Newsletter 6 - February 2000
We're sorry to say that after June 2000,
because of changes in our service provider's operations and a host
of other circumstances, we were forced to discontinue publication of
what -- we thought -- was a information packed digest. We hope to be
able to resume sometime in the future
Contents
1. NYC & Y2K
2. NYC & C2K & B2K
3. Changes at Jims Deli
4. Broadway
5. Surf the Internet, Pay Your Electric Bill
6. New York City Events
7. New York Restaurant Week
8. Museum News
9. Fraunces Tavern Closes
1. NYC & Y2K
The hoopla is over and New York City survived.
The 24-hour celebration was happy, boisterous and free from major
trouble. Our estimate of the crowd? A heck of a lot of people! We
stayed warm and cozy at home with Dick Clark on the tube and hot
fudge sundaes at midnight.
The first week of the year 2000 brought very
mild temperatures to the City, high 40s, 50s, even low 60s. The
first weekend of the New Year was an extension of the Times Square
celebration; in Brooklyn Heights, along the Battery, through SoHo
and the Village, City folk and visitors strolled, a reminder of
Visiting Day in Olde New York. Nowhere were the crowds thicker than
Midtown; 5th Avenue, 6th Avenue, Broadway and Times Square were
thumpingly alive, people walking to the City's inner beat. There was
no rush, no direction--there was really no where to go-just throngs
of people enjoying the New Year the way New Yorkers do best, going
for a walk.
2. NYC & C2K & B2K
The mild temperatures that greeted the New Year
lasted for about a week and a half. As the mercury started to dip we
wondered what adjectives the weather people would use when the
thermometer plunged into the teens and single digits. They had
already been through 'extremely cold,' (low 30s); 'bitterly cold,'
(high 20s); and 'brutally cold,' (low 20s). Well, we found out when
the 'Cold Spell of 2000' hit an 'extremely bitter, brutally cold'
temperature of 3 degrees.
The 'Blizzard of 2000' was more of a City mess
than disaster. Though technically a Nor'easter (the system passed
through the area, stalled, then backed up and dumped a few more
flurries over the City), this snow shower didn't pick any blizzardly
wallop, as did the 1996 storm that paralyzed the area. Instead, NYC
got a couple of inches of snow that, in the boroughs, was easily
cleared away and, in Manhattan, quickly turned to puddles of slush
(the subway tunnels and underground steam lines help this along).
The weather folks should have saved their hype for the Southern
areas that were hit by much heavier snowfalls.
An article in the New York Times City Section on
January 30th, entitled "Why New Yorkers Are Weather
Wimps," purported to explain Gotham-dwellers aversion to foul
weather. Author David Kirby touched on a few reasons, from
psychotherapy issues of 'entitlement and control,' to 'bragging
rights,' to 'it's expensive.' Along the way he skimmed over the two
real reasons: Wet Feet and Cold Cheeks.
New Yorkers walk. No matter how many people you
see in taxicabs or buses, we walk. If you live Uptown and have to
take the Subway downtown for an appointment you might be faced with
a half-mile walk. Take a bit of East River breeze, add uncleared
sidewalks and eight-inch deep lakes of slush at the crosswalks and
you have a very unpleasant stroll that has to be repeated at the
other end-and again on your return trip. You have to get cross-town
from 7th Avenue to 1st Avenue in 30 minutes? All New Yorkers know
the only way to get to your appointment on time is to, you guessed
it, walk. Need a dozen eggs to whip up a frittata? Put on all the
layers and the boots then walk the four blocks to the supermarket
and back. Oops! Forgot the milk? Walk again.
So, it isn't so much that we're wimpy about the
weather, but in order to live day-to-day in the City New Yorkers
have to be out and about in it. We don't have the luxury of getting
into a pre-heated car and driving to within a few yards of our
destination. Wet feet and cold cheeks make us miserable. And when
we're miserable we get on the phone, call our local Chinese take out
and say "One hot and sour soup. One order of steamed dumplings.
An order of General Tso's chicken . . .Delivered!"
3. Changes at Jim's Deli
We spent the holiday time making changes at
Jim's Deli New York City Guide, both cosmetic and technical. We
fine-tuned our color scheme and made the home page more pleasing to
visitors who use Netscape browsers. The major technical change is
the move to a new expandable menu system for all our major section
pages. Visitors can browse more quickly and intuitively and the
system makes it much simpler for us to keep track of what's what.
The only drawback is that visitors need at least the 4.0 version
Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Netscape's Navigator to use the new
menus. For visitors with older browsers we've included site maps so
you can access the entire site. Just click on "Search/Site
Maps" in the main menu.
And we've done a lot of behind the scenes
technical work to add a search function to Jim's Deli. Our use of
frames for navigation really threw a wrench into the works the times
we attempted it before but we now have most of the problems cleared
up. One feature of the search engine we're using is the reports it
generates; we can see what visitors are searching for and what, if
any, pages were found. This will help us decide what content to add
as Jim's Deli expands.
Coming up we'll be adding a Nightlife section
with information on cabarets, concerts, clubs and pubs. Also in the
works are an expanded Museum guide, additions to our Hotel and Bed
and Breakfast Guide and (Finally!), our New York City Restaurant
Guide. We'll keep you posted as the sections go live.
4. Broadway
Openings
Jackie Mason's one man show Much
Ado About Everything opened at the John Golden Theater Dec
30th. Though we've tried to keep him away, Mason isn't such a bad
guy to spend a night on Broadway with.
David Hirshon's comedy Wrong
Mountain opened Dec 14th at the Eugene O'Neill Theater. This
not quite farcical almost-show-within-a-show makes a couple of wrong
turns on the path to the top.
See what we have to say about these new shows
and what else is playing on the Great White Way at our Broadway
Theater Guide
Closed / Closing Soon
Minnelli
on Minnelli and The
Kat & The Kings closed January 2nd | It
Ain't Nothin' But the Blues closed January 9th | Smokey
Joe's Café went dark January 16th | Putting
It Together has been held together by Carol Burnett.
The show will not survive the end of her contract on February 20th.
In Previews
Aida,
the Elton John-Tim Rice musical begins previews February 22nd
for a March 23rd opening at the Palace Theater.
Sam Shepard's True
West returns with Phillip Seymour Hoffman and John
C Reilly as the dysfunctional brothers at the Circle in the
Square Theater
Coming Up
In March - Contact
at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, starring Boyd Gaines & Karen
Ziemba | Jesus
Christ Superstar revived at the Ford Center | Eugene
O'Neill's Moon
for the Misbegotten at the Walter Kerr Theater | Patrick
Stewart stars in Arthur Miller's Ride
Down Mt Morgan at the Ambassador Theater | Riverdance
returns, this time at the Gershwin Theater | Elaine May and Alan
Arkin collaborate on Taller
Than a Dwarf at the Longacre Theater | The
Wild Party moves from off-Broadway to the Virginia Theater
In April - The
Green Bird, Julie Taymor's fantasy teenage
coming-of-age story at the Cort Theater | The
Music Man marches onstage at the Neil Simon Theater
Broadway Buzz
Producer Cameron Mackintosh announced
that the anticipated Apr opening of Martin
Guerre is indefinitely on hold because lack of an
appropriate theater. The troubled Claude-Michel Schonberg-Alain
Boubil show has been bouncing around in a couple of incarnations
since it's 1996 London premiere
With Charles Durning heading the cast, do
you stage a New Jersey revival of David Mamet's Glengarry
Glen Ross with no intention of bringing it to Broadway? The show
opens in Princeton Feb 18th and may hit the Broadway boards by
spring
More Mamet: The buzz is that David
Mamet's Boston Marriage is coming to the Great White Way
in the late spring. Word has it that the producers of the Victorian
costume drama (Mamet style) are considering film heavies Ann
Heche, Sharon Stone and Frances McDormand for lead roles
Nathan Lane will star in the Jerry
Zaks-directed revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner, the Moss
Hart-George S Kaufman comedy being staged at the newly renovated
Selwyn Theater. Produced by the Roundabout Theater Company the show
is expected to open in June
Find more news you can use at our Broadway
theater guide.
5. Surf the Internet, Pay Your Electric Bill
If you want a fast start being paid to surf the
web go to:
[All Advantage is now just another dead dot-com]
Otherwise, read on.
Many newsletter readers have by now heard of All
Advantage, the service that pays you to surf the Internet. Jim first
signed us up last June; after he had some problems trying to get the
All Advantage viewbar (more on this below) to work he muttered a few
words and dumped it into the recycle bin. A few months later one of
Susie's friends happen to mention that she was using All Advantage
and it was working, she was being paid enough to cover her monthly
electric bill.
We decided to give All Advantage another try and
have tested it the last two months. What do you know! The folks at
All Advantage improved their program and now it's more than likely
to work-and earn you a few bucks to look at some annoying ads while
you surf. Here's how it works:
You download a small program called the All
Advantage View Bar. Installation on your computer is pretty
straightforward, and then you're ready to surf and make some bucks.
When you start your browser, the View Bar, a narrow band that holds
advertising and navigation buttons, is activated. As you surf
different ads are downloaded into the View Bar to entice you to
click and visit the advertisers web site, same idea as banner ads.
They seem a little intrusive at first, but you soon get used to it.
Especially when you see the cash piling up.
Okay, not exactly piling up, but moving upward
in noticeable increments. All Advantage pays you 50 cents per hour
as you actively surf the web. They are currently paying up to a
maximum of 25 hours per month and plan to increase the maximum to 40
hours in the future. That's $12.50 in your pocket. Plus they have a
referral system where you earn 10 cents for each hour a person you
referred surfs, and 5 cents for each hour a person they referred
surfs-up to 4 levels down. There are a few conditions, but it all
adds up! You can promote All Advantage on a website, in e-mail or in
snail mail, as long as the people you refer use your ID number.
It does pay to surf the web. Find out more at:
[All Advantage is now just another dead dot-com]
6. New York City Events
For up to date info be sure to check our New
York City Events guide.
Thru Feb 12th Wesla Whitfield sings Jimmy
McHugh at Arci's Place | Tue thru Thu 9:00P | Fri Sat 8:30P 11:00P |
212-532-4370
Thru Feb 13th Ruby Dee in My One Good
Nerve: A Visit With Ruby Dee | Directed by Charles Nelson Reilly |
The Schomburg Center | 212-491-2206
Thru Feb 14th John Pizzarelli Trio plus
Bucky Pizzarrelli at Feinstein's at the Regency | Tue Wed Thu 8:00P
| Fri Sat 8:00P 11:00P | Cover $60 | Ticketmaster 212-339-4095
Thru Feb 29th St John's U basketball at
Madison Square Garden | $20 to $28 | 888-GO-STORM
Feb 1st thru Feb 6th The Michael Brecker QT
at the Blue Note | 9:00P 11:30P | 212-475-8592
Feb 2nd Linda Eder at Carnegie Hall |
8:00P | Carnegie Charge 212-247-7800
Feb 6th Joy Bogen sings Kurt Weill in the
Weill and Lenya Centennial Celebration at Carnegie Hall's Weill
Recital Hall | 8:30P | Carnegie Charge 212-247-7800 | Also Mar 7th
at Merkin Concert Hall
Feb 7th America: Music of Life and Liberty,
an event to benefit seven arts, family and education institutions,
features the American Symphony Orchestra performing Ives, Gershwin,
Thompson, Ellington, Sousa and Steffe. VP Al Gore narrates Aaron
Copland's Lincoln Portrait | Avery Fisher Hall | 8:00P | $18 to $60
| Centercharge 212-721-6500
Feb 8th thru Feb 13th Larry Carlton at
the Blue Note | 9:00P 11:30P | 212-475-8592
Feb 10th Marc Anthony at Madison Square
Garden | 8:00P | Ticketmaster 212-307-7171
Feb 10th thru 13th City Center Encores!
Great American Musicals in Concert presents On a Clear Day You
Can See Forever | CityTix 212-581-1212
Feb 12th The Harlem Globetrotters at
Madison Square Garden | 7:30P | Ticketmaster 212-307-7171
Feb 14th Millennium International Ballet Gala
featuring Stars of the 21st Century: Anna Antonicheva, Dmitri
Belogolovtsev, Darcey Bussell, Susan Jaffe and more | New York State
Theater | 8:00P | Ticketmaster 212-307-4100
Feb 15th thru 20th Ruth Brown and Friends
at the Blue Note | 9:00P 11:30P | 212-475-8592
Feb 18th Ladysmith Black Mambazo at Town
Hall | 8:00P | Ticketmaster 212-30704100
We're listing more events each day. Be sure to
check our New York
City events guide.
7. New York Restaurant Week
New York Restaurant Week is back. This
semi-annual event gives people the opportunity to enjoy lunch at
some of the City's finest restaurants for a mere $20. (For those of
us who think spending more than $5 for lunch is throwing money away,
lunch at many of the participating restaurants starts at $35 and
up.) A short sample list to whet your appetite: Aquavit, Aureole,
Café Boulud, Chanterelle, Eleven Madison Park, Gotham Bar &
Grill, La Caravelle, Le Perigord, Patria, Russian Tea Room, Union
Square Café and Vong.
Restaurant Week runs until Friday, February 4th.
Summer Restaurant Week is scheduled for June 19th through 23rd. For
a complete list of participating restaurants stop by New
York City Restaurant Week.
8. Museum News
Rose Center for Earth and Space
The Rose Center for Earth and Space, whose
center of attraction will be an all-new Space Theater, will open
February 19th. The 432-seat theater includes the new Hayden
planetarium, which was the first star experience of many New York
City school kids. A new generation of kids will be alighting from
yellow school buses and surging through the exits of the newly
renovated 81st Street subway station to see the galaxies generated
by the new $3.5 million Zeiss projector. The Rose Center is expected
to attract more than 1 million additional visitors to the American
Museum of Natural History and tickets are going fast. We'll have an
in-depth report after we manage to grab a couple of ducats. More
info at 212-769-5100.
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is in the first stages
of planning temporary exhibit space in Long Island City, Queens. The
space, also for storage, is needed because of the $650 million
expansion of the Museum's main buildings planned for 2002 through
2004. If plans come to fruition, the Museum will build a 140,000
square foot facility with an undetermined amount of space set aside
to mount temporary exhibitions. The location, site of the old
Swingline Stapler factory, is at 33rd Street and Queens Boulevard,
not too inconvenient to subway riders from Manhattan and other
points in the City.
Asia Society
The Asia Society is starting a $30 million
renovation of its Park Avenue and 70th Street location. Through Fall
2001 the Society's exhibitions will be mounted at the old Christie's
Auction site at 502 Park Avenue (59th Street). "Spiritual
Reflections: Religious Sculpture of South and Southeast Asia"
will open February 3rd. More info at 212-288-6400.
Fort Hamilton Harbor Defense Museum
Fort Hamilton sits on the bluffs above the
Verrazano Narrows, the 2-mile wide stretch of water separating
Brooklyn and Staten Island. Fort Hamilton, the first granite fort
protecting the City's harbor, was built between 1825 and 1831; it
served, with Fort Wadsworth on the Staten Island side of the
Narrows, as the principal harbor defense through Word War II. The
Harbor Defense Museum is located in the Caponier, a small fort that
protected the rear of the main installation. Great for kids of all
ages, the museum's collection includes uniforms, canons, swords and
other pieces spanning four centuries of military activity. The
museum is open Monday through Friday and the second Saturday of each
month from 10:00A to 3:00P. Be sure to call Frank Jardin, the museum
director, to check times or arrange for a tour: 718-630-4349.
The House of Sex
The glowing, glass-sheathed mini tower due to be
constructed on 5th Avenue and 27th Street is the future home of the
House of Sex, the first museum in New York City dedicated to the
3-letter word. The privately-funded museum won't open its permanent
site until 2004, but plans temporary exhibitions at an undetermined
location beginning this fall. Daniel Gluck, the museum's president
is planning several exhibitions along with Alison Maddex, the
museum's director. Gluck and Maddox recently accepted the nascent
institution's first gift of art from the collection of Peter and
Eileen Norton.
9. Fraunces Tavern Closes
Fraunces Tavern, the tourist-destination
restaurant that stands on the site where Washington took leave of
his troops in 1783, has closed, probably temporarily. The Norden
family, operators of the tavern for the past 50 years, has lost
their lease from the building's owner, the Sons of the Revolution.
The society is searching for a new operator and hopes to have the
restaurant reopened within 6 to 12 months.
Hope you enjoyed our newsletter. See you next
month,
Susie and Jim
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