By Meredith Bryan on May 26, 2009
Wednesday, May 27
It’s summer, mugwumps! So perk up, all you “involuntary” vacationers! Just as we were trying to forget about our nation’s offshore terrorist prisons and focus on getting a little color during our lunch break, here comes that wretched Internet pelting us with news of Meghan “Melons” McCain vs. Dick “Chop-Shop” Cheney! Can’t we just stick to Michael Kors and Isaac Mizrahi and all the other fabulous New York gays who are designing the First Wardrobe of Madame Obama?! No yuks, just muckety-mucks, over at the Harvard Club, as tonight’s “gala” honors American World War II casualties who were based in Britain. The Crimson clubbers will be rolling out Churchill’s daughter, Lady Mary Soames, not to mention Jon Meacham, editor of the nipped-and-tucked Newsweek and mirthless author of all those prizewinning hardback biographies we give dear ole Dad for Christmas.
[New York Gala for London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral Honors American Brothers in Arms in WWII, Harvard Club, 27 West 44th Street, 6:30 p.m., 212-709-6040]
Thursday, May 28
Babes, bears and bling-ing-ing! Brooklyn band-of-the-moment Grizzly Bear leave their usual Williamsburg watering hole Marlow & Sons to perform at Town Hall in Times Square, trailed by chain-smoking Bedford Avenue hipsters riding $1,200 faux-vintage bicycles. A few pedal pumps uptown and eastward, the blow-dried damsels of the New York Junior League host their inaugural (yet already retro-sounding!) “Babes, Bags and Bubbles” charity auction on East 80th Street, hawking tasteful, surely not grotty handbags owned by the likes of Tinsley Mortimer, Carly Simon and trout-pouty Meg Ryan. We’d wipe those bags down for residue, is all we’re sayin.
[Grizzly Bear at Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, 8 p.m., www.ticketmaster.com; New York Junior League’s Babes, Bags and Bubbles auction, 130 East 80th Street, www.nyjl.org]
Friday, May 29
Remember the book industry? Those people responsible for Skinny Bastard and Chasing Harry Winston—not to mention an entire genre about why he hasn’t called you back—crowd our favorite anonymous-sticky-lunch-romp-spot, the West Side Holiday Inn Express, as Book Expo America kicks off at the scary-looking and centrally located Javits Center. (Seriously, who’s even heard of 12th Avenue!?) Pressing matters include identifying the next great author of teenage vampire fiction, and getting that hot 22-year-old editorial assistant as drunk as possible! To that end, Knopf honcho Sonny Mehta throws a bash at the Strand (the out-of-town accounts just love its downtown vibe!), promising a varied crew of Knopf authors in the flesh, among them culinary matriarch Lidia Bastianich, The Times’ Nicholas Kristof, Brooklyn mascot Jonathan Lethem, Thomas Mallon, Richard Russo—not to mention Ben Mezrich, known for those books about MIT students in Vegas. Meanwhile, Brooklyn’s girl-crooners Au Revoir Simone take the stage at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Band member Annie Hart recalled via email a performance at “a little venue in East Williamsburg called Office Ops, when we played in a cage in the center of the room surrounded by roller-skaters, who stared at us blankly as we dealt with a power and equipment failure in front of them for 45 minutes.” She herself has lived in the ’Burg for seven years. “My favorite date spot is Miyako on Berry and North 6th,” she revealed. “The only problem with it is I get nostalgic for their old wallpaper and cozy atmosphere that I adored. But I guess that’s what happens when you live somewhere for seven years. You have to roll with the changes.”
[Sonny Mehta hosts cocktails at the Strand, 826 Broadway, third-floor rare-book room, 6:30 p.m., 800-869-2976, invite only; Au Revoir Simone at Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 North Sixth Street, 8 p.m., www.ticketmaster.com]
Saturday, May 30
Bikini-brained Hamptonites nibble expensive carrots from the Barefoot Contessa while we lie out on our friend’s cousin’s sister’s condo roof deck in midtown before heading to the “New Taste of the Upper West Side,” a foodie debutante ball of sorts. Said John Fraser, chef at Dovetail: “I was the chef at Compass for two years, and during that time, I started to explore around here, I moved up here… I think it’s one of the last neighborhoods in New York City. People walk their kids to school! And in terms of restaurants, I saw a landscape that was pretty untouched. Now you’ve got this influx of, I don’t know the word to use, sexy restaurants! West Branch, Fatty Crab … Those are good-looking, sexy restaurants.” What’s he cooking for today’s fest? “I think it’s gonna be duck sausage with cranberry mustard relish.”
[New Taste of the Upper West Side, Columbus Avenue between 76th and 77th streets, 7 p.m., 212-721-5048 (sold out)]
Sunday, May 31
The “world’s largest public gathering in support of Israel,” i.e., the annual Salute to Israel Parade, proceeds along Fifth Avenue, attracting an estimated million spectators, 18 floats and 18 marching bands! Our uncle Morty wants us to go out right now and stand in a parking spot to save it for him until he drives in from Scarsdale.
[Salute to Israel Parade, Fifth Avenue from 57th to 79th streets, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., www.salutetoisrael.com]
Monday, June 1
J. Crew mans up! Once largely the obsession of college field-hockey players from Massachusetts, J. Crew has remade itself as Manhattan retail crack, i.e., cheap cashmere and an endless parade of jangly baubles, so it’s only fitting that it’s now cultivating a social presence! Tonight the brand’s new men’s shop (cleverly erected as a refuge for men who find their sexuality threatened by the “men’s” offerings at Topshop next door) hosts an event with the Accompanied Literary Society and Harvey Weinstein in honor of Tom Folsom’s book The Mad Ones, which is about the Gallo brothers, apparently a trio of burly New York City gangsters (lest you doubt the manly nature of this shopping experience!) who would have kicked the ass of anyone who went to a party in a clothing store.
[Accompanied Literary Society and J. Crew Men’s Shop host the launch of The Mad Ones, 484 Broadway, 6:30 p.m., Brendan@RadarEnt.com]
Tuesday, June 2
Sunburned socialites step out for that rare summer social event in this moist metropolis, a glittering awards dinner and auction for the Gordon Parks Foundation, named after the late, great photographer and movie director. Fashion is on the menu as honorees include model Liya Kebede, charming designer Isabel Toledo, and photographer Bruce Weber, who is best known for his shots of barely legal male abs for Abercrombie & Fitch. A stuffed benefit committee includes Bush family chum Maggie Betts, underwear pioneer Calvin Klein, kooky songster Rufus Wainwright and—this just keeps getting weirder!—honorary event chairs William Jefferson Clinton and Gloria Vanderbilt! A “family” event in Central Park for Jessica Seinfeld’s Baby Buggy charity, meanwhile, attracts finely aged model Paulina Porizkova, talented tub-bucket Mario Batali, Ms. Seinfeld’s eternally good-natured hubby and Clifford the Big Red Dog to entertain the kiddies while Mommy and Daddy pose for pictures!
[Gordon Parks Awards Dinner and Auction, Gotham Hall, 1356 Broadway at 36th Street, 6:30 p.m., www.gordonparksfoundation.org; Baby Buggy Bedtime Bash, Victorian Gardens in Central Park, 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., 212-736-1772]
Wednesday, June 3
A “Don’t Let the Door Hit You in the Ass on Your Way Out” party for The Observer’s editor for the past 15 years, Peter W. Kaplan, is smuggled into a glitzy bash for Observer founder Arthur Carter’s new book, Arthur Carter: Sculptures, Paintings, and Drawings, hosted by Mr. Kaplan and Observer publisher Jared Kushner. Starting tomorrow, Mr. Kaplan may be reached care of Del Boca Vista Condominiums, Boca Raton, FL, 33427.
[Arthur Carter: Sculptures, Paintings, and Drawings, the Century Association, 7 West 43rd Street, 6 p.m., invite only]
mbryan@observer.com