Iris Apfel Channels Ezra Miller + A First Look at Target and Neiman Marcus's Holiday Collection in Today's Style Scraps

October 17, 2012, 10:50 am

Good Morning America got the first look at the Target + Neiman Marcus Holiday Collection! We. Want. Everything. [via Good Morning America]

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Michelle Obama and Ann Romney both wore fuchsia outfits to the debates last night, making outfit comparisons inevitable. Who do you think wore it better? [via The Cut]

Iris Apfel on the new cover of Dazed & Confused is giving us some serious Ezra Miller in Comme des Garçons, no? [via Advanced Style]

Here's Brad Pitt's next commercial for Chanel No. 5, this time with more undulating Manhattan penthouse. [via Styleite]

Occasional New York Times illustrator Hannah K. Lee illustrates a thought process we've been through one too many times... [via It's Nice That]

...and speaking of shoes we'd miss a bill for, check out these "wooden" Missoni suede calfskin pumps. [via High Snobette]

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Acne Paper's new "Manhattan Issue" will feature portraits by Brigitte Lacombe of Fran Lebowitz, Martin Scorcese, Jeff Koons, Salman Rushdie, Lena Dunham and more. [via Selectism]

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Independence Day

October 17, 2012, 12:00 pm

≫ Next: Writer Andy Greenberg Takes Us Into the Hidden World of "Wikileakers, Cypherpunks and Hacktivists" In New Book

≪ Previous: Iris Apfel Channels Ezra Miller + A First Look at Target and Neiman Marcus's Holiday Collection in Today's Style Scraps

Actor Satya Bhabha was pretty much born to play the lead role in Midnight's Children. The film, directed by Deepa Mehta, is an adaption of Salman Rushdie's seminal novel chronicling India's history through an allegory of supernaturally gifted children whose births (and powers) coincide with the country's independence from Britain in 1947. "My father's actually a theorist and lecturer on post-colonial India," Bhabha says of his dad, noted scholar Homi Bhabha. "It was a very important book in our house. I mean, I first read it when I was 10."

But that didn't make the prospect of a London-born, Chicago-bred actor portraying the telepathic Saleem -- an Indian literary icon of Huck Finn-meets-Luke Skywalker proportions -- any less daunting. In fact, Bhabha says when Mehta surprised him with the news that he'd gotten the part in front of an audience at a Q&A session he was attending with her in New York, "I couldn't figure out whether I wanted to hide under my seat or stand up and cheer." For the role, Bhabha did a bit of both, figuratively speaking, spending months in India but also embracing his own expat roots. "Becoming this quintessentially Indian character was incredibly intimidating, but I realized Saleem's sort of this outsider, too."

Since moving to L.A. two years ago, Bhabha (whose first big role was in Edgar Wright's 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) has found his adopted city to be rife with its own sunshine-y kind of a magic-realism. Which explains how the actor spent his first fall as an Angeleno touring with his friends from the cosmic-folk band He's My Brother, She's My Sister. "I told them if they ever wanted cello on a track to let me know," he says. They did -- and he wound up joining the band for a tour with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. "That's the kind of spontaneity that L.A. allows, which you don't find anywhere else," he says. Next, Bhabha's directing a short film from a feature script he's developing about two friends coping with the impending death of an aging Hollywood star, which coincidentally takes place on the eve of a meteor shower. Rushdie would be proud.

★ Midnight's Children is in theaters November 2nd. ★

Grooming: Georgie Eisdell at the Wall Group / Location: Tomato Pie Pizza Joint, Los Angeles

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Writer Andy Greenberg Takes Us Into the Hidden World of "Wikileakers, Cypherpunks and Hacktivists" In New Book

October 17, 2012, 12:45 pm

≫ Next: Paddle8 + Tumblr Bring GIFs to Art Basel Miami

≪ Previous: Independence Day

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Forbes reporter Andy Greenberg went looking for a story and nailed it. This Machine Kills Secrets: How Wikileakers, Cypherpunks and Hacktivists Aim to Free the World's Information is a globe trotting exploration into the heart of the contentious world of brilliant, eccentric and erratic game changers who have taken the tools at hand and turned them into powerful weapons that can -- and have in some cases -- altered the course of history. Julian Assange, Anonymous, Blacknet, Cryptome.org, Openwatch, Lulzsec are just some of the players in this book, essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the thinking of some of the most important (and least known) people making news today. We talked with the author about his new book, his thoughts on Julian Assange and why he thinks Wikileaks has done more good than harm.

David Hershkovits: How prevalent is hacking, and how much more can we expect in the coming years as young people become more proficient and conversant with coding?

Andy Greenberg: Well, I think we've already seen this enormous explosion in hacking as a subculture that started out as this Illuminati thing where just a few guys had the elite skills. Hackers called each other 'leet' and the whole idea of it was to be elite. And I feel that hacking has become something else -- there is so much that hackers can do that doesn't require elite skills anymore. You see this in Anonymous. I would say that most hackers in Anonymous, the biggest hacking group or movement that exists today, don't have really special skills. So I do think that hacking has become popularized or democratized.

DH: Yeah, almost mainstreamed. That's part of what appealed to me about your book because I'm always fascinated by subcultures that cross over, where you can identify and find the originators and watch what happens.

AG: I think this is really something different though, than just hacking. Hacking is not new. We've seen these huge dumps of secrets from companies that have been happening since the nineties. This is more the fruition of the cypherpunk movement, which I think is different than just hackers. That's why in the subtitle I try to separate them out, the hacktivists or hackers with politics, and then the cypherpunks, who are not just trying to break things, or steal information. They are trying to build systems with cryptography that are like automated systems for dumping information. Jim Bell, the Assassination Politics guy talked
about using cryptography to build a system that would actually kill people, but he wasn't a hacker. He didn't even want to steal information or break systems, he really wanted to build a system, like a new institution, that would take down the government and replace it with this other system of justice he envisioned. As crazy as that was.

DH: Where does Julian Assange [of Wikileaks] fit in?

AG: I think that Assange definitely believed in creating a system to get the information out. He started out as a archetypal hacker, an explorer on the Internet by himself, exploring the halls of the Pentagon's secret servers. But at some point he seems to become interested in building things instead. That's the progression that you see from hackers to cypherpunks to Wikileaks and beyond. Eventually he builds this crypto system called Rubberhose, and then he has this insight about Wikileaks: He's going to stop stealing information like he did as a teenager, and instead just build a system that will do it for him. This turned out to be so much more effective than anyone even imagined. Wikileaks is the transition between hackers who steal things and hackers who build these systems, and OpenLeaks wanted to be the next step. Guys like Daniel Domscheit-Berg and the Architect [two engineers who left WikiLeaks to create OpenLeaks] thought Assange was just hacking things together and just kind of building this sloppy, informal system. It happened to be incredibly effective but they wanted to build something that's so much more polished.

DH: Assange became a star of the movement. Has this created friction with the others?.

AG: Assange says he wants to make himself a lightning rod for the organization, and that he makes a public persona just to take the heat off of everyone else, but it's become clear at this point that his own personal story is much more important to him than the story of Wikileaks.

DH: The New York Times, for example, celebrates the whistleblower but they're on a campaign against Assange. Is there a difference?

AG: I think what Assange did was somewhat with good intentions, but it's been tainted in so many ways. I absolutely believe he has some of the same motivations as a whistleblower, but I think he also has the motivations of a prankster, or a hacker who wants to upset the system as a whole. He wants to shake things up and tear things down, the corrupt world as he sees it. I think he's always seen himself as an underdog fighting this enormous, corrupt machine, and that has led him to a paranoid, permanent struggle against "The Man." Assange was always looking for the biggest battle he could find, not necessarily the cleanest one, but the one that would be the messiest, and the biggest, and that would cause the biggest splash. And you could see in Wikileaks's history, he just kept seeking out a bigger foe to take on. Until, you know...

DH: He tried to take on practically every government in the world.

AG: In the initial Wikileaks mission statement, he talked about taking on Middle Eastern and Asian corrupt governments. But I think at some point Assange got bored of that. He did expose wrong-doing by those governments but that wasn't enough for him. He wanted to take on bigger and bigger targets, until the morality of what he was doing became messier and messier.

DH: In his defense, people say that the information released has not lead to any deaths or disasters other than just to create a lot of stories in the media. Nothing's really changed.

AG: I agree with that, and I think that was true until Wikileaks accidently leaked the unredacted State Department Cablegate database last year. And at that point it becomes much tougher to know what happened as a result of that. I mean, there was definitely journalists and people in sensitive situations who had to be located, or feared for their lives, or were harassed. I'm not sure there were any deaths as a result, but I'm not sure that's the bar we want. Don't get me wrong, I believe that Wikileaks has done more good than harm, and I guess that's a hard thing to say these days, since they've released so much, but they helped to cause the revolution in Tunisia and they did help to end the war in Iraq. [They] helped to create a new political system in Iceland [and] they helped to change the swing of a Kenyan election. Those things are incredibly important.

DH: When Assange recently made a statement from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he has sought refuge, were you surprised that he included the release of [American imprisoned for leaking military secrets] Bradley Manning as one of his demands.

AG: Oh, I think that's the bare minimum of what Wikileaks could be doing for Bradley Manning right now. His supporters would probably say he is not stealing the spotlight, but it's probably taking his creative skill to make sure he is in the headlines again and again. This struggle to keep Assange out of prison has completely obscured the fact that Manning is in prison and that his defense is not even really trying to fight the charges that he has released information. He doesn't have great prospects of a free future. It's true that it's complicated for Assange to mention Manning when he ought not to be implicating Manning as the source, but I do think that Manning deserves attention. And just to mention -- Wikileaks has never, in fact, donated the amount of money that it promised to Manning's defense.

DH: Do you think government attempts to clamp down on the Internet will ever work? And will there always be hackers, no matter what they tried?

AG: When the political institutions of the world decided Wikileaks was a threat, you just saw all of the machines of power got into gear and shut Wikileaks down. Wikileaks funding was cut off. PayPal, Bank of America, Visa, MasterCard all cut off Wikileaks funding. Amazon kicked them off their servers. That was a sad lesson of Wikileaks. It turns out governments do have the power. Extra legally they can just ask Amazon to take down your site, and Amazon will do it, which is a disturbing thing. I think Wikileaks could rise again, or another group like it, but it turned out to be harder to build something subversive on the Internet than I think a lot of people thought.

DH: Well there's no laws in place to protect us.

AG: Right. There is no free speech law that can prevent Amazon from saying actually we'd rather not host you, you violate our terms of service, get out.

DH: Twitter and Google, for example, regularly get subpoenas to turn over information.

AG: Right, exactly, and that's an enormous issue. You can see there are these forces of crypto-anarchy that are still really powerful and in many ways, more powerful than ever. But at the same time we also see governments flexing their muscles and fighting the forces of the internet and manhandling web companies. I mean, there's definitely a conflict brewing right now.

This Machine Kills Secrets: How Wikileakers, Cypherpunks and Hacktivists Aim to Free the World's Information is out now.

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Paddle8 + Tumblr Bring GIFs to Art Basel Miami

October 17, 2012, 1:15 pm

≫ Next: Jay-Z's Surprisingly Un-Biased Barclays Center Video

≪ Previous: Writer Andy Greenberg Takes Us Into the Hidden World of "Wikileakers, Cypherpunks and Hacktivists" In New Book

GIFs -- Graphic Interchange Format -- have been around since the late 80s, but they've now really exploded in popular culture, mass media and now even in the fine arts. (Don't forget about our weekly GIF roundup by Buzzfeed's Mike Hayes, either!) The first GIF appeared on the New York Times homepage in August (see it here) and yesterday, we noticed they had yet another GIF on their homepage of a train -- and they posted another one today. CBS just announced that they are developing a new sitcom based on a blog. Nothing new, except that the blog, "Hollywood Assistants," is a 'What Should We Call It' site. (What's next, 'What Should We Call Cats,' the hour-long AMC drama?) Finally, we just received word that Tumblr and online auction house Paddle8 announced an open call for GIFs and an exhibition, "Moving the Still," that we're guessing will be one of the highlights at this year's Art Basel Miami Beach in December. Anyone can submit a GIF here before November 7 and a group including Michael Stipe, Rodarte, Performa's RoseLee Goldberg, James Frey and others will pick the best to be shown in Miami. Check out some of their GIFS below:

Michael Stipe

Richard Phillips

RoseLee Goldberg

Johnny Misheff

Nicola Formichetti

Rodarte

Adam Dugas

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Jay-Z's Surprisingly Un-Biased Barclays Center Video

October 17, 2012, 2:30 pm

≫ Next: You Should Check This Out: Nick Catchdubs's "Crystal Park" Mixtape

≪ Previous: Paddle8 + Tumblr Bring GIFs to Art Basel Miami

"Down by the Yards" is the first episode of Road to Brooklyn, a new web series created for Jay-Z's YouTube channel. Directed by Paper Beautiful Person Danny Lee for Jay's Life + Times website, the clip takes a surprisingly un-biased look at the painful birth of Barclays Center -- the Brooklyn arena that's partly owned by the rap superstar. Lots of locals have their say, and it's not all a pat-on-the-back. Even PAPER's David Hershkovits -- born and raised in Brooklyn, yo -- puts in his 2-cents. Check it out.

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You Should Check This Out: Nick Catchdubs's "Crystal Park" Mixtape

October 17, 2012, 3:00 pm

≫ Next: Questlove Will Teach at NYU + Forbes Reveals Highest-Paid TV Actor = Eight Items Or Less

≪ Previous: Jay-Z's Surprisingly Un-Biased Barclays Center Video

Welcome to You Should Check This Out, a new weekly blog in which Chris Black of Words For Young Men and Done to Death Projects tells you about something he really likes and that he thinks you'll like too. Follow him on Twitter at @donetodeath.

Nick Catchdubs (aka Catchdini) is a New York based DJ and co-owner of Fool's Gold Records. He released a new mix yesterday called "Crystal Park" that you should download now to get the weekend vibes started just a little early. It features "robo R&B, slow bass, psych breaks, turnt up ballads (dare I say 'tender trap'?!?) and other funky joints..." Standouts include Diplo featuring Jahan Lennon, Tame Impala, Flosstradamus, Phantogram, Kilo Kish and XXYYXX. Stream and download the mixtape below.

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Questlove Will Teach at NYU + Forbes Reveals Highest-Paid TV Actor = Eight Items Or Less

October 17, 2012, 4:15 pm

≫ Next: The Morning Funnies: Lady Gaga May Star in Zoolander Sequel + The Pajancho

≪ Previous: You Should Check This Out: Nick Catchdubs's "Crystal Park" Mixtape

1. Forbes lists Ashton Kutcher as this year's highest-paid TV actor. Kelso's moving on up!

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2. Read a fascinating (and mildly disgusting) review of "cat poop coffee" over at NPR.

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3. The Village Voice came out with their "Best Of" list today and category highlights include "Best Humorous Asian Rap Group" (Notorious MSG), "Best Nice Drag Queen" (Dwayne Milan) and "Best Traffic Reporter" (Jamie Shupak, but of course).

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4. Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel are maybe/probably getting married in Italy this weekend. [via HuffPo]

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5. Wow. Read about Richard Lee Norris's amazing face transplant surgery. [The Daily Mail via Buzzfeed]

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6. Questlove is teaching a class at NYU next spring? QUESTLOVE IS TEACHING A CLASS AT NYU NEXT SPRING! It'll be called "Classic Albums." Nice. [via Vulture]

7. Watch Bon Iver's bizarre new video for "Beth/Rest" featuring ritualistic wearing of onesies. [via Pretty Much Amazing]

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The Morning Funnies: Lady Gaga May Star in Zoolander Sequel + The Pajancho

October 18, 2012, 7:35 am

≫ Next: Death Grips' "True Vulture" Is Our Music Video of the Day

≪ Previous: Questlove Will Teach at NYU + Forbes Reveals Highest-Paid TV Actor = Eight Items Or Less

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Really, really, ridiculously good news: Lady Gaga is in the running for a big part in Zoolander 2!! Apparently, she's being offered $4.8 million to play Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) and Hansel (Owen Wilson)'s shared former love interest. [via The Sun]

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Wyclef Jean, naturally, spent his 43rd birthday posing in a speedo on his Ducati motorcycle. [via BuzzFeed]

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Boo! Miley Cyrus isn't wearing any pants! [via Us Weekly]

After keeping mum about her newborn daughter's name for a few months, Uma Thurman revealed that she named her after a Fiona Apple album. Just kidding! But in all seriousness, the name is very long. It's: Rosalind Arusha Arkadina Altalune Florence Thurman-Busson. [via Vulture]

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Apparently, 50 Cent is a multi-tasker. [via Twitter]

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Coming soon to a HMV near you! [via The Ring Trick]

The Slanket is so 2000-and-late. Meet the Pajancho. [via Jezebel]

Slow and steady wins the dog on a large tortoise race. [via Foodtrucker]

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Our new favorite single-purpose Tumblr: Dancing Alone to Pony, "dedicated to the solitary soldiers keeping the grind alive." In other words, it's a whole bunch of depressing yet awesome videos of people dancing alone to Ginuwine's 1996 classic jam, "Pony." [via Boing Boing]

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Marilyn Monroe and some pumpkins. [via Graves and Ghouls]

We had to break Paper editor in chief David Hershkovits' no-more-cats-on-Papermag.com-rule just this one time. Sorry!! [via Not Kaela]

Hairs 'n chairs. [via Bogwarm]

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We both want and don't want this elephant massage. [via Lost at E Minor]

Own it. [via Pony Camp]

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Death Grips' "True Vulture" Is Our Music Video of the Day

October 18, 2012, 9:30 am

≫ Next: Artist Rachel Libeskind Shocks and Awes

≪ Previous: The Morning Funnies: Lady Gaga May Star in Zoolander Sequel + The Pajancho

We're still wondering whether Death Grips really "leaked" their new album to annoy their record label or whether it was just a PR stunt, and apparently we're not the only ones who are suspicious. Regardless, the California art-rappers have hooked up Jeffrey Deitch's MOCAtv YouTube channel and released this clever, animated clip for "True Vulture." It's a collab with Galen Pehrson -- he's the artist/animator that was included in the James Franco-curated REBEL exhibit for MOCA earlier this year -- and includes some voiceover by Jena Malone. Our crystal ball foresees DG playing in Miami during Art Basel. Any bets?

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Artist Rachel Libeskind Shocks and Awes

October 18, 2012, 10:30 am

≫ Next: Victoria and Karl Pose for Elle France + A Bangs-Only Salon in Today's Style Scraps

≪ Previous: Death Grips' "True Vulture" Is Our Music Video of the Day

While you may not have heard of Rachel Libeskind, you most likely know her father, Daniel Libeskind, the architect behind the ever-rising Ground Zero site downtown. But Rachel, an ambitious, intense and feisty artist, is embarking on a career that looks like she'll be known in her own right. At her way-downtown studio near Trinity Church, where, incidentally, her father has a studio as well, we recently found her eyeball-deep in collage material, books, magazines, reclaimed junk and paint. She is excited.

"I like to think that my process is just experimentation," she says. "That's my favorite thing about art, is experimenting. It's like an adventure every day when you've decided to do something new, and like 99 percent of the time you fail but one percent of the time you make something really great."

Libeskind is a multimedia artist, who works on canvas and paper, as well as wood, found objects, moss, toothpaste and photos, all of which take up large amounts of space in her sun-filled workshop. She begins telling me right away about some of her artistic breakthroughs -- a recent skiing accident in Switzerland that badly injured her right arm and left her howling in a huge expanse of snow to ponder her life's purpose, and her undergraduate thesis from Harvard (she graduated last year), which was a series of paintings made with toothpaste on a scanner.

Already Libeskind has a lot of projects on the horizon and under her belt. In the spring, she exhibited at the young Chelsea post-postmodern gallery Hansel and Gretel Picture Garden, and she was a part of a group show in East London in May. From October 15 to 21, her works will be in Paris at a salon at Galerie Zürcher as a part of a program that introduces emerging New York artists to Paris and vice versa. She's also gearing up for a residency at the esteemed Watermill Center on Long Island, where she, along with Hansel and Gretel Picture Garden and the Street Corner Society, will produce a haunted hayride experience called NightScapes. It's an adaptation of Elie Wiesel's Night, in which the artists subject the audience to discourse between the American fall horror tradition and the Holocaust. It also involves pagan rites, satanic rituals, the rural landscape and bones.

"The idea is actually pretty radical," she says. The open house on November 11th, as well as an event on Halloween, will most likely not be for the faint of heart.

But then, none of Libeskind's work is. It is bold, daring, often explicit, challenging and controversial. She has a whole body of work exploring the topic of Christ's foreskin. In college, she produced an unconventional version of Hamlet that elicited boos from the audience for its irreverence. And then there's the Holocaust hayride... She certainly doesn't shy from conflict, but at the same time, her attitude is not at all contentious. Libeskind has a lot of loves. She loves the scanner. She loves Gerhard Richter. She loves America. She loves Europe.

"I love the world. I'm a world-loving person," she says.

Ideas are "super fascinating" or "very cool." She responds to the world like an eager student: with a highly curious and intellectual approach, and even humor, especially on her favorite topic, with which she is veritably obsessed: religion, perhaps the thorniest topic of them all.

Libeskind, who is Jewish, grew up in Berlin, until she moved to New York just before high school, when she started at St. Ann's, the elite Brooklyn private school for freedom-loving, arty academics. In Berlin, her father was working on the provocative Jewish Museum Berlin. Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors. These things alone are reason enough to understand her fascination with the Jewish experience, but then, she is just as enamored with Christian iconography -- not just Christ's foreskin but also medieval crosses and Catholic symbology. Right now, though, she's focusing on a "Jewish project." She recently came across a family tree that includes 33 rabbis and had an awakening to her rabbinical family history. She points to some sketches on the wall, the beginning of what will be 33 portraits of them all. If it works out, she hopes to exhibit it in the spring.

Other favored topics include technology, historical pop culture, Americana, sex, gender, race. But it's all ultimately about Libeskind herself. It's what she's intensely interested in, what she devotes tons of time to researching. Her studio includes shelves of books on these topics, a mini library. She collects junk upstate and makes it into mobiles or reformed totem poles. It is piled neatly around her studio. But more than anything, she is a "digital hoarder."

"My Internet footprint is probably a super dirty footprint," she laughs. "I just scour the Internet, just on blogs on like...breast implants or something bizarre like that. I have no fear. I love the Internet for that reason." She collects more than a thousand images online a month -- lots of nudes, lots of Nazis, but plenty of other stuff too -- and some will become pieces of a narrative in her artwork.

Libeskind likes to "maintain a healthy distance from the quote unquote art world." She doesn't want to be classified or reduced. Her work has been referred to as post-postmodern, the definition of which may imply a shift away from irony in art, but she shies at any sort of label like that.

"I'm a little more fluid. I think a lot of people look at my work and think, 'S&M and Bugs Bunny--are you being ironic?' And I'm like, 'Sure, if you want me to be.'" She smiles and shrugs. "The meaning is in the eye of the beholder, not in my brain."

Rachel Libeskind's NightScapes can be viewed at the Watermill Center on November 11. She also is part of an exhibition at Gallery Zürcher, Paris, from October 15 to 21.

Portraits of the artist by Lana Barkin. Artwork images courtesy of the artist.

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Victoria and Karl Pose for Elle France + A Bangs-Only Salon in Today's Style Scraps

October 18, 2012, 10:45 am

≫ Next: Cocktail of the Week: The Baked Apple at The Pines

≪ Previous: Artist Rachel Libeskind Shocks and Awes

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Kristina O'Neill, formerly the executive editor of Harper's Bazaar will take over Deborah Needleman's post as Editor-in-Chief of WSJ. Magazine (following Needleman's departure to T), and allegedly beat out Elle's Anne Slowey and Kate Lanphear and Glamour's Anne Christensen for the job. [WWD via Fashionista]

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Alessandra Ambrosio is the latest model chosen to wear Victoria's Secret "Fantasy Bra" in their upcoming fashion show and...it costs a whopping $2.5 million. Jeezus. [via Grazia]

For maybe, like, the first-time ever, Anna Wintour was denied front-row seats: she had to sit in the bleachers with all of the other plebs (just kidding, actually VIP dignitaries) during the recent presidential debate at Hofstra on Tuesday. [via NY Post]

Victoria Beckham tweeted a photo from her Elle France cover shoot with Karl Lagerfeld. [via Fashionista]

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If you wanna be the coolest girl at the party, this smartphone-printed caftan dress by Andrea Crews might be a good way to start. [via High Snobette]

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Apparently people in Milan are getting very sad and sentimental about the closing of a McDonald's that will make way for a Prada store (located, it should be noted, across the street from another Prada store). The Guardian wrote:

Memories from fans scrolled across a panel outside: "I'll miss you," said one, recalling trips there as a child. On the McDonald's Italia Facebook page, dozens of comments recalled shared laughs, first kisses and regret at the closure.

Sad clown.

There's now a salon in L.A. devoted entirely to trimming your bangs. What will those krazy kats in la-la-land come up with next? [via The Cut]

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If you're wondering what to buy that sk8er boi in your life this holiday season, check out Rob Dyrdek's collab with DC. [via press release]

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Cocktail of the Week: The Baked Apple at The Pines

October 18, 2012, 11:30 am

≫ Next: Art Basel Miami: Things To Look Out For, Part 2

≪ Previous: Victoria and Karl Pose for Elle France + A Bangs-Only Salon in Today's Style Scraps

All the inspiration John Poiarkoff needed to create a fresh autumnal cocktail were the honeycrisp apples staring back at him in his walk-in cooler. "Apples are amazing right now," says the sous chef at Gowanus newcomer The Pines. It turns out lending the sweet-tart fruit a savory bent elicits an even more sublime result in cocktail form. For the Baked Apple, Poiarkoff pairs apple juice with Elijah Craig 12-year-old bourbon, a hint of Laphroaig Scotch "to bring out the smokiness" and maple bitters. For an added richness, Poiarkoff, demonstrating his culinary prowess, melds classic fall spices including sage, lemon thyme, orange peel, cinnamon, clove and allspice. Before bartenders pour the apple-whiskey mélange, they smoke an oversized wine glass (perfect for those ensuing heady aromas) -- they'll even do it tableside for those diners tearing into, say, oxtail cappellacci -- to serve Poiarkoff's mixture in for a theatrical and flavorful flourish.

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Art Basel Miami: Things To Look Out For, Part 2

October 18, 2012, 12:50 pm

≫ Next: Diamond Rings: Viva La Evolution

≪ Previous: Cocktail of the Week: The Baked Apple at The Pines

Welcome to the second edition of our all-inclusive list of what's happening down in Miami during Art Basel.

Did you book your plane and hotel? Better get moving, as rooms are going fast. We just checked the high and low end for rooms and discovered that 8-bed coed dorm rooms are still available on December 5th at the new Roman & Williams-designed Freehand Hotel (pictured above, 2727 Indian Creek Drive, Miami Beach) for $43 a night per bed; or why not book an oceanfront suite at the St. Regis (9703 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach) for $3,204 a night, also available on the 5th. No big deal.

Can you handle one more fair between December 5th and 9th? Fifty galleries are expected to participate in a fair called Untitled that's being curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud for Florida company Art Fairs Unlimited. Supposedly it's "invite only" and will be set up in a tent on the beach designed by former Miami Art Museum director Terence Riley. The new fair has already stirred-up some controversy with the already established NADA fair. The Art Newspaper claims that NADA is pressuring their exhibitors to not show at Untitled.

Art Miami returns to the Wynwood Arts District for the 23rd edition of their annual fair, running from December 4th to 9th. This year they're expecting over 125 galleries to participate and, for the first time, they've added a new "fair-within-a-fair" with an additional 65 galleries housed in a special area called CONTEXT (). They are bringing in four, six-ton walls that feature works by UK artist Banksy and, though they aren't for sale, they offer a good opportunity to see the artist's work in a unique environment.

Christie's will host their 3rd annual exhibition during Basel/Miami with highlights from their London auction, "The Art of the Surreal." It will be up from December 5 to 7, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, at the JW Marriott Marquis (345 Avenue of the Americas, Miami). It's free and open to the public.

Ron English at the Wynwood Walls. Photo via SuperRadNow.

Miami's Wynwood Arts District is the sixth "Most Stylish Neighborhood" in the world, according to Complex magazine. And it's #19 on this year's Forbes magazine list of "America's Hippest Hipster Neighborhoods." See you at the Wynwood Walls artists murals in the neighborhood's warehouse district.

Chromatics. Photo via The Phoenix.

Chromatics are playing a special Art Basel concert presented by Miami's premiere indie record store, Sweat Records on December 7. The Portland, Oregon, band just performed in Paris at the Chanel Spring/Summer 2013 fashion show. You can see that epic show HERE. Prince Rama is opening and the show starts at 8 p.m. in downtown Miami's Gusman Center (174 E. Flagler St., Miami). Tickets are HERE.

Ballroom Marfa -- the Texas non-profit arts and culture organization -- hosts an "invite only" VIP beach party in the cabanas at the new SLS Hotel South Beach (1701 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach) on Wednesday, December 5.

For more, check out Part 1 of our ongoing Art Basel Miami guide here.

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Diamond Rings: Viva La Evolution

October 18, 2012, 11:09 am

≫ Next: Take a Trip to Slinkachu's Global Model Village

≪ Previous: Art Basel Miami: Things To Look Out For, Part 2

In Diamond Rings' 2009 music video for "All Yr Songs," the new-wave pop singer (aka John O'Regan) poses for a photograph in a variety of guises -- from macho jock to bookish student to glam androgyne. The short clip tells a bigger story. After growing up outside of Toronto playing sports, O'Regan got into music while in college, fronting post-punk band, The D'Urbervilles. Next, the singer cast off the vintage T-shirts and re-emerged as Diamond Rings in shiny spandex and striking eye makeup. Now, as he prepares for the release of his sophomore album, Free Dimensional, out October 22, we check in to hear more about the record and to see where he's at on his evolutionary path.

What can you share about your forthcoming album?

The first album was about wanting to be noticed and to be seen and heard and I think, in large part, the new batch of songs is in some ways about trying to navigate this new world that I'm finding myself in. It's a really exciting place but a new place.

How would you describe your music?

If people ask, "If you had to tell your grandmother what kind of music you played," I'd say what I do is pop but [ultimately] I'm making songs because I'm trying to connect people [together]. It's weird to throw some sort of marketing [talk] on top of that like, "If this singer had a baby and that baby's nanny was this other singer, then it'd be that." If I think too much about what I do, it loses some of the realness or the magic for me so I always want to be at a distance.

You mentioned one of the biggest differences between this album and your first one had to do with your sense of confidence. Did that translate at all into your new look?

It was definitely a bit of both. As an artist and as a performer, I'm always growing and evolving and a big part of what I do is check in with myself regularly and to make sure that what I'm doing and presenting is what I want to do. Early on, I was trying a lot of stuff out and having fun with the idea that I could do whatever I want. It was like, "I'm going to wear that and that and that at the same time because I'm on the stage and I can!" That was a great experience for me but sometimes just because you can, doesn't mean you should or that you should forever. I think so much of the last album had this real vibrant energy to what I was doing and so it was all about rainbow and colors and this one is very much about stripping that back to light and dark -- light and shadow. It's more about form rather than color and more minimalist. There's a lot of strength in that. It's like the white light before it passes through the prism and refracts and it's a more elemental and essential look. To me right now that feels very powerful.

Tell me about your background and how you got started making music.

I grew up in a factory town/suburb about an hour east of Toronto called Oshua. I grew up playing sports -- basketball, hockey -- but concurrent with that, I had a strong passion for the arts -- drawing, painting, visual studies. I didn't get into music until I went away to art school and started going to shows and started teaching myself how to play guitar. Around that point, I was playing varsity sports but my heart wasn't into it. I wanted to be going out to shows and playing shows and being in bands so I quit and threw myself into music. When I finished school, I moved [to Toronto] with the intention of trying to find my way as a musician and as an artist and straight away got really sick and got diagnosed with Crohn's disease. I spent my first summer in the city in a hospital. At the time, it was a really big set-back but it gave me the luxury of having the time to be with myself and my own thoughts and write some songs and really think about what it was that I wanted to do.

I was playing with other bands at the time and had done a few performance pieces in school, which in hindsight were more [like] Diamond Rings -- more campy, theatrical, over-the-top, incorporating sound with visual aesthetics and art. When I was playing in bands, it was very much part of this prevailing indie rock mentality of the time -- very anti-image, anti-press shoot, anti-video but I personally had a lot of fun with that.

When did you first decide you would rather do something different than indie rock?

Right away -- right from the first show. The first time I stepped onstage with eye shadow on, it was like, "Yes. This is it." Since then, I haven't looked back. It's grown and it's evolved and I don't mean to say that I'll always be prancing around in makeup and tights forever but it just feels right.

How much of your life is spent as the persona 'Diamond Rings' versus John O'Regan?

I'm definitely the type of performer that more often than not is in between those things. I certainly don't pretend and would feel weird being 'Diamond Rings' all the time. There's something special about doing what I do for a live audience onstage and preserving some sort of degree of theatricality of it. There's also times to be real and hang out with your friends. I go to the coffee shop and some days, depending on what time it is, I'm in my track pants. I'm fortunate that I live in a part of Toronto where you don't have to get dressed up like you're heading down the runway to get groceries. For me, having that kind of separation is important -- I'm not out to totally freak people out and put them off. There are other artists out there who do that already.

Do you consider yourself a queer artist?

Yeah, I very much identify as something in between. The idea of performing a gender or allowing myself to experience something different or outside of myself, that's what I'm interested in. I think there's a tendency for a lot of people to draw parallels between my own sexuality based on how I perform gender as a performer. I don't really identify as one or the other with that sort of [sexuality] binary -- I've always felt more in between and whether that's gender queer or queer, even those labels feel a bit stifling. If I could just exist in this liminal place that's between all things, that's where I feel most comfortable a lot of the time. To say I'm gay would feel just as weird as saying I'm straight. It just is what it is.

And speaking of another identity, you've mentioned how Toronto and Canada have inspired you as a musician. Can you talk more about that?

What excites me is that for the first time ever, you can be from Toronto or Canada and not have that be held against you or even be a talking point. For a long time, Canadian music was trying to hide in the corner or it was trying to ape what was going on in the States 2-3 years earlier but now it feels like a really exciting time in music [in Toronto]. On the Top 40/pop end, there are people like Drake and Deadmau5 who are everywhere and then hardcore groups like Fucked Up who are doing awesome stuff and also people like Grimes and Austra, who are all Canadian. For whatever reason, there's a real energy and excitement in my city and I'm happy to be a part of it.

Photo by Norman Wong

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Take a Trip to Slinkachu's Global Model Village

October 18, 2012, 1:30 pm

≫ Next: Diamond Rings: Viva La Evolution

≪ Previous: Diamond Rings: Viva La Evolution

The brilliant London street artist/photographer Slinkachu has been crafting tiny tableaus since 2006. He creates the works using miniature people and props, and then places them in public places -- all documented with his own photos. He also edits a cool art blog called "Beautiful Vandalism." Several books of the artist's works are available including the newest, Global Model Village, released in September by Blue Rider Press. Slinkachu's current show at London Andipa Gallery (162 Walton Street, London) is up until October 27, but if you can't make over there, check out the shots below.

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Diamond Rings: Viva La Evolution

October 18, 2012, 2:30 pm

≫ Next: Andy Samberg to Star in a Fox Cop Comedy + Richard Prince's AZ Iced Tea = 8 Items or Less

≪ Previous: Take a Trip to Slinkachu's Global Model Village

Photo by Norman Wong

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Andy Samberg to Star in a Fox Cop Comedy + Richard Prince's AZ Iced Tea = 8 Items or Less

October 18, 2012, 4:40 pm

≫ Next: Book It: Images From Kent Rogowski's New Show, I Can't Stop Thinking About Yesterday

≪ Previous: Diamond Rings: Viva La Evolution

1) Prince Harry: 1. Prince William: 0. At Frieze Art Fair last Friday, a British arts collective by the name of Grizedale Arts hosted a gingers-only dinner for visiting curators and artists as a strange way to honor a group oft-teased for their hair color (particularly, it should be noted, by the Brits). [via Gallerist]

2) Andy Samberg will star in a new single-camera cop comedy from the creators of Parks and Recreation for FOX. He stars as a top NYPD detective. Go, Samby! [Flavorwire]

3) The Claire Danes Cry Face Supercut is everything. [Jezebel]

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4) 2012 Beautiful People Caveman is playing the By Robert James CMJ showcase at the Wooly tomorrow Friday, 10/19, 8pm-2am. RSVP info@byrobertjames.com

5) The new Ghostbuster's movie (WITHOUT BILL MURRAY, SO WHAT IS THE POINT) stars filming this summer. [Vulture]

6) Oh dear. A Connecticut woman unwittingly picked some toxic mushrooms form her backyard, cooked them for dinner, served them for her family and put all of them in the hospital. [Gothamist]

7) Wut: Artist Richard Prince has joined forces with Arizona Iced Tea for a new drink called Lemon Fizz. It debuts at Art Basel Miami. [Gallerist]

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8) The Google doodle today is the best. It's in honor of the 161st anniversary of Herman Melville's Moby Dick. [CSMonitor]

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Book It: Images From Kent Rogowski's New Show, I Can't Stop Thinking About Yesterday

October 19, 2012, 5:58 am

≫ Next: Morning Funnies: Matthew Fox's Mitt Romney Biopic + 'F*ck! I'm In the Twenties'

≪ Previous: Andy Samberg to Star in a Fox Cop Comedy + Richard Prince's AZ Iced Tea = 8 Items or Less

Brooklyn-based artist Kent Rogowski, known for creating playful pieces from everyday objects (such as his series of cut open and disfigured teddy bears) has a new show at the Jen Bekman Gallery entitled I Can't Stop Thinking About Yesterday featuring striking arrangements of self-help books that, when placed together, puzzle-like, create new meanings. "Everything that I wish I could be is an exploration of language, emotions and the desire to change and improve one's self. There is a self-help book for almost every moment and problem in life...the titles create larger narratives, which become portraits of emotions, people and events in life," Rogowski explains in his artist statement. Take a look at preview images from the exhibit below.

I Can't Stop Thinking About Yesterday opens today. Screen shot 2012-10-19 at 8.56.26 AM.png

There is a Rainbow

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Contents

Screen shot 2012-10-19 at 8.56.49 AM.png

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

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Beginnings Without End

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One Day (detail 1)

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There is a Rainbow (detail two)

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There is a Rainbow (detail one)

Photos Courtesy of Jen Bekman Gallery

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Morning Funnies: Matthew Fox's Mitt Romney Biopic + 'F*ck! I'm In the Twenties'

October 19, 2012, 7:20 am

≫ Next: Van Halen's "Dance the Night Away" Is Our Music Video of the Day

≪ Previous: Book It: Images From Kent Rogowski's New Show, I Can't Stop Thinking About Yesterday

Mitt Romney and President Obama got out their burn books and zinged the F out of each other last night at some annual dinner for fancy men. Just kidding, their jokes are pretty tame (and Romney's are actually kind of funny? Ahh!). [Gawker]

Speaking of Mitt, Matthew Fox debuted the trailer for a Mitt Romney Lifetime biopic on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night. (It starts at 0:50.) He really does look like Mitt! [ABC via NYMag]

A postcard from F. Scott Fizgerald to himself. :( [Flavorwire]

Pool table. [ThisIsntHappiness]

This is the GIF of all GIFS. No need to keep using the Internet, feel free to turn it off now. [The Rumblr via Humortrain]

Otter ball! [Reddit]

The space bar is a magical tool. [FYeahDementia]

Someone has made a parody of the popular tumblr-turned-book, Fuck! I'm In My Twenties. It's called, Fuck! I'm In the Twenties and it's awesome. [Slackatory]

The perfect, perfect obit for Mad Libs creator Larry Sloan. [Reddit]

Pizzamyd. [TheDorseyShawExperience]

Lookin' good, botany! [PizzzaTime]

Jesus is really nice and totally, totally our best friend, but don't you think He can be so annoying sometimes? [ParisHiltonSexSlave]

Here's Tony Hawk nervously interviewing Louie CK. It's painful to watch, mostly because it's exactly how we act in like 90% of all our interviews. [RatsOff]

Screams, on top of screams, on top of more screams. [MattStopera]

Hey Friday.

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Van Halen's "Dance the Night Away" Is Our Music Video of the Day

October 19, 2012, 9:00 am

≫ Next: Kristen Stewart's Cringe-Worthy Live Chat + The Olsens Win Another Award in Today's Style Scraps

≪ Previous: Morning Funnies: Matthew Fox's Mitt Romney Biopic + 'F*ck! I'm In the Twenties'

When we heard "Dance the Night Away" in Ben Affleck's new movie Argo, today's oldie-but-goodie video was a lock. The film is about the hostage crisis in Iran in 1979 -- the year Van Halen released their second album, Van Halen II, and the song became the band's first hit single. Lots of other cool songs from the '70s by Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and Dire Straights are also in the film and there's a soundtrack album out now, but it's just the original score by Alexandre Desplat. P.S. The movie's great, too.

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