Hometown post-punk heroes Sonic Youth played a free show for approximately 7,000 fans in Battery Park on July 4th as part of the River to River Festival. The decades-old band started the set with a spellbinding, spacey rendition of “She is Not Alone,” followed by the Kim Gordon-led classic “Bull in the Heather.” By the third song, a blistering “Silver Rocket,” 50-year-old frontman Thurston Moore seemed to have had enough of the photographers separating his......

Competitive eating powerhouses convened in front of City Hall today to be weighed in for tomorrow's Nathan's Famous July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest. Six-time winner and current mustard belt holder Takeru Kobayashi weighed in at 154 pounds while Joey Chestnut, who broke Kobayashi's hot-dog eating record by keeping down 59.5 hot dogs at an Arizona event last month, weighed in at 215 pounds. Kobayashi had signaled his all-important jaw muscles weren't feeling that......

Little did Nathan's Famous know 90 years ago when starting its International July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest that a slight (well, less slight than five years ago) Japanese man would smash recods and win year after year after year in the new millennium. Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi won his sixth straight Mustard Belt, after chowing down 53.75 hot dogs. The NY Post called Kobayashi the "Bun-Zai" Warrior while the Daily News reports that......

Gothamist has decided to liveblog this year's Nathan's Famous July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest. Jen and Tien will be providing color commentary; Tien will also be attempting to eat hot dogs competition-style 12:00PM - Announcers say there are 15,000 spectators at Surf and Stillwell. Crazy! And the media loves the Takeru Kobayashi-Joey Chestnut matchup. And did you realize that there are 320 calories per dog with bun!!! Tien: Man, I hate George Shea.......