29 November 2005

Drink Finder: Mapping: Google Earth


You may be aware of the Google Earth program which maps the globe (or most of the desirable parts anyway) using satellite imagery. Besides helping you find your next real estate plot without having to charter some dodgy prop plane to do a fly over, the program also can be used as a helpful cocktail finder. If you click on the bars/clubs overlay for any U.S. city it will show you on the map where the nearest waterhole is. And if your efforts at the bar prove successful you will want to make sure and download the Earthbooker.com hotel overlay which has 80,000 hotels around the globe in its database. Map your way to a good night out.
+Google Earth, invading your privacy now.
+Earthbooker.com overlay file for Google Earth.

28 November 2005

Trunks: Vilebrequin VIP Collection


Not that swimming should be a focal point in anyone's life, but you do need to look smart when doing so. For many years, Vilebrequin has been the swimwear of choice for the Euro jetset, but over time the token bankers and outer-boroughers got wind of these spiffy trunks and ruined the gig for the rest of us. How do you one-up the stooges in this fast-paced waterproof world? The Vilebrequin VIP Collection. This is a limited edition collection of suits equipped with sterling silver fittings and designed with unique patterns that the commoners cannot find. Each pattern is numbered of an output of 250 worldwide. Our favorites of the VIPs are the even harder-to-find prints with black backgrounds (Boris recently purchased orange giraffes, beige elephants, and palm trees on black). However, we must warn you that the silver toggles attract barracudas (we wish we were kidding) so no swimming in Florida with these puppies. Regardless, you can never look too chic when wet, whether you're swimming in the ocean in St. Trop or in a champagne bath in a Moscow brothel.
+Vilebrequin.
+Previous W4 Trunks: Hobbs the Only Name Worth Knowing.

26 November 2005

Swinging London: Killing Kittens


W4 has been on top of the late night swinging scenes fast moving across the globe for months now. With our correspondent Boris reporting from Paris and New York we have kept you abreast of the latest late night champagne fueled friskiness.

Here at HQ we are excited to learn that swinging has reached the capital city of Booze Island, London. On December 8th, Killing Kittens, a female run, high society cabal are throwing their Christmas party at a secure top secret West End venue. Billed as all about 'exploration, experimentation, sensuality and pure hedonism' they prefer the term 'liberated' to the term swinging. And in order to ensure the highest quality of participants only couples and single women are allowed to apply - with prerequisite photo. The group is just starting to get some press attention from glossy magazines so we suggest getting to one of their parties sooner rather than later. Aparently London didn't just swing in the 60's.
+Killing Kittens, 8 December, London.
+Previous W4:
Swinging is All the Rage: Booze Island.
+Previous W4: Boris: Paris: Swinging is All the Rage.

23 November 2005

Radio Mockba Reports: Berlin: Hipster Eyes Bleed


Radio Mockba, formerly known as Stardust, and visually known as a hipster model/temptress, sends us this dispatch from Berlin:
"Check out clubs berghain, its the new place thats quite good. The high end crowd hangs out at Felix. It is best on weekends. Otherwise after party (starts 8 am) is in the hut in volkspark (east Berlin) good time - eyes bleed. For diversions be sure and hit up Dr. Pong for some ping pong on eberswalder strasse. White trash is always great (some guy stood up and drank his own piss last time I was there). To eat monsieur vong for good Vietnamese lunch on alte schonhauser (by hackescher markt) good there shopping too. A new hotel opened up called hotel Q it has a beach in the basement. Worth checking out. There or the Adlon but that's more where parental types stay."
+berghain, Berlin.
+
Felix, Behrenstraße 72, Adlon Palais, Berlin.
+Volkspark,
map.
+Dr. Pong, Eberswalder Strasse 21, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin.
+White Trash, Torstr, Berlin
+
Monsieur Vong, Indochina Café, Alte Schönhauser Str, Berlin-Mitte. No reservations.
+
Hotel Q!, Knesebeckstrasse 67, Berlin.
+Hotel Adlon, Unter den Linden 7710117 Berlin.

W4 Viewers Just Want Russian Women

Our I.T. Intelligence Unit reports that W4 readers come to our site for mainly two things:
1 - You are in Kazakhstan and looking for a 'russian whorehouse'.


2 - You are in New York City and looking for 'au bar prostitutes'


Which leads us to think - is everyone in the world just looking for a Russian whore?

We're happy we've been able to help all our badly behaved comrades.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-The W4 Team

+Au bar, 41 E 58th St, New York, +1 212 308 9455.
+Kazakhstan: Borat: Ali G [Borat Homepage].
+Thirsty: Drink: Russian Standard Vodka.

21 November 2005

Black Thursday: Thanksgiving and Open Bar


Choose your poison. On Thursday, America celebrates Thanksgiving with turkey, stuffing, and a more than a few awkward moments between estranged family members suck around the dinner table. Across the pond on Booze Island, the world’s biggest bar keeps the party rolling by scraping decades old prohibition era drinking laws and allowing bars and clubs to stay open 24 hours a day.

Next week: British productivity drops dramatically and Mom develops a nasty martini and valium habit after grandpa tells her she never was his favourite and calls the doorman a darkie.
+UK: Kensington and Chelsea: Licensing Register Search.
+UK: Westminster:
Licensing Register Search.
+NBC News: 24-Hour Pubs [video].

Snow Threads: Mountain: Paul Smith Mark XIII


Normally we think of Paul Smith threads with their bright colors as a bit too British dandy. We have been pleasantly surprised by their recent collaboration with snowboard maker Burton to create this durable one off pin striped snowboard suit, the Mark XIII. The suit brings classic Smith style backed with Burton’s off piste edge to the slopes. Match this with a ski bunny in a skin tight Bogner suit and head for the hills.
+Mark XIII, $1,500, available at Saks Fifth Avenue in the US and Paul Smith, Westbourne House, 122 Kensington Park Rd, London, +44 20 7727 3553.
+
Bogner.
+Ski: Austria:
Ischgl.

15 November 2005

De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté: France: Movies

De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté (The Beat My Heart Skipped) is a fascinating, edgy movie that exposes a grittier side to Paris than our correspondents could tolerate. Complete with Russian mobsters, concert pianists, adultry, drugs, violence and even some immigrant evicting, the movie reveals a darker corner of the city of light. A brief synopsis from BBCi:

"The Beat That My Heart Skipped stars Romain Duris as Tom, a thuggish loner in thrall to a delinquent father but fast becoming his carer. He seems doomed to walk in his dad's footsteps until a figure from his past, the former manager of his concert pianist mother, offers Tom the chance to audition . . . But drifting away from the mean, brutal world he inhabits is not simple. Though he feels the pull of the piano, an instrument that rekindles a bond with his late mother and exposes a gentleness he'd forgotten he had, he cannot easily escape his reality. No sooner does he make a breakthrough with his attractive female piano tutor than he is drawn into his father's violent business feuds. "

As well, the soundtrack, which won an award at the Berlin Film Festival is one of the best in recent memory and is full of euro-electro tracks and vibrating guitar rifts.
+US Release: DVD: Beat My Heart Skipped [amazon].
+UK: London: Showtimes: The Beat My Heart Skipped.

Digi Shack: Wired Store: New York

Just in time for the holiday rush, Wired Magazine is opening a temporary Wired Store at 160 Wooster Street in New York from November 18th to December 24th. The store will feature all the latest electronic gizmos and will be stocked with silicon loving nerds eager to touch the latest buttons. A highlight of this temporary digi shack is its' Saturday and Sunday 'Wired Wheels' service. If you purchase anything from the store during the weekend you are offered complimentary shuttle service to your next destination courtesy of VW. But for those of you that cannot bear the thought of human interaction or drastic markups never fear they also have a website so you can remain locked in your room with your computer and your lonely self.
+The Wired Store, 18 November to 24 December, 160 Wooster Street, New York.
+Nerd Fantasy Movie: Weird Science.
+Revenge of the Nerds characters: Booger or Poindexter?
+Tech Biz: Book: The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture [amazon].

14 November 2005

Nikki Reeks: Boris: New York: Nightlife


Boris sends us this dispatch from NYC:
"After I'd reconfirmed that fun downtown nightlife on the weekends is a sad joke, I spent the remainder of my Friday thru Sunday wandering Midtown and the Upper East and found plenty of of the action I was looking for. The nights consisted of (minus my more sordid activities): a delicious dinner at the horribly 80's Shun Lee Palace (across from which there is some sort of terrorist sleeper cell--I witnessed all sorts of strange goings on during a cigarette break), doing shots with the bartender and ladies and gents of the night at the bar at Fizz, Observing the strange Euro mating behavior in the back room at Frederick's, then ending up 10 sheets to the wind for an unnecessary nightcap at Bar & Books. On Sunday evening, with my body feeling terribly bruised and battered, I took a nap and continued on. My mission on Sunday night was to see what I thought of the new Nikki Beach in midtown. As Nikki Beach has expanded relatively successfully from its Miami origin to St. Tropez, Marbella, and I believe Sardinia, I thought an outpost in La Gran Manzana could be a good thing. How wrong I was! While the white bed/tiki bar decor is very similar to their other locales and they do have an intriguing booze skybox upstairs, the crowd is terrible. What crowd there was looked like a pool of Midwestern vomit--horrible cheap clothing, strange haircuts that all looked like toupees, and these sunken Lenny eyes. Anyway, whoever Nikki is he has no reason to be proud of this baby. I departed after one drink (decent pour) and resigned myself to Green Label on the rocks at B&B where the crew still smokes, drink like fish, and white Russians are everywhere (professionals not the bevis, don't insult me). Not a weekend for the weak in the stomach or liver--remember I'm invincible."

Boris Loves You

+Nikki Beach.
+Music: London Chill Out: Beatles Regrooved [itunes]
+Shun Lee Palace, 155 E 55th St, New York, +1 212 371 8844.
+Lexington Bar and Books, 1020 Lexington Ave, New York, +1 212 717 3902.
+Related W4: Fizz and Cips.
+Related W4: PR Girls Report: Our Cocktail of the Week.

10 November 2005

Playlist: November: Booze Island Vol. 1

Tablet Goes Super: Mapping: Global


Tablet Hotels, one of our favorite hotel agents for top tier unique hotels, has teamed up with previously mentioned Superfuture maps to create new map based navigation for their site. So far they have created guides for the following cities: New York, London, Hong Kong, Paris, and Tokyo. Besides giving you city map with all of the recommended hotels plotted on it, each city guide features suggested highlights broken down by Look, Taste, Listen, Touch, and Scent with amusing annotations such as 'Seedy Soho' and 'Upscale dog shampoo'. Bien Sur!
+Tablet Hotels.
+W4: Super Friday Future: Mapping: Global.

07 November 2005

Paris Ablaze: Jaded Models Unaffected

While parts of Paris and France smolder after 11th straight nights of rioting, Barbarian at the Ritz reports from la coeur de la Republic, le 1ème, where little changes – models are still drinking champagne and partying:

"Check out Cantine. Unbelevably hip, all black, models (male and female) best kisses in every movie ever made screened on the wall, "in" food."

+Cantine Du Faubourg, 105 rue du fbg St-Honore 8 Paris, +33 1 4256 2222.
+Le Figaro: Plus de 1.400 véhicules incendiés et 395 personnes interpellées, 7 November 2005.

+NY Times: For Tourists, a Calmer Paris, 7 November 2005.
+Previous W4: Paris: Swinging is all the Rage.
+Previous W4: Hunter S. Texas: Putting on The Ritz.


01 November 2005

Cocaine Wife-Swapping Orgies Back in Vanity