white nights of st. petersburg

best representation of russian architecture: church of our savior on stained blood. this place has the most mosiacs of any church in the world. it's super impressive and you know pictures really don't do it justice.

must dining for an audrey fan: tiffany's cafe. it ain't breakfast, but it's a kinda wannabe chic restaurant that in my opinion is overly decorated for a place that should represent audrey. anyhoot, i got as gussied up as i could and they park me in a window spot. i didn't have my little black dress, but i was wearing a dress (my j crew navy swiss dot-fontana wrap dress). i basically took everything from there: the table mat, which features retro news article on ms. hepburn, toothpicks that have the tiffany's cafe name and a business card of course.

best place to feel like anastasia: the coat of arms room (aka white hall) in the winter palace. with chandeliers dangling, all i needed was a fancy ball gown. i had "once upon a december" in my head after leaving the room and basically throughout my tour of the hermitage. yup, that's right! i love me some cartoony goodness, especially since they fashioned anastasia of audrey hepburn's my fair lady. in fact, if anyone has a copy of this flick to lend me, i'd be uber grateful.

must activity for the white nights: strolling the fontanka after dinner. it's still light until 11 and never fully becomes dark. i walk along the river as russian hipster couples enjoy brews by the banks and cruise tour ships whiz by. it's the perfect white night for my last evening in st. petersburg.

travel hiccup survived: no show sibelius finnish train to st. petersburg. upon conclusion of the russian jaunt, our tour guide drops us off at the train station only to realize that it is not coming. an hour later a replacement train is produced from the russians. seems as the finnish train's brakes were broken. the russian train is older with compartments that have overheard beds. it totally reminded me of backpacking through europe for the first time.

top 3 soundtracked moments:
3.) sam cooke's "i'll come running back to you" at lunch in the adamant restaurant. anytime i hear a tune from mr. cooke i can't help but smile.

2.) sia and the smiths serenading my white nights walk along the fontanka.

1.) grand archives and headlights in my ears while i admire the sunset in rural finland from the window of the train. this is one of my all time travel moments. the window on the train was open and we choo choo by farms of open fields and trees as the horizon paints a violet orange swirl amongst the clouds.

tallinn, estonia

best spur of the moment excursion: i finished early at the conference and decided last night that i should get my ferry ticket to tallinn, estonia. when am i going to be in this area with this opportunity? dunno, so BAM booked my ferry ticket on nordic jet line. at the ferry terminal, i met up with a fellow yank from hawaii, chung. we teamed up to survey old town for the afternoon. tallinn reminds me of prague, especially the town hall square. there are a ton of churches, which we managed to cover.



must eats in tallinn: hell hunt, the first estonia pub. i also did not have beer here. one day left to go. this was hard...really hard. they have custom brews, and they were at discount prices. that's one thing about tallinn, it's really cheap. i had a large coke, a bowl of russian dumplings and a HUGE potato, minced meat entree with melted cheese on top for only $16.

hei from helsinki

longest flight: jfk-iad-cph-hel. yup, not one but two stops to get to helsinki. okay, i purposely picked this flight because i wanted to stop by copenhagen. i got two stamps in my passport since i accidently went through more than one passport checkpoint. go shar! anyhoot, i got maybe an hour of sleep on the flight from DC to copenhagen. i watched the other boleyn girl and rewatched definitely, maybe. i was very impressed by SAS because they have baby bassinets for them to sleep comfortably = no screaming babies on the flight.

coolest lamp: this lamp is in my hotel room. go figure from the scandie designers. tho not by a finn, but a swede named harri koskinen this cool block lamp sat on my artek stool/nightstand in my hotel. the stool however was designed by the famed finn alvar aalto.

best site for a conference: finlandia hall. this was also designed by aalto and not a bad place to have to spend your time in a booth if you are in a beautifully designed building. i was in the congress wing on the second floor.

most anticipated guest: vanessa. this gal is studying in my fav scandie city, copenhagen, for 8 weeks and i invited her out to helsinki for a pre-school excursion before she started making her chair for her furniture class. we hit the ice bar, which was really cold even with the parkas they provided. i had the finnish classic minttu, which was basically a shot of minty vodka. i also ended up drinking most of v's peartini. (jac, i haven't had beer and there were lots of fun varieties). we took the 3T tram which basically is a cheap way of touring helsinki for 2 euros. the next day we set off on foot for some pics of the sites (mel, your camera is giving me the white screen of death). for dinner, we had true finnish cuisine. i went all anthony bourdain and had me the forest foreman's skewer, which consisted of reindeer fillet and elk sausage. it was surprisingly delicious and not as gamey as i thought it would be. sorry rudolph.

p.s. 1 and deitch

exhibit continued: time your time: olafur eliasson at p.s. 1. i had to see the rest of the exhibit after checking out the moma portion. the yin to the yang if you will. i really enjoyed the reverse waterfall in the basement and the revolving mirror room. kristin totally got me jazzed about it with her illegal photos on her visit. sue took some of the gang (jac, robert, sue, mel, bill, gloria, jason, saki and i) being kooky too. a little blurry but you get the picture of the fun we had.



new fav gallery space: deitch studios in lic. the crew headed from p.s. 1 to the deitch river front studios. we checked out the absolutely venomous accurately fallacious exhibit. it was crazy. the guy working there said we would prolly be the only visitors of the day. that's sad. good visit this space. it rules! also, he was saying how they are having lots of cool upcoming stuff, like swoon's exhibit in september that will feature a boat that you can ride on the the river. there will also be bands playing the studios. the studios are a little tucked away like buried treasure. apparently the neighbor's wanna keep the place on the DL.

proof that peeps with names beginning in "s" rule:

yankees vs. padres

never to late visit: yankee stadium. my first time to the the famed stadium and not too late before they turn it into rubble. i was lucky enough to get complimentary tickets through work or shall i say as a client of the hilton. shar gets woed. who would have thunk it? these seats were the best. we were past the first base line in left outfield.

the yankee fans weren't too abrasive as i thought they would be. i was sporting my throwback padres cap. i think it helped that the fine gentlemen in front of us had ties to the west coast. one was from sf and another lived in san diego (mira mesa) for 7 months.

feat of yesterday: not having a beer at my first yankees game. darn you beerless june! i'll be back in july for the a's game and i shall return to the beers of the world stand for a tumbler full of the amber goodness.

congrats celtics

most worthy of praise: boston celtics. i unfortunately missed the entire game, but was glad to hear the outcome this morning. kg, ray allen and paul pierce - congrats on your win. you TOTALLY earned it. p.s. i'm wearing my new j crew deco dot zooey dress in summertime lime in honor of your win.

extra special bay area congrats: leon powe. former cal bear is now a nba champ. holla!

sigur ros @ moma

wish come true: ticket to poprally's sigur ros gig at moma in conjuction with take your time: olafur eliasson. thanks to the speedy and skilled online magic of one william robert todd IV. hugs to bill!!!! i was distraught last week after saki got shut out of tickets. shar has longed to see the icelandic outfit for years. no one in sf would go to hear esoteric and atmospheric music with moi. so when i found a group of fine folk in ny that loved them like me, shar was psyched. my camera phone sucks, so here is a flickr stream of pics from the gig. thanks to jason for the photo to the right. he has a decent camera phone. "look, we are monochromatic," said mel.

they played a good hour set with encore, and the rumor that they would only play a 20 minute set minus new stuff was partially true. no new stuff, but two discernible tracks from ( ). shar knows her hopelandic.

most missed: saki. the fairest of them all could not be with us because she had to work. boooo work. why do you not let saki come out and play??? saki, we really missed you and the next time you see me you will get this poster:pre-performance sighting: jón (jónsi) birgisson. totally saw him sporty his signature striped shirt outside of moma giving hugs to someone in the press line. shar, because she is shar, kinda got excited, while mel said i don't know who i'm looking at. i also saw him and the rest of the band as they went downstairs to start their set. i totally waved at them, but i don't think they saw. i just wanted to give jón a hug. the security guards weren't so keen on that.

best post-concert grub: halal guys at 53rd and 6th. man, i tried to get one of these sammies in before the show but the line was 15 people deep. there was still a line at 10:30, but shorter. i had me the chicken sammie. mel and bill got the combo. jason had bites of our's. we all agreed that this street meat was stellar. cheapass does too.

renegade craft fair (rcf)

best place to experience cute overload: renegade craft fair at mccarren park pool. with over a 150 booths of crafts and cute prints that have been sewn, silk screened, painted or letter pressed. it was uber fun. the cuteness was worth braving the crazy heat of saturday afternoon. saki and i were some loverily sweaty messes. HOT! (literally)

missing in action: lotta jansdotter. lotta was suppose to be at booth 50, but after we covered the mapped area for booth 50 we realized lotta was a no show. i hope she writes a blog about her mia status at the rcf. she was sorely missed by shar.

drink that we wished was for sale: fizzy lizzy. saki and i were parched beyond belief. we headed to the fizzy lizzy booth for some non-corn syrup goodness. we have this pop at my yoga studio. unfortunately, they didn't have a permit to sell. i wish the nice sample lady would have just slipped us a bottle. instead, saki and i had to pay two bucks for canned soda. blasphemy!

best purchase: $5 mystery bag from brooklyn letterpress. i got a bunch of awesome cards, a coaster with a pig on it and a gift tag. letterpress goodness in a surprise form. i love mystery card bags. i used to get them at wishbone in sf. miss ya wishbone.

best deal: a year subscription to readymade for $5. crazy, i know. an issue is $4.99, so it's basically 6 issues for the price of one. offer only stood at the readymade booth and had to pay then and there.

top 3 fav booths:
3.) the small object
2.) ork posters
1.) domestic construction (for their tea cup hanging lamps)

gripe and solace of the day

gripe of the day: $15 baggage charge for checked bags on united. okay, i had just filled out a survey for united for my last trip to the west coast highlighting that a baggage charge would be uber BAD. in fact, i told them that i'm a one bag kinda gal and you would be punishing the already light packers by taking precious space. all these new kids that can't pack will force their bags into my overhead space. arrrrrrgh!

solace of the day: she & him - lillywhite session. oh man, i stumbled on this gem on my daily AM browsing of NPR music. it brought me out of my funk with united. maybe it will do the same if you are having a not so stupendous friday. have a great weekend everyone. she & him will make it so.

adele @ highline

best example of someone born to sing: adele. no joke friends, she IS the real deal. she came out a little jittery crooning "right as rain" but you couldn't tell with that voice on her. she sang everything on her album 19, except for "best for last" because her bass broke in portland or somewhere there. here are some notes i took down last night before i feel asleep to her voice.

- "right as rain" (uber nervous but still sounded amazing)
- "daydreamer" (solo acoustic guitar)
- "cold shoulder" (mark ronson somewhere in the house for this one & shout outs for helping with producing the tune)
- "dreaming of you" (cover of the coral, apologies for coral fans of the OG version but adele loves the tune and only has so many tracks on her album)
- "first love" (her attempt at an interlude)
- "crazy for you" (solo acoustic)- "tired" (last upbeat tune before the string of ballads)
- "melt your heart to stone" (my fav that made me an adele fan)
- "my same" (ballads continue because she is a self-proclaimed drama queen)
- "make you feel my love" (cover of bob dylan, her fav which she feels kinda weird about since it's a not her's)
- "hometown glory" (about new york)
- "fool that i am" (etta james cover as an encore and a make up for not being able to do "best for last", she's opening for jill scott at the montreux jazz festival where etta will be performing as well.)
- "chasing pavements" (final song)

reason brooklyn rules: previously mentioned artist was shopping for an apartment on bedford. billyburg approve her credit and welcome one of the bestest voices in music today.

sunday in the park with george

best opening sequence: sunday in the park with george. i don't even wanna give away the lighting and set magic of this production. you should really see it. i know theater is pricey, but if you are under 35 get on hip tix. (thanks to angela for the scoop) $20 tickets!!! the seats are decent, in the mezz. i would be surprised if sunday in the park doesn't win the lighting tony.

most versatile: jenna russell as dot and grammie marie. the inflection of her singing really brings out the comedic chops she infuses whether as a disappointed love interest or immobile grandmother. here is her playbill bio for background on this broadway newcomer:

Jenna Russell (Dot / Marie). Broadway debut. She has played many leading roles in the West End, most recently Amy in the revival of David Hares Amy's View, directed by Sir Peter Hall; Dot/Marie in Sunday in the Park With George (Olivier Award, 2007); and Sarah Brown opposite Ewan McGregor in the Donmar Warehouse production of Guys and Dolls directed by Michael Grandage (Olivier nom., 2006). Other theatre includes leading roles at the Royal National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Donmar Warehouse and Royal Court. Her extensive television credits include “Born and Bred” (four seasons), “On the Up” (three seasons) and was recently killed by a Dalek in “Dr. Who” (all BBC).

can you guess who shar will be rooting for best female lead in a musical?

karma

example of karmic goodness: i was on route to my shift at kula. climbing the steps, BAM $22 just lying there. i looked around to see if someone was in the bathroom, but no one in sight. i decided to get me my sigg bottle i've been eyeing since i melted the lid of my nalgene. $$ goes back to kula. ahhh, the cycle of karma.

reason for bad karma: scalpers who are selling the poprally sigur ros tickets for hundreds of dollars. shar HATES you!!!! just wait when you least expect it you will get hit with some major bad mojo.

so instead shar will mend her heart to the tunes of nicole atkins at the socrates sculpture park and hopefully mel will take shar to olafur eliasson soon. pur-teeee puh-lease mel.

weekend wrap-up

best borders concert: sam phillips. shar loves her some sam phillips and when she found out that she was playing for free at borders columbus circle. she was there and even brought virginia and jenni with. something about her dry, dark humor between songs really charms me. plus, all her songs remind me of lorelai and rory from gilmore girls. sam was a peach during her signing too. genuinely happy to speak to me even though i look really deranged in this pic. photo credit goes to virginia.

must period throwback: governors island for hot jazz weekend. the crew (jac, mel, mike, eric and dean) jumped on the ferry for a lovely saturday on the island. we paired up to learn the charleston. dean and i twisted away. i think we ended up getting the basic and turn down. i was dripping sweat to the tunes of michael arenella and his dreamland orchestra. if you haven't seen them, GO!


i'm excited to go back and bike the island. mike and eric scooped out an art gallery with the huge installations, so i wanna check those out next time too. oh, the kick off for the olafur eliasson's waterfalls is happening on june 26 there too. we saw the structure all set-up. can't wait!

best cool off spot: david byrne's playing the building. heard about this on npr and since it was right next to the governor's island ferry terminal, we popped in to the battery maritime building on our way back. david byrne came up with the idea to hook up an organ to the pipes around this old plumbing building. you can get in line and actually play it, but the queue was long. we just stood around listening to the cacophony of clanging pipes.

fltgc: cameron hayes, visionaire and aoife collins

best reunion: jac and shar of friday lunch time gallery crawl. the cofounders were back to crawl together as one with ryan and linda in tow. we hit the ronald feldman gallery for the cameron hayes show. his works have a lot going on and i could prolly stare at them for hours and find new things i hadn't seen before. i really liked "The Incomplete History of Milikapiti" for its fun use of stuffies.

must spot for product design geeks: visionaire. this is like an upscale mcsweeney's. ever wanted your publication to come in a gold LV case or a tiffany box? you can for a $675 annual subscription. the current issue is focused on sound and comes with 5 vinyl records in a portable record player. you know you want it.

best gallery name: location one. simple with possible hints for other galleries to follow. (okay, i was just struggling for a label.) ryan knew the guy working there. not surprised! nick, the galleryist, told us about how they have a residency program at the gallery that fosters mostly international artists. the current show features aoife (pronounced EE-fe) collins. her show includes a huge mix media piece that include a poster for labyrinth amongst other items. in the back room, there are pieces by daniel andersson, which i really enjoyed. postcard sized pieces reworked into mosaics. then, there's tseng yu-chin's eerie images of kids hiding under beds and closets.

Game 1 = Celtics

must watch series: nba finals - celtics vs. laker. this rivalry goes back. WAY back. i remember. i'm old. magic vs. bird action in the 80's. i was a lakers fan back then with an admiration for mr. bird. he was classy in his short shorts. there was a good spot that encompassed this, see below:

best candidate to pass the torch to: paul pierce. he is classy and plays the "heart of the team" role for the celtics. he wonked his knee last night and left for a few minutes only to come back to crowd roars. i'm not sure the lakers have a counterpart to magic. i pretty much am a hater of the new lakers. shar misses some magic, kareem, james worthy and a.c green.