Taryn Kapronica, stage name Bettie B. Goode, may be the sickest air guitarist in the region, but the Brooklynite's title has come with a hefty price: her toe. The Daily News says the winner rocked her U.S. Air Guitar Championships Brooklyn Regional performance at the Music Hall of Williamsburg so hard that her toe bent backwards and was later amputated! She told the paper that: "By the time I hit the ground and looked down,......

After the discovery of Mark Schwartz and Christina-Maria Petrowski-Schwartz, shot dead in their Brooklyn home's bedroom, investigators appear to be eying people who were close to the couple. The couple's usually aggressive German Shepherd did not make a peep during the killings and was tied up in the backyard. The Post reports that "$180,000 [was] missing from an escrow account," and that the couple had a "falling out [with] a one-time business partner of the......

A Brooklyn TKTS – the discount Broadway and Off-Broadway ticket booth – was recently unveiled at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn at the corner of Jay Street and Myrtle Avenue. Though it won’t be open on weekends like the Manhattan TKTS locations, it will give Brooklyn playgoers the edge on weekdays, when it opens a full four hours ahead of the Times Square TKTS, which is currently operating at the Marriot Marquis while the new......

The 22-year-old man who was shot in Brooklyn last weekend, an incident that left a gruesome mess at the bus depot on Broadway and Roebling, has died. The Brooklyn Paper reports that the altercation leading to the shooting began at Williamsburg's Festa del Giglio, and witnesses say the scuffle resulted in Williamsburg resident Richard Duran getting shot in the face. "The gunmen — who onlookers suspect were gang members — sprinted off," however, the shooter......

From a source who was over at the Pier 41 building in Red Hook earlier today, where the latest Real World cast is rumored to be moving, word of "progress" on the cast's living space comes in: "They're building them a cabana, and a sand pit right now." They also tell us that "somebody also did a short film shoot the other day down the block from the Pier 41 building, permitted/blocked off streets, possibly......

Just in from the newswire, there's a "suspicious death" being reported at McCarren Park Pool, allegedly at the building that serves as an entrance. The person was found "DOA by event staff" earlier this morning. Last night Twelve Ophelias, a play centered around Hamlet's Ophelia coming back to life, was staged there; the night before there was a screening of The Virgin Suicides. All in all, a dark week for McCarren. Thus far, multiple calls......

A Marine Park husband and wife, who worked as divorce attorneys, were found dead, shot multiple times at close range in their bedroom. Their housekeeper found Mark Schwartz, 50, and Maria-Christina Petrowski-Schwartz, 48, yesterday afternoon on East 33rd Street. The Post reports that the police are investigating it as a double homicide, but "detectives had not entirely ruled out the possibility that it was a murder-suicide" (the murder weapon was not found). The Daily News......

Galapagos has officially set up shop and opened their doors in DUMBO, though a full schedule isn't planned to go into effect until September. The beautiful new space, located between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges on the corner Water and Main Streets, can hold 175 seated and around 230 standing. Director Robert Elmes told us that the new arts space will continue to focus on the cultural ecosystem by hosting "theater, dance, performance art, cinema,......

Has MTV's The Real World faked out Brooklyn? First they're all but confirmed to move into Downtown Brooklyn's BellTell Lofts, with rumors of a Carroll Gardens residence quickly disappearing, but now an intern says the show "may not even film there because they were having some issues with the BellTel Lofts building with the location at 116 Third Place in Carroll Gardens as the backup." Residents beware! The Real Deal all but confirms the Carroll......

The 12-day, 121st annual Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and San Paolino is currently in full swing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Every year the area around the church (at Havemeyer and North Eighth Street) is turned over to a traditional Italian-American street fair in the evening, with kiddie rides, amusuments and food. On Sunday there was the spectacular “Dance of the Giglio,” during which, according to Giglio USA, a five ton platform bearing a......

The NY Post reports that "felonious assaults were up 21 percent as of July 6, compared to the same time period in 2007" in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. On the topic of the recent stabbings, the article quotes a 17-year-old student from the area who claims much of the violence is from "warring youth gangs, largely Hispanic, [who] cross a Brooklyn-Queens Expressway line of demarcation and prey upon each other." The Saturday stabbing was......

An officer with a history of false arrest is being accused of more of the same by a 40-year-old grandmother in Sunset Park. Monica Gonzalez tells the Daily News she was walking four blocks from her apartment to the E.R. during an asthma attack at 2:30 in the morning last November when she was arrested by Officer Sean Spencer, who claimed she was holding a condom and approaching vehicles with another woman. (Gonzalez's lawyer never......

Word is that Michel Gondry has made the move to Brooklyn (his previous apartment was in the East Village). The director reportedly purchased a house on Orient Avenue in East Williamsburg, and while Curbed notes that a house from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was also on Orient Avenue, this isn't the one the director purchased -- that house was sort of a fixer-upper! Gondry has some celluloid ties to the borough aside from......

Last night around 8:45 p.m., police officers patrolling in Bedford-Stuyvesant killed a man who fired at them. They had seen the man, per WNBC, "running down the street with a gun in his hand." When they asked him to stop, he fired instead. According to the Daily News, he fired at least four rounds: Once after they tried to stop him and then three more times when his exit was blocked (he tried to run......

Photo of mating horsehoe crabs from Citynoise.com It's that time of year when love at the seashore blossoms, and hordes of initially alarming-looking horseshoe crabs scuttle up onto the beaches of Jamaica Bay to procreate in the sands. The species is approximately 450 million years old, and they look like something from a dinosaur film strip. Despite their tails that look like barbs and alien appearance, horseshoe crabs are completely harmless. Every summer, under......

Early this morning three more stabbings occurred in the South Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Since April there have been a number of similar stabbings in the area; police have reportedly said that some of the incidents may be part of a gang initiation. Sometimes the attackers have been on bikes, and sometimes they have been wielding machetes; one common thread is that the victims do not know the assailants, who have not stolen anything......

A reader sent us this email about a shooting that occurred around midnight in Brooklyn:Just wanted to point out that there was a shooting last night at the bus depot at Broadway and Havemeyer in Williamsburg, -and that the investigation seems to be over, but the guy's hat, a big puddle of blood and teeth, many rubber gloves, gauze, a sterile water container, et cetera are still down there, for people to step in. I......

Gowanus Lounge reports on a sad sight in Park Slope, as "hideous architecture" and history prepare to collide once again. The old SEPTA trolley car which locals had high hopes of one day seeing turned into a diner...is being deconstructed to make way for a 12-story residential complex. Will the 4th Avenue landmark be headed to the landfill? Earlier this month Brownstoner noted the construction equipment appearing in the otherwise vacant lot and the owner......

Word has come in via The NY Times that the Knitting Factory will officially make the move to Brooklyn...and Boise? Jared Hoffman, who took over the good ship Knit five years ago, announced that both the Idaho and a new Spokane, WA venue have already hung up signs -- something that Brooklyn may see soon as well, as the venue has just received the borough's approval. The Times reports they "won community board approval to......

Keep on sucking, economy! Home sales have plummeted 43% in Brooklyn over the past twelve months, hitting the neighborhoods of Bensonhurst, Crown Heights, East New York and Bedford-Stuyvesant worst. Even sales in Williamsburg and Greenpoint are slowing down, and when brokers do close, it's for a lot less money. "This is definitely not good," one broker tells the Post. "The phones have just about stopped ringing." But construction worker Alex Reyes sees the silver lining:......

In May, Serious Eats alerted to the closing of a pet food store on Prospect Park West in Brooklyn, as the storefront was stripped down to its original "beautiful stained glass sign from an old, possibly 1930s-era sweets shop." Soon enough a tapas restaurant popped up, called Get on Tapas (get it?), and locals were checking out the menu for the new neighborhood spot...only to discover they were fooled by Hollywood. Turns out the movie......

The Department of Transportation announced a plan to test charging higher parking meter rates at high-demand times--the parking meter version of congestion pricing, as it were--in Manhattan and Brooklyn this fall. According to the NY Times, the goal is to "increase turnover in curbside parking spaces in the test areas...so that drivers will spend less time cruising in search of an open space," which in turn would decrease pollution, searching for a spot, double parking,......

The guys often credited with sparking the Carroll Gardens’ restaurant renaissance are being chased “through the streets with pitchforks,” according to Patois co-owner Alan Harding. The Times has a long profile on his team's 12-plus restaurants, and reports that some Brooklyn residents are officially fed up with all these places to eat. “If Brooklyn is a frontier, where a free-ranging chef can throw down his bag of knives, stake out a liquor license and fillet......

After striking a deal to sell the federally-subsidized Starrett City complex--while keeping it affordable--there are now eight new bids for the 140-acre development of 46 towers. Previously, the owners tried to sell the development for $1.3 billion, only for the feds to block it. The NY Times says the bids are in the $700-900 million range, and many bidding groups have non-profit entities ("so the group can issue tax-exempt bonds"). Senator Chuck Schumer, who wants......

The daughter of the woman who was neglected in a hospital waiting room and died after being ignored by staffers has will sue the hospital, city and city's hospital agency for $25 million. Last week, a video revealed that 49-year-old Esmin Green had been sitting in the waiting room of Kings County Hospital's psychiatric ward emergency area for almost 24 hours. Around 5:30 a.m., she collapsed on the floor, and while staffers saw her there,......

Photo of a Central Park raccoon from ñ's flickr Human intruders aren't the only worry amongst New Yorkers--now wildlife is encroaching upon residences throughout the city, especially in Brooklyn. Many blogs have been reporting neighborhood sightings, and now the NY Times jumps in with a look at raccoons paying visits to human neighbors. One Midwood family who found raccoons in their attic laughed it off while they called in a wildlife trapper, cut down......

The beloved Manhattan Special was featured in the NY Times yesterday as siblings Aurora and Louis Passaro are experiencing a new resurgence in popularity in the coffee soda specialty. The drink, which has been made in a Brooklyn factory since 1895, is now available online, but it's not always easy to find locally. It has been spotted in Inwood, at Manganaro's Hero Boy, Bruno's King of Ravioli, the Associated Supermarket on 14th Street and First......

Authorities believe 5-year-old Jay "Tito" Morales set fire to his grandmother's apartment in an act of revenge, because she wouldn't let him go to the park. Now the child is in critical condition after suffering third-degree burns over 70-90% of his body. Morales' grandmother Nancy Herrera often baby-sat him in her Bushwick home on Knickerbocker Avenue. Described as strict, Herrera apparently punished Jay after a stunt where he called 911 and said she had died--only......

Even though around 200 people attended the Brooklyn barbecue where one person was killed and four people were injured in gun fire, the Post reports there has been little or no cooperation from witnesses. More chillingly, it's suggested that the fatality, 21-year-old college student Zeanie White, may have been used as a "human shield" by another shooting victim who may have been the real target. Police are offering $12,000 for information leading to an arrest......

Earlier, Brownstoner pointed towards a Benches for Barack Craigslist ad that offers up handmade benches built from Douglas Fir wood. From the $40 price tag, $25 goes to the cost of building the bench, while $15 is donated to the Obama campaign. Brownstoner's post noted that the twosome behind the benches are "neighborhood kids, 18-year-old high school grads Harry Fishbein and Emma Dillon," and that they work out of Harry's basement in Cobble Hill. The......