It’s almost that time of year when the NYC Fringe Festival dominates the theater scene with hundreds of new shows of wildly varying quality. But before the Fringe sucks the air out of the room in August, it’s worth noting that July is packed with a number of smaller, more manageable and generally more-reliable theater festivals. For starters: The Summer Play Festival: Now in its fifth season, this festival of new plays is being hosted......

Tim Gunn's Guide to Style officially premieres tonight, but Bravo served it as a surprise aperitif to Top Chef last night. The gist: Gunn gives a makeover à la What Not to Wear's Stacy and Clinton, the Queer Eye guys, and the popular girl that takes the ponytail out and glasses off of the unpopular girl in every teen movie. His first challenge: a woman that wears Juicy Couture sweats. There is no way to......

MOVIE: It's certainly not the kind of night for an outdoor movie, so we suggest sitting in the cool a/c and watching the 1978 classic Dawn of the Dead. "Gone is the possibility of mankind’s dominance in this sequel to Night of the Living Dead; the zombies are in control now, with a group of AWOL soldiers and TV producers on the run from the staggering hordes. A deserted shopping mall offers a safe hideout,......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: The 61st Annual Tony Awards (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WCBS 2) If you are a theatre fan you probably know this is already on. If you haven’t seen anything this year, think of this as a highlight reel. It also appears that they have broken tradition and have gone hostless this year. The Sopranos (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., HBO) Undoubtedly this will be the most watched Tony on Sunday,......

Chung chung! NBC and producer Dick Wolf have hashed out a deal to keep Law & Order on the air for the next four years. Variety reports (subscription only) that as part of the deal, Law & Order: Criminal Intent will be moving to USA. Yes, USA (which NBC owns) will now have the first run episodes of Detective Robert Goren's histrionics, and then NBC will air repeats of L&O:CI. Interesting! NBC Universal head......

If you're a fan of Overheard in New York, you're going to love today's Google Maps Mashup. Overplot takes "2876 quotes at 1108 locations" and reformats it all as a clickable map. So now you can find quotes conviently located near your home or office. For instance, near Gothamist HQ: Chick: ...and I was like, "Suck my dick!" Fuck that! Girl: Oh my god! He was super short, I thought he was an Oompa......

San Francisco is proud host of a new reality show called "How to Get the Guy" that's unfortunately not a descendant of Will and Grace, Queer Eye, The L Word, American Idol etc. Also a biodefence lab is coming to the East Bay and SFist teaches wine pairing. Getting on the wrong train sucks. Getting on the wrong train and becoming the victim of what will later be described as a "stabbing spree" really sucks.......

It's easy to bring out your inner sommelier -- just step outside. At our doorstep are some of the finest ingredients just begging to be matched with wine. A stroll down Bleecker Street with Ted Allen, the food and wine expert from Bravo's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (pictured at right tasting the pulp of a cacao pod for the first time) showed us how simple it was to create elegant and seemingly fancy......

Johnny Damon arrived in New York for his physical but the real story was his haircut. And where? Well, at Salon Ishi, which New York magazine said had the best hair straightening treatment in 2004. All Gothamist can say is that Damon has a looker of a wife. It's amazing though not surprising that George Steinbrenner's money can do what the Queer Eye guys can't, as in metrosexualize baseball players. The next question is, where......

If it's a player with an ounce of a talent that's having some issues of contract renewals with his ball club, then the Yankees must be invoked. The latest instance of "Scare the pants off the management by mentioning the Yanks" is with hirsute Red Sox player, Johnny Damon. Unhappy with the way his contract negotiations are going, Damon said that he'd be happy to entertain offers from the Yankees. Nice. It seems that once......

The hits keep coming for former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer: City Councilman Charles Barrons says Ferrer should get out of the mayoral race and support Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia's Field mayoral bid. Barron says Ferrer is "free-falling and it's not going to stop." For his part, Ferrer says he has a right to run. And, Gothamist would imagine, a right to lose. But things aren't that cheery for Ferrer, not to mention the......

If it isn't enough that the world has issues with America over our foreign policies, Vice President Dick Cheney has made sure the world hates our fashion choices as well. When traveling to Poland for a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Cheney made the decision to wear an "olive-drab parka, hiking boots and knit ski cap," truly enforcing the ugly American stereotype. The Washington Post's Robin Givhan points out that......

Gothamist @ Sundance ...

Gothamist likey: New York City has struck up a partnership with The History Channel where the cable channel will, among other things, give NYC about $15 million in national advertising (to promote tourism), commit $3.5 million to preserving buildings and landmarks, and create $1 million in programming. What The History Channel gets in return is being the sponsor of this program and free media space at bus shelters and the like. Now, Gothamist is wary......

We were remiss in not mentiong New York Is Book Country when Gothamist suggested some events to check out this weekend. Washington Square Park will be teeming with authors, readers, and leaves of prose, fluttering in the air. If there's one thing Gothamist would like to do more, besides sleep, it would be read, because we have at least five books that we're in the middle of. And we totally dig Ian Falconer's poster for......

NY Times reporter Warren St. John is best known to NY-area readers as the byline behind articles in the Styles section about David Sedaris, metrosexuals or bank-robbing grandpas (okay, not Styles section, but still good reading fun). But running deeper in his blood is a love of University of Alabama college football. Alabama born and bred, St. John just released Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer, a book about the 1999-2000 season for his beloved Crimson Tide.......

What kind of sneakers can I wear with khakis. Someone was telling me that all white sneakers look good. Will they go with a polo shirt or a button-down and khakis. Aatish We say... it depends on the khakis. If we're defining khakis loosely as any pants that are tan-colored, then there's a range. You can wear whatever sneakers you want with casual khakis - these are the baggy ones you wear on the weekends......

Yesterday's Gay Pride Parade couldn't have asked for a better day: The sun was shining, everyone looked beautiful, politicians went out to show they support gays but are mum about gays marrying...good times, good times. Mayor Bloomberg said, "Each of us are different in our own ways, and we should all be proud of who we are, and I don't think anybody should try to be something they're not." But he stopped short of agreeing......

My boyfriend and I just moved in together, and we are looking to buy a couch. We have already checked out Jennifer Convertibles (too frumpy and expensive), Design Within Reach (within reach my foot! Expensive!), and various other small stores in our neighborhood. While we will be going to IKEA this weekend to look at their offerings, I was thinking that there might be another alternative... I remember seeing a TV/Movie prop furniture store along......

Hmm, Gothamist is smelling conspiracy. Both the Post and the Daily News have articles today that focus on, what else, how women can get married. The Post creates their own Marriage Aptitude Test, with the help of a psychologist, whose suggestions for making one marriage ready include "Surrounding yourself with people who make you feel good about yourself" (probably not just your bartender of choice or anyone else you tip), "Identifying and trying to break......

Wendy Mitchell, indieWIRE...

Of course it was coming: Bravo is developing Queer Eye for the Straight Girl. There will be a new team of "gaylifestyle coaches" because, according to Bravo President Jeff Gaspin, "It's something our female fans have been requesting since 'Queer Eye' became a hit." Gothamist knows exactly how all the episodes will end: The women, who may or may not have boyfriends, will look fabulous, finally throw away that make-up from three years ago, know......

Mayor Bloomberg tried out a little Fosse at the NYC press corps dinner over the weekend. The theme was "Queer Eye for the Rich Guy" (Gothamist tip: Stop looking so dour and smile more!) and featured sketches about beer-swilling firefighters and cigarette-smokers. They apparently had fun, but Gothamist can only imagine what would have happened if Upright Citizens Brigade or P.S. 122 were involved. And there's a great New York magazine article by Greg Sargent......

Jen Bekman, Gallery Owner...

New York magazine has an excellent guide for places to go this Sunday to watch the Super Bowl (you can smoke at Play in Elmhurst, Scruffy Duffy's has 12 plasma TVs). NY also has the top places to get the best buffalo wings (made of chicken, of course...or unchicken) - City Bakery, Blue Smoke, and Kate's Joint are some restaurants that make the cut. Or you can make your own wings using some recipes from......

Gothamist loves Mark Simpson. How can you not love a hunky gay gender theorist who says "Someone who looks like a male masseur at a Palm Springs spa can become governor of California" while also trying to explain what he meant when he first coined the term, metrosexual. Salon has a fabulous interview with Simpson, MetroDaddy Speaks!. Some of Simpson's wisdom from the piece: When I wrote about metrosexuality back in the dark days of......

It's Gothamist's second favorite Times Arts & Leisure feature of the year (after the Fall Preview, which, even though "Fall" is less of an event in film and TV, just seems to be an exciting way to ring in the best season), when all the critics give their favorites and hateds of the year. The film critics list their best, with Elvis Mitchell calling Pirates of the Caribbean his top movie (Merry Christmas, Jerry......

The list of bets on Longbets reminds Gothamist of the classic Late Show with Conan O'Brien bit, In the Year 2000. For example, number 2 on Longbets: "In a Google search of five keywords or phrases representing the top five news stories of 2007, weblogs will rank higher than the New York Times' Web site." Maybe Longbets, a non-profit which aims to improve long-term thinking with all bets going to good causes, should work with......

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is tomorrow and New York is excited. Starting at 9AM, balloons will make their way from 77th Street and Central Park West, down CPW, the Broadway, to 34th Street and Broadway. Heading off the parade will be Jake, an inflatable turkey recreated from vintage balloons, followed by more helium friends. (tale of two cities looked at this year's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons as well as suggested some new ones.) Performers......

From the "No-Brainers" department, Pier 1 is finally sacking Kirstie Alley as its spokesperson for one of the hottest queers these days, Queer Eye for Straight Guy design fag, Thom Filicia. While the jury is still on whether this is a good career move (money aside) for Thom, this is a great move for Pier 1 - they will finally have a spokesperson who doesn't seem blitzed on something. AdAge also has this great quote......