Friday, July 15, 2011

Are You Ready for "The World Music and Food Fair"!


Preparations are already underway for Stuy Town's World Music and Food Fair.

This one actually does sound interesting--well, at least the food sounds interesting, though it's listed as "gourmet," when it seems to be just "ethnic" food. But we can't have this being promoted as ethnic food cause that just doesn't sound as pretentiously snotty (no doubt, courtesy Lady Maya Autret, ST's Director of Programming) as we'd like all our future residents to be, so "gourmet" it is. The food will come from Petite Abeille, Balade, Veselka and Wacky Wok. Would be nice if residents received free samples.... And maybe some free ethnic beer--no, better make that, "gourmet wine." I just hope those food-dive food trucks don't turn up and spoil this upscale food fair atmosphere.

I may have trouble with some of the music, though. The Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra is all wrong for an event like this. Brazilian fusion music--from Nation Beat--is not my thing (though I like regular Brazilian music). While Meklit Hadero, a truly impressive talent, needs the intimacy of a club rather than the sweaty open Oval with people pigging out on food and dribbling it over the Oval grass. Anyway, you are guaranteed to hear some "foot-stomping global flair" at the Oval this Saturday. What I've been waiting for all summer. And you seniors, get yer asses off those benches, and join the fun!

Now, here's the kicker, this event is "Free to all residents and their guests." Yup, only residents and their guests will be allowed to participate in this World Music and Food Fair. Says so, right here:



So, unless this is typical Rose Associates promotional BS, non-residents will have to either pay for entry or be stopped by Security from entry. Right, Adam?

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Update: What was I thinking!?!? I just did a google on this, and the above event is being promoted all over the place on the web. Didn't management state that there was no outside promotion of events supposedly meant just for "residents and their guests"???

Here's a sampling of what a quick Google search uncovered:







Hey New York! Come on over! We're having a party! It's on us!

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, I'm away this weekend but it sounds like a blast!

Please take some pics for me.

Gonna make sure I'm in town for it next year.

Anonymous said...

In the immortal words of Rosanne Rosannadana (RIP lovely Gilda) "I think I'm gonna be SICK!"

Anonymous said...

They are "warming up," and I've never heard the "music" this LOUD. It's only 11:15 AM. Adam Rose was supposedly monitoring the noise levels of the Oval concerts, but that was obviously total bullshit. Unbelievable. Rose shows NO respect for this community and the tenants who reside here.

Anonymous said...

It is 11.35 AM. And the noise from the sound checks has begun.

Anonymous said...

It says the music begins at 4:00 PM, yet I can hear the deafening noise already in my apartment, and it's before noon. I don't even live that close to the Oval.

Adam Rose - go fuck yourself.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

I live away from the Oval (thankfully), but I did pass by around noon, and a sound check started then, too. I didn't think it was as loud as ones I've heard before, but if you are at the Oval, you can obviously hear the noise, so there goes your Saturday early afternoon. And, yes, all this good stuff is supposed to start at 4pm.

The Joy Ride truck was there, too, but now using electric current, so, basically, noiseless. There's always a few people who will pass by and buy something from the truck, but I'm surprised Joy Ride considers this a good market, as I'd assume they'd get way more customers out in the touristy streets of Manhattan. Of course, the cops are sending a lot of these trucks out of areas of the city, so perhaps losers, like Joy Ride in this case, can't be choosers.

Today, I'm basically stuck in Stuy Town, so I will be monitoring this fair on occasion.

Anonymous said...

STR, do "sound checks" last this long? I've been hearing this awful music since 11:15 AM, and it's now 12:30 PM. This is clearly not a "sound check." If Rose says the music starts at 4:00 PM, that's when they should start playing, and this is showing disrespect to all the tenants who live here and who are trying to enjoy a lovely, peaceful Saturday at home. And you're wrong about the sound level - I don't live even close to the Oval and can hear it.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

I think sound checks go on whenever any band or musician wants one. There's three bands playing today, so each one is going to want sound check time, for each instrument, vocal, etc. That's why when there is a timed musical even in Stuy Town, the music/noise never starts when it's supposed to, but hours earlier.

Anonymous said...

Residents and their guests my ASS! They are such LIARS!

Anonymous said...

This is simply not the venue for this crap. If any tenant is looking for respect from Adam Rose, they'll never find it. He's not here for tenants. He's here to bully old tenants, he's here for CW and he's here to to sucker new people in. He's here to continue the devastation of Stuy Town and he's doing a brilliant job. As one commenter said, he should go fuck himself. He's a creep. Food trucks are disgusting. He's disgusting. Coincidence? Fuck you, Adam Rose.

Anonymous said...

How much food does the Oval need? Is food all Lady Maya can think about? She may need some professional help!

Anonymous said...

Yep! What 630pm said! And 236. There shouldn't be sound checks either. There should be nothing to check. Just because it's not as loud as other times doesn't mean it's ok. It's not ok.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

I was at the music and food fair today. The sound checks turned into a concert early on, before the official 4pm start, even before 3pm. "Gourmet" food including things like pierogi (which is obviously not gourmet).

The first band (Arturo O’Farrill/jazz) was pretty loud, but in a way it had to be, because the follow-up performer, Meklit Hadero, could not be heard at times. The Oval is an open space with sound traveling freely about and mixing with the sounds of crowds of people having conversations, so the bands have to play loud to be heard. Of course, that will disturb tenants who don't want to hear the bands. And a double of course, the Oval was never created to have concerts. But, whatever.

A little over 100 people were there at the start, with most of them present hours before because they were sunbathing. When the concert started, many of these young people seemed to ignore it, with their backs away from the stage, as they faced the sun. As the hour proceeded, people came flooding in. Tenants and outsiders who had heard of the event. I didn't count heads after that, but total attendance may have reached 300 or so. It was certainly the most attended event I have seen this year, but it was also advertized on the web as a free event for New Yorkers.

I didn't stay for the third act and got the sense that by then most people were tired out already. One just felt the energy dropping after the first performers finished. I'm assuming the crowds started to filter away soon thereafter.

During the first performance, four airhead Yunnies (Urban Young Narcissists)--two Nautilus pumped up guys in shorts and their girlfriends in bikinis--decided it would be cool to throw a football around RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE STAGE AND BLOCKING PEOPLE'S VIEW OF THE CONCERT. Fuckin' idiots. It almost seemed as if they were more interested in displaying their clowning and bodies to the crowds than anything else. A woman in the front complained to them, but they just shrugged her off, laughing. Luckily a security guard was called over and explained the situation. You could see from the reaction of one of the airheads, a guy, that he still didn't realize what the problem was. Didn't their parents teach them anything about consideration for their fellow human beings and that they are not gods gifts to mankind who should be admired 24/7?

Overall, I thought it was an okay, even enjoyable event as a single entity and not part of a cavalcade of summer events that Rose Associates is pushing on us. I've nothing against the occasional summer concert or the film series.

One other thing: No doubt the rats and mice of the Oval will be well-fed tonight.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

I received another comment, but the commentator placed it in an earlier post, from June, so I'm repeating it here:

"How do they go from the jazz band at 4PM to this country/crap band at 6? Really! Who came up with this one? And why O why O do they keep coming up with anything when I have never seen more than a 200-300 people there (and that's a high estimate). That means for the 200 people on the Oval the THOUSAND who live in apartment surrounding the OVal are trapped having this "music" pumped into their homes. This is not a park, it is a residential area and people HOMES!!! Let some of these fools move into apartments here and deal with it. DAMN! I wish they'd go away."

Anonymous said...

It's ironic that Rose is spending money on attractions that will bring in people from outside the complex (not prospective renters) and which don't interest many of the people who actually live here. At the same time we have to go off the complex to do our laundry (which is taking revenue from PCVST) because Rose won't spend any money on upgrading the crappy machines or even cleaning the laundry rooms. Just doesn't make any sense to me.

Anonymous said...

Earlier this year on this blog, Adam saw the error of his ways (that's what he said) and stepped up to the plate, saying he'd respond to all complaints even from anonymous sources. Are we hearing from him anymore, aside from his giant FY every time he turns the Oval into Coney Island and a rat haven?

Fifteen-Year Resident said...

There were so few people at the time I strolled into the Oval (4:30 or so) I was embarrassed for the promoters AND the performers. I was mainly interested in seeing Merklit - best not at this venue, considering how low-key her gig turned out to be - but I noticed how sparse the crowd and few the food tents seemed to be for such a BFD. This sort of gathering never happened before the new owners decided to go market rate and rid StuyTown of families and seniors. It is most definitely a bad idea to continue live music in the Oval if such low turn-out is the result. I was shocked to see food trucks parked in the Oval..I hadn't seen nor heard of that before. This should be the last live music here. I can't see how this makes anyone living here happy. If our new management team thinks we need outside interest in the community, bring back the annual ONE DAY flea market this fall - RESIDENTS ONLY vendors, pls.

Anonymous said...

A good ol fashion flea market doesn't jive with their strip mall-ification of the oval. Don't hold your breathe!

Anonymous said...

They're having enough trouble renting out the units now that everybody knows the place is full of bed bugs. Imagine how bad it would be if we get a reputation for fleas as well!

Anonymous said...

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