Thursday, December 18, 2008

Woo hoo! Story on Nymag.com

Photobucket

If you can't celebrate accomplishments on your own blog, where can you? I've been copyediting for Nymag.com (New York mag's Website) for months and thinking, "I could write something along those lines." It's just been a matter of coming up with ideas, and I've pitched a few things that didn't quite pan out.

This morning, though, I proposed an idea that the editor liked, and by the afternoon, my story was posted on the 'Daily Intel' blog. Just the pace of Online versus print is boggling.

Read the story here. It's on the ever-important topic of megayachts, naturally.

Monday, December 15, 2008

It's happening



When I moved to the LES I knew I'd probably watch it change - it's one of those neighborhoods that has a nice mix of longtime residents (the "real" people), plus hipsters and young professionals. Which means on the same street you can likely buy a $15 cocktail and a $2 hot dog. Until recently, that is.

Thanksgiving week, both the Clinton Papaya on the corner, purveyor of hangover-busting egg sandwiches, and Mama's, two doors down, peddlers of morning cheeriness and $4 breakfast deals, both closed their doors. Since it happened at the same time I thought maybe rats? But worse than rats, rising rent. Nymag.com just confirmed that Papaya is closed for good (R.I.P.), and Mama's might revive, as I stuck my head in there the other morning and the guy informed me they were closed and changing management. So we'll see.

The lovely man who runs the convenience store across the street (no longer open 24 hours, as its sign still advertises) tells me times are tough. He's worried about next month and the month after, he said, and I think the world - as we know it, for now - may be ending. Last weekend, Bergdorf's, at up to 70 percent off, saw its elegant corridors trod by the parka-clad in a bargain-basement frenzy, with steeply slashed luxury goods tossed higgledy-piggledy, Louboutins flung thither and missing their mates. And Henri Bendel, that nattily French-monikered purveyor of not-cheap novelties for the posh set had its entire store on sale for a day last week.
In an apocalyptic reverie I snapped a pic:



I maintained the hope that my shopping experience would be interrupted by some stock-market scheudenfrauder sweeping in with a giant checkbook to buy the whole place with a single flourish of his pen.
But nobody has that kind of money right now. And I have no more cheap breakfast.

What's next? Will Tiffany start holding fundraiser "Breakfasts At" for tourists and tacky people? Will all of lower Manhattan become a John Varvatos store?

Friday, December 12, 2008

Internet-famous!

An interview on Ganda's food blog, Eat Drink One Woman, here.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

I don't give a sh*t about celebrities


Oh wait - is that Adrian Grenier over there? I'll be right back.

La vida fabulosa in New York, I've discovered, is even more Technicolor than in other places. And that's not just because we have the best bars, the best restaurants, the best clothes and the best parties of anywhere, but because every now and then (more frequently, if you're kind of a big deal) you find yourself sharing space with a living, breathing, fun-having celebrity. And that's exciting.

In almost seven months I've encountered the following people in the flesh:

Sheryl Crow - slim in skintight ensemble; walking through the West Village one summer night.

Christian Siriano - at a Wednesday-night launch party for some men's dress-shirt company at Pink Elephant; pouting and trying to look pretty.

Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Jennifer Aniston and Ben Harper - at the launch party of their clothing line during fashion week, for which Irish is the fit model. I stood thi***s close to Ben Harper while Irish and others chatted, and was utterly tongue-tied.
Robb Thomas - later on at the Spotted Pig at an after-party midnight supper for 20 celebrating David Arquette's birthday. We discussed the hilarity of unisex bathrooms.

Adrian Grenier - Dancing up front to Phenomenal Handclap Band at an Adidas party in a former parking garage in Brooklyn. Swoon!

Fiona Apple - behind the bar at KGB during boyfriend (as it later came out) Jonathan Ames' insanely crowded reading. I remarked, "That bartender really looks like Fiona Apple in her 'Tidal' years." Wonder why.
In person, she's miniscule and exageratedly cute, with huge eyes.

I'm probably forgetting somebody, but it's a good list. I'm not one to get star-struck or super intimidated by those who are famous - I don't care about writing celeb news or reading People or US Weekly. The cool thing about sharing space with famous faces is that you know that these people with practically unlimited means and access have chosen to be in the same place you have. And that means wherever you are is likely one of the best places to be at the moment. That always makes me feel good.

Any celeb-encounter stories to share?