Let’s have a fight! (it’s actually good for you)

Yeah, folks, hope you were there – Union Square definitely was the place to be this sunny Saturday afternoon! As part of the global Pillow Fight event network, we had a chance to behold the Third Annual New York City Pillow Fight. About a thousand people showed up, armed to the teeth with soft cushions and clad in appropriately intrinsic costumes. Your humble correspondent attended, too, more as an innocent bystander than as a participant – and here’s what I saw:

The ferocious fight erupted almost with the first blow of a whistle, 3 pm sharp – and continued with unwinding energy at least for an hour, and then some:

Participants showed up armed and dangerous – observe this guy’s fearful imported weapon:

Pillows were not the only fashion statement for a day. Costumes mattered a lot:

Some folks sowed a level of multi-tasking that would make Napoleon run for his money:

…while others stunned the audience with guerrilla political activism:

(no, this Harvey Dent guy is NOT a Democrat..)

All in all, it was a lot of fun and a lot of feathers:

But when the pillow-fighting ceased, a more serious crowd showed up… and made me thinking: perhaps we should held a global Pillow Fight event on a neutral ground, instead of Bejing Olympics? Just a thought…

Enough is enough

We often wonder why is it that we don’t hear a lot about Poland in the US media? Today we understand and we would like to hear even less. The only time American media writes about Poland, it seems, is when our president or ex-prime minister (yes, the infamous duo of twins from hell) says or does something stupid.

It wasn’t different this morning when we found out that a gay New York man has filed a complaint in Polish consulate against the Polish president for using images of him and his partner in a speech condemning homosexual marriage. A clip of Brendan Fay’s wedding with his partner Tom Moulton was woven into Lech Kaczynski’s televised address to the nation Monday night, as a warning against the dangers of adopting the EU’s new treaty and its Charter of Fundamental Rights. Our genius president thinks it could open the door to same-sex marriage in Poland (and as we all know, that would be the biggest tragedy in the world).

In his letter to consul Krzysztof Kasprzyk, Fay wrote that the couple is “frustrated to hear that images from such a joyous day are used to spread intolerance.”

We are frustrated, too. And frankly, we do not want to listen about Poland at all, if the news makes us blush with embarrassment every time it comes up. Enough already.

Question: What shall we do with a drunken sailor early in the morning?

Answer: Make him go to Fifth Avenue and listen to bagpipers.

And then, go ahead and have some more Guinness with him. We’ll be there, too. Sláinte!

Bye, Bye Governor

Ken Catalino, slate.com

As was expected, Eliot Spitzer stepped down from the governor’s office. We’re not going to ask: what took you so long. We understand Mr. Spitzer is a little slow these days. And we hear (from the New York Times’ editorial, written by a former escort agency worker) he was even slower before, cause apparently NO ONE who has a brain and wants to keep their liaisons secret, searches for paid sex on-line.

Then again, he’s not alone in the club of men who do not use their brain but rather make a use of other bodily organs (Do we really have to say their names? Think cigars, public restrooms, congressional pages and New Jersey)

Mr. Spitzer, his wife at his side again (how difficult it must have been for her knows only a woman who was in a similar position recently, Dina Matos McGreevey, who also wrote about it in The Times) said his resignation is effective as of Monday. Lt. Gov. David A. Peterson would be sworn in to replace him.

Yes She Can

It’s official. We hate Scarlett Johansson (just kidding). Not only is she beautiful and talented, but she’s also working with David Bowie. That’s right. “Starlett” Johansson is currently finishing an album with her interpretations of Tom Waits’ songs and she had asked David Bowie to record backing vocals for her. We’ll be able to hear David in two songs only, but still. So we guess it is possible to have everything. Bowie calls her voice “mystical” and says the actress stunned him with her talent. David Sitek from TV On the Radio produced the album titled “Anywhere I Lay My Head” and it premieres May 20th.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a sneak-peek of Scarlett’s album (except the cover from Wikipedia, above) but we know her throaty voice from the famous video produced by Will.i.am. Can she sing? Yes, she can!

Boy, oh boy

We heard the news a few days ago. A Manhattan pub owner, even though (or maybe that’s exactly why) he’s Irish, had banned the song “Danny Boy” for the entire month of March. Which you may find surprising, given that St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner (March 17).Here are a few reasons: it’s depressing (we agree, especially after a few pints), it’s not usually sung in Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day (we asked some Irish friends, they agree) , and its lyrics were written by an Englishman who never set foot on Irish soil (that’s true, too, although, to be fair, he wrote the lyrics for a different tune and had no idea the Irish are going to adopt it). According to Shaun Clancy, owner of Foley’s Pub and Restaurant, “Oh Danny Boy” was ranked among the 25 most depressing songs of all times. No wonder. Its lyrics include these lines: “The summer’s gone, and all the flowers are dying/ ‘Tis you, ’tis you must go and I must bide.”

Whew! Even the Muppets started crying while singing it:

It’s hard out there for a… governor

While walking around Lower East Side this afternoon, care-free and without any news source handy, we walked into the Tenement Museum’s store on Orchard. A guy was standing at the register, paying for his goods, when he said to the cashier: “How about the Spitzer story, huh?” She was like, “Yeah, I know, it’s crazy, isn’t it?” We had no idea what they were talking about, and didn’t want to butt in on the conversation, so we ran home and turned the computer on.

Wow. We hate to think about it like that, but… Governor of New York is naked. Or at least was, many times, as a regular client (No.9 to be exact) of a prostitution agency called Emperor’s Club. Eliot Spitzer’s suspicious money transfers first led FBI agents to believe he was hiding bribes. The more they dug though, the more it seemed like Mr. Spitzer was just paying for sex. And paying big bucks at that. According to ABS News, the “sessions” started at 5500 dollars an hour. The governor admitted he was guilty, read a statement with his wife by his side, said he was sorry and is probably going to resign tonight.

He’d better. In as much as we don’t really care what he does after hours, we don’t see any reason why the state should pay him one more cent, when somebody else could spend that money on something other than expensive hookers.

(Disclaimer: Image above was inspired by the Gothamist post on the scandal)

Spoiler in the city

This brand new trailer for “SATC” movie is all-telling and spoils it even more than previous ones. But that’s okay, we’re still looking forward to May 30th, when Carrie Bradshaw is going to be stood up at the altar. No, we’re not mean like that, we just can’t help ourselves and want to say “We told you so!”

Oh, and by the way: we looove the fact that Jennifer Hudson’s character in a movie moved to New York “to fall in love”. Didn’t we all?

The upcoming premiere of “SATC” movie is even more relevant now that we hear (via NY Magazine’s blog) another “sex and the city” spill-over might get canceled. “Cashmere Mafia” (produced by Darren Star, half of the “SATC” success) is on the “chopping block” after all the writers came back to work. What a shame – we kind of liked the airy, light-hearted and well-dressed silliness of it. Now we’re stuck with a boring, too serious and grown-up “Lipstick Jungle”, written by Candace Bushnell, the other half of the “SATC” team. Which gives us even more reason to be excited about the end of May.

Least Kept Secrets

Every year every magazine has to do its Best-of-list. New York magazine is no different and this week’s issue is full of places deemed by the editors as best to eat, drink, shop (are you kidding? Bloomingdale’s the best place to get jeans? Try “the most expensive”) and take your dog for a walk (Tompkins Square Park). But, except the fact that our all-time favorite places like Russ And Daughters (a no brainer – of course they would win in the “best lox on a bagel sandwich” category, duh!) and Mars Bar (best dive bar) had won in crucial categories, we have to say that lists like these don’t make any sense for us.

We understand it helps boost up their business, and we’re all for it. It’s just that usually when local gems are written about in popular magazines, they sort of lose their charm. Everybody knows about them and everybody goes there. It’s like that humongous sign on Century 21 store downtown that says “New York’s Best Kept Secret” and can be seen from a plane, it’s so big. That’s what happened to Bohemian Beer Garden in Astoria – after it was written about in Time Out NY, it literally became a madhouse. And they had to hire uniformed guards who give you a hard time if you don’t have a state-issued ID. You know what we mean? Some things are just better kept a secret.

We have to say though, that we like the idea of hiring artists to design this year’s Best of New York’s magazine cover (clearly a new Yorker rip-off, but we still think it’s a good thing). There are only two winners (one cover for subscribers, the other for newsstands, photo above) but our favorite was the one with nothing but the 212-471-1555 number scribbled on a piece of green paper (some more competing covers below). And, we are happy to say, that the message on its voice mail is pretty amusing. What is it? Just try it yourself.