Quick Update

Sorry I've been lax in posting. NYCC kind of ate my brain, and ever since I've been consumed by a massive redecoration project at my apartment. The blog should be getting back to your regularly scheduled programming shortly.

Rockabilly Burlesque at Hell Gate!

Tonight, at 10 PM, Hell Gate Social in Astoria presents AM Preacher and the Snootie Little Cuties in a burlesque show backed by live rockabilly. Looks like fun. When the dancers have names like Bird of Paradise, Madame Hari, Miss Kissy Wishes (seen right, performing with AM Preacher), Rosie 151, Rubie Figg, and Strawberry Cream Puff, I fail to see how you could go wrong.

The bulk of my day will be spent over at the Javits Center today for NYCC, but I hope to see you at Hell Gate tonight.

NYCC - Yet More Parties

Tonight's pre-party at D&B should be quite large. I understand they had over 500 RSVPs by yesterday afternoon. I've got info on some additional parties for convention-goers. 

CBLDF’s NYCC WELCOME PARTY

Thursday February 5, 2009

7:00 PM to 10:00 PM

Side Bar

Donation : $5 & up for current CBLDF Members; $10 & up for non-members

Kick Off NYCC with the CBLDF!

Join the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in kicking off the 2009 convention season at our New York Comic-Con Welcome Party on Thursday, February 5! Enjoy drinks, free sliders for early arrivals, and door prizes! This party is sponsored by Image Comics and Dark Horse Comics.

Attending artists will include: Colleen Doran, David Mack, Rantz Hoseley, Dean Haspiel, Mike Cavallero, Nikki Cook, Mahmud Asrar, Brahm Revel and many more!

NEW YORK COMIC CON MEETUP

Saturday February 7th

7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m

Stitch Bar & Lounge

Who: Internet superstars and hosts of Revision3’s weekly comic book show iFanboy: Conor Kilpatrick, Ron Richards, and Josh Flanagan; Tim Hwang, founder of ROFLCon, the world’s greatest Internet culture conferences, Garnett Lee, editor of 1UP and Mark Andrew Smith & Joe Keatinge, editors of the Harvey Award Winning Popgun Anthology published by Image 

Comics.

Featured attendees also include: Christian Beranek, writer, Disney’s Kingdom Comics; Paul Cornell, writer, Marvel Comics’ Captain Britain & MI13 and television writer, Dr. Who and Robin Hood; Mike Norton, artist, Green Arrow & Black Canary and Trinity; Tom Katers, co-host, Around Comics and host, Tom vs. The Flash; Meredith Gran, writer, Octopus Pie; Jonathan Rosenburg, creator, Goats; Scott Kurtz, creator, PvP; Brad Guigar, creator, Evil Inc; Robert Khoo, business manager, Penny Arcade; Neil Kleid, cartoonist, RANT Comics, Action Ohio, The Chemistry Set; Wes and Tony, Amazing Superpowers; Scott Ramsoomair, cartoonist, VG Cats; Johnny Johnny, Tiki Bar TV; and more to be announced!

MORE PARTIES AT D&B

I have also recieved word from a representative at Dave & Buster's that several of the con exhibitors will be hosting events at D&B over the course of the weekend. So keep your eyes open for info on that. 

For as complete a rundown of NYCC events as you're likely to find anywhere, check out the ever vigiliant Heidi McDonald at The Beat.

A Look at the Queensborough Bridge

Ephemeral New York checks in with a post about the Queensborough Bridge. They include one of my personal favorite quotes about the bridge. F. Scott Fitgerald wrote in the Great Gatsby that “the city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time in its wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.”

I remember the first time I crossed the bridge years ago. Looking out along the East River around sunset, my eyes seized on the Ravenswood Power Plant, known to many as "Big Aliss". Its three striped smokestacks had been featured repeatedly in the movie "Conspiracy Theory", which I have a serious soft spot for. Having seen that movie rerun on TBS and TNT something like a billion times, the visual had an instant familiarity with me that most seem to reserve for icons like the Empire State Building.

In warmer weather, I like a nice walk over the bridge. The view is pretty spectacular, if constantly changing with the real estate development on Roosevelt Island and in Long Island City. On one day where a tunnel fire had caused massive delays on several Queens-bound trains, I opted to walk through pouring rain from my old office at Rockefeller Center to my apartment in Astoria. Aside from being waterlogged, it was a pretty nice walk. The Queensborough's pedestrian walkways aren't as appealing as those on the Brooklyn Bridge, which I think contributes to its role as the East River bridge of lesser regard. Hopefully that can be remedied in the future.

New Visions of NYC

Abstract City at the Times looks at a Lego NYC. 

Streetsblog is interested in what the city would look like if some of the infrastrcuture spending in the Stimulus Package were directed to public transit. Maybe then the light rail proposed by the The Institude for Rational Urban Mobility would be vaguely likely. Or, you know, the 2 Train could smell less like piss without going out of service.

One way to radically transform the city would be converting the city's taxi fleets to electric hybrids. Of course, that would happen much faster if the government would provide tax relief for those who convert existing vehicles into plug-in hybrids.

NYCC - Your Party Primer

New York Comic Con starts on Friday, and I expect you'll see lots more about it in the media later this week. The convention continues to announces guests and events, so it should be a blast. 

It has been confirmed that the convention is moving to October for 2010 and beyond, so no more February conventions. Smart move.

This Thursday there is a pre-party for NYCC at Dave & Buster's. They're hyping the following guests: Mike Perkins, Mark Brooks, Joe Quesada, Jay Leisten, Joe Benitez, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, Phillip Morris, Aaron Douglas, Dekker Dreyer, Brian Thompson, Yuri Lowenthal, and J. LaRose. I know there are several well known comics names on that list, but... Brian Thompson? Perhaps one of the best guilty pleasure B-Actors of his generation. You may recognize him from such films as Cobra, or from TV "classics" like Kindred: the Embraced. 

The party will also play host to a raffle to benefit the Hero Initiative, which is an excellent cause.

D&B has been named "the official con bar", but since it is far from the Javits Center and February is cold, I wouldn't expect to see too many con guests popping up there during the show itself. Perhaps once the extension of the 7 Train is finished, that will change for future cons. I'd expect Bar-Con to be occuring elsewhere. Twins Pub is a good bet, with its promimity to the convention center, Penn Station, the excellent 24-hour Skylight Diner, and midtown hotels. 

The Indy After Party, hosted by the Comic Artist's Guild, will be at Blaggard's on Saturday night. 

NYPD Dishonor Roll

Harrassment? Graft? Certainly not from the NYPD.

The Gotham Gazette follows the allegations that NYPD officers have been arresting middle-aged gay men at sex shops under false pretenses. More than 200 people gathered to discuss the situation at a recent town hall meeting at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center.

Robert Pinter, a 52-year-old gay man who was arrested for prostitution at the Blue Door in the East Village on Oct. 10, spoke at the town hall meeting. He said a young man — a 29-year old undercover cop who, Pinter said, looked even younger — cruised him in the store. He was "charming and persistent, and we agreed to go home for consensual sex, but as we were leaving he said, 'I want to pay you $50 [to have sex].' I didn't respond, but I thought it was strange," Pinter recounted. As the men left the store, Pinter said, a group of men who did not show police identification pushed him against the wall

"I thought I'd been set up by a gang," he said. "I asked them why they were doing this to me. I was totally clueless. They handcuffed me and said, 'Why the f--- do you think we're arresting you — loitering for the purpose of prostitution.'"

Gothamist and the Post both check in with stories on a YouTube release of surveilance camera footage (seen below) that may have several NYPD officers in hot water. The footage, from a November 14, 2007 raid of Beer Goggles, a Staten Island bar, shows officers putting stacks of bills taken from a video poker machine into their pockets. The officers are on record as having confiscated approximately $700. It remains unclear if all of the money in their pockets was accounted for, but that is certainly not an official procedure for storing evidence.