Spencer Tunick and a crowd of volunteer naked people brazenly defied the dress code at the Four Seasons restaurant last Saturday for Tunick’s 75th installation documenting the human form in unexpected places. Other New York locations where Tunick's models have gone au naturale include Grand Central Station and Times Square. Tunick’s Saturday shoot coincided with the day the Pool Room at the Four Seasons changes its seasonal décor to a Spring theme. This 20X24 photograph......

Yesterday Forbes magazine, in their annual ranking of the rich, declared New York City is no longer the billionaire capital of the world. Where have all the dollar signs gone? To Moscow, of course, who beat us out by 3 billionaires (they have 74 to our 71). Most of the big buck city dwellers are familiar names: Mayor Michael Bloomberg ($11.5 billion), publishing powerhouses Samuel Newhouse Jr. and Rupert Murdoch ($8.5 billion and $8.3 billion),......

What Lower Manhattan will look like after Silverstein's buildings are completed; the Woolworth Building with its ornate green roof is on the left, 99 Church is the tall building to it right (and to the left of what is an illuminated Church street); to the right is the WTC site, with Freedom Tower and the other three towers; image from dbox/Silverstein Properties Developer Larry Silverstein announced yesterday that he will build an 80-story building......

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2007 Recap from Super!Alright! on Vimeo Austinist attended a town hall meeting about proposed noise ordinances that could undermine the city's future as the Live Music Capital of the World, and lamented the possible loss of Texas's only feminist bookstore. Throughout the week, they interviewed a bunch of indie fashion designers and D-I-Y websites—Etsy, Ornamental Things, 31 Corn Lane, and Aorta Designs—for the upcoming Stitch Fashion Show. They also did......

HEADS UP: Last year we had Daniel Kitson join our Laughable Hype comedy show, and we've been eagerly awaiting his return to the states since then. Good news...he's back! We strongly urge you to buy tickets right now so you can catch the special performance on Monday at Mo Pitkins. These will go fast Sold out! But this just in...Kitson will also be performing at Union Hall this Sunday at 9pm (first come first served).......

Sure, the Yankees have lost their fifth game in a row and are 14.5 games behind the Red Sox, but know what's more interesting: Alex Rodriguez's off-the-field activities in Toronto! The Post puts A-Rod on cover, calling him "Stray-Rod," and wondering why he was hanging out with a "mysterious, busty blonde" at a strip club AND his hotel. Apparently he went to the strip club with two other guys, but he was seen going into......

This week in the Times, Bruni visits the Four Seasons, awards it two stars. Says, "The standouts on the menu aren’t as numerous as they should be. The signs of a restaurant that runs on two tracks--one for the anonymous, another for the anointed--are too obvious." The restaurant had previously received three stars from Ruth Reichl in 1995. But Bruni also finds a "stubborn magic" still there: in the architecture, the history, and the insider......

It seems like, all across the network, folks were up to no good. Maybe it was all the green beer from last weekend... Gothamist spent the week writing about New Yorkers behaving badly: at the post office, at the Garden, and at the fertility clinic. Calvin Klein may not be misbehaving, but he's just a little dirty, and in a completely different way than some NYC kitchens. SFist had its share of misbehave-rs, too, like......

Ooh, the NY Times reports that Senator Hillary Clinton had lunch with former Senator Al D'Amato and former Mayor Ed Koch yesterday at the Four Seasons, which Four Seasons co-owner Julian Niccolini likened to "the Second Coming of Christ." And how, as D'Amato is a notable Republican power player. Apparently the trio have lunch at least once a year, and Clinton picked up this meal's check. D'Amato and Koch told the Times' Patrick Healy......

- MUG gives us their latest Hot List, featuring recent openings Little Owl and Japonais, among others. - The good folks at Epicurious have launched Wine. Dine. Donate, an online and offline program to benefit America's Second Harvest. The online component gives you all you need to host a fundraising dinner at home: a monthly menu from a featured chef with recipes and wine pairings, shopping links, and hosting tools like placecards and invitations. Offline,......

Bruni reviews Blue Hill (in Greenwich Village, not at Stone Barns) bumps the restaurant up to three stars from the two it received from William Grimes in 2000. He cites "quality and immediacy" of ingredients and says eating there is a subtle experience, "like a hushed foreign film with subtitles." For Eater, three stars here gives Bruni the opportunity to "provide some relative benchmark for his two star hand job from last week [at......

The heat is on, the humidity is rising, seems about the perfect time for a good old fashioned tabloid hooker scandal, doesn't it? Well, ask and you shall receive. The News and the Post both ecstatically report today that alleged madam Andrea Schwartz was more then happy to give interviews yesterday from Rikers Island. Even more exciting for the tabs Schwartz, who steadfastly denies that she is either a prostitute or a madam and claims......

Broadway's big night celebrated two hit shows, both with word "Boys" in the title. "Jersey Boys," the musical about singing group, The Four Seasons, won Best Musical and two actors won Best Actor (John Lloyd Young) and Best Featured Actor (Christian Hoff), and "The History Boys," a play about British education, won Best Play, Best Direction and Best Actor (Richard Griffiths). The speeches were all very heartfelt, touching and classy - Frances de la......

The strangely compelling modern meets medieval Hearst Tower is a metaphor for the fortunes of the Hearst Corporation in the NY Times today. And buried towards the end of the article, there's a dig about how Hearst hasn't been very sexy:While it is not exactly Xanadu, Hearst Tower is certainly a major upgrade for many of the company's rank and file. With its soaring entry and French Balzac limestone lobby floor, the building sets a......

The American Theater Wing announced the 2006 Tony award nominees, and there are a lot of notables: - The Drowsy Chaperone stormed the gate with 13 nominations, including Best Musical, four acting nominations and a ton of others... - The Color Purple followed with the most nominations (11), including Best Musical, Best Book, Best Original Score, Best Leading Actress and three Best Featured acting awards. However, in spite of the Oprah factor, we give......

We came to win. We were prepared for the challenges they laid before us. Blind wines…bring it. Guess the spices…we came to play. Decorate the cookie…we’ll take down the pastry chefs. This was our mantra. Dirty or fair, we had one goal and that was to win the 2nd Annual Duckathlon sponsored by D’Artagnan. Clearly there was a miscount, because team Mother Ducker didn’t win, although we did steal the duck bacon prize from team......

In an appeal to his supporters, the Mayor took them to lunch at the Four Seasons restaurant to give them some cards. But not just any ol' cards - wallet-sized, plastic covered cards - "The New York City Card '06" - that list the city's (in the Mayor's eyes) top five initiatives. Sort of like mission statements that marketing heads get, the list is what Bloomberg hopes will be a filter for donors to think......

So, it's been a little while since the last time we visited the Times Weddings and Celebrations by the Numbers but today there was no way we couldn't count 'em up. If you opened up the paper today you might have noticed that the familiar face of our very own Jen Chung and her new husband Jay Wilkins were the on top of the list of sixteen non-Vows weddings this week. From the Paper......

Gothamist knows that the best restaurants in the city use the best ingredients they can find. But there are many chefs that go to extremes to find the best of the best. Chefs like Thomas Keller of Per Se fame develop relationships with local farmers, fisherman and wild mushroom cultivators in the maticulous pursuit of the best ingredients. Unfortuntely, most of these ingredients are not always available to the passionate home cook. That's why Gothamist......

The NY Post goes after the Michelin Guide for its glaring mistakes, sort of the way Manhattan User's Guide nailed the 2006 Zagat guide a few weeks ago. The Post's restaurant critic, Steve Cuozzo, goes after Michelin, wondering if their highly trained inspectors even went to some restaurants and calls some of the advice "inane." Plus: The guide tells readers to take the "Metro," not the subway, to restaurants, mentions Le Bernadin's a la carte......

Jessica Cutler, ex-blogger, author, The Washingtonienne...

cityrag has pictures of NASCAR's "Victory Lap" in New York, proving that there are NASCAR fans in a blue city. And with news last May that NASCAR was looking to create a roadway in the five boroughs, the presence of logo-emblazoned cars might be less surprising to our eyes. It looks this crowd is outside the Seagram Building on Park Avenue; Gothamist hopes that some Nascar dads were rubbing shoulders with the lunch crowd......

It's our favorite time of the year, when thoughts turn to trick-or-treating, daylight savings time (okay, not the shorter days, but the extra hour of sleep is nice), huge Thanksgiving dinners, fall movies, and leaves changing color. Daylight savings time for us is on October 31, How Stuff Works explains why seasons change, here's a NASA page about stargazing during the seasons and this is why leaves change color. And another kind of season(s): The......

Nicole Beland, Writer/Girl Next Door...

Matthew Rose, Wall Street Journal...

While Junior's did not make the final cut in the Times cheesecake article this week, the Times dining section acknowledged Brooklyn mainstay last weekend: So it's not the Four Seasons. Nor even an Odeon, which more than two decades into its run has become a kind of La Coupole for the downtown Manhattan set. It's not even a Katz's, with its thin-sliced deli meats and goofy Greatest Generation charm. Those are all good places to......

With flusher economic times in most sectors, the power lunch booms once again. The Times' David Carr does his media thing, but now with a side of food, as he examines the restaurants where the powerful tend to eat. The hot restaurants are The Four Seasons, Michael's, DB Bistro Moderne (deemed downtown, even though it's only on 44th!), and newcomer Lever House, where the booths are tables du jour. Other restaurants include Eleven Madison......

It's great news that 21 and Four Seasons have settled with striking restaurant workers late last night, preserving their health insurance while enacting salary increases too, but it seemed a no-brainer: If you run a classy joint, do you really want one of those huge inflatable rats looming over your incoming patrons? However, La Caravelle has not settled yet, so the rat stands not alone, but with striking workers. The Daily News reports on rising......

Various restaurant workers may strike tomorrow as their union is in negotiations with 25 restaurants owners over wages and benefits. The restaurants include Lutece, Four Seasons, Elaine's and Cafe des Artistes. The Daily News reports, "Restaurant owners have called for health-insurance cutbacks and balked at the union's proposed $20-a-week raise for kitchen workers. The restaurants instead have offered a $7.50 weekly raise for cooks, and a $5 weekly boost for dishwashers." But since this would......

Giving hope to commoners everywhere, Alex Von Bidder, co-owner of swank The Four Seasons restaurant, is a Land's End loyalist. So taken with the custom jeans he ordered, the Observer reports that Von Bidder wrote a letter to Land's End, who, faster than you can say "In-House Marketing Team," ask Von Bidder if he (and the restaurant) would like to model for them. Von Bidder can be seen wearing the Custom Dress Shirt (starting at......