Kids who weren't even born when AIDS was an epidemic that ravaged the American gay and IV drug-using communities are apparently oblivious to the potential toll it can take on its generation. New York City's Dept. of Health reported that the number of HIV infections among city high schoolers (between the ages of 13 and 19) rose 29% between 2004 and 2006. Current figures are not yet available, but Rep. Anthony Weiner is proposing a......

Photo: Banksy Banksy, the cheeky street artist/prankster turned multimillionaire art star, was in town last week, presumably for the Damien Hirst-coordinated auction at Sotheby’s to benefit the (Project) RED campaign, which works with corporations like the Gap to raise money for the treatment of A.I.D.S. patients in Africa. The $48 million raised at the event – through the sale of works by Hirst, Banksy, Jeff Koons, Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning and others – will......

Times Square Shuffle, by ShhPeKo at flickrToday on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired and a large crowd at 98th St. and Rockaway Blvd. in Queens, a carjacking on Ave. Y and Nostrand Ave. in Brooklyn, and an overturned auto on 28th St. and 7th Ave. in Manhattan. The New York Post continues to discover the brave new world of "twisted sex play," commonly known as BDSM. The gentrification of Harlem is colorblind, to the......

Sure, you could go to a traditional sports bar to watch the Super Bowl, but that would just be so . . . traditional. We've rounded up a few more options for you -- find one to suit your mood. For something a little less ordinary, try the Blind Tiger. Having cleared up their liquor license drama from early last year, they've been up and back in action for some time now. As for......

When you're found to be making pipe bombs amidst an apartment arsenal of weapons and then confess to painting swastikas in your Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, expect the book to be thrown at you repeatedly. Ivaylo Ivanov was charged with over 100 criminal counts for his activities. Found in the Remsen Street apartment he shared with AIDS researcher Dr. Michael Clatts (they had their own living spaces in the duplex) were a "sniper rifle, machine gun,......

Above right image from WNBC, below photograph of 58 Remsen Street from the Daily News Yesterday we mentioned that a cache of weapons - including a number of pipe bombs - were found in a Remsen Street apartment in Brooklyn Heights. Now it turns out the apartment was shared by an ex-con and a professor at Columbia University! Ivaylo Ivanov got the attention of police around 1AM yesterday morning, claiming he was shot in......

RENT, the surprise smash hit musical that premiered in 1996 and went on to become the seventh-longest-running Broadway show in history, will close June 1st, producers have announced. Over the years the show cultivated a fanatical army of young repeat viewers (“Rentheads”) whose ardor has translated into profits of $280 million on Broadway, four Tony awards and a Pulitzer. Productions have been mounted on six continents, while an ill-conceived movie version of the show, filmed......

Singer-songwriter Elvis Perkins has steadily cultivated a loyal following with his warm and thoughtful catalog of tunes. Subdued but soulful, and sometimes swinging, Perkins's debut album Ash Wednesday won critical raves for what Pitchfork called his "ability to merge instrumentation and lyricism to create a romantic's sense of atmosphere." Rolling Stone's review observed a somewhat sombre tone in the album and attributed it to Perkins's unique and rather traumatic family history: His father, actor Anthony......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: serious trauma on 51st St. in Brooklyn, a missing person on 90th St. and Amsterdam Ave. in Manhattan, and a large fight at 1087 Broadway in Brooklyn. A Brooklyn high school student was stabbed to death yesterday after school. The fatal injury occurred as he was attempting to rob another kid on a playground. Don Imus will be returning to the air with a "sidekick," who is black. The......

Evidence continues to be collected and associates continue to be questioned as the police try to solve the murder of "broker to the stars" Linda Stein. Stein, who managed the Ramones back in the day and had many famous friends, was found bludgeoned to death in her exclusive Fifth Avenue apartment on October 30. So far, the police have spoken to former business associates, her family, construction workers and building residents, as well as removed......

The Brooklyn Paper has a sad tale of some Prospect Heights kittens. The ferals wandered into the back yard of the Pond family, who immediately fell in love, had them spayed/neutered, called them their own and named them Inky, Blinky, Mookie and Clyde.The Ponds grew so attached to their backyard kitties that they began treating them as if they were their own. They had the cats spayed and neutered. They fed them daily. When the......

The Health Department released preliminary data that shows HIV infections increasing among gay men under age 30. Specifically, for men-who-have-sex- with-other-men (MSM) under 30, HIV cases have increased by 33% and account for 44% of all new diagnoses (in 2001, they accounted for 31% of all new cases). The number of older MSM with new diagnoses of HIV is declining, but the number of new HIV cases for MSM between ages 13 and 19 has......

The police arrested the boyfriend of a woman found murdered in a Soho apartment. The victim, Denise Deperrie, was found by her roommate on Wednesday and police immediately suspected Juan Rios, her boyfriend who had slashed her with a samurai sword in July. The Daily News reports that Rios had checked himself into a hospital yesterday, saying, "I did a bad thing." Deperrie and Rios met at a methadone clinic. According to Newsday, Rios attacked......

Police are investigating the death of a woman found in her apartment. A roommate of the 36-year-old woman found her alone in the Crosby Street (at Grand) apartment - with two stab wounds. The roommate had been away over the Labor Day weekend and apparently neighbors had noticed a smell. WABC 7 reports, "No one in the neighborhood seems to know the victim who was reportedly staying with an ex-boyfriend after having issues with a......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: American Body Shop (Sunday, 10:00 p.m., Comedy Central) A spoof of the fakeality vehicle tweaking genre with former NYC Transit cop John DiResta as part of the ensemble cast. World Series of Pop Culture (Monday, 9:00 p.m. VH1) NY1's Pat Kieran hosts this trivia battle royal show starting its second season. The Bronx is Burning (Monday, 10:00 p.m., ESPN) The first part of an eight part miniseries......

The New York City council is allocating a cool $4 million to combat childhood obesity - which works out to about a dollar per extra pound or something like that. According to a June 2003 DOH report, 43% of elementary school children in the City are overweight or obese. The cash will provide for education and physical fitness programs. Thank your City Council member here. The New York Times reported yesterday that the International AIDS......

We know that the last thing City kids want to think about is the next school year, especially with summer vacation just starting or just about to kick off. But parents may want to check out the latest City Health Information newsletter from the Department of Health (DOH) that outlines the medical evaluations, immunizations, and screenings Junior will need before returning to the schoolhouse this fall. The full newsletter is available here. Already helping keep......

TOMORROW!: (Due to expected rain, this event will take place tomorrow.) It's that time again...Shakespeare in the Park is back and kicking off its season tonight. Want to add some tragedy to your summer sunset this evening? Then head over to get tickets starting at 1pm today for Romeo and Juliet. You can pick up your free tickets starting at 1pm at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park, or from 1 to 3pm at The......

FILM: A tribute to Jean Genet on film begins tonight at BAM. The focus will be on films inspired by the French writer, as well as Genet's own Un Chant D'Amour. BAM describes the festival further: A writer, criminal, homosexual, activist, and self-styled renegade, Jean Genet creates incendiary work that offers dreamlike evocations of moral ambiguity in a repressed society, and is rife with homosexuality, outlandish fantasies of submission, and acts of violence. This series......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a stabbing at Utica and Atlantic Aves. in Brooklyn, an overturned auto with passenger ejection on the LIE in Queens, and a report of a suspicious device on 43rd St. and Lexington Ave. in Manhattan. NJ police located the driver of the red pickup truck that initiated the chain reaction car crash that's left the state's Governor John Corzine seriously injured. The 20-year-old driver will not be ticketed. Hoping......

After the NY Times reported the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene wanted to encourage adult men at risk for HIV/AIDS to get circumcised, Mayor Bloomberg distanced himself a bit from such a program. According to today's NY Times, Bloomberg officials "cautioned that [a campaign to promote circumcision] was still in its infancy and not yet something the administration had decided to pursue."Asked about the approach at a news conference, Mr. Bloomberg expressed support for......

In a Department of Health and Mental Hygiene two-fer, the DOH announced that 5 million NYC Condoms were given given away between February 14 and March 14, while the Times reveals that the DOH is also working on a campaign to promote circumcision. The condoms, which the city handed out to the public on Valentine's Day and distributed to community organizations and stores, are a "sensation" according to Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden. Frieden said, "I......

Oh, Fred the Cat, how we miss stories about you! The legacy of Fred is mentioned as the NY Times updates what's happening with the fake vet the undercover kitty cat helped bust. Last year, after a dog owner was suspicious of supposed vet Steven Vassall's treatment (the dog had an open wound and was not given meds post-op), the Brooklyn DA's office called in Fred for a sting that led to Vassall being charged......

The pseudonymous Lux Nightmare burst onto the alt porn scene as a college student at Columbia where she launched the naked-guy-and-girl site That Strange Girl, featuring stills and video of herself and numerous other models who looked like they could be her fellow classmates. At a time when Suicide Girls and Burning Angel were coming to prominence, That Strange Girl (who, full disclosure, this interviewer posed for) was a homegrown, indie entry in the genre.......

The NY Times has a good article about the second trial of Steven Johnson, who unleashed his anger by shooting people and taking others hostage in an East Village bar almost five years ago. Johnson, who has AIDS, was unemployed at the time and was allegedly looking for "happy people" to "avenge the oppression of black people like himself," according the Times. We remember the incident very clearly. It was a nice June night and......

Valentine's is for lovers, so thinks the city, which is handing out free NYC Condoms today at 10AM. We're not sure if the weather has changed the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's plans, but Health Commissioner Thomas Friedan, as well as Kenneth Cole (designer and chair of amFar) and Dr. Marjorie Hill of the Gay Men's Health Crisis are supposed to be unveil the condom packaged with subway iconography at the Kenneth Cole Store......

A crazy lawsuit was filed against the owners of Jean-Georges. Joseph Bassani, a former waiter at Jean-Georges Vongerichten's four-star jewel at Columbus Circle, claims that he was harassed about his sexuality and "tricked into having simulated sex with a prostitute" - at the restaurant! Bassani says he was essentially terrorized for two years. His allegations include being called a "whore" frequently and that a supervisor said his weight loss was because he was "dying of......

Taking a ride on the N train will have a whole new meaning with Mayor Mike’s recent plans to distribute “NYC” brand condoms that are packaged to resemble different subway lines. As the Post reports, this new initiative will distribute millions of these condoms throughout the city and bring New Yorkers one step closer to the stark reality that NYC has the highest rate of AIDS/HIV in the nation. While existing resources and organizations are......

This is a question that you may expect to hear from your doctor during your next check up if a new proposal by health commissioner Thomas Frieden and state assembly member Darryl Towns passes. A NY State law passed in the 1980s that required patients to provide permission or "informed consent" before they were tested for HIV may be replaced by new CDC recommendations that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 should undergo......

ART: Check out Pale and Blue at 14 tonight at Giant Robot New York. Jeana Sohn’s paintings are a testament to the bond between humans and nature. Meanwhile, The Village Voice is calling Giant Robot New York, “Best New Gallery/store For Big Kids Who Still Like To Play With Toys.” Closing January 3rd. - Stephanie Nikolopoulos Closing Tomorrow // Giant Robot [437 E 9th St] // Free THEATER: The Big Voice: God or Merman? is......