Bands Start Up Each and Every Day

Indie-rock progenitors Pavement are getting the band back together for a tour—but no record—next year. Rumors were floated by Brooklyn Vegan a few days ago, but now it's official. Their last show was in 1999. We feel old.

The Ghost of New York Nightlife Past

Klaus Nomi at Danceteria, breakdancers at The Roxy, grooving at Paradise Garage! In this 1983 episode of the British television show The Tube the hosts go exploring Manhattan's club scene. Welcome back to dirty New York.

Rita Cosby v. Howard K. Stern: It Doesn't Matter Who Wins, Because We All Lose

Daniel K. Stern (remember him?) sued Rita Cosby (remember her?) for libel back in 2007 over her book about Anna Nicole Smith, and a federal district judge ruled yesterday that much of the suit can go forward. More »

A Retrospective of Woodstock Retrospectives

This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, so it's time once again to remember how great things were, how different things are, and how they'll never be that good again. More »

The Death of the Beatrice Inn

If the Beatrice Inn were to close forever, rather than just temporarily, what would we say at its funeral? Because we're feeling wistful this afternoon, we're going to attempt something of a eulogy. More »

Watchmen's New York

Just in time for New York to revert back to the mean streets of old, the blockbustery film Watchmen comes out offering us a reimagined 1985 cityscape. How does it compare to the real thing? More »

Laurel Touby: The College Years

As we learned that her assistant was laid off today, our attentions were drawn to be-boa-ed Mediabistro founder Laurel Touby. Coincidentally, a tipster directed us to some nostalgic photos from her young, frivolous college years. More »

The Stork Club's Secret Hand Signals

Continuous Lean points out a series of Time Life photos detailing the collection of hand signals that Sherman Billingsley, the owner of Old Manhattan institution The Stork Club, used to communicate silently with his staff. More »

Seinfeld Returns To NBC

Oh, hey, look: Flailing NBC executive Ben Silverman just bought a reality TV project from Jerry Seinfeld, marking the 1990s comedian as the ultimate trailing indicator of desperation and creative bankruptcy. More »

The Nude Photos That Nearly Destroyed New York

Google somehow contrived to include full digital images of old New York magazines in its new magazine search service on Google Books. Sadly, the archive is missing key issues, containing such classics as "Radical Chic: That Party At Lenny's" and "Tribal Rights of the New Saturday Night." But both of those are available, albeit ripped from their original context, on nymag.com, and Google has one classic that isn't: Barbara Goldsmith's "La Dolce Viva," which revealed the seedy side of Andy Warhol's entourage through Viva, a shriveled one-name actress. "I had never seen anything like it," Tom Wolfe wrote of accompanying nude photos from Diane Arbus. But the article's appearance in the fourth debut standalone New York nearly ended Clay Felker's magazine. More »