Idolator

Back in August, the New York real-estate firms Related and Vornado bought the Virgin Megastore chain—not because they wanted to roll around in free CDs, but because the chain's two NYC stores are paying way below-market rent. Which just happens to be going to those two companies. Well, it looks like Related, which owns the building occupied by the chain's Union Square outpost, is ready for its payday! Billboard.biz is reporting that the New York company Winick Realty has been shopping the two-floor, 58,000-square-foot Union Square outpost around, and according to a corroborating report in the New York Sun, the asking rent is much, much higher than the estimated $100-a-square-foot that Virgin is paying now: More »

Spotted in New York City by Amy's Robot: A flyer for an upcoming solo performance from the Spin Doctors' Chris Barron; as the post notes, it's "taped up next to an ad for a man with a van, and a flyer for a craft fair at a middle school." What's most poignant is that you just know he still has crates of that fourteen-year-old Rolling Stone issue lying around. More »

Anyone who's ever descended into a New York City subway stop has been greeted by the ceaseless woooooo sound of a little free-form pan-flute playing. Today, the Sun takes a look at the rivalry for prime subway-station real estate among such undergound-dwelling musicians, and while the story doesn't get as hardcore as the Biggie and 'Pac saga—heck, it's not even as hardcore as the Mr. Show East Coast-West Coast puppet wars—it does include the best quote you're likely to hear all day:

"Subway musician Lester Schultz, a self-described "nut for the harmonica," has been playing beneath the official Music Under New York banner for six years...

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