bahia to the boroughs

Gemini nature is coming out in full this week. I've been beat-reporting in Queens this month, and simultaneously Mr and Mrs.Smith.com published my review on Fazenda da Lagoa: the height of luxury in the south of Bahia, Brazil. It was only a few months ago I was there...seems another life now. Here's the review, and there's my Bahian bungalow below. I came back to Brooklyn...really?

roque on

Got this message from a friend who resisted meeting me at the greenmarket on Saturday morning after the first debate: Still in bed. Making out with my iPhone. Stayed up too late listening to the pundits.

Then I took this photo with my phone at the market. We're all getting used to the idea that food is politics, so this is just taking it one step further. Roquette, mooseburgers, it's getting pretty weird...

Maybe someone in St. Louis will do both Palin and Biden a favor and toss some toasted ravioli their way tonight.

Yard Dogs Roadshow

Last night while a lemon slice moon rose over the East River, a cocktail-swilling crowd gathered in an Art Nouveau tent to watch the Yard Dogs Road Show. Delightfully diabolical dancers and shaggy sword-swallowers made me wonder aloud:

How could I ever be inspired by anything other than gypsies?

Rent has finally left Broadway and Wall Street is crumbling. The city could do with a little Bohemian shot in the arm. The Road Show's hobos are going to be at it for just one more night in the Spiegeltent at South Street Seaport. I emphatically suggest it--sparkling pasties and serpentine dancers on a Monday night...

Why not?

There are still tickets for tonight's show!

I couldn't have said it better myself

Starting with the Universe...
Buckminster Fuller explains it to us like we're a three year-old:
Goldy speaks to the three bears, who are actually constellations of bears which divide the universe into systems (or are they dimensions?), and...

"Goldy says to the three bears, 'If you don't understand any of my words, you can find them in the dictionary.'
Wee bear replies, 'but here we use cosmic thought communication. We don't have to find words in special language diction-aries. We use a cosmic thinktionary. All your dictionaries express the universal concepts of our thinktionary but only in special, ethnic language, sound words. The concepts, such as mountain or star or nuance are the same experience--engendered concepts in all languages.
We understand you perfectly, Goldy.'"

If you didn't pick it up from my thinktionary, the point of this post is to advise you to get to the Buckminster Fuller exhibit at the Whitney before it closes on September 21st.

fashion school

It's hard to believe, not only that it's that time of year again, but it's that time of life again: back to school.

The first day begs the all-important question...

What to wear?

Here I am, five years old, on my first day of Kindergarten at Glenridge Elementary. Note the matching Hawaiian pattern on my shorts and shirt, color-coordinated with my personalized lunchbox and clean white high-top Reeboks to boot.

My bangs are, obviously, freshly cut. It's hard to tell, but I've got two spunky little braids in back that remained my trademark hairstyle until an unfortunate transgression in second grade, not to be pictured here.

In the midst of morning crises before elementary school my mom was fond of reminding me that, "it's not a fashion show."

Well, guess what, mom. This year it actually is a fashion show (ThreeasFour is pictured here.)

The first week of my masters program at CUNY's Graduate School of Journalism coincided (collided) with the beginning of Fashion Week just blocks away at Bryant Park.

There's been a bit of running between the raindrops to fit it all in, but so far, so good.

Here, two of my favorite fashion personalities, Lynn Yaeger and Mickey Boardman, prove that the good witches (and bitches, as I know Mr. Mickey would refer to himself) of the east don't melt in the rain.

Patiently waiting for an unsavvy bouncer to open the door, these two are a fantastic reminder of advice that could have come from mom on the first day of Kindergarten, but is just as valuable for those Fashion Week warriors who forget their manners in the frenzy, or angst insecurely over what on earth to wear.

Just be nice and be yourself.

Postscript!
Monday, September 8, 2008
On my way home from school today I just so happened to cross paths with the lovely Lynn Yaeger (I love New York!) and she did not disappoint. She gave me a beautiful smile and hi with her painted bow lips and sparkling eyes.
If this were charm school she would get an A+.

labor day

There are just a few days of summer left, so do your very best to get underwater somewhere outdoors.


Above, Bridget contemplates a strategy for avoiding a school of man-eating minnows.

Newest addition to the list of things to be happy about: underwater box cameras.

This weekend I'll reunite with the Atlantic in Fire Island. These shots are from the last few weeks in Bahia and the Amazon.

Bridget hanging in the lagoon during our Bahian weekend away.

Going to do my best to hang onto this feeling all winter long.

cruising the Amazon: a week in pictures

The old line goes that a picture is worth a thousand words. I took over fifteen hundred shots over five days on the River Arapiuns last week, so you do the math. Here are a selected few. I'm not giving out the stories behind them for free--hopefully one day you can buy the book. In the meantime, just buy me a drink and I'll tell you a tale or two.
Enjoy.