In August 1929 a Brooklyn man completed a massive DIY project: he built a plane in his apartment! According to Modern Mechanix, neighbors kept hearing loud noises from Peter Lepicer's digs, and for months he would simply tell inquiring minds, "Wait and see." more ›

We just stumbled upon this sweet vintage video on a trip down the Youtube rabbit hole, showing a Manhattan couple trying to make their tiny apartment into a livable space. People from the 1950s: they're just like us! more ›

Silent Barn (located in Ridgewood, Queens on the border of Bushwick) needs your help, and not just to clean the bathroom. The venue has spent seven years accumulating equipment, tools, and artwork to create a DIY space in the community, but over the weekend they were robbed. They say $15,000 worth of audio equipment is gone, along with personal belongings, adding: more ›

With her neat, pale blond coif and black-rimmed glasses, one might imagine Joanna Ebenstein to be a dedicated librarian or archivist. To some extent she is, but Ebenstein's real passion is of the darker, more bizarre variety. more ›

After allegedly selling eight DIY bombs for $3,200 in a Bronx parking lot, a Bridgeport, CT man was arrested by the feds Thursday. A subsequent search of his apartment revealed a fully-functional bomb factory, where prosecutors say Nicholas Lahines, 37, manufactured dangerous explosives in the home he shared with his wife and 1-year-old child. The materials he was allegedly working with are so volatile that as a police bomb technician searched the apartment, he caused an explosion while handling a tiny amount of white powder, sustaining minor injuries. more ›

Babeland of Brooklyn is celebrating Earth Day the only way they know how: the kinky way. Tonight they're hosting a lesson filled with "eco-sexy tips" and invite their "crafty customers to make DIY floggers from recycled bicycle tubes donated by Ride Brooklyn." If you can't join them at 6 p.m., but are in need of a fast flogging fix, fear not... the shop's Pamela Doan tells us all you need is dowels, electrical tape (comes in lots of colors so you can make it pretty!), and recycled bike inner tubes. more ›

Currently Sol LeWitt's manipulated aerial shot of New York City, called "Part of Manhattan with Central Park, Rockefeller Center and Lincoln Center removed," is over in San Francisco... but that doesn't mean we can revisit it from a distance. LeWitt didn't take this photograph himself, he contributed by cutting out three of Manhattan's most famous landmarks at the time. (According to Artlog, his “cut-outs from the 1970s began with commercially made aerial photographs of cities important to the artist, especially New York and Florence. In [this one] he excised with a mat knife three Manhattan landmarks, resulting in a jarring photographic object that prompts the viewer to reconsider the materiality of an urban landscape." more ›

We're not giving up on summer, you guys! It's still August, it's still intermittently stinking hot, and there's still time left to do all those summery activities you ambitiously planned way back in May. These include killing a shark with your bare hands at Sandy Hook, eating lobster rolls until Maine's crustacean stocks are completely depleted, and mixing your own refreshing cocktails just like our BFF Rachel Maddow does. more ›

Here's a big slice of awesome. New York Shitty has posted a "salute" to these two ingenious gentleman who transformed a bunch of NYPD barricades into public seating in Spanish Harlem. "The gent on the right claimed credit for this creation—and stated that the NYPD gives him plenty of guff about it," Miss Heather writes. "He told yours truly they come by regularly and roust him from his 'bench.' Because it is their property." more ›

This was too good to wait for our weekend newsletter: the frisky folks at Babeland just emailed to alert us of their DIY Porn event this weekend taking place at Monkey Town (R.I.P.?). It costs 10 bucks, it's interactive and here's what they say:

"Always wanted to make your own dirty movies? We know great porn and can tell you what makes it hot. At this fun and interactive event, Babeland’s self-declared porn-a-saurus, Kelly Arbor, will take you through the process of imagining, enacting and shooting your first (of many) homemade adult videos."

An interesting police strategy is described in this otherwise "non-story" on Free Williamsburg, which overall delves into a rumor that someone is out to bring down the Market Hotel, a Todd P venue in Brooklyn. The promoter has now addressed the rumors that were in the original story, which focused on a "raid" that took place last Friday and included baseless accusations that he was "being brought up on a slew of charges including weed and underage alcohol distribution." more ›

Though not as impressive as this one, Lost City spotted a massive knitting project on West 37th Street last night. The car cozy was allegedly "a patchwork of separate pieces of knitting" that were made to fit snuggly around the car, as part of a Chashama exhibit that's running through the weekend. Countdown to a knitted bike cozy craze? more ›

Let's say you are getting mugged and for whatever reason Ashton Kutcher isn't there to save the day. Well, now he can be, at least in the spirit of Punk'd. After a series of hipster muggings, one man has come up with a DIY solution: the decoy wallet (pictured). more ›

Beautiful Losers is coming to town later this week, screening at the IFC Center from August 8th to 28th. The film documents and "celebrates the spirit behind one of the most influential cultural moments of a generation. In the early 1990's a loose-knit group of likeminded outsiders found common ground at a little NYC storefront gallery. Rooted in the DIY (do-it-yourself) subcultures of skateboarding, surf, punk, hip hop & graffiti, they made art that reflected the lifestyles they led. Developing their craft with almost no influence from the 'establishment' art world, this group, and the subcultures they sprang from, have now become a movement that has been transforming pop culture." You'll get an earful from many of these artists, including Shepard Fairey, Harmony Korine and Mike Mills. more ›

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. more ›

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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. more ›

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 at South Street Seaport, are bringing a bit of summer, indoors for select shows dubbed “On-the-Side” at the new DIY venue “@SEAPORT.” more ›

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 stunning collection of three at $91.67 a pop. But what a rush. more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›

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?... more ›

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... more ›

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! more ›

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 bottom of a well; her sister who treats syphilis patients in the open-air market; and her older son who bullies everything within his reach.” Martin Denton writes: “Authentic magic happens only rarely in the theatre… I'm talking about those rare wonderful moments when we see one thing on stage with our eyes, but our hearts tell us we're seeing something entirely different. Blind Mouth Singing is filled with such moments of magic.” John Del Signore more ›

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 Williamsburg and Gramercy Theater (where Natalie Portman turned up to catch their set). These two shows kick off a good old fashioned cross-country club tour with Elvis Perkins and Deerland, which will wind back up here for 2 more sold out concerts at Bowery and Studio B in November. While they stuck to a set of already released songs this week, we hope maybe we'll hear reports of some new songs on this tour. Seems like they’re about due. We shall see. (pic via Tomiffy's flickr) more ›

Tim Gunn's Guide to Style officially premieres tonight, but Bravo served it as a surprise aperitif to Top Chef last night. more ›