I love college, and I love drinking...

Off The Wagon
West Village
109 MacDougal Street (b/w 3rd and Bleecker Streets)
New York, NY 10012
212-533-4487
www.nycbestbar.com (with its brother and sister bars)

If this is what a "college bar" is, then I don't think I ever want to grow up. On a recent trip here, I had one of my most fun nights in awhile and encountered some fun and interesting people. Off The Wagon draws a huge crowd of NYU students, so at 24 I very well may have been one of the oldest people on either of their two floors. But to be honest I'm sick of having to act my age, so I let loose and had the best time singing Fall Out Boy at the top of my lungs and dominating at beer pong! Well, my girlfriends dominated, I flirted with the opponents or "played defense" as I like to call it. The main appeal of Off The Wagon is the cheap drink specials and big screen TVs broadcasting all the sports you can handle (and the pong!)...but if for some reason you're not into getting drunk on the cheap from multiple pitchers of beer there's also fun music and a DJ who actually takes requests, and I'm sure you'll be able to find a cute (but barely-legal) frat boy to dance with. You don't need to know (or care about) his age, and by all means forget about your own age for one night and enjoy Off The Wagon for its pure simplistic debauchery!
Rating: 4 stars

Megan Wants a...Murderer?

Not me, sillies, Megan Hauserman! (though my co-workers say I look like her...which is a compliment, I think? I'll take it) Allegedly, Ryan Jenkins who was a contestant and alleged finalist on Megan Wants a Millionaire brutally murdered his model ex-wife, stuffed her body in a suitcase, and then hung himself in a Canadian hotel room. Allegedly. Ryan's ex-wife Jasmine Fiore, who unfathomably looks more plastic than Megan, married Ryan in Las Vegas very shortly after meeting him. They divorced 2 months later but were allegedly dating again at the time of the murder. This all took place in the 6 months that have passed since Millionaire wrapped.

When this story started to break about a week ago, I couldn't decide if it was getting so much press because it was legitimately newsworthy, or if it was newsworthy because it involved a "reality star" and a "model". If it was the latter, I feel sad that as a nation we actually consider these people notable celebrities. Is it morbid of me to say that I feel like murders like this happen all the time in local news and it's a bit silly to make such a big deal of this one?

Aside from the whole murder thing, there are so many sad things that this scandal has caused:

-No more Megan Wants a Millionaire. Cancelled. Dunzo. We will never know who won, though rumors say it was TJ (who? idk).

-The completed but unseen third season of I Love Money will remain...unseen. Allegedly (word of the day) Ryan won this hot mess. It also makes me sad to think about all the tools from Millionaire and Daisy of Love who would have been participating in this freak show and all the great footage that must have been filmed that we will never get to rot our minds by watching. VH1 must be scratching their heads in frustration and anger over this loss of programming. Total waste of...well, money.

-I actually thought Ryan was a good catch and predicted him to win Megan Wants a Millionaire. This means I lost the pool, and makes me seriously question my ability to pick the right men. But I guess that's not new news.

Size 6 my ass...

OK magazine is reporting at Sherri Shepherd is down 41 pounds and now fitting into a size 6. Seriously, I don't like blatant lies. I'm a size 6 and I look hella better than that. If Sherri really is a 6 it's time for me to go anno because I refuse to be lumped into a category with that. If she were here right now I'd pull a Janice Dickinson in a classic scene from her crappy/awesome reality show, take off my skirt, and make Sherri put it on and zip up to prove that she fits into the size that she claims she does. It's news stories like this that tamper with America's body image and eff with women's poor impressionable brains (no offence to women, we all know this is true). Sherri, call it what it is, you're a size 10 girlfriend and there ain't nothin wrong with dat.

Fall accessory roundup!

I've been pretty damn broke with this whole recession thing goin on so I've had to severely cut back on my shopping *cue the violins*. I can't really afford clothes anymore, but somehow I justified the purchase of a slew of cheap, gaudy, over the top accessories to fill my emotional void. Plus I found that the accessories out there (particularly at Forever) are having a really creative moment and I'm loving it:

Satin bow bobbie pins ($1.50 for a set of 2). I haven't quite figured out how to wear these yet, but they were too cute and cheap to pass up so I went with the most neutral color in the navy. They're kinda channeling Blair Waldorf, though I suspect they're going to shake up her fashion this season.

Rhinestone bow ring ($3.80). So cute it's totes sold out on the website. Just looking at the bling on this one makes me smile and almost forget we're in a recession. Or maybe I'm just having a moment with bows?

Sequin breast plate necklace ($6.80). I really think these are going to be a huge trend this fall, plus who can resist the shiny? Wear it over a plain black tee and keep everything simple. Unfortunately does need constantly adjusted throughout the day.

Plaid cats-eye sunglasses ($5.80). These are so impractical because they're pretty tack-a-rific and clash with 90% of outfits...but I couldn't resist, they made me smile. I feel like a faux hipster when I wear them (which admittedly has been once, the day I bought them), and they totally remind me of Katy Perry who I'm actually liking at the moment.

Worst pickup line EVER

Experienced Saturday night at Off The Wagon:

"You have nice wrists." (and then proceeds to grab it)

Totes not creepy at all....

Gettin my culture on (while boozing, obvi)

Gallery Bar
Lower East Side
120 Orchard Street (b/w Delancey and Rivington Streets)
New York, NY 10002
347-767-2045
www.gallerybarnyc.com

Combining two staples of the Lower East Side, art and bars, seems like a way to rock the nightlife scene in a creative and innovative way, right? Maybe not so much considering that the true LES "artsy" types aren't the ones flocking to Gallery Bar, but rather just typical trendy mid-twenty-something New Yorkers. As the name suggests, Gallery Bar displays a large amount of artwork from local up and coming artists and functions as a true gallery by day. By night this place tries to become a club with hip hop music, dark curtains to almost black out the venue, and a faux strict door policy, but unfortunately misses the mark due to the lack of actual space for dancing (despite two levels). The reasonably attractive crowd barely notices and definitely does not care about the art, and people are packed so tightly that I lost track of my friends within minutes and was left to fend for myself in what turned out to be a sea of sketchy men. Gallery Bar tends to be a popular place for birthday parties (I've been to two already this year) and seems hospitable to planning ahead for groups, but without an occasion I probably won't be returning on my own.
Rating: 2.5 stars

Did Bravo not get the memo?

Last night during the Real Housewives of Atlanta season premiere, Bravo played a shortened version of this commercial for the new season of Project Runway. Premiering August 20th. On LIFETIME.

After all the legal dramz that went down over the network switch for ProRun, why the hell would Bravo run a commercial for their competitor? Do they even realize how D-list that makes them look? It's like, "Look at one of the most popular and credible shows on reality tv that we lost and had to create a rip-off show to replace. It's great, change the channel and go watch this!" Seriously, Bravo, I thought you were better than that.

Yet, as much as I wanted to hate on Lifetime's version of ProRun, it looks just as great as in the good ole days and so does Models of the Runway. I'm hanging my head and changing into my mom jeans in shame because I will be watching.