The festival continues through May 3rd, and while this year boasts less films than usual (approximately 150, down from roughly 200 last year), that also means it's a slightly more manageable festival. Last week Executive Director Nancy Schafer talked us through some of the fun events happening during the festival, which include free stuff like the drive-in movies and the fair street fair, the post-screening Q&A's with directors such as Spike Lee and Steven Soderbergh, and a "work in progress" premiere screening of the documentary, Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful. more ›

Remember how a few years ago a 19-year-old girl climbed down onto the subway tracks to get her phone and got killed by an oncoming V train? It seems the lesson still hasn’t been learned and commuters are still risking their lives to retrieve dropped objects: Tourist Bijan Rezvani recently explained his reasons for venturing down there to collect his precious iPhone.

It's the first time I've had a cool phone that does anything and also the first time I've gone around taking photos of things in my life, so the stuff I had captured was kind of important for me to keep.

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A group of influential paisans from Staten Island, drunk on the idea of starting the first vineyard in contemporary New York City, have been on a wine-tasting tour of Tuscany, researching vineyards to figure out the best way to bring their brain-child back to their home borough. Yes, you read that correctly – according to today’s Times, you’ll soon be able to step off the Staten Island Ferry and pick up a bottle of Fresh... more ›

1) Features about the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, in anticipation of this year's Radio City Christmas Spectacular. The NY Times looks how performances from the 1930s and 1940s inspired this year's show while Newsday notes on the technology being used. Both focus on the amazing synchronized dancing. 2) Starbucks has decorated its stores with Christmas decorations and has started to use Christmas/holiday themed cups. Cajun Boy in the City also counts Josh Grobin... more ›

Last night, Stephen Colbert had a reading for his book I Am America (And So Can You) that was full of fans of truthiness and enemies of bears. The Washington Square News reported that the erstwhile maybe-presidential candidate said, "It's time to impregnate this country with my mind." more ›

This Sunday, The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine will be holding the annual Blessing of the Animals, to mark the Feast of St. Francis. Many churches celebrate St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and birds, either on his feast day (which was yesterday) or the first weekend near it. more ›

New York City (and Mayor Bloomberg’s 2030 strategists) now can breathe a sigh of relief: Gotham is getting its first luxury green hotel. more ›

Ten years ago today Jeff Buckley drowned while taking an evening swim. Buckley had many ties to this city, first moving here in 1990 (though only staying for seven months at that time). He was back in the spring of 1991 to perform his first show, a tribute concert to his father, Tim Buckley. The event was held at St. Ann's Church on April 26th, 1991, where the singer announced: "This is not a springboard, this is something very personal." more ›

Swanson: Law & Order called my agent and said that they're doing the Anna Nicole Smith story. They knew I had just given birth a month before and asked, "How does she feel and how does she look?" My agent said, "Well, she's a little heavy, because she just had a baby," and they told him it would work for the story, because the character just had a baby, so she's up a few pounds, too. [Laughs] So after much discussion with [boyfriend] Lloyd, I decided to do the show... more ›

This past Sunday night at the 50th Annual New York Emmys, WNBC was the big winner with 13 awards. The big wins for the station were for its newscast which won three – Morning Newscast for Today in New York, Daytime Newscast for Live at Five, and Evening Newscast (under 35 minutes) for the 11p.m. newscast. WNBC’s Senior Vice President, News and Station Manager Dan Forman said about the wins, "We are particularly proud of the team awards....our local newscasts were judged best in the morning, early evening and 11 p.m. This is quite a feat." more ›

, has a lot of explicit, "real" sex in it, but the real turn on for the filmmaker is obviously New York. As the camera swoops around the gorgeously constructed mini-Manhattan and Brooklyn models, you can't help but feel your heart soar with love for our crazy, dysfunctional, and beautiful city. more ›

- While browsing this NYT article about pulperías in Galicia, Spain we are reminded about how good the octopus is at the initially-jeopardized E.U. was when we went Friday. Come to think of it, the Baked Rigatoni with Milk-Braised Berkshire Pork, the Fried Smelts and the meatballs were darn tasty as well. more ›

There is a moment every new parent comes to, a moment of bargaining, when you would give literally ANYTHING to get that baby to sleep. Gothamist, in the throes of sleep deprivation, considered ritualistic sacrifice of farm animals and even good ol' Catholic prayer...but $50,000 for a "sleep coach"? Really? more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A serious MVA on the upper level of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, a suspicious package in Manhattan, and an overturned auto in Queens
• The things we learn as the Daily Intelligencer questions disclosure on Gawker... then FishbowlNY discloses some stuff about itself and Daily Intel
• Newly elected City Council members Mathieu Eugene and Vincent Ignizio are still not sworn in
• The stock market gained 0.4% today
• Do students really want their professors on Facebook? And will universities have to write some new rules about approaching students online? Hmm.
• On NY Turf looks at the City Council's pedicab vote today: "amendments entered by Quinn and the Mayor's administration the bill will effectively crush the nascent industry."
• There's a Working Families Party rally for NYC Public Schools tonight, as the Mayor announced a new "chief family engagement officer" would join the Department of Ed
• Gridskipper looks at the ugliest buildings in NYC; we'll have our thoughts tomorrow
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Google turns five this month, five months old since opening its new building on 15th and 9th Avenue in October 2006. To celebrate, Gothamist went on an official tour, complete with watching a game of ping-pong, getting a sneak peak at the famous lunch, and waving at scooter riders whizzing down the hallways, making it by far one of the coolest places to work in Manhattan. more ›

Brooklyn author, Jennifer Baumgardner's recent essay "Breast Friends" explores a topic so taboo Gothamist had never actually heard of it before -- "cross nursing" or "milk siblings". In her essay, Baumgardner details her experience nursing a friend's child while that friend nursed hers. And while she initially was shocked and put off by the idea, she has completely warmed to it by the end of her baby swapping experience. Gothamist was a nursing mother at one point, so we've been there, but for the sake of full disclosure, we have not done THAT. more ›

New York Magazine reports that Jim Carrey is renting an apartment near Lincoln Center for the smokin' figure of $45,000 a month. The apartment is for sale - if you have $11,800,000 to spare - and has a 2,000 square foot living room! We saw Carrey on a Barbara Walters special, and he was talking about being all Zen and we think took her to his meditation retreat for the weepy part of the interview; this apartment has tons of terraces, so he can commune with Buddha there. more ›

-- And as if this post wasn't already depressing enough, here's a story about an injured, lost cat. Screw Wednesdays. more ›

Yesterday while riding the subway, Gothamist spotted a guy carrying a saucer sled and thought to ourselves, "foolish man, there won't be that much snow." But low and behold, there's more than enough snow for sledding. So the natural desire is to find a nice sledding spot. Over at Palatial.com, Tracy has a map of sledding locations in NYC, which is obviously what we need in today's blizzard. GoCityKids also has kids rated different kinds of sleds. Wow - check out that sled luge! more ›

- Nicolette Sheridan does not look over-Botoxed with fish lips! more ›

Here we go: it's a huge weekend for year-end Oscar-bait and questions abound. Will audiences flock to see the "forbidden" love of ? (No.) Is it any good? (It's OK.) Will people be turned off by the heavy (and occasionally heavy-handed) allusions to Christian imagery? (Possibly, but we were moved more by Aslan's humiliation and sacrifice than Jesus' in Mel Gibson's biblical slasher film) more ›

The holidays are upon us. Tomorrow sees the release of two of the more eagerly awaited films of the season, and we haven't even hit Thanksgiving yet! We've been hearing fantastic things about the Johnny Cash biopic ; Phoenix sings all the songs himself. We're not really sure whether that's a plus or not, though, no matter how well he sings. more ›

Mick Stingley, Low-Rent Rock Critic more ›

When you look at the big picture the weather and climate of the Earth is quite simple. Energy in the form of light comes from the Sun. When it arrives at the Earth sunlight is either reflected back to space or or absorbed by the oceans, land, and plants. All that absorbed energy eventually makes its way back to space. Because the absorbed and emitted energy varies over the surface of the earth there a places with an excess of energy and places with a deficit energy. Mother Nature doesn't like energy excesses or deficits and tries to balance out those differences by putting the atmosphere and ocean into motion. That is, we get weather and climate. more ›

The reviews are out, and Chris Rock is getting a mixed bag of feedback for his duties as the MC of the Oscars. The NY Daily News' David Bianculli says he wasn't edgy or funny enough, Variety says his opening monologue was great (subscription required), the Hollywood Reporter says that Rock wasn't on a roll, and the Washington Post's Tom Shales says Rock was strangely lame and mean-spirited. Gothamist wonders if there's a generational divide between the reviewers, because we thought Rock was the best thing about the Oscars. It's like some of these reviewers weren't familiar with Rock's material before. At least Tim Robbins (left, photo AP), whom Chris Rock made fun of, could take a joke ... we think. As for the show, sure, it seemed to move quickly and was "well-produced," and, yes, we were happy certain people won, but since there wasn't much enthusiasm for any one nominee, the whole show was boring. And Gothamist doesn't care what Gil Cates's "producer's blog" says! more ›

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association awards their 62nd annual Golden Globes this Sunday, a sure sign that the season of gowns, the buzz and the surprise upset is upon us. Unlike the Oscars though, the Golden Globes covers television and film, so we get to see the disjointed mingling of the stars on the red carpet from both genres. more ›

More about the blessing from the Columbia Daily Spectator. And the Daily News tries to play both sides, with an article about adopting pets from shelters and one about designer dogs, like cockapoos and schnoodles. We love schnoodles, but if you're thinking of getting a pet, go to a shelter first - there are some great animals who need homes there! And for information about pet adoptions in NYC: New York City Animal Care and Control. Plus Gothamist's animal archives. more ›