[Photo via NY Mag]

Living in New York means your freakish obsessions are no longer grounds for involuntary commitment at Bellevue. Instead, you become the subject of magazine interviews ("One Is The Loveliest Color") that spin your mental health issues as quirky. A red flag that your cute little preoccupation has taken a nosedive into stone cold crazy? When you start saying things like "Wearing blue for me is like being in a dream all day long...It touches every realm of life, from cosmic to future." These people may be nuthouse-worthy, but now I’m wishing I’d chucked that English degree for a lifelong pursuit of “color theory.”

[Photo via NY Times]

Recent liaison-squawks aside (did anyone else find the NYT expose to be 5 pages of desperately disguised prattle?), we think Mr. McCain's biggest failing is not his undeniable penchant for icy blondes, but his dearth of understanding regarding his younger would-be constituents. An exhaustive campaign apparel investigation uncovered offerings good ("We need a real bush in the White house" thongs), baaad (totes adorned with sheep and stones --get it?) and puzzling (Huckabee's "I Like Mike tees" -- hello, your first name is not your selling point)...see pics below. More»

Call me dense, but I don't really understand why there are journalists that cover advertisements. Perhaps it's because with the advent of TiVo and DVR, we can fast-forward through commercials. Perhaps it's because now that we text while walking or watch our iPod Videos on the way to work, we're too inundated with visuals to absorb gigantic billboards anymore, so we need reporters to tell us what they say as we pretend to read the newspaper to look important while we're really just skimming the fluff articles. Or perhaps it's because the general public doesn't get to read press releases by ad reps, and we need reporters mediate for us and explain what is behind an ad campaign in case we missed the point.I'm pretty sure this is what The New York Times decided in their business section today, with  this story on the new Gillette Venus Embrace razor.... More»

In my under-caffeinated stated this morning, I felt a jolt of excitement when I read the New York Sun's headline "Harrod's, or a Big Retailer, is Sought for Seaport." Sadly, the entire gist of the article is captured in this headline, since Harrod's is only mentioned once in the article as a POTENTIAL retailer to reinvigorate the downtown commercial space that we suburbs kids used to frequent every time we took a field trip into the city—because clearly the only place to take 'burbs city-crashers" is to a charming yet somewhat lame tiny mall that reeks of fish outside. Other names floated in the article were Harvey Nichol's, Barney's and Target. (I love Target. I do. But how it ended up in the same category as Harrod's and Barney's, I'll never know.) More»

[Photo via The Cut]
Fashion blogs around the globe are talking about the big "dis" that fashion designer Giorgio Armani had on Vogue editor Anna Wintour in Milan yesterday morning. In The Cut's "Armani Talks Smack About Wintour in Her Presence!" post:

Armani was supposed to be addressing the troops about an exhibition called Superheroes in New York this May, which he is co-chairing with Wintour. Instead, with La Wintour present, and seeming to ramble, he said he couldn't understand why so many people disliked the American Vogue editor; he said he was "indifferent" to her — gasps from onlookers — before changing his mind and saying actually he liked her. He also suggested that she preferred French designers to Italians.

Um...I don't really see what the big deal is. Saying you're indifferent to someone in regards to people hating them is like a semi-compliment no? In any event, this is not the sort of thing that should send shock waves through the blogsphere.

[...Everyone's Replaceable Including Anna Wintour]
[Anna Wintour Has Good Taste]

As it becomes more and more clear that Apple’s progressive image is paper thin, consumers can take a stance (or just feebly re-assert their will) thanks to a Norweigian hacker named Jon Lech Johansen (AKA “DVD-Jon”). Seems that our savior, who isn’t as attractive as he is brilliant (but who’s brilliance makes him SO HOT), and his company, doubleTwist, has given us back the gift of ol’ fashioned property ownership. That’s right – just one download stands between you and the mp3 interoperability of your dreams. Basically, doubleTwist enables users to play iTunes files on a whole gaggle of devices, including other mp3 players, cell phones, and video game consoles. So when you buy music, you can actually (*gasp*) use it. I haven’t given it the full trial run yet, but I still suggest that you get while the gettin’s good – there is a legal battle a-brewin’.

[Photo via Joonbug]
I have a secret, and I might as well share. First of all, anyone that knows me, knows of my obsession for all thing club kids...though most of them have no idea where this came from, me being basically the opposite of what you would conjure up in your head upon thinking of those crazy kooky bastards that roamed the city's nights before Guiliani, before 9-11, before Wholefoods. They were simply crazy, and crazily simple in that regard. But this is not a post about the club kids, who are still around in various forms of Kenny Kenny, Richie Rich, Motherfucker, Heatherette, and young hipsters. This is about a man. A man that depending on the time, and the writer, could be called an award winning club designer, club kid wrangler, doorman, fashion designer (back in the 80s), and night life king...and now, we can add blogger to the list. Yet Steve doesn't fit any of these...at least for me. More»

[Photo via Rolling Stone]

DJ AM aka Adam Goldstein has had his fair share of kisses with fame.  However, it's hard being at the top, especially in the night life business.  This Friday, DJ AM will be the guest of honor at the abominable club Room Service.  For his fans from out of town, and myspace followers, this will no doubt mean that, at least in their minds, this is the best club in NYC.  However, we all know that that is very FAR from being the case.  In fact, the last time we were at Room Service, it was early fall when we saw Micah Jesse getting in a fight with some "homophobes" at the door...after that we swore to keep our distance.  Pictured above with his most latest girlfriend, Mandy Moore at Sundance this January, he supposedly invited his ex to this Friday's event.  I'm going to take a bet that Moore is smarter than some of his past loves and will opt to stay far away.  What it is about DJ AM Adam Goldstein that allows him to date some of the leading paparazzi loving ladies remains a mystery.  Also, whatever happened to PM?

[A Perfect Match, Room Service Meets PM]

Gawker just posted a craigslist ad that features a Hedge Fund Analyst who is seeking a live in "model-maid". Which of course immediately caused us to think of possible pranksters who might be trying to make for "good internets". Who came to mind first? Cajun Boy of course. Cajun is a serial craigslist prankster, who most recently made waves with a post featuring a banker who was looking for a woman to lavish his 772K bonus on over the holidays.

Anyone else have ideas?

Update: After emailing Cajun Boy, he responded "you're the 13th person to ask me that. sadly, it's not me."

Sure, movies like The Devil Wears Prada feature characters like Andy that first believe fashion is a vapid parade of vanity and emptiness, only to have her soul sucked away by shallowness and shiny pretty clothes, handbags and shoes. And let's face it, most of the fashion industry (okay, all of it) is about outer beauty, trendiness, and cutting-edge style.

Yet fashion designers have been focusing on global and social awareness long before Natalie Portman's vegan shoe line with Te Casan—think M.A.C.'s Viva Glam campaign that started in 1994 with that first deep red lipstick, where 100 percent of money made went to raise money for AIDS. Since then, the M.A.C AIDS Fund has raised over $100 million dollars in support of HIV/AIDS awareness, education and research.

One of the first fashion designers to blend fashion with awareness was New York's very own Kenneth Cole. The Brooklyn-born fashion designer began a series of AIDS awareness ads in 1985, when the country didn't know much about the HIV virus except the misperception that it was a "gay" disease. (Now Kenneth Cole also chairs the American Foundation for AIDS Research, or AmfAR as it's more often called.)
More»

It’s already one of those off days. It began with the iPod. My first iPod lasted less than two years. Disillusioned, yet hopeful, I made the irrational decision to cough up another $300 for a new one. This time, I spent an additional $50 on a warranty, in some sense trying to rationalize the purchase. Did I have $350 just lying around? No. I cashed in all of my credit card points, accumulated over the last 10 years, for Best Buy gift cards. Like a crackhead searching beneath couch cushions for change, I found a way to get the ‘pod.

More»

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of riding the oh-so-delightfully frigid N,Q,F or B trains during the summer months to that mythical land of hotdogs, Shoot the Freak, and paint-chipped boardwalk rides so frail they rattle your bones, then you know that Coney Island isn’t a place that’s revered for it’s “bling”. It’s about eating a deep fried something, drinking shitty beer out of plastic cups, and, if you’re brave, putting your big toe in the water.

I’ve called it the great equivocator of New York culture—every race, age group, and style is represented amongst the throngs of beach-goers and amusement seekers, and like many things Brooklyn, no one seems to mind that it’s just a bunch of old crap that barely works—in fact, they like it that way. It builds character. But, in the wake of all this “Brooklyn Rah Rah” (ha), the BK is getting a lot of hype, not just from the four other fingers on the NYC fist, but from European tourists who love The Hold Steady and My Cousin Vinny. More»