Bolstering our faith in the local transit authorities, for the second time this week, the downtown bus tunnel is closed. The official reason is computer problems, as a H.A.L.-like super-brain down in the I.D. station controls the heating and ventillation, traffic signals, and zombie-workers that make possible Seattle's pathetic attempt at a subway. No word on when the tunnel will re-open, but earlier this week it was same-day; as before, tunnel lines are re-directed......

Well Dan, I guess you don't even need a bike and a mountain anymore. Here is a RedBull biking event in Budapest--I guess if we can build mountain bike trails under the freeway, they can race their bikes in the subway.......

Well, after two full days of filmery, we made it back from Toronto in one piece, but not before seeing our last movie of the fest, Sean Penn's powerful adaptation of Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer's mega-selling non-fiction book about the insatiable wanderlust that led a young man to drop out of society, tramp around the country for two years, and ultimately die alone in middle-of-nowhere Alaska (for a more detailed summary, check out......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

Tonight is the fourth Ignite Seattle tech event and since the two previous ones that we attended were so mind-explodingly great, we recommend it without reservation. Lots of drunk technology guys and entrepreneurs will be mixing with each other and taking in the super short presentations that super smart people are scheduled to give. Deepak Singh will be talking about nanotech and biology, which admittedly is not everyone's bag, but we promise you it will......

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......

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

This week we'd like to congratulate the -ist network's Mother Hen, Gothamist's Jen Chung, who found herself a recipient of Wired Magazine's Wired Rave Award. If that doesn't sound terribly exciting, keep in mind another recipient was J.K. Rowling. Yep, that's right, the -ist network and Harry Potter now have something in common. Go us. Austinist has a chat with the ever-fashionable Golden Girl Rue McClanahan, and managed to catch some local fashionistas making......

If your significant other’s a shameless grunge geek and has big, blank walls at home, here’s a fine birthday/anniversary/no-real-reason gift idea: an "archivally processed gelatin silver" Charles Peterson print. This one, we think, is a particularly nice choice. Peterson (and Lance Mercer, of course) chronicled the wonder years of Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam in incredible candid (and on-stage) photographs. And now, via some New Mexico outfit called Soulcatcher Studio, you can own some......

Last time out, we succumbed to the power of the unappealing Entertainment Book. Could things get worse? Apparently so. Elsewhere in the car we found a soon-to-expire gift certificate for Applebee’s. In case you don’t know, Applebee’s is a growing chain of nearly 2,000 restaurants in 49 states (Hawaii is the holdout) and 16 countries. Seattle (so far) is blessed to be without one – in the city proper, at least. Business trips, though, take......

Strasbourg--seat of the European Parliament--has a population of 265,000, less than half Seattle's, yet in the past 15 years it has built four interconnecting lines of light rail with some 50 stops. That's in addition to 35 bus lines, over 250 miles of new bike paths and plenty of bike racks at tram stops. Another element in the plan: integrated municipal parking. Nineteen new parking garages for 6,000 cars in addition to 10,000 street spaces;......

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't officially start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... Over at Sampaist, spring has more than sprung: it's sweltering! But, as everyone knows, museums are an......

Austinist gets arty with an interactive guide to SXSW, loved some local art galleries and a new art exhibit and lamented the possible loss of "Friday Night Lights" production to New Mexico. Bostonist was happy they finally found an Anna Nicole Smith connection to their fair city and that an Apple Store was opening up. They were less happy that new rules have been established limiting underage shows and that their Governor is spending......

There are many things that Franklin's explosive sophomore guard Peyton Siva and Seattlest do not have in common. The ability to change a shot in mid-air. An arsenal of tomahawk dunks. And a mother who shows up at our basketball games in a strapless silk blouse and terrorizes a score of suburbanites. Franklin and Garfield advanced to state with wins in the district tournament Saturday night. Garfield beat Roosevelt in OT (above is video......

Valentine's Day is only a few days away, and we here across the Gothamist network wanted to express would like to tell you, in the spirit of the holiday, just how much we love you, our readers. Don't let it get to your heads, though. There are plenty of things we love, you included. Just be glad you're not amongst the things we hate. SFist saw their beloved mayor enter rehab, and they loved the......

We may not have decent public transit, but we can look like we have decent public transit -- at least if we want to get to San Francisco. This is the northwest corner of Chris Yates' rendering of the Eisenhower Interstate System (Simplified) -- in this case, resembling a subway map. Accurate distance is out the window, but aesthetic pleasure has been amped up to compensate. Hat tip to BoingBoing.......

As the world holds it's breath, teetering precariously on the cusp of the Super Bowl (well, at least in America), the wheels of the -ists keep on turning. Austinist was in a musical frame of mind as they listened to the new Shins album, updated the SXSW band listings and got called "punk rock" for their efforts by MTV. And an ice storm swept through the area. Bostonist said goodbye to John Kerry's plans......

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......

If faced with the prospect of falling 1-2 stories out of the sky, just what would you exclaim at the moment you realized your free fall was imminent? Most likely not "Oh my..." with the intonation of a shocked heroine from a Jane Austen novel, but that is exactly what came out of my mouth when I fell off the chairlift at Summit West last Sunday. As a lifelong skier, chairlifts are like the subway......

Even though we are way way past school age, we still get a little melancholy at the close of summer. Fortunately, our friends across the -ist network know that the shenanigans don't need to end just because the big yellow buses are back on the roads. So, grab your sunscreen and your favorite hangover cure, as we take a tour of end of summer fun from -ist cities all over the damn place. SFist......

The dreaded tipping debate has re-ignited at Romenesko's Starbucks Gossip blog, and it's worth checking out if only to realize that the debate is not how much to tip for a latte but whether to tip at all. It's obviously a national blog because in Seattle, where there are tip jars on the counter at Subway, no one would entertain the idea of not tipping for a cup of coffee for ten seconds. So......

If it weren't for our life as an -ist, we're not sure we'd ever leave our apartment. Fortunately, to fully -ist, one must seek out the new, the fresh, and the unknown. Brand new, or just new to us, that's what we're all about this week. Phillyist keeps it fresh by getting a new motto, learning to prioritize, and taking in an experimental indie rock show. Torontoist does their first post in franglais, gets ready......

This has been a rough week for your -ist pals, though you wouldn't know it from the great posts all over the network. Plagued with server problems, our tech team (led by the great Neil Epstein) toiled around the clock to solve the glitches as they arose. Seriously, we've said, typed, and thought the phrase "server problems" more in the past week than we have for the last 35 years combined. Why not say......

-The contract the P-I's union has tentatively accepted stipulates higher severance packages if the paper stops publishing. Well played, union. -Ben Gibbard's playing Lance Armstrong by offering these guitar string bracelets for charity. Via Indieblogheaven. -Sound Transit has decided to build light rail alongside I-90. Construction begins 2045. -"Here is a molester!" Tokyo subway groping ain't what it used to be. -The B.C. guys who spent a year and $400,000 digging a drug tunnel......

Lyon, France's second city, offers its citizens and visitors a number of choices when it comes to mobility: first, drop the car in one of dozens of municipal parking garages. Then: three subway lines, two tramways, numerous buses, a funicular...and two thousand public bicycles. The bike deal is called Velo'V, short for Vélo-ville, vélo being French for bike, the whole thing pronounced v-love. Love it we do, and so do the locals. Grand Lyon (the......

Torontoist immediately wins our heart by using the word "Jackass" in a headline. In fact, we love their use of it so much that we're going to use it as much as possible throughout this post. For example, it looks like there are Toronto-area jackasses besides those who misuse the sidewalk: look at the crap on sale on Toronto's craigslist. But it looks like Toronto doesn't contain the kind of jackasses who pee in public......

Sampaist is on the scene in São Paulo beginning this week to become the only ist south of the Equator. Editor Leandro M. Pinto leads the paulistanos down there. You can protest someone at his office, sure, but when the whistle blows at the end of the day can you follow him home? D.C. has sports fans, apparently, and elephants aren't really cut out for zoos. There's this trick where you can read information from......

LAist is flashing a sad peace out to their editor Carolyn Kellogg with one hand and bumping knuckles with their new head typist L.A. blogger king Tony Pierce with the other. Where do ist editors go when they hang up the 'editorial we'? They take on MySpace, apparently. At least Ben Brown does. Austinist reminds of the just rewards of less savory careers this week and then they witness the Arctic Monkeys and We Are......

LAist has so much fun this week! They go to E3, where they overhear the timeless remark "Man, this is where nerdy girls get laid." Is that a promise? They also give us this week's best CDs and make us realize that LA is the best place to use Zillow. Ah, Houstonist. They're biking to work, that is, if they can figure out how to get there. That's right, Mapquest says "Houston had the......

Yesterday's news of REI cancelling free parking at their Eastlake mothership reminded us of an interesting article in this week's Weekly in which they reported that the city's new parking robots have been a huge success financially. Those little green monsters are almost doubling what their grey metal grandfathers used to pull down per spot per day - The old coin ops averaged $3.50 per spot while the new ones are generating $6.50. We're still......