Features

No Way Out

For the first time, firefighters who survived �Black Sunday� by jumping 50 feet out a window discuss the fire that killed two of their FDNY brethren.

The I Chang

David Chang’s stubbornness nearly drove Momofuku Noodle Bar under before it turned into the hottest spot in town. Now, his brand-extending burrito joint is similarly empty-on-arrival. Will this latest challenge rock his faith in culinary rebellion?

Intelligencer

Spitz Sanitizes Grand Central Gov. Show

Battle of historical accuracy vs. Eliot’s handlers.

So Hot She’s Flammable

Host roasted by top chefs.

Antique Roadshow for Shari Redstone

UES debut of Viacom heiress.

SJP, Seinfeld Witness S&M Head Bonk

Elderly theatergoer proud.

Is E. Hampton $100 M. Land Baron

Fund manager Ron Baron?

It Happened Last Week

The revelation that mild-mannered Mayor Bloomberg, the Bruce Wayne of Gotham City, keeps a Batphone in his kitchen was a clear Batsignal that we’ve been overrun by superheroes.

The Passions of Taschen

The Judith Regan of the avant-garde finally opens his Soho art-fetish emporium.

You Say It’s Your Birthday

Kidnapped at gunpoint off the street in the Village; later offered hookers, marijuana.

From Baghdad to the L.I.E.

How an Iraqi archaeologist survived Saddam Hussein, only to have to flee to Long Island in the face of the civil war.

Le Binge

Gobbling along with a group of French professional gourmands on a three-day eat-a-thon that proves New York’s gastronomical superiority.

Strategist

Best Bets

Fragrant, easy-to-grow flowers and other uplifting greenery.

Head-to-Head

H&M vs. Forever 21.

Shop News

Store openings this week.

Look Book

A cosmetics exec in her job-interview finest.

The Restaurant Review

Gordon Ramsay demonstrates the limits of high-end global brand-mongering.

In Season

Sweet-and-sour kiwi sauce from a Mai House chef.

My Little Grocery Store

Can an Upper East Side children’s food store cater to time-starved parents and juvenile taste buds?

Real Estate

It’s not a real upscale development unless it has a private spa.

Sundance Preview

The Sundance Kid

An audience with Steve Buscemi.

From Abu Ghraib to Chinatown...

Documentaries of note at Sundance.

Three Questions for Rory Kennedy

The daughter of RFK discusses her new documentary, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib.

The Trouper: Vera Farmiga

Farmiga, first buzzed-about at Sundance ’04 with Down to the Bone, just appeared in The Departed, and now she stars in two Sundance premieres.

The New York Guest List

Local stars (and would-be stars) to watch out for.

Celluloid Heir: Zoe Cassavetes

Premiering at Sundance, Cassavetes’s first feature, Broken English, follows the love life of a thirtysomething New Yorker, played by indie queen Parker Posey.

Arabian Stallions, Puppet Love, and Wild-Child Ricci

This year in Sundance sex-shock cinema.

The Culture Pages

The Movie Review

Mafioso is a black comedy that doesn’t go for the easy laugh. The Italian? A little more bleak.

Overheard: What the Audience Really Thought About Children of Men

AMC Loews Lincoln Square, January 9, 8:05 p.m.

Bad and Badder

F. Murray Abraham on playing two of the biggest Jewish stereotypes in theatrical history.

The Book Review

New Martin Amis, neither enjoyable nor enjoyably bad.

Recommended Reading

For an unabashedly good Amis novel, try Money (1984), in which the obese, alcoholic pornographer John Self lurches across eighties Manhattan.

The Art Review

Two exhibits of ostentatiousness done right.

Show and Tell: Tracey Moffatt

The Australian photographer’s latest series, �Under the Sign of Scorpio,� considers 40 other powerful astrological sisters.

The Approval Matrix

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

Columns

The City Politic

The heatwave highlights Bloomberg’s uncharacteristically naïve global-warming plan.

The Week

A Russian Winter

Big-name stars like John Mahoney and Dianne Wiest star in Classic Stage Company’s First Look Festival, which this year is devoted to Anton Chekhov.

Twain Comin’ Round the Bend

Highlights from the Metropolitan Playhouse’s Twainathon, a fun festival of performances inspired by the great American humorist.

New and Improved

You heard enough Messiahs and cantatas during the holidays; this week, go for the contemporary stuff.

Bubble Rap

Soap star plays New York.

Return of the Power Broker

Eight decades after he took power, and a quarter-century after his death, Robert Moses’s work affects every New Yorker every single day. Three exhibits explain how.

Departments

Letters to the Editor