Image: Bernie Hou. Sorry Reverend Billy, it’s only for three hours. For those of you who haven’t heard, all 7,100 “standalone” Starbucks in the United States will close for 180 tense, irritable minutes, starting at 5:30pm on February 26th. (That’s a Tuesday.) Now don’t let panic take over – this has nothing to do with Starbucks' "sinister Phase Two" of operations; it’s planned to facilitate the retraining of their 135,000-strong army. Come 8:30pm, this newly......

Over the weekend, Reverend Billy and his Stop Shopping Choir paid a visit to a closing establishment on 10th Street across from Saint Mark's Church. After 45 years Angelo Fontana's shoe repair shop is being priced out of the East Village, and the good Reverend was there to make some noise. The Villager recently wrote about the East Village sole saver, who has been at the same intersection for 45 years, and in the same......

As chains take over every nook and cranny of this city, some people in the East Village are forming a united front against them. The Villager reports on the corporate takeover, the resistance and the new spin on this story as old as time. Multiple Starbucks in Astor Place act as a welcome sign to the East Village, but the East Village Community Coalition would like to say good riddance to them, and more than......

The non-official Starbucks Gossip Blog posted a letter Wednesday that one disgruntled New York employee fired off to the company’s top brass. The barista wrote not to protest Starbucks’s aggressive ubiquity, their resistance to fair trade coffee, or their union busting tactics. No sir, she’s up in arms about the new company policy instructing employees to refer to drinks made with sugar-free syrup, non-fat milk, and no whipped cream as “Skinny.” The unidentified author acknowledges......

There are plenty of Starbucks in Manhattan (over 170), but if you head over to Brooklyn -- you'll see the streets are mostly void of discarded Venti cups and hardly anyone has heard Josh Groban's new Christmas album. But things are about to change, chain-haters beware.A recent Brooklyn Real Estate Roundtable meeting revealed that retail giants such as Starbucks, Duane Reade pharmacies and Chase Bank are planning to double and in some cases triple their......

As noted earlier today, a number of consumer activists, sweatshop protesters and anti-capitalist agitators have for years been working to turn Black Friday into Buy Nothing Day. Spearheaded by the anti-advertising gadflies at Adbusters, the event calls on individuals to suspend purchases for 24 hours and engage in creative activism to highlight the unsustainable patterns of mass consumer culture. Naturally, New York’s anti-corporate performance icon Reverend Billy is all over this. We spoke with......

HEADS UP!: We love Daniel Kitson, it's been documented, so we wanted to give you a heads up that our favorite British comedian is coming back to the States! He has three shows in December at Union Hall (the 2nd, 3rd and 4th), and tickets are ON SALE NOW for two of those dates. It'll be the best $8+fees that you ever spent. ART: The Brothers Grimm fairytale Hansel and Gretel has taken over the......

Hallelujah! Yesterday the judge presiding over the Reverend Billy case dropped the charges that claimed he harassed public officials. The Rev was arrested in June while reciting the First Amendment in Union Square during a Critical Mass ride which coincided with the protest of the proposed MOFTB rules. Turns out the prosecutors didn't meet their deadline to file papers explaining the arrest and its justification. The Reverend's (whose real name is Bill Talen) lawyer, Earl......

LISTEN UP: Last month we set up shop at White Rabbit, which was transformed into Gothamist House, with WOXY for 4 days of shows. Now WOXY has put together "Best of" podcasts from each of those days, and the first one is up -- so give a listen! Gothamist House Day 1.mp3 ART: First Friday's are so over, tonight come to Williamsburg for Every 2nd Friday. Pick up a copy of "the only comprehensive guide......

Need a last minute costume idea and in a New York state of mind? Here are a few NYC-themed ideas for your Halloween fête... R.I.P.ped from the Headlines • Thor Equities Need: Winged Thor helmet and hammer, brochures or maps (which can be printed out) of Coney Island -- and something to destroy them with. • The Staten Island Ninja Burglar Need: Ninja outfit, complete with nunchucks. Fake stab wound to the chest. Map......

Later on we'll be posting our CMJ Awards (we're thinking of giving Kanye one, since he never wins anything)...but for now we wanted to take a look back at the four long days of shows we held at Gothamist House. First of all, thanks to everyone who dropped by, WOXY, and of course the bands (there were a lot of them!) for putting on some great shows. Some of our personal highlights were The Muggabears......

Yesterday we opened the doors to Gothamist House and hopefully you were able to drop by or listen in on WOXY. In just a couple of hours we'll be opening up the doors again, for day two -- here's the lineup: Thursday October 18th 7:30pm - iLiKETRAiNS (MySpace) 6:45pm - Sam Champion (MySpace) 6:00pm - Dead Confederate (MySpace) 5:15pm - Bad Veins (MySpace) 4:30pm - The Big Sleep (MySpace) 3:45pm - The Teeth (MySpace) 3:00pm......

Yesterday CMJ began to take over the city. Reports of long lines at the badge pickup station came in quickly, but if this week is about anything it's about long lines. Oh, and music. If you're off for the day, come and knock on our door at Gothamist House. It's free, and here's a preview of what you'll hear: • Cut Off Your Hands: You and I.mp3 • Peasant: Those Days.mp3 • Sparrow House: You......

Performance artist and activist Bill Talen, AKA Reverend Billy, has been raising hell in New York City for so long now it’s hard to imagine this town without him. Since first seizing his sidewalk pulpit in the late 90s to combat the Disneyfication of Times Square, the reverend has been consistently down with a host of local and international progressive causes. With the help of his raucous Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, he also puts on......

It's time to start polishing up your leaving-work-early excuses, because CMJ is just around the corner. This means day shows, night shows, after parties and nearly every space downtown turning into a venue for the week. One of those spaces will be our very own Gothamist House, which is located at White Rabbit at 145 Houston Street (between Forsyth & Eldridge) October 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th from 2pm to 8pm each day. There will......

With just over a week to go before the CMJ music marathon takes over the venues and random spaces in this city...we're finally ready to announce the Gothamist House lineups for this year. One day at a time. As a reminder, this year WOXY will be broadcasting from the space -- so if you find yourself at work you'll still be able to listen in! At the end of the week stay tuned for......

We received an email alert from the Sylvia Rivera Law Project about a clash between the SRLP and police officers last night in the East Village. Here is an excerpt of the SRLP's account:On the night of Wednesday, September 26, officers from the 9th Precinct of the New York Police Department attacked without provocation members of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and of its community. Two of our community members were violently arrested, and others......

You may recall that Reverend Billy Talen was arrested in June for reciting the First Amendment in Union Square during a Critical Mass night protesting the proposed photography laws. We posted video of the arrest at the time, and Talen spent 20 hours in the Tombs charged with two counts of second-degree harassment. Yesterday the Rev faced the judge and The NY Times reports that in court "the prosecutor told Judge Tanya Kennedy that Mr.......

Critical Mass, which came to New York around 1993, hasn't always been a cause for concern amongst the city's police. After 2004's Republican National Convention coincided with that month's Critical Mass in Manhattan, things changed. The ride has taken a more political tone and there's often an air of protest circling it. The ever-changing leaderless group has been in and out of the court with arrests being called in to question. Do the police have......

Customizing your wedding is standard these days, and wedding planning businesses aren't the only ones who are benefiting. There's been a boom in people applying online to be ordained to officiate friends' and families' weddings. But there's an unexpected catch: Sometimes those Universal Life Church ordinations aren't legal in the county or state where the wedding is being performed! The NY Times has an article about the issues with ordained-online ministers. One couple, a lawyer......

Last month Reverend Billy was locked up for reciting the First Amendment in Union Square. Tonight he returns with a troupe of others to speak out against the outrageous new law that would limit public photography and filming in New York. Currently there are 2,285,188 photos tagged "New York" on Flickr, and that's just one photo sharing site, imagine if the number stopped there and we lost future images of the city. A new group......

Saturday we posted about Reverend Billy getting arrested during Friday night's Critical Mass as he recited the First Amendment. The above is a video of how it went down. Each police officer involved is identified by the cameraman, and at the end you'll see Lt Daniel Albano, "one of the main architects of the recent NYPD crackdown on civil rights." That night Reverend Billy was in jail for 20 hours, and charged with harassment......

Reverend Billy was arrested and detained last night while reciting the First Amendment in Union Square. The police claimed his preaching it at this month's Critical Mass constituted "Harassment of a Public Official". The NYPD has a history of some controversial arrests at the Critical Mass events, and at last night's the number of police practically outnumbered the riders. From the press release we received: "...even unaffiliated riders were ticketed as they approached the park.......

Last night, as part of a fund-raiser for the Church of Stop Shopping, Reverend Billy visited the Chase branch that is where the Second Avenue Deli used to be. dogseat has a great series of photographs (you can seem them on his Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Flickr set) of Reverend Billy and the gospel singers outside the branch. And they're on top of the Yiddish Walk of Fame. Sigh, progress......

The Manhattan office of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) served Starbucks a steaming hot cup of charges of anti-labor practices Friday. The move by the NLRB followed complaints by International Industrial Workers of the World organizers that the company was suppresing their union-forming efforts. According to its official website the website of its service industry branch, the IWW is "The anarchosyndicalist trade union, workers' confederation and section of the Anarchist International." driven by solidarity......

Have you groaned about how much those Grande Mocha Lattes are costing you? Have you ever wondered how you can make money from the Internet? And do you live in wireless-Internet-access range of a Starbucks? Wireless company Fon is offering free routers and the lure of cash to anyone who lives above or near the coffee chain. How does it work? By installing your FON router, you let others share your broadband for a......

Here's a video from Kelly Loudenberg, who writes, "The League of Humane Voters and The Church of Stop Shopping along with the vegan community and East Village residents teamed up this weekend for a rally to stop the closing of The Whole Earth Bakery on Saint Marks. Owner of the bakery, Peter Silvestri was there serving warm food and sweet treats to all." And here's an update about what happened after Reverend Billy was......

Yesterday afternoon, Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping went to the Astor Place Cube to protest Starbucks' refusal to let Ethiopia to trademark coffees. The Ethiopian government tried to trademark coffee names, like Sidamo, Harar, and Yirgacheffe, which could bring nearly $100 million to farmers, but the US Patent and Trademark Office denied Ethiopia's trademark applications. Reverend Billy was arrested and taken to the 9th Precinct; we're guessing the Starbucks across from......

Dunh dunh DUNH! It's the most insane shopping day of the year, thanks to most people being off and feeling that the day after Thanksgiving is an acceptable beginning to the Christmas shopping season. However, some stores were actually open yesterday, giving turkey and football some competition. Some stores opened at 5AM today, others at 6AM. In fact, some people have been flying in from overseas, perhaps to take advantage of the exchange rate!......

At Our Lady of Refuge Roman Catholic Church in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx, where for decades parishioners have rallied to denounce neighborhood drug dealers, people gathered last summer to demonstrate against an enemy that deals in digital cameras, toasters, shower curtains and thousands of other products. Where's Reverend Billy? That quote is from today's NY Times article about people trying to stop a Wal-Mart from coming to the Bronx. Nevermind that......