she and him...are pretty fantastic

cameras flashed like strobe lights from moment she and him took the stage. and zooey deschanel looked a little overwhelmed.


she--angel-faced, in a silver-sequined, vintage halter dress--is a slip of a thing. from my vantage point (not close), i could clearly see her ribcage, and it was a little alarming. i wanted to offer her one of those empanadas that they sell at the venue. were it not for the generous bouffant, and the colossal white flower on her headband, how very small she would have looked on stage...

but oh, what a voice. a strong, clear, capable instrument. if she were ever so inclined, she could make the transition from indie pop darling/cute, quirky songstress, to convincing chanteuse. some years from now, i would love to hear her ooohs-ing through a cabaret set at some swanky nightclub.

as for him--his voice is used as kind of an oddity on the recording. i sort of love that, of course. but on stage, he sings a true "second voice" and does it well. with his sexy guitar stylings, he just might be a more compelling presence than her. he can play with real abandon, and some of my favorite moments of the night were the amazed, joyful smiles she gave him whenever he did.


she's an undoubtedly adorable, but timid tambourine player--i kept wishing she'd just go wild with the thing. i kept thinking--this is the gal that wants to play janis joplin? she could do it, of course, i think she has the voice in her, but the stage showmanship would require real acting.

all of that said, i loved the show! i really did. they sound very true to the record. the only somewhat disappointing rendition? "sweet darlin'" --they sang it like "camptown races." part of the magic of that song is "the build" toward the end. but they started so fast, too fast, there was nowhere to go with it, but off stage. and so they went...(but came back for their encore).

here are a few videos. you get the gist of how "true" they sounded, i think. terminal 5 was not "camera friendly" in any sense. this was all I could get.

and jojo, these are especially for you...

black hole


you really got a hold on me


this is not a test


a new zooey tune

looking forward...and back, a bit...

so so cute!
Originally uploaded by ata08

i've never been keen on learning to knit, but seeing pip-squeak chapeau etc.'s exquisite and adorable collection at the brooklyn designs show a couple of months ago got me thinking it might be the perfect winter 2008 activity...

but it will be a long, long...long time before i can create hats and shawls and scarves of a quality to match theirs, so i might have to invest in a few items.

i heard there's a sale on some of their spring items, through august 10. i might wait til the fall, but swoon away at the full collection here, or at a store near you...

be warned: it may lead to winter longings...

the news about the sale had me remembering the fun day i had with teresa, zovig, and a "man called mate." reminisce a bit with me here.

*****
links to favorites from the show:

the corian and walnut table by françois chambard, of UM.

i also fell a little bit in love with the gentleman/designer, colgate, also of UM. i'm guessing he designed these colgate chairs. i could have chatted with him all day...

the osomoto gateway table …beautiful wood top.

the constellation dining table by palo samko . walnut slabs, with watch gears that make up the “constellation.” stunning.

and

lola’s lounge chair from laidman fabrication.

mad men and a funny lady

tomorrow, one or more of my friends at work is going to ask me what i did this weekend.
and when i tell them about my sunday, and the fact that i spent nearly every hour of it inside my little apartment, i will feel not a hint of embarrassment.

why?

it's a very humid 91 degrees out.
and
there's a MAD MEN MARATHON on AMC.
why leave home?

it's impossible to escape the buzz and the acclaim (16 emmy nominations...), so don't bother.
don't try to resist it.
just hunker down with the complete season 1 dvd set.
try to pick the top 5 of 500 lines worth repeating, if only for the kick of letting them slip from your lips...(that sandwich is making me sad...i bet daily friendship with that bottle attracts more people to advertising than any salary you could dream of...)
let all of the sexy, stylish intrigue waft over you like a million smoke rings...
and let the smell of it stick to you until season 2 premieres next sunday, at 10pm.

photo via http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/

***

a couple of years ago, at a get together with my younger cousins, i very reluctantly joined them to watch the dvd of best friends. i cringed through the first several scenes, until anna faris delivered the line, "god, i want to lick your skin off." i almost spit up my coca-cola. she plays a britney-jessica-ashley "musician" type with the kind of ridiculous gusto a role like that deserves. ever since then, she's been on my list of favorite funny ladies (with judy greer).

behold, she's featured in this week's nytimes sunday magazine, with several other "funny faces."

love her. she's like a super-hot nellie oleson? in any case, super hot.

anna faris photographed by ruven afanador

one last (but certainly not least) thing: ms. faris is wearing a ring (left hand, 4th finger) by philip crangi, an amazing jewelry designer that my sister has studied with. she's always spoken glowingly of him, and i've become a huge fan...

you may have seen him featured in a recent gap ad , or heard that he's been collaborating with vera wang for a line of jewelry for her spring 2008 and (upcoming) fall 2008 collections.

the nytimes photo doesn't allow you to appreciate his work (understatement of the day?), so check out some of his designs at barneys....and of course, on his website, philipcrangi.com.

sweet darlin' !

sweet darlin'
come hold me
just a little bit longer now
sweet darlin'
come hold me
just a little bit longer now

(my new favorite song! i can't stop dancing, singing and handclapping...)

LA: obsessions (part 1)

drinks
Originally uploaded by ata08

when i travel--whether it's for a couple of weeks or a few days, for work or pleasure--i tend come happily home with a few obsessions.

my recent stay in LA yielded:

1) watermelon juice.

our company put us up at the standard hotel, on sunset (roll eyes, insert guffaw here). i know what you're thinking. whose idea was that? i have no comment, except to say, not mine. though, i never did object. in the end, the curiosity didn't kill me, it just left me perplexed.

is there a scene there? i have serious doubts. whatever was happening there, or hoped to happen there, i wanted no part of, unless it was happening, or hoping to happen, in the kitchen.

our work schedule basically resulted in our eating our way up and down and around the 24/7 restaurant menu. overall, the offerings were pretty strong.

i loved the greek yogurt (i'd never liked or understood greek yogurt) with berries and granola, the grilled shrimp salad, as well as an altogether different and not so healthy shrimp salad with a dill-y dressing on toast; the fries, the beet salad with goat cheese and mache, the pancakes (with 7-up in the batter) , the sorbets (coconut, green apple and apricot flavors were bright, happy endings to my meals)..."the standard benedict" (poached eggs on roast beef with a horseradish sauce) was fine too , except for the ill-advised decision to serve it on baguette slices. (that's just wrong. you shouldn't have to work so hard to cut your breakfast into bite-sized pieces.) the coffee was nice and brave, and served in a white ceramic cup of perfect size and heft.

but the thing i left there obsessed with? freshly -squeezed watermelon juice. it has a wonderful matte sweetness. it doesn't offer the bold, sugar shock of a cranberry/cranapple juice, nor does it have the burst of sweet sunshine that you get in the best freshly squeezed orange juice. it's not cloying like mango juice, or flat like carrot. it's a watery puree, a touch sweet, and just a little bit grassy--there's a bit o' white rind in there.

it's different... it will probably take you a few seconds to decide if you really like it. i decided i did. i love the color too. i wish i could carry that color with me wherever i go.

2) indie radio.

i love the radio, but i don't love the radio in ny. i can't actually get it in my apartment. but i hear enough of it in the car. i love singing along to lite hits and occasional classic rock anthems or r & b classics and disco (oh, the disco!), and i've definitely gone through stages when top 40 didn't completely offend me (i am quite susceptible pop music. i like "hooks"). and those of you who know me, know that i am far from EDGY. but good god, even i know this town could do with a little local indie radio. and nothing you have to "tinker with the knob" (i have an old clock radio) to find. something prominently on the dial.

so i don't have much to judge "indie 103.1" against, but my mornings and evenings were spent with santogold, mgmt, death cab, spoon, a healthy dose of depeche mode, the cure, and early U2. AND we all celebrated morrissey's birthday (may 22, people!!!). all that, and surf reports to boot! fun times!! why must they end?!

actually they don't have to....listen live here...

3) jessica smith

i met jessica at the photo shoot-she's one of our models! she's got amazing energy, and she exudes a true sweetness. we became fast friends. i can't wait for the photos we took of her to hit the newsstands and for the video to be posted on the website. you'll see how lovely she is, and you'll admire her perfect form.

if you're lucky enough to live in southern california and are an equinox member (or if you're planning to visit), i highly recommend taking her class.

the lovely miss jessica invited me to take her cardio sculpt class. and all i can say is: ass-kicking! as in, it's a fun workout that kicks ass, but she/it also kicked my ass (i struggled to keep up and i was sore for 3 days). but it felt great. if i could only get her to move back to ny, this old ass o' mine would be kickin.

but she is the instructor/star of the abs diet for women DVD, which i own, and that will do, for now...

more la obsessions to follow...soon...

saturday: "milk", grits and a fried egg

sunshiney saturday spent in the slope.

my lovely friend zovig and i decided to check out the takashi murakami exhibit at the brooklyn museum. it was "cuteness!" for sure. i'm not at all a fan of the louis vuitton collaboration, but those "superflat eye love" designs were quite appealing on a larger scale...i especially loved the color combinations in the "eye love" and jellyfish eyes series, on silk...it's all so much more striking on that fabric...i also liked milk, 727-727 (i actually loved all the paintings that were "sanded" ), cosmos (1998), and this daruma (i open wide my eyes but see no scenery. i fix my gaze upon my heart, 2007). the exhibition is bright and cheery and ominous and overwhelming...odd and funny and interactive...it is, to a degree, kid-friendly, if you're prepared to deal with questions about anatomical correctness/distortions. we had a little "overheard in ny" moment while standing in front of inochi (boy--maybe 7 years old: "mommy, his penis is on his stomach!" mommy: "why yes, it is..."). ha.

walking into the "vuitton exhibit/store" and taking the kooky wallpapered staircase to the floor below, which is a funhouse all its own--toys and t-shirts and other collectibles, all impeccably sorted and contained-- it struck me what a kick this show must have been to put together--and how sad it would be to have to watch all come down (show ends on july 13, btw)...

if you're as interested in behind the scenes stuff as i am, check out the terrific flickr slideshow that the museum has posted on its site...

and if you'd like a peek into the kaikai kiki studio sanctum, check out this ny sun article and its accompanying slideshow...

after the museum, zovig and i moseyed over to fifth ave...and stopped for brunch at stone park cafe. it took me about 3 seconds to decide that i wanted the hangtown fry: eggs, oysters, bacon and vermont cheddar cheese...how good does that sound?! but then...i took a longer look at the menu... i saw that they had grits, with shrimp and a fried egg. i remembered being deeply envious of the shrimp with grits at bar americain, which my sister ordered the last time we brunched together...so i changed my mind and went for the "anson mills white grits, with shrimp and fried egg."

the fact that the grits' brand name was proclaimed on the menu--as if i should recognize it--aroused my curiosity, so when i got home i did a little research. there's quite an interesting story to tell! turns out that the anson mills white grits come to us thanks to one man, glenn roberts, who was so deeply interested in the history of the south, especially its culinary history (cheers!) that he set out to revive--by organically growing, harvesting, and milling--varieties of corn, rice and wheat that were nearly extinct. he was able to find and harvest a "famous" carolina gourdseed white corn (that was "revered for its high mineral and floral characteristics, and its creamy mouthfeel"), which dated all the way back to the 1600s. this is the white corn that was milled into the grits that became my brunch!

and they really were creamy...i've only had grits a couple of time in my life (LOVE the cheddar grits at freemans...ooohhh. those are very different...toothsome...GRITTY) but this dish was nearly like a pudding. thick and rich and creamy, completely indulgent. i will admit, a little smoky, salty bacon would have livened it up. but it was very, very good.

anson mills white grits...
Originally uploaded by ata08

art and leisure...(read a good poem)

perhaps one night i will write about a friday night at a rad party downtown, where i rubbed asses and elbows with some cool cats, and was ever so elegant, all the while sipping unlimited top-shelf liquor...perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

but this friday night was more like:
a leisurely walk home from work, with a detour through the grand central marketplace, for veggies and some cajun catfish and stuffed brook trout from my favorite fishmongers (wild edibles).
then my dad stopped by for a quick chat...and then...i ran around the block to the morgan library, which is free on friday nights, from 7pm-9pm (love free admission!). i was pleased to catch “close encounters: irving penn portraits of artists and writers” (it closes tomorrow).
(i can cross 2 items off my new year's "to-do" list, as i have finally made it to the morgan musem and scandinavia house.)

i'd never visited the morgan library, so i have no sense of what it looked like prior to the renzo piano expansion. but i love the feeling of standing in the glass-enclosed central atrium--there was classical music resounding, courtesy of a cellist and violinist from the mannes college of music, and there was that wonderful, curious museum "buzz" (but without the awful crowding that's typical of most museums here, especially during "free admission" hours). there is a cafe in the central atrium, too, which is strangely not cordoned off. nevertheless, i imagine it's lovely to sip tea or a glass of wine there in afternoon.

because the main entrance was so terrifically roomy, i was surprised by the hearty numbers in the smaller east and west galleries. but it was still relatively easy to make a little space for oneself and linger over the work.

my favorite photos from the exhibition cannot be found online (i've been searching for the past 3 hours, so far, no luck):
edward albee, photographed in new york, 1962 (my absolute favorite from the show. albee here, as mark feeney notes, is "all cigarette and eyelashes");
vladimir nabokov (chasing butterflies), northern italy, 1948;
and
joan miro and his daughter, dolores, photographed in tarragona, spain, 1948 (penn's homage to the balthus painting, joan miro and his daughter dolores).

(you can see some of the photos from the exhibition, courtesy of the nytimes; a related slideshow is hosted by men's vogue ... )

and then i dropped a load on a few "sale" books about toulouse-lautrec, bonnard and vuillard at the store (so much for my "free" night at the museum), reminders of my recent trip to paris.

i made it back home in time to watch the last four innings of game 1 of the yanks/red sox series at fenway. chien-ming wang threw a complete game, two-hitter. final score: 4-1.

rather sedate, but not too shabby a friday night, all the way around!

more on the renzo piano expansion, which was completed in 2006, here.

and lastly, tonight's poem (another from babette deutsch): "string quartet."

read a good poem: "gentle as silence"

day's end. lourdes.
Originally uploaded by ata08

"Need" from The Collected Poems of Babette Deutsch
by Babette Deutsch

What do we need for love—a midnight fire
Flinging itself by fistfuls up the chimney
In soft bright snatches? Do we need the snow,
Gentle as silence, covering the scars
Of weeks of hunger, years of shabby having?
Summer or winter? A heaven of stars? A room?
The smiling mouth, the sadness of desire
Are everywhere the same. If lovers go
Along an unknown road, they find no less
What is familiar. Let them stay at home,
And all will still be strange. This they know
Who with each heartbeat fight the fear of change.

this is the first poem by babette deutsch that i've read. found it, somewhat randomly, tonight. i was immediately drawn in.

did a little googling, and uncovered a few tidbits. i am officially fascinated:

she's a new yorker...attended barnard (like me!)...and she, along with her husband, avrahm yarmolinsky, translated pushkin's eugene onegin, one of the finest, most treasured gifts i've received, from a great love of mine...

i love the reviews of her work (not "genius," but poems show feeling and integrity...ah, genius is overrated!)...

and i rather love this remark of hers: "the poet ... like the lover ... is a person unable to reconcile what he knows with what he feels. his peculiarity is that he is under a certain compulsion to do so."

"it's more difficult than you think to make charcoal"

i can barely keep these eyes open.
but, before bed, i share a little something:

"In Favor Of One's Time" - Frank O'Hara
from "The New American Poetry 1945-1960."

The spent purpose of a perfectly marvellous
life suddenly glimmers and leaps into flame
it's more difficult than you think to make charcoal
it's also pretty hard to remember life's marvellous
but there it is guttering choking then soaring
in the mirrored room of this consciousness
it's practically a blaze of pure sensibility
and however exaggerated at least somethings going on
and the quick oxygen in the air will not go neglected
will not sulk or fall into blackness and peat

an angel flying slowly, curiously singes its wings
and you diminish for a moment out of respect
for beauty then flare up after all that's the angel
that wrestled with Jacob and loves conflict
as an athlete loves the tape, and we're off into
an immortal contest of actuality and pride
which is love assuming the consciousness of itself
as sky over all, medium of finding and founding
not just resemblance but the magnetic otherness
that that that stands erect in the the spirit's glare
and waits for the joining of an opposite force's breath

so come the winds into our lives and last
longer than despair's sharp snake, crushed before it conquered
so marvellous is not just a poet's greenish namesake
and we live outside his garden in pure tempestuous rights

9/24/59


lots more o'hara to come. perhaps after i read this?

"dark wine reminds me of you..."

vino
Originally uploaded by ata08

i spent the day (full of meetings) looking forward to the night (full of merriment!) ---a drink to celebrate the birthday of a former co-worker and friend. a few of us took the subway to canal street, and walked west, to church lounge at the tribeca grand.

for as long as i've lived here, i've held an affinity for that little stretch of city, where tribeca becomes soho.

and when i am there, it is 1991, and '92,' 93, '94...and i'm walking home from my job at the da's office. sometimes wiping tears, overwhelmed by life and love and loss and lost love... sometimes huddled desperately against the wall of a brick building, with winter winds kicking around me, trying, failing, trying again and again to light the cigarette that i feel i need more than anything in that precise moment to keep my sanity...sometimes giddy and skipping...sometimes, like a real grown-up, new york gal...but always, i think--i know--always quietly amazed and aware of how lucky i was that "this" was part of my daily life. "this" being that simple act of walking home, on that particular route (west on franklin st, north on church, past canal, north on west broadway...then north and west--many different ways--to jane and hudson...) ...the walk offered clarity and inspiration and peace (yes, even the canal street part!)...the neighborhoods, the buildings, the streets felt historic but full of art, and promise...

all that i miss.

i missed it more acutely today, and was even more nostalgic tonight, perhaps because of the hour...

but nostalgia did not overwhelm the current joy of my every day life--my friends. i work with some dear, dear people. and i was happy to be in that "old neighborhood" of mine, with them.

(though the argentinean malbec i had there? rather terrible....ah, well.)


here's tonight's poem:

"Vino Tinto," in Loose Woman.
by Sandra Cisneros.


Dark wine reminds me of you.
The burgundies and cabernets.
The tang and thrum and hiss
that spiral like Egyptian silk,
blood bit from a lip, black
smoke from a cigarette.

Nights that swell like cork.
This night. A thousand.
Under a single lamplight.
In public or alone.
Very late or very early.
When I write my poems.

Something of you still taut
still tugs still pulls,
a rope that trembled
hummed between us.
Hummed, love, didn't it.
Love, how it hummed.