NYC Restaurants ♥ Our Troops
THE NEW
YORK CITY MARINE CORPS COUNCIL
ANNOUNCES
"NYC Restaurants ♥ Our Troops"
Legendary Elaine Kaufman of Upper East Side Eatery Launches Campaign
Campaign Culminates With June 30, Gala Celebration
New York, NY -- May 11, 2010
- The New
York City Marine Corps Council
("NYC Marines") announced today the launch of a spirited campaign
that will send YouTube messages from home to our troops overseas and to show
support to those returning from duty.
The NYC Marine Corps Council is reaching out to top chefs and restaurateurs
asking them to buy a ticket for a Marine to attend the June 30, 2010,
Mess Night Gala. In return, The NYC Marine Corps Council will videotape a
message that will be posted on YouTube (at "loveourtroopsnyc") and promoted
through Twitter (@loveourtroops) and mainstream media, including local
and national TV outlets.
Elaine Kaufman, the legendary proprietor of the eponymous Upper East Side eatery, has recorded the first video greeting for "NYC Restaurants
♥Our Troops". "God Bless You and please come home soon," she urges.
On the recording, Elaine recounts her joy that members of the military often
spend their leave time in her establishment enjoying the spaghetti bolognaise
in her homey environment before shipping back out.
Elaine's video, which launches the campaign, can be seen here.
Food & Liquor Companies, Hotels
& Everyone Who Loves to Cook Can Participate
Food companies, cookbook
authors, hospitality, liquor and spirit companies and anyone who loves to cook
at home are welcome to participate. In addition to purchasing a single ticket,
a table can be purchased for 10 vets. That price includes a free one-page ad in
the Mess Night Program. Participants who buy tables are welcome to join their
guests at Mess Night.
Participants can also donate gift certificates for meals, hotel rooms and other
NYC services to veterans and for gift bag and silent auction items.
Third Annual Mess Night Celebrates 65th
Anniversary of V-E Day,
Recreates a 1945 Waldorf-Astoria Dinner Attended by Eisenhower
Incorporating the expert guidance of master chef,
photographer, author and food historian Agostino
Von Hassell, the third annual Mess Night Dinner will be held
again at the New York Athletic Club on Central Park South on Wednesday, June 30, 2010. This year, in celebration of the 65th Anniversary of V-E
Day, Von Hassell and his guest chefs will do a faithful recreation of a 1945
historic menu served first in 1945 at a dinner held at the Waldorf-Astoria,
attended by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Full historical information and photographs
about that event are available at www.nycmcc.org.
"There is no other event like it in New York City." said Jeff Carusone,
President of the NYC Marine Corps Council. "Mess Night is a unique
opportunity for guests and the military men and women to share in our time
honored customs while we honor those who have served our nation and their
families, both past and present."
How to Participate in the
"NYC Restaurants ♥Our Troops"
Campaign:
Full details are available at the NYC Marines website, www.nycmcc.org
in the "NYC Restaurants ♥Our Troops" section.
About "Mess
Night"
"Mess Night" is a venerable Marine Corps tradition dating from the
1500s that few civilians experience. The event encompasses a cocktail hour, an
opulent feast, good cheer and a range of fines for violating guidelines of the
mess, which all guests are informed of at the onset. (Violations include foul
language, chewing gum, rapping glassware for attention, rearranging table
settings and discussing politics, shop, money or religion. Fines begin at $1
and escalate to $30 for "NYC elite" and civilians. Proceeds will benefit the
Marine Corps - Law Enforcement Foundation.)
General Alfred M. Gray, Jr. a
distinguished military leader and a former Commandant of the Marine Corps,
Headquarters Marine Corps, Washington, D.C., will be the Military Guest of Honor at the third
annual New York City "Mess Night."
See www.nycmcc.org for full details.
Media contact: Marie Carella, Cultural Communications,
m.carella@culturalcommunications.info or 212-505-1253. Mobile:
646-541-9078
###
A Purely Biased Book Review – BAD REPUTATION
Performances, Essays, Interviews
by Gail Parenteau
Penny Arcade: Bad Reputation Book Launch and Celebration
w/ Debbie Harry
Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10012
http://lepoissonrouge.com/
In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve stated in the
headline here that this review is not objective. I can’t be objective when it
comes to Susanna Ventura (stage name Penny Arcade). I think she may be the single
most underappreciated artist on the planet!
If I had magic powers, I would
personally give her an Obie Award, name a Manhattan Street after her and put
her picture on a stamp. I had the pleasure of serving as a publicist for
Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore! during a portion of the run at the legendary Village
Gate in 1991-1992. I attended just about every performance and did my best
to bring reluctant members of the theatrical press establishment and opinion
makers along with me. Following the nearly two year run off-Broadway, B!D!F!W!
went on to become a run away commercial mainstream hit in 23 cities around
the world from London to Vienna to Sydney.
I’ll never forget the visceral reaction the audiences had to
the show. The seminude live male Go-Go dancers seemed tame when Penny Arcade
took the stage. Whether it was the theater critic for the Miami Herald; Joy
Abbott, wife of the Broadway icon George Abbott or various prosecutors from the
Manhattan DA’s office seeing Penny Arcade in the theater was something they
never forgot. She is a force!
Bad Reputation
includes the script of Penny’s iconic show Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore! as well
as other writing and reminisces. The book is also a chronicle of the coolest
beginnings of the downtown art scene from the Ridiculous Theater Company to the
Warhol Factory
It’s an empowering read. It’s a book that reminds us why we
rebelled and how good it felt.
Available from The MIT Press/Semiotext(e)
ISBN 9-781584-350699
Visit: www.pennyarcate.tv
#
"Wanderings" with Sandi Durell
My Trip Down Memory Lane -
Collins Avenue, Miami Beach and Ocean Drive, South Beach
February 2009
“I Started Out To Go To Cuba ♫♪ I
Landed in Miami Beach. . . ♪♪♫” – Well actually I started
out on a day trip to Miami Beach in my quest to not only relive my parents’ and
grandparents’ stories about the fabulous 1950’s and 1960’s when Collins Avenue
was the most celebrated resort playground in America, but to see the
gentrification that has taken place in recent years.
First, a brief history of Miami Beach begins in 1870 when
John Lum, from New Jersey, was returning from Havana, saw what is now Miami Beach from a ship, and decided it looked like a promising place to establish a
coconut plantation. He and his son and wife tried to live in the area,
but it was primarily a swampy jungle and so they gave up and left. Southern Florida got a boost from a man named Henry Flagler who co-founded Standard Oil
with John D. Rockefeller. Despite being retired, Flagler became interested in Florida on a visit, and bought two railroads. He extended those further south than they had
previously been, reaching Miami in 1896. The area really took off based on the
efforts of a man by the name of Carl Fisher, an Indianapolis automobile baron.
Fisher acquired a substantial amount of land, formed some of the islands
which are now part of Miami Beach, including Star Island, Belle Island, and Sunset Island. The dredging also had the beneficial side effect of making Biscayne Bay suitable for recreational boating.
The ultimate purpose of Fisher's huge investment was to sell the resulting
property. He helped two Miami banker brothers, named J.E. and J.N. Lummus, set
up the first real-estate company, Ocean Beach Realty. The main portion of Miami Beach was originally a peninsula. Fisher spent many years cultivating and promoting Miami Beach as a vacationland for people from the midwest and the northeast. He built
incredible homes and hotels, and enticed his many millionaire friends to
likewise develop elegant hotels and homes. It was his money and connections
that largely were responsible for the upscale orientation that has long been a
part of Miami Beach's (and South Beach's) history.
Mega-resort complexes like the Fontainebleau and the Eden
Roc, built in the 1950’s, reigned as the leading resorts symbolizing the
glamour of Miami Beach. Legendary celebrities and entertainers filled its
nightclubs: Elvis Presley, Bob Hope, Lucille ball, Judy Garland and the
fabulous ‘Rat Pack.’
The 1970s and 1980s were a down period for Miami Beach and
especially for South Beach. In 1960, the average age of a Miami Beach resident
was 50. In 1972, the average age had increased to 65. And not only were many of
the residents fairly old, they were increasingly poor and suffering from bad
health. South Beach was in fact nick-named "God's waiting room" by
some. Crime was also rampant throughout the area. And so what was once a golden
age for the resort area declined. By the 1980s, it became clear that something
had to be done to bring back the glory days of Miami Beach. One major effort
was the replenishment of the beach itself. By 1982, Miami Beach had a
completely new beachfront. The resurrection had begun.
Fast forward to the present and the grandeur of the past is
now and then some!
Collins Avenue is alive and vibrant with the luxury of the
newly opened (November 2008) $1 billion reinvention and expansion of The
Fontainebleau Miami Beach. When hotelier Ben Novack purchased the Firestone Mansion in 1952 for $2.3 million, he envisioned the creation of one of the most
opulent and magnificent resorts in the word. . . The Fontainebleau Hotel. Today
it is replete with 17,000 sq. foot lobby, 1504 rooms and two new towers, 11
restaurants and lounges, a 40,000 sq. foot spa and dramatic oceanfront. It
still includes the legendary “Staircase to Nowhere” along with electrifying
million dollar Ai WeiWei chandeliers and magnificent art and sculpture. Lunch
at this fabulous resort was just the right choice.
Down the road is the newly transformed Eden Rock.
Originally built in 1956 with a painting of “The Rat Pack” in its lobby, it is
the recipient of a $200 million renovation still under completion, featuring
632 guest rooms as well as two new glass to ceiling oceanfront ballrooms and
rooftop terrace. It is targeting convention groups boasting a 46,000 sq. feet
of indoor meeting space and 25,000 sq. feet of outdoor meeting space. This
timeless treasure was home to many celebrities including Milton Berle, Jerry
Lewis, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Ed Sullivan and the Miss America Contests
by the pool. It’s a luxurious beachfront venue replete with the new ‘Spa of
Eden,’ restaurants and pools.
The Gansevoort Hotel was the vast 1960s building
called the Roney Plaza and is now a 334-room hotel along one edge, with large
600 sq. foot rooms, and the rest of the building reserved for condominiums. The
lobby, with a million-dollar shark tank, adds interest to the hotel’s many
public spaces. Other hangouts include the roof bar called Plunge. But the
masterstroke of the new owners was in persuading David Barton, of the eponymous
gym chain, to open a large and gorgeously designed branch in the same complex.
The Delano, a 238-room
hotel built in 1947 and named, in the patriotic spirit of that postwar time,
after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, now boasts a $28 million renovation,
perhaps a little surreal, by hotelier Ian Schrager. It is the Stateside resort
for the St. Barts crowd. The Delano’s tower
is four-winged and is one of the tallest buildings in the area. It is the first
hotel in America with an indoor and outdoor lobby and features billowing
floor-to-ceiling curtains and whimsical furniture.
“Water Salon” - conceived by Philippe Starck as his first exercise in pool
design, features underwater classical music, a continuous waterfall and
furniture in the pool. The rooftop spa, Agua, offers a full line of
treatments. The spa has a 360-degree view of Miami Beach and is modeled on an
ancient bathhouse.
Step into the plush, revitalized, and effervescently alive Hotel
Victor, located on popular Ocean Drive in the Art Deco District,
meticulously redesigned by French designer, Jacques Garcia for a step back in
time. Still present in the lobby are some of the original lighting fixtures,
along with a wonderful photo of the original building. Hotel Victor reopened
in February 2005 and features 89 luxurious rooms and has become a favorite
among Hollywood heavy hitters including Paris Hilton, Adrienne Grainer, Sting
and Ashlee Simpson.
When my producing partner and friend, Shari Upbin and I, completed our
little Miami and South Beach hotel tour, we had to walk down the street from
the Hotel Victor to the ultra fabulous former Versace Mansion, Casa
Casuarina, to see the excitement where groups of on-lookers stood outside
taking pictures. It is an exquisitely preserved 1930’s mansion built by
architect, philanthropist, author and political reformer Alden Freeman as an
homage to the oldest existing house in the western hemisphere, the “Alcazar de
Colon” in Santo Domingo, which was home to Christopher Columbus’ son Diego in
1510. One of the Casa’s cornerstones contains original brick from the “Alcazar
de Colon.” In 1992, world renowed couturier Gianni Versace saw Casa Casuarina
for the first time. It was in great disrepair but Versace fell in love with it,
purchased it and made substantial changes to the property. In September 2000,
after Versace’s tragic death, Telecom exec Peter Loftin bought the Casa. It
has been a members-only Private Club but is now operated as a luxury boutique
hotel for discriminating visitors.
The Casa has ten suites, a high-end restaurant
and boasts the famous thousand mosaic pool where we topped off our whirlwind
day with a glass of wine and our own mini-tour of what we could see on the
lower level. The full tour of the mansion costs $50 per person and suites run
around $1000 a night, but that does include dinner!
If you’re inclined to days in the sun, miles of glorious beaches, upscale
restaurants and luxurious hotels, Miami and South Beach is the place to be. Only
3 hours flying time from New York, it is a plethora of entertainment and
activities and you’ll envision the days of yesteryear and, if you close your
eyes, even see some of the greatest entertainers of all time still roaming the
lobbies.
Mixed Martial Arts promoter Strikeforce held a press conference at Gallagher’s Steak House to announce legendary football great Herschel Walker’s debut into the world of kickboxing, to be held at the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida and televised on Showtime, January 30 (10pm).
