Getting Glamourous
10 Feb
Archive by Author
I’m featured in the March issue of Glamour magazine as a panelist on a new advice column. My friend Meredith who writes for The Colbert Report brought me on board after she was asked her to bring along three friends to do the panel. We had a great time. Best of all, they did all of our hair and makeup. Meredith and I took our new looks out to lunch at Esca after, but sadly didn’t run into anyone we knew.
I’ve been waiting to get invited to a wedding in San Miguel de Allende, a pretty Spanish colonial town near Mexico City, for years. The invitation never materialized, so my husband and I decided to check it out between Christmas in New York and New Years in Palm Springs. We loved the windy cobblestone streets, the art galleries and shops and the general vibe of the ex-pat heavy town. Best of all, a crew of friends from L.A. rented the very best house in town, Casa Hyder. I have never seen a more spectacular, cool private residence. It’s a good thing we got there a few days before the crew did because once we saw their house we never wanted to leave. We stayed at the Hotel Matilda, which was very nice as long as we didn’t compare it to Casa Hyder. I’ll be writing up the trip shortly for Fathom, my friend Pavia Rosati’s new travel site, where I also wrote up our trips to Cartagena and the Aeolian Islands.
It was surprisingly warm in New York and I had a great time visiting friends and family and hitting some holiday parties. A highlight of this trip was seeing Momix perform at the Joyce. It was the second time I saw the modern dance troupe and I loved it just as much as I did the first time, almost a decade ago. The performance, called “Botanica” waa beautiful, wacky, creative and unpredictable. I went with my dad who kept wondering how they did what they were doing. It was the first time in a long time that I can remember the audience oohing and aaahing and giving a big standing ovation. I like that Momix does not try to send any intellectual message. It’s about creating beauty with strong bodies and surprising you with optical illusions. It’s like a more sophisticated, stranger, less touristy Cirque du Soleil. It’s only 90 minutes and tickets are relative cheap and easy to get. I hadn’t seen a modern dance show in a long time and was reminded how much I love a good one. My first job was as the intern to the dance editor of The Village Voice. It was a great gig. I also studied modern dance and choreography at Mamaroneck High School through a program called PACE (Performing Art Curricular Experience). I went to a public high school, but it had some grant (maybe from the Rockefellers?) that endowed this great program. We went to a lot of dance shows and had our own student choreographed ones. Not to brag, but I did win the high school choreography award senior year. It took me until college to realize I was not much of a dancer. However, I use a lot of what I learned about choreography in my writing.
I’m back from an extended summer of travel that culminated in my lovely honeymoon in Italy. We spent two weeks hanging out in the Aeolian Islands, an Sicilian archipelago. I highly recommend it. Other summer travel highlights include Burning Man, where I camped with my old friends at Disorient and went to a very glamorous dinner party cooked by the chefs from Fat Radish. For the first time in my 9 non consecutive years of attending the festival, I flew in and out of the Burning Man airport on a prop plane from Reno. It was awesome. As the Green Tortoise bus says, “arrive inspired not dog tired.” And these wheels were up. Now I’m back in LA shifting into work mode. It’s good to be home.
Holiday Travels
2 Jan
Hanging at Casa Hyder with Husband
Mixing it up in Manhattan
23 Dec
Momix
GIRLS!
11 Dec
A teaser for “Girls,” the new HBO series I’m writing for, aired tonight before “Boardwalk Empire.” The season will debut April 2012. We’re already writing Season 2. It’s the most fun job I’ve ever had. Tune in!
Destination Birthday Weekend
23 Nov
I just spend a few days in Vieques for my married friends’ joint birthday party with a crew of close friends. It was like a destination wedding but much more low key. The island of Vieques (off Puerto Rico) has some of the prettiest beaches I’ve ever seen, with calm, warm, aqua water, white sand and lush greenery. Until 2003, it was largely occupied by the US army which used to practice bombings there, or something like that. The culture on the island seems a little soulless, but there’s semi wild horses everywhere. They’re owned by locals who don’t own enough land to keep the horses, so they just graze all over the island and are rounded up when necessary. It seems like an innovative idea except I heard there’s lots of horse/car accidents. We stayed a Hix Island House which is a great eco, architectural place. (The only downside is it’s not on the beach). The W recently opened up a mega hotel there that’s very nice and on the beach, but kind of corporate. It’s a very easy flight from NYC, far more challenging from L.A. Definitely worth the trip if you go with some friends.
Confessions of a Former Ashtanga Addict
22 Nov
I wrote a story for this week’s New York Times Thursday Styles Section about how I traded in my ashtanga yoga practice for personal training.
Autumn in NYC
16 Nov
I had the good fortune to visit NYC for a few warm days in November. It was great. Highlights included dining at the recently renovated Le Bernardin, which reminds me of a very elegant sailboat. The service is so spectacular, they even have little stools for handbags. I think it’s the best food in NYC, maybe the world. I also checked out Jeffrey’s, a new West Village casual place from the chef behind Joseph Leonard and Fedora and Pulquiero, which is like La Esquina 2.0. And I returned to favorite haunts like the Spotted Pig, Locanda Verde and Cafe Cluny. Besides eating, I saw some cool art, like the Cattelan show at the Guggenheim, Gursky and Serra at Gagosian and Nan Goldin at Matthew Marks.
Butterfly Season in Big Sur
13 Oct
I just got back from a 2 day trip to Esalen in Big Sur with my oldest, dearest friend who lives in SF. Esalen is one of my favorite places in the world. It’s an institute where most people go for workshops on everything from yoga to Gestalt therapy, but I just do a “personal retreat.” This means I soak in the gorgeous hot springs, get the best massages of my life, hike in the redwoods, do my own yoga and slip out for meals at my favorite local restaurants like Big Sur Bakery, Post Ranch Inn, Nepenthe, Ventana and Deetjens. Heavenly. This year, I happened to be there during the Monarch butterfly migration. They were everywhere. It’s always beautiful at Esalen but this time it was extra special beautiful.
Mad for Mindy
3 Oct
My pal Mindy Kaling (aka Kelly Kapoor from “The Office) is really on a multi-hyphenate, multi-threat roll. Besides acting, writing, producing and directing episodes of “The Office,” she just relaunched her awesome shopping blog. When she first launched it in 2008, I became instantly hooked. I even wrote a “Night Out” column for The New York Times Sunday Styles section to have a good excuse to go shopping with her. Her book, “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?” launches in November so pre-order it right now. I’ve had a sneak peak and I predict a rocket rise to the top of the bestseller list. Mindy for president!
Back on the Grid
22 Sep
Honeymooning at Hotel Raya in Panarea
