• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a gas leak on 70th Rd. and Austin St. in Queens, an aircraft emergency at JFK Airport in Queens, and a pedestrian struck on East 85th St. and 5th Ave. in Manhattan.
• The New York State Music Fund awarded WFUV a grant of $500,000 to establish a second full-time radio station dedicated to airing more independent musicians and aimed primarily at music fans in their 20s and 30s. The new station will debut in late 2008 and will also stream over the Internet.
• Today is the 200th anniversary of the inaugural voyage of "Fulton's Folly", "Fulton's monster", or the North River Steamboat. The 32-hour journey marked the beginning of regular motorized ferry service up and down the Hudson River.
• A 13-year-old girl on her bike was struck and killed in Queens yesterday by a pickup truck making a right turn. The driver was arrested and charged with driving with a suspended license.
• The New York Times peeks behind the shroud on Liberty St. and offers a slide show of how the Deutsche Bank building is being deconstructed.
• MetsBlog reports that if one can't get to Philadelphia for the Wednesday 8/29 game against the Phillies, it will be broadcast at Manhattan's palatial Ziegfeld Theater on West 54th Street. Mr. Met and the Pepsi Party Patrol will be onhand to convey a Shea-like experience, and the $10 ticket price includes two tickets to a September home game.
• A NYC Dept. of Corrections official was arrested after getting in a brawl at a Chelsea bar yesterday. The New York Post reports that the 41-year-old assistant commissioner at the DOC punched a bartender in the face after he received what he thought was incorrect change.
• Yesterday we linked to a catalog of changes to Wikipedia entries traced to an IP address at Fox News. Apparently someone with a New York Times IP address has been maliciously editing Wikipedia posts as well.

EVENT: Join a slew of artists, bid on their work and enjoy complimentary cocktails tonight at a benefit for the Seed Project. Artwork from Swoon, Lisa Dahl, Todd Deluca, Troy Dugas, Lee Everett, Midori Harima & Annysa Ng, Fumiko Toda, Sarah Trigg and a whole bunch more will be auctioned. The Seed Project asks that you buy basil seeds and after planting them: more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a large fight on Fordham Rd. and Jerome Ave. in the Bronx, police activity in the employee parking lot at JFK Airport in Queens, and a pedestrian was struck on East 57th St. and Madison Ave. in Manhattan.
• Donald Trump owns almost 20% of Brooklyn's Starrett City that his dad bought for him when he graduated from business school. He now advises lower-income residents of the development that "This is not Communist China," in response to protests against a proposed sale and probable eviction.
• New York magazine's Daily Intelligencer points to the obvious conclusion of recent trends: two Duane Reade drug stores directly across the street from one another. What, no Chase banks nested inside?
• CSI: Egypt. The Brooklyn Museum catscanned a mummified body from Egypt and analysts determined that it died a completly normal and uneventful death.
• A former East Village drug kingpin is now busy getting West Village residents high on endorphins as a personal trainer.
• New York tap water may be proclaimed as the best by Mayor Bloomberg, but the city still pays $1 million annually for Poland Spring and other delivered water.
• The city is re-opening the bike-only lane on the north side of the Manhattan Bridge. Only The Blog Knows Brooklyn notes that it's been closed since October 2006.
• And a City Council member wants Councilman Dennis Gallagher, indicted on rape charges, to resign.

EVENT: "Home Buying for Hipsters" would like to help out all of you "creative non-traditional wage earners" during your quest to own a home. Buying property is an art, after all, so creatives may even have a head start! They "aim to specifically address your concerns and break down the process into steps you can understand." Their classes are free and open to everyone ("hipsters, non-hipsters, art stars, rock stars, designers, freelancers, sculptors, poets, part-time geniuses, business moguls, cheapskates, high rollers, nerds, players, winners, losers=whoever is ready to own a home!") More info at their MySpace page, of course. more ›

Even in the shadow of the Queensborough Bridge, the Maison Tropicale looks aloof. Hovering above a cleared and graded strip in Long Island City, this compact machine for living wears the architectural equivalent of sunglasses, safari helmet, binoculars, and shorts. It is haughty and cute at the same time. The aluminum outpost, one of three prototypes sent to Congo and Niger in the early 1950s, was designed by Jean Prouvé as a prefabricated home for French imperial masters in the Congo. While the empire was already beginning to fade, there was still some impetus to conquer African territory and look suave doing it. more ›

For Fellini fans, Gothamist has your next two nights of movie viewing sewn up. more ›

Gothamist was there for the re-opening of The Noguchi Museum today in Long Island City. The Noguchi is definitely one of the city's greatest and least appreciated museums- a quiet, serene place to appreciate some great abstract modernist sculpture. The best part is the renovated rock garden. We relaxed on a bench while beautiful hipsters floated past, talking about modern art. Up on the second floor, there are a bunch of installations, and showcases of Noguchi's furniture and product design work- we took a few more pictures and put them in after the jump. more ›