They're Rich... They're Famous... They're DEAD! Wednesday Afternoon's Potpourri

As pointed out by Brownstoner yesterday, Williamsburg's favourite real estate investment workshop—Homebuying for Hipsters—is back tonight for another installment, this time at Treehouse. Perhaps unintentionally, the locations of the meetings show the evolution of Williamsburg more than the actual purpose of the get-togethers. First up was Black Betty, sort of the old guard of Williamsburg cool. Then came Royal Oak, up on Union Ave., which for a moment was the hottest spot in WB (it briefly hosted the hipster dancefest Finger on the Pulse - BARF). Now the übercool have been driven east towards Bushwick due to condos and high rents, so Homebuying for Hipsters has been pushed way out to a DIY boutique on Graham Avenue. Cultural anthropologists take note.

I won't be there but you definitely should go see The Stills tonight @ Don Hill's. VHS or BETA are the special guest DJ's as well. Good times. For realsies. Tix are still avail.

How to Impress a Celebrity I stumbled upon this and it actually made me vomit all over my caramel Ben Sherman loafers.

NY Governor Spitzer Proposes Overhaul of Food Stamp Program... The Spitzer administration wants an overhaul of New York's food stamp program so more people qualify for the federal benefit. The changes include lifting a fingerprint requirement for working families and allowing those with more than $2,000 in the bank to qualify for the program. For the culture of intimidation in regards to applying for food stamps, and finger printing is just part of that culture. If they remove that as well as limits that are keeping people from saving for homes or for college education, or having a car that they need to drive to work, we believe a lot more working families would be able to take advantage of this benefit. Spitzer also proposed allowing people to apply for food stamps over the phone. Right now, they must come in for a face-to-face interview. The federal government must still approve the changes. The goal of Spitzer's program is to sign up an additional $220,000 people for food stamps by the end of next year. Sweet, sign me up. I'll put my cash under my mattress and I'll leave off the last "s" for savings!

A mysterious Rage Against the Machine website has popped up; this has pseuedo-hype-guerilla-marketing written all over it (BARF!) It contains two countdowns: one clock counts down to Monday, and the other will go off Aug. 24 - which is also included in the address of the website RATM 8 24 07.com. Fans are guessing this could mean a tour, but who knows. Perhaps its a countdown to when some of their most diehard white-Gamecocks-hat-wearing fans from 1994 will finally graduate college? Or perhaps its when Zack will finally admit he couldn't care less about the plight of Leonard Peltier. Hey, your guess is as good as mine, its probably better actually because I don't give a f*ck.

Steve Martin's upcoming memoir sounds pretty intense.

The Museum of Television & Radio has changed its name to The Paley Center for Media. The change recognises that the media landscape is a dramatically different one from the time of our founding thirty-one years ago, and the new name better reflects this institution's evolving and expanding role BLAH BLAH BLAH. The Paley Center for Media convenes media leaders and the public for programs that illuminate the immense impact of media—in all its forms—on our lives, culture, and society. The inspiration for the new name is our founder, industry pioneer and former CBS chairman William S. Paley. Yeah, whatever. Stop defending it. The new name sucks and you know it.

They're Rich... They're Famous... They're DEAD! - from the creators of Garbage Pail Kids comes Topps' Hollywood Zombies. So far 72 different cards have been made, each one transforming a different celebrity into the undead. I checked them out and they're actually pretty cool. Reminds me of Pushead.

After millions of infuriated Wilco fans around the globe set fire to their copies of "Sky Blue Sky" and drove their Jettas off cliffs yesterday, Wilco took it upon themselves to explain their recent involvement in a Volkswagen ad campaign.