Recently a group traveled underground to the oldest subway tunnel in the world, rediscovered by Bob Diamond in 1980. It's dark, dirty and allegedly filled with ghosts! Located on Atlantic Avenue, it sounds like the perfect place for a haunted Halloween. Here's some more info on the mysterious underground space, that long went hidden.The Atlantic Avenue Tunnel was built in seven months in 1844 by the Long Island Rail Road to relieve congestion in downtown......

Along with the office of the Welsh government, Peter Thabit Jones and Dylan Thomas's daughter Aeronwy have compiled the ultimate guide to the poet's New York--specifically Greenwich Village. The walking tour is self-guided, and they provide a handy printable PDF with factoids for your journey. Aeronwy states that it makes "the real facts about my father’s time in New York available to anyone who wants to learn more about him." The Welsh Government's website......

The Times tagged along with the New Yorker's Calvin Trillin for his "gastronomic walking tour" through Chinatown and Little Italy on Sunday, as part of the magazine's eponymous festival. The $100 tickets sell out instantly every year because the event is limited to just 35 nerds—er, gourmands—with money to burn. Trillin led participants on an erudite eating tour of his favorite little haunts on the two mile stroll. Among other revelations, he said he likes......

The reviews are in! And the word on the street is that the Staten Island bus tour is, well, perhaps off to a slow start. When the NY Times visited, the bus had five passengers (Gray Line said "it often takes up to five years before a new tour catches on"). Most passengers aren't even leaving the bus during stops to explore; one said she only wanted to take the ferry over because she saw......

After Boy George's visa was denied he spoke out on the problem that could put a glitch in his touring plans. The U.S. State Dept. also told their side of the story, and in the end The Man won. A press release sent out this morning stated that his tour, which included a special concert for the New York Department of Sanitation workers and families this summer, was canceled as a result of the problem.......

This morning Boy George visited the Today show the only way he could: via satellite. He spoke to Meredith Viera about his visa denial in an upbeat tone, noting, "I got so much love from the people of New York every day, people were so supportive. I was getting honks, and people coming out of manholes going, ‘Go on, George!’ I was surprised by how much affection I received. Everyone talks about it being a......

Boy George, scheduled for a U.S. tour this summer, including a stop at NYC's Dept. of Sanitation picnic, has been denied a visa. He told Papermag: "I'm pretty devastated because I am so excited about this forthcoming tour and having my visa application denied seems unfair after I swept the streets of New York spotless. I committed a crime and I happily paid the consequences and I should be allowed to move on and get......

Since he began his fruitful collaboration with Walter Becker back at Bard College in 1968, Grammy award-winning musician Donald Fagen has steadily distinguished himself as one of the smartest and most imaginative contemporary songwriters. As Steely Dan, the innovative duo lays claim to an impressive catalog of hit singles that somehow manage to stay fresh despite their everlasting ubiquity on classic rock stations across America. For whatever reason, people still can't help cranking up the......

Delayed spoiler alert: This photo reveals what the upcoming East River waterfalls will most likely look like. Although artist Olafur Eliasson’s ambitious art project doesn't officially start until June 26th, apparently they do need practice turning the spigot. One eagle-eyed Curbed reader caught them in the act late last night and snapped this photo, which depicts the waterfall at Pier 35 by the Manhattan Bridge. Now some may be inclined to look at the photo......

Wolves and Wishes, the fourth LP from the wizardly Martin Dosh, may have been fused in Minneapolis (with contributions from artists like Will Oldham and Andrew Bird), but hear it through headphones while wandering New York at dusk and you'll think it was specifically made to accompany aimless strolls through the city's more deserted quarters. That the album's expansive soundscape is richly layered with looping keyboard, guitar, sax, banjo, percussion and other surprising instrumentation will......

When Olafur Eliasson's NYC Waterfalls start roaring on the East River and New York Harbor this June, cruises like Circle Line will be bringing passengers so close to the spray they’ll need to stock ponchos on board. Sure, you could just look at the falls from any number of points on the shore, but tour boat companies are betting that plenty of people will gladly pay for the Man-Made of the Mist experience. A press......

Jersey based pizza fanatic Scott Wiener (pictured) may have found a way to turn his appetite into a career with his just-launched Pizza Tours of New York City. Every Sunday, Wiener will escort up to 32 ravenous adults on a pizza tasting odyssey to half a dozen pizzerias stretching from Lombardi’s on Spring Street to Louie & Ernie’s in the Bronx. The licensed New York City tour guide is charging $55 a person for the......

Real Emotional Trash, the fourth post-Pavement solo album by Stephen Malkmus, is arguably his best, and at the very least rivals the acclaimed Pig Lib for inventiveness. A well-crafted balance of catchy pop, multi-part prog rock compositions, heady guitar shredding and his signature lyrical whimsy, the album is sure to stymie Pavement fans on a nostalgia trip and the skinny jean set appalled by any song that dares last longer than five minutes. Joined by......

One of the things that makes eating dim sum in New York City exciting is the seeming endless variety of savory and sweet morsels. Even veteran dim sum eaters are rewarded by new discoveries every so often. An initial visit to Chatham Square Restaurant for lunch last Friday yielded just such a find. One of the dessert carts had flaky green pastries that resembled caterpillars. Oddly colored desserts are fairly common in dim sum......

PARTY: Perhaps as a nod to Warhol, or simply as a reason to party, PBR has been on an Art Tour. Come check out their 18 PBR-inspired paintings, and more importantly drink free beer from 7 to 8 tonight as the tour hits the Knitting Factory. Music provided by DJ Awesome Derek, Cody Ranaldo, and Rezound. 7pm // Knitting Factory [74 Leonard St] // Free EVENT: The Women's Expressive Theatre storms the Angel Orensanz......

Photograph of Michael Strahan, coach Tom Coughin (holding the Vince Lombardi trophy) and quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning by Tien Mao Gothamist was amazed after the Giants won the Super Bowl, the city went wild, and it witnessed a ticker-tape parade.Barack Obama drew 20,000+ ahead of Seattle’s Saturday caucus.Londonist had Super Tuesday too.Elusive guerrilla street artist Banksy revisits Los Angeles.After the Patriots lost the Super Bowl and came this close to making......

THEATER: Wolf Lane Productions presents Victims of the Zeitgeist (The Tragedy of Martin Luther King, Jr.), written & directed by Ellwoodson Williams. The production "offers an exciting and telling insight into just who Martin Luther King, Jr., was as leader and simply as a sensitive and intelligent human being who loved life and who had a sense of humor, a deep understanding of the human condition - its strengths and weaknesses - and a profound......

Food bloggers from around the world are offering delicious prizes as part of Menu for Hope 4. Menu for Hope is an annual fundraising event hosted by Chez Pim. Last year, Menu for Hope raised an incredible $62,925 to help the UN World Food Programme feed the hungry. Want more details? Well, here’s the FAQ. From December 10-21, you can buy raffle tickets to bid on any on the food-related prizes being offered. Tickets cost......

What do you get for the person who has everything this season? Central Park! The green grass may be covered in white and the autumn leaves have come and gone, but the Conservancy wants you to know it's "lovely in the winter!" So don't go hibernating just yet. The press release mentions something about giving the gift of a coffee set to take along with you on a stroll, but what really caught our attention......

Fans of the neo-Gilded Age New York fantasy show Gossip Girl are so going to love this news: the fictional grilled fontina cheese sandwich with truffle oil ordered by Serena van der Woodsen in the show’s pilot is now a real sandwich! Zagat’s website reports that the item is now permanently part of the bar menu at Gilt – the very location where cameras filmed actress Blake Lively being served the sandwich. Once just a......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: multiple manhole fires on Marcy Ave. in Brooklyn, a shooting on Gunhill Rd. in the Bronx, and a stabbing on 7th Ave. in Manhattan. The NYTimes examines the ground beneath our feet and finds out where the city's asphalt comes from and how it's produced. The lives, loves, and world of Second Lifers, where people inhabit a virtual world of their and others' making. Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, who......

You know you’ve finally arrived when your name appears in an Onion headline. The satirical paper of record paid that respect to the decades-spanning indie-rock phenomenon Yo La Tengo some years back with an article titled “37 Record-Store Clerks Feared Dead In Yo La Tengo Concert Disaster.” Since 1984 the band, started by husband and wife duo Georgia Hubley and Ira Kaplan, has been blazing an independent trail of restlessly inventive guitar rock. Their most......

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling spent the past week meeting with school children across the country as part of her Open Book Tour. Greeted like a rock star in Los Angeles, she told the crowd she isn't immediately writing the Harry Potter encyclopedia. And last night was her final stop, an event at Carnegie Hall, where it appears she saved for the best for last, as she spilled the beans about various characters during a......

Of all the forbidden sites that were opened for public viewing last weekend in the 5th annual Open House New York program, the High Line was one of the crown trophies. It offered rare views of the city, sexy industrial details, and the mysterious allure of a wild grassy flying carpet that won't open until at least a year hence. Built during the same era (early 1930s) as the Empire State Building, the George......

October 6: Strategies for Building a Balanced Wine Collection The experts at the Italian Wine Merchants can show you how to build up your wine collection beyond those bottles that were left over from your last party. During the course of the afternoon, you'll taste eight Italian wines including vintage Barolo, Brunello, Super-Tuscans, and more while sampling assorted antipasti. $125 per person. Reservations required and can be made online or by calling 212-473-2323 x106. 1:00......

Open House New York weekend is coming up in 7 days and NewYorkology has a handy guide to which places you'll need reservations for this (the 5th) year, check it out here. Touted as America's largest architect and design event, OHNY opens usually locked doors throughout New York City each October (and sometimes Spring). Discover new nooks in each of the five boroughs through special talks, tours, performances and workshops. The weekend is free and......

THEATER: We like our comedy like we like our women: black and absurd. So it’s promising that the press release for a new play by Kevin Mandel uses those two irresistible words to describe A New Television Arrives, Finally. The strange story concerns “an American couple visited by a charismatic man presenting himself as a television set. Is the handsome stranger a charlatan or a guru?” Emmy award-winning actor Tom Pelphrey [Guiding Light] leads the......

American Idol has been on the decline ever since Kelly Clarkson stepped off the stage. It's understandable, the first time is always more exciting -- and c'mon, one can only take so much of Paula's craziness, Simon's snarkiness and Randy Jackson's what's up dawg's. USA Today is reporting that 2007's Idols Live Tour (who knew) has plenty of empty seats. So where does a New Yorker go to hear a new (Sanjaya-less) talent pool? Amateur......

Starting this morning and through Sunday, the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour is making its 2007 stop in New York City with the AVP Brooklyn Open. In it's 2nd year in NYC, the Brooklyn Open features over 150 beach volleyball players, a temporary 4,000-seat stadium, and 13 outer courts that will offer general admission seating (ticket info). Qualifying round play began today at 8 a.m. One of the teams this morning almost missed its 8......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......