Photo of Radiohole's Anger/Nation courtesy Radiohole. The Fringe, the Summer Play Festival, the Ice Factory—all that's behind us. With summer all but over, it's time for the big dogs of Broadway take center stage once again. Today the Times arts section is packed with ads and articles about the upcoming theater season, which critic Charles Isherwood has dubbed A Season of Men. That's mainly because there are two David Mamet plays set to open, Arthur......

America's Next Top Model is back in New York and in its second episode, which airs tonight, things are getting a little bit real. The episode brings the fourteen newest model wannabes to the not always fashionable streets. After the troupe mingles with the tourists at their fashion show in Times Square, it's off to their first photo shoot. For regular watchers of the show you'll know there's always a theme to the shoots, well......

Merging urban exploration with something akin to La Blogotheque's Take Away Shows, the below video gives a glimpse at what's hidden in the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel underneath Downtown Brooklyn while performer Greg "Cosmo D" Heffernan scores the journey. The video is part of an online magazine called NY Moon. Each month there are several features including one called "Blueprint" which proposes new ideas for NYC. In February's issue someone suggests New York's billionaires buy up......

What has Conan O'Brien been doing in his spare time? His writers have only been putting pen to paper for their picket signs, and even though he returned to his late night desk earlier this month -- he's been a one-man show, lacking his trusty troupe of scribes. Alone and living in a world of reruns, he's been unloading in his diary strike journal. In EW's latest issue, which hit newsstands today, they dive into......

MTV is getting all old school and reporting on relevant music! The channel traveled all the way to Brooklyn for a piece on bands closely associated with the Todd P scene. Best of all, they declare Manhattan's LES dead! Not a great way to promote their new vLES, we suppose. MTVMusic VideosMTV ShowsEntertainment News The network focuses on some great Brooklyn-based bands: Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors, The Muggabears...bands many music fans have been embracing for......

MOVIES: A lavishly restored print of Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s visionary film The Holy Mountain has been making the rounds this year; it’s back again this weekend at IFC Center for a pair of midnight screenings. First released in 1973, The Holy Mountain has grown into a cult classic for its surreal, psychedelic imagery and a serpentine, metaphysical storyline, which takes as inspiration, among other things, "The Ascent of Mt. Carmel" by St. John of......

I’ve been covering theater on Gothamist for exactly one year now, so I thought it might be worthwhile to gaze wistfully back at all the theatrical peaks and valleys and call attention to some of the more noteworthy summits. (Okay, maybe one bleak valley deserves special mention.) And since I’m on vacation until the end of the month, what better time to bust out the internet equivalent of a sitcom clips show? I hasten to......

Menu Change: As previously reported by Nina Lalli over at Eat For Victory, Franny’s on Flatbush Avenue had added pastas to its menu. Right now the menu features three pastas, including a stellar penne with mint and zucchini ($15). In keeping with its mission statement of locality and sustainability, Franny’s sources mint from Long Island’s Satur Farms; zucchini comes from Hepworth Farm, located upstate in Milton. Pastas are selected by chef Andrew Feinberg from a......

Last year we posted about a little documentary on The National, a snapshot of their life on the road for seven days called One Week with The National. Seems we're not the only ones with a crush on the band. Now, following the release of their latest album, Boxer, there's another documentary about the Brooklynites. This one is by Vincent Moon, who films all of La Blogotheque's Take Away Shows. If you haven't watched any......

Bowery Snags Some Big Bands For Small Shows Earlier this week, Interpol (who if you haven't noticed is suddenly on the verge of massive international superstardom) played a local, intimate show at Bowery Ballroom to a select group of friends, label people and fans lucky enough to snag tickets when they quietly went on sale last week. The show was excellent and the band certainly proved that they've got the chops to push it to......

Bright Eyes Shows Off His Friends Okay Conor, we get it: you have cool friends. This week, during the Bright Eyes 7-night run at Town Hall, the band promised a special guest each night. So far he's brought out the likes of Lou Reed, Steve Earle, Jenny Lewis, Norah Jones and Ben Kweller. Each played a few songs of their own mid set before joining in jamming with the rest of the group. On the......

News that Senator Barack Obama had raised at least $25 million for his presidential campaign during the first quarter has now put the spotlight on how Senator Hillary Clinton's camp may feel. Just a few days ago, the $26 million Clinton raised during the quarter was touted as "historic" and "record-setting," but now Obama's take is getting the ink - the NY Times' headline is Obama Shows His Strength in a Fund-Raising Feat on......

After Monday's mercaptany-smell attack on our noses, various city officials tried to reassure New Yorkers that the odor, however disgusting, was completely harmless. That conclusion was based on various tests conducted as well as the chemical detection systems at different locations. Above is a photograph of one sensor at Penn Station (yes, that's what the thing is!). The MTA says, "We do have very good, sophisticated devices in place" to detect biological agents. Apparently......

Jeez, CMJ is only a week away! We have already announced the Saturday lineup for our unofficial CMJ day party, and now we'd like to give you the bands scheduled for next Thursday, November 2nd. All the shows will be at The White Rabbit on East Houston, and all the bands are preparing acoustic, or otherwise stripped down sets to perform. Shows are free to attend (21+). No badges, no cover, nothing like that.......

The productions covered in this installment of reviews from the 2006 New York Fringe Festival http://www.fringenyc.org are pretty far removed from those in last week’s dispatch -- which is just as it should be, since the Fringe is all about the new, the different, the craziness from every direction of the compass and layer of the mind. Plus, in today’s selection there are two can’t-misses: Big Doolie, by Richard Thompson, and David Isaacson’s Letter Purloined.......

Exactly one month from today, the New York Fringe Festival opens -- consider yourself warned! But the week before, the granddaddy of indie theater festivals, Edinburgh's Fringe, roars to life; as usual, a number of American shows are making their way over there, and eight of them are warming up in front of the home crowd one more time, in the "East to Edinburgh" festival that starts today. Shows include Godlight's spectacular staging of Fahrenheit......

Looking for a list of free summer shows in the city this summer? Check out Prefixmag's guide to free concerts. There's a lot to take in, here's what we'll be heading to: June 16 Charlier Hunter & Bobby Previte with special guests Elliott Sharp as Groundtruther, Matthew Shipp, Nils Petter Molvaer, and Sex Mob: Central Park Summerstage, 7pm. June 25 Feist, Buck 65, and Jason Collett: Central Park Summerstage, 3pm. * July 4 Belle and......

If you haven't already, you probably want to add MySpace Secret Shows as a friend on MySpace.com, and also add them to your "top 8" on the site. The site has been putting on secret shows for a while now, and that is the only way to get in. The next one in New York is James Blunt at the Cutting Room, just incase you haven't heard that song You're Beautiful enough lately. And if......

It’s almost April, do you know where your Broadway mega-shows are? Cate Blanchett and Hedda Gabler got things off to a smash start, and the rest of the big guns are revving up: Tarzan, Lestat , Julia Roberts in Three Days of Rain, Ali MacGraw and Julianna Margulies in Festen…and more. We’ll spare you (and ourselves) the wallet strain and the eye-rolling – there are plenty of worthy littler shows crying out to be seen.......

For a change of pace, this week we bring you a glimpse of the working process of a small New York theater company, a hint at the seams that underlie the shows we normally see from a plush chair in the house of the theater and then review for you. The company in question is LightBox, which is just about five years old now; the show is Ajax: 100% Fun, which opens on Wednesday at......

Manhattan User's Guide is a constant source of interesting tidbids. Take for instance some miscellaneous facts they dug up about our fair city: Number of Waterfront Miles in NYC: 578 Number of Deaths from AIDS in 2004: 1,384, an 80% decrease since the peak in 1994. Number of Movies and TV Shows Shot in NYC Last Year: Over 250 studio and independent films, over 100 television productions, and over 1,050 commercials. Top NYC Baby Names:......

Not that you were asking, but we know you wanted it. The obligatory Best of '05 List. We chose to list off the Best NYC Shows in 2005. We compiled this list after closely surveying and consulting...ourselves. Here are our Top 11 NYC Shows of 2005. That's right, we said ELEVEN. In chronological order...(insert drumroll here): 1/24/05 Colin Meloy @ the Fez [photos here] - of note: Colin told us these shows were also amongst......

Andres du Bouchet is a busy man. A few weeks ago we recommended his Naked Trampoline Hamlet monologues, which our friends at the Apiary could not curb their enthusiasm for in their coverage. This week he begins a two month run of Hilarilogues at the PIT[154 W.29th Street] with each show promising a mix of new and different material. Thursdays in November and December at 11pm. $5. By popular demand, Demetri Martin: These Are Jokes......

While it's all about the season premieres this month, there's one season finale tonight that we're excited about. Gothamist has really gotten into watching Rescue Me, catching up on this season by watching the first season DVD, and we've been loving it. Rescue Me is profane, racist, questionable, hilarious, sweet and tragic, with characters that seem like real people and less like stereotypes networks revert to because that'll make advertisers happy (probably why it's on......

Desperate Housewives and Will & Grace both received 15 Emmy nominations today, proving that like every other awards organization, Gothamist just doesn't jibe with the voters. Sure, we're happy that Arrested Development, Scrubs, and Lost got some recognition. But there is no love for programs we'll actually stay at home to watch: Veronica Mars, Nip/Tuck, Gilmore Girls. Even The O.C., which faltered last season - you have to give Peter Gallagher some credit. And why......

In L.A., Un-Cabaret has been a fixture of the alternative comedy scene for over a decade. Founder Beth Lapides started it after growing tired of what mainstream stand-up comedy was offering, and brought in friends over the years like David Cross and Bob Odenkirk, Michael Patrick King, Scott Thompson and Patton Oswalt to break new ground and showcase their material. Today it has grown into a tiny empire with live shows, writing classes and contests......

There are so many reasons why this season's America's Next Top Model has helped secure its place as one of the greatest shows ever (fainting spells! questionable mental capacity from contestants! Janice Dickinson telling a would-be model that it looks like she has a penis!), but last night's episode, The Girl Who Would Be Contagious, was incredible. The pandemonium caused by admittedly disgusting skin sores was amazing: A bunch of overreactive, stupid girls deciding not......

This weekend it's going to be cold. Again. But don't stay inside sitting on your radiators just because it's snowing, head out there and warm up in theaters! Galleries! And bars! (Oh my!) Here are some suggestions. MUSIC: Tonight in Brooklyn the Village Voice proclaimed "Best Thrower Of No-BS Far-Flung Indie Rock Shows", Todd P, will be throwing a party for Deli Magazine. Described as an intriguing, multifaceted, impossible to ignore succession of inspired semi-maniacs......

Various stars were at City Hall, stumping for a city tax break on film and TV production. Well, maybe the stars were more B-list, as they were Joey Pantoliano and Ice-T. But Gothamist will let Ice-T speak for all of us:"It's kind of really wack to be in Toronto shooting a New York movie. It's not cool at all."Totally not cool at all. And it's a great day for the American dream when one day......

Yeah, I'm pretty sure there are some shows coming up. Lemme collect myself... You want to see a different--but good--live show? Hit the Bowery Ballroom tonight to see The Unicorns (pictured). Ashlee Simpson-like they ain't. And they're Canadian, so maybe you can marry one of them and get that free healthcare after all! A really cool show would have been Beans and Jimmy Edgar (all you IDM fans, you've gotta check out his upcoming EP).......