By Drew Grant 2/12 4:55pm

Stinky Valentine

Happy V-Day sweetheart!

How Would You Like to Take a Sexy Sewage Tour Around Greenpoint for Valentine’s Day?

Let’s face it: Roses are passe. Chocolate makes you fat, even if you eat it “ironically.” (Whatever the hell that means.) And a nice card isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on if you don’t have another special gift awaiting your lover this Valentine’s Day.

If your special sweety is a hipster residing in the Williamsburg/Greenpoint area, this holiday is especially hard. What can you get them, a pre-order of the Girls: Season 1 box set? Luckily, the Department of Environmental Protection has your back. Raw sewage, anyone? Read More

By Sarah Douglas 2/22/12 3:03pm

The Transom

Mr. Matchmaker, won't yo umake me a match?

Richard Easton Will Find You a Mate (for Only $100,000)

A social event for a matchmaker on the day after Valentine’s Day struck Transom as having more than a slight whiff of desperation about it. Or was it hopefulness? We were expecting a shout of “Next year in…”—well, where is it that prototypically happy couples go, anyhow?

Happy coupledom, to us, has always read as shorthand for “excuse to stay home on couch in pajamas reading novels.”  These thoughts were with us as we entered the Upper East Side restaurant Amali. Amali had been described in the invite as “farm-to-table,” which got us thinking metaphorically. Ah, the farm. No matchmaking required there—jump cut to grunts and flying mud. Pity the poor humans and their tables, over which banter must be made.

We’d always wanted to meet a matchmaker, and no sooner had we picked out Richard Easton as the dark-suited fellow with round, owlish glasses, than we employed a strategy that, back in our single days, had helped us to meet men: we made a bee line for him, cornered him, and started asking questions. Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 2/14/12 1:32pm

off the record

Arianne Cohen knows 1500 people's weird sexual secrets. That they told her. (Image courtesy the author)

Sex Diary Analyst Arianne Cohen Tells Us the Difference Between American, Italian and British Lovers

In The Observer’s all-day mission to provide solace to the Valentine-less, we give you this: The bitter and the undersexed can now binge on the voyeuristic delights (or is it the anthropological horrors?) of New York magazine’s weekly online Sex Diaries. The concept has been expanded beyond the five boroughs in a book, The Sex Diaries Project,  published by John Wiley & Sons. With the contextualizing essays by former New York sex diaries editor Arianne Cohen, we might even figure out how we got to this sad state in the first place–or why it’s not so bad after all. Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 2/14/12 11:15am

Fashion Week Observed

ella

Beautiful People Not Spared Misery of Valentine’s Day

Today DNAinfo generously served up the names, ages, and photographs of fashion week imports who are really disillusioned by the whole Valentine’s Day thing.

Take Mariza Veer, who’s been a model for four years. She says that “though all people deserve to get nice things on Valentine’s Day,” she was really surprised her boyfriend got her a lame blender one year, “given her occupation.” Read More

By Matt Chaban 2/06/12 11:49am

Dizzying Designs

6 Photos

BIG Heart

Times Square Loves Bjarke Ingels [UPDATE: Now With Five-Times More Heart]

New York may not be the kindest city for love, but at least it is kind to those caught up in Cupid’s embrace. Unlike other towns, it is almost impossible to forget Valentine’s Day, what with the roses in every bodega and the special pre fixe menus popping up at every restaurant around. And, for the past few years, there has been a giant designer heart in the heart of the city, Times Square.

For the past four years, the Times Square Alliance has tapped celebrated architects to create giant Valentines for Father Duffy Square (site of the giant TKTS amphitheater). Entries have included glowing hearts and icy ones. This year, the alliance tapped one of the BIGgest firms in town, Bjarke Ingels Group, to create its installation. Read More

By Amanda Sterling 2/14/11 9:31pm

Marriage Equality

Happy Valentine’s Day from the NYCLU

The New York Civil Liberties Union took advantage of the holiday spirit of love today and published a Valentine’s Day poem in support of same-sex marriage legislation: “Republicans are red, /Democrats are blue, /But love transcends political parties, /We know this is true.” Catchy, kinda of!

The poem comes with a message to the group’s Read More

By Emily Atkin 2/11/11 10:06pm

Love Sucks

Heartsick: Why Valentine’s Day Must Die

Here it comes: Feb. 14, 2011.

As the dreaded day approaches, I can feel the skin on my forehead gradually tighten, bridging the gap between my eyebrows. Great–togetherness. And now I look even less covetable. Good job, squishy-face. Always setting yourself up for a win!

I know I’m not the only one who feels Read More