Culture | The New York Observer

Viral Video

Drag Queen Lady Bunny Puts a Bouffant-Sized Target on Sarah Palin's Head [WATCH]

By Nate Freeman | January 20, 2011 | 12:10 pm

Lady Bunny, the disco-happy drag queen who's graced New York nightlife with wig-wearing performances for decades, has fired shots against a certain former Alaskan governor. Sarah Palin's taken a good amount of heat since her response to the Giffords tragedy, but to our knowledge Lady Bunny is the first member of the drag queen contingent to throw her hat into the ring. She made a sure-to-be-viral video, it's called "The Ballad of Sarah Palin," and it is something... MORE»

augmented reality

iPhone Users: Exchange a Crumb of Dignity for a Smidgen of VIP Access at Sundance

By Adrianne Jeffries | January 20, 2011 | 11:57 am

An iPhone app from New York-based GoldRun made just for the Sundance Film Festival plants virtual polar bears around Park City. Users can take a picture with one of these bears and gain access to some VIP-only events, according to a press release. GoldRun makes "augmented reality apps" -- a generic term that usually refers to superimposing media over objects in the real world. GoldRun also recently released that app that lets users take a picture with superhottie Brooklyn... MORE»

TV

American Idol 2011: An Appraisal. Or, J.Lo Can You Go?

By Daniel D'Addario | January 19, 2011 | 11:28 pm

This season of "American Idol," its tenth, began as it needed to, with an introduction to its new judges, Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez (who join game-hardened veteran Randy Jackson). But did it have to be so lengthy? Minute after minute was devoted to a montage of TV-news gossip about potential new judges from last summer: bandied-about names like Justin Timberlake and Diddy did little more than begin to diminish Tyler and Lopez. The show itself did the... MORE»

Manhattan Transfers

Our Ancestors: Italo Calvino's Daughter, Granddaughter Arrivano to Fifth

By Matt Chaban | January 19, 2011 | 11:05 pm

Giovanna Calvino, an adjunct literature professor at NYU, is currently creating a new Web series of fashionable book talks called "Amateur Thursdays," which, according to a post on the Kickstart Blog, will "film the show in some of New York's wonderful cultural institutions -- such as The Strand bookstore, for... MORE»

Slideshow

What Twitter Taught Us: Glenn Beck Meets Bono and the World Collapses

By Nate Freeman | January 19, 2011 | 6:38 pm

It's hard to face the fact, but Glenn Beck is a role model to a good number of people in this country. That's why it was especially disturbing when he told America to give up one of their kidneys in order to see Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. Please, America, do not take this man seriously. But who knew he met Bono after the show? We did, of course! And how did we know? Twitter taught us, of... MORE»

Synergy

Skins Sells: Teens Already Demand Merch

By Kat Stoeffel | January 19, 2011 | 4:56 pm

Yes, MTV's new series Skins is unapologetic about sexy teen sex, amoral about drugs, and not as good as the British original, but that's all beside the point. What we should really be talking about is its vast potential for licensed merchandising. Fellow teen drama Gossip Girl's designer duds were too ritzy to sell outright, but Skins strikes a balance of aspiration and grit that could move a lot of mid-range... MORE»

Murals and Acquisitions

Brooklyn Museum Courts Controversy, 18th-Century Style

By The Editors | January 19, 2011 | 1:41 pm

The Brooklyn Museum has made a rare purchase from a London Gallery, adding to its paintings collection an artwork that was subversive in its time. The museum has purchased Free Women of Color With Their Children and Servants in a Landscape, by Italian artist Agostino... MORE»

Science

What's Your (Same Old) Sign? Astrologer to the Stars Previews 2011

By Alexandra Peers | January 19, 2011 | 1:38 pm

Calm down, you are still the zodiac sign you think you are. The Observer put astrologer Susan Miller on the cover last year because of her cult following in the fashion and Hollywood industries, where Cynthia Rowley, Lindsay Lohan, Mary Kate Olsen, among others, are avowed fans. A seemingly normal and practical woman - she'll predict leaky pipes, identity theft, and tax problems along with true love - Miller since been hired since by such clients as Dior and Henri Bendel to lure crowds to... MORE»

The Clock

Conversation: Christian Marclay

By Paul Laster | January 19, 2011 | 1:29 pm

A sensation in London, Christian Marclay's The Clock makes its New York debut this week in the artist's eighth solo show at Paula Cooper Gallery. A 24-hour video, The Clock is a compilation of film clips featuring timepieces-culled from the 100-year history of cinema-that is synched with the actual time that viewers watch... MORE»

In 3-D, Kate's super shiny hair will be so close you can <em>touch</em> it.

The Royals

Pyrotechnics, Acrobatics of the Royal Wedding to be Shown in Eye-Popping 3D

By Nate Freeman | January 19, 2011 | 12:00 pm

When Prince William finally popped the question to his longtime squeeze Kate Middleton, there was one thing the world was looking at: the ring that once belonged to Diana. It was a big, sparkly, gold-wrapped sapphire studded unsubtly with diamonds, a blinding blue ocean surrounded by sunshine and placed on the soft terrain of Waity Katie's dainty... MORE»

It's On

The Wrath of Khan: Former Met Dept. Chairman Takes Swipe at New York Review of Books

By Rachel Corbett | January 19, 2011 | 11:46 am

A little-noticed art-world catfight is going on in the pages of The New York Review of Books. The Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit "The World of Khubilai Khan" was reviewed unfavorably by Eliot Weinberger in the Dec. 23 issue, for among other flaws, letting the Mongols off the hook as mass murderers. In a letter published last week, the Met's (since retired) chairman of Asian Art, James C.Y.... MORE»

Hackers

Rap Attack: Lil Wayne Twitter Hacked

By Ben Popper | January 18, 2011 | 10:55 pm

Rap fans were treated to a bizzare series of messages over the weekend after the Twitter accounts of Lil Wayne was hacked. It started with a diss that could possibly have come from Wayne, directed at rival Soulja Boy. "I sent a donations to your Paypal, check it, I heard you got 13,000 sales lil homie, I feel bad for... MORE»

books

Coke Zero: A Memoirist Bottoms Out

By Benjamin Phelan | January 18, 2011 | 9:07 pm

Midway through Dave Itzkoff’s new memoir, his father, seemingly high on cocaine, calls his son and asks him to mediate a family dispute. The author, sick of his addict father’s antics over the years, responds by hanging up on him and, we are made to believe, ending or at least severely curtailing the relationship. The exchange that ensues as the next chapter opens illustrates perfectly what’s wrong in this undercooked, self-solemn... MORE»

cabaret

Red Hot Mama: Christine Ebersole at Café Carlyle

By Rex Reed | January 18, 2011 | 9:01 pm

Perfection is not an overused word in the cabaret world, but I use it without reservation when making even a feeble effort to describe Christine Ebersole's dynamic, touching, beautifully conceived new act at the Café Carlyle. Unencumbered by the phony titles and pointless concepts that plague other "theme" shows, she simply steps to the postage-stamp stage, splendid and glowing bright like a sunflower nourished by neon, shaking her fluffy blond coif in her above-the-knee black sleeveless dress garnished with perfectly placed pearls, opens up her heart and sings.... MORE»

movies

Goodbye, Stalin!

By Rex Reed | January 18, 2011 | 8:57 pm

Painstakingly shot, frame by frame, and with accurate writing and impeccable performances, and guided by the great Australian director Peter Weir's impressive trademark attention to detail, The Way Back saves January from the dumpster and triumphs as the first great film of... MORE»

80-Proof Walk-Up: What's Barramundi Hiding?

Our Gorgeous Mosaic: The Power 150

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