Springing for accoutrement

It’s freakin’ freezing here in New York, but I was struck by the need to start buying some new spring clothes last night as I watched the dribble on TV. Plus, I told myself, I’m going to Austin in 2 weeks (for southbysouthwest), so I’ll need some new warm weather clothes unless I want to lug mine out of storage (heaven forbid).

I started with footwear. These wedges seem to be all the rage. I’m not sure about the comfort level, especially given my myriad of past foot problems, but I’d figure I’d give them a shot.

Then I moved on to tops (pants are too hard to buy online for me). For whatever reason, I’d never shopped at bluefly before, but they have some really cute stuff. I think I was scared away by the prices, but if you sort by price, there’s nice stuff marked down. Here’s my haul:

Books rock

I just posted my review of Play It As It Lays on my most excellent book club’s site. Check it out. Now. Go. Stop reading this.

Scientology is whack

This week’s Rolling Stone has a fascinating look into the world of Scientology. Before reading it, I really only knew that some famous celebs subscribed to this "religion", but I didn’t know the details. By now, we all know Tom Cruise is a bit cuckoo, but what an absolutely wacky, money-grubbing, brain-washing cult! Think I’m being a bit over the top? Read it for yourself.

5 Things I didn’t know about Scientology before reading this:

1.  Scientology charges for virtually all of its religious services.

2. They believe that 75 million years ago, an evil galactic warlord named Xenu controlled seventy-six planets in this corner of the galaxy, each of which was severely overpopulated. To solve this problem, Xenu rounded up 13.5 trillion beings and then flew them to Earth, where they were dumped into volcanoes around the globe and vaporized with bombs.

3. In his 1983 autobiography, Over My Shoulder: Reflections on a Science Fiction Era, the sci-fi writer Lloyd Eshbach describes meeting Hubbard in the late 1940s. "I’d like to start a religion," Eshbach recalls Hubbard saying. "That’s where the money is."

4. Hubbard created a unique language for scientologists. It includes words that are variations, of standard terms: "isness," for example, which Scientology’s glossaries say, in essence, means "reality." But there are also words that are wholly made up, such as "obnosis," which means "observation of the obvious."

5. Security checks are administered to higher-level Scientologists every six months "to make sure they’re using the tech correctly," as church officials explain. Its questions include "Have you ever been involved in an abortion?" "Have you ever practiced sex with animals?" "Have you ever practiced sodomy?" "Have you ever slept with a member of a race of another color?" as well as "Have you ever had any unkind thoughts about L. Ron Hubbard?"

Poor Lovely Sasha

Dear Bob Costas –

Leave Sasha Cohen alone. Ok, so she fell and didn’t win the gold medal. But, she did win a silver medal. What medals have you won lately, Bob? And, who really cares if she “choked
” or not? The fact is that she saved your ratings – people tuned in to watch lovely, angelic Sasha, not you, Bob.

Sincerely,
ppwgal

* This post is dedicated to my husband (who’s recently developed a HUGE crush on Sasha). Apparently, he’s not alone.

Competitive TV Viewing

Last night on my TV,
incredibly all at the same time:

NBC: Olympic figure skating
Fox: Skating with "Celebrities"
ABC: Dancing with the "Stars"

(Note: I added the quotes above)

It’s cruel of the networks to make a person choose between such quality programming. Through the sheer skill of rapid remote control flipping, I was lucky enough to catch snippets of all three. I skipped from some unknown Turkish skater who had no chance of an Olympic medal (because of course NBC saved the good skaters for a time long past my bedtime), to robotic-like Bruce Jenner trying not to fall on his well-stretched face, to  the lesser-Lachey brother throwing it down to the Thriller soundtrack.

Oh what a night – It truly was one for the record books.

Self-portrait

Here we are making use of a mirrored surface outside the Tate Modern

The Pub Rub

As I downed a lager and lime at a pub on Saturday night, I noticed 2 attractive women come into the pub, remove their jackets, and pull 2 empty stools into the middle of the pub. Next, they approached a group of young men, exchanged a few words, then led 2 of the men to the stools. The men sat down and the women began massaging their shoulders. I watched in fascination as the mens’ eyes rolled back in their head as the women massaged their temples and kneaded their backs. After about 5 minutes, the massage was over and the women whispered in their clients’ ears. The men reached for their wallets and thumbed through their bills before pulling out a note.

I’d just witnessed Urban Chill – a brilliant scheme making its way across London. The company sends trained "Chillers" to bars to offer massages to the drunk patrons. When the massage is over, you are simply expected to pay whatever you think it was worth. You can guess that a drunk guy who just got massaged by a pretty girl is probably going to be pretty loose with his money. We watched the women add up their money after about 45 minutes in the bar. Each had made about 50 pounds. And, they said they go to 3 or 4 bars a night. Not a bad night’s work, though I’m sure they have to kickback a portion to the corporate headquarters. 

No doubt, I’ll see this soon in a bar in New York. Innovation like this travels fast.

Ode to London

Well, our weekend in London was most definitely a success. We managed to have both a relaxing time, yet see and do tons of stuff. I’ll post some specific stories as the week goes on.

This trip re-affirmed for me that London is definitely "my" city. While I (mostly) love New York, I just have a connection with London that I don’t have with New York. This was my 7th or 8th trip back to the city since I went there to study abroad in 1998 and each trip reaffirms my affection.

London and New York are mostly similar and they grow more alike as the years pass. Yet, there’s just something about London that I connect with on an emotional level. I think it partly has to do with the history. I’m constantly blown away as I walk to streets and think about the rich history of the buildings I’m passing. It’s also the people. They just seem to have a better approach to life. It’s not all about work. And they seem to understand that life can’t be taken too seriously. It’s a delicate balance and it’s easy to stray too far to other side (ie the French), but the Brits seem to have it just about right.

I don’t think I’ll have the opportunity to move to London anytime soon, but if I did, let me share with you my dream house.

I’d like to live on a cute cobblestone street like this one in Kensington:

And, I’d love a quirky little house like this one:

Chocolate Conspiracy

Was it a mere coincidence that EVERY Cadbury machine in the London Underground was out of order this weekend? Or, was there something more sinister going on? Perhaps, a government plot to deny the people their right to consume chocolate underground? A thorough investigation is clearly needed.

Cheerio, my lovelies

I’m off to London in a few hours. As my favorite Olympic snowboarders would say, I’m totally stoked, man. I’ll share all the fun details that are fit to print on Tuesday.

Until then…