02/06/13 2:00pm

Here’s a roundup of our top posts in January 2013. Friends, you like reading about new real estate development in western Queens, great movies (Rise of the Guardians) at the Museum of the Moving Image, dumplings (a perpetual fave), and that awesome story about rock gods The Who donating new equipment to LIC Bar.

5. Hunters Point South building at 1-50 50th Ave moves forward with approved zoning

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On December 18, the zoning for the Hunters Point South building that will be at 1-50 50th Avenue has been approved, according to the Department of Buildings. The plan exam is still listed as “disapproved.” The original plan submitted in mid-April was disapproved, then resubmitted in early October – that, too was disapproved.

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11/21/12 3:45pm

Homestead for the holidays in Kew Gardens

Homestead Gourmet Shop is the name of a 65-year old Polish deli and grocery in Kew Gardens that sells a variety of things from sausages, to Black Forest hams, to potato salads, and Eastern European groceries. It’s a great place to pick up some treats for Thanksgiving and beyond. Consider their authentic strudels – apple, cherry or cheese – or their Dutch apple cake, or something savory like their perogies or pastrami briskets. It’s all there, waiting for you.

Pies are coming from TX for Sandy victims

Bud Royer of Royer’s Roundtop Cafe, in Austin, TX is here in NYC, and has brought hundreds of pies with him to feed Hurricane Sandy victims. He originally wanted to send full Thanksgiving dinners, but after some thought decided that pies would be a better choice. The plan is to drive “650 homemade pies to New Jersey and New York and distribute them to relief agencies and soup kitchens.” Hundreds of gift cards are also with the pies. Bud and friends left on Sunday and are now in the area. Thank you, Bud!

The fate of the Rockaway boardwalk food vendors

We looked into the status of the Rockaway boardwalk food vendors, and as you may have guessed, most did not fare well. It’s heartbreaking to read the commentary by some of the business owners (“Caracas Rockaway… totally destroyed as well as the whole peninsula…”) and the photos, like the one below of DiCosmos:

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Image source: DiCosmos

Rippers seemed to have made it through with just some damage to the building – the lengthy beach in front of it seems to have kept the storm surge from interfering too much. We hope they will rebuild, but the boardwalk destruction adds yet another challenge to the pot. We shall see.

Stuff the Turkey for the Rockaways from NYU

This is a great video of the efforts by NYU students to help the Hurricane Sandy survivors during this Thanksgiving.

The Art of the Rise of the Guardians at MOMI

Rise of the Guardians, a fantastic animated special (in 3D) opens today! We saw a preview of it and it really is something wonderful – great for kids of all ages. Over at the Museum of the Moving Image they’ve installed an exhibit called The Art of the Rise of the Guardians, containing art and artifacts from the filmmaking process. There are a couple of videos playing, too. Over in Bartos Screening Room they are running Creating an Epic (dir. Patrick Hanenberger, 70 mins), a sort of “making of” kind of film, which is really interesting and explaining a lot about the concepts behind the movie. This is definitely worth seeing.

11/21/12 3:00pm

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Image courtesy of Museum of the Moving Image. The exhibition, “The Art of Rise of the Guardians,” is on view at Museum of the Moving Image in New York, November 10, 2012, through March 3, 2013. 

The new animated film, Rise of the Guardians, is in theaters starting today, and we can tell you that it is fabulous (we are told that this is the most advanced animated film in history). We attended a press preview the other day, and were really impressed with what the Museum of the Moving Image has done to present the art involved with this movie. Their exhibit is called The Art of Rise of the Guardians, and it is full of art and artifacts from the filmmaking process.

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