MySpace Inc.

So, just in time for Thanksgiving, which seems to attract movies about the kinds of New Yorkers who don't gather 'round the table at Grandma's for turkey and stuffing, comes the movie August Rush. Robin Williams and Keri Russell are there, and so is Jonathan Rhys Myers. And he sings.

Reuters sums up the New York-centric plot of August Rush thusly:  read more »

Fall Out Boy, Maroon 5, the Academy Is ..., Cartel, Coheed and Cambria, Colbie Caillat, Hot Hot Heat and the Decemberists will all be participating in MySpace's Rock for Darfur concert on November 10, MTVNews.com reports. A total of 32 concerts will take place on four continents to raise awareness about the Darfur conflict (kinda like Live Earth?).

A portion of the proceeds from the bands' previously scheduled shows will be donated to Oxfam International and the Save Darfur Coalition.

In New York, Gabby Glaser of Luscious Jackson will perform at The Annex and Victory Records' Streetlight Manifesto will play ska at The Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center.

In Virgin, Hanne Blank reminds us that the idea of virginity exists for no other animal species.  read more »

"If I have recourse, I’m gonna use it,” said Richard (Handsome Dick) Manitoba.  read more »

• Oh me, oh my, how the Bowery has changed! The place you used to avoid at all costs, even in broad sunshine-y daylight like today, will welcome a Whole Foods in March. The fancy-pants grocer is supposed to open its doors at Bowery and Houston on Mar. 29.
[Curbed]
• Residential marketing in New York has always had that certain something--a sense of pizzaz, a sense of adventure. Now, it also has MySpace. Entire buildings are getting their own MySpace pages, complete with sexual orientations and favorite films and TV shows. At least one is trying "to meet serious thrill seekers. Someone who looks for the entertainment in life. Someone who wants to play, for the sake of winning. A heavy need for quality films and that can play pool."
[Gowanus Lounge]
• Brooklyn Heights used to have a much different promenade (see above). Before demolition in 1946, "to make way for the expressway, this arched viaduct, greenhouse and buttressed wall were accessible by the stone stairways that led down from the mansions above to the ferry landing below."
[Brownstoner]
• CNN/Money lists the 10 Richest Americans Ever (whitest list ever!). Though a few people listed have New York City connections (Astor, Vanderbilt, Rensselear), none made his fortune in real estate. Brokers, take note: Railroads and merchant banking--that's where the money is, apparently.
[CNN/Money] - Tom Acitelli
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Vito Fossella has 1,558 friends on his MySpace page, and some of them are, uh, not conservative.

Andrew Sullivan detects hypocrisy in the Republican contention that rebuking Mark Foley would have made them look homophobic. "They don't seem too worried about appearing homophobic when it comes to winning elections, do they?"

Ben says that the Empire State Pride Agenda dinner last night was a slap at Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer and other electeds who aren't as progressive on gay marriage as the group would like. ESPA disagrees.

The reader who found Sheldon Silver's impersonation of Robert DeNiro on YouTube.com has found another online gem.

NARAL goes both ways in the state senate race in Westchester.

Daily Gotham is under attack from porn pushers and may require people to register with the site before being allowed to post comments.

John Liu gets ignored by the MTA.

Tom Kean, Jr. says Dennis Hastert should resign.

Massachusetts may make their elections more like the kind in New York.

Tom Hayden is in town to talk about the Chicago 8 and, I'm prepared to guess, the war in Iraq.

And pictured above is Queens Borough President Helen Marshall at a City Hall press conference.  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

This week's New Yorker allows Mark Singer to take us to the 40th death-iversary of the New York Herald Tribune. The oldsters met "the other night" in their old offices, which are now taken up by the journalism grad school of the City University of New York. Old/new world speeches were made:

Another speaker was Richard Wald, the Trib's last managing editor, who observed that the school "will try to do a lot of things that you can't do anymore. You can't do an apprenticeship at a newspaper anymore. You've got to go to school."

Well, screw that noise! The Daily Transom—who didn't go to no frickin' college, much less no filthy j-school—would like to hereby throw open its digital pages to those young reporters who find themselves unable or unwilling to take part in the ludicrously expensive and/or ludicrously time-wasting and ultimately intensely stupid system called "higher learning."

(Does anyone else remember when diversity was supposed to cover more ground than just ethnicity? Even The New York Times at least made an effort to encompass sexual orientation in its plans—and then immediately, after the preamble, dropped that idea from its report on newsroom diversity.)

College drop-outs and never-applieds are invited to pitch or send, for consideration, stories to The Daily Transom at csicha@observer.com. Written is fine; if not, a good pitch—since you don't have no prof to tell you—is about three sentences long, contains the nugget of news obtained or sought, shows flair, and has nothing to do with any of the following:

· Celebrity poker · Food-eating competitions · Ryan Adams · MisShapes · Janice Dickinson · Stunt karaoke · The Museum of Sex · Speed-dating · "9/11" · MySpace · A strange coincidence.

Email any questions. Proof of non-attendance is required. Pay is somewhere between "a pittance" and "sure better than a day's work digging ditches." Opportunities for advancement not un-possible. — Choire Sicha

A reader who a) uses MySpace and b) is identified on MySpace as a New Yorker just received the following email:

Tom Suozzi, for NY Governor 2006 would like to be added to your MySpace friends list.

By accepting Tom Suozzi, for NY Governor 2006 as your friend, you will be able to send Tom Suozzi, for NY Governor 2006 personal messages, view Tom Suozzi, for NY Governor 2006's photos and blog, and interact with each other's friends and network!

Click the following link to view Tom Suozzi, for NY Governor 2006's profile and accept or reject this user as your friend...

-- Josh Benson

  Vibe    read more »

One summer, I was going through my cell contacts, trying to background-check this adorable doe-eyed  read more »

One summer, I was going through my cell contacts, trying to background-check this adorable doe-eyed  read more »

One shocking thing about the MySpace.com investigation—the Kansas students allegedly plotting a massacre at their high school on the site—is the claim by MySpace that it has 72 million members. A lot of people are living online.

As a blogger, I'm living online myself, and I find it very confusing. The computer is breaking down traditional borders of privacy, not just how we relate to one another out in the world, but in consciousness too, how we define our selves, and mark off the boundaries between self and non-self. As a blogger you are supposed to empty your thoughts out like a sock turned inside out. You're doing the webcam thing, but instead of your bedroom it's supposed to be your head, your life. I grew up with such different paradigms about privacy. But maybe they mean nothing. The web disdains reserve, appropriateness, formality. It is changing the definition of intimacy. Intimacy: what you tell your 72 million closest friends.

Dan Mirvish, the director of Open House, has this to say to the world:

"OPEN HOUSE is a fictitious real estate musical and I would hate to think that our audiences are taking it as serious lifestyle advocacy. I would urge all our viewers - especially our younger fans on MySpace - to respect the law and maintain their decorum when shopping for a home."

Wha?

Oh, there are articles in GQ and in the L.A. Times that describe people attending open houses to steal drugs, or having sex during open houses on people's beds. That happens in this real-estate musical he directed that stars Anthony Rapp.

We hadn't seen the articles. And we hadn't heard of the movie, which is being distributed by the Weinsteins.

But in case this apology seemed like damage control--after all, the movie Open House might be boycotted by real-estate brokers!--Weinstein, Mirvish and friends are quick to turn their P.R. nightmare into the only press they're likely to get.

"We're getting ready to launch a videogame," Mr. Mirvish says in the press release, "based on the premise of 'sexy swiping,' and we're talking to theater companies about a stage adaptation of the film.

Also:

To see a clip of Kellie Martin and James Duval "house humping" go to this iFilm page: http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2679783?htv=12

Full press release after the jump.  read more »

Some interesting back-and-forth in the blogosphere today after Matt Stoller at MyDD spotted this item by the online campaign director of Bush-Cheney '04, about how the party killed the notion of allowing supporters to write on its blog when it became clear they wouldn't stay on message.

"The plans for the launch of GOP.com last spring included two things that have never made it to the light of day - a viral fundraising component, and a 'MyGOP' functionality that would have let activists build a MySpace-like site on GOP.com. Practical reality set in, however, and killed both. The trouble with the MyGOP concept was the conflict it created with incredibly tight internal controls on message.

"When we were forced to pull a Social Security Testimonials tool off the site because someone dared to use the word 'private' instead of the more acceptable 'personal' accounts, it became apparent that our internal tolerance for self-expression would not allow that sort of openness. Arguments that restrictions of that nature are ridiculous and hamper our ability to be effective online were met with stony silence. In the end, MyGOP went nowhere."