MOVIE: If you've never seen anything from Matthew Barney's Cremaster series, then cancel all plans tonight because you've got new ones. Barney's Cremaster 2 is screening tonight (no need to see these films in order), and you will be visually dazzled. While it's not plot-heavy, the Guggenheim describes it as "a gothic Western that introduces conflict into the system." 8pm // Austrian Cultural Forum [11 East 52nd St] // Free THEATER: Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935......

2nd Avenue and 5th Street [Fixed] by Chung Chu at flickrToday on the Gothamist Newsmap: a partial facade collapse on East 148 St. in the Bronx, two pedestrians struck on 72nd St. and West End Ave. in Manhattan, a body found on Pioneer St. in Brooklyn. A developmentally disabled woman on Staten Island depends on Social Security benefits to survive, but the SSA keeps declaring her dead. A three alarm fire injured one person......

Photographs by SilvaAzniv on Flickr (left, right); the steam in the right photo is from Con Ed - not a fire At West End Avenue and West 59th Street, a water main broke, flooding the Amtrak tracks. The FDNY is pumping out the water and a number of other city agencies, including the Office of Emergency Management and Department of Environmental Protection are on the scene. According to other reports, a new building (an......

Move over Crazy Cat Ladies of New York, a West End Avenue tenant may just have you beat. The Post reports that court papers have been filed by a building owner against 71-year-old tenant Jacqueline Bartone, calling her apartment a "zoo" and listing the pets that reside with her -- including three dogs, several reptiles and cats, "and as many as a dozen birds, including an African Grey parrot and a macaw parrot." Bartone and......

Photo by Alastair Muir. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 black and white spy thriller The 39 Steps has been given a vividly colorful stage adaptation by a troupe of four British actors who’ve brought their madcap show to Broadway after an award-winning run on the West End. Adapted from a 1915 novel by John Buchan, the movie concerns the dashing but vague Richard Hannay, who gets ensnared in a deadly game of cat and mouse after shots......

The great-grandson of one of an early owner of Macy's is being accused by a 52-year-old jewelry designer of imprisoning the woman and torturing her with, of all things, a lobster trap. Bette Marchek claims that William Straus kept her captive on his Westchester estate, starved her, beat her, and eventually attacked her with a lobster trap while the pair were on City Island in the Bronx. That was the figurative straw that broke the......

The Post reports that a woman running on the West Side managed to escape from a man who tried to rape her this past Saturday morning. According to the police, Jason Washington grabbed the 24-year-old woman from behind around 7AM. He then "fondled her and dragged her to an empty doorway near 12th Avenue and 58th Street." Luckily, a loud truck "startled or distracted" Washington and the woman ran away and called 911. Washington, who......

The police have charged Michael Cordero in the murder of his girlfriend, Boitumelo McCallum. Police sources tell the Daily News and Post that Cordero admitted to confronting McCallum on Friday. From the Post:Cordero told cops he visited McCallum, 20, a day after she threw a party there without inviting him, authorities said. After his arrival, the two lay on her bed and watched a movie he had brought - but Cordero was in a foul......

Last night, the police found the boyfriend of the 20-year-old woman whose dead body was discovered wrapped in bedding in a Greenwich Village apartment. Police say Michael Cordero, 23, tried to slit his wrists on the roof of a building at West 62nd and Amsterdam; the Daily News reports that a family member tried to stop him, but Cordero "fled down the block, trailing blood, to a Western Beef supermarket on West End Ave." where......

Rappers Ja Rule and Lil Wayne both found themselves ending their weekend with arrests last night. The separate incidents both took place in the city. Lil Wayne, fresh off the Beacon Theater stage following his Sunday night show there, was found smoking pot by his tour bus on 61st and Columbus Avenue at 11:30pm. What not to do while smoking an illegal substance, on the street, in the city? Carry a firearm. Lil Wayne had......

Real estate sales data showed that co-ops seemed to be losing favor since condos are much more flexible with buyers. Well, there's yet another story about how co-op boards wield a lot of power. The board at 320 West End Avenue is reportedly trying to kick out a family because the 19-year-old son has allegedly harassed residents, employees and pedestrians. The family is striking back, asking a judge for an injunction to prevent the board......

It’s already two decades since the unlikely hit song Luka put Suzanne Vega on the map; six albums later she’s still swinging with her New York-themed Beauty and Crime. Along the way she’s had a divorce and a daughter (Ruby, now 13), married the man who proposed to her back in her pre-Luka days, and been dubbed "The Mother of the Mp3" when her song Tom’s Diner was used as the model for the algorithm......

Yesterday, it was announced Tishman-Speyer, the real estate firm that bought Stuyvesant Town for $5.4 billion, along with Lehman Brothers would buy real estate investment trust Archstone Smith in a $22.2 billion deal; the Observer calls it the "largest public-to-private acquisition ever among apartment REIT’s." Archstone Smith has over over 85,000 rentals nationally and almost 3,800 in NYC, which would given Tishman-Speyer over 15,000 apartments for its portfolio. According to Crain's, there's been more interest......

READINGS: Papermag points out an interesting reading tonight for "Queens of the Kingdom: The Ultimate Gay and Lesbian Guide to the Disney Theme Parks." Authors Jeffrey Epstein and Eddie Shapiro explain how to have a gay ol’ time in Disney World. Their guide (now in its second edition) features “fairy facts,” culinary suggestions and where to find the “gay goodies” like Ellen Degeneres’s Ellen's Energy Adventure ride. Tonight’s reading is hosted by Michael Musto and......

Notes on a Scandal (directed by Richard Eyre): There are certain actresses who can really do no wrong and surely Judi Dench as well as Cate Blanchett are on that list. If you missed their Oscar-nominated pairing from last winter, Notes on a Scandal, you've got another chance to see these two fine thespians in full command of their powers as the movie comes out on DVD this week. Based on Zoë Heller's best selling......

Yesterday at the Time Warner Center, Chef Marc Murphy somewhat stealthily opened the doors to the uptown outpost of Landmarc, his 3 year-old, well-regarded Tribeca restaurant. Murphy began to look northward last year when he opened Ditch Plains in the West Village. With Landmarc firmly established as a neighborhood bright spot with serious food (like the $12 roasted marrow bones with onion marmalade and grilled bread, pictured), and with Ditch Plains going strong with its......

It seems that alcohol and theater started off hand in hand. Just picture Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors being performed in the 1500's, audience slugging down pints (and probably chewing on drumsticks and meat pies!) - seems accurate, right? Never has a want for alcohol overcome us mid-play, but it's probably not a bad idea in some cases. Apparently there are theaters in London that serve alcohol, a growing trend of mixing pub culture with playhouse......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a finger amputation in Queens, a fall victim on West End Avenue, and a combination "jumper up / gas leak" (!) on Staten Island. Detestable: while announcing all sorts of government reforms at the State of the City address, NYC politicians managed to illegally block three lanes of traffic on Jay Street. The Paintsplasher has struck again-- this time in Williamsburg. Meditate on this: can the act of defacing......

Doesn't it seem like you no sooner put down the fork at the Thanksgiving table and the Christmas themed movies have flooded the theaters? If you're ready to start ho ho hoing your way to the cineplex, the new slapstick family comedy Deck The Halls starring Danny DeVito, Matthew Broderick and Kristen Davis is out this weekend. Hopefully all of these jokes about covering your house in light effects makes more sense in the suburbs.......

It's not a deal of Stuy Town proportions, but the sale of the Apthorp building on Broadway between West 78th and 79ths Streets on the Upper West Side is still a big deal. According to the NY Times, Maurice Mann agreed to pay more than $425 million for the building that takes up the entire block (Broadway to West End, 78th to 79th). Mann called it "the greatest trophy building on the Upper West Side."......

Very bizarre and chilling: A man walking on West End Avenue was stabbed by a bicyclist last night. Around 7PM, the cyclist attacked the victim from behind, stabbing him either in the torso (per the Daily News) or the shoulder(per the Post) at West 63rd Street. Police believe the attack was unprovoked and random. The victim, who was with either his girlfriend (the Daily News) or his 8 year old daughter (the Post), had been......

You have to hand it to Michael Steinberg - he is a fighter. The 64 year old postal worker, who was on his way to work when a deranged man sliced through his chest with a cordless Dewalt reciprocating saw yesterday, had a punctured lung and broken rib - not to mention the whole "sliced chest" thing - yet he still gave hospital bedside interviews with newspapers and TV stations to tell his side of......

Wow. The Transport Workers Union's headquarters on West End Avenue was sold for $60 million. Back in April, it was reported that the headquarters were worth $39 million, but that there was a $60 million offer. And clearly, the TWU decided the cash out. One source tells the Post, "This amounts to yet another miscalculation on the part of the MTA and Governor Pataki. They thought they could bust this union, but we are now......

MUSIC: If you aren't going to a 06.06.06 party tonight, and if we are in fact all here and the apocolypse hasn't happened...we suggest getting over to the Delancey. Why? Because it's the first Beg Yr Pardon party and there will be free red velvet cupcakes and brownies! There will also be all you can eat BBQ if you're into that sort of thing (for an extra $5). Oh, and music! There is also music.......

We really enjoyed reading about the many restaurant incarnations at 206 East 63rd Street in the NY Times, because there are definitely locations that we think are cursed and pity/salute new management that tries to make a go of it. At 206 East 63rd Street, the eleventh restaurant in 30 years, Haikara Grill, a kosher AND Japanese steakhouse, has been around for a year, and the building's owner, J.Z. Morris, even reduced the restaurant's rent......

The weather outside might be just starting to feel like spring, but in the theater world there’s already a summery vibe going on. Last night the Lortel Awards kicked off the trophy-giving season; this Friday the Drama League awards go out. Then there’s the festivals; not that there aren’t festivals at other times of the year, but as the weather heats up they start crowding in thick and fast. Currently you can get a square......

The hearings to determine the Transport Workers' Union fine from the three day transit strike is just full of (weird) new tidbits. The TWU has been arguing that paying a $3 million fine, plus not receiving its union members' dues automatically each paycheck, would ruin them. The MTA says that the TWU's 80 West End Avenue headquarters are worth $39 million - and TWU treasurer Ed Watt said that there was an offer on it......

We’ll probably jinx it by saying this, but spring does finally seem to be inching into the city, and we’re eagerly speculating about how many days until the little leafbuds on the tree outside our window pop open. With arboreal imagery in our minds, and since it’s almost Passover, we’ll start off this week with Jake Ehrenreich’s one-man memoir-in-a-musical comedy, A Jew Grows in Brooklyn. Ehrenreich, who has had success on and off Broadway as......

- New York State loves its cheese so much there are two cheese museums - quick, get Wallace here! - Connie Chung to The View? What would Maury do? - The Tomato Diaries goes to Bryant Park's beautiful restored bathroom - Observant Jews fatten up monkeys - New York Social Diary tackles the Page Six scandal - More reason to make sure your broadband connection works properly: ABC will offer some of its hit......

While a 12%+ commission makes it hard for anyone to feel that sympathetic towards real estate agents, the market can be rough. For example, a real estate agent was showing a 30th floor apartment at 101 West End Avenue, only for the potential client to pull out a gun. The Post reports that the man told the agent to leave, and she then called the police, who found out his gun was a fake. The......