D.Brim grabbed this neat and colorful shot of the Zakim Bridge's distorted reflection as seen in the windows of a building by North Station. D. Brim told Bostonist that as he was shooting the building and surrounding area he was ordered through a loud speaker to stop taking photographs and to "Leave now or we will shoot you." Upon further inspection, D. Brim believes that the building houses the State Police, though there were......

Beauty & the Geek: The three Massachusetts geeks have very different personalities. Sweater Vest Tommy is discovering his inner babe, Jim just wants to be loved, and Chris is not putting up with any drama--ever, ever, ever. (That alone makes us wonder why he's on the show.) Poor Sweater Vest Tommy came thisclose to getting laid. The conniving Amber wanted to woo her way out of the elimination room. She declared, "One day Tom's going......

Beauty and the Geek: The new cycle debuted this week with a twist. This time, the beauties are competing against the geeks. The twist makes the show less exciting because the whole point is for beauties and geeks to learn from each other, not fight each other. Plus, aside from a few exceptions, the geeks seem relatively normal. Chris from MIT and Tommy, the sweater enthusiast from Somerville, seem kind of normal. Luckily, Jim from......

America's Next Top Model: The aspiring models received their makeovers this week. Given the fact that Fatima had fuzzy, orangey hairdo, she seemed to be toward the front of the line for a head shaving. However, they decided to give her a long, dramatic weave, and she did a lingerie shoot with her new long, flowing locks. But the real story was the fact that Fatima tends to write checks with her mouth that her......

A Boston pharmaceutical sales rep who is on this season's cycle of "Big Brother" went to the hospital after having an allergic reaction to "slop." Allison Nichols had to eat the aforementioned "slop" as a punishment. (As far as Bostonist is concerned, being on or watching "Big Brother" is punishment enough.) Her lips swelled and she said her throat closed up. Meanwhile, another contestant had a seizure, Reality TV World and the New York Daily......

Bobby Brown, we love you, but this week marked the debut of the new "America's Next Top Model" cycle, and we must lead with that. Tyra and the J-Boys (Miss J. and Jay) put the aspiring models through a charm school of sorts, in which they wore uniforms and took class photos. Kimberly, a bank teller from Worcester, was cute in a clean-cut, ditzy cheerleader way. She made it to the next round, and Bostonist......

This week on "Gone Country," we found out that Bobby Brown is able to sleep and dream about himself sleeping. There's some meaning in that, but we're not sure what it is. He also had an emotional moment while visiting a children's hospital. A little songwriting happened at the end, but note that on a show in which celebrities are expected to morph into country musicians, very little performance of country music is taking place.......

--Matt O'Malley offers a ward-by-ward breakdown of how the city of Boston voted in the Democratic primary. [Matt O'Malley] --Barstool Sports is calling for a boycott of the Boston Herald "except the Inside Track" because of sportswriter John Tomase's story about the Patriots videotaping the Rams. [Barstool Sports] --Massachusetts will be representing on reality TV when Big Brother airs--but will they be representing well? [Third Decade] --Valentine's is coming up, and one local website offers......

Thanks to the Freedom Of Information laws and the PATRIOT Act, we were able to petition the federal government to listen in on last night's weekly Manning Family phone call. Here's a sample: E: Hey, Peyton, it's me. P: Oh, hi, Eli. What's up? E: Well, I don't know if you saw it, but we beat the Cowboys last night. It was pretty awesome. P: Yeah, I saw. Congratulations. E: Thanks, big brother! You know,......

Big Brother Casting Call Saturday, December 8, 12:00pm - 3:00pm Felt, 3rd and 4th floors, 533 Washington St., Boston (T: Downtown Crossing) Big Brother casting site The only people happy with the Writers' Strike right now is reality television fans and those who want to be on reality television. The latter will rejoice because CBS is launching another cycle of Big Brother, and auditions will be held at Felt. The release states that casting directors......

This Bostonist swung by the newest sushi restaurant to invade Back Bay last week, and the overall impression was a good one. First off, Haru is a New York city implant, and the location in Dick's Last Resort's old spot in the Prudential Building is the chain's first in the city. Thank you very much, New York. We'll take your trophy AND your sushi. That'll be just fine. But Bostonist digresses. The decor at......

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked......

Let's give a hand to the Boston Red Sox: they're on the cutting edge. During a late (to us, anyway) Friday night game in Seattle, the team continued to show fans the new dance craze that's poised to sweep the (Red Sox) Nation: the Third Base Shuffle. It's easier than the Frug, more athletic than the Lean Back and only slightly more annoying to witness than the Macarena. All you have to do is wind......

--Yesterday in Boston, a federal judge declared the government must pay $101 million to Joseph Salvati, Peter Limone, and the families of Louis Greco and Henry Tameleo for a wrongful conviction with a Goodfellas-worthy storyline. Here's the gist of the story. Someone killed Edward "Teddy" Deegan in 1965. Joseph "The Animal" Barboza said these four men did it – to protect an FBI informant, Vincent "Jimmy" Flemmi. So Barboza lied – and the FBI knew......

All right, it wasn't exactly "Our hallowed snake-skull-cracking day", but there aren't too many opportunities to play the Diamondbacks and break out all the old snake jokes. What it was, was a tough game against a young pitcher pitching way above his head, and the Red Sox were fortunate to get out of it with a 10-inning, 4-3 win. Julian Tavarez pitched well, with a couple of mistakes, including giving Arizona's Stephen Drew a chance......

It started with comic books flying from the stage. Some people need eBay or Craigslist or a recycle bin to offload their Arion: Lord of Atlantis collection; Humanwine's Holly Brewer needs an audience. Friday night's crowd at the Paradise had come to celebrate the release of the first Humanwine album, Fighting Naked, and to catch airborne back issues. When M@ McNiss* and the rest of Humanwine appeared, they launched into "Big Brother," a defiant......

The Boston Globe's Charlie Savage. Earlier today the Pulitzer Prizes were announced. The Globe's Charlie Savage won the honor for his work in National Reporting. It's good to know that our little newspaper of record is not being totally out done by its big brother (and owner) the New York Times. Savage won for his series of reports on Bush's use of signing statements to bypass parts of new laws. Boston.com has put together a......

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into......

There is something to be said for aerial photography. It's a great way to see the city on the large. It's expensive to take and it's not very interactive unless you know a pilot and can hop a ride to go check out the sites yourself. There is a company based in LA that is using technology to provide not only an aerial, zoomable view, but also panoramas and time lapse photography using gigapixel digital......

It was big news a couple months back that the Fast Lane transponders were crapping out on drivers. The batteries in the devices were crapping out on the drivers who had gotten them in the first wave. The little tidbit about the Fast Lane we learned in reports following the Fung Wah bus' turnover is that they used the timestamp on the entry and exit to fine the bus company for speeding. As the Globe......

Since our marathon-running friends are in hardcore training mode and refuse to go out, Bostonist has decided to make up for their loss this week. So, we're going to keep this party going and head out tonight to see some very funny guys take the stage. We got an e-mail from Bostonist's comedian friend, Todd Barry, a few weeks ago about him teaming up with fellow funnyman Eugene Mirman at the Middle East. Bostonist first......

Update: Life is unfair. Bostonist wanted a regional or local story that would give us an excuse to gripe about the President, and we thought we'd found it (see below). Turns out, it was a hoax. So everything reported below about the U. Mass. student is not true. But President Bush is definitely still a disaster. Bostonist, like the Governor, has lately been checking out of local affairs and focusing on the presidency. But in......

Back in elementary school Bostonist couldn’t wait for recess to begin and the big red rubber ball to be rolled our way. For the past two summers adults around Boston have been playing that favorite childhood game, Kickball. The World Adult Kickball Association (WAKA), which began with a couple of guys in a bar in Washington, DC, has spread its tentacles all over the country. A Somerville Division (the Massachusetts Minutemen) and the Boston Division......

Bostonist's big brother, Gothamist, scored an interview with movie maker, Todd Solondz, who's newest film, Palindromes, opens in Boston on Friday, April 29th. So of course we did what all younger siblings do: idolize them by posting the interview below. Todd Solondz, known for his quirky and disturbing films Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness and Storytelling, sat down with Gothamist on the occasion of his latest cinematic foray, Palindromes, which stars Ellen Barkin, Jennifer Jason......