Daily Transom

By Drew Grant 5/20 12:10pm

Saturday Night Live

Video

The end of the hottest night clubs in New York. (NBC(

Bill Hader, Seth Meyers and Fred Armisen Bid Adieu to Saturday Night Live (Video)

Perhaps Semisonic said it best: “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”

This weekend marked the 38th season finale of Saturday Night Live, arguably one of the best runs the NBC variety show has seen in recent years. This is thanks in large part to fresh featured members like Cecily Strong and Kate McKinnon as well as the new repertory cast of Taran Killam, Vanessa Bayer, Bobby Moynihan, and Nasim Pedrad. These relatively young comedians were able to fill the hole made last season by the departures of heavy-hitters Kristen Wiig, Andy Samberg and Abby Elliott, and gave the show, in the words of Bill Hader, “a new sensibility.”

“There’s a joy in seeing a new move from somebody and going, ‘Oh, she can do that,’” Mr. Hader told The New York Times last week. Read More

By Drew Grant and Alex Bedder 5/20 9:15am

Game of Thrones

Illustration by Alex Bedder.

Five Essay Questions for Game of Thrones 3×8: ‘Second Sons’

Our guest essay answerer this week is none other than our GoT illustrator, Alex Bedder! Give him a hand!

These questions regard last night’s episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones. Please answer the prompts with specific examples from LAST NIGHT’S EPISODE, though supplementary material will be accepted as a secondary source. Please write legibly. No. 2 pencils only. You have an hour to finish this test. See below for questions and sample responses.

1. We like to say “Seal it with a kiss” (or, at least, Britney Spears does), but the more appropriate term for our characters in this week’s episode might be “Seal it with some sex.” What special significance does tonight’s episode put on doing (or not doing) the nasty? Things to consider: Religious rituals that had seemingly nothing to do with sex and everything to do with kinky leeches, Tyrion’s dilemma of honor vs. self-preservation (strategically, he’d be much, much better off having sex with Sansa and getting her pregnant) and Dany’s renewed policy of giving it up to whichever dude kills the most jerks for her? Read More

By Drew Grant 5/16 12:04pm

electric bikes

Banning e bikes? Same old story.

Wheel Estate: City Council Tries to Ban Electric Bikes With Bill That Just Adds Confusion

Hey, remember all the crazy state, federal, and city statutes regarding the definition of an electric bicycle? Yeah, we don’t want to delve into that particularly confusing string again either–just thinking about that whole “e bike or scooter” controversy makes us want to stick our mouth around an exhaust pipe–but sadly, we must. As New York City Council decided to “crack down” on ebikes with three bills that would increase fines and illiminate loopholes that have kept e bikes on the streets as well as create an “interactive crime map” for citizens with nothing better to do, the issue is back on the docket.

Only problem? Neither bill, which Mayor Bloomberg signed yesterday, gets to the real problem. Let’s take a look. Read More

By Drew Grant 5/15 9:20am

Party Favorites

Mike Dean, Liam McMullan on Plooms.

Purple Prince Promotes Ploom

Liam McMullan was standing outside of the West Village Bistro Highlands on Thursday night, wearing what appeared to be a homemade Bart Simpson t-shirt. As the new brand ambassador for Ploom “Pax,” which proudly boasts itself as being the “premium loose leaf vaporizer,” the son of famed New York photographer Patrick McMullan was doing his best to earn his Purple Prince title. When the Transom asked the young party scion how he had become involved with promoting the San Francisco-based company, he told us:

“I went to Wonderland and met Alice, and we went to a tea party with the Mad Hatter!”

Okay? Read More

By Joshua David Stein 5/14 6:59pm

The Transom

Even if we knew where David Chang partied, we wouldn't tell.

Food Fete: Hitting the James Beard Awards After-Party Circuit

The James Beard Awards, which took place last week at Lincoln Center, have rightly been described as the “Oscars for the Food World.” But because they reward chefs and not good-looking people, and because many in the food world are functioning alcoholics, the whole point of the Beards isn’t the ceremony itself, which is boring, Read More

By Drew Grant 5/10 12:42pm

Movie premiere

Ain't no party like a Gatsby party.

Baz Luhrmann on Gatsby Excess: ‘Sometimes a Party Is Just a Party’

Great Giggling Gatsbys! After taking a hit for over-romanticizing the gaudy decadence of the roaring twenties in hist latest film (and subsequent press tour), director Baz Luhrmann spoke to The Observer at Lamb’s Club Tuesday night during The Cinema Society, Brooks Brothers and Town & Country‘s after party for The Great Gatsby. Apparently, we should just all chill out and not think so hard about the implications of reveling in the excesses of high society, despite the film’s moral statement against such extravagance. Read More

By Jordyn Taylor 5/08 4:56pm

Meryl Strip

Meryl Streep (Getty Images)

Nearly Naked with Meryl Streep

I can’t quite explain how it happened, but last night I found myself performing in my underwear for Meryl Streep.

Well, I can explain part of it—the part that wasn’t the direct result of the Gods of Off-Off-Broadway Theater.

My good friend Hanah Fazio wrote a play called “The Miss Woman Pageant 2013,” which was Read More