Recycling Cliches. Gotham Gazette focuses on yet another attempt by the city council to find some way to boost New York's anemic recycling rates. Now we go back a long way on this issue, and we have yet to see any measurable difference being made by a single piece of legislation. Meanwhile the...

Yoga in Nature. July 28 -- Aug 25 Wednesdays @ Wave Hill Find refuge from city life by practicing seasonal yoga. Decrease stress and increase your energy by focusing on your posture, breath control and meditation. Classes are led by Neem Dewji , certified in Hatha and Therapeutic Yoga from The...

Nite Jewel | Am I Real? 

NYC's Best Galleries and Unintended Artworks. 

Radio Free Brooklyn. 

Versus | On the Ones and Threes. 

Soft Metals | The Cold World Melts EP. 

Brooklyn Revolts: Young Republicans ATTACK! 

Meet the Jazz Dentist: Toot Canal. 

HEAT WAVE? Time to Buy That Winter Coat. 

Varieties of Sexy Vampire Experience. 

Narrative Filmmaking for the Age of PornoTube. 

Discerning Cinephiles Still Prefer Blondes. 

Super Sad True Love Story By Gary Shteyngart. 

The Indie List. 

Mesopotamia 
by Arthur Nersesian. 

Graffiti v. Street Art. 

Who Ain't a Woman? 

In Their Natural Habitat. 

port mogeur in plouha. On the coast of Brittany in the north of France is a little town called Plouha (twinned with Killorglin of County Kerry, Ireland). A fortuituous apartment swap with friends of the fine arts organization, GwinZegal, brought this wanderer to this magical, secluded place of wheat...

Crossing Utah: Ghost Towns, Dinosaurs, Arches, and a Home in a Rock. After leaving Blanding, Utah, we didn't even have to travel to a national park to see our first arch of the day, which was right along the highway: Our goal was to travel north to Arches National Park, then rejoin old US-50 (renamed US-6 in Utah) and spend the night in Salt . ....

Get a leg up. 

Best of Brooklyn (and Manhattan too). 

No Apple Store in Brooklyn, Salads Swimming with Bacteria, and More Brooklyn Briefs. - A deputy mayor under Mayor Michael Bloomberg owns stock in Forest City Enterprises, the force behind the controversial Atlantic Yards project. The project is getting more than $150 million in city money, plus tax exemptions and city-owned property at no cost. Brooklyn Eagle -...

Underground cell service: a panacea or a prison? As news of the MTA's revived attempt to outfit its underground subway stations with cell and wifi service gains steam, the authority has released the details of its revised deal with Transit Wireless. If all goes according to plan, the city's 277 underground stops could be fully...

Campaign for Chess Federation Presidency Becomes More Heated. Anatoly Karpov, who is running for president of the World Chess Federation, has stepped up his attacks recently on Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the incumbent, who has tried to deflect criticism and answer questions about his record. Ilyumzhinov also claims to have almost enough support...

FASHION: Good jeans! Loren Cronk opens his denim den in Greenpoint. Note: More media content is available for this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Andy Campbell The Brooklyn Paper Sure, your $300 pair of Ed Hardy jeans are cool, but it's time to grow up and meet the denim fanatic who offers style and value to the celebrities -- designer Loren...

CARROLL GARDENS: A van, a man, a plan. See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Gary Buiso The Brooklyn Paper 76th Precinct Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill–Red Hook A van, a plan Three men robbed a man taking a stroll near the Ninth Street Bridge in Gowanus on July 25 -- but the victim was rescued by a mysterious...

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS: He's in the kitchen! See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Stephen Brown The Brooklyn Paper Lucky louse A thief was snooping around in a woman's apartment on Aug. 1, but got away after being confronted by the tenants. The woman told cops that her boyfriend had stepped out of her apartment on...

WILLIAMSBURG: Hotel Toshi is burglarized! See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Aaron Short The Brooklyn Paper Toshi'd! Two thieves broke into an unlicensed, but popular, Driggs Avenue hotel's office on July 30, stealing four computers. Hotel Toshi owner Robert Chan told cops that he had left his basement management...

PROSPECT HEIGHTS: Art attack at Museum! See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Gersh Kuntzman The Brooklyn Paper Art attack A thief stole the laptop right off the lap of its user as she was typing on it in the grass in front of the Brooklyn Museum on Eastern Parkway on July 29. The victim told cops that she was...

GREENPOINT: Time to rob the bagel store. See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Aaron Short The Brooklyn Paper Bagel burglar A thief broke into a Bedford Avenue bagel store on July 26 and stole $1,500 -- but no bagels. The thief entered The Bagel Store, near N. Third Street, after midnight, unlocking a padlock on the...

BENSONHURST: Goons at the GNC. See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Thomas Tracy The Brooklyn Paper GNC goon A pumped-up perpetrator raided a GNC store on July 26, police said. Workers at the store, which is located on 18th Avenue between 70th and 71st streets, said the thief came in at 10 am, flashed a...

BAY RIDGE: Stabbed over a bike. See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Alex Rush The Brooklyn Paper 68th Precinct Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights Can't stomach A wannabe bike thief stabbed a 43-year-old man in the stomach at the corner of Fourth Avenue and 78th Street on July 28. The knife-wielding perp approached...

GREENPOINT: City begins work on ‘Transmitter Park'. See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Aaron Short The Brooklyn Paper Greenpoint residents celebrated the neighborhood's newest park -- though it won't be open officially until 2012. City officials broke ground at WNYC Transmitter Park on Tuesday morning, beginning the...

WILLIAMSBURG: On the road again! Automotive HS's team has no home field. See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Aaron Short The Brooklyn Paper One of Brooklyn's best high school football teams is forced to play its home games at a rival high school's field because the city and the school's league won't let the team play in McCarren Park across the...

Reading scores way down? Parents blame the test, not the kids. See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Michèle De Meglio The Brooklyn Paper Parents across Brownstone Brooklyn are slamming the Department of Education's just-released state reading test scores which show that more than half of fifth-graders can't read at grade level -- a...

MEADOWS OF SHAME: Swan down! This cygnet is the catch of the day. See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Jared Foretek for The Brooklyn Paper Talk about the ugly duckling! Prospect Park's swans were under attack this weekend as two adults and two cygnets were found with fishing hooks in their beaks and lines around their legs. "The swans...

CYCLONES: Swept by the Renegades? See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Gersh Kuntzman The Brooklyn Paper Cyclones 1 Renegades 9 Tue s day, Aug. 3 at Hudson Valley The Cyclones ran into a hot pitcher who cooled their league-leading bats with a five-inning two-hit performance. Worse, Darrell Ceciliani -- who...

BOOKS: Ka-POW! A look at Brooklyn's best comic book stores. See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Stephen Brown and Andy Campbell The Brooklyn Paper Last week, Brooklyn fanboys lost one of their stomping grounds, when Rocketship closed up shop after five years in Cobble Hill. Luckily for fans of Hulk action figures, Manga and indie...

BOOKS: ‘Hellcity' is a graphic novel with explosive results. See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Chuck O'Donnell for The Brooklyn Paper Writer Macon Blair loves his apartment in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, and artist Joe Flood says he's inspired by living in the borough after moving to Crown Heights from New Jersey nine years ago. So...

EVENT: Wheely good news! Soapbox derby coming to Slope on Saturday. Note: More media content is available for this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Meredith Deliso The Brooklyn Paper You don't need to travel to Ohio for some prime Soapbox Derby action this summer. On Saturday, Open Source Gallery brings the do-it-yourself childhood hobby to the...

EVENT: Tips to make a great racer. See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Meredith Deliso The Brooklyn Paper This Saturday, kids -- and some adults -- will race down 17th Street in South Slope's annual Soapbox Derby. Making a racer isn't as easy as putting a box on wheels, so Monica Wuhrer of Open Source...

BRIDGE ‘PARK': Still not a park! New city board has only two open space pros. See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Andy Campbell The Brooklyn Paper Only two members of the city's new 17-person team overseeing the rest of Brooklyn Bridge Park's build-out are parks professionals -- evidence that the new agency remains a waterfront development, not a...

PARK SLOPE: Mugged — and shot! See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Gersh Kuntzman for The Brooklyn Paper Shot at A gunman not only mugged a man on Baltic Street on July 29, but also fired a shot in the victim's direction after he gave chase. The mugged man told cops that he was talking on a cellphone...

GOWANUS: She's 40? This pool is a fountain of youth! See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Gary Buiso for The Brooklyn Paper What do Crown Heights resident Michele Marshall and Grammy-winner Barbra Streisand have in common? They both graduated from Erasmus Hall HS in Flatbush -- and they are both borough icons. Sure, Streisand,...

1980s East Village cafes still packing crowds. Restaurants have always had a short shelf life in New York. But even in today's frat bar-happy East Village, some old-school eateries still seem to be thriving. From the January 1986 East Village Eye comes this ad for Life Cafe--a refuge for residents caught up in the bloody...

Why Doesn't This Man Move to Park Slope? Okay, I know this is a stretch but I love this man. I think we should invite winnebago dude to the next FIPS event.

The highway that almost destroyed downtown. Soho? Never would have happened. Little Italy would be turned into a pile of bricks. And block after block along Delancey, Broome, Kenmare, and Spring Street would have met the wrecking ball as well. But luckily, none of this happened, because the proposed Lower Manhattan...

Coney Events: Magic At Coney. Illusionists, mentalists, and magic mayhem infiltrate the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. From Coney Island USA: An evening of fun for the entire family. "Magic at Coney" is a magical variety show highlighting world-class, award winning magicians. Featuring illusionists,...

World Film Premier Of "Last Summer At Coney Island". The long-awaited documentary about Coney Island's recent redevelopment battle will premiere at BAM Rose Cinemas and at Tribeca Cinemas in Manhattan. From the press release: A documentary about Coney Island's roller coaster relationship with redevelopment premieres on Monday...

 Manchester, CT – A 50-year-old Stamford man was among the nine people killed during a shooting rampage at a Manchester beer distributor Tuesday morning. Louis Felder, a Pepper Ridge Road resident and member of the city's Orthodox Jewish community, worked at Hartford...

 Manhattan, NY – A detective from the Police Commissioner's office looking to ease tension between Harlem cops and local residents after an alleged brutality incident was denied entry to a notorious mosque simply because he was carrying his gun and shield, The Post has...

BREAKING: Old Blockbuster on Flatbush to be a Toys 'R' Us Express. A tip from Ms. I Swear I'm on a Blog Vacation herself: The old Blockbuster Video location on Flatbush Avenue is turning into a Toys 'R' Us Express.  Apparently, they're already stocking the shelves . Besides the fact that this is only going to make that strip of Flatbush...

 New York – In a letter sent Tuesday, Aug. 3, to the leadership of the National Council of Young Israel, 35 of the organization's 140 North American branch synagogues formally proposed changes to the national body's constitution. The amendments for the first time would...

Deputy Mayor Wolfson owns $5000 of Forest City Enterprises shares; does it matter? Nah. 

 New York – Oscilloscope Laboratories said it planned to appeal an R rating assigned by the Classification and Rating Administration to the Holocaust documentary "A Film Unfinished" . The documentary, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival this year, dissects a Nazi...

Sad and silly carvings on a Madison Avenue facade. The AIA Guide to New York City describes 285 Madison Avenue, an office building at the corner of 40th Street built in 1926, as "an unremarkable block of brick." Well, except for the funny little stone figures that surround the street-level store windows.  Dozens of them adorn...

Ed Koch and His Enemies. What's next for dear old Ed Koch? "Death!" he told the Transom, with trademark glee, in his midtown office last Friday morning. "I'm 85. My father lived to 87. The average American lives to 78. I'm already living on borrowed time, but I have no fear of...

We Can Put a Man on the Moon .... Douglas Durst had a plan for Governors Island. The veteran commercial landlord, whose eponymous firm built the Bank of America Tower, wanted to adorn a piece of the flat ice-cream-cone-shaped spit off the tip of Lower Manhattan with a behemoth Ferris wheel, one akin to the...

 New York – An art dealer who conned his star-studded clientele out of $120 million while indulging in such luxuries as a private baseball stadium was sentenced Tuesday to at least six years in prison for a fraud that swept up John McEnroe and the estate of Robert De Niro's...

Red Eye. A visual diary documenting a flight from New York to Berlin (with a layover in London).

 Albany, NY – Lawmakers in New York finalized one of the latest budgets in state history on Tuesday night, passing legislation that will raise roughly $1 billion, in part by increasing taxes on clothing and shoe purchases and on a variety of business, while sparing hedge...

 New York – The state's millionaire population has now surpassed the boom times of 2007. According to the new Metro Wealth Index, created by consulting firm Capgemini, the New York Metropolitan area had 650,000 high-net worth individuals, or people with $1 million or more...

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford. 

Boston Reflects on Pei's Brutalist Plaza. Debate ragers over addition of three new towers to Christian Science campus or its midcentury preservation

Video Interlude: Jamie Oliver Has an Actual Plan To Fight Childhood Obesity. 

iStar narrows losses, but still struggles with portfolio. Jay Sugarman and One Madison Park IStar Financial, the Manhattan-based real estate investment trust, narrowed its second-quarter losses, as the lender took additional steps to slash its debt and find value in its portfolio of troubled land and condominium assets. IStar reported...

 New York, NY – Need to know where in the city is a schlep? Well, at this point it's pretty much everywhere, but Heeb Magazine has come up with this map specifically for the city's Jews. Queens and Staten Island are completely out, and the only parts of the Bronx are where...

What America Eats, Visualized: You've heard the stomach-churning averages of.... 

Eater Kinda Maybe Like You!: Click on over to the Eater.... 

Defending the Mosque. No recent controversy has so plainly revealed the hollow values of the American right than the effort to prevent the construction of a community center in Lower Manhattan because it will include a mosque. Arguments in opposition range from a professed concern for the...

Elsewhere: White House Mum on Mosque. Kathleen Rice landed Queens Congressman and head of the county party Joe Crowley. Michael Allegretti is trying to get on Carl Paladino's Taxpayer line. Gov. Paterson would very much like the Assembly to know that they should pass a property tax cap like the Senate did. Empire...

Bloomberg's Speech on the Ground Zero Mosque. Here's Mayor Bloomberg on Governors Island this afternoon, addressing the proposed mosque near Ground Zero, and the importance of religious...

In Europe, Chess Is King, but Not in the U.S.. The commonly held belief that chess is more popular in Europe than it is in the United States is not hard to prove. Just compare major tournaments under way or recently concluded in both areas.

 Israel – Archaeologists in Israel are excited at their latest find: a bronze bracelet from 3,500 years ago, in southeast Tzfat in the Galilee. The excavation of the first known village from the Late Bronze period -- roughly the time of the Biblical Joseph -- is taking...

Home builder outlook weak, experts say. A quarterly report from home builder D.R. Horton reflects an undue level of market enthusiasm, due to the tax credit's artificial boost, according to the Wall Street Journal. Donald Tomnitz, CEO of D.R. Horton, said that his company scrambled to build for any buyer that "had a...

Breaking: New Cafe Slated for Flatbush at Lincoln. This just in: a female employee at Enduro is opening a new cafe on Flatbush Avenue, near Lincoln Road. The place will serve comfort food. That's about all we know right now. We'll let you know when we find out more. (Thanks, Mindy G.!)

PM Listage: Illicit Grilled Cheese in NYC; DC is Up and Coming. 

J Street: Mosque Like 92nd Street Y. Among the supporters of the proposed mosque near Ground Zero this morning were about a dozen members of the progressive Jewish group J Street. Isaac Luria, a spokesman for the organization, said the group had launched a petition on Monday, and was at the vote to present 10,000...

Did "Jewish Money" List Come From McMahon's Washington Office? At least, that is what Jennifer Nelson, the aide fired after handing The Politicker a list of "Jewish donors" to a rivals campaign, is claiming. According to Maggie Haberman: Nelson said the lists were put together after a discussion involving the congressman's chief...

City approves tax breaks for Manhattan properties. The city's Industrial Development Agency voted today to approve Thomson Reuters' application to shift up to $20.8 million in unused city and state sales tax subsidies from the construction of 3 Times Square to seven other Manhattan properties, Crain's reported. The approval was...

CurbedWire: Greenpoint Park Finally Breaks Ground; New Yorker Condo Sells Out; Mayor Bloomberg Silences Mosque Haters. 

Parting Shot: Nailed It! Not even Jesus would want to die on this nail-studded cross designed and installed by artist Peter Fuss in Poland. |Unurth|

The Tricks of Fox's Trade. For professional reasons, I watch a lot of Fox News. And it's not easy to fully convey its nightly mendacity -- or how programs are little more than RNC video ads. Of course, two weeks ago the cable network was caught hyping the Andrew Breitbart political smear of Shirley...

rice crispies. These are no ordinary rice crispies, but chocolate butterscotch rice crispies. Baked by Samara for our office potluck. addthis_pub = 'FrontStudio';

 New York – Federal prosecutors in New York are seeking over $5 million in assets belonging to a former office supervisor for jailed financier Bernard Madoff. The government said Tuesday that it has traced houses in Manhasset, N.Y., and Boca Raton, Fla., and other assets to...

Board Wrap: Free Refills or Billed a Second Time? 

Linkage: Final Aqueduct Bidder Approved; Hotel Toshi Burglarized; More! 

Hidden NYC Art Chapel to be Razed. Nested inside a tattered warehouse off the West Side Highway on 57th Street, there's a "building-within-a-building," aglow with milk-glass light bulbs, decorated in abstract paintings and stuffed with artist studios (and artists). Check it out before it's gone. Artist Dean...

BARNSTORMIN': Backman: I will finish the job in Brooklyn. See this story at BrooklynPaper.com . By Stephen Brown The Brooklyn Paper Everyone is calling for the Mets to transfer Cyclones skipper Wally Backman to Citi Field -- but he says he won't budge until he finishes the job in Brooklyn. And that job is returning the New...

Genting bid okayed for Aqueduct racino. New York Lottery officials recommended Malaysian gaming giant Genting to operate a long-awaited, 4,500 video-slot casino at the Aqueduct race track in Queens, Crain's reported. Genting was the only competitor left in the bidding war to run the multibillion-dollar slot casino...

Board Wrap: Wing Shoon, the Best Lobster in Chinatown? 

EaterWire: DOH Continues Gross-Out Campaign; $5 Deals All Over Town. 

Comment of the Day: "This is going to be good.... 

Honda Uses the H-Word To Promote ‘Jazz'. Honda Australia ironically asks stupid question for latest advertisement: "‪How much Hipster can you pack in a Jazz?‬"

North Country Workboats. I'm still unpacking my head and camera from the gallivant to Algonquin Provincial Park, where these "water taxis" work the tourist trade, hauling canoes on racks to remote reaches of Lake Opeongo.  Because Canada is a bilingual country, next to "water taxi" on the sign were the...

 Los Angeles, CA Andrew Breitbart strips off his blazer, windmills it over his head and lets it fly to the stage with a matador's flourish. He booms into a microphone, sneering, taunting. Breath sprints to keep up with words. A Breitbart boil is under way, before a cheering...

Melissa Gasper Promoted To Associate Publisher Of Real Simple. 

Banh Mi Saigon. We'd spotted the new location of the supposedly "jewelry-free" Banh Mi Saigon out of the corners of our eyes, and today seemed like a perfect day for a try out. The gossip was false! And the new location has jewelry shop intact! As we've never been a huge fan of their sandwiches...

The Fashionable Chef: Gluttony Pants from Betabrand and Chris Cosentino Get Bigger as You Do. 

First Word: New Midtown Hotel Can't Ease Our Planet Hollywood Pain. 

Mayor Bloomberg Knows His Colonial History. Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave a brief history lesson on religious freedom at a Governor's Island press conference Tuesday afternoon. Bloomberg was responding to the Landmarks Preservation Commission's vote to take 45-47 Park Place off its calendar, essentially giving the green...

Pending homes sales index drops in June ... and more. 1. Pending homes sales index drops in June: NAR [National Mortgage News] 2. Federal probe into collapsed mortgages puts spotlight on Deutsche Bank [WSJ] 3. "Twilight" star Ashley Greene spotted apartment-hunting at 2 Cooper Square and Port 10 [Post] 4. W New York Downtown gives...

Deathwatch: Apiary. 

DEALFEED: Alloy. 

DEALFEED: Crocs. 

DEALFEED: Hot Topic. 

DEALFEED: Lids. 

DEALFEED: Levi's. 

DEALFEED: Calvin Klein. 

 New York, NY – Mayor Bloomberg, Council Speaker Christine Quinn and 10 religious leaders of various faiths journeyed to Governors Island this afternoon to show their support for the proposed mosque and community center near the World Trade Center site. With the Statue of...

Taco Bell Creates Street-Food-Inspired Tacos: Taking inspiration from "authentic-style Mexican street.... 

Street Artists Cancel Out Ads In Berlin. There's several methods that people can use to manipulate outdoor advertising. For Mr Talion and Epoxy, a pair of street artists operating in Berlin, that includes putting up "Event Cancelled" stickers over posters promoting various events. Dayum! |Public Ad Campaign|

Rated XX: How to Tuck: Doll's Step-by-Step Guide to Packaging and Panties. 

 New York – Helping Jews the world over feel connected as opposed to isolated has long been the mission of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries and the corps of rabbinical students who annually fan out to disparate communities across the globe. And as one such project in Rochester,...

We're Filthy Rich!: The awesomely named Metro Wealth Index.... 

Funders for LGBTQ Issues: Communications Officer. Based in New York City, Funders for LGBTQ Issues seeks to mobilize philanthropic resources that create equity, enhance the well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities, and... City Limits has been the long-standing provider of New York City's top...

☞ REMEMBER: 119-125 West 123rd Street. We were a little confused with the 1940 Carl Van Vechten photo at top since there seems to be a set of four identical row houses and we have only seen groups of three around Harlem in past research. The closest thing to this particular image are the three houses at 119-125 West...

The Hamptons' heaviest hitters. A Hamptons estate From the August issue: While the Hamptons market has severely suffered for the last two years as buyers have steered clear of second homes, deals are finally closing again -- albeit with price cuts and negotiations. According to data from Suffolk Research...

Week in Reviews: Sam Sifton's review this week of.... 

Watch "Civilization" by Marco Brambilla, Video Artist and Director of Kanye West's Forthcoming "Power" Music Video. 

Surfing the Webster. A South Beach luxury boutique has created a pop-up store to educate shoppers about Florida's surf culture.

Tuesday Blogwrap. Help Make the Cyclone's Macho Mascot [Brokelyn] Dodgeball Tom, The Pool Parties' Duke of Dodgeball [Gothamist] Vanderbilt Playground Nears Completion [IMBY] Roman's Review [CHF] A Brooklynite's Guide to Queer Literature [BTB] Photo by xbettyx .

UES New Yorker condo sold out. The New Yorker condominium, located at 1474 Third Avenue between East 83rd and East 84th streets, is completely sold out, according to Manhattan-based developer RAL Companies. Designed by the Creative Design Associates architecture firm, the 17-story, 32-unit condo conversion...

On the Racked: MePa Greets a Kardashian; Greenpoint Gets Premium Denim; More!