NYC, I love you

This is the best movie I have seen in quite some time. Partially because of the love affair I have been having with NYC lately, partially because it is just such a great movie.

It is a series of vignettes about everything: pickpockets and hookers, the suicidal and the in love, composers and professors, painters and corner store employees, high school proms and nosy local pharmacists. It is a tribute to the ability of pure random chance mixed with millions of outstanding individuals to create magic events, personal connections, and the little moments that make living everyday here a life.

Some of the stories intertwine. Some remain blissfully isolated in their plot line. Each excerpt is directed separately and has a separate cast, yet they come together as a striking narrative about life in a city so diverse and wonderful as NYC.

It boasts an all star cast, featuring young heart throbs Hayden Christensen, Bradley Cooper, Orlando Bloom, and Shia LaBeouf. They are complemented by an equally dazzling cast of lovely lady counterparts such as Christina Ricci, Natalie Portman, Rachel Bilson, Drea de Matteo and Blake Lively. Andy Garcia, Robin Wright Penn, Ethan Hawke, and Chris Cooper lend their seasoned acting chops to round out the beautiful but young talent with some serious skill and experience.

I contemplated my life, my relationships, the magnificence of random encounters, and the despair of missed opportunities. I left the theatre refreshed and ready to run out and buy the movie on DVD just to watch it again. Not many movies make you want to do that!

This has to be true

Whenever I have an Interview

I reach for my pearls. I'm really not sure why. Is it some vestige of the idea that pearls are for the nice, the proper, and those fit to wield power in society who are also therefore, worthy of a job?

Probably not. Is it because of how incredibly classy they make me feel? Maybe a little.

Or is it because of their unstoppable luster and beauty that makes me recall their source: the Majorcan Islands of Spain, and the wonderful women who gifted them to me as a reward for finishing my Master's coursework?

A little bit of both. I own several pearl jewelry items, and all are made of Majorcan pearls. I am partial to them because of my time spent in Spain. My fondness for the time I spent studying abroad there makes them seem superior to all other pearls. It makes me recall what a challenge it was to get by for six months in a country whose language I did not grow up speaking, and how I made it through. It makes me think of the strong, proud, selfless mother and sister who gave them to me, and the great accomplishment I received them for. They're like a little pat on my back that gets me ready for a challenging day.

Al Roker Pranks ME at the Wax Museum

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I recently visited Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum with my sister, cousin, and grandmother. I live in NYC, but my guilty pleasure is doing touristy stuff like this whenever I get the chance, and I really wanted to see what it was all about.

When you walk into the first room, it's unsettling. All of the wax figures in the exact size and likeness of famous people are posed around the room, obviously not moving, just staring. It makes you feel as if you are being watched by many eyes, and that they could jump to life at any moment. In the first few rooms, we were a little nervous around the characters, puzzling about who some of them were, but maintaining our distance, and evaluating which ones looked more lifelike than others. I mean, what else are you supposed to talk about in a wax museum?

We had toured the first three floors of the wax museum, posing with historical figures, movie stars, and singers for fun. Then we enter some of the last rooms. By this point, we are totally comfortable with the unnerving similarity these wax people have to actual humans. I stand puzzling at how lifelike Al Roker is, examining his figure. You'll see in the clip, he really does look like he's made of wax. Then I notice he looks like he is sweating, and marvel aloud about how they managed to make Al Roker's wax person look sweaty. Then, SURPRISE! He's a real person, and it was caught on hidden camera-lol-always how I wanted to make my television debut.

Many of my friends and relatives called and texted me today to tell me that I was on the TODAY show, and I knew the clip had finally aired. I'm the one talking about how sweaty he looks. It was hilarious at the time, and still a funny story to tell, we all laughed all day about what a good scare he gave us.

AND I learned a fun fact. Madame Tussaud's wax figures are made out of a special wax blend so that when they become warm they do not melt, but release beads of sweat, very similar to human perspiration. Go figure, even if he was wax, Al Roker still could have been sweating.

In Case you Haven't heard

JIMMY CHOO IS PAIRING WITH H&M TO MAKE A SHOE LINE!!!

Which means that we all will be able to afford these masterpieces for the feet. Jimmy Choo is one of the designer labels that every girl I know hopes she will one day be able to afford. Now, thanks to the recession and H&M's never ending quest to move up the fashion ranks from budget priced cute clothes into higher fashion (read more expensive) classy items, WE CAN!

Nothing in the line is over $300 dollars, and it will be available in all stores November 14th (only 11 short days away!!). There are men's and women's clothing, shoes, bags, and accessories.

Images that have leaked to the internet include over the knee leather boots, the heels pictured here (image courtesy of H&M), a suede dress, some zebra print items, and at least one jumpsuit. I've heard it's all pretty 80's, and that makes me pretty excited. Although there is one fringed dress that I think is crossing the line.

Although I still prefer Christian Louboutin shoes, maybe he'll be next to pair with H&M!

Long Walk, short purpose

Today I decided to walk home from Port Authority to my apartment on the Upper East Side. It was nice out, I had free time, and fairly comfortable walking shoes, and not a lot else I felt like doing. On the way I noticed several really beautiful little moments in the city while I moseyed along and everyone else rushed by me on their lunch breaks and cigarette breaks.

I looked stopped and looked up (noticing one of the water towers i just blogged about) and on the black background of a building a black and yellow butterfly sat there flexing its wings and looking very relaxed and beautiful amidst the rush of the city. Turns out, it was s black swallowtail butterfly.

Previous to that I walked through Bryant Park. They were in the process of setting up the ice rink and Christmas shops. I noticed that each little booth starts out with just a plain unfinished wood board floor. I passed several couples sitting and working on their cubbies that would be their livelihood and selling homes for the next month or so until Christmas. One was painting the boards a high gloss purple. Another girl was on all fours, painstakingly laying down self adhesive pieces of what looked like imitation wood parquet tiles. Another was just varnishing the floors with what smelled like polyurethane.

I found it quite striking how much time these people were spending on just the floors of their booths, although after thinking about it, the little details make it all more appealing. They didn't even have the lighting or wares set up yet. It was fun to see the mini-construction projects being laid out all next to each other, and interesting to see the attention to detail that the artistic eye can hold. I know that I will be paying much more attention to the floors, ceilings, and setups in the holiday shops after seeing this little behind the scenes peek at how much work goes into setting up such a tiny little booth.

Water Towers in NYC

I don't know if you've ever taken a minute to look up and notice the water towers all over NYC. Well, if you haven't, now you will see them wherever you go. I started noticing them about 2 years ago when I was looking for apartments in Manhattan for the very first time. I peppered my real estate broker with questions about them, since I had never seen them before. He didn't know anything about them, and seemed rather perplexed about why I was so curious.

Now, whenever I spot one, it's like a game of where's waldo. I instantly start to notice the others dotted around the skyline atop buildings. Apparently it all started in the 1800's when NYC started requiring that water towers be built atop all buildings over 6 stories to prevent the need for high pressure systems at low elevations that result in burst pipes and messy situations for the fire department to deal with. The reason that you don't see them on top of every building is that many buildings created facades or glorified little boxes around the tower to help the tower blend with the rest of the building.

In 2006, Tribeca still required water towers atop all buildings. There are only 2 companies that make water towers in NYC, both evolved from family owned barrel making businesses starting when the need for water towers arose with the height of the city. An interesting fact that I found on wikipedia is that no sealant is used in these towers, but a barrel making technique of wood strapped together by cables. When the tower is first filled, the water drips out around the edges of the wood planks, but once the wood becomes totally saturated it expands, closing off the gaps and sealing the tower. The top portion of the water is used for drinking water for the building and the rest is held in reserve for fires. Once the water level drops below a certain line, a pump kicks into a public water line and fills the tower back up.

I don't know why I find this so fascinating, but I do. I am quite sad that my building only has 5 floors so I can't pop onto the roof and get a look at a tower, up close and personal.