Friday, April 30, 2010

Best for Saturday Retail

With forecasted highs in the upper 80s, Jonathan Adler could not have picked a better day to celebrate spring than tomorrow. Luckly for him, New York weather will provide a perfect backdrop for his in-store soirées across the city. Pop in for 15% off, plus snacks and cocktails. If you're lucky, you may meet the man himself. Love a cocktail, love a sale!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Worst for Day : Countess LuAnn's "Money Can't Buy You Class"

THE COUNTESS LuAnn de Lessepes' single "Money Can't Buy You Class" is simply painful, not that we expected any better. For all that she's got going for her (the show, her figure, that Kathleen Turner/Marlboro Miles voice), LuAnn should stick to her strengths and avoid her liabilities, such as singing. It's hard on the ears and the heart.
Worst of all, from genre, to beat, to haughty affectation, "Money Can't Buy You Class" is a complete knock-off of one of the best disco songs with a teachable message of all time, Eartha Kitt's "Where is My Man?" If you are new to disco with a message, we suggest you skip The Countess and head for The Queen. Eartha.

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Monday, April 26, 2010

Must See : Gaga by UO's Male A'cappella Group, On The Rocks

EVERYONE we know is waiting on pins and hypodermic needles for the all-Gaga episode of "Glee". Since that is still weeks away, here's a little taste of what may be to come: On the Rocks, The University of Oregon's male a'cappella group performs "Bad Romance" complete with choreography and shout-outs to "Poker Face" and "Paparazzi". Think of this as the amuse-bouche to "Glee"'s Gaga entrée.

Worst for Day

Two days after members of the TTT editorial team SPOTTED The MARC's piercing blue eyes from beneath a baseball cap outside Pastis in the Meatpacking District, comes news that the designer and public relation's man Lorenzo Martone are calling it quits. Page Six reports that sources say Martone has vacated the Chelsea love nest and did not accompany Marc Jacobs to Massachusetts for the P-town wedding of his business partner, Robert Duffy, at which MJ served as best man. Moving out of the Mercantile Building and stepping down as your husband's wedding date? All is not well on Bleecker Street!
UPDATE!
The Boston Herald includes Martone in its story about Robert Duffy's wedding. Also noted were the inclusion of hired stripers at the wedding. Strippers! Trash. Either way, we hope the boys get it together or we'll never see this again.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Best for (To)night :

Listen-up trannies: GUMBO, the Thursday night gay party in DUMBO (which has been lauded as the gay party by Out, Time Out NY, Next Magazine, and, of course, TTT) has moved 24 hours down the calendar to Fridays. Tonight, shamble on down to Galapagos Art Space (16 Main Street, Brooklyn) for a night of boozing and cruising with the most eligible guys in the key 24-36 gay demo. This isn't Boiler Room so bring your best cocktail conversation and your game face. FYI for regulars: Unlike the Thursday night iteration, the new GUMBO starts at 10 and goes until 4. Two-for-one drinks from 12-1am! RSVP via Facebook.

Must See : the Metropolitan Etiquette Authority

WPIX reports on a New York artist who is fed up with the general disgustingness of the MTA experience and is doing something about it. Jason Shelowitz makes MTA-lookalike signs reminding the trash on the trains to not use the subway as an opportunity to grope others, clip their toenails or commit 8 other offenses to gentility. Of course signs aren't going to do anything, but the concept is cute enough.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

The New Ivy Campus

I mean, any press is good press- yes? A recent article in the Observer highlights 2 of our favorite things: Williamsburg and The Ivy-League, namely who reigns supreme: Yale vs. Harvard. Whether you find it sad or funny, the article read true. We have included a few key highlights (with TTT comments in red) below:

Mr. Bradley’s classmate, Slate editor Jacob Weisberg, was more specific but no less clear. “I mean, Williamsburg is sort of the Yale campus without the classes, right?” he said. “Brooklyn’s where Yale graduates belong; Washington is more where Harvard graduates belong.(and NYU boys can keep the East Village) Harvard, though it sends many graduates to New York—hello! this reporter among them—does not have the same relationship with New York as Yale—in part for the simple reason that it is much further away.

As Mr. Bradley put it: “The Harvard Club still feels to me like an outpost of another city—like it’s a subsidiary of a company that’s based somewhere else. The Yale Club feels more … I don’t know, Yale and New York always go together. Of course they do.” (Reminder Yalies, its getting nice out make use of the YC rooftop bar. Decent martini’s and on the way home from work)

Yalies in New York feel intense loyalty toward one another. Most of them love hanging out together, and prefer it to hanging out with anyone else.

There is a notion among Yaliens—the nonnative New Yorkers among them, at least—that the city is owned by them. (sad, but true) They covet ownership of it when they arrive, eyeing with frustrated envy the graduates of Columbia and N.Y.U. in their midst who have already been here for four years. (envy is a strong word, most NYU boys cant find their way past Eastern Bloc, oh wait, sorry, forgot about Rockit)

“They’ll [Yalies] throw around names of places in a way Harvard kids don’t,” one Columbia student complained. “They’ll say, ‘I’m at Botanica,’ even if they don’t know if you, someone who goes to school here, know what Botanica is, whereas I think Harvard kids would say, ‘I’m at a bar in Soho. It’s called Botanica.’ (well there is a lot wrong with this. Namely, who goes to “a bar in Soho” no one would ever say that. Period. That is the last place anyone would go for drinks.)

Really, this will always be an ongoing argument—like blackberry vs. iphone. Which ever one you have, you think is better. And then there are the phone stackers (aka have work Blackberry and personal iPhone), Yale undergrad Harvard grad (or visa-versa) yes, there are a few mincing around the city.

Fashion's Night Out 2010

Ever the innovator, Anna Wintour has big plans for this year's Fashion's Night Out. SmartChicStyle reports that the Vogue-spearheaded event will kick-off with an enormous 200 model, 1,500 seat fashion show on September 7th at Lincoln Center. The purpose of the show is to highlight key trends and inspire shoppers to purchase them. Tickets to the mega-show go on sale this summer.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Best For Day : 4/20

Today is April 20th, known by college kids as 4-20, the high holy day of St. Mary J. Juana. Some say the use of "420" originated L.A. police code for pot smoking in progress. Others claim 4:20pm was the time high schools in California let out in the '70s and the numeric slang refers to the Left coast's after school activity of choice. Debating the origins of "420" is a little too stoner for our tastes. When it comes to weed, we follow the WWMD? (What Would Mischa Do?) rule, which is, smoke it if you got it. And if you are on a beach, in a nightclub or the driver's seat of a convertible parked outside Fred Segal, well, all the better. 4/20 is best for 4/20.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Best for Brunch

Kittichai at the Thompson Hotel is certainly not the first place one would think to make a brunch reservation. But after suggested by a long time TTT friend, we decided to check it out. $20 may only get you one drink at the exclusive summertime rooftop club; but for brunch, it will get you an entree and unlimited signature brunch cocktails. Not overly crowded and certainly no sense of a hurried meal, this is a new TTT pick. Great for a gloomy spring afternoon and certainly great for spotting. The menu is eclectic and the attractive wait staff was more than accommodating. A great place to get tipsy before traipsing up to Soho for a little afternoon shopping.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Purge: Fay-Bans

Alright, faux Ray-Bans they had a fair run. But kiddies, it is time to put this cheap-o trend to rest. It is bad enough that these have over popularized the classic fame, but now you can't throw a rock in McCarren Park without hitting some gipster in the head; not to mention the slew of overweight middle-American teenage tourists that are now sporting this trend. Summer is nearing, it is time to invest in a real pair of shades. Find something that suits your face shape and shows your personality. We know, not everyone wants to drop $500 on TF's but there are plenty of in between options out there. Get it girls, unless you want to be the laughing stock on the FIP ferry.

Must (One Day?) See : I Love You Phillip Morris

Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor's "gay movie", I Love You Phillip Morris, looks like a solid comedy with a compelling, "based on a true story"-plot, to back it up. Yet the U.S. release date hangs in limbo. Originally slatted for a March release, the date was moved to April and now the end of July. The story of a gay con man who finds true love with his prison cellmate is so far-fetched it could have only happened in real life. The fact that the movie isn't the typically campy gay movie that American mainstream audiences are used to (see: The Birdcage) or a tragedy were gays are marginalized, victims of circumstance (see: The Boys in the Band, Philadelphia, Brokeback Mountain . .) may have something to do with it. The reviews from abroad, where ILYPM has already been released, are positive as is this one from the 2009 Sundance Film Festival where it was screened :
Written by the team responsible for the similarly dark Bad Santa and based on a true story, I Love You Phillip Morris is an extraordinary film that serves as a reminder of just how good Carrey can be when he's not tied into a generic Hollywood crowd-pleaser. His comic timing remains as exquisite as ever, but this is not a loveable rubber-faced rogue. One could argue that, like The Truman Show, this is another film about a lost naif, but when it plays its final hand, I Love You Phillip Morris is really much, much stranger.
Breakthrough, a showcase for Jim Carrey's sometimes untapped talent, with a strange twist ending: why has it taken so long for I Love You Phillip Morris to make it to American megaplexes? Sigh.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Must Hear : Collin Farrell

We remember Collin Farrell because he used to be super hot, then he epitomized trash, then got kind of hot again. Looks aside, we should always remember Collin Farrell for being an out-spoken defender of gay rights. In a recent statement issued in connection with his support of Irish LGBT group Belong To, Farrell remembered the childhood torment of his gay brother Eamon and urged an institutional shift in teaching tolerance, "Intolerance is not genetically encoded—it is taught. It is learned at home. It is learned in the classrooms and it is learned anywhere else we gather as a group," he continues. "Bullying is torture, it is another betrayal of basic human decency and its scars reach into the future of its survivors." Farrell's full statement can be found at the Belong To website.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Don't Call Me Gaga

An extended trailer for the Sex and the City Movie sequel dropped this week. Everyone's freaking over the clothes and locales. We're just stuck on how "Lady Gaga" Samantha Jones' styling is. I mean . . .


RaGa to say the least! This movie is going to be traaaaaannnnnnyyy, but awesome in its ridiculousness. Liza is in it! What more can you ask for?

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Shoes 7

"You can always tell a tranny by her shoes." In "Shoes", TTT gives a stage to the foundation of any fabulous outfit: the boots, loafers, clogs and heels that we all put on each day.
Right now, flowerbeds are bursting with colorful blooms. What better way to match nature's exuberance for spring than with harlequin patterned shoes?

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Tranny Vocab 16 : Trash

Attention, kiddies - it's time to put on your thinking caps because Tranny Vocab is about to resume. In this series, The Tranny Times explores the varied and wonderful lexicon of Williamsburg trannies. Today's lesson is Trash




Trash
[trash] noun. One who lacks social grace, common manners and/or decency, or acts in an overall manner unacceptable beyond the DMV or KFC. Think guests on Jerry Springer or Jenny Jones or anyone who has ever willingly relocated to Nevada. We all know (or might be) one of those people who strolls up to low-key dinner parties, wasted, or stumbles into work late wearing the outfit from the previous day, or gives/receives oral sex in public bathrooms.
While everyone engages in behavior that may fall under the 'trash' umbrella sometimes, in order to be characterized as true trash, one must be a repeat offender and fulfill a certain level of criteria.
Here are some questions you might want to ask yourself when trying to determine if you're indeed trash:
  • Do I own any Armani Exchange graphic t-shirts?
  • Do I drink Mountain Dew?
  • Do I spend my summers at the Jersey Shore?
  • Does my skin look like leather?
  • Do I have airbrushed tips?
  • Do I have, or have ever had, blond highlights?
  • Is my mobile phone be-dazzled?
While some of these attributes may seem absurd, there are others that may hit a little closer to home. Other situations that may deem you trash: You get wasted and then scan the bar and/or cocktail tables for unattended drinks to quench your thirst. You secretly bring your own booze to establishments that serve alcohol. You can't remember where you are or how you got somewhere when you wake up in the morning -- and you aren't surprised or worried. You find yourself standing on the toilets in Sugarland while your friend feeds you a bump with his apartment key.

Signature quotes of trash: "Oh, I never wear underwear on first dates. I just can't be bothered with looking all over the floor for my underwear the next morning," or "Yes I posted a pump and dump on craigslist last night -- girl's gotta get laid," or "Hell yeah -- I hit that shit and got myself OUT THE DOE'" (in reference to a crack pipe in Bedstuy).

At parties or big events, it's always easy to pick out the trash. He will be the one hoarding free drinks and hors d'oeuvre, and attempting to get into the VIP section even though he is only there because he came with a friend of a friend. Also don't be surprised if this person is seen out on the patio trying to bum cigarettes or flirting with someone's boyfriend (right in front of them). And that's when you know it's time to grab a Hefty bag -- and take out the trash.

See also: White trash, Trailer trash, Southern trash.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Must See : Harvard Sailing Team and "Sassy Gay Friend"

Don't get it twisted The Harvard Sailing Team is not THE HARVARD Sailing team, but an extremely funny NYC-based comedy troop. Below, the male cast plays up just about every female stereotype in "Boys Will Be Girls". ("Umm, I had the Jamie Lee Curtis yogurt.", "I actually digested a huge gust of wind on my way to work.", "I uh, shared a bagel with garbage." -- I mean . . . ) Click here to see "Girls Will Be Boys", and what's going on on the other side of the phone. In this sketch, the girls just come off as lesbians but to each her own.

You've probably already seen "Sassy Gay Friend", but if you haven't, here it is. Consider this a TTT public service to you.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Best for Easter

Easter Sunday, three friends, Victor Jefferys II, Jefferson Scott Lincoln and Clinton Swett threw a "celebration of the resurrection" in McCarren Park. The gathering of "ex-patriots, wanderers, adventurers, fortune seekers and Holly Go-Lightlies" called for "church-chic attire" which guests executed as a blend of super-prep and '20s/'30s sportswear. The table held an ample spread of delicious picnic staples including pitchers of white sangria. Nearby, friends played croquet and corn hole while Jefferys snapped portraits of guests lounging on a white bed.



Thursday, April 1, 2010

Tranny Droppings : Karl Largerfeld

Karl Lagerfeld's 14-piece Goyard luggage set being loaded into a van on the Lower East Side after the Chanel commando's tranny trek to New York City. This is how you make an exit.

Best for Day : Blond Tips

Every tranny thinks she's freakin' Emily Post. From "the Countess" LuAnn to New York Magazine everyone has an opinion on correct etiquette. With all this "expertise" floating around, how come most New Yorkers act like junkyard dogs when it comes to common courtesy? The need for clear-cut, useful rules of decorum is why we LOVE the simple, direct, indisputable advice given by PR maven Susan Blond in her video series, "Blond Tips". The video above handles one of New Yorkers' most uncomfortable moments, the awkward moment the restaurant bill arrives. (Younger men, pay special attention to "when the other party offers to pay". If you aren't going to split, at least REACH for your wallet. It's a simple gesture that prevents your date from feeling like a john.) Love a good tip! "Blond Tips" are best for day.