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    New York’s Wu-Tang Clan Street Signs Sell Out in a Blink

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    The 100 replicas of the “Wu-Tang Clan District” sign on Staten Island, where the group was formed in 1992, were gone in less than two hours.New York celebrated the Wu-Tang Clan by releasing on Thursday 100 replicas of the street sign on Staten Island named for the group. They were all snapped up in less than two hours.The Wu-Tang Clan was formed in Staten Island’s Park Hill neighborhood in 1992, and went on to become one of hip-hop’s most beloved and influential acts. The city named an intersection in Park Hill “Wu-Tang Clan District” and unveiled the sign in 2019.The commissioner of the city’s Transportation Department, Ydanis Rodriguez, called the group “a legendary part of Staten Island’s North Shore,” in a statement replete with puns and references to Wu-Tang’s music.The department began monthly releases of limited-run replicas in June to honor famous New Yorkers and events. The proceeds go to the city’s general fund. The first one marked Pride Month with a sign reading Christopher Street/Stonewall Place, where a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, set off unrest in 1969. That replica sold out in under three hours.The replicas, which the Transportation Department sells for $75, are produced by the shop that makes New York City’s street signs. The department has compared them to limited-edition sneaker drops.The other releases include replicas of the signs honoring the Brooklyn hip-hop superstars the Notorious B.I.G. and the Beastie Boys, and Mariano Rivera, the Yankees legend. All the releases sold out quickly. More

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      in Music

      Wu-Tang Clan Album ‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ Will Be Played in Tasmania

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      The sole known copy of the album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” was not to be heard by the public until 2103. Some fans will be able to hear a selection of the 31 tracks at a museum in Hobart, Tasmania.A decade ago, the Wu-Tang Clan issued a sole copy of a CD-only album, secured it in an engraved nickel and silver box, locked it away in a vault and said it could not be heard by the public until 2103.The move was seen as a protest against the devaluation of music in the streaming era. But a year later, the album, “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” got caught up in the very capitalistic endeavors that Wu-Tang had tried to avoid, when it was purchased by Martin Shkreli, the disgraced pharmaceutical speculator who was convicted of fraud in 2017.He bought the album at auction for $2 million, only for it to be seized by the government and sold in order to pay off Mr. Shkreli’s nearly $7.4 million debt.As these things go, an NFT collective purchased the album for $4 million in 2021. And soon, if you can get yourself to the island of Tasmania off the southern coast of Australia in two weeks’ time, you might be able to hear what RZA and the producer Cilvaringz created 79 years before it was meant to go public — or a part of it anyway.From June 15 to June 24, the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania’s capital, will host a series of private listening events where visitors will be able to “experience” a selection of the 31 tracks from the group’s seventh studio album. “You hear talk about once-in-a-lifetime opportunities,” the museum wrote on the exhibit page. “This is probably one of them.”Free tickets, “if you are lucky enough to secure” them, the museum said, can be reserved starting Thursday.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      Pete Davidson Plans F.D.N.Y. Community Service to Resolve Crash Case

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      The former “Saturday Night Live” cast member faced a reckless driving charge in California. His father, a New York City firefighter, was killed responding to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.Pete Davidson, the comedian, actor and former “Saturday Night Live” cast member, has reached an agreement that allows him to resolve a reckless driving charge in California by doing community service with the New York Fire Department, officials said on Monday.Mr. Davidson is a Staten Island native whose father, Scott, was a New York City firefighter who died while responding to the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 — an experience that helped inform Mr. Davidson’s 2020 film, “The King of Staten Island.”The reckless driving charge, a misdemeanor, was filed against Mr. Davidson last month by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. It said he crashed a Mercedes-Benz into a house near Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills in March, The Los Angeles Times reported. No one was injured, The Times reported.On July 19, a judge placed Mr. Davidson into an 18-month diversion program, according to a statement from the district attorney’s office on Monday. He must pay restitution, attend 12 hours of traffic school, visit a morgue to learn about what happens to victims of reckless driving, and perform 50 hours of community service.Mr. Davidson’s lawyer has indicated that the community service “is likely to be completed at” the New York Fire Department, the statement said. Details of the diversion program were reported earlier by TMZ.A lawyer for Mr. Davidson did not respond to a request for comment.Amanda Farinacci, a Fire Department spokeswoman, called Mr. Davidson “the son of a 9/11 hero” and, without offering details, said the department “would be happy to provide” him a chance to complete his service. (Mr. Davidson can also complete the diversion program’s other terms in New York, the district attorney’s office said.)A stand-up comic before joining the “Saturday Night Live” cast in fall 2014, Mr. Davidson left the NBC show after the season finale last year. His most recent project is the streaming series “Bupkis.”Doing his community service in New York could allow Mr. Davidson to check up on another project tied to his Staten Island roots: a decommissioned ferry that he and Colin Jost, a fellow “Saturday Night Live” cast member — and fellow Staten Islander — bought last year with other investors for $280,000.One vision for the aging vessel involved turning it into what one of the investors called an “arts and entertainment venue.” But Mr. Davidson sounded uncertain about the ferry’s future in an interview with “Entertainment Tonight” last month.“I have no idea what’s going on with that thing,” he said. “Me and Colin were very stoned a year ago and bought a ferry. And we’re figuring it out.” More