Photograph of John McCain and President George Bush at the White House by Ron Edmonds/AP Yesterday, Senator John McCain was welcomed and endorsed by President Bush. Bush referenced McCain's doubters and past history, "John showed incredible courage and strength of character and perseverance in order to get to this moment. And that's exactly what we need in a President: somebody that can handle the tough decisions; somebody who won't flinch in the face of......

Photo: Carol Rosegg I hate going to Broadway shows: fighting through the mobs in Times Square, being herded into the theater like livestock, cramming into a tiny seat while feedback from hearing aids and hacking coughs reverberate on all sides. Admittedly, I’m a world-class grouch when it comes to these things, so it’s no faint praise that I’d eagerly subject myself to it again for Passing Strange, the multidisciplinary rock musical that just blazed onto......

EVENT: The Greenwich Village Antiquarian Book Sale is going on all weekend, so now is the time to go searching for that first edition you've been wanting on your bookshelf. You'll also find out of print books, maps and much more! Friday through Sunday // P.S. 3 [490 Hudson St] // Three-day pass $12 ART: Monday's interviewee, James Top, shows off his work tonight at the opening of his first solo NYC show, titled......

Train muralist James Top (aka JEE 2) was part of the legendary Odd Partners in the 1970s. The Brooklyn crew bombed with throw ups and block letters; they were highly regarded and had a strong presence in the city. These days Top has taken his art indoors -- teaching a graffiti class in the Bronx and, this weekend, opening his first New York exhibit. Afrology opens this Friday and includes the debut of seventeen variations......

A lawsuit filed Monday against the City Campaign Finance Board seeks to overturn a recently enacted funding law that opponents assert will just make the City Council richer - and whiter. The recently-enacted campaign finance restrictions reduces the contributions from companies who do business with the city by a whopping 92%. Translation: In a mayoral race, the individual limit on giving is now $400, versus $4,950; in City Council races, it's $250, down from $2,950.......

In the vicious waters of the 2008 presidential campaign, everything is fair game. President Bill Clinton learned that (again!) after a remark he made has drawn the ire of black leaders. So Clinton called into the Reverend Al Sharpton's radio show to explain why used the term "fairy tale" while criticizing Barack Obama. It turns out during a Dartmouth College speech (the day before Hillary Clinton's victory in the New Hampshire primary), the former President......

After months and months of delays, the BAM Cultural District may be moving forward. The NY Times is reporting that city officials have chosen Harlem-based developer and Brooklyn resident Carlton Brown to create what the Times' Terry Pristin calls the "cultural district's centerpiece." This is the first Brooklyn project for Brown, who developed the Kalahari and 1400 on Fifth in Harlem and the Solaire, the city's first residential green building, in Battery Park City. The......

The police are investigating a hate crime at Columbia University's Teachers College after a noose was found on the door of a black professor. Teachers College president Susan Fuhrman issued a statement:The police were here this morning because a hangman's noose was discovered on the office door of one of our African American faculty members. The incident has been reported to the New York City Police Department (Detectives Bureau of Manhattan) and is under active......

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,......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: American Body Shop (Sunday, 10:00 p.m., Comedy Central) A spoof of the fakeality vehicle tweaking genre with former NYC Transit cop John DiResta as part of the ensemble cast. World Series of Pop Culture (Monday, 9:00 p.m. VH1) NY1's Pat Kieran hosts this trivia battle royal show starting its second season. The Bronx is Burning (Monday, 10:00 p.m., ESPN) The first part of an eight part miniseries......

The Copacabana, perhaps best known as the muse for Barry Manilow's song of the same name, is closing this weekend (the papers are reporting last night, however their website has a flyer for a Last Dance, tonight). The club has been around since WWII, and was at one point a staple stop in New York's nightlife circuit. Having already had to move three times, finding a new home isn't something new for owner (since 1976)......

A look at some noteworthy programs this week: Mystery: Foyle’s War: Invasion (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13, Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., WLIW 21) The fourth series of this great British World War II period mystery drama makes its way to this side of the pond. The first of four episodes has Detective Foyle and his team investigation a murder on an American base. The 4400 (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., USA) This sci-fi series about people who were......

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA......

Army of Shadows (directed by Jean Pierre Melville) Only in New York: one of the best reviewed movies last year by local critics was a little drama about the French Resistance originally made in 1969 called Army of Shadows. Loads of screenings over multiple limited runs during the course of 2006 at Film Forum sold out, as flocks of New York film geeks rushed to see this flick which had never been released before in......

THEATER: For a limited run at HERE, James Scruggs and Kristin Marting are presenting RUS, a “multimedia psychosexual murder mystery”, that uses experimental “video puppets”, salsa and tango-inspired movement to “recreate the seedy reality that lies just beneath our everyday lives. Lost in a labyrinth of repeating memories, and trapped in a failing marriage, Rus, an African American man, yearns to feel something new, full and real. But when a car accident connects Rus to......

Just a thought as we look ahead to this week's new releases. Someone should really take Diane Keaton aside to tell her that this series of increasingly painful looking romantic comedies where she plays an over-the-top meddling mom aren't good for her cinematic legacy. The newest installment is the Mandy Moore romantic comedy, Because I Said So, where Keaton plays a mother desperate to marry off her headstrong youngest daughter. Please Diane, after loving you......

When you get up early tomorrow to see if Punxsutawney Phil or Staten Island Chuck see their shadows, try to remember to put on something red! February is American Heart Month and the American Heart Association (AHA) is launching the HEART for Women campaign to raise awareness. And the AHA is encouraging everyone to wear red this Friday to spread the word. Heart disease is the most common cause of death in women, leading to......

VACATION: The Greater Fort Lauderdale visitors' bureau has brought the Sunshine State to NYC in the form of a 3,600-square foot virtual vacation. The space includes a palm tree-lined "beach", complimentary mini-massages and, of course, bikini clad models. Virtual fishing, golf and more, will make you forget the sudden drop in temperature. Through 6pm // The Bank Building [20 Union Square East] // Free READING: Nancy Reardon, who penned "On-Camera: How to Report, Anchor and......

The Midtown International Theatre Festival, which opened this week and runs through August 6, is at only 2 venues and has a far smaller number of shows in its lineup than does the Fringe Festival, but that makes it more manageable, a great warm-up, if you will, to the upcoming binge that will sprawl out over most of lower Manhattan and eat every good theatre lover’s schedule alive. This weekend, Gothamist brings you mini reviews......

FILM: Dutch animator Paul Driessen (who you know even if you don't realize it - he did the Beatles' Yellow Submarine movie), will have films from the last 30 years screened at BAM - as part of their Animation Festival. Step into his socially conscious fantasy world! 4:30, 6:50 & 9:15pm // BAM [30 Lafayette Ave, Fort Greene] // $10 THEATER: Off-Broadway is usually way off, far from the the theater district, but the Midtown......

Via Kottke: AssembleMe put together a nice set of NYC population graphs for the NYC Demographics page on Wikipedia. What impressed us what how dominant Brooklyn has been in population for the last 90 years-- although it looks like Queens is closing in, having passed Manhattan in the late 1960s. Even Staten Island is closing in on Manhattan-- maybe it's the rent prices! Another interesting data set from the Wikipedia page: "The racial makeup......

This week at the movies, there's good news and bad news. The bad news is that the new releases are seriously scrapping the bottom of the quality bucket. How many weeks now has it been that we've had this complaint? The good news is that, as per usual, there's load of other fascinating movie related events In New York to sink your teeth into with relish. Someday soon someone should tally up the release record......

We were clicking around last night when we came across this entrancing animated-GIF of Al Roker on David Cho's site. It is reminiscent of these recent animations of Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, where their facial expressions are strangely static-- but of course, it's a million times better because it's Al Roker. Seems like we aren't the only ones with Roker-on-the-brain today- check out this list from McSweeney's: Twelve Phrases Involving Al Roker That Return......

It had been awhile since Gothamist was at Second Stage, so we were glad to find it in the excellent form we remembered with its latest show, a revival of Charles Fuller’s A Soldier’s Play. Fuller won the 1982 Pulitzer in drama for it, and was nominated for an Academy Award when it was turned into a movie (A Soldier’s Story), so we went in with high expectations, and fortunately those didn’t jinx anything.......

- A judge is delaying the Fulton Fish Market's move to the Bronx, which means a delay of at least three weeks - Rudy Giuliani continues to tell people that he will return to politics; what he's not telling them is that he will take over for Geena Davis in Commander in Chief, because someday, an Italian will be President - How did we miss the story about the 84 year old who crashed into......

Well, would you look at that: When the four Democratic mayoral candidates bands together and supports Fernando Ferrer, the Bloomberg campaign gets worried. Ferrer was joined by C. Virginia Fields, Gifford Miller, and the runner-up in the primary, Anthony Weiner, in what Newsday called a "unity ritual" at City Hall, to show that the city's Democratic party could hold hands and that only they could fight the billionaire Mayor. The Mayor's team scrambled to......

- The Bowery Residents' Committee refuses to renew CBGB's lease! The BRC says it "believes it is in the best interest of our clients — the homeless and neediest New Yorkers — to sever this relationship" - The Museum of African American Cinema is $5 million away from being a reality, and when it does, it will be in Harlem - Weiner and Ferrer mocked each other's baseball teams (Weiner is a Mets fan and......

Today is the start of Kwanzaa, the African American holiday that celebrates African culture among other things, and it will last until January 1. There are a few NYC Kwanzaa activities, including events at the American Museum of Natural History, including a drumming call and dance performances. And over the week, there are events in Central Park over the week. And though Kwanzaa is an African-American event, here are African restaurants via Citysearch and Menupages.......

Well, it looks like the Mets have a new manager. One day after calling back three finalists, they have settled on Willie Randolph from Tilden High School in Brooklyn. Randolph will be leaving the position of Yankees bench coach to head up the Mets as a first-time Manager. The NY Times had a lengthy profile of Randolph yesterday, which gives some insight into the new Mets manager. While growing up, he was a Mets fan,......

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