Me + Fashion = Jiggawha?

So... I'm going to try to keep this quick since I have to work in the morning (so please forgive any random typoes...)

So I had mentioned that a friend of mine was working Fashion Week... and today I figured I would wander by and check out the scene and maybe have a few drinks nearby with my friend if she was free.

She totally had other plans in mind for me...

Instead, she got me into the main Fashion Week tent and let me roam free while she went to see the Christian Siriano show (the weird little "fierce" guy from "Project Runway"). She told me as long as I looked like I thought I belonged there, it didn't matter that I had no badge and she was right. I wandered around there for a good couple of hours and nobody ever said anything.


So the tent is basically a bunch of booths promoting weird new items, with a couple open bars mixed throughout (which was golden!).

They had wine gals wandering around...


And they had a one main open bar...


I mostly alternated between a delicious red wine from the wine girls and Peronis from the main open bar (since it was Fashion Week I figured I would indulge in the free Italian import beer).

I had been hanging out with a couple of photographers for a while, but they decided to go outside to the back entrance and see if they could catch any stars... (P.S. they got very offended when some French photographers referred to them as "paparazzi")

So after about four glasses of wine and four Peronis, I wandered into the T-Mobile/BlackBerry booth (which of course had its own free bar deep inside in the back). I have a couple free "T-Mobile Sunsets" (which is basically a Madras) and chill there until my friend comes back from the fierce guy's show.

At that point I'm talking to this cute stylist. My friend comes and continues talking to her about fashion-related things and they hit it off. Next thing I know, we're in a New York Fashion Week runway show! Word?

So I got to see Aurelio Costarella's show... which was really neat... since I had never seen a fashion show live before in my life.

Most of the shots of the runway models didn't turn out too well, but this is one of the better ones.
Here's my friend snapping some of her own shots at the show we went to.

Good thing they're pros, or I might be worried that they'll run into each other.
As for celebrities?

I could have sworn one guy I saw was T-Weed from "I Love New York," but the photogs swore up and down he wasn't.

Also, I'm fairly certain Alexis Arquette was in the front row of the fashion show we saw.

I know, I'm busting out the big dogs, right?

While there weren't many big name celebrities inside the tent, I assure you there were plenty of beautiful models wandering around... which was definitely a plus.

Oh yeah also... I almost forgot to mention the booth set up by the Italian Trade Commission highlighting Italian shoes. It reminded of a certainly "worldly" travel with a shoe collection that could make most men tremble :)


On the way out, there were a bunch of fur protesters handing out "in-fur-mation" pamphlets. After mixing and matching several beers, glasses of wine and vodka drinks (I knocked out all three major food groups in one night!) on an empty stomach I wasn't actually kidding when I asked them what the heck "in-fur-mation" was. I was actually confused and figured they needed a new copy editor. I got it later... but long after I had already opened my mouth and asked the question... oh well.

Overall, that trip to Fashion Week went a lot better than my one earlier in the week, which ended with a police officer telling me to scram. I had wandered/stumbled to Bryant Park from a bar late Monday night and all the tents and stuff were all closed up so I was exploring around outside... until a police officer told me the park was closed and to get the heck out of there, so I did.

On that note though... it is way past my bed time.

P.S. Have I mentioned that I absolutely love this city yet? Word.

...

G'night!

A Real "KFC" - a Kentucky Fried Call to action!

I stumbled upon this today and just about messed myself...

KFC has an ongoing petition online to get a real Col. Sanders stamp!


Then I won't have to affix miniature portraits of him over those dumb Liberty Bells myself when I mail my letters anymore.

The Liberty Bell, I mean come on. Who thought of that one anyway? It's old, busted and definitely did not provide the world with the best fried chicken recipe known to man. Hopefully this petition will help rectify that situation.

So I went and saw a Mets game at Shea Stadium with a buddy this weekend, which was pretty cool. They'll be tearing it down after this season, so I wanted to see the old girl before she gets busted up like the Phillies' potential shutout Sunday. Just because we got served, doesn't mean I won't talk trash. We played the Phillies and indeed got poned, but it was still fun.


The new stadium, Citi Field (nice ring to it, right?), is right next door. You can actually see it on the right of the picture. I guess the name is better than something like "McDonald'" field, or something blatant like that. If you're not reading it, it's not obvious that the name is in reference to Citigroup.

I really wanted to get my picture taken with Mr. Met, this is about as close as I got to meeting him...

I know, it looks like a snapshot from the Zapruder film or something. And yes, in case you're wondering, Mr. Met is armed in this photo and taking aim at fans... with a shirt cannon.

I wonder if he shot a shirt point blank at the guy who wrote this fascinating article about him. We still love you Mr. Met, no matter what your lifestyle choices are.

Also, an old friend from the Oracle is in town and working Fashion Week, which is really cool. We watched the USF-UCF game in Times Square and played catch up, which was a lot of fun.

UCF fans (NSFW - definition 2, hehe...) can't quite figure out that they just can't win and have apparently resorted to threatening our QB... they really are just the pinnacle of class... ridiculous.

The friend who's working Fashion Week is blogging about the experience, so you should check it out... I'll put it in the little blogroll to the right.

Oh yeah, so my brother and his wife got me an iTunes gift card for my birthday, so now whenever I hear some random song anywhere, I can go pick it up and still have money left for the next song that gets stuck in my head... today I used it to buy my favorite Aretha Franklin song ever... "Freeway of Love." I've been told she has a couple others, but this one is where it's at...

Aretha Franklin - Freeway Of Love

Word... that ish takes a little while to load, but believe me it's worth it...

P.S. My library is lame, the outside book drop is locked shut and you have to wait in line to return books. There is no drop off place even inside. That's some white wheat right there. They also have pretty limited hours... which can cause trouble... oh well.

Not-so-open house and some fun museums...

So... anyone want to guess how many neighbors came to the open house?

I'll give you a hint... zero. Yes, zero, which is kind of weak, but what are you going to do?

Lisa and I had a blast anyway. Also, an old friend from high school who is going to Columbia now came by and we basically all just hang out and drank all night... it was tons of fun.

Some highlights from the evening include:

* repairing the Atari and rocking some insane Warlords and Combat action
* calling my friend in Colorado and asking him to pretend he was Meatloaf on speaker phone to help me win some sort of bet... he was pretty darned confused
* Watched Captain EO, of course (Part 1 on YouTube, Part 2 on YouTube)
* Rocked to the soundtracks from both Dirty Dancing and Footloose

Those are just a few of the random highlights from the well-behaved evening that lacked debauchery of all kinds. I swear it.

After waking up Sunday, none to early I assure you, Lisa and I walked to The Cloisters which is right near my apartment.

Put simply, it is a museum focused on medieval art... but the twist is that the museum itself is built from parts of monasteries torn down in France (and I think one in Austria too). Yup, J.D. Rockefeller Jr. was just plain rich enough that in the '30s he was able to afford to tear down precious history in France, ship it to Manhattan, harvest his favorite parts and have his own monastery built.

It gave me a special sense of pride to know that the museum I was enjoying in my neighborhood was built at the expense of history elsewhere.

Also, many of the sculptures and statues are missing arms and forearms, like the "Figure of a King" below. All I could think of when I saw each one was "they could rectify the situation with some chainsaws, a la Ash in Army of Darkness. Word?...


"Say hello to the twenty-first century!"

I bet if that king had chainsaws for arms, nobody would give him crap for being a cheapskate and bringing Myrrh anymore... nobody would mess with him at all.

Maybe they could put him at the entrance of the museum to scare people into donating more money on the way in. The admission is a "suggested" donation of $20... but thats of course suggested, right? As we were paying, a guy tried to walk in without a donation and he was accosted by the guards who curtly explained that he had better pay some sort of donation or go back from whence he came.

So after the Cloisters, we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they're doing this crazy special exhibition - Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy. It was pretty strange to say the least. They took classic superheroes, like Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, etc... and had crazy designers make outfits "inspired" by each hero. You know, the kind of designer clothes that nobody could ever possibly wear... at least not since the '80s.

This stuff was just off the wall... but it was vaguely entertaining and pretty funny to stroll through the exhibit. Plus, they did have some original costumes on display too, like a Batman costume from The Dark Knight and a Spider-Man costume from the recent movies.

They didn't allow pictures at all (the guards seemed angry to be there), so these are taken from around the Internet.

Spidey's outfits were some of the less ridiculous of the bunch.

These are a couple of the outfits "inspired" by Wonder Woman's costume (the Lynda Carter one from the '70s). In case you were wondering, yes - those are indeed Coke cans on tops of the heads. I actually burst out laughing when I saw these ones. I shouldn't be allowed in some museums.

Iron Man was another who got the fashion treatment. I swear, apparently all of these outfits were worn by models on the runway at some point... weird.

Imagine wearing this Batman-inspired gem to a job interview... or maybe the airport?...

Who needs hands anyway, right?

This Hulk-inspired mess would turn some heads...

Apparently Hulk symbolizes masculinity in its purest form, so the designer figured he would add a big protruding penis to the outfit. I might try this one on a casual Friday at the office.
If you follow this link and look around, you can actually click on the comic book covers and look at a whole lot more of the crazy outfits.