It’s 12:30 and I just got out of bed five minutes ago to feed the cats.  I promise you I would not get out of bed some days if I didn’t have three insistent and hungry furbabies to tend to.

This morning (er…afternoon), my hamstrings feel a little tight and I definitely feel a burn around my shoulders.  I’m starting my day with a huge mug of Tazo Zen tea.  We’ll see where it takes me from there.  On the agenda: Baking, a self-manicure, shower and hair, off to the city to ice skate and enjoy the lights.  This is turning into a perennial Christmas Eve activity, heading into Manhattan to see the tree at Rockefeller Center and the windows at the big department stores.  It’s good, too, because the ideal aesthetic New York Christmas is NOT what you see when you look out my window.

Happy Christmas Eve Day!

XoXo, La

PS – How the heck do you use this Google Reader thing everyone talks about?  I’m just lost.

One time, I lived in a small town. And I wanted to leave. Even though I was broke, even though I knew it would desecrate every male relationship I ever formed in that Republican cesspool, even though I cried my whole freshmen year of college because I was homesick, I left again and again. Now I live in one of the biggest, meanest, scariest cities in the world. And I pay my own fucking way (except my phone bill-thanks Dad). But anyway. Back to me being a bad ass.

So. You think you want to move to New York, do ya? Are you ready to lose all your money to rent? Are you ready to get laughed at because your from a Southern state most people haven’t even heard of? Are you ready to get bed bugs? Are you ready to watch homeless men jack off in the subway? Are you ready to make new friends, then have them stab you in the back? Are you ready to get lost? Are you ready to enter into a pissing contest with some of the most successful, driven people on the planet?

Because I was. And I’m doing it.

What the fuck have you done recently?

I may not have a backyard, a car, or a closet, but I do have this:

And when there is 8 inches of snow on the ground, all I need to do is slip into my fur-lined boots and walk across the street to 88 Orchard where I can order a veggie croissant, listen to Sufjan Stevens, and gaze out onto a quiet, white, New York street.

Thursday evening, in light of the festive season, Alabama’s finest designer, Billy Reid, held a holiday gathering in his Manhattan boutique. It was a great way to kick-start the weekend and enjoy some tasty hor’dourves, drinks and entertainment. With plenty of plaid button-ups, riding boots and corduroy blazers, his mens/women’s collections are certainly reflective of America’s Southern-bred luxury lifestyle, and a sure stop if you happen to be crossing the pond for a bit of stateside shopping. Happy Holidays from the Big Apple! x

Last Friday loads of cool kids gathered in New York’s pop-up Wired holiday shop in support of Tck Tck Tck and the UN Climate Conference currently underway in Copenhagen. At the entrance we were given funky dog tags, and our ears were filled with live performances by Mark Ronson, Jamie Burke’s Delilah, Theophilus London and Dan Black. Although a difficult decision, my favorite style sightings of the night goes to these great white tights with fantastic detailed print on the right leg. What a great stocking stuffer this season!

What I’ve learned so far is that there is never a dull day in New York.. New York is called a “melting pot” , and they couldnt have word it better…  But what makes it a melting pot, aside from all the nationalities, is all the talented interesting new yorkers… From the guy at the coffee stand infront of the Prada store in Soho, to the MTA conductor that sings at the 181 street station,  too the many artists that live here… This blog is dedicated to my city, a city so nice they named it twice.. New York, New York..

as nauseous as i still sometimes feel at the memory of rush hour (or really any hour) in shanghai, the thought of going back to my hometown for christmas and having nothing – NOTHING – but miles of prairie silence surrounding me is actually terrifying.

i remember the first time i went to go visit my sister in toronto, the thing that struck me the most was how quickly everyone walked. they had somewhere to go. at that moment. in life. and i wanted to, too.

maybe it sounds snobbish to say that i’ve outgrown my hometown. i will always love it and be thankful for the experiences i had while living there. but the truth is, i have outgrown it. i’ve set my sights on places that are bigger, faster, more crowded, more chaotic, more energetic — just plain more everything — than this one.

i never thought i’d actually make it to where i am right now. it’s one of those cities you see in the movies and think, “gee, wouldn’t it be cool to be a twentysomething living in new york city.” but you never think you’ll really do it. live the dream. i still catch myself — on the subway, walking down broadway, getting some food — “oh my god, i live in new york. i live here.”

but i still remember mary schmich/baz luhrmann’s words of wisdom: “live in new york city once, but leave before it makes you hard. live in northern california once, but leave before it makes you soft. travel.” so where to next?

when i was in china two summers ago, i made a list of cities i wanted to visit. “25 before 25.” i think it’s about time i started making a dent in that list. 25 is just around the corner after all. and after 25 is 30. and after 30 is death. live once. and live it well.

25 CITIES TO VISIT BEFORE THE AGE OF 25

1. istanbul, turkey

2. tel aviv, israel

3. cairo, egypt

4. beirut, lebanon

5. marrakesh, morocco

6. barcelona, spain

7. amsterdam, netherlands

8. stockholm, sweden

9. rome, italy

10. santorini, greece

11. prague, czech republic

12. budapest, hungary

13. st. petersburg, russia

14. seoul, south korea

15. hanoi, vietnam

16. lhasa, tibet

17. new delhi, india

18. cape town, south africa

19. nairobi, kenya

20. sydney, australia

21. havana, cuba

22. cuzco, peru

23. rio de janeiro, brazil

24. buenos aires, argentina

25. mexico city, mexico

Wednesday evening, the crowd gathered at Catherine Malandrino’s chic boutique in New York’s trendy Meatpacking District to admire her limited edition “Lady Liberty” Cointreau bottle. With Lady Liberty cocktails to match, the party was in full swing, and the store itself gives a rather exciting vibe with it’s ultra decor and exquisite fashion. Malandrino, quite thrilled to take part in the project, says she hopes to tie bridges between Paris and New York. The bottle is available exclusively for the 2009 holiday season, so if you’re looking for some Cointreau to warm up your night, don’t wait!

how time flies in this city. how there are only two weeks left until the end of the semester, i do not know. and since i haven’t posted since october 12th (my bad), here’s a fast-forwarded summary of what’s been keeping me on the go and away from my beloved blog over the past two and a half months — told through pictures, songs and run-on sentences.

in october i… published my first piece in the brooklyn ink, started taking photojournalism classes and subsequently discovered i am not destined to be photojournalist, reported on my first murder with about as much sensitivity as a stump, saw ageyness deyn at a korean restaurant in soho – disapppointingly still my only ‘celebrity’ sighting so far, launched 3fatladies.wordpress.com checkit, partied at cmj with the xx (see below), had my master’s project fall apart and then re-assembled by aforementioned fat ladies, got an eyeful of boobs and peens while being drenched at the halloween parade, dressed up as kanye for halloween (“yo taylor ima let you finish”), and at the insistence of my rw1 professor, drowned away my mid-semester blues with a lot of booze at the spj party.

the xx – crystalised

in november i…started getting friendly with student veterans – hello mr. marine, became an expert bitcher and moaner about the quality of foreign reporting, covered another murder in east new york, met with my j-mentor and developed a bit of a girl crush, found out just how scary the projects really are, finally made use of all those tamil protesters in toronto, booked holiday flights to london and paris (NOT ontario) and am on the hunt for cheap epl tickets, got a confidence — and bank account — boost at school, spent american thanksgiving in canada and gorged myself on homemade pate and cider not mention the turkey, ham, gravy, mashed potatoes, 2 kinds of stuffing and3 kinds of pie – i love you all!

lady gaga – bad romance (grum remix)…  yea, so i like the song. shuddup.

…and now you are up-to-date.

The Maldives’ nearly 1,200 coral islands top out at less than eight feet above sea level. Climate forecasters predict they’ll be swamped by rising seas due to global warming within a century.

So the day before the country’s leaders staged an underwater cabinet meeting to draw attention to their plight, I took the opportunity to meet the archipelago’s representative at the United Nations.

Before there was Zen in the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, there was the original: Zen in the Art of Archery. The 1953 book chronicled the story of Eugen Herrigel, a German who traveled to Japan to learn Kyudo, the Way of the Bow. But you don’t have to go that far. Here’s what happened when I visited a zen archery class in the heart of Manhattan.

For most of us, Bulgarian folk singing means one thing — and one group: Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. The world-famous choir features about 20 women, singing intricate arrangements of traditional folk melodies. Well, in Brooklyn, I met four young Americans doing it their way.

In the late 1920s, American capitalism inspired a German opera about a city built on greed … “Everything is defined by money. Everything can be bought, including human relations”. The opera’s creator decried capitalism. In the wake of the 1929 Wall Street Crash, Bertolt Brecht (and Kurt Weill) wrote about New York. Here’s my radio piece, which aired one year to the day after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Home Of Countless Cultures, Countries and Characters, New York is World Life in 305 square miles. It’s all thorough, One City, 5 Boros, Associated, With Inter Locking Sub-Tunnels – Ricks

I came from Colombian blood, Was born on the streets of New York City (Queens) and am a Citizen of the World. It’s all relative.

NY has endless stories to tell and endless ways to express them. Here is perhaps one of the greatest examples of how to describe New York. This video was created by Thomas Campbell for a Skateboard brand called Supreme. The year is 1995, the music is John Coltrane’s “Acknowledgment”, the video is black and white, the characters are of all walks of life, the city is the set. New York in summary…

New York New York, Capitol of the World, The City That Never Sleeps, Gotham, The Baghdad of The Hudson, Father Knickerbocker, The Fear City, Mecca, Melting Pot, The City Of Islands, The Modern Gomorrah, The Seat of the Empire, Babylonian Bedlam, The Land of Surprising Contrasts….

After arriving about an hour earlier than expected (there was a good thing in riding with Spirit Air), it was great to to check out the a city of blinding lights…there was my nod to U2 in this post. Before jumping on the plane and heading over to Vegas, I was doing quite a bit of research on the city, looking for places to check out and things to do. After all this planning I think I built up this grandiose vision that I was going to be swallowed up by the lights and all the glitz and glamour. Walking around for a little while in a place I haven’t been to in 12 years, it looked and seemed a bit smaller than I was thinking it would be.

We ended up staying at New York New York, a place that was BRAND NEW the last time I was there in 1997. I remembered the roller coaster and the model New York skyline just engulfing me back then, but it seemed smaller than I thought it would be.

Now maybe it was one of those things where as you get older, everything becomes smaller. But the first night there, it was a pretty short walk that we took down the strip, and the next day definitely blew my first impression of a small Vegas right outta my mind. It’s classic me, rushing to judgment on something I knew so little of. Taking a walk early in the morning the next day, my impression of the casino changed dramatically. It was huge.

This was just a start of a long day of walking and checking the rest of the strip out. Coming up ahead were more examples to sink my early impression of a little Vegas…

Last night was one for the books.

Through that doorbell-protected black door is the Raines Law Room, a secret lounge on 17th and 6th Av. A coworker and I ran there after work so we could nab a few arm chairs in the corner and drink Pimm’s all night long.

Three cocktails later I am love drunk and actually believing I am in someone’s living room as opposed to Chelsea. God I loved New York last night.

Tuesday night, Odin, a New York based retailer, celebrated the launch of its new fragrances at an intimate gathering in Greenwich Village’s Hotel Griffou. Larry Paul and Kelly Kovak of Purpose-Built and Paul Birardi and Eddy Chai of Odin worked together for over a year to provide us with their finest results; a wonderful collection of three distict, unisex fragrances. Labelled 01, 02 and 03, they symbolize the progression of travel from wandering, to destination and enrichment. Exotic, yet traditional scents taken from places like the Himalayan and Chinese mountains, these berries, woods and musks are combined for the perfect modern creation.

I love both songs. This one is softer, like Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York”. I think this is awesome. I can relate to many things in this song. I love Alicia Keys!!!

What do ya think of this version?

Freak Nasty is defined as: Describing something vulgar or exceeding the norm of acceptable nasty content.

Example : “dude, did you see the wedgie on that fat chick”… Yeah that was Freak Nasty

Ok, well we have our own definition of Freak Nasty.

Bent Rods definition: Describing one nasty looking fish, usually obese, disgustingly big, and almost always sports one mean looking kype. One that prefers its meals large, and as many women as it can get.

With visions of Freak Nasty on our minds the BRM crew and I loaded the wagon headed North. We had three days and miles of water to cover. It was gonna be a blitzkrieg style trip, little sleep, lots of junk food, and the smell of rotten salmon.

$5.00 if you take one bite!

We spent three days fishing our asses off. We woke well before dawn to hit the water before the hoards, we explored new stretches of water, we tied on countless flies.  The fishing wasn’t easy, most of the fish had seen everything but the kitchen sink, and the unusually warm weather and blue bird skies took a toll on the fishing. Like most people we stocked a small flyshop in our packs, but as luck would have it, we were back at the vise concocting new patterns to doop those wary fish.

For those who haven’t fished Western NY, the land is flat, the corn, cabbage, apples, and roads are endless. There are countless tribs flowing into Lake Ontario, and some of the biggest baddest browns, steelhead, and salmon around. The area is best described as poor mans Patagonia, with a strong emphasis on poor mans, as the crowds will give you nightmares.

Most of the trip was a blur, I am not sure if it was the lack of sleep due to Murphy’s snoring, or the visions of my hands around Mitch’s throat for stealing the net and costing me the fish of the trip. It was a crazy three days, fish were lost, rods were broke, and after a slow, slow first day on the water we re- grouped and found Freak Nasty, not just one but many. I learned one thing, never let Mitch carry the net, he will stick the proverbial knife in your back every time. Mitch is now known as D-bag (Sorry Dave, you have been promoted).

Here is a collection of our Freak Nasty pictures from the trip.

Ryan

One of the little ones

Mr. Freak Nasty

Murph's Atlantic

Chrome

Is that a shark or a steelhead?

My thoughts on Mitch!

There were still a few around.

Butter.

I think its the beard, what do you think?

I think I crapped my pants! Seriously, I feel something wet!

11/13/09: Another Reason to Hate Canada

I know, we just returned from WNY and everyone expects some big time fishy porn. All that you savages are getting for now is a few pictures of Niagara Falls. The next presidential platform should be based on building a dam on the Niagara river to restrict flow over the Canadian side of the falls. Why? The Canadian side of the falls is much much much more scenic, but only because our water runs over it.

I hate not fishing.  The only thing I hate more than not fishing is not fishing when I know my friends are fishing.  Ryan, Murphy, and Mitch have descended upon New York and the Lake Run Brown carnage has commenced.   Mitch sent me a very blurry picture of a monster brown that he claims was the smallest one caught yesterday.  I hate him and hope he contracts an especially bad case of Gonorreah from either a Taiwanese lady of the night, or Murphy. Either way just as long as it is painful and doesn’t go away for at least a month.  He could have at least sent a decent picture, as I am not Mr. Magoo nor do I wear a thick enough prescription lens to focus this nonsense clearly.  Must be photoshopped as Mitch does not generally have enough skill to wrangle a specimen as fine as that one let alone the stockers he usually chases around the hills of West Virginia.To make matters worse I am sitting on my couch instead of loading up the boat today.  The good lord, Jah, Buddha, Rah, or any other deity you believe to pull the so-called ephemeral strings, has chosen to stick it to your friend Nymph-o by hurling 3″ of river ruining rain in the last 24 hours.  The water gauges are off the chart and I am back on the couch tying flies that I am not sure I will ever have a chance to use.   I am thinking about picking up golf (or maybe foosball) as being a non-fishing fly fisherman has just become too painful.  Till next time.

Your friend,

Nymph-o  (soon to be changed to Bagger Vance)

Here in New York this week I fell in love with Only Hearts latest, limited-edition vintage lingerie collection. Created by Helena Stuart a few decades ago in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, her vintage and ready-to-wear collections have expanded across the globe and become one of my favorite shops to find timeless additions for your wardrobe. Earlier this week, Sienna Miller was grazing the racks, and their collection launch party attracted quite the crowd Wednesday evening. Pictured here is Helena Stuart and daughter, Kaya, along with some of their collection highlights.  

This song proves that both Jay-Z and Alicia Keys are back and are on top of their game.

One could perhaps call it a modern day mash up of

New York, New York

&

New York State of Mind

Yes? Yes.

xx

yours in musical madness

]]>