Rush: The Unofficial Illustrated History updated edition now available

Back in 2013 author and music journalist Martin Popoff released Rush: The Unauthorized Illustrated History. It was his second book on Rush with the first being the 2004 Rush biography Contents Under Pressure. A new, fully revised and updated hardback edition of Rush: The Unauthorized Illustrated History was just made available and can now be ordered online here. From the Amazon description:

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Designer Domenico Vacca closes NYC stores to focus on flagship with private club, rentals

Designer Domenico Vacca

From Luxury Listings NYC: What to call Domenico Vacca's latest venture? The Italian fashion designer and master tailor, who has dressed celebrities like Jeremy Piven, Daniel Day Lewis and Glenn Close, didn't just launch a flagship store at his new massive building on 55th Street and Fifth Avenue, which opened officially on May 3rd. He's bringing together a coffee shop, barbershop, salon, photography studio, private club, rooftop terrace, gym and - to top it off - 30 apartments that can be rented for a minimum of 30 days at prices starting at $12,000 a month. [more]

Chelsea Handler sports a vintage Moving Pictures t-shirt in the latest episode of Chelsea on Netflix

Comedian and talk show host Chelsea Handler has a new talk show on Netflix called Chelsea and in the latest episode (just made available today) she sports a vintage Moving Pictures t-shirt as seen here. Netflix subscribers can watch the show online here. Thanks to Victor M for the heads up. On a related note, the same shirt is worn by the character Quicksilver (played by Evan Peters) in the trailer for the upcoming film X-men Apocalypse which releases this coming weekend.

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Hasidic neighborhood in Williamsburg is big Section 8 beneficiary

A Hasidic family in Williamsburg (credit: Flickr)

One of the hottest real estate markets in New York City is also home to the highest concentration of Section 8 vouchers.

A Hasidic neighborhood in South Williamsburg is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the federal subsidy program, according to an analysis by WNYC and the New York Daily News. The analysis found that in 2014, 3,296 voucher holders lived across 12 Yiddish-speaking Census tracts in New York City. On the whole, the city had 123,000 vouchers in 2015, making it the largest concentration of Section 8 recipients in the country.

In the 1990s, Hasidic developers won key zoning variances to convert warehouses and industrial buildings into residences, amid claims the apartments were designated specifically for Hasidic families and only advertised in Yiddish-language newspapers, a violation of Fair Housing Act standards. Critics also claim development has been driven by informal banking and tenants who pay under the table on top of the Section 8 vouchers. In 2012, a prominent rabbi and his brother were accused of defrauding the section 8 program of $220,000 over 15 years.

Others argue that the community is simply trying to make ends meet in an increasingly expensive neighborhood.

“This is not a story of malfeasance,” Samuel Heilman, a Queens college professor who has studied the Hasidic community, told the news team. “This is a story of a community that's trying to exist in the city at a time when the city has become, and particularly the borough in which they live, extremely expensive.” [WNYC and NYDN] - Kathryn Brenzel