Update from Beijing:

The roads are looking pretty barren these days in Beijing right before the Olympics as close to 90% of cars have been pulled off the road. Take the 8 lane Shunyi Roadway, close in size to the Long Island Expressway, and as you can see in the pictures there’s pretty much no traffic at all! Wouldn’t it be great if the LIE was like this on a Friday afternoon?

No doubt this will fill up as people come for the games, but in the meantime is a pretty interesting sight that mimics the likes of a ghost town.

It seems yesterday’s plea for the return of the Gridskipper of yore was unnecessary, though it did not fall on deaf ears. Both Lockhart Steele and Ben Leventhal assure us that “by fall you’ll see a new plan in place, featuring more of the Gridskipper you loved restored, with, perhaps, a tweaked format and plenty of new material.”

And that’s not all; it turns out that the trademark maps will soon be showing up on the rest of the Curbed network’s sites. I’m so relieved, and excited to see what the new maps (especially those on Racked) will look like!

[Image via Curbed]

• Starlet Natalie Portman is done with her Charles St. apartment [Curbed]
• A very fat cat graces us with her presence [NYM]
• Sex and the City is a huge draw for NYC’s foreign tourists [NYT]
• The Sons of the Revolution will be allowed to march come Evacuation Day [Queens Crap]
• Bloomberg doesn’t want the subway to go private [NYS]
• Owner of Gristede’s wants to run for mayor next year [Gothamist]

• Money troubles on a European vacation [BaRou is the New Brooklyn]
• Brownngirl loves Lancome Hypnose perfume [Brownngirl.]
• Well, freelancing and alcohol do go hand in hand [Have You Met Ms. Jones?]
• Say goodbye to Bennigan’s [Diminishing Returns]
• Pretty pond pictures [Miss Annie Mac]

From: hamptons.guestofaguest.com:

It’s shark week over at Plum TV and they have just given us the exclusive video. This one’s short and definitely worth a watch. My favorite part: “Hurray- HU-RAAY”…now there’s no ‘hurray-hurray’ we just let them go.” I want to give God a high five for creating Frank Mundus, the legendary Montauk shark fisherman.

The famed Celtic punk rockers will be at Pier 54 tonight from 6 to 9 pm. Known for their superb live shows, as all 7 of them show up to play, Flogging Molly sounds like old Irish ballads, with tin whistle and mandolin to boot, except played at triple speed and angry as hell instead of melancholy. They’re definitely something you’re into or you’re not, but if you are, you can check out their music and their antics tonight for no charge.

[Photos via Rob Rich]

Okay, so I’m guessing he won’t even remember spending that money in the morning, but that wasn’t stopping him Saturday night at Pink Elephant, Capri.  What would really be fun would be to see what this guy was up to today….still nursing his weekend hangovers from out east in his cubicle in midtown?  Thank god he has a place to let loose!  File photo #2 below in “Why I stay away from clubs” category:

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Bonobos may be the hottest thing on the pant market for men, but what about the ladies?  We wear pants too, which is why it is now my duty to introduce you to (hem) Boutique.

(hem)’s trousers are “ultra-flattering”.  They are “both provocatively feminine & idiosyncratically forward”.

I love flowing skirts and dresses, but sometimes a girl just wants to pull up some comfortable pants for a change.  The store, founded by Yrmis Barroeta and Christina Bohigian is in the heart of Soho, and offers a collection of over 30 unique styles designed with some of gnarliest fabrics I’ve seen. More»

Go HERE for more photos of this event by Ben Kaufman.

Splashlight Studio hosted it’s Grand Opening Tuesday night in Soho.  Peter Ruprecht showcased his ‘Monadic Nomad’ photo collection. The event was a definite success, with a large crowd of photographers, artists and models all mingling around  Peter’s photographs of India, his audio-video installation, and photographic images from Nepal.  To top it all off, they served food inspired by his adventures.

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Paul Johnson Calderon is Loving the idea of eating delicious Socialites Crisps!! HOT:  XxPJC.
2 hours ago

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Leven Rambin is at the Chateau.
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Brittany Mendenhall is at the Sir Drake rooftop Par-tay. Then Antik with the Lola kids then who knows.
Updated via Facebook Mobile 3 hours ago

Scott Buccheit is walking with dinosaurs.
Updated via Facebook Mobile 3 hours ago

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Alexa Greenstadt is girls night.
3 hours ago

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Minnie Mortimer is Style.com.
5 hours ago

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[Chris Brown with Wrigley Girls]

I was obsessed with the Doublemint Twin commercials as a kid (one of my favorites is HERE). Now, as we previously mentioned, Chris Brown is giving the old jingle a new makeover.  Chris,  Julianne Hough, and Ne-Yo have all partnered up with Wrigley’s gum to remake the iconic “jingles” for Doublemint®, Juicy Fruit® and Big Red®. The updated jingles, which will be the backbone of a new August ad campaign, were unveiled during a private concert hosted at the Nokia Theater, Times Square last night.

More story and photos below:

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