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Nightlife Highlights of Late
2008-05-14 07:02:00
Included attending the Hennessy-sponsored 33rd birthday party of Datwon Thomas, new Editor-In-Chief of XXL magazine (only 33-years old and making major moves as the former Editorial Director of King magazine), where we partied along side Q-Tip, Charli Baltimore, Alesha Renee, Fabolous, DJ Clue, Rocsi and Terrence J, Melyssa Ford and Fonzworth Bentley in the penthouse suite of the Hotel on Rivington.And an industry event at the 40/40 Club, where we sat across from Jay-Z, saw Fredro Star standing at the bar, and had text message converstations that went like this:Mass text message to Tokii, Monique and Jessica: I'm in the same room with Jay-Z right now.Response: WHAT?!!!???!!! I need details. Now.My reply: At 40/40 for the ACA party. He's sitting across from us watching Lebron play on the big screen.Response: I just go real star struck just now.My reply: Yea, even T said he just peed his pants a little.Response: If you get a pic with Jay-Z, I will hate u 4 life!!!My reply: No need t...
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The Price of Oil, Bread, Milk and Now ... Baggage Claim
2008-05-11 22:41:00
Returning from Atlanta with Terrence this morning following the Welcome Home party for his first season playing basketball overseas, we noted that gas prices must really be hitting Delta Air Lines hard.
More About: Milk , Price , Bread

The Latest Congestion Pricing Strategy
2008-05-10 18:15:00
The New York Times Quotation of the Day:"It?s very clear that a significant portion of the increase in transit use is directly caused by people who are looking for alternatives to paying $3.50 a gallon for gas."WILLIAM MILLAR, president of the American Public Transportation Association.From The New York Times Business section:Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass TransitSince Mayor Bloomberg couldn't do it, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan is working on it.
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"Things I Love" Thursdays - May Flowers
2008-05-09 00:34:00
April Showers bring Manhattan Flowers Rockefeller Center from 48th StreetRockefeller Center from Fifth AvenueBroadway and West 130sPark Avenue SouthPark Avenue near Grand Central StationIsidor and Ida Straus MemorialWest 106th Street and West End AvenueCentral Park South
More About: Love , Things

Brunching and Walking on a Sunday Afternoon
2008-05-05 03:34:00
Brunching at Roberto Passon with friends, a new boyfriend in the crew and the french toast with the just-right wheaty texture and sugary consistency and the perfect ratio of syrup to eggs and butter ... and the $8 all-you-can-drink bellinis, bloody marys, mimosas and screwdrivers from noon to 3:30pm.Proof that Mayra is pregnant... other than the ultrasound photosCookies-n-Cream Hersey's bar in a croissantWalking from 50th and Ninth to the start of today'scity walk at 110th Street and BroadwayUpper West Side cafésBarsStreet fairsBenches and tree-lined streets
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City Walk #19 - Upper West Side 4: Church and Gown
2008-05-05 03:19:00
Card no. 33 - photosTake a tour of church and gown uptown.Begin at 110th Street (Cathedral Parkway) and Broadway (1 or 9 train or M104 bus to 110th Street (Cathedral Parkway).Head west on 110th Street (Cathedral Parkway) to Riverside Drive, and turn right past some of the city's handsomest apartment buildings, many owned by Columbia University and carefully doled out to faculty. Continue north, past the statue of Samuel Tilden, onetime governor of New York, to the Interchurch Center at #475, known locally as the "God Box." Directly across West 120th is Riverside Church , an early-20th-century temple to Protestant enlightenment financed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and modeled on Chartres. Rockefeller largesse also made possible Sakura Park, at West 121st Street, and beyond it, International House, a foreign-student residence. Directly opposite Riverside Park is Grant's Tomb. Return to West 121st Street and walk downhill to Claremont Avenue and the Union Theological Seminary, found i...
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Phone Photo Ops - City Walk #19
2008-05-05 03:07:00
Today's route: Upper West Side 4: Church and GownRiverside ParkRiverside DriveAnd its handsome apartment buildingsThe Samuel Tilden Statue overlooks the Hudson RiverRiverside Church and the Interchurch CenterSakura ParkGrant's TombInternational HouseLooking west toward Claremont AvenueColumbia University's West 116th Street gate on BroadwayLeads to an unexpected sprawling lawnSunset across Columbia's campusCathedral of St. John the DivineChildren's Sculpture GardenBiblical GardenAnd the peacocks that roam the cathedral grounds
More About: Photo , Phone , City , Walk

Slow Blog Day
2008-05-03 17:15:00
Sex and the City cliché. Sex and the City cliché. Blah, blah, blah. New York, New York. Yadda, yadda, yadda.Yet I can't help but wonder ... when Mariah Carey released "Vision of Love" and Nick Cannon was like four years old, did she ever think to herself, "There is a toddler out there somewhere listening to my music, and I'm going to marry him one day"?And proof that New York City really does have everything:Not your typical "beer run"Pizza and the city tour
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Phone Photo Op - Disappearing Acts
2008-05-03 05:33:00
Even though I prefer beautiful New York days, there is something magnificent about low-lying clouds encircling the summits on Manhattan skyscrapers.On the way to meet Iris for a movie after work.
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Real Estate LOL - Embracing the College-Dorm-Life for Life
2008-05-02 23:57:00
From ardorny.com:W.105th/Upper Westside Studio/1.0 Bath $1195. This is a finding! Located just one block from Central Park, this gorgeous studio apartment in the charming Upper West Side has it all! It features Murphy bed, closet space, floor to ceiling marble tiled full bath with Jacuzzi, fully equipped kitchen with granite countertop, great cabinetry with excellent storage space and dishwasher. Heat and hot water included!To view actual property, please contact [contact information removed].Let's play a little game of "One of These Things Is Not Like the Other" using these photos and its correlated apartment listing above.Leave your answers in the comments.Real Estate LOLBecause all you can do is live with it, laugh at it or leave it behind.
More About: Life , College , Real Estate

Colleague Convo - Shoe-In Kitchens
2008-05-02 23:21:00
Print ad reads:I don't cook. So I made my eat-in kitchen a fabulous walk-in closet.My coworker Kirsten came across the ad in a magazine and commented, "In Manhattan, we do this because we don't cook and we don't have any closet space."She went on to tell me that one of her friends sublets an apartment from a girl who stored her extra shoes in the oven.
More About: Kitchens , Shoe

The Texts You Receive in New York
2008-05-01 23:00:00
In New York City, you're more likely to receive a text message from a friend standing on a sidewalk about a block from your office that reads:"Magic Johnson is at 43rd and Fifth right now!"My response:"Oh yea? What is he doing there?"My friend:"I don't know to be honest! I was out with coworkers having a cig and he and two other guys just walked by and for a second we were like is that magic?"

"Things I Love" Thursdays - Street Vendor Regulars
2008-05-01 15:25:00
I love that when I don't have exact change for the guy at the fruit stand on Fifth & 43rd, he says, "Pay me tomorrow."
More About: Love , Street , Things

Real Estate LOL - No Bathroom in the Apartment
2008-05-01 02:52:00
From newyork.craigslist.org:$925 Studio for Rent, Bathroom is in the Hallway (Upper West Side)Reply to: [contact removed]Date: 2008-04-28, 12:31PM EDTStudio for Rent $925.00 per month. Absolutely beautiful. This apartment has been renovated. It is in a walk up building (only 1 flight up) has hard wood floors, it is very bright, has a beautiful bay window. NO BATHROOM IN THE APARTMENT The bathroom is in the hallway and will be shared with other tenants. If you are interested in this apartment, please call [number removed].Real Estate LOLBecause all you can do is live with it, laugh at it or leave it.
More About: Real Estate

My First Pair of Valentinos
2008-04-30 01:38:00
The news of the rare, by-invitation-only sale in Valentino's corporate office in our building spread like wildfire. However, when I learned that the sale featured 50-80% discounts on items retailing from $600 to $85,000 - including the actual dress that Cameron Diaz wore to the 2007 Golden Globes, I decided to remain at my desk. As my coworkers raced for their wallets and the elevators, my boss pulled me aside, slipped me her credit card and told me to go pick something out for myself. I could not believe it. Finally, she said, "If you ask me a fourth time if I'm serious, I'm going to revoke my offer."Without another word, I quietly accepted her credit card and followed the pilgrimage of women to Valentino. Of course, I looked for the cheapest thing I could find. Though I am sure I could have chosen a slightly more expensive clutch or a gorgeous jacket that caught my eye at 80% off of $2200, I just could not bring myself to do it. In the end, I selected a pair of shoes with a ret...
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Phone Photo Ops - Valentino
2008-04-30 01:29:00
Entering Valentino for the by-invitation-only saleMy first [and only] pair of ValentinosThe dress hanging among $2,000-$35,000 dressesYes, I typed the zeros correctly ... $35,000I have never seen an $85,000 price tag in my entire life
More About: Photo , Phone

What Do Guacamole, Brisé volé, and Hookah Have in Common?
2008-04-29 01:18:00
My first time experiencing the New York City Ballet at a sneak preview for their Spring Gala program - following dinner at Picante and preceded by a girlfriend's birthday party at Kush Lounge - can be summed up with one of my cliché moments last Saturday night.In the front seat of a cab racing down Madison Avenue, I turned around and said to my three friends in the back, "Aren't our lives fabulous? Where else can you have a night out with your girlfriends that includes awesome Mexican food, a performance by the New York City Ballet, and a private party at a Hookah bar?"
More About: Common

City Walk #18 - DUMBO
2008-04-28 02:07:00
Card no. 50 - photos"Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass" is Brooklyn's "newest" new neighborhood.Begin at the north end of Brooklyn Heights Esplanade (Walk 48).For most of the 19th century, the main portal to Brooklyn lay at the foot of what is now Cadman Plaza West (Old Fulton Street), where steam ferries from Manhattan discharged passenger onto Fulton Landing. The little hub grew in importance, only to decline after the Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883. Follow the curving ramp to Columbia Heights, turn left, and walk downhill to Cadman Plaza West. To your left are two neighborhood institutions - Bargemusic, a live music spot located on Fulton Ferry landing, and the River Cafe (1 Water), beloved by romantics for its view and its food. Follow Water Street under the bridge past such new landmarks as St. Ann's performance space (#38) and Jacques Torres, a chocolate shop that seems sto have been airlifted straight from the Boulevard's St. Germain. Continue up Water to Main, wher...
More About: City

Phone Photo Ops - City Walk #18
2008-04-28 01:57:00
Today's route: DUMBOThe Financial District across the East River beyondFulton Landing, Bargemusic and Brooklyn Ice Cream FactoryClick here for a 360 degree viewThe Brooklyn Bridge dwarfs the Empire State Buildingon the midtown skylineThe River Café ...... in the shadow of the Brooklyn BridgeSt. Ann's WarehouseJacques Torres... where I selected three amazing chocolates to samplealong my walk1915 Clocktower BuildingThe intersection of Water and MainThe Manhattan Bridge from Washington StreetFulton Ferry Empire State ParkThe Manhattan BridgeLots of furniture stores hereReturning to Cadman Plaza WestCadman Plaza
More About: Photo , Phone , City , Walk

Phone Photo Ops - After Brunch in Brooklyn
2008-04-28 01:33:00
Walking from brunch at the Dean Street apartment of friends, who live a block from Michelle Williams. Their son is even a playmate of Heath Ledger and Williams' daughter Matilda, but I decided not to take a camera phone photo of her home ...Tree-lined streets and bicycle lanesThis is a CVSBrooklyn brownstonesFlowering walkways
More About: Photo , Phone , Brunch

Eyes Wide Shut or Mind Limitedly Open?
2008-04-26 02:04:00
For someone who is the byproduct of an interracial marriage and who is currently in her own interracial relationship, my mind is not as open as I like to think it is. I astonished myself today when I was slightly amazed that a publisher for several of our major publications is in an interracial marriage and has a gorgeous mixed daughter.It's not that I am at all shocked that a successful White woman would be married to a Black man. Quite the opposite actually. But have you ever just assumed that certain women or men - whether White, Black or otherwise - just would not be involved with a member of a different race? And it's not even really a conscious assumption. You've just never thought to associate or disassociate someone in particular with an interracial relationship. And when you learn that he or she is ... you are slightly amazed. And depending on your perspective or personal experience, you may be either pleasantly surprised or genuinely annoyed.I was neither pleasantly sur...
More About: Eyes , Open , Wide , Mind , Shut

Quote of Whenever - Manhattan Real Estate and Teflon
2008-04-25 14:47:00
"The price of Manhattan real estate is kind of like teflon."- Joya Dass, ABC 7 EyeWitness NewsDass went on to report that a hedge fund manager paid over $800,000 for a storage room in the basement of The Dakota on West 72nd Street and Central Park West: "The room's buyer, hedge fund manager John Angelo, said the price was reasonable, considering what he's getting: 800 square feet with 20-foot-high ceilings and two windows, bigger than many apartments in cramped Manhattan, where a studio can be as small as 300 square feet and the median price for an apartment is more than $850,000."Read moreP.S. David B. Caruso (Associated Press Writer), Manhattan studios can be smaller than 300 square feet.Not a quote of the day, week or month. Just of whenever. Until the next quote that moves me.
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Real , Quote

"Things I Love" Thursdays - Audible Subway Announcements
2008-04-25 04:48:00
Seventy percent of the time, on most subway lines, announcements by conductors are completely inaudible. Twenty-two percent of the time, they're clear and concise or merely decipherable. Five percent of the time, they're bold-faced lies (e.g. "If you cannot fit on this train, there is another one directly behind this one."). And the other 3% of the time, they are surprisingly amusing.*On a downtown no. 1 train for a blogger girls brunch two Sundays ago, the recalled transcript of the best subway conductor in New York City:"I welcome all my weekend customers on my train. But for all of you weekenders who don't take the train during the week, there are rules to follow. First, be advised that this is a train. It consists of separate cars all connected to each other and going to the same place at the same time. There are three doors per car, 10 cars per train, and 30 doors total. Please use all available doors to enter and exit the train."*Percentages are approximate and based solely...
More About: Love , Subway , Things , Audible

Phone Photo Ops - Evening Views
2008-04-25 04:16:00
New Yorkers in Bryant Park ...They're competing.They're reading.They're working.They're lounging.They're drinking.All phone photo ops featured in this post were taken between sips of Ketel One and Soda.
More About: Photo , Views , Phone , Evening

Phone Photo Ops - Morning Views
2008-04-25 03:59:00
Upper West Side - Blooms on BroadwayAll phone photo ops featured in this post were taken between follow-up doctor's appointments.
More About: Photo , Views , Phone , Morning

First NYC Emergency Room Visit
2008-04-23 01:15:00
A recent nonfatal, noncontagious but painful medical condition landed me in the emergency room on Monday morning. My boss cancelled all of her morning meetings and took me in a cab herself after I doubled-over in agony at my desk and then vomited in the bathroom. How great is she? My parents are sending her flowers.A CT scan revealed the cause of my discomfort over the past week and a half (resulting in four sick days last week and two in this one), and now that I have been assured that I am not dying, I'm concentrating on recovery.My first NYC ER experience was fairly comfortable at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital. I particularly enjoyed being run back and forth through the giant donut while the mysterious voice on an intercom commanded over and over, "Take a deep breath in and hold it ... You may breathe normally."I also have to thank BNR - our Brooklyn-based blogger buddy/registered nurse, from whom I often seek informal medical advice - for his comforting text messages throughou...
More About: Emergency Room , Room , Visit , Emergency

Weekend in Suburbia
2008-04-21 03:49:00
"What is this weird gushy feeling I get whenever I see our friends' babies?" I asked Tokii over Saturday brunch of pecan pancakes, french toast, hash brown souffle and scrambled eggs with cheese at a Cracker Barrel outside of New Haven (per Tokii's request; you can take the girl out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the girl)."That would be called your biological clock," she replied between bites of sausage."I don't know why I start to feel like I want one of these when I see them," I said, nodding toward the miniature human at in the highchair at the end of our table. "Can't I hit a snooze button?"Debasha and I arrived in Connecticut via the Metro-North the evening before to see Tokii perform in "The Bluest Eye", in which she was terrific as Claudia, just as The New York Times had said she was. Cassie and her best friend joined us for brunch, and in between hilariously inappropriate for family-style restaurants conversation, we were all oohing and aahing over h...
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Phone Photo Op - From East Rock
2008-04-21 03:16:00
Overlooking New Haven
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Phone Photo Ops - From East Rock & Below
2008-04-21 03:15:00
Overlooking New Haven from East Rock A flowering tree outside of Yale's amazing libraryDebasha & Cassie stroll along white picket fencesBetween gorgeous old New England homesNew Haven storefrontsTree-lined streetsA bar comparison to mushroom caps and acorns
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Quote of Whenever - Over Brunch in New Haven
2008-04-21 03:01:00
Quote of the Girls' Weekend in New Haven :"When he sat down, it looked like a mushroom cap on top of two acorns."- A Native New HaveniteNot a quote of the day, week or month. Just of whenever. Until the next quote that moves me.
More About: Brunch , Quote