Partial chart by Andrew Kuo for the NY Times. Andrew Kuo's charts are charmingly confusing, and his latest in the NY Times find their roots in his first summer festival: Lollapalooza '92 in New Jersey. Since then, he's learned a lot, and he's charted the knowledge for all who need some guidance as this summer's fests inch up on the calendar. For the ATP Festival happening in the Catskills, he asks (through graphs) who......

Whether or not you're going to the annual Village Halloween Parade this evening, it'll probably effect your day in some way if you live or work in the area. If you want to avoid the mayhem, don't be anywhere in the vicinity of 6th Avenue between Spring and 22nd Steets. The streets intersecting the route will be closed off at 5pm sharp! If you want to watch, get there early to stake out a spot.......

This week, Phillyist saw the waters of a landmark fountain run red for a Showtime marketing stunt, the Phils pull ahead, and some serious nostalgia. They also got a chance to review an awesome tribute album, reminded folks to see the King, and appreciated their beautiful skyline. Chicagoist knows what it's like to like the Cubs. But naming your kid Wrigley Fields? At least they can breathe a little easier now that Grossman's out and......

Björk @ MSG You might better picture Björk in some sort of magical Garden rather than the Garden, but nonetheless the avant-queen took the big stage earlier this week and brought her elaborate, over the top live show with her. She's been a busy gal all summer, headlining many of the major American music festivals, and with this being her second time through NYC. The last time she was in town she played increasingly large......

Tonight marks the beginning of the Film Society at Lincoln Center's 45th annual New York Film Festival and oh what a jam-packed fest it is. A panel of film critics chose 30 of the best new international movies to show to New York's discerning audiences and they picked hometown director Wes Anderson's newest, The Darjeeling Limited (which also comes out in theaters this weekend) to open the festival. Gothamist was pleasantly surprised at how much......

Clap Your Hands Back in Town After several months of playing massive festivals around the world, The original blog-band returns home. And you know, just because blogs don't follow these fellas' every move anymore doesn't mean that the DIY posterboys aren't still out there selling out clubs and supporting their sophomore album. They played a few local shows this week and their ever-improving live act was tight and on point at the Music Hall of......

There was very little else for Londonist to be concerned with when the threat of a Tube strike became a very unpleasant reality. The inconvenience was extreme: there aren't many alternatives to the Tube in London despite the best efforts of the Londonist team to get everyone from A to B. Brighter news came in the form of the first ever female Yeoman Warder, or Beefeater as the position is more commonly known, and......

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom......

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked......

The New Decade: Hong Kong Film BAM Cinématek A pervasive theme in the films coming out of the prolific national cinema of Hong Kong has been their transfer over to China in 1997. The Brooklyn Academy of Music is putting a spotlight on this preoccupation in their current series The New Decade: Hong Kong Film. Running through the end of next weekend, the series offers a number of intriguing prospects made in the last 10......

Frank Bruni, in the Diner's Journal, waxes poetic about the oysters at Wild Salmon and Aquagrill, and discusses the reasons why he often disobeys the "rule" that one is not supposed to eat oysters in months that don’t have an ‘r’ in them. We're with Frank on this one. We love oysters in the summer. The platter above was from a recent oyster happy our at P.J. Clarke's downtown. They were cheap, but didn't hold......

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

Call us shamelessly grandiose, but when the dust settles on the first disheartening decade of our new century, we're certain that Andrew Bird will be widely acknowledged as one of the artists who best captured (and playfully tweaked) our era's portentous zeitgeist. Indie-rock critics and bloggers have been lauding him for years, and now Bird is finally selling out the big clubs (and touring in a BioDiesel bus). On his albums, his rich, multi-textural sound......

When it comes to road rage, New York City ranks second, after Miami, according to a survey from an automobile club. We don't know if we should be proud or ashamed that we moved up from the three position! We assume that we can credit drivers from other states, as well as resident NYers in helping us reach #2. The rest of the cities with rudest drivers: Boston at 3, LA at 4, and DC......

Canadian director Guy Maddin makes movies that look nostalgic but feel modern. Often using black and white film and techniques from Silent Cinema like intertitles, live musical accompaniment and expressionistic acting, Maddin's unusual movies have been favorites at numerous international film festivals. Now the exuberantly creative director is punching up the movie going experience to make it even more like the cinema of yesteryear, showing his most recent feature Brand Upon The Brain! (which played......

Faithless Return It's been something like 9 years since the last time Faithless played in New York. Considering that the band is one of the largest in England and the rest of the world, selling out soccer stadiums and headlining major music festivals year after year, their return to the States is a pretty big deal. Hitting a couple club dates on their way to Coachella, they stopped by Webster Hall earlier in the week......

Are Robert DeNiro and David Bowie battling it out in a sort of festival turf war? Though both turned up at the Vanity Fair party thrown in honor of New York's Tribeca Film Festival - it seems there's some animosity in the air...or at least in the press. Bowie's High Line Festival begins on May 9th, just three days after DeNiro's Tribeca Film Festival ends. NY Mag describes the difference between the two: "The former......

We don't know about where you are, but it seems like spring can't decide whether or not to happen. Some days are warm, some days are cold, and sometimes you aren't sure which. Baseball may have started up (and soccer/football winding down) but it still seems cold out there. Unless it's not. Anyways, onto the -ists. Austinist happily anticipated fall's Austin City Limits, even though they're not fully recovered from South By Southwest. In......

You may have noticed that many tickets for the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival are $18, which indieWIRE notes is a 50% jump. The TFF says, "In an effort to continue to provide the best possible experience, we have raised our prices, which have until now been lower than most other festivals." A spokeswoman tells the Post that the festival must spend "a significant amount of money to outfit all theaters it uses with digital projection......

Last night, a man carrying two handguns and over 100 rounds of ammunition shot and killed a pizzeria employee in Greenwich Village and fatally shot two unarmed auxiliary police officers, before responding police officers shot him on Bleecker Street. The slain counterman at DeMarco's Pizza is being described as Romero Morales or Alfredo Romaro (we will refer to him as Romaro). The auxiliary police officers were identified as 19-year-old Eugene Marshalik, a NYU student,......

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing-- what's going on in the World of the -ist's? Bostonist dug deep to uncover Barack Obama's unpaid parking tickets, their Governor's latest ethical lapse, and a plagarizing sports writer. Chicagoist had everything in twos: two views on having the Olympics, losing two members of their Super Bowl team, and two music festivals. DCist put their noses in legal books as......

Story of the Year: Beirut The story is so well documented it's hardly worth rewriting. And of course, that was the problem. A mountain of Blog Buzz was built before the band played their first New York concert ever. Before they had even fully formed the touring band. Always trying to meet the impossible expectations, their live shows were heavily scrutinized from day one, but the general consensus was that these guys were pretty darn......

"Can you feel me? Can you motherfuckin' feel me?" Adira Amram belts out on her song "Wanna Make Out," which she sings while dressed in leotards, a Betsey Johnson push-up bra and suit jacket, or other attention-getting garb while pounding away on a keyboard or piano. Amram, the daughter of composer David Amram, started out as an actress but has taken to performing her hilarious “keyboard fantasy” songs at local comedy gigs. The 25-year-old performer......

Of course the big news in New York movies this weekend is the New York Film Festival which kicks off tomorrow at Lincoln Center. However, in an attempt reserve our NYFF excitement for a full post tomorrow, let's just focus on the regular releases. Here we go. Jon Heder is making a whole career out of this lovable loser shtick. His newest movie School for Scoundrels doesn't feature quite as pathetic a character as he......

September 21: Sagra del Maiale Leave work early and head over to Il Buco for some succulent roast pig. What better way to celebrate fall? Tasting plates are $7 a piece. 12:00 PM - 7:00 PM, 47 Bond St.212-533-1932. September 25: Slow Food Greenmarket Cocktail Party Audrey Saunders, celebrity mixologist and proprietor of Pegu Club, is mixing up a batch of Greenmarket-inspired cocktails to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Greenmarket. Three featured cocktails will be......

With the weather so nice, it's the perfect opportunity to head to Flushing today to check out the final day of the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York. Today's races have already started, but the event lasts until 6 p.m., with the last race scheduled for 5:09 (it will undoubtedly be running late). If watching various teams compete in dragon boats from the shores of Meadow Lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park,......

Just after their premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Gothamist interviewed local filmmakers and brothers, Jay and Mark Duplass. Now their hilarious, sweet little indie movie, about a road trip to deliver a purple barcalounger, The Puffy Chair is finally getting a theatrical release in New York at the Angelika. Gothamist sat down to chat again with director and co-writer Jay about DIY movie marketing, getting the perfect indie soundtrack and how to do a......

Andrew WK discusses his newly released album, his forthcoming television show, rumored conspiracies, his childhood, and art, amongst other things. Tell me about the news you currently have on the front page of your website. For starters, about two weeks ago, July 6th, and a week ago, July 12th, we released a new album in Asia called Close Calls With Brick Walls. It's part of a series of three albums that will be released......

Last night, Gothamist and Palm Pictures arranged an advance screening of 13 Tzameti at Cinema Village near Union Square and we wanted to thank everyone who came out to see the film. Watching it on the big screen with an audience filled with people on the edge of their seats for this French thriller was tons of fun. A film written, directed and produced by first time director Gela Bablauni, the movie follows a......

In theater, as in television, summer is an opportunity for producers and creative teams to try ideas that may be a little wackier than main-season fare – off- and off-off Broadway, that’s what all the play festivals that are currently on and coming up are about. But the theater world also has its version of summer TV’s ubiquitous reruns, only there we like to think the phenomenon of show extensions and brief revivals is weighted......