Scallywag and Vagabond » Philip McCluskey

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05/08/10--06:53: Andersson & Nordstrom;A Swedish Showcase in Chelsea. (chan 1269992)

Shared interests can bring a family together. When those interests also happen to be passions—and livelihoods—that togetherness takes on a whole other dimension. Such is the case with husband-and-wife artists Mamma Andersson and Jockum Nordström, two Swedes who are now exhibiting their art together for the first time with Who is Sleeping on my Pillow.


05/21/10--10:08: Sexy Steve’s Prudish Policies. (chan 1269992)

Apple has now sold over a million iPads, and a new survey reported that one in five consumers plan to buy one. It is further proof that Apple has become more than a technology company: it is a cultural vanguard. Steve Jobs lets everyone know what’s next. And those that buy his devices often define


06/15/10--10:58: DIY Shopping Tours Launch Party at Rivington Hotel (chan 1269992)

And suddenly, the very same Rivington Street I’d just walked on was now a spectacle—classy soft-gray curtains were framing the floor-to-ceiling ground floor windows I was looking through. It looked like a stage. Outside, the harried and haute walked by: It was the Lower East Side as an ever-changing stage. Fishbowl theater. But I wasn’t


06/30/10--10:11: This Week in Superfluous Spending. (chan 1269992)

Some people have a lot of money. And some people have a fascination with memorabilia. And at the Venn-intersection of the two, absurdity reigns. Examples of which were on display recently at auctions. The first was the purchase of Marilyn Monroe’s chest x-ray for $45,000. Putting aside the fact that this money could have put


07/14/10--07:50: No More World Cup… What now? (chan 1269992)

As the signature, skull-numbing drone of the vuvuzela fades, and Spain collectively nurses its massive hangover after days of rioja-swilling glee, we are all left to wonder: what next? For a month, we all watched as the world’s best players played its most popular game on the world’s biggest stage… it supplied us with a


07/23/10--13:40: Haute Dog, Summer in the City. (chan 1269992)

Today is National Hot Dog Day. What better way to celebrate it than to offer an exorbitantly-priced, unnecessarily-elaborate hot dog? In an impressive display of unbridled culinary hubris, Serendipity 3 on the Upper East Side of Manhattan is now offering the “Haute Dog”: an attempt at the most delicious—and most expensive—hot dog ever. This luxe


08/11/10--12:03: Do Americans Have Culture? (chan 1269992)

There are times when I fret over the state of American culture. It was recently announced, for example, that Justin Beiber is coming out with a memoir entitled “First Step 2 Forever”.  Not to over-dramatize it, but one could be forgiven for ascribing apocalyptic implications to this cultural development. Are we really going to embrace


10/21/10--16:12: Children’s Rights Benefit at the Plaza Hotel (chan 1269992)

It’s rare to see a governor and a rap legend share the stage. But when a cause is worthy, it seems, people from all walks of life convene to support it. Such was the case on Tuesday night at the Plaza Hotel, where New York’s magnanimous and moneyed turned out for the Children’s Rights Benefit.


01/11/11--11:04: Here & Now at the Lyons Wier Gallery. (chan 1269992)

  If the measure of an art exhibition is the degree to which it gains maximum exposure for its artists, then the opening of the Here & Now Exhibition at Lyons Wier Gallery was a resounding success. On a cold Saturday evening, the gathered crowd in this small west Chelsea space was spilling into the


02/07/11--07:55: The Melting Middle Class: Why you are super rich or barely hanging by a thread. (chan 1269992)

In a poll conducted in 2007, CBS asked nearly 1,000 people to define their socioeconomic status. Of those polled, only two percent said they were upper class, and only seven percent defined themselves as “lower class.” This means that over 90 percent of people polled felt they belonged in another category: the middle class.    So it seems