A New Lisa on Life

Hello Saturday, Hello October

2011-10-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

It's a Florence and the Machine, Room Temperature Coffee, Post-Yoga-Pre-Shower Late Saturday Morning. It is The Exact Moment when one may naively think the weekend may last forever, a moment when unread books and magazines and articles and newspapers can all be tackled with vigor over the next 36 hours because there are no distractions, no lingering to-dos, nothing but a vast unlimited expanse of time and possibility. Would love to bottle this up, this most favorite Moment of the week.

Good Bye To All That

2011-09-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

Wind and thunderstorms have hit Cincinnati on this last Thursday evening in September. It is the first time I've written whilst back on Midwest soil. I'm jamming out to The White Stripes, reading Vogue's October issue (cover features Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe), and eating previously frozen leftover sloppy joe mix (ah, the life of glamour).

I am making no grand announcement that I am back to writing, as I don't trust myself to keep up with it regularly (how's that for managing expectations?). Truthfully I was about ready to call it a night, but then I looked up and the clock on my oven read 7:32 pm. Woof.

So here I am world, or, eh, all approximately 17 of you who have taken a look at this in the past, a past when life consisted of fabulous restaurants and artisinal cockatils and all things hip and current and alive!

I'm reminded of Joan Didion's essay "Good Bye to All That." Joan was 28 when she left New York as well (albeit in 1967). You can read the essay here http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~zkurmus/html/didion.html. It's too beautiful and brave in its whole to pluck out just a quote or two. Gosh, I'd love to meet her. Ironically, she (according to Wikipedia, at least) lives on 71st st. Sigh...

Instead of pity partying, I live vicariously through urban friends Facebook posts, including this one posted 6 minutes ago by my 22 year-old cousin Gina who lives in Boston and started her first grown up job this June. She writes, "Mandarin. Martinis. Marvelous.," and posts a corresponding sepia-tinted instagram photo with three statuesque, staged martinis. Young and cute in wonderful in the true full-of-wonder sense of the word.

Max Fish

2011-03-06T12:53:00.001-08:00

The famous bar next door to my apartment was featured in the New Yorker last week. Here's a clip with the owner.

Miike Snow

2010-10-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

Yes, the two "ii's" are intentional. Aimee and I went to Terminal 5 on Thursday to see this Swedish dance pop trio (I think it's a trio, should fact check) perform live. The only kinda/sorta issue with this type of thing is the average age of the crowd. Two examples of conversations I overheard:

"Sarah, don't worry, you're gonna definitity get into NYU"
"Dude, my dad came home one day after school, burst into my bedroom unannounced and was like, 'Travis, are you doing meth?'"

Oh fun!

A Typical Saturday Night in Brooklyn....

2010-10-11T07:33:00.000-07:00

Sorcha and Jamin were in town Saturday, and I joined them at a friend's in Brooklyn for a seemingly innocent chicken dinner. After dinner, the guys just couldn't help but dance. :)

French Vogue Editor Carine Roitfeld

2010-10-03T12:27:00.000-07:00

Vogue Paris just celebrated its 90th Anniversary with a "Eyes Wide Shut" themed party most aptly described as OFF DA HOOK! I was interested in learning more about French Vogue's editor for the past 7 years, Carine Roitfeld, and found this CNN video. Super!

MIA

2010-03-27T11:52:00.000-07:00

Eeek - sorry I have been MIA on the blog! I'm having way too much fun on late night conference calls with China (dripping dripping dripping with sarcasm). Since we've last connected (!), I spent a few days at my dad's with Grace, had a wonderful visit with Gina and Brendan, hung out with Carlee's sister Whitney and her mom, and celebrated Erika's birthday at Brooklyn Bowl (I bowled a 79!). Brooklyn Brewery pints, burgers, cupcakes, a live band, a likely median age of 24... lots of skinny girls and cigarettes and boys with beards and Elvis Costello glasses... loving it. Hmm, what else, a faux-Passover seder, a sticky-floored St. Patrick's day at "The Perfect Pint," really really good challenging conversations with folks at Trinity Grace, and passing out at 8pm on nights in between, feeling a little (okay a lot) out of control with no method to the madness. But that's okay for now... :) I think. Right?!

Needing Spring.

2010-02-21T11:48:00.000-08:00

When I was 18, I wrote a poem called Needing Spring that I shared with Carlee and probably no one else. Nine years later, I'm experiencing a similar sentiment. My apartment needs a good-scrubbing. So do my finances. And my closet, let's not even go there.

I would also like to download a few songs like:
I Want to Love You Madly
Lookin Out My Back Door

On the finance front, Suze Orman is here giving sound financial advice:
http://www.oprah.com/money/Suze-Ormans-Spring-Cleaning-Overhaul-Your-Files-And-Finances/1. My biggest problem is that I don't remember any of the usernames and passwords and pins to any of this crap. Fidelity? Chase? Yeep!

I also signed up for a free account with Mint.com that does pie charts of your spending habits. Um, let's just say I have a brunch and sushi addiction. I'm glad vodka shows up as "Miscellaneous." Less guilt.

I made my mom stay on the phone with me for two hours while I filled three bags full of "Unacceptable Clothing for My Fabulous New York Life." I plan to schlep it to the Housing Works thriftshop on Crosby St.

As a reward, I would like to invest in a pretty spring plaid top. The one pictured here is $118 which makes me cringe - I don't think I could ever do it. But I want to. Yes, I do.

Feeling better already!

Saturdays Surf NYC

2010-02-20T09:36:00.000-08:00

A surf shop and coffee shop on Crosby St between Grand & Broome. Undoubtedly one of the hippest blocks in New York. How neat! They have a garden in the back. Add it to the list of places I will take you. xoxoxo.

PS - It's 42 Degrees and sunny today! I need to get thee outside and explore.

Freemans: A "Rugged Clandestine Colonial American Tavern"

2010-02-17T08:54:00.000-08:00

Freemans is a restaurant that also has a separate barber shop and sporting club bearing the same name. The owners (or website copywriters, same difference) describe it as a Rugged Clandestine Colonial American Tavern, which I love because, though seemingly ridiculous, it's oddly accurate. I love this trend... "Pioneer Woman" meets lower Manhattan.

Four months and a dozen brunches in, Freemans has been my favorite. I love their location (in an alley off of Rivington, a few minutes away from my apartment) ambiance (taxidermy on the walls, whiskey in the drinks - yes even at 1pm, beards on the boys), and 'rustic' food (poached eggs with butternut squash and mushroom hash - HELLO!).

As always, the best part is the company, and hanging out with Whitney was the best!

Here's a link to their site http://freemansrestaurant.com/Restaurant.html (also where I got the photo). Check out their sporting club's collection and dedication to custom men's tailoring and unique items like "shackets" - a cross between a shirt and jacket. They've got a lot of great ideas... I just love it. Can't wait to go for dinner when you're in town!

New Friends!

2010-02-16T19:04:00.000-08:00

This is me with two new friends, Stella and Carolyn. Stella is from New Mexico and Carolyn is from Minnesota. They are friends of Sorcha, and live in New Haven, Connecticut. Yay for kind and wonderful people with interesting stories. And for dimly lit bars and good photographers. Makes everything so much more beautiful, doesn't it? I'm rocking my signature "glasses in the hair" look.

A Quote, for Posterity's Sake

2010-02-16T18:59:00.000-08:00

"But we're not satisfied with what we ourselves have learned about the world and ourselves. We're always waiting for a stranger to come and tell us something more. And 'something more' means 'the rest of it' and that's what we need most; we miss it. So go ahead, stranger! Tell her what she herself is...her life, her years, her great appenditures of self, what of herself is honey and what is gall on her tongue, the hunger she has, and the hunger she sees." Elio Vittorini

Elio Vittorini (1908-1966) was a Sicilian novelist. Carlee sent me this... I thought there would be something theraputic in typing the words. I love the boldness, the aggression of the taunt, the dare - "So go ahead stranger!" Attempt what we know is impossible. What we hope is impossible. I think the change from "We" to "her" is interesting... takes "us" out of it. Her, she, is weaker. I also love that there are no descriptive, concrete nouns until 'honey' and 'gall.' I think it makes them all the more powerful. Can't you taste it?
Dude, I want a PhD in literature. Sigh.

The hunger she has, and the hunger she sees.........

Happy Chinese New Year!!

2010-02-13T10:04:00.001-08:00

Check out this :60 spot from Gillette, Shanghai. I love intermixing of holidays and cultures - so cheesy! So wonderful! I am going to try to go to Chinatown tomorrow (I live 5 min away, really no excuse).. I've heard it's INSANE.

Happy Valentine's Day! xoxoxoxox

So Close, Yet So Far Away...

2010-02-12T17:55:00.000-08:00

Four short blocks from my apartment (in fact, a storefront that I walk by EVERY DAY) ... less than 24 hours ago... Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose and friends played a 17 song set on Bowery to kick off New York fashion week. Wowza!

As if I weren't addicted to the internet enough already, this has heightened my obsession with searching for amazing things going on right outside my door. There is this underground WORLD out there.. ah! Let me in! I want in! How weird is that? How immature is that? Silly at best. Pathetic at worst? I don't know. I want to say, "You know, I really didn't feel like going...it was so cold, but they (they = fabulous, yet down to earth and genuinely good and kind people) really twisted my arm." I guess that's the fascination of rock stars and groupies and scenes and back stages. We want in. Everyone wants in somewhere, I guess.

Total Aside: Do you have a favorite Guns N' Roses memory? Sweet Child was playing on Y-103 when my mom got in the good ole Pontiac Grand Prix and drove away from Boardman High School after my graduation ceremony. June, 2001 baby!

Photo from Gothamist. Link here http://gothamist.com/2010/02/12/axl.php

Love the Job You're In Day

2010-02-11T12:16:00.000-08:00

Almost every day I get emails from a woman named Paola who lives in Rome and writes up analyses of competitive advertising in Italy for a project I'm working on. I have never met her, but I would like to one day. She is probably hard-working and fabulously Italian with a great leather bag.

Below is an advertisement from Caudalie, a French skincare brand with a focus on nature. I think the creative execution is very "Ides of March" don't you? Et tu, brute?

Here is Paola's translation:
Here is the story of a matrioska.
In the grape-vine there are shootes.
In the shootes there is Resveratrolo.
In Resveratrolo there is the power to prolong cells life of 160%*.
End of the story: a never end youth.
Vinexpert, volumizes,relaxes, firms
* Sinclair DA, small molecule activators of sirtuins extend Saccharomyces cerevisiae lifespan. Nature, 2003
Ask for suggestion and free sampla to your pharmacist or by phone # 80044292424 ( free cal from fix line, from monday to friday, from 9 to 6).

Well, you have sold me! Let me fish around for some euros in the bottom of my (not Italian leather) bag.

These types of little things make me smile - sometimes I have to look at the silliness that I sometimes take SO seriously. "In the grape-vine there are shootes." I think I may email Paola and thank her for delivering these delightful messages to my inbox each and every day.

Snowstorm, Wine, Facebook, Marie Claire - Am I a Cliche?

2010-02-10T17:12:00.000-08:00

An Evening in the Life During the Blizzard of 2010...

Drinking: Valle Dell'Acate Il Frappato 100% Frappato Red Wine (Thank you Luba and September Wines & Spirits on the corner)
Eating: Eggs and toast
Reading: Marie Claire Feb 2010 article "How Kissing David Duchovny Rescued My Sex Life"
Wearing: Hoodie, Boxers, Slippers
Surfing: Facebook, Interactive New Testament Book of Romans
Feeling: Slightly deranged, cabin fevered
Needing: Inspiration. Less blizzard. More sunshine.
Wanting: To go to JCrew.com and buy one of everything sherbert colored.
Listening: Pat Benetar, "Love is a Battlefield"

Google Ad

2010-02-10T05:44:00.001-08:00

Google Ad

Google Je T'Aime

2010-02-09T09:17:00.000-08:00

Big brands. Big spending. Big spectacles. Dead? In their place: Dot coms. Reasonable budgets. Emotional connections. (Study abroad! Love! Paris! Yes yes and yes!). Maybe?

I loved the Google Superbowl ad. Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnsSUqgkDwU

As someone who dedicated the better part of a year (yay 2007 and olayforyou.com) trying to communicate a website in an interesting way, I thought this was great. I loved the thought process, I loved the sound effects. I loved how he even spelled words incorrectly.

The Huffington Post quotes Google CEO:

In 2006, Schmidt said that brand advertising is "the last bastion of unaccountable spending in corporate America." The CEO explained the company's decision to air the ad in a blog post tonight:

If you watched the Super Bowl this evening you'll have seen a video from Google called "Parisian Love". In fact you might have watched it before, because it's been on YouTube for over three months. We didn't set out to do a Super Bowl ad, or even a TV ad for search. Our goal was simply to create a series of short online videos about our products and our users, and how they interact. But we liked this video so much, and it's had such a positive reaction on YouTube, that we decided to share it with a wider audience.
If you like it too, we hope you'll watch the others. Enjoy.

Very cool!

A good comment from the YouTube commenting set: "If only more companies could see what simplicity can do... "

So I officially retract my statement that Google was so the decade of 2000-2009 (the aughts?). ;)

This commercial is for those who, for the entire 4th quarter, sat in the dining room with their girlfriends over a glass of wine and didn't realize the game ended or who won (love you Erika and Kendel!).

Dating (or Lack Thereof) & College

2010-02-08T19:02:00.000-08:00

This New York Times article was written by the husband of my blogger extraordinaire friend Joanna (see her link A Cup of Jo on the right) Joanna's husband is Alex. He writes about how the gender imbalance at colleges is creating weirdness in the campus dating scene.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/fashion/07campus.html

Love this quote: “'I was talking to a friend at a bar, and this girl just came up out of nowhere, grabbed him by the wrist, spun him around and took him out to the dance floor and started grinding,' said Kelly Lynch, a junior at North Carolina, recalling a recent experience."

The article has received 155 comments already, mostly scathing critiques!

The Power of the Pen!!!

Who knew that they called Burlington, Vermont (home to the University of Vermont), "Girlington?"

What do you think?

TGIF!! (And Little Branch)!

2010-02-05T14:07:00.000-08:00

Oh, the places you'll go!

This ends the most intense work week I've had since moving to New York. Insert music and lyrics, "She works hhhhhhhhaaaard for the money... so hard for it honey...."

The weatherpeople are saying it's going to snow a shit ton this weekend (not an inch, not a foot, not a kilogram, a shit ton, yes, a shit ton).

Regardless, on Saturday night I may have to take Teresa to a new favorite place of mine, Little Branch, which is an underground 1920's Prohibition style speakeasy at an unmarked random corner of the West Village. We did have to wait in line for a while in the cold, and people passed us to gain entry with secret "tokens," but silly exclusivity schtick aside, it was worth it.

Drinks are ridiculously priced ($13) but amazing... I had something with Plymouth Gin and cucumbers and a metal straw. Yummy (the gin and cucumbers, not the metal straw). Luba and I were with friends of friends; we drank and waxed nostalgic about our first high school "Bs" in a way that only over-achieving ridiculous New Yorkers can.

Anyway, I would definitely go back and maybe I'll take you when you come to visit.

Stay warm this weekend!!!

Jamie's Got a Blog

2010-01-31T08:40:00.000-08:00

Anyone catch the Aerosmith reference? Well done.

Anyway, thought I would post a link to Jamie's Mumbai blog here. She is in week 1 of a year long trip to India for International Justice Mission.

http://gomumbai2010.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

T is for Tapas!

2010-01-30T07:43:00.000-08:00

Similar to my new hair salon below, a favorite restaurant of mine also does wonderful things like keep a blog, sell its own products (olive oil - yum), and contribute to Doctors Without Borders.

http://boquerianyc.tumblr.com/
The place is called Boqueria, and it has two locations - one in Flatiron and one in Soho. Luba and I made our way there after an unexpected evening at the art Gallery (see Gallery Crashers post). Her childhood friend Danny is a server at the Soho location and generously hooked us up with a few specialties to complement our basics (patatas bravas, tortilla, paella, croquettas, chortizo, and just for luba, crusty white bread). Churros con chocolate, anybody? My favorites were the bacon wrapped dates. Delicious.

In amazing Luba fashion, about 5 minutes after being seated we were joined by two male dining companions, old college friends of hers (okay, so they didn't go to Ohio State, rather, she met them during college at a Consulting Case competition conference - a detail I LOVE). These boys came out in the freezing cold to see her (mind you it was 10pm, they had already eaten, but gladly jumped right in out of reverence for the magical mystery that is Luba). This girl is powerful and majestic, I tell you.

The Soho location is run by an Irish guy named Seamus (who else would be so perfectly fit to run a Spanish Tapas restaurant?). He has quickly escalated into cable-television-foodie-fame by appearing on one of more popular food network shows (Top Chef, or Iron Chef, or Irish dude makes Good Tapas Chef?).

After dinner, Luba and I walked all the way down Spring Street back to the Lower East Side, she in her faux fur Bebe puffer jacket/Chinatown Burberry scarf combo, me in my Norhtface sleeping bag of a coat. We laughed like Beavis and Butthead about boys and galleries and all the wine we drank, and how it was so cold the only thing you could do was intermittently scream "SHHH--IT!!!" into the air while seeing your breath form the word. A lovely night!

Short with a Side of Bangs

2010-01-28T14:06:00.000-08:00

Next to the vegan bakery Babycakes on Broome Street (decidedly my favorite street in Manhattan) lives a wonderful little hair salon called Fringe that is home to Really Hip People doing hair and getting their hair did ;). After weeks of deliberation (wanting to grow my hair out, not wanting to spend $75 plus tip on a cut) I made the plunge and went short again. Short with a side bang.

Fringe also has its own blog. Of course it does. http://www.fringeny.com/fringesocial/ The intention is to expand their vibe into the city and create community - awesome.

Jenn did my hair. She had maybe 7 visible tattoos, including one tattoo on her inner arm that had a stud piercing in the middle of it. I did not know that it was possible to get one's arm pierced, but I don't think it was a decal or sticker thing like we had in third grade. She was super cool. She took her time. It was great. Photo courtesy of my creepy webcam that always makes my face look pinkish red. Of course I haven't been able to replicate her handiwork myself. Bummer.

Here's a pic of their interior design. So cool! How would you describe this? Mid Century retro-vintage? Loving it. Especially the floor. I could sweep other people's hair off that floor for hours. Um, okay no. But you get the point.

Gallery Crashers

2010-01-25T12:33:00.000-08:00

Luba and I stirred up lots of trouble during her visit last week, including but not limited to sneaking into a Soho art gallery opening on Spring Street completely uninvited. Here we were able to view 4 new artists' works and drink lots of free red wine (and yes, Luba did ask the bartender if he knew the artists and liked the work). The image above comes from an artist named Kathy Olivas, a multi-media artist from Tampa, FL.

This body of work (there are 8 pieces total), is titled "Unconditional." The description of her collection says, "Inspired by early American portraiture that often depicted children as small adults in an idealized new land, the characters parallel this vision within their own sense of post-apocalyptic conformity, uniquely documenting their own stories in a mysterious brave new world."

Read more about her and the other artists here: http://www.operagallery.com/ny/

Vampire Weekend!

2010-01-22T11:40:00.000-08:00

Thus begins a not-so-mild infatuation with Vampire Weekend, a band that started at Columbia, fronted by Ezra Koenig, a 25 year old guy from New Jersey. Here he is in his Brooklyn apartment, courtesy of Spin magazine. Digging the table cloth and mismatched chairs. Very Antrhopologie. Ha.

My cousin John introduced me to their first album last year, and their second, Contra, was released last week (with 124,000 copies sold, it's doing quite well).

I've been reading up on them... here are a few articles:
http://www.spin.com/articles/my-room-vampire-weekends-ezra-koenig
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/arts/music/19vampire.html?scp=3&sq=vampire%20weekend&st=cse
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/arts/music/16vampire.html?scp=5&sq=vampire%20weekend&st=cse

There's also a really great New Yorker article but you have to subscribe for that one.

All of this leads up to say... Yesterday, as I checked the 10 or so blogs I read during ahem..my ..ahem.. lunch hour, I saw that Vampire Weekend was doing a live interview and performance at Barnes & Noble alongside a Ghana/Jamaican poet/professor. At 7pm yesterday. Let's just say I made my way over there, alone, after work, in work clothes, and though I was surrounded by punchy NYU freshmen (like this 19 year old Converse-clad couple making out directly in front of me) it was well worth it.

Perhaps I am guilty of celebrity idolatry, but hey, I like their music and their psuedo-intellectual vibe and even their preppiness, so I am going to forgive myself for this one.

Here's a grainy horrible photo I took from from the event, sufficiently far away and blurry (I was the lone Blackberry photographer amid a sea of iPhones ;)).

They talked about some serious stuff as it relates to art and creativity, the necessity of an artist to be both an insider and an outsider. A blessing and a curse. Blues is an outsider's expression of pain. You have to be outside it to experience it. Woah. So postmodern of them all.

Later, Kwame said he liked the guys in the band. He said:

They are thinking people, and they are happy. You don't find that combination that often.
Amen, brother.