since you've been gone

I miss the days of good Kelly Clarkson.

Remember 'Miss Independent'? Back in the days when reality TV felt new? How did I live in a world lacking television that followed the trials and tribulations of Spencer and Heidi? How did I live without exposure to the glorious, glamourous, insightful character that is Nevin from the City? I don't know, but he is on my NY hit list of lame celebrities I would like to meet. I brushed Adam from the City's shoulder the other week and felt a wave of joy wash over me that had not been felt since the sighting of Dave Coulier (FULL HOUSE!!!) taking out the trash earlier this month. I am fully aware of how lame I am.

Let's segway into something less lame. As you may have gathered I am living in New York at the moment (hurrah!). I haven't actually had much free time to live in the city as such, but the basics of my life have become quite mundane- I have a skeleton life of shower, work, (window) shop, sleep. To mix it up I at times have taken to galleries, pretty much only the heavy hitters. I can sum them up as such:

MOMA- Brunch + Rauschenberg + Johns + Lowman + bookstore from heaven= BESTTHINGEVER

Whitney-Bread and Butter+dreamy staff

Met- Home to my favourite art work. Sigh. Bohemia lies by the Sea. SIGH. Google it and fall in love.

I have also been to the Sunday Gallery, which I linked in the previous post. They have a wonderful photography/ found objects exhibition by a Swedish artist whose name currently escapes me, but it is 100% worth going if you are LES bound or oriented. Eldridge and Stanton.

Other than these pursuits I have pretty much been an art failure this summer. I'm re-reading Bluebeard by Vonnegut and getting super excited about October 10th when a collection of his unpublished short stories come out. I'm also reading a delightful book I bought from the Whitney about art collecting and what makes the process of acquiring art a collection, what legitimizes a collection, etc. I have bought this mostly because after seeing so many famous art works in such a short space of time I am hungry for my own pieces of awesomeness. Alas my pockets aren't quite deep enough to own a Schiele study of madness or a Degas ballerina-hooker. Instead I spend my earnings on "wearable art" as Vogue is calling fashion these days.

Since being in New York this summer I have fallen further away from having any sort of taste. There were moments in which I toyed with the idea of buying silk headbands in jewel tones at Bendels, but then I realised I wasn't Blair Waldorf, and that I looked like a Dr Seuss character. This has lead me to justify buying these headbands in muted tones, as they were staples of the "Zara dresses like she did when she was four" look. These were probably the only things of taste I have bought. While the magazines are pushing advice on dressing for the recession and investment buying I have mostly bought vintage things that will likely fall apart while I sleep tonight. These purchases include a gross camel coloured waistcoast with obscenely large ornate clasps, tan loafers, green silk plunge wrap dresses at wholesome lengths, the most monochromatic of jumpers, a navy and gold bold type faced oversized sweater, and really that's about it. Everything is pretty late 1940's and boyish (bar the dresses, duh.) This weekend brings the last push of the summer retail quarter, sales and that all right before fashion week. I am so down with injecting the last of my funds into some awesome thrifty purchases rather than spending them on extravagant meals as I have done the past month and a half (but oh have I eaten...more on stellar NY eating habitats soon!).

Finally music. Not so much of it has been seen by me. I saw Rumble Strips at the Tribeca Grand, they were delightful. Dinosaur Jnr pleased me in the park. Girl Talk seemed fun from Vinnies. Ellie Goulding's new tracks are better than ice cream sprinkled in joy on a summers day, and the Girls record kicks me into high gear every morning (that, and 'Let Your Love Grow Tall'...)

I also am digging Beach Fossils, Desolation Wilderness and Knight School quite a lot right now. I have a loaded list of bands that I've compiled over the summer that I haven't addressed yet and I promise to deliver some great ones over the next few months! Until then I suggest filling your life with gross tie dye dresses, floral boxers, pimms, banana pudding, Union Square Halloween store hats, getting excited for Frieze, CMJ, Zoo, reuniting and planning ways to avoid coming home...