The Big Screen is Going Green at This Legendary Film Studio

You may see movies in color, but the name of the game at New York’s Kaufman Astoria Studios is now green.
The studio, currently home to “Sesame Street” and Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie,” starring Edie Falco (and future home of the “Smurfs” Movie, to be released next year--no, we can’t wait either) is converting to green energy. Kaufman Astoria is the oldest functioning movie studio in the city; more than 120 silent and sound films have been produced there. They include the Marx Bothers’ “Animal Crackers,” as well as “The Wiz,” “All That Jazz,” and Woody Allen's "Radio Days.”
The studio is switching from commonly used heating oil to a new mix of petroleum and biodiesel, produced by Brooklyn-based company METRO and known as “Greenheat.” It’s made from 5 percent biodiesel fuel (which includes used vegetable oil from restaurants, as well as soy and canola oils and algae) and 95 percent petroleum. The biodiesel burns much cleaner than oil and has no sulfur. The studio will be supplied with 80,000 gallons of the fuel each year, which will earn it the distinction of being the largest commercial user of Greenheat in New York.
METRO also supplies other distinctive clients--the Hampton Jitney (the bus service that ferries beachgoers to the tony Hamptons) and the City of New York.
The company will be opening a 110-million-gallon processing plant in Brooklyn later this year, which will add not just cleaner energy--but a spate of new jobs as well.

Elmo Doesn't Look A Day Over 3, But Sesame Street is 40

In the beginning, Cookie Monster smoked a pipe (only occasionally, and only in character as Alistair Cookie), the streets were dirty, and buildings were covered in graffiti. For four decades, however, generations of kids have known how to get to “Sesame Street,” which celebrates its fortieth anniversary today. Mayor Bloomberg has declared Broadway and 64th Street--you guessed it--Sesame Street, and today is officially ”Sesame Street Day” in New York City.
The show, which films in New York, has been gussied up through the years and, some may argue, is less appealing for its PC focus. (Yoga? Tofu? Really?) But as, perhaps, the best loved, most popular, and most influential children’s show ever, still known for its trademark goofiness, it deserves every accolade it’s afforded.
The special guest today is Michelle Obama; she suggests that Oscar the Grouch take a bath, and he is understandably concerned by this notion because he might get clean.
If it weren’t for “Sesame Street,” we wouldn't have Elmo or Big Bird or the Muppets. We wouldn’t have seen a children’s show cross boundaries of race and deal with issues like the death of a character, long before other shows tackled those issues. Numerous kids wouldn't have seen their own urban environment reflected on TV, and adults wouldn't have known that children’s shows could be for them, too.
But most of all, we wouldn’t have had the sheet revelry and zaniness that is the show’s hallmark. Generations of kids would still have learned their ABC’s—but perhaps not with as much sheer delight as they did on Sesame Street.

Mayor Bloomberg Gives Go-Ahead for Spanish TV Programming for Kids

With well over a million people speaking Spanish in New York, the recent initiative to offer the first Spanish-language educational TV programming for kids 2-7 years old comes at an appropriate time.
NYC TV Kids Presents V-me Niños was recently launched by Mayor Mike Bloomberg; Carmen DiRienzo, the President and CEO of V-me, a national Spanish-language network; and Katherine Oliver, the acting president of the NYC Media group.
The programming block, which includes both animated and live-action shows, can be viewed on NYC TV Channel 25, from 7:30 am to 10:00 am, Monday-Friday.
Some of the programs include ”Plaza Sesamo” (Yes, it is indeed “Sesame Street,” the classic and much-loved show for preschoolers, and yes, parents have been known to wander in and conveniently “find something that has to be done” while the show is airing as well); “Lazy Town,” a show dedicated to healthy kids that encourages them to eat healthily and to get up and move; “Five Minutes More”/”Cinco Minutas Mas” which features short segments that promote literacy with characters from Jim Henson; and “Bruno & the Banana Bunch,” which highlights a mischievous monkey who helps teach kids numbers, colors and shapes.
Three other programs complete the three-and-a-half-hour programming block, a welcome-—and much needed--addition to New York City’s TV options for kids.