Any color you like, by Unlisted Sightings at flickr; Artist: Jim Lambie at MoMA.Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on East 39th St. in Manhattan, a large fight on 2nd Ave. in Manhattan, and a child in cardiac arrest on Pitt St. in Manhattan. Police in Nassau County are conducting an active homicide investigation in New Cassel, after they were called to a home where three children--all under the age of seven--were found......

So if you remember correctly, Grand Theft Auto IV, the New York City crime simulator, was supposed to be in stores by now. But between production delays and the million other great games this season to compete with, they decided to just push it back till next Spring and get it right. But just in case you've you've still got an itch for some Eastern European organized crime this holiday season, here's a brand......

In 2006, at age 19, musician Zach Condon and his band Beirut exploded onto the indie-rock scene with a dramatic collection of Balkan-inspired arrangements for horn, ukulele, keyboards and strings. The bloggers raved, the venues got bigger, the haters left comments. But less than a year later, the teen’s too-sudden indie-rock apotheosis landed him in the hospital for “extreme exhaustion” and forced the cancellation of a tour that included sold-out dates at Bowery Ballroom. Condon......

Chew on this, NYC officials who are upset about Grand Theft Auto IV taking place in a city very similar to the Big Apple: GTA IV is actually really different. For starters, Staten Island isn't mentioned! Joystiq has details from Game Informer magazine:Setting: re-created Liberty City (better mirrors real-world NYC; smaller "geographical mass" than San Andreas, but more densely populated) + MetLife building = "Getalife" + Statue of Liberty = "Statue of Happiness" +......

Get your creepy crawly on with two potentially frightening movies out this weekend. Yet another '80s horror staple is getting the remake treatment with Dave Meyers' The Hitcher. Little do the college couple Grace (the former Mrs. Chad Michael Murray, Sophia Bush) and Jim (Zachary Knighton) know what's in store for them when they pick up John Ryder by the side of the road. Though it would seem clear from his various bad guy roles......

25-year-old Jennifer Shahade knows how to shake up the world of chess. Not content to simply play the game she's loved since she was a child, the writer, poker player, and 2004 U.S. Women's Chess Champion authored Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport (Siles Press), which scored a blurb from Yoko Ono and set off debate within the chess world about the need for gender segregation. In the book, which features Shahade clad......

- After last week's post we heard via the inbox from Ann over at A Chicken In Every Granny Cart, seems she is amp’ed up about the recently arrived seasonal appearance of Christmas Borscht at Veselka. Bonus information provided: she visits other places in the ever shortening Eastern European alley along First and Second avenues. If you go down in the daytime don’t miss a stop at Kurowycky for some of the best old world......

Even though the weather isn't encouraging you to stay inside, there's still a whole host of new flicks to check out at the theaters. Looking for a few cheap laughs while you gear up for the Christmas shopping? Kal Penn stars in National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj, a collegiate boobfest about a frat dude teaching some English geeks how to party Yankee style. Beer and cleavage, wahoo! Another movie which looks like......

Pizzerias in this city are so common that sometimes you wonder if they’re all legit. Is that place on the corner really just another Ray’s Famous, or is it a front for some illicit trade? On the surface, Tony & Tina’s Pizzeria in the Bronx seems ordinary enough. But if you look a little closer, you’ll discover there’s more than one kind of dough getting baked here. It’s nothing illegal; this just happens to be......

THEATER: The Debate Society's "Snow Hen" was a quirky, dreamy take on an old Scandinavian folk tale about the Black Death; now, in "The Eaten Heart," the talented trio of Hannah Bos, Paul Thureen, and Oliver Butler riff on an Italian view of the plague, Boccaccio's bawdy classic Decameron http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decameron as the second part of a plague trilogy. This is a workshop production, so while the group's work always seems fresh and engagingly inchoate, here......

It's Memorial Day and if you are are like us, your drink of choice is a little closer than usual this Monday afteroon. Seriously, Tuesday is eons from now. Our choice, vodka, has its usual detractors, including a cocktail connoisseur in New York magazine who recently called it "the grilled chicken breast" of liquors. But we like the versatility -- how else are we making our Bloody Marys? Not with Hendrick's, let us just say......

We were walking by the Eldridge Street Synagogue this morning, and we noticed they were putting four new towers on the roof. Back in 2005, Tien visited the synagogue and got some interior shots. He also found a little info on the temple: "The Eldridge Street Synagogue... was built in 1887 and one of the first built in the US by Eastern European Jews. It's already being restored and repaired with the bulk of......

The police and feds busted a crew of Eastern European criminals yesterday who operated out of Brooklyn. The Daily News calls them "Stringfellas" because one of their schemes was to sell a stolen Stradivarius violin and "then rob the buyer." That would be an ambitious but classic (no pun intended) cycle of crime: Claim to sell stuff only to pocket the cash and then take the object back for another "sale" - we just like......

Following up last Friday's post about mysteries from the 8th Avenue and 42nd Street subway station: - You know the story of the man who was found tortured and semi-tied up at the subway station, who police suspected might be an Eastern European, who didn't speak but only wrote and drew in order to communicate with the police that he had been in the trunk of a Lincoln Town car? Well, it turns out he......

A couple days after an Eastern European man appeared at the Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street subway station looking beaten up, police still don't really know that much about his case. Police say that the man was burned, bound and tortured, and probably held in the trunk of a Lincoln Town Car, but the man still hasn't spoken yet - he's been communicating with the cops by writing and drawing. The man is recovering at......

It's time for...Unsolved Mysteries of the Subway! Let's tackle subway station dirtiness first: Emily at Amy's Robot happened to spy some vomit on the stairs at the 42nd Street A/C/E station on February 3...and then she still saw it there on February 10. So she called 311 - cut to February 13 and her email to the MTA:However, yesterday, February 13, I saw that the vomit (now indelibly dried to the staircase) is still there.......

We hear about a lot of events each week and we can't write one post about each of them, because then you'd be here all day. So we're going to sift through and pick out some gems for the weekdays, here are some of the highlights for this week... FILM SCREENINGS: IFC Films will hold two free screenings this week for CSA: The Confederate States of America. The new mockumentary that asks: What would have......

Quhnia, derived from the Polish word "kuchnia," meaning "kitchen," offers a medley of Eastern European style dishes, from blini and beef stroganoff to pielemini, or small, Russian meat dumplings served with spicy honey mustard and sour cream. Tucked in a cozy space on the same East Village street as The Elephant, Prune, and Starfoods, Quhnia's menu also boasts nightly specials and offers homemade infused vodka or a plethora of sipping wines. A good pick......

June 3 -- June 9: Germany: a SENSE-sational Experience Okay, the name leaves something to be desired, but you can still sample a variety of German foods and beverages and view cooking demonstrations by chefs at Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall every day from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Red cabbage and spätzle? But, of course. Gummi bears? Got 'em. The event is sponsored by the German Agricultural Marketing Board, the German National Tourist Office, the German......

Gothamist must admit that we were one of those pasty, sun-deprived toddlers who merrily shunned the joys of sportsmanship and early childhood socialization for the more solitary pleasures of pop-up books and cartoon fantasy lands. To this day, the mere glimpse of a page from one of our favorite children's books will stop us in our tracks even faster than a shiny object, compelling us to re-read the book in question immediately. Foremost among these......

Ladies and gentlemen, gourmands and those with expense accounts: The [AOL] Time-Warner Center Restaurant All-Stars! The Times' restaurant critic William Grimes looks at the wealth of cooking talent the new AOL Time-Warner Center boasts (but the Time Warner Center is NOT A MALL - it's One Central Park, okay?). The breakdown: Coming from that Napa Valley oasis of cooking, the French Laundry, is Thomas Keller. Representing the Beef Council is Jean-Georges Vongerichten with steakhouse......