Middle Jonas Brother tells MTV News the Big Apple 'is unlike anywhere in the world.' By Jocelyn Vena
Nick Jonas Photo: MTV News
Nick Jonas kicks off his rehearsals for his starring role in "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying" this week. The role means that the singer/actor has relocated to the Big Apple for his run in the hit Broadway show. But, Nick is no New York newbie, having previously starred in several other musicals. And, he admits that he's excited to get back into a New York state of mind.
"Favorite thing about New York? I think the fact that it's all here all on this island — well in Manhattan, at least — and it's just an amazing city," he told MTV News. "The energy here is unlike anywhere in the world, and so many creative and talented people in this city and so many people that are passionate about theater and the arts and the things I'm really passionate about. Being around those people inspires me in so many ways. I think it's one of those places that you have to live in once in your life and I'm blessed to be here."
Jonas will pick up where both "Harry Potter" himself, Daniel Radcliffe, and "Glee" star Darren Criss left off as the show's very own J. Pierrepont Finch. And in the weeks leading up to his opening night on January 24, Nick plans on not only rehearsing, but also carving out a place for himself in NYC. "I think I'm really looking forward to setting up my world here," the 19-year-old New Jersey native explained. "I've had the opportunity, this last year spending more time in L.A. and being based there primarily, to kind of build a community of friends and have that whole atmosphere. And I hope to do the same here and hopefully have my friends come out and visit me here."
For Nick's L.A. friends wondering if he'll have any time for you now that he's on the East Coast, he's got this message for you: "I've got a guest bedroom, so I'll be able to have some friends over to stay."
WASHINGTON -- Capital Bikeshare is now moving forward with making the corporate sponsorship plan that was being considered in the fall a reality.
The Huffington Post caught up with two of the program's District Department of Transportation project managers, Chris Holben and Josh Moskowitz, who said that Capital Bikeshare has begun to map out who will advertise and how after receiving approval in May from the D.C. Council during city budget discussions.
Moskowitz explained that the program is in the process of writing what will likely be an Invitation for Bid, which will solicit prospective partners to submit proposals for potential advertising plans. Although details regarding the nature of the IFB are still being sketched out, Moskowitz said that it will likely be broken up into several components, including sign advertising and title sponsorship.
Where would the advertisements go? One plan is to change the two-sided map panels currently on display at each station, which feature a local map of nearby stations on one side and a larger regional map of the entire Capital Bikeshare network on the other. Moskowitz said that the regional maps would likely be nixed in favor of an advertising component.
As HuffPost reported in September, title sponsorship -- the naming rights to the program and visual branding -- are now being considered as major components.
"We envision being able to place your logo on the bike itself," Moskowitz said. "And then naming rights may also be something that we'll look at as well, depending on the offers. ... Price will be a significant metric that we look at in evaluating our proposals."
Moskowitz said the bikeshare system is open to any number of advertising schemes, which could include a plan to integrate promotions with the partner company into the program's daily operations.
There isn't a definitive timeline for when this will all happen, but advertising solicitation will likely be put out before any such thing for title sponsorship, and Moskowitz and his team are hoping to get things moving "as soon as possible." When finalized, advertising measures will only apply to bikes and stations in the District of Columbia because, Moskowitz said, "Arlington right now doesn't have the ability to do that legally," noting restrictions on bikeshare funding in the Virginia county, which is also part of the system.
The push for advertisers comes as Capital Bikeshare continues attempts to become financially sustainable.
Last winter, the program reduced the number of bikes available city-wide. "When we first started out the system last fall, it was two-thirds full of bikes," said Holben. "We realized for operational reasons that was too much." It lowered the dock-to-bike ratio from 66 percent to 50 percent, leaving the total number of bikes in the system at 1,144.
In November of last year, the program took a step further by upping up the price of a pass from $5 to $7.
Despite these measures, ridership has declined in recent months. Washington City Paper's Lydia DePillis recently took note:
I've got to say, it's not the weather. We've had an uncommonly mild fall and winter, with only a few unbikeably frigid days--on balance, no worse than the heat of the summer. ... It's true that tourism in D.C. is a highly seasonal business, and it looks like visitors might be a bigger part of the Bikeshare constituency than I, at least, had expected.
Holben downplayed the suggestion that enthusiasm for the program, which launched in September 2010, is beginning to taper off. "We're just starting our second year of service, so it's still pretty new of what is standard and what is the first year," he said. "We knew that usage would drop as the weather got colder and as the number of tourists in town decreases, which happens in fall and winter. This happened last year, too."
Unlike other cities with bikeshare programs -- including Boston, Minneapolis, Denver and Montreal -- D.C.'s remains open in winter, a decision influenced partly by the city's milder weather and its effective methods of snow removal. Although closing the program in colder months might save money, it was never something DDOT considered. "Usually, people are clamoring for the system to be open," Holben said.
Moskowitz is assured that ridership numbers will bounce back to what they were pre-chill.
"Certainly, I think as we approach the spring and summer months ... we're going to be able to meet and exceed the ridership numbers that we've seen." The financial bump from advertisers, he said, will help the program continue to thrive. "It will also give us the resources to continue to expand."
Last month, Montgomery County officials applied for a $1 million grant from the Maryland Department of Transportation that would bring 29 stations and 204 bikes to areas between the Capital Beltway and the Maryland-D.C. border, with stations in Bethesda, Friendship Heights/Chevy Chase, the Medical Center area, Silver Spring and Takoma Park.
In June, the county received a $1.3 million grant for stations outside the Beltway, in places like Rockville and the Shady Grove Metrorail station.
In September, Capital Bikeshare announced plans to install 32 additional docking stations in the District and another 30 in Arlington County, and a month later, it announced the system would expand to Alexandria.
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Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks during a campaign stop at the Stoney Creek Inn, Monday, Jan. 2, 2012, in Sioux City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks during a campaign stop at the Stoney Creek Inn, Monday, Jan. 2, 2012, in Sioux City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks during a campaign stop at the Stoney Creek Inn, Monday, Jan. 2, 2012, in Sioux City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks during a campaign stop at the Stoney Creek Inn, Monday, Jan. 2, 2012, in Sioux City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) ? Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, campaigning in Iowa's heavily conservative northwest corner the day before Tuesday's caucuses, urged conservatives to support one of their own who hasn't been part of the Washington and Wall Street establishments.
Perry continued to have trouble with the details as he addressed potential supporters in a Sioux City hotel lobby Monday afternoon. In challenging rival Rick Santorum's support for home-state projects funded with federal money, the Texas governor referred to "the Bridge to Nowhere in Arizona." Actually, the project that became a symbol of runaway pork-barrel spending was planned for Alaska.
He got that detail right later in Carroll as his campaign bus rumbled toward a jam-packed caucus-eve rally in Perry, Iowa, that featured Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
"When we win the big Iowa caucuses tomorrow, that's the only one that matters," a buoyant Perry told supporters.
Yet the error earlier in the day underscored concerns about Perry's mastery of basic facts.
During one debate, he pledged to eliminate three federal agencies but failed to remember which ones he was talking about. He confused Iraq and Iran during a town hall meeting in South Carolina, and last weekend, he confused the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
That's part of the reason Perry has tried to make the focus of his speeches his rivals' weaknesses.
Perry singled out Santorum, whose recent rise in polling appears to come at the expense of the Texas governor and Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. The three are widely seen as competing for the more conservative caucus-goers, particularly evangelicals driven by social issues, in the contest to pick a challenger to President Barack Obama.
"He's raised the debt limit more than Obama's raised the debt limit," Perry said of Santorum, pointing to the former Pennsylvania congressman and senator's eight votes to increase the nation's borrowing power.
Turning to another rival, Rep. Ron Paul, Perry said the Texas congressman's foreign policy was tantamount to "appeasement."
"We will be living in the 1930s again," he said. "Let me tell you, when Ron Paul is further to the left on foreign policy than Barack Obama, that ought to tell you something. That is a dangerous situation."
Perry challenged his rivals' potential and cited his own record as Texas' longest-serving governor in arguing for his candidacy.
"Why would you settle for anything other than an authentic conservative who will fight for your views and values and not make an apology for them, not one time?" he asked. "Are we going to replace a Democrat insider with a Republican insider and expect to get any change in Washington, D.C.?"
Continuing his core argument that he has experience creating jobs and dealing with issues that face the nation, he said: "It's easy to get up and say, 'You know, gee, I wish I'd have been on the field, I would have run that touchdown in.' ... We done it in Texas."
The race remains fluid and Iowans are still shopping for candidates.
"I think he's an excellent candidate, but I'm still not decided," said Paul Massey, a 65-year-old eyeglass salesman from Sioux City who visited Perry. "He is saying what I want to hear and he is sincere for sure. But I want to make sure I vote for and caucus for someone who is a winner."
There has been much reductive talk about how PARIAH is PRECIOUS 2011. While they both deal with a protagonist trying to break free of her stifling family situation, PARIAH is much more gentle in tone and tells the tale of a young, tomboy lesbian navigating her way through life. Adepero Oduye has such charm as Alike, a smart high school student who doesn't quite know what to do with herself yet. Kim Wayans, who has excelled in comedy in the past, is striking and vivid as her less-than-supportive mother, while Charles Parnell is charming and wonderful as her father. Pernell Walker plays a character you don't get to see often in film, the butch lesbian friend, while Aasha Davis has the impossible role of a friend who turns into a love interest, and then has a strange, out-of-left-field turn. She charms despite the odd transition. I found myself caring very much for this cast of characters, mainly because of the refreshingly articulate way they expressed themselves. It's a breath of fresh air to see a so-called "urban" (hate that term) drama where the people in it seem to care about music, books, and each other.If I had a complaint, it would be about the cinematography. Although there are beautiful images to be had here, the hand-held work felt annoying at times. Sometimes stillness, especially with a main character who lives so well in it, is the right way to go.That aside, this could be the sleeper hit of 2011. A film with a beating heart and soul.
LONDON ? Stock markets around the world were seeing out 2011 fairly positively Friday, but most posted big declines for the year in the wake of Europe's debt crisis, a faltering U.S. economy and signs that China's economy is no longer sizzling.
Markets have also been rocked by natural disasters, trading scandals, and sharp fluctuations in commodity prices, particularly in the price of oil amid the political turmoil in the Arab world.
In Europe, the trading backdrop has been particularly grim, with many of the main markets posting their worst year since 2008. That's perhaps unsurprising given that most of the financial world's attention has centered on the debt crisis, which has already seen three relatively small countries bailed out and is threatening a much-bigger country ? Italy.
Nevertheless, the last day of the year proved positive. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed up 0.1 percent at 5,572.28, meaning that it ended the year 5.6 percent lower, while Germany's DAX ended 0.9 percent higher at 5,898.35, a 14.7 percent decline over the year. And the CAC-40 in France ended 1 percent higher at 3,159.81. Despite its hefty rise Friday, it ended the year around 17 percent lower from where it started.
With policymakers failing to convince markets that they can deal with the crisis and the eurozone widely predicted to slip back into recession next year, the euro is ending 2011 just below the $1.30 mark, after falling to a 15-month low against the dollar on Thursday at $1.2857. Despite all the debt problems afflicting the eurozone, the euro has held up pretty well in 2011 ? it started the year at $1.3345.
Much of the attention next year, at least in the early months, will likely center on Italy, the eurozone's third-largest economy.
Italy is the focal point of the eurozone's struggle to deal with a crisis, caused by heavy levels of government debt in a number of the 17 countries that use the single currency. Fears of default on those debts mean that bond investors demand ever-higher interest. If a country can no longer borrow affordably to pay off bonds that are maturing, it winds up needing a bailout or defaulting.
Markets had grown fearful over the past few months over Italy's massive debt burden of euro1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion) and Italy's ability to continue dealing with it. Next year alone, Italy has some euro330 billion ($431 billion) of debt to refinance and it will want its borrowing rates to start falling. It will start the new year with its benchmark ten-year yield standing around the 7 percent mark, a level that is considered unsustainable in the long-run and eventually forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek bailouts.
"There is no hiding from the fact that Italy's benchmark ten-year bond yield is up over 2 percent on the year compared to declines in other major European economies," said Will Hedden, sales trader at IG Index.
Wall Street traded modestly lower but U.S. stocks have performed much more solidly than their European and Asian counterparts this year, largely on the back of a strong year-end performance related to an upbeat run of U.S. economic data.
The Dow Jones industrial average looks like it's going to end up higher for the year. Though trading Friday 0.1 percent lower at 12,277, it's still above the 11,577.51 mark it started the year. However, it's still touch and go though whether the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index will end up in the black. It's down 0.1 percent at 1,263, marginally up on the year's startpoint of 1,257.64.
Though the performance of the U.S. economy has played second fiddle to Europe for much of the year, it has the potential for shoring up confidence in 2012 ? an election year in the U.S. ? if the recent positive news continues.
"Crystal ball-gazing can begin in earnest over the weekend but I am tempted to conclude ? more of the same in Europe, easier policy in China, and further asset reflation in the U.S., which finally gets life back into the housing market and thereby drives optimism about the 2013 economic outlook," said Sebastien Galy, an analyst at Societe Generale.
Asian markets have already closed out the year and most markets had a year to forget. Japan's Nikkei 225 index, after three straight days of losses, managed to eke out a 0.4 percent rise Friday to end the year at 8,429.45. However, that was its lowest closing since 1982.
Meanwhile, China's benchmark gained 1.2 percent to close at 2,199.42 ? still, a 21 percent loss for the year as the impact of Beijing's multibillion-dollar stimulus faded and the government tightened curbs on lending and investment to cool blistering economic growth.
Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.2 percent to close at 18,434.39 ? a precipitous slide of 19.7 percent from a year ago. Singapore's Straits Times Index closed down 1 percent at 2,646.35 ? a 17.5 percent dive.
Australia's benchmark S&P ASX 200 ended the year at 4,140.4 ? down 0.4 percent on the day and 14.5 percent lower for 2011. A day earlier, South Korea's benchmark Kospi closed at 1,825.74 on Thursday ? 11 percent down on its last trading session of the year Thursday.
Oil prices, meanwhile, were poised to close out the year below the $100 a barrel mark ? benchmark crude for February delivery was down 10 cents at $99.55 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.
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