You’re probably looking out your window right now and thinking, well it sure is windy, but were all these precautions necessary? Time will tell, but it looks like the storm has already taken a casualty in Williamsburg. Here is a construction site on Union and Frost that didn’t survive the high winds, via Thought Catalog’s liveblog.
Though you’re probably dressed up as a binder full of women at some Halloween party right now, you may want to consider stocking up on goods and emergency supplies. (By goods and emergency supplies, we mean whiskey, Scrabble, and a candle or two.) There is now a 90% chance that Hurricane Sandy, a.k.a. the “Frankenstorm” will hit the East Coast in the coming days.
Earlier this evening, the mayor’s office announced that this city is not ordering any evacuations, but there will be 65 shelters open where people can sleep and eat. (That sounds like the last place we would ever want to go.) The mayor also said, “Although we’re expecting a large surge of water, it will be a slower pile-up and not a sudden wall of water.” So don’t expect a Day After Tomorrow-type of scenario.
According to an MTA announcement hours ago, the city is preparing to suspend subway service if necessary. “MTA has begun planning for an orderly suspension of all subway, bus & commuter railroad service, if Hurricane Sandy continues to bear down on the area,” the announcement states. MTA will make the call on Sunday and the suspension would take effect at 7 p.m. Sunday night. This would be only the second weather-related suspension in the subway’s 108-year-old history, the first time being for Hurricane Irene last year. Metro-North and LIRR would also suspend service Sunday night, so, yahtzee! No work on Monday!
Update 10/28/12 10:45 a.m.: It’s official: MTA will suspend all subway and railroad service beginning at 7 p.m. tonight.
Freewilliamsburg & My Social List present Halloween
It’s widely accepted that one of the absolute best nights out of the year is Halloween. The calendar provides not one other date in which it is not only socially acceptable, but your responsibility as a red-blooded, flag-waving AMERICAN to parade around intoxicated in a ridiculous outfit; unless you live in Bushwick, that is. I do… but I’m pumped anyway. At least, I am now, because up until today, the lineup for Halloween shows was pretty disappointing.
WE’RE BETTER THAN THAT, BROOKLYN!
That’s why we enlisted our good friend Kristina Tequila to work on putting together the absolute BEST Halloween experience of 2012 for us (us being My Social List and this here blog, FREEwilliamsburg), a show in the industrial-DIY wasteland that is 285 Kent, co-headlined by two of the absolute best post-punk and darkwave bands in the borough, Weekend and Black Marble.
Beach Day is another band I caught over at Public Assembly during CMJ. More girl power, yes! I’ve actually tracked down the route of all this loveliness. One of the members of Leda messaged me and said “The show featured so many bands with rad women in them because it was co-presented by Permanent Wave, a feminist arts group that puts on female-fronted shows in NYC (and a few other cities as well).” Well someone is going to have to track this group down and tell them how much they love what they’re doing. And by someone I mean me of course. Have a look at the trio doing their thing. Enjoy!
PS: I love shoes too!(well sneakers) “Oh my gaaaaaah” we have so much in common!
During my CMJ run I caught Leda’s set over at Public Assembly. They’re a very lovely bunch. One thing I noticed about Greenpointers entire showcase was the fact that every band had pretty rad girls/women in them. I go to about 4 shows a week and I believe this is the first time this has happened. Correct me if I’m wrong. The Suzan, Leda, Backwords, and Beach Day all had woman rocking my world. I love you 20 hundreds! OK enough babbling, get in tuned while Leda melts your heart. Enjoy!
PS: I thought that bassist was all sorts of radical so I waved to her on stage and she waved back. Eat your hearts out lads!
And we’re not just talking about the pollution or the potential staph infection:
Looking for something really creepy to do this Halloween? NCA will bring an intrepid group out for a twilight tour aboard a (possibly) haunted NYC Water Taxi up into the mysterious and meandering industrial waterway, Newtown Creek. From the grizzly tales of bone boilers and fat rendering in days of yore, to the modern tales of black mayonnaise and the supernatural Superfund program, participants will see the Creek as it very spookiest.
Costumes are highly encouraged, and there might be candy involved.
NCA Very Spooky Boat Tour
October 27, 2012
4:30 – 6:30 pm
Depart/return via South Street Seaport, Pier 16
$20 per ghoul
On Nov. 15, Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum will join Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo, Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto, TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe and others for a “variety show and telethon” to benefit an OWS aligned group devoted to spreading the word about predatory debt practices, student loans, and eliminating debt.
Organizers are calling it “The People’s Bailout.”
Mangum showed his love for Occupy Wall Street last year with a surprise performance at Zuccotti Park, but this event at Le Poisson Rouge hopes to raise $50,000 for Strike Debt, which according to their website believe “debt is a global system of domination and exploitation of the 99% by the 1%.”
Join Strike Debt for an updated version of an old classic, the telethon, to launch The Rolling Jubilee, a campaign that buys debt for pennies on the dollar and does away with it. Instead of collecting the debt, we will abolish it and help free the debtors!”
Other guests include Janeane Garofalo , Lizz Winstead , Max Silvestri , Hari Kondabolu , David Rees , The Yes Men , John Cameron Mitchell , Climbing PoeTree , the Invisible Army of Defaulters , members of Healthcare for the 99% , Occupy Faith and many more
In case you can’t make it all the way into Manhattan for the show, the event will be streamed live, but tickets go on sale Friday, November 2, starting at $25 – enough to abolish an estimated $500 worth of debt
Editorial note: While personal debt plagues many Americans, and does in fact restrict social movement and personal liberty, prominent economists argue that greater government spending, thus national debt, is needed to get the nation out of the unemployment slump.