Features

The Berserkonomics of One Rent-Stabilized Apartment Building

Oh, what a tangled web rent stabilization weaves! A dissection of one building still in mid-gentrification, featuring mind-blowingly great lease terms, landlord-occupant fistfights, the Legend of Madonna’s Tenancy, and more.

The United States of America vs. Bill Keller

War has been declared on the New York Times by George Bush and Dick Cheney, fired-up partisans on all sides, a public that no longer believes in the newspaper’s importance, and a market that has lost faith. Is this the right time for quiet and deliberate leadership at the Paper of Record?

Intelligencer

Ommdorsement From Episco-yogis

Disney honcho, �Gay American’ get behind Assembly candidate.

Ex��White-Boy Poseur’

Axl Rose: Album delay is for the fans.

Lawyer Gets Paid in Ladies’ Shoes

No mention of briefs.

It’s Dunkhampton for Rockets-man

Buys (in overtime).

Ingrown Tumult Among the Waxoholics

Not so blissed out.

Welcome Back

As a million backpacked youngsters thronged back into classrooms last week, the rest of us were suddenly back in high school, too.

The Hottie Index

A survey of 100 Fashion Week models, mostly at the casting for Cynthia Rowley’s show last week.

Breakfast With Champion

Local boys Chris Cuomo and Sam Champion say, �Good morning, America.�

Atonal Baseball

Ceci n’est pas une strikeout! The subversive genius of A-Rod.

Strategist

Best Bets

Perfectly cut bacon, a mountain bike armored for city use, and more hot buys.

Craze

Get the best of Japanese hipness while traveling no farther than New Jersey.

Ask a Shop Clerk

Gabrielle Auerbach of Depression Modern.

Shop News

Store openings this week.

Look Book

An aspiring actor who takes fashion inspiration from Diane Keaton.

Restaurant Review

Idiosyncratic Swiss cuisine.

In Season

A romano bean recipe from a Hearth chef.

Darling, This Looks Fabulous

Rail-thin models shimmying down the Bryant Park runway might make you want to go on a diet, but even fashionistas have to eat. Here’s where to go (besides the obvious Koi) during Olympus Fashion Week.

The Bavarian Calendar

In Munich, Oktoberfest starts sixteen days before the first Sunday in October. In New York, that’s as good a reason as any for suds and a sausage.

Real Estate

It’s crunch time for the market.

The Culture Pages

The Aaron Sorkin Show

Aaron Sorkin’s new, typically well-crafted drama has a dubiously relevant subject: Aaron Sorkin.

Movie Review

The blandness of Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett is only one of the reasons two Hollywood noirs disappoint.

Influences: Alfonso Cuarón

This year’s �LatinBeat� festival honors recent Latin American films, Brazilian Tropicália, and Alfonso Cuarón�the director of Y Tu Mamá También, the third Harry Potter movie, and the upcoming futuristic feature Children of Men.

Tune In Tomorrow

Convoluted shows that forget cheesy television is supposed to be relaxing, at least.

Bones

We’re delighted by the return of Emily Deschanel as forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan and David Boreanaz as FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth.

The Boys of Baraka

The 12- and 13-year-olds we meet in this P.O.V. installment have fathers in prison, dealers on the corner, bullets in the street, and public schools so ludicrously inadequate that leaving for Africa is a better bet.

The Last (Great) Season of �The Simpsons�

Those who want to truly savor the show’s cultural importance can start�or, rather, end�with the recent DVD release of the show’s eighth season, which marks the final year of a six-season run of sustained genius.

Theater Review

An August Wilson revival doesn’t quite do his writing justice.

Pop Music Review

OutKast and Justin Timberlake channel Prince, with some success.

Playing Favorites

We asked five music obsessives to pick a recent album they can’t stop listening to.

Book Review

An excellent mosaic of L.A. perversity from Bruce Wagner.

Curious Figure: Mark Haddon

His new follow-up, A Spot of Bother, follows a surprisingly ordinary father, George, sent into a panic by a patch of eczema he’s convinced is terminal cancer.

Classical Music Review

Two operas about misery on opposite sides of the overkill line.

The Approval Matrix

Our deliberately oversimplified guide to who falls where on our taste hierarchies.

Columns

The Imperial City

Let us praise contentious, divisive government and pray the Democrats don’t screw it up.

The Bottom Line

The Tom Freston ouster isn’t as crazy as it looks.

The Week

Teaching Moment

A book that tells a very bad story, gently.

Break Out the Formalwear

Three opening nights not to miss.

An Hour in Chelsea

After you see ICP’s triennial �Ecotopia,� visit these two galleries for more work by two of the show’s featured artists.

The Political Agenda

Bush-bashing books (and the Coulter voters on the other side) are everywhere, as everyone starts casting an eye toward the midterm elections.

Departments

Letters to the Editor