by Don Cruise
The Walton Street Tycoons is a young adult novel about the friendships and misadventures of an extraordinary group of pre-teen capitalists. Mark and his friends confront the challenges of a corrupt small-town government, condescending teachers and parents, and the onset of girl trouble. Themes of freedom and individualism underscore a fast-paced, humorous narrative filled with food fights, practical jokes and the quest for a perfect day of fishing.

Author Jim Lesczynski lives with his wife and kids in East River Housing and is the editor and publisher of Serf City, a free tabloid newspaper covering New York politics from a libertarian perspective.

by Jonathan Slaff
“Janyl” the newest work by Yara Arts Group, is based on an ancient epic song from Kyrgyzstan, “Janyl Myrza” (pronounced Ja-nil Mir-zha), about a woman archer with a skill so refined that she never misses. This World Music-Theater piece includes fragments of the epic performed live by Kyrgyz artists from Central Asia in the traditional singing style, while Yara artists perform in English. Virlana Tkacz directs.

by Don Cruise
The broker blog differs substantially from the classic guy-in-his-basement Web diary because it does not come from an outside observer. Nor is it like that guy’s professionalized cousins, like Curbed.com, the witty and obsessive links-and-news site run by Lockhart Steele, or Brownstoner.com, known for its Brooklyn coverage. The broker blog is written by an agent with a vested interest in moving property or raising his profile. It looks like a conventional blog, but it’s got more in common with the market-report mass mailings brokers send to homeowners. “Why should others take the lead in educating consumers?” asks Loho Realty’s Jacob Goldman, who’s launching a blog soon. “We should reclaim the [job] of disseminating information.”

by Jacob Goldman
The room dimensions are pretty much the same (both have kitchen listed as 15’-5” x 8’0”), one broker lists master bedroom dimensions a bit smaller than other, but second bedroom a bit larger. The point or kicker: the individual broker says the apartment is 900 sq. ft. and the “big” broker lists it at 1,050. Well, which one is it, if either?

by Don Cruise
No one tells us anything, right? am New York said Friday that South Street Seaport’s Pier 17 will most likely be razed to make way for a mixed-use retail, residential and open space development. Though the company is exploring a range of options, the three-story shopping mall named for the pier it was built on will likely be demolished, said Cheri Fein, a spokeswoman for General Growth Properties, a Chicago-based real estate company that owns and operates more than 200 malls nationwide. Fein did not elaborate on the specific plans.

by Don Cruise
I drive to the end of Bayard, but there are no spots. At Bowery I swing a right, then at Pell another right. There’s what looks like a spot, but when we get closer I notice a two-pronged fire hydrant protruding from a brick wall. Nothing on Pell.

I try to reassure Tracy. “We’ll find one.”

“I’m not worried,” she says. “I have really good parking karma.”

I hate that expression. To me, such an attitude belittles the keen sensibility about parking that has been refined and obsessed over and passed down through the male line of my family for generations. I inherited it from my father — one of the all-time great Chinatown parkers.

by Don Cruise
Celebrate the most glamorous night in Hollywood with Murray Hill “the hardest working middle-aged man in show business” as he gives Ellen a run for her money by hosting his 6th Annual Oscar Party in NYC at Mo Pitkin’s (34 Ave A, 212.777.5660). Murray provides his infamous running commentary during commercial breaks and welcomes special guests. New this year, the audience will compete for “Best” and “Worst” Dressed. Audience is encouraged to dress like their favorite celebrity for the chance to win fabulous silly prizes.

The evening of pure “showbiz” begins at 7:00 pm with Joan River’s Oscar Pre-Show and continues with the complete Oscar telecast at 8:00 pm shown on a giant screen, with impromptu performances, impersonations of the nominated stars, movie spoofs, movie trivia games and lots of prizes, including a grand prize to the Winner of the Oscar Prediction Ballot! Ballots will be handed out before the show.

6:30pm doors, 7pm pre-show, 8pm Oscar telecast until the bitter end. $18 / $20 at the door.

by Don Cruise
It could only happen here - or in thousands of other places, really, but the fact that the author chose to mention it happened here suggests that saying something took place down here still makes it seem sexier. So There.

“It’s stunning to be able to access something so obscure so effortlessly,” said John Hoffman, vice president of documentary programming at HBO. He was recently at WD-50, a restaurant in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, arguing with two friends about whether the Immaculate Conception referred to the birth of the Virgin Mary or to Jesus. Before you could say “Parsnip tart with quinoa, hazelnuts and bok choy,” Hoffman used his BlackBerry to connect to Wikipedia and recited that it was Mary who “was preserved by God from the stain of original sin at the time of her own conception.”

by Joe Soldevere
Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) thanked House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) and Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (D-PA), Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises, for agreeing to her request to bring a hearing on extending the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA), which is currently scheduled to expire at the end of 2007, to New York City. The hearing, will be held on March 5, 2007 in the New York City Council Chambers.

by Don Cruise
CityStore offers everything from a collection of unique books to luxurious silk scarves… Find NYPD, FDNY, and DSNY merchandise including die-cast collectibles and subway memorabilia; manhole cover floor mats, official NYC baby gear and the pre-paid NYC Parking Card, which can be used in all New York City municipal parking fields, all muni-meters, and selected single-space meter locations.

by Jonathan Slaff
If the Shangri-Las were more like the Supremes, they might be Betty & The Belrays, a ’60s girl group imagined by author/director William Electric Black for a musical of the same name. Set in Detroit in the Civil Rights Era, it is a tale of three white female singers who challenge a racially divided society by singing for a black record label.

by Jacob Goldman
People buying real estate always, and justifiably so, want to know how many square feet are in a given apartment. The problem is that there are no set standards used by real estate agents so a buyer can compare one broker’s square footage to another’s. At the grocery you know exactly how many ounces or pounds a product weighs. A five-pound bag of flour weighs five pounds and you pay an exact price per pound. Same with bananas…