Given that soon you won't be able to escape the nonstop barrage of images selling you sex and mole removal from jail, it's nice to know that the city is still enforcing an advertising ban in the only place that isn't plastered with a poster for Horrible Bosses: the sidewalk. The Times reports that despite the Sony Corporations's best efforts to cheerily inform us that it's the "Era Of You" around their headquarters on Madison Avenue, the city's DOT slapped them with a cease and desist order for their removal. "The sidewalks are intrinsic public space, and there are very few parts of our city that really are still sacred," a Rudin Center professor at NYU tells the paper. more ›

Earlier today NY1 reported that the iconic Walkman would no longer be produced, though a Sony rep said sales would "continue for now in parts of Asia and the Middle East where cassette tapes are still in demand." Gizmodo pointed out the official time of death was called on the iPod's 9th birthday, and wrote a nice little obituary for the 1979-era gadget. But now they've updated saying a Sony rep told them the Walkman was still fast-forwarding into the future here in the States, and was only being pulled in Japan. This is all sounding a little bit too Polaroid to us, so you may want to buy one now if you're a nostalgia collector. more ›

The big-bucks creative director who took on design and photography for Shakira’s new album says the she wolf’s record label paid him only half of what he’s due. Now the designer has filed a lawsuit against Sony in Manhattan Supreme Court alleging he's owed $64,000. more ›

Incase you missed the news on this PSP Fanboy site, the giant PSP that's been lording over Houston Street is gone. The site reports that the oversized gaming thingamajig has "been a landmark for years," and its dismantlement marks the end of an era...though they question if Sony will replace it with a "PSP-3000 system, which will be slimmer than the original giant PSP-1000." If that's the case, hopefully they'll be able to figure out the glitches that plagued Billboard 1.0. more ›

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist. more ›

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist. more ›

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist. more ›

Wait a minute, didn't Brian Williams host Saturday NIght Live just two weeks ago, the one where Barack Obama appeared in the opening? Yes, but with the Writers Guild strike still on, Saturday Night Live decided to revisit the recent past, versus dig into old "Best of" clip shows. The unfortunate thing is that Page Six reports 90% of the SNL production staff was fired "until further notice" because of the strike. Other TV shows'... more ›

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist. more ›

Ghostbusters has been in the form of a videogame ever since it hit the big screen in 1984, and since then it's been through many versions and platforms. Seems it has taken nearly 24 years to perfect it though, as it's just been announced the movie will haunt us til the end up time with a series of top-notch videogames to come.First title in what the publisher hopes will be a series of Ghostbusters games... more ›

Need a last minute costume idea and in a New York state of mind? Here are a few NYC-themed ideas for your Halloween fête... more ›

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Those geniuses at Fallon London are at it again for Sony BRAVIA. First they had the bouncing balls in San Francisco, then the tower of paint in Glasgow, and now bunnies on the streets of Manhattan. Fair warning - if for some reason you're scared of bunnies, don't watch this video. The advertisement, titled "Play-doh" features 200 plasticine bunnies hopping around and a large 30 foot bunny in Thomas Paine Park in Lower Manhattan. more ›

REMINDER: Don't forget about the Atlantic Antic Festival, which we wrote all about yesterday. more ›

READING: Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Presidential candidate John Edwards, will have the spotlight on her for the night as she reads from her memoir, Saving Graces. The tale of her teenage son's death and her current battle with cancer may have you grabbing for a box of tissues (and voting for her hubby?). more ›

It's not just venues closing down these days, the latest real estate casualty is still music-related, however. AMNY reports that Sony BMG is closing its Hell's Kitchen studios. more ›

The Manhattan DA's office announced that thirteen people were indicted in a identity theft scam. Credit card information from diners in Chinatown and other areas (Brooklyn, Westchester, Long Island, Florida, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Connecticut) would be stolen by wait staff, using handheld credit card skimmers. A list of restaurants where the scam took place was not released. more ›

Angel Parades was the first person to buy the Playstation 3 at the Sony Store in Midtown (apparently Charlie Murphy was on the scene!) while Sergio Rodriguez bought the first one at the Union Square Circuit City. Rodriquez said, "This is the best game ever. It's so worth the wait. Some people may call me crazy, but I really love to play." more ›

If you haven't showered in a few days, there is a good chance that you're probably waiting on a line trying desperately to score one of the new next generation console releases from Sony and Nintendo. more ›

this way, and sporting those Buddy Holly-esque free plastic glasses during a matinee was a blast. more ›

THEATER: Stephen Belber, whose Tape was made into a riveting film by Richard Linkater, unveils his latest opus, A Small, Melodramatic Story at The Public Theater. Previews start tonight so there are no reviews yet, but the synopsis is intriguing: “In Washington, D.C., a widow struggles to figure out whether life is worth re-engaging with. In her path are the 1968 riots, the first Gulf War, the Freedom of Information Act, and herself. There's also an archivist named Keith, a cop named Perry, and a kid named Cleo. And finally there's the question of just how much about anything do we really need to know." more ›

Oliver Stone may have already unleashed on moviegoers his melodramatic vision of 9/11 with but even if you don't want to see the wreckage recreated on screen, there's way more filling New York movie screens. more ›

Sadly, we missed the Jose Gonzalez performance at Spin House Live recently (it was pouring that night!). Luckily it's all online. more ›

Oh, to be young and naive! The president of the Free Culture chapter at NYU got fired from her clerk job at a Manhattan intellectual property law firm. Her crime? Holding beliefs that were incompatible with the work of the firm: namely, that draconian copyright protection is bad for consumers, bad for the economy, and bad in general. Read Inga's whole story at the NYU Free Culture blog: more ›

Okay-- we really though the Sony Fony graffiti story had run its course. Surely, we thought, Sony couldn't do anything more silly than employing fake graffiti to advertise its PlayStationPortable. Sadly, we were wrong. LAist is reporting that Sony is now advertising on human skin, by co-opting those little stamps they use at clubs: more ›

With our tiny attention span, we lost interest in the Sony Graffiti story after about a week-- but the news just keeps rolling on! Last week, Graffiti-hating councilman Vallone announced his intention to fine Sony for their fony outdoor graffiti advertising, and this week, tons of people started spotting the fony characters in subway stations. Janelle even spotted a few hung upside-down; we couldn't figure out if that was done on-purpose or not-- you know, because all the kids find upside-down fake-graffiti so much more authentic than right-side-up fake graffiti. Is this the end of the story? We can only pray! more ›

- In terms of receiving 9/11 funds, Chinatown has been left in the dust. more ›

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Starbucks, in order to promote its holiday campaign, apparently projected an ad on Grand Central Terminal last Saturday night. And of course, that made some people unhappy, raising questions about whether or not projections should be allowed on historic buildings. Starbucks' ad agency Wieden & Kennedy tasked guerilla marketing agency Neverstop to use their stealth vans to project ads - plus give out cards for free Tarbucks coffee as the van roamed the city. amNewYork says Metro-North was unhappy about the ad when they learned about it, but the Department of Buildings says permits are only needed when "something solid is placed on a building." Which isn't to say that the DoB might not reconsider later. Maybe the MTA needs to program Grand Central Terminal with perpetual projection art (they have art inside) on the exterior in order to combat corporations looking for an extra way in. Or they can raise Starbucks' rent inside Grand Central. more ›

A couple of weeks ago, we published a fairly controversial editorial ("Corporate Graffiti Sucks Balls"), calling out the Sony Corporation for dirtying up our city with their PlayStationPortable graffiti advertising campaign. A few days later, Secondary Screening picked up the story-- and their story got Digg'd a few thousand times. Wired noticed, and wrote an article about the controversy yesterday. And of course, our friends over at Wooster Collective have been covering the story the whole time-- and have begun collecting hilarious pictures of people vandalizing the fake Sony pieces. Even the AM Papers have done an article (with a small quote from us.) more ›