If you count yourself as a New Yorker and a movie lover, it's tough to not have a special affinity for films by Woody Allen. Practically the filmmaker laureate of the city, Allen's prolific 40 plus year career is getting a three week long screening series at Film Forum starting this Friday. Gothamist loves Allen's movies (both the highs and the lows) so much that we thought we'd chat with an Allen expert, Queens College professor Bob Kapsis, about how to plan our screening calendar during "Essentially Woody." more ›

Really, we shouldn't be talking about heat in January but we're in the midst of another stretch of unusually warm weather. Temperatures were 15 degrees above normal over the weekend and at least that much again today (It's already 60 degrees at JFK!). If Gothamist has done our math correctly we will easily be the fourth warmest January on record and may squeeze by 1950 and 1990 to finish in second place. At two degrees warmer than any other January, 1932 will hold on to the top spot in the rankings. Rain moves in tonight and tomorrow looks soggy. It will be a little cooler but still well above average for the rest of the week. Can winter continue this warm? Only Staten Island Chuck knows for sure. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg will not only have celebrity friends at his inaugural party, he'll have hot dogs too! On the menu, according to the Daily News, are tomato soup, mini sandwiches, hamburgers, grilled vegetables, popcorn and pretzels, cupcakes decorated in orange and blue (the city's colors), chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and "Hizzoner's favorite dish," hot dogs. Hot dogs are really his favorite food? Hmm, wonder if he prefers the Kobe Beef Hot Dog - or pigs in a blanket which are so yummy. We suppose it would have too predictable if the Mayor picked foie gras, filet mignon, truffles or ortolans for the menu - all part of his plan to seem more "Mike" than "The billionaire who paid $77 million to get reelected." But the Mayor will be paying for his shindig at the Emigrant Savings Bank on Chambers Street. The favors seeem chintzy, though - just a comemorative program and travel mug. The mug better be filled with gold, Bloomberg! And Gothamist wonders if the City Hall press corps gets these treats too? more ›

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A lady is suing the Elizabeth Arden salon at Saks for losing her huge engagement ring...because she left it on the shelf! The Post says that 66 year-old loyal customer, Angela Abelow, claims that her 3.77 carat diamond engagement ring (worth $95,000) was stolen from a "service shelf"; Abelow had been putting her ring on the shelf every time she'd visit over her 15 years of patronage. Her lawyers say that there has been another instance of theft at the salon, but maybe that's because someone realized that it was totally easy to take people's jewelry when they are left out in the open. The salon says that Abelow still visits the salon (the manager said, "I'm not sure where this is coming from") but Abelow's lawyers say the fact that Abelow still goes there is irrelevant. If Gothamist lost our...hmm, hypothetical stack of $95,000 in unmarked twenty-dollar bills (it's either that or the equivalent of years and years of rent) at some salon we went to, we'd never go there ever again. And we can't totally buy the story that the ring had tremendous sentimental value because if it did, it wouldn't be on a shelf. more ›

The Straphangers Campaign has released its annual State of the Subways Report Card and yet again, the 6 train is named the best line while the N is the worst. The other trains, from best to worst, were the 1/9, 7, 4, E, J/Z, L, 5, Q, 2, 3, V, F, A, D, R, M, B, W, C. So, overall, it seems that the crappiest grouping of lines are the B, D, F, V - which comes as no surprise, as though cars are really old and crappy. The 6 gets its high rating because the train cars are newer, which means more comfort (if not more seats), more clear announcements and less breakdowns, whereas the N gets slammed because it performed below average on these four measures: "arriving with regularity, seat availability, cleanliness and announcements." If you look at the data (there are a bunch of PDFs available at the Straphangers), it seems to suggest that shorter lines - and ones with the newer subway cars - tend to rise to the top. Newsday, though, gets a quote from MTA spokesman Paul Fleuranges who says, "The subway system was never designed to offer everyone a seat during rush hour, particularly at the most crowded point along the route." Yeah, so suck it up, New Yorkers! more ›

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nyc-sign0808,0,4676706.story?coll=nyc-homepage-breaking2">crackdown on illegal outdoor advertising, specifically on the sidewalk shed scaffolding. They call it damaging to quality of life, Gothamist sort of agrees, as we stumble when we're trying to figure out what the ugly ass ad's message is trying to be (), but we rather the scaffolding smell less like piss. String said, "This is now the new black market of commercial advertising," but sometimes buildings obtain permits for the ads. One co-op board president says, "They offer you a tremendous amount of money, which is intoxicating." If Gothamist was in a co-op where there was scaffolding and ads, we'd be wondering if our charges were much less. And if the building would get free samples of the product advertised, like a free car. more ›

Barbuto's Peach Chutney more ›

Earlier this week, the Daily News ran a story about people looking to lose their New York accents. Sam Chwat, who founded New York Speech Improvement Services - and has worked with Julia Roberts and Andie MacDowell, and is even working with the cast of Glengarry Glen Ross for their Chicago accents - says many of his clients are trying to rid themselves of the "streetwise image of fast-talking New Yorkers."

"If you spend your life in a particular community, like New York's Irish, Jewish or Chinese communities, then there's no reason to speak any differently. But if you cross the border into new communities, then you sound different. People listen to how you speak, and they make judgments from that."

More fallout over the ticketed Girl Scout activity in Williamsburg: After the media had a field day upon hearing that a little girl's dad was ticketed for helping her, the Mayor said, during a press conference that was probably about something much more important, "The story had some inconsistencies in it and the police department is investigating, but I think it's fair to say our crime reduction strategy has little to do with Girl Scout cookies and we will look at that." The inconsistencies are that the police claim that Gracie Louis's father was the only one present when a police caption issued him a summons for selling Girl Scout cookies over the weekend. However, the Louis family claims that 13 year-old Gracie was urged into the car when her mother heard the police yelling, as they approached them. The NYPD spokesman told reporters, "A 55-year-old man is no girl scout. Neither girl scouts nor other children were present when the summons was issued." Oh, NYPD, please. If Gothamist had a dollar for every father who helped sell their daughters' Girl Scout cookies, we'd be living the high life; in fact, we're very aware of employees who feel obligated to outdo each other in buying the most boxes of their boss's daughter's Girl Scout cookies - there's no real reason someone needs 20 boxes of Thin Mints. more ›

NY magazine has a feature on the Graffiti Habitual Offender Suppression Team, aka GHOST. It's a goldmine of information, including how German tourists cut "precise holes" to attempt to tag subway cars and the arrest of a 17 year-old who stencils ducks and pandas! more ›