As the creative class has grown in Brooklyn, it has been equally growing in the East Bay area of San Francisco. The NY Times is reporting on a bi-coastal trend that has Brooklynites flocking to the Bay Area, and vice versa, as both of the locales appeal to the DIY generation of freelancers. But what's this, SFers are calling their East Coast doppelgänger ugly? One Facebook employee residing on the sunny side of the......

MOVIE: After Marion Cotillard took home the gold for best actress in La Vie en Rose last Sunday, French cinema is sure to be all the rage. Today the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2008 series kicks off with a screening of Roman de gare (pictured). Buy tickets and get the schedule here. Friday// 6:30 and 9pm // Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts [70 Lincoln Center Plaza] // $12 (stand......

In a few days the city will begin its promised crackdown on the glut of parking placards issued to civil servants. But according to Uncivil Servants, a website that documents illegally parked cars displaying city permits, employees of Park East, an Upper East Side synagogue, have been using bogus DIY parking placards for years. And since they don’t even work for the city, their privileges won’t be affected by the new rules. Uncivil Servants says......

Inhabiting what used to be an old retail shop near South Street Seaport is a new DIY space brought to you by the producers of the Seaport Music Festival. The venue is simply called @Seaport, and it's now up and running. The space will host a wide range of events, from art to music to comedy to readings; from the press release:The producers behind the acclaimed Seaport Music series of outdoor indie music concerts......

Instead of a lengthy 2007 “best of” food list, we proudly present you (via The Gurgling Cod) with this single edible, the latest and hopefully last stunt luxury foodstuff in a year remorselessly filled with them. It comes, somewhat improbably and definitely ironically, from the gift shop at the newly opened New Museum, and it’s got karats: Edible gold crumbled into capsules, a massive $275 for the starter set. Shown here to the left, a......

When The Villager broke the news that fancy East Village cocktail lounge Death & Co. would be temporarily shut down by the State Liquor Authority, no one was as publicly dismayed as Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni. In a blog homage to the elegantly dark nightspot, Bruni gushed:There’s a drink on Death & Co.’s latest cocktail menu with bourbon and rye, along with Courvoisier and bitters. I may in fact have had it – or......

Since settling in New York in 2001, promoter Todd Patrick – known through his website as Todd P – has established himself as a major force in the avant-garde rock scene. In the fastidious spirit of a modern day Bill Graham – though without the passion for profits – Patrick has distinguished himself with his commitment to producing shows at atypical, under-the-radar locations like lofts, rooftops and funky, “illegal” clubs. Often eschewing such vagaries as......

Todd P is known around town as one of the hardest working men in D.I.Y. show biz. He created a scene out of avant garde bands, old buildings and some plywood -- and has given plenty of music lovers a place to hear good music for cheap, while sipping on a $2 beers and sweating in barely ventilated (or legal) venues. But what's this...Todd P is going on hiatus? To work on a print 'zine?......

EVENT: In the book Love & Sex With Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships David Levy goes where no man has gone before. Hopefully. From the book's description: "Love, marriage, and sex with robots? Not in a million years? Maybe a whole lot sooner.From a leading expert in artificial intelligence comes an eye-opening, superbly argued book that explores a new level of human intimacy and relationships—with robots." We're not even ready to see Lars and......

FILM: Ease in to Halloween with classic horror flick The Innocents, based on Henry James' novella The Turn Of The Screw. Evil and innocence, the strange and the everday, will mingle as you...enjoy complimentary vodka an tapas! 6pm // Mantra Lounge [986 2nd Ave] // Free, RSVP here EVENT: Neurologist Oliver Sacks explores "the complexities of human response to music and its powerful ability to move us physically and emotionally" tonight as he shares experiences......

THEATER: The National Asian American Theatre Company is known for creating adventurous theater with an all-Asian American performing plays that often have little to do with Asian Americans. Their newest production is Blind Mouth Singing by Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas; it uses a watery set and live music to tell a story of an “overly strict matriarch; her young son Reiderico who sneaks out of the house to visit his best friend who lives at the......

Clap Your Hands Back in Town After several months of playing massive festivals around the world, The original blog-band returns home. And you know, just because blogs don't follow these fellas' every move anymore doesn't mean that the DIY posterboys aren't still out there selling out clubs and supporting their sophomore album. They played a few local shows this week and their ever-improving live act was tight and on point at the Music Hall of......

Tim Gunn's Guide to Style officially premieres tonight, but Bravo served it as a surprise aperitif to Top Chef last night. The gist: Gunn gives a makeover à la What Not to Wear's Stacy and Clinton, the Queer Eye guys, and the popular girl that takes the ponytail out and glasses off of the unpopular girl in every teen movie. His first challenge: a woman that wears Juicy Couture sweats. There is no way to......

Sometimes for critics of critics, there's a desire for the critical to set aside the sniping and actually make something. Film critics and bloggers Andrew Grant of Like Anna Karina's Sweater and Aaron Hillis, a writer for The Village Voice, Premiere, and IFC News [pictured right to left] are doing something like that with the creation of their DVD distribution company Benten Films and the release of their first title, LOL on Aug. 28. As......

The New Decade: Hong Kong Film BAM Cinématek A pervasive theme in the films coming out of the prolific national cinema of Hong Kong has been their transfer over to China in 1997. The Brooklyn Academy of Music is putting a spotlight on this preoccupation in their current series The New Decade: Hong Kong Film. Running through the end of next weekend, the series offers a number of intriguing prospects made in the last 10......

Tod Seelie’s stunning photographs chronicle the wild lives and raw vistas of the international DIY counterculture. On his must-read weblog Sucka Pants, he adds cryptic comments about his travels and other observations about life as a starving-artist Brooklyn cycling photog. Seelie has been spending the first part of his summer with the Miss Rockaway Armada, a collective of artists, dreamers and misfits who, for the second year running, build and sail a group of......

LAist was comped front row seats by the Dodgers due to Malingering being struck by a foul ball last week, and she came back with some great photos, and earlier made fun of 4th of July on Venice Beach. But the biggest stories of the week was that the Mayor's Hot Tamale was revealed, and that a Kwik-E-Mart was erected in Burbank. Phillyist was busy doing the Fourth of July up right, exercising their......

Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation (directed by Eric Zala) It may be hard to imagine what hardcore movie fans did before the advent of the Internet's forums, blogs and YouTube videos, but you can take a trip down the Betamax memory lane with Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation playing tonight and tomorrow at 8 pm at Anthology Film Archives. A group of preteens in Mississippi over the course of seven years......

Crafting has made a big comeback over the past few years, and the Renegade Craft Fair has done a good job of creating a platform for crafters to sell their wares. The Post says "Expect indie artists with an edge - not frumpy, mothball-tinged women in cat sweatshirts peddling macramé plant holders. This craft fair has got cred." From their website: The Renegade Craft Fair is a unique DIY event organized by Sue Blatt......

Coming slowly but surely to a grocery store near you is 5 Boroughs Ice Cream. What started with little more than a couple’s wedding present followed by some kitchen experimentation has become a quest to endow every New York City neighborhood with its own signature ice cream flavor. 5 Boroughs owners Scott and Kim Myles are the Big Apple’s Ben and Jerry, sans Birkenstocks. With 8 themed flavors, such as the Jackson Heights Mangodesh......

-Food and Wine magazine released its Best New Chefs 2007 list earlier this week. April Bloomfield, the 32 year-old chef and co-owner of West Village gastropub The Spotted Pig, is among the ten honorees to be featured in the magazine’s July issue. Eater attended Wednesday night’s announcement party at 7 World Trade Center and watched “everyone who has ever been on an episode of Top Chef” party like it was 1999, the not-so-distant year that......

Of Montreal Are Truly Amazing We've been down in Austin for South By SouthWest for most of the last week, but before taking off, we caught one of the most enjoyable shows we've seen all year in Of Montreal at Irving Plaza. For those who claim the show was boring, we don't know what they would have to do to satisfy you. There were costume changes, songs performed oh the shoulders of mustachioed, white......

READING: Jonathan Franzen reads at the Bam Cafe tonight, but not after a buffet that include wine from the Pine Ridge Winery and other treats. There will also be a live acoustic performance and a Q&A; with Franzen. The hefty price tag includes dinner, wine, tax, and tip. 6:30pm // BAM Cafe [30 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn] // $45 THEATER: The first annual FRIGID Festival is breaking ice in the East Village at the Kraine, the......

Girl Talk get it right Last Friday, crowds packed into Studio B to see the NYC return of laptop mashup extraordinaire Girl Talk deliver his most satisfying local set to date. 90 minutes of ADD jamz that kept the capacity crowd moving the entire time. This might sound odd, the best parts of a Girl Talk set are the mixes that don't work perfectly. They're few and far between, but sometimes two songs just don't......

It’s been said that one of the defining characteristics of punk rock – besides the anti-establishment attitude and DIY ethos – is the urge to transcend the barrier between the performer up on stage and the traditionally passive spectator. In that sense, there are few artists in today’s theater more punk than Wallace Shawn – which may come as a surprise to those who know him as “that guy” from such movies as The Princess......

Remember doodling in your notebook while your teacher droned on and on and on and on like Ben Stein? Well, pull that Bic from behind your ear and start scribbling. The drawings from These Bagels Are Gnarly: Ballpoint Pen Group Drawing Show are on sale for up to $1200 at Cinders Gallery (103 Havemeyer; Brooklyn). Unlike in a high-school cafeteria, everyone finds acceptance at Cinders. Simple rows of crosshatches like the kind kept to pass......

I just moved into my first apartment all to myself. It's really small (like 250 sq. ft), but I'd still like it to look nice. What are some tips for cool design without breaking the bank? We feel your pain, but congratulations on your first place! Living alone can be great - you can express your personal style without compromise. However, it will also mean you'll be footing the bill for your creativity on......

Photo by Heart on a Stick O'Death came to our attention because of, what else, blogs. The band brings us an eclectic brand of americana folk. Their often haunting songs seem to channel bands like Man Man, yet with a big more of a bluegrass feel. Their album, Head Home, was released this year - and we liked what we heard so much we booked them at our Movable Hype show, which is tonight......

We're not that in to the whole Fashion Week scene, and it's been pretty easy to ignore its existence in this city. We even missed the whole Fashion Rocks show on tv last week. Last year Arcade Fire and David Bowie performed at it together, this year Jared Leto's band 30 Seconds to Mars did. Not the same. We feel we don't give enough opportunity for you to comment on what happened to the artist......

A reader wrote to us asking if we knew where one could find rijstafel in the city. Sure -- we love a challenge! But first, we actually had to find out what it was. Wikipedia was able to shed some light on the subject: An Indonesian rice table (in Dutch, rijsttafel) consists of rice accompanied by several, often spicy side dishes served buffet-style. Popular side dishes include egg rolls, sambals, satay, fish, fruit, vegetables, pickles,......