THEATER: Over the summer the Belarusian Free Theater was arrested, along with their audience, during a performance of their play Being Harold Pinter, which uses Pinter’s magnificent Nobel Prize acceptance speech as a springboard for theatrical dissent, something the Belarus police state isn't really so into. (For that reason, the company’s performances are normally held secretly in alternating private apartments.) Unable to bring the entire production to New York for his Under the Radar festival, Artistic Director Mark Russell instead invited journalist/playwright Nikolai Khalezin (pictured) to present Generation Jeans, his solo show with DJ; it’s a semi-autobiographical account of a freedom fighter and the beginning of the “Jeans Revolution.” – John Del Signore more ›

MOVIE: Nessie's taking off from the Marine Park salt marsh in Brooklyn, but you can catch the creature on the big screen. The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep stars Emily Watson and Ben Chaplin and traces a boy's discovery of a mysterious egg that hatches into the sea creature of the Scottish legend. Way better than finding a sea monkey. more ›

At just 24, Noah Baumbach made his mark on the indie film world with Kicking and Screaming, his hilarious and finely observed study of post-collegiate ennui. His Mr. Jealousy followed but the picture’s lukewarm response meant a long five years before he obtained funding for The Squid and the Whale. Happily for Baumbach, the superb film was a major critical and commercial success. Two years later, he’s back with Margot at the Wedding, another character-driven... more ›

We've made it through 10 days of this year's New York Film Festival, and it's been a great run so far. As usual, the selection committee has picked stellar films and we've sat in on some star-studded Q&A sessions at Lincoln Center. Here are a few thoughts at the midpoint. more ›

Over the past quarter-century They Might Be Giants have become such a consistent presence in the indie rock solar system that it’s quite possible to take them for granted. Because they were there at the ignition of "alternative" rock and never took their feet off the gas, one assumes they'll keep rocking all the way to the end, with "Don't Let's Start" providing the dance music for cockroaches' post-apocalyptic revelries. But despite their expansive musical output – in addition to their numerous “adult” rock albums, the notoriously productive duo keeps busy making brilliant kids’ albums, composing tunes for everything from Dunkin’ Donuts to Disney’s Meet the Robinsons, posting dozens of podcasts on their website and touring the world with their super-tight band – they somehow manage to keep flying just slightly below the mainstream radar. more ›

Two quite controversial and buzzed about movies hit New York theaters this weekend. So far the critical opinion of raving lunatic Mel Gibson's new foreign language feature, . Now we finally get to see the film they thought was going to be such a public relations nightmare. Leo plays a South African diamond smuggler who teams up with a Sierra Leone farmer (the always excellent Djimon Hounsou) to outwit a syndicate of businessmen. From the trailers it looks pretty heartpounding, and not just because the lovely Jennifer Connelly is also in it. more ›

Doesn't it seem like you no sooner put down the fork at the Thanksgiving table and the Christmas themed movies have flooded the theaters? If you're ready to start ho ho hoing your way to the cineplex, the new slapstick family comedy , or it could be that Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott have just run out of new movie ideas. more ›

READING: Head to the New School to join the New York Times and their moderator, critic William Grimes, as Carl Hiaasen reads from his latest crime caper, Nature Girl, which chronicles the exploits of volatile Honey Santana who meets a wild cast of characters while en route to the Ten Thousand Islands. Show up early for a good seat - Hiaasen is a popular draw. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras more ›

This weekend Hollywood says what moviegoers liked once, they'll sure love twice as the sequels hit theaters. Now you may be asking yourselves, did we really need another movie about bad boys in fast cars or another flick about a fat, talking cat? Apparently, we did and they both needed to be set in an exotic international local, Japan and England, respectively. more ›

- And if you were wondering why Bubba Sparxx, Rick Ross, and Dem Franchise Boyz were at the Time Warner Center today, it's because they got Gold/Platinum certification for their (duh!) - photographs from MGChan on Flickr more ›

The obvious 800-pound, 2000-pound or even 20-ton gorilla in the room is anyway. Just brave the crowds and get it over with already. more ›

Camera phone looky-loos, this one's for you. We're talking about the biggest band to hit small to medium sized NYC venues since Sufjan Stevens, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and The Arcade Fire. We're talking about Montreal's latest buzz band Wolf Parade. You've got three chances to see them this week. That's three chances to see them before they come back to play Webster Hall. If you can't find a ticket to the sold out shows Monday and Tuesday at Bowery Ballroom and Northsix, try to snag one of the non-student tickets available at the door to the NYU performance on Thursday. Listen to songs at their MySpace page. more ›

- And Gothamist would really like some panda bears to come to a New York zoo and have panda cubs; this is a picture of the DC panda cub, who National zookeepers are in awe of (also, we watched Julie Chen interview the National Zoo's assistant curator Lisa Stevens, holding the panda in this picture, and we wondered, "Is Julie Chen doing the panda segment 'cause she's Chinese?".. and Jack Black will be doing the voice of "Kung Fu Panda," the new animated film; Black isn't Chinese, but he is tubby) more ›

The first trailer for Peter Jackson’s King Kong finally hit the internet, featuring Adrien Brody, a digital King Kong and Naomi Watts as his love interest, a few Jurassic Park leftovers, and Jack Black (who is so hard to take seriously). We’re quite optimistic LOTR’s Jackson can pull off an updated version of Hollywood classic and so far, Jackson insists he's refrained from reinventing the storyline: “Our story follows the same structure. It starts in New York, goes to Skull Island, and there are dinosaurs on the island. Then it comes back to New York and there's the Empire State Building and the biplanes and the whole thing."
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In L.A., Un-Cabaret has been a fixture of the alternative comedy scene for over a decade. Founder Beth Lapides started it after growing tired of what mainstream stand-up comedy was offering, and brought in friends over the years like David Cross and Bob Odenkirk, Michael Patrick King, Scott Thompson and Patton Oswalt to break new ground and showcase their material. Today it has grown into a tiny empire with live shows, writing classes and contests for aspiring writers. This week several venues around our fair city play host to The Uncabaret Micro-Festival where never before seen TV pilots will air and comedy workshops will be held, and for comedy nerds (redundant, I know) the lineup is pretty great. more ›

Gothamist can appreciate a publicity stunt, and when it comes to the silly and bizarre, NYC doesn't disappoint. Really, who needs to hire birthday or bachelor party entertainment when you can just walk outside and catch a stormtrooper, cow, or scantily painted model? We wonder if anyone else saw those near-naked promoters, airbrushed with suits to resemble their favorite Reservoir Dog characters, running around Union Square yesterday. They were supposedly “spreading the PULP” in Lincoln convertibles to kick off the IFC’s Pulp Movies Month, featuring a pulp indie every night in June. Please, feel free to share your picture captions in the comments section. more ›

Ben Lyons, MTV Co-host more ›

My best friend is coming in from out of town. He's staying at a midtown hotel, seeing some theater and wants to do some only-in-New-York things. Only problem is that he's not too adventurous and I can't imagine him wanting to explore neighborhoods like the Village or the outer boroughs. His culinary tastes are limited to fast food: burgers, fries and a coke. Where can I take my friend? more ›

The Onion A.V. Club's least essential albums of 2003. more ›

Back in Gothamist's day, we didn't get to intern anywhere downtown or particularly hip, but our top internship moment was when we knew the bodega across the street would have the chicken soup Billy Crystal wanted to nurse his cold (Jean-Georges only served oxtail soup). more ›

A Plexiglass box. A hunger strike. A sort of mock band. Add a DVD release, and you've got a concept for a press conference. Tenacious D announced on Monday their 45 day hunger strike for rock. However, Jack Black told reporters the strike would end early if on the following happened: "The Complete Masterworks" - their new DVD of videos - goes platinum, if "hunger is solved" or if there is peace in Middle East. And the Reuters reports "when the pair was asked the longest duration either had gone without sustenance, [Kyle] Gass replied that one time he had gone eight hours between meals. Black said that once he slept for 12 hours, effectively spending 13 hours in-between meals." more ›

Richard Linklater. Good. Jack Black. Hee hee. A movie about Jack Black playing a fifth grade teacher in a movie directed by Richard Linklater? Awesome. more ›

Now, the world is left with Dave Grohl as the only remaining performing member of Nirvana: Krist Noveselic is leaving the music business. He writes on the website of his current band, Eyes Adrift: more ›

The Foo Fighters' new video, Low, will not be shown on MTV, because it depicts some very disturbing scenes with frontman Dave Grohl and funny man Jack Black, which NME summarizes well: more ›

Dateline: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 approximately 7:15 PM EST. I'm sitting in the Burritoville on Chambers Street waiting for my Fogged in in Oregon burrito to be made. All of a sudden, I am face-to-face with celebrity actor and musician Jack Black. Because of his perpetually disheveled look, I was unable to place him immediately as a celebrity. I knew I recognized his face, but initially thought he might have been some loser I knew from high school (my high school being just down the block, after all. Stuyvesant is incidentally the alma mater of other musical misfits, such as the Beastie Boys and Thelonious Monk). My impertinent stare drew an annoyed look back from the harried seeming Mr. Black. more ›