Rangers 2 Tampa 1: New York got back on track quickly, coming out in the first period with intensity and jumping to a 1-0 lead thanks to Fedor Tyutin. Henrik Lundqvist wss his usually brilliant self, making 32 saves including several huge ones while the Rangers clung to a one-goal lead. It wasn’t until Colton Orr hit a knuckleball off the stick of a Lightning defenseman at 2:05 of the third period, that the......

Meet Sam Ellis, Broadway’s esteemed “technical wizard”, who is in charge of all the myriad effects in Young Frankenstein, which is rumored to have cost between $16 million and $20 million – about twice the price of the average Broadway musical. A big part of that budget was poured into making the adaptation “more zowie!” than the movie. According to a profile in Christian Science Monitor, some of Ellis’s responsibilities include overseeing: A Tesla coil......

Nets 112, Bulls 103 (OT): Despite blowing a 15-point, lead the Nets managed to win their 2007-08 opener against the Bulls at home. Antoine Wright had 14 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. His supporting cast included Richard Jefferson (29 points and 10 rebounds) and Vince Carter (24 points). The Nets and the Bulls both hope to move to the top tier of Eastern Conference playoff teams, and Day 1 was encouraging for New......

This afternoon's rain will continue into the evening, as some areas are being warned about the storms. New Jersey is supposed to have heavy thunderstorms, a tornado warning was issued, then canceled, for Nassau County, and an urban flood warning was issued for Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens until 7PM! There was a "ground stop" on arriving flights at Newark and LaGuardia, and delays range from 3 to 4 hours at the three area airports.......

IIndians 12, Yankees 3: Well, that didn't go as planned. Chien-Ming Wang didn't have his sinker, gave up a ton of two-out and two-strike hits, and the Yankees got buried. Their patient bats wore out C.C. Sabathia, but they only got three runs for their efforts against him, and that wasn't nearly enough given the way Wang pitched. Then they stunk up the joint against the Indians bullpen, but by them the game was......

This is exactly the sort of thing we like learning: Many more NYC light poles are found to have stray voltage versus upstate's light poles. The Public Service Commission issued a report with data from Con Ed and other utilities and relayed these reassuring stats from the 2005 and 2006 periods:Hazardous currents found on 176,000 NYC light poles (sampling of 3.5%): 6,000 Hazardous currents found on 134,000 upstate light poles: 947Con Ed defended itself by......

Will lightning strike twice for Mel Brooks, who hopes to enliven his stage adaptation of Young Frankenstein with the same spark that made The Producers a money making machine? His new monstrosity is already selling advance tickets for a Broadway run in October – a top ticket price of $450 sets a new record for excess – but last week Young Frankenstein came staggering out of the lab for an out-of-town rampage in Seattle. The......

SHOP: We don't normally talk about shopping here, but today marks the beginning of that Barney's Warehouse Sale we always hear so much about. Get your comfy heels on and get ready to fight for your fashion! Through September 3rd, 8amto 9pm // 255 W 17th St Meanwhile, shoes we adore but can never afford are also on sale at Hollywould. Expect dresses, bags and omg the most cutest ballerina flats ever! All from $65......

Holy Tornado, Brooklyn! Reader Jeanne just emailed us with this observation: I live in Kensington, Brooklyn and I think that a tornado just passed through. Have you heard any news about a tornado from anyone else? Around 6:30am there were heavy rains, thunder and lightning when all of a sudden the wind got really loud and we could hear stuff smashing into the house. It was all just 30 seconds or so but now......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a homicide on Melrose Ave. in the Bronx, a lightning strike at 82nd Ave. and 249th St. in Queens, and a hate crime on the walkway of the Williamsburg Bridge. 25-year-old former model and current vice president of the Trump Organization Ivanka Trump was appointed to the board of directors of Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. A recent New York Times column noted that investors in Trump's casinos would have......

When we checked the MTA's Service Alerts for NYC Transit early this morning, there was only a note was flooding causing issues with F service between Jamaica-179th Street Station and the Forest Hills-71st Avenue Station. Now there's a laundry list of subway issues:Due to a water condition at the Parsons Boulevard Station, there is no F train service between the Jamaica-179th Street Station and the Forest Hills-71st Avenue Station. - Stations being bypassed are:169th Street,......

Thirty years ago tonight, New York City lost electricity when a Con Ed substation was hit by lightning strikes and a "cascading effect" caused the system to shut down around 9PM. And NYC, as well as parts of Westchester County, were powerless for over a day in the sweltering heart of the summer. Subways were stuck, mobs set fires and stores were looted. It was also the summer that other dramas gripped the city......

Oh dear. Not only is today Friday the 13th, and the thirtieth anniversary of the 1977 lightning-caused Blackout, it is also time for another Manhattanhenge. Could it just be astronomical coincidence or evidence of something more sinister? Today is also the anniversary of the 1895 Woodhaven tornado. The reporting is a bit scattered, but from what we read a tornado first touched down in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, killing three, then skipped over to......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting at Edwards Ave. in the Bronx, a disorderly crowd at Bay St. and Richmond Ave. on Staten Island, and a bank robbery near Bowling Green (that's why the 4/5 is passing Bowling Green). The New York Sun thinks the Live Earth concerts over the weekend were pompous, middle-aged and lame. Real estate group Pinnacle is accused of racketeering for siccing lawyers with eviction notices on thousands of......

Okay, who went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at 12:01AM? Was it good? Is it better when you draw a lightning bolt on your forehead or wear a Hogwarts scarf? The movie has a 77% Freshness rating, as per Rotten Tomatoes (though it may go up or down as more reviews come in), and offers Harry Potters devotees another way to bide time until the final book, Harry Potter......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A train derailed on Otto Rd. in Queens, a stabbing at Rockaway Blvd. and Broadway in Brooklyn, and a sexual assault at Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn. Visitors to the New York-New York hotel-casino in Las Vegas got an extra dose of big city verisimilitude last night, when shots rang out in the casino's mezzanine. Three people were struck, but none were seriously injured before the gunman was tackled.......

Is Upper East Side the new Queens? Because a series of manhole fires left hundreds of customers (and one customers could mean an entire apartment building of residents) without power from midmorning till late last night. One woman who was without power for over 12 hours complained, "It's terrible if that's how it's going to be. I'm upset with the whole city. Con Ed is becoming a nuisance." The power outages were concentrated around York......

Con Ed is laying the blame on Mame Mother Nature for the two power outages this past week. The utility issued a statement saying that the 48-minute blackout on Wednesday - the one that hit the Upper East Side and South Bronx - was caused by a "strong lightning strike." This is what the Con Ed statement said:Information obtained from real-time lightning tracking data show that detection instruments measured a lightning strike of 34,000 amperes......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: person under a bus at Park Ave. South and East 24th St., a shooting on Church Ave. in Brooklyn, and shots fired on East 169th St. and Tinton Ave. in the Bronx. As part of its 20th anniversary weekend, WFAN 660-AM will be airing four hours of old Imus shows, which used to be the morning anchor of the station. Queens and Brooklyn residents team up to protest eminent......

Wednesday power woes weren't just for parts of the Bronx and Manhattan: Over 4,000 (or 8,000, depending on what you read) Queens residents were without power when last night's storm made its presence known. In fact, two hours after the MTA said LIRR service was a-okay after the Bronx-Manhattan power outage, the rain screwed up Long Island Rail Road track signals, causing hours of delays after service was suspended. In this instance, we feel......

We're getting reports of a blackout on the Upper East Side, from the East 60s up to Harlem, on Third Avenue (mostly about transit blackouts) and York Avenue in the 80s. Subway service is affected - the 4/5/6 line is down. A reader whose friend was at Randalls Island says a Con Ed station exploded. UPDATE: 4PM WNBC reports that the outages are all along the East Side. OEM says "transformer explosions caused at......

The New York City council is allocating a cool $4 million to combat childhood obesity - which works out to about a dollar per extra pound or something like that. According to a June 2003 DOH report, 43% of elementary school children in the City are overweight or obese. The cash will provide for education and physical fitness programs. Thank your City Council member here. The New York Times reported yesterday that the International AIDS......

Over the past few days the storm off the coast has been the Fugazi of weather systems. It's been doing its own thing, shooting spokes of clouds and rain over New York and New England, completely independent of the world of weather circulating around it. Over the next day or two, however, it appears that the low will get ambushed and be incorporated into the mainstream atmospheric circulation. Today's cooler weather is one sign......

Former mayor Rudy Giuliani mugged and joked when lightning struck as he was going to discuss remarks a bishop made comparing Rudy to Pontius Pilate during last night's third Republican debate. His sound was cut and the other Republican presidential hopefuls also got into the act - Mitt Romney pointed at him - and Giulani said, "Look, for someone who went to parochial schools all his life, this is a very frightening thing that's......

Mets 5 Giants 4 (12 innings): This is the type of game that a Met fan can really appreciate. After all those times when Armando Benitez blew it for you, how enjoyable is it to see him blow it against you? That’s what Benitez did, coming in with a 4-3 lead in the twelfth and issuing a leadoff walk to Jose Reyes. Benitez showed his characteristic pose and balked Reyes to second. Reyes was......

Finally, the stats to back up what we know: NYC area airports have had more delays so far this year than in 2006. New data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics shows that delays have increased by 140.6% at JFK Airport, when comparing April 2007 to April 2006. The delays at LaGuardia are up by approxmiately 35% and delays at Newark are up by 21%. Senator Charles Schumer says that labor disputes between the......

Why is Memorial Day often referred to as the "unofficial start of summer"? As far as we know there is no official start of summer. Astronomically, there's the summer solstice, and for bookkeeping reasons climatological summer is considered June, July and August, the three warmest months, but there's no official start to summer. Whether official or not, the weather has certainly been summerlike this weekend. Today is no exception. We should have warm and humid......

Realizing that the county is vulnerable to craziness in the power supply (best exhibited in the 2003 blackout), the Department of Homeland Security announced a $39 million pilot plan to better protect the power grid from disaster, whether natural or terrorist. And the pilot is taking place in NYC, with Con Ed and American Superconductor partnering up for "Team Hydra: Secure Super Grids." According to Newsday, here's what the project entails:The pilot project...will tie together......

A cold front is pressing down upon us from the north. The line of rain accompanying the front stretches from Albany to Scranton and should hit the city by mid-afternoon. Beware! Showers and perhaps a thunderstorm will produce locally heavy rains and gusty winds. We may even see a bit of hail. Most of the rain will be out of here by seven or eight this evening, but the chance of showers will linger until......

We're smack dab in the middle of Bike Month, and today the Bicycle Film Festival kicks off. Tonight at the (solar powered) opening party, there's a bit of a change in the lineup as Mates of State had to cancel their performance. However Team Robespierre and Parts & Labor will be filling their shoes with help of last minute addition Dan Deacon. After that there's a dance party with Gang Gang Dance, the best part......