Waning Days of Summer

I had a really fun couple of days at Asbury park on The NJ shore. My friend Robert invited me to spend the night at his really cool house there and we made dinner and caught up on all the comings and goings of our lives, then went to see the Kareoke singers at Georgies. Yesterday when we woke up it was HOT , like summertime hot, the sun was out and we thought, let's go to the beach! It was a perfect beach day and there were maybe 15 other people on this huge beach. It was great, but it seemed kind of crazy too, to be canceling appointments and work to go hang out at the beach 2 weeks past labor day, when all the kids are back in school and most adults have put summer behind them. It felt like we were trying to hang on to something that most people had already let go of.

It was the only time I went to Asbury this summer and the summer before I went there only once too. I used to have so many friends there and would go down almost every weekend, but slowly things have been changing. Some friends moved away, others just changed and my world changed too. I miss some of my old friends even when they are still around, I miss who they were, but I have to accept those people are gone, inhabiting a past that's never to return. Of course change is a good thing, some of my friends have given up their old destructive habits, moved on and become the person they were always meant to be, some of them have become bitter recluses emerging from their shell every once and a while to rail against the world and all of the changes and the injustices that they feel have been piled onto their shoulders. It can be hard to remember that change really is good, or at least it's inevitable...and when I think of all the opportunities that have been presented to me, it's much more amazing than anything I could have asked for. I'm looking forward to what ever's next.

Total Eclipse of the Heart: Literal Video Version

Rem Koolhaas and CCTV architecture porn

I did finally get to see the Rem Koolhaas China Tv building...it's massive, we could see it from our hotel window as soon as we arrived in Beijing. I thought that since I could see it , I could walk there. I did and it took over an hour...it's so cool! I've never seen anything like it, it did not dissapoint! It's still surrounded by fences and the burnt out shell of the hotel which was destroyed in a fire over Chinese New Years. There was a big debate about the resemblance to genitalia, which I had never thought about until seeing the picture above. That makes a pretty good case I suppose, but everything comes from somewhere, ideas don't just pop up out of thin air, so I suppose maybe these buildings could have been inspired by sex, why not? As my friend Bill Arning says, sex is a great motivator.

New Glasses

I got these awesome new glasses in China, thats real wood on the side!

9-11

APRIL 10--Under pressure from the September 11 commission, the White House today declassified and released an intelligence digest given to President George W. Bush weeks before the 2001 terrorist attacks. The confidential President's Daily Brief (PDB) for August 6, 2001 contained a two-page section entitled "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US," and refers to possible hijacking attempts by Osama bin Laden disciples and the existence of about 70 FBI investigations into alleged al-Qaeda cells operating within the United States. The August 6 PDB, an excerpt from which you'll find below, was presented to Bush while he vacationed at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. The digest is prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency, an official from which briefs the president on the report's contents. While Bush critics have described the August 6 PDB as a warning of an impending al-Qaeda attack, Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser, testified Thursday that the document contained "historical information based on old reporting. There was no new threat

Lower East Side Openings

Sombody made a video at openings in my neighborhood on weds night, its from the website loren munk.com, the james kalb report. So if you've ever wondered what its like to wander around New York openings on a cool autumn night this should give you a pretty good idea. If you are wondering who that handsome guy in the flourescent striped polo shirt is at minute 9:22 that's me! In my new chinese glasses, talking with Liz Jonckheer

Lanvin

The clothes that Lucas Ossendrijver creates for the label Lanvin fascinate me. When ever I see them in a store I'm inexplicibly drawn to them, I want to touch them , feel them and try them on. I want to be the person that wears these kinds of clothes. The prices are ridiculous, way out my ballpark, 700.00 for pants, 600.00 to 1,200.00 for a shirt, 4,000 for a jacket. I was at the Barney's warehouse sale last summer with my friends Van and Mark and AA, mMark had found a Lanvin jacket marked down to 500.00 we all tried it on, I fell madly in love, I had no money and I realized right there and then that a white sportcoat with lace and netting sewn on and a ruched front had no place in my life, I would never wear it, but still I loved it. Mark still regrets not having gotten it.

At this years Barneys sale there was Tons of Lanvin, a polka dot polo shirt for $200.00, a rumpled Linen Tuxedo jacket (no pants thou) for $100.00 shiny cotten trousers for $80.00. I tried these all on and realized that they were all fairly impractical, though it was great fun trying them on...it would have been a bit of a stretch financially to buy any of them, though with creative financing I could have pulled it off...but in the end I realized I wanted the lifestyle, the persona embodied by these clothes and not the clothes themselves. Owning the rumpled linen tuxedo jacket wasn't necessarily gonna make me the person who gets invited to the kind of events where you wear one...and so I passed. Maybe I'll check back tomorrow though and see if those pants get marked down just a little bit more....those might just fit into my lifestyle.

Chinglish

My Favorite Meal In China

It was in the province of Guangdong , aka Canton, In the City of Guangzhou in a restaurant right next to our hotel. I went in to this big multi level palace of food, looked at the pics in the menu and decided on 3 dishes, fish, noodles and vegetables....the waitress told me no, no and no, they were out? It was too late? ...who knows....then I found this dish with beef and vegetables, it was all deep fried with no batter, just deep fried in oil...the vegetables in neat little piles and along with the beef were some kind of vegetable chips and something like deep fried mayonaise. The whole dish was heaven,clean,light and fresh tasting, lots of variety perfectly married. The second best meal I had was the night before just as we arrived in Guangzhou, our plane was late and someone was at the airport to pick us up...since we got in late , there was no time to go to the hotel and drop me off before the business dinner so I was graciously invited along. We had a private room in a big dining palace on the pearl river, with giant windows overlooking the brightly lit modern art museum across the water.My friend's associates ordered and ordered and ordered some more and everythung was on a giant lazy susan in the middle of the table....fish, chickn, vegetables, noodles, beef, rice....it was all outrageously good...even the chicken head in the center of the plate that held the cold chicken dish didnt bother me, that much...but I kept picking at the fish, getting every last scrap of flesh but not wanting to turn it over as that would seem so....obvious or something...instead it just sat there and went home in somebody's doggy bag, but those few bits I had were unforgettable....

Eating In Shanghai

Hard to believe I'm back already, the month flew by. It was great being in China! Sightseeing during the day, then cooking dinner and watching Mad Men. The food was great there and cheap. Stayed by the Portman Ritz Carlton, the Hotel where celebrities and politicians stay at. The Hotel itself was part of a big complex catering to visiters and ex pats, with a Tony Roma's and California pizza kitchen (never went), a franchise of the french bakery Paul (went twice) a Starbucks, but those are everywhere in China (went often) and a grocery store in the basement (City Fresh) where a box of cereal would set you back 10 or 12 bucks but they also had great food, fish and vegetables, all pretty cheap. I cooked often and we ate out often too, which was great and much cheaper to do than here in NYC. The street food was amazing, steamed buns and soup dumplings were available every couple of blocks, 4 dumplings for 75c, a steamed bun with greens and tofu was about 15c and whenever I would pass one of these stalls I invariably bought something....all delicious! If you have ever had soup dumplings you know how amazing they are, inside is a ball of meat and hot soup...if you ever wondered how they are made....they put some gelatin in with the meat and when they are heated the gelatin becomes sticky liquid soup. You nibble a bit off, slurp up the soup and eat the rest, although there was a place in a tourist mall in the YuYuan garden complex that had an alternative way to eat them....

Back from Shanghai

Glad to be back from the place where my blog is considered anti communist propaganda...hell I wasn't even gonna write anything about that square where the tank and the student so fatefully met 25 years ago, but that didnt really happen. See me smiling as I visit the birthplace of communism in my 25th anniversary Margiela t shirt above!