Snowy Interlude

We had a slight aberration in the weather pattern yesterday. We are in fall, the temperature is above freezing, the leaves are still on the trees, some haven't even turned yet and there was a snowstorm! Crazy. So of course I dragged the anesthetist on a walk upstate today to view the "winter wonderland." Pretty spectacular seeing the snow against the fall colors.

Traveling

This is my last stop. St Petersburg. Oh how incredible! Off to the Hermitage, the Winter Palace and Tsarkoye Selo, home of the former imperial family. I have waited my whole life to come here. It is a true gift. Thank you work!

Traveling

In Moscow! Home of Rachmaninov's vespers, potatoes and babushka dolls.

Traveling

Leaving Paris today for Stockholm! Never been there. Apparently it's on a series of islands and is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We're staying at the Hotel Skeppsholmen.

Traveling

Leaving tonight for a week in Paris - work, not play!

Happy Weekend!

Happy, happy weekend! Hope you're all doing marvelous things. The anesthetist is whisking me away to the Connecticut River tonight for my birthday. We're staying in a gorgeous old inn at the mouth of the river in Essex. It's going to be 25 degrees with autumn colors! Apparently we are taking a steam train ride along the river, kayaking, "Antiquing" as they call it here and gulping in large doses of fresh air! Yippee! Will share pics when I get back.

Change of Season Meltdown

I had a major meltdown last week. You know the one; contents of bag thrown onto the floor, clothes flying, door banging, heavy footfall, screeching banshee etc. It was my first for a long time and certainly the first in front of the Anesthetist. I don't think he knew what hit him.  He sat on the couch in the dark staring at a wall until I had calmed down.

It all started because I couldn't find my keys - the product of being totally disorganized due to 11 hour work days, constantly traipsing between my house and his, never being in the city because of travel and really just because of a general feeling of exhaustion and hopelessness.

So this weekend, I decided to take my life back into my own hands. I cancelled a gorgeous country weekend away with the grey-haired wonder and decided to "get stuff done." I think the anesthetist was genuinely relieved to not have Medusa sitting next to him in the car for 7 hours. So was I. It meant that time was filled instead with a massage, yoga, reading, admin, fall wardrobe shopping and a catch up on all things wonderful about the start of fall in this city!

Fall is the best time to be in New York. Not only is the weather (usually) perfect, but the city comes to life with a gazillion cultural treats. After voraciously reading the NY Times this weekend, here are my top picks so far if you are going to be here:

• Italian conceptual artist and joker Maurizio Cattelan is about to take over the Guggenheim. There was a great piece in the New York Times on Sunday you can hopefully read HERE.
• Beer heiress Daphne Guinness gets a solo exhibition focusing on her extraordinary wardrobe at the Fashion Institute of Technology Museum
• Harpers Bazaar celebrates 10 years of high-impact fashion photography at the ICP
• Frank Langella (of Frost/ Nixon fame) hits Broadway in Man and Boy
• The incredibly sublime White Light Festival at Lincoln Centre has a second airing in November. I wrote a piece here about one of the concerts last year.
• It's opera season again! This year The Met's program includes the usual faves like Aida, Barber of Seville and La Boheme,  plus Wagner's Ring cycle. There's nothing like frocking up to attend one of the world's most venerable institutions.
• Woody Allan and Ethan Cohen have written one act plays as part of a Broadway program called Relatively Speaking, directed by John Turturro.
• And of course, everyone is talking about the De Kooning retrospective at MoMa. 

So get those culture boots on and start preparing to wait in long lines!

image: Steven Klein

Tips from Tourists

You may remember I wrote HERE about New Yorkers' pet peeves with tourists. Well, now the tourists hit back.

Jen Carlson of Gothamist graciously went out on the street and interviewed some Manhattan visitors to see what they had to say about this rare city species. Selection below:

• Don't walk so fast!
• Don't roll your eyes when I pronounce Houston Street like Houston Texas
• At least make eye contact while clinking glasses
• Stop talking about how you live in the greatest city in the world. We get it
• Don't say I'm stupid for calling the subways by colors
• Don't cycle so fast in the bike lane on Brooklyn Bridge while I am trying to look at the skyline
• Tell me where to buy counterfeit purses!

image: phonked

I Heart Lanvin

Thank you Alber Elbaz for having some fun with fashion! It makes me love you even more. And BTW, your fall collection is to die for xx

To see full screen, click HERE.

Walking Dunes

Fall came quickly last week. With a small shift in the wind, the temperature plummeted to 10 degrees.

So too do the sands of the 'Walking Dunes' shift. Located beside Napeague Bay in Amagansett,  they have "walked" for thousands of years with the help of the powerful northwest wind. Some years they shift by 3 miles apparently. As a result, phantom woods are uncovered and other more recent trees and shrubs become newly covered for their long sandy slumber.

It's the perfect place for a fall walk. Some of the Dunes are 50 feet high, the view over the bay is idyllic and you pass through forests of scrub oak, patches of beach plums (no fruit yet unfortunately) and cranberry bogs. It's beautiful and serene, with only the sound of the wind and, if you listen closely, the slow march of the sand.

Starry, Starry Night

The stars are the jewel of the night and perchance surpass anything which day has to show.

- Henry David Thoreau

Did you know that according to the US Parks Association, by 2020, only 10% of the American continent will be able to view the night sky because of all the city lights? New York of course lost this ability years ago. So it is only fitting that this light pollution issue is illuminated (pun intended) in this city through a very snazzy installation called "Reflecting the Stars".  The Windmill Factory, a collective of artists, designers, architects, performers and producers have mounted 201 solar powered LED lights on the old wooden remnants of Pier 49 in the Hudson River, in an effort to bring back stargazing to the city. Viewers can push buttons from the shore to light up different constellations on the water that you should be able to see above the city. Rather wonderful concept, don't you agree?

In Remembrance of 9/11/2001

Image: love documentaries

Traveling

going home today to see the fam and smell the gum leaves!

Hurricane Irene

Well, I never made it out of New York on Saturday. And Irene wasn't as bad as CNN made it out to be. A bit of flooding along Battery Park, a few tree limbs down and alot of closures and cancellations for a normal storm-level wind.

Well, ok. Maybe it was a little more serious than that, but it was all still underwhelming by the time Irene made its way to New York.  The grocery stores made a killing though. Try getting bread at 3pm on Saturday! And the city must have trucked  in the earth's whole water table. People were stocking up as if it were Armageddon! Meanwhile, I have spent the weekend trying to get on another flight to Shanghai. Wish me luck. The backlog is extraordinary. Who knew so many people wanted to visit China!

image: new York times

Traveling

Fingers crossed I get out of NY today before the hurricane hits!

The Perfect Weekend in Montauk

There is nothing like getting to a Friday in hot and humid August, knowing that you have a planned escape from the city that afternoon. And one to Montauk no less! Endless miles of ocean and golden sandy beaches, too many yummy eating places to choose from, the smell of salt air and spectacular coastal and inland walks. Here's a standard day on the weekend:

Walk across the road from the Beach Plum Resort, a fairly average studio rooms-type stay but in a brilliant position, to wind your way through an overgrown path and across the dunes to a glorious sandy stretch of a Montauk beach.

Do some early morning stretches before a long walk along the beach.

Bike into town to order a fresh juice smoothie and scrambled egg breakfast wrap at Joni's, the best organic health store in the Hampton's.

Spend the day reading on the beach and swimming in the remarkably calm and warm Atlantic ocean.

Take a later afternoon hike through one of the many state parks around Montauk.

Have an early dinner at the heavenly Crow's Nest - super casual chic dining at its best. Set in a very simple clapboard house, the view from your table over Lake Montauk is divine, with a little private beach to wander down to during courses. The interior is all white linen and bleached wood, with a nod to Africa in music, food and decor. There is even a bonfire on the lawn for those deep, late evening conversations.

After a dinner of the freshest seafood, it's back to the beach to take a romantic stroll before night falls.

Finally, go to bed early and sleep blissfully, as you are lulled into dreamland by the sound of the ocean from your pillow.

images: all mine except (f) gastro grub and (12) crows nest mtk