Police responded to reports of gunfire in an apartment in the Mt. Eden section of the Bronx last night and found three people shot in the head. Two of the victims were dead and one was rushed to Lincoln Hospital, where he is in critical condition. The dead victims were 20-year-old Ludmildy Rosado and 34-year-old Daniel Newton. Police were not sure if the two knew each other or not. Neighbors who live in the building......

Grace Paley, New York's official state author from 1986-88, died at the age of 84 yesterday. She had been battling breast cancer for quite some time. The author, born in the Bronx on December 11th, 1922, still kept an apartment in Manhattan -- but was at her home in Vermont at the time of death. The NY Times recaps her life in literature:Ms. Paley’s output was modest, about four-dozen stories in three volumes: “The Little......

Just after Ethan Hawke declared more love for the Hotel Chelsea and more fear about the changes there being the final nail in the coffin of "old New York," The Observer suspects his exes ex of helping to hold the hammer. Earlier this summer hotel developer André Balazs was spotted in the lobby of the hotel once it was under management of his pals Richard Born and Ira Drukier of BD Hotels (together the trio......

Earlier this year reality television and Broadway collided in the form of "Grease: You're The One That I Want". The show aired on NBC and documented a trip down memory lane with a troupe of wannabe Sandys and Dannys all vying for the coveted roles. By the end, two were left standing, and tonight they make their debut in Grease at the Brooks Atkinson Theater. And now, with Xanadu, Broadway is hosting two movie-to-stage Olivia......

New York Times managing editor Jill Abramson drew fire in March after her heated dinner party spat with playwright David Hare, in which she reportedly broke it down for Hare thusly: “We are the central arbiter of taste and culture in the city of New York.” Imperious but true. The Times draws a lot of water in this town when it comes to theater; and when there’s big money on the line they are now......

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.......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Drive (Sunday and Monday, 8:00 p.m., WNYW 5) Sunday has the two hour debut of Drive crossing the starting line. The show is a drama that follows the participants of an illegal cross country road race who aren't like those you would find in The Cannonball Run. One of the forces behind the show is Tim Minear who has worked on shows like Firefly and Wonderfalls, which......

EVENT: Bluestockings is a great little place on Allen St, if you haven't already checked it out. Tonight the UnCoolKids tell us this bookstore (and more) is having an event called "Where Have You Been? Conversations on Travel": ”New Yorkers go all over the world, but the city has a way of swallowing their homecomings. At “Where Have You Been,” three intrepids share stories with other travelers as well as those of us who don’t......

There's two majorly horrific films coming out this weekend, though only some of the frights are intentional. Gaspard Ulliel seemed like such a nice boy in A Very Long Engagement, but that was before he decided to take on the psycho killer character Hannibal Lecter in the prequel, Hannibal Rising. Apparently in this installment of the series we'll find out what led the Doctor to become a creepy dilettante with a taste for fava beans,......

Well, he's all growns up and he's all growns up and he's all growns up! Daniel Radcliffe, universally known as Harry Potter, will be playing Alan Strang in a London revival of Equus, a role which calls for the fullest of monties. It opens on February 27th; fan boys & girls eager to see Radcliffe galloping around the stage in his birthday suit might want to buy tickets in advance. (As an added sop to......

THEATER: Strings, a new play by Carole Bugge, is loosely based on a real-life train ride in which American physicists Burt Ovrut, Paul Steinhardt and English physicist Neil Turok tweaked the Big Bang theory – and changed it forever. In Bugge’s version, three fictionalized characters – physicist George, his cosmologist wife June and string theorist Rory – spend the trip arguing physics and examining old scars of jealousy and infidelity. En route, the trio is......

New York mid-December always smells vaguely of pine and peppermint, despite our recent springtime temperatures. Bring that cozy holiday feeling with you into the cineplex for a couple of new feel-good holiday movies. Will Smith will tug at your heart strings big time as the struggling dad trying to become a stockbroker in The Pursuit of Happyness. Set in the '70s in San Francisco, Smith plays Chris Gardner, a door to door medical equipment salesman......

Uh-oh - a teacher's attempt to make Newton's Third Law of Motion ("For every action force there is an equal, but opposite, reaction force.") more understandable may have backfired. The Daily News reports that 18 year teaching veteran Leonard Brown has been suspended from Benjamin Cardozo High School after a female student says he touched her breast. He asked the student - from Cardozo's elite Da Vinci Math Science Institute - to hold her hands......

If you've followed The Innocence Project, the non-profit started by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld (pictured, Neufeld on the left, Scheck on the right) which uses DNA evidence to free the wrongfully convicted, you'll find this interesting. Last year, Lee Long sued Scheck and Neufeld, as well as another lawyer and their law firm, for mishandling his wrongful imprisonment claim. Long was found guilty of raping a woman in Jackson Heights and served six years......

"Can you feel me? Can you motherfuckin' feel me?" Adira Amram belts out on her song "Wanna Make Out," which she sings while dressed in leotards, a Betsey Johnson push-up bra and suit jacket, or other attention-getting garb while pounding away on a keyboard or piano. Amram, the daughter of composer David Amram, started out as an actress but has taken to performing her hilarious “keyboard fantasy” songs at local comedy gigs. The 25-year-old performer......

After Scott Fappiano was freed last week, after being in falsely imprisoned for 21 years (he was mistakenly convicted of raping a police officer's wife in their Brooklyn home), more questions are being raised about the way police evidence is stored/a>. Thought Fappiano had requested a pair of sweatpants be tested for DNA evidence in 1989, the technology back then wasn't able to read the small sample - and then the pants and sample were......

THEATER: The talented Michael Gladis, who theatergoers may recall from the hit 2000 revival of Brecht’s Baal, is currently appearing in ‘nami at The Kirk Theater. This darkly humorous drama is about a suburban woman’s belief that she has uncovered a plot to sell a child of Tsunami-ravaged Indonesia into sex slavery by her neighbors. Sounds heavy, but Martin Denton at nytheatre.com hails ‘nami as “indie theatre at its very best” and the “most exciting......

Today, after Alan Newton was declared innocent, after serving 21 years for a Bronx rape he did not commit. The Innocence Project, which works on cases "where postconviction DNA testing of evidence can yield conclusive proof of innocence" at Cardozo Law School, helped find police evidence that the police had claimed was lost years ago. The NY Times' story headlines it as "New York Fail at Finding Evidence to Help the Wrongfully Convicted" and writes:With......

Todd Zuniga, Opium Magazine...

Happy Friday the 13th! Get out there and tempt fate this weekend... MUSIC: Songs of Rebellion brings musicians and artists together to invoke songs and images of rebellion. Some come out and get stirred up! Participants include Lenny Kaye, Invert, Kenny Wollesen, Marc Ribot, Rebecca Moore, Bonfire Madigan, Hanifa Walidah, John Frazier, Jeff Lewis, Seth Tobocman (slides and music with Eric Blitz, Steve Wishnia and Emilio (zef) China), and filmmaker Jem Cohen. Little know fact:......

This Wednesday Dorkbot wants you to come celebrate Isaac Newton's birthday, by watching what strange things people can do with electricity! The science nerd (we use that term lovingly) roster makes us feel like giant underachievers. Want to feel like one too? Here's who you'll see at the Dorkbot in NYC: Mikey Sklar, explaining the process he used to install a $2 RFID tag in his left hand. Luckily, his talk will cover why......

The Gotham Gazette has a good article about the state of our city's waterways. The good news is that they are less polluted than they used to be: Swimming and fishing are all right in the Hudson and East Rivers, too. "The water is cleaner now than it was ten years ago -- and by some estimates 100 years ago. It is perfectly safe and sanitary to swim in it," says the Manhattan Island......

Forget whether or not New York City or country music need each other: If having the CMA Awards means that Mayor Bloomberg must awkwardly wear cowboy hats and hold guitars, then four more year! The CMA tried to pull out all the stops: Mayor Bloomberg introducing Garth Brooks (as Garth Brooks, but file this: A great Halloween costume idea is to be "Chris Gaines"), and then Bon Jovi! Billy Joel! Olivia Newton-John! Gothamist caught......

An editorial in today’s Times reminds us that prison isn’t just a plot twist in the stories of powerful people like Martha Stewart and Judith Miller; a lot of people spend a lot of time there, and we could do a better job of making that time about rehabilitation. Thanks to Lauren Cerand at Maud Newton, we see that this Sunday at Pier 63 (Hudson River at West 23rd Street) Books Through Bars is having......

Francesca Kaplan, Artist/Designer/Stylist...

While the Knicks enjoy their stint as the best in the Atlantic, their cross-river rivals toil in last place with a 3-12 record. Last night, they performed as their record might suggest, falling to the Wizards, 95-68. Sounds like a thrilling game for those at the MCI Center. The loss was their 10th in 11 games, and the team was held to under 70 for the 4th time this season. The Nets also set franchise......

You've got to love Swatch. While it's not as hot as it was in the mid-80s, when people would have numerous Swatches on their wrists, like chronoholics or something, the Swiss watch manufacturer has come up with a way to be relevant to ironic hipsters - a watch with toy bunnies in different positions of the Kama Sutra. Launched in April, the watch is a part of the Touch collection: "Tap the crystal and the......

Gawker walked away as the Reader's Choice for Best New York Blog, while Gothamist was runner-up. Since our second-best company includes Best Not-Runners-Up: Pastis and Nobu (Best Not-New-Scene; Winner: Balthazar) and Il Mulino (Best Italian; Winner: Babbo), Piano's (Best New Nightclub; Winner Crobar), and Jean-Louis David (Best Haircut Under $50; Winner: Astor Place), we're chuffed (adjective meaning only...usually). Thanks to everyone for their support. Read more Readers' Picks and see who and what New York......

The Daily News tries to explain what blogs are to their audience by introducing a number of New York area female bloggers (you know, 'cause are more approachable and if they can do it...). There's a cute picture of Lindsay Robertson online that quickly refutes the any ideas that girl bloggers are shut-ins and confirms their fondness for bars. Besides this site's XX factor, female bloggers featured are (in first name alphabetical) Amy Langfield, Blaise......

Gothamist loves the smell of nominations in the morning. Granted, the nominations for various Best of New York areas went up two days ago, but Gothamist is definitely walking with a spring in our step today. Why? We have been nominated for the Best New York Blog (number 25), in great company alongside 601am, Buzzmachine, Gawker, greg.org, LockhartSteele, low culture, Maud Newton, Memefirst, and TMFML. Yet that doesn't mean we don't want to win:......