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.

Rumor has it Amy Winehouse will be the next celebrity tapped to design a clothing line for a major retailer. The brand in question: Fred Perry. While no official word on what form the collaboration will take has been released by either party, Winehouse was overheard “during a festive holiday” (which I’ll assume translates to holiday party) saying “she is currently in negotiations with [the] iconic British label,” says Vogue UK. Considering the tabloid fixture recently put plans for her second album on hold, the move to designing doesn't seem so far-fetched.

With spring just around the corner, I feel obliged to make all you ladies aware of the must-have trends for your wardrobes. I want everyone wearing tier ruffles, zippers, and sheer-opaque combinations before anyone else. Other trends to watch for include pastel colors, butterflies, little white dresses, broderie Anglaise, bondage themes, op-art prints, and big bows. After the jump, check out a few choice samples from designers' new collections.

This morning I had the following conversation:

The Consumerist: Want to download every Beatles track made, legally?
Me: Not particularly.
The Consumerist: [NRKbeta.no via BoingBoing]
Me: ???

What the recently sold-off consumer advocacy blog was trying to alert me to was the fact that a Norwegian broadcasting company has, thanks to a recent deal, gotten a chance to play the prolific back-catalog of The Beatles in podcasts that, because of this deal, contain less than 70% actual music.

Lori Levine, founder and CEO of Flying Television Talent Booking & Brokering, divulges her penchant for matchmaking, loathing for the über-VIP VIPs, and 2009's imperative social calendar

Where do you go out? Lunetta. They have a perfect menu. The meatballs with raisins and pine nuts are worth the trip. Also, it is so close to my office. I take all my lunch meetings there. Gemma at the Bowery Hotel. I love lots of different bites, so the option to order tons of small plates is fantastic, and the atmosphere is perfect for two or twenty. Rose Bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel. You can count on a comfy chair, a warm fireplace, and perfectly mixed drinks. I adore the penthouse and plan as many events as I can there.

What's your story? I am a talent broker bringing together Hollywood and corporate America through marketing, advertising, celebrity events, spokesmanship deals, and celebrity personal appearances.

Las Vegas, which seems to be stunned at the current reversal of economic fortune, is still hosting the annual Computer Electronics Show starting this Wednesday. Amidst dozens of neato greener gadgets (like the new ELV hybrid scooters) and a keynote address from Ford CEO Alan Mulally (grim indeed), iGo will be promoting their latest all-in-one adapter, the iGo EverywhereMAX. This adapter is a little larger than a BlackBerry (Curve, not Pearl) and can juice up your laptop and a cell phone or iPod from any outlet in the US, UK, EU, and Australia. It also features a card reader guaranteed to accept 39 different types of memory cards. An excellent all-in-one for the technophillic traveler who's loaded down with mobile gadgetry.

I recently came across the above video on Diane Pernet’s blog and was immediately intrigued. At the start of a new year, it’s fascinating to look ahead and try to guess what the dominating trends of the year will be. But one may also look back and see, for instance, what the trendsetters of the 1930s imagined we’d be wearing. Bizarrely enough, a number of the predictions featured here are totally on point for the upcoming year -- from peek-a-boo styles to body hair.

There's something remarkably similar between the P. Diddy-Faith Evans homage to Biggie and the humble hip-hop tribute posted onto YouTube by late Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's daughter a few days ago. Justifiably schmaltzy overtones aside, that particular je ne sais quoi is how both elegies commemorate iconic figures who met their end tragically. More so in the case of Benazir, who served as the nation's first and only female Prime Minister -- especially in the face of extremists who balked at taking orders from a woman.