In 1965 The Beatles performed at Shea Stadium (video), beginning a tradition of rock on the ball field. Sadly, they won't be around to bookend the life of the stadium, which opened its doors on April 17th, 1964 and gets torn down after the 2008 season. Helping them close up shop are Billy Joel and his piano. On July 16th Joel will make "The Last Play at Shea," and later in the year The Mets......

Entrance and Exit Only, by coifmo66 at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a serious trauma at East 16th St. and Moore Pl. in Brooklyn, a water search at Kosciusko Bridge in Brooklyn, and a bank robbery on Lexington Ave. in Manhattan, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who popularized transcendentalism in the West with the support of The Beatles, died yesterday at an undetermined age. Postmodern reality at its best: Silvercup Studios, where "Gossip Girl," is......

In the final year of baseball in Yankee Stadium, the legendary park will host the 2008 All-Star Game. In its 45th and final year, what does Shea Stadium get? A commemorative logo from the New York Mets. Fitting for the multi-purpose stadium that is a relic of the 1960s. Today, the Mets, the stadium's primary occupant since it opened in 1964, unveiled a logo that players will wear on their sleeves during the 2008 season.......

Making fun of hipsters isn't even ironically cool anymore, but this video of The Hipster Olympics somehow still manages to be funny. The hipsters go through a series of challenges including picking out ironic thrift store t-shirts (obvs), photographing themselves for their MySpace profiles, and tossing out albums by artists who have sold out by becoming popular (Of Montreal, Caribou, The Beatles and the sarcastic selection of Bruce Willis). Find out who wins the silver......

In June of 1972 (just months after his divorce) Elvis Presley performed a 3-day run at Madison Square Garden. These shows were the first full concerts he put on in NYC, and the first since he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956. Excitement was in the air, and Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Art Garfunkel, all of Led Zepplin and half of The Beatles (John Lennon and George Harrison) were in the audience. Another......

Recently Rolling Stone took a 60-second tour of The Beatles' New York, with a little help from Google’s Street Maps feature. First up on their tour: John and Yoko’s first NYC apartment at 105 Bank Street (where they lived during the release of this album). Here's a closer look at the property, which is also shown at right. In 1971, after a long stay at the St. Regis Hotel, John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved......

At 22, Simon Rich is a comedic force to be reckoned with. A Harvard graduate with a debut collection of short humorous pieces published by Random House, dubbed, "Hilarious" by Jon Stewart. He'll be reading at the KGB Bar on June 24th. Seeing him read now will be like seeing Jerry Seinfeld at an open mic or seeing The Beatles when Pete Best was the drummer. Audience members will be later be able to say,......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a professor at Brooklyn Law was killed by a garbage truck this morning in Brooklyn Heights and an "all hands" fire broke out on Ludlow and Delancey Street in Manhattan. A Westchester teen got busted by the SPCA after collecting more than 150 animals, and forcing them to live in squalid conditions. The animals included "bearded dragon lizards, rabbits, guinea pigs, turtles, ferrets, chameleons, South American squirrels, cats, hamsters,......

Today many will gather at Strawberry Fields in Central Park to hold vigil on the anniversary of the death of John Lennon, which took place 26 years ago today. The NYCLU has asked the city to lift the ban on music at Strawberry Fields for every day of the year, not just twice a year for Lennon vigils. Yoko Ono, who says she is still struggling to forgive the Mark Chapman, recently made a call......

The following is an account of what someone purchased four years ago at a stoop sale in Chelsea, for 75 cents: "In September of 2002 Warren Hill of Montreal Canada was perusing a box of records at a Chelsea, New York street sale when he happened upon a brittle 12" piece of acetone-covered aluminum with the words "Velvet Underground. 4-25-66. Att N. Dolph" written on the label. He purchased the three records for 75......

Wolfmother...

Albert Maysles, Documentary Filmmaker...

While The Beatles' performance on The Ed Sullivan Show was an iconic TV moment, their 32-minute performance at Shea Stadium on August 15, 1965 truly demonstrated how popular they had become. With a capacity of over 55,000, screaming fans filled the stands, with screaming that perhaps has only been heard in 1969 and 1986 since (and we're not sure the screaming during those World Series years approached the Beatles fans). People say the fact......

Thanks to boing boing, Gothamist has been enjoying the experimental-only (not-for-commercial use) Grey Video, which is a video mash-up of The Beatles and Jay-Z, using DJ Danger Mouse's Grey Album. It's an imaginative way to bring past and present together, with a Beatles concert suddenly interrupted by Jay-Z...and there's just something incredibly hot about seeing the words "Bronx" and "Brooklyn" flash up behind Ringo. You can download the Grey Album at Illegal Art. And our......

The New York Times wrote a piece on Sunday with their top ten picks for this year’s New York International Fringe Festival , a good starting place, but not near enough information on this mammoth festival. Starting Aug. 13th and running for 16 days, the Fringe is one of the best, least expensive ways to see fun and challenging new theater, some of which may end up transferring to bigger venues. Urinetown is the Fringe’s......

Godzilla has returned to Japan. No, not the overgrown monster from the South Sea, but Japan's own Hideki Matsui. The Yankees and Matsui arrived after 1 am Tokyo time this morning (or was it yesterday morning, the time difference has Gothamist all messed up). The team was dressed to the nines, wearing suits and ties, not the sweat-suits and slippers they wore on the plane. The line of stars made it off the plane one......