Greta Gerwig, star and co-writer of Frances Ha.

Frances Ha is a coming-of-age film set in NYC, shot entirely in black and white, about a 27-year-old aspiring dancer (Greta Gerwig) floundering while everyone around her, including her best friend Sophie (Mickey Sumner), grows up. It’s a topic not too far afield for its start, 29-year old Gerwig, who even when co-starring with Ben Stiller in 2010′s Greenberg, found herself driving around LA with no money and no place to stay.

The Mumblecore ingénue stars and also co-wrote the film with boyfriend Noah Baumbach (who last directed her as the girl who puts up with abusive, transitioning Bushwick-carpenter loser played by Stiller in Greenberg). She’s down-to-earth, quirky in an unaffected way, endearingly scatterbrained (aren’t we all?). I want her to be my best friend, but I had to settle for a phone interview. Gerwig, who lives in Manhattan, chatted with us about whether it’s true that only rich people can be artists in New York, her favorite places in Brooklyn and what constitutes a “happy ending” for the struggling youngs today. (more…)

Aramaic huh? via Lena Dunham’s Instagram

We’ve all been dreading the coming wave of the Girls tours, ready to swarm Brooklyn like so many hungry terrifying cicadas. Fortunately, none have actually been put together yet, and in spite of what the above sign promises, we’re pretty damn sure it’s not real. The biggest clue? No one is charging obscene amounts of money for the privilege of leading around a bunch of clueless tourists/fame humpers. (more…)

For added authenticity, the baristas will be Hannah and Ray impersonators

Good news for those of you stuck working (or exploring) in and around Midtown who desperately miss any sign of your home across the East River: Cafe Grumpy is coming to Times Square! Well, maybe it’s good news. Whether it’s the actual good coffee shop or a cheap knockoff meant to vacuum up tourist-bucks remains to be seen. (more…)

God, what a bunch of Marnies

You’d think that Facebook, home of such groups as “The Raping Tree,” “Abducting, raping and violently murdering your mate as a joke” and “Festival Sluts” wouldn’t really be too picky about the things that we choose to promote on our page. Well, you’d be wrong. Apparently, much like when Google decided that a post about selling your (ahem])knickers online was too much for their delicate sensibilities, Facebook gave the boot to our post about This Ain’t Girls XXX.

There was no reason given, but those of us who were admins on the page were given the boot, forced to say that we re-read Facebook’s TOS, and you’ll notice the post has been scrubbed from our page. So remember kids, when you’re making a Facebook post, don’t use the word “porno.” But do promote violence against women, casual rape jokes and creepshots and slut shaming.

Despite the fact that it doesn’t get great numbers in traditional TV metrics like ratings, Girls still cleans up in categories like “buzzworthiness,” think pieces, awards and themed Craigslist apartment ads. Which means that in addition to the normal cash-ins like bus tours and bad parodies, the show is now joining the likes of Seinfeld and The Office with that touchstone of cultural acceptance, the porn parody. (more…)

Their show could be your life. Or is it the other way around? Ugh, we give up

TV: teacher, mother, secret lover. Despite the fact that we don’t own one, we still try to keep up with what’s going on in the world of the pictocube. One thing we strenuously try to avoid though, is aping the characters on TV shows. This is mostly accomplished by watching shows with sociopath protagonists, like Archer, Mad Men and Breaking Bad. We’d argue that Girls should be on that list, since even at their most sympathetic, the characters on that show are still terrible. But, a lot like how dudes still want to be Don Draper despite the fact that he’s just awful, people in their 20s want to be, or think they are, Hannah Horvath. So of course someone advertised an open room in their apartment as being a scene straight out of Girls. (more…)

The life of a young, single robot in the city is full of excitement

If you have a very popular media property, there are a couple things that are bound to happen: someone will try to make a quick buck off of a bus tour, someone else will try to make a quick buck off a reality show based on it, and there will be parodies. Oh, will there be parodies. In the case of Girls, the most well-known parody so far was Boys, which was goofy enough to get a few chuckles. Especially thanks to the guy who was based on Jessa. Now we have a new entrant in Dinner for One’s Robots, which has a promising premise (robots are always funny), but can’t quite follow through. (more…)

Fun fact: Hannah and Ray don’t really work at Cafe Grumpy. They are fictional characters. via Erstwhile dear

It seems like everyone in the entire world has an opinion on Girls, and they’ll share it with you whether you ask them to or not. Oddly enough, one demographic that hasn’t been quizzed on their thoughts about the voice of our generation is Greenpoint residents. This, despite Hannah Horvath working and living there. So, Vulture picked up a camera and a microphone and finally got to the bottom of this. (more…)

Are you a total Marnie? In that your friends think you’re frigid and hateful? via Paper Mag

Just like the tour bus of our dreams nightmares, a reality show about Girls was bound to happen. This is despite the fact that the show already cuts to the bone with cringeworthy realness. But we guess since there’s no hair pulling or catfights (the true arbiter of realness, if reality TV is to be believed) on Girls, we guess it’s time for the reality show version of it to rear its ugly head. Jezebel found the casting call, and hey, it’s vague enough that you could end up being on the show. (more…)

He don’t look so smart

1. Someone took three movies about Amy Fisher and made them into one (Friday)

2. You can make pretty much any sound with a synthesizer, so who knows what these dudes will come up with (Friday)

3. Get your kid started on the road to nerd-dom early by getting them into chess (Saturday)

4. Get yourself a haircut at a dance party. Just uh, make sure you stay still in the barber’s chair (Saturday) (more…)