New York Announces Winning Subway Buskers

Filed under: City Living, News, Video

A big thanks to everyone who voted in our best subway busker contest. Tomorrow on the BPP, winner Balla Tounkara will perform during our broadcast. Tune in to hear his beautiful voice and intricate picking on the kora, a Malian instrument with 21 strings.

And moments ago, New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced the winners of the Music Under New York auditions. All four of the musicians in our contest were accepted into the Music Under New York Program. Kip Rosser, the theremin player in the audition story, was also accepted.

So next time you're in New York City, you might see these great musicians performing in the most coveted spots in the subway system.

Congratulations to all.

Zena Barakat

2:33 PM ET | 05-15-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Into the Wild: A Little Bat's Trip to, and from, Rehab

Filed under: City Living, Video

On Wednesday night, I got to watch the little bat I found in December getting released back into the wild!

Leslie Sturges, who has been looking after the bat since NPR became a bit obsessed with it -- How does it survive this brutal cold? Why is it all alone? -- had pronounced Bat Mitzvah healthy and ready to return to full-time bat duties.

Leslie says the bat, a silver-haired female, is likely pregnant, though we weren't going to breach its privacy enough to find out for sure.

I visited Leslie's BatWorld NOVA (that's Northern Virginia for acronym-ophobes) on my bike a couple weeks ago and checked out the rehab process. That's her, holding the bat in the clip below. Soon, with Caitlin Kenney's help, we'll be posting more video -- including a clip from the release!

Bill Chappell

7:41 AM ET | 05-15-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Coming Soon: An Update on Our Pet Bat

Filed under: City Living

Only echolocution could have made sense of this route.

Bill Chappell

 

Some of you might remember Bat Mitzvah, the little bat we found wedged into the side of a building near NPR this past winter. It was a silver-haired bat, and it turned out to need help to survive.

We're planning an update on the bat Thursday, with all kinds of good stuff.

But for now, let me ask you: Have you ever been really lost -- so turned around that you couldn't trust your sense of direction to set you straight? The kind of lost where asking the locals only makes things worse?

That's what happened to me when I tried to ride my bike the 19 (theoretical) miles from NPR to Bat World NOVA, to check in on the bat and visit with Leslie Sturges, who runs the bat-rehab operation.

It turns out there isn't a good bike route to get there, which means I took to underpasses, overpasses, highways (even a pike, briefly!) and other generally stupid places to ride a bike.

By the time I got out there, I could totally identify with the bats who have lost their way in this world and relied on Leslie to get them back on track.

As for the ride back into town, I took a route not available to most bats: the subway.

Bill Chappell

3:53 PM ET | 05-14-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

What I Could Not Do This Morning

Filed under: City Living

Fortunately, the unfolding part went just fine. The ride was great, and now the mostly folded Brompton is under my desk. Will practice after the show.

Laura Conaway

6:10 AM ET | 05-14-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

BPPdian Rhythm: Sleep Struggles in Morning Radio

Filed under: City Living, Personal/Private

This morning we talked to Dr. Ana Krieger about sleepwalking. It was an interesting conversation, especially for BPPers, who spend an enormous amount of time thinking and plotting about when to sleep and how to get more of it. No one who has ever worked an a.m. shift for more than a week will find this surprising.

Our day starts before 5 a.m. Getting the fabled eight hours a night is attainable. But the real challenge is getting a decent night's sleep AND having a normal life, as in going out to dinner, seeing your friends' new band play, generally having face-to-face contact with people you like. It is not mathematically impossible, but it's pretty tough.

The math? Assume it takes you 90 minutes to get ready and get to work. (This sub-assumes you aren't too vain and don't live too far. More primp time and longer commutes make it even worse.) That means to get in by 4:30, you need to be up at 3 a.m. To get eight hours, you need to be asleep at 7 p.m. Not a lot of time for fun with friends, unless your entire social circle consists of teachers, pastry chefs, the unemployed or others with consistently free afternoons. But, there is a way out. . .

Continue reading "BPPdian Rhythm: Sleep Struggles in Morning Radio" »

Mark Garrison

12:57 PM ET | 05-13-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

Cricket Players Bring a Beautiful Game Stateside

Filed under: City Living, Video

From Elsa Butler:

For those of us who grew up with the American pastime of baseball, cricket can be a confusing game. For immigrants from places like Guyana, the Caribbean islands, India and Pakistan, cricket is a way of life. "I was born in India, I've been playing for a long time," says Sohom Datta, a senior at Stuyvesant High School who helped start his school's cricket team.

But when families move to the United States, kids end up playing American sports like basketball and football in school.

"My favorite quote about that is that when Indian kids come to Britain, they're still cricket crazy. When they go to America, they forget about cricket," says Datta. "That stuck with me."

That is quickly changing. The New York Department of Education introduced cricket into the public school system and the response was tremendous. It's only the first season, but the varsity league is already in full swing. Teams signed up from Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens.

As in baseball, there are bats and balls, but no bases to be found. Instead, the batters run back and forth between "stumps." The pitchers are called "bowlers." They try to knock little wooden "bails" off the "wickets" -- three wooden sticks stuck in the ground.

Several kids in the league have never played before, but they say they're having blast learning an unconventional sport.

Laura Conaway

7:43 AM ET | 05-13-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

The Great Beef 'n Cheddar Tragedy of '08

Filed under: City Living

We had a good conversation this morning about chain restaurant reviews in the New York Times. Here's our talk with David Corcoran, who reviewed T.G.I. Friday's for the Times, and blogger Ezra Klein, who reacted to the reviews.

Working on this segment yesterday got me thinking about Arby's, hands down my favorite chain meal. I lack the literary ability to convey the soul-nourishing deliciousness of the Beef 'n Cheddar, so I don't dare try. Seconds after finishing the day's work, I met up with my girlfriend (I know what you're thinking: a date at Arby's can't be romantic. I also know you are wrong.) and we hustled to the Manhattan Mall, site of the ONLY Arby's in Manhattan. Nothing prepared us for what we found.

Continue reading "The Great Beef 'n Cheddar Tragedy of '08" »

Mark Garrison

8:48 AM ET | 05- 8-2008 | permalink | comments (13) | e-mail post

The Joy of Chain Dining

Filed under: City Living

A New York Times article got more than a few BPPers talking about their loves and hates of chain restaurants. The Times dining coverage gets the most attention when it reviews the fantastically expensive and the impossibly exclusive.

So this piece stood out, since it reviewed several chain restaurants that normal people, far from Manhattan, go to every day, like Outback and Olive Garden. It caused a bit of a buzz online, even on blogs that normally stick to politics.

We'll talk to one of the Times reviewers and one of the bloggers on Thursday's show. Working on this segment got all of us talking, and thinking about our favorite chains. Someone proposed a BPP staff field trip to the nearby Times Square Red Lobster (the one with the really giant, really glowing, really red, rotating lobster out front). For me, there is one chain that towers over all others: Arby's. On a recent road trip, I swerved a car across two lanes of traffic to pull into one and grab a Beef 'n Cheddar. (Don't worry. No one was ever in danger, and the car was a rental.) Sadly, the king of marinated beef doesn't have a franchise in Manhattan. Or so I thought...

Continue reading "The Joy of Chain Dining" »

Mark Garrison

4:17 PM ET | 05- 7-2008 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post

Brooklyn Outraged Over Spraypainted Turtle

Filed under: City Living

Found in Brooklyn: A spraypainted turtle

From Gowanus Lounge

A few folks in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, found their favorite backyard turtle for the first time this spring -- newly spraypainted.

Being from Brooklyn, they reached out to the blog Gowanus Lounge. They wrote:

We have this turtle that wanders through the different backyards here. She hibernates every winter and comes out every spring. I had been wondering why she wasn't "up" yet , by May 1st; but, I blamed it on the lack of rain in the last half of april. It seems though that she had gotten up and out instead. My landlord passed her through the window to me day before yesterday looking like the photo. Painted. Pepto colored spray paint. It is obviously intentional because she got such a sustained spray that it has drip marks. The face and feet, as well.

The neighbors suspect workers from a nearby construction site, since the paint appears to match a color used there. Me, I'm not ready to make the leap. But I have put a bug into a herpetologist I know for advice about how to clean the critter up.

Bonus: Newsday story on the turtle.

Laura Conaway

2:15 PM ET | 05- 6-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

DIY: The Mysteries of Yogurt

Filed under: City Living

Cuisipro Donvier Electronic Yogurt Maker

 

About this time last year, I started riding my bike to work every day. Then I got a basket to carry packages in. And then I brought home a Cuisipro Donvier Electronic Yogurt Maker.

My family eats approximately five or six hundred quarts of yogurt a week, between the three of us, and I'd had it with plastic tubs spilling out of the cupboard. We were going to make our own. The recipe called for starting yogurt the old-fashioned way -- with more yogurt. But I quickly discovered that the stuff you buy off the shelf, even from cows that roamed free and studied Suzuki violin, doesn't always pack enough active culture to turn milk into yogurt.

We turned to off-the-shelf yogurt starter, a powder that is to yogurt what yeast is to bread. That stuff works, every time. But then came the mystery, or mysteries.

Continue reading "DIY: The Mysteries of Yogurt" »

Laura Conaway

3:43 PM ET | 05- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (11) | e-mail post

Turn a Subway Busker into a BPP Star

Filed under: City Living, Luncheonette, Video

Update: Voting closed Monday at 6 a.m. See full results.

It's our version of American Idol, folks. Turn to your inner Paula, Simon and Randy and watch these clips of New York subway musicians, then vote for your favorite!

We chose these four musicians of the 50 who participated in the Music Under New York competition.

The winner of your votes will be invited to the BPP studios to perform. Voting ends at 6:00 a.m. on Monday, May 12. We'll announce the winner on our broadcast that morning.

Zena Barakat

11:52 AM ET | 05- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (19) | e-mail post

NYC Subway Musicians Compete

Filed under: City Living, Video

On an average weekday, 173,00 people walk through New York City's Times Square subway stop -- nearly 10 times the audience at a sold-out Justin Timberlake concert at Madison Square Garden.

That's why every year, musicians compete for the opportunity to perform in the Times Square subway station, and other prime underground locations.

On Thursday, nearly 50 musical acts auditioned for the Music Under New York program, and 20 will be accepted this year. The winners will be announced next week.

Since 1985, the annual auditions have showcased diverse talents. As master of ceremonies Bob Holman puts it, "It's the most New York of all events!"

Zena Barakat

11:45 AM ET | 05- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Listener Asks: Advice for Moving to New York City?

Filed under: City Living

Gotta be a place for you somewhere.

Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images

 

So a listener has a friend who's maybe moving to New York City.

My best guess is that my household spent something like $10,000 on that process, which included renting an apartment we'd never seen and being asked to sign the lease in a parking lot under an elevated subway line.

Despite the horror stories about real estate, the listener and her friend have gamely sent over some questions. If you think you can help, hit the comments.

1.) Is it possible to find a livable, fairly decent apartment for under $1,000 a month, or would it be better to find roommates?
2.) What are the best times to go apartment shopping?
3.) How wise would it be for a 21-year-old small woman to live by herself the first time she's even in NY?
4.) How long does it usually take to get from Brooklyn to Manhattan?
5.) What's average for a one-bedroom or studio apt in NY?
6.) Is it generally OK to get an apartment in NY without first viewing it?
7.) In what neighborhoods does one NOT want to live?
8.) In NY, when one decides on an apartment, how much notice does the landlord need?
9.) What neighborhoods are preferable for NYU students (are there any places where NYU students tend to live in a large group)?

Laura Conaway

8:23 AM ET | 05- 1-2008 | permalink | comments (13) | e-mail post

Rock, Paper...Waaah?

Filed under: City Living, Luncheonette, Video

People gotta know: there's a new rock, paper, scissors on the scene. Jacob is currently office champion.

Zena Barakat

10:16 AM ET | 04-30-2008 | permalink | comments (16) | e-mail post

All Hail Noel, Rookie Hack

Filed under: City Living

Noel Hidalgo's new office.

Image courtesy of Noel Hidalgo

 

Last week, Noel Hidalgo got behind the wheel for his first day as a New York City cabbie. If that wasn't scary enough, our own Mike Pesca rode shotgun and played the results on the show today.

For more on Noel's adventures in yellow, check out his blog. Angry fares. New York City streets. Other cabbies. I can't imagine a scarier job. Can you?

Ian Chillag

7:39 AM ET | 04-30-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Doom-Prevention Gear for Straphangers

Filed under: City Living

All yours for just $27.99

Subivor

 

Car ownership is a rare thing among BPP staffers and New Yorkers in general. The subway is a great way to get around -- except, of course, when fares go up, the train is filthy, or the employees all go on strike.

To one company, those complaints are the least of your worries. They think of your cozy subway car as a magnet for terrorists, fire, poison gas and shattered glass. The solution? Housebag, of course!

Not really. It's Subivor, and it's actually a real product. (Turn down your speakers before you click through. The ad on the page includes ominous music, sirens and screams at high volume.) So what do you need to survive any subway peril? Apparently just a survival mask, flashlight, whistle, something called a pry bar and, naturally, a moist towelette. And for just $27.99, you can get all of that and more in a little bag available in your choice of fun reflective colors: pink, orange, green or yellow. I'm not making any of this up.

I won't be stocking up on Subivors, but I would gladly drop 30 bucks, or more, for something that would stop people who hog seats and/or find my subway car the perfect place to test all the ringtones, loudly, on their mobile phones.

Mark Garrison

2:01 PM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Biking on the 405: Um, Yes.

Filed under: City Living, Luncheonette

Sorry, Mama, but I maybe gotta do this one.

A few fed-up, fearless and probably foolhardy bike riders in Los Angeles decided to take the easy way home: the interstate.

(Their site's here. Thanks to Streetsblog for blogging this first.)

Laura Conaway

11:55 AM ET | 04-25-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

Slideshow: Hunting the Pit Bull of Salamanders

Filed under: City Living

Still here: A Northern Dusky salamander in Manhattan

Sarah Goodyear

 

For 60 years, naturalists believed the Northern Dusky salamander had disappeared from Manhattan. The amphibian species is common in the Eastern United States, but people just assumed it couldn't hack it here. The last known citing was by Carl Gans, who wrote about it for a 1945 article in the journal Copeia.

A couple of years ago, a New York City Parks Department ecologist who had seen the Gans article decided to go look for herself. Ellen Pehek says she and a colleague spent a day in August picking their way down a rocky bluff before finding a muddy spot in the woods. They turned over a rock and found a mother Northern Dusky and her hatchlings.

This spring, an old friend took my family on a hunt for Northern Duskies. Erik Baard is launching a website, Nature Calendar, for city dwellers who love nature. I may not be as committed as Erik to time outdoors, but I did fall in love with the humble Northern Dusky. Ecologists call it the pit bull of salamanders for its stout body and strong jaws. I like to think of it as the little salamander that could.

Laura Conaway

10:18 AM ET | 04-22-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Found in Manhattan: The Pit Bull of Salamanders

Filed under: City Living

A Northern Dusky, the pit bull of salamanders

Sarah Goodyear

 

Going to talk a bit in the show about hunting for the Northern Dusky salamander, an amphibian that survived in secret for 60 years in Manhattan. Slideshow's on the way.

Laura Conaway

7:36 AM ET | 04-22-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

The Pope's in Town. So Are the Street Preachers

Filed under: City Living

"We are anonymous, but we want to be close to God."

NPR

 

Pope Benedict XVI is in New York City today, and so are some of his detractors. A few people from Universal Life, the Inner Religion set up a booth on West 42nd Street, across from BPP World Headquarters.

Among their offerings was a petition declaring that the Catholic Church should no longer call itself Christian. (I haven't put a call in to the Catholic Church yet, but probably we can guess folks there will disagree.)

Neither of the evangelists pictured here would identify themselves. They explained that their faith is Christian, vegetarian, and based on the idea that we're all temples of God, so we don't need a church. Read the rest for yourself on the Universal Life website.

No name, please: "We're here for the animals and nature."

NPR

 

Laura Conaway

12:57 PM ET | 04-18-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Filed under: City Living

We've been enjoying a great stretch of weather here in NYC. Today they opened the grass in Bryant Park for the first time this year.

Dan Pashman, NPR

 

A couple more cool shots are after the jump...

Continue reading "It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" »

Dan Pashman

3:05 PM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

A Poem in Your Pocket, or Are You Happy to See Me?

Filed under: City Living

Today is national "Poem in Your Pocket" day. The idea is you are supposed to memorize or carry around your favorite poem to share with anybody who will listen. Please post yours here! I know mine by heart, although I will admit the punctuation escapes me, as it was written by ee cummings. Here's the official phrasing:

in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddyandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old baloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's
spring
and
the
goat-footed

balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee

Alison Stewart

10:03 AM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | comments (23) | e-mail post

NPR's Pet Getting Ready to Fly Again

Filed under: City Living, Video

Back in December, we followed the case of a tiny silver-haired bat that had taken up residence in the crevice of a Washington, D.C., building. We fell in love with the bat and took pictures and video before, one day, it disappeared.

It turns out Bat Mitzvah got dehydrated and was taken to a bat hospital, where she was to spend the winter recovering before heading for the wild again. Now Leslie Sturges of Bat World NOVA sends an update:

"I put her in the flight cage tonight for a couple hours to get her wings back. She's definitely capable of flight, but it's tiring for her. . . . We just didn't get any warm snaps that lasted long enough for her to go this winter, and spring has refused to stick around long enough to put her out in the flight cage overnight. This weekend looks good, so maybe she can get some flight exercise and can go next week. Keep your fingers crossed for warm nights!"

Laura Conaway

8:47 AM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

People from the Planet of No Nature

Filed under: City Living

Seen at the Washington, D.C. Cherry Blossom Festival

Bill Chappell/NPR

 

It's finally spring -- and that means flowers. And they, in turn, often mean big events, like Washington D.C.'s Cherry Blossom Festival. I was walking around there a week or two ago, when I saw all these people hunched over in one area, snapping pictures like crazy.

It wasn't an animal, or art. It was some recently bloomed flowers. Talk about "Glad to see ya, springtime!"

I had to wonder what my mom, or especially my grandmother, would have thought if she looked out her window and saw a dozen people trampling the yard to get a picture of her flower bed.

Have to say, I'm glad people like nature -- flowers and fresh air are great. But I wish it weren't necessary to crowd around it like it's something from outer space.

Bill Chappell

8:29 AM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

White Stuff I Like

Filed under: City Living

Summer Ash, our own astrophysicist to the (radio) stars, sends this amazing clip of art made from plastic bags by Joshua Allen Harris. Reusable Bags is on the beat.

Laura Conaway

8:50 AM ET | 04-12-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

First Real Sign of Spring (Or: Bug-Eradication Tips?)

Filed under: City Living

It looked a lot like this.

iStockphoto

 

We changed the clocks. The crocuses bloomed. Baseball season started. But somehow it didn't feel like spring . . . . Until yesterday. My wife and I had our first water bug of the season saunter through the kitchen last night. Ah, Mother Nature, how you bless us with your many creations.

For those who don't know, water bugs are big insects related to roaches. But bigger. At least the ones in Brooklyn are. They're about two inches long and one inch wide. I know some of you will call me soft for being disturbed by these harmless scamps. Others will call me inhumane for wanting to eradicate them from my life. You're entitled to your opinions. But you probably don't live in a bug-infested dystopia.

The exterminator comes once a month, to no avail. We lay out roach motels, and the bugs order room service. We put down boric acid, and they take it like a B-12 shot in the thorax.

So fair blog readers, I ask you: Got any good ideas? Does anyone have any tips for getting rid of water bugs and roaches that don't involve large quantities of chemicals?

Dan Pashman

9:12 AM ET | 04- 9-2008 | permalink | comments (17) | e-mail post

Desperately Seeking Tam Tams

Filed under: City Living

Where are the Tam Tams?

Laura Silver/NPR

 

They're hexagonal-shaped crackers that have a lot more flavor than matzoh (chalk it up to the additional sugar and oil) and they've been on -- or near -- my family's Passover table for as long as I can remember. And stocked in my parents' pantry throughout the year.

Matzah is a must on Passover, but there's no religious obligation to eat a Tam Tam. Representatives from the company that makes them, Manischewitz, didn't get back to me on the origin of the name, but I suspect it may have something to do with the Hebrew/Yiddish word "ta'am," meaning "taste" and by extension, "tasty."

This year, Tam Tams are short supply, and as part of research for our segment on the crisis, I did some calling around. One store deep in Brooklyn said they had the whole-wheat version in stock (I've tried those in the past and decided they weren't worth the trip). Then a guy at an Upper West Side kosher grocery said he had several flavors, so I ran up there to buy out his stock.

It was too good to be true. Kosher-for-Passover crackers? Yes. But not Tam Tam brand. Not the familiar, yellowish hexagons. I went to a nearby D'Agostino's grocery store. There was a whole endcap of Passover-compliant goods. Minus the Tams Tams.

The typical saying at the end of the Passover meal is "Next year in Jerusalem."

Now, there's something else to look forward to in the year to come.

Laura Silver

8:35 PM ET | 04- 7-2008 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post

Listener Checks In: Hanging On in Detroit

Filed under: City Living

This was once a thriving middle-class neighborhood of Detroit.

Jeff Haynes/AFP/Getty Images

 

On today's show, a listener named Joe Grassi told about using the BPP podcast to get through his shifts on a Chrysler assembly line near Detroit. He works on a line where they make doors, at a pace of 180 doors an hour.

Grassi says he has been laid off three times since entering the industry in 2000, never for longer than a few months. He has remained the low one on the seniority totem pole -- because no one else has gotten hired. These days, you don't need a weatherman to tell you life is hard for people in and around Detroit.

If you want to get sense of life there, Grassi told me, check out this high school kid's op-ed from April 6 Detroit Free Press. In "Kilpatrick Makes It Harder to Defend Detroid," Darnell Gardner Jr. says he believes the city's embattled mayor has an ethical and moral obliglation to listen to him. And you can bet he's got plenty to say. Gardner writes:

In the past 10 years, I have seen every aspect of Detroit decay. My neighborhood, East English Village, once a diverse, safe and clean gem of the city, has crumbled before my eyes. I have forgotten what it feels like to be at peace. Whether it is gunshots, loud and profane music, or dime bags left on my sidewalk, something reminds me every day of how low this city has fallen.

. . .

I have even heard teachers say that they could not grade some papers because they were unreadable. In fact, one of my peers asked me to proofread one of his essays, and I nearly began to sob halfway through it.

Laura Conaway

2:38 PM ET | 04- 7-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Meatloaf: What I Made for Dinner, April 3, 2008

Filed under: City Living

I decided to make dinner last night, keeping in mind that Bill and I are going to a fancy-pants restaurant this evening. It's part of a tradition. We were married on the 4th of the month, so every 4th, we hit an Italian place -- sometimes a low-key red-sauce joint and sometimes a high-end white-tablecloth spot, in memory of our two-week of honeymoon on which we ate our way across Italy.

So I went for an American staple: Meatloaf.

I "re-imagined" a recipe I found in the Silver Palate cookbook called Street Market Meatloaf. It's taken from some famous Venice, Calif., eatery. I re-imagined it because I wanted to use what I had in the house!

Full recipe follows:

Continue reading "Meatloaf: What I Made for Dinner, April 3, 2008" »

Alison Stewart

9:45 AM ET | 04- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Found on the Subway: New Kids on the Block Fans

Filed under: City Living

Sara Barnes (left) and Amanda Omeljaniuk pledge allegiance.

NPR

 

When you take the New York City subway at 5:30 in the morning, you see a lot of blue-collar types -- nurses, people carrying hardhats, foot messengers clocking in early.

But today in New York, you might have seen Sara Barnes and Amanda Omeljaniuk on their way to the New Kids on the Block reunion. And you'd have noticed them.

Maybe NKOTB's biggest fans in the world, the pair of 19-year-olds stayed up all night working on their look. They nailed it. Sara and Amanda bravely got off the train with a stranger carrying a press pass and told us their story.

Alternate headline for this item: In the Country of Old Men on the Block

Laura Conaway

8:28 AM ET | 04- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Scenes from a Cuban Exhibition, in New Jersey

Filed under: City Living, Slideshow

Click to watch.

From Raul Cordero's New Bicycle (The Eli??n Experience)

 

The latest cool thing to bring back from Cuba (if you can get there) isn't a cigar but a painting.

On today's show, Ben Rodriguez-Cubenas, a collector and co-founder of the Cuban Artists Fund, talks about the hot market for art from the island nation.

Meanwhile, the Hunterdon Museum of Art in Clinton, N.J., shares the images in the slideshow above. Its exhibit, "Cuba: Artists Experience Their Country," stays up through March 30.

Laura Conaway

9:50 AM ET | 03-26-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Photo Evidence: Find That Typo

Filed under: City Living

Beth Novey

 

NPR editor person and general pal Beth Novey sends this picture of a typo in Washington, D.C. I'm calling it "Unchecked Baggage."

More: Man travels country to fixe typo's.

Laura Conaway

7:24 AM ET | 03-25-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

What's It Like to Grow Up in a Big City?

Filed under: City Living, Personal/Private

On the way to a sixth birthday party.

Sarah Goodyear

 

Back home in Mississippi, people often ask me what it's like to raise a kid in New York City. That's not really an answerable question, I think, except maybe with one example after another.

The other day our son, Nathaniel, turned six. A few people still hold birthday parties at home, but by this point the kids are getting big enough that 15 of them can't fit all that well into a New York City house.

Instead, we loaded the cake and balloons and party favors (a flower in a pot for each kid) into the wagon that we use instead of a car. Nathaniel wanted to haul it himself, and he did. He pulled that wagon (most of) the mile to the tumbling studio where he takes a class each week. The weather was wet and windy, and the balloons were uncooperative. But he did it.

Laura Conaway

11:17 AM ET | 03-24-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Vanquishing Veisalgia: How Folks Handle Their Hangovers

Filed under: City Living, Video

Today on the BPP, we spoke to Dr. Billy Goldberg who gave us some expert advice on how to handle a hangover. But we also made a point to drop by our local pub yesterday to check in on how midday revelers were planning on dealing with their veisalgia.

Check it out:

Win Rosenfeld

6:17 PM ET | 03-18-2008 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

Astrophysicist Makes House Call

Filed under: City Living, Personal/Private, The Dagobah System