By Grashina Gabelmann

Warhol: the glasses-wearing, shiny silver haired artist who invented and perfected pop art and rightly predicted everyone is to have their 15 minutes of fame. His art, books, movies and legacy are rooted deeply in our culture and if you find yourself in New York City you can discover where he partied, ate and created. Step back into New York’s grimy 70s scene where Warhol ruled the night turning girls into superstars and bars into “hipster hot spots”.

1) Head over to Serendipity 3 Diner (225 East 60th Street), famous for its outrageously delicious sundaes. Warhol satisfied his sweet tooth here way before his Factory days. He used to pay his food in drawings.

I had to wait ages to get a table, but once I was sitting in a booth surrounded by colorful chandeliers, tastefully tacky ceramic, glass and crystal decorations sipping my Frozen Hot Chocolate (a secret blend of 14 types of cocoa, topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings), I was feeling pretty all right.

2) Check out where infamous Studio 54 used to be (255 West 54th Street) — a club so exclusive that Frank Sinatra, Woody Allen and Diane Keaton were denied its Wonderland-like pleasures on the opening night.

As I approached the spot I closed my eyes and imagined Warhol strutting past me and the red velvet rope with no effort at all with “it-girl” Edie Sedwick in tow wearing belly button-reaching earrings, a fluffy fur coat and eyelashes so long and thick her eye color remained a mystery. Today, the club is now a Broadway theater, but hey, you can still say you’ve been there. (more…)

Already broke your budget just staying in New York this holiday season? Try these 10 tips to enjoy the city for free.

By Matt Stabile

MUSEUMS

1) MoMA

Normally a steep $20, MoMA (Museum of Modern Art for you acronym-hating readers) is free every Friday from 4:00 - 8:00 p.m. Just head to the front desk and pick up a free ticket for admission then check out Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Monet’s Water Lilies, and Dali’s The Persistence of Memory all for nothing.

TIP: If you plan to check out the Tim Burton exhibit going on right now, head there right at 4 p.m. due to the limited number of entries.

2) The New Museum

With its irregularly stacked white box frame, The New Museum is in fact, literally new (a $64 million renovation was completed in December 2007), and is free on Thursday from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

TIP: Grab you iPod and download these free podcasts for the heavily promoted Urs Fischer exhibit. This may help explain all those tongue advertisements you’ve been seeing on the subway.

3) The Metropolitan Museum of Art

They won’t actually tell you this right out in the open, but it’s true: admission here is only recommended. They ask for $20 for adults and $10 for students, but no one’s stopping you from forking over your pocket change. Stingy? Perhaps, but remember, they’re also working with one of the largest endowments for a museum in the world (well over $2 billion dollars). Want to really help? Hit up the gift shop on your way out or at one of the many stores around the city.

TIP: Ever wonder what graffiti looks like through the ages beginning from about 10 B.C.? Head to the reconstructed Temple of Dendur for a good overview. (more…)