Feed

Christine Chen

By Christine Chen 8/06/12 6:30pm

stargazing

The crowd gazes at the big screen.

NASA Fans Gather in Times Square to Watch Mars Landing Live but Lament the Tiny, Distant Screen

Curiosity drew a large, diverse crowd of hundreds to Times Square last night.

The horde set themselves up an hour before the landing was scheduled to occur, with headphones, blankets and lawn chairs, some coming from quite a distance, to watch NASA’s live broadcast of the ultra-advanced rover touch down on Mars.

Chris Holderson, who worked on the entry descendant landing system as an intern at the NASA Mars science laboratory six years ago, came in from Connecticut.

“This is really NASA’s flagship mission of the decade, and one of the most exciting things to come out of NASA in the past few years,” Mr. Holderson said.

“We have a tank on Mars. It’s War of the Worlds in reverse,” joked Jay Searson.

“Poor Martians didn’t know what hit ‘em,” agreed Mr. Holderson. Read More

By Christine Chen 7/23/12 3:50pm

poetic license

photo 1

New York City Poetry Festival on Governor’s Island as Quirky as You Might Expect

“Because I could not stop for death,” read one sign for the New York Poetry Festival chalked into the pavement on Governor’s Island on Saturday, “I KEPT WALKING.”

If you kept walking, you’d run into the festival, sponsored by the Poetry Society of New York, as it stretched across the lawn at Colonels’ Row, fenced with white banners and food trucks. In front of each of the three small stages bearing the names “Chumley’s,” “The Algonquin” and “The White Horse,” around 20 attendees sat cross-legged or mermaid-style on blankets.

Those who were not inclined to pay the $5 entrance fee leaned against the fence as a bizarre medley of voices echoed through the space, either floating into ears of passersby or slammed their senses with the extra oomph of the amps. Read More

By Christine Chen 7/11/12 3:45pm

red carpet

Freida Pinto, on the red carpet. (Nicholas Hunt / PatrickMcMullan.com)

Trishna Star Freida Pinto on Sexual Double Standards and Re-reading Tess of the d’Urbervilles

Last night’s Cinema Society screening of Trishna at the IFC Center began with the usual glimpses of celebrity—Meg Ryan swooped past in her hat and sunglasses, and Billy Connolly slipped by with his wife.

But actress and heroine of the film Freida Pinto took her time sauntering down the red carpet, glowing in a white Rachel Roy creation, and shared that she is currently reading the Tom Hardy classic Tess of the d’Urbervilles, of which Trishna is a modern adaptation, for the second time. “The first time I read the book, I never thought that India would be such a great setting for it,” she said. “And the second time, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I am such an idiot.’ It is so perfect!” Read More

By Christine Chen 7/05/12 4:56pm

Weekend Festivals

cbgb-2012-festival-poster-300x464

The Five Can’t-Miss Events of the CBGB Festival

The famed CBGB & OMFUG (Country, BlueGrass and Blues and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers) was more than a music club at 315 Bowery; it was also a focal point underground culture and a launching pad for punk, rock and new wave bands. When it closed in 2006, plenty of people mourned its demise. Thus, the CBGB Festival was born: an ode to what the music club was and a celebration faithful to its original purpose–to showcase emerging artists and provide an environment to help them get started.

Below the jump are our five must-dos for the jam-packed weekend offerings (panels! screenings! rock shows!) of the inaugural festival. Read More

By Christine Chen 6/29/12 6:10pm

the literary scene

Ishle Park, poet laureate of Queens, reads to the audience.

Asian American Writers’ Workshop Launches Three New Magazines

The Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s magazine launch party expected only around 300 guests to come and support their three new titles, but ended up hosting a much larger audience of all races and ethnicities.

“There were over at least 1,000 people at the party over the course of the night, likely more,” said Sara Faye Lieber, writer and digital media strategist for AAWW.

Participants ranged from Theresa Li, an activist for DREAM Act, to Marguerite Desir, a designer from the West Indies with diamond-studded sunglasses and a heavily beaded necklace.

“It’s connecting the dots together,” Ms. Desir said. “I believe we are all connected, and in not staying to one tradition and spreading it out.”

The crowd only quieted down to a loud murmur when the party’s main event began and speakers such as artist Julio Salgado, Bhangra music mixer DJ Rekha, Queens poet laureate Ishle Park, writer Tao Lin and Christina Xu, founder of the Awesome Foundation, took the stage. Even then Comedy Central’s Hari Kondabalu, sent several quips towards the food and drinks stands in addition to his repertoire of race-related jokes. Read More

By Christine Chen 6/20/12 1:50pm

the literary scene

The lady-filled crowd at the first annual VIDA fundraiser. (Photo: Jaclyn Rachel Green-Stock)

VIDA Supporters Party to Fight the Byline Patriarchy

It was a regular, quiet Monday night of muted jazz and pool games in most of the bars down North 11th Street. The red brick warehouse of the Brooklyn Brewery, however, reverberated with the chatter of a 300-plus crowd, gathered in support of the first annual VIDA fundraiser, sponsored by Riverhead Books.

VIDA, a nonprofit organization that supports women in literary arts, was formed almost three years ago to tally up the inequalities between men and women authors and poets. The resulting statistics, called “The Count,” shook the publishing world by revealing the low percentage of female-authored published work–The New Republic, for instance, only published 78 women overall in 2010, compared to a whopping 344 men.

It’s not surprising, then, that most of the guests at the fundraiser were young women. “It’s like a Mt. Holyoke mixer with Emerson boys,” Sande Boritz Berger, whose writing career spans the last four decades, remarked. Read More

By Christine Chen 6/18/12 5:00pm

Funny Girl

Amy Poehler on stage at 92Y. (Photo: Joyce Culver)

An Hour-long Love Fest with Amy Poehler at the 92Y

As Amy Poehler settled into her seat for her conversation with Caryn James in Kaufman Concert Hall and her fans screamed shrilly in ecstasy on Friday night, one of the few young men in the crowd raised his hands in a heart shape.

Ms. Poehler hearted him back.

The producer, writer and star of NBC’s Parks and Recreation praised and teased her friends and colleagues, reminisced about her different gigs and doled out advice, all peppered with her trademark humor. Read More