The cast iron facades, high ceilings, and wide-open floor plans that made the neighborhood so desirable as a place for artists, and later well-heeled residents, are rooted in SoHo's industrial past. It was a neighborhood of factories and manufacturing. That era has passed, however, and after more than a century in business, John De Lorenzo and Bro., Iron and Sheet Metal Contractor closed their shop this week. It will be converted to a building housing......

LEARN: It's that special time again when hipsters gather round to discuss home-buying. The informational event clues in those looking for new digs about the logistics of purchasing their very own pad. Learn from Licensed Real Estate agents, Mortgage Brokers and Real Estate Attorneys whilst you sip on a cocktail or two. 6:30pm // Huckleberry Bar [588 Grand St, Williamsburg] // Free EVENT: It's like a never-ending President's Day this week; tonight enjoy a......

ART: The Bronx Museum of Art is getting on board the First Friday bandwagon. They'll be opening their doors every first Friday of the month for free, and add a little something extra each time. Tonight their theme is “Say it Loud! I’m Black & I’m Proud” in celebration of Black History Month. There will be a tribute to the late James Brown, and a showcase of independent artists paying tribute to black music. Friday......

THEATER: Blogging playwright Brooke Berman’s new satire, Hunting and Gathering, starts with a homage to all the apartments she’s occupied in New York – twenty in all. What follows is a story of “four interconnected New Yorkers and their thwarted attempts to find their place – without compromise. Jesse has his first date since his divorce, his ex-lover Ruth is living a fantasy, his brother Astor is the 'man with the van,' and Bess has......

THEATER: The salty, electric dynamo that is Elaine Stritch shows no sign of waning – about to turn 83-years-young, the show biz legend has kicked off 2008 with a reprise of her Tony-winning cabaret show. Backed by a six-piece band and performed in two acts for a dining audience at the newly restored Café Carlyle, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, co-written with the New Yorker’s John Lahr, is a hilarious, old-fashioned ride through star-studded post-war Broadway,......

The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted yesterday to landmark eight new sites in four of the city's boroughs - the Bronx loses out. City Room details the new landmarks, which include the Lord & Taylor building, the white brick Manhattan House, two homes on Grand St., the Standard Varnish Works Factory building (its owner thinks the designation is bad for business) and the Greek-Revival style Fillette Tyler Mansion in Staten Island and the Voelker-Orth Museum, Bird......

The Critical Mass Halloween Ride is tonight! If you go, get some good pictures! THEATER: Sam Marks’s new play The Joke peels back the thin gauze separating comedy from an open wound. Set in the last throws of the Catskills comedy circuit circa 1965, the story concerns the disintegrating comedy duo of Steady Eddie and Doug the Mug. Doug has let his envy of Eddie get the better of him and begins adding more of......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a water rescue off the beach at 105th St. and Shore Front Parkway in Queens, a person struck by a train at 77th St. and 4th Ave. in Brooklyn, and a shooting at Martin Luther King Pl. and Tompkins Ave. in Brooklyn. A middle-aged man was arrested Sunday evening after attempting to rob a McDonald's on Staten Island, but settling for ripping the clear acrylic box of donations for......

PARTY: Nostalgic for the Blackout of 2003? Someone has put together an event that will recapture the night of no lights so we can all enjoy it once again (with reassuring knowledge that the contents of the fridge aren't melting back at home). Stain's blackout party will be complete with candles, canned goods, beer, a battery-run boombox, board games, grilling and other non-electricity-dependent activities. 8pm // Stain [766 Grand St, Williamsburg] // Free MUSIC: Before......

HAPPY HOUR: You read the Onion, and you probably drink whiskey...so why not combine the two tonight? The Onion crew enjoys the simple pleasures of life in WIlliamsburg with some free Jameson Irish Whiskey in the name of alcohol preservation. 7 to 9pm // Live at Rose [345 Grand St, Williamsburg] // Free, RSVP nypromo (a) theonion.com EVENT: Mikhail Baryshnikov, ballet superstar, has joined forces with illustrator Vladimir Radunsky in creating Because..., a children's book.......

MUSIC: You know summer is just around the corner when the Seaport Music Festival has their first show of the season. Tonight Animal Collective, Danielson and XXXChange (Spank Rock) will all be on Pier 17 for a FREE show! Come, drink, listen. Friday // 7pm // South Street Seaport, Pier 17 // Free THEATER: Critics are loving Passing Strange and now it’s extending its run at The Public Theater to July 1st. The sly yet......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a large sinkhole at University Ave. in the Bronx, a carjacking on Foch Blvd. in Queens, and a hanging on Park Ave. in Manhattan. Not only was Gov. Corzine not wearing his seatbelt, his state trooper driver was doing 91 m.p.h.(!) right before the crash. The speed limit on the Garden State Parkway is 65 m.p.h. Nine people were injured this afternoon when the Staten Island Ferry made a......

DISCUSSION: Is New York losing it's New York charm? Tonight contributors to the new tome "The Suburbanization of New York" will talk about just that (and is conveniently located down the street from H&M and Pottery Barn). The panel includes Marshall Berman, Eric Darton, Francis Morrone, Matthew Schuerman, Neil Smith, Michael Sorkin, and Suzanne Wasserman. 6:30pm // The Gotham Center at the CUNY Graduate Center [Elebash Recital Hall, 365 Fifth Ave] // Free EVENT: This......

January 13: Seasonal Game Cooking Class Chef Franck Delatrain of Café Centro will be cooking up seasonal game in a two hour cooking class. The menu consists of: Chestnut and Celery Root Soup with Melted Leeks and Foie Gras; Sturgeon Saltimbocca with Sage, Smoked Duck and Beluga Lentils; Fresh Pappardelle Pasta with Wild Boar Civet, Apple Smoked Bacon and Black Trumpet Mushrooms; Grilled Quail with Golden Beets and Frisee Salad, Poached Quail Egg and Spiced......

ART: Yesterday we mentioned a few friends who spend their time making hamster nests, art and apparently making people very upset by merely existing. Anyway, one of them, Ryan McGinley, had an opening last night for his new show Irregular Regulars. His photographs of Morrissey were taken at shows from the past two years, and seem to depict Moz as God. Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm // Team Gallery [83 Grand St] READING: Village......

The cold weather may have you in the mood for a little holiday entertainment - and this weekend, The Urban Ballet Theater has brought back their twist on Tchaikovsky's classic ballet, The Nutcracker. This year their performace is called "Nutcracker in the Lower Continues..." (we're guessing a continuation of last years performance, some of which you can watch above). The setting is the Lower East Side and the performance is filled with a variety......

Tofu is like chopped liver in the world of haute cuisine—overlooked and undervalued. A handful of restaurants are challenging that attitude though by presenting dishes with tofu front and center. A few even take the next step and make tofu from scratch. At En Japanese Brasserie in the West Village, the menu makes a big deal over the homemade tofu, listing the timeslots that the kitchen makes up a batch each evening. It may seem......

Wow, Halloween and the start of CMJ all in one night. There will be lots of ear candy, and of course regular candy, all over the city tonight. So if you aren't checking out the Halloween Parade, here are some other options: THEATER: The Fortune Teller is a fascinating marionette play written and directed by Erik Sanko, with music by Sanko and Danny Elfman. Seven unusual characters are invited to the spectacular mansion of a......

READING: Get a drink at the Half King tonight in some good company - Anthony Bourdain will be there with Bill Buford, to celebrate Buford's new book, Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras 7pm // The Half King [W 23rd St at 10th Ave] // Free THEATER: Top off your Monday with a play about two prisoners in a......

FILM: Dutch animator Paul Driessen (who you know even if you don't realize it - he did the Beatles' Yellow Submarine movie), will have films from the last 30 years screened at BAM - as part of their Animation Festival. Step into his socially conscious fantasy world! 4:30, 6:50 & 9:15pm // BAM [30 Lafayette Ave, Fort Greene] // $10 THEATER: Off-Broadway is usually way off, far from the the theater district, but the Midtown......

- Get your seersucker suits and sun dresses out! Tomorrow evening is the 138th running of the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown and horse racing's "Test of the Champion." Races on stakes day begin at noon with post time for the Belmont Stakes at 6:33 pm Television coverage starts at noon on ESPN with coverage on ABC starting at 5. The current favorite for the race is Bluegrass Cat, but......

SPORTS: Does it seem like everyone you know is suddenly wrapped up in their fantasy leagues? If you're fully engullfed in your own, or if you're feeling left out because you just don't "get it" - head over to Housing Works for a discussion on fantasy baseball. Experts Ron Shandler (Baseball Forecaster), Sam Walker (Fantasyland), and Nate Silver (Baseball Prospectus) will let you know what it's all about. Friday // 7pm // Housing Works Bookstore......

FILM: The Fusion Film Festival runs thoughout the weekend. The festival was founded in 2004 by NYU students and aims to "highlight the excellence of female filmmakers within the student body and the industry" as well as to inspire future filmmakers. The event is comprised of student screenplay readings, film screenings and in competition, a Master Class, Industry Screening, Retrospective, Industry Panel, and of course...the after party. All weekend // Times and Locations here SIGNING:......

THEATER (sort of): Point Break LIVE! We're not kidding. The unecessary, but totally appreciated, absurdist stage adaptation of the 1992 Keanu Reeves blockbuster, hits Galapagos for a month. The show has become an instant cult classic across the nation, and start practicing your Keanu-isms, because the starring role will be selected at random from the audience each night, and will read their entire script off of cue-cards! Tonight through March 17th // Galapogos Art Space......

Have you heard of the Brooklyn Rock Festival? Neither did we, until now. It appears to be just three shows at three different bars, with one kickoff party - so the $25 pass could be worth it if you like at least 80% of the bands. Or something. Our math is a bit rusty. We do know that we haven't heard of 80% of the bands though. Here's the lineup... Thursday, February 16th @ Zabloski's......

Of course, after the storm of '06 hits we suggest snowball fights. Prior to the snowfall, however, we offer up the following... BENEFIT: Just when we were talking about band gear getting stolen from the streets of this city, it's done and happened again. Bravo Silva's guitars were stolen last weekend and this weekend deejay crew Finger on the Pulse will donate the proceeds from their weekly party to raise money for them. Raffles and......

Exiting the Grand Street stop on the B or D train will put you in the heart of Chinatown’s light industrial NE district – indoor lumber yards and metal shops up Chrystie, lighting shops on Bowery, as well as signage and printing shops further Northeast. Bustle is everywhere on the sidewalks with old men fixing shoes for waiting customers, vendors selling food from shopping carts and makeshift booths, and shoppers scurrying from one market......

Momus, one of our favorite almost-famous rockers from the mid-1990s, has lately been blogging up a storm on Livejournal. He's been living outside NYC, but has been planning to return. Only one problem: he needs a place to stay: As I've mentioned, I'll be spending March to May of this year in New York City, performing the role of an "unreliable tour guide" daily at the Whitney Biennial. Today I just want to ask if......

It's not a great week for the slim of pocketbook, as we've dug up some gems that will cost you. We hope they're worth it, though! There's funny, slightly arty, and just plain bookish. Take your pick. We mentioned this last week, but considering the comedy punch it's going to pack, it's worth mentioning again: tonight is the reincarnated Ritalin Readings, starting at 8PM at Mo Pitkins House of Satisfaction (34 Ave. A, between E.......

Considering all of the Fatty Crab craziness going on at the edge of Manhattan's Meatpacking district, one would think that Chef Zak Pelaccio is the first to introduce the city to the wonders of Malaysian cuisine. Not so. In fact, our fair city is rife with Malaysian fare - and has been for a long while. Some of Gothamist's faves include Chinatown's Nyonya, Elmhurst's Taste Good and Jackson Height's Malaysian Rasa Sayang. So, if you......