Remember how a few years ago a 19-year-old girl climbed down onto the subway tracks to get her phone and got killed by an oncoming V train? It seems the lesson still hasn’t been learned and commuters are still risking their lives to retrieve dropped objects: Tourist Bijan Rezvani recently explained his reasons for venturing down there to collect his precious iPhone. It's the first time I've had a cool phone that does anything and......

Jen has already posted her Top Stories for 2007-- but here's the list according to you, the readers: By Comments* 1. Pet Food Recall After Cat and Dog Deaths, by Jen Chung (614) 2. Rev. John Carmichael, Church of Scientology, by Jen Carlson (312) 3. Wild Wednesday Weather, by Jen Chung (255) 4. Maple Syrup Was Better: Smell of Gas Covers NYC by Jen Chung (191) 5. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Mooninites Don't Scare......

A group of influential paisans from Staten Island, drunk on the idea of starting the first vineyard in contemporary New York City, have been on a wine-tasting tour of Tuscany, researching vineyards to figure out the best way to bring their brain-child back to their home borough. Yes, you read that correctly – according to today’s Times, you’ll soon be able to step off the Staten Island Ferry and pick up a bottle of Fresh......

1) Features about the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, in anticipation of this year's Radio City Christmas Spectacular. The NY Times looks how performances from the 1930s and 1940s inspired this year's show while Newsday notes on the technology being used. Both focus on the amazing synchronized dancing. 2) Starbucks has decorated its stores with Christmas decorations and has started to use Christmas/holiday themed cups. Cajun Boy in the City also counts Josh Grobin......

Last night, Stephen Colbert had a reading for his book I Am America (And So Can You) that was full of fans of truthiness and enemies of bears. The Washington Square News reported that the erstwhile maybe-presidential candidate said, "It's time to impregnate this country with my mind." Unexpected, though, were probably the members of a theatrical anti-war group, Sparkle and Cybil War, who were decked out as "patriotic Texas oil baronesses with patriot......

This Sunday, The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine will be holding the annual Blessing of the Animals, to mark the Feast of St. Francis. Many churches celebrate St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and birds, either on his feast day (which was yesterday) or the first weekend near it. The animal blessing at St. John's will have a parade of animals at 12:30PM, with animals including a white reindeer, a......

New York City (and Mayor Bloomberg’s 2030 strategists) now can breathe a sigh of relief: Gotham is getting its first luxury green hotel. Starwood Capital Group today announced in a press release that a “1” hotel will be replacing a parking lot on West 40th St. between Fifth and Sixth avenues, across from Bryant Park. The building, which will comply with LEED standards, will be a 31-story mixed-use tower that, in addition to the......

Ten years ago today Jeff Buckley drowned while taking an evening swim. Buckley had many ties to this city, first moving here in 1990 (though only staying for seven months at that time). He was back in the spring of 1991 to perform his first show, a tribute concert to his father, Tim Buckley. The event was held at St. Ann's Church on April 26th, 1991, where the singer announced: "This is not a springboard,......

Tonight's episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent features its ripped-from-the-headlinse take on the Anna Nicole Smith soap opera. Playing a blond bombshell named Lorelei Mailer is Kristy Swanson, best known as the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer; playing her manager/boyfriend is David Cross (!). TV Guide interviewed Swanson:TV Guide: How did this Criminal Intent job come about? Swanson: Law & Order called my agent and said that they're doing the Anna Nicole Smith story.......

This past Sunday night at the 50th Annual New York Emmys, WNBC was the big winner with 13 awards. The big wins for the station were for its newscast which won three – Morning Newscast for Today in New York, Daytime Newscast for Live at Five, and Evening Newscast (under 35 minutes) for the 11p.m. newscast. WNBC’s Senior Vice President, News and Station Manager Dan Forman said about the wins, "We are particularly proud of......

If you can read this right now, you don't need me to explain blogs. These days everyone has them, from preteens to political figures. Personally, I came to the party a little late. I didn't own a computer until the year 2000 and I never even considered blogging...that is until I had something I really wanted to talk about. When my husband and I were excitedly awaiting our first child, we wanted to find a......

Shortbus (directed by John Cameron Mitchell). Sure, Shortbus, John Cameron Mitchell's long-awaited follow up to his inspirational transsexual musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, has a lot of explicit, "real" sex in it, but the real turn on for the filmmaker is obviously New York. As the camera swoops around the gorgeously constructed mini-Manhattan and Brooklyn models, you can't help but feel your heart soar with love for our crazy, dysfunctional, and beautiful city. After......

- While browsing this NYT article about pulperías in Galicia, Spain we are reminded about how good the octopus is at the initially-jeopardized E.U. was when we went Friday. Come to think of it, the Baked Rigatoni with Milk-Braised Berkshire Pork, the Fried Smelts and the meatballs were darn tasty as well. - Any occasion to talk about Bill Telepan's food is something to take advantage of. Here is a short interview with the Upper......

There is a moment every new parent comes to, a moment of bargaining, when you would give literally ANYTHING to get that baby to sleep. Gothamist, in the throes of sleep deprivation, considered ritualistic sacrifice of farm animals and even good ol' Catholic prayer...but $50,000 for a "sleep coach"? Really? Outsourcing parental duties is old news here in NYC, but the celebrity being attained by these pricey sleep coaches is simply surprising. The NY Times......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A serious MVA on the upper level of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, a suspicious package in Manhattan, and an overturned auto in Queens The things we learn as the Daily Intelligencer questions disclosure on Gawker... then FishbowlNY discloses some stuff about itself and Daily Intel Newly elected City Council members Mathieu Eugene and Vincent Ignizio are still not sworn in The stock market gained 0.4% today Do students really......

Google turns five this month, five months old since opening its new building on 15th and 9th Avenue in October 2006. To celebrate, Gothamist went on an official tour, complete with watching a game of ping-pong, getting a sneak peak at the famous lunch, and waving at scooter riders whizzing down the hallways, making it by far one of the coolest places to work in Manhattan. The 300,000 square foot Chelsea building which serves......

Brooklyn author, Jennifer Baumgardner's recent essay "Breast Friends" explores a topic so taboo Gothamist had never actually heard of it before -- "cross nursing" or "milk siblings". In her essay, Baumgardner details her experience nursing a friend's child while that friend nursed hers. And while she initially was shocked and put off by the idea, she has completely warmed to it by the end of her baby swapping experience. Gothamist was a nursing mother at......

New York Magazine reports that Jim Carrey is renting an apartment near Lincoln Center for the smokin' figure of $45,000 a month. The apartment is for sale - if you have $11,800,000 to spare - and has a 2,000 square foot living room! We saw Carrey on a Barbara Walters special, and he was talking about being all Zen and we think took her to his meditation retreat for the weepy part of the interview;......

-- The Friends of the High Line gave cameras to kids and sent them out to photograph Chelsea-- the shots are surprisingly good. -- People think that 311 can tell them if Ray Charles was Stevie Wonder's uncle -- The NY Times story about police-civilian mediation was fascinating (though many people say it's not that great for either side), but it was especially good after reading the story about former deputy commissioner Garry McCarthy's......

Yesterday while riding the subway, Gothamist spotted a guy carrying a saucer sled and thought to ourselves, "foolish man, there won't be that much snow." But low and behold, there's more than enough snow for sledding. So the natural desire is to find a nice sledding spot. Over at Palatial.com, Tracy has a map of sledding locations in NYC, which is obviously what we need in today's blizzard. GoCityKids also has a short list......

Another animation from the files of Bateman 365, the project in which Scott Bateman, an editorial cartoonist for King Features Syndicate, attempts to do an animated short film every day for a year. This particular one teaches us the ABC's of the MTA of NYC. FYI. TTFN. from Bateman 365, Day 27(Click image for full animation) Gothamist Comics brings you the best in NYC-themed webcomics every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If you enjoy any......

Gothamist was a bit underwhelmed by this year's Golden Globe nominees, and we were thinking of not liveblogging. But, gosh darn it as we watched the E! preshow and saw the starlets sparkle their way down the red carpet, we realize it was hopeless, so here we are. Let it be known that: - Keira Knightley looks gorgeous in her white Valentino - and there's something surprisingly youthful about the dress, even though there's that......

Bateman 365 is a project in which Scott Bateman, an editorial cartoonist for King Features Syndicate, attempts to do an animated short film every day for a year. Personally I have trouble, you know, getting out of bed every day, but then here's Scott, the Flash-manian Devil. This particular one, featuring New Yorkers telling us what they love about the city, cracks me up. from Bateman 365, Day 139(Click image for full animation) Gothamist......

Here we go: it's a huge weekend for year-end Oscar-bait and questions abound. Will audiences flock to see the "forbidden" love of Brokeback Mountain? (And was anybody else as disturbed at Focus Features' obvious attempts to downplay the male love story as much as possible and feature the relationships with the respective wives in every trailer?) Will fans who made worshipped the bestselling novel approve of Chicago director Rob Marshall's retelling of Memoirs of a......

The holidays are upon us. Tomorrow sees the release of two of the more eagerly awaited films of the season, and we haven't even hit Thanksgiving yet! We've been hearing fantastic things about the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line. It wowed audiences at the Toronto Film Festival in September, and now critics are talking about Joaquin Phoenix's performance as they did last year about Jamie Foxx. One huge difference: Foxx lip-synced everything in Ray;......

Mick Stingley, Low-Rent Rock Critic...

When you look at the big picture the weather and climate of the Earth is quite simple. Energy in the form of light comes from the Sun. When it arrives at the Earth sunlight is either reflected back to space or or absorbed by the oceans, land, and plants. All that absorbed energy eventually makes its way back to space. Because the absorbed and emitted energy varies over the surface of the earth there a......

The reviews are out, and Chris Rock is getting a mixed bag of feedback for his duties as the MC of the Oscars. The NY Daily News' David Bianculli says he wasn't edgy or funny enough, Variety says his opening monologue was great (subscription required), the Hollywood Reporter says that Rock wasn't on a roll, and the Washington Post's Tom Shales says Rock was strangely lame and mean-spirited. Gothamist wonders if there's a generational divide......

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association awards their 62nd annual Golden Globes this Sunday, a sure sign that the season of gowns, the buzz and the surprise upset is upon us. Unlike the Oscars though, the Golden Globes covers television and film, so we get to see the disjointed mingling of the stars on the red carpet from both genres. Speaking of the red carpet, this year look out for the gossip and designer name dropping......

Yesterday, it was the Blessing of the Animals at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. St. John the Divine holds a festival in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and the environment. The Daily News reported that pet owners and shelter officials were there to get pets blessed as well as adopted. Gothamist loves the Blessing of the Animals because there is nothing more awesome than seeing animals head......