All stories about "Nick Denton"

Hey, it's Gridskipper's last day at the parent company! Who knows what will happen at our shiny new home. I, for one, will be bowing out of my relatively specious remaining duties, and for all we know, Adam's housecat will be in charge after sundown. But there's been lots of speculation -- OK, some occasional speculation -- regarding who or what might have tried to pry Gridskipper out of Gawker Media's warm, supple, sticky tentacles. Here's the exclusive behind-the-chiffarobe report on what really went down in Nick Denton's smoke-filled lavatory.

Gawker emeritus Choire Sicha investigates the city's roach problem for this week's Observer. Turns out that rich white people don't have cockroaches in their apartments, but many of the rest of us do. Some of these rich white folks include perky morning host Kelly Ripa and my boss, Nick Denton. They both live at 76 Crosby Street in Soho, where staff ensure the little buggers stay away through such measures as "yell[ing] at people who let their dogs pee in front of the building" and "spray[ing] the block with dog repellent." There's a homeless guy on my block who smells like pee and he also yells at dogwalkers, but I don't think that's the same thing at all. [via]

Well, the cat's out of the bag about the newest Gawker Media blog. Last week, Spot-on founder Chris Nolan threw a fabulous bash for Nick Denton and Valleywag Nick Douglas in her fabulous Russian Hill digs. In addition to learning just how much Chardonnay we can consume before declaring our love for another blogger, we learned the following interesting facts:

• There is enough room in the blogosphere for gossip about the Silicon Valley's products and its "celebrities" ...
• Straight men living in the Castro call it "Duboce Triangle" ... and,
• Nick Denton has a thing for redheads.

Evidence follows after the jump!

Seems like travel kerfuffles are the order of the day. First we had the depressurized plane, then the 45-hour delay, then the Paris to San Fran via Frankfurt redirect. And now this, the most distressing news of all: Gawker Media boss and large-headed boy Nick Denton is stranded in the UK due to issues with his American work visa. Did we mention that Andrew Krucoff, returned from band camp in Israel, is subbing at Gawker? Where's the sea of blood and rain of frogs? Who's sitting in the big chair? Lockhart Steele has reportedly been moved to a secure, undisclosed location. We will continue to broadcast as long as our transmitters remain operational. God save the republic.

Denton Cancels New Year's [WWD]
Young Israelite [Official site]
Guest Editor: Reporting Live from Crofton, MD [Gawker]

[Photo: rachel_v]

Previously: NY Transit Strike Roundup, Give the Gift of Gawker Love, International Gawker Stalker: Dandelion Snit, Buried Lede, Amanda Naked, Krucoff Goes Holy, Intranational Gawker Stalker: Piano Man, Nat Chik, Louisville Jim

The food at Tetsuya's, Tetsuya Wasuda's new Franco-Japanese hotspot, has a powerful effect on people. With three other writer-bloggers, Sherriff went for a ten-course dinner there, and wrote the next day:

I kissed the whole of fucking Sydney last night. Tequila shots and wine and beer and blonde girls and boy on boy and boy on girl and my girlfiend and I are looking at photos of each other kissing other people and I feel weird until the photos show that I pashed thirty more people than she did and now I'm laughing nervously and I'm turned on yet jealous yet turned on and... Can you tell I just had a line of coke?

Eating at Tetsuya's was culinary LSD [Sherriff]
Extremely sheepishly i had to acknowledge ownership of said condom [Boudist]
It must have been the food [Ms Fits]
Ultimate gastronomic experience of my lifetime [La Nadine]

If you can't manage to sneak into Soho House but want a taste of pretend exclusivity in NYC, try midtown (semi) private club Frederick's. Set down a flight of stairs on West 58th, it opened last fall with 250 founding members (road rager Lizzie Grubman among them) Access to the private back rooms requires a fingerprint scan. The trick here: though they don't much publicize the fact, Frederick's front dining room and bar takes all comers. So-so sushi but top-notch people-watching in an atmosphere akin to the bar of some fancy third-world hotel. Sip a cocktail and ogle the club members and their Eurotrashy guests.

Frederick's [julib.com]
What's Hot: Frederick's [ainslist]

Before summer fades in the southern hemisphere, Made in Brazil recommends the Sunday afternoon pool party at Sao Paulo's hottest gay megaclub. The Week's outdoor terrace usually provides a break to shirtless Brazilian muscle boys between dance tracks. Now, yet more shirtlessness, set to lounge music and strawberry caipirinhas.

Pool party [Made in Brazil]
Babylon [Made in Brazil]

A confession: it's not like we actually drag ourselves out of the armchair go to any of these cities. At least, not often enough to be up-to-date. Which is why we rely on reader tips, discussion boards—and on the English-language blogs that are sprouting up in the Gridskipper destinations. Today, our favorite Tokyo sources:

Tokyo Art Beat: Art, design, photography and architecture.
Jeansnow: Long thought to be a deeply ironic bogus Japanese clothing brand—Jeans! Now! Actually the personal site of Jean Snow, a Canadian living in Tokyo. His focus: design, retail, weird Japanese visual bands such as Kiiiiii.
Metropolis Tokyo: An offshoot of Japan Today magazine, and the best of the English-language online guides.
Superfuture Tokyo: Best-known for its essential map guide to Tokyo's chic neighborhoods, also news and lists.
Octopus Dropkick: Che's up with the latest in gaming, cosplay clubs and Japanese pop culture.

Japanese addresses aren't so much addresses, as zipcodes: numbers which represent the district, block within that district, and then building number, where the latter is usually assigned according to the age of the building, rather than it's location on the block. Which makes addresses almost useless, and maps absolutely essential. The Map Room, a weblog about maps, has put together a collection of fabulous links, including maps of the Tokyo subway, a diagram of Tokyo's main station [thumbnailed here]. The most useful service would be Mapion, an interactive map showing the location of pretty much every building in Japan. I haven't yet found an English-language version. Unfortunately, it's in Japanese. So, best bet is to look up a destination on the web, and print out the map. Or head to the neighborhood, and ask around: the koban police boxes usually have a local map on display. Or else wander round aimlessly.

Japan Rail and Subway Maps [The Map Room]
English-language map of the Tokyo subway [Tokyo Metro]
Deciphering Tokyo addresses [Beochan]

More of Graham Hill's secret Barcelona guide. Top five sights.
1. La Pedrera
Eixample. Beautiful apt building and roof elements.
2. Park Guell
Up the mountain. Go late or early in day. Pack a picnic. Try to avoid weekends.
3. Sagrada Familia
Eixample. Get there before it opens.
4. MACBA
Designed by Richard Meier. Modern white architecture. Solid art.
5. Agbar Tower
Jean Nouvel phallus.

So I'm a freak. I collect images of New York, not just as it once was, and as it might one day be, but as it was once thought the city might one day be. It's an alternate universe, in which history took a different course. The Empire State Building, with a zeppelin docking, as imagined in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Bryant Park, if they'd never taken down the Croton Reservoir. The Gaudi building, if the Catalan architect's plans for the American Hotel had come to anything. As magnificent as the real New York may be, it still doesn't compare with what might have been.

While Gridskipper doesn't approve of traditional sightseeing, it's forgivable for a visitor to want to take in the Manhattan skyline. The Empire State Building is unbearable: the journey to the observation deck is like passing, slowly, through the digestive system of a mall. So rejoice that the Rockefeller Center will open up its summit to visitors in the fall. The tower is further north than the Empire State Building, and so provides better views of Central Park. For the first few months, before the guidebooks catch up, it should also a higher awe-to-wait ratio.

An Old View Is New Again, 70 Stories Up [New York Times]
Rockefeller Center Will Reopen Its Observation Deck [Gothamist]

Since I last looked, Craigslist, the online classifieds, has developed quite a rich market in apartment swaps. Some of the advertisers are a little hopeful: Midtown Atlanta SWAP 4 Greenwich Village. (In your dreams, baby.) But there are more appealing cities on offer, such as Paris, Rome, Montreal, Copenhagen—and Rio. Flavia is looking for a 1-bedroom Manhattan apartment for two weeks in May, and offering in return a pad by the beach in Copacabana. So, Leblon would be better, a safer distance from the tourists and the hustlers they attract. But look on the bright side: Flavia won't be expecting the West West Village. Below, the full listings, of swaps offered for apartments in the following US cities.

New York [craigslist - housing swaps]
Los Angeles [craigslist - housing swaps]
San Francisco [craigslist - housing swaps]
Chicago [craigslist - housing swaps]
Miami [craigslist - housing swaps]

Let's face it, some tipsters are better than others. Graham Hill is the guy behind Treehugger, the cool green design blog; he's living in Barcelona, with Olga, a beautiful Catalan dancer. And it is okay to be envious. He just sent us a complete travel guide, with ranked picks in different categories such as food, architecture and nightlife. "Top Secret as Olga would kill me but, I can't help myself." We can't help ourselves either, so here, to begin, are Graham's local eateries.

1. Mundial
Plaza San Agustin Viejo, 1
great seafood, old classic

2. Can Paixano
Reina Cristina, 7
Packed, standing only, sandwiches, cheap cava (ask for rose one). Closes 1030 and Sunday all day.

3. El Japonés
Passatge de la Concepcio, 2
Japanese. Modern design. Eixample. Moderate.

4. ChidoOne
Torrijos, 30
Mexican in Gracia.

It sounds like paradise: a beer hall, with a svelte crowd. Tranan is a Stockholm nightlife institution, with tarted-up Swedish dishes upstairs, a DJ-ed bar below, and plenty of physical evidence that the Swedes are the master-race. Fredrik, who always returns from Stockholm in wonder at the physical beauty of his countrywomen, says he goes to Tranan for the food: "Try the Beef Rydberg: it is to die for. In the fall they have a chanterelle toast that puts all others to shame."

Tranan

When did the hotel business become so dizzyingly multi-disciplinary? Hotel Fox, which opens in Copenhagen next month, has worked with artists, designers and illustrators to create unique installations in each of its 61 rooms. The creatives were commissioned by Die Gestalten Verlag, Berlin's hip design book publisher. The "Fox Project"—which also includes a competition among radical young chefs— was initiated by VW. And all I wanted was a bed for the night.
Project Fox [via Josh Rubin]

Some of our San Francisco friends are insulted by the notion that there are no new restaurants in the city. After all, what is San Francisco, without its restaurants? To make amends, we're passing on two of their recommendations.

Myth [470 Pacific Avenue]
Frisson [244 Jackson St]

Omotesando subway exit, in Aoyama, quickly becomes a default meeting spot in Tokyo. It's close to Shibuya, but not as chaotic. And the local design fetishists are drawn by stores such as Prada and Plus Minus Zero. Prada, for it's jewel-box building, designed by Herzog & De Meuron, the Swiss architects. Plus Minus Zero, for more stylish gadgets than a shopper is ever likely to find in the electronics district of Akihabara.

Prada Tokyo [ARCH'IT files]
Aoyama map [Superfuture Tokyo]
Plus Minus Zero Second Collection [MoCo Tokyo]
Best industrial range [Wallpaper]

Brazil's tourist industry should just shut down its promotional efforts, and put the money into Fotolog. This photosharing service has done more to promote the country's beaches than anything since the Girl from Ipanema. Brazilian photo galleries on Fotolog—sometimes called flogs locally—attract about half that service's audience. One theory: that Brazilians are natural exhibitionists, and they spend a lot of time on the beach, posing for snapshots. Another theory, more relevant for the prospective visitor to Rio, they're natural exhibitionists—and hot. A hypothesis which would appear to be supported by some of the flogs linked below.

Brotherbrow
Luis Artur
Toki
Lebart
Kaikesurf
Felipe Matarazzo
Brazilian Fotologs [Fleshbot]

At Budapest's grand cafes such as the Gerbaud and the New York, the pastries are as florid as the decor, and the pen portraits of the guide books being carried with vain discretion by every other customer. After doing the obligatory pilgrimage, try Cafe Gusto. It's on the Buda side of Margit bridge, on a dead-end street, far from any tourists. The dishes are reassuringly Hungarian, for which read unhealthy. One of Gusto's signatature salads contains much sliced goose-liver, and preciously few leafy greens.

Gusto Cafe
II. Frankel Leo ut. 12

Though it helps, one doesn't absolutely have to be gay or sophomoric to have a good time in New Orleans. Aimee Hall writes:

Hey, what about good New Orleans bars for the heteros? I was in New Orleans last week and found Bourbon Street to be seriously lacking, at least for the under-40 and over-22 crowd. Instead, Frenchman Street (outside of the French Quarter in the Faubourg Marigny area) is where the locals, or at least the non-bead-wearing tourists, hang out. A bar called d.b.a. features hip local music (jazz, blues, etc.--no Bon Jovi covers!). Down the street, Blue Nile is an intimate, dimly-lit club that has salsa dancing and Latin jazz on Fridays. Upstairs from Blue Nile, Alley Katz is a comfortable lounge-y bar with an indie-college—I didn't shower today— vibe and a balcony. Go to Bourbon Street if you like sticky souvenir hurricane cups and squealing sorority sisters. Meanwhile, the cool kids are on Frenchman St.

d.b.a. [official site]
Blue Nile [official site]
Alley Katz [official site]

Another San Francisco institution, apart from Osteria del Forno, is the
Little Baobab, in the Mission. For a supposedly cosmopolitan city, the Bay Area is surprisingly segregated: gays in the Castro, perky midwestern college grads in the Marina, Chinese in the Sunset, and African-Americans across the bay in Oakland, for instance. One of the few places that fits San Francisco's self-image as a cosmopolitan party town: Little Baobab, in the Mission. Eric writes: "Little Baobab is a tiny little restaurant in the mission, and at night they open it up to DJs, and it tends to be more mixed—i.e. not just white hipsters—than a lot of other places. It has the feeling of a Caribbean shack."

Little Baobab [official site]
Little Baobab Profile [Citysearch]
Little Baobab Review [San Francisco Bay Guardian]

The lack of foot traffic in San Francisco is extremely disconcerting. In other American cities such as Los Angeles, the emptiness jars less, because one assumes that people are in their cars, on their way from office mall to shopping mall. San Francisco is supposed to be a walking city, yet there are only two spots in the evening that satisfy a hardcore urbanite: 16th and Valencia, in the Mission, and, in North Beach, one short stretch of Columbus, between Union and Green. To the north, the neighborhood peters out, towards the south, it's overwhelmed by tourists. But, for a single block, one can pretend to be in a real city, with people on the sidewalks, people who can sometimes even pass as genuine inhabitants. The best vantage point: Osteria del Forno, a tiny restaurant opened in the 1990s by two Italian women, which serves excellent baked pasta and offers one highly prized table by the window. Below, the restaurant review, a map and, best of all, a panorama of the block, courtesy of Amazon's incredible new yellow pages service. Use the left and right arrows to click along the street.

Osteria del Fornoa - one of the top three authentic Italian restaurants in North Beach [Frommers]
519 Columbus Avenue [Yahoo Maps]
A visual tour of Columbus Avenue [Amazon Yellow Pages]

Pie, blogging from Paris, where she's living for a few months, writes off the city's gay bar scene. "Most of the bars and cafes in the Marais feature wall-to-wall bourgie (boo-zhee) fags -- skinnier, Eurotrashier versions of your typical Chelsea/Castro/WeHo/SoBe clones." One exception: a members club for gay and lesbian indie pop fans, which must be truly outstanding to overcome its awful name. PopinGays is every Thursday evening at the Pop In, a dive bar in the 11th, and the group also puts on club nights such as Faster Pussycat Dance Dance, and Queer As Pop.

PopinGays [official site]
Pop Out [The Pie in Paris]
Pop In [paris-gay.com]

New York's main contemporary art fair has lost a little of its luster since Art Basel established its Miami Beach event in 2002. But the Armory Show still attracts a good range of international galleries, such as Tokyo's Taka Ishii, Berlin's Arndt & Partner, and New York's own Bellwether. The show, which takes place on Piers 90 and 92 in Hell's Kitchen, and costs $20, starts tomorrow and runs till March 13th. The opening party is tonight.

Friday: Armory [Flavorpill NYC]
The Armory Show [official site]

So, Jonno, what's the bar-of-the moment in New Orleans? "The same places where i've been hanging out the last seven years. Well, Homo Ground Zero is Saint Ann and Bourbon, otherwise known as the fulcrum of the Fruit Loop. Two hyooge gay dance clubs: Oz and the Bourbon Pub, with nonstop Madonna remixes 24/7! But only the cool kids (mostly gay, but some straight) go to Voodoo and Ninth Circle on Rampart Street. They're both smaller bars, often have live DJs. Mix of K-ed out circuit queens, club kids, trannies, and wacky people. They get started v. late, like past 3 AM. Since bars are open 24 hours here, there's really no after hours clubs per se. Between the two, there's Good Friends (St. Ann and Dauphine), youngish twink crowd. Rawhide 2010 (Burgundy and St. Ann), older, scruffy, sleazy, tho they brand themselves as a leather bar. Cafe Lafitte in Exile (Bourbon and Dumaine) - also older, regular guy crown, reputed to be the oldest continually operating gay bar in North America. And then there's the Corner Pocket, of course, which is off the Fruit Loop (but still close) and which we've discussed already (St. Louis and Burgundy). The gay hookers work that stretch of Dauphine and Burgundy, while the trannies work St. Ann between Dauphine and Rampart. NO is behind the times in most things, including hookerdom, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing: local color etc."

Gay New Orleans [gayneworleans.com]
Listings and locations [PCBG]
Oz [official site]
Bourbon Pub Parade [official site]
Voodoo [The Guide]
Ninth Circle [official site]
Good Friends [official site]
Rawhide 2010 [official site]
Cafe Lafitte in Exile [official site]
Corner Pocket [official site]

Yet more for retro gearheads. I hadn't realized, yesterday, that Fiat's old factory in Turin, topped by a rooftop test track and setting for a car chase in the Italian Job, was now a hotel, Le Meridien Lingotto. Renzo Piano, Italy's best-known modern architect, was in charge of the renovation of the 1920s building. He's left the structure intact, and decorated the rooms with 20th century design classics. The exercise area: the rooftop track, of course. Genius.

Le Meridien Lingotto [official site]
What's happening in Turin [Miami Herald]
Reviews [Virtual Tourist]

I've seen static maps showing how the London tube lines are distorted to open up the dense network of the center, and compress the farflung suburban lines. But never one that morphs before the eye from the current map, or the classic 1938 version, to the geographically accurate representation. The latter is the most useful if a visitor is wondering whether, for instance, to walk down the hill from Hampstead to West Hampstead, or take the train. Answer: walk.

The Real Underground [Transport for London via Wandalust]