Think the cops are giving you a hard time about driving fast? They’ll give a ticket to anyone, including the president. Ulysses S. Grant once got a speeding ticket while going for a drive.
Ever wonder what this website would look like if it were written in the 1860s? Well, first of all, it’d probably only be a weekly, and when we complained about the cost of mass transit, we’d be talking pennies a ride! Anyway, back then, more than 814,000 people were living in New York City’s Manhattan, many in the slums of Five Points, with communities starting to emerge in the wilderness above 42nd Street. Click…
Jun 22, 2012
Today at Silverdocs: Canned Ravioli, New Orleans, Marina Abramovic and a James Brown Impersonator
Today at Silverdocs: Films about canned food, birds in Central Park, staging Wagner’s Ring cycle, the artist Marina Abramovic and Charles Bradley, a James Brown impersonator finally striking out on his own.
Jun 24, 2008
SILVERDOCS Wrap-Up: Theater of War
Meryl Streep as Mother Courage in John Walter’s absorbing, perceptive Theater of War. There are documentaries that entertain and many more that educate, and there are plenty that grab you by the lapels and spout hummus-breath in your face about how you need to stop eating meat and trade your vulgar, barbarous combustion-powered vehicle in for a bike — today! Then there are the rare documentaries that prod you, subtly but insistently, to reexamine the…
Aug 07, 2007
Build A Better Mousetrap
The Washington Post has their ear to the ground, listening for the news that D.C. really wants to hear: the next wave of super duper anti-rat technology. Or not, they add, but Joseph Dussich, inventor of the Repel-X trash bag, thinks he’s found the key to Pied Piper the city’s rats right out of town, or at least away from alley dumpsters. His trash bags use the aroma of eucalyptus and a few secret ingredients…
Jul 25, 2007
Art and Politics Collide in Port Huron Project
By DCist contributor John Harlow Created and organized by artist and curator Mark Tribe, the Port Huron Project is a series of reenactments of protest speeches from the New Left movements of the 1960s and ’70s, conducted at their original locations by paid performers. Previous PHP events have featured enactments of speeches originally delivered by Coretta Scott King and Howard Zinn in New York and Boston respectively. Tomorrow at 6 p.m., the National Mall will…
Jul 08, 2007
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-verse
LAist was comped front row seats by the Dodgers due to Malingering being struck by a foul ball last week, and she came back with some great photos, and earlier made fun of 4th of July on Venice Beach. But the biggest stories of the week was that the Mayor’s Hot Tamale was revealed, and that a Kwik-E-Mart was erected in Burbank. Phillyist was busy doing the Fourth of July up right, exercising their…
Jun 18, 2007
SILVERDOCS Wrap Up: The Gates
In late February of 2005, I found myself walking along a path in Central Park when, at dusk, a light snow began to fall. As the snow blanketed the landscape, it sucked up the sounds of the city, leaving only one thing audible: the sound of the saffron curtains over our heads lazily flapping in the breeze. Suddenly, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Gates stood out in brilliant contrast to the ear just as they popped…
Mar 04, 2007
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-verse
Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we’re all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn’t officially start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we’re up to… Over at Sampaist, spring has more than sprung: it’s sweltering! But, as everyone knows, museums are an ideal…
Apr 02, 2006
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-verse
Seattlest saw a house party get senselessly attacked with a shotgun and end with seven dead. A local senator is debated and their version of the big dig is investigated. To truly get to the bottom of it they interview the writer Jonathan Raban. Bostonist has its first birthday party and investigates how to attach more gambling dollars to the Red Sox. Benjamin Franklin is celebrated and Johnny Damon is not. DCist reports that the…