cityrag

have a glowball!
until Monday, we leave you with the swirling patterns of the mesmerizing GLOWBALL...

(disco-glowball lives at the Tainted Lady Lounge in Williamsburg)

researchers challenge Bush win
a fascinating and compelling article on how voter technology failed in Florida from ComputerWorld...

University researchers challenge Bush win in Florida
"Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, said today that they have uncovered statistical irregularities associated with electronic voting machines in three Florida counties that may have given President George W. Bush 130,000 or more excess votes. The researchers are now calling on state and federal authorities to look into the problems.

...For the sake of all future elections involving e-voting systems, someone must investigate and explain the statistical anomaly we found in Florida... We have no political ax to grind, we're interested in leaving no vote behind."

(via GammaBlaBlog, a great site!)

street art to the highest power
holy shit! WoosterCollective.com is THE BOMB! we'd seen this site linked around but never dove in until today... a "A Celebration of Street Art", it's PACKED with tons of fantastic shots of street art, graffiti, website links, news, the latest parties and openings and great writing. but what really blows us away is the depth and breath of coverage, with several new posts daily, and beautiful and amazing photos from all corners of the world. we've spent hours on it and have barely scratched the great stuff to be seen. this is one fucking brilliant and passionate site!

we'll be checking in often and profiling some of their amazing stuff, starting with this one we loved by Thundercut...

from Wooster Collective: "A few months back we put up a series of photographs of some very clever and really fun remixed WALK / NO WALK signs by Thundercut... So this week we were very pleased to see that Thundercut is back out on the streets of New York... As you can see in the photo, the placement is fucking perfect as Thundercut's Rocker signs are at both ends of New York's famed CBGB's club. Really nice work."

(photo copyright Wooster Collective)

igive
over the next few weeks we'll be running a little "holidazed" series with shopping tips and gift ideas. our first tip starts with the gift of giving!... we first learned about iGive.com through Waggy Tail Rescue. iGive is a wonderful service that donates part of your online sales to your favorite charity. they list and work with tons of big online retailers. all you need to do is sign-up and download a little software piece onto your system (it's very easy to use/download.) then it will pop up every time you shop one of their online affiliates (you still pay the same price and get any discounts the retailer is offering!)

once you're on iGive - every time you shop online a percentage of your purchase will go to your favorite charity! many people we know intend on donating to charities and causes around the holidays but end up running out of time or money! one of the reasons we love iGive is it makes it so easy and painless to take care of that goal. so kick off your holiday shopping by signing up for iGive and give to charity while you shop!

His name is Ziggy
oh-my-god, just spotted this little guy on You Can't Make It Up...
"This dog is a friend of the family. His name is Ziggy. When he walks around New York, people actually stop and say 'Look what an ugly dog that is.' Pobracita. Stay tuned for Ziggy on the new season of "America's Next Top Model."

Ziggy is one of the cutest dogs we've ever seen. definately a little Buddy in him (just look at that face!) and who are these horrible people that say Ziggy is ugly!?! Buddy would love to bite bite 'em.

smoke-inist
the Gothamist party Wed night was a lot of fun, with some great bands. and of course, we couldn't miss the opportunity for a little cityrag smoke-in in the heart of Tribeca on the street out front. it was awesome to have some bloggers join in (participation will remain anonymous :-)

chewy goodness
Buddy and his chew stick, the abbreviated version...

update: we *heart* this note from John Lawler...
"I love it when dogs make that face..GARRR I got me a stick! On top of the world. Couldn't ya just melt? Upper left photo is definitely Buddy Cigar boy, toughie on the block, readin his paper on a folding chair on the corner, tellin' the punks to beat it."

Epstein's Bar update
last week we scooped the opening of Epstein's Bar in the LES. this week Andrea Strong fills us in on some cool behind the scenes info (4th story down), including an owners connection with the great White Horse Tavern. and a house beer, Epstein’s Ale, being made by the guys from White Horse.

we ran into partner Eric McMannes this morning when we were snapping their new awning - and the story keeps getting better... first - he's a great guy, (second we've met, this place is going to have a good vibe.) and some more cool bits of info...
- he's friend's with the Corner Bistro folks, and they've hooked him up with the same meat supplier (for those who've noted our previous Corner Bistro comments, the Epstein's owners couldn't be more humble about the comparison, and simply hope to be as good.)
- they will be open for lunch!
- and they'll be opening a nice size sidewalk cafe in the spring! (we're super happy about that one, cuz it means Buddy can hang!!)
- the bar is looking beautiful and will open tonight, but food will not be served for about another 2 weeks
- and finally as the awning shows - the place will be called Epstein's Bar (although they enjoy the pun, the name will not include the second R as in the virus "Epstein-Barr")