Last week Paula Scher's exhibit of painted city maps opened at the Maya Stendhal Gallery (running through January 26th). The Pentagram design firm partner has created the looks of the Public Theater, the Metropolitan Opera, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, the High Line, the Asia Society (and more) through logos. This exhibit expands on her Maps series which took over the gallery last year, and depicts "entire continents, countries and cities from all......

ART: Duke Riley brings his latest exhibit, After the Battle of Brooklyn: East River Incognita II, to Magnan Projects. Starting tonight and showing through December 22nd, the works imagine New York during the Revolutionary War and "interweave historical and contemporary events with elements of fiction and myth to create allegorical histories. His re-imagined narratives comment on a range of issues from the cultural impact of overdevelopment and gentrification of waterfront communities to contradictions within political......

THEATER: We like our comedy like we like our women: black and absurd. So it’s promising that the press release for a new play by Kevin Mandel uses those two irresistible words to describe A New Television Arrives, Finally. The strange story concerns “an American couple visited by a charismatic man presenting himself as a television set. Is the handsome stranger a charlatan or a guru?” Emmy award-winning actor Tom Pelphrey [Guiding Light] leads the......

We recently got the new Creative Time book, aptly titled Creative Time: The Book. Unable to wrap our heads around what on earth The Urban Visual Recording Machine was after reading about it, surely we'd understand after getting our hands on the book where it plays the protagonist. Well, sort of. The book is essentially a look back on the group's public art projects around the city. For example, the photo at left is from......

Jackie Clarke is super terrific and up to lots of stuff! She performs Improv at the UCB with Death by Roo Roo, hosts a variety show with Julie Klausner, and is doing plenty of writing and video projects. In this interview, we discuss candy, dessert islands, NASA, radio, and her many endeavors all while showcasing her quick wit! They say blondes have more fun, but what about redheads? Redheads have a lot of fun. Look......

VINYL SALE: If you're looking for some rare vinyl, you might want to check out this monthly event: Shakey's Record Fair. A meatpacking district locale seems...a little off, but as FreeNYC points out, if you're "looking for that super rare old school funktified 7"...Shakey's Record Fair is probably the only place you'll find it." 8pm // APT [419 W 13th St] // Free THEATER: Rules of the Universe is a new site-specific play performed in......

When walking on Seventh Avenue just south of 14th Street, might we suggest avoiding leaning on the structure where "dozens of rats live." We hear they bite pets. In the meantime, we're going to call this one into 311 (maybe we should write a letter to the Mayor for good measure?). Though if we remember our Rats: The Book correctly getting rid of one nest won't do much. There are millions of rats nests......

The scandal is a week old now - Kaavya Viswanathan is the Harvard sophomore who plagiarized passages of her debut novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life from two of author Megan McCafferty's books. But boy, what a week it's been, and everyone (for better or worse) is still talking about it. First, The Crimson broke the story about Viswanathan's prolific cribbing from McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings (while......

Okay, red-blooded male Gothamist readers who are seeking girls who laugh, like the snark, and are interested in the direction this country is going in: It seems the part of the code has been cracked on how to meet lovely ladies in a place that isn't a bar or a comedy club. You need to go to events where Jon Stewart is present. Eric at State of the Art went to Stewart's book signing and......

Jon Stewart has been making the media rounds to promote his new book (with The Daily Show), The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book) : A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. He was on Leno last night, showing that the Television Academy even enough to give him two Emmys for some extra publicity. But the best book-push related feature we've seen is his 10 Questions with Times magazine:WRITING A BOOK IS SO......

Girlynyc, Panty Blogger...

Hal Hartley, Filmmaker...

This weekend, Gothamist was intrigued by the barrage of information about and by young twenty- and thirtysomething New Yorkers, works of both fact and ficiton. Basically, the dudes are trying to be funny and shznit in fiction while the ladies are freaking about what do with their actual lives. Sounds about right. The Post mentioned Kyle Smith's book, Love Monkey, which is called the male counterpart to Bridget Jones and the chick lit movement. Interestingly......

Hello Kitty turned 30 yesterday, and to celebrate, one Tokyo jeweller has created a blinging kitty: "For just three million yen (15,575 pounds/US $28,472), they can buy a three cm (1.2-inch) high platinum Kitty, her dress and hair ribbon studded with 131 diamonds." Reuters also notes "Like many an ageing star, Kitty is known to have undergone at least one facelift during her career, which brought her eyes and nose closer together for a 'cuter'......

An interesting article from the Wall Street Journal reveals the power of the Barnes & Noble fiction book buyer, Sessalee Hensley, who can make books. Publishers and authors marvel and tremble with fear at what her decisions can mean, but Hensley, naturally, says, "I'm just one person and I'm not infallible. The fact of it is if I read something I don't like it's just me not liking it, not the world not liking it.......

The eagerly anticipated collaboration between Joshua Albertson, Lockhart Steele, and Jonathan Van Gieson, Book of Ages 30, is out in bookstores (free same-day delivery in Manhattan from Barnes and Noble with purchases over $25), on the shelves of Amazon (and other online retailers), and perhaps even at a library near you. And naturally, the website goes live with a blog about all things 30. You can also explore more about the book which promises to......

The Devil Wears Prada author and recent favorite Gothamist punching bag Lauren Weisberger must have gotten the memo from her publishers about toning down the "ungrateful brat" element of her shtick because her appearance on the Today Show showed a humbler, gentler Weisberger for our times. Campbell Brown asked if the editor in The Devil Wears Prada was really based on Anna Wintour; Weisberger demured and, taking a piece of Kate Betts' advice, said......