So Monday and Tuesday of this week were Lebowski Fest, the annual celebration of The Dude and all things The Big Lebowski. However, this year was more special than any other Fest, because they managed to wrangle most of the original cast for the first-ever reunion since the movie came out in 1998! Here are the best photos from both red carpets: The cast clowning around at the Hammerstein Ballroom before the Q&A/screening, and the diehard fans posing in their costumed best at Chelsea Piers’ Bowling Party.

[Washington Post via ONTD, and Gothamist]

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Post from: Crushable

As the search for what it truly means to be A-list continues, we see this week a brief glimpse of Austin and Brit boyfriend Jake doing what most people would unequivocally consider elite: horseback riding in The Hamptons. Sure, it’s a step up from last season’s off-site excursion to Reichen’s family cottage in some place in Maine that definitely isn’t anywhere near where the Kennedys vacation. But the establishing shots of Tiffany & Co. on Main Street in East Hampton quickly reminded me that quite a bit can be accomplished through clever editing. In fact, it’s reminiscent of last week’s location of Therapy roughly forty blocks south at its far trendier (and fictitious) home in the Meatpacking District. All of this, I suppose, goes hand-in-hand with awkwardly placed commentaries by Rodiney and Nyasha (without which they’d have been completely absent from the entire episode) and producer-contrived conflicts that are frankly the basis for this entire show, and for that matter, reality series in general.

Ryan gets serious about suiting up

Ryan’s off-camera chocolate sugar daddy has a lot of serious corporate events that require a lot of serious corporate clothes. So, Ryan tries on some red satin pants and a shirt that looks like a straight jacket at some uber-exclusive designer who we’re led to believe has a shop or a showroom or a Mr. Softee ice cream truck near Louis Vuitton’s flagship store. After all, thanks to that clever editing job, it doesn’t really matter what this place is as long as we perceive it to be on Fifth Avenue when, in all likelihood, it’s probably crammed above one of those un-air-conditioned Turkish carpet stores in the Garment District.

Austin calls for a cocktail party

It’s Botox time for Austin, Jake, and Derek. And I was glad to see that their visit to a real doctor is at least marginally more A-list than last season’s trip to a dentist who performs outpatient cosmetic procedures on the side. Twenty-two year-old Austin goes for sensible schvitz-stopping injections to his armpits, while Derek and Jake, who are both in their more age-advanced late 20s, select the more common wrinkle reduction around the eye.

Perhaps staying dry on set is just part of Austin’s prep for his official Playgirl photo shoot. Then again, he’s on the fence about going through with that whole thing. So, he visits friend/celebrity stylist/reality show whore/crack addict look-alike Phillip Bloch. Surprisingly, even creepy-faced Phillip thinks the spread is a bad idea, despite Austin’s claim that he’ll somehow be using Playgirl as a vehicle to campaign for the immigration rights of bi-national, same-sex couples. But all of this takes a backseat for now, because Austin is planning to host a cocktail party. And he’ll be inviting a very special (old) guest.

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Post from: Crushable

Singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw (i.e. the guy who wrote the theme song for One Tree Hill) was hospitalized yesterday morning after meeting with multiple bouts of bad luck late Sunday night. According to TMZ, he said goodnight to his buddies a little before 4am, only to be attacked by multiple assailants as he made his way home. (As of now, it’s unclear what the attackers’ motivation was; I’m going to guess it was an attempted robbery, but perhaps they were not fans of his music?)

Next, after the meanies had stopped hitting him, he wandered in a daze to 19th St. and 1st Ave., where he was hit by a cab. Oof.

TMZ says he’s being treated for “a concussion, broken nose, black eyes, cuts and bruises,” and that the attack is still being investigated. He’s been forced to cancel the show he was going to play in Saratoga Springs, NY tonight opening for Maroon 5 and Train. While some might be tempted to make a joke about how he brought bad karma upon himself by making music for the d-berry soul patch crowd, I’m not going to, because that would be mean. Instead, I dub this Say Something Nice About Gavin DeGraw day. Here, I will start. He has kind eyes. Was that so hard? Your turn.

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Post from: Crushable

Honestly, if it had to go to one movie, we’re glad it went to Captain America, since the final scene – where an unfrozen Cap (Chris Evans) runs through 2011 New York — is so much more affecting because it was the real thing. Then again, they shot this incredibly last-minute in late April, considering that the film hit theaters July 22. It’s likely that at the time Marvel Studios only had a small amount of time/money in the budget to afford this thirty seconds of footage.

Movieline did a neat side-by-side comparison of the Google street views for East 9th Street and Times Square, pointing out exactly how much the crew has their work cut out for them:

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Post from: Crushable

A couple of days ago, my friends at the New York Times reported on The A-List: New York. And at first, I was like, you’re totally typing on my turf. I’ve been reporting on this shit show since its pilot episode way back in October. But then, after fully reading the article, I realized that in a slightly less gay way, the world’s preeminent print news source had nicely touched on a topic I had only glossed over a time or two: What does it really mean to be an A-list gay? For Reichen, “A” is for accomplishment. For the less literal, like TJ, “A” is all about having a dog and paying bills on-time. And although I prefer to make the A-list by pretending to have friends at the New York Times, we learn in this episode that it can also translate into Playgirl pictorials, restraining orders, and pedicures.

Austin gets fluffy

After announcing his bid to pose in Playgirl last week, Austin is left in a pickle: How do you strip down if you’re hauling around a few extra cupcakes in all the wrong places? Turn it into a human rights campaign for gays without six-pack abs, of course. And though Derek applauds Austin’s crusade against muscle-bound Chelsea boys, the party breaks just a moment too soon. A marketing gay at the mag realizes that Austin’s photo submission is about two-years and twenty-pounds old. The confrontation was not unlike, say, 90% of photo-generous JDates that in a weak moment (Playgirl, after all, has been hanging by a thread), end up making it upstairs after a few drinks. But then Austin, who claims to have done nude many, many, many times, can’t seem to salute the camera. So, a marketing assistant/fluffer is called in to spice up the scene. Needless to say, Austin’s British boy-toy Jake, whose twang devolves deeper and deeper into an unintelligible Leprechaun language as he gets angrier, isn’t happy about Austin getting serviced on the shoot. But Austin assures him that the whole thing is completely legit because it took place in an office. And as we all know, nothing shady ever happens in an office.

Reichen wears ugly shirts

The Air Force pilot turned model turned out-of-work actor treats us to several Robert Graham ensembles that would make any forty-something in Orange County drool. Reichen agrees to meet Austin in Central Park while clad in such an ensemble to let him know that they can still be friends – even if Austin’s drunken rages have resulted in a couple of physical assaults on his former boyfriend Rodiney. Nevermind the fact that there is nearly a 20 year age difference between them.

Rodiney believes Austin could be dangers (yes, dangers)

Now that Rodiney’s relationship with Reichen has officially ended, he needs to devise a plan to stay on the show, and ultimately, get paid. So, Rodiney rounds up the troupe to announce that he’s thinking about filing a restraining order against Austin. According to Rodiney, Austin has proven that he’s dangers following last week’s Slap Gate. But any sense of safety is lost when Rodiney finds out that a restraining order in this country doesn’t come with a house arrest ankle bracelet.

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Post from: Crushable

But then, one day about a month ago, I walked by en route from Bryant Park to Port Authority, and lo and behold, it was gone! The building was still covered with some of the most hideous signage I’ve ever seen, but where the store had been stood nothing but an empty, cement-lined room. Furthermore, I have been unable to find any information about precisely when it closed and why. I am still left with one burning question:

What the hell happened?

Numerous theories present themselves, the simplest of which is that it was JUST. SO. WEIRD. I mean, I can understand a store geared entirely towards M&M’s– the cute characters and animated spokeschocolates offer endless opportunities for merchandising, which is really what M&M’s World is about– but Pop-Tarts? There are no characters. The logo isn’t iconic. They taste good, sure, and they’re a guilty pleasure for many of us, but they don’t actually make that good of a breakfast. So what are you left with? I suppose the only angle you can take: That of the restaurant industry.

There was some debate over whether or not it was an actual restaurant, but that was their selling point, so they called it a Cafe. Once you got past the Pop-Tarts T-shirts, mugs, and “Varietizer” (a giant contraption that allowed you to mix and match your own box of Pop-Tarts), the counter at the back of the store introduced you to all kinds of bizarre, supposedly edible creations made primarily of Pop-Tarts. Some of these were more, shall we say, interesting than others: yes, you could get cinnamon rolls topped with cream-cheese icing and chunks of Cinnamon Roll flavored Pop-Tarts; but you could also get Ants on a Log, which took the standard celery and peanut butter base, but then topped it not with raisins, but with chunks of Wild Grape Pop-Tarts.

I don’t know about you, but the thought of that kind of makes my stomach curdle.

The strangest concoction the cafe offered, however, was known as “Pop Tarts Sushi”: Pop-Tarts were mushed up into something resembling a paste, then rolled up in one of those multi-colored Fruit Roll-Ups and cut into slices. Though I never got a chance to try it myself, I did witness a friend eat it once, and I have to say, it was kind of unsettling. The mushing up Pop-Tarts turned them a weird shade of purple, and I honestly can’t even begin to imagine why anyone would want to consume Pop-Tarts and Fruit Roll-Ups simultaneously.

Like I said: Weird. So maybe that’s the most likely reason it failed.

The Pop-Tarts World website claims that the store was only “temporary,” but nowhere have I been able to find anything to substantiate that fact: nothing in the launch coverage, nothing in the press release, and certainly nothing about it when it closed its doors. I suspect that calling it “temporary” now might be some not-so-clever corporate way of covering up the fact that the store tanked. And here’s possibly another theory: location. I’ll admit that I found the store to be in an odd place. Rather than joining its fellow sugary mates on a main avenue right in the heart of Times Square, it chose to make its home just beyond the reach of the garish lights of Broadway. Closer to Bryant Park, the stretch of 42nd St. just off of 6th Ave. is a much quieter area with significantly less pedestrian traffic, and therein, I think, lies the problem. Because let’s face it: Very few people would go out of their way to hunt down a store devoted entirely to Pop-Tarts, but if they were to walk by it by chance, odds are they’d venture inside out of pure curiosity. Being on such a quiet block must have negatively impacted the amount of people walking by the store every day, and, well… we can see where this is heading.

But alas, I fear we may never know what ultimately did it in for poor Pop-Tarts World; the Kellogg Company certainly isn’t talking, so for now, Pop-Tarts World will have to live as a glorious, if somewhat awkward, memory, full of frosting and pastry and questionable flavor choices.

Though I suppose some of those recipes might not be too difficult to replicate on one’s own. Who’s up for a Pop-Tarts sushi party?

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Post from: Crushable

(via)

Post from: Crushable

These photos were shot on camera phones and uploaded to Twitpic, Yfrog, Facebook, Flickr, or Tweetphoto. They all come from 2010.

Flooding in Sydney

Shot by: Matt Jordan

Twitter handle: @imeldamatt

Caption: “Welcome to tropical Sydney…soaked to the bone.” #aperfectstorm

Haiti Earthquake Aftermath

Shot by: Daniel Morel

Twitter handle: @carelpedre

Caption: “Home is all rubble now.”

Moon from Space

Shot by: Douglas H. Wheelock

Twitter handle: @Astro_Wheels

Caption: “Don’t tell me that the sky is the limit, when there are footprints on the moon…” Sure looks beautiful setting behind our blue planet, maybe one day we’ll be daring enough to go back.”

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