AMSTERDAM - THE GLOWIEST PLACE IN TOWN

Meet Nick Paladino, a Hendrix-obsessed American who drained an Amsterdam basement all by himself in order to create Electric Lady Land, a museum where everything but Nick is fluorescent--although we haven't seen him in the nude. Mieke Lindeman traveled to the museum for further inspection. Here's what she came home with.

JAPAN - THE RELUCTANT NORTH KOREAN FILM STAR

On January 4th, 1965, a confused young sergeant in the US military named Charles Jenkins drank ten beers before setting off on his nightly patrol duty along the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, where he had been serving for the past year. Having previously been shuffled back and forth between South Korea and US outposts across Europe, he feared his next deployment would be in war-torn Vietnam. Replaying in his mind the horror stories he’d heard of the battles going on in south-east Asia and afraid of dying in the jungle, in his boozy haze he made a snap decision. Drunkenly he stumbled over the border into North Korea with his hands in the air, giving himself up to his communist enemies. He would remain there for 40 years before escaping.

JAPAN - HOLIDAY OR HOMELESS?

Japanese office culture is strange. People in business together don't talk, ever, except for a couple times a year when they spend five obligatory days getting absolutely smashed and passing out all over the city because it's expected of them. Afterward, they revert to how things were and don't discuss what happened. In the middle of this wave of festivities, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning headed into Shinjuku, land o' plenty when it comes to hostess bars, love hotels, and nightclubs... and right now drunken salarymen napping in the street with homeless people. If it weren't for the sort of clean clothes I probably couldn't tell them apart. Let's play a game called Holiday or Homeless!

AUSTRIA - VOLKER GERLING FLIPS PEOPLE OFF

Volker Gerling journeys from town to town, carrying a hawker’s tray full of flipbooks, reviving the tradition of hobo craftsman in his own way. A film academy graduate turned self-proclaimed flip-bibliopegist, he entertains people with a one-man motion-picture theater. Remember that photography was a gateway drug into motion pictures--and when you take it back to flipbooks, time can actually flow through your fingers, he says, and he’s fascinated with the gaps.

LONDON - TUNA POISONING AND SENSORY DEPRIVATION

We told you last week that our buddy Ryan McGinley has a show at the Alison Jacques Gallery in London right now. Jamie Taete, one of McGinley’s scariest fans, grabbed him at the opening to talk about Gossip Girl and seat belts (and photography – there’s some talk of that as well). 

NEW YORK - SAMANTHA PLEET'S ROMPER ROOM

Though not explicitly evocative of the dirty classic New York groove, Samantha Pleet's clothes are the perfect combination of girly and rough-and-tumble. Her style directive involves the flounce of a woodland elf without being overly delicate or perishable, unlike some other designers channeling forest nymphs these days (heads up, Erin Featherston). In it's eighth season, her line has already established itself as the costumer of the indie-elite, but somehow manages not to offend those of us on the anti-side of quirky. I was lucky enough to hang in the dressing room with Pleet and her girls while they got ready for her SS 2010 presentation.

LONDON - DO I LOOK MORE ATTRACTIVE NEXT TO THIS NEAR-NAKED GIRL?

According to some people, if you want to "go out on the pull" (that's funny British talk for picking up chicks) conventional wisdom says that you go with your friend who has that giant goiter and a weeping facial wound. Some crappy scientists have officially subscribed to this theory, presumably to drum up publicity for science and get more funding for research into how to blast meteorites out of Earth's trajectory. Unfortunately, some other scientists disagree totally and think that you've got to stand with someone so insurmountably hotter than you so the glory will reflect back on your nasty face. In an effort to get to the bottom of this heated debate, I was photographed while standing next to the assorted masses of London to see which made me look sexiest. Judge me. I can take it. 

TEXAS - HAVIN' SOME FAMILY FUN

Everyone knows that black babies are the most handsome infants in the world. That’s reason one for why I went to the KBXX Family Fun Day and reason two is obvious; Lil’ Flip, En Vogue, The New Boyz, and Dourrough.

LONDON - SOMETIMES A CAVE IS JUST A BIG VAGINA

Ryan McGinley’s new exhibit of cave photographs, some of which we featured in our Photo Issue, opens at Alison Jacques Gallery in London tonight and it’s already getting tons of accolades. People keep talking about the gorgeous colors and the masterly compositions, referencing Tom Sawyer’s “spirit of adventure” and Journey to the Center of the Earth, sprinkling biblical Jonah and the Whale references here and there, but what’s really baffling is that no one is stating the obvious: These are all pictures of vaginas. I mean, they’re caves. With all those surreal colors, they’re practically Georgia O’Keefe paintings. You don’t have to be a pervert, or Freud, or both, to see it.

NEW YORK - ALPACALYPTIC PROPHESIES

So you watched the Cute Show today and you know alpacas (Vicugna pacos) make loyal and low-maintenance meadow pets. If you get one of the outcast alpacas that has scoliosis or is funky in some way they are cheaper than a lot of pure-bred canines. Second to a baby skunk that has had its stinker removed, I think an alpaca is the greatest snuggler pet. So soft and with a custom saddle you can ride them too!