Photography by Danny Bensi

Grace Jones performed last night for a lucky crowd of about 200, at a private boat party on Pier 17 in New York to celebrate the launch of Matthew Williamson’s line for H&M. At 60, Jones is as daring, magnificent, and regal as ever; it’s incredible what a commanding presence she has. During her performance, in trademark Grace Jones fashion, she pranced around half-naked singing her classics. Then models came out wearing Williamson’s clothes, writhing from side to side. But truth be told, neither the models nor the crowd could take their eyes off of Grace. She’s literally a force of nature.

Photography by Gregory Goode

In celebration of youth, oh sweet, flighty and whimsical youth, New York hoteliers Sean MacPherson and Eric Goode of Maritime fame, present their newest venture, the hostel-like Jane Hotel. The landmark building along the Westside Highway was built as a hotel for sailors in 1908. The building’s architect William A. Boring is most famous for designing the Ellis Island immigration station. More fun to note is that in the ‘90s, the hotel ballroom used to hold Hedwig and the Angry Inch shows. Fast-forward and what you have now is a serious renovation and a daring opportunity to make memories. The current Jane hints at fair doses of Darjeeling Limited and The Royal Tenenbaums for inspiration and you get an affordable but incredibly quirky pod hotel featuring nautical cabin rooms for $100 a night with bathrooms down the hall. Room amenities include a compact twin bed with built-in drawers, air conditioning, high-speed Internet access, and flat-screen LCD televisions. Deluxe captains cabins offer queen- and king-sized beds and lovely but limited views of the Hudson. Most coveted is the hotel’s original hand-tiled swimming pool and bathing area. The hotel and lounge have already captured a buzz around town for it’s bohemian allure and relaxed but stylish focus. So whether you’re staying at the hotel, or cruising the city for a drink, stop by for a sit in.

Photography by Lucy Gauntlett

Treehouses are one of our very favorite things. And The Yellow Treehouse Restaurant, just north of Auckland, New Zealand, offers diners a unique treehouse experience. Wrapped around a Redwood, this small eatery serves up to eighteen guests with a full dinner menu, but its setting is the main attraction. With a cocoon-like form, its simple oval shape melds organically with the tree’s trunk, lighting up at night like a lantern hanging in the forest. New Zealand architects Peter Eising and Lucy Gauntlett created this woodsy retreat — a simple structure wrapped around the trunk and structurally tied at top and bottom — so the vertical fins would mimic the trees surrounding it and allow the structure to blend in as if it were a natural growth. Work began on the structure in September, and by early January guests were enjoying their meals with a bird’s-eye view.

pacificenvironments

Monkey Boys, China 1996. On view through May 30 at Jenkins Johnson Gallery in Chelsea, at 521 W. 26th Street

Gerald Förster’s globe-spanning work, LightYears, which began in the mid ‘90s and was completed mostly before 2001 (with a handful of exceptions), was a prescient photographic document of our global era. Like other photographers before him and since, the impulse to preserve the dignity of “others” before cultural erosion alters them, or even wipes them away completely, is very present here. But unlike other photographers inspired to this type of ethnographic portraiture, who usually tend to focus on one group of people or geographic location (Wilfred Thesiger, Irving Penn, and many others come to mind), Förster’s work is that of a lensman working at hyper-speed to capture a moment of utter stillness, perhaps even an eternal moment. While I suppose Förster chose LightYears as the title of his project to refer to something inexpressibly infinite in the human being and our collective mysterious existence on this rock we call Earth, for me the title also conjures the 747s he and his longtime friend and collaborator Anthony Smith sped around the world on between advertising jobs and editorial assignments, to photograph these people in eighteen countries. Whether that was the intention or not, LightYears is indeed a project made possible by the ease of global air travel that had its rise in the 1990s. It’s something we might easily overlook, so standard has it become to go everywhere and see everything — right from our desktops. Ultimately though, Förster’s work reminds us that we inhabit a world full of people not like us and yet composed of the same cosmic material. Like the great Polish writer Ryszard Kapusinski used to do through his travelogues, Förster is holding up the mirror to the other in us all.

Bright Eyes, 2007 by Tala Madani

No, the New Museum hasn’t found religion, unless you count the worshipful gaze an open bar can inspire or the frenetic devotion to iPhones and Blackberries practiced by many of its patrons. Younger Than Jesus, which opened officially last Wednesday, offers a glimpse of tomorrow’s art today, and on a global scale. With fifty artists from twenty-five countries, all of whom are under the age of 33, the New Museum attempts to capture the spirit of the next generation. Hailing from countries including Algeria, China, Colombia, Germany, India, Lebanon, Poland, Turkey, and Venezuela, many of these young artists are showing in a museum for the first time. As you might guess, their work is as diverse as their homelands, with mediums including photography, digital media, performance, sculpture, and painting.
     For instance, there’s New York City-based Tauba Auerbach’s almost mathematical approach to art in Shatter III, Paris-based Mohammed Bourouissa’s vibrant photograph of a boxer in La fenêtre and Berlin-based AIDS 3-D with their pyrotechnic installation OMG Obelisk. There’s a little something for everybody, even if the show might feel like it’s just skimming the surface. How can it not? Just look at the numbers. This demographic — those born around 1980 — is the largest generation to emerge since the Baby Boomers in the United States, and in India half the population is less than 25 years old.

greenporno.com

Green and sex certainly aren’t a common word association pairing, but hey, why not? A natural rebellion to its National Geographic predecessors, actress/model Isabella Rossellini is back for a second season of her seriously bizarre TMI series Green Porno on the Sundance Channel. Essentially the anti-Animal Planet, Rossellini uses her intelligence, sharp wit, and role-play to penetrate (pun so intended) the sex lives of oft-overlooked insects, invertebrates, and other creepy crawlies. If you slept through most of your science classes, Rossellini’s cooky costumes, copulation, and creatures – who are all played by one hilarious Rossellini – might teach you a thing or two. On May 5th, the scientifically accurate two-minute shorts are back to reign on as viral sensations. While the series may be too raunchy for the classroom, we promise you haven’t laughed as hard at the words “penis” and “vagina” since middle school.

Astralwerks

British mystic Natasha Khan (formally known as Bat For Lashes) has conjured up a monumentally beautiful and eerily poignant follow up to her breakthrough debut Fur and Gold. A lingering potion of Khan’s siren’s call, pagan percussions, and hypnotic synths drives opener “Glass” and surges similarly throughout standouts “Daniel” and “Pearl’s Dream” (which feature Brooklyn tribalists Yeasayer). The delicate pianos and numinous croon of “Moon and Moon” and “Travelling Woman”, meanwhile, bring Kate Bush to mind. Two Suns purports to be a concept piece pitting Khan’s spiritual side against her supposed second persona, a blonde femme fatale named Pearl. Yet, as intricately as the record’s eleven compositions twist and turn, the bipolar pathology looms in name only — and perhaps from an aural standpoint this is for the best. Purported identity crises aside, Two Suns proclaims Khan as a singular talent for this world and beyond.

Photography by Jeremy Pelley

Once again, Ace Hotel proves that elegance and simplicity go hand in hand. Similar to their Seattle and Portland locations, Ace Hotel New York offers a wide range of options for the enlightened traveler — everything from bare bones rooms with rates to match up to rockstar suites for those who wish to indulge. All of this comes in a package that’s one part modern and one part traditional, a crossbreed particularly apt for New York City, where opposites collide on a daily basis. Ace Hotel celebrates this wonderful collision and draws on the grit and glamour of New York’s history to make guests feel right at home.
    Of course, the masterminds behind Ace don’t just barge into a neighborhood and open up a hotel, rather they note the building’s history — in this case, the former Breslin Hotel, built in 1904 — and observe the local culture as their plan takes shape. This means they’ve maintained the integrity of the original building whenever possible. This comprehensive approach applies to not just the décor and types of rooms; it also influences the way Ace collaborates with local designers, artists, and independent businesses.