Speaking of money and real estate, no plan has merged those two things this week quite as well as the new design for Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh.The building at south 5th and Havemeyer will be refurbished and a new 22-story residential tower will rise beside it. Thirty percent of the apartments in the new building will be let at affordable prices. At the same time, the Landmarks Preservation Commission is holding hearings to decide whether or not to designate the bank building a historic landmark. Continue reading →
Unless you’re Polish or a cinephile (or both), you may not have heard of the late 80s Polish TV drama miniseries The Decalogue. The criticallyacclaimed and 97% Rotten Tomatoes-rated Decalogue is made up of ten one-hour films, inspired by the Ten Commandments. Each episode explores characters living in a hard-knock housing project in 1980s Poland as they face moral dilemmas related to the commandments. Each episode follows different characters, though some of them are connected to each other in some way.
The Decalogue was never formally released in US theaters, but was finally released on DVD and video in 2000. Film Noir Cinema (122 Meserole Ave) will be showing the film series in its entirety starting on January 22nd, running through January 31st at varying times. You can buy tickets to all ten screenings here, and tickets to individual episode screenings via their site. Continue reading →
Did you know that Cafe Grumpy is a “real place”? There “you can peck away at your literary masterpiece on your MacBook Pro while hoping to meet a hot divorced doctor with a brownstone. (Good luck with that.)”
Yeah good luck because doesn’t Vogue know that all the hot doctors who have the time to drink cappuccinos in Greenpoint don’t live in Brownstones – they live in aluminum siding houses. NA DOY!
I’m not one to push TV onto anyone. I have a secret: I’ve never watched one episode of Breaking Bad (I know!) but I’m not ashamed of it.
That being said, if you’ve never watched Twin Peaks, shame on YOU for depriving yourself of the mind melting music, bizarrely addictive plot and one of the best characters ever invented: Agent Dale Cooper.
If you have watched Twin Peaks, then you know how anti-social you can become, sitting on the couch watching episode after episode, with greasy hair and crumbs all over your shirt. You don’t have to be alone!
The Exley’s (1 Jackson St) Twin Peak’s Tuesdays begins tonight and there will be donuts! (obviously) but there will also be boozey coffee, performances by The Pink Room: David Lynch Burlesque, trivia, plus new cocktails each week.
“Harry, I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.” – Agent Dale Cooper
An awesome reader tipped me off that Milton St is covered in dirt for a movie shoot so I stopped by on my way to the office. I know some of us feel inconvenienced by film shoots in Greenpoint, but this one is way cool. Not sure about you but I’m a total sucker for period pieces and people are walking around like it’s 1906 and covered in crazy head wounds and dressing. Continue reading →
The best way to treat one addiction is to just get addicted to something else. If you are getting the shakes from Breaking Bad’s Finale, treat your withdrawal symptoms with Walking Dead Season 4 at The Exley (1 Jackson St) every Sunday at 7pm – starting this Sunday 10/13.
Soothe your pain with some bloody cheap cocktails, a waist-coated villian, and a lifetime of analysis with young Carl. Thanks to Tim Bailey for the photo.
Reader and friend from the ‘hood Marisha emailed me this hysterical little tidbit from The Wall Street Journal on a new MTV show being shot almost exclusively in Greenpoint and how a bartender at Tommy’s Tavern gave them shit – which is pretty awesome.
Another forthcoming series, MTV’s “I Just Want My Pants Back,” a comedy about four recent college graduates, will be filmed almost exclusively on location in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
“Setting it in a place like Greenpoint was really important for me because a key aspect of the show is that you have these two different groups”—trendy 20-somethings and longtime Polish residents—”vying for the same airspace,” said co-executive producer Doug Liman, whose previous work includes directing “Swingers.” “The friction between those two groups is something I was passionate about getting on screen.”
The show’s other executive producer, David Bartis, who is based in Los Angeles, recalled the enjoyable unpredictability of filming on location in New York. He described an incident in which they called the police on an intoxicated bartender at Greenpoint bar Tommy’s Tavern, where they filmed the pilot. The bartender refused to leave the premises, Messrs. Bartis and Liman said, making it impossible for them to continue filming.
Reached by phone, the owner of Tommy’s Tavern, Thomas Kaminski, said their account was inaccurate, though police records confirm that police responded to a call at that location concerning a bartender who was “intoxicated and making threats to crew members.”
“It’s probably one of the reasons why you shoot in New York—because you want to live in a reality that creeps into your production,” Mr. Liman said. “If you look carefully, I’m sure you can see him in the background.”
I couldn’t find any info on when the show is actually going to begin airing, though it sounds like it will either be thoroughly entertaining to laugh at the hipsterificness of it all or infuriating…
Rosie’s Greenpoint connection starts on Chapter 2 of this episode. Her grandfather lived at 392 Manhattan Ave. with his first wife (not Rosie’s grandmother), who tragically died there. See Rosie visit St. Anthony’s in search of baptismal certificates. Very, very moving….
