CitySounds.fm: the sound of the world

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Travelers often think of destinations in terms of what they see: the Eiffel Tower lit up at night, the gaudy neon of the Las Vegas Strip or the fiery pink of a sunset in Tahiti. Yet it’s our other senses – the smells, tastes and particularly for music fans, the sounds that can truly stick in our subconscious, evoking vivid memories of our journey. Those in search of some “sonic wanderlust” need look no further than CitySounds.fm. The new site promises an ever-changing catalog of the world’s constantly moving global beat.

On any given day, people in cities all over the world are listening and making all kinds of music. CitySounds pulls in this music from some of the world’s most populous capitals like Tokyo, New York, Sao Paulo and London, categorizing the tracks based on where they were uploaded. The result is a constantly evolving (and surprising) snapshot of what’s hot in what places. In Berlin, for instance, it might be some techno. Meanwhile in Buenos Aires, they’re bouncing around to ska (?!). Down in Atlanta though, they’re all about the newest hip hop remix.

While there are plenty of services that help you find new music, CitySounds is probably among the first to categorize based on location. And if you think about it, geography is the perfect way to organize for a generation of highly mobile, travel-hungry, music fans. Check out the site the next time you’re eager to hear the latest and greatest sounds from around the globe.

[Via PSFK]

Free NYC Dessert Fest

by Brenda Yun on

Back in February, Annie mentioned a “recessional special” for a New York City dessert tour, and then in April, Jeremy broke down the cool dessert spots for New York City dwellers. It seems the Big Apple isn’t short on shopping its sweets, and there are plenty of sweets to be had in Manhattan even though summer is coming to a close.

If you’re looking for a cool activity to satisfy your sweet tooth, you’ll be happy to learn that the Free NYC Dessert Fest is still taking place each month. It is a free walking tour, centered solely on succulent desserts. Purchase of desserts are optional & additional.
This month will mark the tour’s 10th consecutive monthly tour of the city’s neighborhood sweet spots. The walk explores the Upper West Side, which has 5 delicious eateries where you can sample everything from cookies and cupcakes to hand-made French chocolates. Or if fruitier fare is more your palatable, mouth-watering apple tart or cheesecake might just satisfy that stomach of yours.

To help support the good work of Food Bank For New York City, a non-profit helping to feed the hungry, Walking Tours Manhattan asks for a $5.00 donation per person. 100% of all donations go to charity. Since December 2008 tour donations have helped feed 39 New Yorkers for a month.

Meet our tour guide with the red ball cap saying Walking Tours Manhattan on Sunday August 23, 2009 at 11:00am at Magnolia Bakery, 200 Columbus Avenue at 69th Street. The dessert tour lasts 1.5 hours, and expect to walk a little over 1 mile.

For additional neighborhood dessert tours, visit http://walkingtoursmanhattan.com

Undiscovered New York: Modern art in Long Island City

by Jeremy Kressmann on

It’s no secret New York is downright spoiled by a world-class modern art scene. Art lovers flock to great museums like MoMA, galleries in Chelsea and the famous annual Armory Show. With all this great creativity so close at hand, it’s hard to believe that one of New York’s best neighborhoods for modern art isn’t in Manhattan – it actually lies just across the East River in Long Island City.

Long Island City is a neighborhood on the rebound. Thanks to the nearby Queensboro Bridge, which dumps a steady stream of traffic into the area, this industrial neighborhood was long bypassed by visitors headed toward other points beyond in Manhattan and Long Island. Yet this feeling of a gritty zone time forgot is exactly what attracted the area’s first artists back in the 70’s and 80’s. Slowly, Long Island City began a remarkable transformation, replaced by an influx of artist studios, top-notch museums and monuments to New York’s influential role in street art.

Today, Long Island City is an art lover’s paradise. Ready to check out a less crowded version of Manhattan’s MoMA in Queens and dance at one of the city’s best outdoor dance parties? Or perhaps an outdoor sculpture park with views of the NYC skyline is more your style? It’s time to investigate one of New York’s best (and lesser known) neighborhoods for art. This week Undiscovered New York visits Long Island City. Click below for more.
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
Just off the 23rd St – Ely Avenue Subway stop, the first stop from Manhattan, lies P.S.1, one of Long Island City’s best museums and a mecca for up-and-coming artists. First opened in 1976 in a formerly deserted public school building, P.S.1 focuses on the shows of cutting edge art, resulting in an often delightful and eyebrow-raising mixture of works across all types and mediums from sculpture to painting to photography and beyond.

One of the most enjoyable parts of P.S.1 is the museum’s outdoor courtyard, where during the summer it plays host to Warm-Up, a series of outdoor weekend dance parties featuring DJ’s and live music. The backdrop for the party is a colossal ever-changing outdoor sculpture (see left) that is updated each Summer.

Socrates Sculpture Park
Another great reminder of Long Island City’s gritty industrial past is the Socrates Sculpture Park, located along the neighborhood’s East River waterfront. Named in honor of the area’s historically Greek residents, the sculpture park was built on the site of what was once an illegal dumping ground. Today the trash is long gone, having been replaced by large-scale sculptures, outdoor movies and art workshops.

Museum of the Moving Image
Just last week, we told you about New York’s long history with television. But we actually left one great museum out – the Museum of the Moving Image in Long Island City. In addition to galleries of movie and TV equipment, the museum features screenings of landmark movies, and has an extensive collection of costumes, photos and fan magazines. Museum-haters and those with ADD take note: it even has its own video game arcade as part of the exhibitions.

The Gossip Girl Tour of New York City

by Annie Scott on

Remember when we told you about the Gossip Girl Tour of NYC? Well, as a fan of the show and a New Yorker, I went ahead and took the tour.

It was pouring rain, but undeterred, about 86 of us piled onto a coach for $40 apiece. We were hosted by an adorable redhaired actress named Meghan, who definitely talked the talk and walked the walk, and dressed much like one of the faux Upper East Side denizens. She cheerfully and enthusiastically recounted favorite moments from the show, asked trivia questions, and did a stellar job of keeping track of everybody when we took little trips off the bus to places like Henri Bendel. She pointed out restaurants and bars which were shooting locations, and we walked the grounds of several spots like “Constance Billard School for Girls” (actually The Museum of the City of New York, pictured).

Highlights of the tour included fun tidbits like the fact that the real girls who attend Marymount — across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art — really do eat their lunch on the steps of the museum like Blair and Serena, pretty spots in Central Park, shopping at Dylan’s Candy Bar and a shot of agave-based frosting from a trendy bakery on the Lower East Side. For tourists, this tour really does take you all over the city and show you some very cool places to revisit on your stay, from trendy nightclub Butter to famed Ukrainian diner Veselka.

The pack consisted mostly of Gossip Girl-ishly dressed young ladies in their late teens and some parents, and I brought along a non fan with me (he has no particular aversion to the show, he just doesn’t watch it) to see how the uninitiated would handle the tour, as most of my New York friends said they had actually never seen it — would he be bored? Well, the next day he sent me this:

“One of the most compelling parts of the whole tour was the creative and engaging delivery of our host, who made every effort to recant the plotlines while untangling the web of characters and places along the route into a living map of the city and the show its self. While the tour was a bit long at three and three quarters hours, there wasn’t a moment where our host wasn’t actively engaging the attendees. It was a great way to be reintroduced to my city.”

He now considers himself an expert on all things Gossip Girl. The tour even included clips of the show played on video screens at the front of the bus (see gallery).

Lower points for New Yorkers would be photo ops at places like Grand Central where we just felt like we were in the way, but for an out of towner, that’s an important stop. It was a lot of fun, even as a resident, to see the heavenly little havens where shooting takes place — it gave us both a lot of respect for Gossip Girl’s location scouts. Really, you’d be driving down a regular east side street and suddenly there would be a storefront or apartment entryway that looked like a dream — they were almost invariably filming locations.

If you’re not into piling onto a bus with 86 people, you also have the option for a more personal Gossip Girl tour by limo. The tour is $180 per person for a minimum of five people and includes a guided tour and lunch at a restaurant used in filiming the show.

Click here to purchase tickets!
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Undiscovered New York: All things TV in NYC

by Jeremy Kressmann on

The television screen is a strangely natural way to view New York City. In fact, even if you’ve never visited New York, your perception of the city most likely stems from NYC TV icons like Bill Cosby, the cast of Friends or Jerry Seinfeld. In fact, television and New York tend to go hand in hand. Ever since NBC started broadcasting its signal here in the 1940’s the city has been dominated by all things related to the small screen.

Television’s presence in New York is fairly obvious. Anyone who’s ever wanted to check out a taping of The Daily Show or the Colbert Report, David Letterman or Saturday Night Live, knows where to find the tapings. But for every Jon Stewart appearance or Tony Soprano reference, there’s a world of strange TV history that lies waiting to be discovered. This is a city, after all, that has been in love with TV from the very beginning, with a history that dates back over 60 years.

Ever wanted your own private screening of a vintage TV classic from the 1940’s? Curious to discover some of the most famous facades and settings in New York City TV history? Don’t touch that dial, this week Undiscovered New York is covering all things TV. Click below to read more.
Famous Settings
When you picture the filming of a television show, it often brings to mind a giant studio lot decked with lights. Yet many of New York’s most famous TV moments and vignettes are played out right before our eyes as we walk the city’s many side streets and avenues. Ever wanted to check out the real life homes and businesses from your favorite TV shows?

Make your first stop in New York’s West Village, where 10 Leroy Street is the site of the Cosby family’s famous facade. And who knew Bill Cosby was neighbors with Monica, Joey and Ross? The building used as the apartment building for Friends is just around the corner at the corner of Bedford and Grove. Hungry for more TV locations? Why not stop by Monk’s Diner, site of so many meals on Seinfeld? It’s located at 112th Street and Broadway.

Making TV History
Ever since NBC began the first continuous TV broadcast in 1944, New York has been hooked on the small screen. Yet for all the show’s we’ve come to know and love in recent years, there’s more than 60 years of TV history waiting to be explored. A good place to start is Manhattan’s Paley Center for Media, formerly The Museum of Television and Radio, on 52nd Street. The museum is dedicated to exploring the “cultural, creative and social significance of television.” The way they accomplish this goal is quite a feat – in addition to ongoing exhibitions on some of TV’s greatest moments, visitors are free to explore more than 120,000 archived TV shows, commercials and radio programs at their leisure using individual consoles. It’s an interesting way to explore the evolution and and history of this influential medium.

TV Today
Although many of our fondest TV memories are behind us, it would be incorrect to assume television is dead. In fact, New York is also a great place to investigate the future of the medium. A good place to start would be the annual New York Television Festival, held each fall. The event was designed to showcase the work of those “creating for the small screen” and as a venue to discuss such topics as the future of advertising, sitcoms and broadcast journalism.