Every Avenue Pictures

"Not Like Other Guys": Rob Sheffield Remembers Michael Jackson

The night Michael Jackson died: a street corner in Brooklyn, Bedford Avenue at North 5th, 1 a.m., a car with the windows down, blasting "Wanna Be Starting Something." Another car pulls up to the intersection, same song, a minute or so further in. For a moment, interlocking "mama-say mama-sah ma-ma koo-sahs." It was a moment that summed up everything we loved about Michael Jackson, as every car, every bar, every open window seemed to throb with the same beat, as if Jackson had successfully syncop

Published: 2009-07-02 Provider: Rolling Stone

Nas Delivers Petition to Fox News, Says Network Is “Scared”

About four hours after the announcement that his controversial, politically charged ninth album was number one in the country, Nas was on a small podium in front of Fox News headquarters in New York City protesting what he sees as racist attacks against Black Americans and presidential candidate Barack Obama. In a brief prepared statement, the multi-platinum rapper pointed out examples of what he and ColorOfChange see as a long racist smear campaign against the Obama family: The onscreen graphic that referred to Michelle Obama as the Senator’s “baby mama”; Bill O’Reilly casually using the phrase “lynching party” to refer to attacks on the Senator’s wife; referencing to the couple’s infamous fist thump as a “terrorist fist jab.” Said Nas, “Fox poisons this country every time they air racist propaganda and try to call it news. This should outrage every American that Fox uses hateful language to talk about the person that may be the first black president.” The rapper stood next to 19 neatly stacked cardboard boxes, with the number 620,127 taped to the side of each one — over 600,000 signatures gathered by ColorOfChange demanding that network president Roger Ailes “find a solution to address racial stereotyping and hate-mongering before it hits the airwaves.” Fox rejected the petitions, but Brave New Films says that Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report will accept them instead. ColorOfChange reached out to Nas after seeing the lyrics to “Sly Fox” posted on the Brave New Films website. “We looked at it and said, ‘This is exactly what we’re talking about,’” ColorOfChange deputy director Andre Banks tells Rolling Stone. Just two weeks later, Nas was here speaking to fans, protesters and press spilling out into 6th Avenue, some even holding homemade signs markered with lyrics from the song. When asked if there was a response to “Sly Fox,” Nas rebutted quickly with, “Nah, they’re scared of me.” More Nas • On the Charts: Nas Reigns Supreme • Nas: “Let Me Say What’s On My Mind”

Published: 2008-07-23 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Make Sure To Pick Up A Copy Of 'Picture Perfect' By Every Avenue

There are those that say the key to winning a track meet is to both start and finish strong, while simply keeping pace in the middle. Well, someone should have told that to Every Avenue and their latest effervescent oeuvre, 'Picture Perfect.'[...] Read more!

Published: 2009-11-05 Provider: StarPulse

Slash and Trent Reznor Campaign for Sex Pistols, Facebook Ponders Expansion into Music, Serj Tankian Videos to Hit the Big Screen

In 1977, the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen” was prohibited from claiming its rightful spot atop the U.K. singles charts over fears it would spoil something called the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebration. To rectify this, Slash and Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, with a little coaxing from the NME, have joined the campaign to make the 30th anniversary release of the track the number one single for this week. The single is available both on special-edition 7’’ vinyl and on digital music outlets. Facebook, in its tireless campaign to dethrone MySpace as the social-networking king, is rumored to soon be launching either an iTunes-backed artist platform or its own digital music service that will challenge both Rupert Murdoch’s and Steve Jobs’ musical domains. ABBA will re-release their fifth album, simply titled The Album, as a two-CD, one-DVD set on November 26th. The reissue will feature the remastered album, live performances, interviews and 1978 TV commercials promoting the album. Canadian crooner Bryan Adams will do his part to broker peace in the Middle East when he performs in both the West Bank and Israel next week on behalf of the One Voice peace movement. Because if there’s one thing Israelis and Palestinians can see eye-to-eye on, it’s a love for the song “Summer of ’69.” System of a Down’s Serj Tankian, who recently sat down with us in his home studio, will release a series of videos to complement every song on his new solo album Elect the Dead. Tankian will also unleash Elect the Dead: The Short Films on October 22nd in a dozen movie theaters, which are listed after the jump: Herricks Cinema 3324 Hillside Avenue New Hyde Park, NY Parsippany Cinema 3165 RT 46 Parsippany, NJ Embarcadero Center Cinema 1 Embarcadero Center Promenade Level San Francisco, CA Ultrastar Theatres Mission Valley 7510 Hazard Center Drive San Diego, CA Kendall Square Cinema One Kendall Sq Bldg. 1900 Cambridge, MA Century Centre Cinema 2828 N. Clark Street Chicago, IL Emagin

Published: 2007-10-09 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

SHOPPER

"They started as a trend a couple of seasons ago, but they were still very much under the radar," says Marlene Hu Aldaba, owner of the Georgetown boutique Hu's Shoes. She's speaking, of course, about the oxford lace-up heels populating nearly every brand, store and price point for fall.

Published: 2007-09-06 Provider: Washington Post

The Second Avenue Subway: Now With AC?

Now that it looks like the Second Avenue Subway will actually happen — the groundbreaking is set for next week — it's time to dream even bigger: As the Times reports today, the planners are considering "roomier, brightly lighted" stations with glass walls and double sets of sliding doors (like on AirTrain). And the glass walls are merely a harbinger of something even, um, cooler: With the platforms sealed off from the tunnels, the dream of every sweaty summertime commuter — air

Published: 2007-04-05 Provider: New York Magazine

Is Victory Ford Coming Out With A Beer-Wench Line?

Photo: Getty Images Cobble Hill: "Last night, I was walking on Court Street near Union...and there were two ladies walking in front of us wearing long, flowing, huge robes with hoods....They were carrying flashlights, and had an air of authority about them." If you haven't met the truffle-hunting she-monks yet, you mustn't have lived here very long. [Curbed] Chelsea: The Allerton Hotel, the former SRO–cum–crack house on Eighth Avenue and 22nd Street, will become a Gem boutique hotel, not a condo. We used to live across the street and had to step over Allerton residents on our stoop who wouldn't move while they ate bodega chicken, and now we hear the Gem will hire good-looking, multiethnic actors to re-create that vignette. No, we're just kidding. [Curbed] Flatiron: Lipstick Jungle is filming right across the street from the Observer office, where staffers report Lindsay Price is frolicking in a costume that makes her look like a "medieval beer wench." Guess Victory Ford does get her design groove back! [NYO]Coney Island: Did you hear that two Russian-émigré ex-Marines who did time in Iraq got the shit kicked out of them by a (nonwhite, we infer) mob when they tried to rescue a girl who was being attacked? Maybe God thinks you need news like this to offset the euphoria of headlines like the 88th birthday of the Wonder Wheel. [NYP via Queens Crap] Inwood: Maybe you can get whole-wheat pizza up here, but good luck finding a bike rack. Ah, that awkward semi-gentrified stage...every hood goes through it. [Streetsblog] Forest Hills: If you're "American like me" in this diverse neighborhood, here's a primer of what's going on in China, Russia, and Central America to make conversations with people from those countries, "when your kids play with their kids on the slide." It's easy! "Just set them up and let them speak." [Forest Hills 72] North Bronx: If the city blasts into Jerome Park Reservoir as planned, gazillions of rats will be unleashed into the area, says an enviro h

Published: 2008-08-12 Provider: New York Magazine

It’s Official: Rush Limbaugh Will Never Shut Up

Photo: Getty ImagesMEDIA • Do you know how much money Rush Limbaugh makes? Are you sure you want to? Also: "I'm not retiring until every American agrees with me." [Reuters/NYT] • The Washington Post is expected to announce their new editor next week. (Jeff Bercovici thinks its Marcus Brauchli.) [Politico] • Charlie Gasparino got all up in arms about Bryan Burroughs's Vanity Fair piece on Bear Stearns, which implies CNBC fearmongering was a factor in the firm's fall, saying the writer "failed Journalism 101." [Dealbreaker] • The L.A. Times will cut 150 jobs. [NYO]FINANCE • Standing on a street corner with a sign saying "Experienced MIT Grad for Hire" is actually not a great way to get a job, Josh Perksy, who made international news when did that very thing at 50th Street and Park Avenue a few weeks ago, has found. But, he says, "I am big in Korea." [DealBook/NYT] • Carl Icahn is not failing to make Yahoo do his bidding: His own house is in disarray. His $7.9 billion hedge fund had its largest loss yet between October and April, when it dropped by 7 percent. [Bloomberg] • Henry Paulsen admits that the regulatory system could have "performed better." [BBC] REAL ESTATE • Veronica Hearst closed on two apartments at 4 East 66th Street for $36.5 million. [NYP] • Jill Zarin's favorite things in her Hamptons house include her Pilates machine, Steinway piano, and Viking range. Also, there's a photo gallery! [NYP] • Cantilevers—bits of building that bulge out into space—are making a comeback, says a guy. [NYS] LAW • The imminent energy boom means real-estate lawyers need to start boning up on oil and gas law. [NYT] • In 2008, "flat is the new up," as far as the market for law firms goes. [LawBlog/WSJ] • Judge Fredric Block, the Brooklyn native who's in charge of the case against Bear Stearns hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tanning, is "a colorful and down-to-earth jurist who

Published: 2008-07-03 Provider: New York Magazine

Jerry Seinfeld and Ralph Lauren Brunch Together

SeinfeldPhoto: Getty Images Brett Ratner showed up at a party for a book about big penises. Andre Birleanu, the Russian model who was arrested for sexually harassing two women at Cipriani Downtown in October, had both cases dismissed against him. Ralph Lauren and Jerry Seinfeld had brunch together at Surf Lodge in Montauk. Executives at the Hamptons Jitney were not fans of a satirical book about Hamptons lingo that was being given out to riders. Anne Hathaway's dad encouraged her to move out of Raffaello Follieri's apartment. (Both her parents were suspicious about him.)Rose McGowan and director Robert Rodriguez have split, partly because she's not a big enough name to star in his movies. Madonna's publicist continues to say that her client and Alex Rodriguez are just friends. Derek Jeter says not to believe everything you read about his love life. George Clooney is suggesting that actors'-union dues be $6,000 for every million earned. Bar Refaeli doesn't like used sex toys or secondhand clothes. Mick Jones's kid, Chris Jones, debuted his new single at a club in South Beach with Eve. Rosie O'Donnell and Kelli Carpenter have not split, according to O'Donnell's publicist. The Horse & Carriage Association of New York named horse diapers after Alec Baldwin because he wants the industry shut down. The directors of some movie about the "glamorous international polo circuit" are trying to get Princes William and Harry to participate. Eric Trump says his nickname is the Fifth Avenue Redneck because he likes outdoor sports like fishing. LeBron James hung out at Butter.

Published: 2008-07-02 Provider: New York Magazine

Elaine Kaufman Death Scare at the ‘Post’ — All Col's Fault?

Sure, you're all smiles now.Photo: Patrick McMullanLast Thursday, the New York Post was awash with upsetting news. City editor Michelle Gotthelf ran from reporter to reporter over on Sixth Avenue, crying out: "Elaine Kaufman's dead! Call every famous journalist you know!" Posties dutifully began calling everyone they could think of who ate at Elaine's, like Pete Hamill, Gay Talese, and even Kaufman's maître d' of 30 years. What a terrible loss! Quotes (and sometimes tears) began flowing in from some of the city's best-known ink-stained types, who became truly wretched at the news. Then, the city desk got a call from a reporter in the shack, the Post's police bureau. "Has anybody actually bothered to check if indeed Kaufman is dead?" the writer asked. "Because I'm getting calls from a number of people saying she's alive and well." Gotthelf hadn't — because her infallible source was Post editor-in-chief Col Allan, who practically lives at Kaufman's Upper East Side boîte. But the reporter was right — Elaine was quite alive, and preparing to celebrate her 45th anniversary as a restaurateur. Turns out Allan's wife had tearfully called and said, "Elaine died!" The stricken editor assumed she was talking about his dear comrade, Kaufman. She was not. Instead, a family friend in Australia had passed. "Never before have I been so delighted to be wrong," he told us, through a rep. When we asked why he hadn't phoned to check the story, he astutely pointed out: "Dead people generally don't take calls." Related: Rupe’s Attack Dog Gets Bitten, Keeps Barking

Published: 2008-04-15 Provider: New York Magazine

A Look at High-rise Disasters, and the City's Baby Steps to Safety (Updated!)

Photo: Getty ImagesThis weekend's deadly crane accident in midtown has caused a lot of soul-searching on the part of the Department of Buildings. With every successive accident, they try to evaluate their standards and procedures to see how incidents can be avoided in the future, but it just seems like they're behind the game. Below, a timeline of high-rise disasters and the baby steps toward safety taken after each one. May 22, 2002: An untrained forklift operator driving near the edge of the windowless eighth floor at the Time Warner Center site falls to his death. November 18, 2002: Buildings commissioner convenes "construction-safety summit" with trades groups.September 26, 2003: An unpermitted company dismantles a 40-story crane at 37th and Third Avenue after hours, then runs a crane two weeks later across town with no penalty. October 1, 2004: New rules subject untrained crane operators to up to $100,000 fines and six months in jail. September 30, 2006: Steel rigging falls off a crane at 110 Third Avenue and onto a taxicab. Five people get hurt. October 1, 2006: New cranes and derricks standards match national standards for ropes, safety gadgets, and operations. July 23, 2007: New rules require a licensed rigger, who previously only had to file papers on job, to be present "at the jump" when a crane starts operation. October 17, 2007: A crane swings out of control at One Bryant Park, injuring six. December 14, 2007: A crane swings a load of metal studs onto an architect at the Goldman Sachs tower site in Battery Park City. February 13, 2008: Buildings announces "more proactive inspections across the five boroughs than at any time in the Department's history." January 14, 2008: Concrete splits a wooden support at the 42nd floor of the Trump Soho site, sending a worker to his death March 15, 2008: Seven people die when a crane falls at 51st Street and Second Avenue. March 19, 2008: The city, which employs eight crane inspectors, orders a "safety sweep"

Published: 2008-03-20 Provider: New York Magazine

Predictably, ‘Lipstick Jungle’ Star Used to Lust After Andrew McCarthy

Photo: NBCLipstick Jungle's Lindsay Price had a childhood crush on her co-star Andrew McCarthy. Tom Hanks walked past Eliot Spitzer's apartment building on 79th and Fifth, but no one recognized him. A Madonna look-alike ran across the second-floor balcony at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction at the Waldorf-Astoria, providing some levity to an otherwise boring event. Fashion Week will relocate to the Tenth Avenue rail yards after 2010. The Queens livery driver who faked the baby rescue weirdly will appear on an upcoming episode of The Real Housewives of New York City. A documentary about storied Tribeca nightclub the Wetlands opens Friday. Marc Jacobs's boy toy, Jason Preston, got punched in the face outside Hiro after trying to get a guy who had thrown a drink at a girl to apologize.Paula Abdul and five friends sent every dessert back to the kitchen at Blue Fin. Josh Hartnett brought an entourage of model-looking girls to see DJ AM spin at a club, though he was two weeks late. John Mayer keeps Xanax on his person at all times. Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis has been let out of jail in Nevada but still faces child-porn charges in Florida. Morgan Spurlock bought everyone who came to see his documentary Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden beer after the theater lost power in Austin. Owen Wilson berated a photographer at a party in South Beach after the guy snapped pics of him acting like an idiot. Tori Spelling thinks her mother's "disturbing" relationship with a family friend prematurely killed her father. The FDNY had to shut down an Architectural Digest party early because they didn't have the proper permits. (The FDNY also shut down Snoop Dogg's album-release party at Touch because there were too many fans.) Michael Lohan wants to do a male version of The View with Stephen Baldwin. David Blaine did card tricks for a deaf woman on the 6 train. New York Social Diary's David Patrick Columbia understands Eliot Spitzer because his own dad had two wives an

Published: 2008-03-12 Provider: New York Magazine