Hundreds of Virginia Tech alumni, NYU students and other New Yorkers gathered for a candlelight vigil in Washington Square Park last night. Rabbi Yehuda Sarna, who had traveled to Virginia Tech earlier in the week, brought back a candle from a vigil there and used it to light candles last night. And today, many people are also wearing orange and maroon, Virginia Tech's colors, for "Orange and Maroon Effect" day to show support for the school. more ›

The NY Times City section has a long feature about Law & Order's dramatization of the Adrienne Shelly murder. It was inevitable that the police procedural warhorse would cover one of the more bizarre and tragic murders in recent memory, and a casting notice for someone to play the illegal immigrant laborer who assaults an woman after she complains about construction noise confirmed that L&O would be tackling the story. more ›

The local news channels had been working themselves into a frenzy since last Thursday (well, we were, too) and it paid off yesterday when there was a hell of a lot of snow on the ground. Even Meet the Press was pre-empted for local snow coverage! Gothamist thinks we heard Al Roker's heart breaking as he broadcast from Torino this morning, because he was missing this awesome weather event - it was the lead story on the morning news shows, after all. Gothamist didn't watch all the news stations - we toggled between NY1, The Weather Channel, and WNBC 4 - but when you're a TV critic, you tend to watch more channels: David Hinckley at the Daily News felt the coverage ultimately portrayed the snowstorm as being like a "courteous and well-behaved blast of extreme, record-breaking weather," with some reporters even helping people move cars. Did you like - or hate - any of yesterday's news coverage? Gothamist scoffed at the "2nd greatest snowfall" graphics because big deal - until they turned into "record breaking snowfall" graphics. more ›

David Hinckley in the NY Daily News complains that the American Film Institute list of the 100 Top Movie Songs is no fun because it's actually not a bad list. Gothamist would almost agree, except for the lack of songs from South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut. We feel that Come What May from Moulin Rouge (who sings that? who cares?) is just an addition to please the public (that way you can get Nicole Kidman on the show), but let's be honest here: No one is humming "I will love you until my daying day," but they are singing, "Kyle's Mom is a Big Fat Bitch" or "What Would Brian Boitano Do" or "Unclef*cker" or "Blame Canada." So, lists like this are still very crack-like because they are addictive, but they can be very bad too. more ›