Italian artist Matteo Pericoli convinced 63 notable and prominent New Yorkers including Stephen Colbert, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Junot Diaz (seen above) to permit him to illustrate the window views from their homes or offices for his new book “The City Out My Window.” Am I the only one that thinks only Baryshnikov could get away with describing his view as “It’s one of New York’s most beautiful buildings, but it looks better at night … like a woman.”

When I saw this remarkable LIFE photo of a defiant brownstone apartment building, I stopped cold in my scrolling mouse tracks. The photo, which reminded me of this year’s hit Pixar film UP, should be displayed next to the word “gentrification.” Its caption read “Construction in NYC: land being cleared for 20 story building in East 60s — still occupied brownstone is soon to go.” Gothamist asked its readers where exactly this building was located and they came through with an answer. That brownstone was located at 215 East 68th Street. Today a doorman highrise building sits in that spot.

An impressive meticulously detailed large map measuring 6 feet x 8 feet of New York City cut out of paper by hand. It’s separated into four panels each representing the main boroughs (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens), except for the Rodney Dangerfield of the boroughs: sorry, Staten Island. Along with a Paris version, this unique one of a kind map is available at the popular DIY website Etsy.

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Note the police officer who attempts to break up the faux flight until the singing begins!

Break Out In Song is an ambitious public arts project that pushes the boundaries of live theater as it dazzles unsuspecting audiences with free, spontaneous and fully staged Broadway musical numbers. The idea came to producer Ryan Mackey as he would listen to show tunes on his iPod, wishing that he could start singing and dancing. After seeing the viral video of about 200 dancers perform a song from THE SOUND OF MUSIC in a train station in Antwerp, Belgium, he decided he wanted to do something similar in New York.

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“Everyone Forever Now” is an “episodic motion-based media project” that “is an examination of the collective wisdom and expression of human actions.” Creators Will Hoffman & Daniel Mercadante attempt to document and capture the mundane experiences of everyday like suntanning to the provocative such as shooting a gun. I particularly enjoyed their effort to document the art and practice of stoop sitting. When I used to live in an apartment with a stoop, one of my daily joys was to come home from work to sit on the stoop, observe, and feel the pulse of my neighborhood, as well as occasionally inform a driver that they couldn’t park in front because of the fire hydrant.

Everyone Forever Now – “Stoop Sitting” from Daniel Mercadante on Vimeo.

The World Science Festival has just begun to release some clips from this year’s festival which was held in June 2009. One of the most notable is from “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus” where Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation.

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

View more videos from this year’s World Science Festival here and here.

For more on the World Science Festival, go here.

Brian Greene, festival co-founder and theoretical physics professor at Columbia University, with the respected Dr. Bunson Honeydew

From June 10-14, New York City will host the second annual World Science Festival, a series of programs and lectures that highlight the big questions in science and how they influenced the big questions in other fields, like philosophy, ethics, and the arts. The festival’s primary mission is “to cultivate and sustain a general public informed by the content of science, inspired by its wonder, convinced of its value, and prepared to engage with its implications for the future,” a reminder that that science part of all of our lives, from the philosophical to the practical, and is worth knowing about.

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A kinder and gentler traffic in Times Square.

Finally catching up to many European cities who have made their city centers “pedestrian only” for years, New York City’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg has closed Broadway to vehicular traffic between 47th and 42nd Streets straight through the middle of Times Square in New York City. Bloomberg says that clearing both Times Square and Herald Square (from 35th to 33rd Streets on Broadway) of motorized vehicles will lower the number of pedestrian accidents and cut down on pollution.

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Once again proving the adage that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, Justin Gignac collects New York City garbage and carefully packages it in plastic cubes, which are then signed, dated, numbered, sealed and of course, available for purchase.

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