Castina Jewel is a native Washingtonian who served as longtime head editor of Pop Crunch and has written for AOL's City's Best column, She Knows, and College Candy. This is her take on four places she likes, and one place she doesn't.

Washington DC: Make sure to pack your nattiest attire if you’re headed to our nation’s capital this weekend. The DC Tweed Ride invites bicyclists to don their best Victorian-inspired outfits for an “urban fox hunt,” then gather for a retro-style party afterwards. November 13th.

It's not easy being spooky or chic, but luckily, we're here to help. Introducing Cointreau’s Spooky Chic Halloween, a nationwide celebration throughout Halloween week. Check out some of the photos in Boston ( more

With warmer temperatures beginning to remind us what spring used to feel like, we here at BlackBook have begun to plan our next serious getaway. Since we're already spending so much time trying to reminisce our way out of the office (hey, it was a long week), I forced our edit team to share what travel destination they've been secretly daydreaming of on the clock.

With warm weather slowly creeping into our collective consciousness, our minds are naturally wandering to summer plans. To be more specific, we're already plotting our next getaway. Since we're already spending a great deal of time trying to wish our way out of the office via reminiscing about travel plans past, I forced our edit team to share what travel destination they've been secretly daydreaming of during the workweek.

I've been to Washington DC once, and I believe there's a reason why locals prefer to live in Virginia. But my visit was five years ago, when I was at that stage in my life when business suits—and lots of them in one place—kind of weirded me out. I hear DC has changed for the best. For one, the opening of a W Hotel downtown last year brought a sense of New York cool to the place (just don't make the comparison around any natives). There's also the Hirshhorn Museum's parties, called After Hours, I've been dying to check out, a dance event with tons of buzzing DJs and a diverse crowd to boot (I also love the fact it's called After Hours and shuts down at midnight: DC has a whole other way of seeing things). The Hirshhorn is working on a "Bubble" Project that's destined to bring all sorts of spatial fun to the doughnut-shaped modern art Mecca.

The cat's co-head of one of the coolest - and coolest named - collectives in the music biz. He co-owns one of the hippest joints in our nation's capital, the Eighteenth Street Lounge, where his band and label were birthed. He's mined some of the most sublime strains in the history of sound, and he's done so accompanied by some of the most sublime singers and soundslingers ever to make a racket. His name is Eric Hilton, and along with Rob Garza, he is Thievery Corporation. And he just made Miami stir.

Step aside, Soho House, there’s a new members club in L.A. Sure, it may not share the social pedigree of London’s well-known chain of clubs. And yes, it's really just the top floor of the Petit Ermitage hotel, where guests who stay below luxuriate poolside. But the top floor of this West Hollywood haunt just might be worth the price of admission for locals who want to enjoy a rare slice of mahogany-laden, Spain-meets-Morocco majesty in the middle of WeHo - and a touch of real privacy.

If you're tired of hearing about Michelle Obama's style, you're not alone. For more than two years, the media has picked apart seemingly every piece of the First Lady's wardrobe, pitting her against similarly stylish first ladies from around the globe. But now a new take on Mrs. O's style has surfaced, and it's well worth paying attention to given its economic implications. Simply put: Mrs. Obama is a one-woman stimulus plan. A new study, published in the Harvard Business Review this week, "Found that following 189 public appearances between November 2008 and December 2009, Michelle Obama created $2.7 billion in cumulative abnormal returns." This financial jolt has translated into an additional $2.7 billion in stock for the 29 companies polled - Nina Ricci, J. Crew, GAP, and Calvin Klein included.

If most Washington lobbyists are amoral scumbags, then Jack Abramoff was the undisputed King of the Scumbags. After cutting his teeth as a rabid College Republican -- and hanging out with other young true believers like Karl Rove and Ralph Reed -- Abramoff blew through an astounding career of graft and corruption that included cheerleading for overseas sweatshops and screwing over Indian tribes. Filmmaker Alex Gibney is an old hand at documenting injustice, whether it's corporate scandal at Enron (The Smartest Guys in the Room) or torture (Taxi to the Dark Side). In Casino Jack and the United States of Money, Gibney explores the behind-the-scenes machinations of America’s most eager lobbyist. And while most of us assume that politics is a corrupt, vile, despicable game, it’s probably worse than we can even imagine. “You see this film, you kind of get it,” Gibney told us. “We can be cynical about it, but also at the end of the day, we have to get real. It’s our government, it's not their government, and unless we take it back, we’re done.” We spoke with him about possible NASCAR jackets for Senators and why young Republicans are a bit like Lenin.