Hurricane Earl took aim at North Carolina on Thursday and is on track to lash its barrier islands with dangerous winds and pounding surf before cutting a path up the U.S. East Coast.If you hear a distant fanfare this weekend as you huddle around the last barbecue of summer, chances are it is Labor Day signaling the start of the home stretch to the Congressional mid-term elections. From here on out, we’ll see more ads, more posturing, more mudslinging, and great herds of political pundits thundering across the land with all the enthusiasm and grace of buffaloes in a rut. And no one will be more aware of all that than a man whose name is not on any ballot, and yet has everything on the line: President Barack Obama.An oil and gas platform operated by Mariner Energy burst into flames on Thursday and unleashed a mile-long oil sheen into the Gulf of Mexico, in the region’s first major offshore disaster since BP’s oil spill began in April.Coming fresh off of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” reunion (did you all catch that horror show? One word: cray-cray) is the announcement that Bravo is set to release yet another Real Housewives franchise, “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” next month.Hollywood loves a good formula, and this fall movie season is rife with tried-and-true plot setups that will give you deja vu.From Baltimore to Lancaster avenues and along Market Street in between, University City is abuzz from the arrivals of college students and professors back after summer vacation.Tiger Woods fans have put up with the philandering, the text messages and the domestic spats. Now comes what may be the hardest thing of all to tolerate: losing.While breast-enhancing surgery has become almost a norm for American women, men are also heading to the plastic surgeon’s office more often — to have their man-boobs (moobs) removed. If you are what you eat, then most Cape Codders would be a clam — or maybe a lobster roll A land named for a type of fish should abound with chances to sample tasty seafood, and Cape Cod does not disappointSo you squandered an estate note on a bachelor’s degree, then trudged through more entry-level hardships and thankless internships than should be legally permissable, only to backslide into a self-esteem shattering, résumé-derailing grind, several tax brackets below your dignity. 
The prudishness of New Yorkers — and tourists — will be tested next week at the Museum of Modern Art: Nude performers will be there every day through May 31 as part of a retrospective for Marina Abramovic, the godmother of performance art.
New Yorkers can be blase about exposed skin. Certainly, one wouldn’t expect cops to stop the performances at MoMA, as police in Bologna, Italy, did to Abramovic in 1977 when she and a man stood naked in a doorway at a gallery forcing visitors to face one of them as they passed through.
(MoMA performers will reprise this piece.)
Naked artists can still offend. At P.S. 1 last month, the Long Island City institution’s director shut the lights while a performer was masturbating and urinating in a bowl, which she then poured over herself. The lights went down again during the next piece about being transgender. It was to prevent a “potentially volatile situation” from escalating, museum officials said.
Police last month forced out a nude woman in the window of Greenwich Village gallery Chair and Maiden. But she was deemed an integral part of the work, so laws of public lewdness didn’t apply, the gallery’s curator David Zelikovsky said. The woman will appear through March.
“I think the younger generation is more conservative,” Zelikovsky said. “There’s going to be a lot of nudity in New York [when Abramovic’s show opens], but without the public peering in. You have to pay to see that.”
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In the July MMMpod, Young Veins talk about breaking away from Panic! at the Disco, Keith Lockhart talks about Buckwheat Zydeco throwing the Boston Pops for a loop, Zooey Deschanel talks about how Roy Orbison inspired a She & Him song, Derek Miller of Sleigh Bells talks about how awesome Funkadelic is, and we talk about how awesome Jimmy Cliff is, who in turn talks about Sam Cooke and divine intervention. An explosive show for July! Oh yeah, and we also test your knowledge of America songs in the MMMPod medley.
