And It All (Almost) Ends With 'Project Runway'

New York's Fall 2008 Fashion Week is so over, save for one of the new-traditional grand finales: the final runway show for contestants of Bravo's "Project Runway." There are usually three final contestants in the last episode, and Bravo will send a fourth designer's collection down as a decoy. This year, five designers showed on Friday: Who knows what Bravo has up its ruched, puffy sleeve this season as far as finalists, but the collections themselves were impressive, and to see all-out couture assaults by these designers was informative — especially for those who'll watch a re-run at 2 a.m. just to keep updated.

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By Jayanthi Daniel | Sun, 10 Feb 2008 at 6:06 PM | Permalink

Harlem Blues

Before "Love Jones" (1997), the late 1990s urban romance that made reciting your notebook of weepy verse at spoken word nights a must-do, there was "Carmen Jones" (1954), perhaps among the first major motion pictures to capture black love onscreen. Director Otto Preminger's take on Bizet's opera "Carmen" was retooled and relocated to 1950s Harlem. The action begins on a Southern military base, where Joe, played by a young and strapping Harry Belafonte, falls hard for Carmen, the feisty young woman he is charged with guarding. Once firmly under her spell, Joe goes AWOL, accompanying Carmen back to her old stomping grounds on 125th Street. It's obvious things can't possibly turn out well — as Joe kills the sergeant sent to return Joe to his military post. Meanwhile, Carmen, played with pluck by Dorothy Dandridge, can barely keep her attention on Joe, what with all the dapper uptown suitors who have come calling. More than 50 years after Mr. Preminger shook Hollywood by presenting a feature film with an all-black cast, the movie still rings a radical note — not to mention the movie's great campiness. The Academy Award-winning Halle Berry, who has, in a sense, become her generation's Dandridge (both share a biracial lineage, Cleveland roots, and love lives that bear the mark of the mythic "tragic mulatto") has not led a romantic drama/comedy in which she is cast alongside a black leading man, since 1992's "Boomerang" with Eddie Murphy. Dandridge was nominated for the best actress Oscar for her role in the film, and famously dated the flick's hot-tempered director. On Friday, Film Forum screens this gem as part of its Otto Preminger retrospective. 209 W. Houston St., between Sixth and Seventh avenues, 212-727-8110, $10.50 general, $5.50 for seniors weekdays before 5 p.m., $5.50 children.

By Rebecca Thomas | Thu, 10 Jan 2008 at 9:32 PM | Permalink

When Chocolate Dreams Come True

The Ritz-Carlton Battery Park Wednesday held a preview for the Chocolate Bar, the hotel's annual month-long buffet serving chocoholics citywide. Each February, pastry chef Laurent Richard creates a menu of numerous chocolate confections — including pastries, mousses, cakes, cookies, and candies — and serves them buffet-style atop a chocolate structure. This year, the desserts will be served on a replica of the Brooklyn Bridge (complete with chocolate cars), and the venue — the hotel's Rise bar, featuring impressive views of the Statue of Liberty and surrounding waters — is dotted with chocolate replicas of the Empire State Building and, strangely, an anatomically accurate cow, with white chocolate $100 bills littered underneath it. Mr. Richard pairs many of his desserts with fruit, including a chocolate cake topped with dried apricots, a chocolate mousse with bananas foster, and a chocolate sabayon with minced pineapple. One remarkable dessert featured a cube of white chocolate mousse, made without gelatin or sugar — thus giving it a cloudlike texture. After the mousse is made, according to Mr. Richard, it's frozen for easier slicing, and each cube is sprayed with cocoa powder that freezes and creates a slightly crunchy exterior. It's served on top of an almond dacquoise (my guest and I almost thought we were eating Butterfingers), with a swipe of passion fruit purée. If you need to sugar up your loved one for Valentine's Day, or to give visitors an unusual New York experience next month, this is a smart way to get it done. Oh, and one more thing: unlimited Champagne is included. What could be sweeter? (Friday and Saturday, February 1 through March 1, and Thursday, February 14, three seatings at 6:30, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m., the Ritz-Carlton, 2 West St. at Battery Park Drive, 917-790-2600, $75)

By Jayanthi Daniel | Thu, 10 Jan 2008 at 8:31 PM | Permalink

While You're Returning Holiday Gifts...

At this time of year, visitors to Lord & Taylor on Fifth Avenue, between 38th and 39th streets, are likely to take in the decorative holiday windows — or to take back holiday gifts that were perhaps a little too snug. But in his "Abroad in New York" column in Thursday's edition of the Sun, architecture critic Francis Morrone urges shoppers to take a look at the remarkable landmark structure that is home to the famed store, which was founded as a Lower East Side dry-goods shop in 1826. ...

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By Gabrielle Birkner | Wed, 26 Dec 2007 at 8:34 PM | Permalink

Good For Everyone

These days, jokes about Jews spending Christmas at movie theaters and Chinese restaurants are so cliché they barely draw groans. For real laughs, though, on the night before "the night before Christmas," there's "Good for the Jews," a performance of sardonic and (sometimes) bawdy-to-the-point-of-cringe-inducing ditties by Rob Tannenbaum, who starred in the VH1 special "So Jewtastic," and David Fagin, the lead vocalist of the band the Rosenbergs. This show marks the culmination of the duo's 13-city "Putting the Ha! In Hanukkah" tour, which is sponsored by Heeb magazine. The LeeVees, a rock band whose tunes include "How Do You Spell Channukkahh?" and whose vocalists include an alumnus from Guster, Adam Gardner, will also perform. Sunday, 8 p.m., Highline Ballroom, 431 W. 16th St. at Tenth Avenue, 212-414-5994, $17 in advance, $20 at the door.

By Gabrielle Birkner | Wed, 19 Dec 2007 at 6:48 PM | Permalink

Straddling the Culinary Border on the Lower East Side

First and First — where the next Zadie Smith might indeed be found — also happens to be a key address for the entire Lower East Side, as it serves as a bridge between that neighborhood and the East Village. After the young teens reading at the Lower East Side Girls Club, the literary-minded-turned-hungry can straddle East Houston Street as if it were the Mason-Dixon Line, eating on both sides of the border. Gabrielle Hamilton has long been at the helm of Prune, a tiny neighborhood favorite that serves up key dishes including an appetizer of oozing burrata cheese (a variant of mozzarella that is made with cream and mozzarella curds) with well-grilled toast, marrow bones with parsley salad and sea salt, and an ever-present Hamilton specialty, fried sweetbreads. South of the Houston line is 'inoteca: It might be early to say here, but this is one of A Moveable Salon's favorite restaurants, as it has an extensive menu of small plates, and a very well-priced and diverse (but Italian) wine list. Plus, the décor suits those who are in holiday spirits, what with large wooden tables, crowded byways, and a small bar to squeeze into if you're waiting for a table. Must-try dishes include cheesy toast sprinkled with truffle oil, asparagus, topped with a runny egg; and a warm bowl of polpette, large meatballs smothered in tomato sauce that's delightfully lightened with orange zest. Order a plate of extra bread for the sauce: You will not want to stop eating it. (Prune, 54 E. 1st St., between First and Second avenues, 212-677-6221; 'inoteca, 98 Rivington St. at Ludlow Street, 212-614-0473)

By Jayanthi Daniel | Tue, 18 Dec 2007 at 5:02 PM | Permalink

Red: The Book, by and for Teenage Girls

For an adolescent girl living out the days of her life on Facebook and MySpace, having your trials and tribulations anthologized for print might seem counterintuitive. But author Amy Goldwasser signed up 58 writers eager to report back from the wilds of teendom. And it's not all pining for the next issue of Teen Vogue. A selection of the young scribes gathers tonight at the Lower East Side Girls Club to read from the newly published "Red: The Next Generation of American Writers — Teenage Girls — On What Fires Up Their Lives Today" (Hudson Street Press). From the crisis in Darfur to the love/loathe relationship with frizzy hair, the essays smartly address a range of topics, with only a dollop of angst. Ms. Goldwasser, a writer and editor who was once rumored to be in the running for the top editorial post vacated by Atoosa Rubenstein at Seventeen magazine, reportedly wants to start her own magazine for teenage girls, one that would rely almost entirely on contributions from its readers. Tonight's reading marks what appears to be the last in a flurry of New York City book dates — and a chance to spot the next Zadie Smith. Tonight, 6 p.m., Lower East Side Girls Club, 56 E. 1st St. at First Avenue, 212-982-1633, free.

By Rebecca Thomas | Tue, 18 Dec 2007 at 4:54 PM | Permalink

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