By Andrew Adam Newman – NewYork Times

As physical formats and devices have shrunk, revenues for the audiobook industry have grown, since it is more convenient to listen to an iPod while exercising and commuting than fiddling with CDs. Digital downloads grew to 21 percent of the industry’s total sales in 2008, from 6 percent in 2004, according to the Audiobook Publishers Association.

It is all the more odd, then, that Hachette Audio recently announced that the latest audiobook by David Sedaris, “Live for Your Listening Pleasure,” which features readings before audiences, would be available on the least portable of formats: vinyl. [Read More]

By MOG

If there is one big lesson that hip hop can teach you is that all good things must come to to an end even if your selling millions of records and making millions of dollars in the process. If it isn’t working anymore, it just isn’t working. So in the wake of the whole Beanie Sigel/Jay-Z (now 50 Cent) thing I decided to look up some high profile hip hop endings… and some of them will surprise you… and some of them you’ll probably see coming a mile away. [Read More]

By Rob Harvilla – The VillageVoice

For a new musical with no cartoon-character tie-in, no jukebox of smash pop hits, and no boldface celebrity stars to thrive on Broadway in the waning post-apocalyptic months of 2009, the performances most crucial to success aren’t necessarily given by the folks onstage, or behind it, or regarding it from the luxe front-row seats reserved for patrons and investors. Look instead to the same-day discount TKTS booth—more specifically, the eager, increasingly bundled-up young helpers who lurk nearby to soothe and summarize, cheerfully proselytizing for the daunting list of shows from which you (or your mother, or your grandmother) must choose. If the show can’t sell itself, it’s up to them.[Read More]

By Stephanie Murg – Unbeige

We’ve followed “Stages,” the Nike-sponsored art exhibition to raise awareness and funds for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, from its Los Angeles launch toits Paris debut, and now the show has opened stateside in a dazzling installation at New York’s Deitch Projects. The aim of Stages, named for a term that can describe the progression of cancer or a cycling competition, is nothing short of “uniting the worlds of art, philanthropy, and sport in a unique celebration of human potential” through the newly commissioned works of 23 artists, a diverse bunch that includes Ed Ruscha, Cai Guo-Qiang, Christopher Wool, KAWS,Jules de Balincourt, and Rosson Crow. Armstrong hatched the idea with Nike president and CEO (and fellow art collector) Mark Parker to “offer artists a forum in which to convey the Livestrong ideals and portray what the movement means to them and how they see it changing the world.” [Read More]

By Stephanie Murg – Unbeige

As if you needed another good reason to purchase the fine formulations of Kiehl’s Since 1851, the L’Oreal-owned apothecary brand has launched a limited-edition holiday collection of its famed Creme de Corps that features label artwork by KAWS, the artist also known as Brian Donnelly. Better still, Kiehl’s is donating 100% of its net profits from the sale of the creatively labeled lotion toRxArt, which brings contemporary art to healthcare facilities. [Read More]

By Erin Rosita – Vice Magazine

The Lower East Side of Manhattan is not a fashionable destination. Populated primarily by dive bars, nodding junkies, and boarded-up storefronts, the thought of anything even remotely related to trendiness, fancy clothes, or art happening down here would be pretty hard to believe. In fact, the only reason anyone from another neighborhood would even set foot on the LES in 1994 would be if they were looking for illicit substances, of which there are plenty. [Read More]

By Joseph Alexiou – Newyork Press

In a town full of skyscrapers, it’s often what’s happening beneath the sidewalk that ends up being the most exciting. Hidden spaces—thinkSubMercer, the basement of La Esquina or the late, lamented Undochine—are black gold in New York’s over-saturated nightlife scene. A hard-to-find, little-known location with the right music and crowd can become an overnight sensation, and if a group of people just above 14th Street play their cards right, they might have New York’s next one on their hands. [Read More]

By Poe – Freshness Magazine

Under the constant changing glare of neon lights, artist Shepard Fairey and a team of assistants descended upon the world’s most famous intersection, Times Square, last night for a special live art installation. As a commemoration artwork for the new collaboration apparel between Fairey’s Obey andLevi’s, the artist made quick work out of a temporary wooden wall in front of hundreds of fans and onlookers. [Read More]