Happy Halloween

After a bizarre year in New York that saw hurricanes, earthquakes and a rare October snow storm, it will take a lot to scare us this year. Happy Halloween!

1920's Style

My love affair with 1920's style continues. Maybe it is the rebellious nature of the era and the flapper's, the emergence of a new spirit embodied in leading ladies such as Louise Brooks, Clara Bow and Zelda Fitzgerald. Whatever it is, it resurfaced while I was in Toronto for business, and discovered the Roaring Twenties: Heels, Hemlines and High Spirits exhibit at the Bata shoe museum. I highly recommend it!

Occupy Wall Street

As the rallying cry gets louder here in NYC, and is quickly spreading globally, it has hard to ignore the Occupy Wall Street protests. Whether you agree or disagree, it certainly is a good time to listen to the various discussions, look beyond the mainstream media (NPR has excellent coverage) and remain open to alternative possibilities. Here is the official "Declaration of Occupation of New York City", and if you are in NY, I suggest you go down to the source of the protest and see for yourself.

Rock'N'Roll

Great multimedia and video from GQ's November issue: The Survivors: A music portfolio

Toronto Fashion Week LGFW

This week I am headed back to Toronto for the last fashion week of the season (LGFW) . Tune in to my coverage with The Canadian Tourism Commission by following the CTC tumblr blog, CTC twitter @Keep_Exploring and my twitter too @Stylegroove (Photo of Carrie Mitchell with Pink Tartan designer Kimberly Newport)

Happy Birthday Oscar Wilde

“Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.” ~ My favorite man of wit. Happy Birthday, Oscar Wilde. 1854-1900

Prohibition Documentary

As someone with an obsession with the 1920's, it is little wonder that the recent PBS Ken Burns documentary on Prohibition caught my attention. Not only can you stream it online in its entirety, it also acts as a great lead in to the new season of HBO's Boardwalk Empire. The fashion, the music, the bootlegging...what's not to love?

A Little Love

"I am grateful to have been loved and to be loved now and to be able to love, because that liberates. Love liberates. It doesn't just hold—that's ego. Love liberates. It doesn't bind. Love says, 'I love you. I love you if you're in China. I love you if you're across town. I love you if you're in Harlem. I love you. I would like to be near you. I'd like to have your arms around me. I'd like to hear your voice in my ear. But that's not possible now, so I love you. Go.'" ~ Love Liberates by Dr. Maya Angelou

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life." ~ Steve Jobs 1955-2011. What a tremendous legacy, best described in his own words from this 2005 commencement speech at Stanford.

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.

“Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have." [Wired, February 1996]

Arrested Development Returns!

My favorite news out of last weekend's New Yorker Festival was the imminent return of the television genius that was/is Arrested Development. It was confirmed that they will make new television episodes as a lead up to a movie. Finally. I need more Lucille Bluth in my life.