patience

pa·tience
Pronunciation: 'pA-sh&n(t)s
Function: noun
1 : the capacity, habit, or fact of being patient

pa·tient
Pronunciation: 'pA-sh&nt
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English pacient, from Anglo-French, from Latin patient-, patiens, from present participle of pati to suffer; perhaps akin to Greek pEma suffering
1 : bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint
2 : manifesting forbearance under provocation or strain
3 : not hasty or impetuous
4 : steadfast despite opposition, difficulty, or adversity
5 a : able or willing to bear -- used with of b : SUSCEPTIBLE, ADMITTING
- pa·tient·ly adverb

now is not a good time.

very very soon there will be new pictures, new tales of new adventures.

i might even actually write for once, might start getting mildly poetic and muse about the sting of cold air in your lungs on a winter morning, how it's painful and just so cold, but somehow oddly beautiful, because you're suddenly fully aware that you're alive, that you're an organism, an animal whose base instinct is to survive, and your body instantly adjusts your breathing so that you're sucking air in short raspy intakes, through the mouth, through the teeth, even, to warm the air as it enters, and how on bright days like these the sun seems so precious, so distant, and your heart stirs like you're looking at a former lover, and you want to say come closer, please come closer, warm me like you used to, remember august? how i exposed myself to you and your heat, how i closed my eyes and basked in your presence without ever burning? why can't things be like they used to be? but you just tuck your chin into your scarf and dream of bed and the down comforter that may be the best thing you ever purchased in your entire life.

i might do that, and lots of other things, but not today. today is not the day.

blow me, baby, it's cold outside

{image via nymag.com}

when i get my hair done in my neighborhood, i go to mi salon where a super sweet dominican woman named jauna tugs and pulls and scorches my curls until they're super shiny and super straight with just the tiniest flip at the bottom. but mi salon closes at like 6:30 or something and i'm never home before 7pm.

so i'm always on the lookout for a late blow out. (sounds so so filthy!)

anyway. last year i tried red market, where a frenchy frenchman spun pin straight locks in record time, for about $60. that's more than double the price of mi salon, but i had a glass of wine and practiced my français in a loft with eurotechno playing.

last night i went to blow. it's all pink and cute inside, and my stylist took her time, was very gentle, used a low setting, didn't tug, also used a flat iron, and got my hair to be stick straight in under an hour. while she was working i was thinking this is never going to work, where's the pulling, the pain? but my hair is mad straight, yo. and again, $60 price tag. but i'm going to a party tonight and that is how i roll.

so around this time of the year it's possible to OD on christmas songs and fall to the ground in a seizure-like state. but there's one winter song i never get sick of, and that's "baby it's cold outside".

i'm probably one of the few people my age who has actually seen neptune's daughter, in which esther williams and ricardo montalban sing it to each other. (that's because i love musicals, swimming and AMC.)

anyhoo, over at falalalala.com they're got 14 different versions, and i downloaded them all.

my faves:

ella fitzgerald - baby it's cold outside

doris day & bing crosby - baby it's cold outside

louis armstrong - baby it's cold outside

cold feet

do you work in an office?

what's the temperature like?

some days it's so freaking cold here i wish i had my comforter. and i don't have a regular comforter, i have the ultra warmth kind designed for people who live in maine or wherever. sure, sometimes i have feverdreams and wake up sweating, but it's worth it.

i also sleep in llama hair socks i got in peru. i read that warm socks help you fall asleep and i believe it. when my feet are cold it's all i can think about.

and you know what?

my feet are cold RIGHT NOW.

i might get some forty belows.

"this taco bell tastes like crap."

yawn, i got nothin.

um... bicycle-related tattoos, anyone?



oh - and i took a fun quiz yesterday:










like i said. i got nothin. maybe later.

urban cinderella

oh, adidas. how i adore you.

and this new ad tugs at my fairy-tale loving heartstrings:



the prince woos her with adidas. so sweet, so hot.

stubborn.

they finally moved the intrepid, but i liked that she refused to budge at first. she was all, you want to drag me to new jersey? hell no! and she just dug herself into the mud.

random pix here.

you say goodbye i say hello

so what's broken on my camera is the zoom.

i can take pictures, but i can't zoom in or out. SIGH.

right.

so friday was world AIDS day and i went to an event at 401 projects hosted by iman with lenny and zoë kravitz.





that happens to be amy smart's back.







the exhibit is called bloodline and features absolutely stunning photographs by kristen ashburn. highly recommended - the images are presented on large lightboxes and they're just breathtaking. the show is up for a while, try to catch it.

there was also a silent auction of photographs, all of them amazing, but the price points were too high for lil ol me. hopefully some money was raised, though.

i ran into a few people - my old intern who now works at bwr,



tsuyoshi's aussie pal maria,



and greg, a photographer i met about 5 years ago when we went on a trip to the DC area to shoot boys in unsigned bands... super fun.

saturday i had a mega shopping marathon - bloomingdale's, john derian, and all up and down bleecker st.



sunday night was goodbye naughty nnadi. safe travels!

dear sandy claws...

holiday gift guide time!

here's what NOT to give:

fish n flush

barbie doll dog who eats poop

jay-z doll

i can't believe hova approved this figure. soooo unflattering. the jeans and the sneakers are hot, though.

eff it

so you know how when celebrities go to runway shows, they wear something by the designer who's showing?

check out what kanye west did when he attended (and performed) at an event for fendi in tokyo:




{via fashion week daily}

every day is like sunday

so yeah, lots of stuff to say and not a lot of energy...

last night i bid farewell to the lovely nnadi, who's going home to the UK for christmas and new year's, and then to study yoga in india for a few months. this means that i was drinking champagne on a school night and didn't upload any of my pictures from the weekend. also? my camera is broken. again. this time like maybe like for real. it hurts to even type that! i heart taking pictures. anyways. here's some stuff to make up for the fact that this is a crappy post:

new york magazine's do-it-yourself approval matrix

traffic in india: ebb and flow

shocking art project

more later i swear.

the jewel of the smile

so last night was the reception for gabriel urist jewelry.

gabe makes hot ass custom bling for high brow sneakerheads, basketball fans and hip hop heads.

lots of nike, but i'm an adidas girl. i asked him if maybe we could get some fleetwoods or shelltoes. he said, it's coming, it's coming. and he smiled. watch out for this guy, he's the new ish!



poo's been helping gabe get the showroom ready.




tsuyoshi and edna love jewelry.




for the ladies.




air max.



new balance.




mink!




workhorse poured me some champipple.




matt daddy!




edna likes people watching.




erica! formerly of organic grooves.



















workhorse had the brazilliant idea of ordering a post party pizza at lombardi's. we took it to a chess table in the park on chrystie street and ate it all up. everyone loves unseasonable warmth!

randomness

yay, randomness. so hot right now.

absolut bling

bubble bar

faux woodgrain fingernailtips


quote of the day:

"A woman who does not wear perfume has no future." -- Coco Chanel

the holidays - a time to give

listen, at this time of the year it's important to think about those who are needy, i mean really really in need of help.

please click here to donate.

coney island (as you know it) r.i.p.

it's hard for me to tell you how much this saddens me.



Coney Island's Tilt-A-Whirl Has Final Spin After Sale

By Alan Mirabella
Nov. 29 (Bloomberg)

Say goodbye to Coney Island's Astroland Amusement Park.

Brooklyn's famous seaside park, which has offered thrills
to generations of New Yorkers, was bought by a developer and
will close at the end of the 2007 summer season, according to a
statement released yesterday by the sellers, the Albert family.

Thor Equities LLC, a closely held real estate developer
based in New York, is planning a $1.5 billion year-round resort
in Coney Island that will include a 4,000-foot-long (1,219-
meter-long) roller coaster, an indoor water park with a
retractable roof and a multilevel carousel. The idea of
investing in Coney Island came to Thor Chief Executive Officer
Joseph Sitt while he was jogging through his childhood
neighborhood about three years ago.

``As I jogged, I was thinking, `What an opportunity,''' the
native Brooklynite said. ``We're by the ocean. This is gold.
This is where amusements were invented.'' Buying the 3.1-acre
(1.3-hectare) Astroland property will bolster his development
plans, he said in an interview.

Astroland features rides including the Cyclone roller
coaster and the Tilt-A-Whirl, a water flume, bumper cars and
three arcades with games of chance. It has been operated by the
Albert family since it opened in 1962. No price was disclosed
for the transaction. As part of the deal, the Alberts retained
the Astroland business and said in the statement they may re-
open in another location in Coney Island.

`Difficult' Decision

``The decision to close Astroland was very difficult,''
said Carol Hill Albert, who owns Astroland with her husband
Jerome. Dewey Albert, Jerome's father, opened the park.

Converting an area as large as Astroland into an all-year
attraction is extremely expensive, and the sale was the only
logical alterative, she said.

The Alberts will continue to operate the landmark Cyclone
roller coaster, which will be 80 years old next year.

Coney Island's beach and amusement parks have attracted millions
of people over more than 100 years. Before Astroland, Steeplechase
Park opened in 1897 with an attraction known as the Steeplechase
Ride, in which visitors rode wooden horses around the Pavilion of
Fun, according to the History of Amusement Parks Web site.

The locale has been featured in several movies, including
Woody Allen's ``Annie Hall.'' In a flashback, Allen's alter-ego,
Alvy Singer, revisits his childhood home under a Coney Island
roller coaster. In October, the Coney Island Film Festival had
its sixth anniversary.

`Magical Place'

``Coney Island was this magical place,'' New York author
Gay Talese said in an interview. ``It wasn't just a place to get
a hot dog. It had so much open sky. It was a place you could
experience liberty.''

Talese said he visited Coney Island in the late 1940s when
it had a ``true carnival atmosphere.'' While plans for
development may reinvent the area, there is a risk that it will
become ``unrecognizable from what it once was,'' he said.

Dick Zigun, director of Coney Island USA, a nonprofit group
dedicated to preserving the area's carnival traditions, said
Astroland and the Albert family helped keep Coney Island alive at a
time when many shopkeepers and amusement operators had abandoned it.
``Astroland was a place where not a single light bulb was
burned out, there was never any graffiti and never a crack in
the sidewalk,'' Zigun said.

Lynn Kelly, president of the Coney Island Development
Corp., said that New York City is committed to revitalizing
Coney Island as a ``year-round entertainment district.''
``Astroland and the Albert family have helped define Coney
Island's unique character over the last half-century,'' Brooklyn
Borough President Marty Markowitz said in a statement.

Tim Janus, 29, the world's seventh-ranked competitive eater
and a participant in the last Fourth of July hot dog eating
contests at Nathan's Famous restaurant on the Coney Island
boardwalk, promised a hunger strike in protest.
``To see Astroland going, that's a huge blow,'' Janus said.
``It's got a special place in my heart.''

--With reporting by David M. Levitt, Bob Ivry, Sharon L. Crenson
and Peter S. Green in New York.