Cyclones: It was Italian Heritage Night at Keyspan Park on Aug. 25, and on hand to help celebrate the event was Joe Gannascoli, the actor who plays Vito Spatafore on “The Sopranos.” Gannascoli is a Bensonhurst guy, having grown up near McDonald Avenue and attended Lafayette High School. Comment.

Weintrob: DUBUQUE, IOWA — The deli man in Des Moines said that when he was in Brooklyn a few years ago for a family wedding, he pulled into a gas station, got out of his minivan, put the hose in his tank and … nothing. Comment.

Atlantic Yards: Responding to the news that Brooklyn City Planning Commissioner Dolly Williams is a co-owner of real estate mogul Bruce Ratner’s recently purchased New Jersey Nets, a group opposed to the team’s move to Downtown Brooklyn filed a grievance this week with the city. Comment.

Atlantic Yards: Opponents of Bruce Ratner’s plan to build a basketball arena in Prospect Heights joined forces with opponents of a planned football stadium on Manhattan’s West Side this week. Comment.

In what neighborhood leaders hope is the first sign of a coming development boom, Staples office supply store will join a Linens ‘n’ Things in an underdeveloped area of Coney Island. Comment.

Opening Sept. 3 at Tia cafe in Williamsburg, "Graphic Poetry: by Tha Black Krayon" is a provocative exhibition of works by Los Angeles-based artist Upendo Taylor. Comment.

While the borough gears up for the annual West Indian festivities on Labor Day weekend, Brooklyn Public Library’s latest exhibit, "Calypso Music in Postwar America," explores the impact of the Trinidadian music sensation that swept the nation from 1945 to 1960. Comment.

On Aug. 7, a unique flea market celebrated its grand opening in Red Hook. Comment.

In honor of the Republican convention’s arrival in New York City, Park Slope’s Barbes bar and the citywide "Imagine Festival of Arts, Issues & Ideas" are hosting a mini documentary film festival beginning Aug. 28 that is designed to inspire, instigate and support civic engagement through the arts. Comment.

Park Slope indie distribution company KimStim can be a foreign filmmaker’s last hope before fading - along with the cinematic fruits of his labor - into the black hole of obscurity. Comment.

When Jay Michaels took over Kingsborough Community College’s performing arts program, it was on the verge of extinction. In fact the Manhattan Beach two-year college had not put on a Shakespearean production in more than a decade. Comment.

In person, author Janet McDonald brims with the exuberance, humor and mischief that makes her lively, urban novels so popular with critics and young adult readers alike. Comment.

"We didn’t want to be in the middle of things," says Maria Catalina Arias, of Mojito, the Cuban restaurant she co-owns with Anderson Ruiz in Clinton Hill. She needn’t have worried. Comment.

Move over, Kentucky Fried Chicken! Comment.