BlackBook Magazine

More and more signs are pointing to a softening in the luxury market -- the erosion of high-end retail sales has major shopping meccas reporting a downward sales trend. Now, Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, the world's largest luxury goods group, announced that sales slowed considerably over the summer, proving that we're not drinking nearly enough Veuve Clicquot or wearing enough Louis Vuitton. Just weeks after investing in a partnership with luxury yacht company Royal Van Lent, the company released third-quarter earnings that did indicate growth -- but considerably less so than the same time last year. According to the Wall Street Journal, the slowdown has hit all of the group's divisions, including Givenchy, Thomas Pink, Fendi, TAG Huer, and DeBeers. So do the patriotic thing -- next time, make it Veuve.

Hop to it before your tech-separation anxiety sets in.

1. Safari Sam’s (Hollywood) - Punk cabaret of sword swallowers, burlesque, spoken word, political seminars, brain-shattering live music. May or may not survive upcoming relocation.
2. The Echo (Echo Park) - Where Cold War Kids and their Silver Lake cousins grunge it up and wait to not be discovered.
3. Spaceland (Silver Lake) - The Monday residencies are the stuff of legend; the bands they launch are too.

It turns out Britney did not come to Brooklyn after all, but no one noticed, because there was enough going on at the Diesel 30th anniversary party, to keep attendees occupied and fed. The circus theme meant hot dogs, funnel cakes, cotton candy, popcorn, and midgets acting as centerpieces to the wraparound bars. A cavernous, makeshift circus tent / airplane hangar hybrid was built on Pier 3 of the Brooklyn waterfront, and Diesel managed to fill it with all kinds of circus freaks. The Britney rumor-mongering came when the invite promised "many more" guests, but that "many more" turned out to be current chart topper T.I. (isn't he on house arrest or something?), who played a fairly long set which segued into Franz Ferdinand's act (easily the longest of the night).

If you don't love (or at least respect) Alec Baldwin, you either don't watch 30 Rock or you haven't heard this tape. Recently, Mr. Baldwin chipped away at the good will afforded by his Emmy win for 30 Rock by starring in a film called My Best Friend's Girl, alongside Dane Cook, Jason Biggs, and Kate Hudson. The movie was not well-received. Baldwin himself has decided to speak out on the cinematic shitstain, writing on his official site (he has one?!), "The movie is not very good at all." He goes on to admit that he has "made some pretty awful films," and ends with an ominous threat warning, and uses cheap spacing tactics for maximum menace. "Filmmaking is a highly risky endeavor, more so today than ever. For you. And for me."

Or maybe it's my unquenchable thirst to write about her. And think about her. And help raise her children. But I have to report this, because otherwise what kind of blogger journalist would I be if I didn't. Cindy Adams is reporting in the New York Post that Sarah Palin is set to guest star on SNL next week, as either herself or Tina Fey, with Mad Men's Jon Hamm. I can't imagine that Palin can play Fey with any success, since trying to impersonate someone as ordinary (but don't get me wrong, brilliant) as Fey can't play for much laughs. I'd rather see her as herself, and do one of those things where she comes out mid-Fey impersonation, and we have two Sarah Palins side-by-side, interacting with each other -- the kind of thing Janet Reno and Will Ferrell did so memorably a few years back. Also, I think it's time I cut Sarah Palin off. Or at least delete her from my Facebook.

Gamblers are gambling less in Vegas these days. For a city built on the two-pronged fork of tourism and hedonism, Sin City is feeling the pinch of the collective consumer budget tightening. Hotel construction is at a lull, with the Echelon on hold, and with the plug being pulled on the billion-dollar Elvis-themed resort, the neon brights of Vegas are winking just a bit. The upside to all this: Hotel prices are dropping faster than the Dow. Check out the discussion here.

When Goop surfaced recently, Gwyneth Paltrow gave a us a taste of how to live our lives. "Make your life good. Invest in what's real. Cook a meal for someone you love. Pause before reacting. Clean out your space. Read something beautiful. Treat yourself to something. Go to a city you've never been to. Learn something new. Don't be lazy. Workout and stick with it. GOOP. Make it great." Oh Gwynie, you bet I'll Goop every chance I have. But let's start with her first installment in which she illustrates just how she achieves that goofy, knock-kneed-yet-effervescent look she's perfected after years of spending Hollywood loot on shopping sprees.

Mean Girls' Gretchen Wieners might finally get her wish. Fetch is about to catch on ... at least among fashion fanatics. Fresh on the online retail scene is Farfetch -- a brand spanking new virtual boutique (the brainchild of the founder behind b Store) that stocks upwards of 200 different up-and-coming lines. Farfetch’s mission is simple: provide access to the 20 best independent boutiques from 10 cities across the globe.

For a slice of New York that’s not all bright lights and tall buildings, get off the grid and spend a day in the West Village. The neighborhood’s former moniker, “Little Bohemia,” no longer applies (multimillion-dollar townhouses aren’t exactly anti-establishment), but relics of its former self still exist alongside stylish restaurants and boutiques. Bring a map; with an entire day to spare, we suggest getting purposefully lost.

Stay: A quaint neighborhood calls for an equally quaint hotel. Abingdon Guest House has the vibe of a small-town bed and breakfast -- it’s not for everyone, but its location is ideal for the atypical visitor.

Either following the trail of oil money or the lead of the art world, Disney, whose primary assets include Miley Cyrus, is also surveying the Middle East -- namely, Dubai -- to turn profits from Arabic-language films. The studio is currently in talks with Lebanese filmmaker Chadi Zeneddine to finance and produce The Last of the Storytellers; meanwhile, they're also developing another couple of films for the fifth annual Dubai Film Festival in December. As Aladdin (which currently collects dust in the Disney Vault) can attest to, Disney's clearly no stranger to cultural sensitivity in that region of the world.