That super-secret, impossible-to-get-into Prince show? It went down for four hours (two shows) on the rooftop loft at the Hotel Gansevoort on Friday night. The NY Times reports that audience members paid around $1,000 to get inside the intimate room, with proceeds going to charity (Love 4 One Another Charities and Urban Farming). The Purple One did give a nod to the tough times however, the paper notes that "moments into the early set he......

Prince will be in town for an intimate show this Friday. New York's "fans, fams, freaks and purpleheads" have been warned via an online message that "it's gonna be your turn to party, sooner than you think. Get your fancy pants pressed now, folks: Prince is coming to town ... it will be a very small capacity show. Like, 250-300 people intimate." Of course, the location isn't being divulged just yet, but it has been......

Wow, this show is bizarre. But bizarre in a way that carries on P.S. 122’s scintillating legacy as a downtown refuge for freaky, outré performance art. Musician/performer Neal Medlyn’s latest rock "tragic-comedy," Unpronounceable Symbol, pays musical homage to Prince, with a live band led by Kiki & Herb’s Kenny Mellman, who co-wrote the show and rearranged a bunch of Prince B-sides for the score. Over the years, Medlyn’s developed quite a cult following with his......

Saturday Night Live is back! Wasting no time digging into primary season, the opening skit was a debate between Hillary and Barack, immediately answering the big question posed this week: who will be our Fauxbama? The answer: Fred Armisen! The Huffington Post raises the controversial points of this decision, given the previously-noted lack of minority players on the show (Armisen is not black - he's Venezuelan and Japanese - but has played Prince on......

MOVIE: Tonight the Brooklyn Independent Cinema Series delivers two very different films. First up is The French Riviera, described as "a road documentary that follows a truck driver on a mission to earn enough money selling ice cream in the Icelandic countryside to go on a vacation on a French beach." Next up is About A Son, the "intimate and moving meditation on the late musician and artist Kurt Cobain, based on more than 25......

Early this morning, a 30-year-old man was shot dead outside a bar-restaurant in Long Island City. Joseph Prince, who was found with two gun shots in his head, had been attending a friend's prison release party. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said a fight that started at La Familia Bar and Restaurant on 44th Drive and moved to the street, where people started to throw bottles at each other. The Daily News reports that shell casings......

MOVIE: Delve into the mind and life of H.L. “Doc” Humes (pictured) in a documentary by his daughter. Titled Doc, the 96-minute film focuses in on the counterculture icon. "In the 1950s and early '60s, Doc co-founded The Paris Review, wrote two acclaimed novels, and was a gregarious fixture of the cultural scene in Paris, London and New York. Doc was a 1950s NYC intellectual, a 60s free speech militant, and a 70s visionary crazy......

MUSIC: When we talked to Jonny Greenwood (pictured) back in October, Radiohead's In Rainbows wasn't the only focus. His composition titled Popcorn Superhet Receiver will be performed tonight by The Wordless Music Orchestra with Brad Lubman as conductor. When we asked Greenwood if he would be in attendance, he said "I’d love to but I can’t really justify the flight just to come to that. I’d feel a bit weird about it. If I was......

THEATER: Over the summer the Belarusian Free Theater was arrested, along with their audience, during a performance of their play Being Harold Pinter, which uses Pinter’s magnificent Nobel Prize acceptance speech as a springboard for theatrical dissent, something the Belarus police state isn't really so into. (For that reason, the company’s performances are normally held secretly in alternating private apartments.) Unable to bring the entire production to New York for his Under the Radar festival,......

READING: It's another First Tuesday event at McNally Robinson, and this time around author and activist Mark Crispin Miller invites Anthony Lappe to center stage. The executive editor of the Guerilla News Network also produced an award-winning documentary on the war in Iraq for Showtime. More recently, he's created a graphic novel called Shooting War with illustrator Dan Goldman, which is "a spoof of the network news, the war in Iraq, and the burgeoning 'citizen......

A fire late last night in the Staten Island neighborhood of Prince's Bay claimed the life of a nine-year-old boy. Thomas Monahan Jr., who was unable to escape the fire at 49 Princewood Ave. was pronounced dead at 1:45 a.m. at Staten Island University Hospital. The boy's father Thomas Monahan desperately attempted to save his son after he, his wife and his 8-year-old daughter escaped safely. Monahan reportedly tried to save Thomas Jr. by climbing......

TREE LIGHTING: Earlier this year, New Yorkers Fountains of Wayne transformed Demetri Martin into a lonely suit living in Brooklyn in this video. Tonight the band will be rockin' around the Stuy Town Christmas tree. A reader writes in:I just happened to see this flyer hanging up for the annual christmas tree lighting. And what the hell is this...7:30-8:00pm, FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE. Seems like it's top secret, but there are flyers everywhere.Random! But if you're......

Years ago before the nearby Flushing Mall opened, Prince Street near 38 Ave. was well known for the "octopus guy", a friendly gent who grilled up skewers of baby octopus, among other things. When he vanished, we barely frequented that block. The other restaurants just never held much appeal; instead we stuck to Little Pepper, a nearby bastion of fiery Sichuan flavor. Largely because of the crowds and the huge posters of its specials......

EVENT: Julian Schnabel will be screening clips from his latest flick, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly tonight. Lou Reed, who Schnabel recently documented in Lou Reed’s Berlin, will also be on hand. 7pm // Apple Store [103 Prince St] // Free READING: The Desk Set's "Drinks with an Author" series continues tonight at Greenpoint's WORD. This evening chat with Kara Jesella and Marisa Meltzer, authors of How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person fatally injured under a train at 77th St. in Manhattan, a shooting at Neptune Ave and West 35th St. in Brooklyn, and a shooting on 133rd Ave. in Queens. A 24-year-old man killed his mother and brother and then dumped them in the Harlem River. Young teenagers are clamoring to learn about sex. Mayor Bloomberg feels that city parking placards are being abused and will start cracking......

Not far from the 7 train or the Sheraton LaGuardia where we had some world-renowned soup dumplings is Nanxiang Xiaolong Bao (aka Noodle House), a small restaurant with an equally small menu. Although the restaurant has far fewer menu options than a typical Chinese restaurant, Nanxiang Xiaolong Bao excels at what they do make. As their Chinese name implies, soup dumplings are their specialty. Orders of the soup dumplings are prepared in an area......

I'm Not There Nails It We went into seeing I'm Not There yesterday afternoon kind of expecting to hate it, thinking it would be vague and pretentious and a chore to absorb. But boy were we wrong! The movie avoids many annoying biopic clichés, presenting 6 separate, yet surprisingly straightforward stories based on the life of Bob Dylan. While non-linear, the narratives are complete and engrossing. The film is shot beautifully, and needless to say......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: electric shock on Van Brunt St. in Brooklyn, a bank robbery on Francis Lewis Blvd. in Queens, and a shooting at 185th St. and Tiebout in the Bronx. Anyone can sound more credible with a fake NYC address. Mayor Bloomberg reportedly met with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. A British court ordered that one rich brother, Prince Jefri Bolkiah, hand over ownership of the New York Palace Hotel to his......

We'll be liveblogging the MTVU Woodie Awards tonight (hopefully Jared Leto won't break our blogging fingers) -- if you're looking for something else to do though, here are some suggestions... READING: Spend an evening with Global City Review contributors Linsey Abrams, Fred Tuten, and Michelle Yasmine Valladare. The publication "celebrates the difficulties and possibilities of the 'global city' and other constructions of community...while honoring the subversiveness and originality of ordinary lives," and reflects on New......

To make this sweet, salty, spicy, satisfyingly crisp bite o' banchan, we were inspired by elements from both of these two recipes from one of our favorite Korean food blogs, Evil Jungle Prince. Serve it alongside a meal with rice and several other dishes, or use it as an element in cooking something new and creative. Cubed Radish Kimchi 1 daikon radish (weighing approximately 1 1/2 lbs.) Water and kosher salt for brining 2 tsp......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an unstable building on 118th St. and 2nd Ave. in Manhattan, a person burned on 130th St. and Park Ave. in Manhattan, and a shooting on Lafayette Ave. in Brooklyn. Maybe it's because we're lifelong NYC baseball fans who think the Dodgers still belong in Brooklyn, but we think Joe Torre looks goofy wearing an LA jersey. Maybe he should lose the tie. Citigroup's Charles Prince is ousted or......

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling spent the past week meeting with school children across the country as part of her Open Book Tour. Greeted like a rock star in Los Angeles, she told the crowd she isn't immediately writing the Harry Potter encyclopedia. And last night was her final stop, an event at Carnegie Hall, where it appears she saved for the best for last, as she spilled the beans about various characters during a......

The 8-year-old boy who was in critical condition after being hit by a car on West 17th Street Friday night passed away yesterday. Prince Harris Jr., a third-grader at PS 138, had dashed ino the street from between parked cars when a Toyota Scion hit him. A witness described the impact of the accident to the Post, "The car... threw him up in the air. His sneakers were about 70 feet from where he landed."......

An 8-year-old child is in critical condition at St. Vincent's Hospital after being hit by a car on West 17th Street in Manhattan. The Post says the child, Prince Harris, "darted out between two parked cars." Harris's father, Prince Harris Sr., told the Daily News he, his son, and other relatives and friends were headed to the park, and described the scene, "A cab and a car were speeding down the block to make the......

Graffiti: Pastry Chef Jehangir Mehta, who has spent time at Aix, Jean Georges, Vong, and Union Pacific, takes a stab at the world of the savory. He has opened a restaurant and bakery in the East Village with a "global bistro comfort food" menu. Offering breakfast, lunch, dinner, Graffiti serves up baked goods, coffee and tea, and a dinner menu where the dishes range in size from "nibbles" to "all mine." For the kicker, the......

REMINDER: Don't forget about the Atlantic Antic Festival, which we wrote all about yesterday. EVENT: The d.u.m.b.o arts center (dac) presents the 11th Annual Art Under the Bridge Festival. The three-day fête takes up 30 blocks bringing together over 1500 visual artists, 250 open studios and offices, and an expected 20,000 attendees. Given much of the music biz in this city has offices in that area, they'll be taking part as well. The Deli Magazine......

September 27: Joy of Sake Talk about joy -- over 300 sakes will be poured at the largest sake tasting in the United States, coming our way tonight. Over 100 of them are generally not available outside Japan and about 150 are silver and gold award winners in the National Sake Appraisal that takes place each year. Never fear, there will be appetizers to soak it all up, from the likes of Bao Noodles, Bond......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an armed robbery on East 91st St. in Brooklyn, a confined space rescue at JFK Airport in Queens, and a pedestrian was struck at East 23rd St. and Lexington Ave. in Manhattan. A dump truck jack-knifed and rolled over, crushing the car next to it and killing the car's two occupants in Brooklyn. Jay Leno is auctioning off the set of The Tonight Show and donating the proceeds to......

EVENT: We're sponsoring, and our publisher is hosting, the NYC Photobloggers event tonight. Come over to the Apple Store to see a dazzling display of digital images and the faces behind the photos: Eliot Shepard, Jay Parkinson (yes, that Jay Parkinson) and a whole lot more will be on hand. There will also be a special presentation by Jen Bekman of 20x200, Hey Hot Shot, and the Jen Bekman Gallery and an after party at......

Yesterday morning, around 7AM, Queens resident Hope Miller was fatally hit by a truck turning right onto Houston Street from 6th Avenue. The driver, Roger Smiley, was fleeing the scene of an accident at Prince and 6th Avenue. Miller had been crossing Houston Street, near a construction site. 1010 WINS reported that the impact "knocked her out of her shoes." Smiley was arrested and charged with "leaving the scene of an accident, driving under the......