I Deserve Better

When you live in a city like New York, you expect certain things. One of those things is celebrity sightings.

In this regard, New York has been failing me. Not only do I work and study in Manhattan, but my Brooklyn neighborhood is also known to house some big names. I think I’m entitled to some thrilling run-ins. Other people I know have seen minor celebrities at grocery stores, and major ones filming on location. They’ve ridden elevators with famous designers and glimpsed starlets out at bars. But my list is short and dubious at best. Here is the tally:

• Passed a woman on the street who may have been Judy Dench. May also have been a regular old lady.
• Walked by a bar that had a red carpet with several photographers swarming around a smiling woman. I and the person with me stopped, looked her up and down, and shrugged to confirm that neither of us had the foggiest idea who she was. (Sad for us, but maybe sadder for her)
• Went to an exhibit opening and saw Elisa Jimenez, 10^th runner up, Season 4 of Project Runway.
• Thought I saw Season 5 Project Runway winner Leanne Marshall, but not really sure.
• Saw Scott Adsit, who plays Pete on 30 Rock. He was on the subway, and because of the Judy Dench and Leanne Marshall experiences, I wanted to make sure I got a good look. He looked straight back and me every time I looked over. It was weird.

But now I have real ones to add to the list. On Sunday I went with a couple of friends to the premiere of Season 4 of Mad Men in Times Square. We dressed up, got our picture taken at a promotional booth, and then stood to watch the episode (there were chairs for those who had arrived early, but considering that none of us girls had skirts we could sit in, it worked out just fine). It was kind of a cool experience. It was a bit hard to hear, but it was fun to watch it with a big group of people, commercial free, one hour before it aired on the East Coast. Also, we must have looked pretty fabulous doing it, because after it was over we were stopped by two separate people who told us so and asked to take a picture.

Anyway, January Jones and Elizabeth Moss both attended the event. “Spotting” a celebrity at a public appearance is sort of cheating, but we did see them at close range. After the show was over we navigated our way to the stage exit. They walked right past us! Yay! Actually, more than anything I was shocked by how tiny they were. I’ve heard that famous women usually are, but it was sort of scary to see. January Jones was terribly thin and bony, but it was almost weirder to see how small Elizabeth Moss was, considering that when she stands next to other celebrities she sometimes looks slightly chubby (not actual chubby, chubby in way that Anne Hathaway is “the fat girl” in The Devil Wears Prada).

So maybe I shouldn’t blame New York for not producing enough celebrities in my life. Based on their actual size, and the profusion of street lamps and signposts in the city, they are probably harder to spot than I realize.

If you want to see some professional photos from the evening, go here. But here is what you really want to see...

It was taken in front of a green screen, and they made a big deal about squishing together and fitting in the frame...so...not sure what happened there.

(Similarly, I have no idea what goes on with the formatting on this blog. Today it has interesting but inconsistent ideas about how paragraphs should look. Resistance (and the tab key) is futile)

Small Talk

This weekend I had a lovely trip to the Philadelphia area to see my college friends Becca and Mike. On Saturday Becca and I went shopping, and throughout the day I talked her ear off about all kinds of random stuff that I've learned this past year. I find myself doing this to everyone these days, and while most of them swear that it is fascinating, I think they are humoring me a little bit. So for those of you who miss having me around, just picture me saying one of the following "conversation starters" and it will be exactly like the real thing.

"Did you know that before they figured out to create cultured pearls, real pearls were more valuable than any other precious stone? I mean, think about it. Divers had to go down and pull up oysters and like, 1 in 10 would have a pearl. And 1 in 100 would have a pearl that was even remotely close to the same color and size as the last one you found.

"So do you want to hear how cultured pearls are created?"

"Most perfumes today are made with all kinds of synthetic chemicals, but Chanel no.5 is still made from natural ingredients."

"Do you realize that ready-made clothes are a relatively recent invention? The revolution in ready-to-wear meant that clothes had to be designed to fit as many people as possible. Most of us have never had something made just for us...we don't even know what well-fitted clothing feels like!"

Here is one I haven't burdened anyone with yet, so maybe if I type it here I can remember not to bring it up next time everyone else is having a nice, normal conversation that doesn't involve the history of clothing...

I've been re-reading parts of Anne Hollander's book Seeing Through Clothes which was required summer reading last year for my first class. I giggled too when I first saw the title, but considering how much of the book is about "the fashionable body" underneath historical clothes, it is quite apt. Anyway, one of the things that makes it tough to be a fashion historian is the criticism that clothing is artificial and frivolous. While most people aren't nudists, many feel that clothing is something false whereas nakedness is natural and pure. But as Hollander points out (and my World Dress and Textiles class confirmed) every human culture dresses or decorates the body in some way. She writes:

Nakedness is not a customary but rather an assumed state, common to all but natural to none, except on significantly marked occasions. These might be ritual, theatrical, or domestic, but they are always special, no matter how frequent."

Isn't that interesting?! Maybe our most natural, human state is dressed! Don't you wish I was talking incessantly to you right now about this very subject?

Mennos in the City

This week I got some unexpected news. I was offered a room at Menno House to live for the next year. Menno House is a brownstone in Gramercy that houses people who are doing Mennonite Voluntary Service (sort of like the Mennonite version of Americorps), other volunteers and low-income do-gooders, and a couple of lucky people who aren’t saving the world but sneak in anyway. The place is nice and the rent is ridiculously cheap for Manhattan. It will be community living--shared kitchen, living room, and bathrooms--but that appeals to me. John and I have been getting along great, but I do feel sort of isolated in Park Slope. If I want to go out or spend time with people it has to be a planned event and requires a 40 minute ride into the city. Living with a bunch of people certainly has downsides, but I lived in a 10 person house in college, and it was a blast (Yeah Foster House!!). Plus, I’m excited to live in Manhattan and have the serious city living experience.

Once I decided to accept the room, I spent some time exploring the Menno House website. It was awesome. Specifically, it has surprisingly in-depth information about the house’s history. The building itself was built in 1851, which is fun because that year has another cool historical association (gold star to any non-MOHAI person who knows). Then, there is this picture:

The Mennonites apparently moved in during the 1950s. The house was used as a lodging place for conscientious objectors (and their wives) who were coming to the city to fulfill their alternate service requirement. Sadly, plain dress and bonnets are no longer required. I sort of wish they were. My life could turn into some straight-to-DVD movie. Clara is a good Mennonite at home BUT on the walk to work she pulls off her cotton sack dress to reveal sassy, modern clothing! Instead of spending her days picking lice off of orphans, she is studying fashion! Hilarity ensues when she forgets to take off her bonnet before class and her housemates get suspicious when they catch a glimpse of pink under her hem!

Farther down on the history page is an article about the house from a 1966 Mennonite magazine. It starts like this:

New York City--center of world trade, skyscrapers, riots, United Nations and eight million people--was virtually unknown to Mennonites in the past. It was a huge city that was far enough away from our Mennonite communities that it did not pose a great threat to us. It was a place where we occasionally went to see missionaries off to some foreign land, a place we passed through en route to the New England States, or a place where a few daring tourists "saw the town."

Wow. ...pose a great threat...a few daring tourists... Where else would someone list the top 5 New York identifiers and include “riots”?

But sadly, things have changed. The Menno House I will be living in will be tragically in step with the times. It will probably look more like this:

Tsk tsk.

(Move in date is September 1st)

So...hot...can barely...type

One of my fears about this summer was how I would handle the heat in New York. I have done my fair share of traveling in my life, but I have never spent the summer somewhere other than Seattle. Yesterday, instead of the traditional overcast-with-a-chance-of-rain July 4th, it was 97 degrees and humid. I went to Long Island for a cookout, and spent most of the day in my classmate's parents' yard, trying to pretend that it was cool in the shade. Once I got some potato salad and sangria in me, I was done. I asked my host if it would be weird if I went inside and took a nap. What could she say? I crawled onto an available soft surface and passed out. I woke up in time to consume some pie, ice cream, and sangria.

The other thing I have been discovering is that I really do not own enough warm weather clothes. It seems like every day I open my closet hoping to put on a light, flowy dress, only to find that the majority of my wardrobe consists of pants, heavy skirts, and tops with sleeves. But even if my closet was packed with sleeveless cotton dresses, I would still struggle with my summer clothing concept. Both places I work are very air conditioned. The problem is particularly bad for the Met. In order to get there I have to take my regular train as far north into Manhattan as it will go, get out at a stop that must be the deepest underground stop in the whole metro system, walk up four long escalators (standing is for tourists), walk above ground for four blocks, enter another subway station (most subway cars are air conditioned but the stations are ovens), get on a train, get out, and then walk several blocks to the Met. No matter what I am wearing or how cool it is that day I am inevitably sweaty when I get there. But within an hour I'm reaching for my sweater and wondering why I didn't think to wear tights. We are not required to wear lab coats but I usually appreciate the extra layer it provides.

There is one perk of the hot weather. Because cold and drizzly reminds me of home, hot and humid makes me think I'm on vacation. It doesn't happen when I am sweating in the subway station or trying to fall asleep, but sometimes when I go from a cool building into the heat, some pleasure center in my brain activates. It says "Mmm! Feel that? That is not was Seattle feels like! You must be far away, having some exciting summer adventure!"