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Your up-to-the-minute guide to New York City events, restaurants, bars, nightlife, ticket alerts and NSFW ephemera.
Monsters ink
Sun Oct 7
Last night, on the first evening of The New Yorker Festival, I went to see Martin Amis and Ian Buruma hold court at the Highline Ballroom, where they talked monsters. No, not Grendel or Dracula—these two top-notch authors were interested in talking about real-life monsters like Hitler, Stalin and Osama bin Laden (though Amis did go on an entertaining riff about Hannibal Lecter).
Moderated by New Yorker staffer and Heat scribe Bill Buford, the event was okay. Amis was characteristically wry, and was forthcoming about his own work, saying at one point that he had changed his focus from satire to politics and evil dictators when he had children. But there were moments when the British novelist seemed to be holding the sold-out audience captive to listen to his off-the-cuff, reductive remarks, such as his statement that Islamic terrorism stems largely from sexual frustration and misogyny. (To his credit, the astute Buruma disagreed that this was limited to Islamic jihadists.)
The...
Liveblogging Gossip Girl, episode 3
Thu Oct 4
9:11: We're at the first commercial break and I couldn't be more annoyed by the voiceovers. I hate the character of Gossip Girl. But mine is not to love or hate, it's to liveblog. And maybe to hate a little. But anyway, already there's been a field hockey altercation between Serena and Blair. And I think that scene that was deleted from the pilot was used as a flashback here.
9:13 Ivy fever. That's the topic of tonight's show apparently. Dartmouth in particular.
9:14 Nate might not want to go to Dartmouth!
9:29 Kirsten is such a bitch!
9:30 "A full-fledged Humphrey affair."
9:30 Serena's formerly suicidal brother has big hair.
9:31 "These parents look a little bit young," says my mom (yes, they're still here. It's a long story). Young to be the parents of 35-year-old high-school students!
9:32 I find it hard to believe that these odious kids care so much about getting into college.
9:38 Poor tortured Nate. His dad is a real piece of work. He's not a...
The second time around: Chuck and Reaper
Wed Oct 3
Pilot episodes are kind of like first dates: They're all about making the best possible initial impression. It's only with the second encounter that you start to get a sense of what a person (or show) will be like over time, and whether or not you really want to spend time with them (or it). And, with their second episodes (which aired Monday and Tuesday respectively), NBC's Chuck and the CW's Reaper ensured that we'll be calling, er, watching them again for sure. This week, the two shows, which have eerily similar premises (directionless twentysomething who works at a big-box retailer discovers he has a secret destiny that forces him to do crazy, dangerous shit he's totally unprepared for) took the important step of differentiating themselves from each other. On Chuck, our hero's coworkers are oblivious to his secret life as a spy, whereas on Reaper, two of them know that the protagonist is Satan's unwilling bounty hunter and help him recapture runaway sinners. Chuck derives much of...
Beyond Bob Ross: A sneek peek at PBS's newest artist series
Wed Oct 3
For most channel-flipping viewers, finding engaging yet culturally relevant TV is a challenge. Thankfully, there's PBS: One of the many jewels in its crown is Art21: Art in the 21st Century, a series offering an insightful look into the studios of today's most exciting visual artists. This month—as part of the show's fourth season's premiere—several major NYC museums and cultural spaces (Bronx Museum, Queens Museum, El Museo del Barrio and Brooklyn Museum among them) are hosting episode screenings and moderated discussions with featured artists. Events not to miss: Thursday's discussion with Mark Bradford at the Studio Museum in Harlem, a talk with Laurie Simmons (a still from her video pictured) this Saturday at BAM, and a discussion with An-My L at the Brooklyn Museum on October 13. For a full schedule, click here.
Buddy, you're no Raimkul Khudoynazarovich Malakhbekov
Wed Oct 3
Russian boxers train by punching trees.
Russian puncher Oleg Maskaev recently pulled out of his Saturday 6 title fight against Sam "the Nigerian Nightmare" Peter (no relation to the "other" Nigerian Nightmare, Christian Okoye), citing injury. In his stead, Peter will fight New York behemoth Jameel "Big Time" McCline for the WBC interim title. Same time, same place.
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- Senior Editor: Amy Plitt (@plitter)
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