Donald Cumming. (Courtesy Rozalia Jovanovic)

“This is like the 1% of the 99%,” a guest said last night at the Top of the Standard, where Audrey Gelman of Downtown for Democracy and Aaron Bondaroff of Ohwow were hosting a party for their new handbook, The Pocket Guide to Politics.

While many of the 99% were out marching for Occupy Wall Street’s May Day protest, in the cushy beige lounge at the Top of the Standard, artists, musicians, DJs, fashion designers and actors were out in droves, swilling Moët and fizzy cocktails, and fraternizing in a frothy comingling of uptown glamor and downtown grit.

Half Gallery owner Bill Powers stood by the DJ booth in a plaid shirt and red-tinted glasses as designer Cynthia Rowley hung out on the dance floor in a sharply tailored jacket. Photographer Terry Richardson, Girls creator Lena Dunham and club impresario Andre Saraiva were also amongst the revelers in various states of dancing, lounging and posing for cameras. Artist Nate Lowman DJ’d as Mr. Bondaroff, a k a A-ron the Downtown Don, stood nearby in a red cap and jean jacket, violating his old boast, “I’m so downtown, I don’t go above Delancey,”

“It’s synergistic,” said Ms. Gelman, one of the board members of D4D. A petite brunette wearing a dress made almost entirely of safety pins, Ms. Gelman, is an example of the crossing over. She’s the press secretary for Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer, but also has a featured role on HBO’s Girls and has Terry Richardson as a boyfriend.

Copies of the Pocket Guide, which aims to explain the basics of the political system simply and with images by well-known artists like Terry Richardson, Andrew Kuo and Dan Colen, were piled on a nearby table. Another table offered voter registration.

Midway through the revelry, Ms. Gelman got up on a small stage in front of a brightly lit piano, at which point the loud dance music came to a halt.

“I work in politics, but my friends don’t,” she said amid hoots and hollers, in front of windows that looked out onto the glittering Manhattan cityscape. “They’re constantly asking me, ‘What do you do? No, what do you really do?’” She explained a bit more about D4D, which went on hiatus after the 2004 elections. “D4D is relaunching tonight,” she said. People in the crowd hooted again.

Donald Cumming of the Virgins then got up at the piano and played two songs.

“I love Donald,” said Bill Powers to The Observer, looking over the dance floor. “He wrote those two songs for tonight, at least that last one—‘I Am a Cow.’ It’s not exactly about politics, but it’s political. It’s about his being a vegetarian.”

“Nate Lowman did this collage using scans of bumper stickers," he added, "which read 'vote Obama' riffing off the famous Warhol poster for George McGovern in his race against Nixon." Then told us a story about the time artist Dana Schutz was given the opportunity to live-draw President Obama during a “BET” interview. "After the interview, Mr. Obama asked, ‘Can I see your handy-work,’” he continued, “and all she had drawn was something like an ear and part of his face. She has an opening this week, you should ask her about it.”

Later, we went back for another cocktail, but the open bar had closed. After paying $18 for a vodka soda, we walked over to the registration table and learned that five people had registered to vote.

Mr. Richardson was lounging in a banquette overlooking the dance floor. In the Pocket Guide he smiles for a photo with President Obama. How was it to photograph the president? Mr. Richardson looked up grumpily. “He’s amazing,” he said.

Mr. Bondaroff was in better spirits. He smiled and reminisced about his first meeting with Ms. Gelman. “She worked for me at my first store, aNYthing,” he told us. Asked about his own entry into politics, Mr. Bondaroff smiled. “I’ve been into politics my whole life,” he said. “To live in New York is to be involved in politics.”

Dan Colen (Courtesy the artist)

Aaron Bondaroff—a k a A-ron, the Downtown Don, a k a one of the co-founders of Ohwow art gallery, a k a "the original 30-something LES hipster," as Gawker put it—is entering politics. Ohwow is teaming with the chic political group Downtown for Democracy to publish a small pamphlet called the Pocket Guide to Politics. It will be released on May 1, and Dan Colen, Aurel Schmidt and Terry Richardson are involved.

D4D and OHWOW note that only 21 percent of 18 to 24 year olds voted in 2010. So they are tackling that issue Hipster-Runoff style. The book's introduction reads: “We’ve heard all the excuses,” “’I’m just not political,’ ‘It doesn’t matter who wins,’ and ‘Things are really crazy for me this week.’” No matter how crazy your week is, the Pocket Guide aims to ensure that you contribute to the political process.

Terry Richardson provides a photograph to accompany text about the executive branch. Andrew Kuo visualizes America's political apathy with one of his trademark graphs. Josh Safdie offers a straight-talking, hand-written interpretation of the Bill of Rights: "Congress cant tell you who to pray to, cant keep you from saying whatever you want, publish whatever you want & they cant stop you from meeting or protesting in peace (in tents is a different situation) [sic]."

D4D's previous efforts in the political realm include a benefit auction at Phillips de Pury & Co., the “Liberty Fair” in Chelsea with booths run by blue-chip artists like Cecily Brown and Brice Marden and a voter registration drive deejayed by the creator of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

No doubt there will be a killer launch party.

The contributions to the book, according to the website, include "the first business plans written on napkins to incredible imagery from events, collections, and collaborations."

Included among the "hundreds of friends and family" who shared their memories and artwork for the book are the artists mentioned above as well as designer Alexander Wang, musician M.I.A. and actor Jason Schwartzman.

Photographer Terry Richardson snapped a new series of portraits for the anniversary book, (which will be vastly different from the new photos he publishes nearly every day on his online diary, we're sure). According to the OC staffer we spoke with, the book, which will be published as a limited edition, was initially set to be printed in a run of 500, though that number may have changed, and will be available only through the store. And if you can't wait until September, you can skip ahead and get the $65 book by pre-ordering it on the site.

The Observer arrived late—thinking this would not be anything more than your standard opening, crowd-wise. But we were wrong: Mr. Richardson’s followers came out in droves—more than 1,000 fans lined La Cienega Boulevard, eager to get into OHWOW. The majority did not.

Inside, it was like a frat house kegger—everyone was trying to get in and get to the beer—but the beer, here, was Mr. Richardson, who was holding court in the back room, in front of a strobe light-enhanced photograph of Hollywood’s ultimate love/hate relationship, the one with the paparazzi. Mr. Richardson’s fans seemed borderline fanatical, all craning to get a look at the lumberjack-shirted icon who most of the time was surrounded by women, including former Boardwalk Empire star Paz de la Huerta.

The exhibition consists of about 20 photographs depicting scenes of Hollywood—from a business sign displaying the word ‘nude’ to Richardson’s most engrossing undertaking for this show—an enormous collage of every star on the Walk of Fame; he photographed them over the course of four long evenings.  “I think it’s Terry’s perverse interpretation [of Hollywood]—he really doesn’t have any boundaries,” said L.A. artist Tim Biskup. “But there’s not as much nudity as I was expecting. The work is really cleverly ironic.” Case in point? Barreling down the center of the gallery is a series of what at first appear to be Oscar statuettes but that, on closer inspection, turn out to be miniatures of the man himself, signature glasses in place, thumbs up and lacking genitalia—just like Mr. Oscar!

Lanky young nymphs, perhaps hoping to be Mr. Richardson’s next muse, stood around looking chronically unhappy, but at least they looked good—apparently the outfit of choice for the evening was black leather hot pants, as more than a dozen women adopted this look with a dash of matte red lipstick. On the men, it was the battle of the brims—there were more baseball caps than at a Dodger’s game. Those sans cap had opted for the Johnny Depp persona, complete with scuffed fedora and unevenly trimmed beard—the ever-versatile James Franco managed to meld baseball cap and Depp beard looks. Gazing around at this sea of well-wishers, Mr. Biskup, the artist, added: “This is a total exaggeration of the Hollywood crowd; it fits his work—he goes to the places that are the most happening and then finds the most extreme version of that.”

Afterward, OHWOW hosted a dinner for 200 at Chateau Marmont, in honor of Mr. Richardson. As The Observer walked in at 9:45 (the party started at 9:30) Jared Leto was on his way out (maybe he’d had his fill of Mr. Richardson—they’d been spotted together at three New York Fashion Week bashes just two weeks ago: L’Wren Scott’s, Rodarte’s and Marc Jacobs). Inside, soon-to-be-Elizabeth-Taylor-in-a-Lifetime-movie actress Lindsay Lohan could be seen, apparently accompanied by a glum looking mama Dina, who was nearby in matching platinum hair. Meanwhile, outside, Pam Anderson was surrounded by a chain-smoking crowd, in a scene that looked like the vestiges of a Paper magazine shoot circa 1995.

One well known collector—who wished to remain anonymous—referred to the show as “Terry the Terrible,” and it seemed a fairly accurate assessment; Mr. Richardson truly is the ultimate enfant terrible, unafraid to show the real Hollywood, warts and all.

Attendees: Benedikt Taschen, China Chow, Jared Leto, James Franco, Jeffrey Deitch, Patrick Hoelck, Kat Von D, Tom Ford, Paris Hilton, Nicky Hilton, Tom Ford, every hipster from Silverlake/Echo Park.
Celebrity Quotient: Mid to Weird (Ron Jeremy)
Collector Quotient: Low (many collectors were in during the day, prior to the opening; only a few braved this crowd).

Richard Prince, Terry Richardson, James Frey (Photo courtesy Terry's Diary)

The line for the Terry Richardson show “MOM DAD” at Half Gallery on Friday was a clamoring, clustering thing, attractive people waving and desperate to squeeze into a space that, true to its name, isn’t very big. It was a bit like the opening of a nightclub, with everyone trying to be aloof and desperate at the same time, though there was very little order to it. Half Gallery owner Bill Powers came to the front from time to time and poked his pink sunglasses glasses around the door frame to point to people who were cool (e.g. “James!”—James Frey, of course).

Mr. Richardson’s parents are the subjects of the show and they are treated in much the same way as everyone else he photographs. His mother is topless giving a double thumbs up, his father has his arm around Mr. Richardson, who is in turn trying to look embarrassed. Near the back, large speakers played a series of voicemails from Mr. Richardson’s father Bob, a fashion photographer, who tells Terry that he's proud of him. On the floor of the gallery were crumpled school portraits, presumably of Mr. Richardson.

Mr. Richardson stood at the back of the room, his thumbs receiving a workout. Everyone wanted a photo with Terry. He had to take a break at one point to duck into the back. A short woman in flannel whined, “Oh man! It’s like when you’re waiting to take a picture on Santa’s lap and when you finally get to the front of the line he has to go to the bathroom.”

A theory: a photograph with Terry Richardson as your social media profile picture signifies countless sentiments about the man, nearly all of them positive. It could mean that you slept with him (he’s now taken! By the way), that you could have slept with him but at the time were too cool or famous to sleep with him. It could mean that you read Vice in its heyday, or even better, lived Vice in its heyday. It could mean that you “get” Terry Richardson, but are “over” him.

Why did you want a photo of him, girl in a fur vest angling her Blackberry?

“Oh,” she responded. “I work for Refinery 29.”

So that means you like Terry Richardson?

“No,” she said. “I have to tweet out a photo to prove to my boss that I came to this.”

A plebeian! Though the semiotics are admittedly complex. She asked where we worked and we told her.

“You should link out to us more.”

Even after you’d had a chance to see the show you had to stick around to watch the familiar faces standing in the street. There was Cynthia Rowley, Richard Prince, China Chow and Waris Ahluwalia. At one point the crowd parted so that Richard Phillips could drive by in his white Porsche, a racing model that sent rumbles down the block. We’d missed the dinner at Acme, but photos reveal that Ke$ha was there.

“The Terry images of his dad Bob remind me of the photographic study Richard Avedon made of his dying father,” Mr. Powers said after the show. “In fifty years, Terry Richardson will be remembered on the same level as a Helmut Newton, Irving Penn or Richard Avedon. It's hard for some people to recognize their contemporaries' importance in real time.”

According to Publisher's Weekly, the book "will showcase over 350 photographs taken during the 10 month period in which Richardson followed Lady Gaga and had complete access to her everyday life.” They call the book "stunning, provocative and coveted." OK!

To get into the signing, which will either be carnivalesque or--like most book signings--really dull, one must head down to the New Museum today to pre-order one of the $50 books. According to Bowery Boogie, fans have already formed a lengthy line for the presale that begins at 10am. Everything is first come first served. So! All you Terry Richardson fans better hurry.  We're just kidding. We know none of you will be going to this to see Terry Richardson.