Photo by Robert Kreizel After the John Varvatos boutique officially opened its doors last weekend in the old CBGB space, activist Rebecca Moore held court on the sidewalk. This past Tuesday she sat outside the retail shop in protest with a sign that read: "One small loss of a music space, one large step for pants," and was joined by a few other supporters. Moore says her statement isn't about just one music space......

AP Photo/Jason DeCrow Oh, to be a confused, sweaty fly on the wall at the Waldorf Astoria last night, when Iggy Pop sang Madonna songs at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Pop and the Stooges covered "Burning Up" and "Ray of Light" in a tribute to the pop queen, who was inducted along with Leonard Cohen, John Mellencamp, The Ventures, and The Dave Clark Five. Introduced by Justin Timberlake, who......

Playwright David Mamet (pictured) will be maintaining a blog to promote his new Broadway play, November, which stars Nathan Lane as contemporary American president Charles Smith and Laurie Metcalf as his lesbian speech writer. What’s interesting, perhaps, is that Mamet will be writing the blog – which he says he’ll update for the duration of the open-ended run – as President Smith. Sample entry from Monday:CONGRESSIONAL PAGE SEX SCANDALS It seems to me that, at......

Last week demolition was underway at the former CBGB. At the time Racked put their money on a Duane Reade taking over the space, but today The Post reports that John Varvados will be opening a chic boutique in the old punk rock palace. With his eye on a Spring opening, it's unclear how much of the 13,000 square feet will be taken over by the designer. Before you get your black leather punk......

Tibet Rocks Last Monday at Carnegie Hall there was a Hall of Fame reunion of sorts to support The Tibet House New York. Rock icons such as Ray Davies, Debbie Harry, Lou Reed, Patti Smith and Michael Stipe teamed up with more of-the-moment stars Sigur Ros and Ben Harper to celebrate Tibetan culture. The show was a great success, from all reports, including some duets and surprise arrangements from the legends on hand. Them aside,......

This was not a very happy week for the -ist network as one of our own, Phillyist co-editor Star C. Foster, passed away early in the week. Her wit, intelligence, and good nature shone through the site, making Phillyist an immensely fun read. She was loved by many and will be missed by all. Phillyist paid tribute to her this week with a heartfelt letter to her and an obituary. And now, the awkward......

Jagshemash! Borat is a hit. It's getting rave reviews, grossing millions, and definitely the most quotable thing we've seen in ages. But Borat seems to have missed most of the -ist cities, and we were all wondering how the film would have been different if he'd made his way around the world on the -ist tour. In Shanghai, Borat would be observing Inane Learnings of Penis Photos for Make Benefit Glorious Flat World of......

This weekend is the weekend of movie déjà vu. You will be struck with the nagging feeling that all of the major films new to theaters seem oddly like something you've seen before. But repertory programming out in Brooklyn or in the West Village will provide a much needed shot of creativity to counter balance the same old, same old. A remake of the '70s disaster classic, Poseidon opens this weekend with Josh "the poor......

We've said it before and we'll say it again: we love time-lapse videos. There's something so pleasing about watching little cars and people zoom by in starts and fits, against a techno-soundtrack. [Runner up for video of the day: this girl in Brooklyn getting freaky to Iggy Pop's "The Passenger". Hotness!]......

Stephen Powers (A/K/A ESPO) is one of New York City's great graffiti artists-- about six years ago, he went all city with a wonderful series of gates. Since then, we've seen less of him, but he occasionally does a beautiful burner down on a truck in SoHo. This week we've noticed him working on a huge piece on three sides of a truck at Wooster and Spring-- turns out it's an ad for his......

One of Gothamist's favorite passtimes is trolling Wikipedia for new information about New York, and today we really hit paydirt: Someone is building a complete list of songs that reference our fair city. Take just the first ten-- you know you're living in the right city when you've got both Simon & Garfunkel and 2 Live Crew writing about it:# "53rd and 3rd" by The Ramones # "Angel of Harlem" by U2 # "Arthur's Theme"......

Sam Talbot, Cook/Street Vendor...

The Post lets us know where the hot post-MTV Video Music Awards parties are going to be, who is expected to be there, and how to crash. Venues include the Four Seasons (Madonna, Fatboy Slim, Fred Durst), Show (P. Diddy's bash, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce Ed Burns, the Hilton girls), Tao (Avril, Tim Robbins, Rosario Dawson, Tony Hawk), Splashlight Studios (The Donnas, Drew & Fabrizio, Iggy Pop), and we're sure enterprising kids will be photoblogging the......

Gothamist guesses we need to report this bit of Lower East Side news, as Lockhart Steele is on vacation. As part of MTV's week of celebrating the MTV Video Music Awards, there's a $8.28 dinner entree promotion through tomorrow night at Lower East Side restaurants, including Essex, Punch & Judy, and AKA Cafe, are participating. See the full list here. Check out other VMA related events, like the Iggy Pop and the Stooges benefit......