We already covered the Super Bowl half time show alternatives, but what if you're not a football fan or your team didn’t make it? What if you don’t want to sit through a football game to watch commercials or if you hate Joe Buck and Troy Aikman? Well, don’t worry, there are some television alternatives for you if you don’t want to watch either the game or the countless hours of pre-game shows. If crime......

Sometimes the only interesting parts of Super Bowl Sunday are the ads and the halftime show, and neither of those things are really that great. But not this year! On top of getting a home team in the big game, we get Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performing during the halftime. It may have been quite some time since you last listened to Petty, who is about to go on a nationwide tour, so we......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: 2007 MTV Movie Awards (Sunday, 8 p.m., MTV) All you have to know is that Sarah Silverman hosts, so expect wackiness to ensue. Bonus: LAist will be liveblogging, from the ceremony's greenroom. Creature Comforts (Monday, 8:00 p.m., WCBS 2) An Americanized British import from the creators of Wallace & Gromit where people in on the street interviews are animated in clay in the form of talking animals.......

Puppy Bowl III (Sunday, 3:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m., 9:00 p.m. Animal Planet) Puppies from shelters drink water, pee, and play for three hours is someone's idea of something to go up against the Super Bowl. Broadway: The American Musical (Sunday, 5:00 p.m. WLIW 21) Counter programming the Super Bowl, WLIW shows this 2004 documentary that chronicles the history of American musicals. Super Bowl XLI: Chicago Bears vs. Indianapolis Colts (Sunday, 6:30 p.m. WCBS 2) Three......

Tom Shillue performs at clubs all over New York City, has a Comedy Central Presents half hour special, has appeared in commercials for Audi, Heineken, Ameritrade, Snickers, and provided voiceovers for Verizon, for Amex, and Met Life. He'll be headling at http://comixny.com/event.aspx?eid=69&sid=221on the 14th. You were part of show called Meow Mix House . For the benefit of readers, could you explain what that was? I was hosting a reality show for cats in the......

For nerds like us, every Tuesday is like a birthday – with a new NYT Science Times section ready to be violently unwrapped, played with, and tossed aside. So here’s this week’s: Predigested and regurgitated in an owl-like fashion just for you! + Thinking about running a marathon? Thinking that practicing, taking your vitamins, and saying your prayers will make you the best runner/Hulkamaniac ever? Forget it. How about organizing a conference of trainers, exercise......

Me-ow! We loved the idea of Meow Mix's reality show for cats so much that we had to check out the Meow Mix House for ourselves. The webcams are great, but there is nothing like going up to the window and trying to convince a cat that you're his or her best friend in the whole wide world. At 425 Madison Avenue, some storefront space has been transformed into a space for ten shelter......

Awesome! The Meow Mix House webcams are up. Why webcams? Why a house? Meow Mix is running its special cat reailty show where cats compete for a job with Meow Mix. Seriously. Cats from shelters across the country were selected to be put into a "house" at 425 Madison Avenue (Meow Mix's director of advertising and marketing, Ira Cohen, did tell the AP, "This thing is very tongue-in-cheek."). Each week, people can vote for......

You can take your 21st century crimefighting techniques and shove them - psychics are totally coming back! At least with investigations involving missing dog show dogs. AM New York reports that the owners of Vivi, the show-worthy whippet that has been missing since last week, are taking tips from various psychics. Apparently, four of the twelve psychics have been saying the same thing, but it's unclear whether or not that was "the dog is lost,......

Gothamist has our guacamole and Tostitos with a Hint of LIme (best tortilla chip ever!) and we're ready to see if anything crazy happens during the game. Pre game: Stevie Wonder and friends perform hits of Motown. Joss Stone, India.Arie, John Legend... Gothamist loves Stevie Wonder, but medleys hurt our heads. This is a nod to Detroit's heritage, but let's face it, the Stones are the halftime act because their fans are the attractive-to-advertisers......

Who knew petsitting could be fraught with million dollar lawsuits? A Manhattan family is suing a family friend's friend for failing to return their dog. Martin Klein says that Ted Kohl was supposed to watch their Yorkshire terrier Hershe while the family was on vacation, starting November 20. However, Kohl gave the dog to his friend Gayle Fisher Worth when he was sentenced to prison on November 28. Yes - Kohl, a contractor, had pleaded......

The National Zoo's veterinarians confirm that the baby panda born a scant three weeks ago is a boy! Today was the first day the zookeepers spent some time alone with the cub, who weighs 1.82 pounds and is 12 inches long, and is described as being "very solid and sturdy and extremely cute." We assume that in future visits, the world can expect adorable and extensive photographs of the baby (like this one of San......

Gothamist loved loved LOVED the City section article about the teacher's cat who answers sixth graders' questions at MS 391, a specialized school known as Tapco, the Theater Arts Production Company, in the Bronx. Not only can kids write to Sophia the cat for love advice or to say that their teacher (and Sophia's owner) Craig Roberts shouldn't use their slang ("Please tell him to stay in his age group"), but they get class visits......

My boyfriend and I live in a studio apartment with all our windows facing the backyard, where our landlord keeps his two big and very, very loud dogs. The backyard is pretty small and the dogs are left there for days at a time, whatever the weather, so it seems that the barking is more of a cry for help than anything else. They go at it for 10 to 20 minutes at a time,......

Bay Ridge resident James Whalen, a 35 year-old bike messenger, was arrested after he had tortured and beat his girlfriend's tabby cat to death while she was gone. He was charged with aggravated animal cruelty, which is a felony and the most severe animal abuse charge in the state. His girlfriend's mother found the cat, Darwin, who "had been repeatedly beaten about the face, and had bloody eyes, a broken jaw and a broken tail"......

Governor Pataki tries to secure the animal lovers' vote by signing a bill forcing dog owners to give their pets proper shelter in "inclement weather [including but not limited to rain, sleet, ice, snow or wind, as well as extreme heat and cold]," or else they will face fines between $50 and $100 for their first offense ($100 to $200 for a second offense). Of course, the ASPCA is thrilled with the decision, as they......

Panda Passion Play
Yesterday, Gothamist decided to see what the National Zoo pandas were up to......