Performance artist and activist Bill Talen, AKA Reverend Billy, has been raising hell in New York City for so long now it’s hard to imagine this town without him. Since first seizing his sidewalk pulpit in the late 90s to combat the Disneyfication of Times Square, the reverend has been consistently down with a host of local and international progressive causes. With the help of his raucous Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, he also puts on a hilarious and inspirational theatrical show. (Not to take anything away from Other Love, his quite moving solo piece.) November will see the release of a documentary concerning the cross-country travels of Reverend Billy and his choir, What Would Jesus Buy?, produced by Morgan Spurlock of Supersize Me fame. Tonight the Reverend brings his righteous lefty heat to Gothamist House; all are invited to come on down and testify. more ›

There's a fun column by the NY Times' David Leonhardt today. Leonhardt loved the book Mindless Eating, by Brian Wansink, an economics professor at Cornell who conducted a number of experiments that show people don't really think when they eat. For instance, give people a huge bucket of stale popcorn and they'll eat more of it than those who got smaller buckets of the same stale stuff. Hence the connection to behavioral economics, which tries to understand the wild card factor of humans in the context of market decisions. It also reminded us of a point from Super Size Me - bigger options just made us fatter. more ›

Variety (subscription required, sadly) reports that the new Chapelle's Show segments that were meant to be for season three (you know, the season that was supposed to air earlier this year, only to crumble amidst production delays, rumors of a mental hospital stay, and Chappelle in South Africa) will be shown online first (on the Motherload) and then on cable in 2006. And Comedy Central is calling it season three. At a taping of Last Laugh '05, Comedy Central apparently showed a preview of "what it will air as part of season three, which included send-ups of MTV skein 'Cribs' and the Morgan Spurlock docudocu 'Super Size Me.'" Will the rest of season three be old Chappelle's Show, while funny, but totally warmed over since we've seen it a million times at this point? Whatever, Gothamist will take whatever we can get. more ›

We've read "Fast Food Nation." We've seen "Super Size Me." And, we've been queasy about fast food monoliths like McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell ever since. But, does fast food always have to mean bad food? (Not that Mickey D's fries aren't tasty - It's just that a large portion contains 520 calories, with 220 of those calories coming from fat.) more ›

Any restaurant whose URL reads greatbiscuits.com is worthy of review and Gothamist is happy to report that the Clinton Street Baking Co. does, in fact, have great biscuits. A plate of five buttermilk mini biscuits, served in lieu of rolls at the start of the meal is part of the rave-reviewed Lower East Side locale’s recently expanded dinner menu. more ›