Entering its 21st season, MTV's The Real World returns to New York for a third time...but for the first time it's headed to an outer-borough. That's right, the seven generic, good-looking roommates will be heading to Brooklyn. Shooting begins this summer, and will result in 12 hour-long episodes. In the press release we received, Jon Murray, co-creator of the show, says "The Brooklyn season, like the Hollywood season, will focus on what people loved......

The Village Voice has taken a page from MTV and begun to invade the cribs of rock stars. Okay, indie rock stars...who haven't quite broken out of their downtown bubble yet. First up on Indie Cribz (it's really called that): Team Robespierre. Mediocre band, amazing "semi-legal" apartment story. Bassist of the band, Mike House, lives in a former squat on 9th Street between Avenues C and D. In 2002 Giuliani sold the former squat to......

THEATER: Lisa Kron’s solo play 2.5 Minute Ride, which won an OBIE when it premiered at the Public Theater in 1999, is currently being revived with Nicole Golden as the autobiographical “Lisa.” The play concerns Lisa's attempts to make a documentary about the life of her father, a German Jew who survived the Holocaust but lost his parents at Auschwitz. 2.5 Minute Ride finds him, in his later years, a blind diabetic with a heart......

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......

MTV is getting all old school and reporting on relevant music! The channel traveled all the way to Brooklyn for a piece on bands closely associated with the Todd P scene. Best of all, they declare Manhattan's LES dead! Not a great way to promote their new vLES, we suppose. MTVMusic VideosMTV ShowsEntertainment News The network focuses on some great Brooklyn-based bands: Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors, The Muggabears...bands many music fans have been embracing for......

It's been quite some time since we hopped the virtual F train to the virtual Lower East Side (that's VLES, for those in the know), but it seems one NY Times scribe has been making some frequent visits to the online world. In fact, he may even prefer it to its real life counterpart.There were no imperious bouncers or foul odors to contend with, and no fluids of any kind expectorated on my shoes. Except......

MTV's Un-credible New Years The Time Warner on-screen guide simply said "Tila Tequila" on MTV when the clock struck midnight last Monday, leading a casual observer to assume they were blowing through a marathon of her depressing reality show. But oh no! The oddly shaped, elfish face of the network apparently gets sole, top billing over the biggest night of the year as the host of MTV's annual New Years Eve party. She was mostly......

When it came to New Year's Eve countdown broadcasts, we were traditional and stuck with Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve. Which means we missed out on $275-million man Alex Rodriguez counting down with Carson Daly on Daly's New Year's Eve program. New York sports talk radio was discussing the Yankee's appearance, jokingly calling him "Mr. New York." Well, not only is A-Rod loving NYC these days, he's also being managed by Guy Oseary......

A sparkling new 700-pound ball, tons of confetti, and over a million people helped ring in the New Year from Times Square last night/early today. Mayor Bloomberg and police Police Academy valedictorian Karolina Wierzchowska, who also served in the Iraq War, hit the switch that brought the famous Times Square New Year's ball down. The Daily News called it a "shimmering pole dance," and it was the 100th time Times Square has had a......

We interviewed hundreds of people this year, from long-time rockers to the designer of New York’s subway map. Here are a few conversations you may have missed:On the day Radiohead’s In Rainbows was released exclusively online, musician Jonny Greenwood talked about the “experiment.” Doctor for the uninsured Jay Parkinson told us how to save $1,250 on our next MRI. Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz wondered why they can't make a quiet truck. Actor/Director John Turturro......

The latest in the Batman canon, The Dark Knight, is poised to be next summer's blockbuster hit, and ex-Brooklynite/current Manhattanite Heath Ledger seems to be stealing the show. A trailer recently came out with plenty of focus on Ledger's Joker character, and you can watch it below (MTV also has a shot-by-shot analysis). Does he outshine Jack Nicholson's 1989 Joker? We're excited to see this new take on the crime clown. As with 2005's Batman......

In some good news, the bigwigs at Viacom have heard the angry cries of their permanent freelancing employees, and today announced they were ready to concede. Just over one week ago the company Scrooged over a large portion of their workforce when they announced permalancers insurance benefits and their 401K plans would soon be a ghost of Christmas Past. Demanding equal treatment with full time employees (which the permalancers basically are), the group took......

MTV network freelancers took their beef to the streets yesterday in protest of changes to their benefits plan; about two hundred of the workers spent the afternoon picketing outside the Times Square headquarters of MTV's parent company Viacom. According to Gawker, an initial chant of “What the fuck?!” was revised into the catchier “We care about our 401(k)s!” after a reportedly winsome young rabble-rouser climbed atop a garbage can and helped brainstorm new chant......

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MUSIC: If you aren't at your local hometown bar this Thanksgiving-eve, drinking with old high school buddies -- we suggest a sonic alternative. Tonight The Hold Steady and Art Brut do their best at making Terminal 5 feel a little bit cozier this holiday season. Buy tickets here. 7:30pm // Terminal 5 [610 W 56th St] // $30 MUSIC MOVIES: If you're sick and tired of the bands playing around town, go check out two......

The Sklar Brothers spent years living in New York, working their way through the alternative comedy scene, becoming in demand performers, and eventually getting their own MTV show, Apt 2F, and later a Comedy Central Special. Then, once they had moved to LA and gotten comfortable, they were sent back into New York to film their show Cheap Seats for ESPN Classics. It seems like the Sklars just can't stay away from the city because......

Pitchfork-approved blog darlings Tokyo Police Club have spent the last year and change transitioning from flavor of the month boy band to reputable musicians with an enviable knack for short, hook-happy hits. On Thursday night these clever Canucks will have the chance to further extend their fan base when they perform at the “Woodie” Awards; they’re nominated for a “Breaking Woodie”. Broadcast on the 24-hour college network mtvU, the award show will feature performances by......

The Supreme Court essentially upheld an Appeals Court ruling that said New York City must pay the private education of disabled students. The twist is that the students and their parents don't even need to try to see if the public school programs are adequate for them. Actually, there's another twist: The lawsuit against the city was filed by former Viacom CEO and co-founder of MTV, multimillionaire Tom Freston. Freston's son Gilbert has learning disabilities,......

This past week, the big wedding wasn't even real! According to the many paparazzi photographs of the Sex & the City movie filming, it seems that Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw is finally stepping down the aisle. With, we assume, Mr. Big. The wedding between the fictional sex columnist-turned-author and the rich business guy (it's never been totally clear what Big does, except smirk and show up at the right and wrong times) took......

There's a group of guys, younger than Tony Hawk but older than your average skater punk, who refuse to give up their skateboards -- though admittedly they say they have nothing to rebel against anymore. Skateboarding doesn't have to be about rebelling though, sometimes it can just be about...commuting? Bikers aren't the only ones finding a better way to move around this city, turns out the skateboard is helping grown men get to work --......

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! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

Clap Your Hands Back in Town 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......

Unfortunately, what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas. Last night MTV took over the Strip and filled it with up and comers, the standard rock, rollers and rappers and of course...the token has beens. Last week The New York Times reported on some problems at the network over the past few years. For one thing, critics say the Video Music Awards, intended as a raucous counterpoint to more staid ceremonies, has become stale......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Series 6: Natural Causes (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13; Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., WLIW 21) The first part of series 6 of this contemporary British police series finds Inspector Lynley and his new boss searching for a killer in the English countryside. 2007 MTV Video Music Awards (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., MTV) Yet another useless awards show this time it is from MTV, which according......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a two alarm fire at 80 Washington St in Lower Manhattan; an aircraft emergency at JFK this morning; two pedestrians struck on E. 53rd St.; and a "possible A.I. job" (whatever that is) in Woodhaven. The NYCLU objected yesterday to the number of cases the Civilian Complaint Review Board substantiated. The board, which investigates police misconduct, only substantiated 5% of the cases, but that's actually higher than that of......

We're thinking that the newly renovated City Hall bullpen would be a great place for MTV Cribs to visit, even if Bloomberg staffers don't have posters of Scarface or The Godfather in their cubes. Because Panasonic has donated a 103" plasma HDTV to the bullpen! The TV, which retails for $70,000, can show news channels, "311 call statistics and a video feed from NYC TV's live traffic cameras," according to the Post. A Panasonic spokesman......

Before we dive into the Times' weddings and celebrations announcements, we'd like to note that the Styles section has an article for guests thinking about buying tableware gifts for upcoming weddings. The article suggests buying colorful accessory plates and bowls for couples who may have registered for white-only dinnerware. We're fans of white-only dinnerware, because it's very versatile, it doesn't have to be too expensive, and it can be dressed up or down. If you......

Courtney Love Performs at Hiro, Doesn't Cause a Scene After GBH announced that Courtney Love was to play a free show at Hiro Ballroom, the biggest question besides what she'd sound like or how badly would Hiro screw up the crowd control, was what type of raucous scandal would Love cause during the set. Would she be trashed? Would she get into a fight? Would she show at all? Well, to the pleasant surprise of......

With The Sopranos gone, those wishing for a slice of gangster life and a free John Gotti poster can watch out for Mob Candy magazine. Back in May, Radar explained how the magazine came to be during a conversation between editor in chief Tyrone Christopher and publisher Frank DiMatteo and that the first issue would feature "articles on Don Carlo Gambino's legacy, 50 years of rats, FBI vs. Italian Americans, along with current mobster......

Blender has a list of 100 Days That Changed Music, and not surprisingly a good amount of them took place in New York. Here are a few, see any missing? 99. December 11, 1965: The Velvet Underground play their first show, which was actually at a high school dance in Summit, New Jersey. The following year however, the Velvets became the house band at Warhol's Factory. 96. December 14, 1977: "Saturday Night Fever debuts in......