S: Is for Socializing for a Cause!

Housing Works hotly anticipated fifth-annual Fashion for Action fall fundraiser is aptly titled “Fashion Saved My Life.”Chaired by Marc Jacobs and sponsored by HBO and Essence, Fashion for Action is a four-day charitable fashion event, silent auction and sample sale that raises funds for homeless and low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS. Kicking off at 6pm on Nov. 13 with a VIP an opening-night, that starts with a light dinner from The Works Catering, private concierge cocktail service and an hour of preview sample-sale shopping. (One of this year’s coolest silent auction items? A weekend at the equestrian estate of Carson Kressley ). The Rubin Museum (150 17th Street) is hosting this extravaganza and it benefits Housing Works’ Women’s Health Center. The Fashion for Action sample sale continues on Nov. 14, 15 and 16 at Housing Works Thrift Shop on 17th Street. Hundreds of top designers and major labels have donated $2 million worth of merchandise to be sold at an incredible 50 to 70 percent off retail.


To promote the theme of this year, Housing Works asked award-winning fashion photographer Lane Coder to photograph Housing Works client Marvina Tatum at the Soho Grand Hotel wearing a dress donated by Marc Jacobs. Formerly homeless, Tatum now lives at a Housing Works residential facility and works as a clothing sorter at Housing Works’ donations warehouse. “I owe my life to Housing Works. Housing Works showed me how to live with HIV. And I mean live!” Tatum said.

Participating designers in this year’s Fashion for Action include 3.1 Phillip Lim, Band of Outsiders, Bottega Veneta, Calvin Klein, Charlotte Ronson, DSquared2, Diane von Furstenberg, Dolce & Gabbana, Ermenegildo Zegna, Etro, Fendi, Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Gustto, Hermès, Helmut Lang, Hugo Boss, Issey Miyake, Jill Stuart, Libertine, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, Nanette Lepore, Narciso Rodriguez, Prada, Rogan, Steven Alan, Theory, Tom Ford, Valentino, Vera Wang, Versace, Yves Saint Laurent and many more.
Fashion for Action Three-Day Sample Sale Details
Date: Nov. 14 to 16, 2008
Time: Friday, Nov. 14 from 10 am to 7 pm; Saturday Nov. 15 from 10 am to 7 pm; and Sunday, November 16 from noon to 6pm.
Place: Housing Works Thrift Shop, 143 West 17th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues
Price: Sale is free and open to the public.
Website: www.fashionforaction.com
ABOUT HOUSING WORKS: Housing Works is the nation’s largest grassroots AIDS service organization. Since 1990, Housing Works has provided life-saving housing, food, medical, HIV prevention and job training services to more than 20,000 homeless New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS. Our chain of seven Housing Works Thrift Shops and the Housing Works Bookstore Café provide funding to support this work. For more visit www.housingworks.org.

T: Is for Taking a Stand!

The election that has this country holding their breath, is about to happen. 13% of the voters are new voters including me. We are voting not because we think Obama is the best choice but that Sarah Palin is the worst. It has sparked new creativity. Two West Hollywood residents created a haunted house with a Palin hanging in effigy, which caught the eye of the secret service. The New Yorker's November 9th issues cover is brilliant. Two kids dressed as Sarah Palin and John McCain frighten children dressed as the devil, a witch, a ghost and a goblin. My favorite is the new Obama ad. I think it says it all.

Dan Simon didn’t mince his words when asked to describe the Republican party’s vice-presidential candidate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. “She’s an idiot. A politically immature woman. A complete idiot who just doesn’t get it. It is a joke that she is running for vice-president,” stated Dan Simon. Dan is a human resources manager attending the Human Society for Human Resource Management’s Diversity Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, is from South Dakota, a state known for backing Republicans in presidential elections. He also is a staunch Republican supporter, but not any more. Simon said McCain exposed either his poor sense of judgment or his weakness in compromising with the powers in the Republican Party by picking Sarah Palin as his running mate. “He is 72 years old and has undergone treatment for cancer. If anything happens to him, she will be president, God forbid. If that happens, I will migrate to Canada”. There are a lot of Americans who feel this way, including me. The majority of the polls show that the majority of Americans consider Palin unqualified for the office. Most Republican-leaning newspapers have endorsed Obama for president over McCain for the same reason. Ironically, the list includes the Anchorage Daily News, the most influential paper in Alaska, Palin’s home state. In its endorsement, it said: “Obama displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand. The same cannot be said of Senator McCain.” The scientific community has also been expressing its disgust with Palin over some of the ignorant things she has been saying lately. The harshest came from PZ Myers a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota. Myers, was shocked by Palin’s speech last week in which she claimed that she wanted more support for children with disabilities, more tools to test for disorders, but decried the expense for scientific research. She reportedly said: “Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? You’ve heard about some of these pet projects; they really don’t make a whole lot of sense.
“Sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not.” Myers res-ponded in his popular blog: “ I am appalled. This idiot woman, this blind, short-sighted ignoramus, this pretentious clod, mocks basic research and the international research community. “You damn well better believe that there is research going on in animal models. “What does she expect, that scientists should mutagenize human mothers and chop up baby brains for this work? “Yes, scientists work on fruit flies. Some of the most powerful tools in genetics and molecular biology are available in fruit flies, and these are animals that are particularly amenable to experimentation. “Molecular genetics has revealed that humans share key molecules, the basic developmental toolkit, with all other animals, thanks to our shared evolutionary heritage (something else the wackaloon from Wasilla denies), and that
we can use these other organisms to probe the fundamental mechanisms that underlie core processes in the formation of the nervous system – precisely the phenomena Palin claims are so important. “In this next election, we’ve got to choose between 21st century rationalism and Dark Age inanity. It ought to be an easy choice.

On Tuesday we have a chance to speak up for our freedoms which are seriously in danger of being taken away. Cast your vote. Speak loudly and this country will stand a chance and that is a F.A.C.T.

C: Is for Clubs with that Haunting Flare!

What with Halloween right around the corner here is a list of fabulous haunts for your ghoulish pleasure.

Celebrate Halloween at Manhattan's hottest clubs.

1. Nightmare at The Dream Hotel. The newest Real Housewife of New York City, Kelly Bensimon, is hosting this Halloween party at The Dream Hotel (keep an eye out for those Bravo cameras). Wear your sexiest costume and compete for a $150 gift certificate from chic boutique Owl's Lab. Tickets are $40.

2. JoonBug Halloween Masquerade Ball at Capitale. Party with Esquire Magazine, and celebrity guests at Capitale on Halloween night. Bold-faced names like Usher, Jay Z, and Diddy have been known to turn up at the Capitale bash. Tickets for the 2008 party are $20 for general admission and $50 for VIP admission. Costumes are mandatory, so get a little creative for a change.

3. Perez Hilton's Halloween Bash @ ESPACE 635 West 42nd between 11th and 12th. After 8 years of Halloween on Mars we bring you a new party-- Perez Hilton's Halloween Bash with the master of pastiche. Come early to enjoy our Dos Equis open bar from 9pm - 10pm. General admission $40

4. The Sexiest Meat'Hacking' Halloween Party 2008 @ STK 26 Little West 12th Street (Between 9th and Washington) $25

5. NYC's #1 OFFICIAL HALLOWEEN PARADE COSTUME PARTY TICKETS BUY NOW ON CLUBPLANET.COM or CALL NOW OPEN BAR 9-10pm GREY GOOSE BOTTLES ONLY $250 ALL NIGHT ! $3 Spooky Shots ALL NIGHT ! Costumes Required 10 Djs , 3 Seperate Floors of Music $1000 Cash Prize to BEST COSTUME. located at Nest 215 W 28th St General admission $40

Hey, boys and girls most of these events require advance ticket purchases or the price sky rockets so do the research and make your plans soon. Remember though the best way to spend Halloween is in the company of friends and that is a F.A.C.T.

A: Is for Art and Wine Combining!

Today art and wine combine to make a sweet sensation. Wente Wines in combination with Columbia records presents the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” legendary album. Like a fine vintage wine, the music contained on Kind of Blue reveals added nuance and unexpected pleasures the older it gets. And yet with each year that Kind of Blue ages, it goes through a rejuvenation process that is exciting to behold. The essence of the 1959 album has never been duplicated. That may account, in part, for its triple-platinum status in the U.S. and worldwide recognition as a timeless masterpiece, No 12 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time. "Kind of Blue: 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition is an expansive and lavishly-designed box set. The contents of the box include: two CDs (running time over two hours); a newly-produced black-and-white documentary DVD, a full-size 60-page book of critical essays, annotations and photography; and an envelope chockfull of memorabilia. The box also includes the 12-inch LP package pressed on 180-gram blue vinyl and an enormous 22x33 fold-out poster of Miles. The box will be released by Columbia/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT. The new DVD incorporates material from the 2004 mini-documentary, Made In Heaven, including black-and-white still photography of the recording sessions and the voices of Miles (at the sessions), as well as excerpts of radio interviews with the late Bill Evans and Cannonball Adderley. There are interviews with musicians and luminaries including composer/performer David Amram, the late Ed Bradley, Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb, Bill Cosby, Herbie Hancock (who demonstrates "So What" at the piano), Eddie Henderson, Shirley Horn, Dave Liebman, the late Jackie McLean, funk-rocker Me'Shell Ndege'Ocello, hip-hop's Q-Tip, Carlos Santana, John Scofield, Horace Silver, and many others. The DVD also unearths the group's entire 26-minute appearance on "Robert Herridge Theatre: The Sound of Miles Davis," a CBS television program recorded in 1959 and broadcast in 1960. Another bonus feature is the gallery of images captured by Columbia staff photographer Don Hunstein, covering the original recording sessions, as well as a key performance at New York's Plaza Hotel in September 1958. In conjunction with the latter, an unprecedented four-week exhibit of Miles Davis photography will be mounted at New York's downtown Morrison Hotel Gallery in November-December 2008. The exhibit will then travel to other Morrison Hotel locations and Starwood Hotels in 2009.

Wente is no stranger to combining music with wine. Starting in 2007 “Discover the Wine, Discover the Music” was a pairing of the innovative music download and wine. The program introduced wine and music lovers to breaking new artists from a mix of popular musical genres. Wente Vineyards and musical partners promoted the project to their fan bases through website postings, email campaigns and exclusive events. “Discover the Wine, Discover the Music” Vintage II runs through March 2009 and Wente wines will carry “Discover the Wine, Discover the Music” foldout bottle-neckers showcasing Karl Wente’s selected wine and music pairings and a redemption code to download a free song from each of the featured artists. “I find the intellectual process of matching the structures and moods of wine and music very compelling,” said Wente, a musician himself. “For Vintage II, I paired the tannins and weight of our wines with the percussion and brass of the songs, and the mid-pallet with the rhythm. Like food and wine pairing, there are no absolute right and wrong answers, only combinations that can inspire the senses. The Discover project allows us to share these inspirations.”

Here is a list of the Vintage II pairings:

• Legend Miles Davis lives on in Miles From India’s “Great Expectations,” paired with Wente Vineyards The Nth Degree Merlot
• Academy Award nominee Allison Moorer’s self-penned “Mockingbird,” the title track from her tribute album to the female artists who have inspired her, paired with Wente Vineyards Louis Mel Sauvignon Blanc
• Tally Hall’s John Lennon Songwriters Award recipient “Good Day,” paired with Wente Vineyards Riva Ranch Chardonnay
• UK critics darlings The Duke Spirit’s “The Step and the Walk,” paired with Wente Vineyards Charles Wetmore Cabernet Sauvignon
• Rock royalty's Joachim Cooder shines in Hello Stranger’s “Big Boots,” paired with Wente Vineyards Sandstone Merlot
• Shurman’s Americana Music Award contender “Wonder Where You Are,” paired with Wente Vineyards Southern Hills Cabernet Sauvignon

To read full descriptions of Karl’s pairings, visit www.wentevineyards.com/discover.

What a way to spend a winter night .......jazz, wine and ________________and that is a F.A.C.T.

F: Is for Food Anticipation!

A couple of blocks away from my house on Saturday a line went around the corner for the opening weekend of the UWS location of the Shake Shack. It was raining, windy and cold but that did not detour those fans of the 23rd street eatery. Danny's Meyer's celebrated burgers, same hit menu (and lines) from downtown had all ages drooling with anticipation. ShackBurger, Shack-ago Dog, frozen custards, fries, drew upper westsiders and tourists. After all it is adjacent to The Museum of Natural History. 11 tables, as well as a downstairs "rec room" for private parties is sure to be coveted for those sweet sixteen birthday soiree's. Time for me to try the Natural History Crunch (vanilla custard with malt, Valrhona chocolate crunchies, caramel and hot fudge). Time to start Shackin' up! (366 Columbus Ave. at 77th St.)

One block down from the Spotted Pig. Braeburn has opened. Braeburn means apple pie and this is a restaurant that uses seasonal fare. Fig-stuffed quail "sausage" and rack of pork with potato-prune gratin. Owner Brian Bistrong even grows some of his own ingredients, using chard, parsley and, yes, apples, from his Connecticut farm, which is has a starring role at the restaurant: A painting of it hangs on one of Braeburn's walls. Bistrong background is impressive, starting with Rocco DiSpirito at Gray Kunz’s Lespinasse, Amy Scherber to David Bouley. It is no surprise that scallion biscuits are what started it all. Made with scallions, thyme, garlic and buttermilk. There are 2 rooms. The first has a bar right in the middle with about 12 seats, the other room is must larger with seating only. 200 year old barn wood and handmade mesquite tabletops add to the modern country feel. Bibb lettuce with toasted pumpkin seeds, chopped with a light olive oil lemon dressing. Sea Scallops, braised endive and walnut puree should tempt you and those are only the appetizers. (117 Perry St. at Greenwich St., 212-255-0696)

Fall means warm meals, new discoveries, apples, pumpkins and good times. Todays column is a new location of the tried and true and a branching out of an old space and that is a F.A.C.T.