Singapore is hosting the first-ever Formula 1 night race, and the 3.15-mile Grand Prix is a crash course in Singapore architecture. The Singapore River and the Singapore Flyer (like the London Eye on steroids) will serve as the blurry landscape zipping past the million-dollar racing machines. The whole Speed Raceresque shebang -- track, cars and landscape -- will take place under 2,000-watt floodlamps, making the whole “night” part of the race a metaphor at best. Play along for a chance to see the action in real time by racing virtual cars on the Singapore Racer site. The virtual winner will be gifted an all-expense-paid trip to the Singapore Grand Prix on September 28. In case you don’t win, book a package to make the race.

The problem with gambling addictions is that once you book your expensive plane ticket to Vegas, that’s about eight percent less of your wife’s savings you get to blow. That’s why the thoughtful folks at Virgin America have decided to sell non-stop flights from New York’s JFK Airport directly to Las Vegas for low fares starting at $159. The fun begins on September 4th, because why destroy your marriage at a ticket counter when you can do it at a roulette table?

From Ethiopia to Verona—with Jamaica in between—a globe-hopping photo special.

Verona, Italy

Actor Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman traversed the globe in Long Way Round. Their next mission—captured in this summer’s documentary Long Way Down—took them from the top to the bottom of South Africa by motorcycle. Here, an exclusive taste of the turf.

McGregor, taking a break from his motorcycling, Simien Mountains, Ethiopia.

When we finished Long Way Round,” says Charley Boorman, son of Deliverance director John Boorman, “Ewan [McGregor] and I went back to our offices and pulled out a map of Africa. I think we had already decided before we came back from our trip that we were going to do Africa.” Says McGregor of their mission, “'One of the things that we wanted to do was to show the true and real side of Africa, all its many faces. We think of famine and we think of wildlife, and Africa’s got everything in between. What we found was that every country had its own identity, and is very, very different from the last.”

Stereotypes often exist for a reason, especially when it comes to broad-stroke descriptions of neighborhoods. There are a lot of scary folk near Bed-Stuy. Tapered denim has overtaken Williamsburg. Young married couples aren't using condoms in Park Slope, which is notorious for its sea of strollers and lesbians. You know where they are using condoms? In Gowanus, that's where. And each day, on my walk to and from the subway, I'm reminded of it.

And you thought Connecticut was all Talbot sweaters and tennis on Tuesdays. In fact, not only is Bridgeport America’s #1 destination for violent crime, but good old CT even has its own little version of Sin City. And as of May 17, the Foxwoods Resort Casino, perennial host to Cheap Trick reunions, dwindling comedy careers, and couples desperately trying to rekindle the magic, gets a luxurious new MGM Grand -- 825 pricey rooms, a 4000-seat theater, and a 5500-square-foot-outdoor pool. (Size doesn’t matter? Please.) And NY chef extraordinaire Tom Colicchio adds to his crafty dining empire here with a swanky new branch of Craftsteak. Management likens the new partnership to the airline alliance trend. Only here, it’s the customers who will be plunging into bankruptcy. Mommy’s alright, daddy’s alright ...

Following a recent onslaught of trendy everythings in the once scruffy Czech capital, comes now a pair of gleaming 21st Century hotels. The sleek new 305-room Hilton Prague Old Town flaunts David Collins interiors inspired by Czech Modernism and Cubism, as well as an outpost of London’s Maze eatery, Gordon Ramsay’s first foray into the East. And the new Imperial Hotel, an Art Deco masterpiece that had faded into a grubby but weirdly opulent student flop, has just been glamorously gussied up.

Whether or not Interpol’s Carlos D and/or The Horrors can claim all the credit, it’s certainly hip to be Goth again. So it’s fitting that the world’s most fashionable city pay homage to history’s most enduringly sexy beast. Jacques Sirgent, France’s premier practitioner of Dracophilia, has now opened Musée des Vampires, his vampiric stash to all the macabre-hearted and Kohl-painted amongst the living. His salaciously creepy collection ranges from film posters to costumes and weapons; and private tours might include parlour games, discussions (no doubt many regarding the virtues of the new Bauhaus record), and even dinner parties—though you might want to scrutinize le vin rouge before imbibing.

No city in the world has been trod upon by so many art/film/whatever poseurs without ceding an inch of its character or dignity as has the beloved and mysterious Venezia. No surprise, then, that it’s most bleeding edge contemporary art museum, Palazzo Grassi, should be housed in a grandiose 18th Century palace. Its new neighboring and namesake boutique hotel’s sexy, austere furnishings are an apt complement to the futurism of the art, but neo-classical details, as well as Venetian lighting fixtures and fabrics, terrazzo floors and glass mosaics, keep the hotel firmly rooted in Venice’s unshakeable romantic historicism.

Bungalow embraces its inner cockney, while Peter Gatien starts the party (hold the monster).

By Ken Scrudato

BUNGALOW 8, LONDON
bungalow8london.com



New York trying to export nightlife to London is sort of like Chrysler telling Mercedes how to build cars. But B8 is a brand with the sort of bang that even the jaded Brits can properly appreciate. The concept of mutual beneficence is in full flower here: St. Martin's Lane, once the magnet for pretty people, has been eclipsed by about 20 other London boutique hotels, so could benefit from the new buzz. And Amy Sacco, a virgin to Blighty nightlife, surely cannot mind the inn's built-in, jet-set crowd. Sacco insists the posh, Swarovski-designed interior will be mostly packed with VIPs. Yet chic Londoners do bore terribly, terribly easily.