Sugar mamas + Greek gods = hot dates

IT IS the revenge of the sugar mamas. With the power of their Prada purse, they are now invited to take part in an evening of speed dating with Greek gods below 30 years old.

The event is only open to women aged at least 40 and who have a minimum of US$5mil (RM17.5mil) in the bank. Male participants will be judged solely on their looks. Applications are trickling in already.

This is “Speed Date: Sugar Mamas”, organised by Pocket Change, a weekly e-newsletter launched last year that delves into the finest and most expensive things in New York and Los Angeles.

Details like the date and venue are still in the works by Pocket Change, which chronicles topics such as the most expensive haircut in LA (US$500) and New York’s most expensive whiskey (US$38,000 a bottle).

Three months ago, Pocket Change held a Natural Selection Speed Date for Rich Guys and Hot Girls. It was headline news not just in local tabloids; even CNN and wire agencies picked up the story.

Oh, the shame of it all, you say?

“We knew it was going to be controversial. But there is an unspoken truth about dating and levels of attraction ... and what part money plays in that,” said Pocket Change co-founder Jeremy Abelson.

“People are so hesitant to come out and say it. Women are so hesitant to say 'I want a man who is rich'. But if you ask a woman, 'do you want a successful man', all of them say yes.”.

During an interview at his office in Soho, he played out a telephone call from a woman who was fuming about the event.

“How dare you do this? Rich, fat old men can judge women by the way they look? Shame on you! I will tell the next US president Hillary Clinton, if she is in power, to shut you down. Power to ugly women! Drop dead, go to hell,” she yelled.

That was just one of the many angry calls and derogatory email messages that Abelson received. But he is unfazed. Pocket Change events are held for fun, he explained.

“Our other co-founder came up with a saying ‘if it’s not fun, we are not doing it’. We live by that,” he declared. “Money is no doubt an aphrodisiac but I would never say that money can sustain a healthy relationship.

“You know, a Ferrari and a great pair of breasts can make a perfect evening. That is a recipe for an incredible evening. But what does it lead to? There needs to be more depth, more chemistry,” he said.

The February speed dating got almost 1,600 women and 500 males applying to take part. The entry fee for hot women was US$50 (RM169); moneyed guys paid US$500 (RM1,695) and must also submit proof of financial standing; and the event was limited to 40 “couples”.

“It was incredible,” Abelson said. “At least half of them had some sort of post-event dating activity. Many of them have reported that they are still dating.”

He conceded that the speed dating events were hatched from a business standpoint and the need to make a splash.

“We could buy two ads in Gotham Magazine, but that would accomplish nothing. Our branding gets out there, but it does nothing for our business,” he said.

Pocket Change, Abelson said, was a small e-publication with 47,000 subscribers in New York and 60,000 in Los Angeles.

“So we run these events, get people talking, bloggers writing, and the press interested,” he said. It was a big revenue generator and branding platform.

Abelson said he had always been intrigued by new business development; how companies bring in money. “Providing good service is one thing, but how do you make a business grow?” he mused.

“We have a long way to go with Pocket Change. There are acquisition talks with real estate operations for them to purchase the business. We have more markets to go into, more events to run, more newsletters to publish.”

For now, Pocket Change is focussing on New York and Los Angeles.

“If there are any two places in this country that are notorious for enshrining luxury, it’s definitely them. These are the only two cities where you can have a US$1,000 (RM3,390) omelette, and where people speak seriously why 10 ounces of caviar is worth US$1,000.”

Pocket Change, he said, would report all this in a fun, entertaining way.

He loves what Pocket Change is doing. “And what I really love is the power of the Internet and the emerging media. I see myself gravitating towards that.”

Move over Hollywood, New York City is here

The Big Apple is even bigger onscreen. With about 100 TV shows made here annually and 276 movies shot last year, New York reigns on celluloid.

BRIGHT lights, rolling cameras, non-stop action; this city is a blockbuster hit itself in the starry, starry world of TV and films.

From classics such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s to NBC studio's late night comedy Saturday Night Live, Gotham is the most filmed city in the world.

“This is a US$5bil (RM17bil) a year industry, employing some 100,000 workers,” said commissioner Katherine Oliver of the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting (MOFTB).

King Kong scaled the Empire State Building here. And Spider-Man fans can’t possibly forget Uncle Ben telling Peter Parker outside the New York Public Library that “with great power, comes great responsibility.”

The 2003 Bollywood film Kal Ho Naa Ho, which is the fourth-highest grossing Indian movie to date, was shot in the borough of Queens, where there is a huge Asian population.

“There used to be many productions which faked New York in their movies but we are changing this gradually,” Oliver told a group of foreign journalists last week. “Now, a lot of films done here are faking other cities.”

Martin Scorsese’s The Departed was set in Boston but made mostly in New York. Sex and the City, which Oliver described as an amazing postcard of New York, faked a big part of Paris in its season finale; most of the scenes were actually shot in the West Village here.

The opening credit should go to the MOFTB, which introduced an incentive programme that includes tax credits and free permits. Shooting in public locations such as parks is free. In other cities, like San Francisco, it could cost US$200 (RM680) a day.

“Films and TV productions that complete at least 75% of their stage work in the city will get up to 15% refundable tax credits,” Oliver said.

To support productions “from script to screen,” the city provides free advertising on phone booths and bus shelters to promote a movie launch.

“We also work closely with the police department to make sure traffic is flowing and pedestrians are safe during a movie shoot,” Oliver said. Such police assistance is free; and plus free parking, would save the productions US$20,000 (RM68,000) per week.

The MOFTB is incredibly accommodating as it believes that these productions are a great boost for the city. It even shut down for several hours Times Square for Tom Cruise’s Vanilla Sky in 2001.

Each year, at least 50,000 visitors descend upon locations made famous in films. Organised by On Location Tours Inc (www.screentours.com), there are four types of tours – Sex and the City Hotspots (covering 40 locations where the characters live, shop and dine), Sopranos Sites, Central Park Movie Sites, and the New York TV and Movie Sites.

The New York TV and Movie Sites tour takes visitors to the apartment building used in Friends, the bar in Coyote Ugly, just to name a few. Tour prices range from US$15 to US$40 (RM51 to RM136).

Plenty of movie trivia are served during the tour when the bus passes by notable sites.

The Devil Wears Prada made used of the St Regis Hotel; James Gandolfini of The Sopranos lives in Greenwich Village where Jennifer Lopez used to own an apartment in the same building.

“Jenny’s no longer on the block,” said tour guide Roseanne Almanzar.

Central Park, Almanzar said, was the most filmed location, and Plaza Hotel the most filmed building in the world.

She said the MOFTB would place “no parking” signs along the stretch where a shoot would take place.

Law & Order, which has completed 17 seasons, is a New York institution. CSI: NY, despite its name, is made mostly in Los Angeles.

“I’m so offended! CSI: NY is so slick. New York isn’t like that at all. New York is grungier,” said Almanzar, a native New Yorker. The current hit Heroes faked New York as well.

According to her, Sandra Bullock’s Two Weeks Notice in 2002 was pivotal in bringing back film production to New York.

“It was a big deal; it was one of the first to be filmed here after Sept 11.”

Last year, New York City recorded its highest number of TV, film, commercial and music video shoots ever, totalling 34,718 days.

Currently, at least 19 movies, 13 prime time TV shows, 32 daytime and late night shows are being produced.

It is never a wrap in New York.

Nothing to lose for visitors to Atlantic City

IT WAS a drizzly morning, but the group of aunties and uncles at Brooklyn’s Chinatown did not seem to mind as they waited for the bus that would take them to a gold mine, so to speak.

That’s Atlantic City in New Jersey, a seaside resort better known for its 11 casinos.

Throughout the journey, passengers stayed glued to the onboard TV screen, which was airing a TVB drama, To Love With No Regrets starring Amy Kwok, that had been dubbed in Mandarin.

A return ticket for the two-hour bus ride from New York City costs just US$15 (RM51). For this bunch of middle-aged people, there really isn’t anything to lose.

One casino, in a tie-up with the bus company, provides US$20 (RM68) cash for each customer as an inducement to visit this mini sin city, whose official slogan is “Always Turned On.”

Visitors are not required to show proof that they had spent the money at the casino. They are also given a voucher for a free bowl of noodles.

Thus, it is no big gamble at all for these “coupon-carrying retirees,” as one newspaper puts it, to come to Atlantic City. They could spend their day at leisure there, besides taking a stroll along its boardwalk.

This particular bus company runs four daily trips to Atlantic City; the last bus back to New York is at 4.30am.

However, the stakes are higher for the casinos, some of which face declining returns. Although the casinos collected US$5.2bil (RM17.7bil) in revenue last year, there is stiff competition from gambling machines in nearby states.

More recent reports stated the New York state government had closed a deal that would allow for a Las Vegas-type casino in Catskills, about 137km from the Big Apple.

“A number of my parents’ colleagues were laid off early this year. They had worked at the casino from day one,” said Ashley Joanne Sunder, who runs a coffee stand at Trump Taj Mahal.

Another of her mother’s friends opted to retire, she said.

Growing up in Atlantic City, the 18-year-old Sunder saw the town change through the years.

“New stores came up, and some neighbourhood shops disappeared,” she said.

It was tough for her to say whether she was okay with its reputation as a gambling city.

“The casinos have provided jobs for the people here,” she acknowledged.

A plaque outside Trump Taj Mahal was unabashedly complimentary of real estate tycoon Donald Trump, praising him for being kind and caring.

“He has provided amenities that enhance the quality of life for our residents,” it said.

Besides Trump Taj Mahal, two other casinos here carry the name of The Donald, by which he is sometimes known; there’s the Trump Plaza and Trump Marina.

A number of these casinos look quite similar, with endless rows of slot machines and rather flashy themes.

It isn’t all about gambling, though. There is golf, shopping and night entertainment. At the tourist information centre, there are even flyers promoting “Malaysian cuisine” at a place called Melaka Restaurant.

Its menu offers dishes in interesting language and spelling. There’s “bobo cha cha”, “kari ikan kepala”, “lady finger belacan” and “achat”, described as Malaysian pickled vegetables with peanut sauce.

Families come to Atlantic City for day trips, too.

“I am here to see what it’s all about,” said hairdresser La Toya Augustine, who drove from Connecticut to celebrate her sixth wedding anniversary.

While her husband tried his luck at blackjack, she explored the sprawling casino with their two children.

“I would certainly come again, at least to gamble and have some fun,” she said.

It is clearly a gamblers’ paradise. Giant billboards shouting out the names of the casinos greet visitors, while others promote poker tournaments.

“Let’s play!” one of them boldly declared.

It’s a bidding no gambler can say no to.

Fighting for a voice in N.Y.

THERE was a spring in their steps as they marched around midtown Manhattan to mark Vasakhi, the Sikh New Year. It wasn’t a boisterous affair but echoes of “I’m Sikh and I’m proud of it” was almost unmistakable.

Men in turban and women wearing the dastar (head cover) lined the streets to watch last Saturday’s parade.

“This is a proud day for me,” said computer engineer Iqbal Singh Grewal as he munched on prashad, a cocktail of nuts and sweets that was handed out during the procession.

Prashad is usually given out at the end of a religious service; the person receiving it symbolises his acceptance of the teachings of that day.

New York is home to an estimated 50,000 Sikhs, mostly stereotyped as taxi drivers and convenience store owners. Many of the newer immigrants these days start out at construction sites.

Iqbal Singh, a New Jersey resident, has called America home for the past 20 years.

“The Sikhs have gone through a lot, especially after 9/11 when some people began calling us Talibans,” he said, although he personally felt that such harassment had been minor.

But groups like The Sikh Coalition do not take it lightly.

“We created a website the day after Sept 11. Within six months, we received 300,000 reports on hate crimes, and harassment at school and at the workplace,” said Amardeep Singh, executive director of The Sikh Coalition, the largest such organisation in the United States despite having only four full-time staff.

“We are getting more complaints than we can handle,” he said. The coalition is funded by private donations and charitable organisations.

Amardeep Singh found that the average American would look at a Sikh and think Osama bin Laden or Taliban.

“There is definitely a lack of understanding and ignorance of the community,” he lamented, noting out that male Sikhs were not allowed to serve as traffic policemen unless they removed their turbans.

“This is despite the fact that they have passed all the required written and physical tests,” he said, pointing to the irony that this happens in New York, the most diverse city in the world.

Born in Connecticut, Amardeep Singh, 36, was introduced to alienation from young; he was the only Sikh in his school. “The kids used to call me Gandhi. They thought he was a funny figure with his dhoti,” he said.

In the early days, there was no gurdwara. Then several Sikh families banded together to establish one, he recalled.

He observed that harassment against Sikhs paralleled the historic or tragic moments that took place in the United States. “During the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, people would ask me whether I was from Iran. I would get crank calls, asking me to go back to Iran,” he said.

“The 1995 bombing of Oklahoma City led to warnings that Sikhs would be blamed for it, although the man behind it was Timothy McVeigh. And after Sept 11, we were told to return to Afghanistan.”

Harsimran Kaur, an attorney with The Sikh Coalition, related the case of a Sikh woman who was harassed by her superior at work last year.

“He would say things like ‘take off your turban if you want to work here. Besides, I want to see your long hair’.” The woman defied his instructions and was then ordered to wash the bathroom, which was not part of her job. She was eventually fired.

“We filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in October last year,” Harsimran said. The case is still being reviewed.

In a way, the community has made big strides here. Last year, five Sikhs were elected to the Queens County Democratic Committee, a victory of sorts as it signalled their entry into local politics.

“It is the lowest level of elected officers in New York City but it gives them a chance to join the meetings of the Democratic Party. It provides them with a platform; it gives them an important first foot in the door. They are slowly getting inside it,” Amardeep Singh said.

Scalped for RM2,700

IT WAS worse than a bad hair day for presidential candidate John Edwards when he was taped recently fussing over his mane for a good two minutes.

The video of him checking his hair using a compact mirror and then having it fixed and teased is now on YouTube for posterity to the tune of I Feel Pretty from West Side Story.

The Democrat, caught unawares on camera while preparing for an interview, conceded later that he was embarrassed by it.

The press here loves to keep tabs on the number of times the YouTube posting has been viewed (almost 481,000 hits as of yesterday morning).

But more excruciating was perhaps the news that he spent US$800 (RM2,700) for two haircuts in Beverly Hills.

Rather inappropriate, they say, of Edwards, who “speaks out” for the working class.

The haircut bills emerged in campaign expenditure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

The US election system has in place a very transparent system for monitoring the cash flow of presidential candidates.

The candidates' quarterly financial reports will disclose the amount they spend on things like TV advertising, hotels, staff payroll and fund-raising phone calls in the race to the White House.

For instance, in his campaign, Rudy Giuliani, the “America’s mayor,” ran up hotel bills totalling US$48,500 (RM165,870) over three months.

The reports also state how much campaign money the candidates have in the bank.

Hillary Clinton has raised US$26mil (RM88.9mil); Barack Obama, US$25mil (RM85.4mil); Mitt Romney, US$21mil (RM71.8mil); John McCain, US$12.5mil (RM42.7mil); and Giuliani, US$13.8mil (RM47.1mil).

News reports have pointed out that some of the candidates have raised three times the amount of any contender in the previous White House bid in the campaign so far, although such large amounts are no indicator of the eventual outcome.

The quarterly reports offer a first hand look at how the candidates are rushing to fill their war chest. And, come next year, contenders will be required to submit monthly financial reports.

Indeed, the 2008 bid for the Oval Office is shaping up to be a billion dollar race.

As Washington political lawyer Ben Ginsberg explained, no incumbent is running for election, so the race is wide open.

“It is also the first time that all leading candidates are using private money instead of depending on public matching funds,” he said in a briefing for foreign journalists.

Without public financing being involved, there is no limit on their spending.

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, an associate counsel with Brennan Centre for Justice, a non-partisan organisation which advocates changes to campaign finance laws, cited another factor: “New York and California have moved their primaries up to Feb 5 and 18 next year; other states may do the same.

“This requires candidates to run campaigns simultaneously in the most expensive media markets, which requires millions of dollars. All these forces are creating a perfect storm, pushing candidates towards the most expensive presidential season ever.”

She believes reforms to the law are needed.

“For many Americans, campaign contributions are a luxury they cannot afford. For others at the higher end of the economic spectrum, contributions are a cost of doing business,” she added.

“But as a democracy, we need to ensure that politicians are not bought like commodities and that voters have faith that their elected officials will make policy choices based on the good of the people and not just the good of their political benefactors.”

Donors are allowed to give up US$2,300 (RM7,866). There are also the “bundlers” who are allowed to gather US$2,300 cheques from their friends and business associates.

Individuals may also give a maximum of US$28,500 (RM97,470) to a political party.

Unions, foreign nationals or government contractors are prohibited from contributing.

It is quite a transparent system, particularly for the entities that are required to report their finances.

“One growing problem is the formation of non-profits who have no current duty to report under the campaign finance laws,” Torres-Spelliscy said.

Nevertheless, there are lessons from the American experience, said Azman Azham, a committee member of Umno Club New York-Connecticut.

“Back home, we don’t even know where the candidates’ money come from.”

It’s taxing on the wallet for the visitor to New York

So you want to wake up in the city that never sleeps, as the song goes? Beware, for accommodation in New York, even for travellers on a budget, can burn a hole in the pocket.

THIS city of eight million is a thief of hearts and wallets. The pricey, intoxicating Big Apple leaves visitors smitten and broke if their paycheque isn't big enough.

Last year, the city was a magnet to almost 44 million tourists, partly lured by the images immortalised by Carrie Bradshaw skipping about on her Manolos and “Friends” having coffee at Central Perk.

Reality, however, isn’t entirely charming. For most tourists, seeking shelter in New York City is the main budget-busting woe.

Hooi Sow Chun, 39, spent a fortnight here last month with her mother and sister. The total accommodation cost for their stay at a studio apartment in Greenwich Village came up to US$1,920 (RM6,580).

“Accommodation was the most expensive part of our trip. We travelled using my sister’s frequent flyer miles. If we had to purchase tickets, it would have cost us RM4,500 per person,” said Hooi, a homemaker.

She had no complaints, though, about the studio apartment, which was located near a subway station. The location was good and there was cable TV and Internet access.

“The only setback was that the apartment is on the fourth floor and there is no elevator,” she said.

“Another horror was an ‘uninvited guest’ – a rat – which came one night and ransacked our bags the minute we turned off the lights.”

But looking for a clean, spotless budget hotel isn’t well-nigh impossible. Take Pod Hotel, a funky, chic budget hotel which opened here in January to roaring success.

“Yes, there are more inexpensive hotels. But you may not want to stay there as they are not that clean and attractive,” said David Bernstein, the managing director.

Rates at Pod Hotel range from US$89 to US$229 (RM305 to RM785). The hotel, according to Bernstein, was part of a trend described as “budget boutique” that was now sweeping across Europe.

Staying in these fashionably and artfully designed rooms at least won’t leave you entirely down and out in New York.

Most of these hotels cut costs by, say, reducing manpower to allow for more automated tasks. Construction costs reportedly went down for some of these places when owners, for example, leave brick walls exposed for that aesthetic look.

In New York, room rates have jumped 39% in the past four years. They now average US$240 (RM823) a night.

Besides the room charges, there are also the taxes to contend with. One New York Times report estimated that these hotel taxes amount to 14% in New York City.

Asked about these additional costs to travellers, Bernstein only shrugged. He acknowledged that hotel guests had to pay a host of taxes as required under state and city laws.

Authorities are now targeting 50 million visitors annually by 2015. They want to push the message across to people who assume the city is too expensive to visit.

About seven million of the 44 million visitors to New York last year were foreigners. The weaker dollar played a part, certainly.

This foreign invasion of tourists is reportedly welcome because they usually spend about US$196 (RM672) a day compared with US$166 (RM569) by local travellers.

“They also stay longer – seven days compared with two days for their domestic counterparts,” according to the New York Post.

In a way, the cost of living here is lower than in Malaysia on a dollar-for-dollar comparison.

“Minus the ringgit to dollar conversion, the cost of hotel accommodation looks cheaper in Manhattan than in KL. I don’t think we can find a studio apartment for four persons for RM90-RM120 a night in KL. Even a hotel room in central London can be about £90 (RM618) a night,” Hooi noted.

Still, most poor mortals would have to hit paydirt before they begin crooning “New York, New York.”

Online media – the changing face of journalism

AMERICAN newshounds are facing a media landscape that is changing at an unrelenting pace. Blogs and news websites are the ones now often cited as points of reference.

For instance, TMZ.com, which broke the story of Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic rants during a drunk driving offence last year, has become a bible of sorts for entertainment reporters.

As Assoc Prof Sreenath Sreenivasan of Columbia University puts it, this celebrity gossip website was a “game-changer.”

“If you cover entertainment news, this is the place that you must turn to,” he said of the influential TMZ.com that, according to Nielsen/ NetRatings, had 7.9 million unique visitors in February. This marked a 151% increase over the previous year.

At a recent briefing for foreign journalists, Assoc Prof Sreenath named countless sites that had changed the name of the game.

“Five years ago, readers would tip off Fox or CNN,” he said, but now, exclusive photos of Britney Spears shaving her head was first released to X17 Online.

“I’m not saying that every blog is important. Hundreds of thousands of them are launched each day, most of them read by just the writer and his mother,” he said.

But there are those like “The Politico”, which began in January that had made its mark although its target is solely to report on Capitol Hill and the US presidential campaign.

Initiated by seasoned writers from The Washington Post, its site reportedly attracted one million page views on its first day.

It is a scene so different in certain regional newspapers, which have been reducing their manpower in Washington bureaus to focus on local stories in the wake of decreasing advertising revenue and declining readership.

To them, it is pointless to spend so much time and effort covering Washington events, which is available live to the public through other means.

The Newspaper Association of America has estimated that advertisement spending on newspaper websites will go up by 22% this year, unlike the mere 1.2% increase in their print editions.

One of the must-read blogs here is The Huffington Post, which draws 2.3 million unique visitors monthly, and whose creator Arianna Huffington was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 people who shaped the world last year, alongside Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report, another heavyweight blog.

Now, even some established newspapers are describing themselves as a “website first, newspaper second,” said Assoc Prof Sreenath.

Still, it is not the end of traditional journalism.

“It’s just that the delivery method is different, that’s all.”

And yes, old habits refuse to go away as people still read the papers even in the big cities.

However, a number of stories that appear in print are decidedly different in flavour now. They report on the latest website that offers seat reservations in the most popular restaurant in town, or the sites to check out if you want your home telephone number unreachable to telemarketers.

The New York Times has a column called “Online Shopper” where the writer would share her experience in buying a product on the Net.

Newspapers that did not think of ways to re-engage their readers might just end up becoming irrelevant, said Kelly McBride, a faculty member of Poynter Institute, a school for journalists.

In some markets where lay-offs took place, she said, newspaper companies began hiring employees with Internet skills.

“There is a demand to find new ways to deliver the news online,” she said in a recent telephone interview.

Newspapers are not dying but the newsroom is changing its face. As McBride puts it: “The train has left the station.”