If you're in town this weekend, may I extend an invitation to join me at a house party on the (gasp!) Upper West Side? The event, an annual gala hosted by Dorian and Marshall of the Alternatives to Marriage Project, tends to bring a rather interesting mix of people together; indeed, last year's event proved to be the Talk of the Town. What will Dorian and Marshall do for an encore? We're not sure, but we're betting it will involve the partly-severed head of Bill O'Reilly. Cocktails Saturday 10/4 from 5pm to 7pm; follow the link for RSVP info.
· ATMP Houseparty [unmarried.org]
· Unmarrital Bliss [newyorker.com] Ms. Mead's report on last year's party...
· Stealing Stories [nickdenton.org] ....and a meta-backgrounder

Last week, we toured the new Ridge Street apartment building, The Coda (featured yesterday in the Times' Real Estate section) with its creator, Judah Klausner. Klausner, a musician and inventor who holds a key patent on PDAs (and, more recently, a patent for a cellphone that can project Web pages onto a larger surface), is outfitting the lobby of the building with tributes in sheet music to famous musicians of yore born and raised on the Lower East Side (Irving Berlin, Yip Harburg, Sammy Cahn, and Irving Caesar). Most of the 1BR and 2BR units have rented, but if you've got upwards of $4k to drop each month on a penthouse, stop by. The views (above) sweep across the LES, and a series of patios and roof decks would be quite the spot for a housewarming fête.
· 29-Unit Rental Tips Its Hat to Composers [nytimes.com]
· The Coda [citi-habitats.com]

Let the baseball playoffs begin! One end-of-season note: Yesterday, the Red Sox officialy broke the all-time MLB record for slugging percentage in a season, a mark set by the 1927 ("Murderers Row") Yankees. News of this record somehow eluded the sports editors of the NYT today, though they did have room to note that Toronto set a new record for fewest sacrifice bunts in a season. (Billy Beane, eat your heart out.)
· Sox Fall, But So Do Records [boston.com]

"AOL sucks!"

Press Your Luck. It was seven years ago this month. We'd just participated in the annual migration of students from New England colleges to New York City, and our man Blubox had found us a studio to share on Avenue C. We sought an air of belonging, but our sartorial blunders ("Are those gym socks?" a co-worker inquired of our hosery our second week on the job) and lack of clue about where to go too often found us out. Then we happened upon the New York Press's annual Best of Manhattan issue. It was dense. It was mean. It was deeply self-indulgent. But most importantly, it gave off the unmistakable air that they knew what they were talking about. One listing caught our eye: "Best Hetero Pickup Scene." Huzzah! The next night we pulled on our gray Thanksgiving dress-up socks and headed off to their choice—Botanica. It was a scene so wank that, even to our untrained eye, we knew we could make it in this big city.

This week, we're enjoying the Press's 2003 Best of Manhattan anew. Yes, it's as self-indulgent as ever. Sure, go ahead and nitpick the easy targets they take down—but realize that's the point. Thank God Koyen & Co. have kept the air of superiority that pervaded the Russ Smith venture. The alternative—cf. the Voice's upcoming best-of, an annual testament to the massive suckage that has pervaded that publication since forever—is too dark to contemplate.

Below, best-ofs from the Good Old Lower East Side. A little too much Ludlow Street for our tastes, but hey. Still, the joy is in the newsprint. Go ahead, open the green box and pick one up.

· Best High-Margin Source for eBay Sellers: Orchard Street: "What’s truly cool is, we only have to buy one of anything, photograph it, give it the flack treatment and then let the boundless and boundary-less wonders of the world wide interweb do the rest."
· Best Activist Bookstore: Bluestockings (Allen St. @ Stanton/Rivington): "Incidentally, there’s a killer vegetarian restaurant next door called Tien Garden."
· Best Foster Home for Your Clothing: Rejoice (Orchard St. @ Houston/Stanton)
· Best Iced Coffee with a Side of Right-Wing Pablum: Angelina’s Bakery (Orchard St. @ Houston/Stanton): "Hallas is the embodiment of genuine insouciance. He’s got in spades what the fauxhemians in these parts can only acquire by proxy and at an embarrassing mark-up from neighboring boutiques like the ridiculous Stongarm."
· Best Bialys: Kossar’s Bialystoker Kuchen Bakery (Grand St. @ Essex/Norfolk): "Though we’ve been told by various West Coast culture magazines that the classic New York bagel no longer exists, we say bullshit to the plastic bitches in their dopey convertibles."
· Best Free Chip & Dip: Paladar (Ludlow @ Houston/Stanton)
· Best LES Bistro Vibe: Pink Pony (Ludlow @ Houston/Stanton): "The new Pink Pony deftly walks the line between classy restaurant and starving-artist cafe—even if the prices have gone up a bit."
· Best Foosball: Luna Lounge (Ludlow @ Houston/Stanton)
· Best Anything-Goes Open Mic: Faceboyz, Sundays at Collective Unconscious (Ludlow @ Stanton/Rivington): "Pick up a 40-ounce and drop $3 in the hat to keep a black-box L.E.S. performance space alive and laugh to the most original and unpredictable comedy show in New York." (The bad: Confirms Dec. 1 as closing date for CU.)
Also: worthy props for Otto, Edge Bar, Xicala, the Bulgarian Bar.
· The Best of Manhattan 2003 [nypress.com]

Speaking of the golden age of hype, the comparison shopping space is partying like it's 1999. This week marked the launch of the redesigned Shopping.com (which is Dealtime + Epinions + New domain name) and the announcement from Yahoo of its own new comparison shopping service. Both look worthwhile, but we still like Froogle for one simple reason: speed.
· Shopping.com [shopping.com]
· Yahoo! Shopping Comparison [shopping.yahoo.com]
· PriceGrabber.com [pricegrabber.com]
· Froogle [froogle.google.com]

We don't go in for a lot of weblog navel-gazing in this space, but this we cannot resist. Silicon Alley Reporter founder Jason Calacanis has officially launched his new weblog venture, Weblogs Inc., with the goal of creating 500 "vertical" "niche" "B2B" "blogs" in the next three years. (Shee-yit! If only an analyst from Jupiter was available to opine frothily on the promise of this paradigm-shifting venture!) Cue Jeff Jarvis's antihype, where he points out our first thought: that this whole thing kinda reaks of About.com.

The bigger question for talented webloggers: with no upfront salary (Calacanis' payment model is is 50% of profits after all costs are covered—similar to the deal he famously offered Liz Spiers) why not take the risk on your own and go for the full 100%? Costs are minimal (a few bucks a month to Fictional Company for hosting, $150 to Movable Type if you're honest about your commercial aspirations). Granted, a sales staff is one thing most bloggers lack, but weblog revenue streams are simple and real (not to mention still developing), especially if you're "vertical" enough. Jarvis councils patience, which is good advice, because eventually good blogs get read. DIY, baby, and have some real fun.
· Weblogs, Inc. [weblogsinc.com]
· Blogbiz: Bubble Boy or Baron? [buzzmachine.com]

Group blog Memefirst unveils a spiffy new MT-powered redesign... and uses the opportunity to heap shit on our poor little enterprise. Fear not—we'll figure out this interweb thing one of these years.
· Unjustifiable [memefirst.com]

Event so joyous, AP caption writer cleared to use "jubilate" as a verb.
· Hero Sandwich [boston.com]
· Time Running Out on Seattle [seattlepi] meanwhile, in Seattle...
· Elephants in Oakland [elephantsinoakland.blogspot.com] and in Oakland...
· Blog Gets Reporter Fired [baseballmusings.com via instapundit] weblog outs lazy reporter, SacBee cans his ass

Memo to James Browning and/or overzealous editors at The Believer: the Vegas strip club is called Spearmint Rhino, not "The Spearmint Rhinocerous." That is all.
· Spearmint Rhino [spearmintrhino.com]
· The Believer: September 2003 [believermag.com]

It's Literature Day on LS.com, kids! Let's kick things off with some big news from the world of bloggers-cum-authors. Julie Powell, the brains behind the Julie/Julia project, has nabbed a book deal, reports today's Publisher's Lunch:

Julie Powell's THE JULIE/JULIA PROJECT, a year in the life of Julie Powell, a 30-year old secretary living in Queens, who decided to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child's1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which drew a following (and press) through her Salon.com blog, to Judy Clain at Little, Brown, at auction, for publication in early 2005, by Sarah Chalfant at the Wylie Agency (NA).

On her blog, Julie is slightly more circumspect: "I am, in fact, officially What's Wrong With Publishing Today."
· The Julie/Julia Project [blogs.salon.com]
· Publisher's Lunch [caderbooks.com]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. On a weekend when Tellme Sports anchor Mark Andretti "took the weekend off, for the first time ever"—robbing us of our lifeline to baseball scores on the season's penultimate weekend—there was redemption. The surprise victory for The West Wing at the Emmys brought our boy Palmermix to the stage. Yes, that's him in the upper right corner, preparing, one assumes, to throw a punch.
· West Wing Emmy Photos [news.yahoo.com]

· On the same day Eliot posts his 1000th photo, the Sox go 2.5 up in the Wild Card. Coincidence? [slower.net]
· Also on the baseball beat: JeffWeaversMom.com. "Dude, I was TOTALLY on Sports Center this weekend!  They showed clips from the doubleheader and if you, like, look close you could see me look over my shoulder at Derek." [jeffweaversmom.com]
· Apparently they mint 'em all alike at Tulane law school. "And if his wedding was on the date of a key trial, 'the wedding would be postponed. If the wife to be did not like it, I would inform her that work comes before EVERYTHING ELSE and that if she does not like this, she is free to find a competing husband.'" [thesmokinggun.com]
· Also smoking: giant Eldridge Street pot farm found behind moving bookcase [NYPost via the nightlife divas at gothamist]

First, from the troubled minds of Nina & Tim Zagat, there was Zagat Survey. Later, from the troubled mind behind TeenDrama, Dens Crowley, there was Dodgeball. Now, from Mark Hurst, the troubled mind behind ThisIsBroken (fresh off a Circuits section mention yesterday) comes AddYourOwn. Yes, another New York restaurant review site with reviews submitted by users. The twist here: There's but one review for each restaurant. If no one's reviewed a place yet, give it a go. If someone has already reviewed it, edit their review to your liking. Worried about web vandals running amok? Don't worry—the site tracks changes. That lets you see, for instance, the bizarre amount of work someone has put in to the review of Ludlow Street's Pink Pony. We took the liberty of reviewing Schiller's; have at it. [UPDATE: Check the evolution of the Schiller's review.]
· addyourown [addyourown.com]
· Dodgeball [dodgeball.com]
· Zagat Survey [zagat.com] with handy subscribers-only feature!

Huh? What's this? The Dave Matthews Band is playing a concert in Central Park? We've heard nothing about this! Actually, if we come across one more DMB flash mob, someone's gonna get hurt. But lo, our boy at BluBox plunged into the horde in search of the elusive pair of free tickets. It's worse than we'd even dare imagine.

All around us in the park, people were getting scanned and winning tickets. NYU Freshmen who didn't deserve tickets were stepping in shit left and right. We went into covert mode and weasled a second game piece. The scanner caressed our game piece: SORRY.

Aside to reality TV junkies: If you're not watching The Joe Schmo Show, you're dead to us. This week's episode ranks among the best hours of the genre we've seen. Set the PVR—it reruns this weekend—and brace yourself... How meta will it get?
· The Joe Schmo Show [spiketv.com]
· Joe Schmo Links [sirlinksalot.net]

LS.com, in conjunction with JVG.com, is pleased to announce:

THE JVG.com/LS.com AFTERPARTY
to the Gothamist/601am Happy Hour

After months of radio silence, Gawker/Gizmodo publisher Nick Denton has taken to the airwaves, revealing the monthly revenues of his web media startup and predicting that Google's AdSense program will remake what weblogs look like. Fear not, gentle readers. We will stay above the fray... at least until the number of Google AdWords for "Lower East Side" rises above zed.
· Google AdSense [nickdenton.org]
· The Return of Hype [nickdenton.org]

Recovering from last night's summer finale of The O.C. (plot prediction: Marissa kicks it; replaced by person who can act), we turn our attention to our own little East End O.C., the proposed hamlet of Dunehampton. After a summer of whining, catfights and name-calling (can anyone here say with a straight face they don't love the Hamptons?) the proposed secession by a sliver of rich waterfront owners was rejected this week—on a technicality. "Supporters of the proposed village were overzealous when they compiled their list of 1,079 residents of the area, which has about 260 houses. Some houses were listed as having 11, 18 or 21 regular inhabitants, many of whom were actually the residents' grown children, grandchildren or guests," the Times reported. Jesus. That's not the way we do things in Orange County.
· Southampton Rejects Dunehampton Petitions [newsday.com]
· Southampton Blocks Petition for 'Dunehampton' Village [nytimes.com]

Back on this coast, we've become deeply enamored with SLNY, "the pretentious little one pager" from the unknown force behind She Loves NY. Since DR introduced us to it about a month back, we have waited, nervous but expectant, for the moment each week when it delivers to our inbox its—mentions? meditations?—on our faire towne. Who's behind it? Our source reports that the author "may or may not be a (former) publicist, but who definitely works in the media/fashion/publicity realm. He moves in a very opaque cloak of secrecy." Indeed. Bask in this week's one pager, determine if you are cool enough (please, no cheating), then—and only then—subscribe. (The website is packed with other morsels of genius we'll trust you to find on your own.)
· She Loves NY [shelovesny.com]

You can feel it, can't you? That vague hint in the air that L.A. is about to play host to the next discursive explosion in blogging activity? We've been catching up with the City of Angels via our old friend MOP, onetime New York mayoral confidante and recently a staff writer for a television show set in a large white house. He's the affable host of Web Presence Palmermix. Once a straight music blog—see today's post on Johnny Cash—Palmermix has spread its wings. This week alone, he's met Wesley Clark, offered memories of 9/11 from the left coast, and opined on the passings of Cash and Ritter. Don't wait for Gawker LA to dig in.
· Palmermix [palmermix.com]
· Johnny Cash [palmermix.com]
· John Ritter [palmermix.com]
· My 9/11 [palmermix.com]
· The General Speaks [palmermix.com]

After work, walked through Union Square. Last year's grace replaced with stridency and shrill politicking. Standing there, unhappy, I look down. Lying on the pavement, back propped against his backpack, is MBS, listening to a new band on his CD player and enjoying the universe. I join him, and we toast the quiet magic of the moment—still present, if unseen.

Tonight, I'll meet up with friends at the old East Village bar where, late in the afternoon of that long Tuesday two years ago, we gathered around beers to try to make sense of it all. Before that, a walk through Union Square, where last year someone tacked this note: "We smelled it. Felt it. Saw it. We need more time." To everyone I spent parts of this day two years ago with—CBD, MOP, KS, MB, CS, JD, CB, SA, DK—love and remembrance.
· One year ago: Rose petals
· Two years ago: Two eggs

Appears to have successfully recorded both Playmakers and The O.C. last night at 9pm while we carried on about town. Ohhhh yeeeeeaaaah!

The Fall Preview issue of Time Out New York now on newsstands has a long piece by Zoë Wolff about the Surface Hotel. Besides breaking some big punctuation news (the full hotel name will apparently include the inane_underscore seen in the above header) several other new details are proffered. Because the piece will not be available on the web until sometime in mid-2005, we offer gratis this brief summary of the most important points. (RIAA lawsuits be damned!)

· Some numbers: 111 (rooms); $250 to $2,500 (nightly rates); $32 million (development cost). Sheee-yit! $2,500 for a night on the good old Lower East Side? Kiddies, we have arrived! (It goes without saying, of course, that after the inevitable discounts, $99 rooms will be the norm.)
· Clearly tapped into the fact that magazine advertorials are the new hotness, Surface (the_magazine) is upping the ante. Twenty percent of the rooms at the hotel will be signature suites—"individually branded environments in which a label or manufacturer is given free reign." We're booking the Ketel One suite stat.
· Rooms on 10 floors "will present Surface's own vision of futuristic accomodations, including... tricked-out bathrooms with free-floating tubs." (Commentary superfluous.)
· Most alluring of all is the full-page photo of Surface editorial director Riley Johndonnell, posed in front of the hotel as though he designed it (of course, he did not). Which leads me to the public announcement of a bet that has been tendered between fellow LES resident and blogger Felix Salmon and yours truly. Felix believes that if and when the hotel finally opens, it won't be with the Surface name attached. Taking the underdog position (in solidarity with cheesy, opportunistic editorial operations everywhere) is yours truly. Loser buys the winner two rounds of drinks on opening night at the hotel's posh bar.

After much anticipation, picked up the Time Warner Cable Digital Video Recorder at lunch today. Reading the laminated Quick Tips guide, however, I must question the wisdom of upgrading.

Quick Tips and Reminders
...[I]t will make noise, be sensitive to dust and vibrations, and it may take a little longer to retrieve information. So, be careful and patient. You won't be able to flip quickly through the channels like you might on a regular TV.

Also, the DVR has a tendency to get quite warm and requires constant ventilation. Try to keep at least one inch clear around all sides of the DVR at all times. Additionally, refrain from placing other devices directly on the DVR as it might block some vents.

Finally, this is brand new technology, and you are among the first to experience it. Keep in mind that your DVR will act like the computer it really is, and as such, may reboot occasionally or the screen may momentarily freeze. Please allow your DVR to catch up to the commands from your remote. If you notice that a problem continues or happens frequently, contact us. [emphasis mine]

Back at the keyboard only a few hours, and the fan mail is rolling in! "Stop updating your dumb old site with stuff about sports," emails one correspondent. As a new season begins at the Web Presence, we feel compelled to remind readers that, like The Onion's editorial page, LS.com endeavors to be a one-way conduit of information. But, relaxed from vacation—like, coma-level relaxed—is that drool on our chin?—we're feeling benevolent. And, we're givers. So, from the further depths of our inbox come these upcoming area events that we fully intend to attend:
· Our house watering hole, Verlaine, kicks off its new slate of art shows with an open bar Tuesday night—oh, and some art by Michael Gatlin. [9/9, Verlaine, Rivington @ Essex, 6pm-7pm]
· Happy Ending Reading Series. Held at the eponymous LES bar, this confab kicked off last week and continues on Wednesday with readings by Cintra Wilson, Jill Bauerle, and Chad Allen. [9/10, Happy Ending, Broome @ Forsyth, 8pm]
· Right before that, catch the Sea closing party at the Jen Bekman Gallery. [9/10, Jen Bekman Gallery, Spring @ Bowery, 6pm-8pm]
· This Saturday afternoon, bloggers and Movable Time aficionados of all stripes will turn out in Madison Square Park to meet 'n' greet each other and the scene's überrati. We will be there with a single bell on. [9/13, Madison Square Park @ Somewhere in the 20's, 2pm-4pm]

Yours truly was up early yesterday to make it back to NYC and all the way to Ken's couch for an amazing 1pm Sports tripleheader: Sox-Yanks, Pats-Bills and Giants-Rams. Given that I didn't care at all about the outcome of the Giants game, you can guess how the day went. As usual, Bill Simmons nails it: "My Dad calls for the final word: 'Can I just say how much I was totally looking forward to today's games? I got up early, read all the papers ... now I feel like I want to hang myself. Just another day in the life of a Boston sports fan.' Indeed."

The afternoon's only highlight: the picture-in-picture feature of Time Warner's Tivo-like PVR, which let us watch two games at once and which, if all goes well, and, we don't run out of commas, will be installed in our apartment, this very evening.
· A Black Sunday for Boston Sports [espn.com's Page 2]

Back from vacation in the great state of Maine. While others were experiencing epic times here in the city, we were in deep leisure mode. Salient glories and misdeeds from our annual late summer northern getaway:


1) Early September is Maine lowbush blueberry season. That means full shelves at our local farmstand (above). The sad truth about this annual bounty: a mere 1% of the crop is sold fresh. I believe I personally accounted for .05% of that during my sojurn. Good times never tasted so good.
2) Continuing with all things foodie, Portland, Maine is quite the restaurant scene these days. (Were it not for the plaintive cries of seagulls—and the notable lack of rats—I could have closed my eyes and been on the Lower East Side.) Highly recommended: Fore Street. (Says the Atlantic, Fore Street "has much to do with Portland's, and Maine's, current status as the happening New England place to open a restaurant or start an artisan food business—a veritable Bay Area of the East.") Also very tasty: brand-new bistro 555.
3) And yet: hanging out in the town of Scarborough, onetime headquarters of fruit drink artisans Fresh Samantha, I could see first-hand that the feared Odwalla conspiracy is complete. Fresh Samantha is no more, "phased out" as part of a "delicious convergence" in the past two months by Odwalla, the far less tasty carpetbagger from the West Coast (all now under the control—no surprise here—of Coca-Cola). Just an absolute tragedy.
4) Biggest local headline: Poland Spring Makes Deal on Lawsuit (a timely follow-up to this item)
5) On the good news front, the Red Sox went 5-2 in games I listened to on the WEEI Red Sox Radio Network. Folks, this train is bound for glory.
6) Two weeks with no access to email or the world-wide web is a healthy thing. Now, we're giddy to be back in the Big City as the fall kicks off. Here's to another spate of epic times.