Dave and Busters! Dave and Busters!

I recently went to Dave and Busters on a work outing and was expecting to find it boring and lame. How wrong I was. I loved it and want to go back.

It's a big arcade with lots of different kinds of games, ranging from your average shoot-em up and race car video games, to a fun trivia game you can play with lots of other people, to "gambling" games where instead of winning money you win coupons that you can trade in for chachkies (I got some needed cups and a cool cigar ashtray). Dave and Busters also has a restaurant and two bars and the food is actually pretty good.

What I liked about Dave and Busters is that it's basically an amusement park geared towards adults. There were some kids there but really, this is a place more appropriate for grown-ups. If you're ever with a group of friends in Times Square and just want to act like a kid again (surrounded by similar adults who want to act like kids), it's worth checking out.

Check out the Dave and Busters website and the New York CitySearch review.

Swedish Furniture Invades New York!!!!

The biggest news story in town today is that Ikea has opened up a big new store in Brooklyn, specifically on the waterfront of the alterna-neighborhood Red Hook. People have literally been camping outside of it for days awaiting the glorious moment that they could buy really really cheep home furnishings.

I guess I don't see what the big deal is but then I've never been to an Ikea so perhaps it has a magic that I'm unaware of. While I question whether or not some of our valuable waterfront should go to a big store like this, if people want to shop there and it'll create jobs and generate visitors and economic activity in one of the more sparsely populated sections of the city, who am I to say it's wrong?

If you want to learn more about the store, obviously you should check out its website.

Here's one very cool thing about this new Ikea: not only does it serve food -- it'll become the place to get Swedish meatballs in this town, I kid you not -- Ikea is providing a ferry service, totally free of charge, that'll take shoppers, potential shoppers, or people who just want to check out Red Hook across the East River from Manhattan to Brooklyn. (Considering what a bitch transportation in this town is, this is truly a miracle from the Heavens.) The ferry (actually a Water Taxi) leaves from Pier 11 just south of Wall Street every 40 minutes between 10 AM and 10 PM. This'll certainly open up this part of Brooklyn that gets no subway service (thank you Robert Moses). Learn more about this great new service here.

R.E.M. at Jones Beach ... in the rain ...

Yours truly and friends had the privilege of seeing REM this past Saturday at Jones Beach. This is one concert I will never forget.

It had been raining REALLY REALLY hard during our drive out to Jones Beach that afternoon but it had stopped by 7 PM which is when we got there. That's about when the show started. The opening acts were The National and Modest Mouse and they were awesome. I must admit to being unfamiliar with their music but I dug it.

About two hours into the show, just as the opening acts were finishing up, there began to be a series of lightening flashes. Then -- as they might have said on the old "Batman" show -- KAPOWWWWWWWW! -- a bolt of lightening hit the theater in a blinding flash. The rain, which had been drizzling for a bit, transmogrified into a monsoon, dumping an ocean on us. Our umbrellas were useless in the onslaught.

Over the PA system they urged us to evacuate and head to our cars!?!?! Off we went, streaming into the crowd, my beloved and I getting separated from our friends. Cells phones and serendipity re-united us downstairs and, with the rest of the crowd, we waited for about an hour until they let us go back up to our seats.

It was still raining, but a little less intensely, when REM took the stage about a quarter after ten. Michael Stipe said "Welcome to REM Survivor 2008!" The band immediately launched into "Have you ever seen the Rain?" -- hahaha -- and then played several songs off their new album "Accelerate." In between then new songs and Michael Stipe making a variety of rain related jokes -- "You guys look like garbage bags from here!" -- they played some of the classics like "What's the Frequency Kenneth", "Losing My Religion", and the "It's the End of the World As We Know It" (see above). Regardless of the weather, it was an excellent show. Jones Beach is a great venue, with a beautiful view of the beach and water, the lights glittering in the night sky. While the rain was a burden at time, it also managed to give everything a romantic aura and vibe.

We left around midnight, soaked and happy.

Spoke to Soon ...

Looks like the Guv and Hizzoner managed to save OTB.

Late Deal Pulls OTB From Brink of Shutdown

1,500 jobs have been saved and gamblers all across the city are relieved.

Let the games ... go on!!

Whither OTB?

Off Track Betting was created in 1971 so that New Yorkers who had trouble getting out to the racetracks could watch the horse races and place bets in their own neighborhoods. It was created by the city as a way of generating revenue, for more than 30 years, it actually made the city money.

Now it's losing money and Mayor Bloomberg has declared that the city will not subsidize a bookie operation. Governor Patterson offered a resolution whereby the state would take over OTB but, last night, Bloomberg made certain revenue demands that made it fall apart.

So it looks like another NYC institution is vanishing. I've never gone to OTB in my life and have only been to the track one time, last week. But it's sad to see something that served middle class New York go away. At the same time, I actually agree with Bloomberg in this case: it doesn't help the middle class when their hard earned tax dollars go to subsidize gambling.

That said, I would fully support creating off shore or casino gambling operations in this town, so long as they made the city money.

Tim Russert RIP

Sunday mornings just won't be the same anymore. My best to his family and friends.

Le Mort Boheme?

Allow me to draw your attention to two very bizarre magazine articles from this week.

First, you must read this interview with Lou Reed from this week's New York magazine. You know what a big fan I am of his music -- he's a living legend, one of the most influential musicians in rock n' roll history, and a New York icon -- but ... wow! He's got some thin skin! In this interview, he's promoting a new show called "New York Shuffle" that he's hosting on Sirius Satellite radio. When the interviewer asks a question that Lou Reed doesn't like, he goes off on the interviewer in a very Lou Reedish way.

Second, the always opinionated Christopher Hitchens posted this article on the Vanity Fair website, "Last Call, Bohemia." Mr Hitchens bemoans the gentrification of the West Village and how "Bohemia" in this town is dying. It's a very nostalgic article and he makes a good point about how when major cities loose their artsy, edgy, hipster neighborhoods -- or Bohemias -- the city as a whole suffers. I agree. A city is not great just because it has lots of people and big buildings and the opportunities to strike it rich, but because the human spirit is unleashed to imagine, create, discover, reform, revise, recognize etc. etc. etc. Sadly, if the Bohemians cannot afford to live here, than an important part of our city's spirit dies. Unfortunately I think Mr Hitchens is a little late to what I'll call the "gentrification wariness" party. The West Village hasn't really been Bohemia since, oh, about 1989. For that, you need to leave Manhattan and go to neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Sunnyside, even go to the Bronx and Staten Island. Bohemia is not dead in NYC, it's just ... relocated.

Bryant Park Film Festival

On Monday, June 16 the Bryant Park Film Festival starts up again. If you don't know about it already, every Monday night from the middle of June until the middle of August, HBO screens a classic movie for the general public in Bryant Park, totally free of charge. I first went several years ago and saw A Streetcar Named Desire and a couple of years ago I went to see MASH.

This has become a very popular New York summer tradition. It's something of a Yuppie scene. The movies begin at sundown so they usually don't start until sometime between 8:30 and 9 PM. The park opens to the public at 5 PM. Most people bring a blanket and some water and food, grab a patch of land on the big lawn, and hang out, usually sunning themselves or reading until the movie starts. It gets really crowded by the time the movie begins, and if you get there late you'll probably be forced to stand up on the concrete steps, near the New York Public Library. Still, if you haven't gone, it's worth it: it's a nice, relaxing urban and cultural experience.

This year's schedule includes Dr No (the first film in the film festival and coincidentally the first James Bond movie), Billy Wilder's great comedy The Apartment (a wonderful New York film and the 1960 Academy Award Winner for Best Picture), and the first Superman movie. Also included is one of Alfred Hitchcock's lesser known films, Lifeboat, a thriller set completely on, you guessed it,a lifeboat. It may be lesser known but it's a really good movie. Interestingly enough, I remember that this was the very first movie I saw after graduating high school - actually, the day after I graduated. Funny the things you recall.

P.S. Most Alfred Hitchcock movies include the director making some kind of cameo appearance. So how does he do that when all of the characters in Lifeboat are stuck in a boat? Here's a clue: if you ever see this movie, keep your eyes out for a newspaper ...

Hot Town

I'm here. Been busy. Life events and the brutal heat of the last few days has made blogging somewhat difficult (air conditioners problems have been part of it). I'm just not made for extreme weather, hot or cold. Give me 55 degree days and I'm a happy man.

Hot town, summer in the city ...

I should have mentioned earlier that last Thursday I attended my second New York blogger event, this time at the Mixx Lounge in Greenwich Village. The always friendly Zen Denizen of Debonair Debacles set it up and I met some new bloggers and had a great time. I hope to go to more of these events and meet more of my ilk (I hope that's how you spell it). I'm always amazed at the different kinds of blogs and bloggers out there.

In the summer, in the city ...

Big Brown Loses Triple Crown