“For Tomorrow – The Documentary” is the movie we all need to see today.
Dîner en Blanc is a dinner party done the white way.
Thousands dressed head to toe — and in some cases Venetian mask to roller skates — in all white, congregated in a secret location disclosed the day of the event. This year, marking its tenth anniversary, the dinner happened to return to its inaugural setting, outside the Brookfield Plaza on the Hudson River.
Dîner en Blanc-ers brought picnic baskets full of fine dining and headed over to the location from designated drop points in Manhattan to arrive around 7 pm. Some rocked ornate designs, while some kept it simple. But what remained constant — white, white, white.
The feast kicked off with a ceremonial wave of the napkin. Gazing upon the view of the Hudson River one could see a sea of fluttering white napkins. There was live music, dancing and performers in elaborate futuristic garb putting on a show for patrons. In the media lounge, celebrity guest chef Todd English prepared an array of delicacies, including babaganoush, lobster rolls with caviar and wagyu beef. Champagne Barons de Rothschild was the evening’s champagne sponsor and provided the alcoholic beverages in the lounge.
Coming off a two year Covid hiatus and commemorating the tenth anniversary made the night extra festive. For co-founder and president Sandy Safi, it made sense to bring the event back to whence it came. “We were looking for an iconic place in New York. And its the tenth anniversary,” she said. “New York is what started ever hitting globally. What better place to come back to come back to the place it all started. The first time we were here we were less than 1,000. Now we’re over 4,000. We’ve grown to 120 cities around the world. We built a global community of people who travel to city to city and love to do this.”
After taking two years off due to the pandemic Chef English was glad to come back for his fourth. “We realize we are gregarious animals and we need to go out and socialize,” he said of Diner en Blanc’s return. “I love Diner en Blanc, it’s a global organization that brings people of all walks of life and cultures together in a peaceful and celebratory manner, and exemplifies that food is our greatest democracy.”
R and R stands for rest and relaxation. RRR stands for anything but.
RRR (Rise, Roar, Revolt) is a three hour Telegu language epic about India’s fight for independence against the British, replete with over the top gun battles, spontaneous dance-offs, CG rendered wild animal attacks and no shortage of gratuitous TNT explosions.
The film is a sensation, standing at the third highest grossing film in India ever. It’s also found quite a bit of success overseas.
Director S.S. Rajamouli sat down for a Q & A after a screening of his film at the IFC Center in lower Manhattan. On whether he expected the film to be such a success across the globe, the director said, “Absolutely not. I never thought I’d appeal to the sensibilities of the West.” But the universal themes clearly tap in to a broad audience. He said, “Any creator will agree: a good story is a good story across the globe for any race, any language, for any people.”
Rajamouli wrote the film with his father, V. Vijayendra Prasad, another commercially successful Tollywood director. Rajamouli cut his teeth in film by working as an assistant in the editing room on his father’s films. Rajamouli said that his father spurred him on to make his latest film. “Initially I was doing nothing,” he said. “He was constantly nagging me.”
After relenting to his dad’s nagging, the next step in the creative process was forming the film’s iconic images. The film is full of striking images: a tandem shoulder riding gunfight, a flurry of disparate wild animals escaping from a cage, a man draped in an Indian flag as he barrels through a raging fire to save a little boy.
“The iconic images come first even before the story,” he said. He had the basic idea for the film down at the beginning: “Let’s get these two freedom fighters together. Initially they would be against each other, then they would come together against a common enemy. That was the basic line. Then it would come into discussion with my father. Then I look for iconic images for scenes. I tried to figure out what iconic images would tell this story and build the scene towards it.”
RRR is in theaters and available for streaming on Netflix.
Everyone needs their little corner of heaven. I found a new one in Beverly Hills just off 3rd and LaCienega. This once-bustling stretch was hit hard by the pandemic, but is surging back with an array of new businesses and fresh offerings from neighborhood staples.
This weekend you can try a ton of these spots at deep discounts via ‘Bring Back West 3rd Street,’ an event aimed at highlighting all the glorious food, fitness and fades this stretch has to offer.
I stopped by Chica’s, purveyor of excellent Mexican cuisine and the epicenter of this weekend’s event, for some shrimp tacos and a Paloma. Yes, it was 5pm! That’s a fine time to drink!
They’re offering 50% off for you and a friend this weekend, and 10% at any location FOREVER with a coupon, which you can pick up in the restaurant.
Ecco Un Poco served up the most exquisite peach gelato I’ve ever had. They have tons of adventurous and classic flavors, and are a perfect treat for these still-hot-as-hell dog days of summer.
They’re offering BOGO gelato in a cup, and a 10% discount on pints this weekend, and I can’t stress how worth it this deal is. Go ahead, live a little!
SeoulMates is my favorite restaurant name. They hold the title, sorry!
I had a free Bulgogi taco, which you can get with an order of $29 or more. Truly never had anything like this. It was crispy, succulent and sinewy. Could’ve had 10 more.
Melanie Wine Bar was a smash hit. I had a sommerlier’s dream Pinot Grigio, a simple yet dynamic taste of heaven. I decided to go hard in the paint and order a hanger steak. Good lord do I love hanger steak.
This was the best I’ve had. It’s bold, y’all. I was impressed with just how flavorful it was, a real delight at the tail end of my 3rd street sojourn.
They’re offering 50% off your dine-in check, so race on over this weekend and eat like a lord a leaping.
Thanks so much for having me, gang. And everyone run and check out these sensational spots before the weekend is through. Check out the full list of deals below!
The panel organized by IMG focused on the emerging voices of Latinx designers in the fashion industry and how the corporate world can support them.
Ballet. Nina Simone. Bunny art. Catwalk. Miss New York. Moscow mules.
All of that was on display at New York Fashion Week’s Six Summit Gallery fashion art performance in the Port Authority bus terminal on Thursday, Sept 8.
Attendees could walk around and peruse the artwork — from sculptures to contemporary canvas paintings to photography. Complimentary “cocktails to go” from Merican Mules could be picked up at the bar. The flavors: Moscow Mule, Mexican Mule, Southern Mule and Tropical Mule.
After viewing the gallery and grabbing any one of the gingery drinks, everyone was called to sit down and enjoy the show.
An opera singer kicked things off, crooning around the cozy room. Then a ballerina pranced about. And Miss New York Taryn Smith belted her rendition of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good.” Interspersed between all the performances were catwalks. Models showed off luxury handbags, high end dresses and chic street wear.
The event was part of the Six Summit Gallery, which hosted several other exhibits in the Port Authority bus terminal. Other exhibits included portraits of famous musicians, an artistic homage to New York City and more.
New York Fashion Week kicked off Sept 9 and ends Sept. 14 with buzzy appearances by the likes of Anna Wintour, Serena Williams and Lil Nas X.
EZoo’s Twitter
“This is how we do it. It’s Friday night and I feel all right. The party is here on the West side,” and that is exactly what legendary DJ Diplo brought to this year’s Electronic Zoo Music Festival. Sampling the 90s hit song by Montell Jordan, Diplo got the party started on Friday night on the east side— of Manhattan a.k.a. Randall’s Island just as the sun was setting. As dusk settled in he took to his DJ set up as the smoke began to fill the Antheon stage.
Starting his set bathed in green lights with forest imagery, he shouted out New York City saying, “New York how you feeling” as he began playing KHIA’s “My Neck, My Back.” Clad in a simple white tee and shades, he mixed “My Neck, My Back” with his song ‘Biturbo” with Raumakustik as the vibe moved from green to red with a digital lava video and solar flares behind him. As darkness started to fill the approaching night sky Diplo’s stage morphed into a purple and blue set and light show as the crowd grew filling up with kids rocking everything from light-up sneakers to shades for the song, “Enjoy” by Misael Deejay.
Diplo then went on to spin “Party Starter” by Matt Guy, “Bussin” from Mikey Barreneche and “Right 2 Left” by Diplo & Mele as well as Nader Razdar’s “Alegria.” His set/ stage changed vibes from deep space to space lava to deep sea and then to a forest covered in flames all to match the song he was spinning. With his horse voice, he admitted to losing a few days earlier, Diplo would occasionally interject a shout-out to the crowd to get them pumped and keep the energy high.
Leaning into a trance state, Diplo played, “Back Once More” by Pajane. He then played “Benz” by Euro Trash, “Brooklyn Bounce” by Mele, and Fisher’s “Wanna Go Dancin’.” He continued on with his own songs with LSD and Sia for “Thunderclouds” and “Be Right There.” He finished this part of his set with “Deep Inside” by Hardrive and a dance mash-up of The White Stripe’s “Seven Nation Army.”
Then the Antheon stage went blue again for Diplo’s and Miguel’s song, “Don’t Forget My Love.” The blue stage faded into beautiful purple flames for Macklemore’s “Can’t Hold Us” and Diplo’s “On My Mind.” Diplo when on to spin “I’m Addicted To The Beat” by David Kim and Kanye West’s “Power” before closing out his set with his own songs “Revolution” and “Let You Go.”
The first words that came out of my mouth upon watching this week’s Power Book III: Raising Kanan is “Raq should have killed Unique.”
That did not happen. But I do believe Unique will team up with the Italian group to get back at Raquel and her empire. But does this mean that Raq is going to start losing control of being the kingpin? I do not think so. She has more problems to clean up other than the nasty rats that chewed up her money. I feel that Kanan is starting to know that Raq is lying to him as she has an answer to every bit of his concerning questions. The way they are writing Raq, they should have written Ghost the same way. That master manipulator, who lies and deceives everyone around them.
The best scenes of this week’s episode featured Kanan and Famous. These two have a great brotherly bond and I am looking forward to seeing more of them on this season of Raising Kanan. I think that because Famous’ name were on the cassette covers, it might tie into something in the future that could affect Raq’s connection to the drug game.
I do have a theory. As a result of her relationship with Howard, Raq snipped on Marvin and DefCon so that she could lead them. The purpose of Howard telling Raq Scrappy was to kill him and lie to Kanan about it- all to turn Kanan against his mother. As soon as Kanan discovers she killed Scrappy and lied about it, his relationship with her may be lost forever.
And then we finally see Jukebox and her mom meet for the first time at the church and Jukebox stormed off after seeing her. Jukebox will have a ton of questions so I hope that this will be addressed soon. But at the recording studio is where Jukebox also shines as the actress Hailey Kilgore haas a great voice and when she sings, I am drawn into her.
Solid episode of Raising Kanan this week!
Maison Courvoisier meets Gitano NYC on a perfect summer afternoon in August.
On August 21st, D’USSÉ hosted its third VIP Day Party experience in New York City. Taking place at the Watermark at Pier 15 in the heart of the South Street Seaport, there were several variations of cocktails to complement the Cognac we all know and love. Starting with the D’USSÉ Peach Sidecar, to the D’USSÉ Lemonade and finally the D’USSÉ Day Punch, there was plenty to go around and all of which fit the description of a tasteful summer cocktail. Along with a variety of beverages, there were special guest DJs playing many of the popular hits that kept this summer on a high note. As everyone danced to a few of our favorite songs, there was a photo booth that gave guests the option to digitally transfer photos to their smartphones for all their social media needs!
As if that wasn’t enough, a largely crafted Jenga set kept many of the guests at the edge of their seats while being in complete joy of the game! Specialty popsicles were served as we were encouraged to indulge in various food options (ie. cheeseburger sliders, coconut shrimp, fries, charcuterie boards, etc) and free merchandise. With the scenery of the city skyline and beautiful waterfront views, D’USSÉ surely had us on our feet enjoying every bit of the party!