Guess who's coming to New York? Yes, that's right, your favorite arachnid-human mutant turned crime-fighting superhero: Spiderman!

Though real-life Gotham (not Gotham City--that's for Batman, kids) is Spidey's stomping ground on celluloid, on June 30th he swings in to megaplexes worldwide in Spiderman 2, one of the most-hyped movies of summer 2004.

But before the tsunami of television ads and billboards gathers full force and steals a bit of your precious mindshare, the marketing geniuses for Sony Pictures have come up with a clever form of advertising.

The larger than life Spidey is a balloon like the ones in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but way cooler. Instead of floating down Central Park West pulled by a platoon of handlers, this balloon is crawling along the side of a Manhattan apartment building.

The above photo was snapped by Air Massive's generalissimo, Ivan Corsa, and was originally posted on the Global Graphica Web site.

We don't have the 411 on whether this giant Spiderman is appearing on skyscrapers in cities other than New York, either across the country or around the world. So if you've spotted the webbed wonder elsewhere, please drop us a line at the Massive or post a note below.

As for the Spiderman 2 movie itself, we've heard through the grapevine that it's awesome and has some surprising special effects. Tobey Maguire, of course, is back as Peter Parker and Spiderman. Kirsten Dunst is back as his leading lady. This being a sequel, we expect things to heat up a bit more between them on screen this time. Will Spiderman make the booty call? Find out June 30, kids!

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BTW ... Listen up, Spiderman fans! Marvel Comics is publishing a special version of the comic for India. But this isn't just some translation job; the company is setting the story in the cities of the biggest country in South Asia (and the world's second most populous nation!). Some characters will wear turbans, and Spiderman will wear his webby red-and-blue leotard on the outside of his regular clothes (yeah, weird, huh?). He'll also have a Hindu-style name based on Spidey's civilian name, Peter Parker. India also has the planet's second largest film industry, so could an original Bollywood version of Spiderman be too far off?

--Rob "Superfriend" Samra

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It's here. Finally. "To the 5 Boroughs" (Capitol Records), the Beastie Boys' highly-anticipated first full-length album in six years, has hit records shops and online music stores.

Six years! Damn, dawg! That's a long, long time!

"To the 5 Boroughs" is the Beastie Boys re-entry (don't call it a "comeback," as LL Cool J would say) to a world and a hip-hop culture much changed since the release of its last album, "Hello Nasty," in 1998. That was the era of the dotcom revolution, soaring stock markets, full-employment, a booming economy and what seemed like--at the time--a blindingly bright future.

"Hello Nasty" was pre-Napster and pre-9/11. A product of the Old Normal. In hip-hop terms, it was pre-Mos Def and pre-"Roots Come Alive." Outkast was a prophecy still waiting to be fulfilled and waiting to fill arenas. Jay Z was contemplating his next success, not retirement. Lil' Jon, Lil' Flip and Lil' Romeo were, well, way lil'er. And Eminem--who had even heard of Eminem? MTV was just one channel.

In other words, a lot has happened in six years. Not the least of which is that the Beasties have entered early middle age. So the question is do the Beastie Boys still have it? After six years, do they still have their mojo?

The anwser is ... [MORE]