Vito Override: Disgraced Politician Ponders a Second Act
Oolong Suckers: Beware of Friendly Strangers Inviting You for Tea
Science Says You're Ugly
Vespa-Riding, Williamsburg-Residing Tumblr CEO Does Not Appreciate Being Called a Hipster
To Do Wednesday: Fashion Forecast
His Life (All of It) as a Man: Karl Ove Knausgaard's Rambling New Volume of 'My Struggle'
On the Page: Raymond Sokolov and Anna Badkhen
Quinnipiac: Anthony Weiner's Poll Position Holds Firm
He's In: Anthony Weiner Launches Run For Mayor With Video
Science Says You’re Ugly
Aside from the feminist issues with the fact that Dove’s “Real Beauty” videos assume physical attractiveness is the sole path to happiness, the basic premise broadcast in them–mainly, that people see themselves as less attractive than they really are-–is also just plain wrong. Scientific American reports that instead, people believe they’re far more beautiful than they are in reality. In fact, as SciAm writes, “Most of us think that we are better than we actually are — not just physically, but in every way.” Read More
Vespa-Riding, Williamsburg-Residing Tumblr CEO Does Not Appreciate Being Called a Hipster
Call David Karp anything you want–high school dropout, sidecar sideshow–but the one label he won’t stand for is “hipster.” Unknowingly emulating the first rule of hipstersdom by automatically lashing back at the title, the 26-year-old Ludlow suit-wearing, Vespa-riding, Williamsburg-dwelling, brunch-loving chillwave Tumblr CEO was annoyed when ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos dared to call him that yesterday. Read More
To Do Wednesday: Fashion Forecast
Parsons has produced more fashion stars (think the Proenza Schouler guys, Jason Wu, Marc Jacobs and Tom Ford) than Barney’s can stock. The school’s 2013 fashion show will be attended by big-name store buyers, magazine editors and movie stars, all on the lookout for the next big thing primed for Seventh Avenue success. Hosted by Read More
His Life (All of It) as a Man: Karl Ove Knausgaard’s Rambling New Volume of ‘My Struggle’
The first book of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s six-volume autobiographical novel My Struggle was published in Norway in 2009 and the final volume in 2011. The books have since sold half a million copies there, a number that represents something like one in ten Norwegians. Still, when the first volume of My Struggle was published in the United States last year, translated by Don Bartlett, it was thanks to a small non-profit in Brooklyn called Archipelago Books, which in turn relied upon the New York state government and charitable foundations to subsidize the effort. Narrated by the author, whose family and friends are the central characters, Mr. Knausgaard’s books recount his life in full, from the most banal memories to the most important events. Upon the publication of Book Two and a paperback reissue of Book One by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Mr. Knausgaard has won a very loyal English-speaking readership. It turns out that assembling IKEA furniture while contemplating the meaninglessness of our lives transcends the boundaries of nationality and language. As Mr. Knausgaard writes, “As is always the case with books that seem to be groundbreaking, they put into words what for me had been suspicions, feelings, hunches.” Read More
On the Page: Raymond Sokolov and Anna Badkhen
STEAL THE MENU: A MEMOIR OF FORTY YEARS IN FOOD
RAYMOND SOKOLOV
(Knopf, 242 pp., $25.95)
It’s hard to believe in these gourmet-mad times, but 40 years ago the U.S. had “no radicchio, no world-class restaurant, no foie gras, no Sichuan food.” So recalls lifelong food writer Raymond Sokolov in this entertaining memoir. Mr. Sokolov Read More
Quinnipiac: Anthony Weiner’s Poll Position Holds Firm
Former Congressman Anthony Weiner, who announced his highly-anticipated mayoral campaign in the wee hours of the morning today, has not managed to make up much ground in public polling since he floated his name a month ago. Indeed, his percentage in the Democratic primary–15 percent–is the exact same in today’s Quinnipiac poll as the firm’s April 19 survey. Read More
Video
He’s In: Anthony Weiner Launches Run For Mayor With Video
He’s in. After weeks of speculation, disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner has officially thrown his hat into the mayor’s race, announcing he’s running with a new video posted on his revamped campaign website at midnight on Wednesday.
“Look, I made some big mistakes. And I know I let a lot of people down. But I’ve also learned some tough lessons,” he says in the video, which opens with a family scene of the former councilman and his wife, Huma Abedin, having breakfast in their kitchen with their young son.
“I’m running for mayor ’cause I’ve been fighting for the middle class and those struggling to make it my entire life. And I hope I get a second chance to work for you,” he says into the camera in the 2-minute, slickly-shot reel. Read More
Million Dollar Day: Riding Along with Real Estate Reality Star Ryan Serhant
7:45 AM: Ryan Serhant, the former hand model/soap opera actor-turned-real estate superstar, beats The Observer to his Tribeca office by an hour. “I’m always the first one in,” brags the 28-year-old broker at Nest Seekers International, a boutique real estate brokerage firm.
He has been up since 4:23 a.m, was at the gym by 5 a.m. and in the office shortly thereafter. When we offer to go for a bleary-eyed coffee run, he yells from his office, “Don’t forget to write about how you were an hour late!” Read More
