READINGS: Sebastian Junger (co-owner of the Half King) will be reading there tonight from his latest book, A Death in Belmont. The book ties into Junger's own life eerily - back in 1963 when Junger was a small boy growing up in Belmont, Massachusetts, Bessie Goldberg was murdered down the street from his home. Following the stories of the two different men suspected of committing the crime (and one of them working at Junger's family home the very day of the murder), Junger brings his inquisitive eye to the story, and its unsolved ending. Junger is a fascinating writer and the Half King is fast becoming one of the city's best reading venues, so it should be a great night. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras more ›

The Bryant Park Summer Film Festival has been announced. Starting off on June 19th and runing through August 21st, there will be a handful of movies we've never seen, which is just as fun as seeing our old faves. We'll definitely be there opening night for The Birds - that movie scared us good when were little. Here's the full lineup: more ›

One of the great uncles of the reality TV genre, Taxicab Confessions, has its 11th season premiere tomorrow night on HBO. The NY Times had an Arts & Leisure feature about the show last weekend, noting that most New Yorkers ignore cab drivers, which could be partly due to some cabdrivers' chats on the cellphone, but, yeah, New Yorkers will conduct all sorts of strange business anywhere. Most of the other seasons of Taxicab Confessions were filmed in Las Vegas, because HBO couldn't get a permit to film here; HBO Documentaries president apparently made a new pitch to film in NYC by sending Film & TV Commissioner Katharine Oliver the Emmy that Nevins received for the first TC, but not as a threat, sort of as an enticement. The Hollywood Reporter gives a synopsis of the first episode, in a disappointed review:

The nine segments featured here include a skinny white guy and an extremely large black woman sharing the cab on their first date while he addresses his "big black woman" fetish; a guy and his blonde transsexual girlfriend boasting about their steamy sex life; a gentile guy discussing how the Jewish woman whom was once his girlfriend would take phone calls from her mother during sex; a young tattooed rock 'n' roll couple getting physical in the back seat, complete with her performing fellatio; and a couple of party girls and their male companion vividly demonstrating the "If you get naked, you get a free drink" policy of the karaoke bar they just left.