With the $500 million renovation of Madison Square Garden scheduled to be complete by the 2011-2012 season, the Knicks are hoping to finally participate in All-Star Game festivities. Not necessarily with a player, which they haven't had since Allan Houston in 2001, but by hosting the actual NBA All-Star Game in 2012. While Garden officials haven't made an official proposal yet, NBA Commish David Stern told The Times that hosting, "is a very live possibility."......

Pearl Jam Goes On You've gotta hand it to the Pearl Jam fans. They are REAL, and likely one of the most hardcore and dedicated fan bases in America. To many, Pearl Jam is merely the "other" Grunge band, but they're one of the most successful and influential bands of the last two decades. And despite their mopey reputation, Vedder and crew really seem quite content these days. They were really into it on stage......

At around 11 a.m. the "World's Strongest Men" will be taking over 7th Avenue in front of the Garden. The men will be channeling The Hulk as they pull a double-decker bus down the block, a stunt that will make all of their other planned handiwork pale in comparison. Moneyries reports that in addition to their attempt at breaking the bus record, phone books will be torn to pieces, Hawaiian Tropic Zone models will be......

In January 1931, Modern Mechanics magazine featured daredevils, stuntmen, and others with risky odd jobs. Unsurprisingly, many of them flocked to the city, from Madison Square Garden to the Brooklyn Bridge. One of particular interest is Sig Smith, who once walked around the crown of the Statue of Liberty, blindfolded!Everybody has heard of the Statue of Liberty, though not many people realize what a huge object it is. They say that a man can crawl......

Fans of Phish, the Clinton-era jam band road hogs, had high hopes for a reunion last night when the band appeared at the Theater at Madison Square Garden to accept a Lifetime Achievement award at the 7th annual Jammy Awards. But instead the four members gave polite acceptance speeches and walked off without so much as an a cappella “Freebird.” The event was guitarist Trey Anastasio’s first public appearance in New York since entering a......

Chris Martin will be (attempting to) steal the spotlight back from his wife Gwyneth Paltrow soon. She's been in the news for fainting from live-food fasts and being honored by Food Bank NYC, and you know he must be shivering there in her shadow. Well not for long; Martin and his band Coldplay have just announced a free show to help hype up their forthcoming album. If you're a fan of the fellas, set that......

Untitled photo of rodeo clown, by Zodak at flickr According to WNBC's Jonathan Dienst, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly wrote a letter to the MTA, MSG, Amtrak, and Vornado Realty expressing his dismay over the lack of Penn Station security. Three years after funding had been secured for the construction of a legitimately effective security barrier to protect Penn Station from a truck bomb attack, Kelly says little has been done to implement any plans.......

A week after abandoning plans to build a new arena at the planned Moynihan Station, Madison Square Garden officials revealed $500 million plans to renovate the 40-year-old space. Cablevision--which owns MSG--vice chairman Hank Ratner told reporters that though the company supports Moynihan Station, "We are going to renovate the arena here, and we are not going to be moving...We can accomplish anything we want by renovating." Well, Cablevision probably does like those tax breaks. The......

The NY Sun reports Madison Square Garden officials will just renovate the existing arena instead of being a part of the city and state's ambitious Moynihan Station plans. An MSG spokesperson said, "Madison Square Garden has decided to move forward with our renovation previously announced in 2004. After exploring several alternatives, it has become clear that the only viable option is a renovation. Details will be available in the coming days. Madison Square Garden......

Carlos Zelayo is suing Madison Square Garden for continuing to serve a visibly drunk off-duty cop at a college basketball game, before the man left the arena and killed Zelayo's son and put his wife in a coma, from which she hasn't emerged. Kevin Freibott is the Jersey City cop currently serving an 11-year sentence for vehicular homicide. He killed two-year-old Jose Carlo Zelayo (pictured) on the Pulaski Skyway. Lawyers for MSG describe Zelayo's lawsuit......

Gay NY Rangers fans are unhappy about the "toxic atmosphere" at Madison Square Garden during Rangers games. One of their examples is the reaction to Larry Goodman's dancing (pay attention at about 19 seconds in): Goodman's dancing, described as a tradition at home games, is broadcast to get the crowds going late in games. And the crowd responds with chants of "Homo Larry!" (Goodman tells the Times he prefers to be called "Dancin' Larry.") Apparently,......

The Friends of Moynihan Station shared a rendering of what Moynihan Station will look like, according to NY State. According to FMS, the Empire State Development Corporation has been "reluctant" to share them, but FMS thinks "looks great," though there's a lot that needs to be explained. The Observer broke down what's in the rendering:In the bottom of the picture is the Farley Post Office with a new Madison Square Garden in the rear.......

Today the Times’s chief food critic Frank Bruni revisits WD-50 (pictured) and elevates the Lower East Side avant-garde restaurant to three stars (a 2003 Times review by another critic had awarded it two). Chef Wylie Dufresne has made WD-50 a destination with his experimental, transgressive menu, and Bruni concedes that in the past “too many of his creations were gratuitously perverse… many visitors understandably feel that what they’ve experienced isn’t so much a meal as......

The Knicks clinched a losing record for the season with their 100-88 defeat Monday, but what happened off the court was much more interesting. Stephon Marbury, the pariah point guard who was reportedly banned from MSG, was supposed to show up tonight. At the morning shootaround Isiah told reporters, “We expect him here tonight,” when discussing Marbury. And, true to form, Marbury made his coach look bad again by not showing up at all. While......

An influential group of rabbis have put the kibosh on a concert planned for next Sunday at MSG’s WaMu theater. Billed as The Big Event, the show was to be headlined by popular Hasidic pop singer Lipa Schmeltzer and raise money for an Israeli charity that finances weddings for orphans. But after an edict was issued against the event, Schmeltzer dropped out, saying, “I have to get out of the fire.” Two Brooklyn community leaders,......

Less than two weeks after Gov. Spitzer publicly reaffirmed his commitment to going forward with plans to construct Moynihan Station despite a $1 billion funding shortfall, it looks like the matter may be out of his hands. The New York Times is reporting that the whole $14 billion project, which would involve building Moynihan Station at The Farley Post Office building and constructing a new Madison Square Garden on the site, is on the brink......

Carrie and Keith Do MSG Two of the world's largest crossover Country stars joined forces this winter for a massive arena tour that came through NYC this week. Former American Idol and legitimate breakout star Carrie Underwood opened the show for Keith Urban at a sold out MSG, both dazzling the crowd with song and spectacle. While Carrie's set was slightly less ambitious – a mere 4 costume changes and a fairly pedestrian light show......

The 132nd Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show arrives at Madison Square Garden Monday. The two-day event has thousands of dogs undergo a winnowing process that culminates with the awarding of Best in Show. The American Kennel Club recognizes 157 disinct breeds that are eligible for competition, and four of those breeds are brand new entries to the field. They include the Tibetan mastiff (a working dog), the Beaucerand and Swedish vallhund (herding dogs), and the......

The fate of the Moynihan Station in the James Farley post office building remains up in the air and it's unclear whether Madison Square Garden will also relocate to the Farley building. If MSG moves, plans say the old MSG would be razed and a new train tracks would be put on top. The Municipal Arts Society's New Penn Station campaign shares a plan from students (at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture's Historic Preservation Program)......

The City Council voted 40-3 to end the tax breaks Madison Square Garden has enjoyed since 1982. It's estimated that the city has lost almost $300 million in potential revenue in subsidies to the "World's Most Famous Arena." Although the City Council wants the tax breaks to end (our favorite quote is from Councilman Lew Fidler: "I have spent my entire life as as Knicks fan, and I doubt if there's anyone who loves the......

Yesterday this clip of Robert Plant catching a game at the Garden came out. It shows a younger reporter asking the Led Zeppelin singer about the band's possible reunion at the very arena they stand in. Will Led Zeppelin return to the Garden? The answer remains the same... The best part (besides the fact that the two look like they might make out at any moment) is that Plant seems to assume she doesn't know......

Coachella Lineup Announced Sure, with the All Points West Fest announced, Coachella may not have the same appeal for east coasters this year, but the lineup announcement is still an exciting annual event. Over the last few years, it has established itself as the granddaddy and standard bearer of the American festival circuit. Unfortunately, most people are finding this year's lineup is a bit of a dud. Coachella's been operating at such a high level......

Photographs of Brian Leetch's number being retired at Madison Square and Leetch acknowledging the crowd by Frank Franklin II/AP Beloved former Ranger Brian Leetch only made one mistake, mentioning Jim Dolan in his speech and the Rangers only made one mistake, letting Marian Hossa get free to score a goal. Hossa’s goal early in the second period put Atlanta in front and threatened to ruin Brian Leetch Night, but the Rangers recovered. Michal Rozsival......

Now it all makes sense, they can’t win on the court, so MSG officials are going to try and control the story off the court. And by control we really mean control. We already knew they wanted complete control over the fans and over the media, but even the coaches are not immune to the Garden’s nefarious ways. Larry Brown (remember him?) says there were “spies throughout the arena” when he was the coach and......

You would think things couldn't get worse for Jim Dolan. After all, the Knicks stink and it seems like Isiah Thomas isn't going anywhere quick (perhaps due to Dolan's own doing). But the City Council started to look into Madison Square Garden's $11 million/year property tax exemption today. David Weprin of Queens sponsored the resolution opposing the exemption saying that "It's very unusual that you have a profitable institution like Madison Square Garden that's been......

Today we wrote about the discontinuation of the requirement for subway conductors to announce a train's arrival at the 47th-50th St. Rockefeller Center station with a plug for the "Top of the Rock" observation deck. Most commenters found the idea of corporate sponsorship of subway stations distasteful, let alone the fact that this was an enforced and required announcement that generated no revenue for NYC Transit. Some people do enjoy when their conductors deviate from......

When we mentioned how the Professional Bull Riders were holding an outdoor demonstration of bull riding on the corner of 8th Avenue and 33rd Street (outside of Madison Square Garden where their invitational is being held this weekend), our readers had some strong opinions. Reader prana came out against bull riding:These bull riders are little more than animal abusers who torment these bulls so that they will "buck" and create the illusion that they......

Nothing makes us want to drive a Ford truck like drinking a sixer of PBR, so we suppose their teaming up for a New York invasion today isn't that odd. Oh, wait... this PBR stands for Professional Bull Riders. Either way, the two are bringing some wildlife to our streets (why not) and for the first time in history (unsubstantiated!) "bulls will be bucked on sidewalks of New York City". If you've been riding the......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a water condition at Surf Ave. and West 8th St. in Brooklyn, a car vs. building at 49th St. and 5th Ave. in Manhattan, and a fatality with a person under a subway train at Sutter and Snediker Aves. in Brooklyn. The editors at The New York Times apologize for asserting that Presidential candidate Ron Paul was allied with white supremacists and the American Nazi Party. Racked notes that......

Have some extra cash to spend around the holiday season? Even the littlest bit can go a long way in the over 80 year old Operation Santa program. Every year letters pile up at the James A. Farley Post Office from (mostly needy) kids writing to Santa Claus (read one of them here). Their wish lists don't make it to the North Pole, but with New Yorkers pitching in every year, it's as if they......