Last night at the Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University, the Brooklyn Bombshells handed the Queens of Pain their first defeat ever in the short history of the Gotham Girls Roller Derby. There were elbows thrown, hips checked, and girls going down left and right. Brooklyn came out on top in front of a sold out home crowd that saw a match that wasn't decided until late into the 2nd half. By the time......

A state judge ruled that the city cannot bar Critical Mass ride, which comes after last month's ruling that the rides do not need permits. The NY Times details the ruling:Calling the city's legal strategy against the ride "highly irregular" and "as unnecessary as it is inappropriate," Justice Michael D. Stallman of State Supreme Court in Manhattan refused to bar an environmental group and four people from taking part in it, from gathering at Union......

Don't get confused – today is Friday. Gothamist has been a bit under the weather, hence our little weekend movie preview showing up today rather than on its usual Thursday. And while we all anxiously count down the minutes until Monday's Golden Globes, there are a lot of great movie options available without even considering all the 2005 films hoping to take home a prize. Some Quick Gothamist Picks: One of the best places to......

Beloved memoirist Augusten Burroughs will be giving a reading next Tuesday of his latest book, Magical Thinking, at Coliseum Books. And he's going to dish about the new film adaptation of Running with Scissors (Annette Bening will play his mom, Gabrielle Union his mother's girlfriend; Brian Cox is his mom's shrink and Gwyneth Paltrow, Kristin Chenoweth, and Evan Rachel Wood seem to be play his daughters). His last event, at Cooper Union, was totally packed......

If it's the last Friday of the month, it means that Critical Mass bike riders will be hitting the streets. And this past Friday, 34 bikers were arrested. While past Critical Mass rides, which is meant to encourage bike use but has become, at least in the city, almost a political statement after the Republican National Convention eve ride when bikers flooded the streets, have started at Union Square, this time, the ride started from......

- The Battle for the West Side - NYC's prices have risen faster than the rest of the country - About those big street signs... - On Coco Roco in Park Slope - Debate on the media coverage of the Lower East Side murder - Gothamist Interview finds out what a gaffer/best boy really is - The City gets ready to sell out - Preparing for the Metrocard hike - And will you be......

Hey There, Cupcake!: 35 Yummy Fun Cupcake Recipes For All Occasions by Clare Crespo (Melcher Media, 2004) Gothamist's fondness for cupcakes is well known and well documented. And while one might imagine that there couldn't possibly be anything new on the cupcake front, Gothamist is happy to report that there are amazingly delicious frontiers to conquer. Because while anyone with a couple bucks in their pocket can drop by at Magnolia or Sugar Sweet Sunshine......

- The NYC Marathon takes over the city. - How many movies can you stomach in one day? - Williamsburg residents think about their gentrified neighborhood and the recent crime. - What does DC's Metro crash mean for the MTA? - The Jets lose their second game and their quarterback - A Yale student claims Freedom Tower design is his. - Can New York City have decent Mexican food? Or is it an impossible......

If you're coming late to the pizza party, brace yourselves, Joe's Pizza on the corner of Bleecker and Carmine in the Village is sclosing up shop. Curbed and Slice had coverage on Friday, with Curbed breaking the news and Slice confirming the story. It seems like rising rents have closed another established presence in the West Village. Known for their quality slices, Joe Pozzuoli says he was unable to stay after a 1666% increase in......

- Our coverage of the Emmys - The Yankees-Red Sox series in NYC - Subway crime went up during the RNC - Obligatory post on Rathergate - It's finally fall - More aftereffects of the RNC: Protesters' rights and the latest Critical Mass ride - Wednesday dilemma: Law & Order vs. CSI (well, not a dilemma for Gothamist) - Walking around Times Square is hard - And everyone's secret boyfriend, Jon Stewart, signs books We......

This week's NYT Dining section dove into one of Gothamist's favorite subjects: street food. The Times highlights the "Arepa Lady," who is very well known to visitors to the Chowhound message boards; Alpha hound Jim Leff has attempted to explain her magic: Nearby, others grill arepas on street carts, but they are not The Arepa Lady (look for the tiny, ageless woman with the beatific smile). They all use the same ingredients and similar grills,......

This week, a Gothamist Interview subject comes back to interview for us!Candice Holmes is a native New Yorker, representing as a Hunter High and Wesleyan grad. Since her Gothamist interview, she found a job as a media buyer for a marketing company where she spends her days chained to her desk and conversing on IM. Pastimes include staying out too late on work nights, being a jaded partygoer, watching VH1 Classics, shilling for her favorite......

Amy Sohn, Novelist/ Journalist...

With the start of school happening right now (though some schools have started last week or will start next), the problems with funding NYC public schools are put into perspective with two articles Gothamist came across. The Post looks at teachers and administrators asking for donations to buy books, paper, and other basic supplies; most notably, principals have cut jobs, from assistant principals to teaching assistants, as well as increased class size and cut programs......

If it's Monday, it's another great new interviewer! Gothamist has been enjoying the past couple weeks of guest interviewers (read their interviews at the Gothamist Interview), and we look forward to many more before we announce the new interviewer in October. And this week, our interviewer is Josh Abraham:Josh Abraham is a writer and artist living in N.Y.C. He is coeditor of Yankee Pot Roast, the journal of literary satire. All his creative faculties routinely......

- Get the scoop on things to see and listen to on Gothamist Arts & Events - Track your favorite local teams on Gothamist Sports - There are tons of foods and recipes to try in Gothamist Food - Figure out why subway entrances are color-coded or why women are always cold on Ask Gothamist - Check out the great interviews this past week in the Gothamist Interview - And thanks to everyone who entered......

This week, our guest interviewers for the Gothamist Interview are two of the city's more prolific gadflies about town: Our favorite Bond girl, Mindy Bond, and Raphie Frank: Hailing from the land of presidential hopefuls, Brookline, MA, Mindy Bond blew into the big city in the early nineties. She spent the decade learning about swedish furniture, people's gambling habits and making others forget the Valdez. Then she had a cultural epiphany, thus beginning her ascent......

- Gothamist Arts has Sets and the City interviews with Ambulance LTD and Elkland, political comedy, and Mira Nair fest at AMMI. And don't forget Coolfer's Weekend Music Picks either. - Ask Gothamist looks at long subway commute relationships and ending a lease - Gothamist Sports tries to cover every single Olympic sport at least once during the Olympics (here's some basketball, gymnastics, and fencing) - Gothamist Weather does its best to explain the grossness......

Some goodies from other parts of Gothamist: - Gothamist Sports: Team USA tells Chicken Little to stop crying because they actually look good Gothamist Arts & Events: Aki Kaurismaeki retrospective at Anthology Film Archives - Ask Gothamist: What the subways are telling you (picture) - Gothamist Weather: How the weather gets wetter - Gothamist Interview: Interview with Jessica Lappin, City Council Candidate - Gothamist Food: V Steakhouse reviewed You can see all of Gothamist through......

In the fifth week of people testing the Gothamist Interview waters, we have our first team - Aaron Dobbs and Lily Oei: Aaron Dobbs and Lily Oei have known each other for eight years while toiling at the same entertainment conglomerate. Raised on opposite coasts, they realized there was common ground in their Jewish Asian backgrounds, primarily on Christmas Day. Aaron whiles away the hours neglecting his day job by posting to Out of Focus.......

Gothamist is happy to welcome Nichelle Newsletter as our third guest interviewer with the Gothamist Interview. We got to meet Nichelle at the recent happy hour, and therefore now the first line of her bio is true: Nichelle Newsletter is a fun Southern girl who loves New York City. She keeps nickels in her pocket by working as a risk management consultant. She is a "fair and unbalanced" party girl who keeps herself happy by......

Gothamist is happy to introduce K. Thor Jensen today, the first of our weekly guest interviewers at the Gothamist Interview. We asked him to provide a bio so we, and our readers, could get to know him better; this is what he sent: K. Thor Jensen lives in Astoria and, on occasion, gets awesome. He has smelled a ghost, rode a flaming couch, and kissed a girl in an ice cave. His first graphic novel,......

Happy weekend! As many of you are checking out of work early (at least, we hope you are), Gothamist wants to wish you a great weekend. The police are on extra alert - they already confiscated 160 boxes of illegal fireworks from a day care center. Enjoy the weekend and leave your computer and 24/7 Internet access behind you! (Or at least cut it down to 16/5.) Eat hot dogs! Eat tofu dogs! Get sunburned......

Did you miss the Pin-Up show back in February at Jen Bekman Gallery? No worries, there is another Pin-Up show tonight, appropriately titled Pin-Up Redux ::Details:: What: Pin-Up Redux Where: 6 Spring St (between Elizabeth and Bowery) When: June 30 - July 17, 2004 Who: featuring the work of agnes barley, mara bodis-wollner, kursten bracchi, tim carpenter, jacqueline dimilia, jake dobkin, benjamin donaldson, luke dougherty, anne hall, laura holder, andrea hornick, elinor mckay, dana miller,......

Lots of news at Casa de Gothamist this week, so let's just jump into it: 1. Andrew Krucoff has filed a petition to break the indefinite, involuntary servitude contract we signed him to at the beginning of the year, and for humanitarian reasons, we have seen fit to grant his request. Krucoff has made a tremendous contribution to Gothamist - his 100+ interviews will stand as a testament to his wit, intelligence, and kind-heartedness for......

This Saturday from 2-6 pm on Coney Island is the Mermaid Parade! You know what that means? Hand made costumes and scantily clad parade marchers! The Mermaid Parade, now in it's 21st year was started as a tribute to Mardi Gras in Coney Island, a celebration that lasted from 1903-1954. Gothamist asks you, where else can you see people celebrate "the sand, the sea, the salt air and the beginning of summers, as well as......

Gothamist Interview has hit its 100th subject. Submitting to Andrew Krucoff's Young Manhattanite Interview is none other than Tina Brown, editor, writer, and now TV personality on CNBC with all those people talking about money and stuff. She even lets everyone know how much the Topic A staff feels Henry, the Gawker Intern, who is tasked with a weekly recap of the show (check out today's recap.) Now, to work on getting Thomas Pynchon for......

- Darius McCollum and his unstoppable love of trains - Newspapers send writers for sleepover at JFK - NYC's economy is getting better, but not the best - Astor Place Haircuts moves everything to the basement - Unlikely allies wants pot legalized in NY - Beastie Boys and Ben Stiller invade midtown...but not for long - Beer and food pairings that can outdo wine and good pairings - Some new photoblogs of note -......

The NY Times has a bittersweet article about Jayson Littman, a financial analyst during the week, and a free-hug giver n Sundays. Littman gives out free hugs in Washington Square Park on Sunday afternoons, much to the skepticism of passers-by and would be huggees ("Hugging strangers is, like, weird."). A psychotherapist tells the Times, "First, I was like totally paranoid. But he seems to be really happy and generous. Of course, being a New Yorker,......

Gothamist took a look at the "controversial" Rheingold beer campaign - the one that challenges Mayor Bloomberg's quality of life initiatives - and we have a mixed reaction. The campaign, "Don't Sleep," has a great style, with shots of the people dancing, walking, sitting, or carrying an ashtray around the city, an MC imploring that New Yorkers "can't sleep till we take it back [from Bloomberg, The Man, whomever is getting in the way......