Brooklyn street artist D.Billy has been adorning the town with impermanent art. The temporary "tags" have been spotted under and above ground, and his mediums have included balloons, streamers and artist tape. He says of his work:I have begun to add visual representations of sound effects to public spaces as a sort of dimensional graffiti. After embellishing the found scenes and photographing the results, I leave my additions in place to engage passers-by for as... [continue]

Flashpoint, about an elite police squad based in Toronto, was off to a great start on Friday, with over one million Canadian viewers and over eight million American viewers tuning in for the premiere on CTV and CBS—despite the lackluster 10 p.m. time slot. The show was the top-rated program for Friday, and should rank in the top 15 primetime shows for the week in both Canada and the United States. The success of Flashpoint... [continue]

Jill Priluck It's really finally happening, isn't it? First the Bat Signal hyped up the Woolworth Building, now the Batmobile is in town for the The Dark Knight world premiere tonight. The full-size toy was spotted outside the AMC Loews Lincoln Square theater – the one with the IMAX – earlier today. Our correspondent tells us that "handlers were in the process of covering it because people taking pictures wouldn't stop photographing it. When people... [continue]

The MTA is sick and tired of your careless newspaper disposal, so they made a mock newspaper to school you in changing your ways! WNBC reports on the Subway Gazette, which outlines the hot topics underground, including how your trash can lead to subway delays.Once on the tracks, trash can help spark track fires or clog drains along the roadbed and that can lead to flooding. Smoke conditions and flooding lead to delays in train... [continue]

Somehow, "Sesame Street" is about to begin its thirty-ninth season, and they're pulling out all the stops for their premiere on August 11. Among the whack of celebrity guests slated for the first show of the new season is the omnipresent Leslie Feist; she'll debut a new song with Elmo and perform "1234." Judging by a clip of the latter performance that was uploaded to YouTube this morning, the whole thing is looking pretty... [continue]

C'est Bastille Day aujourd hui! Frogs and Francophiles were out in force on Smith Street in Brooklyn yesterday for the Bastille Day celebration, which featured big band music by Baby Blue Orchids, plenty of French food, French cigarettes and heated games of Petanque, played on sand dumped out for the occasion. McBrooklyn reports that "actual French people were everywhere, smoking cigarettes and speaking actual French." If you missed out on all that, there's still time... [continue]

Every Saturday morning, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. "La baie et l'île de Toronto" ("Toronto Bay and Island"), Robert Irvine, c. 1815. Image from Wikimedia Commons As crowds on Canada Day proved, the Toronto Islands are a popular destination for city dwellers to make a short escape. Even when they were physically connected to today's eastern port lands via marshes... [continue]

Photo of the Twin Towers in Beijing's World Park. Infinite emails (all from the same source) flooded inboxes citywide last night (following a Reuters photo that was published) with messages pondering "how Americans would feel if they knew that just before the Olympics start, a theme park in Beijing still shows the Twin Towers standing in a NYC exhibit of mini models?" With many Americans already protesting the Olympic Games, this might not help... [continue]

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city. To obviously quote another film kind of about boxing, Cinderella Man coulda been a contender. We'll never know what gold (both... [continue]

When one man's family history pointed towards an association with Walt Whitman, research efforts resulted in a new website archiving the poet's old stomping grounds. Whitman's Brooklyn looks at the borough, where Whitman moved at the age of 4, during the mid to late 1800s. Along with each image on the site is an in-depth history of the area portrayed. In an 1847 engraving of what at the time was called Washington Park, it is... [continue]

The Museum of the City of New York unveils a new exhibit today "coinciding with the 2008 election and providing insight into New York's often pivotal role in American electoral politics." Campaigning for President: New York and the American Election covers presidential politics spanning back to the inauguration of George Washington on lower Manhattan's Wall Street. Below are some of the pieces that will be on display, as well as some facts from the press... [continue]

Two months ago, Con Ed admitted that the former power plant on Kent Avenue would be demolished (when asked earlier about all the activity at the site, the utility claimed it was just "spring cleaning"), and now it looks like the beautiful, century-old building's final days are here. Photographer Nathan Kensinger, who currently has an exhibit at the Brooklyn Public Library documenting Brooklyn's fading waterfront, took these exclusive photographs of the Powerhouse. From the looks... [continue]

A reader sent us some photos of retired subway cars traveling by barge to their watery graves. Once hitting the correct latitude they're dumped overboard to create natural reefs. Earlier this year the reef program proved to be too popular in Delaware, where subway cars were sent on the MTA's dime. Reportedly they're adding tanks, refrigerators, shopping carts and washing machines to the ocean floor in order to expand the reef.... [continue]

Opening tomorrow as a counterpoint to the Red Hook Ikea kick-off is a photography exhibit at the Brooklyn Public Library that chronicles the disappearing industrial sites along Brooklyn's waterfront. Called "Twilight on the Waterfront: Brooklyn's Vanishing Industrial Heritage," the photographs are the work of Nathan Kensinger, who has compiled an impressive body of work over the last five years by sneaking into dilapidated properties around Brooklyn. The series vividly documents the accidental beauty of decaying... [continue]

The rumors swirled viciously before the game. Willie Randolph was safe for at least the week, but some of his coaches would be fired shortly. Randolph and some of the coaches were about to be axed. There were even erroneous reports that Rick Peterson had been fired. The Mets scored two quick runs in the first thanks to a Jose Reyes walk and a Carlos Beltran homer and made it 4-1 after 2. But, the... [continue]

Every Saturday morning, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. 1979 Topps Rico Carty, 1978 Topps Jesse Jefferson and 1978 Topps Jim Clancy baseball cards Stories about the early days of the Toronto Blue Jays tend to focus on their debut in 1977, highlighted by a snowy opening day. Despite a mixture of cast-offs, free agents, and untested rookies that landed the... [continue]

Reverend Billy climbed to the roof of the Pavilion building in Union Square last night around 6:30 p.m. to hang a banner reading: Not For Sale. While he was up there, he gave the passersby a lesson on why the historic free speech structure cannot be turned into a private, upscale restaurant; reminding people that the first Labor Day in 1882 took place there, and that one "shouldn’t have to buy a $15 appetizer to... [continue]

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city. "It's okay, Mr. President. We'll make sure you're safe and then we'll get to the truck with the french fries." The... [continue]

Way up in the very northwestern corner of the city, the old Indian Line used to mark the boundary between Etobicoke and Peel Region (Mississauga and Brampton). The road carved its way through farm fields and across a bridge over the Humber River before continuing north past Steeles Avenue. Most of the old road was effectively wiped out by the initial construction and subsequent widening and extending of Highway 427 starting in the late... [continue]