One Ring Zero is an unusual Brooklyn band headed up by Michael Hearst and Joshua Camp, with a troupe of musicians and lyricists filling out their ever-morphing sonic tribe. Their lyrics have been written by some familiar names: Jonathan Lethem, Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster and Dave Eggers are amongst them. This year they enter their 10th year of making music, and this Friday they'll be at Joe's Pub celebrating on stage. Join in on the party, you can buy tickets here. more ›

Part of the NBC 2.0 philosophy has been to put cheap programming on air as a measure to cut corners and save money. Even before the writers' strike this has meant a string of programs that are “unscripted,” such as cheesy game shows and of course the requisite fakeality nonsense. So taking quarterlife, a Web 2.0 based online show/online community from the creators of thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, and Once and Again, and sticking it on TV doesn’t seem like a big stretch. more ›

BAM Cinématek more ›

If you went by Trinity Church this past weekend you probably would have never guessed that there were bells ringing and that the tower was hosting a North American Guild of Change Ringers event with bell ringers from throughout North America and the United Kingdom. Thanks to special sound controls, the work of the ten to twelve bell ringers was muffled to those who weren’t actually in the bell tower. more ›

A look at some noteworthy programs this week:
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Okay Conor, we get it: you have cool friends. This week, during the Bright Eyes 7-night run at Town Hall, the band promised a special guest each night. So far he's brought out the likes of Lou Reed, Steve Earle, Jenny Lewis, Norah Jones and Ben Kweller. Each played a few songs of their own mid set before joining in jamming with the rest of the group. On the night we went, we were treated to a mini acoustic set by Ben Gibbard and a sit in by Nick Zinner, who among other songs, played the haunting Daniel Johnston cover "Devil Town." But as far as Bright Eyes goes, no matter what you think of the guy and his music, there's no denying that he always makes the extra effort to please his fans in NYC. Whether it be avoiding the larger, expensive venues, playing intimate shows or pulling stunts like this. Conor went out of his way to make each of these shows special, and as a fan, we really appreciate that. more ›

As the Virginia Tech story broke last Monday, cable news, as always, took the lead with their normal oversaturated speculative coverage transferring the energy and resources normally reserved for non-story stories like the Anna Nicole Smith saga into covering a real story. more ›

For anyone turned on by lists, then have we got a list for you! The Economist's Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has published the EIU Worldwide Cost of Living for 2007. What's the WCOL, you say?

The Worldwide Cost of Living survey enables human resources line managers and expatriate executives to compare the cost of living in over 130 cities in nearly 90 countries and calculate fair compensation policies for relocating employees. more ›

If you ever thought that military spending was ill-advised, think again. NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command is tracking Santa with the NORAD Tracks Santa 2006 website. There's a live map of Santa's whereabouts, as well as videos at some places he stops. And how do they do this?

Detecting Santa all starts with the NORAD radar system called the North Warning System. This powerful radar system has 47 installations strung across the northern border of North America. NORAD makes a point of checking the radar closely for indications of Santa Claus leaving the North Pole on Christmas Eve. more ›

September 3: Outstanding in the Field more ›

Last week the Times anointed their official summer cocktail of 2006. It’s called The Cuke and consists of limes, mint, and cucumbers muddled with sugar, steeped in gin, and strained over ice with a splash of seltzer. It sounds stunning and we have every intention of mixing up a batch for our next get-together. But what if you’re less the garden party thrower and more just a garden variety boozer? What about those nights when you need a drink without much fuss, at home, perhaps alone? But you don’t want to just knock back straight liquor—that would be crossing a line after all. Why not stop in at your local bodega for some of these inspiring readymade mixers? After all, nothing’s more refreshing than a tropical drink. more ›

Sampaist is on the scene in São Paulo beginning this week to become the only ist south of the Equator. Editor Leandro M. Pinto leads the paulistanos down there. more ›

Happy Seward's Day! According to Gothamist's Alaska weather calendar the purchase of Alaska in 1867 by Secretary of State William H. Seward is celebrated on the last day of March. Coincidentally, today is also the anniversary of the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, the most powerful modern North American earthquake. The earthquake and resulting tsunami destroyed much of Seward, Alaska and many other coastal Alaskan towns. more ›

As we all know by now, Staten Island Chuck, Gothamist's favorite rodent (he's bigger and cuter than a rat!), did not see his shadow yesterday morning, meaning an early spring. While Chuck was not seeing his shadow, Gothamist was photographing these snowdrops emerging from the ground in Morningside Park. By our recollection they were coming out a couple of weeks earlier than last year, which one might assume is another sign of an early spring. Now that this morning's rain has stopped we've warmed up to 62. Close to the record high of 64. Another sign of spring's imminent arrival? more ›

A few times a week, Gothamist publishes music reviews by our contributor Jeff Baum. The opinions below belong entirely to the author. more ›

Antony and the Johnsons will play their first NYC show since winning the UK's Mercury Music Prize last month. The past year has seen Antony rise from a relatively unknown eccentric NYC club performer to an international superstar. His headlining show at Carnegie Hall on Thursday, and his upcoming appearance on Letterman, are two signs of his well deserved success. Those attending the Carnegie show will also be treated to a rare opening set by vocalist Jimmy Scott, "the man whom Joseph Hooper, in a New York Times Magazine profile, called 'perhaps the most unjustly ignored American singer of the 20th century.' [Fantasy Jazz]. more ›

Hockey didn't have a lot of capital to spend in the first place and it is now the first professional sports league in North American to lose a season to labor woes. For Ranger fans, this might actually be a good thing since they seem to have the lowest wins to dollars spent ratio in the league recently. A cancelled season is actually a relief. more ›

And, also, from the Publisher: With the addition of Torontoist, Gothamist is now in seven cities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. We have received many suggestions on what cities to target next, and we wanted to share some plans with you. When we consider a new city, we look at regional population, internet penetration, age demographics, and strength of media community (as measured by the number of newspapers, magazines, and blogs). more ›

New York's Sea Ray have been around since the late nineties, becoming increasingly popular in recent years, finding success by complimenting layers of lush guitar with rich cello. This chamber-pop sextet have shared the stage with a wide range of great bands, including a North American tour with indie godfathers, The Church. Sea Ray are Anne Brewster (cello), Colin Brooks (drums), I-Huei Go (bass), Jeff Sheinkopf (keyboards), Jordan Warner (vocals, guitar) and Greg Zinman (guitar). Gothamist has a few questions for keyboardist - and mini-brass section - Sheinkopf and captivating cellist Brewster. more ›

Same old same old (not that I'm complaining). Partly cloudy, high of 78. more ›

Gothamist would like to thank the New York Times for giving us a mini anxiety attack with an article about last year's blackout that begins, "." Augh! Are state officials trying to tell us that perhaps another blackout could occur, because if that's the case, trim those tree branches! NYC has enough power until 2009, which is when officials expect the city to fall short of the 3000 megawatts needed by 280 megawatts (if anyone can explain any of this, be our guest). Yes, the blackout was a great way to bond, dance in the streets and have cookouts, but blackouts are so 2003. Let's think of something new in this post-Industrial Revolution world, like money magically coming out of all ATMs at once. more ›

The curious Gothamist reader may have noticed a seeming contradiction in the recent entry about the forthcoming movie "The Day After Tomorrow". No, not allegations that NASA may have wanted to silence its scientists, but that one consequence of global warming will be a sudden deep freeze. The earth gets cold when it warms? WTF? more ›

Europe decides to take a cue from the United States by Italy having a massive even-bigger-than-our-August-14-blackout power outage that affected about 57 million this past weekend. In another delicious parallel, the AP reports, "." more ›