Mapping out a schedule for the CMJ Music Marathon and Film Festival is an overwhelming logistical nightmare. Over five days, bands and DJs all over Manhattan and Brooklyn perform for 20 to 60 minutes a pop, and the marathon keeps going. Un, deux, trois, bang, bang, bang. So if you are at a loss for where to begin, here’s a proverbial play-list that includes recommendations on what to see, and where to unwind, wind-up, and grab a bite between sets. We had to restrain ourselves a little, so check under Williamsburg, the East Village, and the Lower East Side for the best this weekend has to offer (starting tonight).

Last night at the “i” Lounge, I was chatting with a young English woman who was enamored with New York City. Though she was just in town on business from London, she was certain she was going to move here. Ten drinks and one rude bartender later, she was ready to go back home, her infatuation over quicker than you can say "Buckingham Palace." That’s how the city works for some people. A college friend of mine came to New York on a tide of Sex and the City-like enthusiasm. She left after four months of teetering in her 5-inch heels. A lot of things in the city, especially at night, don't come easy. You have to ditch the whole idea of having a turnkey Manhattan and adjust to being proactive. But I think the fact that you have to seek out different ways to spend your free time is also what makes the city wonderful. You can’t just assume that the place you’re going tonight will have wine on tap—you have to look for it. And in that same spirit I’ve stumbled onto an awesome “underground” dance party called, appropriately, Panic.

Summer ran howling into the breezy cool air as me and mine took our nightly stroll with fabulous friends to 16 Handles ice cream. After tasting each other’s original tart with coconut covered lychees and coffee with crushed Heath Bar, we settled onto a St. Marks Church park bench and decided whether we’re hanging in BK or Manhattan. During our heated debate, we ran into my favorite misnomers, DJ Miss Guy Furrow and DJ Michael Lily of the Valley Cavadias. They told me about their gigs. Guy is still killing it Thursdays at the Hudson Hotel, and has ongoing gigs at the Ace. Michael (Lily) is also DJing at the Ace on the 2nd and 3rd Saturday of each month, and is at Anchor Bar every Thursday, as well as the Metropolitan in Brooklyn on the 2nd and 4th Friday of each month. Lily, a performer/DJ/movie star, will also be spinning for the opening of the Cyber/Fetish/Gender-Hacking Party at Santos Party House. He’s also booked for Click and Drag co-founder Rob Roth’s exhibition Back To The Future at the Wild Project on October 13th. That’s located at 195 east 3rd street. He will be DJing at the upcoming Bowie Ball on the 10th of October with Lady Rizo.

Fashion Week is over, and with it, loads and loads of free booze. There are, however, a multitude of events on the agenda this week, some offering the promise of free and/or cheap drinks, some offering a fairly expensive brand of cool, and some offering reasons enough to try sneaking past the door without an invite: just like fashion week. While you'll probably still be clamoring to get into Don Hill's and the other venues that seemed destined for greatness this past week, these special events are worth crashing, dropping cash on, dropping by, or otherwise taking advantage of. And while you may not be able to see Courtney Love perform anytime soon, there are some insane shows scheduled for the music-lovers amongst us.

On Wednesday, I stopped by Gallery Bar for some body-painting, dancing and an all around messy event thrown by Sally Golan of Social Exposure. Inspired by the moon parties in Thailand, the deep house scene in her native Toronto and Golan’s own boredom, she decided NYC needed a change. “I felt that people were always doing the same things: get a drink, pull out a card...get a drink...text your friend...leave. There is nothing wrong with that...but I feel with times like these, we need much more then an 'event.' We need a release and a night to remember.”

After the sun goes down, the makeup brushes come out in full force. Beauty junkies can get away with a lot when roaming New York's Lower East Side: the bars are dark, the drinking is heavy, and people look good in that uncombed, rolled-out-of-bed way. Just Cavalli sent this LES bar-hopper down the S/S 2010 runway the other day in Milan. She looks exactly the girls we know who shop at Blue&Cream and Opening Ceremony, hang out at White Slab, Darkroom, and Gallery Bar, eat at Les Enfants Terribles, and wear a ton of MAC. Appropriate, since MAC was in charge of creating the look. Maxine Leonard, the artist in charge, describes the look as "rock n' roll to reflect the collection. The girls look a bit like they did their makeup themselves and had a great night out.” Here's how the pros captured the LES girl.

Darin Rubell is transforming the Lower East Side, one arts and culture venue at a time. The owner of Gallery Bar and Ella (opened last fall with partners Josh and Jordan Boyd) is no stranger to the ins and outs of nightlife. Let's just say it runs in the family -- his cousin is legendary Studio 54 owner Steve Rubell.

Gamal Hennessy is writing a book about all the good things nightlife brings to New York City’s bottom line. Very few people work very hard to ensure that the city that never sleeps is not turned into a bedroom community by real estate interests and their special friends. The New York Nightlife Association meets regularly to help keep the world I write about open and vibrant. There are very few others fighting the good fight. Without such efforts, this town could easily become a Boston, with bars shuttered by 2 a.m. Gamal is a regular contributor to comment sections of blogs; he always makes insightful comments and asks great questions, and I’m happy to ask him a few as he starts to promote his book, Seize The Night.

There's been much ado about something going on down on Avenue A near Houston. Ella pops onto our scene, and my pal Brittany Mendenhall of Chichi212.com won’t shut up about it. It was my impression that Ella was going to be another boutique bar cum bottle boite, but then I heard that Carlton Varney had designed the place. I’m not going to tell you too much about him right now, as I’m scheduling a sit-down with this legendary designer for next week. But Mr. Varney, now in his 70s, has turned it out. Ella is wonderful -- it's Hollywood heyday chic without discounting its East Village location. Varney did the Waldorf Towers and Joan Crawford's home. I sat with Josh Boyd, Jordan Boyd, and Darin Rubell, and left convinced that there are still people out there trying to make wonderful things.

Since emo kids veritably inverted the generation gap (meaning it’s probably cooler to be seen out with their grandparents than it is to hang out with them), maybe in some strange postmodern twist, piano bars will become hip again. Gallery Bar partners Josh & Jordan Boyd and Darren Rubell (cousin of the late Steve Rubell of Studio 54) are, in fact, banking on it. Located along the ragged borders of the East Village and LES, their nattily nostalgic new drinking establishment, Ella (opening September 17), sets out to capture the pizzazz of those roaring and raging 1920s by way of, well, just about everything (23 skidoo!).