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. more ›

EVENT: Julian Schnabel will be screening clips from his latest flick, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly tonight. Lou Reed, who Schnabel recently documented in Lou Reed’s Berlin, will also be on hand. 7pm // Apple Store [103 Prince St] // Free READING: The Desk Set's "Drinks with an Author" series continues tonight at Greenpoint's WORD. This evening chat with Kara Jesella and Marisa Meltzer, authors of How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter... more ›

This five-course wine dinner will feature nine top wines from Alsace, Austria and Germany paired with regional dishes such as Alsatian Onion Tart with Thinly Sliced House-Smoked Brisket and Raclette Fondue and Riesling-Marinated Poulet Rouge with Glazed Baby Turnips and Carrots Crispy Sauteed Spaetzle, and Riesling Jus. Doesn't that sound like fall to you? $125, tax and tip excluded. For reservations, call 212.874.7400. 7pm, Aix, 2398 Broadway at 88th Street. more ›

The experts at the Italian Wine Merchants can show you how to build up your wine collection beyond those bottles that were left over from your last party. During the course of the afternoon, you'll taste eight Italian wines including vintage Barolo, Brunello, Super-Tuscans, and more while sampling assorted antipasti. $125 per person. Reservations required and can be made online or by calling 212-473-2323 x106. 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., Italian Wine Merchants, 108 East 16th Street. more ›

MOVIE: Guess it's only fitting that Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Team America play somewhere tonight. This Bushwick theater is new and on an outdoor rooftop -- so check the sky before you head out. If it's all clear, get ready for food from their grill, drinks from their bar and the wind in your hair. more ›

(directed by Billy Ray) more ›

A look at some noteworthy television this week: more ›

READINGS: Papermag points out an interesting reading tonight for "Queens of the Kingdom: The Ultimate Gay and Lesbian Guide to the Disney Theme Parks." more ›

will surely make even the most jaded Manhattanite want to pack their beret for a Parisian getaway tout de suite. more ›

READING: John Sellers will be reading from his book, Perfect from Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life, tonight. Idolizing bands like Joy Division, Sonic Youth, Pavement and Guided by Voices, the book outlines how he developed his taste in music. It reads more like a blog, than a book, which makes sense since Sellers has one. more ›

The Brooklyn Record points us to an article in the Brooklyn Downtown Star reporting there may be some hiccups in getting this whole Music Hall of Williamsburg thing off the ground: more ›

Joseph Barbera, one part of the famed cartoon duo Hanna-Barbera, has died at the age of 95. In his life, which started out in New York (Little Italy and then Flatbush), he created Tom and Jerry, Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones and also worked on The Smurfs...all of your childhood favorites, over 100 cartoons in 4 decades. more ›

December 7: Alex Prud’homme at O&CO. more ›

This weekend Hollywood says what moviegoers liked once, they'll sure love twice as the sequels hit theaters. Now you may be asking yourselves, did we really need another movie about bad boys in fast cars or another flick about a fat, talking cat? Apparently, we did and they both needed to be set in an exotic international local, Japan and England, respectively. more ›

Over the weekend, Gothamist started to read Julia Child's My Life in France. A collaboration with (and completed by) her grandnephew Alex Prud'homme, Julia gets to describe her experience living in France after World War II, falling in love with cooking, and loving her husband, Paul. And there's writing Mastering French Cooking, too. While the book is absolutely wonderful, we faced the problem of being totally hungry for whatever Julia would describe. Roasted chicken, quenelles, French baguettes, mayonaise, you name it, we wanted it. So we settled on trying to find a sole meuniere (one of her first things she ate while in France and a transporting experience) and got very lucky that Bistro Cassis, on Columbus at 70th Street, served it. The sole, served with haricot verts and Yukon gold potatoes, was delicious and fortified us enough to read more. more ›

Yesterday we witnessed a friend taking photos of things he had written "Scene From My Life, Brooklyn, NY" on. Napkins, menus...things around a bar in Red Hook. It was for a website of the same name, SceneFromMyLife.com. An amazing idea that has people from all over the world photographically document one week of their life. more ›

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Fact: Thunder Road is the greatest song penned by an American songwriter in the last 30 years. This is an unarguable, unassailable, unquestionable truth. If you don't believe us, check out the giant three-disc reissue of Born to Run that Columbia Records put out last week. Even McSweeney's loves Bruce Springsteen! Check out their list of "Bruce Springsteen Songs, If the Title More Accurately Reflected the Subject Matter:" more ›

From the musical stylings of the composer who brought us Dracula and Jekyll & Hyde, New York City now has a theme song. The city's tourism arm, NYC & Company, commissioned Frank Wildhorn to write a song about how wonderful New York City is, and now we have "New York: For the Time of Your Life." The NY Post says the song is a "splashy, big-band-style number belted out in a brassy, Sinatra-esque voice," and the song is supposed to be sung at a presentation to European tour operators and to promote various parts of New York City that are lesser promoted, like Shea Stadium and the Bronx Zoo. more ›

And the photo is from This Old Toy, which looked at Fisher Price's Little People. Man, Gothamist barely recognizes the Little People today - their faces are so much more articulated! more ›

With all this talk about Fahrenheit 9/11 there is another important film that has gotten pushed to the wayside. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, The Hunting of the President is a documentary on Clinton's battle against a right wing attack lead by Kenneth Starr. more ›

Some indoors stuff to do: Coolfer's Music Picks, read Gothamist Weather to understand why it's raining, see a movie, try out a new recipe, or flip through Clinton's My Life at a local bookstore - that'll take up a couple hours.. more ›

My Life is #1 on Amazon. More on William J. Clinton Jr. at his official site, where you can see video of his remarks at the Chicago Book Expo. And Clinton was on 60 Minutes last night and is on the cover of Time magazine. more ›

Check out transcripts from heath row, and more GEL posts and pictures from Bluejake: Good Experience Live, Satan's Laundromat, and Ten Years of My Life. more ›

to feel she's a kindred spirit of sorts. But the jury is still out because of Ephron's increasingly treacly efforts (When Harry Met Sally to You've Got Mail - you do the math)...if there's another Meg Ryan-Tom Hanks pairing in the future, all bets are off. more ›

Po Bronson's latest book, What Should I Do With My Life?, is reviewed in today's New York Times' Book Review. Needless to say, that's the question that's replaced "What's the meaning of life?" The review notes that his personality more or less dominates some of these interviews with people who have changed their careers and lives, with a lot of soul searching (or not enough). That got me thinking about my interaction with him - I decided to write Mr. Bronson for some advice, in 1997, during my senior year, right before I embarked on my career search. I had read two of his fiction books (one about investment banking, the other about entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley), and he himself had been a banker but later got his MFA in writing and is now a writer. What would I do - sell my soul to investment banking (or something equally emotionally vacant) or do something less lucrative but interesting? more ›