According to the Daily News, there were 260 new cases of the syphilis in NYC during the first quarter of 2007 compared with 128 cases during the same [period last year. The Department of Mental Health and Hygiene says most infections occurred in gay men in Chelsea (10 were reported in women); Assistant Commissioner Dr. Susan Blank said, "We are seeing more of the serious outcomes of unsafe sex." The city rate - 7.2 cases......

Last night we dropped by Evan Roth's Geek Graffiti class at Parsons for the final project presentations. The MFA students in the class had put together some amazing stuff. Our favorite project was was a reaction to the ubiquitous "Dan Smith Will Teach You Guitar" posters that you see all over the city. The artist got a copy of one of the posters, and remixed it to have Dan teaching a variety of interesting......

As someone mentioned in our comments, there's been yet another band gear caper. After playing a show at Warsaw in Brooklyn last nite, Dinosaur Jr had their trailer broken into...J's Amma guitar, Mountain Man guitar, Lou's Rickenbacker, cymbals, pedals...everything gone. Any info at all you can provide would be greatly appreciated, email: management@jmascis.com Dinosaur Jr are in Amherst trying to patch together some gear for a show at Toads Place in Connecticut tonite, hopefully shows......

God, we're so sick of Snakes on a Plane that we want to kill anyone and everyone that makes a "something on a something" joke. But then we realized that there was no way we could ever win this fight, and, hell, if you can't beat them, we might as well join them. And with that, you have the theme of this weeks' Gothamist network post. Austinist makes it easy for us, with Candidate......

If you're in the West Village or Chelsea today, swing by one of these happenings: 1. Trish Grantham billboard painting: "With the help of up-and-coming artists, Visa is transforming a Greenwich Village intersection into a cornerstone of art and expression. As part of a multi-day project, ground-breaking artist Trish Grantham will create a one-of-a-kind billboard mural under the banner of a Visa's newest ad, "Life Takes Expression." Below Grantham's mural, Visa will also showcase......

The co-owner of a fried chicken restaurant was killed in a gruesome fashion: Lye was doused over his face as he was getting ready to open the store. Rehmatullah Azezollah died shortly after the attack, and his partner in a Lincoln Fried Chicken, Abdul Krin, described, "His eye all burned, his eye white, his mouth dry, his skin black" - his face basically melted, along with his clothes. Krin also said that Azezollah did not......

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/407005p-344593c.html Stress killed coyote Too much handling, worms are blamed BY JOE MAHONEY and LISA L. COLANGELO DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS In the end, the stress was too much for Hal, the crafty Central Park coyote. Being darted, captured and then restrained for tagging helped cause the coyote's death last week, just moments before he was to be released back into the wild. A massive case of heartworm and the ill effects of eating a rat or a mouse full of rodenticide also were to blame for his death, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Hal stopped breathing last Friday as a DEC biologist and a Cornell graduate student restrained him with a catch-pole and a muzzle in an effort to tag him. Holding and tagging Hal in his weakened condition "was more than the animal could handle," said DEC wildlife pathologist Ward Stone, who performed the necropsy on the dead coyote. "These are not sadistic people who wanted to do something bad. This is something that was not expected." Stone said the heartworms, which were 8 to 12 inches long and had invaded both sides of Hal's heart, probably would have eventually killed him. The anti-coagulants in the rodenticide led to internal bleeding, and the coyote also had hemorrhaging in his eyes, possibly from being restrained. The DEC has pledged to reevaluate the way it handles, tags and releases coyotes. The wily coyote led parks officials and police officers on a wild chase through Central Park last month. How he got to Manhattan is still unclear. After being captured by cops, Hal was cared for by wildlife rehabilitators Bobby Horvath and Rebecca Asman on Long Island until DEC officials tried to prepare him for release upstate. "We are still very saddened by the fact that Hal was never able to be free," Asman said yesterday. "To minimize stress, we handle wild animals as little as possible so they can be released back into the wild." "Hopefully, new protocols will be set for the handling of coyotes that come into the five-borough area, and we do believe that will happen again," Asman said. ...

Rejoice all you fans of Gilmore Girls / Veronica Mars slash fiction! Your dreams of saphic teen-friendly erotica are one step closer to fruition with the merging of the WB and UPN networks. CNN reports: Warner Brothers and CBS Corp. announced plans Tuesday for the creation of a new broadcast television network, called CW, that would replace the WB and UPN networks in the fall of this year. The new broadcast network will draw......

Since we haven’t been following the New York theatre scene for years and years, we’d rather not pontificate about how 2005 was overall for the art. Thinking about it now, it seems like it was pretty great, but that might just be our affectionate, soft-focus hindsight, plus we’re just crazy about theatre in general. And even though we see way more of it than most people we know, nytheatre.com’s season archives quickly reminded us......

Somehow the Fringe Festival is over, though we’re not quite sure how so many shows could have flown by so quickly. Gothamist isn’t quite done with it yet, though – we still have a couple of reviews from the final weekend, plus some musings on the festival as a whole and how it’s looking at the advanced age of nine (keep reading after the jump). And before we launch into that, let’s give a......

As we head into the final weekend of FringeNYC, Gothamist finds ourselves thinking two things: First, we're incredibly surprised at how enjoyable so many of this year's Fringe festival shows have been. Certainly we have managed to attend only a fraction of the complete offerings, but as samplings go, we have to give this year's organizers some props. The second thing? We're tired. The Fringe is long festival, and we imagine the staff manning the......

As the Fringe enters its second (and final) full week, Gothamist hopes you’ve been able to see at least a few shows already. Some of them have already closed by now, while a small number are just opening or had their premiere at the start of the festival but are only now having the bulk of their performances, due to venue scheduling stuff. There’s still a lot going on, so this week we’ll continue installments......

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......

This past week Gothamist learned two very important things that we will carry with us into the New Year: we love sherry and we hate sherry hangovers. Last week Gothamist was invited to a Sherry Tasting hosted by Steve Olson, a.k.a. "the Wine Geek" at WD-50. Gothamist was in heaven dining on deliciously interesting tapas by Chef Wylie Dufresne, sipping on exotic sherry cocktails and tasting the huge selection of sherries . . .......

Though Gothamist is a self-professed Anglophile who can often be seen fondling the Hob Nobs at Myers of Keswick, Gothamist admits to having totally missed the boat on Alistair Cooke. It must have been his long-running stint as host of Masterpiece Theater that shadowed his brilliant work for the BBC, the Letter From America. Cooke's recent passing, just a few weeks after he completed his final Letter, has bittersweetly brought his old work to new......

With QEFTSG breaking Bravo's rating records, Gothamist takes a look at the previously highest-rated program, Inside the Actor's Studio with James Lipton Since Gothamist is a huge movie fan, when we watched the show for the first time, we thought, "Wow, this is great, this guy talks to really interesting actors and get them to discuss their craft." See, there was a day when we were naive and hopeful. Now we realize James Lipton is......

Clearly, Gothamist's parents have re-affirmed our geek status: During their visit, they brought a present of Bausch & Lomb's Pre-Moistened Lens Cleaning Tissues, in a handy dispenser. They are good for not only glasses, but computer screens as well. An excellent Costco purchase. Another thing that proved Gothamist is geeky: Spending too long examining cell phone ring tones for the new phone. Let's just say that if you're on the street and you happen to......