Be Your Own Pet Smacks Around Mercury Lounge There’s usually not much mystery to a Be Your Own Pet show. You get about a half-hour of nonstop, rapid-fire post-adolescent punk, with lots of shouting and shimmying from Jemina Pearl. There are far worse ways to spend an early evening in February. This Wednesday, however, things went down a bit different. About halfway through the set, some older creep started talking back to the charismatic young......

READING: Never got around to reading that Burt Reynolds autobiography? Tonight the stars are out read it to you at Celebrity Autobiography ("the long running L.A. comedy sensation, as seen on Bravo TV, finally comes to New York"). Cheyenne Jackson, Kristin Johnston, Richard Kind, Jackie Hoffman will read from autobiographies the aforementioned Mr. Renyolds, Loni Anderson, Kenny Loggins and Liz Taylor. 7:30pm // The Triad [158 W 72nd St] // $35-45 THEATER: Phoenix Theatre......

Brendan Canty is the drummer for Fugazi, the rightly revered D.C. post-punk band whose page on the Dischord Records website still states "1987 - present." The group hasn’t played together or released an album since their phenomenal seventh LP, The Argument; in 2002 they embarked on what is looking increasingly like a permanent hiatus. Like his bandmates, Canty has been consumed by various other creative projects: he’s produced albums for Ted Leo and The Thermals,......

Barack Obama won the South Carolina Democratic primary yesterday, taking 55% of the vote, winning by a greater margin than most pundits and recent polls had predicted. Hillary Clinton finished second with 27% and John Edwards came in third. The NY Times headline writes that he won by "forging a coalition of support among black and white voters in a contest that sets the stage for a state-by-state fight for the party’s presidential nomination."......

Eight of the Jets' 12 losses have come by seven points or fewer. Too many of them have followed the script of Sunday's 10-6 defeat at the hands of the Tennessee Titans in Nashville. Jets fans have to be sick of a banged-up team not expressing confidence in its quarterback -- Chad Pennington wasn't named the starter but played over Kellen Clemens and his sore ribs -- and then going out there and laying......

Yesterday in Bed-Stuy, the NYPD arrested a man accused of robbing eight cabbies in a two week period. Earl Evans, whose driver's license said he was from Nashville, is described as a "hulking country bumpkin" by the Daily News. For good reason too - his license said he's 6-foot-3 and 320 pounds. As if his size wasn't intimidating for the cab drivers he robbed, he also had a very realistic looking 9mm Glock. Evans would......

Four months after the opening of three much mulled-over Robert Moses exhibitions, the debate over his legacy shows no signs of waning. Yesterday’s NY Times delved yet again into the morass, this time wondering whether the two perspectives are simply creatures of their cultural moments – a city embroiled in decay vs. a city experiencing a growth spurt. Here’s Power Broker author Robert Caro’s take: “I understand each age looks through its own prism,”......

THEATER: The Scene, a black comedy by Theresa Rebeck that premiered at this year’s Humana Festival in Louisville, is now in previews at Second Stage. The satire is about an out-of-work New York actor (Spenser: For Hire’s Tony Shalhoub) — married to a news producer (Alien Nation veteran Patricia Heaton) — who has an affair with a fresh-faced Ohioan ingénue. Rebeck’s stated intent with The Scene is to skewer America’s “cultural collapse into narcissism”. -......

-Nashville 3 Rangers 0: With most of the building either staying home to watch the Mets or not paying as much attention as usual to the action on the ice, the Rangers played a clunker at the Garden. The tone was set in the first period when Henrik Lundqvist let in a soft goal and the Rangers then failed to score with a 5-on-3 advantage. When New York was able to generate some offense, they......

-Rangers 4 Devils 2: Maybe all the Rangers’ defense needed was the return of Darius Kasparaitis. Benched since the start of the season for conditioning issues, Darius was put back into the lineup on his 34th birthday and played a solid game in the New York victory. Brendan Shanahan continued his hot start with a goal and made several nice defensive plays. Henrik Lundqvist faced 36 shots and made several nice saves. The win brings......

Last week, the humanitarian aid group Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres created an exhibit in Central Park called, A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City, to show New Yorkers what a refugee camp looks like and how MSF gives essential medical care and controls epidemics. The exhibit moved to Prospect Park yesterday, where it will be through this Sunday before it moves to other parts of the country. We spoke to Executive Director......

We're at the home stretch! Sunday was a bit of a quieter day for us, but by no means did the music disappoint. The plan was to make it a short day and get back to civilization that night, but due to some travel miscalculations we ended up sticking around till they kicked us out. Very glad we did. The day started with Nashville teenage kids done good Be Your Own Pet at the That......

An auto club, AutoVantage, found the NYC ranks third out of major U.S. cities for road rage. Considering that L.A. is fourth (number 1 is Miami, followed by Phoenix; Boston is 5th), that is quite an accomplishment. Yet it makes perfect sense. Roads are narrow, there's double-parking galore, pedestrians are pretty aggressive, out-of-towners try to turn on red - and throw in all the buses and taxis. So, who knew people were so angry in......

THEATER: Mike Daisey, the versatile, unpredictable monologuist (and onetime Gothamist interviewee), has revealed a lot about his own past and personality over the course of his years of performing and writing. Now, in the last entry of the season at Galapagos' "Evolve" series, he's going after new material -- a select array of "Great Men of Genius" other than himself. Last week he explored the life of Bertolt Brecht; tonight, he takes on circus impresario......

For New York moviegoers, this is a good week for those who worship at the cult of the director. In both the theatrical releases and the repertory columns, film fans of various established and up in coming auteurs will surely get their fill. Brooklyn’s own Spike Lee takes on the action thriller genre in his newest, Inside Man starring Clive Owen as a bank robber, Denzel Washington as the hostage negotiator on the case and......

Remakes and sequels and genre formula, oh my! February is a great month for releasing exactly what the studios think the people will pay to see and this week's release schedule is a textbook example of this development by marketing focus group strategy. Oh well, doesn't mean Gothamist is ready to give up on moviegoing quite yet. Here's a few suggestions to guide your weekend viewing. Of the offerings that are new in wide release......

Peter Sykora was openly campaigning to join the Rangers. He had watched their early-season success and he wanted to get out of Anaheim. His wish was granted Sunday and he immediately made his presence felt in the Rangers 4-2 victory over Calgary. Sykora scored a goal, had an assist and manned the point on the Rangers’ power play unit. The win puts the Rangers five points out of first place with about half the season......

After suffering a brutal loss to the Capitals on Saturday, the Rangers bounced back on Monday night beating the Minnesota Wild 3-1 at the Garden. Petr Prucha scored twice on the power play and looks very comfortable with his promotion to the top line. Martin Rucinsky playing in his second game since coming back from a knee injury had three assists while Henrik Lundqvist stopped 22 shots. The win expands the Rangers division lead to......

When we think of country music, Gothamist doesn't really think New York City, but marketing is marketing and the Country Music Association has brought their annual awards ceremony to our fair city. The CMA Awards are tonight at Madison Square Garden. Bringing the awards to New York was a major coup for the Bloomberg administration, who has sought to increase tourist dollars spent in the city. Shortly after announcing their plan for the awards in......

- Big Pussy's plea deal is delayed because lawyers are arguing over which "batterers' program" is better. Really? - A Queens man was arraigned for trying to burn his daughter-in-law's apartment down - with her in it - Forget Nashville, the Village Voice looks at the city's country music culture - Spotteddogs.org looks at the local election night media coverage - -isting is something that even lushes can do - And last night's East River......

Shonali Bhowmik, Leader of indie band Tigers and Monkeys, member, Variety Shac...

The Country Music Awards are coming to New York City and Madison Square Garden in November 2005. During the press conference, Mayor Bloomberg said he would write a song called, "Mama Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Mayors." Yeah - just let them grow up to be billionaires. Anyway, Gothamist just wants to say we'll definitely take this picture of Mayor Bloomberg, in cowboy hat and armed with a guitar, as a better-late-than-never......

Fashion week is in full swing in New York, celebrating the irritatingly recurring time of year that all of the self-congratulatory super-socialites take the opportunity to stop patting themselves on the back and pat each other for awhile.  Last night, Betsy Johnson took the opportunity to share the limelight with the Great-Uncle of Glam, John Cale, the founding member of the Velvet Underground, to celebrate the release of his new record, "HoboSapiens." For anybody mystified......

Gothamist loves Clapton, we'll be going to check him out next Tuesday when he plays MSG. Last night, however, the guitar that Clapton bought in 1970 on a visit to Nashville was sold at auction for $959,500. On this same shopping trip in 1970 he purchased a total of six vintage Strats (with the going rate of about $300 a pop @ Nashville's Sho-Bud Shop). He gave one each to George Harrison, Pete Townshend and......

June Carter Cash's funeral was held over the weekend in Nashville. Johnny Cash attended in a wheelchair and was helped to view the casket. Singers Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow, The Gatlin Brothers, and the Oak Ridge Boys sang during the service. Gothamist on June Carter Cash's death.......