This Week in the Voice

New Yorkers can do a lot of things other people can't: ride the Staten Island Ferry at midnight, have lunch in Central Park, etc. But we can't buy a damn bottle of wine at the grocery store. This year we had a chance to change it -- but the state's liquor stores and their lobbyists blocked it. Graham Rayman uncorks.

Todd Patrick, DIY rock-show king of Brooklyn, tastemaker, scenemaker, tire-changer, and now doc star: Rob Harvilla sings you.

Aliens as The Other! Is District 9 perhaps The Empire Builders for the megaplexes? Scott Foundas explores.

An bulimic child grows into a food authority. Will readers devour Times food critic Frank Bruni's self-halp! book Born Round? Sarah DiGregorio savors.

Unions are flipping to Bill Thompson. Thank God for Mike Bloomberg he's still got carpenters' union boss Michael Forde on his side. Oops! Forde's been arrested. Tom Robbins wields the crowbar.

Joan Rivers is selling her triplex. Larry Kramer says George Washington was gay. Ex-Nell's manager tells all about the devil in Miss Grace Jones. Cynthia Nixon plays Penny Arcade! Only in Michael Musto, kids. Only in Michael Musto.

Critics have been defenestrated from Tony Awards voting. Michael Feingold feels liberated: "My new non-voter status has liberated me from events like Burn the Floor." As is his wont, he gives historical backstory.

In Astoria and Woodside, Robert Sietsema Thais one on. Plus:

Film: J. Hoberman on I'm Gonna Explode and The Headless Woman; Nick Pinkerton on My Fuhrer; Anthony Kaufman on Gerardo Naranjo; Melissa Anderson on Earth Days; Ed Gonzalez on Taxidermia.

Music: Ben Westhoff on John Forte; Jesse Jarnow on Abandon Ship at Cake Shop; Megan Foley on Lawrence Bonk.

Theater: Alexis Soloski on the Fringe Festival.

Books: Ben Beitler interviews Lev Grossman (The Magicians).

And Savage Love, Free Will Astrology, Ask a Mexican, Letters, and all that jazz.