In 1992, on this exact day, MTV aired the premiere of their reality television show The Real World, which was created by Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray and apparently based off of a 1973 documentary series An American Family. But is this landmark 20th anniversary something to celebrate or something to shun? more ›

Is Occupy Wall Street getting too much of the wrong kind of attention? Just earlier today we heard that Christopher Nolan wanted to film scenes for The Dark Knight Rises at Zuccotti Park, and now Viacom may be the next group to be profiting from the 99%. Dance monkeys! more ›

As The Real World Brooklyn airs on MTV, and many of the roommates are scattered about New York, real estate vultures are honing in on the Pier that housed the eight strangers. The Brooklyn Paper reports that the historic Pier 41 warehouse may "become a catering hall run by renowned restaurateur Buzzy O’Keeffe." The news comes from Fairway developer and owner of the site, Greg O'Connell, who "announced the proposal for a high-end wedding hall on Tuesday at the Brooklyn Real Estate Roundtable, a regular gathering of industry powerhouses." While the deal isn't final, he is involved in negotiations that could soon allow you to say your vows in the house of Viacom. Don't expect to see any of the IKEA decor however, it's been sold off on Craigslist. more ›

It seems like just yesterday MTV was searching for a home for their Real World Brooklyn cast, and now the show is ready to air! How fast these reality programs grow up. You've already met the cast, seen their home in Red Hook, and read all about our very own Billy Parker sending the show's first transgender into a blogging tizzy...so what's next? We've seen the first episode, which will air tomorrow, and here are a few "spoilers." First up: you'll know you're in Brooklyn when they start playing rap music and showing graffiti. Soon after that, Mormon roommate Chet refers to the borough as a place where you "don't want to end up" and worries about getting shot there (another spoiler alert: he doesn't). Later on the roommates will get some slices at L&B Spumoni Gardens, and ever further into the show there's some bonding over dinner at Elmo in Manhattan. Other than that, you'll hear things like how they like to sit out and look at the ocean from their Red Hook digs. By which they mean Buttermilk Channel or the Hudson Bay, of course. The NY Post has another look inside their temporary home, and the Daily News has a preview. more ›

The Real World Brooklyn cast continues their media frenzy with a new piece in Time Out New York. Some highlights: cast member Baya was asked why Red Hook bar owners banned them, to which she replied, "They knew that we were coming and didn’t like the idea of it. It’s understandable. When you go to a small place, it’s really intrusive to have a huge camera crew come in." Meanwhile, with much of the cast still here, Ryan tells of their big city New Year's Eve plans, saying, "I thought, Hey, let’s all get together. We want to do the whole Times Square experience. I know it’s going to be crazy. I’ve heard horror stories. But I’m looking forward to doing it" (TONY clues them in on locals not ever doing that). But Mormon Chet continues to steal the spotlight when he asks the mag: "What’s that show, where the girls are doing the kick-ups? They’re very limber. Very limber. And that’s very important to me. The day I have sex I’m hoping it’s with a girl who has a little maneuverability." (*Shudder*) Watch out Rockettes! The season starts airing on MTV next month, but for now let's all take a look back at The Real World Hoboken. more ›

Yesterday we got a sneak peek into the Real World Brooklyn house out in Red Hook as well as introductions to each of the eight new cast members. As we mentioned, there were allusions to half the cast sticking around town (possibly for some sort of spin-off) in the Lower East Side and/or Stuy Town, using the Big Apple to springboard their careers. more ›

While 850 Viacom employees got laid off this morning, we were taking our first look inside the Red Hook house of the Real World Brooklyn cast! MTV gave big ups to the borough by adding a cast member this season for a total of eight good-looking 18 to 24-year-olds. There isn't one New Yorker in the bunch--but this season features the first transgender (and the token Mormon, Iraq vet and gay dolphin trainer, naturally). If you'd like to meet the cast up close and personal yourself, they'll be joining the producers of the show tomorrow night at The Paley Center for Media. more ›

Looks like The Real World's latest cast has finally settled in to their Red Hook digs. NewYorkology spotted the seven strangers as they left their new residence at Pier 41, "they were heading toward Sunny’s, but instead made the turn, map, toward Van Brunt, with the Ikea straight ahead down Beard Street." They can have their IKEA; just stay away from Sunny's! Anyway, this could very well be their first Friday night in town...you've all been warned. more ›

The Dept. of Homeland Security is funding the installation of a number of anti-missile defense systems on commercial jets flying in and out of JFK Airport. The tests are the third stage of testing of a system that is already used by military aircraft. The defense system consists of equipment affixed to the bottom of the aircraft that electronically jams the heat-seeking component of shoulder filed missiles. The latter are referred to as man portable air defense systems, or MANPADs. The current test of the anti-MANPAD systems on jets is to see how the equipment holds up on the real world operating conditions of a commercial jet. more ›

EVENT: Tonight Coney Island historian Charles Denson will be enlightening all about the "Genesis of the Coney Island History Project" at the American Folk Art Museum. He'll be discussing "the fascinating changes Coney Island has undergone" from its amusement park glory days to its struggle to survive. Expect to see some never-before-seen photos. More info here. 6:30pm // American Folk Art Museum [45 W 53rd St] // $10 MUSIC: We highly recommend getting over to... more ›

Photo via Hamevugar's Flickr. The Brooklyn Museum housed a Ron Mueck exhibit that we pointed out last year and CubeMe just reported on. The exhibition, now closed, included "about 15 mixed media works on loan from the artist’s collection, major museums, and private collections..that explore the ambiguous relationship between reality and artifice, creating figures that express the contradictions between the real world and the imaginary. The figures seem to be alive: every detail -... more ›

Nightmare: Ghost Stories is a walk-through haunted house by the creators of last year’s shriek-out hit Nightmare: Face Your Fear. Now doubled in size, the house boasts 23 different interconnected rooms of ghosts, psycho killers and gory, dismembered limbs – the sight of which prompted one girl in our group to declare, “No Red Lobster ever again!” An extra fee gets you entrance to a separate but much more frightening side-show: a dark labyrinth haunted by barely-visible specters flitting through the shadows. The maze – a more subtle, psychological scare than the main tour – is well worth the extra five bucks; we highly recommend getting separated from your friends and being followed by a clown through pitch-black corridors that culminate in a dead end. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg headed to jury duty this morning, with a smile, a number of bodyguards and press aide Stu Loeser. When he showed up to the waiting room for prospective jurors, apparently a woman called a friend and said he was there for the "same foolishness" as everyone else. more ›

The laptop as guest - and sometimes the centerpiece - at dinner parties gets the Observer treatment today. We're all too familiar with friends staring at their Blackberry/iPhone/ Sidekick devices during social situations, but some might tell those toting a Macbook to a dinner party to just stay at home...or not? After all, they do come in handy when a debate is being settled (say, how many degrees of Kevin Bacon is Alan Thicke?). As long as everyone can get back in to real person-on-person conversation and re-enter the real world, the temporary tech guest shouldn't be too imposing. more ›

Whether you're a fan of the reality genre or not, voyeurism has injected itself into every form of entertainment since shows like The Real World gave anyone with cable a chance to see the day-to-day lives of total strangers. With everything from HBO's Voyeur to watching a band in a bubble, we wish this were enough to satiate those creepy peeping tom's out there! more ›

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? more ›

This is something we all learned while watching the first season of The Real World (but probably forgot sometime around Big Brother, The Bachelor and every other "reality show" that quickly sprouted up). NYMag has a review from the premiere, where apparently "covetable gift bags" were handed out (we hear they contained iPods...but not iPhones). more ›

focuses on fictional character Bailey Weggins - a gossip rag writer with a penchant for solving crime. We're garnering that White herself falls somewhere between the Cosmo girl and the crime solver. more ›

READING: Today NY Mag asks, "What does Tina Brown have to do to get some attention?" Well tonight she's signing copies of her new book (a tell-all on Princess Di) called The Diana Chronicles. more ›

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Spring is when we get busy here in the Ist-A-Verse. Very busy. But, after staying bundled-up indoors all winter, it's nice for us to be out, about, and collecting things to write about for you. Here's a glimpse at what's been keeping your favorite citybloggers busily away from home and out of bed. more ›

Did you see the season premiere of "I'm From Rolling Stone"? A combination of job interview, intership and reality tv...the show didn't disappoint with its "oh no (s)he did not!" moments. Jann Wenner was rarely thanked for giving them the opportunity, instead the contestants say things like "For reals?" and "Should I bring clothes and condoms?" as a reaction to his call. And then contestant-number-whatever told Joe Levy he was drunk when he wrote his first piece! Probablly not the best idea, buddy (but we totally saw it coming). That is only okay if, say, you are Lester Bangs...and you actually have something intersting to say even when you are "under the influence". more ›

As 2006 ends and 2007 begins, the -ists look back not at the past week, but at the past year. So here it is, your Best of 2006 Spectacular. And from all of us at the -ists, happy New Year! more ›

This was not a very happy week for the -ist network as one of our own, more ›

In this interview, Emmy award winning writer and comedian Greg Fitzsimmons discusses the importance of honesty in comedy, what "edgy" means to him, and the time he got into a fist fight onstage. more ›

Along a dark and lonely strip in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, underneath the El train - at 1087 Broadway, to be exact - sits a shop. What kind of shop it is is hard to say. There might be a guy at a table drinking a can of beer and reading a yellowed paperback. Another table could have a cat stretched across it. There's a small counter on your left, with a couple of people drinking coffee and hunched over computers. And in the back, there might be a local rock or jazz band playing. But the main thing you'll notice when you walk in is the stuff. Lots of it. Books and board games and records and figurines and toys and lamps and maybe a motorcycle. More than you could hope to go through in an afternoon. And it's all for sale. more ›

The fans at the show became Key West/Austin/Philadelphia...and these guys were the cast of The Real World. Except they weren't, they were the cast of the new reality show about becoming a Rolling Stone intern. It was us against them. They were rude, clearly had no idea who they were there to see, and taking up valuable space at the bar. The bouncers were annoyed, the fans were pissed and even the girls they were hitting on wanted them to leave. The only time the interns showed any interest in the music was when Band of Horses played the intro music to their set, "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire (special thanks to Amrit of Village Indian/Stereogum for remembering the song, and also for posing in front of the interns so it wasn't so obvious we were photographing them). more ›

On Sundays Gothamist runs opinion pieces relevant to life in New York and reviews of recent books and performances. The judgments expressed below are entirely those of the author. more ›

Last November, Gothamist fell in love with the idea of congestion pricing for the city. The Partnership for New York City has been investigating the opportunity to make the city less crowded with cars - or if it is crowded with cars, then drivers will have to pay. However, there is quite a bit of opposition to the plan, and with the Mayor saying that the city would investigate using congestion pricing to relieve city traffic, people freaked out. Mayor had to backtrack a little, by saying, "The real world is, not everybody is going to use mass transit. I think it's relatively impractical to take a whole bunch of city streets and say we're just not going to allow cars on them." But congestion pricing doesn't necessarily have to be about eliminating streets for drivers - it's about making people weigh whether or not they really want to use their cars (we suspect that people who can afford to pay for their SUV's gas will pay to drive around). The NY Times reported that the Queens Chamber of Commerce released a report that basically said congestion pricing would lead to a $1.9 billion drop in revenue daily, but pro-congestion pricing groups say the report (which was sponsored by - you guessed it - owners of parking garages) doesn't factor in the productivity lost to traffic. Gothamist doubts that Mayor Bloomberg will allow a full-up congestion pricing plan for the city, but given his somewhat iconoclastic ways (hello, noise ban; hello, smoking ban), he might be ready to do something dramatic with city traffic. more ›