This week, 33 years after its original release, the Rolling Stones' critically and commercially acclaimed 1978 album that topped the Billboard 200 album charts and spawned the crossover disco-blues fused worldwide megahit "Miss You," Some Girls is being re-released in a newly remastered form that is now available at Amoeba Music in three versions: the Some Girls remastered LP pressing, Some Girls Deluxe edition CD, and the Some Girls Super-Deluxe edition CD which include unreleased songs and a single for "Beast of Burden."

As aptly noted by the Amoeba Online Store reviewer of the Some Girls Remastered 2-CD Deluxe Edition, "The remaster gives the drums especially a terrific crispness. And the bonus disc is far from inessential, showing a range of different tacks the band could have taken on Some Girls, including the country jangle of “Claudine” and the rollicking “Do You Think I Really Care,” in which Jagger outsneers the punks coming up behind him."

That comment makes reference to the fact that Some Girls was released at a time when punk was in its prime and established rockers like Jagger were seen as old fogies past their prime and creativeness. Recorded between October 1977 and March 1978 Some Girls, with its obvious punk influences, was seen as Jagger's reaction to this attitude. But beyond punk and its even more obvious disco/dance influences Some Girls was really Jagger's paean to New York City (the song "Shattered" with lyrics like "Life's just a cocktail party on the street, Big Apple people dressed in plastic bags directing traffic" "or "Miss You" with Jagger singing how "I been walking Central Park" - are among the album's many examples) with countless references and nods throughout to the Big Apple which, at the time, was in its most run-down, albeit decadent, best.

He matters to me because I cannot think of him without feeling a lovely little warmth in my normally cold, cold heart.

Tiny Tim was born Herbert Khaury on April 12, 1932, in a town just south of Duchess County called New York City (not to be confused with the song "New York City" by Hanoi Rocks). Many historical records list his parents as being people, though this is speculation, and any actual witnesses have long since not been asked.

Young Herbert was given the nickname “Tiny Tim” by locals in his neighborhood because of his habit of walking around on crutches, munching Christmas puddings and asking God to "bless them, every one." (Other nicknames were bestowed as well, such as “that cripple kid who smells like stew” or “faggot,” but none of these stuck.)

The always appreciative audience that gathers for the free HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival series on Monday evenings is typically a happy and most vocal bunch. When the movie being projected on the midtown Manhattan park's big screen is set in New York City, like tonight (July 5th)'s 9pm screening of The French Connection, the energy in the thousands-strong crowd that packs the lawn tends to be even louder than usual! So expect a lot of cheering along this evening as Gene Hackman, who won an Oscar for his brilliant portrayal of tough smack-talking NYPD narcotics cop Popeye Doyle, runs around New York City in this 1971 William Friedkin directed film that features the greatest car & subway chase of all time.

A New York City summer institution for many years, the Monday night free film series at Bryant Park, which typically screens American classics from the sixties & seventies but sometimes movies from the fifties and earlier, is a social hub where for the four hours prior to the film screening, New Yorkers secure their spot on the vast lawn, have picnics and happily socialize (even the possible thunderstorm is considered a minor distraction).

Until a few years ago it used to be you could arrive anytime during the day to spread out your blanket and secure your vantage point, but after some folks starting showing up as early as 10am to mark their territory for the 8:30 or 9pm screening, the rules changed, so the earliest you can get on the lawn is now 5pm.

Everything about talented Brooklyn hip-hop duo Junk Science, who very recently released their third album A Miraculous Kind Of Machine, seems to relate back to New York City and also manages to create something new & innovative. Comprised of emcee Baje One and DJ/producer Snafu, Junk Science's last album, 2007's Gran'Dads Nerve Tonic on Embedded/Definitive Jux Records, involved them teaming up with their local Brooklyn brewery Sixpoint Craft Ales, who made a special limited edition promotional beer specifically for the rap duo. And for their latest album, released on Baje One's recently set up, Brooklyn based Modern Shark record label, they plan on releasing a series of limited edition toys to tie in with the label's output -- all made in the basement of Brooklyn emcee Tone Tank, whose next album will be released on Modern Shark in September. Meantime, the engrossing John Ta directed video (above) for the new Junk Science album track "Really, Man" reenacts the tragic interaction between one time famous NYC resident John Lennon and his deranged fan/killer Mark David Chapman. The clip was all filmed in New York City with an innovative and (happily) much less tragic spin on the outcome of that infamous meeting between artist and obsessed fan.

On this date, December 8th, exactly 29 years ago, John Lennon was tragically shot and killed outside his New York City home, The Dakota building on 72nd Street and Central Park West. He was gunned down at approx 10:50pm in cold blood by Mark David Chapman, a "fan" who Lennon had signed an autograph for earlier in the day. The former Beatle, along with his wife Yoko Ono, had just returned from a remixing session at the Record Plant recording studio.

While this event stunned Lennon/Beatles fans the world over, for those who lived in New York City it was momentous. While certainly nowhere near as devastating a tragedy as the 9/11 attacks on New York City, Lennon's horrifying murder on a Manhattan's streets was similar in that the event brought the city and its citizens together in shock and mourning. A densely populated metropolitan area, New York City can often be a cold, unfriendly place where strangers may bump shoulders with fellow city dwellers but rarely stop to talk to total strangers.

But on that night in 1980, as news of Lennon being slain trickled out, total strangers in shock gathered in the streets and cried together over the unbelievable news. It hit New Yorkers especially hard because Lennon had adopted New York City as his own. He had relocated there nine years earlier and had always proclaimed his love for the Big Apple. He even titled one of his albums after NYC, the highly politicized 1972 Yoko collaboration and double-album Some Time In New York City. And one of the most common images that comes to peoples' minds of John Lennon is one with him proudly wearing that New York City t-shirt (above). So his death in New York City hit hard. And on the night of the shooting concerned fans converged at both Roosevelt Hospital where Lennon was taken (and died within a half hour of the shooting) and outside the Dakota building, where a huge crowd had gathered, with candles lit and singing Lennon songs. And once word that Lennon had died got back to the swelling crowd outside the Dakota, the crying and mourning intensified. In fact, it continued through the night and into the days after.