Moviegoers who tried to beat the heat by packing a matinee screening of The Dark Knight this weekend at the Park Slope Pavilion were sorely disappointed. Gowanus Lounge has some scuttlebutt from the Brooklynian message board, where a picture of oppressive, non-air conditioned hell has emerged: “It must have been 90 degrees in that hot box for the entire length of the movie. Everyone was sweating profusely and downing tons of water. Afterward a mob......

Do you know what yesterday, today and tomorrow have in common? Statistically speaking, they are the hottest days of the year, averaging 85 for a high and 70 for a low. In that sense the recent hot spell peaked just about on time. Although the heat advisory is still in effect, today shouldn't be as warm as the weekend as the temperature will probably top out around 90. There's a slight chance of showers and......

Hot enough for ya? The NY Times has a cheap, easy solution for cooling off: the heat wave haircut! The paper calls summer "scalping season" and says that barbershops have been flooded as the temperatures have been rising -- with men shaving off their entire head of hair, beards included. They say "half measures are no longer sufficient" and the phrase "a little off the top" has gone out the window. One barber estimated that......

photograph by d_savage on Flickr Today is going to be downright unpleasant and tomorrow even worse. A big high pressure system off the Mid-Atlantic coast is pulling hot and humid air into the region. Look for highs this afternoon in the mid 90s in the city and lower 90s in the suburbs. The heat and humidity have set off a heat advisory as well as an air quality alert. In response to the heat......

Sunny skies continue! Today will be much like yesterday albeit slightly more humid. Expect a sunny day with a high in the upper 80s. There is an Air Quality Alert in effect for this afternoon and evening. Ground level ozone is the culprit. During air quality alerts the Office of Emergency Management recommends reducing strenuous outdoor activity to reduce the risk of health problems associated with breathing ozone deep into your lungs. Others that are......

northwesterly | chinatown by naftels on Flickr Like many of us the atmosphere slows down in the summer. A good example of that slowness is the approaching cold front that is kicking off this morning's rain. It has taken nearly a day to travel from Central New York to the northwestern suburbs of the city. The front will take another couple of hours to move through the city so the showers may stick around......

It’s almost that time of year when the NYC Fringe Festival dominates the theater scene with hundreds of new shows of wildly varying quality. But before the Fringe sucks the air out of the room in August, it’s worth noting that July is packed with a number of smaller, more manageable and generally more-reliable theater festivals. For starters: The Summer Play Festival: Now in its fifth season, this festival of new plays is being hosted......

Today has turned out sunny and warm as dry air has finally moved into the city. The dew point plunged by fifteen degrees around noon. That dryness will let today's high approach the upper 80s, and, for the first time in many days, there's no chance of rain! With a warm, dry start tomorrow may heat up to the low 90s. Showers may return as soon as tomorrow night. By Independence Day we'll be back......

The heat is on all across the Eastern Seaboard, and temperatures in New York City reached 96 degrees yesterday (just missing a record)--and it felt like even more with its densely-packed buildings and people. There were scattered power outages: Outages for 1,400 customers were reported by Con Ed, 788 by Long Island Power Authority (which had thousands on Monday), and 75,700 by PSE&G in NJ's Essex County. ...

Enjoy the cool weather today as tomorrow is likely to be twenty degrees warmer. The fog and clouds this morning are typical precursors to the passage of a warm front. This particular front has some mighty hot air behind it. Today's high will be in the mid-70s. The sun may make an appearance after noon. Tomorrow is going to be hot. Look for a near-record high in the mid 90s. The heat is expected to......

There may be a stray shower or two this morning but most of the rain has moved eastward. The rest of the day will remain cool and cloudy as the cold front that passed brought last night's rain goes stationary over southern New Jersey. The front isn't going to do much of anything until late Thursday. Showers are possible again tonight and tomorrow morning. Highs today and tomorrow will be in the lower 70s at......

Now that an appeals court has ruled that the city can start requiring chain restaurants to prominently display their calorie information, Nathan’s has begun tossing up their stats just in time for summer at Coney Island. Kinetic Carnival notes that the Nathan’s basic hot dog has just half the calories packed into a Big Mac from McDonald’s. Consumed one or two at a sitting, the “Original Frankfurter” won’t do much damage to one’s waistline.......

LEARN: It's that special time again when hipsters gather round to discuss home-buying. The informational event clues in those looking for new digs about the logistics of purchasing their very own pad. Learn from Licensed Real Estate agents, Mortgage Brokers and Real Estate Attorneys whilst you sip on a cocktail or two. 6:30pm // Huckleberry Bar [588 Grand St, Williamsburg] // Free EVENT: It's like a never-ending President's Day this week; tonight enjoy a......

Okay, it's freezing. Not just freezing -- bone chillingly bitter. We've been at our desk for hours now and still can't manage to fight off the chill from our morning commute. This kind of weather makes us crave warm, cozy comfort food -- hopefully at least one of these options is close enough to you for a quick dash out, or even better, to deliver to you. Soup: Get a warm and cozy homemade soup......

Photograph of arrested mobsters being led by the FBI on Thursday by ~Raymond on Flickr It turns out that Thursday's take down of 62 mob figures, many of them high-ranking members of the Gambino crime family and called the biggest mob bust in decades, was spurred by a Staten Island trucking company owner. Joseph Vollaro, who made a lot of money for the Gambinos, ended up becoming a government informant after being caught in......

Hot Chip, Almost Ready for the Floor We've come around on Hot Chip in a big way over the last few years as they've risen to stateside popularity. Their latest album is a total burner, highlighted by a killer lead single, Ready for the Floor, and the last few times we've seen them live it's been a blast. So needless to say, our expectations for last Saturday night's show at Highline were through the roof.......

Sixty-two men associated with the Gambino, Genovese and Bonanno crime families were arrested yesterday in a federal, state and local coordinated sweep in the New York region. A number of Gambino-related arrests were also made in Italy, and authorities have described this as the biggest mob bust in decades. Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell said, "Our goal is and always has been simple: to dismantle the Gambino organized-crime family in a coordinated and consistent......

Craig Wedren is the former front man for the sorely missed D.C. band Shudder to Think, a group that seemed to intuitively grasp all the overlooked possibilities of the late-80s/early 90s post-punk landscape and render them into a sound that was at once startling, bizarre and irresistibly catchy. Since the band’s end ten years ago, Wedren has made a career as composer of soundtracks for movies such as Wet Hot American Summer and The Baxter,......

Jeremy Abelson, founder of the luxury lifestyle newsletter Pocket Change, struck a publicity goldmine last February when his company sponsored a speed dating event that matched affluent men of any age with attractive young women of any I.Q. Called “Natural Selection Speed Date: Rich Guys & Hot Girls,” the event drew hate mail from women objecting to the crass, misogynistic nature of this “exercise in eugenics.” So this year Abelson is turning the beat around......

This week in the Times, Bruni one-stars Mesa Grill (pictured), knocking the restaurant down from the two stars given it by William Grimes in 2000. Says that while the Bobby Flay restaurant “has considerable charms… on balance [it] presents only flickers of the excitement it did [when it opened] in 1991… It’s an overly familiar, somewhat tired production. More to the point, it’s an inconsistent one.” Peter Meehan goes to Hakata Tonton for $25 and......

Dean’s: A third Dean’s Restaurant is now open in Tribeca. The Italian eatery has won fans with their signature thin crust brick oven pizza made with homemade mozzarella and a dozen potential toppings. But if amazing brick oven pizza isn’t your thing, Dean’s also has a full Italian menu with pasta dishes like Parpardella Toscana, a wide ribbon pasta with wild mushroom and sundried tomatoes in a light cream white wine sauce. There are also......

Kimya Mania In a matter of weeks, Kimya Dawson has gone from nice, unassuming local anti-folk artist to a bona fide national breakout star, thanks to the success of the movie Juno and her contributions to the soundtrack. This week the soundtrack hit #3 on the Billboard album chart, and Kimya's been busy basking in the much deserved success. Aside from speaking with us earlier this week, the former Moldy Peach played a handful of......

• Londonist pondered who might be the next sponsors of the London Eye and whether or not readers would be willing to donate £1,000 each for a Londonist Eye.
• Shanghaiist was shocked to find a cameltoe in the city's only English-language paper.
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Continue Reading "Week Around the -Ists"

With many people trying to keep up that perennial New Year's resolution to lose weight/work out/get in shape, they're hitting their computers (or CDs!) to create the perfect soundtracks for their workouts. The other day, the NY Times chatted with a number of experts - physicians, life coaches, workout music producers - to figure out what makes a good work out song. Of course, different music rhythms work better for different levels of activity.......

The new season of the Apprentice premiered on Thursday with its celebrity (or "celebrity" - if you consider Omarosa from the Apprentice's Season 1 a celebrity) twist. The show received its best ratings in two years, winning the 9PM timeslot for viewers ages 18-49. The Donald said, "I was really happy. I wasn't expecting this." We missed watching it, but NBC offers episodes online - you can see the premiere here - so we......

Hot chocolate's all the hype these days with Jacques Torres, City Bakery, Cocoa Bar, and MariBelle all pouring decadent brews at their downtown locales. And, while we have to admit that we’re more likely to stop in one of these spots below 14th Street, there are plenty of reasons for heading further uptown during this holiday season—say, for ice skating at Rockefeller Center, a trip to Central Park, or a visit to the Met. The......

During the 80s golden era of Late Night With David Letterman, Chris Elliott was one of the people most responsible for the show's distinctively bizarre style. Playing characters like "The Guy Under the Seats" and "The Regulator Guy," Elliott's contributions were sometimes hilarious and sometimes baffling, but always memorable for their absolutely unadulterated weirdness. He went on to cultivate his peculiar "Chris Elliott" persona in cult classics like the TV show Get a Life and......

For the second year running, the Food Bank for New York City and the Lunchbox Fund of South Africa have enlisted over 100 celebrities in their holiday fundraiser. Boldface names like Kanye West, Elton John, Cameron Diaz, Mike Meyers, William Wegman and, um, Urban Outfitters, have created personalized, autographed lunchboxes that are now onsale via online auction. At Thursday night's kick-off event at Saatchi & Saatchi, a lunchbox by Michael Stipe was snatched up......

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television: Spike TV's Video Game Awards 2007 (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., Spike TV) It is the fifth annual outing for this awards show for video games. Live From Lincoln Center: Red Hot Holiday Stomp (Monday, 8:00 p.m., WNET 13) Jazz at Lincoln Center is highlighted with this special hosted by Glenn Close. There will be a program of holiday music and jazz, plus it also features the broadcast......

DJ Star, who was fired from Power 105 after some remarks about a rival's child, will be coming back to radio stations. While publicists for the DJ, born Troi Torain, would not disclose where he'll be headed (not before tomorrow press conference, at least), the Daily News reports that it will probably be WNYZ, which is 87.7FM: "Its current format is Russian popular music, but with the hiring of Star, it will reportedly switch to......