Leave your worries and name at the door ...

1. Molotov's (The Haight) - A dark demoned bar with loads of local cred as a real drinker’s drinking hole.
2. Vertigo () - A boozing kind of bar. Magnetic dance floor for hot dates with personality deficits.
3. Phone Booth (Mission District) - Mixed local flavor includes the artsy underemployed and neighborhood Granddads. An ideal place to drink a lot because all drinks are cheap.

"White-collar boxing is keeping Gleason's open," owner Bruce Silverglade had said. Gleason’s motto is, “You don't have to smell good to train here." Despite the fact that he’s a graduate of Penn State, is well off, and comes from a good family, 25-year-old native New Yorker Tor Hamer is not only the country's number-one ranked amateur super-heavyweight, but also the anti-Rocky (sorry, Philly). Towering over his posse (preppy kids from the UES, the Gossip Girl types) at 6’2’’ and pushing 230 pounds, this charmer with a baby face (still intact -- he’s yet to get hurt, not even the boxer-trademark black eye) has a misleading mug for a bona fide boxing champ and party boy. Hamer’s other homes, besides the ring (he trains six days a week, for three hours straight) are “exclusive” nightclubs: Bungalow, Tenjune, Southside, and the Box. His longtime friend is Southside’s resident DJ, Nick Cohen, who’s dating Keith Richards’ daughter. "You’d think I ‘d get laid more often,” Hamer says.

So, you've heard us beat the passport drum here and here because of the new, tighter regulations to be implemented in June of this year. However, for those living close to the Caribbean, the Canadian, or the Mexican borders -- you Washington Staters, Californians, Texans, Miamians, people of Buffalo, NY -- who like to jaunt back and forth over the border, there's a cheaper, more compact option. It's called the Passport Card, and it's the size of a driver's license; like a license, it holds all of your relevant identifying information, plus a microchip that allows instant access to a government "big brother" database all about you personal info and many misdeeds. The cards are good for 10 years and cost $45, though if you already have a passport book and you want the card as well, it'll only run you $20. The major downside is that the card's not good for air travel. But it sure is portable. Click here for more information.

Liskula Cohen, a model who has posed for Armani and Versace as well as gracing the cover of Vogue, is suing Google over comments made by a blog hosted on the server. Specifically, the anonymous blogger in question dubbed Cohen the “#1 skanky superstar” following an incident in the bar at the Hudson Hotel where the doorman “was jailed after smashing her in the face with a vodka bottle,” says the New York Daily News. The site went on to call the model “a desperate ‘fortysomething’ who ‘may have been hot 10 years ago’." Oh, yeah, and "desperation seeps from her soul, if she even has one." Ouch, getting a bottle in the face aside, no one deserves to hear that. Besides, Cohen is only 36.

Charlotte Church makes me feel old. While Californian red oaks have the rings around their trunks to indicate age, I forgo my birth certificate and track my lifeline across the ups and downs of the Welsh prodigy's career. When she was winning over opera snobs with her howling arias as an unjaded tween, I was still counting pudding cups and fruit punch as part of a healthy diet. And when Church was emancipated from her money-grubbing parents and sought solace in menthols and booze, I was frenetically scribbling a report on these people. She even dabbled in an aimless pop career as her voice, from years of substance abuse, was no longer suited for opera.

Bubble Lounge at the Brig promoter Lauran Hoffman on the advent of the lesbian joint, the best weekend pick-up spots, and what she'll be doing to sleep with us.

Where do you hang out? The Abbey is like the most popular sibling in your family. It’s sometimes hard to like because of all the talent it has that can overwhelm even the most hardcore clubber, and it’s impossible not to love. The mere religious and blasphemous connotations of the bar’s name are enough to keep ‘em coming back for communion -- into eternity. I dig going dancing at the Garter. They have cool DJs, and when they don’t want to play the song I requested, they say so with so much attitude, it’s almost respectable. Also, it teeters between posh and dive-y. I’ve always thought it’s important to spoil earthy girls and shock the high-maintenance ones for the simple reason that earth girls can’t be shocked, and high-maintenance chicks are bored with being spoiled. The Garter provides the perfect formula to bring home either effect. The Speak Easyis my favorite dive or hang to fall into on a Saturday for the friendliest karaoke, pool playing, or practically free cocktails. Don’t expect to get any bottled water in this place, but if you want an awesome bar to take someone you’re cheating with and grind her on top of the pool table, this is your scene.

● Gemma Ward is currently vacationing in her home nation of Australia to center herself before she launches back into modeling. [PerthNow]
● Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson broke up -- oh wait, not according to Lohan. Someone should have told her rep that. [L.L.Myspace]
● WWD predicts what trends will fall by the wayside in ‘09. Among them are celeb lines, young designers, and expensive handbags. [WWD]

Well, that didn't take long! Just weeks after naming the Fleet Foxes' debut album (and their EP) the record of the year for 2008, Pitchfork Media has gone and declared Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion the best album of this freshly minted year, sort of. The notoriously prickly music site published their review of the album today, and gave it an incredibly high 9.6 rating on their make-you-or-break-you rating scale. I dare any other album this year to top that.

I was born in 1966, so my first fashion impressions were influenced by the end of the era of bohemian, free-love style and the beginning of the decade of disco glam. I remember loving my kid-friendly hot pants, mod dresses, and white go-go boots, even as a young girl always gravitating towards a more hippie-chic sensibility. I've carried these early references with me throughout my life, and I'll always will be drawn to throwback fashion. Only one store in New York City truly captures the nuances of early 70s style: Chelsea Girl Vintage. Located in Soho, this amazing find has a distinct vision. Most vintage stores are a hodgepodge -- rack after rack of clothes, a visual barrage of print and pattern, sensory overload! A hunter and peckers dream, but not easy to navigate for the newbie vintage shopper.

Either this site is a ridiculous tribute to vanity and excess or it's a genius idea whose time has come. However you look at it, Dress Registry attempts to reduce the number of embarrassing situations where two socialites show up at the same gathering wearing the same dress (horror!). The idea came about when site owner Andrew Jones watched his wife travel from their West Palm Beach home to Manhattan just to buy a party frock to make sure her dress would not be duplicated at an upcoming event. He figured other women had this same issue and resolved to come to the rescue.