Bostonist was permitted to set foot in Boylston Street's gleaming ice palace of an Apple Store this morning, in advance of its Friday opening. An Apple spokespersonage gestured and informed us that the store's floor is from Italy and that the store's employees are from the Boston area. (Bostonist recognized and was recognized by a former Diesel barista.) The staircase, we're assuming, is from the future. Mayor Menino blessed the whole endeavor and laid hands......

Just when we got our hopes up that Mayor Thomas Menino had forgotten about his plans to move City Hall to South Boston, he declared yesterday that the move is still very much on his mind. Jay Fitzgerald reported that Menino spoke at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast yesterday, and he said that he'd like to sell the current City Hall space at Government Center and then use the money to move.......

One of the most famous sights in Cambridge--MIT's Stata Center, designed by Frank Gehry--is leaking. MIT is now suing Gehry for negligence. The Stata Center may look amazing on the outside, and it got a shout-out in Doonesbury, but Shelley Murphy at the Globe reports that the inside is a mess of cracks, drainage backups, and mold. MIT paid $1.5 million to fix problems in the Stata Center's amphitheater--which is a rotten icing on top......

WGBH Open House Sunday, October 14 9:00 am to 6:00 pm One Guest Street, Brighton More info. Bostonist had the opportunity to visit WGBH's new studio and monster digital wall recently. While the digital wall screams for attention from anyone passing by on the Pike, get a little closer, and you'll discover the architecture and all WGBH's new offerings for locals. Those offerings include theater that will show WGBH programming, and a top-notch recording studio.......

Mayor Menino has gone so green that he might end up looking like Kermit the Frog. First Menino laid out his plan to improve life for cyclists in the city, and now he's drawing inspiration from Cape Wind by proposing wind turbines for City Hall Plaza. The Globe reported on Saturday that the mayor wants a single turbine that can "generate up to one-quarter of the electricity used at City Hall." Globe writer Peter Howe......

WGBH held a ribbon-cutting yesterday morning to commemorate its new studio space in Brighton. After president Henry Becton cut a bright orange ribbon in front of a stage inside the complex, a digital mural along the side of the building facing the pike made its debut. The gigantic, 30-by-45-foot mural might outdo the Citgo sign, which can be always seen looming over the city. Anyone driving east on the Pike will be able to see......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

The South End Open Studios will take place this weekend - Saturday, September 15, and Sunday, September 16, from 11 am to 6 pm. This year's South End Open Studios will be satisfying all your art cravings over the weekend. You can see a full list of participants at the United South End Artists, Inc. website. Some of the more eye-catching projects include Katie DiChiara's "fabulous funky artificial hair sculptures designed to enlighten." Beyond......

Stevecrabb's photo of downtown perfectly captures the dichotomous nature of our city. The starkly contrasting architecture styles serve as a representation of Boston's modernity and history existing literally side by side. Furthermore the photo itself beautifully frames Exchange Place with the bright building climbing into the blue sky from the darkness in the bottom of the frame.......

Flickr user michaelrogers uses contrasting geometry to portray architecture as art.......

We can't get the image of the neon red lights invading Kramer's apartment in the episode of Seinfeld when Kenny Rogers Roasters opened up a joint right outside his bedroom window. The affliction for Northeastern University residents in the proposed building wouldn't be the sleepless nights, apartment trading, and addiction to rotisserie chicken, rather perverse Village People nightmares as the YMCA sign flashes into the evening. If approved, the GrandMarc, a proposed 34 story......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

After a weekend of rain where all we heard was disgruntled Bostonians complaining, because that's what we do best, about the weather we rock into the week. Miraculously the Red Sox managed to play all their games this past weekend making us furiously check the forecast for WBOS' 14th annual EarthFest coming up this weekend. For us it marks the first of many outdoor events that will happen this summer, and it's Memorial Day......

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA......

The airport has beautified the central parking garage, Terminal B, and Terminal C with "Rainbow Cove Red" and "Rainbow Cove Green." Artist Christopher Janney assembled the eight-story-tall installation, which features appropriately colorful glass walls and "natural sounds from different parts of New England." Lots of natural sounds as a matter of fact. As Cate McQuaid puts it, "The Terminal C tower also chirps, whistles, and bleats…. The score cycles through eight beds of underlying sound,......

Spring is when we get busy here in the Ist-A-Verse. Very busy. But, after staying bundled-up indoors all winter, it's nice for us to be out, about, and collecting things to write about for you. Here's a glimpse at what's been keeping your favorite citybloggers busily away from home and out of bed. For LAist, strong winds attacked LA on the same day the Feds raided the Crips. Not to fear, though: the Japanese version......

Have you always wanted to wear a fedora with a "PRESS" card tucked on the side? Well, Bostonist is growing! We're adding to our staff, and we're looking for people who can't wait to spread the latest news of our city across the Internet. Here's the personalities we're after: —You are a diehard foodie who goes out several times a week. You salivate at the prospect of a new restaurant opening, you have a......

We don't know about where you are, but it seems like spring can't decide whether or not to happen. Some days are warm, some days are cold, and sometimes you aren't sure which. Baseball may have started up (and soccer/football winding down) but it still seems cold out there. Unless it's not. Anyways, onto the -ists. Austinist happily anticipated fall's Austin City Limits, even though they're not fully recovered from South By Southwest. In......

The Boston Redevelopment Authority has finally approved the construction of a new Apple store on Boylston Street in Back Bay, which could be done as early as December 2007. Not only will you be able to wait in frustration for hours at the "Genius Bar", but you'll be able to join the scads of Bostonians you try to avoid in said line. Sweet. Admittedly, the building (a giant glass cube) is alluring. Moreso, though,......

Happy Holidays! Chances are, you're reading this the day after Christmas, back at your day job after all-too-short a holiday, and the last thing you want from us is stuff about the holidays. But that's just too bad. Because, see, here in the Ist-A-Verse, we do things ahead of time. It might be December 26 for you, but that's what you get for not checking your Favorite Local Blog on Christmas Eve. Austinist is......

Hot on the heels of his feature film debut in Jesus Camp (Bostonist's most enthusiastic movie pick in October), megapreacher Ted Haggard faces allegations of methamphetamine use and indiscretions with a male prostitute. Haggard was (until last night) president of the National Association of Evangelicals and senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, where you can rent a "prayer closet" for $25 per night and apparently give new meaning to the phrase for......

This weekend both NEMO and the Beantown Jazz festival will be taking place in town. NEMO is a showcase for New England artists, a networking opportunity for the little-known and the big fish. The performances will invade, occupy, and entertain at just about every venue in Boston. It's a great opportunity to see your favorite local band – or discover a favorite you never knew you had. It's a whole lot to take in,......

In a world where there's nothing to do but watch movies. In a city full of theaters, museums, and libraries. One moviegoer who can be in three places at once. This week's films are full of things Bostonist can't say no to (classic movies with classic martinis), things we couldn't stop if we tried (fate, modern architecture), and the purple chunk of the Venn diagram where those two categories overlap (zombies). Cocktails! Cary Grant! Friday......

With each passing day of torrential rains, Bostonist was becoming more and more convinced that God was visiting Her wrath on Massachusetts for the whole gay marriage thing. Then we finally got around to looking at the newspaper and learned that Maine and New Hampshire, along with Massachusetts, had declared states of emergency, and we realized that if this is divine wrath, it was provoked by something else. That said, we sure are tired of......

Bostonist has long found that making fun of New Jersey is like shooting fish in a barrel, except better, because we don't like handling guns. So we can't help but mention the fact that the Garden State has abandoned its second slogan in as many years. The first slogan, "We Will Win You Over," was scrapped by the governor at the time because "it reminded him too much of when he was single and asked......

Our drafting table broke a couple of years ago. We put the scale rule aside and retired the T-square to the closet. We know exactly where our set of mechanical pencils is – right next to a couple sheets of velum. Of course drafting by hand seems to have been so five years ago. With the proliferation of CAD programs and computers that can handle the task our dreams of being a fly by night......

We've been sitting on our hands wondering how we were going to approach Menino's call for a new downtown skyscraper last week without making all sorts of inadequacy jokes, you know, how this skyscraper might just be Menino's viagra. Damn, we blew our load already. To be just as blunt the basic story told is that Menino has called for a 1,000 foot skyscraper (that's roughly 80 stories, John Hancock is 62). And all Bostonist......

After dropping $479,000 on a 450 sq. ft. condo what is one to do with it? Pimp it out and show it off. Bostonist just got word that Small Spaces, Big Style a show that airs on HGTV is coming to the Hub to film a few episodes. We know that there’s no way Manny’s pad is under 1,000 sq. ft., we’d imagine that Brady’s new digs aren’t either (well, the real Tom Brady anyway).......

Last month, fundraising for the Boston Museum Project reached the $4 million mark, a milestone for them, but still just a fraction of the $70 million projected total cost. The goal of the Boston Museum Project (BMP) is to construct a new museum showcasing Boston’s past, present, and future on parcel 12 of the soon-to-be created Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway. Bostonist doesn’t mean to sound overly critical, but our first reaction to seeing the......

The Brickbottom artists' district in Somerville has become one of Bostonist’s favorite places to go for Open Studios. We don’t feel as pressured to be snooty as we do when checking out art at the SoWa guild. And a plate of cheap Brazilian fare is just around the corner so we won’t be spending the big bucks eating at the likes of the Butcher Shop. Mayor Joe Curtatone announced in November that the city would......