There's simply too much going on in cities today, too many provocative and fun things to do. The Economist writes that new publications are attempting to sift through all the opportunities. Flavorpill in the U.S. and le cool for Europe "publish free, weekly e-mails that narrow the torrent down to the two dozen very best events."

"There are plenty of places to look for reviews and recommendations, but they can be unreliable or prone to manipulation. And they do little to address the problem of volume: Time Out New York, a listings magazine, listed nearly 500 options for Monday alone. That is why Flavorpill and le cool have opted to provide 'filtered cultural stimuli', as Sascha Lewis, one of Flavorpill's founders, puts it. A stable of unpaid contributors selects events and writes recommendations. Part-time staff editors then assemble the listings. 'It's about understanding quality within genres, not about specific genres,' says Lisa Hix, the editor of Flavorpill San Francisco. The result is an eclectic, catholic style that, its editors believe, does its best to distill excellence from cultural chaos....

"The reviewers manage to find events that appeal to young, culturally influential urban dwellers.

"Such people are highly attuned to the inauthenticity of culture manufactured in the pursuit of sales, so both Flavorpill and le cool say they are careful to separate advertising from editorial material, and to avoid promotional events. 'Our readers can smell PR,' says Ms Hix. But Mr Lewis says that by selecting events that conform to the ineffable tastes of his audience, he has been able to aggregate this elusive group in a form that is attractive to advertisers. Advertisements from the likes of Budweiser, JetBlue and Nokia provide the bulk of Flavorpill's revenues.

"The companies' operations are marked by a commendable looseness—nobody in le cool's head office, for example, can read the Istanbul edition, which is in Turkish. This means that advertisers must put an unaccustomed level of trust in the process, and have the stomach to place their brands in unpredictable contexts."

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