Apparently Fashion Week had its official kickoff last night at Radio City with the Fashion Rocks concert, but large venues are so tacky. The real action is, predictably, in the lineup, and especially regarding the celebrity collections. Gwen Stefani's L.A.M.B. line has snagged the coveted Friday 8 p.m. slot, previously held by Jennifer Lopez. Meanwhile, Destiny's only Child Beyoncé Knowles has pulled her line from the shows, as it undoubtedly sucks.

• Farewell, soon, to the Tara Reid self-loathing index: Looks like the show's been canned and E! has sent the troops home. Poor Tara. She can't even have a career as an alcoholic. [Defamer]
• Kudos to socialite Fabian Basabe for his appearance on today's Oprah. Notable quotable: "A lot of people think that being a socialite is just a bunch of rich kids running around, doing nothing. That's incorrect...being social is a career." If this isn't proof positive of our failed education system, we don't know what is.
• Kanye West refuses to remove his iPod long enough to pay due to Fashion Week. Obviously, Kanye West does not care about skinny people. [OAN]
• We swear this is the last O.C. reference we'll make, uh, today, but our crack-smoking little brother has taken up the cultural cause: Odds that "while Seth is away in prison, Summer uses Captain Oats as a dildo - 3,500/1." Call your bookies. [Oddjack]
• Not even Fox is ready for hurricane humor; the network holds an episode of The Family Guy that contained "a couple" of references to a hurricane. [B&C]
• Au revoir, Chelsea piers? [The Real Estate]
• Hip-hop jack-of-all-crap Diddy gets all Trump-y on us and is rumored to be working on opening a hotel in Atlantic City. [Hotelchatter]
• Did Coney Island's legendary roller coaster-cum-death machine, the Cyclone, break on Saturday? And if the only outlet to document it is Craigslist, does it mean it ever really happened? [Craigslist]
• OMG, LA Weekly's Nikki Finke said something nice. [LAW]

• Get your tenor sax solo with a side of Pabst and ironic detachment: The Williamsburg Jazz Festival kicks off tonight at at various locales all over the 'Burg. Better head to Brookyln, cause you sure won't be hearing jazz in New Orleans anytime soon. [flavorpill]
• No tickets to the Arcade Fire show tonight at Radio City? Try being a seat-filler. If all else fails, The OC will keep you company at 8pm. [Bumpershine]
• Race relations expert Kevin Powell (from the original cast of the Real World) hosts a Hurricane Katrina benefit at Canal Room tonight. Evidently, some people thought the recovery efforts were less than stellar. [Paper]

We're New Yorkers; we have enough guilt already.

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Yet one more advantage of living in our subway-riding city is a blissful ignorance of how fucking expensive gasoline has become. (Gas stations on the LIE and Garden State Parkway provided rude shocks on Labor Day weekend.)

Uh-oh. As New York remains vague on whether it'll try for the Olympics again for 2016 — quite smartly, given that virtually all New Yorkers hate the idea, Bloomberg says he'll wait till after the election to decide — now Los Angeles says it's in the race.

• Because we'll be damned if some little hurricane is going to keep us from our self-absorbed, fashionable pursuits, tonight is the launch of Creative Atelier, a three-week performance exhibition in which designers compete with a limited amount of materials, like Project Runway but with a live audience. Because you've always wanted front-row seats at a sweatshop. [flavorpill]
• Join all the other odd, obsessive types and check out prolific novelist Tom Robbins' foray into poetry. He reads tonight from his new collection, Wild Ducks Flying Backwards. You didn't expect it to have a normal title, did you? [Paper]
• Round up all of your 16-year-old friends and hit Irving Plaza to check out Idlewild's brand of Scottish indie pop, then patiently wait for their inevitable appearance on The O.C. [Oh My Rockness]

• Nublu holds a Hurricane Katrina benefit featuring Kudu, Send, G. Rizo, and Cocoa Cracker Brown. You'll likely be on the low end of the suggested donation spectrum ($5 to $1,000,000), but go on and give what you can. 62 Avenue C btw 4th and 5th Street. [Nublu]
• Do you have earplugs? Do you have a "willingness to be aurally assaulted"? If you answered "yes" to both these questions, congrats! You fulfill Flavorpill's requisites for attending the Merzbow show tonight at Knitting Factory. Sounds like a hoot. [flavorpill]
• National Geographic's exhibit on Africa opens today in Grand Central Terminal. At least one media outlet gives the continent some love. [Upcoming]

Sightings are sent in by readers; send yours to tips@gawker.com.

• Metro section, Sunday: "The top fifth of earners in Manhattan now make 52 times what the lowest fifth make — $365,826 compared with $7,047 — which is roughly comparable to the income disparity in Namibia, according to the Times analysis of 2000 census data."

Friday:
• Brazilians celebrate their independence today with various parties throughout New York City. Hopefully things remain a little less stabby than PR Day. [flavorpill]
• Jamie Stewart's lyrics as Xiu Xiu singer have got it all goin' on for the summer: A bit of depression here, some child abuse there, homosexual angst, and suicidal tendencies to boot. Hop on the party train at Bowery Ballroom tonight. [Paper]
Saturday:
• If you can't be drunk on a beach, here's the second best option: Ian Williams, author of Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776, discusses his book on Governors Island today. Bring a flask of Bacardi and it'll be just like the Vineyard. [flavorpill]
• Didn't go to Queens for the last P.S. 1 of the summer? Don't want to hop on the 7 to check out the U.S. Open in Flushing? Luckily, the kind souls at American Express are willing to accomodate your laziness: They roll out big screen TVs at the World Financial Center and Madison Square Park to broadcast live tennis coverage.
Sunday:
• Party like you're at Star Room with 100% less beach but 50% more self-loathing at GBH's Holiday Party bash at Marquee. If not, make a last ditch effort to get the hell out of town. [Upcoming]

Yesterday we had some interesting sightings of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice enjoying her much-deserved break in Manhattan; she took in a show, played some tennis, bought some shoes. Sounds like the perfect vacation for a Lucky girl. Or not:

• Time Out notes that Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now contains one of the most "erotic sex scenes ever filmed." Whatever you need to take your mind off of hurricanes and whatnot. 6:15pm, Walter Reade Theater. [TONY]
• Dance, mime, anime, cartoon, video, Japanimation — "X Kills Y and Vice Versa" is a veritable medicine cabinet of artistic media. But BYO Vicodin, because the medicine cabinet is just a bad metaphor we thought of. 8:00pm, The Chocolate Factory Theater. [flavorpill]
• Louis XIV lets Ike Reilley eat cake at Irving Plaza; let us make terrible, historical puns at the expense of our own self-respect. [Paper]

The latest on Condoleezza Rice's Manhattan vacation, courtesy of a reader:

According to Drudge, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has recently enjoyed a little Broadway entertainment. And Page Six reports that she's also working on her backhand with Monica Seles. So the Gulf Coast has gone all Mad Max, women are being raped in the Superdome, and Rice is enjoying a brief vacation in New York. We wish we were surprised.

Despite a last-minute rally yesterday in Washington Square Park and the best efforts of Steve Van Zandt and Public Enemy, legendary punk club CBGB's is no more. The building's landlord, the Bowery Resident's Committee, has decided not to renew the venue's lease, which expired at midnight (the tenants, rest assured, will hold on to their keys while they fight the issue in court). During yesterday's last-ditch attempt to keep the landmark alive, supporters expressed doubts:

• William Eggleston, Flavorpill says, is often called the "father of color photography" — famous for his ability to "capture the photogenically tragic moments of the American South." We assume the documentary William Eggleston in the Real World isn't his paean to idiot whore Trishelle, but we can always hope. [flavorpill]
• In tonight's installment of How to Kick People, titled "Missed Connections," two Jons (Friedman and Ames), a Jesse (Hartman) and an Ophira (Eisenberg) ruminate on, well, we're not quite sure. But it's sure to be funny and witty and clever and other assorted glowing adjectives. [HtKP]
• The 1954 film Salt of the Earth is the only blacklisted film ever in American film history. It's tale of mine workers on strike is sure to warm the cockles of your pinko heart. [Paper]

• Our favorite overtly perverted, certifiably batshit insane rapper Kool Keith performs at SOBs tonight. Bring your raincoat. [flavorpill]
• Alec Ounswirth, lead singer of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (insert Talking Heads reference...here) performs at Mercury Lounge tonight sans bandmates. At least theoretically: rumor has it the remaining members of CYHSY may just show up. [Paper ]
• Oh, those crazy Jews are at it again: Makor hosts a "Spelling Bee for Non-Children," with categories ranging from disease names to band names. Don't forget there's more than one correct way to spell "Hanukkah." [92Y]

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