BlackBook Magazine

Steve Garbarino (left), Editor-in-Chief of BlackBook magazine, is moving on to a position as Editor-at-Large of Maxim. Garbarino has been instrumental in making BlackBook a notable, inspirational player in a crowded media space. Ray Rogers (right) has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of BlackBook effective following the close of the August issue. The magazine’s former Features Editor worked hand-in-hand with Garbarino over the past two years to build the BlackBook brand. Rogers brings a formidable background in journalism, including a ten-year history at Interview magazine, and key positions at Manhattan File, OUT, and In Touch Weekly.

Humphrey Bogart on his deathbed lamented foremost having switched from scotch whiskey to martinis. Well, Bogey, it’s not called the “water of life” for nothing.

On Tartan Day, April 6th, we remember the Scots, who like two things naked, and one of them is malt whiskey. Here, a taste of the highlights of the Highlands and the Lowlands, neat. With sweet, delicate notes, the 18-year-old Johnnie Walker Gold ($85), best drunk chilled (sincerely), lives up to its name—pure, mellow alchemy. Lagavulin 21-Year-Old ($300) tastes of licking a fireplace (without the creosote aftertaste). It’s a glorious thing on some people’s tongues, but requires a braver heart for others—it’s a barefoot hot-coal walk, over a smoldering peat bog.

Mega-supermodel, breathy chanteuse, and now First Lady of France? Tongues are wagging.

Finding quiet and stillness in the world today is very difficult,” lamented Carla Bruni, referring to her second album, No Promises—a thing of hushed beauty itself, as it sets poetic verse to music. “But in poetry, you can find that quietness; it’s very simple.” A simple moment of peace must seem like a pipe dream these days for the current First Lady of France, what with the world’s eyes trained on her and President “Bling-Bling” Nicolas Sarkozy, 53. As it is, she’s got the likes of Barbara Walters knocking down her door, desperate to get that most coveted of “gets,” and scandalmongering writers digging around the City of Light for pull-quote pay dirt.

From Moby to Lupe Fiasco, the following photo essay features some of our favorite musicians captured at their favorite places. Sky’s the limit.

Moby, on the top terrace of the El Dorado, New York City.

“My apartment uptown is the top five levels of the El Dorado, which is a legendary art deco building designed by Emery Roth, originally constructed in 1927. Everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Bono to Groucho Marx has lived there at one point or another. My apartment has five terraces, two of which are 360 degrees, and from the terraces you can see all of Central Park, Long Island Sound, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Hudson River past the George Washington Bridge. It’s basically unobstructed views for about 40 or 50 miles in every direction. Plus, the very top is really popular with hawks and falcons (the birds, not the sports teams).

Drawn to Lynchian roles, the 23-year-old actress is right at home in the upcoming psych-horror flick The Ruins. She ought to be. In real life, she's seen her share of the dark side. Ray Rogers reveals the Method to her madness.

Jena Malone’s precociousness was present from the start. Her chilling big screen debut as the young Ruth Anne “Bone” Boatwright—who suffers tremendous abuse at the hands of an alcoholic father, in 1996’s Bastard Out of Carolina—garnered her a SAG nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She was eleven.

Watching her easy grace and commanding presence on screen over the intervening years—even in small but pivotal roles like the knowing narrator-sister to Emile Hirsch in last year’s Into The Wild—it’s easy to see why she’s often been compared to Jodie Foster (she even played a young version of Foster in 1997’s Contact). Hearing her rhapsodize about her “craft” makes the case even clearer that Malone, now 23, is something special, several notches above the current generation of young actresses wobbling through Hollywood.

With their fever-hot new CD Midnight Boom, the Brit duo is making a murderous racket. Now if only they could do something about their bowling average.

With a name like The Kills, maybe it’s only fitting that Alison “VV” Mosshart and Jamie “Hotel” Hince suffer for their art. Making their third album, Midnight Boom, they both agree, was “hellish.” After a failed songwriting jaunt to Los Angeles—they loathed it—the duo shuttled back and forth between their deadly cool neighborhood in London and the flat-out dead town of Benton Harbor, MI, with a breakdown escape to Mexico in between, before arriving at their final destination. It took several years, and a mighty toll on their finances and romances.

Coffee and tequila—what more could we ask for?

We love the occasional Mexican coffee—that sweet, cinnamon-y, Kahlua-and-java concoction—as much as the next jittery, caffeinated carbaholic. But it’s not every day that we frequent Bennigan’s or the sorts of places that serve that kind of thing. (Nor do we often want a mug of dessert as our after-dinner drink.) Patrón has put an entirely different spin on the theme, with their new Patrón XO Café ($23), an unexpectedly winning coffee liqueur made with pure coffee essence and the brand’s ultra premium tequila. The sugar content is low, the coffee flavor high—it’s a whole new way to get your buzz on. —Ray Rogers