Recently we sent Katie Dickinson to an advanced screening of “The Kite Runner” hosted by the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Club. The screening was followed by a Q&A session featuring director Marc Forster, screenwriter David Benioff and author Khaled Hosseini. Here's what she reported back: Spanning two continents and three decades, the novel "The Kite Runner" tells the story of Amir, an immigrant from Afghanistan, and how a childhood friendship with his servant,... more ›

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 more ›

Tomorrow is Earth Day, and there are a number of events in the city. Many are occuring at Grand Central Terminal, where there are exhibits, demonstrations, and musical perfomances with exhibitors like the Audobon Society, Google Earth and Recycle a Bicycle - check out Earth Day NY 2006. There's an Earth Awareness Festival tomorrow on Waverly Place, the events the Parks Department is organizing, and we are very partial to the events occuring at zoos around the city - activities and you can drop off your old cellphones at the Central Park, Bronx, Prospect Park, and Queens Zoos (plus the NY Aquarium). more ›

When most people see forty nine hot dogs, it's usually behind the counter at Gray's Papaya. But at Coney Island yesterday, it was the gold standard, as the reigning world hot dog eating champion, Takeru Kobayashi, won his fifth consecutive hot dog eating belt at Nathan's, eating forty nine hot dogs in twelve minutes. And Gothamist thought our acid reflux this weekend was bad! The 27 year-old Kobayashi didn't beat his world record of 53.5 hot dogs, set last year, and admitted that he showed up some more muscle (check out those guns!) which may have hurt him. Dude, but still, the second place finisher was Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, the slender cheesecake eating champ, who downed 37 hot dogs. The Post reports that Kobayashi "struggled throughout the first half of the contest — until a prodigious belch at the 7-minute mark got him back on track. He then started stuffing hot dogs in his mouth three at a time, a new technique dubbed 'The Three Way.'" Where's our Zantac? more ›