Get-Around-Girl

Sub-Broadway

I was totally digging on these trunk-sized slabs that are the skeleton beneath the concrete streets of Houston and Broadway. City workers were replacing a 100-year-old sewage pipe over the weekend. Seeing these transported me to the days when horse-drawn wagons pounded down Broadway, and I almost forgot about SoHo's current crowding of Euro-powered tourists toting Apple bags. Sigh...

Apple vs Big Apple

In ironic copycat fashion, the champions of open source software aren't equally liberal about the use of their fruity logo. Following suit from the Beatles' Apple Records, who Apple Computers was in drawn-out disputes over trademark rights for decades, Apple is now trying to stop the City of New York from using the apple logo in a city-wide green campaign.

You would think after their previous defensive litigation, they would relax a bit about copyright issues. I guess the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree...

photo courtesy of AdAge.com

Nouvel Takes the Prize

Nouvel portrait courtesy of nytimes.com

After more than 35 years of work, the Hyatt Foundation's nod to Jean Nouvel seems long overdue. The Pritzker jury announced last Sunday that Nouvel was chosen because of his "persistence, imagination, exuberance, and, above all, an insatiable urge for creative experimentation"

With no stylistic signature, Nouvel's relevance relies as much on his bold spaces as his mastery of controversy as marketing for his buildings. His project list is liberally marked with proposed and unbuilt projects.

In spite of or because of his brazen attitude, the uncompromising Frenchman has become fashionable... in New York City alone, he is currently building another luxury midrise for Andre Balazs along the architectural hothouse of the Westside Highway, as well as a residential tower adjacent to the MoMA in Midtown.

Much like the jutting boxes and intense hues of his buildings, Nouvel's singular career keeps us in awe and wonderment at every angle.

Alicia Rocks

I can't get enough of this song, I found this video of Alicia Keys performing my new favorite song at the Fashion Rocks Show in October.

Boyz in the Hood

New M.I.A. video. Check it.

Bonus footage! The making of Boyz video in Jamaica. Girl's picked up some moves. Respek!

SAS-sy

Once a phrase is acronymized, you know it's officially part of the popular vernacular. Although the Second Avenue Subway (SAS) is nothing more than a series of fragmented tracks, tunnels, and abandoned efforts, it seems to evoke the romance and charm of a once-living legend.

This morning the legend and folklore died, and disruption and doubts took its place. City Officials chipped away at the 1970s concrete wall (from the third attempt at the SAS)to initiate the $3.9 billion Phase 1.

Since, I didn't make it up to 102nd street this morning to document the MTA's foray into 2013, I'm sending you to NY!'s video coverage.

The Bowery Hotel Bites GPH's Steez

According to Hotelchatter.com, the Maritime team's Bowery Hotel staff asked that they decline from taking pictures "at these early stage." Perhaps, it's so that Ian Schrager and Julian Schnabel don't catch wind that BH totally bit GPH's medieval Spanish theme, right down to the rose-colored velvet armchairs. I guess they ran out of time to come up with an original design concept with all that zoning wrangling.

The Bowery Hotel Lobby (photo courtesy www.hotelchatter.com)

GPH's Rose Bar (courtesy of the Gramercy Park Hotel)

Field Follies

Last Tuesday was a sumptuous freak feast (I mean that in a good way), as friends and fans came out to Cielo to celebrate fashion priestess Patricia Field's 65th birthday. There were more than a dozen performances but the real show was usually found in the crowd of fashion-obsessed partiers.

more flix + video after the jump

]]> The Performers

Da Lypstixx

Perfidia

Amanda LePore and Cazwell

Lady Bunny does Laugh-in

"Extreme Fashion" ala Tobel Von Cartier

"Forever Young"

The Ones performing "Blast" in all their mylar glory

The Ones feat Theo Kogen performing Human League's"(Keep Feeling) Fascination"

The Crowd

Balls, balls, balls

Hairdresser in training

LED Special

Her Royal Fierceness P. Fiddy holding court

Always in fashion-The BeeGees

Fifibear's Tina Paul

Yellow is the New Lime

A few months ago, my friend Marivel who is a co-founder of MOD told me that Yellow was going to be the hot new color for interiors. It was hard for me to imagine the hippie hue of the '60s and '70s in a contemporary context. But now I see it being used as the primary color in interiors from Andre Balazs's Beaver House and for floors and walls at the Studio 63-designed Miss Sixty shops around the world.

Pix after jump

]]> William Beaver House Model

Marivel in matching yellow top at Beaver House model kitchen

Lemon-colored Panton chairs at Studio 63's NYC office

Miss Sixty store in Milano, designed by Studio 63

Dog's Balls

According to a story in Sunday's NYT, librarians are creating a big to-do about the use of the word "scrotum" in an award-winning children's book "The Higher Power of Lucky." Although the 132-page book for 9-12 year olds has been described as "poignant" with characters that are "uniquely unforgettable;" librarians, from Colorado to Kentucky, are refusing to stock the book because of that one word.

According to the NYT story, the librarians argued that teacher's wouldn't want to have to explain that word to their students. If I remember correctly, sex education starts in the fourth grade. Besides that I was reading juicy novels by VC Andrews and Jackie Collins in the fourth grade, at least these kids are learning the proper medical names. In the piece, another librarian says "you won't find men's genitalia in quality literature." But the book actually uses the word scrotum in reference to someone's dog. No wonder American kids are behind in test scores, school librarians aren't even reading the books themselves.

Mercury in Retrograde

Expect delays, confusion, and technology issues 2/13-3/7 +/- a few days.

Hotel, Motel, Condo-mini-um

The scaffolding is down at 335 Bowery, revealing the corner restaurant and bar of the latest boutique hotel/hotspot enterprise ingeniously named the Bowery Hotel. The Maritime Hotel team (Eric Goode also owns neighboring B-Bar) managed to get around the residential zoning by renting out the top three floors of the 17-story "hi-rise." Louie, a security guard, said that they are planning to put a jacuzzi tub on the penthouse and that the owners hoped to open in a couple of months (good one, guys).

more Boutique hotel business after the jump

]]> I finally had a chance to visit the Schraeger+Schnabelized Gramercy Park Hotel the other nite. Here are some pix of the nite minus me playing pool in the gorgeoso Rose Bar due to the presence of celebrities. Being the too-cool New Yorkers we are, my friend didn't want to offend promoter Nur(of Hiro/Maritime) with the paparazzi-esque flash of my tiny Canon Digital Elph.

Cheekily off-kilter logo rug at entrance

Cozy fireplace in lobby with tasteful Picasso painting hanging above

Requisite Schnabel piece in Spanish-style lobby

Around the World

New iPods

Apple announced the release of new iPods today. The Nano has regressed to iPod Mini colorways and materials, but is much thinner. The Shuffle has been reduced to a 1.62" clip, perfect for running or unobtrusive accessorizing of your new fall outfit.

Nano

Shuffle

Supernatural and Natural

07/06/06- Downtown Thursday including "After the Reality" opening at Deitch Projects, curated by Hiromi Yoshii featuring five up-and-coming Japanese artists and the art collective Enlightenment.

Then the 9th anniversary celebration of bespoke shirt-makers, Seize sur Vingt, hosted a backyard bbq behind the Elizabeth street store. We also went to a new wine bar on Mott Street, but were unaware of the downstairs lounge so no pix of that.

Flix after jump.

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Stunning mixture of cirrus and cumulus clouds over Canal Street.

Jeffrey Deitch, looking dapper as usual, outside of "Little Deitch"

Ronald McDonald and Colonel Sanders grub out

The Enlightenment video art

Cate Dayrit lining up for a burger in the backyard of Seize sur Vingt

SsV's fall collection on Polaroids

Neky Romero's patriotic kicks