There are lots of places to...park!

Surely some City zoning official was bribed to allow those East Coast starchitects to put up these eye-level horrors.

Posted by Amol at 10:59 PM | Permalink

LICNYC checked out Blend a week or so ago. The place looks terrific -- contemporary style, open spaces, a good bar area and a warm dining room feel overall.

But the food! And the service! Maybe it was just the owner's "hey let me get all my buddies in here night and ignore the 8 paying customers" but, oh well.

The menu is actually pretty interesting. Empanadas and soft tacos and other Latin-themed items with variations that point in the upmarket direction. But all of us around the table were left wondering out loud about how they managed to make Latin food bland and seemingly unique creations feel cookie-cutter. Disappointing.

The larger theme is the war for LIC. Which way are things heading here in the hood, what with all these luxurious buildings and lovely restaurants?

Blend feels rather more "date night on Queens Blvd" and rather less "foodie destination on Franlkin Ave (between nowhere and faraway on the G line)".

Some will applaud this, surely.

Posted by Amol at 10:59 PM | Permalink

The very charming though odd Art-O-Mat has some nice stuff you can buy and give to your non-LIC friends to try to convert them to our religion.

Everybody likes chocolate!

Posted by Amol at 10:57 PM | Permalink

The restaurant with the most "flair" by far of any in LIC (maybe Queens?) is the Waterfront Crab House. You may have walked passed it a dozen times, near the Taxi Beach and the tennis courts at the Queens West waterfront. But if you have not stuck your head in, you are missing something.

It's nearly 100 years old, has a mini-museum of boxing champions' gloves, and has hosted US Cabinet officials...you'll have to read their printed history when you go.

Posted by Amol at 10:50 PM | Permalink

Seen in...Greenpoint

Posted by Amol at 10:49 PM | Permalink

A whole row of shops seems to be shut permanently. Japanese hotel chain coming to Court Square...?

Meanwhile, a big old building was just demolished next to Arris. Another monster condo likely to come to Purves, and surround Sculpture Center further.

Posted by Amol at 10:34 PM | Permalink

We're having our end of the season blowout on Saturday, November
3rd. The show is titled "If I See You Around Here Again I'm Going to
Call the Cops. No, Really..." which will feature installation work
by Tory Franklin, J. Morrison, Mirielle Brouwer and Eugene Jho.

Musical performances by the Electroputas and Maria Chavez. DJ's on
the rooftop for the night will be artists and friends of the Social
Registry record label, with the Selection of Texas DJing downstairs
as usual.

The opening starts at 8, with DJ's and bands playing until late.
Details in the release attached, visit the Firehouse website
(texasfirehouse.org) for directions.

Posted by Amol at 05:58 PM | Permalink

The neglected Anable Basin -- which would be supercool if somehow the City broke the logjam on the zoning/use restrictions that seem to be holding back its development -- will get a tree tomorrow (if not a breakthrough, multi-use, progressively visionary residential project....like about 10 others up and down the waterfront).

A floating tree, actually.

Place in History invites you to the realization of A Tree for Anable Basin, the winning entry to its 2005 Long Island City Grounded Public Art Competition. The 24' floating aluminum tree and migratory waterfowl habitat will be unveiled this Saturday, October 27th, along the LIC waterfront. Please see the attached poster for details, or go to the website: www.anabletree.com

Posted by Amol at 11:49 AM | Permalink

***Friday, October 26***

THE BEETS (Queens, NY)
http://www.myspace.com/thebeetsbeat
"...it's certainly pretty simple, direct stuff, but theirs is a sound that, for the moment, requires no embellishment to be purely enjoyable." -Impose Magazine

GO HOME ROBOT (Arlington, VA)
http://www.gohomerobot.com/
"Turns out, the life-forms involved make a strong case for the superiority of the human race." -WASHINGTON CITY PAPER

OLIVER LANKARD (Riverhead, NY)
http://www.myspace.com/oliverlankard
Acoustic set from psych-folk-rockers.

9:00 PM
$5

The Creek and the Cave
http://www.thecreekandthecave.com
10-93 Jackson Ave
Hunters Point, Long Island City, Queens, NYC
1 stop from Brooklyn & Manhattan!

G to 21 St
7 to Vernon-Jackson
E-V to 23 St-Ely Av
B-61, Q-67, and Q-103 Bus

Other LIC shows this weekend:
+10/27: 4th Anniversary/Rock & Roll Halloween Party @ Dominie's Hoek
+10/27: Early Edison, The Proceeders @ The Creek and the Cave

Also, you might want to check out the GULF OF MICHIGAN's debut show at Trash Bar in Williamsburg on Saturday the 27th... the lineup features Justin of Dominie's Hoek fame as well as other neighborhood barhounds.
http://www.myspace.com/thegulfofmichigan

==========================

UPCOMING SHOWS IN THE NABE (plan ahead!):
+11/02: Bridges and Powerlines, Murder Mystery, Denim on Denim @ The
Creek and the Cave
+11/03: The Red Hook Ramblers, The Inbreeds, Peaks and Valleys, Honne
Wells @ Dominie's Hoek
+11/09: Quitzow, Skidmore Fountain @ The Creek and the Cave
+11/10: CrazyTownFest @ The Creek and the Cave
+11/16: Hologram, Please Dept., Roargan @ The Creek and the Cave
+11/23: Locket @ The Creek and the Cave
+12/07: Misty Lyn & the Big Beautiful, Matt Jones, Chris Bathgate, Jim
Roll @ The Creek and the Cave
+12/08: Misty Lyn & the Big Beautiful, Matt Jones, Jim Roll, Chris
Bathgate, Karl Sturk @ Dominie's Hoek
+12/28: TIPS, Pilgrims @ The Creek and the Cave
+01/04: LIC BZ BDAY: Creaky Boards + more @ The Creek and the Cave
+01/12: Afuche, Amo Joy @ The Creek and the Cave

http://www.licpop.com

Posted by Amol at 11:40 AM | Permalink

Socrates is hosting a production of Macbeth this Saturday. For Halloween? Well, there are witches and ghosts and so forth in the play.

More

Posted by Amol at 04:33 PM | Permalink

The Hunters Point Condo trio got tagged in a Post writeup about how strong the market is. Selling fast must mean the stock market is up. (It is.)

Posted by Amol at 04:25 PM | Permalink

Support Sunnyside Community Services and get some great contemporary works. Details (sent in by LICNYC reader and SCSNY supporter Sanket).

It all happens Thurdsay October 18th evening! Be there.

Posted by Amol at 04:36 PM | Permalink

LIC Bar
Vernon Blvd and oh about 45th Road?
630pm
Saturday October 20th

It's early so you can head off to your evening appointments. Which may include seeing the show at Creek & Cave.

Posted by Amol at 08:46 AM | Permalink

Posted by Amol at 12:38 PM | Permalink

The enduring, idiotic myth that there is "no supermarket in LIC" seems to be a creation of real estate agents. There is no supermarket within 4 blocks of the big Queens West towers. That is true. But right in the center of LIC on 21st Street is a perfectly good and improving C-Town.

How many Manhattan apartment buildings have a grocery store in the basement? Few! How many grocery stores are there within 4 blocks of...say, Park Avenue and 40th Street? None!

Yet, the NYT seems to think it's fit enough to print...

View Larger Map

Posted by Amol at 02:41 PM | Permalink

Frequent like all get out.

Posted by Amol at 09:07 AM | Permalink

You probably have not been to the Noguchi Museum yet, since it's only "kind of" in Long Island City -- it's way up Vernon toward the Triboro Bridge. In reality, it's maybe a 30 minute walk or 10 minute bicycle ride.

It's curator has a really cool house on Long Island, apparently, tells the NYT: In 1980, Ms. Rychlak began working as an assistant to the sculptor Isamu Noguchi, who commuted between studios in Long Island City and the Japanese island of Shikoku. When Mr. Noguchi died in 1988, the Long Island City studio became a museum, and Ms. Rychlak became its registrar. Promoted to curator in 1997, she has helped cement Mr. Noguchi’s reputation with dozens of shows and publications in the United States and abroad. (The latest, about the collaboration between Mr. Noguchi and the industrial designer Isamu Kenmochi, runs through March 16.) She has also helped biographers understand Mr. Noguchi, a lifelong wanderer who, she has said, “was always running from something.”

More

Posted by Amol at 07:50 AM | Permalink

...to LIC! At Manetta's. Welcome to LIC folks!

Posted by Amol at 10:40 PM | Permalink

The beauty of a construction site at night.
--
Sent from a Blackberry Pearl that I am testing. Tell me what you think about your mobile email device!

Posted by Amol at 09:46 PM | Permalink

We're doing the LICNYC Social on Saturday October 20th. You'll see LICNYC stalwarts new and old!

LIC Bar
Vernon Blvd and oh about 45th Road?
630pm
Saturday October 20th

Posted by Amol at 05:38 PM | Permalink

For the Columbus Day parade, the Italians like to strut their stuff. We think this Ferrari Testarossa sighting last night was the preparations. Little did you know that such hot stuff was parked on Vernon Blvd. (Lamborghini Countache too!)

Posted by Amol at 05:35 PM | Permalink

Apparently the first day of the Hunters Point Condos sales sold out all 40 units. They have about 160 left. Get 'em while they're hot. See the pictures of the sites below -- some good locations!

Posted by Amol at 11:56 AM | Permalink

LICNYC readers, it's time to get together again for a cold one at LIC Bar. The question is...when?

Are you in for October 13th, Saturday at 630pm? If so, post your "yes" in the forums right....here

The last shindig

Posted by Amol at 05:39 PM | Permalink

The skinny on LIC.... -- statistically speaking

Posted by Amol at 08:42 AM | Permalink