As we know from the Houston Wall, corporations love to get behind graffiti and street art. Now Conde Nast has launched the Details Guild. It’s “dedicated to the support, development and promotion of the creative arts, and their connection with the greater community.”

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A big welcome back to Bob Arihood at his new photo site. [NSC]

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Are the Twitter arguments against Jonathan Franzen part of the anti-intellectual movement in America? Should romance novels be treated the same as serious literature? And why don’t we see more serious literary fiction from contemporary women writers? There is a problem in book publishing, but the Tweets miss the mark. [Grumbler]

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Since I first spotted a galley of Jonathan Franzen’s new novel, Freedom, on the F Train months ago, in the hands of a Brooklyn-bound woman, I’ve been anticipating its release. So when I got the announcement via Facebook that St. Mark’s Bookshop would be extending its hours to sell the book beginning at midnight last night, I figured I had to be there to capture the momentous occasion.

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Earlier in August I reported that the defunct Gordon Novelty Shop had been unsheathed. For a brief, shining moment, we were able to enjoy that gorgeous facade once more. A commenter then tipped us to the fact that Gordon’s demolition has begun–and a trip to the site confirmed that the death shroud has indeed been lowered.

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350 West Broadway has a lot to say. Words upon words wrap around its glass street-level exterior, the stuff of luxury condos. All that condo-porn verbiage.

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Fedora’s new owner: “I’m already bracing myself for the criticism that I’m going to get. People are going to say, ‘It’s not like Fedora, Fedora looked nothing like this.’ … I’m choosing to keep the name because it’s a great name. I’m keeping the bar because it’s brilliant, the original bar from 1917. Aside from that, it’s now our restaurant.” [Esquire]

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In the next installment of the Potemkin Village saga, the Chelsea Hotel erects fake stores in their empty storefronts. [LWL]

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With the movement of Habib’s Place from Avenue A and 6th, the removal of his sign revealed an under-sign: France’s Beauty Salon.

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On the block of West 4th where Left Bank books and Lee’s Laundry were booted, Cafe Minerva takes their place. It’s a cafe with framed posters of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean on the walls.

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