Hot Chip, Almost Ready for the Floor We've come around on Hot Chip in a big way over the last few years as they've risen to stateside popularity. Their latest album is a total burner, highlighted by a killer lead single, Ready for the Floor, and the last few times we've seen them live it's been a blast. So needless to say, our expectations for last Saturday night's show at Highline were through the roof.......

Photograph of a Smart Car perpendicularly parked from Jalopnik We've been following the progress of the Smart Car's U.S. introduction for a while and last month it was reported that they would be making their way to NYC this month. Jalopnik took a ride in the first Smart Car and has photographs of the 8.8' by 5.1' car in some super scenic NYC spots. Jalopnik's Wes Siler wrote, "Congested urban streets and crowded highways......

Playwright David Mamet (pictured) will be maintaining a blog to promote his new Broadway play, November, which stars Nathan Lane as contemporary American president Charles Smith and Laurie Metcalf as his lesbian speech writer. What’s interesting, perhaps, is that Mamet will be writing the blog – which he says he’ll update for the duration of the open-ended run – as President Smith. Sample entry from Monday:CONGRESSIONAL PAGE SEX SCANDALS It seems to me that, at......

Freaked out about the explosions in your neighborhood, only to find out via 311 that it's just fireworks? Or wondering about the fire around the corner? Well, the city actually does want you to know about what's going on in your neighborhoods and announced the pilot program launch of Notify NYC, which will deliver "emergency public information by email, text messages and reverse-911 alerts in four City community districts." The four districts are Lower Manhattan,......

Derek Jeter's mom is claiming that her son wouldn't cheat on his taxes, days after the NY State Dept. of Taxation and Finance claimed that the Yankees captain owed the state hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in back taxes. Jeter says that his primary residence is in Florida, which doesn't have a state income tax. He does, however, live in the Trump World Plaza building on 1st Ave., across from the United......

After Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro recommended that the 5 Boroughs ice cream flavor "Staten Island Landfill" be boycotted, sales of the swirly mix of brownies, fudge, crunchies, and cherries in a vanilla ice cream base have been so hot, it's hard to find it anywhere. Which makes the owners of 5 Boroughs happy - Kim Myles, who founded 5 Boroughs with her husband Scott, said, "We have one thing to say to Mr.......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

Alarming news to start the workweek: The Daily News exclusively reports that the authorities are looking for "64 fugitive rapists, perverts and molesters" who have lied about where they live. Many of the sex offenders gave home addresses at city housing projects. But federal law prohibits Level 2 and Level 3 offenders from living in public housing, so the feds went to evict some offenders - only to find out they were never living there.......

We thought of one thing after reading the NY Times article about 92nd Street Y nursery school students' drivers clogging up the streets outside the school: Home schooling. Actually, we also thought "congestion tax," but reading about chauffeured SUVs for tiny children would drive most anyone crazy. The competitive (which also means prestigious) 92nd Street Y Nursery School sent out a letter to parents warning them that if their cars still caused gridlock, then their......

In 1941, Encyclopedia Britannica put out a little educational film called "The Arteries of New York City". As you can guess, it describes how transportation to, from and inside of Manhattan, works. The narration is ever so literal, describing that, "the main job of transportation in the city, is to carry people between three points: where they live, where they work and where they play." The narrator also explains that ,"year after year, these arteries......

Earlier this week, Transportation Alternatives released a study that finds relationships between people's behavior and the neighborhoods they live in. For instance, someone who lives on a high traffic street is less likely to go outside and enjoy the neighborhood or let the children play while someone on a quieter street would get to do those things. Plus:The study finds that New Yorkers on high traffic streets harbor more negative perceptions of their block, are......

We've always been well aware that neighborhoods are a tricky thing to define - growing up we were never really clear if we lived in the East Village, NoHo or the Lower East Side - but this wonderful article by Manny Fernandez in today's Metro section still managed to surprise us with just how hard it can be. Especially in places where the populations have constantly turned over rapidly and dramatically. For instance the......

The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation has kicked off another phase in its marketing campaign to raise money for the memorial. Back in July, they introduced ads that said we needed the spontaneous memorials then and we need one (as in donating to one) now. The new ads come as we head to the fifth anniversary of September 11 - they ask "Where Were You When It Happened". There are TV, radio, and print......

Erich Fuchs and his neighbors are angry with their landlord. They think that he's been gussying up the building in which they live, 230 Riverside Drive, so as to raise the rents. That's an understandable issue to have, but then Fuchs went and took it to a gross new level. He poured a bucket of urine onto a construction worker from his 10th-floor balcony. Think about that. He poured a bucket of urine from......

MOVIES: Don't forget, the Bryant Park movies start tonight! The movie won't begin until sunset - which is about the same time the rain and thunder are scheduled to begin. Tonights features in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller, The Birds. Be an early bird (heh) and get there at 5 for a good spot on the lawn! 5pm // Bryant Park // Free ART: Like Sculpture? Like to hear people talk about it? Then attend MoMA's On......

We've been itching for a good tenant/developer fight and today's City Section delivers enter: Scarano v. The Orchid Man! The story is simple. Steve Ludlow loves orchids and lives with a large number of them in a very large loft in Dumbo. The building they live in has recently been bought and the new owners want to put in 60 condos and a new tower. Naturally they also want Ludlow out. But the Orchid......

- A watchdog groups says the new Yankee Stadium will cost taxpayers $500 million, or the amount of money George Steinbrenner sleeps with - When you try to kill your lawyer and cause a mistrial, your judge probably doesn't want to deal with your crap - Kids like to choke themselves for a high? Kids are so weird! - Lower East Side synagogue may be rebuilding its roof - The "outing" of who JT......

Woody Allen's fictional vision of New York has become so highly developed and self-referential over the years that for Gothamist, who has seen nearly every film Allen has made, most scenes in his newer features evoke similar scenes from previous works. Characters almost always fall into stereotypes of different kinds of New Yorkers, and the city they live in exists largely in the same recurring locations, even as Allen tries to throw in seemingly-new touches......

While the Mayor and City Council Speaker Gifford Miller may seem similar - they are white...they live on the Upper East Side...uh... - they actually aren't, and the NY Times examined their extremely political spitting match. Gothamist liked how Mayor Bloomberg views Miller as unaccomplished and unambitious, because next to him, who can be (this does not bode well for prospective suitors for Emma and Georgina), but there was another quote that got us thinking:City......

Hot pilot news: One of Gothamist's favorite TV producers, the brilliant Tom Fontana, will be headed to the WB with a drama series set in a "small liberal arts college in NYC" that will center around a human behavior class. Fontana said, "The show specifically centers on a human behavior seminar where (the students) openly talk about their sexual lives or the lack of sexual lives and come to understand themselves and the world they......

The first time Gothamist heard Asobi Seksu we didn't know what to expect, we'd heard them described as a more sultry Sonic Youth, a competant rock band reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine. Did they live up to their influences and comparisons? Yes, but they surpassed their reviews as they turned another corner to create their own unique sound. It isn't just the occassional Japanese lyrics that sets them apart but a layered effect that......

Oh, those sensitive Canucks. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Conan O'Brien are public enemies number one after Triumph did what he does best: Insult the hell out of people. Conan's trip to Toronto ruffled Canadian politico's feathers, as evinced by this Times' article, An Insolent Puppet Roils Canadian Politics: On a taped segment on Thursday night's "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" on NBC, the puppet Triumph the Insult Comic Dog visited the Winter Carnival......

When you live in New York, it seems that the only nice thing to do is be a pal and open your home to a friend who needs a place to crash. Young New Yorkers especially seem to forget the old adage about fish and guests and stinking after three days, in their efforts to help out their friends. But as close living spaces can endanger friendships as much as romantic relationships, the Post looks......