NY Observer > Barnes & Noble Inc.

Oh, Salman! Things Get a Little Blue at Rushdie Reading on Union Square

Em Whitney — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:23:40 -0400

Last night, Salman Rushdie shared sex tips with a bulging, giddy crowd on the fourth floor of the Union Square Barnes & Noble, during a reading from his newest novel The Enchantress of Florence.

Rushdie began by reading a passage about the effete main character, who has an obsession with tulips; images of the flower are tattooed all over his body, including his “buttocks” and the “thick shaft of his penis.”

“I had to go speak recently at the Ottawa Tulip Festival,” Rushdie told the crowd, laughing and wiping his nose. “They liked this bit.” read more »

Mark Halperin Tells Audience of Political Junkies What Non-Experts Need to Know About the Candidates

Tathiana Monacella — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:08:14 -0400

Last night, Time and ABC News political analyst Mark Halperin was talking to an audience at the at Barnes & Noble on West 82nd Street about his new book, The Undecided Voter's Guide to the Next President.

He said that his new book is geared toward people who "aren't particularly political," focusing less on the campaigns themselves than on "who can do the best job."

"I tried to say, with the information we have about the candidates, who would be the best," he told the audience of about 60 people. "I did what I thought a conscientious voter should do."

Unfortunately for Mr. Halperin, the audience did indeed seem like "political people," most of them retirees who admitted to having lots and lots of time to absorb political coverage. And most of the crowd seemed to be decided indeed, in favor of Hillary Clinton. read more »

The Round-Up: Friday

Observer Staff — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 04:30:33 -0400

Police academy moving from Gramercy to Queens.

[NY Times]

Bistricer calls out big guns on Starrett City deal.

[NY Times]

City to launch 'Trans Fat Help Center' for restaurants.

[NY Sun]

High rents drive out Astor Place Barnes & Noble.

[NY Post]

Quinn proposes mortgage-counseling program.

[NY Post]

MTA casts wide net for top NYC Transit post.

[Daily News]

Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

Stephin Merritt: On Sincerity, Misery, and the African-American Musical Tradition

Observer Staff — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 05:35:41 -0400

Tonight, Stephin Merritt peforms with Lemony Snicket in the Union Square Barnes and Noble. Earlier this week, Max Abelson sat down for some chit-chat with the most infamously white man in downtown indie music.

"All the articles begin, 'Stephin isn't such an asshole after all!'" said Stephin Merritt on Monday, the night before the release of his new album.

He was sitting in a lady's salon chair in 14th Street's Beauty Bar, with his head beneath an old domed hair dryer. "No one who is not an interviewer has ever called me an asshole," he said. "People regularly tell me how nice I am."

It's hard to imagine niceness when Mr. Merritt's songs are so forlorn, and his words are so cataclysmic witty, and that voice has such gravity.

But Mr. Merritt is disliked for other reasons besides lyricism. Two years and some months ago, The New Yorker's Sasha Frere-Jones described Mr. Merritt's musical tastes as those of a rockist cracker. Also, Mr. Frere-Jones wrote: "Get that fucking chihuahua away from me, NOW." Mr. Merritt has a chihuahua.

Earlier this year, Jessica Hopper continued the conversation, expressing distates for Mr. Merritt's love of music from "Song of the South."

John Cook, writing for Slate, took issue. David Carr did a blow-by-blow of the lengthy affair, and wrote in The New York Times that Mr. Merritt "clearly needs help with his bubblegum issues."

Speaking of which, his new release is under the name The Gothic Archies, which is his side-project for bubblegum-pop Goth. The Tragic Treasury compiles memorably absurd songs written for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

"It's over-the-top misery," Mr. Merritt said. "It's perfectly sincere, but there's no effort to make it tasteful."

With polka-like baselines, refrains of harmonized birdcalls, amateur accordions and circus sound effects, it's his whitest album ever: white like Agnetha and Anni-Frid eating un-toasted Wonder Bread.

Mr. Merritt agrees, sort of. "That's not insane, just incomplete," Mr. Merritt said. "I think there's an enormous African-American tradition of over-the-top misery, going to back to the blues and Screamin' Jay Hawkins--no, back to spiritualist work songs."

But "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "The Banana Boat Song," the examples he brought up, feel more sincere than "Smile! No One Cares How You Feel" or "The World Is a Very Scary Place."

"If you get too maudlin it's just funny," he said. "That doesn't mean maudlin isn't sincere." Tragic Treasury is indeed very maudlin, but it's also very catchy, and most its songs are textured and even beautiful.

"Finally, Stephin Merritt can sing in the register he was born to sing," he sighed, meaning that he allowed his voice to go to its deadpan depths. Mr. Merritt claims he sings lower than Johnny Cash, Lee Hazlewood and Tom Waits. This is probably true. "It's sort of a supernatural ability, kind of like a magical power, except it's completely useless."

"I think if you have a really low voice it automatically makes you a good lyricist. No one wants to hear you just say, "C'mon, baby."

On Friday the 13th, Mr. Merritt will be performing with Lemony Snicket in the Union Square Barnes and Noble, singing lyrics like, "The world is a very scary thing/ I find it's curled all my toes and it's curling my mind" or "Even geeks, even other freaks, hate the freakshow."

Maybe he would stick to straightforward romance if his voice were more like Barry White's. "Such a sexy baritone," Mr. Merritt said. "Listen to Barry White when you want to get to third base." — Max Abelson

Books, Beers & Beyond

Observer Staff — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 08:15:00 -0400

One grande fire-water latte coming up.

At a time when other indie book stores are succumbing to the Amazon/Barnes & Noble factor, one East Village retailer is entering the lit biz with a proven strategy to boost revenues: Booze.

Opening this December at 200 Avenue A--site of the soon-to-be-shuttered Clockwork Orange-themed Korova Milk Bar--Rapture Café & Books will feature an array of titles on art, sex, and politics. Plus, a full on-premise liquor license.

Hemingway would approve. But what will the neighbors think?

Well, last month, proprietor Joe Birdsong earned the almost unanimous blessing of Community Board 3, which is no small feat amid the current bar-wary climate. "They really liked our idea," he said.

That, and Birdsong agreed to sign a notarized stipulation that the business would "operate as a bookstore" with "the predominant space being used for bookshelves," according to minutes of the meeting.

"Presenting another bar where people can get drunk for cheap is not what we're about," said Birdsong, who described his vision of the place as more of "a nice little neighborhood internet café bookstore performance space" with a selection of organic free-trade-certified teas and coffees and "a real strong emphasis on different beers and wines."

- Chris Shott

It's Alex Garvin's Town; You'll Never Live In It

Matthew Schuerman — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 20:00:00 -0400

Alex Garvin has been Dan Doctoroff’s favorite urban planner for about seven years now, ever since read more »

Events for August 24, 2006

Observer Staff — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 13:08:37 -0400

Bill Clinton, DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel, and DLC President Bruce Reed, authors of "The Plan: Big Ideas for America" stop by the Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Triangle at 7.

The four Democratic candidates in the 11th Congressional District in Brooklyn debate tonight on NY1. It airs tonight at 7 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.

Assembly candidate Stu Mirsky kicks off his 'Stu Can Do' campaign in Rockaway.

And Democratic congressional candidate Stephen Harrison greets folks tonight at Ozzies in Park Slope (5th Ave. and Garfield Place) at 7.

Mark Green's Book

Observer Staff — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 08:15:00 -0400

Mark Green has a new book entitled Losing Our Democracy: How Bush, the Far Right and Big Business Are Betraying Americans For Power and Profit. And even if Mark doesn't necessarily have John Kerry's endorsement in his campaign for attorney general, his book does.

However, according to Sourcebooks, Inc., his publisher:

This is not, however, just another Bush-bashing book, this is a call-to-arms to all the people in America who cherish our freedom and who are sick and tired of seeing rich, born-again, politicians line their pockets so that special interests can have whatever they want at the America people's expense. Subjects include voter suppression, religious, corporate, and legislative tyranny, so-called tort reform, the problem of purchased politicians and the far right's Stone-Age approach to race and civil rights.

It seems Mark will be taking his book campaign to the streets, starting tomorrow with a stop at the Barnes & Noble on 86th and Broadway, and then next week in Washington, DC, at the Politics and Prose bookstore.

—Nicole Brydson

Toni Schlesinger Reading Tonight

Observer Staff — Wed, 10 May 2006 11:17:53 -0400

She's no longer at the Village Voice, but former "Shelter" columnist Toni Schlesinger will be reading tonight in the Village. The reading will be held at the Barnes and Noble on Astor, between Broadway and Lafayette, beginning at 7 p.m.

About a month ago, we mentioned Five Flights Up, the book she'll be reading from.

Wednesday: A Buyers' Market

Observer Staff — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 05:02:17 -0400

Why are police targetting the red seven-seater tricylcles? (The New York Sun)
The "purves" in Long Island City can find a cheaper luxury condo from Corcoran. (Curbed)
The city's may be losing its black population, but Battery Park City is suffering from black-car blight. (The Village Voice)
The corner of Lexington Avenue and East 86th Street will house a residential/retail building, fitted with an H&M and a Barnes & Noble. (New York Post)
Liberal authors beg for money at a Barnes & Noble near you. (Free Williamsburg)
The new Javits Center expansion will be of little use to larger conventions. It will rise up, not out, and the city will end up losing money. (The New York Times)
Duck pâté, charcuterie plates and brick turns a Lower East Side joint into a bourgeois den. (The Village Voice)
The average sales price for an Upper East Side townhouse increased by 64 percent in one year. But they're the outliers. (MSNBC)
A 95-year-old landmark building, also known as the john. (The New York Times)
A townhouse owners in Durham, England is so desperate to move he's throwing in his Ferrari to sweeten the deal. (House & Ferrari)
Save Our Parks is not a Yankees fan.
Deep insights: "The shift we’re seeing is an emphasis on large developers, not small nonprofits who reach those most in need." Duh... (City Limits)

- Riva Froymovich