Moscow

Doğan Perese and Sarah Mascareñas   Met: Sept. 6, 2005 Engaged: March 10, 2006  read more »

Skip the Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré for shopping, and New York, too.  read more »

Skip the Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré for shopping, and New York, too.  read more »

It's been a while since anybody picked up the shrinking alt-alt weekly, but the Sun has news today that the current regime at the New York Press has been replaced by my friend and Ditmas Park neighbor Harry Siegel, an occasional Observer columnist.

The Press, if you've read it in the last year or two, has been modeling itself after a demented, occasionally brilliant, Moscow weekly called the eXile; the nihilism didn't work as well in this somewhat better-functioning democracy, and the paper wound up being totally irrelevant, except when it offended Anthony Weiner.  read more »

Given the quotes in today's story, the new regime seems to be something of a Russ Smith restoration. Siegel, a Brooklyn native and holder of the world's last, thickest Brooklyn accent, ran the Sun's editorial page for a while and is the founder of the eccentric, interesting New Partisan Web site. He's smart and serious, and despite being to the right of most New York political types, knows his way around city politics, being the son and collaborator of Giuliani analyst Fred.

Harry also holds the distinction, as I recall, of forcing the generally anti-regulatory Sun into strict enforcement of the smokefree workplace rules.

OK, we'll admit that we haven't actually read through that IOC report yet. The objective observers of this occult process, like AP, are calling it a win for Paris, with London in second place.

The bookies are writing off everybody but Paris and London. And everybody but Paris is spinning like crazy:

London 2012's Lord Coe: "I think that we are in a position now to continue to build on the momentum that this bid has enjoyed."

Moscow 2012's Alexander Chernov: "[W]e see there is an objective, open and positive evaluation of everything that has been done in Moscow."  read more »

A "delighted" Dan Doctoroff: "The report makes clear that this race is neck and neck and that New York is firmly in the top tier...[W]e're in a great position to win in Singapore on July 6, so long as the stadium is approved."

On the southeast corner of Third Avenue and Ninth Street:Through a glass door and up a dingy flight  read more »

Never underestimate the fortitude of the middle classes of England.  read more »

Richard Chamberlain is spending the month of July in the Norman Rockwell setting of Stockbridge, Mas  read more »

"What's this I've just eaten?" one of my friends asked the young waiter, pointing to the shards of a  read more »

On a Saturday night in May, Mark Ames and Matt Taibbi were drinking Pepsi and smoking American Spiri  read more »

The Russian sculptor Antoine Pevsner (1886-1962) has long occupied a secure place in the annals of m  read more »

The Kissinger Transcripts: The Top-Secret Talks With Beijing and Moscow , edited by William Burr.  read more »

When I was growing up in Connecticut, two things were true: Vogue was good, Russia was bad.  read more »

On the occasion of the current exhibition of Aleksandr Rodchenko at the Museum of Modern Art, it may  read more »

A word about headphones and the Moscow Art Theater.  read more »