Standing at just under 2 feet tall on a "tower" display stand, and containing around 800 pages -- there's a new book in town! And it's not going to fit in many people's apartments. The pages contain 1200 photographs that capture the city, including shots from Henri Cartier-Bresson and Annie Leibowitz. As an accompaniment to the visuals there's written word provided by folks like EB White, John Updike and Tom Wolfe. While there's no price......

In May word was spreading that the famed Gotham Book Mart would be shutting its doors as the owner, Andreas Brown, was forced to pay overdue rent. At that time, the entire contents of the shop ("from rare first-edition John Updike novels to the worn-out oriental rug on the third floor") were sold for $400K at a court-mandated auction. The Post called it an "undignified last chapter for the institution - beloved by the likes......

I’ve never been to the Hamptons. Odds are, some of you haven’t, either. But there’s a peculiar language that arises amongst the people who have, a sort of playful ennui when it comes to New York’s elite sandbox. So I approached a novel about the Hamptons with a certain sense of plebian hesitation – would it matter that I didn’t know my Sag Harbor from my Water Mill? Thank god for Roger Rosenblatt, because Lapham......

We'd been eyeing the huge book, New Art City, which is about American artists hitting their stride in the mid-20th century New York City. However, we were concerned that at 665 pages, we would throw out our back carrying it back home from the store (or cause UPS to slip a disc) and then it would break out coffee table. John Updike reviewed it this weekend in the NY Times Book Review, and he assuaged......

The NY Times' Nicolai Ouroussoff Arts > Art & Design > Architecture Review: Art Fuses With Urbanity in a Redesign of the Modern" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/15/arts/design/15moma.html?hp">raves about the renovated Museum of Modern Art:Designed by the Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi with Kohn Pedersen Fox, the expanded museum is a serene composition that weaves art, architecture and the city into a transcendent aesthetic experience. Its crisp surfaces and well-proportioned forms clean up the mess that the building had become......

It's the 70s again in Connecticut: Couple-swapping is back! A Berlin, Connecticut was busted for violating the town's ordinances on sexually oriented businesses. The club was charging $60 to enter the club, which is illegal, while couple-swapping is perfectly legal. The club also "allowed alcohol, featured enclosed booths and rooms, and lacked outdoor signs that identified it as a swingers club for adults only" - all violations, according to the AP report (via WNBC). Gotta......