And you may ask yourself where is that terrible wind. And you may ask yourself how much rain will fall. And you may ask yourself when it will get here. As the day goes by Hanna will be in town. The storm made landfall late over North Carolina last night, is now centered over Chesapeake Bay, and is zipping up the coast. Rain ahead of the storm center extends into eastern Pennsylvania and southern New... [continue]

"); //--> From museums to galleries to garden sculptures and street installations, the City is one big art and culture exhibition. But what’s truly worth checking out, and what stands out from the rest? Is it the open-air studios of Socrates Sculpture Park or the more traditional exploration of design inside the 64-room Upper East Side mansion known as the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum? Do you stay on the cutting edge of culture with... [continue]

Photograph by seth_holladay A crane collapsed at 1st Avenue and 91st Street on the Upper East Side around 8:15 a.m. According to initial reports, there are people trapped inside. There is wreckage on 91st Street, with FDNY and other emergency responder going through the rubble. The crane was located at a new construction site. Crane safety and new construction has come under new scrutiny after the March 15 crane collapse that claimed the lives... [continue]

How many Internet memes can you spot/name in this video? Weezer's self-titled "Red Album," produced by Rick Rubin, is out June 3rd. via Weezer's official YouTube channel.... [continue]

K-Rock 92.3 FM has had some sexy, new billboards proclaiming its return to rock (it went talk for over a year) up, but one NJ town isn't thrilled. Enough Denville, NJ residents--and both men and women seemed skeptical of the ads--complained for Mayor Ted Hussa to request one billboard on Route 10 be taken down. Hussa told WABC 7 that it's "back nudity...it's not the worst thing in the world...[but] we rather not see" these... [continue]

Photo of (left to right) Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni, Bulls executive VP of business operations Steve Schanwald and Nets co-owner Jay-Z by AP/Bill Kostroun The best chance for the Knicks to make a quick return to respectability bounced away with the drop of a ping pong ball in the NBA Draft Lottery Tuesday night. In reality, they fared exactly as they should have, but for fans desperately hoping to see Derrick Rose or Michael... [continue]

He may not be on a team this season, but Mike Piazza, the greatest offensive catcher in the history of baseball, announced his retirement today. Drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1988 amateur draft, Piazza spent time with the Dodgers, Marlins, Padres, A's and eight seasons with the New York Mets. The 39-year-old Piazza retired with a .308 career average, 427 home runs and 1,335 RBIs. In a statement released through his agent... [continue]

Those retro TV dinners with the pre-formulated portions aren’t just for Eisenhower-era loners anymore; the factory-made frozen meals have been cleverly revived for big city sophisticates dining at the Regency Hotel's 540 Park restaurant. The first Swanson TV Brand Frozen Dinner sold for 98 cents in 1953; at the Regency it’s been brought up to date for $30. Chef Andrew Rubin is offering three iterations on the classic, each one served on that famous, sectioned... [continue]

Perhaps now more than ever, New York City residents create homes for themselves in vastly different ways. Are there any bad neighborhoods anymore? Or are there just places that immigrants and long-time residents subsist next to high-rise hotels and luxury condos? It's a question not limited to NYC, especially as people are being ejected from their McMansions and middle class homes in the current mortgage meltdown. Presciently, photographer Rick Smolan and his partner Jennifer... [continue]

Doctors for Senator Edward Kennedy tell the AP the 76-year-old has a malignant brain tumor. He had suffered a seizure on Saturday, and the tumor was discovered when the doctors performed tests and is believed to be the cause of the seizure. His family rushed to his side at the Massachusetts General over the weekend, including niece Caroline Kennedy. The Senator and Caroline Kennedy notably threw their support behind Barack Obama's presidential nomination bid in... [continue]

Since it's suspected Mayor Bloomberg's favorite epithet is "unconscionable," why not keep track of his least-liked words? Based on this video taken by the Observer's Azi Paybarah, Bloomberg does not like the word "maintain" that much.. According to Paybarah, Newsday reporter Michael Frazier used the word in a Sean Bell-shooting related question during a press conference about "a new way of processing juvenile court cases." Maybe the Mayor was still sore about only getting... [continue]

After undergraduate studies in French Literature at Columbia, Michigan-born chef Anita Lo found herself unable to resist the call of the kitchen, and relocated to France to study at the esteemed Ritz-Escoffier school. Graduating first in her class, Lo soon got her start in New York in the kitchen of David Bouley. Eight years ago she struck out on her own with the Greenwich Village favorite Annisa, which serves contemporary American cuisine with accents... [continue]

London mayor-elect Boris Johnson and Mayor Bloomberg have gift time Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with London's mayor-elect Boris Johnson yesterday, and the pair shared pleasantries and some gifts, one of which was maybe not so pleasant. Mayor Bloomberg gave Boris Johnson the standard Tiffany crystal apple (we suspect it's this $100 paperweight). In turn, Johnson, the Tory who beat Mayor Ken Livingstone by a sizable margin last month, gave the billionaire mayor a button-down... [continue]

View Larger Map New York City is brimming with neighborhood bars—but which ones are the best? We’ve taken the time to Just Ask the Locals.™ Entrepreneur and MTV fashion VJ Coltrane Curtis puts 205, Ear Inn, Plan B, the Village Tavern and Tailor at the top of his list. And earlier this week, we asked you what your favorite neighborhood bar is. We got lots of great responses but the top 10 neighborhood bars according... [continue]

A Westchester woman who had her laptop stolen didn’t even bother with old fashioned signs like the one pictured here – instead she remotely used the camera in her computer to photograph the culprits. The laptop was stolen from her apartment on April 27th along with $5,000 worth of other electronics. The Journal News has it that the unnamed woman got a call from a friend on Tuesday asking her if she was online; she... [continue]

The MTA's Poetry in Motion program, which features bits of poetry on the "Subtalk" posters in subway cars, has expanded its offerings to include quotes from history, philosophy, literature, and science. The Train of Thought first selections are quotes from Galileo, explaining the role of math in science and E.B. White, from his wonderful book Here is New York. Columbia University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is in charge of choosing the extracts,... [continue]

Reader Rob J. sent us this photo taken through a window looking out on Sixth Ave between Charlton and Vandam, snapped right after a police officer was thrown from his horse. We're told the officer has a shoulder injury, the horse is okay and was brought to the stable, and there's nothing more to see here, folks.... [continue]

The following post is from our advertiser, This American Life on Showtime. This American Life, the Showtime Original Series based on the celebrated Ira Glass radio show, is back with an all-new season. Funny, dramatic and surprising real-life stories from the most extraordinary ordinary people in America come together in what Newsweek proclaims “a jewel of a TV series.” From a stand-up comedy camp for kids, to riding stables in a North Philly ghetto; from... [continue]

A new photography exhibit examining the shifting views of public and private space, Eminent Domain, opens today at the New York Public Library. Five photographers' recent projects "deal with the life of the city in terms of passage (of seasons and time, people and place) and exchange (between individual and collective, interior and exterior)." Thomas Holton photographed one family in Chinatown for two years, (photographs taken by the children are also included). Bettina Johae... [continue]

Photograph from the Bike New York/5 Boro Bike tour The 5 Boro Bike Tour is this Sunday, the one day of the year where 30,000 cyclists will have total right of way throughout New York City. The tour begins in Battery Park and ends in Staten Island after winding 42 miles throughout New York. In addition to the approximately 30,000 riders, The 5 Boro Bike Tour happens with the help of about 1,500 volunteers.... [continue]