Re: Luxury Spot
Subject: Re: Luxury Spot
From: Christopher Koulouris <christopher@scallywagandvagabond.com>
Date: 3/27/09, 17:12
To: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>

Brilliant!! I'll publish before midnight, waiting on our photogrphr. I'm glad my hunch on u was right. Sit tight, u r going to do well with us.

-Christopher.

thnk u.

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 5:05 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
Sorry for the delay; my internet was down for much of the afternoon. Let me know what you think of this piece:

Luxury Spot


The ongoing recession isn't so much of an ongoing recession that such things as luxury-oriented online magazine launch parties aren't ongoing as well. Manhattan will simply not sit still for global economic collapse, even if the collapse in question happens to be centered on Manhattan. On the way to Thursday evening's “Official Media and Celebrity Launch of TheLuxurySpot.com,” my exceedingly female companion was able to point out to me several pairs of designer heels – not in a storefront with a fifty-percent markdown or anything like that, but rather on the actual feet of actual women who had clearly purchased the shoes recently and who didn't appear to be concerned that they might have to barter them for tuna fish and ammunition in the near future. From an economic standpoint, this is either very reassuring or not reassuring at all. Economics is complicated.


Likewise, it's hard to say whether or not it is a good sign that a newish online publication dedicated to the pursuit of luxury is doing well enough to host an open-bar launch party at the sort of bar where magazines host open-bar launch parties. It's very nice to see any publication doing well amidst a climate in which New York Times executives spend a good portion of their day writing angry letters to other publications that print articles predicting the imminent demise of The New York Times. And it's pretty amusing to see such a publication do so well at a time when The New Republic is desperately trying to get me to renew my subscription (which I have no intention of doing). If The Luxury Spot is selling ads to firms that deal in such adjective-heavy commodities as “Biocollasis Gold Advanced Cellular Radiance Day Crème” – and a quick glance at the website would indicate that it is doing just that – then more power to them, and three cheers for the day crème industry as well.


So what sort of publication have we here? According to the magazine itself, The Luxury Spot's founders are “a jet-set, in-the-know kind of crew,” which one must agree is a fine thing to be. The website's author profile page lists dozens of its writers' individual interests: fleur de sel caramels, Du Wop Lip Venom, Vosges Haut-Chocolate, Pucci clutches, drinking. Many of the contributors work in PR or aspire to do so; incongruously enough, a couple are fixtures of The Huffington Post, which is similar to The Luxury Spot insomuch as that it is expanding in an age of general contraction but which is dissimilar to it in every other way imaginable; the site's content deals heavily in such things as the obtaining of “wonderful skin,” makeovers of the “extreme” school, and allegations to the effect that Amy Winehouse accidentally set herself on fire last week.


The High Bar made a fitting venue for such a publication's get-together. Despite being located dangerously close to Times Square, the place is of the hip sort that gets written up in bad papers like The Post when someone famous is spotted doing something therein, like drinking at a table. Unsurprisingly, it is dedicated to the obnoxious Manhattan institution of “bottle service;” for $1,600, a real, live waiter will deliver to your table a bottle of Patron Platinum, presumably served in its very own bottle. At least one of the mixed drinks is named after a supermodel; all of them start at $16. In contrast, the resident hamburger goes for only $6, as even the sort of person who may be convinced to pay far too much for liquor cannot be easily convinced to pay far too much for a burger. There is simply no glamor to be had in that.


Before one can get inside, there is a series of trials to be undertaken, much like one of those Greek mystery cults of the 4th century or thereabouts. One arrives at an inauspicious front door, is confirmed by the bouncer to be on the guest list, walks through a winding series of darkened hallways, is allowed onto the elevator by another bouncer who pushes the correct button for you, and then one eventually arrives on a rooftop patio that's filled to the brim with people who, taken collectively, don't seem particularly stylish or hip or anything other than numerous, and who at any rate do not appear to be having as much fun as they should. And there are quite a few more frat boy types than one might expect to see at an event dedicated to the celebration of skin care products – third-tier frat boy types at that, being pudgy, prematurely drunk, and visibly intimidated by their surroundings. Scattered among them were a few of the sort of people one would more reasonably expect to see here – tall, good-looking, and visibly irked by the presence of so many short and not very good-looking frat fellows. It was, in fact, very much like every other evening at every other bar of the sort.


Other than that, the event was marked by a marked absence of eventfulness. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; a fire could have broken out and dozens of people could have been killed in the ensuing stampede, for instance, which would have been worse. Luckily, nothing of the sort, or any sort, actually happened. 









On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 10:00 AM, Christopher Koulouris <christopher@scallywagandvagabond.com> wrote:
Barrett,

That's exactly the point, it's all generic and useless, so write an article about it. Give me at least 400 words of scathing, cruising frat boys. Let's bury them, but with with and aplomb.

-Christopher.

347 721 4308


On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 9:56 AM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
Howdy-

I went to the High Bar last night to check out the Luxury Spot event, but it was already packed wall-to-wall when I got there (open to the public, apparently) and the clientele appeared to consist largely of 23-year-old frat boy types; must have been featured on an open bar site or some such. I roamed around for a bit but couldn't figure out where the Luxury Spot people were or what the deal was in general. Also didn't see anything that would have made for a good piece; pretty generic stuff altogether. Sorry about that. Also, I think Sabrina tried to call me but my phone was screwing up.

I'll e-mail you next week when I've thought up some potential essay ideas that you might like.

Thanks,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302