Why the Delay and then Off and Away

Sorry chickies! If you've been checking back here every so often hoping for updates and finding only the Marc Jacobs skunk yet again, please bear with me as I've got good reason. Two reasons actually:

ONE -
I'm a Contributor for Racked.com - which has always been one of many blog addictions.

TWO -My tax refunds arrived and I'm running with them before my college loans gulp them down whole. For the next two weeks starting today, I'm traveling very jetset with only a carry-on to various points in Asia. I promise, if everything syncs correctly, to blog updates from the orient. As it stands now, I've jotted pages of recommendations from friends and favorite blogs on how to do as the locals (including where is the best chargrilled squid leg-on-a-stick). Looky here let's get this straight-- I'm no tourist. I got museum-heavy jaunts and backpacking out of my system in Europe years ago. I've grown into leisurely absorption of culture through immersion and complete giving over of myself. Is it possible to go native in 2 weeks? I am sure as hell going to try.

IN GOTHAM: Marc Jacobs skunk looking lonely

In an effort to welcome spring (or more specifically, the money you're spending on spring clothing) and herald the return of the tourists, the Marc for Marc Jacobs store is offering free photos with their resident skunk-in-the-window. No stranger to the furry game, MJ's windows are now almost solidly covered with charmingly awkward images of you, your perfectly-coiffed family, and all your too cool friends pinching their noses or smelling the roses.

But when night falls on Bleecker St, Mr. Skunk sits alone and abandoned in his herbaceous aquarium. This is the perfect time to show the skunk some love...around 7.30pm to be more exact, which is just after the skunk's busy hour of posing with local dogs on their evening walks. I stopped in Friday night to show some support for the poor hipster forced to wear the costume.

ALSO!!! This is my 50th post!!! So it's a long one - deal.

Skunkless at 8.30:

My Top 5 Picks from the MJ windows:

1. Best ever.
2. Her eyes literally caught my attention from 5' away
3. It's as simple as they hold the record for the most people squashed into one photo: 8 + skunk
4. Cutest of all the dog pictures; he is obviously distracted by something outside the window
5. Forget the skunk playing with the baby, the kid in the red jacket has a future in modeling.
...and this one is a bonus, from my private collection ;) I'll take it!

RESTAURANT WEEK 08: Boston's turn

Unlike New York City, with our cadre of very now/very booked-up restaurants, Boston extends their Restaurant Week to include Sundays. Thus intrigued, I hopped the Chinatown bus for the weekend to see what was popping on both sides of the Charles.

Sunday brunch we opted for Dante Restaurant in Cambridge. For once I thought here is a restaurant named only for its acclaimed chef Dante de Magistris, and not after Dante the poet. But no, they went there. We indulged in the $20 restaurant week "Inferno Brunch:" assorted breads, arugula salad with lemon, capers and cheese, blueberry polenta pancakes, and the classic eggs benedict. Also worth noting is that they served Lavazza coffee--a bonus which instantly makes me take the place to heart. Altogether, Dante was a pleasant and filling brunch with a great view of the Charles. But coming from NY where brunch rules, it's hard to impress me and I found myself longing for the unlimited cocktails of Nero.

Dinner took a more traditional turn, as we passed the colonial row houses of Beacon Hill for our anticipated meal at the Beacon Hill Bistro. Like Dante it's within a hotel, which is perfect for me because it happens that hotels are another of my obsessions. Our choices from the $33 restaurant week dinner menu were:

1. Salade Pois Chiches a la Provencal with olive oil, poached tuna, and pink cara cara orange (Xy had the Salade Saucisson with housemade sausage, fingerling potatoes, and shallot vinaigrette)
2. Newburyport Skate Wing Meuniere with ratatouille and pistou (Xy had Lemon and Rosemary Chicken Fricasee with hand-cut egg noodles)
3. "Award-winning" chocolate macaroons (Xy had the Clafoutis of pineapple)

For me, skate wing is an immediate attraction on a menu. I can't help but order it...and savor it...and rave about it to the next table, all the while trying to remember what the hell skate is. The courses were very good, but again nothing extraordinary or even exotic enough to be worth our stumbling through ordering with correct pronunciation. Our drinks were another story: an excellent/ perfect/ simply heavenly Dirty Martini for Xy, and a heady Brandy Alexander for me.

I think it's fair to say that I get weird over Restaurant Weeks. The release of reservations on opentable for the meals makes me anxious for days. It even brings me to do crazy things like fly back from Boston an hour before work on Monday. But that's how I roll.

I SAW IT FIRST: Metallic shirt, dressy vest, skinny artsy dude

(Christian photo: Fashionista.com)

Imagine my surprise when, while reading Fashionista as usual, I see the photo of Project Runway's Christian (on the right) and immediately think of the outfit I styled a year ago for my favorite performance artist/friend J (on the left).

Yes, it's true. While still living in Chicago I made a quick trip to NY and stumbled upon the MJ sale, scoring a silver mens shirt made of Tyvek for J. Shortly after, J had a show at a gallery and I styled the outfit he's wearing there - dark jeans, the silver metallic MJ shirt, and black formal vest. He's also sporting D&G glasses exactly like Christian's, and he formerly had hair of the same...inspiration.

So there we go. I saw it first - the whole winning combination of metallic shirt, dress vest, those glasses and a skinny/artsy/fierce dude to wear it to a hot gallery opening.

Ugh-- in less direct lighting, the Tyvek shirt really looks awesome --like a cousin of duct tape.

Honeyshed is QVC with flyer kiks

I have just spent the last two hours RIVETED by this new infomercial/videocast thing - Honeyshed. OK so the products they push are kind of random - everything from limited edition Air Force Ones to $5 disposable thongs, but their demographic is just right. They're targeting those kids sitting in front of their laptops bored, with a sense of style and credit cards newly minted. All in all, it's kind of like a video version of highsnobiety/highsnobette and nitrolicious...but with more wayfarers and side ponytails (if that's even possible).

My favorite short product pitch was for a houndstooth Yankees cap. It quickly evolved into the history of houndstooth, into Scotland, into Sean Connery as 007, and finally wound up into James Bond impressions. And their "Pok vs. Fly" feature is hilarious!!!

Check out a few more screenshots below. In the one right below...the host on the right says "Ooh you are looking like you drive a Ferrari. I get the Ferrari vibe from you." And the "guest" on the right responds: "I drive a Maserati. To my Ferrari." It was perfect and I laughed out loud.

I don't know where they find these people. Probably on the bench outside the American Apparel on Houston.

STRAIGHT TRIPPIN: Boston for no good reason

I know I'm doing you a disservice, but there won't be any posts this weekend as I'm off on my quarterly random weekend in Boston. Fung Wah-ing it there, and JetBlue back first thing Monday morn so I can get in some light Restaurant Week action Sunday night.

And if by chance you wondered why I had fallen off the edge of the earth between end of February - early March...well, I blame that week absence on a hardcore Scrabulous binge.

I SAW IT FIRST: Shiny Black Leggings

I just have to put this out there: I totally did the shiny black legging thing before Lindsay Lohan, Rihanna, and surprisingly even before American Apparel. Mine are what would be called "vintage H&M," and I believe the last time I rocked them was in Sept 07 at A60. Now that it's a trend, I might have to retire them. Ditto for the silver metallic-woven tights from the Anna Sui F/W 07 runway, which I have as Calvin Klein from 02!
Via Jezebel.