BlackBook

How does it feel to tear off someone’s skin-tight lycra shorts and mismatched striped socks? Are coffee-guzzling, liberal arts majors better at talking dirty? What’s a hipster’s morning-after go-to spot ? If you cannot answer any of the above questions, it’s time you consult our list of the Top NYC Bars To Hook Up With Hipsters. This is a species that travels in packs, and where there’s one, there's many. We are confident you will find lots of single, attractive, and nimble hipsters here.

What do you get when you combine an Australian punk rocker, an owner of a dive-like venue, and someone behind one of the hippest dance-party bars in Manhattan? Anyone? Well, you get The Flat, a classy new bar in Williamsburg run by Johnny Siera of the band Death Set, Lit Lounge's Max Brennan, and Home Sweet Home's Kristin Vincent.

The Guthrie Inn (Upper East Side) - Smart cocktail menu shaking up upper Park Ave.

Lit Lounge is the downtown dive. You can't write about downtown New York nights without mentioning it. It's so popular that it's almost unfathomable that anyone hasn't spent at least one faded night there. But if, for some reason, you've managed never to have been there, here's what you can expect.

The Sly Fox is an unlikely bar for Second Ave., where noted funky spots, like Mars Bar, seem to have either closed down, or are approaching an all out police state (Lit). Hidden under the Ukrainian National Home, a complex that also includes a restaurant, an optometrist, and whatever's on the second story, the Sly Fox (called Karpatys on the awning) is not trying to impress, gentrify, or relive a past. It is simply a place for Ukrainians to get drunk.

For some, this week marks the start of Fashion Week, a time when "front row" means sitting stiffly next to editors and celebrities as a barrage of waifs cascade down a lit runway. For music lovers, "front row" this week will mean getting sweated on by The National, Huey Lewis and the News, and Theophilus London. Here's the best of the week's musical acts.

Damn Monday nights. A little while ago I'd use Monday nights to get rid of the idea that the weekend was over, and the next one so far away, by promptly leaving work and tossing back copious amounts of open-bar booze at some after-work affair. This would be promptly followed by a barrage of whiskey on the rocks at Lit Lounge, until I would promptly go to bed around 5 a.m. It made me feel better about participating in the workforce. These days, I'm a bit gun-shy about pulling the trigger on a Monday night. It's dangerous when you've got some real responsibility, but I still get a little antsy. So I'm home in my gym clothes, still trying to look cute for my bf, who is clearly more interested in whatever spread sheet he's glued to. Could be work, could be some kind of fantasy football thing, could be some kind of elaborate date plan he's mapping out. Right. I pour myself a monster glass of wine and think about the fun things I could be doing if it wasn't 10:45 already, and I wasn't an hour away from looking decent.

Steve Lewis has it right: these are the good ol' days. They're good because there's something for everyone, and you can change your something on any given night. Take Kristina Marino. Her blog, The Downtown Diaries, chronicles all things nocturnal in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn—her own weekly imbiberies are chameleon-like, but they're also true to herself. She likes a nice local bar where everyone knows her name, she takes chances with new parties, and she doesn't judge a restaurant by its dress code. Here, her weekly spots to be scene and be sceney.

In case you missed the New York Times Magazine's thorough cover piece on erasing your digital footprints from the Web, it's a remarkably well researched and supported essay on the pros and cons of putting a picture of yourself doing dumb shit online. Can't stop yourself from posting that hilarious drunken rant on Friday night that Cindy from Human Resources will find oh-so-amusing on Monday morning? Luckily a German team announced yesterday that imploding data is coming soon to a Facebook page near you, though lead researcher Michael Backes did not demonstrate the tool, which will allegedly come in the form of a Firefox plug-in. If you're hard up for a fix to your Web paranoia today, you could go all Russian spy and write everything in the crafty invisible electronic ink, or Invis-e-ink. It's a tool created by Borelchimp that seems to have found a way around Facebook and Google's most invasive plans.

It’s 10:30 on a Wednesday night and I’m in gym clothes crossing Union Square wondering if I’ve anything good left on TiVo when I first hear them. “Let’s just get drinks here,” a California blond squeals to her fellow interns, a group of smiley, freshly implanted college girls. “This part of the city is amazing—there are so many places to go!” Suddenly I feel refreshed, the soggy, angry heat evaporating around me. I immediately recall those same, remarkable feelings of excitement when I was new to this city: every step was one outside my comfort zone, and the possibilities were endless—the night was a mystery. Now, since I've settled into the groove of actually living in this city, the knee-jerk reaction toward their enthusiasm is a swift eye-roll at their naïveté and a silent recitation of the latest snarky blog post about this exact area going to hell in TGI Friday’s hand basket. These days, the trend is to speak about nightlife as you were attending its funeral. I’ve grown bored with the idea that there’s nothing new or provocative happening in this metropolis. Nightlife isn’t dead, it’s just different, and it’s different for everyone. It’s been a while since I first started covering nightlife as "Holly GoNightly," but my interest is once again piqued to seek out new ways to look at New York after dark. While some longingly wish for their days at Studio 54, Tunnel, or the Beatrice Inn, there are many more seeking out the new. The internet has given everyone a certain kind of access, diversifying trends and experiences. There’s something for everyone, and the only way to find out what works is to step out and try it on for size.