This is how we do it

Shani moves to San Francisco today, and this past weekend was one big, long leaving party. Friday night we went to Paradise Garden, Russian supper club in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. The local Russian community celebrates big events (birthdays, anniversaries and graduations) in restaurants like this one. I’ve been to National (a similar place) twice before, but nothing can truly prepare you for this type of experience.

We arrived around 9 pm. There’s a vulgar amount of food served for dinner – cold appetizers, hot appetizers, 3 main courses and dessert. You can bring your own booze, so there was plenty of that too.

The jazz that’s played during the appetizers is broadcast live on local radio (Garet gave an interview on the air). Then there’s a big show with live music, lights, fog, etc. and everyone dances. We were there past 2 am.


The crew.


Clara in her element.


Enda hops on stage and dances with the singers.


Charles hosted a cocktail party for Shani at his apt. Sat. night. We stayed up past 2 am again, but this gathering was much more mellow, since we were all still recovering from Friday.

Highs and lows

Following the great weekend in Atlanta with all my college buddies, I got a message from my mom that a family friend drowned Friday night in a terrible boating accident. Really upsetting news. Definitely not the way I’d planned to kick off this week.

There’s an Isak Dinesen quote I like: “God made the world round so we would never be able see too far down the road.” We don’t know what lies ahead, so make every day count.

Big B gets married

I’ve known Brandon for almost 15 years. The night we met, he jumped out of a tree, broke his femur and was hauled off to the hospital in an ambulance. From this auspicious beginning, our friendship has evolved and grown over the years. Brandon is one of the most loyal people I know. He's a lively character with a good heart, so when he announced his engagement to Heather it was never a question that I’d fly down for his wedding.

Went to Atlanta Thursday night. Karen's friend Kat invited me & Nora to her house in Cumming, and we spent Friday afternoon by her pool. Had drinks at Twist, and then we went to Pastis in Roswell for dinner. A band started playing in their downstairs bar around 9 pm… and the place turned into a crazy pick-up scene for singles in their 50s and 60s. Not exactly my dream men, but it made for some mad people-watching and some very entertaining stories the next day.

Saturday we had lunch at Taqueria del Sol (including some righteous white cheese dip), and then we got ready for the big event. The wedding and reception were held at Callenwolde. The plan was to have an outdoor wedding, but it started raining as the bridal party started to walk down the aisle. So everyone went inside, and there was a lovely ceremony indoors.


Brandon & Heather say "I do."


Another reunion of the chicks (plus Maggie).


Vows were followed by a lot of drinking and crazy dancing. The DJ played “Pour Some Sugar On Me” twice, so presumably Brandon helped create the playlist.

When a tie becomes a headband, things have gotten out of control.


We stayed at the Georgian Terrace Saturday night. Karen booked us a two-bedroom suite, which was comparable in size to my parents' house! There was an "after-party" in the hotel bar. When that closed, people moved out to the hotel veranda. And when that closed, everyone went to Brandon and Heather's suite, which was right next to ours.

Sunday we sunned at the hotel pool and then had lunch at Einstein's. And another action-packed weekend in Atlanta drew to an end.

Real surreal

So I’m getting my nails done this afternoon in my neighborhood salon, reading an article in the Sunday Times about Parker Posey, her new film and her dog Gracie… when in walks Parker Posey (with her dog in tow) for a pedicure.

Lamest direct mail piece ever

Because I bought the Barber of Seville ticket, the Met wants me to buy more tickets. They’ve been waging a full-scale communication assault, using multiple channels: email, phone, and mail. Last week I received a package in my mailbox. Since it was from the Met and the envelope was so large (like 10x12), I assumed it contained some sexy marketing materials with striking photos of the performers, costumes & the sets to really convince people of what they’re missing out on by not having season tickets. Wrong. The envelope contained a letter, a return envelope, some address labels, and a 22-page brochure with spreads that look like this:

The intro copy reads “This booklet is designed to make ordering tickets as easy as possible.” How? By boring people into surrendering their credit card information? Is it me, or does this look like an SAT exam book?

For old times' sake

I loved this cartoon when I was little. The music in the cartoon is the overture to the opera, but is not part of the main performance.

Barber of Seville

Sometime last year I decided to really bridge the gap between thinking things sound cool to do and actually doing them. Have you noticed?

I bought a ticket to the opera: I'd never been and thought it might be interesting. And so I found myself at a performance of Il Barbiere di Siviglia Monday night. The Metropolitan Opera is very elegant. Plenty of people (even the NYers) were taking photos inside and outside the building. There are 6 levels of seating. My seat was in the front of the Grand Tier, 2 levels above orchestra level. This was a good position; it offered nice views of the performers on stage and their expressions, as well as a peek into the orchestra pit (which was kinda cool).

Stage at the Met.

I selected Barber of Seville because it's a comedy. If I'm going to listen to people singing in Italian for 3+ hours, I’d prefer that they not be singing about death. That said, I made a wise choice - even though Barber of Seville is a comedy, it's not exactly a Chris Rock HBO special.

For those who’ve never been to an opera, everyone has a little LED screen on the seat back in front of them where the lyrics are translated into English. This is awesome; it would have been pretty excruciating to watch this performance without knowing what's going on. There is some "acting" during the opera, but the action/gesturing on stage definitely serves to enhance the song lyrics vs. stand on its own.

The singers were very skilled & their voices were very beautiful. The sets were pretty minimal; my favorite was the last one, which featured the orange trees that are found throughout Seville.

I’m glad I went to the opera, but opera is just not my thing. I typically don’t care for musicals because of their extraneous singing, and the opera has even more singing than a Broadway musical… so there you have it.

Doing brunch

I rarely brunch, mainly because committing to waking up, showering and being at a restaurant by a certain time on the weekend stresses me out. However I had two spontaneous brunches this weekend. Rick rang me after noon on Saturday, and we met up at the Park around 2:30pm. Previously I'd only been here at night for drinks. But the covered garden is such a pretty space. Why haven't I been eating here all along? After brunch, we hit a street fair on 8th Avenue (another sign of warm weather!)

I also had brunch with Gary and Marina Sunday at La Bottega in the Maritime hotel. Sadly the courtyard wasn't open (it was a little too breezy for outdoor dining). I walked around the Meatpacking District for a bit before I met them. When I first moved to NYC, this was a seedy neighborhood known for Hogs & Heifers, transvestite hookers, and actual meat processing. Now this area is so trendy and touristy. Oy. Change is good, but it can also be annoying.

Honoring the Tauri

Crazy Tall Maria’s friends threw her a surprise birthday party Friday night at Puck Fair. Her mother, aunt and brother flew in from Minneapolis for the event. Maria is a fellow Ad Dawg, and when she interned in NYC 12 years ago, she crashed at my apartment for a couple of weeks. During this time, she agreed to model for a major NYC salon so she could get a free hair cut. She definitely got a cut; they took off several inches! At the party Friday, her mom and I reminisced about Maria crying for 2 days straight after the hair cut. Ah, the good old days.

Also went to Terry's birthday party on Friday. Originally it was supposed to take place in a cool West Village loft. Instead, due to some scheduling issues, it was held at this heinous Lower East Side bar. When I was walking into the bar, a bouncer told me to keep an eye on my purse. I must’ve given him a weird look, because he said "You should be safe inside, but just watch your bag." Nice! I found Terry to say hi, but didn't even stay long enough for a drink. The place was so jam-packed, I couldn't exit through the front door. I asked another bouncer to help get me out, and he showed me an alternate escape route through some sort of downstairs game room. When I left, people were actually standing in line outside waiting to get in. Ugh.

Went to Satsko for a nightcap. Normalcy.

Entertaining other people’s daughters and sons at work

Thursday was the 15th anniversary of Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day. There were a lot of kids in the agency.

Coincidentally I hosted a seminar on digital communications at the office Thursday for a group of 11 7th graders from Brooklyn (one of my agency’s pro-bono initiatives). I don’t really relate to kids, so it’s a little bizarre that I wound up being the ringleader of this event.

The kids were very inquisitive and very sharp. We were talking about storytelling, and one of my co-workers asked the students what sort of stories they liked. One of the students clarified, “You mean, what genres we prefer?” Damn.

Luckily, the kids were also pretty well-behaved, but it takes a great dealof energy and patience to keep up with a room full of 12-year olds. I have a newfound respect for my mother, who’s been teaching middle school for about 30 years.