Results tagged “townhall”

This morning Rep. Anthony Weiner met former New York Lieutenant Governor (and current insane person) Betsy McCaughey on MSNBC's Morning Meeting to debate yell about health care. Though Weiner and McCuaghey had their moments, most of the horn-locking happened between her and host Dylan Ratigan, who would not stop demanding she answer his question: How do you get insurance companies to compete instead of monopolizing markets with antitrust exemptions. Or, as Ratigan puts it, how do we "put an end to corporate communism?" Skip ahead to the four minute mark, when the fireworks get started. more ›

At a health care reform town hall in Fresh Meadows Wednesday, one angry attendee warned Anthony Weiner, "Last time I looked this is still America—not China, not Russia, not Cuba," and last night in Midwood the congressman got more of the same. During a noontime meeting at the Council Center for Senior Citizens, one elderly constituent opined, "It's a Socialist country!" The crowd cheered, for surely all in attendance proudly refuse such "Socialist" handouts as Social Security and Medicare. But the bigger issue yesterday was that the meeting delayed the center's lunch service. Hungry retired postal worker David Figman told the Daily News, "I came to eat and I came to eat on time. They are having chicken marsala today and the food is good." More seniors grew impatient as the meeting dragged on past 12:15, and 61-year-old Linda Lefton fumed, "Usually our lunch starts at noon. I think he is going to cause us to delay our lunch. That's no good." 76-year-old Albert Fink moaned, "I'm just hungry." Finally, administrators interceded to end the forum at 12:22 p.m., but it makes ya' wonder: Why is Obama trying to euthanize seniors with forced starvation? more ›

These health care town hall forums make for great television, what with all the red faced patriots eager to water the tree of liberty and save America's seniors from Obamacare death panels. So why would Anthony Weiner try to stop TV news crews from documenting last night's raucous health care meeting at the IBEW hall in Fresh Meadows? CBS 2 says Weiner's aides told them they couldn't come in, and when the congressman arrived, he got "snippy" with the camera crew, telling them, "This isn't for Channel 2. This is for my constituents." more ›

This beach party didn't go exactly as planned. Though he managed to dodge the protesters that have been plaguing similar town hall meetings, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) was met with skepticism from Howard Beach seniors yesterday regarding his plans for Health Care reform. Weiner addressed both his ideas for a "Single Payer" system (which Congressman Waxman introduced to the Senate floor) and the White House's more centrist efforts, but seemed to raise more questions than he answered. When one man asked who would foot the bill for this reform, Weiner simply acknowledged that as the "$64,000 question," and moved on. Of course, not everyone seemed to care, considering most of the attendees chanced upon the town hall by already being present at the Center for lunch. "This isn't gonna affect us, I think, that much because by the time all of this gets through, we might be six feet under," 81-year-old Marilyn Spoor told Rep. Weiner after the forum. Because why should the health of future generations be any concern of the Greatest Generation? But maybe New Yorkers shouldn't worry about health care anyway because we're getting healthier! more ›

We all know by now that Wall Street turns to Congress when it needs a bailout. But where in turn do the House and Senate turn when their failed presidential bids are still mired in debt for their bailout ? Why, Bon Jovi, of course. Fresh off the Lost Highway Tour, Bon Jovi will play at Town Hall on the 15th on behalf of another lost highway of sorts: Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Hillary and Bill will be in attendance for photo ops for $1000 ticket holders who they hope will help eradicate the $6 million plus the campaign was still in debt as of last month. The invitation to the concert told donors who had already hit the limit in donating to Clinton that they can attend the event if they recruit two or more people at a certain seating level. Before the concert, VP-elect Joe Biden will help out the cause with a fundraiser in Philadelphia. With all of the love JBJ has shown the Democrats in hosting fundraisers previously for President-elect Obama and the losing Kerry and Gore bids that preceded him, we're surprised that he won't get to burn a "Blaze of Glory" through the inaugural ball. more ›

As a child of Hollywood, Harry Shearer portrayed the original Eddie Haskell on Leave It To Beaver, appeared in Abbott & Costello Go To Mars, and after a stint at Harvard, eventually wound up on Saturday Night Live, where you can spot him in that legendary synchronized swimming sketch with Martin Short. Many know him as the bassist in Spinal Tap; others recognize his voice from The Simpsons, where he portrays characters such as Montgomery Burns, Ned Flanders, Kent Brockman and Otto. Since the '60s, Shearer has also hosted a popular music/comedy program called Le Show on Santa Monica's NPR-affiliated radio station. more ›

The economy took center stage during tonight's town hall-style presidential debate at Nashville's Belmont University. Republican candidate John McCain offered a $300 billion plan to buy bad residential mortgages "and renegotiate at the new value of those homes, at the diminished value of those homes and let people make those, be able to make those payments and stay in their homes. Is it expensive? Yes.” Democratic candidate Barack Obama, who blamed President Bush and McCain for the economic problems, called his plan to cut taxes for households making less $250,000 a "rescue package." more ›

While plans for a joint John McCain-Barack Obama town hall forum at Federal Hall in lower Manhattan fell through, McCain still appeared and took advantage of being the only presidential candidate there, saying, "It would have been a little more interesting tonight if Senator Obama had accepted my request." more ›

Given the presidential candidates' interest in a series of town hall-style forums for them to show their stuff to voters, Mayor Bloomberg and ABC News president David Westin proposed this morning that Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama kicks things off in NYC and participate in a 90-minute town hall at Federal Hall in lower Manhattan. However, McCain's and Obama's campaigns aren't so sure. more ›

You may know Adam Green as one half of The Moldy Peaches (the other half being Kimya Dawson), who recently got a lot of attention for the Juno soundtrack despite having gone on "hiatus" four years ago. Green also stands on his own as a solo performer; he just released his latest album Sixes & Sevens, and tomorrow night celebrates it with a performance at Town Hall (tickets). more ›

No "Lost" spoilers in this post. Stephen Merritt doesn't bring the band around too often, so it's always a treat when The Magnetic Fields take the stage in town. Despite the band hailing from Brooklyn, this is the first local show they've played in quite a few years, and the sold-out 4 night run at Town Hall did not disappoint the anxious fans. While their latest album, Distortion, casts a fuzzy haze over the otherwise deliberate, straight forward folk/pop tunes; the live show stripped them down completely, leaving nothing but acoustic instruments and voices. Every song comes across sharp, witty and with complete confidence, and manage to sound universally better then they ever do on record. (pic via coeur-sang's flickr) more ›

Next Wednesday a cornucopia of comedians (Dave Attell, Louis C.K., Artie Lange and more) will gather at Town Hall for the The Gerry Red Wilson Foundation Comedy Benefit. Greg Fitzsimmons is one of the comedians responsible for putting together the show, which will raise awareness about meningitis (a disease that struck three people in his life, one of which was Gerry Red Wilson). You can buy tickets here. more ›

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EVENT: Tonight's Downtown Third Thursday seems promising. Pete Hamill, author of Downtown: My Manhattan, will be on hand at 41 Broad Street, a "Classical Revival style building designed by Cross and Cross Architects completed in 1929 as the headquarters of the Lee-Higginson Bank. The original grand banking hall with its marble mosaic columns now houses the Broad Street Ballroom." The NY Times has more on the rarely seen space. more ›

A 65-year-old man was killed during his bicycle ride to work when he was struck by an open car door in the bike lane at 6th Avenue and 36th Street. David Smith was then pushed off his bike and into the path of a box truck, which hit him. more ›

Austinist attended a town hall meeting about proposed noise ordinances that could undermine the city's future as the Live Music Capital of the World, and lamented the possible loss of Texas's only feminist bookstore. Throughout the week, they interviewed a bunch of indie fashion designers and D-I-Y websites—Etsy, Ornamental Things, 31 Corn Lane, and Aorta Designs—for the upcoming Stitch Fashion Show. They also did some extensive coverage of last weekend's Fun Fun Fun Fest, which featured over 80 indie rock/electronic/punk bands like Girl Talk and Battles—there's also a video recap of the festival, viewable in HD. more ›

We'll be liveblogging the MTVU Woodie Awards tonight (hopefully Jared Leto won't break our blogging fingers) -- if you're looking for something else to do though, here are some suggestions... READING: Spend an evening with Global City Review contributors Linsey Abrams, Fred Tuten, and Michelle Yasmine Valladare. The publication "celebrates the difficulties and possibilities of the 'global city' and other constructions of community...while honoring the subversiveness and originality of ordinary lives," and reflects on New... more ›

This past weekend David Byrne biked to Town Hall for his “How New Yorkers Ride Bikes” event. The night began with the audience viewing his helmet-cam footage of his journey there, and eventually he biked right up on the stage. Streetfilms was there and reported:

Of course our MC for the night, Mr. Byrne, who has been using a bike for transportation for 30 years, pedaled to the theater. In fact, the night started with helmet cam footage he shot as he biked thru Times Square to the venue. Some Byrne-musings which drew the most applause/ laughter as he navigated the entanglement of peds, cars, and street furniture included: “...once you get used to it, riding thru the city gives you a nice jolt of energy“, “42nd Street would make a nice pedestrian mall“, and probably the biggest laugh-getter, “if this was a bike lane, there would probably be a truck from New Jersey parked in it.”

Faculty and students are reeling after a noose was found on the door of a black professor's office at Columbia University's Teachers College yesterday. The NYPD's Hate Crime task force is investigating the incident and the professor has been identified in the media as Professor Madonna Constantine, whose interests are listed as "Cultural competence in counseling, training, and supervision. Mental health issues of people of color in the United States and immigrants. Vocational issues of adolescents and college students of color." more ›

THEATER: Noah Diamond has worked as a licensed tour guide on all the major double decker bus lines in town, presenting his spoken word elucidation of New York in a near-continuous loop – ten hours a day for seven years. But when he finally quit the business, he found he could not stop guiding: “You wake up screaming, I'm not a tour guide! Then you do ten minutes on the General Slocum and go back to sleep.” He’s now found a way to recover, by performing a one man multimedia virtual tour of New York. 400 Years in Manhattan is a theatrical journey that takes not just one loop around town but rolls through four centuries of city history. - John Del Signore more ›

The welcome trend of artists playing their entire albums through live in concert has spread to the country world. Lucinda Williams was in town this week for five (relatively) intimate shows at Irving Plaza and Town Hall, each featuring one of her five albums. Lucinda didn't stop at just recreating her past work -- after a short intermission set by up and coming singer/songwriter Fionn Regan, she'd come back up for another set of old and new jams while joined by some friends of hers. And at that, what went from a rather sedate and straightforward show erupted into a grand ol' hoedown, with all sorts of dancing and singing and goofing around. Perhaps the highlight on the night we went was seeing 80-something year old Charlie Louvin up on stage well after midnight, not only keeping up with the party, but stopping the room in its tracks with a stunning rendition of 'When I Stop Dreaming.' What a show, what a party. more ›

Ira Glass is the brains, heart and larynx behind the wildly popular program This American Life; each show employs a theatrical, multiple-act structure to carve strange slices of life out of a unique thematic pie. The show began almost 12 years ago as a Chicago public radio program but has since mutated into an Emmy-nominated TV series on Showtime – a leap that prompted Glass and his team to relocate to New York City, bringing the radio version in tow. But Glass still keeps one foot in Chicago; he’s compiled a new book whose proceeds benefit 826CHI, the free writing program open to all students in Chicago. He’ll be appearing at Town Hall Monday night with Susan Orlean, Malcolm Gladwell and Chuck Klosterman, who have each contributed to the book, called The New Kings of Nonfiction. (Tickets cost $30; all proceeds benefit 826CHI.) more ›

The ACMA (Alliance for Creative Music Action) is a group of musicians, artists and supporters of the arts who are joining together "as a pressure group to bring awareness about the needs of art in our communities." Tonight they'll be holding a Town Hall Meeting, demanding that the city provide "an adequate subsidized performance space in Manhattan." The meeting will be held just a block away from Tonic, a recent casualty amongst downtown performance spaces. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian was struck at Neptune Ave. and Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, a shooting on Bivona St. in the Bronx, and a burn victim at East 20th St. and the FDR in Manhattan.
• An assistant DA for Staten Island is considering possible charges against relatives who may have aided in the fugitive status of Rebekah Johnson, who is accused of attempting to murder a commune leader by shooting him several times.
• A Queens inventor is selling a eucalyptus-scented trash bags that repel rats and raccoons. They're so effective that most of the 2,000 residential buildings his company sells janitorial supplies to have made the switch, and they are being used in Central Park.
• The TB patient who travelled against doctors' advice to Europe and then snuck back into the US when told he should check into an Italian healthcare facility, is stunned that the CDC resorted to subterfuge to lure him to a NYC hospital for forced quarantine.
• In the first five days since a new noise ordinance took effect, New Yorkers have flooded 311 with complaints. The number of noise-related calls is up 36% from last year.
• WNBC is reporting that a helicopter equipped with pontoons crashed into the Hudson River just 50 yards north of the Lincoln Tunnel entrance this evening.
• Onetime gun control supporter Rudolph Giuliani espoused his strong belief in the 2nd Amendment and gun rights before a town hall audience in Georgia yesterday.
• NY1 is reporting that when EMS workers arrived at an accident scene in Brooklyn, the injured driver pulled a gun on them. Passing police stopped and the man was killed in a shootout. It's suspected that he has taken part in multiple recent carjackings.

The NY Times reflects on Bright Eyes' recent seven night run at Town Hall. Is Conor Oberst so complex that many, many charts analyzing him, his show and his fans outbursts, is necessary? more ›

Okay Conor, we get it: you have cool friends. This week, during the Bright Eyes 7-night run at Town Hall, the band promised a special guest each night. So far he's brought out the likes of Lou Reed, Steve Earle, Jenny Lewis, Norah Jones and Ben Kweller. Each played a few songs of their own mid set before joining in jamming with the rest of the group. On the night we went, we were treated to a mini acoustic set by Ben Gibbard and a sit in by Nick Zinner, who among other songs, played the haunting Daniel Johnston cover "Devil Town." But as far as Bright Eyes goes, no matter what you think of the guy and his music, there's no denying that he always makes the extra effort to please his fans in NYC. Whether it be avoiding the larger, expensive venues, playing intimate shows or pulling stunts like this. Conor went out of his way to make each of these shows special, and as a fan, we really appreciate that. more ›

David Byrne's foldable Montague mountain bike has been stolen. The avid city biker rode in the 5 Boro Bike Tour last year, commenting: "The organizers close the FDR drive, the BQE, the Belt Parkway and the Verrazano-Narrows bridge on one side — so we get the thrill of riding in the middle of the street, not having to stop at red lights and no worries of the ubiquitous jaywalking peds on suicide missions." more ›

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. more ›

Conor and friends will be back at Town Hall for a 7 night run at the end of May. Tickets are not on sale yet. Check some more opinions of the shows here and here. (Pic above via tammylo's flickr) more ›

A memorial service for Robert Altman, who passed away in November will be held on Tuesday. The service is open to the public and will take place tomorrow at noon at the Majestic Theater (247 West 44th Street). The Times reports that Julianne Moore, Tim Robbins, Bob Balaban, Harry Belafonte, E. L. Doctorow, Kevin Kline, Alan Rudolph, Joan Tewkesbury, Lily Tomlin and Garry Trudeau are all expected to speak. more ›