Not-so-Safety Dance.

Two years ago the only places it was illegal to dance were Manhattan and Afghanistan. And now you can dance in Afghanistan.” The Village Voice delves into Manhattan’s bizarre cabaret law, used since the Giuliani era to preserve “Quality of Life” and to stop New Yorkers from spontaneously getting their groove on. Speaking as somebody with happy feet (or, in the parlance of this article, an “incidental dancer,”) I find this particularly annoying, and can think of a lot of other bar habits I’d rather see made verboten.

Ready for his Close-Up?

Evoking John McCain, John Kerry begins his own pre-campaign interview cycle with Primary Colors author Joe Klein. I ran into an old Dem friend from the DC days at a birthday party last week, and she told me that Kerry might have some serious baggage yet to come to light heading into this election. For the sake of the Dems, let’s hope that’s not the case.

Forth the Three Hunters.

We will make such a chase as shall be accounted a marvel among the Three Kindreds: Elves, Dwarves, and Men. AOL and TOR.N offer a 1-minute glimpse at one of the early moments of The Two Towers. Update: From the hunters to the hunted — Lost in the Emyn Muil, Sam and Frodo get the sense they’re being followed in another 30 seconds of footage courtesy of E!. Update 2: Now Extra gets in the act with this short moment between Aragorn and Theoden.