MANHOLE FIRE

November 13

40th Street and Ninth Avenue
Firefighters cordoned off a half block radius while smoke billowed from a steel manhole cover on Ninth Avenue outside Port Authority Bus Terminal. The fire started at approx. 8.00 a.m. Tuesday morning as he bus station spilled its humanity onto the street.

New Yorkers are used to seeing smoke rising from all sorts of holes in the ground as they scurry back and forth to work. This fire was no real exception, although it could have been. You see there are two worlds that separate New York City, the subway below, and the streets above. In winter, grey steam clouds rise from the underground, as the hot air from below ground meets the cold air above. In winter orange and white chimney cones resembling the cat’s striped hat in Dr. Seuss ‘Cat in the Hat’, appear all over the streets of Manhattan allowing the steam from the nether world below ground to vent its frustration at the living world above ground. Manhole fires are quite common in Manhattan, as last nights rainwater collides with the worn, poorly insulated power cables that run up and down the streets and avenues of this city. However, they can be deadly. Fire crews will not touch a smoking manhole, until they are sure Con Edison has cut off all power.

On July 19, a manhole cover exploded in midtown Manhattan killing one person and injuring dozens of others as they made their way home from work. The explosion was so loud, officer workers heard it streets away. That explosion received both national and international attention, a by-product of September 11. Hell, on February 15, a dog called Bob, was electrocuted walking over an icy manhole. Bob also died.

Broadway Goes Dark, Well Sort Of

Broadway Goes Dark, Well Sort Of.

With the Broadway stagehand strike heading into its third day on Monday (11/12), I decided to take a walk down to 44th St. and Broadway home to mega Broadway musicals like Les Miserable and ‘Xanadu.’
During intermission standing outside the musical Xanadu and across the street from ‘Les Miserables’ and ‘Spamalot’ were Andrew R and Phil A from London, who write an online theatre review blog called the West End Whingers (http://www.westendwhingers.net/). Both visitors asked that I not reveal their last names.

Andrew and Phil were in New York to see and write about six Broadway shows they planned to see in six days. They arrived on Saturday (11/10) night when they managed to squeeze in their first musical ‘Alter Boyz’.

Neither Andrew nor Phil was aware of the strike before their plane touched down on Saturday. Both theatre enthusiasts said they would not have altered their plans if they had known about the strike earlier; before they left London. “We wouldn’t have changed our plans anyway,” Andrew said. “Xanadu alone was worth the trip,” Phil said. Andrew and Phil admitted the show they really wanted to see the most was Young Frankenstein, but they were not sure if it was effected by the strike.

Not all Broadway shows are effected by the strike between the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and the League of American Theatre and Producers. There are eight Broadway shows still open for business.

The strike is primarily over working rules at the theatres. The theatre owners and producers say they are forced to hire more stagehands than are necessary, thus forcing up production costs. During a press conference on Saturday (11/10, a representative for the producers and theatre owners said, that each stage hand makes between 150,000 and 200,000 dollars a year.
The stagehand union claims that the owners and producers are trying to force job cuts on the union while theatre owners make record profits.

Steve a member of the Theatrical Stage Employees Union who was handing out flyers from behind a picket line outside ‘Les Miserables’ called the theatre owners demands ‘unreasonable.’ Steve who has worked as a stagehand for more than 30-years called the salary figures quoted by the producers and theatre owners as “highly inflated.” “There are several different pay scales for union employees,” he said. “An average union employee who worked a full year might make $100,000 dollars,” He was prepared to stay on the picket line for as long as it took for the theatre owners and producers to come back to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith, he said.

In the meantime, New York City loses millions of dollars a day; some estimates run as high as $17 million dollars. On Sunday (11/11), Mayor Bloomberg said he was willing to help both sides reach an agreement in any way he can. In a statement he said, “While this is a private labor matter, the economic impact is very public and will be felt far beyond the theatres closed today,” It is in everyone's interest for both sides to come together and resolve their differences."

There are no talks scheduled in the near future.

In the meantime as the call went out for theater goers to return to their seats for the second act in ‘Xanadu’ both Andrew and Phil were giddy with excitement to hear that ‘Young Frankenstein’ was not effected by the strike.

New York City Marathon

November 4

It certainly was not my best finish time 3:53:14 for the New York City Marathon; but I did not hurt as much as my previous marathon experiences. My legs were tired and stiff but not completely immobile when I finished.
I was back in work on Monday (11/05) and none the worse for wear. The New York marathon is a boisterous, ebullient affair with 39,000 runners from all over the world. This was my fifth New York marathon and certainly one of my best from a physical stand point. I felt ready for this one and maybe that’s why I was not hurting so much, when I finished. The Wednesday night interval training on Weehawken track in New Jersey paid off. The 20 mile long runs in Central Park paid off.
I find running long distances a spiritual experience. No matter how many people surround me when I run, I am alone with my thoughts and yes, sometimes prayers. Before any long run actually before I exercise at all I offer the practice to those living and dead who touched my life.
The New York City marathon is simply the best from a participant’s point of view because of the public support all along the 26.2 mile route. Over one million people come out to cheer on the runners; and I mean cheer them on. They are enthusiastic and verbose. It makes one weary mile after the other just fly by. As a runner you are not concentrating on your pain but on the crowds. It can be very emotional at times.

The Writers Union V’s Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers

November 2

The writers union, Writers Guild of America went on strike on Thursday (11/02) night. This would mean nothing in Ireland but here it can cost a huge industry billions of dollars in lost profits. We all know in the U.S. profits are everything. Writers work for Hollywood production companies and television corporations and are responsible for writing movie (film) scripts, television sitcoms and comedy bits for late night talk shows like ‘The Tonight Show’ with Jay Leno.

About 17,000 writers all over the country walked out. Talk shows that rely on writers for relevant comedy bits from that days news, will suffer most from the writers strike. Hollywood produce films years in advance, so they will have a stock of films in ‘in the can’ ready to go. They suffer the least.

The writers are looking for payment from DVD sales, internet and cell phone revenue. The producers union, the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers, want to recoup the cost of the movie or television show before paying any residuals to writers.

Construction Unions in New York protesting
non-union construction site.

The Filty Streets of New York

November 2

You thought Dublin was a dirty city; New York gives Dublin a run for its money. In the morning the sidewalks or pavements to you, are full of black plastic garbage (rubbish) bags full of left over dinners or rotten food, are left out by the multitude of restaurants that line every street. These bags are often torn open by rats or the homeless or freegans (people who don’t want to pay for food so they rummage through garbage bags looking for food that is still good to eat. It has something to do with saving the environment or reducing their carbon footprint) during the night. Add to the restaurant rubbish, the regular household rubbish; crapped out computer screens, old sofas and chairs. All this shit leaves the place smelling like a sewer and the pavements slippery.

Bee Movie Premiere

October 25


Bee Movie New York City Premiere
October 25, 2007 - AMC Loews Broadway, New York, NY United States

Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock arrive at the New York City Premiere of Bee Movie.
Seinfeld is co-writer and co-producer of the film. He plays ˜Barry a shy bee leaves the hive and falls in love with a human florist, Vanessa, voiced by Renee Zellweager. ˜Barry sues the human race for exploiting bees. Chris Rock voices Mooseblood a mosquito. The film officially opens on November

See link below
http://vipglamour.net/2007/10/26/jerry-seinfeld-and-chris-rock-arrive-at-the-new-york-city-premiere-of-bee-movie/

CAST
BARRY B BENSON - Jerry Seinfeld
VANESSA - Renee Zellweager
ADAM FLAYMAN - Matthew Broderick
MOOSEBLOOD - Chris Rock
LAYTON T MONTGOMERY - John Goodman
JANET BENSON - Kathy Bates
MARTIN BENSON - Barry Levinson
KEN - Patrick Warburton
TRUDY - Megan Mullally
DEAN BUZZWELL - Larry Miller
LOU LO DUCA - Rip Torn

Dream Works Animation

Halloween

October 31

New Yorkers really do Halloween. I mean they spend billions of dollars buying costumes and going out to bars or pubs to you, in the hopes of winning some costume prize.
But the West Village, known as a gay area hosts the biggest parade in the world. Thousands of parade participants are dressed in elaborate costumes, some with themes ripped from the news headlines. For example there was one poor unfortunate dressed as a Taco Bell fast food restaurant. Why, you ask? Earlier this year, a camera crew filmed loads of rats running wild all over a closed restaurant. The television coverage was none stop for weeks. This guy wore a home made costume that resembled a Taco Bell, with a clear plastic bubble attached to his belly with live rats running around. I tell no lie. Now he did make the news.