A conversation with David Chang, chef/owner of New York’s most competitive restaurant reservation: Momofuku Ko.

Watch the interview, aired 7/22/2008:

The garden apartment, so familiar and ubiquitous today in Queens, was a new building type that transformed the urban landscape and the lifestyle of an emerging middle class. In the early 20th century, a number of the city’s most influential activists and intellectuals lived in these complexes. Dr. Jeffrey Kroessler, Associate Professor, Lloyd Sealy Library, [...]

The beginning of what we now call ‘pop culture’ dates back to the Lower East Side of nearly two centuries ago. Historian Warren Shaw delivers a dynamic lecture tracing pop culture’s roots in the 5 Points section New York City. One of our most popular lectures so far…. Watch now.

Tavis talks to Paterson (who is legally blind), who describes how he manages public speeches without notes and speaks about former Governor Spitzer. Watch interview. (originally aired June 12, 2008)

New York has long boasted about the quality of its drinking water. However, plans to drill for natural gas near the watersheds that supply New York City may change that.

The thing with TKTS booths is that you’re never entirely sure as to what will be on offer, and you have to see the performance that very evening. In other words, the booths encourage spontaneity. And spontaneity is seriously endangered these days.

Ken Tadashi Oshima, assistant professor of architecture at the U. of Washington, speaks on the potentials of prefab in Japan; Rasmus Waern, Swedish architect and architectural historian, speaks on prefab as a model of society in the Nordic countries. Watch lectures and panel discussion.

From “The Gates” in Central Park to “Tribute in Light” at the World Trade Center site, public art has provoked a variety of intense reactions from New Yorkers and brought millions of visitors to the city. Watch the documentary about public art in NYC, including Olafur Eliasson’s “The Waterfalls.”

Shot in 1959, “Broadway Express” is a portrait of New York City’s diverse population, as captured in the city’s subways during the evening rush hour and late at night. Watch this film, and others, at REEL NY online. Reel NY also airs Fridays at 12:30am on Thirteen.

Possibly the most kitsch assembled at Christie’s in a long time (save any given Jeff Koons collection), The James Brown Collection auction, taking place today (July 17), is estimated to earn his estate (which is still plagued by disputes among his relatives and business managers) approximately $2M.