This Saturday marks the 87th running of the Far Hill Race Meeting, otherwise known as “The Hunt”.  This Horse Race is New Jersey’s biggest event of the fall, drawing over 50,000 people, though it more aptly refers to ”the race” of those desperate and dateless men and women who will try their best at a last minute dash to secure some sort of hook-up prior to the desolate break that is the New York winter.  Within weeks, the natural tan, perfected in Southampton will fade…replaced by either a pale Scottish hue, or a bottle job that stains your sheets.  And, thus the chances of finding that prospective filly or stallion will have certainly bolted for another 6 months.

Although we have been critical of our Euro and Antipodean friends in the past, their horse racing has a certain distinguished air about it, where men and women dress in their finest duds, don impeccable hats and bags, and celebrate the “Sport of Kings” in style.  New Jersey’s answer is a far cry from that scene, where a glorified tailgate takes place, and polos and loafers is the dress de jour. These folks will be fuelled with plastic cups of chardy or pinot, crash upon other tailgates, and then finally train it back to Hoboken or the UES, all the while discussing topics ranging from diving derivatives to “when is Entourage back on??” So if the lure of sweaty beasts and beating the next man in riding a filly past the finishing post is your cup of tea, The Hunt could be the perfect weekend answer. There is Horse Racing too!!

…your Halloween costume that is.  Every the resourceful guide, Gridskipper has come out with a list of the top 7 places in NYC to go to find your costume.  Remember, New York is the biggest Halloween city in the country, they close down blocks for the Village Parade, and it’s the one time we get to semi-fit in with the transters.  You need to spend a considerable amount of time thinking about your costume, so if you haven’t yet, we suggest you start today.  Just a reminder:)

Last night’s Gossip Girl found the gang party-ing it up at good old Marquee, which we had to smile about. I mean really, who hasn’t rubbed elbows with the underage socialistas and wall street douche bags at that joint at least a couple of times? There were the obvious problems we had with the scenes which was to be expected. Here’s how the conversation with ourselves played out in our heads:

“Wait, are you sure that’s Marquee?….oh yep yep there’s the stairs..there’s the weird lights, the booths, that IS Marquee, but what the fuck is going on with the walls in the background?!..how the hell is she on a cell phone in there, it’s never that empty or quiet!…Okay wait now they’re outside, wait a minute that’s not 27th street! Where are the police horses and guidos?! Wait, NOW they’re in meatpacking?!”

In NY mag’s weekly review they found similar problems. However, Marquee is so typical “big night out” in New York that we are willing to forgive their mistakes just to see the place dramaticized. While the characters were hanging out in a psuedo-Marquee, real life Chace Crawford (who plays Nate) is a patron in real life. Though left out of last night’s episode completely, Chace Crawford is our (obvious?) favorite for best looking male on Gossip Girl and he is reportedly dating fellow southerner Carrie Underwood. After spending last Friday at Marquee, on Saturday night, the pair enjoyed a romantic dinner at Mario Batali’s Del Posto restaurant and later a few drinks at Soho Grand before ending the night at the Gramercy’s Rose Bar. From our Inbox we got reports that they were met there with the Gillian Hearst-Shaw’s wedding group including Fabian Basabe, Dabney Mercer and Killean van Rensellar. Chace and Carrie joined the group as well as Ali Smith from AX. Chase is apparently in real life the sweet southern boy he comes across as in photos.

Improv Everywhere’s tag line is “We Cause Scenes”. Well, who the f*ck doesn’t love causing a good scene every now and then? Yesterday that scene involved playing a little joke on the folks at the flagship Abercrombie & Fitch store on 5th Avenue. We are familiar with this store that sends it’s very ripped male models outside each day to “greet” the customers sans shirts. Well the “agents” at IE wanted to make a point that every guy has that inner model just waiting to shine. So, yesterday they “caused a scene” when they found 111 random “regular” guys to walk into all levels of the store and remove their shirts at the same time. They then proceeded to do their own little model shoot of the men in Central Park. You can go to their website linked above to see full footage of the scene. Though some managers and customers were obviously annoyed, most people thought it was a funny stunt….we think it was pretty much hilairous.

[Source: AP Photo]

Its long been a perplexing part of the human pathos that humans love animals more than humans themselves. Robert Heinlein had the following to say about “man”:

“There was one field in which man was unsurpassed; he showed unlimited ingenuity in devising bigger and more efficient ways to kill off, enslave, harass, and in all ways make an unbearable nuisance of himself to himself.” (Stranger in A Strange Land)

But when it comes to animals, humans seem to have an endless and unlimited amount of compassion. Wasps love their golden retrievers more than their children, celebrities and stars get militant when it comes to PETA often by throwing cans of paint or pie-ing people, and remember how the world wanted to skewer Michael Vick? The aggregate of all of this would be 100 times the emotional outpour that slowly dripped from people when the Monks in Burma were killed by the thousands.

How do I know this? Because I am a Dog, and I just know these things. So it really ticked me off when Ellen Degeneres got all teary eyed about a dog she rescued that may have to be sent back to the rescue shelter (because she violated her agreement and gave it to another family). Who knows how hammered she was when she gave this monologue:

But my simple point; when the hell is the last time Ellen cried over human suffering? I knew she loved pussycats, but didn’t know she had such a love for dogs.

As a result of her crying episode, the non-profit animal shelter, Mutts and Moms, has been deluged with hate mail and was forced to close its doors temporarily yesterday. Ellen, stop using your show to leverage public opinion so that you can get out of an agreement that you made. Sorry, but you don’t know how to run a shelter, or what’s best for the dog. From a Dog Stanley to a Dog Ellen, drop it!

He was named the 2007 Nightlife Photographer of the Year by The L Magazine, and you can bet he was present at the party to take the pictures. Nikola Tamindzic, self -described as “gawker.com’s resident photographer/provocateur, and a taller, rather more mobile version of Larry Flynt” has taken this city by storm. He is a well known name in photography, especially New York nightlife photography, shooting both big names and no-names. Arriving to the city in 2004, Nikola stumbled into a Halloween party hosted in a Soho loft. The loft belonged to Gawker’s Nick Denton, and Nikola quickly became the media mogul’s prized pet. Now the darling of Gawker media, he has proven that he can stand on his own. And his unique photos are helping to keep this city and it’s nightlife alive. Now, we feel honored to get our questions answered by Nikola himself. Read below to hear about his happy childhood, his love of Denton’s apartment (we hear it’s pretty posh), and his friendship with Kenny Kenny…

Interview with Nikola Tamindzic:

What did you want to be when you “grew up”?
Garbageman. In Belgrade, they used to ride on the backs of the trucks, and to a kid that seemed like the coolest thing ever. “What, you get to hang off the back off a truck AND get paid to do it? Awesome!”

What was your childhood like?
Happy. For no particular reason, but just a good, quality childhood. I remember coming across a Playboy-type magazine that my parents never even thought about concealing - I was around 4 at the time - and being absolutely riveted by the sight of nude bodies. Not exactly turned on - more in awe of such beauty.

Then, in my teenage years, my dad and I used to criss-cross Eastern and Western Europe in a car for the entire second half of the ’80s, before the Wall came down, and I remember the sounds of many languages, and different smells of cities, and lights of border crossings as the most romantic and intoxicating of things.

Before moving to New York, you lived and worked in Chicago. What were the pros and cons about living in Chicago compared to here?
New York draws things out of you that you didn’t think capable of. It pushes you hard. It makes you hustle. It’s just a big ball of incredible energy, of all these people who came here with the desire to DO something. You can ride that energy, or it can fuck you up big time.

Chicago is a lot more relaxed - that works for some people, and didn’t work for me in the long run. That said, if I was in music industry, I’d want to be there - such an incredible place for music.

Where was the best party you’ve ever been to in New York?
Oooooh, so many. Ed Banger party earlier this year, and LCD Soundsystem at Hiro during Fashion Week. But Fela Kuti-themed party in some Greenpoint warehouse, back in 2003, holds a very special place in my heart - what an incredible night.

You have been quoted saying “I’m drawn to things that may be conflicted”…What’s the biggest conflict you’ve personally had?
Fishing for gossip, huh? No, I didn’t mean conflicts between people - that’s always fun to talk about. No, what I’m drawn to are things that are INTERNALLY conflicted. I’m drawn to contradictions. We’re all conflicted most of the time - and capturing that, or that moment we admit to ourselves how torn we are - that’s very exciting for a photographer, as much as it would be for any storyteller. Such drama!

What do you think will be the new hot thing to take NY Nightlife by storm?
There are so many “NY Nightlifes” that I couldn’t possibly tell. Step away ten blocks from Lower East Side, and you might as well be on another planet. I don’t see myself working as part of the nightlife scene - because it’s not nightlife in itself that interests me, but the contradictions involved, which is what I’m trying to capture in my other photo work.

Where are some of your favorite places in the city?
There are some spots that just have a good party karma. Happy Ending. Nick Denton’s apartment. My fire escape.

What are the gawker offices really like?
Pale green & sterile! But why ask, when you can go and check them out; they work in an aquarium-type space on 89 Crosby, just stand on the street and gawk at them. It’s only fair.

Who do you admire?
Helmut Newton, Terry Richardson and David Lynch for creating worlds of their own, and Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, Brassaï, and Lee Friedlander for seeing more in our world than others did.

Top 3 songs on your ipod?
Sonic Youth: Hyperstation.
Suede: The Asphalt World.
Bryan Ferry: Boys & Girls.

What are you most afraid of?
Sucking.

What do you think is the most important character trait in someone?
Substance.

What do you think is your best trait?
Indefatigable ego tempered by constant questioning & evaluation.

What is one of your favorite photos? Favorite shoots?
Seducing Kenny Kenny into letting me take the photos I knew we could take. Snapping J-Lo while performing a turn on the floor, scowled at by bodyguards, and somehow ending up with a classic ’50s Hollywood portrait in the process. Photographing a blind girl, and having her see herself through my eyes.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Getting that much closer to figuring out what gets me going, and probably realizing that the more I find out, the less I know. That’s why doing this could never get boring, could never get old.

Will you ever get sick of New York City? Its nightlife?
That’s what I’m talking about. I don’t think so, as long as there’s something identifiably New York about this city - and in spite of real estate madness, there still is. (In fact, if you look at issues of Village Voice from 40 years ago, you’ll notice the exact same problems and exact same complaints as today.)

And nightlife? It’ll always go in cycles. Unless you’re invested fully in nightlife as a job, which a lot of scene people are, then you go in & out of it in 6-month intervals. Right now, I’m kinda out of it, probably cause no one wants to spend the summer in a sticky bar. But fall is the best for nightlife, so I’m sure you’ll be seeing me a lot more in the next couple of months.

Well we are looking forward to seeing him “at work” this fall. If you miss one of the parties he may cover for Gawker Denton, you can always go to his myspace page, or his personal site Ambrel where he displays his all of his current work.

Manhattan is labyrinth-y. Which is why when we read about the new surface navigation markers they are trying out on the sidewalks around Grand Central Station in the NY Times we were left thinking: “Why wasn’t this thought of sooner?” I mean even if you have lived here your whole life, it’s easy to get confused when walking out of a subway station especially one you are unfamiliar with. In fact, we think that there should be compasses embedded on top of every manhole in this town, then we’d NEVER have to tell another tourist which way third avenue was, and we would never have to look like an idiot when we act like we think we know where we’re going around said visitors. Though some are playing the “too-cool for school” card:

“Personally, I wouldn’t use it because I’m from New York and I know where I’m going,” said Anna Medina, a paralegal. “When you’re from New York, everyone knows where you’re going.”

We know better. Even Anna has had an “off” day…you can bet she has walked out of a subway station in Nolita and been in a brief stupor before getting her bearings. We will be the first to admit that it happens once or twice a month to us and it is a little bit embarrassing (for ourselves to admit to, no one else usually is aware of what’s going on…so we think). So, we will welcome the coming of these “signs” in this labyrinth of ours, and encourage you guys to do the same. Go to the Grand Central Partnership (where they are being tested at now) and complete their survey so they know to bring them to the rest of the city…

I am absolutely 100% in love. With my makeup. Bare Escentuals completely changed my life. It’s so good that I really don’t think I’ll ever, ever use another foundation in my life (the best thing is, it’s not even foundation, it’s a powder that covers like one!). My other makeup I put on, I really could care less about. Someone could hand me a black tube of mascara with no markings and I honestly wouldn’t be able to tell you if it was from Chanel or Maybelline. Besides Bare, any of the brand name stuff I use came either from friends in the “business” (aka magazine assistants) or from a handout at some sample sale or as a gift in an event bag. (hello, fellow Hampton Jitney riders this summer?!) Anyway I am so happy that I found my makeup that works, I am NOT happy about where I have to go to purchase it. You see, the only actual physical store that sells Bare Escentuals is Sephora. Ah Sephora.

Here’s how my first real shopping experience went inside a sephora. I had just moved to Manhattan and needed ONE eyebrow pencil. In black. If I would have know any better I would have just gone into a Duane Reade for this. $370 later I had my pencil. A really nice Laura Mercier one in both the traditional “black” and the “black violet”. I also had an entire bag full of shit that, to this day, I couldn’t name off for you, but I’m sure it included some high tech eye moisturizer (which I’ve probably used once), at least 7 makeup brushes, some lip plumper, an eye shadow duo, and a powder bronzer. That’s when I learned my

Sephora Lesson #1: Never ask a Sephora worker for help. Ever. Unless of course you are okay with dropping a week’s pay on a bag of shit, because they won’t stop you at $370.

Sephora is like the Henri Bendel’s of the makeup industry (if department sized stores full of brand named makeup were actually the norm which they’re not). No, Sephora is in a class all on it’s own. I have a love-hate relationship with Sephora. I would just LOVE to HATE the place and HATE that I LOVE it. So, while I can’t seem to stay out of a Sephora for more than a couple of months, I have become a little bit wiser about my decision making process once inside:

Sephora Lesson #2: Never let them do your makeup for “free” (because, first of all, it won’t be free…you will end up feeling obliged to buy something, will walk out after thinking you look fabulous to discover you look like Kenny Kenny’s sister and will never use those fake eyelashes again)

Sephora Lesson #3: Best time to go: much like shopping for lingere or bras, you want to make sure that there are enough people shopping so as you will not be the sole attention of the employees, but that there are not too many people there that you would ever have to wait in line to try on or purchase. The ratio of 2:1 seems to work well (2 customers for every 1 sales person) which I have discovered will never happen in stores placed in heavily tourist-populated areas (times square), however, for the other stores go during the afternoons early to mid week (mon-wed) seem to work out. Never go of course when you are feeling any of the following emotions: heartbroken, ugly, fat, depressed, lonely, or hungry.

Sephora Lesson #4: Those bins by the register? Sure the travel-sized shit is really cute and you’re thinking you are getting a great deal, but the truth is you will never use that stuff after the first two times. You will either lose it or forget about it (save for the rosebud salve which is absolutely divine).

Sephora Lesson #5: The perimeter of the store is usually the safest, as it’s just the lines and lines of fragrances.  Remember, however, that those bottles are powerful and just “a couple sprays” here and there could leave you nauseous for the rest of the day. Ask for a sampling (which they will put in a good-sized plastic tube for you) if you are really serious about trying a scent, and then use it later on.

And finally, Sephora Lesson #6: Be prepared to spend more money than you ever thought possible on makeup when you walk inside. I would like to think I’ve gotten wiser but the powers inside those stores are just too strong for one woman to handle.

[Image Source: The Brooklyn Paper] 

That’s right, what you read is correct! 6 year-old Natalie Shea found out the hard way that a life of “graffiti” and crime property defacement will earn you a letter from the Department of Sanitation and a potential $300 dollar fine. Apparently a neighbor called 311 to tip off Natalie’s drawings which are in violation of local law 111:

“graffiti” [is defined] as “any letter, word, name, number, symbol, slogan, message, drawing, picture, writing … that is drawn, painted, chiseled, scratched, or etched on a commercial building or residential building.”

Well Natalie, all we can say is perhaps you should go back to the drawing chalk board and perfect your strokes, then maybe your “graffitti” will be considered “art”, and under this umbrella no one will be able to challenge the validity or merit of them.

[photo from NYmag]

“la Fée Verte” translates to “The Green Fairy” and it is a common name to refer to the wider known “Absinthe“. Ah absinthe. The stuff that every American college aged student is dying to try on their visits to European cities such as Amsterdam and Belgium. The drink, derived from the grand wormwood plant has always carried a sort of romantic appeal. It was of course, the substance that so many have claimed to cause “crazy-like behaviors”. Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso both enjoyed the green alcohol, as well as Oscar Wilde. Ernest Hemingway went so far as to coin the “death in the afternoon” cocktail, a concoction he came up with himself using the stuff.

Well, absinthe was finally approved to be sold in the states and arrived in New York in June. Lucid, the brand by Vividian Spirits in Manhasset, NY was the first one in the market and boy do we wish we owned a piece of that company. Now, Lucid is available only in NY, NJ, and Illinois, and at fine retailers like Park Avenue Liquor, and restaurants such as Waverly Inn, STK, Kobe Club, Stone Rose, Grammercy Tavern, and Pastis. For a full listing of places serving Lucid go here (we still aren’t sure how TenJune pulled off being on the distribution list). Well today, NYMag is not only informing us of the second (and apparently much tastier) brand of absinthe to hit the US market, they hired their own green fairy to do a detailed comparison of the two. (God, we love the work you guys do over there!) After 5 years of haggling with the U.S. FDA, Yves Kubler got the go ahead to bring his own, untouched family produced recipe from 1875 over for us to try. Let the fun begin. Just remember, it will be a lot more fun if you drink it as you are supposed to: distilled over sugar with water as shown above. That shit is 124-proof which means its alcohol content is more than 50% greater than that of vodka, rum, and most whiskeys….hence our above concern with distributing to the TenJune-ers mentioned above. Also, let’s all PLEASE, PLEASE work together to keep Britney and Lohan away from this shit, we don’t want it banned for another 100 years.

It’s Monday, and that means that when we are feeling especially desperate to find a way to procrastinate, we head over to PostSecret.  The PostSecret website is the largest advertisement-free Blog on the web.  For us, it’s just a chance to read the “secrets” of real life individuals.  It’s updated every Sunday night and plays on all your emotions.  Usually we get a couple chuckles in, a couple “geez that sucks”, and then leave the site feeling a little bit better about our own lives.  The “secrets” can be as silly as the one above or as tragic as the one below:

Although suicide notes come in often, and are definitely no joking matter, the site has done a good job of forming a community of supporters that has been able to help a lot of people overcome their depression, eating disorders, you name it.  They recently published a book titled: A Lifetime of Secrets and are currently on tour throughout the U.S. (For schedule see website).