Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a police officer was struck on Richmond and Wilson Aves. on Staten Island, there was a large fight on Franklin Ave. and Empire Blvd. in Brooklyn, and a double homicide on Furman Ave. and East 237th St. in the Bronx. The US Postal Service is expecting to process one billion individual pieces of mail today, three times the daily average. The busiest day of the year is expected to......

MOVIE: In the unlikeliest of scenarios, rapper (and jeweler) Paul Wall, his grills, Reggaetón king Tego Calderón and Wu-Tang's Raekwon traveled to Sierra Leone. The outcome is an informative documentary called Bling: A Planet Rock which focuses on "the flashy world of commercial hip-hop jewelry played a significant role in the ten-year civil war" in West Africa. 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm // BAM Rose Cinemas [30 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn] // $12 ART: Photographs by Lisette Model,......

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (directed by Steven Shainberg): Certain movies while not deserving the monetary investment in a theater viewing are worth catching on DVD, and Steven Shainberg's fictional portrait of artist Diane Arbus is one of them. Arbus's life story--upper middle class '60s housewife takes up photography and an interest in subcultures--is such a fascinating one, it practically demands a biopic. Add to that the importance of Arbus's work on the......

This week at the movies, two actors known for their intensity on (and off) screen have new flicks coming out. The Oscar-winning over-reactor Russell Crowe goes the romantic comedy route with A Good Year about an English businessman softened by life in Provence. With a script by Peter Mayle, a novelist well versed in the French countryside, and direction by Ridley Scott, Crowe as Max Skinner actually comes across as incredibly charming. He's sure to......

-- Blackout for 16,000 customers on Staten Island - it should take City Hall five days to react -- When did Fairway start selling horses? -- Are those tall turnstiles in the subways a death-trap bottleneck just waiting to happen? -- NYPD cops have fired five bullets every day for the last ten days-- that is a lot! And something might be fishy about that BBQ shooting in Brooklyn. -- MoMA is poised to......

Yesterday, the NY Times had an obituary for the photographer Ted Croner, who died at age 82. He was part of the New York School of photographers and this line from the obit sums up his technique: "...[his] rigorously blurry photographs of New York at night in the 1940's epitomized the film noir energy of a city that never sleeps." Croner took his photography class at The New School in 1947 and later worked for......

With only six months down, this year has already been a very strong one for photography lovers. With both the Diane Arbus and Thomas Demand retrospectives sadly done and gone, however, it's great to see that we'll still have something to keep us sated over the long summer months, namely the Lee Freidlander retrospective opening this Sunday at MOMA. Friedlander, whose strange and often haunting photographs of the American social landscape have long been favorites......

You know that really amazing exhibit? The one by the artist you love so much you once tried to hide in their bushes as a "conceptual piece?" The show you've read five articles on and that you've told everyone you know to go see? The one that you, um, missed? Yeah... Gothamist feels your pain, having screamed in rage in a number of similar situations. So, in an effort to forestall any sort of recurrence,......

Last night Gothamist was found dancing in an owl costume on stage with the Flaming Lips. The wine consumed beforehand helped to guide our feet in a more festive rhythm, however it's left us ailing today. If you're in better shape, you may want to try out one or more of the following this weekend: ART: Check out the Diane Arbus Revelations exhibit at the Met. The show traces the artist's early experiments with photography......

Last week, it was announced that Samantha Morton would play photographer Diane Arbus in a film about Arbus's life called Fur. Steven Shainberg, who directed Secretary, will direct, and Secretary screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson will write this screenplay, based on the Arbus biography by Patricia Bosworth. Gothamist is pretty excited, because we love Arbus's work (especially photographs of NY life), and Morton has the kind of attitude that could pull this off. Here's an Arbus......