Drawing on his roots in the fecund 1970s East Village avant-garde film scene, critic J. Hoberman has spent his three decades at the Village Voice introducing readers to the more adventurous cinematic worlds awaiting beyond the realm of Hollywood. He is the author of nine books, most recently The Dream Life: Movies, Media, and the Mythology of the Sixties, which was described by Slate as "an extraordinary publishing event." To commemorate his thirty years at......

People have been wondering about former mayor Rudy Giuliani's campaign for a long time (his presidential campaign plan notebook went missing last January! he pays more attention to his friends' advice versus that of election consultants). Now, with the Florida primary on the horizon, it seems his New York-based supporters are starting to worry. The first few weeks of the new year have brought Giuliani embarrassing finishes in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Michigan as......

What do we make of the fact that the NY Times book critic Michiko Kakutani purchased a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at a NYC bookstore yesterday and was able to sift through its 1.8 pounds to write a review in today's paper? There are no true spoilers, just confirmation that there is a fitting ending (but if you are worried about spoilers of any kind, don't read the blockquote):J. K. Rowling’s......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., HBO) A television adaptation of the 1970 book about America's 19th Century ethnic cleansing of Native Americans. We think that this deserves a miniseries instead of a 135 minute movie to bring the story justice. The Blair Decade (Sunday, 9:00, WLIW 21) A look back on the career of Tony Blair, his rise to power and the bad......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting at 178th Pl. in Queens, a bank robbery at White Plains Rd. in the Bronx, and a homicide on West 157th St. and Broadway in Manhattan, and a water rescue off 88th St. near Gracie Mansion.. The suspected killer of FDNY Chief Ray Downey's nephew, who was tracked to California, killed himself yesterday when cornered by cops. East River State Park opened today. Be one of the......

The special US Postal Service-Star Wars R2D2 mailboxes have arrived, just in time to get acquainted with NYC-style slush. WNBC has a slideshow of a mailbox in Midtown, and we suppose the horrible sleet kept some fans away, lest they sully their Jedi robes. Some readers noted that there were R2D2 mailboxes outside the Kaufman Studios in Astoria as well as on Mott and Bayard in Chinatown, in addition to Manhattan locations of 43rd and......

Take this as your dose of levity for the day: As part of a big Star Wars stamp roll out for the film's 30th anniversary, the US Postal Service will have some mailboxes across the country wrapped with R2D2 decals. The mailboxes will be in 200 cities, and New York City is getting a few. The locations mentioned in the Daily News are 43rd and Broadway, 58th and Fifth Avenue, and 33rd and Seventh Avenue.......

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing-- what's going on in the World of the -ist's? Bostonist dug deep to uncover Barack Obama's unpaid parking tickets, their Governor's latest ethical lapse, and a plagarizing sports writer. Chicagoist had everything in twos: two views on having the Olympics, losing two members of their Super Bowl team, and two music festivals. DCist put their noses in legal books as......

Add "Do you play video games?" to the list of questions you might want to ask your surgeon. The Archives of Surgery published a study that shows a strong relationship between video game skills and a surgeon's abilities with laparoscopic procedures. Reuters reports the study's findings show out of the 33 Beth Israel surgeons surveyed, the nine doctors who played video games at least 3 hours a week made "37 percent fewer errors, performed 27......

THEATER: A one-of-a-kind theatrical event is happening this weekend only in a clothing store and barbershop on the edge of Chinatown. Called American Standard, this solo, seven character ‘sideshow’ is the work of Canadian-American troupe bluemouth,inc., which has been building a reputation for staging innovative theater in bizarre locales. (Other productions have taken place in hotel rooms and the basement of an office building.) In their latest foray, “a preacher, a tourist, a politician, an......

THEATER: Sentimental hogwash! Following in the tradition of the one-man theatrical renditions of Star Wars and The Godfather Trilogy, comic actor/impressionist Jason Grossman presents his It’s a Wonderful (One Man Show) Life! tonight. Time Out NY called it “a guaranteed laugh riot.” We’re just excited to see how he handles the Charleston contest! - John Del Signore 9pm // Manhattan Theatre Source [177 MacDougal St] // $15 COMEDY: Join SNL's Horatio Sanz at his Ho......

A monstrous wave of theater will engulf Lincoln Center next month and Tom Stoppard, the protean dramatist of unparalleled wit and imagination, is at the center of the squall. His three play cycle, “The Coast of Utopia”, will have its U.S. premiere in October and seems like an ideal autumn theater overload. The opus spans thirty years of Russian life in the mid-19th century as revolution swept Europe and a group of intellectuals, anarchists and......

With the Oscars coming up tonight, we thought we'd recap our favorite Brokeback Mountain parodies. Our nominees... -Brokeback to the Future [watch here] -Star Wars: The Empire Brokeback [watch here] -Brokeback Island [watch here] -Broke Mac Mountain [watch here] If forced to choose, we'd have to dub the winner Broke Mac Mountain, we just love parodies with IT guys in it... Hopefully there will be something new to parody soon, we're getting tired of the......

There's only one major wide release this weekend, and although it stars an Oscar winner, we can pretty much guarantee Paramount isn't expecting any year-end kudos for Aeon Flux. In fact, it looks like the studio is hoping to slyly score a big opening weekend on the draws of Charlize Theron in skintight rubber and fans of the old MTV animated series because they aren't letting critics anywhere near it -- apparently no press screenings......

Gothamist is not spoiling last night's Apprentice: The Donald Edition for anyone who didn't see it, because what we're discussing happens in the first twenty minutes. The task was to create a potential in-store display for a new Star Wars videogame. Yes, Star Wars is so last summer, but whatever. Anyway, each team needed to meet with executives from LucasFilm and Best Buy (where the display might go). Team Excel had a 10:15AM meeting with......

-Some NYU kids, angry about unfair DRM on their music, took to the streets, er, the Virgin Megastore. -The troubles at Brooklyn Tech continue. -After a very long time the FDNY reached a ">tentative contract with the city this week. -The mother in that gruesome family suicide wrote a note warning her own mother. -Cirque du Soleil may be getting a theater in New York. -Star Wars origami. Why not? [via Coudal Partners] -The prestigious......

If the lead of a play or musical is sick and an understudy performs instead, can you ask for your money back? I'm especially interested in knowing about cases where the lead performer is a big star. It all depends on how that star is billed in the show, so check your Playbill or the theater's marquee for clues. For example, both Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane are listed above the title in the......

David Pogue, NY Times Technology Writer, Author...

In an effort to help the reported “Hollywood Slump,” AMC Theatres offer full-ticket refunds to moviegoers seeing Cinderella Man, which did rather poorly at the box office. The exhibitors offering Cinderella Man claim their marketing ploy is simply to encourage the public to see “a special picture” says Dick Walsh, film group chairman at AMC: "It's first class up and down, almost certain to be nominated for Academy Awards, and we just wanted to do......

The American Film Institute's Top 100 Movie Quotes special, hosted by Pierce Brosnan, showcased the most memorable quotes which had a cultural impact and ensured a film’s legacy, with “frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” taking #1 and Titanic’s “I’m the King of the world!” (which they *actually* described as “a small goodybag the audience took home with them),” at #100. We were saddened that Dirty Dancing's “nobody puts baby in the......

Gothamist did not need to check Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, or Defamer to know that Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith would become the most popular movie across America this weekend. Gothamist knew it the moment we overheard a neighbor playing a DVD of the movie very loudly on Saturday afternoon. Said neighbor purchased the DVD in Chinatown, and while he missed the group experience of being around tons of people dressed up like beings......

Continuing our Star Wars coverage, Gothamist wanted to know just how powerful are Star Wars’ die-hard fans? Enough to affect the economy. Worker absenteeism for last night and today's showings of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is expected to cost NYC millions and U.S. employers $627-million, according to The Globe and Mail. If you're also interested in taking today or tomorrow off, Geek Squad has created customizable "fail-safe" excuse notes that will help even......

What I See went to the midnight showing of Revenge of the Sith at the Ziegfeld and took some classic Star-Wars-fans-in-full-effect pictures. We're not sure if What I See was dressed like a Stormtrooper or maybe even an Ewok, but we hear he made it to his 9AM meeting okay. Did you see Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith last night? What did you think? Were you dressed up? Or were you the lone......

- Strange dispute with landlord and tenant turned fatal - The Taxi and Limousine Commission considers Metrocards for taxis - That eternal debate: Is drinking good for you? - The fencing of Washington Square Park has its many detractors - Purple carrots are in season - The Star Wars nerds are in full force in the city! - The U.N. thinks about moving to Brooklyn temporarily - Check out Chris Ofili's lovely watercolors at the......

If you’re not already overwhelmed by Star Wars’ promotional madness, including the Times Square Toys-R-Us Star Wars aisle and a relentless commercial campaign (M&M;’s M-pire’s new “dark side” candy, Chewbacca grunting for Cingular, Yoda using the Force to snatch a Pepsi, or Darth Vader battling a boy armed with a Kellogg's cereal SaberSpoon), then see die-hard fans geeking out in the Star-Wars Stand-a-Thon. Camped outside Ziegfeld's theatre on 54th, this wait-in-line marathon raises money......

Last year, when everyone else was reading The Fortress of Solitude, we picked up Motherless Brooklyn, Jonathan Lethem’s previous novel, about a South Brooklyn detective with Tourette’s. Given our general suspicion of It-books and buzzy fiction, we were pleased to find that it was good—really good, in fact, intelligent and true, more entertaining and earnest and linguistically acrobatic than anything we had read in ages. Even more surprising was the way strangers would approach us......

Last week I didn't tell you about the show Beck played at Hiro Ballroom Friday night (one night before his appearance on Saturday Night Live). That's because the "secret" show wasn't even announced until Thursday. Beck is known for playing last-minute small-venue shows, and I was lucky enough to score a ticket to this one. Here are the pictures. In February, Beck played another secret show in Los Angeles. The opener was none other than,......

While Gothamist doesn't think we'll be seeing Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith during the first weekend (as a friend put it, Hayden Christensen looked more like a date rapist than brooding Jedi), we're totally excited about the Darth Tater toy. It's a Mr. Potato Head with Darth Vader accessories. An Amazon reviewer writes:A couple of choice lines from the packaging: "Together we shall rule as father & spud!" + "As a Dark......

As the number of shopping days tick down in the single digets, you may have a few people on your list who call themselves cinephiles. Or at the very least are movie-lovers. In which case we have a few gift giving suggestions for the season. And if you've finished all your shopping already, remember that Gothamist has been a very good little weblog this year... The Incredibles Interactive Talking Edna Doll -- She's a sassy,......

President Ronald Reagan passed away today at age 93. Native of Illinois, son of Hollywood, and father of modern America, Reagan managed to be a galvanizing and charismatic leader during his two terms as president. While his policies and dealings ("Reagonomics" and domestic policy, "Star Wars," Iran-Contra) have a number of pros and cons, Reagan remained one of the most popular presidents. He certainly looms large in Gothamist's mind because he's the first President we......