2011 New Yorker Festival

After a couple fallow years (IMHO), the New Yorker Festival has come back this year with a vengeance. I imagine there will be quite a few hot tickets this year, including the likes of: The National, St. Vincent, Scissor Sisters, Frank Gehry, Nancy Pelosi, The Moth: Tales Out of School 3, Steve Martin, Zach Galifianakis, Aziz Ansari, Amy Poehler, Owen Wilson, Chris Colfer, Laura Dern, Edie Falco, William H. Macy, Jeremy Irons, Ellen Barkin, Nancy Pelosi and David Cronenberg. That list, of course, doesn’t even cover the New Yorker Festival’s perennial favorite scribes like: Jonathan Franzen, Junot Diaz, Jhumpa Lahiri, Nicole Krauss, Gary Shteyngart, Jeffrey Eugenides and Malcolm Gladwell, who are also on the bill for this year’s fest.

Ticket information and the full 2011 New Yorker Festival lineup after the jump.

“2011 New Yorker Festival Schedule Announced (The National, St. Vincent, Zach Galifianakis, David Cronenberg, Chris Colfer, Frank Gehry and More)” continued after the jump

88 BoaDrum at East River State Park (08/08/08)

They may be divided over bike lanes, but when it comes to the census, both Hipsters and Hasids are apparently sticking to the road not taken.

Many New York City residents aren’t returning their census forms. The return rate is only around 50 percent, but the lowest rate of return (around 30 percent) is the hipster enclave of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. These young, recent graduates with ironic mustaches and plaid shirts are apparently too busy tweeting to fill out a simple census form. [NPR.org]

Sure this statistic is disturbing, but certainly your every day hipster must have a good explanation for their collective apathy:

Mr. STARK: I guess it’s laziness and like, what’s the point? When it comes down to it, nobody wants to fill out like another form that’s just like getting sent to your house that really relatively has nothing to do with your life.

SMITH: He thinks the young people just haven’t been given a good enough reason to fill out the census.

Mr. STARK: I mean people would do if they got like five bucks.

SMITH: Five bucks?

Mr. STARK: Yeah. Or if there was like more than just like a piece of paper that’s like you have to do this or you could get in trouble, which no one will get in trouble; that’s why they dont do it. [NPR.org]

Ladies and gentleman, may I present the future leaders of this country.

Tickets for Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me! at Carnegie Hall go on sale today (Sep 2) at 11AM. The October 22 live edition of the show will feature WWDTM regulars: Peter Sagal, Carl Kasell, Adam Felber, Mo Rocca, and Paula Poundstone.

Here’s a little update on my previous WWDTM post:

Tickets for the October 22 taping of Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! at Carnegie Hall go on sale to the general public on September 2, 2009. Tickets should be available through the Carnegie Hall Box Office (212-247-7800) and carnegiehall.org at that time (as of today’s date, no event listing has been posted on the CH website). WNYC was offering presale tickets to the show for those individuals that donated $300 to the station, but those tickets are no longer available. Fore more information on NPR’s oddly informative news quiz, follow @waitwait on Twitter.

UPDATE: The event has now been posted on the Carnegie Hall wesbsite.

More Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Live tour dates after the jump.

“Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Live at Carnegie Hall Ticket Info” continued after the jump

The massively popular, (and at times, painfully annoying), Prairie Home Companion will be bringing its unique brand of folksy Minnesota storytelling to the Town Hall on April 3, 4, 11, and 17 (Buy Tickets). Though a presale was held earlier in the year, some tickets for those shows are apparently still available. More live PHC information over here.

Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!

In other “NPR live” news, the funny and entertaining radio program, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! will be bringing its oddly informative news quiz to New York City on October 22, 2009. Full details, including panel guests, are expected to be announced shortly. [ProductShopNYC.com]

But wait, New York and Chicago aren’t the only places you can catch Peter Sagal and WWDTM this year; check out some more Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! tour dates after the jump.

UPDATE: Tickets for WWDTM go on sale to the general public on September 2, 2009. Tickets should be available through the Carnegie Hall Box Office (212-247-7800) and CarnegieHall.org at that time. WNYC was offering presale tickets to the show for those individuals that donated $300 to the station, but those tickets are now sold out. Fore more information on NPR’s oddly informative news quiz follow @waitwait on Twitter.

“NPR Live in NYC | Prairie Home Companion and Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” continued after the jump

NYPL Spring 2009 Season

Highlights of SPRING 2009 Season at NYPL include Lawrence LESSIG, Shepard FAIREY, Steven JOHNSON, Father Patrick DESBOIS & Paul LeClerc, A Tribute to John UPDIKE, Thomas FRIEDMAN, Debra DICKERSON, Adam GOPNIK, Esa-Pekka SALONEN, Richard PRICE and David SIMON. Click here to see the full NYPL calendar of events.

JOIN the FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY for as little as $40 and SAVE $10 PER TICKET FOR FUTURE LIVE EVENTS.

I’d imagine this one will sell out faster than you can say “Yes We Can”.

LIVE from the NYPL & WIRED present:
LAWRENCE LESSIG, SHEPARD FAIREY, STEVEN JOHNSON
Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy
Thursday, February 26, 2009
at 7:00 PM
Celeste Bartos Forum
Humanities and Social Sciences Library
5th Avenue and 42nd Street
$25 general admission and $15 library donors, seniors and students with valid identification
Buy Tickets

In a pre-emptive strike, the street artist Shepard Fairey filed a lawsuit on Monday against The Associated Press, asking a federal judge to declare that he is protected from copyright infringement claims in his use of a news photograph as the basis for a now ubiquitous campaign poster image of President Obama.
…
Mr. Fairey is the focus of a retrospective that opened last week at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. (In a development that was not much of a surprise, he was arrested there on Friday, accused of illegally pasting his work in places around Boston; he has pleaded not guilty.) A collaged work made by Mr. Fairey based on his Obama poster was acquired last month by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, part of the Smithsonian Institution, and placed in its permanent collection. [NYTimes.com]

Congratulations to Senator Barack Obama on becoming the 44th President of the United States of America.

Check out PunkPhoto‘s Flickr set from the Obama victory party on the streets of NYC.

With Halloween in the history books and Election Day upon us, I think there’s at least one thing we can all agree upon:

Rock the Vote peoples!

Free Starbucks Brewed Coffee on Nov 4th

Free Star Shaped Donut at Krispy Kreme on Nov 4th

Hey, if free coffee and junk food won’t encourage Americans to vote, I’m not sure what will (well, maybe same day voter registration in all 50 states would help). Anywho, here’s a couple goodies you can get for FREE on November 4th, 2008:

Starbucks: Giving away a free tall coffee to people with proof of voting (or a pledge of having voted)

Krispy Kreme: Giving away free star-shaped donuts with red, white and blue sprinkles (while supplies last) to people with an “I voted” sticker all day

Ben & Jerry’s: Giving away a free scoop in any flavor from 5pm to 8pm to anyone who says they voted. [WalletPop.com]

If only every day were election day, sigh.

Are you a New York resident who is NOT registered to vote?

If so, register this weekend at any New Yorker Festival event or at Festival HQ (Metropolitan Pavillion 125 W 18th St), where special guests and New Yorker writers will register you in person.

Saturday, October 4
10:00 A.M. Raúl Esparza
10:30 A.M. Judith Thurman
11:00 A.M. Edie Falco and Susan Sarandon
11:30 A.M. Wes Craven
12:00 noon Sherman Alexie
12:30 P.M. Alex Castellanos
2:30 P.M. Alex Ross
3:00 P.M. Senator Chuck Hagel
3:30 P.M. Susan Orlean
4:00 P.M. Sasha Frere-Jones

Sunday, October 5
10:30 A.M. Nick Paumgarten
11:00 A.M. Reverend Al Sharpton
11:30 A.M. Mark Singer
12:30 P.M. Art Spiegelman
1:00 P.M. Larissa MacFarquhar
1:30 P.M. Michael Specter
2:00 P.M. Lynda Barry
2:30 P.M. Steve Brodner
3:00 P.M. Tad Friend
3:30 P.M. Buck Henry
4:00 P.M. Karen O