A shot of the Scissor Sisters

I LOVE this song. Hate the video, but the song is fabulous and listening to the Scissor Sisters has got me through some tough times at work this week. Five minutes blasting the Scissor Sisters through my headphones is better than an espresso shot when it comes to pepping me up during the late hours I’m stuck working in the office and need to keep going.

A few years ago I almost met them. Almost. In fact I kick myself to this day for not answering my office phone when it rang at 6pm that Friday night. I ignored it thinking it must be someone calling to ask me to do something work related and at 6pm on a Friday night when I was already slammed and trying to get something done there was no pigging way I was picking up and landing myself with more work. Whatever it was could wait until Monday. I almost smacked myself up the side of the head when I finally listened to the voicemail and discovered a message from my colleague P asking me if I wanted to meet him and his old school friend Patrick for drinks that evening, Patrick being Patrick Seacor, otherwise known as Paddy Boom, the drummer for the Scissor Sisters.

At the time, 2004, the Scissor Sisters were already HUGE in England, going on to have the UK’s best selling album of the year and P delighted in telling me I’d missed out on a great night when I saw him on Monday morning. Apparently singers Jake Shears and Ana Matronic also turned up for drinks and P spent the evening partying with rock stars.

Unfortunately after hearing Patrick’s salacious stories from the road P vowed to me that hell would freeze over before he’d ever invite me to join him for drinks with Patrick in the future. He claimed he didn’t want Patrick corrupting me with his evil ways.

Dammit Dammit Dammit!!

Celeb Spots & Moustachioed Men

Unfortunately there’s been little time for blogging recently. Work has been pure craziness since I started on a new account about a month ago and last week I clocked up 63hours at the office. Whimper!! I’m so tired when I get home I can barely think straight, nevermind post on the blog. My brain is so scrambled I’m only capable of collapsing in a heap on the sofa in front of a CSI rerun.

This weekend I was planning to spend another 4 or 5 hours on Saturday finishing a few bits and pieces off, but that was before I stepped out of my apartment at 9.30am to walk down to yoga class and was greeted with the most phenomenally gorgeous day. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky; the temperature was a pleasant 80-odd degrees and the humidity was low with a refreshing breeze and I thought, “Work??? Today? Are you kidding me? Fuck that for a game of soldiers.”

Work could wait…at least until Sunday.

Instead I met Francesca for a late lunch and we had a lovely afternoon pottering around the West Village and Chelsea before meeting Jacqui for dinner. We even had a celeb spot when Francesca stepped out a little too far into the street whilst waiting to cross Seventh Avenue south and didn’t see the very tall and rather scrumptiously distinguished grey haired man bearing down on us on rollerblades. I pulled her back to avoid her being squashed and the man beamed at us as he whizzed by clutching a hockey stick. It was Tim Robbins. Tim Robbins!! Francesca was almost squashed by Tim Robbins. I'm a fan. I was THRILLED. I looked for Susan Sarandon to come hurtling around the corner after him, but she was nowhere to be seen. I’m guessing roller-hockey is not Susan’s thing.

After our near miss with Tim we walked down to Employees Only bar on Hudson for a restorative Kir Royale to aid our recovery. I’m rather partial to Employees Only, although not so partial to the mob scene it becomes each weekend. They have fabulous drinks though – albeit for $12 – and cute moustachioed bartenders. The “ironic ‘stache” has been big among New York’s hipper men folk for some years now. At the Blonde Redhead gig at McCarron pool last week you couldn’t have thrown a rock without hitting at least 6men sporting 1970s porn star style facial hair. I've never dated a man with a 'stache, but I'm kind of liking the look. At EO there's one cutie who waxes the ends of his lustrous specimen, giving him the air of a silent movie villain. He seems like a lovely man, I'm quite smitten - GBF Miles feels I have an unhealthy obsession with men in the hospitality industry - and he certainly mixes a divine Pisco Sour - something I've been drinking a lot of in the last few months, in practice for my trip to Chile with Melissa and Francesca in November - but I do worry that maybe he spends his weekends tying women to railroad tracks :-)

Summer Subway Fun

Fun and games getting into the office this morning on this extremely humid day of all days in New York - 75F at 8:40am and 94% humidity. Ugh!!! - the subways are out, at least from uptown anyway, although the office is like a ghost town - in fact I think I just saw a tumbleweed blow through - so I'm assuming it's a widespread issue.

Fingers crossed this could be my lucky day and I'll have some meetings cancelled. I was in for a crazy one at work, back to back meetings from 10am-5pm and then of course I'd have to find time after the meetings to actually do all the work that will have been piled upon me during those 7hours. Sob!! Y'see how much fun it can be working in New York?

I can't get onto the MTA website to try and find out what actually happened, but I suspect there's been some flooding from the fierce overnight storms we had. For some reason I had an inkling something might go wrong and decided to pick up the bus on the far east side with the intention of getting a 1, 2 or 3 train to midtown instead of using the 4,5 or 6 trains. It was a good move. As the bus passed the 86th street stop at Lexington Avenue I saw scores of bleary eyed New Yorkers clustered by the subway entrance looking bewildered as an MTA employee explained the lack of trains. The news was too much for their pre-caffeinated brains to handle so early in the morning and it took them a few moments to process the information...and then it registered and they all made a run for the bus I was on!! Yikes!!!

Fortunately the driver managed to tame the unruly crowd and got us all safely across town to the A,C, B, D subway stop at Central Park West where about 75% of people got off the bus. Then almost immediately go back on again as news reached them that there were no trains there either. It was the same story when we reached the 1,2,3 train a 86th and Broadway. I decided not to bother with trying to find transportation into the office at that point since it had stopped raining and set off to walk the 40 or so blocks down Broadway with 100s of other New Yorkers. Thank heavens I was wearing trainers/sneakers - like many New York women I keep a stash of about 8pairs of shoes in my filing cabinet at the office - I felt for the poor women who were walking in heels. Ouch!!

Thankfully I also keep a stash of deodrant as, given the humidity, it wasn't the best of days to be walking 40 blocks. By the time everyone stumbles into work it's going to be one sweet smelling office today folks. Phew!!

News just in. Someone just told me the entire subway system is down. Crazy!!

Hanging with the hipsters

Melissa and I had a lovely day out on Sunday hob nobbing with the hipsters at the free Blonde Redhead gig at McCarron Park Pool in Brooklyn.

McCarron Park Pool is a giant empty public swimming pool in Greenpoint, supposedly one of the largest pools in the world - the size of three Olympic pools - which, in its day, boasted a capacity of 6,800 simultaneous swimmers according to this article on Freewilliamsburg.com. 6,800!!! Can you IMAGINE!!! I can attest to the size of it, it’s bloody enormous!!! It must have been hell to clean.

After falling into disrepair the pool was closed in the mid eighties and was pretty much left to rot due to lack finances to repair it, that is until the last couple of years when it found a new lease on life as an outdoor performance venue gaining recognition for the phenomenally popular pool parties each Sunday in summer.

It had been on my list of places to check out, but I always found myself in a bit of a dilemma about going since, being on the fairer side, I didn't want to be stuck in what seemed to be such a suntrap for hours and end up frazzling my bits off, however Melissa twisted my arm this weekend and wow, am I glad she did.

Words fail me at expressing what an amazing music venue McCarron Park Pool is, hard to believe I know. Telling people I spent my Sunday afternoon standing in a giant abandoned swimming pool in Brooklyn listening to live music earned me a few funny looks from my co-workers today. I’ll admit, it doesn’t sound like an especially fun thing to do, but it's fan-bloody-tastic. It has an amazing atmosphere, very chilled out and despite the 80F temperatures it was pleasantly breezy and cool. Not a snifter of a sunburn. It’s easily one of the best concert venues I’ve ever been to...and Blonde Redhead - one of my fave bands - weren't half bad either :-)

Alas I've heard 2007 is the last year for the pool parties. Renovations are coming and they are going to spend trillions turning it into a leisure facility. Great for the community, but I shall miss it as a venue. I'm just glad I got to go. I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance to go!!

From this....
Image c/o Brownstoner

To this...

Image c/o http://www.mccarrenpark.com/

And back again???

In need of the fashion police

There are few people who can carry off a skinny jean with panache in my opinion and I can honestly say that Sting is NOT among them. Yes he does look amazing for his age – Botox Botox Botox. That forehead, it’s smoother than a baby’s bum – and his body is in phenomenal shape, but that doesn’t mean he should be running around town in drainpipes and a cut away white t-shirt. There’s nary a teenage girl that can work that look, so it was a particularly ill advised ensemble for a man of Sting’s years.

Francesca: My word what IS he wearing?

Me: Hmmm it’s not a good look. It just screams mid-life crisis

Francesca: Seriously. Those pants are wayyyyyyyy too tight and the t-shirt is too short. The proportions are completely wrong. He should be wearing something looser, something that would accentuate his muscle tone, but in a less painted on manner. Linen pants maybe and a fitted t-shirt.

Me: You sound like such a fashionista, have you been watching “What Not to Wear” again? You’re completely right though; he'd look much better in something looser. He reminds me of Max Wall in that outfit (see top photo). Stage wear seems to be a problem for your average aging rock star. I remember when I saw U2 here a couple of years ago and Bono came out for the encore in a military style jacket and hat that made him look like a bus conductor. Dreadful!

Francesca: But then again Sting can apparently go at it all night.

Me: What’s that got to do with the price of fish? We’re talking about his fashion sense here, not shagging ability.

Why is it that every conversation about Sting eventually turns to his supposed tantric shagging? Sara said the same thing when I was relaying my story of his dire fashion sense to her at the movies yesterday – The Bourne Ultimatum. Sigh, Matt Damon as Jason Bourne. One word…phwooaaarggggghhhhhh!!! Now there’s a man than can get me thinking about sex. And do you know, I never thought that much of him until he did the Bourne movies, especially not when there was that whole episode of him supposedly dumping Minnie Driver live on Oprah a few years ago, but he's redeemed himself in my eyes and he’s definitely improved with age. Sigh. I’m sorry, just give me a moment will you while I go and fan myself down, maybe take a cold shower.

…that’s better, where was I? Oh yes, Sting and his tantric sex nonsense. Why are we so obsessed by that? All nighters/dayers are fine every once in a while, but it's something to be enjoyed as a treat and seriously who has the time. I bet Trudi Styler’s sick to death of him pawing her for tantric sex, I imagine the scene in their house goes something like this, “Gordon for fuck’s sake will you leave me alone, I’ve got to sort out the laundry, do the ironing and get to Pilates class. I've told you, we’ll have tantric sex at the weekend.” :-)

Zenyatta Mon-What????

Lord I feel old. I just told my 25year old co-worker that I am going to see The Police at Madison Square Garden tonight - Francesca gave me her spare ticket. Wasn't that FABULOUS of her? What a friend. I'm taking her to dinner as a thank you - and she responded, “you are going to see who?”

Me: The Police. You know The Police. Sting's old group?

Co-worker (looking at me blankly): Erm…no.

Me: Yes you do. You must do. Y'know....Roxanne? Can’t stand losing? Don’t stand so…(continue to receive blank looks)…ohhhh forget it!!

Kids today!! Pah!!

Help me I'm melting...

Omigod it’s hot!!!! Its 77F right now (26C) at 8.36am, with 69% humidity and due to shoot up to 93F come lunchtime. It's not the heat so much, but the humidity is KILLING me and after the subway ride into the office this morning I feel as if I need another shower. I couldn’t believe it when I noticed the woman sat next to me – yes I got a seat!!! - was wearing sheer tights (okay okay, I’ll say it, she was wearing ‘pantyhose’ – oh how I hate that word). Can you IMAGINE the hell of that in this weather? She’s just asking for a yeast infection that one. Ewww, I can’t believe I just said that.

All in all, I pretty much like the weather in New York; I like the fact that we have clear seasons and I love it when we get snow, however the last week in July, first week or so in August is not my favourite. (I’m not so keen on the tail end of winter either, but since that leaves me with roughly 10months of the year I don't mind the NY weather I think that’s pretty good going). The heat and humidity is oppressive and I'm often forced to decamp to the futon in the living room to get a decent night’s sleep, since it's the only room in my apartment with air conditioning. It's a fire hazard to have a unit installed in my bedroom window unfortunately since the fire escape runs by my window. Ahh I remember the halcyon days when I first moved here and I shared an apartment in a doorman building which had centralised air conditioning. That would be utter bliss right now.

As for dance classes, forget it. No salsa classes for me in the month of August, it’s too damn hot in those tiny studios. My friend Jacqui is in agreement and called me last week to let me know she wouldn’t be signing up for classes in August. “I’ve had enough. I’ve been dripped on by my last sweaty man for the summer. I’m not signing up for any more dance classes until it’s at least 20degrees cooler.”

The only good thing about the weather being this hot is that it curbs my appetite, so I usually manage to lose a couple of pounds. The year I moved into my own apartment I couldn’t afford to shell out $300plus for a decent air conditioning unit and instead I made do with a couple of fans. They are no subsitute for a 5000BTU air conditioning unit let me tell you. I was permanently taking cold showers to cool off and I couldn’t eat a thing. I lost 6lbs that summer. Although of course the impact of any summer weight loss is usually negated by all the water I retain so despite not eating as much my clothes feel tighter and I feel fatter. WTF!!! That’s not fair now is it?

So, some advice for any English people who may be reading this who have also been eyeing that oh so favourable exchange rate and thinking "Hmm that flight to New York looks a bit of a bargain for the August Bank Holiday" I implore you, DON’T DO IT!!!! You'll either spend your time walking around in the sweltering heat and bickering with your loved ones, or hiding out in your hotel room with the AC blasting. Better to spend an extra 100quid on a flight over in September when you can actually walk the streets plus you’re not greeted by the aroma of hot fetid rubbish everywhere you go. Trust me on this one folks, there's a reason that flight is so cheap.