Sightings are sent in by readers and posted to our Gawker Stalker Map; send yours to tips@gawker.com.

• All the carnage of The Godfather with none of the carby cannolis: Excellent Cadavers, a documentary about Sicilian mafia antics in the 60s and 70s, plays at Film Forum. [flavorpill]
• The good people from "I Want To Dance Better at Parties" host a gathering at which there is free beer. They want you to dance better at the party, too. Level V, 675 Hudson St, 9:30 PM. Free beer in the Meatpacking District, that's right.
• The band Nakatomi Plaza does indeed take its name from Die Hard. If you're the kind of person who wants to pay money for such musical irony, head down to Sin-e tonight. [Prefix]

This just in the mailbox:

New York City real estate being what it is, there's always a silver lining. As it turns out, Dr. Nicholas Bartha actually raised the worth of his property on E. 62nd Street, simply by virtue of doing the demolition work himself. That's according to The Post, who note that the property's value is "set to boom" (Ha ha! Get it?), speaks to a few real estate brokers, some of whom actually have the decency not to be quoted by name, who call it "a developer's dream," because there's already a big hole in the ground and no tenants to evict. By blowing the whole thing up, Bartha may well have doubled the value of his property.

Before he exploded his East 62nd Street townhouse, Dr. Nicholas Bartha sent several individuals a 14-page, rambling email in which he clarified his intent to destroy the building and commit suicide. Other recipients of the message included random notables (like Arnold Schwarzenegger), as well as Bartha's ex-wife and his broker, Prudential Douglas Elliman VP Mark Baum. Yes, his broker.

Oh. My. The Real Estate blog over at the Observer has somehow managed to get a copy of the email Dr. Nicholas Bartha sent to several prominent people shortly before he blew up his East 62nd Street townhouse in a suicide attempt. The message, sent with the subject line "bartha bartha," runs for 14 pages, rambling from Bartha's childhood to his marital strife to his political views, and is available for download, in its entirety, here.

• Jolie Holland hopes her first name will trick you into showing up at the Canal Room, where she will be singing folksy songs. [flavorpill]
• Because Beethoven really does make babies smarter, the New York Philharmonic troops to Prospect Park for the fertile-wombed Grups. [NY Phil]
• This week's important wartime allgeory is brought to you by French buttons. Seriously. [Paper]

Sightings are sent in by readers and posted to our Gawker Stalker Map. This is our occasional, old-school roundup. Send your encounters to tips@gawker.com,

Blast Rocks Madison Ave. Retail [WWD]

As it turns out, Dr. Nicholas Bartha (right) — the Upper East Side doctor suspected of blowing up his 62nd Street townhouse in a suicide attempt yesterday — is more nutters than just your average Bush supporter. He was going through a divorce from his wife of 29 years, Cordula Hahn, ending a marriage in which he taunted his wife, a Jew born in Nazi-occupied Holland, by placing "swastika-adorned articles and notes around the house" (and you best believe that he was pissed when the bitch tried to remove his artwork). After the court awarded Hahn $4 million in judgments, Bartha was ordered to sell his 75% interest in his beloved townhouse. But the good doctor wasn't having any of that, and yesterday morning he sent a 14-page email to Hahn shortly before the building exploded. A sample from the suicide novel:

Residents of Hell's Kitchen - or, as they would no doubt prefer it to be called, Clinton - put up with a lot: expensive apartments, the mental agony of being way the hell over on the far west side, Rudy's. But now, these unfortunate, wealthy souls are suffering from a new indignity: prostitutes. Well, it's not actually a new indignity: anyone with any sort of institutional memory knows that prostitutes are and have been endemic to that neighborhood back unto time immemorial. Frankly, we wouldn't be surprised if prostitution were invented at the corner of 48th and 11th. But to the "young families dishing out up to $3,000 a month in rent," who had been "assured... [by realtors!] that the neighborhood was 'up and coming,'" living in an area where New York's hardest workers ply their trade well into the early hours is unacceptable. "It's a lot of money to be paying to have this activity going on," says one of them.

Sightings are sent in by readers and posted to our Gawker Stalker Map; send yours to tips@gawker.com.

This morning's gas explosion in an Upper East Side townhouse resulted in 11 people injured, including 6 firefighters. So what was the cause of the gas leak at 34 East 62nd Street? 1010 WINS reports that Dr. Nicholas Bartha, whose practice was in the building, is going through a divorce and would be forced to sell the building as a result. His estranged wife had recently received an email from the Bartha indicating that he had been contemplating suicide; at the time of the explosion, Bartha was the only person inside the building and was rescued from the rubble. No word on whether he intended to take the building down with him or if that was just an unfortunate side effect. Aren't rich-people divorces so much more exciting?

• Bullitt features a car-chasing Steve McQueen trolling the streets of San Francisco. Even better, it's free. Enjoy the stifling heat in Bryant Park. [flavorpill]
• Nothing says "folksinger" like two middle initials: Robert A. A. Lowe performs at Brooklyn Fireproof tonight. [Paper]
• With all the rich people in the Hamptons, Cynthia Rowley readjusts her prices for the common man. The plebs shall triumph! [WUNYC]

It's nice to know that when tragedy strikes, New Yorkers are willing to lend a hand to their fellow citizens. A case in point is city food blog Eater, which, within hours of this morning's explosion, posted a map to help those planning to dine on the Upper East Side this evening figure out whether to choose Aureole or Amaranth. (Aureole, if you're scoring at home.) It's important at a time like this that we don't forget the real victims.

NBC is reporting that the 62nd street townhouse explosion may have been caused by a gas leak; the building housed doctors' offices and investigators are looking into a possible suicide attempt. Until more details emerge, let's go to the man-on-the-street interview with a notorious gas expert:

In a place where shrinks and therapists serve as our food and water, it should be relatively obvious that New York is the most miserable city in America (this may be directly related to the average New Yorker's inability to meet the cost of living here). New York magazine comes to the rescue, however, compiling all the self-help books on Adam Moss' bookshelf in order to create a list of 20 strategies for happy New York living. Most of the suggestions are pretty obvious: avoid law school, find a mate, do as little parenting as possible.

A four-story townhouse at 62nd between Park and Madison has collapsed in an explosion at around 8:40 this morning; there's now a significant fire at the location. There are multiple (4 or more) injuries, but the surrounding luxury apartment buildings are still standing. Other details are sketchy so, in the absence of real information, we'll defer to the 1010 WINS approach: uninformed hysteria, complemented by wrath-of-God graphics.

Sightings are sent in by readers and posted to our Gawker Stalker Map; send yours to tips@gawker.com.

Friday:
• With a name like the Cosmos, we're shocked to learn that New York's professional soccer team during the 70's didn't last. Watch the documentary Once in a Lifetime and see how a place like Studio 54 can make an excellent clubhouse. [flavorpill]
• Shearwater brings the xylophone (also, some other instruments) to an ecstatic audience at the Mercury Lounge. [Prefix]