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Rubble Kings

Directed by Shan Nicholson

USA, 2010

Draped in graffiti, a rickety old subway train makes its way across a rugged slice of New York that looks more like Mad Max than Mad Men. Only seconds into director Shan Nicholson’s documentary Rubble Kings, the audience understands that the residents on display in the film’s South Bronx ghettos live in a place that barely qualifies as America. The Bronx in the early seventies was a ruthless kingdom, where the only laws that mattered were those imposed by the hoodlums that claimed your block. Rubble Kings takes a look at the rise of New York City’s gang life in the early seventies while also making the case that the emergence of hip-hop played a large role in New York gang culture’s decline.

Narrated by John Leguizamo, Rubble Kings examines the rise of New York City gang life in...

It has been 15 years since Jennifer Lopez released her first album, but she's never performed a concert in her hometown of the Bronx - until now. That's right: Don't be fooled by the rocks that she's got. "I haven't been this excited about something in a long, long time," Lopez (a.k.a. Jenny from the Block) tells People of preparing to perform a free concert just blocks from where she grew up for her State Farm Neighborhood Sessions concert on Wednesday. "To give a free concert and give back to the community that gave me so much and so...

It has been 15 years since Jennifer Lopez released her first album, but she's never performed a concert in her hometown of the Bronx - until now. That's right: Don't be fooled by the rocks that she's got. "I haven't been this excited about something in a long, long time," Lopez (a.k.a. Jenny from the Block) tells People of preparing to perform a free concert just blocks from where she grew up for her State Farm Neighborhood Sessions concert on Wednesday. "To give a free concert and give back to the community that gave me so much and so...

Manager/producer Cory Concoff has joined management company The Collective. Concoff, who comes from independent management and production company Fuel Filmworks, brings with him such clients as writers Vincent Angell (The Beast), Jason Richman (Detroit 187) and Jason Cahill (Fringe); writer/director Larry Golin (Cross Bronx); and actress Sarah Habel (Whip It). Concoff served as an executive producer on A&E's The Beast and as a producer on indie Cross Bronx. He was previously an agent at UTA for five years and a partner at the Bauer Co. The Collective has been in expansion mode over the past 2 years, adding a half-dozen managers.

These are the highways to hell. For the second straight year, The Daily Beast ranks the roads with the worst rush hour gridlock. How does your commute rank?

More than merely expensive, long commutes are mentally debilitating. They're also completely, absolutely avoidable. With that in mind, The Daily Beast set out to determine, for the second consecutive year, which cities have the worst commutes-and specifically, which stretches of road within each city experience the worst congestion.

Related story on The Daily Beast: The 25 Worst Meals for Kids

Gallery: The Worst Commutes in America

To find America's Highways from Hell, we started with newly released data from traffic-tracking firm Inrix, which culls data from 4 million vehicles nationwide using Gps units and a smartphone application.

We pared and ranked our top 50 worst metropolitan areas for traffic for 2010 using Inrix's Travel Time Tax-the percentage of time it takes to navigate the area's roadways...

Check it out, PC and 360 darlings. Valve is not quite done with the Left 4 Dead franchise and neither should you be as Valve unleashes a Left 4 Dead comic book promotion for their upcoming expansion pack.

Written and drawn by Mike Oeming (Powers, The Cross Bronx, The Mice Templar), the comic will feature the survivors from the original Left 4 Dead (review written by "Francis" -- read it here) and connects the events between that and Left 4 Dead 2 (review written by "Coach" -- read it here), as well as the origins of the zombie outbreak, something I've Always been curious to know about. Did two idiots open a government drum, accidentally releasing toxic gas into the air like Return of The Living Dead or did genetics escape and infect everyone like Planet Terror?

Those questions and more will be answered in what I'm told will be 150 pages of digital bliss. The first...

With The Crazies remake set to terrorize theaters next week (February 26, 2010), Overture Films is starting to push the viral marketing for the film. Up first: comic book adaptations. The first two issues will be available in stores nationwide on February 17, 2010, with the next two available February 24, 2010. Check out all four covers for the comic book versions of The Crazies. Overture’s press release for all their viral platforms as follows...

Beverly Hills, CA (February 16th, 2010) – As the “outbreak” of Overture Films’ release of The Crazies draws closer, the studio is gearing up for an exciting launch of a comic book series inspired by the film along with various other multimedia content including a motion comic book series, Facebook “tower defense” game and more. The film is produced and distributed by Overture Films and co-financed by Participant Media.

The Top Cow printed comic book is broken into four chapters: Hopman Bog,...

With The Crazies remake set to terrorize theaters next week (February 26, 2010), Overture Films is starting to push the viral marketing for the film. Up first: comic book adaptations. The first two issues will be available in stores nationwide on February 17, 2010, with the next two available February 24, 2010. Check out all four covers for the comic book versions of The Crazies. Overture’s press release for all their viral platforms as follows...

Beverly Hills, CA (February 16th, 2010) – As the “outbreak” of Overture Films’ release of The Crazies draws closer, the studio is gearing up for an exciting launch of a comic book series inspired by the film along with various other multimedia content including a motion comic book series, Facebook “tower defense” game and more. The film is produced and distributed by Overture Films and co-financed by Participant Media.

The Top Cow printed comic book is broken into four chapters: Hopman Bog,...

A manual for New York City street design released yesterday signals a flexible, pedestrian-friendly cityscape to come--one more influenced by Jane Jacobs than Robert Moses.

On April 10, 1968, Jane Jacobs was arrested and charged with inciting a riot at a protest against the Lower Manhattan Expressway, an eight-lane elevated highway proposed by Robert Moses that would have obliterated a chunk of the SoHo neighborhood and displaced nearly 2,000 families.

Fortunately, the plan was defeated. But Moses prevailed over Jacobs in other cases, such as the Cross Bronx Expressway.

Jacobs and Moses are the polar stars of urban planning. He used his political might to ram home big institutional projects, like Lincoln Center and suburban parkways. She was the searing voice of neighborhood resistance and an advocate of small-scale ingenuity, in all its messy brilliance. Cities were at their best, she wrote, when politicians stepped aside and let the "ballet of the sidewalks" take over.

Independent dramas were the sure bets at the 2004 CineVegas Film Festival. Andrew Wagner's The Talent Given Us, a family drama, was awarded the jury prize, while Larry Golin's coming-of-age drama Cross Bronx won the audience award. John Harkrider's Mitchellville, about a man's secret past, received the jury's honorable mention. The jury prize is presented to a feature-length narrative film seeking U.S. distribution. The jury included director Darren Aronofsky, actress Sarah Polley and IndieWire's Wendy Mitchell. Elsewhere, Dennis Hopper, chairman of the CineVegas advisory board, presented the Marquee Award to Jack Nicholson. Hopper also presented the Half-Life Awards to Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn and Holly Hunter. Vanguard Director Awards were given to Bruce Conner, Julian Schnabel and David Lynch. Meanwhile, a special Changed My Life Award was presented to Dean Stockwell. All tributes and screenings took place at Palms Casino Resort's Brenden Theatres.