Rima Suqi

Sam Baron at Japan Premium Beef.

If you’re over the grizzly adams look every hipster guy seems to be sporting these days you might want to avoid Chelsea Market for the next month. Hung throughout the space are photos by Dave Mead, an Austin, Texas-based photographer whose subjects are mustachioed and bearded men. It’s called “Magnificent Specimens” and while I personally am not into the bearded look, I was really drawn to the styling, composition and framing. He took the photos at the 2009 World Beard & Moustache championships. Some examples of Mead’s work are below. Those who find themselves having hair envy can take their photo at a makeshift booth and upload it to his site. Or buy one of his prints ($350, unframed, $500 framed) and use it as inspiration to grow your own.

Do it yourself booth:

do-it-yourself photo "booth"

Housing Works annual Design on a Dime event opened with a preview last night. Word is that by this weekend the place will be super picked over, but as it doesn’t cost anything to get in, you might want to pop by for a look -

Calypso home

Jamie Drake's vignette

Flair Home

From the release:

Playfully decorated to be faithful to Eloise’s indomitable spirit and distinctive color palette of “Eloise pink” and black, the 2,100-square-foot Eloise shop resembles a ‘playhouse,’ an homage to one of the most lovably precocious fictional characters ever. Here Eloise fans young and old may re-enact their favorite vignettes from the “Eloise” books and movies, or, if they’d rawther, shop for a full assortment of adorable Madame Alexander dolls, Eloise books, Eloise-inspired bathrobes and bath towels, and exclusive product lines including the Eloise in Paris doll. The holiday debut will provide shoppers with an assortment of special holiday gift items including an exclusive Eloise ornament, Eloise at Christmas book and holiday-themed dolls.

The “Semi-Automatic,” as it is called, is already in-situ at the Mondrian Miami, where it occupies an entire wall in the lobby. Users can scroll through items displayed on a digital screen, purchase them with the swipe of a credit card, whereupon they are dispensed in sealed bags.

The Semi Automatic

Items you can buy:

Vena Cava canvas shoes

David Shrigley for Pringle tee

Prada Marfa sign (altho note, the prada installation isn't actually in Marfa, its in Valentine, TX, a neighboring town). Just sayin.

Toms shoes by Tyler Ramsay

Scott Campbell temporary knuckle tattoo set

Kid Robot Lucky Zip Pulls

Jil Sander limited edition "Foujita" tee

Lady Gaga Tee

ARKITIP and INCASE Macbook and iPhone case by Andre

Fenton-Fallon Bracelet

Subversive Jewelry for Doc Martens

This is only a small collection, as there are 36 items total. View them all here.

For over 15 years, Vanity Fair’s version of the Proust questionnaire has been one of the most popular pages in the magazine. Now they’ve compiled 100 of those interviews in a book. It’s  arranged alphabetically, beginning with Robert Altman and ending with Brian Wilson, and is a great read and an even better gift ( Amazon has it for $17).

Some choice answers:

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Lauren Bacall: “a 24 inch waist”

Annette Benning: “Virginity”

Ray Charles: “Talent”

Ted Kennedy: “Silence”

What is your idea of perfect happiness”

Lou Reed: “A rent controlled apartment”

Salman Rushdie: “Life without policemen”

What do you consider the lowest depth of misery?

Maureen Dowd: “No mini-bar”

Eleanor Lambert: “Having nothing to read”

Fran Lebowitz: “French”

Arthur Miller: “Betrayal”

Gore Vidal: “A mirror”

What is your motto?

Sandra Bernhardt: “Kiss ‘em, slap ‘em, send ‘em home!”

Elaine May: “Don’t throw away designer clothes”

What do you dislike most about your appearance?

Jimmy Buffet: “Somebody stole my hair”

Karl Lagerfeld” “I spend my life working on that subject”

John Waters: “I’ve had a bad hair life”

What is your greatest extravagance?

Julia Child: “Shoes!”

Deepak Chopra: “Double hazelnut lattes”

Joan Collins: “Lawyers”

Catherine Deneuve: “Spending all my money when I was 17 years old to buy an Hermes Kelly bag”

David Mamet: “On moving house in Boston, empowering my decorator to conduct the whole proceduer while I was away on location.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger: “I am a major shoe queen”

Donald Trump: “Having to only ride an elevator to get to work”

How would you like to die:

Eric Clapton: “Fishing”

Ellen DeGeneres: “No, thank you”

Hedy Lamar: “Preferably after sex”

Olivia de Haviland: “ensconced on a chaise longue, perfumed, wearing a velvet robe and pearl earrings, with a flute of champagne beside me and having just discovered tohe answer to the last problem in a British cryptic crossword.”

I love books that provide a social history of NYC, whether or not I was part of it. Indochine: Stories, Shaken and Stirred (Rizzoli) is the latest. Read below for the official blurb. $60
The restaurant Indochine has gone from trendsetting pioneer in the mid-1980s to established scene-maker in the 1990s, to the iconic status it holds today. With spectacular images presented by some of the most renowned photographers, celebrities, and writers, Indochine celebrates twenty-five years of being an important legacy in New York’s downtown social swirl, where celebrities rub elbows with downtown hipsters, uptown moguls mix with East Village club kids, and fashion designers with artists and gallery owners. Vintage photographs from the 1980s and ’90s are mixed with contemporary collages and Polaroids taken during Indochine’s most notorious private parties. Stories by Salman Rushdie, Moby, Julianne Moore, and Bob Colacello are combined with photographs by Patrick McMullan, Roxanne Lowit, and Patrick Demarchelier, along with artworks by Francesco Clemente, Helmut Lang, Tom Sachs, Ruben Toledo, Narciso Rodriguez, Ross Bleckner, and Julian Schnabel, among many more.

Two speakers

Amp

Got an email from Joey Roth the other day, he of the Sorapot teapot that won awards after debuting at the Gift Show earlier this year.

This is his new project – speakers and an amp. They’re made from made from porcelain, wood, and cork.

I asked him about any green/sustainable option and he had this to say:

I chose materials for the speakers that will look better with age, but
will be easily upcycled into other objects if the speakers get tossed
at some point. This mainly involved figuring out how to hold
everything together without using glues or chemical binders. They’re
also produced in a small workshop that mainly does handmade flower
vases, so the pollution and human cost associated with industrial
production is avoided.

Me likey.

Is really good – this from a person totally over the Target designer collaborations and not a fan of Xmas in general. Hits stores  in two shipments — 10/25 and 11/1.

Flocked Stockings, $14.99

Paper plates, $2.99/10 pack, two sizes available.

big candles (in other colors, too, $19.99)

Other candles, $14.99/set of 2

It's a bell, a place card holder and an ornament! 4 colors, $2.99

Martini shaker, $14.99

Cocktail forks, spreaders, spoons, etc. in silver or gold.

my personal favorite, a Teddy Bear with a light-up nose, $19.99

Stoli is the official vodka of the TriBeCa film festival. Which means that, of course, they got a bartender (oh sorry, a MIXOLOGIST) to create a cocktail in honor of the festival. It’s called the “Darkened Theatre” and is a mix of Popcorn-Infused Stoli, Salted Coke Syrup and a Caramel Popcorn Garnish. Should you want to try this at home, and I’m honestly not sure you should, here’s the recipe:

2 1/2 ounces Popcorn-Infused Stolichnaya
½ ounce salted Coke Syrup
two drops of fresh lemon juice

Shake well with ice
Strain
Garnish with 3 skewered caramel popcorns

The result looks like this. Be afraid. Be very afraid.