This is awesome

but a little creepy.

I must own one.

So cool

Devo Announces Obama Benefit Gig

peace out, bees

it's been a great run. but as with all things, change is good too. i'm departing the hive because i'm feeling the pull to try new things. maybe my seattle story inspired me...

keep the dream alive...

Whatever happened to just picking up the phone....

I've had a bit of an epiphany lately...

Do you remember a time long ago when we used to just pick up the phone. We would call friends for a chat and a catch-up. Plans were made spontaneously. Life was not always "scheduled".

Maybe it's part of becoming a "grown up" but I realise that world is long gone. All my plans with friends are scheduled. All catching up is done over email (especially via blackberry!). And unplanned phone calls are almost a startling intrusion into my overly-planned life.

I remember the old days with affection and nostalgia.

Is it just me or do you feel the same way...?

the stars look very different today

i know it's a car ad -- get past that. i lurve this cat power remake of 'major tom'.

Cat Power • Lincoln MKS Ad • Major Tom
Uploaded by justinetime

no-no, notorious

so some rico suave told me i was 'notorious' the other night on fifth avenue. as in, 'hey baby - you're notorious'. yeah, i was mildly amused. it ranked up there with the homeless man who told me to 'be fabulous'.

tonight i see the ad campaign for the new ralph lauren perfume - called notorious.

SO UNORIGINAL, rico! game over! what's up with that? you see a store window and get a brilliant idea?

bored with that.

the lovely mr biden: a flashback

just had an unexpected flashback to meeting joe biden.

biden was just speaking now about how his wife and child died. why did that sound familiar?

so i wikipedia-d him. reviewed his personal life. read about he rode the train to dc an hour and a half every day.

wait, wait. i'd met this man.

in my dc days. client event. we were hosting some sort of forum on some dc topic [insert yawn here]. biden was my talent, our guest of honor. we had a packed room, industry folks and journalists.

i remember greeting him nervously as he came in. making small talk. getting him to where he needed to go. and i remember he was lovely, pleasant.

they're not all like that, you know. the words chauvinist and old-school come to mind frequently when i think about beltway politicians.

so here's to you, mr biden. thanks for being nice to this girl years back and making my job easy that night.

peace out, dirty pretty things

it's a season for peace outs, no?

a final nod to the boys in the band: a never-before-seen video from the first album, an alternate version of blood thirsty bastards.

trying to 'act' -- comically badly. bless. note cameo by ex-girlfriend.

Dirty Pretty Things - Blood Thirsty Bastards

Check this out

yearbookyourself.com

Tres amusing!

peace out, d

this is it, folks. the last night.

david, our west side correspondent, the man i adored because he was always up for anything, from dinner to a movie to coney island to a play to a beer to a -- well, as long as there was meat involved, he was usually there...this is it. he's leaving us. i just can't imagine what nyc will be like without him. he introduced us to molly, maui bee and the hawaii mini bees, kelly & tim...

good times. thanks, d.

who m'i gonna call now when i get free tickets to something, or to grab dinner after class, or for brunch, or...

sigh. we'll miss you.

is my money safe?

so...

as one may imagine, wall street news has the city flipped out. from the office to cab drivers, from my doorman to the clerk at duane reade tonight. it's all the same, it's all anyone is talking about.

"did you hear [insert latest]?"
"what will happen to [insert bank or brokerage firm]? my friend works there and..."
"at least i have a job." [this is repeated all day long, wherever you go]
"do you think this will happen/move forward/will we have budget for this?"
"no, i brought my lunch, i'm cutting back."


so as we wait to hear what the hell is next, here's a nifty little nytimes article about 'is my money safe'.

Underbelly

I really want to see this movie. She's my friend's sister-in-law and was totally immersed in the 80s LA punk scene. Now she's this world-renowned belly dancer. I totally want to meet her someday.

three good finds

three sharable new finds. first, in chinatown. of course there are tons of places named 'something wong'. after passing hoy wong and big wong and probably other wongs i've forgotten, we ended up at hsin wong, on bayard and mott [in the heart of jury duty lunch area, if you ever get called!].

the prices were low, the portions were huge, fast and fresh. but a special treat ensued. we ordered these crullers for starters -- one sweet, one plain. and these giganormous donut-like bits of bread came out to the table. they were so good. the waiter said they are great dunked in coffee or congee soup but we dipped them in our mains. like having dessert with your dinner.


then coffee afterwards back in the east vill at the cavernous outdoor hookah garden at the cloister cafe. a serious strong cup of coffee. mmmm. weird atmosphere, but in a good way - a bit loopy, out of time and tired.



and finally, shades of green, an almost-dive that's quite possibly the perfect bar. i told the bartender i felt like i was cheating on pete's tavern.

i'd been before, at least a year ago if not longer, but this was different and the craic was brilliant and it was the kind of bar i could picture my dad sitting at, having a chat to the barman.

and we met a man just off a plane from dublin who knew my host father. small, gorgeous world, it is.

rainy film weekend

this weekend i saw two movies. righteous kill was one chosen merely because 'we wanted to see a movie' - you know, for entertainment. across the universe was chosen because i wanted to see rivington street transformed and bono being goofy. although the latter's usually a given.

righteous kill, to its credit, was an above-average cop flick [come on, pacino and deniro?] with a good plot twist and a cameo by fitty cent. two guys managed to talk through almost our entire movie, though -- unbelievable.

and across the universe? [which also had a scene with a famous octagon house from my parents' town?] was pretty damn cool. loved its dreamy musical concept. jim sturgess was just eye candy. julie t got a lot of shit for the film but i think it was creative and unique. and yeah, bono was ridiculous but at least he didn't take himself too seriously. and p.s., it was rented from amazon and their user experience pales in comparison to apple's.

sam taylor-wood's paul newman crying man portrait

Goodbye eh

Admittedly a lot of what Paul Newman did wasn't really on my radar. He raced cars, which was way cool. He made a damn good Caesar salad dressing. And he did a lot of good things for people. So of course I had a great opinion of him.

But what really made Paul Newman cool? Slapshot. Forever Slapshot.

R.I.P. Chief.

Been a bit slow

at the shop, so this is what I've been doing for the majority of the past two days.

It's basically the same as a transfer for scrap booking (or so I've been told- haven't the foggiest). But what I do know is this company is located in a small town in Colorado where ALL manufacturing takes place. And they use mostly recycled material for their products.

I know. Based in the U.S. and green? Will wonders never cease...

The pieces are simple to apply, but I have to say, much, much easier on glass rather than Iowa's Coolest Flower Shop's textured walls.

Oh God, this is sounding like a commercial, but really, it's just been fun being creative- putting "Life Is Good" on a glass wine bucket! Especially when I don't consider myself especially creative...

The Devil's A Comin'!

11/17 at Bowery Ballroom! Scoot scoot!!! Can ya dig The Sexiness?

Can't Wait Can't Wait

This is where I'll be December 13. Tables and tables of handmade interesting things to covet and to buy for Crimbo presents.

That and Etsy are pretty much going to be the way to go this year.

small world, part 283901

on bus tuesday. i passed a real estate property that was vacant on madison. a giant sign was in the building's windows, many feet high, advertising that it was vacant. if you wanted to inquire about renting it, you could contact XXX at XXX.

XXX was the name of a little baby boy i babysat back in 1985 when he was a newborn. i knew it, instantly. knew from his name, remembered him.

he must be all of what, 23 or 24? and in commercial real estate.

got to the office and googled the real estate company and there was his bio and a photo. sure was him. looked just like his dad. lost touch with them around 1986 when they moved to the other end of westchester.

crazy stuff.

'Make You Feel My Love'

new vid from the fantabulous Adele. This video makes me cry. Shut it. Yes, I know- I am a great marshmallow. But her version of the Bob Dylan tune is soooooo good. And love the 'Lost In Translation' vibe to the vid. Love Adele, full stop.

ADELE "Make You Feel My Love"
by Mysoulfr

via

automne, je t'aime

it's fall. people are coming and going. david leaves after this weekend. the fish has returned from india today.

and i'm just keeping up as best i can -- it's been maddeningly crazy. tennis, dinner dates, client events, "plans", books, houseguests, classes, new friends, "plans"...yeah, you're all doing the same thing, i know.

...and then there's fall clothes. ah, the best part.

it's coming in bits and pieces this year, the look, the few key pieces that will carry you through the whole fall and winter into spring. am not a huge fan of the chunky sweater dresses, although i love the look of ankle boots and knobby tights under them.

have been buying huge oversized necklaces, a runway look from the september shows. bought a giant new handbag, as shared previously. bought a giant fleecy knit cream scarf to make me feel like i'm in the country. i will add in floral dresses and menswear-inspired boots as i find them, such as these i am thinking i will buy tonight.

and then there are the new spectator pumps. peep toe. cream and brown. i have not worn them yet, but they smile at me every morning and await their debut. i suspect they will be painful. yet so cute!

and it was all ... saffron or citrine or some such shade

on the heels of the killers secret show in -- when the hell was that, august? -- princess bee and i are going to a coldplay secret show. 250 people.

really, i hope it will be entertaining, cross fingers. i know cp get a lot of shit for being bland but i did kinda like their recent album and any chance you have to see an arena band with just 249 other people can't be beat.

plus apparently i have a chance to ask them a question live on tape. can you imagine?

what would you ask chris martin?

First Nashville, Now Atlanta

Have you ever seen a gas station sign without any numbers on it? Doesn't mean gas is free! It means it's gas shortage time. And that's what we have going on here in Atlanta. I have about half a tank left, but I have been following the local advisory that to avoid gas shortage, we shouldn't fill until we have less than a quarter tank left. Well, the paranoid people of Atlanta all decided to top off their tanks--and the tanks of their spare cars. Consequently, on a route on which I generally encounter 12 gas stations, ONE of them still has gas. And it's $4.69 for regular. When I filled up two weeks ago, I paid $3.51.

riding the d train back from the bronx

start spreadin' the news...

the last game day at the current yankee stadium was a cool buzz to be around. there were a hella lot of folks waiting to get inside, and it felt like a party in the bronx.

hey, say what you want about the stadium being a craphole that's falling down, but i have great memories of dad taking me there and teaching me baseball.

and leaving at the bottom of the seventh inning to avoid the traffic.

peace out, stadium. see you in your next incarnation.

under the bridge

so today i had a tennis date.

i knew in advance that she had the same name as me, and that like me she didn't like to get up early. so we set an afternoon court time [based also on the smart reco of joybee's better half, who had a sense of when courts might be less crowded].

i arrived at the east river courts to find...that she was wearing the exact same skirt as i was. and almost the same k-swiss sneakers, and had nearly the same racquet. hilarious. and we also had business connections, blah blah so it was all good.

the best part is that she was about as good as i was [she was probably better]. let's just say we should probably have bought the guys in the court next to us drinks for all the errant balls we hit their way. hey, it's a public court, whaddya gonna do?

the man who runs the place is no joke. on the hour, he has you in and out of there, screaming at the top of his lungs to clear the courts [you get one hour to play].

the views were gorg -- we were nearly under the billyburg bridge, next to the river. it was sunny but cool, and the courts were decently maintained.

and we also determined the courts were taken up by about 80 percent men. you want to meet guys in nyc? here's my insider tip: east river tennis courts, ladies. and the man who runs the place will even set you up with a partner if you come alone, we overheard.

overall, just super fun, and so easy to get to on the 14D bus -- practically from my doorstep to the courts and back.

oh -- key learning. don't wear cute tennis skirt on 14D bus without sweats underneath. don't wear cute tennis skirt anywhere in city apart from on tennis court without sweats underneath. 'hey baby, nice legs!' on third ave is just so awkward, even if you are toting a tennis racquet.

'nuff said.

koi, vatan and a korean bbq restaurant to be named later

...sounds like a major league baseball trade, no?

nah, just restaurant adventures this week. no meal like a free meal, peeps.

on the heels of le cirque came great meals at koi [baked lobster roll], and vatan, a fabulous restaurant on third avenue that serves you more food than any one person should ever have placed in front of her, all from the western province of india and mostly yum, with favorites being the mashed potato, the mango soup and the puffy bread.

and then there was this great k-town bbq place with molly last night, grilled chicken wrapped in lettuce, so tasty.

where no kimchee was eaten.

Help!

The time has rolled around for my high school class reunion, and I'm in charge of the music! Sadly, I have to find era-appropriate tunes.

(though I am going to slip some Smiths and Roses stuff in. Make the indie kids happy)

So..... I need help. Any suggestions for the playlist from the years 1989-1993?

So much "no" going on here

Or "Girl, what are you smoking?"

Jaime Winstone at LDN fashion week.

1. If you have a fuzzy hat on, you should not also be wearing short shorts. FORMAL ones.

2. Matching your hair and your jacket? NOT a good idea.

Perversely, I really want to know what footwear girlfriend was sporting. Probably ski boots or similar.

union sq. shootings

see, i don't know if this is related at all. but last night i heard 5 gunshots. 2, then 3 a few minutes later.

and today two people are dead on the next block.

i couldn't have heard gunshots from inside their apartment, though, right? unless their windows were open -- and mine were. and if theirs was an apartment on the north side of their block.

dunno. sad, all around. and stranger yet since nothing goes on around here like this. no shootings since i've lived here save the wildings in union square by high schoolers.

rock stars? who needs 'em?

eh, we couldn't get in to see ian mackaye and thurston moore at the brooklyn book festival today. got screwed on lines and tickets. but we saw other rock stars: authors.

readings from chuck klosterman, ed park and charles 'rock star' bock.

ed park was my personal fave. definitely going to read his book next. but all three were witty as hell.

here's to molly for always taking me to the best places.

anya, how i love ya, how i love ya

because, at heart, i am a class-to-mass girl, all vuittons aside.

i love a good deal. and i love a great designer.

so i have been scouring the popup stores for the anya bags. and today i found one on bowery. you can see it here as look one.

the bag is just massive -- the photo is deceptive. huge. could hold a litter of puppies. the september issue of vogue. a spare pair of heels to slip into once one gets to the office. fabulous! and this is a girl who loves a big handbag.

it's black, mock-python accents, with a single satchel-like handle atop it -- on-trend for fall.

and, um, it's anya for $50. i love when designers go downmarket!

genius? hardly.

so i am going to be a little obnoxious here, but i am annoyed with apple today.

as cy alluded to, the new itunes includes new features - like 'genius'. basically it's a last.fm and purports to deliver itunes store song suggestions that you may want to buy to fill out your collection, based on what you have in your itunes.

i decided to test it with editors.

results? nothing except songs from this other editors band -- not the real editors. because i have every song that's available on the internet by the [real] editors. [yes, i know, obsessive much? see: bee, miss odd.]

dirty pretty things?
owned everything, and it gave me little man tate as a recommendation.

libertines?
owned everything, and it gave me...maximo park and little man tate. so did little man tate cut a deal with apple?

u2: it told me i was missing some songs from the 'deluxe edition' of boy. ha! ha ha ha oh, itunes, is that the best you can do? i am so disappointed! you are telling me i am missing the remastered version of an cat dubh and that simply DOES NOT count. put that against an cat dubh live from boston on the first u2 tour, apple people. you got that for sale?

didn't think so.

my point, all bitchiness aside, is this: genius is not ready for prime time. it cannot compete in a world where collections run deep and music fans seek every last song and bootleg they don't have.

give us what we can't get. then we'll buy it.

30 love!!!

today -- inspired by reconnecting to my former tennis partner girlies on facebook and tennis episode below -- i joined a tennis league and bought cute tennis outfits. because the second is equally important as the first.

the tennis skirt is especially cute. i just want to wear it to work every day.

Derby Dolls

I can barely watch this because I'm still bitter but here's a video of our championship bout last week. Too bad you can't capture the madness that was the hurricane going on outside.


Suburbia Roller Derby - 2008 Championship from Brian Kelly on Vimeo.

le cirque

among the grande dames of new york's finest dining establishments sits le cirque. it's up there with the four seasons, et al.

and yet i remain unimpressed. service? inexcusably shoddy. food? i've had far better and more creative. union square cafe puts le cirque to shame.

yes, you're mainly buying scene, but even that was lacking.

luckily a vendor was treating.

merde!

in dreadful news, cafe charbon has had a bad fire and is closed down. i am a special fan of charbon, having dined there on more than a few occasions, including with odd bee and d-bee. and the fish and i began an especially evil night of LES bar-crawling one evening at charbon that ended up [literally] in a cellar. brilliant!

bonne chance to our friends at charbon.

random 10

in which itunes randomly decides to spit back highlights of cmj '07, and then veers off into geographic locales.

1. the fallen - franz ferdinand
2. cuts across the land - duke spirit
3. you really got a hold on me - she & him
4. you are fading - editors
5. america - neil diamond
6. mathletics - foals
7. toothpaste kisses - maccabees
8. boy that you love - aidan john moffat
9. ludlow street - suzanne vega
10. from st kilda to kings cross - paul kelly

Grrr

I do not like the new version of iTunes. DO NOT LIKE. Can't get 'shuffle' to work. GRRRRR.

Am I alone here? Or just dumb?

wee flat loses its moment in the sun

walking home tonight, i noticed a piece of letterhead taped to a lightpost on my block. it was from a Very Famous Movie Studio and was directed to gramercy park residents.

seeking an apartment in which to film a series starring william hurt and glenn close [hurt just joined the cast of 'damages']. needed from next thursday onward. we'll compensate you and we are insured.

wow, i thought!

seeking a large apartment, it said, in big block letters in the last line.

and there you have it, knocked out before the competition even began.

WOOOOOO!

TopShop.com (version USA) launches today!

Also, Mossy's new collection is online today as well.

She has a coat named 'Yeti.' Sadly, there does not appear to be jeans named 'Dirty Pretty Things,' or a handbag named 'Babyshambles.' Shame, that.

I love this cardie. Adorable.

catwalk

the porzikova-ocaseks are stalking me.

saw paulina this morning, on the heels of seeing her hubby with a grocery list the other day. how she still has such a tiny waist amazes me.

and then tonight they are filming lipstick jungle right outside.

nothing like a few tall beautiful former models in the 'hood to make a gal want to skip dinner.

"GHOSTBUSTERS!"

On Thursday, Variety shined some light on those Ghostbusters reunion rumors, which have been swirling for quite some time now. In the short breaking story, Columbia Pictures still refuses to comment on the status of a possible addition to the franchise, which up until Men in Black and Spiderman, was their highest grossing picture ever. At the time, audiences were sure that the studio would make a third but the deal fell apart when salaries skyrocketed.


So, who ya gonna call? The Office producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, of course! The duo are set to write the new script, with hopes of bringing together a reunited cast. Although worried about the cost of having the original team back, no deals will be made until the script is finished. Hopes are high that by having the Office boys on board (they just wrote a script, Year One, that was directed by original Ghostbuster and co-writer Harold Ramis), the closeness of everyone involved with keep team spirit high.

Have I ever mentioned that I've loved Bill Murray since I was but a wee Cygirl?

It could be argued

that I need another handbag like a hole in the head, but OMG. Look. So pretty and shiny- love the absinthe-y green.

I'm like Mos Def's character, Left Ear, in 'The Italian Job' (which I need to watch again like right now, because WHOAH Jason Statham).

He said that his ideal home would be in Spain with a room for his shoes.

Mine would also be in Spain, but with a room for my handbags.

And at 23 bucks, the price is so, so, so right. Love Target.

storm's a brewin'

love it. love rumblings of excitement.

brit bee's in town. she's landed from london. can you feel the buzz? tomorrow night we take manhattan.

and a tropical storm's gonna hit nyc. and echo and the bunnymen came on itunes, on party shuffle, and now i can't stop playing old ian mccullough.

hating all the faking, and shaking while you're breaking my brittle heart

david and i are celebrating the tropical storm with a tropical brunch tomorrow at a latino cafe. love, love it!

best story of the day? a coworker recovered a bit of corrugated packing material, bendy and foldable and about 6 feet in length. with fashion week on our minds, and the tents two blocks away, he fashioned a scarf around his neck and declared he was going to stand outside bryant park and pose with his new creation.

when asked who he was wearing, he would simply declare, 'cardboard, fall 09'.

live forever

among the multiple must-sees this fall [it's shaping up to be a great season for art in nyc]:

live forever, elizabeth peyton at the new muso. rock and fashion paintings and watercolors? pinch me.

RIP Snowman!!!

Bad day. Bad, bad day.

I loved Jerry Reed. Smokey and the Bandit was one of my all-time favorite movies as a kid and I loved Snowman. In fact I loved Snowman so much I wanted to BE Snowman. I wanted to drive a big truck and be a loveable bad ass like him. And damn he could pick a guitar too, that Jerry Reed!

Another one of my childhood icons is gone. I haven't felt this kind of loss since Dale Earnhardt passed away. Damn damn damn.

RIP Snowman!

Awwwww

New video for 'Entroubled' by Roses Kings Castles aka Adam "Cutie Pie" Ficek's side project. ('Shambles drummer)

Even the video is adorable. *pinches*

Top Summer Song

The summer was largely dominated by the girls: Spinnerette's most awesome track, my introduction to Gin Palace, finding the Duke Spirit to be the most interesting band at All Points West, renewing my love for X after seeing The Knitters in Lincoln Center.

However, for me, the song of the summer is definitely this one. (Yes, the single came out only last week - #5 in the UK!! - but I had the early radio play recording going for months.)

It's "Mountains" by Biffy Clyro. And thanks guys for giving me this hit of awesome right before disappearing to record the new album. (And where's my damn headlining tour you promised me?)

Here they are completely NAILING everything (outfits, even which is miraculous given Mr. Neil's clothing seizures) on Transmission last week:



So, bees, what's your song of Summer 2008?