Curiosity led us early Tuesday evening toward Fred Torres Gallery in Chelsea. Courtney Love, visual artist? That sort of makes sense. Given Love's unpredictable reputation, we were not expecting to see her at the press preview for her debut art show, "And She's Not Even Pretty," let alone have a sit-down conversation with her.

Inside the gallery, we encountered what seems like a show consisting entirely of self-portraits—just about every work has a big-eyed blonde in it—done with colored pencils, watercolors, ink, and pastels on paper. Pain, sex, violence, drugs, and celebrities (including a portrait of Gwyneth Paltrow holding her infant son) feature prominently in the approximately 45 works on display. Handwriting is scrawled on every piece, but it's often anyone's guess what exactly Love has written. A few lines we could make out: "It takes sleeping with a snake like you to rip apart my soul"; "Let you bleed all over me." Ouch.

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Charlyne Yi, pre-head-shaving antics

Last year, actress-comedian-writer-musician Charlyne Yi won a screenwriting award at Sundance for the film Paper Heart, in which she plays a character named Charlyne Yi who sets out to make a documentary about the meaning of love and falls for a character named Michael Cera, played, of course, by the lovable actor Michael Cera. Rumors spread that Yi and Cera were a couple in real life, but they never were. The confusion was just more proof of Yi's expert ability to blur the line between reality and fiction so well that no one knows when she's telling the truth and when she's joking.

After a couple years off from regularly performing on stage, Yi is back with a new solo show, A Little Time With Charlyne Yi, which she's taking to the prestigious Edinburgh Festival next month. Tonight and next Wednesday, July 21, she'll be her testing it out at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. (Advance reservations for both performances are booked, but there will be a stand-by line at the door.) In the run-up to the show, the Los Angeles resident took time out to tell us about her upcoming poetry book, her recent decision to shave her head onstage, and why she thinks she has no idea how to do comedy.

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David Wentworth

Though we're not positive, we have a feeling Yeasayer can claim the title of being the first band to have ever rocked ABC Carpet and Home, land of $40,000 rugs and fancy home furnishings. Model turned fashion designer Erin Wasson hired the band to play her boho-themed Fashion Week presentation inside the store last night. More »

David Wentworth

"Kay-ate! Kay-ate! Kay-ate!" chanted the mob of eager, over-caffeinated shoppers waiting for Kate Moss to arrive this morning for the opening of the Topshop flagship store in New York. It's no overstatement to say that New York fashionistas have long prayed for the day the London-based clothing retailer would bring its cheap, trendy threads and exclusive line designed by Moss to our side of the pond. And after a disappointing seven-month delay--reportedly due to setbacks during construction--the four-level, $20 million store is finally here.

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Of all the invitations we've received to Fashion Week, the one for 3.1 Phillip Lim in the Tent (with a capital T) at Bryant Park is the prettiest. Red thread has actually been sewn into the paper to make a swirling "PL" design suitable for framing. Many designers e-mailed invitations this year to cut costs. But not Lim, who, as New York magazine reported, could afford to give Christmas bonuses to his employees (what a guy!). His secret? His clothes look more expensive than they actually are and can easily be found in boutiques in Brooklyn rather than tucked away on the designer floor of Saks.

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David Wentworth

Kanye West and Band of Outsiders designer Scott Sternberg

Standing outside the empty storefront at 408 Broadway at a quarter to noon on Sunday, we wonder for a moment if we have the wrong address for the Band of Outsiders and Boy Fall 2009 presentation. A stylish young man with a red bowtie ushers us upstairs to the second floor, and suddenly it's as though we've gone back in time to the '60s--and, in fact, we have. Inspired by the 1967 Jean-Luc Godard film La Chinoise, about young revolutionaries in Paris, designer Scott Sternberg has his models posing at about 10 different sets, playing classic board games, watching black-and-white television, and talking at antique wooden phone booths.

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David Wentworth

Cory Kennedy at Karen Walker

The lights have dimmed at the United Bamboo show. Someone backstage is shouting "Right now! Right now!" But nothing is happening. We stare across the runway at front-row celebrity Sean Lennon and Angelina Jolie Jr. (a/k/a his stunning model girlfriend Charlotte Kemp Muhl), who moments earlier nearly sprained her lip while pouting and writhing in her seat for a group of photographers beside an expressionless Lennon.

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