Last Sunday and Monday a collective of activists, journalists, retired government officials and theater makers gathered at The Culture Project to begin mock impeachment proceedings against President Bush. The “trial by theater” arose in part out of frustration with Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s pledge to leave impeachment “off the table” when her party seized the House majority. The month long series, called A Question of Impeachment, is intended to spark debate and, participants hope,......

The Chronicle of Higher Education released its annual salary survey of the heads of educational institutions and the value of a college education is evidenced in the paychecks being cashed by institutions' presidents. More than a dozen heads of private universities took home more than $1 million during the 2005-06 school year. According to the New York Post, the dean of higher earning was Donald Ross, who took home $5.7 million--most in deferred compensation after......

Theater producers and Local One, the Broadway stagehands’ union, may have agreed to return to the bargaining table next week, but don’t rush out and buy Phantom of the Opera tickets just yet. (Or ever.) The Posts’s Michael Riedel points out that Local One is being joined at the table by Tom Short, the boss of their umbrella union, The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). Since Short will have to give the final......

Most Overrated Live Band: Justice There is no denying the greatness of Justice's album, "Cross," and there is no argument from us that it isn't the type of music that is perfectly suited to be blasted in a massive dance club. But those two things alone do not automatically lead to a good live show. These two are sloppy, to put it simply. Too many changes were missed, beats were a half step off, and......

Senator Charles Schumer's latest crusade? Trying to keep the national Do Not Call registry list extended so New Yorkers and other Americans won't have to deal with re-registering. Back in 2003, the government allowed people to request their phone numbers not be used by a telemarketers for solicitation. The do-not-call period is 5 years, and people would not be able to renew their do-not-call wishes until the period is over. And Schumer says there's a......

The midtown traffic snarl in the interest of diplomatic security begins tonight. Take the following information into account if you are planning on catching a cab, bus, or ride of any sort during the next several days. 1st Ave. is closed to vehicle traffic as of right now and will remain so for several days. 44th - 46th Sts. are closed between 1st and 2nd Aves. Full breakdown of the day-by-day street closings are outlined......

The taxi strike is over and rates are back to normal, but many people may have discovered that ride-sharing in a cab is a great way to save money. Fortunately, there are a few online services that can facilitate sharing a cab and splitting the fare to the airport or around town with fellow New Yorkers. Consider it yellow-carpooling. Last year we wrote about hitchsters.com, the online service that formalizes ride shares by matching users......

Broken English (directed by Zoe Cassavetes) The pressure on a first time director is steep enough as it is, but if you're the daughter of celebrated '70s auteur John Cassavetes it's got to be extra tough. Unfortunately for the naysayers, Cassavetes delivered an intriguing character study wrapped inside a fluffy romantic comedy for her first feature film, Broken English, which comes out on DVD this week. Long time indie muse Parker Posey stars as Nora,......

Anne Burrell has barely gotten any sleep in the last month. Almost all of her time has gone into the opening of the new West Village restaurant Centro Vinoteca. Its small, trench-style kitchen features a pass window that looks out onto the bar area; the dining room itself is spread out over two levels with about 75 seats total. 1960’s era Italian glass chandeliers hang over the tables (“They make me think of Lite-Brite,” says......

The city and state have worked out their differences and will move forward on overhauling the 421-a tax abatement program for new development. The City Council had passed a version last year that would have increased the amount of affordable housing and limited how much of the subsidy could go towards luxury housing, but then the Legislature's version, passed in June, included more neighborhoods, more units available to people with even lower incomes, and $300......

Mayor Bloomberg headed to jury duty this morning, with a smile, a number of bodyguards and press aide Stu Loeser. When he showed up to the waiting room for prospective jurors, apparently a woman called a friend and said he was there for the "same foolishness" as everyone else. Outside the courthouse, the Mayor mused, "It's always more interesting to be on a jury than to just sit there. You wish that we didn't......

It's that time again! The Straphangers Campaign has released its annual State of the Subways report, and this year, the 1 train topped all other lines. This is amazing news for the 1 train - it was only in 2005 when the Straphangers found the 1/9 to be the schmutz-iest! The 1 train got high marks for "frequently scheduled service, arriving with more regularity, fewer dirty cars, and better announcements," but it did perform......

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? ">Martha Stewart has all new episodes this week (10am Monday-Friday, NBC). Monday her guests are Mario Batali, Michael Schulson and Scott Conant; on Wednesday it’s Rick Bayless, Sue Torres and Tom Douglas. Fox has Episode 7 of Hell's Kitchen on Monday at 9pm. Melissa’s gone, and six contestants remain. Read the latest episode roundup in the LA Times here. Gordon Ramsay has also adapted his BBC show......

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? Here’s the breakdown: Fox has Episode 6 of Hell's Kitchen on Monday at 9pm. Read the latest Entertainment Weekly episode wrapup here as well as a (slightly depressing) update on the previous two winners in the Post here. The Surreal Gourmet, Bob Blumer, returns to TV with a new show on the Food Network. Called Glutton for Punishment, it premieres this Tuesday at 9:30pm. Blumer participates in......

With the mid-week Fourth of July holiday, an abbreviated work week practically demands an afternoon at the movies complete with giant tub o' fatty snacks and subzero air conditioning. New York is a real haven for movie theater aficionados, and we all have our favorites. Here's a brief breakdown of what to see, and where, this holiday. In the comments feel free to weigh in on the best and/or worst places to see giant alien......

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? Here’s the breakdown: Fox has Episode 5 of Hell's Kitchen on Monday at 9pm. Read the Entertainment Weekly episode wrapup here. And see Anthony Bourdain’s less-than-flattering assessment of the season here. There’s no new episode of Top Chef this Wednesday, due to the holiday, but Bravo reruns frequently if you want to catch up. See the schedule here. And EW's episode summary is always amusing. Rounding out......

What’s worth seeing on food-related TV this week? Gothamist has got the breakdown: Fox has Episode 4 of Hell’s Kitchen on Monday at 9pm. We love watching Ramsay curse people out. And Entertainment Weekly’s got a blow-by-blow blog, if you want to rehash the gory details. Martha Stewart’s got Matt Lewis from Baked bakery making an almond meringue tart on Monday, and other non-food-related celebrities the rest of the week. On Top Chef, Episode 3......

The State Assembly voted in favor of allowing same-sex marriages in New York. Newsday said it was the first time a gay marriage bill was "debated publicly in one of the houses of the State Legislature Tuesday." However, the bill is not expected to make it pass the Republican-controlled Senate. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said, "We're not doing gay marriage by [tomorrow's adjournment], that's for sure." The Sun had a breakdown of how the......

Yesterday's reports about the number of people arrested during the 50th annual Puerto Rican Day Parade were incorrect: While numbers like 80 and 173 were offered, today the NY Times reveals 208 people were arrested, due to police concerns about the Latin Kings. However, there's some question as to whether more people without gang connections were arrested during the sweep. Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said the breakdown of the arrests was 198 gang......

You asked, we answered. We sent members of the Gothamist team to the top frozen yogurt outposts in the city and even made our own. Here's a breakdown of what we discovered: Yolato has four locations in Manhattan now: The West Village, Upper West Side, Chelsea and Midtown. Hailing from across the Hudson, Yolato offers a number of low calorie gelatos and sorbets -- let's talk frozen soft serve yogurt. Dubbed "Yoggi," it's made from......

A friend who emailed us a few weeks ago to inform us that the Beastie Boys were releasing a new album and that it was going to be all instrumental left us conflicted. We'll admit that the instrumental portion of their last shows at the Garden were great, but we wouldn't consider them highlights, and we generally judge their last tour a high-point of our concert-going existence. A week or so later, this same......

Mets 6 Florida 2: El Duque came off of the DL and looked as if he had discovered an elixir of youth. For six innings he kept the Marlins completely off-balance, striking out four and allowing only one hit. The problem was Florida’s pitchers were also shutting down the Mets. That all changed in the ninth. After trading runs in the eighth, the Mets started the inning with Delgado earning a walk. Carlos Gomez came......

Volver (directed by Pedro Almodóvar): Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar has a thing for lushness. He saturates his movies with rich colors, explosive patterns, larger-than-life characters and don't get us started on his fascination with star Penélope Cruz's bosom. For an openly gay filmmaker, Almodóvar really does relish that contemplative over-head down-the-shirt shot. While women and their relationships has often been a central theme in Almodóvar's previous work (in All About My Mother and Women On......

Mavericks 92, Knicks 77: No one is surprised the Knicks lost this game to the 55-11 Mavericks, but the effort wasn't there again. Eddy Curry can take the accolades for a 22-point night, yet he made only four of 12 free throws. Even with a roster banged up enough to require Malik Rose to play 12 minutes, this effort didn't impress anyone. Most teams try to rise to the occasion when the league's best comes......

The pseudonymous Lux Nightmare burst onto the alt porn scene as a college student at Columbia where she launched the naked-guy-and-girl site That Strange Girl, featuring stills and video of herself and numerous other models who looked like they could be her fellow classmates. At a time when Suicide Girls and Burning Angel were coming to prominence, That Strange Girl (who, full disclosure, this interviewer posed for) was a homegrown, indie entry in the genre.......

Three years after his death, Spalding Gray: Stories Left To Tell has opened at Minetta Lane Theater. Running through May 13th, the performance features five actors surrounded by stacks of marble notebooks, similar to those Gray filled in his lifetime (up to 300). Selections from "Swimming to Cambodia," "Monster in a Box" and other monologues are read, but perhaps more insightful and often eerie are his unpublished works. From his last entry (a tape recording......

While filing out of the Laura Pels Theatre after Patrick Marber’s Howard Katz, a woman of a certain age was heard exclaiming, “A tour de force!” Having brandished that over-ripe phrase myself on probably too many occasions, I was amazed to hear it applied to the play we’d just sat through. Had I been misusing it all this time? Was the expression actually French for “a total waste of time”? According to Dictionary.com, the......

There's nothing like a State Comptroller -using- state- employees- to- chauffeur- his- wife scandal to make our own Police Commissioner stop having the po-po drive his wife around. Oh, yes: NYPD Confidential spoke with a few detectives about "Driving Mrs. Kelly", a practice that ended right when State Comptroller Alan Hevesi came under fire: One detective said the detail drove Mrs. Kelly as many as three or four times a week. Another detective said that......

Governor Eliot Spitzer gave his first 2007 Budget Address, one that shook up old budget ideas. He wants to spend more, for starters, increasing the budget by 6.3% to $120.6 billion (illuminating Times graphic here). Still, Spitzer called his budget "austere," as he suggested adding almost 2,500 more state jobs. And though he's not cutting taxes, he's not raising them (there is also some property tax relief for the middle class). He noted how NY......

NY State has the most semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search, with 117 entrants out of 300. Eighteen semifinalists are from NYC public schools. Here's the breakdown: Stuyvesant has 7; Bronx Science has 6; Townsend Harris, SI Tech, Murrow, Midwood and Brooklyn Tech each have 1. Mayor Bloomberg said, "It's another testament to the quality of our schools." Well, it's a testament to seven schools, at least. Forty finalists will be chosen on January......