The First Annual Nightlife Culture Expo Special Coverage

By Gamal Hennessy

Your nightlife is an important part of why you live in New York. It gives you a chance to connect with others, escape our normal routines and express our creativity. The Nightlife Culture Expo is a celebration of that part of your life. As the president of the Nightlife Cultural Initiative I’ve tried to collect a diverse blend of attractions, performances and parties for you to enjoy. Here are some highlights of what we have for you if you join us.

The Performers

Little Louie Vega & Kevin Hedge: They created a signature blend of house and Latin music that has helped define the New York dance scene and they have agreed to kick off the Expo in a big way at Cielo.

Maor: The emerging artist will bring his music and his message about gay bullying and discrimination to Stonewall Inn as a part of the LGBT Appreciation Event

Paige Turner: This established queer icon graces the stage for a night of music and comedy as the headline act of the LGBT Appreciation Event

Rakim: He is one of the most respected names in hip hop. His Paid in Full album is a soundtrack its golden age and he will be performing a rare New York set at Sutra.

Rob Swift: The legendary DJ for the X-Men will return from his performance tour of Asia to provide the right music to celebrate nightlife culture and end our Expo on a high note at the double seven.

The Venues

Pleasure Palaces: Bars and Clubs as the Cradles of Nightlife Culture- The spaces that bars and clubs inhabit that become the frame and canvas for every other aspect of the nightlife experience. We have five very different venues all over downtown Manhattan spread out over the four nights

The Speakers

A discussion about the importance of nightlife culture is vital to this type of event. I have collected a panel of very well connected and insightful nightlife minds to discuss this topic during our brunch at Affaire. The panel includes

madison moore: Fashion and Fantasies

Paul Seres: Nightlife operator, advocate and President of the New York Nightlife Association

Shonali Bhowmik: From Nashville to New York

Steven Lewis: Celebrity Waitresses, Sex and the Sin Effect

We hope you will decide to join us for the first of many nightlife culture events. For more information and tickets, visit http://nightlifeculture.org/events/

Have fun.

G

The CBGB Festival, The Nightlife Culture Expo and the Subculture of Bottle Service

The Nightlife Culture Review for March 21, 2012

Compiled by Gamal Hennessy

The Nightlife Culture Expo 2012
From hip hop icons to house music legends. From underground artists to well known operators. From historic venues to the New York’s hottest clubs, New York has a treasure in its nightlife and the Nightlife Cultural Initiative is proud to announce the Nightlife Culture Expo. Visit our site to order tickets to shows featuring Join Rakim, Little Louie Vega, Rob Swift and more http://bit.ly/FRVLvO

Discussions with the Nightlife Think Tank
One of the highlights of the Expo will be a brunch seminar discussing the importance of nightlife culture to New York City. To explore this important subject, NCI has assembled prominent thinkers in the field. Here is a taste of the unique perspective each one brings to the table.

Steven Lewis: Celebrity Waitresses, Sex and the Sin Effect: http://bit.ly/yQsc7Q

Michael Moore: Fashion and Fantasies http://bit.ly/xo03pK

Shonali Bhowmik: From Nashville to New York http://bit.ly/zmDP0Y

Culture

CBGB returns to NYC in July as a music festival instead of a music venue. http://bit.ly/yrvwim

Literature and liquor mix on the Lower East Side. http://nyti.ms/FQAyQU

Steve Lewis takes a roundtable look at the subculture of bottle service. http://bit.ly/xxSEKo


Have fun.

Gamal

Steve Lewis, High Technology and the French Invasion of New York Nightlife

The Nightlife Culture Review for March 1, 2012

Compiled by Gamal Hennessy

Prince of the City

Celebrity Waitresses, Sex and the Sin Effect: A Nightlife Culture interview with the legendary Steven Lewis. http://bit.ly/yQsc7Q 

Why Do You Enjoy New York Nightlife? There are seven major reasons that lure us into the night. What moves you? http://bit.ly/w7puVN

NCI: Improve your nightlife. Join the Nightlife Cultural Initiative. http://bit.ly/yuXX7h 

Culture

Partez vous Francais? The New York Times writes about the growing French trend in New York nightlife culture. http://nyti.ms/zZzpYt

Is Big Back?: Are the megaclubs ready to return to New York nightlife? And if they are, how will that impact New York nightlife? http://bit.ly/yX8lJn 

Music

Hip Hop Holiness: What is the relationship between religion and hip hop? How do express their faith or disparage another in their lyrics? http://bit.ly/AwSU9k 

Mind Over Money: A new article looks at the transition of hip hop from social awareness to capitalist excess. http://bit.ly/AxaEkE 

Technology

The Liquor Locator: Will the new NYC liquor license map help or hurt New York nightlife? http://bit.ly/xgXi3I

Who Watches You Go Out? Can facial recognition apps help you find the perfect club and crowd every night? http://ti.me/AEgK2K 

Have fun.

Gamal

Groupon, Martinis, Patua, Rock and Roll Tours and How You Failed Nightlife

Nightlife News for May 11, 2011
Compiled by Gamal Hennessy

Culture
Drinking
Mastering the Martini
Long before Mad Men made the drink famous among 21st century drinkers, luminaries like Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway were sipping martinis at the Knickerbocker. Today, bartenders as close as Pegu and PDT and as far away as the M Bar in Hong Kong and the Plaza Bar in Buenos Aires

Rock and Roll Tours
A new tour will trace the history of rock music in New York City with stops at venues like CBGB, Don Hills, Max’s Kansas City, and the Mudd Club.

Business
Groupon/ Live Nation Deal
The mega online discount site and the mega live concert promoter are in talks to create a double mega summer concert deal.

Patua
Paul Seres will bring a 3 floor rooftop/ restaurant/event space to the prime space between the Port Authority and Penn Station.

Opinion
Are You the Problem with New York Nightlife?
 There is a certain type of nightlife patron that tries to prove his superiority by expressing a disdain for modern nightlife. I wrote about this type of patron in my 2009 piece If Nightlife is Dead, then You Killed It. Late last year, I described them in my series On Retros, Realists, and Rebels. This week, Good Night Mr. Lewis confirms some of the same ideas. Nightlife has definitely changed. But if you can’t find a place or a party that you like in 2011, maybe its not nightlife’s fault. Maybe its you…

Summer Bar List 
Guest of a Guest offers its list of the top summer bars to compete with Urban Daddy’s outdoor venues from two weeks ago.

Have fun.
G

The Once and Future Kings of New York Nightlife

Nightlife News for January 25, 2011

Compiled by Gamal Hennessy

Prince of the City
Beauty and Essex
Read my review for the new LES date spot.

Culture
The New Club Kids
The New York Times takes a look at some of the new tastemakers in New York nightlife.

Rising Stars
The New York nightlife events examiner for Examiner.com takes a look at the changing scenes in Queens and Brooklyn.

Personalities
Steven Lewis
The perennial nightlife operator offers his list of the 10 Best Clubs in New York nightlife right now.

Michael Musto
The perennial club kid offers his list of the 10 Best Clubs to ever grace New York nightlife.

David Rabin
One of the most prominent nightlife operators of the past decade has major plans lined up for this decade too.

Have fun
G

The New Nightlife Era

By Gamal Hennessy

It’s a slow week in nightlife because a lot of the nightlife media is focusing less on the night to night details and more on the big picture. Steven Lewis posted a piece on the lack of originality in current nightlife music. Scott Solish did a piece comparing the creativity of past eras with modern nightlife. Another promoter associate of mine started a discussion on how hard it was to draw in a large mixed group (in terms of sexual preference, race and income) these days compared to the Limelight, Studio 54 era. On a certain level, all these writers touch on a central theme that needs to be understood by nightlife patrons and operators; the culture, society and technology has changed. Nightlife has changed with it.

There is a long list of reasons why nightlife isn’t, can’t be and won’t be what it was in the past. Higher real estate costs prompted the bottle service business model. The AIDS crisis killed many of the most creative personalities in the industry. Social networks don’t give anyone a chance to escape into the nightlife world because everything they do could be recorded forever and available to everyone instantly. Digital music and iPods mean that patrons have 24/7 control of their music now so they are rarely willing to branch out and listen to something new that a DJ might offer. Smoking is banned, dancing is illegal and noise is a crime too. With all these negative pressures, New York should be amazed and proud that we have a nightlife industry at all.

But for all the changes in nightlife, there are some things that have not changed. We still go out looking for acceptance, consumption, connection, entertainment and sex. We still want some kind of release from our daylight routines. And we can still find creativity and originality in New York nightlife. We can still make connections with people we never would have met any place else. You might have to go a little bit farther or look a little bit harder, but its out there. You might have to leave your comfort zone, but it is worth the trip. Nightlife isn’t what it was 20 years ago, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it.

Have fun.
G

Nightlife vs. Community Boards: July 2010

Compiled by Gamal Hennessy

A summary of the struggles between nightlife operators and NIMBY residents across the city.

Rooftop Bars
(Good Night Mr. Lewis)
Steven Lewis offers a detailed explanation of the bill that could curtail and suppress new and existing rooftop bars all over New York City.


Central Park
(New York Times)
Several different operators are submitting plans to revive the historic Tavern on the Green space, but they are going to have to spend up to $30 million to get the place opened again. If they fail, Mayor Bloomberg plans to make the space into a retail shop, which sounds strangely similar to the fate that the Limelight submitted to earlier this year.

East Village
(DNA Info)
A recent community board study shows that one in three storefronts in the East Village serves liquor, but with 2010 New York real estate prices who else can afford to open there besides Chase, Duane Reade and Starbucks?

Flatiron District
(DNA Info)
The owners of Buddha Bar might not be able to turn a 6,000 square foot space on Park Avenue South into an upscale lounge because when he says “I’m building a restaurant” the community board hears “I’m building a huge club.”

Lower East Side
(EV Grieve)
NIMBY’s are banding their resources to fight a liquor license transfer of Soulgasm’s Sin Sin lounge.

Upper West Side
(DNA Info)
Residents in a $5 million dollar a unit condo haven’t been able to stop a wine bar from developing on Central Park West, but the residents are planning to take the case to court to prevent the venue from opening.


Have fun.
G

Rabbit in the Moon, Sky Room and the Standard Hotel Rooftop

The Nightlife Report for June 17, 2010
Compiled by Gamal Hennessy

…I hunt down the nightlife news so you don’t have to…

Opening
Rabbit in the Moon
(Thrillist)
A new gastropub has hopped into the Village (sorry, I had to throw in that pun). Sample the foie gras with strawberry gastrique before the NYU kids come back for the fall semester and discover this place.

Standard Rooftop
(Urban Daddy)
Boom Boom Room, the club of the moment nestled inside the Standard Hotel, is opening up its rooftop this week. If you consider that Boom Boom is one of the hardest doors in the city right now and rooftop bars are typically hard to get into during the summer anyway, then you should be very proud of yourself if you get to enjoy a summer sunset here.

Sky Room
(Urban Daddy)
If you can’t get into the Standard rooftop, and you’ve had enough of Hudson Terrace or the Empire rooftop, head over to Times Square. Go into the Marriott Marquis before the park in the middle of Broadway and the tourists throngs piss you off too much, skip the revolving bar and visit this new rooftop lounge that will give you great views of everything in the city, except those people down below sitting in the middle of the street.

Government
NYC Sets Up Community Tools for Self Organizing
(Business Wire)
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is introducing a new online system that will help community boards and other citizens get access to and get involved with local government. This could make it even easier for “block associations” and community boards to band together to put pressure on local operators, but it can also be a way for nightlife supporters to get together and prove that not everyone in New York wants all the clubs closed.

Management
Trends in Successful Nightlife Operations
(Good Night Mr. Lewis)
I’ve already pointed out that various economic and political pressures on nightlife operators are forcing them to alter their business models and adapt to the changing times. Steve Lewis touches on a few of the major trends that have taken hold in the past few years including increased food service, nightlife/ hotel alliances, all digital DJ booths and guest list only events. The movement toward smaller multi purpose venues could be another sign of the end of big Pacha/ Santos type clubs in New York until someone can come up with a business model that can support it.


Have fun
Gamal