It’s now trendy for tourists visiting Rio de Janeiro to eschew the nice hotels in favor of a full immersion in the city’s sprawling shantytowns, or “favelas”. But for those who can’t make the trip to Brazil, a new restaurant will soon bring a taste of that scene to Williamsburg. Called Favela, the establishment is described as a "Brazilian Botequim", a simple place for the neighborhood to gather for drinks, food and watching soccer.......

Panic gripped a sizable number of New York night crawlers last fall when both the holiday-timed Motherf*cker freakfest and popular posture party Misshapes were derailed within months of each other. Today the Times checks in on distraught survivors like one Melissa Maino, partygoer: “It’s been rough. Going [to Motherf*cker] was what I depended on for New Year’s Eve. [Its end] was definitely heartbreaking.” But what’s so inspiring is the courage summoned by other partiers who......

Takeover BAM went down Saturday night after Sufjan Stevens’s last BQE show. There were 5 bands playing until 4am in the Opera House, bawdy burlesque shows, DJs and dancing in the swank BAM café, art by Mighty Robot and others, rock documentaries, a Lindsay Lohan Mid-Career Retrospective (“Mid-Career” – get it?) and $3 beer. It sounded like such a great time that we eagerly showed up at 11:30, only to realize that we weren’t the......

For those not wanting to hit the big Halloween parade (led by today's interviewee) there are other options: Park Slope's Halloween Parade (info here), Clinton Hill's Halloween Walk (info here) Prospect Park South's Halloween Parade (info here) and Williamsburg's Witches Walk (info here). EVENT: Hallowe'en is Happening Downtown at Trinty Church where both both kids and adults will find spooky spectacles tonight. For the little ones there will be an early evening filled with games,......

Mr. Black, a club at 643 Broadway (near Bleecker) was raided early yesterday morning. Thirty-two people were arrested, including 17 employees, on charges ranging from suspicion of drug possession and suspicion of selling drugs. Apparently many bags of cocaine and ecstasy were found. DJs Are Not Rockstars have a weekly gig at the club. Paper magazine has called the club a "downtown, gay hotspot." And the MySpace page for Mr. Black says it's "where anyone......

THEATER: The annual Soho Think Tank Ice Factory, arguably New York’s most impeccably curated theater festival, has been hosting an exhilarating array of new shows every weekend since July 4th . Starting tonight you can sink your teeth into Vampire University, in which “a struggling vampire family descends on an evangelical college in the Midwest, the dad’s mid-life crisis of immortality triggers a desire to come back to life and the gulf between first and......

MOVIE: The new Hairspray has set up special Sing-A-Long screenings! They begin nationwide today, and there will be three right here in New York. If you don't like rowdy theaters, skip this one! All Weekend // Various Times // Regal Union Sq 14; Clearview Chelsea 9; AMC Empire 42nd 25 MUSIC: Head down to the Seaport for an evening of Billie Holiday tunes. Turntables on the Hudson will be celebrating the release of Billie Holiday......

MOVIE: By now you've probably seen Grizzly Man. The Werner Herzog directed documentary depicts one (slightly off kilter) man's relationship with nature. Over the course of 13 summers, Timothy Treadwell lived amongst the animals - most notably the bears, in the Alaskan wild. You know this doesn't end well. 5:30pm and 9:20pm // Film Forum [209 W Houston St] // $10.50 SIGNING: Kanye West will be helping his mom, Donda, sell her book today at......

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA......

May 3: Cheezapolooza III: Naked vs Cooked Nolita House hosts cheese gurus Waldemar & Nadia as they feature six of spring's best artisanal cheese both unadulterated and then all hot and melty. Nibbles include Piave Vecchio and Pancetta Mini Grilled Cheese Sandwiches; Mini Valdeon Blue Cheese Burgers on Brioche and Four Year Aged Gouda Mini Mac & Cheese. You'll get drink tickets for a glass of wine or beer selected to pair with the each......

Yesterday, City Council members Robert Jackson, Larry Seabrook and John Liu introduced a resolution to formally apologize for NYC's role in slavery. According to the Empire Zone, Jackson hoped the resolution would "spur dialogue and interest among the new generation of New Yorkers who will lead us in the future" while Liu stated, "New York is the greatest city in the world, but let’s face it: The early foundation of this city was built on......

As part of Adidas's new spring line of End to End sneakers for Foot Locker, the German shoe manufacturer has created an EndtoEnd Project exhibit in an empty lot on Lafayette and Houston. Adidas had different graffiti artists create designs for shoes in an East London warehouse, so in bringing the finished shoes to the states, Adidas has the artists tagging a replica of a NYC subway car! Cue for a quote from City......

On-air personalities (especially those of the "shock jock" genre) are really raising the bar in crossing the line this month. While there's been some high-profile stupid DJ behavior in the past - Hot 97's Tsunami Song, Opie & Anthony broadcasting a couple having sex at St. Patrick's, DJ Star asking listeners for information where a radio rival's young daughter goes to school so he could ejaculate and pee on her - the last week has......

THEATER: Survey: Do women actually, um, enjoy Playgirl magazine? It’s a timeless question, and one that - according to former editor Ronnie Koenig - even haunted the boss herself. Her multimedia play Dirty Girl, now in previews, is about her “quest to find a woman who actually likes the beefcakes in the magazine.” The cast has been blogging and a book deal is in the works. (Brace yourself for The Devil Wears Nothing.) - John......

Tourist: New York bands go on tour. They keep a diary. We publish it. Au Revoir Simone spent two weeks in Japan in December. Playing shows, eating macrobiotic meals, hoping the deejay would play Peter Bjorn and John’s ‘Young Folks’ and much much more. Read all about it (and see lots of pictures) below. And on January 11th, catch Au Revoir Simone at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square (for their Upstairs at the......

ART: Check out Pale and Blue at 14 tonight at Giant Robot New York. Jeana Sohn’s paintings are a testament to the bond between humans and nature. Meanwhile, The Village Voice is calling Giant Robot New York, “Best New Gallery/store For Big Kids Who Still Like To Play With Toys.” Closing January 3rd. - Stephanie Nikolopoulos Closing Tomorrow // Giant Robot [437 E 9th St] // Free THEATER: The Big Voice: God or Merman? is......

Tomorrow, Visual Resistance and Time's Up have organized memorial events to honor Eric Ng, the bicyclist who was killed by a drunk driver while biking on the Hudson River bike path last Friday evening. Here are the details from Visual Resistance:1PM: Memorial bike ride. Meet up in Washington Square Park at 1pm. We will ride together to the site of Eric’s death at 1:30 SHARP. Non-bikers can go directly to the West Side Greenway, near......

Video for An Open Letter to NYC - The Beastie Boys Tomorrow night is the "GIMME SHELTER: Rock & Rescue NYC" Benefit. The night will bring together rockers in support of homeless animals. Details: WHO: BEASTIE BOYS, BLUE OYSTER CULT, THE CHOKE, THE DUELLING BANKHEADS, JOE HURLEY AND THE GENTS, MARSHALL CRENSHAW, the band MORE, MURRAY WEINSTOCK NELLIE MCKAY, SIC F*CKS, THE STAR SPANGLES, AND MORE GUESTS T.B.A. With special appearances by DEBBIE HARRY......

READINGS: Nostalgics from the Clinton era, unite! Head down to the 17th St. Barnes & Noble tonight to hear the dulcet (okay, maybe not) voices of Paul Begala and James Carville, together in their new book, Take It Back: Our Party, Our Country, Our Future. According to the Washington Post, "the book is most convincing when it is most elitist -- a kind of 'why can't anyone play this game' attack on the Democratic Party's......

THEATER: "A black comedy about a family tree that is gradually rotting away": Brutality of Fact, Keith Reddin's play about two sisters -- one an alcoholic and one a newly converted, zealous Jehovah's Witness -- their crazy mother and an estranged husband, sounds a bit like something from the Fringe gone uptown a few blocks, which in our book is a very good thing; previews start tonight for this show that is likely to provoke......

Remember DJ Star? In May, he had threatened his morning radio DJ rival DJ Envy's wife and 4 year old daughter with racial slurs and sexual molestation - even offering a reward for where the child went to school. Well, after being fired from Power 105, getting arrested for the threats, and claiming that the hurtful words of other DJs led him to make those comments, a judge dismissed charges against him if he performs......

THEATER: The River to River Festival isn't just about outdoor concerts, and Canadians not only have great indie bands, they also have theatre troupes breaking into the experimental downtown scene. Bluemouth Inc.'s What the River Said, which is in both R2R and the Sitelines series, is a case in point; the play, which evokes "the struggle for acceptance in the calm before the family storm" is the third part of a trilogy originally performed along......

MOVIES: DUMBO's weekly evening film event, Movies with a View, begins tonight with The Wizard of Oz. Bring your iPod and play "Dark Side of the Moon" while the movie plays, it'll, like, totally synch up if you press play during the 3rd lion roar. Halcyon DJs provide music before the film and there is free valet bike parking. And there will be snacks, there will. 6pm, Film at sundown // Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park,......

Name, age, occupation, where are you from? Kevin Dailey, 36, salesman and promoter from Hudson County. You're a co-founder of Brooklyn Kickball - when you tell people about kickball, what are their responses? For the most part when you first go around telling people about kickball, some people think it's the greatest idea ever, some people were just too cool to consider it, yet would sometimes show up, and other people were like, "what do......

Troi Torain, aka DJ Star, aka the DJ who threatened rival DJ Envy by saying he'd pull an R. Kelly on DJ Envy's four year old daughter, while using racist slurs to refer to DJ Envy's wife, is hoping his criminal case will be thrown out. DJ Star was arrested for his remarks (child endangerment), but his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, says that other DJs started it. Namely, Miss Jones, from Miss Jones in the Morning......

The NYPD doesn't like hate crimes either, as DJ Star has been arrested today for "suspicion of endangering the welfare of a minor" and started a hate crime investigation. Well, that's what you get for saying you'd ejaculate and pee on the 4 year old daughter of your rival, call her "half a lo mein eater," and call her mom a "slanty eye whore wife." This most likely pleases the target of some of the......

THEATER: Mike Daisey, the versatile, unpredictable monologuist (and onetime Gothamist interviewee), has revealed a lot about his own past and personality over the course of his years of performing and writing. Now, in the last entry of the season at Galapagos' "Evolve" series, he's going after new material -- a select array of "Great Men of Genius" other than himself. Last week he explored the life of Bertolt Brecht; tonight, he takes on circus impresario......

For a long time we didn't listen to Wolfmother just because they had "wolf" in their name. We were sick it. Wolfmother, Wolf Eyes, We Are Wolves..."how could any of them be better than Wolf Parade?" we thought. Then in a warehouse in Austin this March, sometime around 3am, we were sipping on our nth PBR and who came on stage? It was that nice gentleman with the crazy hair that we rode the hotel......

EVENT: It's the first Friday in April, which means one thing (to us at least): the Guggenheim! The Flavorpill curated event has Rjd2 and MC Beans bringing their style to the turntables tonight. Drink and dance the night away, but don't touch the art please. Friday // 9pm to 1am // Guggenheim Museum [1071 5th Ave] // $20 ART: This city is full of poster art and tonight at The Brooklyn Poster Show there will......

Tonight is Le One Night Stand's One-Year Anniversary Party! What does this mean? First off it means that Melody Nelson will be singing Serge Gainsbourg covers with Die Romantik, now that's something you don't see everyday. Melody Nelson, of course, is a monicker taken from Gainsbourg's concept album Histoire de Melody Nelson. The night is subtitled J'aime Serge, a little tribute to one of French pop's greatest. There will be complimentary Macau Beer from 11-12am,......