Another day, another teacher having a serious meltdown and/or starting his very own "Fight Club:" a high school music teacher in Mount Vernon is accused of assaulting a student in his classroom. Kelly Oram, 51, allegedly got angry with a boy while teaching, threw him to the floor, dragged him out of the classroom by the back of the neck, then shoved him against a wall causing the boy’s head to hit an alarm box. He concluded by reportedly throwing a backpack at the student and slamming the door in his face. Most impressively, he did all this while wearing the eternally young golden curls of Valhalla-obsessed aging rock legend Robert Plant, who we can only assume he scalped the day before. more ›

Trend alert! Aging hippies are now pairing up classic rock with their favorite vintage. On March 17th at Becco restaurant, Joe Bastianich is hosting an "unprecedented evening of wining, dining, and grooving with the music of Led Zeppelin." He'll be joined by author Mike Edison (also former publisher of High Times!) and David Lynch (not that one). For $175 you'll be served up a 6-course dinner (one for each Zepp album), tunes, and a whole lotta wine. What pairing possibilities could occur as we wine on down the road? Last year Sammy Hagar poured his tequila at La Esquina. How about a Creedence Bottled Water Revival night, or a Steely Dan Kid Champagne tasting? more ›

Yesterday this clip of Robert Plant catching a game at the Garden came out. It shows a younger reporter asking the Led Zeppelin singer about the band's possible reunion at the very arena they stand in. Will Led Zeppelin return to the Garden? The answer remains the same... more ›

Aside from a reanimated corpse Beatles reunion, there is not another dormant band in the world that could cause more excitement getting back together than Led Zeppelin. So, for the first time in 19 years, with Jason Bonham in for his late father behind the drums and the rest of the original pieces in place, the band picked up where they left off, playing a Greatest-Hits set to a beyond sold out O2 arena in London earlier this week. The band sounded remarkably on point for a group of guys who hadn't appeared on stage in two decades, seeming to having a total blast playing with each other. To the surprise of nearly everyone, they even dusted off Stairway to Heaven and gave it a go, putting every miserable bar band for the last 30 years to shame. Will they do it again? Maybe come stateside, play a couple nights at the Garden? Time will tell. In the meantime, check out the many clips on youtube (before they all get taken down.) (pic via positivelypurple's Flickr) more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Austin St. in Queens, a pedestrian struck off Balfour Pl. and Empire Blvd. in Brooklyn, and a rescue on Bank St. in Manhattan.
• The Domino Sugar factory on Brooklyn's waterfront has achieved landmark status.
• David Chase is heading to court to face a former municipal court judge who claims he came up with an idea for a show about a northern NJ mob family.
• David Blaine's next stunt of endurance in the Big Apple will be a tribute to I-bankers and lawyers logging billable hours, as he attempts to stay awake for as long as humanly possibly. The magic? No cocaine.
• Led Zeppelin may be traveling back to NYC for a return engagement. The songs remain the same.
• The men convicted in the 1989 "wilding" Central Park rape attack case have been given the go-ahead to update their lawsuits against the city.
• A former waitress at the strip club Scores is suing one of the managers for sexual harassment.
• New York City as retirement village.

Mr. Brownstone is reuniting this weekend with a show at Bowery Ballroom. The Guns n' Roses cover band is led by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah drummer Sean Greenhalgh (who makes for a pretty good Axl!) and touts themselves as the World's Drunkest Tribute to G n' R. We asked them to give us their Top 5 all-time best reunions list to commemorate the event. THE FIVE GREATEST REUNIONS by Mr. Brownstone, the World's Drunkest... more ›

As Led Zeppelin announced last week that they would play a reunion show in London, those outside of the UK wonder if they'll embark on a worldwide reunion tour. The one-off show is in honor of Ahmet Ertegun, and will include John Bonham's son Jason on drums. more ›

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! more ›

THEATER: Let’s never take for granted that we live in a city where, tonight, for instance, we can stop on our way home from work and peer into a storefront window, where video screens broadcast a live criminal confession being performed inside. The storefront belongs to theater production company chashama; the “happening” tonight is the concluding part of Televised Confession, a multimedia performance installation by Stephanie Vella. “Inspired by the use of televised confession by oppressive regimes throughout the world, Televised Confession explores how the televised image changes our experience of guilt, accountability and social order. On stage, a performer confesses to a crime. Live-feed video and amplified sound carry her mediated image out to the sidewalk and the passerby. The spectator must choose between the broadcast image and the real person.” - John Del Signore more ›

In 2005 fans of heavy metal were darker than usual when their mecca, L'Amour, closed up shop after a teenager was killed while diving into the mosh pit. The club had been going strong for two decades throughout which time they booked many rising stars - Metallica, for one. Any metal band worth their weight in black jeans and double-neck guitars soon stopped by to play, even after they had made it big (like KISS). more ›

Ten years ago today Jeff Buckley drowned while taking an evening swim. Buckley had many ties to this city, first moving here in 1990 (though only staying for seven months at that time). He was back in the spring of 1991 to perform his first show, a tribute concert to his father, Tim Buckley. The event was held at St. Ann's Church on April 26th, 1991, where the singer announced: "This is not a springboard, this is something very personal." more ›

THEATER: It’s “go time” for The Butane’s Group’s Operation Ajax, which ingenuously sets the CIA’s 1953 overthrow of Iran’s first democratically-elected government in the context of a casino. “Constructed from no less than 25 text sources (memoirs, documentaries, plays, poetry, novels, films, reality tv shows), the densely-layered performance explores how the addiction to risk and gambling has become a potent metaphor for U.S. foreign policy.” (For an enhanced theater experience, explore the show’s thorough bibliography, with links to all source material.) - John Del Signore more ›

Ahmet Ertegun, the man who founded Atlantic Records, died yesterday at the age of 83. Ertegun, along with a partner, Herb Abramson, founded Atlantic Records in 1947. They started up in an office in a hotel on West 56th Street in Manhattan. The initial investment of $10,000 was borrowed from his family dentist. 48 years later, in 1995, at the Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Dinner, it was announced that the museum's main exhibition hall would be named after Ertegun. more ›

Just listening to a lot of records, getting emotional about them, falling in love with them. more ›

After we posted about Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti album cover yesterday, we thought we'd do a series of posts on album covers featuring this city. Next up is The Doors Strange Days cover, photographed by Joel Brodsky. more ›

With tapes, cd's and now digital music...the art of the album cover has sadly gone ignored. We used to have a small stack of albums, some of which had covers shot here in New York. Our favorite of those: Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti album (at right, photographed by BP Fallon). more ›

For a long time we didn't listen to Wolfmother just because they had "wolf" in their name. We were sick it. Wolfmother, Wolf Eyes, We Are Wolves..."how could any of them be better than Wolf Parade?" we thought. more ›

Last night we were told that the Secret Machines were playing a (secret?) show at the Apple Store in Soho at 10pm. We didn't go, and haven't heard a thing about it. Did it happen, was anyone there? We need closure. more ›

Nicole Beland, Writer/Girl Next Door more ›

New critic Frank Bruni's premiere Times restaurant review is of Babbo, the crown jewel in chef Mario Batali and partner Joe Bastianich's restaurant empire. Bruni gives three stars, the same rating Ruth Reichl gave it that heady summer of 98 when it first opened (if SLNY were around then, they would have noted that the line was busy busy busy, and then when someone would pick up, the only table was for 10:30PM). But what Gothamist found most interesting was Bruni's thoughts about the differences between three- and four-star restaurants; right now, Babbo falls just short of four because of its ambience (loud music like the Black Crowes and Led Zeppelin from Batali's own iPod, a rushed and frenetic if extremely helpful staff). Bruni also comments on Batali's orange high-top sneakers as a sign of Batali's relaxed iconoclasm, which makes Gothamist demand a re-examination of the footwear of NYC chefs, which ran in the Times a couple years ago. The article pointed out how Batali liked to wear rubber clogs in the kitchen (because they are dishwashable) while Jean-Georges Vongerichten wore Prada shoes. more ›

The Gap wants us to accept corduroy this fall and Madonna as their pitchwomen. Well, based on the new Madonna-Missy Elliott Gap commercial, Gothamist knows this: Madonna is looking more and more like a caricature of herself. The ad starts with Madonna lip-syncing a few bars of her new song "Hollywood" but to the melody of "Get Into the Groove." She walks down a Hollywood backlot street and then out pops Missy Elliott, and they start signing "Get Into the Groove" together. Well, Missy raps. (Does Timbaland know about this?) They are both wearing jeans that have "M" stitched on the bum pocket. It's very tame and boring. They were probably paid in pocket-T's. more ›