By Dean Stattmann
On Thursday March 26, New York Press editor-in-chief Jerry Portwood stopped by Betty Ming Liu’s beat reporting class at New York University to discuss the state of print journalism, the future of the neighborhood weekly and most importantly, what today’s journalism students can do to grab a thread in this business.
Despite my efforts, the inevitable has happened. Yes, I signed up for Twitter.
So in the spirit of jumping on the online networking bandwagon, I’m going to ask all you Twitter-ers out there to give me your usernames so I too can have a following (so I can go Jim Jones on your asses, just kidding). But seriously.
By Dean Stattmann
A rickety old van pulled up outside New York University’s Weinstein dining hall at noon today to give away free promotional gear from renowned British retailer Topshop. Wait, what? That’s right. After over a year and a half of rumors, the fashionable giant from across the pond will leap right into its brand new home on Broadway and Broome St.
SoHo is so incredibly New York, yet anyone walking around this retail mecca for the first time would have a hard time placing themselves. Any international designer worth mentioning is represented in this tiny quarter of lower Manhattan and TopShop has finally decided to follow suit.
By Dean Stattmann
The New York Times is among the most prestigious news publications in the world and has always come across, at least to me, as a place where I would likely never work. But in the back of my mind I’ve always entertained the idea that maybe one day I will go on to write or take photographs for our national paper of record.
This fantasy escaped me the past six months as I focused all my energy on my internship and journalism classes, trying to absorb as much as possible. But today something happened that made me see things a little differently.
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By Dean Stattmann
I recently did a walking tour of SoHo. Except instead of using a tour guide – a.k.a. walking encyclopedia – I opted for a tour of the self-guided persuasion. I thought that this would provide me with a more personal experience; I imagined that it would allow me to discover my SoHo.
By Dean Stattmann
New York is a city where even the wildest dreams can come true. It is also a city in which 100,000 people experience homelessness each year. And one step into the Bowery Mission will teach you that it doesn’t take a lot to go from one to the other.
Humbly situated at 227 Bowery, nestled in between Stanton and Rivington Streets, is the Bowery Mission, an organization that has offered a helping hand to New York City’s less fortunate for over 130 years.
By Dean Stattmann
SoHo’s Housing Works Bookstore Café pulled in an impressive crowd Tuesday night with stand-up by comedian Eugene Mirman and the opportunity to drink beer in a bookstore.
The scene at SoHo’s Housing Works Bookstore Café was enough to make the stereotypical librarian cringe Tuesday night, as the venue hosted its weekly “Punch up Your Life” comedy show.
The show, free to the public, hosts popular comedians on a weekly basis to generate support for Housing Works Inc., the organization that runs the store. “It’s amazing what they do here,” said Raina Clark, one of several volunteers that helps out at the Housing Works Bookstore Café at 126 Crosby St.. “They function so holistically, helping these people along every step of the way.”
Founded in 1990, Housing Works Inc. is the largest community-based AIDS service organization in the United States, working to eliminate both AIDS and homelessness in New York, through services like housing, health care and job training.
According to Chaya Thanhauser, Housing Works’ Event Coordinator, volunteers play an integral role in the way the organization functions, and the bookstore is just one facet of a much larger initiative.
Walking into the bookstore, it appeared to be business as usual – shelves, books, tables, books, ladders, books – at least until the bar came into view. “What can I get you?,” asked the bookstore barkeep, leaning over a selection of Pabst Blue Ribbon, Brooklyn Lager and Stella Artois, arranged neatly on a small table. It was like being offered McDonalds at a health spa. “I’ll take a Stella.”
The luxury of choice did not extend to the back of the store, however, where late arrivals prowled the room for free seats amidst a sea of cardigan-wearing, leg-crossing bookstore folk, who collectively resembled a primary color patchwork quilt. The stage – a cozy 8×10 platform – stood modestly against a bare wall, dwarfed by lofty bookshelves offering knowledge on popular music and classical opera.
The show began a little before 9pm, with “Punch Up Your Life” host and Comedy Central’s Jesse Klein taking the stage following some minor audio complications. “It’s always been my dream to be introduced by two people competing to apologize,” she joked as two volunteer workers left the stage unsuccessful in stopping the annoying buzz ringing from the two elevated speakers. But a decibel malfunction wasn’t enough to stop renowned comedian Eugene Mirman, clearly the evening’s headliner, from unleashing his sidesplitting, yet seemingly unintentional brand of comedy.
Currently at the tail end of a book tour, promoting his fake self-help book, “The Will to Whatevs,” Mirman delivered a plethora of fresh material to the eager crowd, including a story of having fire “thrown in his hair” by the high school bully, as well as insight into his theory that God is in fact a 12-year-old boy. “When you look at it, it makes sense,” He exclaimed. “His rules are stupid, sex is still gross and homosexuality is just beyond him!”
After the show, Mirman, a Boston native currently residing in New York, reflected briefly on the event over a cigarette and the sound of cabs honking in the distance. “I’ve been going all over the place because of the book tour,” he said. “But this is a great venue and I enjoyed the show.”
Housing Works Bookstore Café hosts “Punch Up Your Life” every Tuesday at 8:30pm. Next week’s special guests include Chelsea Peretti Christian Finnigan and Hannibal Burress.
Photos courtesy of PetroleumJelliffe and Jina J under flickr’s Creative Commons license
On Tuesday, two of my photographs from NYU’s All University Games made it onto the pages of the Washington Square News. While the photo on the front page was cropped a little more than I would have liked (Original photos here), it’s been great to have two front pages in two weeks, and the fact that they included an additional photo on page 4 is just gravy.
Print may be dying, but there’s just something different about seeing your work on paper that evokes a certain kind of pride that pixels cannot produce.
By Dean Stattmann
New York is an expensive city. And that’s if you have a job. So for the hordes of unemployed college students that roam the streets of this metropolitan labyrinth each day, bargains of any shape and size rarely go unnoticed. And when New York University hosted its bi-annual Vendor Fair last Thursday, the masses were out, and they were hungry.
The fair, arranged by NYUCard Services Campus Cash and Ticket Central, invites vendors from all over the city to the lofty Rosenthal Pavilion on the 10th floor of NYU’s Kimmel Center to promote their businesses and encourage students to take part in the Campus Cash program. Campus Cash allows students to effectively turn their NYU ID cards into debit cards that can be used at participating vendors throughout the city. The vendors in turn pay NYU to be a part of the program.
This semester, students were presented with the full spectrum – from the Museum of Jewish Heritage to the Blue Man Group – but beyond the 30-second elevator pitches and foldable chairs lies the key to what has students lining up for this event time after time: The free food.
“It’s like a pillow of ice cream,” exclaims one man with a mouth full of Australian Homemade ice cream. He is Kyle Graham, an NYU Steinhardt graduate currently working in the CAS admissions office. He is at the front of a line that stretches halfway across the room’s width. Australian Homemade, sharing a table with Pizza Mercato, is handing out free ice cream. Pizza Mercato isn’t. No one even notices them.
“People never say no to free stuff,” says Australian’s manager, Jonathan, who declined to give his last name. “Especially when it’s good stuff.” Everything is a sales pitch here.
Along the south side of the room is where the real crowds are. Mao Noodles, owned by Chris Johnson and Chris Andrews, is giving away free shrimp and papaya salads, while Peanut Butter and Co. is doling out jars of peanut butter and pretzels by the double digits. “People are usually hungry around noon,” says Johnson with a subtle grin creeping across his face.
Less than an hour in, the room is booming. Students, hopping from vendor to vendor, fill up complimentary promotional bags from the various tables until the their knuckles are white and can tolerate no more weight. A man carrying seven pizzas enters the room and heads straight for the Pizza Mercato table. He goes unnoticed for about three seconds. Passing a heap of glistening red apples, piled up at a table whose name no one will ever remember, he sets the pizzas down on Mercato’s table. He turns around to a newly formed line of ruthless bargain hunters, this time extending beyond the room’s width, out the exit and into the foyer. The words “Pizza Mercato,” can be heard echoing down the line like a game of broken telephone.
Who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch!
Photo by Dean Stattmann
