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......

Kaki King (MySpace) is a guitar player and singer-songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia. She lived in Brooklyn for 7 years until last summer, when music started taking her on a permanent tour around the world. Her upcoming album is called Dreaming Of Revenge and will be released March 11th on Velour Records. King was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Score for the music she played in the Sean Penn film Into the Wild,......

Penguins 4, Islanders 2: A busy day for the Islanders didn't end with a win. They signed Mike Comrie to a contract extension, shipped off resident thug winger Chris Simon to the Minnesota Wild and also got rid of Marc-Andre Bergeron for a draft pick. Then they faced the depleted Penguins -- who made the biggest deal of the day in adding Marian Hossa -- and lost a bizarre game. They outshot the Pens 52-21,......

Photograph of Mayor Bloomberg at a Mayors Against Guns press conference last week by Gail Burton/AP Now that there seems to be a compelling 2008 presidential race, Mayor Bloomberg's White House prospects appear diminished. And associates of the billionaire suggest to the NY Times that post-mayoral life may not be enough for Bloomberg. After being splashed on covers of magazines (New York magazine called him the "sane Perot," Time with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Newsweek as......

On the day that MySpace agreed to work with 49 states to stop sexual predators from using the social networking site to find young victims, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown was announcing a disturbing 56-charge criminal complaint against a couple accused of rape, sexual abuse, and forcing two young teens into performing sexual acts at a Manhattan strip club. Julio Rojas, a stripper, is being held on $500,000 bail while his wife, Sophie Soto, also......

Due to the Writer's Guild of America strike, Hollywood's party, the Golden Globes Awards were transformed from a boozy, fun dinner party to a press conference where presenters from entertainment programs like Extra! and E! News got to announce the winners. Yes, it was as painful as it sounded (Giuliana Rancic, it's not about you); many said they couldn't believe they were announcing the winners but said they would prefer it with the stars.......

Gothamist reader luzer took some arresting, very "Wild Kingdom"-like photographs of a hawk snacking on a squirrel in Central Park, near the American Museum of Natural History. luzer posted photographs on Flickr and writes that some of the humans who gathered to watch the spectacle "guessed it was Pale Male. I am not convinced (we saw another one later in the park)." While New York is very urban, there are still many places where......

New York magazine's cover feature is all about crime in the Big Apple. There are a number of articles, from getting the murder rate to zero (last year it was at the lower in 40-plus years with 494 murders) to those Criminals Gone Wild videos and a look at the violence plaguing Brownsville. But most intriguing is Adam Fisher's personal account of getting mugged in Bushwick. Fisher moved to Bushwick because it was "the New......

Jen has already posted her Top Stories for 2007-- but here's the list according to you, the readers: By Comments* 1. Pet Food Recall After Cat and Dog Deaths, by Jen Chung (614) 2. Rev. John Carmichael, Church of Scientology, by Jen Carlson (312) 3. Wild Wednesday Weather, by Jen Chung (255) 4. Maple Syrup Was Better: Smell of Gas Covers NYC by Jen Chung (191) 5. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Mooninites Don't Scare......

Nets 107, Heat 103: Udonnis Haslem forced overtime with an off-balance shot at the end of regulation, but the Nets shook it off. The overtime wasn't pretty, but it's the results that count. Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter had their moments in the son, but Malik Allen had 18 points (on 9-of-11 shooting) and tormented the team with which he started his NBA career. At last place in the NBA's Eastern Conference, Miami isn't the......

Recently, legend became reality when a 10-story building in SoHo was being converted to a luxury condo. Unearthed in the walls was a large mural created by graffiti pioneers Fab Five Freddy and Futura 2000.The artwork contains a variety of images and writing executed in spray paint, grease pencil, magic marker and whatever else was on hand — in silver, gold, pink and red. There are cartoonlike pictures of a bomber airplane, images of a......

Last night, we did a double take while watching WNBC News at 11 because reporter John Noel was interviewing a man who made a DVD of supposed actual crimes, like robberies, carjackings, and possibly a murder, in progress (here's the WNBC video). Of course, it's called Criminals Gone Wild, and DVDs are $26.98. Noel asked the Brooklyn resident behind the DVD, Ousala Aleem, if he actually did film a murder. Aleem says, "Well, the......

Attention Pacific Northwest: New Yorkers don't care about your cuisine. None of Jeffrey Chodorow's blogging, full page ads in the Times or other theatrics could save Wild Salmon from its imminent closure. After Eater circulated news of its potential doom, Chodorow issued a statement, published on Grub Street, "Regrettably, we will be closing Wild Salmon after the new year. We were excited about bringing the food and wine of the Pacific Northwest to New York,......

DJ Star, who was fired from Power 105 after some remarks about a rival's child, will be coming back to radio stations. While publicists for the DJ, born Troi Torain, would not disclose where he'll be headed (not before tomorrow press conference, at least), the Daily News reports that it will probably be WNYZ, which is 87.7FM: "Its current format is Russian popular music, but with the hiring of Star, it will reportedly switch to......

The Gotham Awards gala run by the Independent Feature Project (IFP) will be held in Brooklyn for the first time tonight, after 17 years spent bouncing around between Roseland, Hammerstein Ballroom and Chelsea Piers. This year the independent film awards will take place on the soundstage of Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Among the thousand-plus guests expected to attend are Javier Bardem, Sean Penn, Laura Linney, Uma Thurman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Brooklyn’s......

An off-duty firefighter was charged with misdemeanor assault after he beat up a Brooklyn motorist in front of the driver's wife and two sons. Michael Crespo, who is a 28-year-old copier technician, says that he was driving in Brooklyn when Stephen Spagnola jaywalked in front of his car. Spagnola, who is with FDNY Engine Co. 28 and also posed as Mr. September in the 2005 edition of the FDNY's racy Calendar of Heroes, objected to......

For an avowed non-presidential candidate, Mayor Bloomberg certainly gets more attention than some of the actual candidates. Newsweek devotes its cover story to "Mike" Bloomberg, "The Billion Dollar Wild Card," a reference to the billion dollars Mayor B has at his disposal, should be decide to run for president next year. That is so much more flattering than the "Lazy Like a Fox" cover Newsweek had of Fred Thompson! Newsweek editor-in-chief Jon Meacham got to......

Rudy Giuliani better check his sports allegiances. While campaigning in Boston, a reporter asked the former mayor which team he would be cheering for in the World Series - the Colorado Rockies or the Boston Red Sox. To our surprise (and Bostonist's), he went with the Red Sox, "I'm rooting for the Red Sox. I'm an American League fan, and I go with the American League team, maybe with the exception of the Mets. Maybe......

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television: The Next Iron Chef (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., Food Network) Alton brown hosts this new reality series which searches for the chef for the next season of Iron Chef America. Life Is Wild (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WPIX 11) A widowed doctor moves his family to South Africa and family friendly programming ensues. Mystery!: Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Series 6: Chinese Walls (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13; Tuesday, 9:00......

We understand the desire to milk every last dollar out of sports fans, but we have to say, the "Wild Card collection" is ridiculously bizarre. The Sports Hernia Blog pointed out the Yankees Wild Card hat and some reactions to it:"If I see one person wearing that hat, they will get a swift donkey punch. I will take their hat, light it on fire and then shove it up there f**king nose." -- Brian, 30,......

The Village Voice is questioning the merits of some top designers suing Forever 21 for "ripping off" their style. Over 20 designers in all are calling the store out for their fashion faux-pas, and they're led by Diane Von Furstenberg, president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, who has brought the case to Washington "attempting to get federal legislation passed that would make clothes-copying clothes a criminal offence." This isn't the first time......

It took the Mets a little more than two weeks, but they've somehow managed to squander a seven-game lead in the National League East. Since September 12th, the lead has slowly gotten smaller and is now zero, zilch, zip, nadda, nil. With three games left in the regular season, the Mets are tied with the Phillies for first in the NL East. The last time the Mets weren't in sole possession of first place......

From last place to the playoffs, the Yankees have taken their fans on a trip, but they will play October baseball once again. The same cannot yet be said about the Mets. Wednesday night the Yankees completed a remarkable reversal, recovering from a 21-29 start to clinch their 13th-straight playoff spot with a 12-4 win. While it isn’t a definite, chances are they will be the Wild Card team and open the playoffs in......

Into the Wild (directed by Sean Penn) Chris McCandless wanted to utterly divorce himself from civilization. He gave away all of his money, abandoned his car, changed his name and cut off all ties with his family. Adventure journalist Jon Krakauer wrote a very moving account of the young man's experiences tramping around the United States for two years and then spending four months living in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilds before dying......

In 1982 Matt Dillon hosted a film on the history of the amusement park (in particular roller coasters) called Wild Rides. He discusses a lot of the Coney Island rides, and there's some great old footage -- check out that "human pool table"! We'd be interested in seeing some numbers on how many people got injured on rides during this time. There are also some shots of Steeplechase Park which opened in 1897, we wonder......

FESTIVAL: Conflux 2007 has arrived. Starting tonight and running through Sunday, their "annual New York City festival for contemporary psychogeography" will help re-imagine urban spaces with a series of events, lectures, workshops, installations, parties and so much more. Get all the info and schedules you need, here. 10am to 12am // Various Locations // Free EVENT: The Hold Steady's Craig Finn (pictured) plays some solo tunes tonight in perhaps the most fitting venue for the......

Yankees 6, Indians 1: The Yankees played well against the soft part of their schedule and last night, against an actual playoff contender, they continued their recent winning ways (they've won 20 of the last 27 games). In his second start since returning from a May leg injury, Hughes, a key player in the future of the Yankees rotation, pitched brilliantly. He allowed only one run over 6 innings to the AL Central-leading Indians. Equally......

Frank Bruni, in the Diner's Journal, waxes poetic about the oysters at Wild Salmon and Aquagrill, and discusses the reasons why he often disobeys the "rule" that one is not supposed to eat oysters in months that don’t have an ‘r’ in them. We're with Frank on this one. We love oysters in the summer. The platter above was from a recent oyster happy our at P.J. Clarke's downtown. They were cheap, but didn't hold......

Stuffing is generally seen as a Thanksgiving tradition, and we know very few people who bother with it at any other time of year, ourselves included. What a damn shame. Now is the time for stuffing, it turns out, while the markets are full of fresh figs and local sweet potatoes. The figs add so much flavor to this stuffing, added in raw at the very end. The sweet potatoes add richness and pull up......

Earlier this week, the FDNY Foundation, a non-profit that raises money for FDNY causes, released the 2008 edition of its popular Calendar of Heroes, featuring some of the Bravest's bare-chested hunks posing in all parts of New York City and thrilling many. But after the calendar crew appeared on the Today show, the eagle-eyed realized that cover boy Michael Biserta, of Ladder Co. 131 in Red Hook, was also featured in a Guys Gone Wild......