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National Library of Sweden to Recover Stolen Books

A chance request in 2004 for a 19th-century German book about the Mississippi River was what alerted the National Library of Sweden that dozens of rare books from its collection had been stolen. Now that volume and another valuable antique book that contains early maps of America have been recovered and are being returned to library officials at a ceremony on Wednesday at the office of the United States Attorney in Manhattan. These books were part of sensational heist engineered by Anders Burius, a senior librarian dubbed the “Royal Library Man,” who committed suicide shortly after his arrest nine years ago. A crack in the case first came last year after a rare atlas from 1597 was recovered. Mr. Burius sold or consigned at least 13 of the books to Ketterer Kunst, a German auction house.

The two latest finds - a 19th-century illustrated text of the Mississippi River by Henry Lewis and a 17th-century French book on the Louisiana territory by Louis Hennepin - were purchased from Ketterer in 1998 by Stephan Loewentheil, a Baltimore book dealer who had no idea that they were stolen. Mr. Loewentheil had sold the books, but bought them back after learning about the theft in order to return them to the library, said Howard Spiegler, a New York lawyer whose firm represents the Swedish library. The pair are worth about $255,000, Mr. Spiegler said.

The Hennepin contains the first published description of Niagara Falls and the first published panorama of the Louisiana Territory. Thomas Jefferson once owned a copy, which helped interest him in purchasing the region from France in 1803. The Swedish library has been adding a collection of every item printed in the country - from a Bible to a bus schedule - since 1661.



Presenting an Infant, and an Image

A television ad shows a new father gently placing his infant into a car seat, then proudly driving his wife and child home for the first time.

In London on Tuesday, Prince William re-enacted that charming Everyman tableau: the prince, in a blue shirt, sleeves rolled up, buckled a baby seat into his car - a Land Rover - then gently placed his day-old son in it. He took the wheel and drove away from the hospital with his wife, Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, and their as yet unnamed son, heir to the British throne, in the back seat. (The driver-bodyguard slipped discreetly into the passenger seat.)

The first is an ad for Nissan, the second, a commercial for the British royal family.

Both are artful displays of salesmanship.

Far more than even the royal wedding of William and Kate in 2011, the unveiling of the newest Windsor signaled to viewers worldwide that this is a new generation of royals, less isolated and more down to earth. Their wedding, watched by as many as 3 billion people, was an infomercial for the ancient British art of pageantry and tradition. Tuesday’s tableau was a nod to modern stagecraft â€" Pampers, not pomp.

CNN and others obligingly spit their screens between Tuesday’s first glimpse and the moment when Prince Charles and Princess Diana proudly presented their firstborn in 1982. The Duchess of Cambridge on Tuesday wore a light blue dress that matched her husband’s shirt, but also had white polka dots, like the green dress Diana wore when she carried her baby, not yet named William, out of the hospital.

Back then, Prince Charles and his young wife seemed quite modern, at least by royal standards, but he wore a suit and tie, and when they drove off, a chauffeur was at the wheel. His son, who joked to reporters that the baby has more hair than he, chose an even more laid-back look and casual manner, driving his newborn home much the way he took the wheel to drive Kate off after their wedding.

And these seemingly simple rites of ordinariness are as calculated as the formal posting of the royal birth announcement on a gold-trimmed easel in front of Buckingham Palace.

They happen because they happen to work. The doting and intense coverage, the Kate Waits, the crowds, the parade of royal experts (most of whom are attractive young women who look and sound a lot like Kate Middleton) are all testimony to how well Prince William and his wife, a commoner from a middle-class family, have managed to redeem and restore the royal image after the fiascos of the past few decades - and there were many more than just one annus horribilis in the scandal-soaked era of Charles, Diana, Camilla, Dodie and Fergie.

A new baby is usually a private joy, a screened-off leap into love and terror. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge managed to protect their seclusion without seeming at all exclusive. They are uncommon celebrities who together have mastered the knack of seeming like any other ordinary couple sharing an extraordinary moment with the entire world.



Barclays Center Tops American Ticket Sales List

Opening night at the Barclays Center in September.Richard Perry/The New York Times Opening night at the Barclays Center in September.

Barclays Center, the arena in Brooklyn that has challenged Madison Square Garden in the New York City market, sold more tickets than any other arena in the United States for the first six months of the year, and led the country in gross ticket sales for concerts and family shows as well, according to tallies published this week in Billboard and Pollstar magazines.

The numbers were a remarkable showing for the rust-colored arena on Atlantic Avenue, which opened in late September last year with a string of concerts by Jay Z. Overall, Barclays ranked No. 2 worldwide in ticket sales with $46.9 million, second to the O2 Arena in London, with $119 million, Billboard reported. Madison Square Garden was fourth with $39 million.

Pollstar, a trade magazine for the live music industry, said Barclays was third worldwide in number of tickets sold, with 657,000, well ahead of Madison Square Garden, which sold 194,000.

The figures reflect several handicaps for Manhattan’s premiere area. Madison Square Garden is home to three sports teams, giving it a crowded calendar that makes it difficult to schedule concerts. It has also been undergoing renovations, which has effectively closed it for the summer months.



Barclays Center Tops American Ticket Sales List

Opening night at the Barclays Center in September.Richard Perry/The New York Times Opening night at the Barclays Center in September.

Barclays Center, the arena in Brooklyn that has challenged Madison Square Garden in the New York City market, sold more tickets than any other arena in the United States for the first six months of the year, and led the country in gross ticket sales for concerts and family shows as well, according to tallies published this week in Billboard and Pollstar magazines.

The numbers were a remarkable showing for the rust-colored arena on Atlantic Avenue, which opened in late September last year with a string of concerts by Jay Z. Overall, Barclays ranked No. 2 worldwide in ticket sales with $46.9 million, second to the O2 Arena in London, with $119 million, Billboard reported. Madison Square Garden was fourth with $39 million.

Pollstar, a trade magazine for the live music industry, said Barclays was third worldwide in number of tickets sold, with 657,000, well ahead of Madison Square Garden, which sold 194,000.

The figures reflect several handicaps for Manhattan’s premiere area. Madison Square Garden is home to three sports teams, giving it a crowded calendar that makes it difficult to schedule concerts. It has also been undergoing renovations, which has effectively closed it for the summer months.



Public Theater Looking for New Home for ‘Here Lies Love’

Jose Llana, center, and Ruthie Ann Miles as Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos in Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Jose Llana, center, and Ruthie Ann Miles as Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos in “Here Lies Love” at the Public Theater.

The Public Theater is deep into a search for a new home for its hit musical “Here Lies Love,” which closes there on Sunday, with executives ordering up design options for an array of theater spaces and negotiating with Broadway and downtown theater producers about re-mounting the show in the near future.

Oskar Eustis, artistic director of the Public, said in an interview on Tuesday that he hoped to announce plans in the next month for “Here Lies Love,” a disco-infused rendering of the life of Imelda Marcos created by the musicians David Byrne and Fatboy Slim and director Alex Timbers,

Mr. Eustis said the show’s set designer, David Korins, and the New York architect Mitchell Kurtz, who has worked on Public projects before, have developed designs for four different space configurations that might fit “Here Lies Love,” which is now playing in an open rectangular hall that has been tricked out to feel like a Studio 54-style club.

Given the musical’s unusual staging by Mr. Timbers - the actors perform on two platforms, linked by moving catwalks, with many audience members standing and dancing alongside them - the Public is now looking at sufficiently flexible options for a new space.

Broadway is one possibility, Mr. Eustis said, though a Broadway house would have to be reconfigured to retain the club environment of the Public production.

“It is certainly true that we are looking at conventional theater spaces as well as unconventional spaces,” he said. “But wherever we go, we will maintain the actor-audience relationship and interaction, and the space will have to keep the feel and energy of a nightclub.”

Among the theater producers that the Public is talking to are Joey Parnes, a partner on the Broadway transfers of the Public productions of “Hair,” “The Merchant of Venice,” and “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” according to two theater executives with knowledge of the discussions.

The two executives, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to disclose confidential talks, said other possible producers included Hal Luftig (“Kinky Boots,” which won this year’s Tony Award for best musical), and the theater producer and club owner Randy Weiner, who is involved with another well-received immersive downtown show, “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.”

Mr. Parnes and Mr. Luftig did not return phone messages this week; Mr. Weiner referred questions to the Public.

Mr. Eustis declined to discuss the producers he is talking to, only saying, “We are fielding offers from many, many people here in New York, and we’re getting a stunning level of interest from people in other cities as well as overseas in countries where they think the show could be popular. But we have no deals in place at this point.” The National Theater in London is among those interested in mounting “Here Lies Love” next summer, according to the Daily Mail.

“Here Lies Love” opened in April at the Public’s LuEsther Hall to some of the best reviews of the season, but is closing to make way for other work in the space. The LuEsther fits about 160 people; the Public is hoping to find a much larger space, as well as one where alcohol could be served, to enhance the club atmospherics and generate revenue.



A Trove of New York Art Images Finds a Home

Mr. Dee, right, on Tuesday.David W. Dunlap/The New York Times Mr. Dee, right, on Tuesday.

D. James Dee retired this spring after 39 years in business as the SoHo Photographer, with a high reputation for documenting artwork and gallery installations, great stories about the New York art scene in the late 20th century and more than 250,000 color transparencies and black-and-white negatives for which he no longer had any use.

He and his wife, Sarala, are moving to Miami from their home and studio at 12 Wooster Street. The vans will arrive Monday. And Mr. Dee made it plain, in an article published June 4 in The New York Times, that his photo archive was not coming along, even though it amounted to an astonishingly broad and professional visual record of New York artists and galleries, beginning in the mid-1970s with the sculptor George Segal.

The only hitch â€" and it is not inconsiderable â€" is that almost none of Mr. Dee’s images are labeled. The transparencies were extra exposures he made at the time of shooting, as a kind of insurance. The negatives were used to produce prints for clients. After the jobs were done, he tossed the film in a box. At the end, there were more than 65 boxes, far too many to take into retirement and a second career as an artist in his own right.

If no one claimed the collection, Mr. Dee lamented, it was bound for a Dumpster.

Those who did step forward in the weeks after the article appeared included the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, N.Y. For one reason or another, however, nothing quite fit. Moving day was approaching quickly.

Then came Ian McDermott, the collection development manager of ARTstor, a subscription-only digital archive that serves some 1,500 universities, colleges, libraries and museums worldwide. Not only would this be the ideal audience for Mr. Dee’s images, ARTstor subscribers would almost certainly be able to identify most â€" if not all â€" of the artworks and installations for which no captions now exist.

A deal was born. Mr. Dee gave his archive to ARTstor, with the hope of receiving a tax deduction. ARTstor will pay him to serve as a consultant as it begins digitizing the images and trying to catalog them.

“There’s a little more dot-connecting to do,” Mr. McDermott said Tuesday, as a van pulled up at 12 Wooster Street to take the boxes away. (ARTstor is based in Manhattan, making the logistics a bit easier.)

Mr. Dee demurred. “There’s a lot more dot-connecting to do,” he said, relieved that his archive had found a good home and that he would now have one less thing to do before leaving New York.



New York Musical Theater Festival Report: ‘Volleygirls’

Susan Blackwell, center, and members of the cast of Kevin Thomas Garcia Susan Blackwell, center, and members of the cast of “Volleygirls.”

After “Lysistrata Jones” and “Bring It On,” you sort of know what you’re getting with “Volleygirls”: a band of loveable high school misfits, some bubblegum pop, low stakes and lots of girl power.

This slightly more admirable variant of the girl-team musical features a lot of fun, and often funny, female roles whose comedy doesn’t lean on sex and sex appeal. (Considering the theatrical track record, that feat is more impressive than it sounds.)

Most of those characters are players on the woefully underperforming St. Agnes high school volleyball team: the inexplicably angry girl (Juliane Godfrey); the fiery Latina (Gerianne Pérez); the cowardly beanpole (Julia Knitel, a comic standout); the team captain who is repeatedly described as being under too much pressure to be perfect, although it’s not clear exactly how, or in what way (Allison Strong).

Coaching the team is Kim Brindell (a brusque and unsentimental Susan Blackwell). Ms. Brindell has a dark, YouTube-worthy secret: She once competed at the Olympics and choked so epically that even McKayla Maroney would be impressed.

Unsurprisingly Coach Brindell’s redemption lies in leading her ragtag team to victory. She must recoup the intimidating confidence she wielded in her pre-Olympic days, and convince the girls to likewise unleash their inner “jabalí” (the Spanish word for a wild boar, helpfully suggested by that fiery Latina).

Not much happens over the show’s two hours, and Rob Ackerman’s book struggles to make sense of some of its more contrived conflicts. But the score, with music by Eli Bolin and lyrics by Sam Forman, includes a couple of lively crowd-pleasers. In addition to a “Jabalí” song (and its abundant reprises), there’s also a masterfully directed comic ode to the beautiful team captain, sung by PJ Adzima as a jittery admirer from St. Agnes’s brother school.

And whatever its shortcomings, the musical, directed by Neil Patrick Stewart, largely redeems itself in the last 20 minutes, helped along by Ryan Kasprzak’s energetic, stylized choreography of a volleyball game (with attendant silly victory dances) and a touching Oh-Captain-My-Captain-type tribute to the beleaguered coach. The closing sequence gets about a close to a winning spike as this cheeseball volleyball show could hope for.

“Volleygirls” continues through July 27 at The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre, 480 W. 42nd St.; (212) 352-3101, nymf.org.



Tanglewood Shows to Proceed Without Two Performers

Just a day after the Boston Symphony Orchestra announced that its new music director designate, Andris Nelsons, was hospitalized with a concussion in Germany and would be unable to lead the Verdi Requiem at Tanglewood on Saturday evening, the orchestra has announced two more cancellations. The conductor and pianist Christoph Eschenbach has bowed out of his Friday evening and Sunday afternoon performances because of an ear infection that has made it impossible for him to travel. And the bass Ferruccio Furlanetto, who was to have sung in the Verdi concert that Mr. Nelsons was to have led, has dropped out of the roster because of a bad cold.

The shows, however, will go on. The conductor Edo de Waart will step in to conduct Mr. Eschenbach’s Friday evening concert. Mr. Eschenbach was also to have been the soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12 in A (K. 414), but Mr. de Waart was not prepared to fill in for him in that capacity. Instead, the pianist Garrick Ohlsson, who was already scheduled to perform on Sunday, will be the soloist in the decidedly grander Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat (K. 595).

The bass-baritone Eric Owens will take Mr. Furlanetto’s place in the Verdi Requiem on Saturday evening. And Carlo Montanaro will conduct the Sunday afternoon program, with Mr. Ohlsson as the soloist in the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3.



Beyoncé Sang ‘Halo’ With Her Hair Caught in a Fan

Beyoncé performing in Montreal on Monday.Nick Farrell/Invision, via Invision for Parkwood Entertainment Beyoncé performing in Montreal on Monday.

Musicians often have to deal with annoying fans, but they are usually the human kind, not wind machines, and certainly not onstage.

Beyoncé was singing her song “Halo” at a concert in Montreal on Monday when a fan behind her sucked her long tresses into its blades. The singer kept pushing through the song, as frantic stage hands and security guaruds worked to free her. She never missed a beat.

Later, she made light of what seemed to be an embarrassing moment for a performer known for her work ethic and professionalism; she posted a picture of a hand-written note on Instagram that seemed to be a parody of “Halo” lyrics. “Gravity can’t begiiiiiiin to pull me out of the fan again / I felt my hair was yankiiiiiiin / From the fan that’s always hatiiiiiiiin,” she wrote.

“I got snatched,” she added.



WikiLeaks Film to Open Toronto Film Festival

Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Bruhl in Frank Connor/Dreamworks Studios, via Associated Press Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Bruhl in “The Fifth Estate,” which will open the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.

The National Security Agency probably knew this already, but on Tuesday morning the organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival announced that the event will open this year with “The Fifth Estate,” Bill Condon’s biographical film about WikiLeaks, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange.

“The Fifth Estate” will be presented on Sept. 5 at the Toronto festival, which will run through Sept. 15 and close with “Life of Crime,” a thriller directed by Daniel Schechter and adapted from the Elmore Leonard novel “The Switch,” with a cast that includes Jennifer Aniston, Tim Robbins, Isla Fisher and Will Forte.

Among the gala presentations that were announced for the festival are the world premieres of “August: Osage County,” John Wells’s film adaptation of Tracy Letts’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, with Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and Ewan McGregor; and “Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom,” which stars Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela and Naomie Harris as Winnie Mandela in a biographical film by Justin Chadwick.

Special presentations at the festival will include “12 Years a Slave,” directed by Steve McQueen and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor; “Devil’s Knot,” Atom Egoyan’s film drama about the West Memphis Three murders; “Enough Said,” a new comedy by Nicole Holofcener; “Labor Day,” from Jason Reitman; and “You Are Here,” directed by the “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner.



July 23: Where the Candidates Are Today

Planned events for the mayoral candidates, according to the campaigns and organizations they are affiliated with. Times are listed as scheduled but frequently change.

Joseph Burgess and Nicholas Wells contributed reporting.

Event information is listed as provided at the time of publication. Details for many of Ms. Quinn events are not released for publication.

Events by candidate

Albanese

Carrión

Catsimatidis

De Blasio

Lhota

Liu

Quinn

Thompson

Group event


John A. Catsimatidis
Republican

5 p.m.
Attends an invite-only “friendraiser,” at the Union League Club on East 37th Street.

Bill de Blasio
Democrat

7:45 a.m.
Greets morning commuters at the Nostrand Avenue subway station on Fulton Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

5:15 p.m.
Participates in the Gay Men’s Health Crisis mayoral forum on H.I.V./AIDS, at G.M.H.C. in Chelsea.

8 p.m.
Attends the National Action Network’s weekly Brooklyn action rally, at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Bedford Stuyvesant.

John C. Liu
Democrat

7 a.m.
Greets morning commuters at the St. George ferry terminal in Staten Island.

10 a.m.
After his representative on the New York City Industrial Development Agency’s board cast the only dissenting vote inside on a motion to authorize the package, the city comptroller joins community and envrionmental activists outside the agency’s offices to protest the city’s award of $127 million in tax breaks to Fresh Direct, the online grocer, to subsidize its move to the South Bronx, at 110 William Street in Lower Manhattan.

11 a.m.
Attends a news conference on efforts to reduce gun violence, timed to commemorate the death of City Councilman James E. Davis, fatally shot by a political rival inside the City Council’s own chambers 10 years ago, outside City Hall.

2:30 p.m.
Attends, in his capacity as city comptroller, the state Financial Control Board’s annual public meeting at the governor’s office in Midtown.

5:30 p.m.
Participates in the Gay Men’s Health Crisis mayoral forum on H.I.V./AIDS, at G.M.H.C. in Chelsea.

Joseph J. Lhota
Republican

7:45 a.m.
Greets morning commuters at the 96th Street subway station on Broadway.

12 p.m.
Greets voters at Madison Square Park in Manhattan.

7:30 p.m.
Attends the Queens and Kings Counties’ Conservative American Heritage Dinner, at Runno’s on the Bay in Howard Beach.

Christine C. Quinn
Democrat

7:30 a.m.
Kicks off her “50 Transit Stops in One Day” tour, as her supporters fan out across the five boroughs to inform riders of her plan to end commutes that last over an hour, with City Councilman Donovan Richards, at the Far Rockaway subway station.

Some of Ms. Quinn’s events may not be shown because the campaign declines to release her advance schedule for publication.

William C. Thompson Jr.
Democrat

7:30 a.m.
Greets morning commuters with State Assemblyman Alex Brook-Krasny and State Senator Diane Savino, at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station in Brooklyn.

10 a.m.
Holds a news conference with State Assemblyman Alec Brooks-Krasny, to discuss ways to enhance the support of small businesses hurt by future storms, at Tom’s Restaurant in Coney Island.

5:30 p.m.
Participates in the Gay Men’s Health Crisis mayoral forum on H.I.V./AIDS, at G.M.H.C. in Chelsea.

Anthony D. Weiner
Democrat

6 p.m.
Participates in the Gay Men’s Health Crisis mayoral forum on H.I.V./AIDS, at G.M.H.C. in Chelsea.

Sal F. Albanese
Democrat

7:30 a.m.
Greets morning commuters at the 40th Street subway station on Queens Boulevard.

5:30 p.m.
Participates in the Gay Men’s Health Crisis mayoral forum on H.I.V./AIDS, at G.M.H.C. in Chelsea.

Adolfo Carrión Jr.
Independent

4 p.m.
Meets with the New York City Entrepreneurs Council, at the Gilt Groupe offices on Park Avenue.

5:30 p.m.
Participates in the Gay Men’s Health Crisis mayoral forum on H.I.V./AIDS, at G.M.H.C. in Chelsea.

Readers with information about events involving the mayoral candidates are invited to send details and suggestions for coverage to cowan@nytimes.com. You can also follow us on Twitter @cowannyt.



Ferry Horns, a Safety Regulation, Cause Disturbance in Battery Park City

Kayakers on the Hudson River last week as a ferry boat passed by. Some kayakers have complained that the boats have not been sounding their horns to warn that they were leaving their docks. Joshua Bright for The New York Times Kayakers on the Hudson River last week as a ferry boat passed by. Some kayakers have complained that the boats have not been sounding their horns to warn that they were leaving their docks.

Three years ago, residents of Battery Park City in Lower Manhattan complained about noisy engines of ferryboats. Now, the ferries’ horns have some of them squawking and blaming letter-of-the law kayakers for their lost sleep.

The rules of navigation enforced by the Coast Guard require ferries and other powerboats to blast their horns for several seconds before departing docks. But some people who live in apartments in Battery Park City say the ferries that cross the Hudson River were not routinely following that rule - until some kayakers complained to the United States Coast Guard.

Now, these residents say, the ferries are sounding off from 6 a.m. until late at night, disrupting the relative peace of their oasis built on landfill. One resident, Wolfgang Gabler, has posted a video of his wife and children appearing to be roused from slumber by blasts of a ferry’s horn. He even created a Facebook page titled “Stop Honking Ferries in New York City.”

Early this month, Mr. Gabler wrote an open letter to his neighbors about the honking on a Web site devoted to happenings in Lower Manhattan. The Web site’s editor, Steven Greer, reported that the instigator of the cacophony was Nancy Brous, a Manhattan resident who heads the New York City Water Trail Association. He even posted a picture of Ms. Brous paddling a kayak.

Ms. Brous was none too happy about being portrayed as a whistle-blower who caused so many horns to be blown. In an interview last week, she insisted that “this isn’t a battle between kayakers and ferries.”

She admitted that she had been trying for two years to persuade the Coast Guard to enforce the rule. At the urging of a Coast Guard official, she said, she had encouraged other paddlers to make note of the failure of ferries to comply. She compiled those notes - and even a video one kayaker shot aboard an East River ferry that did not honk â€" and forwarded them to the Coast Guard, she said.

Happily, Ms. Brous said, “I have heard that ferries all over have been blasting more now.” She said that she did not understand why anybody would want to vilify kayakers for seeking to have much bigger boats follow a rule that was written for the safety of everybody on the water.

Asking that ferries not blow their horns for fear of waking someone, she said, “is like saying, ‘Don’t run a siren on a fire engine.’”

The Lower Manhattan Web site posted a letter that it said was from a Coast Guard official stating, “If the captains do not sound the proper signals as required, they are putting their livelihood and Merchant Mariners License in serious jeopardy as well as for the safety of the people using the waterways.” The Coast Guard did not respond to requests for comment.

For its part, Billybey Ferry said through a spokesman: “We are aware that the sounding of our horns may cause a disturbance to residents in the neighborhoods near where our ferries land, including Battery Park City.” The spokesman, Damiano DeMonte, added, “We hope that our neighbors can appreciate our need to operate in strict compliance with U.S. Coast Guard rules governing the safe operation of our shared waterways.”

Eric Stiller, whose company, Manhattan Kayak, operates kayak and paddleboard tours from Pier 66 on the Hudson, said he hoped that ferries would signal their departures more regularly. He said his guides usually swung well wide of the ferry terminal at the west end of 39th Street and had managed to avoid even a close call with an outgoing ferry.

But Mr. Stiller said he had seen up close how a kayaker might fare in a collision with a boat that can hold more than 100 commuters. A few years ago, he said, his company donated a kayak that he thought was unbreakable for a safety demonstration.

The ferry “sliced it in half,” he recalled. Until that day, Mr. Stiller said, he thought that a kayaker who went “under a ferry” would have an interesting story to tell. “Not anymore,” he said.



Sacha Baron Cohen Withdraws From Freddie Mercury Movie

Freddie Mercury, the rock musician and front man of Queen.Neal Preston/ The New York Times
Freddie Mercury, the rock musician and front man of Queen.

He had paid his dues, time after time, done his sentence but committed no crime â€" and yet, Sacha Baron Cohen will not be portraying Freddie Mercury in a coming biographical film. The project, which raised eyebrows when it was announced in 2010, would have seen Mr. Baron Cohen play Mercury, the flamboyant rock star and front man of Queen, in the era surrounding that band’s performance at the 1985 Live Aid benefit concert. (Though Mr. Baron Cohen is better known for reality-based comedies like “Borat” and “Bruno,” he has sung in movies like “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” and “Les Misérables” and is certainly capable of growing a mustache.)

But now, Deadline.com reports, Mr. Baron Cohen has withdrawn from the project, citing that crazy little thing called creative differences: He wanted a grittier treatment of Mercury, who died of AIDS in 1991, while the surviving Queen band mates were hoping for “more of a PG movie,” Deadline.com said. Producers of the film, which was being written by Peter Morgan (“The Queen”) and looking at directors like Tom Hooper (“Les Misérables”), will try to keep their project from biting the dust by seeking a new actor to play Mercury.



A Mourning Dove Ring Tone

Dear Diary:

Five thirty in the morning and I’m getting ready for the day when I hear a familiar but strange sound. It’s kind of like a mourning dove. “Kind of” because the rhythm of it is almost too perfect. Like it’s fabricated.

Instinctively I go to my iPhone to check who might be calling or texting at that hour and wonder does my phone even have a mourning dove ring tone.

But the sound is farther away. Perhaps a neighbor in the hallway with their phone, passing by?

No. It’s coming from the kitchen. There, on my ledge - 11 floors up - is a delicate, cool-gray mourning dove. Inches away and impossibly perfect. We stare at each other for a moment. Then I go back to getting ready.

A bit later, eating breakfast, I glance out the window. The ledge is empty.

Kind of sad I thought it was a ring tone.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via e-mail diary@nytimes.com and follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.



In Performance: Rory O’Malley of ‘Nobody Loves You’

“Nobody Loves You,” a new Off Broadway musical from Itamar Moses (book and lyrics) and Gaby Alter (music and lyrics), is a comedy about the contestants on a reality TV dating show of the same name. In this scene, Rory O’Malley, who plays Evan, a reality TV fan, sings “The Twitter Song,” in which he sends Twitter messages to his followers during an episode of “Nobody Loves You.” (The keyboardist is Vadim Feichtner.) The musical continues through Aug. 11 at Second Stage Theater.

Recent videos in this series include Christopher Denham in a scene from Steven Levenson’s new drama “The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin,” at the Roundabout Theater Company’s Laura Pels Theater, and members of the cast of “Choir Boy,” a new play by Tarell Alvin McCraney at City Center, singing the spiritual “Motherless Child.”

Coming soon: A musical number from “Avenue Q,” which will celebrate its 10th anniversary this month.



New York Today: Royal Reaction

Welcoming the royal baby to the world in Greenwich Village.Spencer Platt/Getty Images Welcoming the royal baby to the world in Greenwich Village.

When the former Kate Middleton visited the United States for the first time two years ago, she and Prince William skipped New York.

We forgive the slight. But the city is ready to meet the royal baby.

On Tuesday, British-themed bars and restaurants are planning to continue their celebrations. In Greenwich Village’s “Little Britain,” Tea & Sympathy is holding a name contest â€" guess right, and you might win a meal.

And with today’s rainy weather, Londoners will be right at home.

After all, we have Queens too.

WEATHER

Soaking rains today with a high of 85 degrees. Click here for more information.

TRAFFIC & TRANSIT

Mass Transit: Subways: there are delays on the 4 train. Click for current M.T.A. status.

Roads: Traffic is moving well. Click for traffic updates

Alternate side parking rules: in effect.

COMING UP TODAY

- Former Gov. George E. Pataki is expected to testify in a trial stemming from a lawsuit by convicted sexual offenders who claimed they were wrongly confined in state psychiatric hospitals after they had completed their criminal sentences.

- Closing arguments are likely in the death penalty trial for Ronell Wilson, who murdered two undercover detectives and, while in prison, fathered a child with a corrections officer.

- The Metropolitan Opera’s summer recital series comes to Crotona Park, the Bronx. 7 p.m. [Free]

- And a little lower-brow: “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted” screens at Hunts Point Recreation Center, also in the Bronx. 8 p.m. [Free]

- Celebrate Verdi and Wagner’s 200th birthdays at the Washington Square Park Music Festival. 8 p.m. [Free]

- Students from the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music strut their stuff in the “Stars of Tomorrow” series on Pier 45, Hudson River Park. 6:30 pm. [Free]

- A jazzy new musical version of Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost” opens at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. 8:30 p.m. [Free, but you better be in line already.]

- Grand Central Station becomes a gallery for an exhibit of photos of the Second Avenue Access subway project by Hiroyuki Suzuki. [Free]

- Listen to Yusef Komunyakaa and other poets read in the High Line amphitheater (at 16th Street). 6:30 p.m. [Free]

IN THE NEWS

- Emergency crews resorted to paper and pens when the city’s 911 system crashed again on Monday. [New York Times]

- Ten were hurt after a plane’s landing gear collapsed at LaGuardia, temporarily shutting the airport. [New York Times]

- Want a parking space in Park Slope? Got $80,000? [CBS]

- Firefighters bring the heat with a new charity calendar. [DNA Info]

- An overturned tractor trailer dumped beer all over Bruckner Expressway early Monday. [ABC]

- A Staten Island man accused of being a serial killer fired his lawyer at a pre-trial hearing. He will represent himself. [New York Post]

- An overloaded outlet sparked fire that injured 19 firefighters in Manhattan, officials say. [New York Post]

- Eliot Spitzer tells women “I failed, big time” in a new political ad. [NY 1]

- Yesterday we told you the governor and the mayor were in a rafting competition. Spoiler alert: the governor won. [NY1]

AND FINALLY…

It’s National Moth Week, and New York City is no exception. Tonight there’s a nighttime “moth madness” gathering for families at the Staten Island Museum (which recently hosted a cicada singles party).

Or go “mothing” â€" hunting the critters with a flashlight and a big white sheet â€" at several events across the region.

Nicole Higgins DeSmet and E.C. Gogolak contributed reporting.

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