this is fyf

Here is current information about Lady Gaga.

1.  Here is a picture of Lady Gaga's former residence from when she was a struggling artist living in destitution on the Lower East Side in an apartment that is about twice the size of most studios on the Lower East Side.

2.  She is doing a Thanksgiving special on ABC.  A "celebrity" chef has been hired to reproduce her family recipes.  You will not be watching.  Mary J Blige will stop by because she and Gaga have so much in common.

3.  Barneys has turned their holiday windows this year into Gaga's Holiday Workshop.  They've also emptied the fifth floor of the men's side and turned it over to Gaga merchandise.  Happy shopping.

The last mansion built by Stanford White is up for sale.  What makes it especially rare is that it is a Fifth Avenue mansion.  $49 million and it is yours.

Limelight not in limelight enough; fails.

Perhaps the least surprising/unexpected news of the day -- much-ballyhooed Limelight Marketplace is not making it as a mall, but will be re-renovated to become a single department store its developer/operator optimistically compares to Barney's.

Note: this absolutely nothing to do with Jesus, nor am I comparing the operator to him in any way. It's just an allusion (pointless, but allusive all the same.).

Knowing how to fit a lot into a tiny space is one thing. Making it look good? A talent unto itself..

I love this shit. I've posted about "space-saving" apartment furnishings before and think I've posted about a similar apartment in Hong Kong (I believe?) that was just slightly larger, but here's a photographer's pad in Barcelona that fits everything into just 258 sq. feet. And it looks nice, too!

He's even managed to find space for his BIG BUTT (book) in the bathroom!

NY Times doesn't ask but asks "So who's 'the man' in your relationship?".

We've come a long way from "wink-wink, nudge-nudge" allusions to "confirmed bachelor"s, roommates, companions and other euphemisms for homosexual couples. The New York Times, in particular, seems to make every effort to reflect modern relationships in its ongoing series on NYC apartment/home searches (as well as - to the best of my knowledge - wherever else in the paper couples or families are referenced.).

At the same time, however, a recent article covering a male same-sex couple from Arizona's search for a place in the City managed to siip in the fact that one partner in the relationship did both the laundry and cleaning.

Now, maybe that's because he enjoys cleaing and washing clothes, or is particular and won't let his partner do it, but - then again - maybe he's a bottom and his African boyfriend is really hung/a "real" man.

Bottom line? (NO pun!) Preconceptions = Fun/Ridiculous.

(In fairness, the article also mentions that Mr. Caesar - the African half of the couple - cooks at least every Sunday, so...maybe there's nothing gendered/stereotypical about this at all.)

Essex Street Market has the most delicious chocolate-covered bacon...

(Doesn't it look good!?)

Possibly the only chocolate-covered bacon? Unsure. Regardless, there are some "renewal" plans in the works for that area of the Lower East Side that would - apparently - move the Essex Street Market and replace it with parking lots?! Someone must have their facts mixed up 'cuz I can't for the life of me make any sense of that proposal. Regardless of the truth or misconception involved, here's hoping Roni-Sue's Chocolates is fully protected and included in the "new" Essex Street Market - wherever that may be - should these seemingly crock-headed plans come to fruition.

For those unfamiliar: Essex Street Market

You (yes, you, dear friend) have totally walked over this triangle mosaic in the West Village and never ever noticed it.  And there's a nice little story behind it, too.  

Civilization Progress Report: "And this is why India can't have nice things."

Picture via Random Specific

After I got home from work last night, my mom called me and we got to discussing the Commonwealth Games, which, according to Wikipedia, is just like the Olympics, only America's not invited to the party. Which makes sense, I suppose, as America doesn't make a past-time out of activities like rugby and netball. Late 2009, the Indian capital of New Delhi embarked on a bold urban renewal project in order to prepare for its turn at hosting the games this year. But since no one could really get their act together in the nearly eight months that ensued, preparations for the games crumbled into an incomplete mess of half-finished venues and swarms of mosquitoes carrying dengue fever. This is giving officials from other countries cold feet about moving forward. But as someone who's fallen in love with a country whose labor force is always striking for one reason or another, I merely remarked to my mom, "And this is why India can't have nice things,"¹ and we defected to more relevant topics like calorie-counting. Which is essentially to say, dear readers, that this week we learned well why no particular slice of the world--except for Lucy Lawless' native New Zealand--deserves nice things at all.

• So, yes, more details re: how slow-to-stalled Commonwealth Games-related construction is accelerating the spread of dengue fever throughout Delhi. [WSJ]

• FASTER THAN A FACEBOOK STATUS Not-at-all flailing auto manufacturer GM encourages all drivers to simultaneously update their Facebook statuses while gunning the gas pedal. [Consumerist]

Aptly named, the "Tea Party" movement allows its "leaders" to have their cake and eat it, too.

As reported here previously, Sarah Plain's (yes I know how it's spelled) latest demagoguery aims to use a Muslim group's application for a permit to build an Islamic community center and mosque near (about two blocks from? maybe four...) Ground Zero to improve her standing as potential presidential candidate and bolster her popularity with the burgeoning (and bumpkin?) Tea Party movement.

At the same time, Republican politicians (arguably many with Tea Party sympathies, either ideologically, or out of a pragmatic desire to keep their office.) in the House voted down a bill to pay for the health care of those who suffer ill-health and potentially life-threatening medical conditions as a result of their exposure to asbestos and other harmful substances in the air at and around Ground Zero after the attack on the World Trade Center.

"Cart before the horse", "Can't see the forest for the trees" and all that, but mostly - wow, don't your words ring hollow Sarah Plain and (of all entities??) the American Defamation League!?!?

From what I understand, their collective reasoning for decrying the Muslim center is they feel it would be insensitive to the families of 9/11 victims having a mosque so close to the site of an attack by Muslim terrorists. Specious as this reasoning is (the mosque and its adherents almost certainly didn't have anything to do with the attack, despite sharing - ostensibly in name only - a common faith.), insensitivity/a lack of compassion for the victims is certainly what the Republicans and their bastard children, the Tea Partiers, are showing by voting not to take care of those victims who are still alive?!

Does this make ANY sense to anyone reading this??

The comment in the screenshot above is on a Gawker article regarding the Islamic center's announcement that it will include a memorial in its building for the victims of 9/11 and nearly perfectly captures my sentiments on the matter...not to mention sets visions of hot Puerto Rican/Italian cops dancing through my head.

This story packs a lot into its telling:  Manhattan real estate, Tibetan spaniels, family feuding, and a violent middle-age chain-smoking transsexual.  I'm hoping there's a movie.  And I'm thinking Stockard Channing as trannsexual.

Via David Ozanich.

Truman Capote's home can be yours!

 

The $18-million price tag should not deter you.  Nor should the fact that it would be the most expensive home sale in Brooklyn ever.  Nor should the fact that he didn't actually own it and was just a renter - of the basement. You should live where Capote wrote In Cold Cash Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's.  And?  You should have eleven fireplaces.  So buy it!

Is Kylie Minogue moving to Williamsburg?

Williamsburg doesn't seem rather Kylie, does it?  Apparently it will be for the next few months as our tipster reports Ms. Minogue will be  "subletting a furnished loft in Williamsburg , maybe longer ".  

Will Kylie go to Enid's?  Metropolitan?  Pete's Candy Store?  Will the Williamsburg Welcome Wagon send her a basket of American Apparel and ironic sunglasses?  
 

HKXL

This news is old enough to be your daddy, but here you go:

Gay Hotel/Nightlife complex on West 42nd? Off? On? We've heard both.

Not as hateful as it sounded to me at first...half of me (guess which) thinks it could be kind of (kitschy) fun, while the other half sputters passionately, but unconvincingly, about gay ghettoes and boring uniformity.

The project also apparently inspires photo collaging as both Curbed and NY Mag's Daily Intel coverage includes a mash-up of the building and someone they've ostensibly chosen to represent WAY GAY...

More: New York Mag Daily Intel  & John Blair's website

Your real estate broker might look familiar.

 
Read that listing again.  The broker is Mr. Matthew Bank, former owner/co-founder of HX Magazine who has left the media world for different pastures, including real estate.  The open house for the apartment shown will have an open cookie bar and shenanigans in the back closet.