb beef tripe.
• Moriya: Rice bowl shop serving gyudon (washugyu beef bowl), Japanese curry, shogayaki (pork ginger), oyakodon (chicken and egg bowl), katsu-don (chicken or pork cutlet with egg bowl), vegetarian rice bowl and more.
• Shokusaido: Japanese appetizers, including agedashi tofu, hijiki seaweed salad, and salmon nanbanzuke. The shop will also serve traditional tempura, and an assorted mix of Japanese croquettes, fried chicken, fried horse mackerel, and french-fries with Japanese dips such as mentaikomayo.
• Brooklyn Steak & Lobster: Teppanyaki steak and lobster. The steak cuts will be wagyu, washugyu, or premium beef, and each steak will be served with Japanese condiments including ponzu with daikon, soy sauce with fresh wasabi, and yuzu kosho pepper. The lobster will be served with various condiments including soy sauce butter and yuzu butter.
• Omakase Sushi: Will serve omakase courses, featuring fresh fish from Japan.

The izakaya, dubbed Wakuwaku, will serve “Japanese tapas, from grilled chicken skewers, to sashimi, to gyoza dumplings, and additional eats paired with specialty beverages.”

Japan Village at 934 3rd Ave., Sunset Park; open 11am to 7pm.

Last month marked the 30th anniversary of Daydream Nation, the album that catapulted Sonic Youth to critical acclaim. (At one point, Pitchfork considered it the #1 album of the ’80s, placing its discordant guitars, noise jams, and exhilarating marriage of indie rock and No Wave above Michael Jackson, Prince, and all the rest.)

To celebrate the occasion, director Lance Bangs is touring his footage of two 2007 performances in Glasgow during which Sonic Youth played the sprawling double album in its entirety. Last night at Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn, singer-guitarist Lee Ranaldo and drummer Steve Shelley joined him to reminisce about what many still consider to be their masterpiece. (Hell, it even inspired a walking tour.) Here’s what we learned about the band from their q&a with Bangs.

1. They weren’t “total trash”; in fact, they were cat people.

Lee: “We’d go out on tour and people would think we were heroin addicts or that we had this radical lifestyle because we were from New York… We were always about the music being as radical as possible but people would meet us and they would be like, ‘Oh, you have cats and you go to the grocery store’… We weren’t shooting heroin or anything like that, hanging out on Avenue C.”

From left: Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley, and Lance Bangs. (Photos: Daniel Maurer)

2. In 1983, neither Thurston Moore nor Lee Ranaldo had the guts to fire drummer Bob Bert.

So they made Kim Gordon do it.

3. Before Daydream Nation, Thurston was a food vendor.

Lee: “For years we were like, ‘Things are starting to happen.’ But they weren’t really starting to happen in any real way. We still went back and Thurston was selling Chipwich in Central Park, out of a street cart, and stuff like that.”

4. Right now, someone is probably in a bar saying, “I drummed for Sonic Youth.”

Before Steve Shelley became the band’s drummer, they “did a series of 10 or 12 gigs where we had a different drummer for each gig,” Lee said. None of them worked out.

5. Steve Shelley went from being Kim and Thurston’s house-sitter to their bandmate.

After Bob Bert was fired, he was rehired, only to quit after a tour of England in 1985. Steve Shelley, who had recently moved to New York, was crashing at Kim and Thurston’s at the time. When they came home from the England dates, “Steve was watching TV on their bed or whatever,” Lee recalled. (Steve clarified: “Not exactly.”) They offered him the gig sans audition and started working on songs that ended up on Sister.

6. The band toyed with the idea of recording a cover of The Beatles’ White Album.

Lee said they learned “Back in the USSR” and then “we tried the second song—maybe it’s ‘Dear Prudence’ or whatever— and we couldn’t do it, we gave up. But then Jon Spencer was like, ‘Those wimps, they said they were going to cover the White Album…” Spencer and former Sonic Youth drummer Bob Bert ended up covering the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St. with their band Pussy Galore.

7. At the time of Daydream Nation, the double album was at once indie anathema and of its time.

Lee: “Some of our close peers had just done double albums: Minutemen did Double Nickels on the Dimeand Husker Du did Zen Arcade. A double album seemed like a throwback to a weird era that we weren’t supposed to really come into, in a way. But we thought the idea of it was cool.”

8. Thurston Moore is not making an alt-right symbol in this photo from the Daydream Nation album shoot.

Michael Lavine showed off photos he snapped of the band as they walked through Wall Street, Chinatown, the Lower East Side, and the East Village, stopping at Two Boots along the way. According to Lee, Thurston was “asserting his astrological dominance in that period.” In the above photo, it’s possible he was flashing a Leo symbol in the above photo, or the symbol that represented him on the album, an omega.

9. They used flash cards to write songs.

During Sister rehearsals, they’d “have the parts labeled on flash cards, like part A, part B, part C, part D,” Lee said. “We’d deal them out, like, ‘Let’s try part C there, then part D, then another part D.’ We’d have multiples of each letter, so, A, A, B, D, C, C. And we’d try it that way and then we’d move the cards around and say, ‘Let’s try it that way.’”

10. There’s actually an answer to ‘Which comes first, the music or the lyrics?’

Lee: “Pretty much for our entire career, we always wrote our music without any lyrics. Nobody was ever singing at rehearsal… We were making these compositions with a lot of interesting parts and only later figuring out where the vocals would go on them.

11. If you saw Sonic Youth in the ’80s, you probably didn’t clap much.

Lee: “From Bad Moon on we were doing sets where there was no silence between any of the songs; we didn’t want silence, we wanted to play a concert where we’re using cassette tapes on stage and thing like that. There was really no place for people to applaud… it was an unbroken block of sound from the beginning to the end. I think that just led to longer songs with a lot more glorified intros and outros.”

12. The guy who recorded Daydream Nation, Nick Sansano, was a hip-hop producer.

Lee: “Public Enemy was across the hall at Greene St. [Recording]. He’d been working with all these people like that and had never really made an album with guitars let alone guitars that sounded like what we were doing. We learned together how to make that record.”

13. They were “reactionary against the ’80s, during the ’80s.”

At least, that’s what Steve said about the big-drum sound of the era. “Usually we’d walk into a studio to check it out and the engineer would come up to us and say, ‘This room has a great snare drum sound,’ and Thurston and Lee would say, ‘Ok, we’re not recording here.’”

14. They wanted to sound like Television.

Ranaldo said they wanted an “ensemble sound” where all the instruments blended into each other. Steve added: “To every engineer we’d mention, or play parts of, Marquee Moon. We’d carry that album around and say, ‘This is how things should sound.’”

15. Kim Gordon separated people into “the Guns N Roses camp or the Jane’s Addiction camp.”

Or so said photographer Michael Lavine. The preferred camp was GNR. “Sweet Child O’ Mine, it’s undeniable,” Lee said.

16. It isn’t easy to learn a Sonic Youth song, even for Sonic Youth.

When Sonic Youth performed Daydream Nation in its entirety at All Tomorrow’s Parties in 2007, some songs “were pretty difficult for us to relearn,” Lee admitted. “We had to isolate tracks on the master tape to listen to bass parts or guitar parts or whatever.” A particularly tricky one was “Rain King,” which “had a crazy structure,” according to Steve. “I think we struggled with that song.”

17. The word “mota,” in “Providence” means exactly what you think it means.

In the answering machine message played over a damaged Peavey amp, Minutemen bassist Mike Watt asks Thurston if he found his stuff and tells him “you gotta watch the mota” because “your fuckin’ memory goes out the window.” Mota was Watt’s word for marijuana, Lee explained, and “Thurston was an inveterate loser of things. He would buy ten records and leave them in the next store.”

18. Daydream Nation was the first album where the band practiced the album live before recording it.

Lee: “We did a bunch of shows at Maxwell’s; the old Knitting Factory on Houston Street, the first one; and at CB[GB]s. For one of the few times in our career we were like, ‘Let’s play these things out before we record them,’ so when we got to the recording studio we were super primed.”

(Photo via @thegreenpointpalace on Instagram)

After closing in 2016, one of Greenpoint’s oldest bar spaces will reopen under new ownership at the end of this month. Nick Padilla, owner of neighborhood bar Alameda, is bringing back Palace Cafe as The Palace. He and his partners, Mary Schultz and Rita Puskas, announced today that they’ll open Nov. 28.

In case you’re unfamiliar, Palace Cafe (aka Goodman’s) had been family-owned for decades and was probably one of the neighborhood’s most distinctive watering holes. Here’s how I described the spot on the corner of McGolrick Park in a NY Mag listing: “Pantera and Nugent are on the jukebox and somehow the resultant soundtrack doesn’t clash with the well-worn Tudor setting with its castle-like wooden door opening onto an airy front room of electric candelabras, stained-glass windows, and stucco ceilings crossed by wooden beams.”

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This is WALL-E!!! He lives at @thegreenpointpalace follow @thegreenpointpalace to see all his crazy adventures!

A post shared by Rita Puskas (@ritamariep) on Jul 29, 2018 at 12:38pm PDT

The new owners have kept the Tudor fixtures and imposing back bar, but have freshened up the space at 206 Nassau Avenue, judging by the Instagram photos. They even swapped out the stained glass windows for “old new” ones by Brooklyn glass artist Friend of All:

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Whew! We have been working around the clock on these windows for @thegreenpointpalace and they are almost done! @travisyutzy is here today framing them, and hopefully by tomorrow they will be hanging in the windows for all to see! Thanks @sacharaps for snapping this epic pic

A post shared by FRIEND OF ALL (@friendofallglass) on Aug 2, 2018 at 8:36am PDT

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Lots of progress today!! Woohoo!! Check out our old new windows and some fresh paint!! • #thepalace #thegreenpointpalace #greenpoint #mcgolrickpark #brooklyn @bradydollarhide @friendofallglass @travisyutzy @trevorbhults : @lcaldarolaphoto

A post shared by The Palace (@thegreenpointpalace) on Aug 2, 2018 at 6:24pm PDT

Rest assured there’s a jukebox stocked with Television and Talking Heads, though somehow we doubt Nugent survived, given the current political climate:

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Getting there @thegreenpointpalace where’s WALL-E?

A post shared by Rita Puskas (@ritamariep) on Aug 10, 2018 at 2:00pm PDT

On Padilla’s menu: “unpretentious, blue-collar” grub like homemade corned beef and collard green melts, he told the Times.

The owners describe this as their “love letter to Greenpoint,” so get ready to sidle up to the ol’ horseshoe bar with a negroni and feel the love.

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Thank you @draftchoicenyc for the beautiful taps and thank you @lcaldarolaphoto for the amazing new friend…. @thegreenpointpalace is “GONNA BE SO FREAKIN SWEET” (in my highest, squeakiest voice EVER)!

A post shared by Rita Puskas (@ritamariep) on Aug 15, 2018 at 6:18pm PDT

WEDNESDAY

(image via NYTW / Facebook)

Slave Play
Now through December 30 at New York Theater Workshop, 7 pm (some shows at 8 pm or 2 pm): $29

In a recent interview with Out magazine, playwright Jeremy O. Harris says he explains Slave Play, his new play at New York Theater Workshop, to prospective audiences as such: “It’s a slave play; there’s a history of them; go see mine.” If that sounds vague, it’s meant to be; he notes that audiences will experience the play best when they go in knowing as little as possible. What you can know is that Harris has been gaining traction and acclaim over the past few years for his work, which presents a refreshingly and unapologetically queer, black addition to the theatrical canon, which has a long history of being (and remaining) quite the opposite of that. 

FRIDAY

(image via Emma Rogers / Facebook)

Ren Faire Comedy Hour
Friday, November 23 at Pete’s Candy Store, 7 pm: $10

You may have noticed we’re skipping Thursday this week in the listing, but fret not, come Friday you can jump right back into your show-seeing. Why not help your turkey (or tofurkey) digest with some laughter? Emma Rogers and Jesse Roth are presenting a new hour of comedy that’s themed around everyone’s favorite festival involving jousting and centuries-old garb: a Renaissance Faire. So come all ye hither and thither for jokes (and maybe jousting, but that back room is pretty small) by Carmen Christopher, Derek Gaines, Steven Markow, Tim Kov, and Kyle Gordon.

SATURDAY

(image via Paid Protest / Facebook)

Paid Protest
Saturday, November 24 at Mayday Space, 7 pm: $10 suggested donation

Though by Saturday it’s over, we should still remember Thanksgiving was founded on violence and genocide, and we should always be doing what we can to fight back against the ways this toxic foundation still pervades our country today. I can’t say attending a socialist comedy show in Bushwick that raises money for DSA’s Electoral Working Group (which helps elect leftist and socialist candidates on the local level) is the largest and noblest thing you could to do help, but it’s certainly something worth doing, and something you can do on Saturday night. Expect the talents of Ismael Loutfi, Bronwyn Ariel Isaac, Nick Chambers, Sally Ann Hall, Brian Allen Mitchell, and hosts Kath Barbadoro, Alex Ptak, Anders Lee, and Raghav Mehta.

SUNDAY

(image courtesy of Reverend Billy)

Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir: Love, No Border
Sunday, November 25 at Joe’s Pub, 2 pm: $10-15

If you’re not familiar with the work of Reverend Billy and his Stop Shopping Choir, know that while their name sounds religious, they’re different than any church you or I grew up in. The church I went to did have a rock band, but it was that kind of bland Christian rock band fronted by a white dude with a goatee and acoustic guitar. This is decidedly not that. Rather than generic platitudes, expect musical musings on radical activism, saving the rapidly-decaying environment, and fighting back against borders, detainment, and anti-immigrant sentiment. That last one is particularly personal for the group, as many of their choir members (including New Sanctuary Coalition activist Ravi Ragbir) have faced deportation or threats of it in the past year. If you miss the choir this time around, they’ll be hitting the Pub weekly through December 23.

(Photos: Jess Rohan)

Are you a very cool, very hip millennial? Do you live your life on the “net”? Verizon’s new $3 billion subsidiary launched a pop-up in Soho to let you know they get you, and they’re like, same!

The new product is Visible, an unlimited phone and data plan for $40 a month that’s managed entirely through an app. Visible sends its customers a SIM card in the mail for their unlocked phone, eliminating the need for physical stores.

To drive that point home, they’ve created the “worst phone repair shop imaginable,” Invisible Phone Repair. The pop-up on the corner of Broadway and Howard Street in Soho features props like a “theft-proof phone case” (“nobody steals a cracked phone!”) and an actor playing an indifferent clerk.

The rest of the space is a series of Instagram-bait rooms full of terrible, ancient relics of our pre-Visible lives, like pay phones in a subway station crumbling like only chronically underfunded public infrastructure can (yuck!), and a ’90s-esque office with a paper shredder spewing reams onto the floor (what is paper?) and an inspirational basketball poster on the wall about “the shots you don’t take” that was in every middle school classroom—which was actually a spot-on reference, and my favorite part of the experience.

The pop-up ends with a journey into our new, Visible lives, winding around a blue-lit zen garden decorated with the carcasses of obsolete landline phones and an actor sitting on the ground in a yoga pose.

“Some people like to meditate,” a placard explains. I sure do!

At the end there’s a lounge serving up energy drinks and musical performances during the campaign, which runs till Nov. 25.

“We needed to find a way to address the needs of the market for digitally savvy consumers that do not need to touch or feel a phone to learn about it,“ a rep told Billy Penn.

This round of Visible marketing is also targeting other millennial hubs like Philly, Seattle and Atlanta. But the brand really doesn’t want you to associate it with Verizon; reps are using start-up language, saying the subsidiary is “funded” and “incubated” by the corporation (disclosure, my dad works for Verizon).

Visible is a natural choice for a company that is dying to shed all its earthly baggage, from wires to humans. Verizon announced in October it’s laying off 44,000 people—nearly a third of its entire workforce. Last year, New York City sued Verizon for not getting Fios to every city household by 2014 like it promised. The company had stopped introducing Fios to new areas for nearly five years because it discovered that installing new wire was expensive. Now, Verizon is piloting a new system where internet services are beamed into homes wirelessly from a nearby transmitter.

Young people are used to being told these days that business models designed to increase profit margins are actually a cool new future — like ride sharing and Airbnb. Verizon isn’t into the messy responsibilities of meatspace anymore—and with Visible, it’s hoping you aren’t, either.

(Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment)

“Get your walking jokes in,” filmmaker Jeremy Workman quipped as Matt Green, the man who is walking every block in New York City, strode up the aisle at Quad Cinema.

We had just watched The World Before Your Feet, and Green’s presence at Wednesday’s Q&A turned out to be even more exciting than that of actor-turned-producer Jesse Eisenberg, who had introduced the film on its opening night. Clearly, the heartfelt, uplifting documentary is poised to make Green a folk hero akin to Forrest Gump.

Like Gump, Green once walked across the country. But in some ways his latest undertaking is more ambitious: After nearly seven years and some 9,000 miles of pounded pavement (and parks and beaches), Green still has an estimated 500 miles left to go. In order to avoid a desk job and buy time to walk the city, he couch surfs, cat-sits, and keeps an ascetic $15-a-day budget.

Compared to his cross-country trip, his hyperlocal odyssey is also more difficult to explain to people, Green has found. “It takes me a lot of words to say it,” he told the crowd at Quad. “In New York when someone comes up to you on the sidewalk and they start saying a lot of words, you’re like, ‘Uh, is he trying to sell me something? I better get out of this conversation before it’s too late.’”

At least, that’s the stereotype of New Yorkers. But The World Before Your Feet shatters those stereotypes as it depicts Green bonding with his fellow city dwellers on even the meanest of streets, pushing their cars out of the snow, getting in on touch-football games, disarming them with local history. As a result of the experiment, Green says, “I know that I’m more trusting of people and that I’m more open to just going somewhere and not having to know that there’s something to see.”

While much of the documentary is about literally stopping to smell the roses (or the fig trees that you never knew were growing on Queens patios), it turns out there’s a lot to see when you leave your comfort zone. “We’re right here in the Village,” Workman told the crowd at Quad, “and we all forget how big New York is.”

(Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment)

Indeed, there are unexpected delights to be found even in boroughs that have become national laughing stocks. Green said that “Staten Island would surprise the most people just because it has such a strong stereotype about it.” Workman agreed: “There were days when we’d be walking and there’d be deer everywhere, and other days where there’d be turkey… just the terrain and how some areas were suburban and other areas had a lot of religious stuff.”

Workman, who has been friends with Green for about a decade, shot some 500 hours of his subject’s meanderings over the course of three years. In typical self-deprecating fashion, Green said he was “literally insanely boring for 99% of the time.” But if you’re one of the few longtime readers of his blog, I’m Just Walkin’, you know that he can hold forth about everything from the world’s largest tennis-ball mosaic (built for an Indian guru in Jamaica Hills) to the city’s oldest house, where Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote part of Hamilton in Aaron Burr’s former bedroom.

In this sense, Green comes off as a less speedy version of Timothy “Speed” Levitch, the tour guide of quintessential NYC doc The Cruise. On Wednesday, Workman recalled a day of spiel that didn’t even make it into the film: “We were in Queens and Matt did a whole thing on the history of Kennedy Fried Chicken and then he talked about a mail bomber of around the 19th century or turn of century, then he went into Hindu structures in Queens, then he talked about aluminum siding, then he talked about World War I memorials, then he talked about glaciers.”

Jeremy Workman films Matt Green in Long Island City. (Photo courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment)

While it would’ve been impossible for Workman to put all of Green’s urban obsessions on film, he did manage to capture some of them. Every time Green spots a barbershop that uses a Z in its sign (as in, Klassic Kutz), he looks like he’s found a pink pikachu.

While another documentarian might have treated Green as pathetically quixotic and laughed at him instead of with him, Workman soundtracks his film with the uplifting music of viral travel videos. It’s clear that he considers his subject’s quest the stuff of enlightenment, even if the film does briefly acknowledge that Green’s obsessiveness has cost him a relationship or two.

Workman said that following Green on his journey caused him to see “how diverse New York City is.” While there’s a stark contrast between the scenes filmed in the Bronx and those filmed in tourist-swamped Manhattan, neither the director nor his subject seem particularly fixated on that popular motif: New York City Is Changing For the Worse. Green, who grew up in Virginia, admitted that it might have been different if he was a lifelong New Yorker. “I don’t have childhood memories of a place being a certain way, so I’m maybe less sentimental about the idea of something changing being inherently bad.”

Much like City of Gold did with Los Angeles, The World Before Your Feet reminds complacent, jaded New Yorkers to stop griping about the latest bar closing and go out and explore the corners of the city that have yet to be Equinoxed. “You could do what I’m doing,” Green reminded Wednesday’s crowd. “You don’t need special shoes. I don’t feel like it’s anything extraordinary except for the fact that I just do it a little more frequently than other people.”

 “Night of” Performance by Laur Duvall, Model: Leah Shea (Photo: Frankie Weiner)

Stigma Unbound: The Birthday Party
Opening Thursday, November 29 at Wild Embeddings, 6 pm to 11 pm. On view through December 4.

Stigma Unbound, a performance series dedicated to giving a platform to sex workers and allies, is celebrating their first birthday with an art exhibit and a week of special programming. They’re kicking it off with an opening reception that will presumably not look like any typical gallery opening filled with fancy people furrowing their brows at paintings while daintily sipping small plastic cups of free wine. Rather, this will be more of a party, with drag, burlesque, and performance art to accompany the visual art on display from 20+ artists working in multiple mediums. It costs $10 to get in, but remember you’re supporting local marginalized creators here, not a big fancy gallery catering to the rich. If you can’t make the opening, later in the week they’re doing body art presentations, artist talks, and a pole dance night.

(image via Transmitter / Facebook)

Art To Go: A Benefit for Make the Road New York
Opening Friday, November 30 at Transmitter, 6 pm to 9 pm. On view through December 16.

In the city, sporting some kind of tote bag is almost as common as wearing clothes. That’s why it’s a fitting object to serve as centerpiece for Transmitter’s art exhibition fundraiser benefitting immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New York. The show functions like a regular art show, with an opening reception and typical viewing hours and whatnot, but all the works on view will utilize Transmitter’s so-called “iconic” tote bag, whether that’s just modifying the bag’s design or using it in a more creative way for a large piece. All these container-centric creations will be selling for $150, and a portion of sales will benefit Make the Road. So, if you’re going to drop $100+ on something this holiday season, it might as well be for a good cause.

(image via Dark Art & Craft / Facebook)

From Beneath the Veil
Opening Sunday, December 2 at Saint Vitus, 6 pm to 10 pm. One night only.

Sure, Halloween was all the way back in October, which technically was only a month or so ago but with the way this year is going it may as well be ten months. If your craving for all things spooky, dark, and witchy still persists after Turkey Day, get thee to Saint Vitus, where a one-night-only art show by Dark Art & Craft will be unfolding Sunday night. The exhibit focuses on showcasing women, nonbinary, and other underrepresented artists, and the work will get goth-y, folks: expect photos, embroidery, jewelry, drawings, and more featuring skulls, pentagrams, devil horns, mysterious woods, candles, ghostly figures, and of course, color palettes awash with plenty of blacks, greys, and reds.