FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

In honor of wild Friday nights... on a more typical not-so-wild Friday night, I am celebrating with a classic 70's and 80's musical genius, Giorgio Moroder.  Giorgio produced some of the biggest hits of the day, including I Feel Love by Donna Summer and the theme song, Chase, from Midnight Express.  He also created the score to Top Gun.  Who can forget Berlin's Take My Breath Away?  In many ways he pioneered electronic music, and I love seeing and hearing his synthesized sound feel so fresh.

The video for 1977's From Here to Eternity in amazing in itself.  I know it is a bit repetitive, but how can you not love a video with a twirling disco maven who dances under her own tossed glitter?  Party time!

If you commit you'll also get to enjoy snippets of Moroder making his own slow strobe affect, a young Willi Ninja (I think) and a crazy half nude Amazon woman twisting around into a zoom effect.  To have lived in 1977...

CALIFORNIA BIRTHDAY

It was my own big 3-0 last week... but the real fun was getting to attend my close friend Elizabeth's birthday party in Oakland, California.  She put on a beautiful little cocktail party with great food and drink, and I got to help set up and then enjoy some fun east bay shops, food and treats the day after.

The ham was my boyfriend's idea.  It was popular.

Delicious chocolate dipped potato chips.

Elizabeth served special cocktails mixed up by a local bartending legend from Oliveto... one of the area's best restaurants.

A popcorn machine rental added some fun.

Here is a gorgeous Victorian in the hostess' hometown of Oakland.  I walked around the place several times in order to fully appreciate the interesting landscape design.


Speaking of landscape design, on a tour of the area we stopped in on housewares store Lola, and I bought a great book on the work of Northern California based landscape architect Andrea Cochran.  Cochran sites some of her strongest influences as Luis Barragan and Robert Irwin, two of my favorite architects/artists, and she has does some great work herself.  Her favorite project of mine is Stone Edge Vineyard in Sonoma.

Lola was a fantastic shop.  The entrance had a copper screen door... something I would like to see more of on all the world's windows and doors.

One of my favorite home stores: Tail of the Yak.

Even more charming deliciousness at Ici ice cream shop

THE best ice cream I have ever had, with the most interesting flavor combinations.  Candied tangerine and lime!  Yum!

And, of course, the crowning glory of the east bay food scene... Oliveto.  I had my departing meal here before boarding a red eye back to New York.  Lamb crudo, an insane hen ragu, and wild boar sausage.  It did not disappoint.  Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

NOGUCHI MUSEUM

It was a beautiful weekend in New York, and I took the opportunity to take a long walk to the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City.

Isamu Noguchi was a prolific artist, furniture designer, landscape designer, set designer and 20th century man of the world.  He studied with Brancusi in Paris, lived in Tokyo, New York, LA, Beijing, and Mexico, among other places.   Some of my favorite public art in New York belongs to Noguchi.  His studio in Queens was converted to a museum by the artist himself in the 1980's and recently underwent a massive renovation that closed the doors for years.  I hadn't been since I was in college.

The garden is simple and wonderful.

My favorite thing in the garden was this fountain.  I sat with it for an hour.  So peaceful.

Noguchi did set design for several Martha Graham productions.  This piece, created for the 1958 performance entitled Embattled Garden, is meant to symbolize an apple.

Here is a model for a playground he designed, in bronze.  When I was doing my thesis project in college-- an elementary school converted from an abandoned German social club on the Bowery-- I studied Noguchi's playground design along with Howard Gardener's theory of multiple intelligences, Christopher Alexander's super hippy-dippy but wonderful Timeless Way of Building, and the layout and design of my grandmother's house, which was a fantastic laboratory of educational fun.  Being at the museum brought me back to those days when I had so much time to think about things.  What a luxury.

This piece is just brilliant.  Anything with stone and water makes me happy, apparently.  Imagine a flower floating in one of those depressions.  Sigh.

Noguchi is best known in the design world for his paper lantern lights, copied the world over and available in rip-off form at Pier 1 and CostPlus (we have an authorized reproduction in our apartment from the museum).  Here, however, was a very special 1944 light sculpture entitled Lunar Infant.  I didn't remember this from my last visit, and it was a great surprise.

Find out more about the Noguchi Museum here.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD: PART II

After the hardware store, I headed to Beacon's Closet at 88 North 11th Street to sell some old clothing.  Beacon's is a zoo.  Avoid it on the weekends if you can.  Right next door, however, is my favorite building in the neighborhood.  The landmarked No. 100 North 11th Street is the former Hecla Iron Works building, where much of the decorative iron work on the city's late 19th century construction (including the St. Regis hotel) was fabricated.

The interior is now apartments (of course) but this incredible quasi-neo-gothic arch work remains.  An apartment in the building was featured in Nest magazine (RIP).  If anyone knows which issues, please tell me!

I then stopped by Woodley & Bunny at 490 Driggs Avenue for some fancy guest hand soap for the bathroom.  They no longer carry my favorite kind, which has the world's most beautiful packaging, so I got a substitute.

I was almost late to a haircut at the no name haircut place at 150 Ainsley Street, above (forgive the picture, it was raining hard).  I got a quick, inexpensive trim, and learned from Tom, the guy who cuts my hair, that a space under renovation just around the corner from our apartment is going to be, get ready for it: A CHEESE SHOP.

Here it is.  Fine cheeses will be this close to my doorstep!  How soon will it open?  Will they have more than just cheese?  And the biggest question of all... will it hold a candle to the city's greatest cheese emporium, the Bedford Cheese Shop.  More about that tomorrow, stay tuned.

Images via Waterfront Alliance and Keyring.com

AWAY IN FRANCE

There will be a little lapse in posts for the next week, as we are heading out of town to wedding. I am really looking forward, because the big event is in Antibes, France, and I have never been. Lots of history, gardens and cuisine to explore! Happy weekend!

MAD

This weekend is supposed to be really nice here in the northeast (finally, summer!) and I am lucky enough to be able to get out of the city and up to Maine again. DO NOT WORRY, though. I have programed by TiVo to record the premere of Mad Men season 3, Sunday night.

Mad Men is, hands down, the finest show ever produced on television. Character development, plot depth, writting, set design, costumes... nothing can come close. Every time I see an episode, as soon as it is over, I want another. I watched all of season 2 in a weekend. I am not sure how I will make it through waiting a week between episodes.

In celebration of the return, here are some shots of vintage New York. Bask in the glorious dysfunction, fantastic style, hopeless repression and pervasive cigarette smoke of these times. Enjoy the weekend!

Here is where I will leaving town from soon... Eero Saarinen's former TWA (now JetBlue) terminal at JFK-- a relic of the golden age of air travel.

Images via AMC.com, straatis on Flicker, CUNY, NY Dialogue, Ezra Stoller