Sigur Ros Settles Down Uptown Sigur Ros played two nights up at The United Palace Theater this week. While the Icelandic group is often known for their overwhelming live shows, sometimes featuring dozens of performers on stage at once, this time around they've stripped down mostly to a core quartet. The atmosphere was somewhat restrained from your typical show, as the swooning and soaring accompaniment was minimized for the most part. For anyone familiar with......

Recently landmarked Webster Hall is undergoing some renovations, building a venue inside the venue called The Studio. The new downstairs performance space will hold around 275 people, and is set to open just in time for CMJ (around October 21st). A venue rep tells us that they plan on having shows "every night of the week" but would like to include a party night on Mondays and a comedy night on Sundays. Don't fear, B&T......

A Grinch has crossed state lines! Some NJ residents didn't receive their deliveries when a New Springville resident swiped packages from doorsteps during the holiday season. The Staten Island Advance reports that David Oakes would follow delivery trucks "to people's doors in Ocean Township, watching to make sure no one answered the door and claimed the packages." That's the problem with package delivery without signature! Apparently Oakes preferred "packages containing electronics, clothing and toys" -......

Activists trying to turn Black Friday into Buy Nothing Day have their work cut out for them when it comes to consumers like Tom Shea, who waited in line outside a midtown Manhattan Best Buy for 35 hours so he could be the first one inside when the store opened at 4am today. “"If they were selling it, we were buying it," Shea proudly told the Post. His attitude was far from unique; shopoholics like......

ART: Tonight a group of artists take what one would normally put in the paper shredder, and look at it in a whole new light. The Dotted Line "presents work that assumes the form of official documents ubiquitous to everyday life. The participating artists seek to imbue these commonplace documents with new meaning and to consider the implications of those moments when we are asked to sign along a dotted line." Open through December 21st.......

Last week Racked reported that there's word of an Apple store opening in Brooklyn. The question is, which neighborhood will iNvite them in. Dumbo NYC reports that Two Trees has reached out to Apple in the past, but they "weren’t ready". If they're ready now, their options in Dumbo would include the 6600 sq.ft space at 70 Washington Street and the 6700 sq.ft space across the street at Washington and Front Street. Racked had a......

Let’s face it; you’re probably going to return the Santa sweater that is three sizes too big from your aunt that you see maybe twice a year. There is no shame in returning something that is wrong. Very wrong. It is this spirit of post-holiday grief that reminds us that the same thing applies to wine. If the wine is faulted, not unlike the sweater with holiday appliqué, then it is your right to return......

The Hevesi probe (remember that?) is still going on-- and it has expanded to include Hevesi's Chief of Staff, who apparently was also abusing the state chauffeur services. City Comptroller Bill Thompson says the Department of Education's graduation rates may be inflated. The state agrees-- they say NYC's graduation rate is 43%, fifteen points lower than the City's estimate. A Bronx electrician took shelter from the rain at an Upper West Side newsstand. While......

If you haven't showered in a few days, there is a good chance that you're probably waiting on a line trying desperately to score one of the new next generation console releases from Sony and Nintendo. This week brings two very exciting releases for the gaming community. Tonight is the release of Sony's PlayStation3 (PS3; below, left) and Nintendo releases Wii (right) on Sunday, in hopes of both unseating the XBOX 360 who has......

Blame it on Diddy. Crain's reports that after Sean "P. Diddy" Combs opened his Sean John store at Fifth Avenue and 41st Street, building owners have been looking to make that stretch of Fifth more upscale (more than the Best Buy) and the owners of 500 Fifth Avenue is "forcing out" tenants, such as tobacconist to the world Nat Sherman. The owners are hoping to get a luxury retailer to pay $425 per square foot......

It's that time of year again, when you trade in your summer clothes for your fall sweaters. And why don't you get rid of the things you never wear while you're at it, as the city is having it's annual Fall Electronics Recycling & Clothing Donation Events in all five boroughs. The first event is this Sunday in Staten Island, and next weekend on September 24, the event will be at Union Square in Manhattan......

Better redeem any Tower Records gift certificates you have soon, because the company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in recent years. And what's more, many people have been speculating about its chances for survival, since various labels have stopped sending product because Tower hasn't been paying its bills. Huh, is that why we've been having trouble locating certain products, or is the BBC deluxe DVD of Pride & Prejudice......

As the public readies to ooh and aah over products at its spacious Fifth Avenue Apple Store, praise is being given to Apple vice president Ron Johnson for his retailing and merchandising innovations. The NY Times looks at his background, which includes Mervyns then 16 years at Target (when Steve Jobs told him Apple "is one of the biggest brands in the world," Johnson told him then the stores should be big) Forrester says......

Charlie Todd and his ImprovEverywhere agents invaded the 23rd Street Best Buy with eighty people dressed in employee uniforms-- blue shirts and khaki pants. Hilarity ensued. Check out a bunch of other clips at Vimeo, or read the full acount at Charlie's site.......

Elliott Wilson, editor-in-chief, XXL magazine...

Man, we thought we were hardcore nerds-- but we're pussies compared to the freaks who stood outside Circuit City last night in the pouring rain, waiting for the Xbox360 to get released. Check out John's photoset on Flickr for all the soaking wet details. Did anyone manage to snag an Xbox360 last night? And if you did, how do our favorite NYC games (Warriors, True Crime NYC, etc) look on the new system? Update:......

Gothamist is not spoiling last night's Apprentice: The Donald Edition for anyone who didn't see it, because what we're discussing happens in the first twenty minutes. The task was to create a potential in-store display for a new Star Wars videogame. Yes, Star Wars is so last summer, but whatever. Anyway, each team needed to meet with executives from LucasFilm and Best Buy (where the display might go). Team Excel had a 10:15AM meeting with......

The NY Times Business section has an article about how video stores have been predicted to fail ever since the mid-1980s. And then Gothamist wondered how much longer the video stores in the city would last. Ever since we had that incident with some small children and their parents at the local Blockbuster (those were our Twizzlers!), Gothamist has been Netflixing (when we get around to it) our DVD rentals or buying them on impulse......

Yesterday morning, a retired nun was hit and killed by a flatbed truck at the busy 6th Avenue and 23rd Street intersection. The nun, 80 year old Catherine Lee, had been "crossing to the west side Sixth Avenue 10:35 a.m. when the front passenger side of a flatbed truck turning right on to Sixth Avenue from 23rd Street clipped her," according to Newsday's police sources. Then, as a food cart vendor who went to help......

- Joe explains knots, nautical miles...and furlongs - New EPA emission rules mean 90% less crap in the air for you to choke on - KP finds an awesome lightning photo from Monday's crazy night of thunderstorms - Joe tackles haze and deliquescence; no one bites on my Evanescence joke. Previous thoughts on the difference between haze, mist and fog. - KP turns us on to retro-fabulous Weather Pixie, wonders which local characters would......

This weekend's temperatures probably won't have you sweating in your sleep, but Gothamist does think it's not a bad idea to get a jump on summer air conditioner sales before things get too hot. There's nothing worse than waiting to buy one until you can't stand it anymore, only to discover that all units in a 5-mile radius have been sold. Unless cold showers and noisy fans are really worth $200 savings to you,......