The film Metropolitan

​Thursday's New York Times features an article on Native Society, a collection of about 400 "preppy young men and women, mostly friends from the Upper East Side," who started a secret club so they can dress up and look down on people. It's like any social gathering in New York City, really, except they were dumb enough to give it a name. It's for networking, the club's founder Oliver Estreich says, but you can only get in if you're invited -- "You can't apply" -- and it's relegated to New York natives, by which they mean the kids of 10021, "the ZIP code of upper Park and Fifth Avenues," or at least you better have gone to a damn special prep school.

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​New Yorkers are easily identified outside of the city by any number of things. Maybe the way they expect everything to move faster, taste better, or speak clearer. Maybe the neurosis that expects everyone else to have a therapist, too. But often -- or "awftin" -- it's the classic New Yorker accent. Which people are trying to kill.

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​As Foster mentioned earlier today, going to vote is not only about civic responsibility -- it's also about the opportunity to impress others with your "legendary prowess" and maybe even meet a cute politico, or someone who doesn't care that much about politics but has decided to vote anyway on the basis of possibly getting laid. Also, civic responsibility. But, yeah, this is a once-a-year singles opportunity! Don't miss out.

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Via Racked.

​Dear Universe,

Thank you for the kind news that Racked reported just now: that this morning on American Idol spokescreature Ryan Seacrest's radio show, Whitney Port of The City confirmed that the show is basically over. In case you didn't know it, The City was a bad fake reality show about New York City that encourages people who will only lower the lowest common denominator of New Yorkers to move here. Now if you could please end:

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Shockingly, this man did not win.

​You have to love the New York Post for extra-special treats like this: They've dug around and found New York's most charming doorman. And he is charming, indeed -- charming enough to be constantly pelted with Louis Vuitton wallets and other "expensive shit" from his lady clientele. He's so charming it seems that the Post has a big, fat crush of their own. Do you guys date or something?

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​Apartment hunting may be the second worst experience endured by city dwellers, only to be beat by subsequent furniture moving. Throughout it all, "building a wall" has been a longtime saving grace for cash-strapped New Yorkers in need of a place to sleep. The case used to be: Can't afford a two bedroom? Convert and squeeze. Now this situation is becoming more and more unfeasible as the city is tearing down walls that violate building codes, according to the New York Times.

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​The New York Times Styles section today takes on the issue of, well, reinventing the Old New York. With restaurants like Keith McNally's Minetta Tavern, the Graydon Carter-owned Monkey Bar and Waverly Inn, and most interestingly, The Lion, a restaurant owned by former MSNBC anchor and Abrams Media owner Dan Abrams, as well as Men's Health editor Dave Zinczenko, The Lion. The problem is: they're more of the bullshit same-old.

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Julie Lohnes

Tug of War, 2009, video still

​Art blogger-turned-curator Olympia Lambert is getting the hell out of New York and taking a bunch of artists with her. Escape From New York, her latest art show, which opens May 15, is just that -- a massive pilgrimage through the sticky streets of Chelsea and across the Hudson, where she's set up fort in New Jersey. When we talked to Lambert recently about her huge venture in a vacant three-story silk factory in Paterson -- where she invited a slew of both up-and-coming and established artists -- we wondered, Who's going to show up to this art show in New Jersey? No, really, Who's going to show up to this art show in New Jersey? But Lambert convinced us that a 40-minute trek from Manhattan (shuttles to and from will be provided) to experience new works of art in a setting unlike we've ever seen before is really worth it. More >>

​In honor of Earth Day, we wanted to tell you a story about a garden -- The Magic Garden -- that's going to be torn down to make room for a high-rise housing development.

Oliver Rios, an East Harlem-bred artist, grew up around gardening when his mother Lydia Roman began transforming abandoned city lots into garden spaces for community use in the 1980s. The Magic Garden, which was named after a popular children's television show, was founded in 1991 at 118th Street and Park Avenue.

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​We've been prone to doze off at work now and again. You've probably done it, too. Rather than face pink-slip hell for your sleep deprivation, here's some exciting news: A Japanese-style hotel is opening up in midtown! Now you can snooze on your lunch break, rather than on the job.

Slated to open in 2011, YOTEL will feature 669 cabins, a spa, a lounge, a restaurant and an outdoor terrace situated at 42nd street and 10th Avenue in Times Square. The 23-story high, $800 million dollar project will be built atop the Frank Gehry-designed Signature Theatre.

The hotel will also feature luxurious linens, flat-screen TVs and wireless Internet in the comfy capsules, all for a reasonable $200 a night.

Signature purple lighting will illuminate the 17-by-10 foot living spaces, but hopefully you won't mind because you'll be asleep, probably when you should be at work.