Once upon a time we used to spend an inordinate amount of time after school sitting on the floor of the Hudson News on Broadway and Eighth Street reading any and every magazine we could grab before buying one (maybe) and heading home. That adolescent magazine habit would have been much harder for us to foster had Hudson News and its ilk not existed, and for that reason we mourn Robert B. Cohen, the former president of that chain who helped change the way travelers buy magazines. Cohen died last week at the age of 86.
Rip Out A Magazine Page For Robert Cohen, Hudson News Founder
Trustocorp Spread Fake Gossip Magazines Throughout City
Trustocorp have been developing quite the reputation with their public art projects, from street signs advising you to cheer up to street signs notifying you that you're lame, from indictments of reality TV shows to warnings not to feed the hispters. Now, they've unveiled their newest project: they’ve gone into magazine stands, bookstores and pharmacies throughout Hollywood, Manhattan, Williamsburg, LAX and JFK to mix copies of their fake gossip rags, featuring pregnant Donald Trump, a sexed-up Sarah Palin, and an overdosed Lindsay Lohan, in with the real ones. Unlike their other projects, which were somewhat passive in nature, this "intervention" seems harder for the consumers of tabloid culture to ignore. If you see any of the fake magazines on newsstands, send us a picture at tips@gothamist.com.
BusinessWeek Goes To Bloomberg LP
Since Mayor Bloomberg was busy preparing for a mayoral debate and a standing agreement with the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board separates his private and political dealings, he wasn't involved when Bloomberg LP purchased BusinessWeek yesterday. But he thought it was a solid move on his media company's part, "I think it’s a great magazine."
Does Where You Eat Make You More Exciting?
Bon Appétit , in an attempt to appeal to a broader, younger, and theoretically "hipper" audience, has recently revamped its logo. Taunting came in full force, via Grub Street, who concluded, "[t]he truth is that Bon Appétit will never be any hipper or friskier than it is, because no magazine about upscale entertaining can ever speak to people that don’t have big houses and plenty of time on their hands." Adam Roberts, the Amateur Gourmet,...
Pencil This In
ART: Last night the works of ex-Guided By Voices frontman Robbert Pollard were unveiled at an invite-only opening, and today it's a free-for-all. Come by and check out his debut art exhibit, which "will consist of more than 50 collages that date from 1990 through 2007. Using elements from 1950's -70's era magazines, pamphlets and obscure pictoral paperbacks as his primary tools, he portrays allegorical personas and hallucinogenic-type environments to create small, almost random synapses...
Subway Sell-out: Moberg Goes Hollywood
The story had all the makings of a Hollywood romantic comedy from the get-go, so it's not surprising that Patrick Moberg is shopping around the rights to his real-life subway sweetheart story. It is, however, just a little disheartening that everything really is a commodity. Despite what he declared on his site after finding "the girl of his dreams" (telling us voyeurs we'll have to write our own ending to their story as they figured...
Extra, Extra
Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pediatric arrest on 5th Ave. near 117th St. in Manhattan, a person fatally struck by a train at 39th Ave. and 111th St. in Queens, and a submerged barge at the south end of the train tressel for the A line in Queens. Mayor Bloomberg doesn't just take the subway to work; he likes the Subway sandwich chain. "I love Subway sandwiches. I think they're a great deal,...
Steven Heller, Critic
Author, critic and journalist Steven Heller started out as someone who, in the words of Paula Scher, "had been more or less oblivious to design," but went on not only to launch the careers of some of our most well-known illustrators, but also to chronicle graphic design in more than 100 books. Heller also has been a contributing editor to Print, Eye, Baseline and I.D., writes obituaries for The New York Times and a column for the Book Review. A Times art director for 33 years, 30 of which he spent at the Book Review, Heller, a New York City native, is the co-founder and co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author program at the School of Visual Arts (he has lectured at SVA for 14 years). Today, a retrospective of Mr. Heller’s work opens at the School of Visual Art’s Visual Arts Museum.
How Much Should an Alumni Magazine Fact Check
A note to people who read the "Class Notes" section of their college alumni magazines: You never know where those tidbits are coming from. Two male New York graduates of American University filed a lawsuit claiming their alumni magazine falsely stated they were just-married life partners.
Adam Horovitz, Musician
Suckers may be saying they can take out Adam Horovitz, but after all these years with The Beastie Boys – it’s now two decades since License To Ill dropped! – he’s still rocking steady. Having just released The Mix-Up, a new all-instrumental album, the three are set to drive the lane like Evan Bernhard with a trio of NYC shows in as many days. Tomorrow night and Thursday they’ll do two of their more familiar rap shows at Central Park Summerstage and McCarren Pool, respectively. Then Friday night finds them at Hammerstein Ballroom for a special, all-instrumental “gala event”. We recently spoke with The King Adrock about the dress code for the gala events, his solo career and his long awaited presidential endorsement.
RIP Jane
We're not that in to girlie glossies, but after Sassy folded we went straight for Jane magazine (both were run by Jane Pratt). Now the latest will meet the same fate as the former, it was announced today that the magazine has folded. Mediabistro has the memo that went out from Charles H. Townsend (President & CEO of Condé Nast Publications), which stated the August issue would be the last and also:
Ex-Morgan Stanley Employee Sues Over Harassment
A former client services associate at the Melville, Long Island branch of Morgan Stanley filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court claiming her old boss "tried to 'sexually assault her' with a pencil", stole her underwear, and complained to her about how his wife wouldn't give him oral sex. Lisa LaMacchia claims that a human resources official told her to "suck it up" after Richard Dorfman allegedly threw a file at her and called her a "f---ing bitch." LaMacchia is seeking monetary damages.
New Yorkers Making The Big Bucks
Forbes has put out their list of the Top 100 Most Powerful Celebrities, something to bicker about at the water cooler, no doubt. Here are some of the top-ranked New Yorker's and their earnings:
Amy Fusselman, Author, 8
, dating back to the mid 90s, are selling on Amazon.com for $750. Although Fusselman thinks it'll be a while until anyone ponies up that much cash, she has thought about what she'd do if the seller manages to pull off the sale, "What it might mean is that I'll go back to Kinkos instead of working with a publisher." For $750, wouldn't you?
Video of the Day: Summer of Love Opening
Videographer Kelly Loudenberg headed to the Whitney Museum for its Summer of Love exhibit opening party. She writes:
"Last night I attended the opening party for The Whitney's new exhibition, Summer of Love, Art of the Psychadelic Era. It was like a big reunion for the artists of this time. You could feel the LOVE. The exhibit includes film, photography, design, interactive media, underground magazines and press, and much more."The Summer of Love is on view until September 16.
Mulberry Street Public Library Branch Opens Today!
SoHo, Lower East Side, Nolita, and other residents and workers, you'll want to make sure you have your library card, because today at 3PM, the New York Public Library opens its 87th branch in SoHo. The Mulberry Street library, located at Mulberry and Jersey Streets just south of Houston Street, is 12,000 square feet of books, DVDs, computers, WiFi access and more.
Real Estate Remnants
Everyone has abandoned an air conditioner or left condiments in the fridge when rushing to move out of an apartment. The NY Times goes behind closed doors to find out what is most commonly left behind when people move out.
The Time 100's New Yorkers
Time announced its second Time 100 list of influential people. (For whatever reason, Time doesn't provide a full list with separate links to all the influentials, so here's a list from FishbowlNY.) Based on our reading, the New Yorkers (and we're including some people who live in Westchester, but work in the city) who made the list include 30 Rock's Tina Fey, subway superhero Wesley Autrey, Senator Hillary Clinton, banker Stephen Schwartzman, director Martin Scorsese, Yankees pitcher Chien-Ming Wang, actress-comedian-talk show host Rosie O'Donnell, the American Museum of Natural History's Neil DeGrasse Tyson, actor and stem cell research advocate Michael J. Fox, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who appears in the upper right corner of the cover.
New York Wins Big at National Magazine Awards
The New Yorker was actually shut out, not garnering a single award for any of its nine nominations; it was the most-nominated publication in 2007. New York's five awards were for General Excellence (250,000 to 500,000 circulation), Profile Writing, Magazine Section, and Design. The magazine's online site nymag.com won an award for Interactive Feature. Other big winners last night were National Geographic and Vanity Fair, with two awards each. Rolling Stone, Wired, Foreign Policy, and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists were other winners of General Excellence awards. If you'd like to judge for yourself, links to all of the nominated and winning articles are available here.
Braunstein's Post-Capture Talk Can't Be Used In Trial
Now that he's been found medically fit to stand trial, jury selection has started in the trial of Peter Braunstein, the journalist who allegedly posed as a firefighter and molested a former co-worker on Halloween in 2005. The thing is 70% of the jurors questioned yesterday had heard about the trial and left, thanks to the moment-to-moment coverage of the case (exhibit A, B, C). But the NY Times said 30 prospective jurors who would be able to be fair remained. Can you imagine if you were on called to serve on that jury?
Larry Smith, Founder and Editor in Chief, SMITH Magazine
edited by Rachel Fershleiser and Smith, to be published by Harpercollins in 2008. But that's just the beginning, as Smith is quick to point out. Gothamist chatted with Smith about his very common last name, print vs. web magazines, and why six words can be enough to tell a good story.
Adventurer Returns Home
“I had a tracking box in my bedroom,” he said. Huh? “That’s a box of sand that I walked in, pretending I was an animal. That determined how my tracks would look if I turned or walked backward.” It helped him, he said, to understand the nuances of animal movement.more ›
Waiting for Tim Gunn
Blogging Project Runway doesn't stop just because the show isn't airing right now. They have some reports in from the auditions for Season 4, and also point to a clip at MTV. They took the picture at right of Jason (who also auditioned for Season 3) - with one of his creations that he hopes will get him on the show. Did he make it work? We'd have to see it on that crazy model Amanda from Season 3 to be certain.
Easter Full of Heady Goodness
It was the coldest Easter Sunday in 67 years, but there were still lots of colorful and crazy hats on display during the Easter Parade. The parade also travels past St. Patrick's Cathedral, where Edward Cardinal Egan was smiling at the crowds. But the Post noted his Easter homily was more serious:
There is so much information that is forced upon us. It's impossible to click through [television] channels without being shamed. There are obstacles on the Internet and in magazines - this is the harsh reality of 2007. The hard part - the challenging part - is learning how to commit ourselves to avoiding the occasions of sin.Hear that? TV, the Internet, and magazines: Damning you in 2007. Related: The Village Voice on a lawsuit against Egan and other Catholic officials for harassing and retaliating against a priest who "alleged a cover-up of clergy abuse"; New York magazine on Cardinal Egan's sins; and speculation on who might succeed Egan if - and when - he retires.
Make Yourself At Home
Yesterday, Metro had an article about a guerrilla art piece called "No Train Like Home": A group of artists were going to decorate an F train at Stillwell Avenue with homey touches.
They plan to hang blue curtains with white flowers and duct tape welcome mats to the areas by the doors. A blue runner will warm up the middle of the car. They’ll distribute magazines and hang fake plants from overhead bars.more ›
Courtney McLean, Playwright, "Super Glossy!"
Twenty-nine-year-old playwright and actress Courtney McLean has done her share of day jobs: as a former wedding and party DJ, she DJed an afterparty for N'Sync at the San Diego Sports Arena, and her brushes with celebrity include discussing bikini waxes with Jessica Biel. After studying theater at UC San Diego, the California native headed to New York five years ago, and currently waitresses at Penelope, among other gigs. But her true love is theater, especially alternative theater, where last year she performed her first solo show "Normal-C," which you can catch highlights of on YouTube.
$1 Perchance to Dream
Did you try your luck at the $275 million Mega Millions jackpot last night? Lots of New Yorkers did, but you certainly didn't match all the numbers because no tickets matched the winning combination of 14-21-33-35-51 and the Mega Ball of 43. You know what that means? The estimated jackpot on Tuesday will be a whopping $340 million. That's almost enough to make Gothamist take a stab at winning!

