MOMA selling Andy Warhol designed specs - I heart them.
Tuesday 30 June 2015
Yoko Oh No
Yoko has a one woman show at MOMA right now. And one part of the exhibition was a load of black bags hanging on the wall. The idea being that anyone seeing the show was invited to get in these bags and lie on the floor in 'em on a platform, making different poses - thereby becoming 'part' of the show - living art as it were - load of bollox intit? But I loved John and so if he loved Yoko - well then I do as well. But it has to be said they've done all this lot before years ago, when they gave a whole press conference from inside a bag - their theory being that, if you can't see the colour of someone's skin or the length of their barnet, that you might take their ideas and theories more seriously. Anyway I think it's really nice in this day and age that Yoko is into recycling.
I'll have a Lager(feld)
We're now staying at our favourite place in the whole wide world - The Mercer - as we are both star f*ckers from way back. And The Mercer is the bestest place to see them because the paparazzi aren't allowed in. See Karl Lagerfeld here on Nigel's right shoulder. He and his entourage were there pretty much all day and all Karl had was a diet Pepsi and a piece of watermelon. That same day Nigel came down in the lift with Kate Moss and I saw Kirsten Dunst slip between two floor boards, she was that thin. Another time we came in after a rollacking night out on the town and watched Sean Penn for a while, holding court with a coterie of 16 year old girls - one of which was hanging onto his hand for all she was worth - or maybe for all he was worth. At varying times, we've seen Malcom Gladwell, the Olsen twins, Lynsey Lohan, Seth Rogan, Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt (very tall/very thin) Anthony Hopkins, Janet Jackson, Tom Ford, Rod Stewart (who fell over a chair), Cameron Diaz and this morning Nigel shared breakfast with Meg Ryan. I was late coming down and I missed her which was a shame, as I really wanted to have another good look at that terrible trout pout she's had and see how she manages a bagel with it.
Lights out
We met the sweetest twosome at the Empire Diner - a very lively pair. She spent the whole time talking very loudly on her phone whilst making her way through a mother of a burger and a giant salad. He picked at a couple of meatballs and was moved to ask the waitress "What was the sauce? It was v hot!" She said "it was chilli sauce" But what was in it he asked...We finally got talking to them when their plate of death by chocolate arrived. It turned out they'd ordered the Brooklyn Blackout Cake which is a cake created to commemorate the black out drills that happened in Brooklyn during World War II. These guys were in Brooklyn in the 60's when the whole of New York's power went out and the whole city shut down. People were trapped in elevators, trains stopped between stations, traffic lights were out, women were stuck in Elizabeth Arden with wet hair - it was devastating. Anyway now this cake commemorates that event as well and these pair remembered exactly where they were when the lights went out. Well, she did, but unfortunately he was sure he had alzheimer's - although he was happy he didn't have alzheimer's.
Sunday 28 June 2015
Colourful
Gandalf the Great was the Grand Marshall in New York's Gay Pride Parade, proving yet again that he is still - Lord of the 'Rings'.
Ya egg
These pair were next to us this morning at Bubby's (JFK Jnr's favourite haunt which has now also opened in The Meatpackers). She made herself known to us by heckling the waitress to see the 'menu's'. The waitress told her that they have 4 menu's - breakfast/brunch/lunch and dinner and this woman said she wanted to see them ALL. The classic thing was that they'd already ordered and got their breakfast and all she'd ordered was a small pile of scrambled egg white. And that was all she had, there was no side of spinach (ugh) no toast, no sauce, no bacon, no sausage - literally nowt else at all. I kept my radar up, hoping that from the stack of menu's she was delivered, she might suddenly plump for a pancake, a serve of home fries, a bagel? - but no - she ate those damned eggs completely plain jane but the whole time she ate them, she was reading about all the yummy things she could have eaten were she so inclined. We did absolutely no readin' at our table, only eatin'.
Watt?
The kind of hotel I like - very, very dark. At home and at night. I have the dimmers set so low that sometimes the electrics get confused and flicker them off altogether. I can actually cook a full meal in candle light and I've now passed this trait onto Abbey and both of us think that anything above 15 watts is lighting fit for hospital surgery. For the men that live with us, this can be a little annoying, Nigel goes around after me, twitching dimmers in the hope he can turn them up a little without me realising. Arriving at the Standard I was so happy to barely be able to see our way to the lift and then actually finding the floor buttons inside was seriously impossible without getting our phone torches out. Yes exactly - a perfect home from home.
Noo Yawk
We've been here many times but we've never driven ourselves into the city. Negotiating the Holland Tunnel needs sustenance.
Gladys Penelope Smith
She's seen us through 4,000 miles of driving. 32 toilet stops, 250 photo ops, 12 bags of kettle fries, 18 Starbucks, 2 cheese panini's, 4 chicken burgers, 2 bags of gummy bears, 3 mega traffic jams, and 1 raging thunderstorm. I would personally like to thank our GPS for no tears, no tantrums and no tiffs.
Saturday 27 June 2015
Decisive moment
Nigel was moved to (virtual) (actual) tears in a gallery selling signed original Cartier Bresson's. We ummmed and ahhhed for about an hour over buying this signed print until we realised that we weren't actually buying in American dollars and that the Monopoly dollars we had with us, wouldn't quite cover it. Merde!
Mr&Mr
Whilst we were in Washington, the Supreme Court finally ruled in favour of same sex marriage. A while ago I bought the Jonathon Adler Mr and Mrs salt and pepper shakers and when I was in their Georgetown store this morning - I was super impressed at the way they've rematched and repackaged them. Now, I just need an invite to a gay wedding.
Bang Bang
The American's are obsessed with fireworks. Every town you drive though has got a virtual firework department store that sell aisle after aisle of every kind of explosive you can think of. Papa Joe's also had 2 life size elephants outside to make sure you didn't miss those dang rockets as well. When I was small I was seriously terrified of fireworks and it was all because of Blue Peter. Blue Peter - my bestest show ever on TV but in the countdown to Guy Fawkes - at least 3 shows worth. They showed kids that had been seriously ruined mucking about with fireworks. Missing fingers and toes - lumps of skin from arms and legs and the absolute worst - missing frisking - eyes. My uncle George who like all boys, loved fireworks, would put on a show in the backyard for my grandma and me but I would only ever watch from the window. Nothing on earth could induce me to go outside - not even a toffee apple.
9 lives
Breaking news in Washington this morning is a cat who fell asleep in a micro light and woke up once it was airborne. What a nightmare. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3134295
Friday 26 June 2015
Viewpoint
We hit Washington tonight with just enough time to see something interesting just before the sun set. Nigel was riveted with the capturing of the light and the icon - I was, as always distracted by something more personal.
Thursday 25 June 2015
The Cape.
Hot & Wet
Mega drive today from Miami to Savannah, Georgia - yes ma'am -in short at least 9 hours in the saddle. We left Miami in 90 degrees and blue skies. But about an hour out, the sky became sooper dooper intense. We could see lightning in the distance and then the heavens just opened. It literally lashed us for about 6 hours straight. Nigel cool as a cucumber and driving. Me - the passenger - a cat on a hot tin roof - claws gripping either side of my seat convulsively, convinced that any minute, one of the ten ton truck drivers would be sharing my seat. I don't think I drew a full breath for about 2 hours, panting shallow and low to preserve energy for all the fruitless fretting. People were driving like maniacs as well (including Nigel) it was like they were in perfect conditions - so no need to slow down at all. I witnessed one man on his phone, drinking coffee and head banging to ACDC whilst he drove with his knees across 2 lanes and then as we passed another car weaving between lanes, I glanced in and saw a woman with a newspaper spread out across the steering wheel. Finally we all had to slow down for a mega accident and as we drove past a jack knifed truck now on it's roof I was convinced I could still hear the strains of Highway to Hell.
On the side
I can make a meal out of sides. In fact if the truth is known, I'd rather have a load of sides than the actual meal itself. I don't even really want the steak - I just have it so I can legitimately have the sides as well. Last night we went to the Forge in Miami and the list of sides was actually longer than the mains and they weren't your average sides either. There was a lot of debate about what we would have but in the end we went for caramelised brussel sprouts, sweet potato gratin with ginger crumble and baked beans with bacon hock - Nigel insisted on that because he can't go past beans in any form. When we first started living together, one of his 'meals' was cold baked beans eaten straight from the can, standing up in the kitchen. Yes exactly, Nigella by name but not by nature.
Novelty
I am so worried that all the book shops in the world are going to close because of Amazon and Kindle, that every time I go into one, I have to buy a book just to make sure I'm at least contributing to their coffers. I can seriously spend entire days in book shops as I just feel so cozy and safe in them AND I still use the library as you can find all sorts of old friends in there that have gone out of print in the shops. And then there's the specialist shops like Taschen that sell all those big beautiful books that you can never face taking home because of their weight. Yesterday in Miami, Taschen had a sale on and all their books were 50% off - now that's a sale I can love - but eeeeek why are they having said sale in the first place?
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