Coolhunting in Soho

While I'm out gallivanting in France, I've scheduled a long overdue post about my recent weekend in NYC.  Carolyn and I traveled to Soho, our friend Linda's new hood.  Such a fun place to explore.  Here are my pictures in chronological order.

Friday, 7:30 p.m.: After an interminable bus ride, we finally arrive and immediately eat fish tacos at Tacombi NYC. There's a VW bus parked inside the restaurant. Of course, I fell in love with the place.

9 p.m.: Soho walkin'

I'm now convinced every other New Yorker owns a French bulldog.  Cah-yuuuute.

9:15 p.m.: Cupcake break at the aptly named Little Cupcake Bakeshop.

12 a.m. Savoire Adore concert at Mercury Lounge.  They are also cah-yuuute.

12:20 a.m.: Hoodie-wearing dachshund, where have you been all my life?  [American Apparel, duh.]

Saturday, 1:40 p.m.: Young Designer's Market.  "She's making jewelry now, she's got her life on track."

2 p.m.: Fiat Cafe lunch.

3:30 p.m.: Boutique shopping for leopard face swimsuits.

Let me check out this furry purse... Wait a minute! It's moving!

4 p.m.: Giverny exhibit at The Hole gallery.  Pretty fake flowers and Astroturf and an intensely naked sprite.

4:15 p.m. Snapped a picture of a wedding photo shoot.

Sunday, 11 a.m.: The magical Cafe Gitane.

Hip chicks...

Tunes Tuesday: "Keep You," Wild Belle

Parlez-vous Français?

Yes, we are Paris-bound on Thursday!  I can't believe it, I've been literally crossing off the days on my calendar.  This was just a gleam in my eye a few months ago, when I took a gamble and bought cheap-o tickets to the French Open on the day they were released, with neither a plane ticket or hotel booked, just a dream of Roland Garros clay.  Joe and I talked about going on vacation during Memorial Day weekend and France was batted around, so I impulsively clicked buy when I was able to get the tickets I wanted in my cart.

The next steps: convincing Joe that we should indeed go to Paris (bloody hell, were the plane tickets expensive).  He wanted to see Mont Blanc, so we are headed to Geneva too, then getting out of Switzerland before we have to sell a kidney to pay for our $$ sandwiches, and staying in Chamonix for some mountain hiking and ambling.

This is one epic vacation.  My friend Serena is worried about the fact that neither Joe nor I speak a lick of French.  "Maybe you should keep your expectations low," she said.  Au contraire, my expectations are as high as they could possibly be. 

I spent some time on this BBC website called "Quick Fix French" trying to learn some key phrases.  I tried to speak all the French I learned to Serena, which took about 30 seconds.  All she said was, "Oh no!"

What, no good?  Of course I also have Rosetta Stone French but I was lazy about it and all I know how to say is "Le garcon boit."  The boy drinks.  That will be extremely useful.

I even have the headphones.  Joe came over and worked on a Rosetta Stone lesson where it grades your pronunciation.  He got through the whole thing and then the program cheerfully said "Au revoir!"  "Au revoir," Joe said.  But it wouldn't acknowledge that he had said it correctly.  He kept saying it over and over again, at least 30 times, in a monotone.  "Au revoir, au revoir, au revoir."  Finally he got it right, but I couldn't stop laughing.  "That was the one thing I thought I knew," he said.  Later my roommate Christine asked, "Was Joe saying something in French many times in a row?"

I think the lack of French will be OK, people speak English and we'll muddle through.

To Do:

• Re-read David Sedaris's "Me Talk Pretty One Day" essay.
• I want to do a bike tour or a boat tour on the Seine, thanks to Linda's great advice.
• The usual: Saint Chapelle, The Louvre, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the Latin Quarter, the Musee d'Orsay, the Tuileries Gardens, Le Pompidou, the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees. That might be ambitious.  Maybe Versaille or Giverney.  Again, ambitious.  We will be in Paris for about 5 days.
• Check out a few of the cool restaurants mentioned in that Bon Appetit magazine, or restaurants/patisseries recommended by David Lebovitz.  His book, "The Sweet Life in Paris," is laugh-out-loud funny.  The blurb on the back says, "People are always saying to me, 'It must be so fun to live in Paris!  What do you do all day?' I don't think 'I avoid Parisians' is quite the answer they're expecting."  Ha, I think we will try to avoid talking to Parisians as well to avoid embarrassment on our part.
• I want to stop in at Princesse Tam Tam as inspired by this fun article in Conde Naste Traveler, "Lingerie Shopping in Paris."
• Hike in the Alps and maybe swim in a mountain lake? Is that crazy?

Rain's a Champion

Weekend in Review: Picasso, Bacon and Chevron

Hello there!  How was the weekend?  Hope it was fantastic, and that your Monday wasn't half bad either.

I didn't do much of importance but in the best possible way.  I spent my halfday on Friday at the National Gallery of Art.  I wanted to see the "Picasso's Drawings" exhibit before it closes on May 6, and I highly recommend you do the same.  It's thrilling to see all the different styles Picasso tried out in his early career, starting from his first known work at age 9.  Age 9!  That's like our elementary school art classes when we were drawing houses with chimney stacks and swirly smoke. 

While I was there, I also took a walk through the "I Spy: Photography and Theatre of the Street."  If you are all interested by cities and urban life, this is worth a trip.  I found Bruce Davidson's "Subway" series which captures the horror of the NYC subway system in 1980 so intriguing, because visiting New York now, it's almost impossible to imagine that things could've been that bad, and equally unbelievable that in the span of 20-odd years things turned back around.  The subway cars in Davidson's photos are just absolutely covered in graffiti.  That level of disrepair and neglect is shocking to see.

Remember the bulletin board conundrum in my last post?  I realized I had some white paint, and in the spirit of the white bulletin board in that post, I tried that technique but with chevrons.  I bought some painter's tape and taped them off after reading this chevron-how to.  Good thing this project was practically free, because it didn't turn out so great.  The white paint is splotchy because I'm an uber lazy painter, the tape peeled off some of the cork in places, and in other places the paint leaked under the tape.  Maybe it you are more careful than me it would work.  I need to stop crafting and just buy things.  I don't have the art expertise to make it look good.  But eh, I covered up the problem areas with postcards and Instax photos and Instagram hides a multitude of sins.

I also tried to cook a bit - I made chicken salad and started Joy's Brown Sugar Bacon Biscuits.  I just made the bacon for now, will make the biscuits later...  Joe told me I had to blog about the bacon, guess he liked it.  It was pretty yummy!  My roommate Christine just went vegetarian (she started a fun blog about her journey!), and she snapped this less than appetizing picture, but I promise it was good.  I don't think it tempted her too much though...

47 Park Avenue and Bulletin Board Decision

Over the past two months, I've been following the steady progress of the most amazingly gorgeous home renovation blog, 47 Park Avenue.  The writer/designer/owner doesn't include much text, but the images are so beautiful they'll practically knock you over.

I love how dramatic everything is, with the dark walls and saturated colors, but it's still whimsical and fun.  It's been interesting to see the blogger gradually add furniture, fixtures and decor.  Just when I think it's looking perfectly finished, bam, he'll throw up a stuffed zebra head on the wall.  You definitely have to check out the whole blog, but here are some of my favorite rooms from the home.

OK, so this is about the only thing I can replicate from his home on my particular (read: miniscule) budget - a black corkboard!  This desk layout is sick.

All images from 47 Park Avenue

My mom forced me to clean out my room a few months ago. (My room at my parents' house is just as it was when I was in high school. Completely untouched and authentic.  Sort of like the Julia Child kitchen at the Smithsonian.  It's as though a preteen Adele could walk in at any moment and start playing with a Tamagotchi).  But I realized I could recycle my old high school corkboard at my new apartment.  Here it is:

Gosh, it's embarrassing to even put my photo next to the previous ones, ha. So that's what we're working with at the moment.  The room has all white Ikea furniture, if you can imagine that.  So if I paint the corkboard black, will it be too much, like a scary black hole in the all-white galaxy of my room?

Should I pick something more colorful or use white stripes, like these pretty corkboards here?

Image from This Little Street