SHOP: Tonight head to Dumbo for an “Evening of Cheer,” where three neighborhood events coordinated by the Dumbo Improvement District will be taking place. "The night’s events combine Dumbo’s monthly cultural event, First Thursdays, with extended shopping hours and promotions by local retailers and the illumination of the Empire Stores in Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park by famed lighting designer Brendon Boyd." 6pm // Various location details here EVENT: Tonight some experts gather around to celebrate......

Tonight marks the beginning of the Film Society at Lincoln Center's 45th annual New York Film Festival and oh what a jam-packed fest it is. A panel of film critics chose 30 of the best new international movies to show to New York's discerning audiences and they picked hometown director Wes Anderson's newest, The Darjeeling Limited (which also comes out in theaters this weekend) to open the festival. Gothamist was pleasantly surprised at how much......

We're just going to get this out of the way: Justin Timberlake is bringing deep-fried pickle-sicles back. The modern day song and dance man has gone and opened his very own restaurant called Southern Hospitality (at 1460 2nd Ave and 76th St). It opened last night to a crowd of A-listers people you may have heard of, hankering for some barbecue. Amongst the items offered are deviled eggs, pulled pork, mac-n-cheese, fried catfish, and yes...the......

Battlestar Galactica Marathon (Sunday, 6:00 p.m., WPXN 31) Five episodes of not the recent revival, but the camp Lorne Greene and Dirk Benedict show from 1978. The Frank Sinatra Show: Welcome Home Elvis (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., NJN) Elvis and Frank sing duets of Witchcraft" and Love Me Tender in this episode of his 1957 variety show. The Sopranos (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., HBO) Is there any relevance to the first episode of the final season airing......

A look at some noteworthy television programs this week: American Experience: The Berlin Airlift (Monday 9:00 p.m., WNET 13) A look at the use of airpower for good when the Allies supplied Berlin with food and other necessities via air to get around a Soviet blockade. The Power of Choice: The Life and Ideas of Milton Friedman (Monday 10:00 p.m., WNET 13) The life, work and legacy of the Nobel winning economist are looked into.......

Last night the Starbucks Salon opened with a private event for press which included a performance by Aimee Mann and free cocktails and coffee drinks. We forgot to go. We do look forward to heading out there at some point though for one of the following performances. Love 'em or hate 'em, they have some good acts coming up: 9/08 - DJ Skott Johnson & SloMo Video, Eugene Mirman, Buck 65 9/09 DJ Dom Leon......

We know it's cold outside, but trust us, this is a good week for literature (unlike last week, coughFREYcough). We've got some real fiction, some real non-fiction, and even a real memoir! The fun kicks off tonight at 7PM at 192 Books (10th Ave. at 21st St.) with Caroline Burke reading from Lee Miller: A Life, her new biography of the photographer. Seating is limited, so call (212) 255-4022 for reservations. Because of the reservation......

In this heartily American week some of the most appealing things to see are foreign, at least in part. For a more delicate food-related experience than Thanksgiving usually turns turn out to be, consider Lao She’s Teahouse, set in a Beijing establishment over the course of some fifty years that encompass three important moments in modern Chinese history, beginning in 1898. Sixty-plus characters that embody the vast changes in China come to life via the......

Now that we're into November, awards season kicks off in earnest with big new releases such as Chicken Little. Wait. Sorry. Our mistake. After what seems like more than a year of trailers, the sky is finally falling for Disney's big animation experiment, but we actually meant Jarhead. Somehow, even arriving with an amazing pedigree that includes Oscar winning American Beauty director Sam Mendes, a best selling memoir as source material, and stars such as......

One of the things on Gothamist's must-see list this week is the New York Historical Society's new exhibit, Slavery in New York. The show reveals New York relationship with slavery, from the days of the Dutch settlers until 1827. The exhibit is open until March, and the online site is pretty extensive, but a reason to go this week is for the pencil-written copy of the Emancipataion Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation is on display until......

Noah Baumbach,
The Squid and the Whale...

He's an Orthodox Jewish Reggae singer that got his start performing in the parking lot at Phish shows, but don't call him a gimmick. Matisyahu's recent accomplishments include a co-headlining spot at the recent Reggae Carifest on Randall's Island and a sold-out show at Irving Plaza. Thursday night he'll pack Webster Hall. Phish fans who can't get a ticket should consider Benevento Russo Duo at Bowery Ballroom instead. "Alligator, the second album from The......

Bobby Short, the irrepressible entertainer who sang and played the standards at the Cafe Carlyle, Arts > Music > Bobby Short, Icon of Manhattan Song and Style, Dies at 80" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/21/arts/music/21cnd-short.html?hp&ex;=1111467600&en;=49eab08251a9d060&ei;=5094&partner;=homepage">died at age 80 yesterday from leukemia. While Gothamist never got to see him perform in person, we always equated him with a beautiful, serene and, yes, very Woody Allen version of New York where people would just sit and listen to wonderful renditions of......

Thanks to everyone who entered our contest to win tickets to The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. We received over 1500 entries, and our winners are Evan, Pilar, Bejamin, Stephen, Grace, Adam, Kevan, Lindsey, Brandon, Kelly, Dave, George, Kristen, Todd, Wade, Rebecca, Katherine, Darren, Thurston, Rupa, Monica, Sean, Patrick, Elizabeth, and Sarah, who have all been emailed. Additionally, Evan is our grand prize winner; we'll see if we get any photos of the Team Zissou......

A Talk With Wes Anderson...

Here's another reminder to enter the Gothamist Contest for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Twenty-five winners will be randomly selected to each win a ticket for two to see The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou next Tuesday, 12/8; also, one winner will win some fabulous Life Aquatic swag, including a poster, CD, Team Zissou red cap and Team Zissou Speedo! The contest ends Sunday night, and winners will be emailed on Monday. The Life......

Gothamist has loved Wes Anderson and his films even since we saw Dignan's Five Year Plan in Bottle Rocket, so we're happy to announce that Touchstone Films has given us twenty-five tickets to a screening of Wes Anderson's new film, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, starring Bill Murray. And we're holding a contest to give them away!! Enter at Gothamist Contest: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Each of the tickets (which are......

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the lineup for the New York Film Festival 2004, and it looks like NY will again benefit from being, arguably, the world's last major film festival by getting films that have played at other festivals by the time the NYFF starts October 1. Opening the festival will be Agnes Jaoui's Look At Me (premiered at Cannes); Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education (also at Cannes) is the centerpiece, as......

Gothamist has been seeing mentions of Sloane Tanen's clever take on chick lit, Bitter Baggage Seeks Same: The Life and Times of Some Chickens, everywhere lately. The slice-of-urban-life dioramas with chickens at the heroines (herohens?) has been covered in New York, the Times this past weekend, and in a slideshow on Slate. And how can one not fall in love with these chicks and their trials and tribulations when Tanen describes it as, �They�re......

Our good friend Jon is DJing at Patio Lounge tonight, and if you're in Park Slope, definitely check out Painting and Kissing. We'll be at Irving Plaza seeing Built to Spill but we'd be there otherwise. Next time, Jon. Jon runs A Day In The Life, one of our favorite sites.......

Cate Blanchett and Willem Dafoe are joining the cast of Wes Anderson's next movie, The Life Aquatic. Bill Murray stars as an oceanographer, who will be the center of the film, as he and his crew go on "a series of wild deep-sea adventures, including the search for a shark" (Hollywood Reporter). The rest of the cast includes Anjelica Huston, Owen Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, Peter Stormare, and Gothamist's favorite Anderson regular, Kumar Pallana ("Man, I......

Famed Italian movie studio Cinecitta is profiled by the New York Times today, as it tries to make itself a compelling option for Hollywood's filmmakers. Directors like Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti made Cinecitta the place to be in the 50s and 60s, but up until recently had not been successful. Wes Anderson's next movie, The Life Aquatic, is filming there, and most famously, Gangs of New York, was filmed there which had Martin Scorsese......

Check it out: An Anger Management building poster in this week's San Francisco edition of A Day In The Life, by photographer Rob Sandusky. Here's the poster on the Upper West Side that Gothamist was taken/alarmed by.......

Jake shot some pictures for A Day In The Life Brooklyn. More at Bluejake.......

Wow, it's been a long time since Roger Ebert hasn't given stars to a movie, but in his review of The Life of David Gale, you'd think the usually star-happy critic would have loved this star vehicle. Or at least given it 2 stars. Or 1-and-a-half. Or 1. The last film he hated this much was Slackers, but you'd almost expect that, as you would the zero stars he awarded Freddy Got Fingered and Tomcats.......

Stephanie Zacharek, you're so cool: From her review of The Life of David gale, "Does Kevin Spacey have a weird secret? Um, yeah, as always. But this death-penalty fable is so overwrought, no one will care."......

Last fall, I read the Man Booker-prize winning novel, The Life of Pi, by Canadian author Yann Martel. While it had been recommended by various reviewers, I didn't pick it up until I started to read it at the bookstore, and I was enchanted. The beginning is a thank you from the author to a man for telling him about the boy who the book is based on, who eventually ends up on a raft......

A Day In The Life is a great website that features a new photographer each week producing a new photograph every day for the week. With contributors from all over the world, it's certainly my favorite global photo blog. Today's photograph is of something near and dear to the hearts of Gothamist bloggers - graffiti. Taken by Vlad Nanca of Romania, the graffiti is on Splaiul Independentei in Bucharest. Check out the archives for more......

My love for Owen Wilson continues with the opening of Shanghai Knights(check out the cool interactive kung fu) this weekend. It's directed by David Dobkin, not David Dorkin. Buy Shanghai Noon, but it's not critical to have seen Shanghai Noon in order to see Shanghai Knights; however, Noon is pretty damn funny. Read the lovefest of reviews for Knights by Elvis Mitchell, Charles Taylor, Jack Matthews and Roger Ebert. The latest film from Olivier Assayas......