New New Yorker
May 31, 2017 5:10 PM Subscribe
I will be spending the next 2-5 years (at least) in nyc and have some specific and general questions.
1. I am interested in blogs, websites, (especially) podcasts, twitter accounts etc. that are specifically geared toward a local crowd and will keep me up to date on general goings-on
2. I would like specific suggestions on how to keep track of and/or get involved with literary and/or cinema culture
3. Remember Gawker? What's the hot new media venture that everyone is talking about? Does this exist? If it doesn't, how do I keep up with the media world of nyc?
4. Now that Brooklyn is played out, where are the latest and greatest neighborhoods?
5. Any other general tips are appreciated
Basically, I want to take advantage of this opportunity to be a hip millennial in nyc (this statement is only 50 percent tongue in cheek). How can I make the most of this experience and become as much of a local as I can as soon as possible?
NB: I am a bumpkin from a flyover state, but I've been to the city a few times and am familiar with the geography and such.
1. I am interested in blogs, websites, (especially) podcasts, twitter accounts etc. that are specifically geared toward a local crowd and will keep me up to date on general goings-on
2. I would like specific suggestions on how to keep track of and/or get involved with literary and/or cinema culture
3. Remember Gawker? What's the hot new media venture that everyone is talking about? Does this exist? If it doesn't, how do I keep up with the media world of nyc?
4. Now that Brooklyn is played out, where are the latest and greatest neighborhoods?
5. Any other general tips are appreciated
Basically, I want to take advantage of this opportunity to be a hip millennial in nyc (this statement is only 50 percent tongue in cheek). How can I make the most of this experience and become as much of a local as I can as soon as possible?
NB: I am a bumpkin from a flyover state, but I've been to the city a few times and am familiar with the geography and such.
Best answer: You must subscribe to Nonsense NYC, a weekly email on "discriminating resource for independent art, weird events, strange happenings, unique parties, and senseless culture in New York City."
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:18 PM on May 31, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:18 PM on May 31, 2017 [13 favorites]
Best answer: Start going to Film Forum. It's one of the best things in NYC.
posted by Smearcase at 8:11 PM on May 31, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by Smearcase at 8:11 PM on May 31, 2017 [6 favorites]
Gothamist and east village grieve are my local news website sources
posted by rmless at 8:36 PM on May 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by rmless at 8:36 PM on May 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Sorry, I should have included this in the original post. I will be going to grad school at Columbia. No job yet but I have a pretty good funding package so I'm not facing immanent poverty.
posted by R.F.Simpson at 8:50 PM on May 31, 2017
posted by R.F.Simpson at 8:50 PM on May 31, 2017
Best answer: Oh also start taking The New Yorker. For one thing it has cultural listings. For another people read it on the subway and it has a certain outsized presence in what New Yorkers talk about. For another it is the best magazine in the world, quite possible the best magazine that ever was.
posted by Smearcase at 9:32 PM on May 31, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by Smearcase at 9:32 PM on May 31, 2017 [6 favorites]
Start listening to WNYC radio, especially the Leonard Lopate and Brian Lehrer shows.
posted by old_growler at 9:54 PM on May 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by old_growler at 9:54 PM on May 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
Also check out theskint.com -- it lists daily cultural happenings that are free or cheap in the 5 burroughs.
posted by archimago at 5:12 AM on June 1, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by archimago at 5:12 AM on June 1, 2017 [4 favorites]
DNAinfo for local news.
Subscribe to gemini and scorpio. Lots of overlap w/nonsense, but heir emails are somewhat more timely.
New York magazine is good for buzz. Better than the new yorker in a lot of respects.
If you're going to grad school in columbia and you need to be on campus a lot, queens and deepest brooklyn have sucky commutes there. Thus: hamilton heights/the bronx.
posted by lalochezia at 6:04 AM on June 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
Subscribe to gemini and scorpio. Lots of overlap w/nonsense, but heir emails are somewhat more timely.
New York magazine is good for buzz. Better than the new yorker in a lot of respects.
If you're going to grad school in columbia and you need to be on campus a lot, queens and deepest brooklyn have sucky commutes there. Thus: hamilton heights/the bronx.
posted by lalochezia at 6:04 AM on June 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
For what bands are playing, Oh My Rockness.
I also like New York Magazine for things to do and new stores and such.
Gothamist
Brooklyn Based
Brokelyn
posted by greta simone at 6:45 AM on June 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
I also like New York Magazine for things to do and new stores and such.
Gothamist
Brooklyn Based
Brokelyn
posted by greta simone at 6:45 AM on June 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
Get an IDNYC card.
It's free, as long as you apply through 12/31/17. It entitles you to lots of benefits, including free memberships at all kinds of museums and cultural institutions, discount tickets, etc.
posted by merejane at 7:35 AM on June 1, 2017 [3 favorites]
It's free, as long as you apply through 12/31/17. It entitles you to lots of benefits, including free memberships at all kinds of museums and cultural institutions, discount tickets, etc.
posted by merejane at 7:35 AM on June 1, 2017 [3 favorites]
Bwog to see what the undergrad are up to.
West Side Rag for general UWS content, particularly strong with tracking openings + closings. I moved out of the neighborhood but still peek in every so often.
I regularly check Gothamist, Curbed, Eater, r/nyc.
Cinema culture: first few years of grad school I had student memberships at IFC Center and Film Forum and would regularly sneak downtown for afternoon screenings. I still get their quarterly mailings. Film Society at Lincoln Center and MoMA (free with student ID) both run excellent series as well.
Location: I had guaranteed UAH while I was there -- it's a good deal, try to get on the waitlist/lottery. Otherwise anywhere near campus is fine, between say 86th and 145th. Just over Morningside Park in Harlem is nice as well, if you don't mind the steps.
posted by casaubon at 8:43 AM on June 1, 2017
West Side Rag for general UWS content, particularly strong with tracking openings + closings. I moved out of the neighborhood but still peek in every so often.
I regularly check Gothamist, Curbed, Eater, r/nyc.
Cinema culture: first few years of grad school I had student memberships at IFC Center and Film Forum and would regularly sneak downtown for afternoon screenings. I still get their quarterly mailings. Film Society at Lincoln Center and MoMA (free with student ID) both run excellent series as well.
Location: I had guaranteed UAH while I was there -- it's a good deal, try to get on the waitlist/lottery. Otherwise anywhere near campus is fine, between say 86th and 145th. Just over Morningside Park in Harlem is nice as well, if you don't mind the steps.
posted by casaubon at 8:43 AM on June 1, 2017
South of 96th may be hard even on a generous grad stipend. North of 96th and especially north of 100th, the rents start to drop off. I think there's a bit of a "dip" there more or less along the 1 between 96th and about 106th or so, being not right on campus but also being in a zone that the average older bourgeois UWSer remembers as being a bit scary. (It's not. Smack dab in Manhattan Valley itself isn't the nicest housing stock, but anyone of average urban competence should be able to handle the immediate vicinity of Broadway or further west.) A lot of it is co-ops, but there are these old chopped-up townhouses wedged in that are rentals.
This is not a hipster neighborhood, just long-standingly economically-mixed, which I personally think has more cachet. You may well find as a grad student that a short and convenient commute rapidly comes to outweigh whatever psychic benefit you would derive from living in Bed-Stuy.
posted by praemunire at 10:48 AM on June 1, 2017 [2 favorites]
This is not a hipster neighborhood, just long-standingly economically-mixed, which I personally think has more cachet. You may well find as a grad student that a short and convenient commute rapidly comes to outweigh whatever psychic benefit you would derive from living in Bed-Stuy.
posted by praemunire at 10:48 AM on June 1, 2017 [2 favorites]
Welcome!
If you don't already have housing set up for grad school, I'd suggest looking at International House: http://www.ihouse-nyc.org It's a large housing community for grad students (international and US), just few blocks from Columbia, and is a great way to meet a great group of people when first moving to NYC. I lived there my first year and loved it. There are a lot of wonderful in-house events, including literary and cinema culture events. I'm still good friends with many of the people from my year and we hang out regularly.
Suggestion for any grad student: Nifty NYC has a helpful newsletter with free/cheap and fun things to do: http://www.niftynyc.com/
posted by wiskunde at 4:20 PM on June 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
If you don't already have housing set up for grad school, I'd suggest looking at International House: http://www.ihouse-nyc.org It's a large housing community for grad students (international and US), just few blocks from Columbia, and is a great way to meet a great group of people when first moving to NYC. I lived there my first year and loved it. There are a lot of wonderful in-house events, including literary and cinema culture events. I'm still good friends with many of the people from my year and we hang out regularly.
Suggestion for any grad student: Nifty NYC has a helpful newsletter with free/cheap and fun things to do: http://www.niftynyc.com/
posted by wiskunde at 4:20 PM on June 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
Follow praemunire's advice on neighborhoods. I wouldn't say Brooklyn is "played out" (Williamsburg is), but hipsterdom has kind of spread across the city at this point and things that are like the things that made Brooklyn hip exist in many other parts of the city, if that makes sense.
But you do not want to live in Brooklyn not because it's played out, but because it is very far from Columbia. If you can't find something in that 96th to 106th zone, Harlem is mostly pretty nice these days (especially the bit just east of Morningside Park, which is walkable to campus), or you could go further uptown to Hamilton Heights or Inwood.
New York magazine (note that this is different from the New Yorker; I personally prefer the New Yorker but YMMV) seemed to hire a lot of ex-Gawker staffers for awhile there and they publish some blogs that are sorta Gawker-esque. I'm not a regular reader, so I could be off-base here, but I do find the tone similar.
I wouldn't worry too much about becoming a local. Lots of people are from somewhere else, nobody is going to hold this against you.
Oh, also, if you have a subway commute, try to keep it as short and simple as possible. We've been having crazy amounts of problems with the subway lately. Here is a good overview. The number of delays has tripled in the past five years, and it's almost certainly going to get worse before it gets better. A shorter commute with fewer transfers means less exposure to these problems.
posted by breakin' the law at 4:37 PM on June 1, 2017 [4 favorites]
But you do not want to live in Brooklyn not because it's played out, but because it is very far from Columbia. If you can't find something in that 96th to 106th zone, Harlem is mostly pretty nice these days (especially the bit just east of Morningside Park, which is walkable to campus), or you could go further uptown to Hamilton Heights or Inwood.
New York magazine (note that this is different from the New Yorker; I personally prefer the New Yorker but YMMV) seemed to hire a lot of ex-Gawker staffers for awhile there and they publish some blogs that are sorta Gawker-esque. I'm not a regular reader, so I could be off-base here, but I do find the tone similar.
I wouldn't worry too much about becoming a local. Lots of people are from somewhere else, nobody is going to hold this against you.
Oh, also, if you have a subway commute, try to keep it as short and simple as possible. We've been having crazy amounts of problems with the subway lately. Here is a good overview. The number of delays has tripled in the past five years, and it's almost certainly going to get worse before it gets better. A shorter commute with fewer transfers means less exposure to these problems.
posted by breakin' the law at 4:37 PM on June 1, 2017 [4 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 5:34 PM on May 31, 2017 [3 favorites]