Former Talking Head David Byrne had a crosseyed and painful bike ride home the other evening – and briefly ended up in the hospital. According to Byrne’s own blog, he’d spent the night drinking and dining with his special lady friend and artist David Shrigley. While cycling home, the Grammy-winning artist’s bike tire “slipped on the cobblestones of West 14th St.” more ›

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Did contemporary art and music come together for the first time in New York? The holy (or unholy -- if you're not a Velvet Underground fan) union can be traced back to, where else, Andy Warhol's Factory scene. So why is the Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967 exhibit being housed all the way in Chicago? 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 ›

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 ›

David Byrne's foldable Montague mountain bike has been stolen. The avid city biker rode in the 5 Boro Bike Tour last year, commenting: "The organizers close the FDR drive, the BQE, the Belt Parkway and the Verrazano-Narrows bridge on one side — so we get the thrill of riding in the middle of the street, not having to stop at red lights and no worries of the ubiquitous jaywalking peds on suicide missions." more ›

MUSIC: Of course we suggest you come hang out with us tonight at our 4th Birthday Party, and 11th Movable Hype show. The show starts at 7:30pm, here are the details and some mp3s: more ›

In the weeks after 9/11, when Operation Infinite Justice (later re-branded Enduring Freedom) readied vengeance for peasants in Afghanistan, there were several writers who immediately stood out by simply noting the truth amidst an avalanche of jingoism. One that springs readily to mind is Arundhati Roy, who wrote in an article on September 29, 2001: “Witness the infinite justice of the new century. Civilians starving to death while they're waiting to be killed.” more ›

Doesn't it seem like you no sooner put down the fork at the Thanksgiving table and the Christmas themed movies have flooded the theaters? If you're ready to start ho ho hoing your way to the cineplex, the new slapstick family comedy , or it could be that Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott have just run out of new movie ideas. more ›

After what seems like decades of dragging its feet, it really is going to happen. After tonight's performance by Patti Smith, CBGB's will close its doors on the Bowery for the last time. more ›

Seattlest saw a house party get senselessly attacked with a shotgun and end in seven dead. A local senator is debated and their version of the big dig is investigated. To truly get to the bottom of it they interview the writer Jonathan Raban. more ›

Call it shameless self promotion if you want, but the place to be tonight (Monday) is Knitting Factory for Gothamist's own Movable Hype 3.0 show featuring some of the hottest bands from NYC and Austin. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah just self-released their debut self-titled album and its quickly become one of our favorite listens of the year (read the Gothamist interview). Fans of Talking Heads and the Arcade Fire should take note (MP3s at their site). And the $8.00 bill doesn't end there. NY Press cover stars The Fame (read the Gothamist interview), local favorites Man in Gray (read the Gothamist interview), and the popular electronic rock duo Ghostland Observatory from Austin make this show more than a bargain. Even Pitchfork agrees with the hotness. Get tickets (also available at the door if it doesn't sell out). more ›

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Last year, when everyone else was reading The Fortress of Solitude, we picked up Motherless Brooklyn, Jonathan Lethem’s previous novel, about a South Brooklyn detective with Tourette’s. Given our general suspicion of It-books and buzzy fiction, we were pleased to find that it was good—really good, in fact, intelligent and true, more entertaining and earnest and linguistically acrobatic than anything we had read in ages. Even more surprising was the way strangers would approach us every time we pulled it out on the subway: Hey, how is that, I’ve heard he’s great or I’m reading The Fortress of Solitude and I can’t wait to go back and read that. It was as if we had joined a secret book club that met on the train (and this even happened on trains other than that favorite of publishing types, the F). more ›

Gothamist will be checking out Marc Spitz's new play on this whole tv genre entitled *. Spitz is an expert, as a senior writer at SPIN magazine he's been a talking head himself. Below is a summary of this, his seventh, play: more ›

The new hit off-Broadway production by the New Group of Hurlyburly is reportedly transfering to Broadway, we are especially glad that we had the chance a few nights ago to see it at the intimate Acorn Theatre at 42nd Street's Theatre Row complex. more ›

Our friends at Broadway's The Good Body, the Eve Ensler one-woman show, have alerted us to an enticing series of talkbacks that started Wednesday night. An interesting and eclectic mix of talking heads, feminists, movie stars, and so forth have been booked to give their takes on the show. Gothamist really dug this show and wants to go back and hear Gloria Steinem's take on this piece on feminine body image and the challenge of confronting society's expectations, as well as our own. We're also curious to hear Isabella Rossellini's take on the show and the ideas it explores, since she is one of the 'characters' portrayed by Ensler in the show, and in the show has a lot to say on the subject at hand. Here's the list of talkbacks booked so far: (with more dates to be added): more ›

Pooh-poohing the idea that being in a blue state meant their votes wouldn't count, New Yorkers were determined to vote yesterday, overwhelming voting centers and frustrating many. Our readers reported both frustrating and easy voting experiences yesterday, which makes us realize a couple things: 1) Voting on the way to work may make you late to work; 2) Voting at the crack of dawn is ideal, except at 45 Wall Street where election officials arrived an hour late; 3) There are varying rules about taking pictures of your ballot; 4) NYC children enjoy voting, so much so that they'll ask any ol' stranger if they can vote with 'em, making us believe the children really are the future. And the City's Board of Elections website had been inaccessible since Monday, due to the public's demand to find out more about where they needed to vote, which makes Gothamist wonder why the City didn't anticipate the need for more bandwidth - it's only the biggest city in the U.S., with a very high number of people Internet enabled. Department of Information and Telecommunications Technology, wake up! Gothamist has learned that the DoITT has nothing to do with the Board of Elections site or phonelines, so we're sorry we assumed you did; but maybe you need to help the BoE revamp their systems! more ›

This summer has been one docu after another in the art house theaters. If you've seen enough talking heads, soft money and political intrigue to last you until the next election cycle, might we recommend a documentary on a topic near and dear to the Gothamist heart: New York restaurants. more ›

As we enjoy these last dog days of summer, savvy New Yorkers know that it's not too early to think about ordering tickets for some of the cool shows arriving on the fall theater scene, just around the corner. more ›

The Onion A.V. Club's least essential albums of 2003. more ›