Domain Name Drama

A preview of the homepage, which is still under construction. (Via Nicholas Jackson).

The Feature Well vs. Featurewell.com

Last week, we reported that Pacific Standard digital director Nick Jackson is starting a new website called The Feature Well that will be a “smarter version of MediaBistro.” But maybe Mr. Jackson should have done some more research before he bought that domain name-the name, The Feature Well, is remarkably similar to Featurewell.com, a syndication marketplace service that represents writers and publications (including The New York Observer) so that editors can purchase and republish stories.

“I was surprised to see that someone had ripped off our name,” FeatureWell founder and CEO David Wallis told OTR. “Either Nick Jackson is arrogant or stupid. Maybe both.” Read More

Visiting Dignitaries

Google me.

Amanda Bynes Apparently Thinks Google Results Are a Substitute for a State-Issued ID

Perfectly well-adjusted human being Amanda Bynes apparently believes that Google can help solve life’s pesky predicaments. TMZ reports that the talking, off-brand velour suit/actress was denied boarding on a private flight in New Jersey this weekend because her driver’s license was suspended, so she didn’t have a valid government-issued ID to board.

So, in a Read More

Pun Fun

The Daily News 'What If.' (Photo: Colin Campbell)

‘He’s Got Some Balls’: Tabloid Touts Faux Anthony Weiner Cover

When former Congressman Anthony Weiner officially launched his mayoral bid yesterday, he took the unprecedented step of releasing an announcement video in the dark of night and only granting phone interviews with the media throughout the day. Some strongly speculated the strategy was designed to dampen the pun-filled tabloid reactions by entering the race after their print deadlines. If so, the plan worked–mostly.

Mr. Weiner was indeed kept off the front pages yesterday and today, but both the New York Post and Daily News managed to slip in some loud sideswipes. The News, in particular, seemed annoyed. On page 12, an insert read, “Here’s one for his scrapbook. Weiner’s midnight declaration prevented him from getting on the front page. Now for a ‘what if’ …” Read More

The Eight-Day Week

KURT COBAIN The Photography of JESSE FROHMAN Exhibition Opening

To Do Thursday: Betsey’s Bash

70-year-old reality TV star Betsey Johnson (The Style Network’s XOX Betsey Johnson, starring her daughter) and comeback kid (she recently filed for bankruptcy) has dug into her extensive archives and rejiggered her youthquake-y creations to present a Bollywood-style runway show. Break out the neon pink bindis. After Johnson’s style spectacle, funny ladies Sandra Bernhard and Taylor Negron will do some stand-up before a dance performance by Rioult Dance NY. Read More

Troubling Developments

A lesson for future developers: probably just best to let your building rot.

5Pointz Backfire: Developer Blasted For Taking Back Building He Let Artists Use for Decades

During his opening remarks at the 5Pointz redevelopment hearing, developer David Wolkoff, whose father Jerry bought the Long Island City property in the 1970s, told the audience, “We’ve been members of the community for over 40 years.” Though they certainly tried (26 years! 29! 33! 4!), none of the speakers in opposition could quite top his time in Long Island City.

“I have fond memories of crawling in the basement of this building” as a child, he told the hostile crowd.

Normally the Wolkoffs wouldn’t have to grovel—it is, after all, their property. But the city dangles extra density as a carrot to developers— a tantalizing 60 percent in the case of this site— if they agree to build extra parking and plazas and to endure the public review process. (Amenities that Court Square has in abundance, including the surprisingly dense thicket of trees by One Court Square. If Jane Jacobs were still alive, we can’t help but wonder if she’d question the number of trees and the paucity of people.) Read More

Grave Developments

Mary Help of Christians Church on Avenue A was built over an old cemetery.

Building On a Boneyard? Preservationists Beg Steiner Not To Put Luxury Condos On Former Cemetery Site

The dead may not literally walk among us, but they can certainly cause headaches for developers. In 2006, work on Trump Soho was temporarily halted when human remains were discovered at the construction site, where a Baptist Church once stood. Last year, plans for a development in Queens were nixed after the property—home to a colonial-era cemetery—was landmarked. And back in 1991, the federal government was forced to significantly alter plans for its $276 million federal office tower in Lower Manhattan after uncovering the 17th and 18th-century remains of hundreds of African Americans.

Now, several preservation and community groups are pleading with developer Douglast Steiner to his abandon plans to demolish the Mary Help of Christians Church complex at 181 Avenue A (between East 11th and East 12th streets), because the buildings were built over a former Catholic Cemetery. Read More

Crowdsourcing

The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs

Get Life Advice From AJ Jacobs And His Facebook ‘Friends’

Esquire editor at large AJ Jacobs is starting a new advice column, he announced today in a blog post. But it is not just a regular old advice column. Instead of just getting advice from Mr. Jacobs, the column will include curated advice from his “100,000 Facebook Friends*” with whom he is sharing the byline.

“You will be getting the combined experience of a brigade of Ann Landerses, a stadium full of Dan Savages,” Mr. Jacobs wrote. “As for me, I will be the Nate Silver of this experiment, curating and collating and commenting on the mass’s responses. I will print the best, funniest, and oddest answers (providing full credit, of course). And we will determine the best course together.” Read More