MOVIE: Tonight the Brooklyn Independent Cinema Series delivers two very different films. First up is The French Riviera, described as "a road documentary that follows a truck driver on a mission to earn enough money selling ice cream in the Icelandic countryside to go on a vacation on a French beach." Next up is About A Son, the "intimate and moving meditation on the late musician and artist Kurt Cobain, based on more than 25......

As outrageous as this may seem, this sort of makes sense: James Lipton, he of Inside the Actors' Studio, used to be a pimp in Paris! ABC reports:The revered TV presenter, who has sat down with Hollywood's biggest names for in-depth chats about their life and work over the last 13 years, has revealed he once procured clients for French hookers.We'll have to go back and see how he discussed Moulin Rouge with Nicole Kidman......

Time Out NY has a list of PETA's most wanted in the city. The organization has 25,000 of its 1.6 million members based right here, and while we wish they'd have a crack team of those members targeting folks like Brooklyn's Cruella DeVil, here are some of the big offenders. • The Ringling Brothers circus is back in town in March 2008 and PETA is again questioning the way the circus treats its animals. The......

Thought Governor Eliot Spitzer and Senator Hilary Clinton appeared at a press conference to discuss health coverage of New York children, they had to answer questions about campaign donations they accepted from fugitive apparel executive Norman Hsu. Clinton received $23,000 from Hsu and announced that she would donate the money to charity after revelations that Hsu has been wanted in California for defrauding California investors since 1991. Hsu has fled to Hong Kong but......

The Princeton Review released its annual "The Best 366 Colleges" rankings, and NYC college schools make some interesting showings. The New School is number 1 for "Best College Town" (Barnard, Columbia, and NYU are also in the top 10), while Queens College is the third most sober. Here are some rankings for some area schools: Barnard: Best Quality of Life (16), Great College Towns (2), Nobody Plays Intramural Sports (18) Brooklyn College: Professor Get Low......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Rivington St. in Manhattan, a fatal stabbing on Malcolm X Blvd. in Brooklyn, and a stabbing on 102nd St. and Corona Ave. in Queens. Cobble Hill residents on Douglass St. will no longer be able to save on their electric bills by relying on the super-bright lights of American Apparel as their street-level reading lamps. The retailer is turning them off and neighbors must now fend......

This May filmmaker/musician/actress/performing artist/writer Miranda July is going to unleash her book, "No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories", upon the world. She'll have several events lined up in New York, one with her biggest fan - David Byrne. In his online journal, he wrote: "I had recently read her book of collected short stories which is due out in about a month — No one Belongs Here More Than You — which......

EVENT: Charles Ray, who is thirty years deep in the art world, will be at the New School tonight for a Public Art Fund talk. The leader of the "conceptual realism" movement with a "lively, self-deprecating sense of humor" will discuss his "virtuoso craftsmanship" and his depiction of "familiar elements of everyday life and modern art in disarmingly altered ways." 6:30pm // The New School, John Tishman Auditorium [66 W 12th St] // $5 SCIENCE:......

May the television gods hear our and others' pleas! Last month, the Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan broke the news that Tim Gunn was not signed for a fourth season of Project Runway:Will he be back? Ever the modest one, he would only say he "makes no assumptions," but he would come back "in a heartbeat" if asked. There's no official word, by the way, that there will be a fourth season, but it seems more......

READING: Head to the New School to join the New York Times and their moderator, critic William Grimes, as Carl Hiaasen reads from his latest crime caper, Nature Girl, which chronicles the exploits of volatile Honey Santana who meets a wild cast of characters while en route to the Ten Thousand Islands. Show up early for a good seat - Hiaasen is a popular draw. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras 6:30pm // The New School [Tishman......

READING: The New School's wonderful public lectures and reading series are back in swing as the school year revs up, and tonight, the ethereal Mary Gaitskill will discuss her book Veronica (a National Book Award finalist) with moderator Jeffrey Renard Allen. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras 6:30pm // The New School [66 W 12th St, room 510] // $5 THEATER: The Soho Think Tank is legendary for nurturing some of the freshest new work in town.......

The New School's student speaker who spoke out against Senator John McCain during commencement exercises last Friday says she apologized to McCain afterwards. Jean Sara Rohe, whose speech about McCain drew a standing ovation, has been been in a pissing match on the Huffington Post with one of the McCain aides who wrote the senator's speech. Apparently McCain himself said he understood why Rohe had to make her remarks, and New School president Bob Kerrey......

ART: The 10th annual Tribeca art walk is this weekend. Toast, the Tribeca Open Artist Studio Tour, is a free, self-guided tour of approximately 100 artists' studios throughout Tribeca. Talk to the artists in their own spaces, and of course - check out their art while you're at it. Saturday through Monday // 1 to 6pm // Map // Free BOOKS: Remember Book Fairs? We used to go them all the time, our first was......

ART: The Year of the Dog is being celebrated in many ways, even through cute paintings of puppies, er, art. Elizabeth Berdann's witty, ultra-realistic oil-on-copper paintings of dogs are now on view. We think they're cuteoverload.com! Now through March 23rd // Tuesday through Thursday, Saturday 10am to 2pm // Lesley Heller [30 East 92nd Street, 3rd Floor] COMEDY PANEL: We can't imagine that disecting comedy is really all that funny, since laughing is somewhat a......

Design Trust for Public Space and Parsons New School for Design brings us, Designing the Taxi. Last spring a two-part workshop investigated the future of the iconic New York City taxicab as it approaches its centennial in 2007. The exhibition of designs presenting future ideas for the taxi are now on view. Starting today and running through January 15th we'll get a chance to see some new ideas for one of our major modes of......

Yesterday, the NY Times had an obituary for the photographer Ted Croner, who died at age 82. He was part of the New York School of photographers and this line from the obit sums up his technique: "...[his] rigorously blurry photographs of New York at night in the 1940's epitomized the film noir energy of a city that never sleeps." Croner took his photography class at The New School in 1947 and later worked for......

Cheryl B., Poet, Spoken Word Performer, Atomic Curator...

Tonight at the New School begins the 25th Asbury Shorts of New York, a festival of short subjects from around the world. Guest hosted by Tom Mooney, "President of Headquarters," this fest strives to "give people the opportunity to see these little gems in a real theater format on a big screen." Every year the Oscars honors short subject films and here's a great opportunity for you to see a few of them in the......