Harry Brown
Think of Michael Caine in Harry Brown as a A Clockwork Dinge
By Armond White
In Harry Brown, Michael Caine plays a vigilante pensioner. That might have been a more memorable title for a movie that pretends to have a social conscience as it exposes London’s current drugs and gang epidemic. It takes a military vet like Caine’s Harry Brown, seeking revenge for an old mate’s murder by a group of thugs, to accomplish what the slick, uninformed police cannot—all the while setting up an action-movie franchise for Caine. Read more
The Anti-Greenberg
Catherine Keener radiates female privilege in Nicole Holofcener’s best movie to date
By Armond White
White guilt is so out-of-fashion that Nicole Holofcener’s Please Give invokes charity instead. It takes on the obscure subject of self-aware people who cannot rise above their class advantages yet are, in fact, weakened by them. Kate (Catherine Keener) feels compelled to give money to homeless people loitering outside her Village condominium. She runs a Manhattan antiques shop with her husband Alex (Oliver Platt), and plans to expand their apartment into the space occupied by an elderly, near-death neighbor (Ann Guilbert). The neighbor’s physical frailty—and her very nearness—unnerves Kate, much as it exasperates the old lady’s granddaughters, Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) and Mary (Amanda Peet). Read more
Bad Bar Behavior
A customer assaulted a bartender at a pool hall April 16. Cops said the customer was looking for his property behind the bar at East Side Billiards, 163 E. 86th St. between Lexington and Third avenues. When the bartender, a 21-year-old East Harlem resident, asked the customer to get out from behind the bar, the customer punched the bartender several times. The unruly patron then told the bartender, “I’m taking your tips,” and grabbed the jar containing around $40. He also skipped out on his $21 bar tab.
Employee Assaulted
A 23-year-old woman was assaulted April 20 outside of Spence Chapin, an adoption agency at 410 E. 92nd St. and First Avenue. Police said the Bronx woman was taking out the trash at 8:45 p.m. when a man approached her and said, “Nice sneakers.” She felt uncomfortable and tried to rush inside. The man grabbed her from behind, causing a minor abrasion above her left eye, but she got back inside. The man fled toward the Stanley Isaacs homes, according to cops.
Best-Dressed Burglar
An elderly man with expensive taste was burglarized April 19. The victim, a 74-year-old resident of a building on East 68th Street and Second Avenue, left his apartment at 8:30 a.m. When he returned later in the day, his tie clips, watches, chains, a diamond encrusted cigar cutter and other items were missing. The total value of the stolen items was $1,923. He told police that he left the door unlocked for his housekeeper.
Restaurant Burglarized
Fig and Olive, a restaurant at 808 Lexington Ave. and East 62nd Street, was burglarized. A witness from a nursery school on the second floor of the building told police April 17 that she heard someone trying to break in. She saw a heavy-set man forcing open the front door to the restaurant. The safe from the office, containing $345, was taken, along with a digital camera and checkbook. Police said the pane of glass parallel to the front door was broken and that the lock had signs of tampering.
Motorcycle Thieves on Upper East Side?
Two more motorcycles were stolen from their parking spots on the Upper East Side recently. The first incident occurred April 9, when a man reported to the police that he saw men lifting his motorcycle—parked on East 65th Street, between First and Second avenues—into the back of a white van at 2:30 a.m.
Though unclear if the crimes are related, the two recent thefts are similar. A man told police that he videotaped two men placing his black 2006 Ducati motorcycle, parked in front of 1040 Park Ave. between East 86th and 87th streets, in a minivan. The van drove south on Park Avenue around 5 p.m., April 17.
The second incident occurred April 19. A man drove his 2008 red Honda motorcycle to work at 7:40 a.m. and parked it at 601 Park Ave. and East 64th Street. When the 35-year-old Woodside, Queens, man left work at 4 p.m., the motorcycle was missing. Police are looking into video surveillance footage from the corner of Park and 64th.
Park vendor’s rights? What about my rights?
By Brad Taylor
(Brad Taylor, an uptown resident, wrote this op-ed in response to our story Artists Paint Bad Picture of Proposed Park Rules.)
The Department of Parks and Recreation is to be commended for proposing to restrict the number of “expressive matter” vendors in parts of Central Park and all of Union Square Park, Battery Park and the High Line Park. The numbers of vendors in these locations has skyrocketed to the point where the physical and visual clutter of their kitschy souvenirs and often derivative and copycat wares are a serious detriment to the use of these parks for passive enjoyment and as a restive retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city around us.
Headed Down Under Second Avenue
By Dan Rivoli
The 200-ton cutter head of the subway tunnel boring machine was delivered April 21. The MTA released video of construction crews lowering the cutter head into the 815-foot long launch box, on Second Avenue between East 92nd and 96th streets–to the sound of ambient music, for some reason.
(Video below the cut) Read more
Early Morning East 80s Fire Extinguished
By Dan Rivoli
A fire broke out on the Upper East Side in the early morning hours of April 22. Read more
