The Times' Robin Finn interviews our fine city's first chief marketing officer, Joseph Perello. Yes, the man who helped bring Snapple to NYC school kids, filling them to them brim with juice-derived sugar. Perello's experience includes putting the NFL on MBNA credit cards and David Bowie's online ventures. Perello is certainly enthusiastic about potential opportunities ("Certainly New York City is a brand, and it's a damn good one!", and whlie Gothamist may be suspicious of the next move Perello has for the city, the fact he had been fired and re-hired by George Steinbrenner - twice - we do have respect for him. Perhaps when the time is right, Gothamist will apply for a job to be New York City's brand manager. We hope we get to make flashy PowerPoint presentations using words like "synergy" and do some focus groups about how people all over the country and world to, as Perello says, "capture, and quantify, the emotions this city inspires." more ›

I love the Star of Davidson Jewish Motorcycle gang- and their frank self-description: "Star of Davidson is a group of mostly Jewish Harley Davidson Motorcycle enthusiasts. Put another way: if you run into medical, legal, or financial problems on your Harley, we're a good group to have around". And everyone needs a Bike Mezuzah. [Via Gawker and the NY Times] more ›

The most expensive hotel room in Paris is only 7k per night- compared to 15-17k for hotel rooms in the world's other big cities. At that price, how can I afford to stay there the next time I'm in town? Hotel Meurice [Via Gawker] more ›