In case you were worried

Just in case anyone was worried, it took me the week to fall in love with New York City all over again. (Though I still can't abide by people walking too slowly in front of me. Not that I ever could.) Of course, my audition is tomorrow and then it's back to Ithaca and the daily grind. I'll see you when I see you but I do hope it is sooner rather than later.


{racked, plateoftheday}


{roboppy, benjaminsiegel}


{wholu, roboppy}


{manhattan street project, nytimes}


{manhattan street project}


{jpellgen, revengingangel}

Regards,
Freddie

P.S. I adore this blog I just found.

Don't Call Your Wife "Baby"

So, yesterday (ok, two days ago if you want to get technical since it's after midnight) I went to dinner and the theater with my parents, the perfect excuse to wear my new 1950s dress from the vintage show ;) We saw David Mamet's Oleanna. It was good, though more of a credit to the writing than the actors I think. Mamet's language is incredibly tough (so many short phrases and interruptions) and I could feel Stiles and Pullman struggling with it in the first scene. However, as the play progressed, they picked up the pace and I was fairly impressed with both of their performances, especially by Stiles because I think I expected her not to be very good and she did a nice job. What makes the play so interesting (the whole thing takes place in the Professor's office and only between these two characters) is the intricate power relationship depicted and how it is so carefully manipulated by Stiles' character Carol. It's amazing how a mere accusation can destroy a career. We actually had a talk back with Benjamin Brafman, a big shot lawyer, after the show (run by the very funny Lionel) which was really interesting. Stephanie March was slated to be at the talk back too and wasn't which was kind of a bummer.

Anyway, you don't really care about all that, do you? ;)

You care about this:



{vintage dress, mom's belt, vintage dooney and burke bag, mom's tights (which didn't stay up very well... haha), shoes purchased by mom at housing works for $6}

And my new glasses from Fabulous Fanny's circa the 1960s, and made in France!

Also should have taken a heel close up for you. I rarely wear heels and in theory I would love to wear them more, but in practice, well, probably not so much. These are a little big (my mom's feet are a tad bigger than mine) but were just so perfect with this outfit ;)

Anyway, these pictures were taken an hour or two before it suddenly became winter in NYC. Then today, boy was the weather nasty! I thought I left Ithaca for the week. haha. Though apparently, we had the first snowfall in Ithaca today and I missed it! ... Which I kind of don't mind considering it's October. I'll catch the next one ;P

However, the weather didn't prevent me from getting the pinkberry I planned on indulging in today. So good. And they have a new policy- instead of separate prices per number of toppings (and the max is 3) you pay one price for the size and flavor of yogurt and can get as many as will fit in the cup! I got four toppings :D

I also had a mini reunion with a bunch of the Public Theater crew from the summer up at Barnard this evening to see Tartuffe (yep I not only brought the weather back from college for my break, I also saw college theater, haha). One of the twinterns was stage managing and the other had designed the set. It was great to see everyone and the production was a fun spin on the classic, but the set was definitely the highlight of the show-- it was awesome!

Regards,
Freddie

p.s. If you ever needed more food porn in your life (and I mean, who doesn't) go to this site. It's amazing. It even generally links to recipes (which are generally on foodie blogs, aka love) so if you're really ambitious you can make the food yourself! ;)


{tastespotting.com}

p.p.s. What on earth is going on with facebook?? Did somebody just hack it?? :o

My Mother's Closet

I am incredibly lucky to have a very chic and stylish mother who is almost exactly the same size as me. I've always liked borrowing her clothes, and as I've gotten older there's more I want to, and can, borrow, and we even have a couple of items that were purchased with the intent to share. Though I must say that's a bit difficult when I'm up in Ithaca and she's in New York City.

The most recent spin on this is that, lately, mi madre has been showing up places wearing my clothes! When she and my papa came to see me in my show, mama appeared in an old jacket of mine I had left at home. It looked better on her than it ever did on me, so I guess you win some and lose others, haha. Then, when I got home this week, she was wearing a threadless tee of mine, also left at home, but only because of a small, but noticeable, stain. Her comment? "Still perfectly acceptable for doing the laundry in" haha. My mom and I also get along rather well if you haven't guessed. It's nice ;)

Anyway, being home for a week does mean I can take advantage of her wardrobe, and I'm certainly doing my best!

Also, my camera has got itself on some sort of setting where it automatically takes three pictures in a row (I should figure out how to turn this on and off when I want to, haha) and I thought this sequence was kind of priceless.

"Yeah... taking a picture."


"Oh hey camera, are you done?"


"Yep, I guess so!"
haha

{Mom's jacket, mom's scarf, AG jeans - a hand-me down for mom, vintage boots, vintage Dooney and Burke bag from the vintage show, vintage hat from Cheap Jack's a few years ago}

Some of the clothes I borrow my incredibly generous mother will let me keep or I will borrow for an, erm... extremely extended period of time so they sort of just become mine, haha. Though I know there are some things I am not allowed to do that with and this jacket is one of them. It will forever be on my wish list but never mine ;)

The day I wore this, my mom was actually wearing my jacket (the same one I mentioned above), a pair of my brown corduroys I had given her (see, it works both ways!) because they fit her better, and my scarf. We actually swapped scarves as we were walking out of the house because we realized the other person's scarf went better with our respective outfits ;) I had been wearing this one (1st outfit post flashback, that hat too!) because it was the only one I brought home from school.

You can also see how long my hair has gotten! Eegads! And we have some pre and post bang trim action going on over here.


"Oh hi, it's windy"


"This is kinda fun!"


"Ok! I take that back! Time to go home!"

{uniqlo jacket purchased as a "share" item with mom, target dress and leggings, orva boots, matt & nat bag - another self imposed permanent hand-me down from mom haha}

Also, today I purchased something I've been wanting for a while... and perhaps it will help rekindle my desire to take outfit photos? And inspire more outfits? Maybe? We'll see. Anyway, he's nothing fancy but he'll sure do the trick, and the price was pretty good too!

And uh... there may or not be another purchase or two in that picture... the new H&M is right next to the 4/5/6 train stop at 86th street. It's cruel! Good thing that didn't happen until after I went to college.

Also went to dinner and saw Oleanna with the parents tonight- more on that tomorrow!

Regards,
Freddie

Blue Cocoon

Have you ever come across a photographer who's work just makes your heart stop when you see it? Well, going through my favorite etsy sellers (mostly to look at vintage clothing) last night, I did. Obviously I knew what I was doing when I favorited this girl way back whenever, because her work is completely enthralling. It is ethereal and mystical, with just the right touch of gentle eroticism. It's beautiful.













She's also currently doing a BOGO (buy one get one free) sale of her prints and I am sorely tempted. My room next year is really big and white (I am obsessed with the apartment we found and even though it's almost a whole year away I can't wait to take lots of pictures of it and in it) and would look beautiful with some of her prints on the walls, but I know after the cost of shipping and buying frames for them, well, I really can't justify the purchase at the moment. Or maybe I can... Also, how to choose just two?

Regards,
Freddie

Whoops.

So, I didn't get to take the pictures of my lovely vintage show outfit today because I was out of the house until after dark on an unplanned adventure...

This morning (ok, early afternoon, but that counts as morning on vacation, right?), I went to the gym to get my bike on. I like to ride the stationary bike because I can read a book while I ride and as you may know, I wear reading glasses. Anyway, I finished my ride (and was getting to a really good, near the end, part of my book too) hook my glasses over my shirt (like you do with sunglasses, you know) and went to stretch. Then I pulled out a mat to do some crunches and was about to sit down, but oh hey... where are my glasses? Answer: under the mat. Smushed. Whoops. One of the ear pieces was essentially at a 90 degree angle to the lenses (impressively still attached) and the other was not much better off. I do have a second pair of glasses, but of course, they're at school. So, new glasses quickly became the project of the day.

After a shower and some lunch, my mom and I headed down to Fabulous Fanny's, a veritable hipster and gay guy's haven of vintage glasses frames. They had a lot of cool stuff, but a lot of the more "out there" looks didn't sit so well on my face, haha.




{a sampling of their selection via the online catalog. They carry sunglasses too}

Glasses are a big commitment because you wear them ALL the time (I know you don't see mine much on the blog, but I wear them in class and when I'm doing homework which is probably about 85% of my life, haha) so after an excessive amount of hemming and hawing I chose a pair and we headed over to their recommend place to get the lenses, in Chinatown. My mom decided this was walking distance... and it was... but it was quite the hike. A hike which involved lusting after some beautiful boots I wasn't willing to spend $125 on and some free sampling at Whole Foods.

Eye exam in Chinatown: only minorly sketchy. Of course, they had the lens available for one of my eyes, but not the other. boo. So the ready in one hour option was alas not an option pour moi. While waiting to get my eyes checked, I also got a text from my friend inviting me over for pizza and ice cream cake for her birthday. At 6. It was 5 and I was waiting for my eye exam... in Chinatown... uhhh... but luckily, the doctor was able to see me shortly and we were done at about 5:20. Since the glasses couldn't be ready in an hour anyway I decided to forgo an early dinner and dessert at Vegetarian Dim Sum House and Chinatown Ice Cream factory and whip uptown at super speed.

I was also able to bend my glasses back far enough (that was scary- I was sure they were going to break!) to use for tonight and tomorrow. Though right now I look like this:


As you can see, I am also much in need of a bang trim. Thankfully, both the bang trim and picking up the new glasses are on the agenda for tomorrow (and maybe that Dim Sum/Ice Cream trip after all).

So much for a day where I had nothing to do, huh?

Regards,
Freddie

For Spacious Skies

So I didn't plan for my return after my unannounced, but very forewarned, hiatus (it seems like it's been way longer than a month and 10 days... a lot can happen in that amount of time I suppose) to happen when I was in such an odd and deep mood... but I did plan for the return to be today, so blame it on the man on the subway. Or just the shock my return to the New York City atmosphere has provided in general.

There was just something just so profoundly beautiful and sad about the little Asian man playing America the Beautiful on his Casio electric saxophone on the train, while a mother tried to control her five small, rowdy children and a bunch of teenagers yapped and fought. And then when the man ended, he stood there for a moment, eyes closed, as if deeply moved by his final high note (or maybe just out of breath). And all that was going on around him with people caught up in their own worlds, not paying attention to him. Though to her credit, one girl gave him some change. Not me.

{yes, this is actually him. I googled "man playing electric sax on subway" !}

There's just something different, and sad, about being back in the city. Like it's changed in the past 2 months since I was here. Which is silly... but maybe it's true. Or maybe it's me who's different? I will always love New York, but I just find myself more saddened and disgusted by a lot of what I see than I have ever been before. Maybe I'm finally noticing the recession? Or maybe that's just an excuse.

Sorry, I'm not describing any of this very well... I'm not terribly poetic, I just needed some place to write it down. Perhaps that's one of the reasons I'm finding my playwriting class this semester so terribly challenging? The whole, not so poetic thing? hah.

Anyway, I had planned to post again today anyway for a few reasons:

1. I have missed blogging and the blog world so! Though I'm still poking around some foodie blogs now and then, it's not quite the same as when I'm posting and reading my favorite fashion blogs too.

2. Today was the first full day of my self imposed, elongated fall break. We do have this coming Monday and Tuesday off of school and I had been planning to come home, but I also have an audition (for that elusive abroad program... while a lot can happen in a month and 10 days, finding out about this was not one of the things that did) and was going to have to go back to school Tuesday evening, come back to the city Friday evening, and then go back to school again on Sunday o_o The number of hours on a bus (and yes, I get car sick) that would mean = not fun. And so, I have decided to take the whole week off! I firmly believe I have earned it.

{ShortLine buses: a necessary evil}

3. Today my mom and I also went to the Manhattan Vintage Show! It seems to have become a sort of tradition for us. Sadly, they don't allow pictures in the show, but I will have pictures of the bag and dress I bought sometime soon :) We did our best to be conservative with our spending but I'm really happy with my two pieces. You can also see pictures from some past shows here (if you look at the 8th picture in the April 2007 show -- I am the owner of that dress. I wore it to my high school graduation and that was not an example of conservative spending ;) haha) I think this is my third time attending the show, or fourth if you count the time my mom went and sent me picture messages of things.

{Inside the Metropolitan Pavilion during the Manhattan Vintage Show}

4. Somehow, according to sitemeter, my little corner of the virtual world had 472 visits last week! What? I haven't updated in more than a month... and even when I was updating, I never had more than 100 visitors in a week... often more like 40. Looks like a lot of people have been searching for pictures of sunflowers on google images lately. hahaha. Statistics are so very interesting and amusing.


Anyway, I keep saying that so much has happened in the past month... so, what exactly has happened?

1. My show opened, played 7 performances, and closed.


2. I auditioned for this show and didn't get in (don't worry, I made a fairly quick recovery)


3. I dropped a class (New York Women) and added another one (Costume History)

4. I took some tests, presented some scenes, wrote some papers, did a lot of reading, wrote part of a play, scrapped part of a play, went out a lot, stayed in a lot, pulled two almost all-nighters, made some new friends, saw a dance concert, a show (Love Song), and an improv show, signed my lease for a beautiful apartment to live in next year, finished my abroad application... and well, a whole lot more. This was really not as interesting as I intended it to be, but point being: I've been a busy bee. Also in just over a month: the weather can go from appropriate for sundresses/shorts/t-shirts to requiring tights/pants/jackets... we've had a frost advisory in Ithaca already folks, how insane is that?

{ok, so it doesn't exactly look like this yet, but you know}

5. A lot happened in the world too of course (Obama's peace prize anyone?). But we don't need to get into all that.

OK THAT WAS A LOT OF WORDS. Should I stop now and wait until I have interesting fashion-y content to share? I think so. Also, my apologies for all the random, uncredited pictures- I saw how many words I had written up there and knew I needed to break it all up a bit. haha.

I hope to catch up on some of your blogs this week too.

Kudos if you made it through any of this.

Regards,
Freddie