The Killers played Madison Square Garden Sunday night in a show that fully demonstrated the band’s pop-rock chops. There was an elaborate light show, confetti and an animal-print curtain that didn’t quite drop in the intended grand fashion during “Neon Tiger.” A (modest) lowercase ‘k’ took center stage. Brandon Flowers sported notably tight, black pants. Guitarist Dave Keuning strummed his instrument in the most phallic of ways. Drummer Ronnie Vannucci, Jr., threw more than one drumstick. Telltale groupies pumped their fists as the band played anthem followed by anthem.

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The Killers’ Day & Age is awfully familiar. Not just in the oft-noted derivative-of-Springsteen sense, but in that it very much sounds like the band suddenly remembered the missing 10 tracks from Sam’s Town or, for that matter, Hot Fuss.

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-- New York author A.J. Jacobs may trump No Impact Man in The Most Drastically Altering One’s Life To Sell A Book contest. The title of his latest effort, “The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible”, pretty much says it all. Among the more interesting aspects: Jacobs didn’t touch his wife (or any woman) at certain times of the month, and he pelted an adulterer with a pebble.

-- Is it still performance art if nobody’s there to see it? A Chinatown artist strangled his new girlfriend to death and then slept beside her corpse for two nights. Before that, the couple went to a topless bar where Michael Lenahan bought his date a couple of lap dances, then they went back to his apartment, which he shares with his ailing grandmother. As if the date weren’t bad enough already, the next day Lenahan demanded the $50 he spent on lap dances back! When the woman refused, kicking him in the groin, he lost his temper. Lenahan was charged with second-degree murder and held without bail at his arraignment yesterday.

-- It’s like the Jersey shore is actually seeking out new ways to make itself unattractive. If you rent a place in Sea Girt, don’t expect to play beer pong with your friends on the lawn or deck. In response to neighbors’ noise complaints, the council passed an ordinance that outlaws drink games played on private property but in public view. The penalty for a first offense is $100, and your pride.

--In an obscenely ageist move, Charles Friedgood, 89, the oldest inmate in the New York state prison system, has been denied parole. His crime? The wealthy Long Island heart surgeon was convicted in 1976 of injecting his ailing wife with a fatal dose of Demerol after being arrested at JFK trying to flee the country with more than $450,000 in cash and valuables from her estate to be with his girlfriend in Europe. And they didn’t let him out to enjoy the last 10 or so years of his life? For shame.



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As if this city isn't already busting at the seams, Mayor Bloomberg has announced a $30 million global ad campaign targeting those overseas. And like all things New York, no longer is just simply being New York enough, it’s got to have a showy, commercial introduction. This includes a downright weird TV spot that looks as though the makers were on psychedelic drugs while editing and that features a way too happy family of tourists to air in England, Ireland, France and Spain. The “I Love New York” slogan has been replaced with “This Is New York City,” which will appear everywhere from in magazines, newspapers and online ads to billboards and bus shelters in Brazil, Portugal and Italy as well as Boston, Philadelphia and Miami. The mission of this wildly avant-garde investment is to attract 50 million visitors by 2015, about 6 million more than clogged the streets last year.


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If you thought we as a city (if not a country) had moved beyond your average “cracker” variety racism and onto “let’s kill all the bin Laden look alikes” brand of racism, you’d be wrong. Just a couple of weeks ago, Brooklyn residents awoke to find two synagogues, homes, stoops, sidewalks and vehicles vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti. And yesterday, a noose was found hanging from the door of an African American professor’s office at the Teachers College at Columbia University. In case some of you don’t see the biggie, the ever-helpful Associated Press reminds us, “Nooses are reviled by many as symbols of lynchings in the Old South.” And the Daily News reports, “Detectives were investigating whether the incident was racially motivated.”  Ya think? Maybe i was just a suicide gone bad. The NYPD’s hate crime task force are investigating. About 150 students gathered in front of Teachers College last night in protest, and there has been talk of a campus-wide student walkout at 2 p.m. today.

While some media outlets report that the teacher has yet to be identified, others have outed her as Dr. Madonna Constantine, whose books include “Addressing Racism.”

According to news reports, this type of thing isn’t unheard of at Columbia. There were six bias incidents on campus in the 2005-06 school year, including two students who were arrested after drawing swastikas and writing homophobic slurs in a dorm hallway. In 2004, there were three such incidents, including a racist cartoon mocking Black History Month. The media is drawing parallels to the “Jena Six” controversy in Louisiana.


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A female corrections officer has filed suit against the department for harassment via its job handbook. Apparently, “Orientation Handbook for Female Staff Working in an Institutional Setting” hasn’t been updates since the 1980s and contains some pretty irrelevant guidelines—like “eliminate flirtatious mannerisms while on the job” and avoid exhibiting “jealousy” or “snobbery” to fellow female workers. There are currently 2,264 female correction officers in the state compared with 19,633 men. Correction Department spokesman Erik Kriss said, “The bottom line is that there are going to be different challenges for female corrections officers than there are for male COs. I mean that's just a fact of life.” And of course he's right, men and women are different, just not in the gossipy, catty, seductive way the manual implies.


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Last month, a self-described “spectacularly beautiful” 25-year-old woman placed an ad on the go-to site for all somewhat sad but shame-free New Yorkers—Craigslist—seeking a husband who earns at least $500,000 a year. While not currently a resident of the area, the gold digger is trying to get to Central Park West and needs the help of a good I-banker. Unfortunately for her, the response was surprisingly lukewarm. It seems Wall Street types were actually offended by her generous offer, with one so impassioned by indignation he signed his real name to his cutting response. Why men aren’t interested in the Anna Nicole wannabe is news to us, just as why this made headlines in The New York Times. It seems it’s only OK for a woman to pimp herself if she does it for the purposes of Hollywood and reality TV, and not for her own enjoyment.


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Silly me, when I first heard of the effort to reopen the LaGuardia Bathhouse, I thought by some miracle this was a radical attempt to restore some of the Lower East Side's kinky charm of yesteryear. But alas, those who get all veclemped at the sight of marble lobbies and roof-deck apartments probably won’t be comforted by the move to save a senior center. It remains to be seen whether yesterday’s rally of more than 200 neighborhood activists and local politicians will result in a restoration including a new pool, basketball court, fitness room, computer center and space for after-school programs—a project that would cost between $20 million and $30 million. Asked why so passionate about this project, locals say it’s for the kids. Scared of the new, family-centered LES? Think of it this way, at least the Bathhouse would get the tiny tots off the streets and out of your way.

But then there’s also the anti-gentrification movement, which must be made up of the post-menopausal set of LES locals. A community forum is scheduled for Thursday to discuss the rapid upscaling of the Bowery, with residents urging rezoning that would limit building heights and density.

Photo courtesy of moriza on Flickr


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It seems the city’s bike-lovin’ efforts are paying off: the League of American Bicyclists recently honored our little town for cyclist care with a shiny bronze medal. Hoping for the gold? That may be a bit of a reach considering only 0.5 percent of New Yorkers actually ride bikes to work, according to Census figures, compared to 2 percent in Seattle and San Francisco and a shocking 34 percent in Copenhagen. Damn Danes, setting the bar so high. Oh well, something to shoot for. And shoot we will with Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to require commercial buildings to provide bicycle parking in an effort to cut down on theft. Then there’s the city’s plan to install between 400 and 500 bike racks a year and to establish more than 400 miles of bike lanes and paths by 2009. Still, for all our crazy cabbies and wildly aggressive pedestrians, there are only 2.8 bike deaths per million people annually in New York City, compared with 2.7 deaths nationally, according to the city health department and the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Not too shabby, but a study conducted last year by the city departments of health and transportation found that between 1996 and 2003, that worked out to 3,500 cyclists injured by cars and 225 killed. Like we said, NYC got the bronze.

Photo courtesy of pixietart on Flickr


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In a new poll conducted by Impulse Research Corporation for AXE Vice—you know, the shower products that promise to get guys raped upon application—reveals that New York women have extremely “progressive” sexual tastes. Here are the facts for interested parties:

-- Eight of 10 women polled said they would consider using handcuffs or a blindfold during sex, and 55 percent admitted they already have.
-- Six out of 10 said they’ve hooked up with a guy on the first date.
-- Seven out of 10 said they've fantasized about getting with a male friend.
-- Four out of 10 say they have gone to a bar commando.

Sound hot? Yeah, we were thinking more lukewarm, too. And unfortunately, it jumps straight to creepy with the participants’ thoughts on “naughty” hook-up spots: 1,244 women listed a chicken factory, a nun's car and Grandpa’s 80th-birthday party, among other less noteworthy responses.

If this doesn’t do it for you, try moving to Los Angeles or Miami, both of which came in ahead of New York out of the 10 cities surveyed. Check out the video that accompanies this ad campaign and ask yourself, does this portrait of female empowerment really seem so liberating? And moreover, does  it really seem so hot?

In other news, it seems a fake cop fondled a Long Island woman who notified the real police. We assume he wasn’t wearing AXE, ’cause then she woulda liked it.



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