Two weeks ago Eater reported that 34 Avenue A, the space that held Mo Pitkin's -- which closed earlier this year, is now in contract. Since there's a transferable liquor license which goes along with the keys to the joint (described as a perfect multi-use space), it will likely become another bar/venue/club...but one prankster is suggesting otherwise. Copyranter caught a glimpse of the old "House of Satisfaction" recently. If you look closely past the glare......

Staring down the barrel of a $10 million lawsuit, American Apparel has spoken out about their billboard displaying Woody Allen's image (circa Annie Hall). Chances are the law will find them about as innocent as their barely-dressed teen models. The company says it “was meant strictly as a social parody," and even though those two billboards are normally used for commercial reasons, they're selling the idea that they "also use them as a vehicle for......

Woody Allen on Allen Street via Susan NYC's Flickr. Last year Woody Allen kicked off the scantily clad teen models usually draped over American Apparel billboards, and seemingly made himself the new face of Dov Charney's clothing empire. In both LA and NYC, his image (taken from Annie Hall) hung above city streets along with Yiddish writing paired up with their logo. Now it's being reported that Allen (despite his fondness of young ladies)......

Remember when one of the many American Apparel ads on Allen and Houston was defaced with the words "Gee, I wonder why women get raped"? The ad was replaced with a new one soon after, and not much more was heard about the mystery messenger. Until now. Yesterday Jezebel received an email from someone purporting to be the one who held the spray can. He stated:First off, i'm not a graf writer. Honestly, I was......

Over the weekend yet another production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic, Cats, closed. This hipster-ized version of the legendary musical used American Apparel styling for their look, and it all went down on Broadway...that's 1100 Broadway in the 11211 zip code. ArtCal points out that because the original Cats "ran parallel with corporate and municipal efforts to 'clean up Broadway' for big business," these hipster cats may be trying to make a point. Though......

Notice anything funny about the Calvin Klein billboard below? No, not the hot pink splashing. The giant ad that hangs above Lafayette and Houston has a secret in the "negative space" left by the splashed paint. The silhouette is of the new New Museum building on Bowery. Here is what the billboard looked like over the past few days up until last night: And as Josh Spear pointed out yesterday a "stage 3 reveal" took......

Could American Apparel have a better location for their advertising than the corner of Allen and Houston? Their ads in the location has made some members of the community upset and may have caused The Splasher to return from hibernation. And they have the echo-chamber that is the NY blog community talking about their "racy" ads all the time. Indeed, any publicity is good publicity. They've since replaced the defaced leggings billboard with a......

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......

Last month, we mentioned that some Lower East Side and East Village residents were upset with the American Apparel billboard on Allen Street showing a topless woman's backside and legging-clad gams. Now GammaBlog took this picture of the now-defaced billboard. Not only is it splashed with some neon green paint (le retour de The Splasher?), someone wrote, "Gee, I wonder why women get raped." GammaBlog believes that someone(s) "must have rappelled over the side......

If the ghosts of Timothy Leary and Nam June Paik collaborated with Kraftwerk and some dancers to make dinner theater aboard a spaceship to The Pleiades, it might feel something like OutMigration, the immersive dining/video/performance experience happening at Williamsburg’s Monkeytown through Sunday. $70 gets you an elaborate 12-course tasting menu, with wine pairings, prepared by chef Ryan Jaronik (formerly the executive chef at Boston’s beloved Masa). Before entering the intimate performance/dinner space, our group......

You may or may not have noticed that it's Fashion Week -- either way, style is saturating the city right now more than ever, and we've asked Faran Krentcil to help us figure the whole thing out. She who holds down the fort at Fashionista.com fills us in on The Tents, the trends and the tricks. Oh, and she also recently poked fun at the hipster-chic in her short parody film: I Wanna Be A......

If you like butts and you cannot lie, Allen and Houston might be the place for you. Then again, maybe the butt and legs pictured in American Apparel's new billboard aren't your cup of tea. Astute readers (or LES residents) may remember the "beaver shot" that previously adorned the corner. Some neighbors are actually fed up. Reader Jessi tells us, "Many of us on the Lower East Side and East Village are very opposed......

The Observer people watches the people watchers this week with a piece on The Bench. Almost too ridiculous to report on, the Lower East Side American Apparel happens to have a hot spot outside of its windows which has become the "epicenter of perhaps the hottest 'anti-scene' scene on Saturday nights." Exactly the kind of thing you'd expect to be forged outside of an American Apparel, it even has founders - including DJ Big Black......

The NY Times takes a look at Smith Street and the corporate companies creeping into the area and setting up shop. The most recent big announcement is that Trader Joe's is taking over the old bank on Atlantic Avenue and Court Street. How long until more big fish come to feed? Urban Outfitters originally wanted the new Trader Joe's property, so we suppose they'll be hawking "Ski Cobble Hill" T-Shirts soon enough. Just last week......

Holy Crap! The Virtual LES launched! Words cannot describe, friends (speaking of which, let's be BFFs!). Clearly this is not meant for people who actually frequent the actual Lower East Side, but rather the people who read their blogs. Seeing all the places in creepy second life 3-D is pure Twilight Zone stuff. Highlights so far, while briefly browsing around the site are that you can shop at the Virtual American Apparel, attend virtual......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Rivington St. in Manhattan, a fatal stabbing on Malcolm X Blvd. in Brooklyn, and a stabbing on 102nd St. and Corona Ave. in Queens. Cobble Hill residents on Douglass St. will no longer be able to save on their electric bills by relying on the super-bright lights of American Apparel as their street-level reading lamps. The retailer is turning them off and neighbors must now fend......

Walking around town the last few days, we've noticed a bunch of recently defaced streetart pieces. These might be the work of The Splasher, but if you look closely, you can see that something has changed: the paint has been applied with a brush! That's right-- either the Splasher needs a new moniker, or he has inspired a copycat. And a special bonus-- on Kenmare, we spotted another example of vandalized vandalism- a group of......

Does anyone else think this American Apparel ad is just too slutty, even for the Lower East Side? It must be hard for the people across the street to stare at a 40 ft beaver shot day in and day out.......

Is Dov Charney more than the perverted genius behind American Apparel? Imnotsayin came close to catching the Splasher in action in Williamsburg, when he found what seemed like a freshly pasted Splasher manifesto with paint splashed on it. When he closely inspected the pasted signs, Imnotsayin found that the paint was actually pre-printed on the manifesto and there's an American Apparel ad with a half-naked guy and a paint splash printed onto the poster as......

The typeface that defined high modernity and thrives today as something "at once populist and authoritarian," according to graphic designer Steven McCarthy, is getting its own cinematic biography. Helvetica, the film, will survey the panorama of “typography, graphic design and global visual culture” that has evolved since Max Miedinger unveiled the bedevilingly sleek Helvetica typeface fifty years ago. New Yorkers and other city dwellers wallow in the Helvetica typeface; we encounter it many times......

You've seen the ads. You've seen the shipping containers stores. You've seen the boarded space in SoHo. But people are anxious to check out the Japanese Gap-style store, Uniqlo, which promises to sell chic basics for good prices. Think American Apparel in denim, wool or cashmere. The Post ran a big story about Uniqlo on Saturday:In the market for a simple winter hat? You can pay $18 for an acrylic pompom cap at American......

COMEDY: Our favorite duo, Gil Faizon (Nick Kroll) and George St. Geegland (John Mulaney), will be bringing their "Oh Hello" show to UCB. Drop by, even if it's just for their famous Tuna-tina recipe. In addition, there will be NEW drink recipes...and special guests. Photo of the duo, taken at Movable Hype, via Bluejake. Friday // 7pm // UCB Theater [226 W th St] MUSIC: If you got shut out of Band of Horses tonight......

- Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn lines up an exceptional boardof Brooklyn stars and intellects for its efforts to fight the Atlantic Yards; does this mean Bruce Ratner will make Jay-Z line up his friends? Imagine Beyonce vs. Rosie Perez! - More proof the Moussaoui life sentence was good: Now he claims he lied about his Al Qaeda connection - It looks like there will only be one greenmarket on the Upper East Side as......

We're please to announce our new Gothamist store, where you can buy all the Gothamist T-shirts, bags, buttons, and underwear you so desperately need! We decided to go with Spreadshirt as our provider. They print on high quality material (we recommend the American Apparel shirts), and allow you to customize the shirt in your personal choice of colors (for the logos, "flex print" means shiny material, while "flock print" means fuzzy material.) You can......

Today we stumbled across this interesting article at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York regarding commuting patterns into and out of Manhattan. Turns out that more people are commuting into the city, and people are generally travelling further to get here than they did ten or twenty years ago: Has the migration of jobs to the suburbs changed the commuting patterns in the New York City metro area? An analysis of current commuting trends......

This weekend we tested the new blue Gothamist ringer t-shirts and they are wonderfully comfortable (just like the red ones!). American Apparel shirts are typically 100% cotton, but these ringer tees are 70% cotton and 30% poly, which gives it a nice stretch. And they are still very soft. Gothamist is also looking into some additional sizes (probably men's L and XL) as well as other styles for next season. Let us know what you'd......

• Gothamist has exceeded its goal of raising $800 to sponsor a Little League team, so many, many thanks to all contributors; the additional money will be donated to the West Side Little League for new baseball fields (per their registration form, PDF). We're in discussions with the league, so we'll keep you posted. • New Gothamist tees in blue are available at Tiny Factory! In the tradition of American Apparel, we'll be working on......

Did anyone else notice that the feel-good, environment-loving, Gothamist T-shirt supplying American Apparel company has opened two retail shops in New York? One is on 6th Avenue and the other is on Broadway- both in the village. If it was up to Gothamist, all of our clothes would be produced by American Apparel. There are three things we love about their gear: it is not made in sweatshops, it doesn't have obnoxious labels or......

Excellent news: The Gothamist T-shirt will be on sale from Tiny Factory, whose site is finally up. The shirts are heathered red with maroon trim (around the neck for the men's version; around the neck and arms for the women's), with a handscreened Gothamist logo on the chest. The shirt, made of 100% cotton from American Apparel, is $20 including shipping and handling. We're also fans of Tiny Factory's hot Vespa t-shirt. Above, Tiny......