Media-Whore D'oeuvres

"BuzzFeed had a good November–more than 133 million unique visitors good. But although that traffic surpassed Gawker’s, Nick Denton sent a calming email to his employees to remind them that it’s not all doom and gloom. 'The bad news… We got overtaken by Buzzfeed in November. They surged to 133m global uniques. Damn. That’s impressive. And Upworthy — even smarmier than Buzzfeed — is nipping at our heels,' Mr. Denton wrote in an email this morning, which was first posted by Jim Romenesko. And Mr. Denton expects that traffic trend to continue until next year, when Kinja really 'comes into its own.' Kinja! But Gawker is still doing well. Not full Kinja potential well, but still. 'The good news: even with Kinja still under construction, Gawker & Co surpassed previous levels, with 106m global uniques in November. That’s a great foundation for expansion, one that most media companies would kill for, even if they’re more likely to die for it,' Mr. Denton wrote. Slam. Anyway, as Mr. Denton went on to note in his memo, 'Buzzfeed and Upworthy may be the most shameless,' but Gawker is “not completely averse to crowd-pleasing.'" (Observer)











"The suburb of Los Altos, dotted with sequoia trees and apricot orchards, resembles most wealthy areas in Northern California’s Silicon Valley, with a main street of shops selling hyper-athletic offerings, like fleeces for hiking nearby mountains, and Francophile designs to decorate Provençal-influenced homes (sterling-silver trivets, champagne flutes imported from Paris). But look a bit closer and there’s something different about this particular town. A stone’s throw from the Tesla and McLaren car dealerships of Palo Alto, Los Altos has an inordinate, almost absurd number of services that cater to children. A toy store is stuffed with puffy glitter stickers and neon science projects for kid geniuses. A farm-to-fork restaurant includes a nanny-staffed room for children so you can enjoy your meal in peace, and a 5,000-square-foot kids’ science center with an electromagnetic ring toss and an exhibition about the way the wind moves on the ocean opened its doors in December.
This childhood fantasia didn’t happen by accident: some of it is the result of urban-design investments made by Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, and his wife, Anne Wojcicki (pronounced Wo-jit-skee), the most important couple in town—and perhaps the most prominent young couple in Silicon Valley. With more than $30 billion in wealth—much of it in special B-class stock that allows Brin to retain a good share of his voting power in Google—they were ranked ninth among U.S. families in charitable giving last year, on their way to becoming Generation X’s answer to Bill and Melinda Gates. 'Sergey is a beloved oddball of a guy, and unlike [Google’s current and former C.E.O.’s] Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, he’s the one who gets to do the cool stuff at Google,' says an industry observer. “He said, ‘Larry, you do the hard, prestigious work, and at the end of your life you’ll do the fun stuff, like Bill Gates. But I’m cutting out the bullshit and Davos and doing the fun stuff right now.’ ” Wojcicki, in her professional life as well as her personal one, is a powerful woman with ambitions that are enormous, which she funnels into her genetic-testing company, 23andMe. Last fall, Fast Company put her on the cover as 'The Most Daring CEO in America.' With two kids under six years old (hence the strong commitment to child-oriented activities in their town, even if the enterprise seems a bit Truman Show-like), the couple were widely seen as perfect for each other. Some people even called them 'twins': they’re the same age (40), went to elite universities, and are fanatical about the outdoors, yoga, and athletics. Brin likes springboard diving; Wojcicki rides an elliptical bike to work. Among the foremost examples of Silicon Valley’s data-driven pragmatism and optimism, they fervently believe the world can be a better place and have devoted themselves to making it so through their many interlocking ventures and family foundation, to which they contributed $187 million last year. But romantic scandals can happen even to those for whom 'good fortune arrives in fairytale-like flurries,' as The New York Times once wrote. The pair separated about 10 months ago. Last year Brin, a handsome, compact man with a toned physique, an enviable head of hair, and sparkling brown eyes, left the family’s spread on a $7 million Los Altos lot while dating a Google employee in her mid-20s, Amanda Rosenberg—who, in turn, ditched her boyfriend, then a prized executive at Google’s Android arm, for Brin. Gossip about the situation ricocheted quickly among the upper echelons of the wealthy fortysomethings leading Silicon Valley. Making things even more complicated, Wojcicki, says a friend of the couple’s, considered Rosenberg 'a friend.'" (VanityFair)













"Last Sunday night at Restaurant Daniel, Citymeals-on-Wheels Board of Directors Co-President Chef Daniel Boulud continued his long-time support of Citymeals-on-Wheels with his annual Sunday Dinner. This year’s theme was 'Burgundy, Black Truffles and Blue Jeans.' Citymeals prepares and delivers more than 2 million weekend, holiday and emergency meals to 18,000 homebound elderly New Yorkers. Chef Boulud was joined in the kitchen by Chef Régis Marcon, a 1995 winner of the world-renowned Bocuse d’Or culinary competition and co-owner of Hôtel et Restaurant Régis et Jacques Marcon. The three Michelin-starred Chef Marcon is also the current president of Bocuse d’Or France. 160 guests were served a splendid late winter menu celebrating black truffles. The dinner was paired with fine red and white Burgundy vintages chosen by Head Sommelier at DANIEL Raj Vaidya. Among those attending were: Chef Cesare Casella, Gael Greene, Robert S. Grimes, Suri Kasirer, Philippe Laffont, Deborah Roberts and Al Roker, Ernie Thrasher, and Lillian Vernon and Paolo Martino." (NYSD)







"Patton, also known as 'the Princeton Mom,' earned viral infamy last year when she wrote an open letter to the Daily Princetonian advising female students to “find a husband” before graduation. ('I am the mother of two sons who are both Princetonians. My older son had the good judgment and great fortune to marry a classmate of his, but he could have married anyone. My younger son is a junior and the universe of women he can marry is limitless.') Now she’s written Marry Smart: Advice for Finding THE ONE, a sassy self-help book from Simon & Schuster. The publicity kit refers to it as 'Lean Out for women like those on the campus of her beloved alma mater.' And Patton certainly loves Princeton. During my tour of her sprawling apartment, I try to catalogue the college paraphernalia on display but lose track after the first room. There are Princeton pennants and disembodied tiger tails and orange-and-black craft projects. Orange-and-black pebbles fill a decorative bowl; an orange-and-black quilt drapes the sofa; an orange feather boa sits on a shelf. "Who doesn't need an orange feather boa?" she asks, wrapping it around her neck and vamping. Lucille, Patton points out, has naturally orange fur. The only presence to rival Princeton is that of Patton’s two sons, whose framed photos tile all vertical surfaces. Daniel, the elder, graduated from Princeton in 2010 and is now a lawyer. (His wedding to a fellow second-generation Princetonian featured a sing-along to Princeton’s fight song.) Younger son Alex will graduate this spring. ;My sons! Aren’t my sons just the greatest thing in the world?” Patton marvels. She recently finalized her divorce from Daniel and Alex’s father, a man who 'went to a college of almost no name recognition,' which she still refuses to name. Now she lives alone with Lucille.The impetus for Patton's letter, she says, was provided by the 'incredibly accomplished women"'she met in the course of 18 years as a human resources consultant and life coach. "They come to me when they’re in their mid- to late-30s and say, Susan you have got to get me out of here, I’m miserable. I’m talking about women who are editors-in-chief, heads of marketing, publishers. They’re making 400 or 500,000 a year. They have wardrobe budgets, salon budgets, T&E budgets. Endless budgets! They’re on every A-list in town. And they are profoundly unhappy. The job is not the problem. They have very good jobs. But they go home to an empty apartment.” The lesson, according to Patton: 'You’ve been so invested in your professional super-stardom that you took your eye off the ball. You have no husband and no children, but the ship has already sailed! It’s too late. You don’t get to have everything.'Marry Smart (which Patton plans to follow with Parent Smart and Work Smart) advocates starting the husband-search during the college years. Its advice ranges from practical ('plan for your personal happiness with the same commitment and dedication that you plan for your professional success') to old-fashioned ('it’s the lonely cow that gives away free milk') to charmingly kooky (an ode to her 'lifelong imaginary friend' Caroline Kennedy) to shockingly offensive (a chapter entitled “Birds of a Feather” denounces interracial and interfaith relationships). She also questions the legitimacy of date rape. " (NYMag)

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"Just days before the Ukrainian crisis broke out, I took an overnight train to Kiev from Sevastopol in Crimea. Three mechanics in their 30s on their way to jobs in Estonia shared my compartment. All ethnic Russians born and raised in Sevastopol, they have made the trip to the Baltic states for the past eight years for seasonal work at Baltic Sea shipyards. Our ride together, accompanied by obligatory rounds of vodka, presented the opportunity for an in-depth discussion of Ukraine's political crisis. The ensuing conversation was perhaps more enlightening than talks of similar length with Ukrainian political, economic or security officials. My fellow passengers viewed the events at Independence Square in an overwhelmingly negative light. They considered the protesters camped out in Kiev's central square terrorists, completely organized and financed by the United States and the European Union. They did not see the protesters as their fellow countrymen, and they supported then-President Viktor Yanukovich's use of the Berkut security forces to crack down on them. In fact, they were shocked by the Berkut's restraint, saying if it had been up to them, the protests would have been 'cleaned up' from the outset. They added that while they usually looked forward to stopping over in Kiev during the long journey to the Baltics, this time they were ashamed of what was happening there and didn't even want to set foot in the city. They also predicted that the situation in Ukraine would worsen before it improved. A few days later, the protests in Independence Square in fact reached a crescendo of violence. The Berkut closed in on the demonstrators, and subsequent clashes between protesters and security forces throughout the week left dozens dead and hundreds injured. This spawned a sequence of events that led to the overthrow of Yanukovich, the formation of a new Ukrainian government not recognized by Moscow and the subsequent Russian military intervention in Crimea. While the speed of these events astonished many foreign (especially Western) observers, to the men I met on the train, it was all but expected. After all, the crisis didn't emerge from a vacuum. Ukraine was a polarized country well before the EuroMaidan movement took shape. I have always been struck by how traveling to different parts of Ukraine feels like visiting different countries. Every country has its regional differences, to be sure. But Ukraine stands apart in this regard." (STRATFOR)


"Red herrings. Unresolved mysteries. A kinda happy ending. True Detective's season one conclusion made me very happy just as all eight episodes brightened many a brutally cold winter night. The last scene of the series was kind of a masterclass of acting craft and charisma. McConaughey beautifully elevated (and navigated) many tortured monologues throughout the series while Harrelson's "normal" dude lived in denial of his own darkness. For all the creepy mythology and Louisiana gothic detail, it was the car rides with these two deeply flawed American males that captivated." (Nelson george)



"Last night I paid a visit to the ladies in jail. Soon the classroom was bubbling with brilliant fun and we all had a very good laugh, a necessary laughter that changed the atmosphere, equalizing us. Until a guard came along and barked, “We’re having a ‘shake-down’. Hope you didn’t have dinner plans.” And she slammed the heavy glass and iron door, stuck in a key and twisted it locked. As she walked away the room echoed from the slammed door. We tried to return to our entertainment but strange thumps and cries and then prolonged even stranger silences tugged our curiosity and some ladies began to pop out of their seats and went to press against the glass wall to peer down into the hell pit. A guard was busy ransacking the cells, tossing their meager property all across the cement floor, until she spotted the ladies. She bellowed threats and came charging up the metal stairs and called out those who had dared to observe. And then she marched them away." (Christina Oxenberg)

Marty Cohen, Blythe Danner, Barbara Walters, Philippe de Montebello, and Joe Roberto at Guild Hall's 29th Anniversary Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Awards Dinner.

"The calendar was full last night on the social side of New York. All kinds of things going on. Over at Sotheby’s on York and 72. Guild Hall was holding itsLifetime Achievement Awards dinner, celebrating an “Evening of Artistic Achievement." They were honoring Blythe Danner (for Performing Arts),Philippe de Montebello, the former longtime president of the Metropolitan Museum, for Visual Arts; Barbara Walters (need I say more?), and Jo Carole and Ronald Lauder who were given a Special Award for Leadership and Philanthropic Endeavors. Then, over at the Mandarin Oriental on Columbus Circle, The Women’s Project Theatre were holding their Women of Achievement  Awards Gala, with special guests Veanne Cox and David Hyde Pierce with a special Tribute toDorothy Fields (“I won’t dance Madam, with you; My heart won’t let my feet do things they should do…”) – the great Dorothy Fields. At the same out over at 583 Park Avenue, The New York School of Interior Design honored Mariette Himes Gomez and Charles Jencks at their annual Spring dinner. And where was I? I was over at Jazz at Lincoln Center in  the Frederick P. Rose Hall The Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770, was hosting its annual Order of the Golden Sphinx Gala, honoring film producer David Heyman." (NYSD)

"Who needs South by Southwest when you can just stay in New York? The Tribeca Film Festival (TIFF), in its 13th year, is continuing its march toward becoming one of the most futuristic, forward-thinking events in the industry, with a beefed-up transmedia and technology lineup. The festival, which starts April 16, has balanced its run of celebrity-studded narratives and award-winning docs with technology-focused 'films' that emphasis audience interaction, music and immersive experiences.If you didn’t think New York could be as hip as Austin, just take a look at the opener: a premiere screening of a Nas documentary, Time Is Illmatic, which explores the rapper’s seminal album 20 years after it was released. The Queens-born artist is expected to perform the album after the screening. In foregrounding music documentaries, TIFF seems to have found a successful formula. This will be the second year that it has opened with one: Last year, the band The National took to the stage for a live show after the festival premiered Mistaken For Strangers, a film about about lead singer Matt Berninger and his younger brother, Tom. Illmatic is just one of several documentaries this year that focus on musicians. Also on the lineup is Super Duper Alice Cooper, Keep On Keepin’ On, about 89-year-old jazz legend Clark Terry, and a documentary about the Grateful Dead’s co-founder Bob Weir called The Other One. Tribeca has also teamed up with digital media company Interlude for a music film challenge for Tribeca Interactive: Using the Treehouse app, competitors can create interactive music 'films' for three tracks—'Heavy Seas of Love' by Damon Albarn, 'Ticking Bomb' by Aloe Blacc or 'Dead in the Water' by Ellie Goulding—and submit their entries online. The winning creators will receive $10,000 each and a trip to attend TIFF, and their video will be shown at the festival." (Observer)

COURTESY OF FOX SEARCHLIGHT

"I want to live in a hotel someday, and I credit Wes Anderson for that. It’s not just that one of his greatest characters, Royal Tenenbaum, took up residence in a New York City suite. All of Anderson’s movies, with their fine-tuned details that are so easy to mock, capture the best things about being in hotels; the tiny toiletries, the neat storage solutions, the opulence of a busy lobby that always, somehow, seems orderly. And, unsurprisingly, that graceful hotel chaos is a major part of The Grand Budapest Hotel, Anderson’s newest film. Ralph Fiennes plays Gustave, the detail-oriented, ever-gracious concierge of a lavish hotel in a fictional European country, on the brink of World War II. When Fiennes told me, in our interview, that 'there’s a lot of Wes in Gustave,' it came as little surprise. But Anderson is not just a fussbudget playing on movie sets like a kid in a dollhouse—he’s thoughtful about all the elements of filmmaking, from casting to accepting criticism in the editing room, and even provides advice to up-and-coming filmmakers like, as it happened, Ralph Fiennes. He’s also given up on the dream of living in a hotel like Royal Tenenbaum, for reasons that might seem very earthbound for a filmmaker who’s always seemed to live in a world all his own." (VanityFair)

Howard Stern Interviews Chelsea Handler

Howard Stern interviews Brian Cranston

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"Matt Taibbi, the ­former enfant terrible of ­political journalism, limps into a cozy diner on ­Chambers Street, in Tribeca a ­Russian-style fur cap pulled over his ears, a half-formed apology for his lateness already on his lips. 'I am—I must have—did I keep you waiting?'  Informed he is actually seven ­minutes early, his shoulders slump in relief. 'Okay,' the lanky 44-year-old says, with a toothy grin. 'Good. You’ll have to excuse me. It’s been a crazy time for me.' This is Matt Taibbi, circa 2014: ­deferential, polite, very busy. In mid-­February, shortly after the birth of his first child, Taibbi announced he was leaving Rolling Stone, where he has worked for almost a decade, to start a digital magazine for First Look Media, the company owned by eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar. The last few weeks have been consumed with business matters—hiring editorial staff, signing off on designs. Taibbi won’t discuss the exact format of the new venture, nor its name—that’s still being worked out, too—but he sees it focusing, in part, on the same matters of corporate malfeasance he’s been covering for years. 'What I’m hoping to capture is the simultaneously funny and satirical voice that you got with Spy magazine,' he says. 'The whole thing will probably be a little different than what a lot of people expect.' What people expect, of course, is the ­ribald, loudly antagonistic voice of a writer who is, in his own words, 'full of outrage.' The guy who compared Goldman Sachs to a 'vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.'" (NYMag)













"BuzzFeed co-founder Jonah Peretti wrote a kind of open letter to his employees recently, in which he compared the rapidly growing viral-content empire to Time magazine. Is this just the typical kind of hubris that infects startup founders, to compare a nine-year-old website known primarily for its 'listicles' and funny cat GIFs to a venerable and award-winning newsmagazine like Time? Not really. In fact, there are a lot more similarities between Time magazine and BuzzFeed than even most media-industry watchers would probably care to admit. Peretti describes how he started reading David Halberstam’s book 'The Powers That Be,' about the early days of what are now the leaders of the mainstream media — entities like CBS and the New York Times and Time Inc. — and how it struck him that those companies were once very much like BuzzFeed: scrappy new players run by people with new ideas about what the media should be, ideas that were almost universally condemned when they first appeared on the scene." (GigaOm)

















"You can get almost anything in America – except a good old fashioned Soviet era tank in which to fool around on… or a wood handled Kalashnikov to play with. Funny that. So imagine my delight when I saw the abandoned tank field in front of the police station in Bamiyan. It was like I turned into a saucy little head scarved five year old." (Paula Froelich)

Courtesy of HBO

"True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto tried to warn you. Without spoiling the plot for you, he said weeks ago via Twitter hints and vague allusions, that it was unwise to focus on the identity of The Yellow King. That cracking the esoteric mythological code of True Detective wasn’t the point. So for those of you who refused to listen, for those who (understandably) got swept up in trying to chase down theories and outsmart the showrunners, last night’s straightforward finale might have been a frustrating anti-climax. Barring the Carcosa reveal, we didn’t learn anything new about the case in the finale. Errol, The Lawnmower Man, makes for an unsettling but, ultimately, unimpressive monster. Either Reggie Ledoux or the horror you, the viewer, dreamt up in your head would have been far creepier. I’m sure, ever since the True Detective audience went full Rust Cohle with their conspiracy theories and obsessive analysis, Nic Pizzolatto has been dreading this finale. (He jokingly said he was planning to leave the country if the reaction was poor.) But it’s not his fault that, like Rust and Marty, the audience has been chasing the wrong demon. The terror and the darkness isn’t external, it’s internal. When you view it that way, the finale delivers an entirely satisfying conclusion." (VF)












"The social calendar ramped up last week and so the weekend was a relief. The benefit dinner parties/dances/ galas are back in business. Last night, at Restaurant Daniel on Park Avenue and 65th Street, Chef Daniel Boulud continued his long and unflagging support of Citymeals-on-Wheels with his annual Sunday Dinner at DANIEL. Chef Boulud was joined in the kitchen by Chef Regis Marcon, a 1995 winner of the world-renowned Bocuse d’Or culinary competition and co-owner of Hotel et Restaurant Regis et Jacques Marcon. Chef Marcon is also the current president of Bocuse d’Or France. This year’s theme was 'Burgundy, Black Truffles and Blue Jeans.' 160 privileged guests indulged at the Michelin stars restaurant, served a winter menu celebrating black truffles. The dinner was paired with fine red and white Burgundy vintages chosen by Head Sommelier at DANIEL Raj Vaidya. The evening also included a silent and live auctions of rare and large format wines and one-of-a-kind travel and dining experiences. Attire was 'Sunday chic – blue jeans encouraged!'" (NYSD)

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"It was Wednesday and it was the Michael’s lunch. A mob scene. At table one, the Bonnie Fuller and Gerry Byrne gang. This week: Michelle Fine-Smith, advertising director of Penske Media; PR guru Norah Lawlor, hairstylist to the stars Louis Licari; Lisa Lockwood of WWD, Albie Hecht of  Headline News, Katie O’Reilly of Macy’s; Faye Stein and Stephanie Wener of VH1; Valerie Bruce of BBC America, Jenny Fleiss of Rent The Runway. Right next door to them, Jesse Kornbluth with Paige Peterson. And next to them that Texas boy, the Mayah of Michael’s Joe Armstrong with another Texas boy Don Carleton, executive director of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at U Texas. And next to them: mega entertainment lawyer Alan Grubman with mega-hedge fund owner Daniel Loeb. And next to them, Jack Kliger with Glenn Horowitz; and across the aisle from them Rosanna Scotto of Fox 5 News with Maury Rogoff.Moving around the room: PR consultant Judy Agisim with Fern Mallis and Bisilia Bokoko, Spanish Global Brand Ambassador based here in New York for the Liceu Barcelona Opera House; Barbaralee Diamondstein-Spielvogel with Hildy Kuryk, Director of Communications for Vogue; Jay Sures of United Talent with Elizabeth Vargas; Cliff Sobel, US Ambassador to Brazil; Joan Jakobson with Loraine Boyle; more Texas, Becca Thrash and friends; Harold Ford Jr; Barry Frey; producer Beverly Camhe, Andrew Stein, and next door to him, DPC with Rikki Klieman; Diane Clehane with Liz Kaplow, marketing communications exec; Scott Singerwith Maureen Reidy; Alice Mayhew with Kati Marton; Wednesday Martin and Suri Kasirer with Lisa Linden of Linden, Alschuler  Kaplan PR; Henry Schleiff, President of the Discovery Channel with Ed Bleier; Mickey Ateyeh with Carlos Falchi. And there you have a good picture, although I’ve missed dozens more." (NYSD)













"Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd: 1. Hollywoodlife.com’s Bonnie Fuller and Penske Media Vice Chair Gerry Byrne, presiding over an overflowing crowd: celebrity hairstylist Louis Licari; HLN’s EVP Albie Hecht; Equinox’s CEO Harvey Spevak; PR maven Norah Lawlor; VH1′s Faye Stein and Stephanie Werner; WWD‘s Lisa Lockwood; Rent The Runway co-founder Jenny Fleiss; Katie O’Reilly of Macy’s, who gets the award for the day’s most interesting job title — VP of Millennial Marketing; BBC America’s Valerie Bruce; and Penske Media Corporation’s managing director of consumer advertising, Michelle Fine-Smith. 2.HeadButler.com’s Jesse Kornbluth with Paige Peterson 3. 'Mayor' Joe Armstrong with yet another fabulous visitor from the University of Texas at Austin — I’m still reeling from all that fascinating lunch I had a few weeks ago with the gang from the Ransom Center. This time, Joe bought along Don Carleton, executive director of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, which houses the papers of Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and Andy Rooney, among many other journalists and photojournalists as well as one of the country’s largest newspaper collections. 4. Attorney Alan Grubman and a fellow I didn’t recognize. The early birds were the first to arrive in the dining room today and were out the door before things shifted into high gear. 5. TV Guide‘s Jack Kliger and book seller Glenn Horowitz 6. PR maven Maury Rogoff and Fox 5 News’ Rosanna Scotto 7. Liz Kaplow and yours truly 8. New York Social Diary‘s David Patrick Columbia and Rikki Klieman. I stopped by their table for a chat and the conversation turned to — what else? — the endless winter. 'I wouldn’t normally go, but I’m ready to go to Florida,' Rikki told me. Can we come?" (DianeClehane)





"The onset of a new foreign policy crisis offers yet another opportunity to attempt to categorize President Obama’s foreign policy orientation. Fred Kaplan, writing for Politico, offers up one answer: Obama is a Realist. Kaplan intends the description as a compliment. I think Kaplan’s exercise in ideological pigeonholing is far too narrow, which I also mean as a compliment.For those who don’t follow foreign policy jargon, Realism is a term for a school of thought that’s distinct from realism, though its adherents tend to consider the two things more or less the same. Big-R Realists dismiss the role of values in foreign policymaking, believing that states ought to (and almost always do) follow their interests, even if they delude themselves or others that they have some grander moral purpose, like human rights or democracy. The ultimate modern expression of Realism would be Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, who tolerated a bloodbath by Cold War ally Pakistan, and who once took the Realist philosophy to its reduction ne plus ultra by commenting privately, 'And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern.' The ultimate expression of the opposite of Realism, idealism, might be post-9/11 George W. Bush, declaring war on evil everywhere, pledging 'the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.'The Democratic version of idealism emerged during and after the Clinton administration, when a small cadre of liberal foreign policy activists came to view the successful intervention to protect Bosnia and Kosovo as the model for a new kind of humanitarianism. Some of the advocates for this school of thought, like Hillary Clinton and Samantha Power, joined Obama’s foreign policy team." (Nymag)





"Vladimir Putin isn't invading Crimea or trying to secure the land around which his warm-water fleet is based, no, no. He is protecting Russian speakers from brazen fascist aggression on the part of the Ukrainians. Truth is, protecting, uh, Russian speakers in Crimea has been a passion of Putin's for a long time. How long? Publicly, since at least 2008. That year, at the April Russia-NATO summit in Bucharest, Putin made his desire to protect the Russian language known. Putin and his brass have long felt that NATO, especially an expanding one, to be one of the main threats to Russia. I can't blame him, frankly, but at that summit, he reportedly made clear that if NATO dared to take Ukraine into its fold, Putin will take...Crimea. You know, to protect the Russian speakers. It caused quite a hubbub at the time, with Ukrainian then-president Viktor Yushchenko saying that NATO would be a great way to guarantee Ukraine's independence. Which, given Putin's reported remarks to then-President George W. Bush, seemed to be up for discussion. 'You have to understand, George, that Ukraine is not even a country,' he is widely reported to have said. 'Part of its territory is in Eastern Europe and the greater part was given to them by us.' (By the way, note all the then-presidents I've mentioned. Putin has survived them all.) Anyway, back to those Russian speakers in Crimea, remember them?" (TNR)











"As those of you who follow me on twitter, facebook or tumblr may know – I just got back from attending the Afghan Ski Challenge in Afghanistan. And by just got back, I mean I literally still smell like the plane, despite two showers. [Ed Note: WTF is up with me and skiing this year? you'd think I'd actually know how to strap on a pair of skis by myself now and get down a green slope without biting it like 15 times... which I don't... or, you know, be super sporty... which, for a woman who's life motto has always been the Lemonheads song, 'I Lied About Being the Outdoor Type,' is mildly hilarious]. But despite the altitude, the three foot snow drifts and the mandated physical activity, I managed to find the bright side. After the jump, I present to you the YUMMs (Young Urban Mountain Men) who thank fully congregated in Bamiyan for your viewing pleasure:" (Paula Froelich)

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"Last Thursday night Jerry della Femina and his wife Judy Licht hosted a book-party for their friend Dr. Gerald Imber who has just published his sixth book 'Wendell Black, MD' in which a New York City police surgeon finds himself in the middle of an international drug-smuggling ring.Dr. Imber in non-literary life is one of the most preeminent plastic surgeons in New York. He’s also an assistant clinical professor of surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. NYSD readers also know him as one of Da Boyz – Della Femina, Bergman, Greenfield, Kramer and Imber who often occupy a center table in the Michael’s melee on Wednesday. I’ve known Dr. Imber for some time. I think I met him first when I interviewed him for a piece. He was known for also having a roster of male clients as he proposed that doing 'little things' early kept the countenance fresh and good for the executive market place. I don’t know if he’s ever had anything done to himself but he wears a sunny disposish most times I’ve seen him, and if you didn’t know, you’d think the guy is just a laid back businessman (always looking as comfortable in a suit and tie as in a jacket and jeans) enjoying his visit to this small planet. I describe him thusly because when we were chatting at the party the other night, I asked him when  -- at what hour – did he (a working MD!) sit down to write? First of all, I asked him how long it took to write this book. ('About a year'). And when did he write it?" (NYSD)

"A thousand years ago I had a job at Viacom at the heart of Manhattan.  Mercifully, I had lucked out in the accommodations department. I was living rent free in a friend’s empty penthouse. My rich friends always had more homes than they could inhabit and I made a habit of filling in off season. My life was always full of these apparent contradictions, of superb wealth dangling just out of permanen... t reach. Every morning I would swish in a marble tub whilst sipping an espresso and then I’d trudge off across slushy dirty sidewalks, head bowed. I tried to vary the route when possible, to help fight routine fatigue. Except for storm days when I beelined for the closest subway entrance. A damp slippery corner where newspapers and rotund muffins winked from behind scratched plexiglass booths. There were those mid-winter days when more than half the employees could not make it in from their far flung suburban reaches. In the unusual quiet I would stare out from the glass tower overlooking Times Square, watching snow tumbling in its dignified gaiety, the streets and sidewalks almost devoid of life. New York City at midday midweek and empty and quiet all blotted out from the snowstorm. Fishtailing taxicabs the only color in sight. I promised myself how one day I would be long gone and coddled in sunshine." (Christina Oxenberg)

"Chichi is cool for so many reasons – chief amongst which is: it has the largest indigenous market in Central America. Clearly, I had to go. And I was not disappointed. Mayans, for miles around, come in ever Thursday and Sunday to sell intricately sewn textiles, death masks, chickens, dolls, sweaters, chotchkes, you name it. all at the foot of the 400-year old church of Santo Tomás – which is built atop a Pre-Columbian temple platform, and the steps originally leading to a temple of the pre-Hispanic Maya civilization are still there. K’iche’ Maya priests still use the church for their rituals, burning incense and candles and in really special cases, they burn a chicken for the gods. Each of the 18 stairs that lead up to the church stands for one month of the Maya calendar year. It’s kind of amazing – especially as I’d assumed all the Mayans died out years ago. I was wrong. Thank God. [Ed note: Mayan rituals are a lot like voodoo rituals - involving chickens, blood, candles, booze, cocaine, leaves and fire. I think it must a universal fact that pluralist gods liked to party. A lot]. There was also a sick restaurant area in the middle of the market which served the best fried chicken I’ve ever had, hands down. Don’t tell Aunt Dee I said that. She’ll be pissed." (Paula Froelich)

"Ever wanted to be a fly on the wall at Vanity Fair’s annual Oscar party? This video is probably as close as it gets. From red carpet arrivals to the glamorous digs inside, take a look at this year’s event from inside out, starting with the construction of the brand-new space on Sunset Boulevard and leading to the wee hours at the end of the big night. There are Oscar winners taking photos with their awards, spontaneous dance parties, and cameos from people you didn’t see during the awards show, like Ben Affleck and Taylor Swift. We’ll let you tell us which star looks the happiest to be there, though our early money is on Channing Tatum, who pops up at the very end with an even bigger smile than he gave Ellen in the famous selfie.  For more from inside the party, check out the complete photo gallery." (VF)

The Pope Curses

Google Glass NYC Party

Google Glass NYC had a wonderful meetup at Google headquarters on Tuesday night in the meatpacking district. The pre and postparty was sponsored by Swill, an alcohol delivery app, and the guys at Lost Tribes beer. There were presentations on the uses of Google Glass in the fields of Photography (by Clayton Roulhac-Carr is an American photographer/Artist of Afro-French descent), Art (Han Vu, Media Producer, LampHouse Pictures), Neuroscience (Dr. Ned T. Sahin, Neuroscientist, Harvard University).




 




Spotted in the crowd Katy Kasmai, Sabrina Slatts, Saji George, Arthur Gennari, Tendai, Ming and Hector Motino.

Kissinger on Why Ukraine Matters To Putin

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

Gloria Vanderbilt and Andrew Slaby

"This past Wednesday at the 1stdibs Gallery in the New York Designer Center at 200 Lexington Avenue, they opened an exhibition of Gloria Vanderbilt's 'The Left Hand is the Dreamer,' work from 2013 - 2014 in gouache, collage, and pastel. The opening brought out a lot of friends of Gloria, as well as two of her sons." (NYSD)

"Walking into a dinner party for fifty chic and some not-so-chic people in a nearby village last week, I was confronted by a tall man with horn-rimmed glasses who called me his neighbor but then added, 'No, you’re not my neighbor—what’s your name?' No cunning linguist I, nor used to being barked at by nouveau-riche whippersnappers, I turned my back to him and told him to 'Look it up in the Almanach de Gotha, asshole!' He wasn’t best pleased, especially as I also called him dickhead. Now, please don’t think for a moment that I approve of my bad manners. But nor do I accept some hemorrhoid of a man half my age acting like a cop in a cheap gangster movie circa 1936. The name of the whippersnapper whom I don’t know nor want to know turned out to be Hunt, spelled with a 'C.' His very rich American wife bought him the Wally Yacht company, one started by an Italian friend of mine that is now rumored to be in receivership or close to it. She’s a nice woman whose father was Mort Sackler, an inventor of some drug that made everyone happy and also made him a happy billionaire. What she should do is invest in a book of manners or tutorials on social graces—they would be much cheaper—and teach John Hunt to be less arrogant and less likely to be hit by an old-timer like me ... So there you have it, dear readers—society at its best during the height of the Gstaad season 2014. There are exceptions, of course. A dinner party by Dino Goulandris for the ex-prime minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney (who attended with his wife Mila), was a wonderful evening. The premier gave a graceful speech ending with a Yeats poem and my host asking me to respond. My answer was that I might be plucky, but I am not stupid. To respond after such an articulate and charming speech was like going to bed with a woman who had just made love with Rubirosa; it makes a man feel small and rather clumsy. (Incidentally, Brian Mulroney spoke with great affection about Conrad Black and told us he was doing very well back in Canada.) The next evening, Prince Pierre d’Arenberg and his beautiful wife Sylvia threw a hell of a bash for a hell of a lot of us, one that left me feeling that my nights were finite, but a good ski the next morning pumped me up enough to attend a great dinner given by Chaz Price and Jonathan Sieff and their wives, one that closed out the week that tripled the size of my liver but registered a minus as far as my years to come are concerned." (Taki)











"Michael Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio, Donald Trump ... Adam Schefter? ESPN's NFL reporter tops a new list of the most influential New Yorkers on Twitter, ahead of mayors and famous people past and present, based not on followers — Schefter has 2.7 million to, say, Fallon's 11.7 million — but recent engagement. The data, compiled by social media company PeerIndex, uses a special set of algorithms to come up with a New York influence score it calls 'Apple π,' measuring interactions through responses and retweets. (The info came from 30 days in 2014, ending February 24, which just so happened to include the nearby Super Bowl, so Schefter's reign on top could be short. For more on the methodology, keep reading and check here.) The full results, though, are an amusing collection of celebrities, politicians, rappers, and reporters, all of whom somehow manage to just about sum this place up." (NYMag)













"Gender was as fluid as the cocktails being poured at the National Arts Club on Thursday night, where Flatt magazine celebrated it latest issue with Robert De Niro on the cover. (No, he didn’t show.) Among the bearded hipsters were some women, but they were hard to find. 'All of these models look like guys,' said one guest as he stared at androgynous Andrej Pejic, who graces the new book, and his two gender-bending friends. As Jimmy Fallon’s 'Tonight' show drummer Questlove and designer Timo Weiland deejayed, Flatt’s editor-at-large, actor Matthew Modine, was asked how he liked living in LA. 'It sucks,' Modine told Ralph Lauren model Morgan O’Connor, Nur Khan and Jean Shafiroff. 'It would be great to come back to New York.'" (p6)