Times are tough, and good samaritans are hard to come by these days. Given the country's economic doldrums, theoretically we should be living in anarchy. A cinematic embodiment of these times, Wendy and Lucy is a film by director Kelly Reichardt and portrays a financially strapped traveler (played by Michelle Williams) who loses her dog. No one in the town, except for one person, seems to care about her situation. "We knew it was a downer from the start," Reichardt said at last night's Q&A session with Williams, following the opening at Film Forum. However, with the amount of buzz the film has received, one can't help but dig a little deeper for the intentions behind a film where Williams emerges as a quiet power, where the sound of trains are the sole soundtrack and the ending is left as open as the outdoors.

The New Clairvoyants: Tuning into emerging trends and future sounds, Busy Gangnes and Melissa Livaudais of Telepathe deliver experimental electro-pop to the mainstream.

Melissa Livaudais remembers the catalyst that jumpstarted a double leap into the music industry. “We realized that we’d been fired from every job we’d ever had,” says the boyishly beautiful half of Brooklyn’s Telepathe, adding, “We are pretty much incapable of doing anything else.” Focusing on the more productive sides of their personalities, she and bandmate Busy Gangnes, a former dancer and part-time yoga instructor, quickly graduated from “amorphous jam sessions” to calculated, sycophantic drones that borrow equally from Glass Candy’s minimal pop and the impassioned spoken-word poetry of Amiri Baraka.

Screw Charlie and screw his chocolate. Ice skaters at The Pond at Bryant Park are looking to steal the mantle of lucky winner by-way-of-hidden-ticket from that Brit brat by renting a pair of skates that may or may not contain airline tickets. Delta Air Lines is giving away a pair of (read 'em) round-trip airline tickets to any destination where their fleet flies. Each Friday through January 25, when the rink closes, one lucky skater will parlay a pair of twelve dollar blades into a really, really free flight. And admission to the pond is free, for all you cheapskates out there.

Reopened in October after an extensive reno, New York boutique hotel the Marcel at Gramercy offers five-star amenities in the realm of four-star prices, with cutting-edge modern décor and the posh Bar Milano restaurant, featuring Northern Italian cuisine upscaled for the Gramercy crowd. The hotel's facelift brings in modern minimalism in a cross between Oscar de La Renta's spring collection and the aesthetics of a lava lamp -- grandiose yet clean, with pops of olives & mustards next to futuristic metallics. Part domestic sanctuary, part club lounge, the fireplace, chandelier, and semicircular leather couch cater to cocktails and the creative set both. Co-owned by the people behind the Empire Hotel, the Marcel features five guest floors and 135 rooms, each complete with increasingly standard iPod docking stations, flatscreen TVs, and marble bathrooms.

Kieran Hebden is perhaps best known as his blippy artistic counterpart, Four Tet, a major presence on the new-millennium electronica circuit. NYC is Hebden's fourth collaboration between Hebden and improvisational jazz drummer and perennial New Yorker Steve Reid. Recorded at the renowned Avatar Studios, where artists like Miles Davis and Steve Reich made legends of themselves, the album’s jazz influences burst through with New York verve. We caught up with Hebden from London, to talk about old New York’s impression on the new album, the differences between New York and London, and who has the monopoly on a good cup of tea.

With the economic shitstorm showing no signs of clearing, innovative escapism comes courtesy of The Citizens Band, a politically-charged, cabaret-esque dance troupe led by trapeze artist and filmmaker Sarah Sophie Flicker. The Panic Is On, Citizens Band’s sixth show, will open this Thursday (October 23-25) at New York’s Henry Street Settlement, transcending mere death-and-taxes monologues. The show features an allegorical take on the nation’s social, economic, and political meanderings, reinterpreted through flamboyant showmanship and flush with lace and rubies reminiscent of Victorian and flapper fashion. We caught up with Flicker to converse about the political undertones of her upcoming show, what she really thinks of Tina Fey, and how exactly the word "consumerism" translates into a costume. Maybe it's not escapism, after all.

"Ninety-percent of puppies in kennels come from mills." So said the ethereal blue screen at last night's benefit for ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), hosted by culinary connoisseur Katie Lee Joel. The annual 2008 Shaggy Dog Gala, held at the Gehry-designed IAC building in West Chelsea, boasted fanciful hors d'oeuvres like mini pig-in-a-blankets, and a silent auction of mainly sports memorabilia -- including a neon orange soccer ball signed by Pele himself, a bundle of vintage Yankee tributes, and a photograph from 1973 of Elvis playfully greeting Muhammad Ali in a fighting stance.

As a larger-than-life personality who rubs proverbial elbows with Kanye West and current tour members N.E.R.D., Common is big. An artist who's recorded numerous albums as well as embarking on a film career, Common is currently involved with Zune’s Green Room interview series, a podcast that takes fans backstage with their beloved idols. Aside from music, Common just completed filming Terminator Salvation, the new Terminator movie starring Christian Bale. Already a Grammy-winning artist, and with recent roles in films like Wanted and Ridley Scott's American Gangster, Common is making a concerted push for movie fame. The rapper, whose voice conjures Barry White’s -- low and slow -- caught up with us to discuss his partnership with Zune, his style trademarks, and why bad reviews sting, just a little.

Masked wrestlers with curly mustaches and pink pirouetting tutu's are a few of Marie Losier's favorite things. In "Marie Losier OUTTAKES", a portrait of British cult icon, Genesis P-orridge (Psychic TV), we experience her vision through a music video on a '60s Scopitone (video machine) and peephole box. As a filmmaker who's collaborated with the likes of Tony Conrad and Guy Maddin, Losier's work is a remarkable a step into the avant-garde, invoking playful elements of silent cinema in a colorfully youthful tribute to the vibrant P-orridge, whose husky but sensual exterior remains striking.

The Cool Kids, former underground heroes, are currently enjoying the spoils of people catching on. Though their songs were inspired by a school of hip hop that emerged while they were still in diapers, The Cool Kids deliver more than the literal pick ‘n’ roll helping of classic hip hop wannabes. Instead they serve up concoctions as sophisticated as they are inventive, with the release of their latest EP, The Bake Sale–including the “Delivery Man” single, which is available for download exclusively via Mountain Dew’s Green Label Sound. When we sat down with them in New York, we spoke about asking their mothers for money, and the struggles of coming up in the music industry. But naturally, we talked mostly about getting drunk, because isn’t that what all the cool kids are doing these days?