experience "black tie beach," youtube-style

improv everywhere's video of 2012's "black tie beach" mission is up on youtube & embedded below here.  there're a few, very-quick clips of me, claire & our friends, which is pretty neat.  (go, purple dresses.)



for my earlier posts about our participation in this very cool mission, please check out:

BLACK TIE BEACH 2012 & BACK TO BLACK TIE BEACH

& once again, thank you to charlie todd/improv everywhere.  BLACK TIE BEACH & the MP3 EXPERIMENT, which i still need to write & post about here one of these days, made my summer incredible.  looking forward to future missions.

i would be a good mother if...

... i took a photo of claire today on first day of fifth grade & posted it here on my blog or on facebook, but dang me b/c i did not get a shot of the putch on her last first day at PS 196Q.

then again, i was at school all day since 7:30am this morning to sell t-shirts & serve refreshments to the parents at drop-off & kindergarten pick-up.  (i did take one break for lunch on austin street & to seek the elusive "forest hills rooster" w/ my friend stacey, & we did meet a bunch of really neat parents at school, which was quite nice.  we're going back tomorrow AM to hawk more school spirit gear (ie: fancy-talk for "t-shirts") & w/ this PA president gig i've got going this school year on top of everything else i was doing before... heck, i think i actually am a darn good mother, regardless if i took that picture or not.

[update, just a bit later: i did a search for the "forest hills rooster" & it turns out that it may actually be a chicken, as reported by CBS local news.]

[update, just a tad bit later than the "rooster vs. chicken" update: i noticed a reporter at school this morning, so i did a search & found this DNAinfo article by nigel chiwaya about the first day of school, featuring PS 196Q.  cool beans & neat-o, eh?]

us & them

[open letter to bonni: you could've seen these photos from yesterday last night if you were on facebook.  alas, you're not, so here they are for your viewing pleasure.  it's kinda neat-o seeing us & them together like this.  i LOVE that they're both a year apart like we were.  & i hope they stay super-close.  (though w/ family, there's bound to be some ups n' downs.)  okie-doke, i could go on & on, but i'll stop now.  here are the pics.  i LOVE you.  & let's get a set of these w/ maddi & janine in 'em, too.]

 



us at the bronx zoo



them at umberto's

jealous guy... a couple more ways

thank you, steve tabb, for turning me on to these two versions of "jealous guy" that were missing from my original cover list of this song.  (thank you, too, to the kind folks who posted these videos on youtube.)

the black crowes


the faces

jealous guy... a whole lotta ways

"jealous guy" is a top-ten-maybe-even-five song of john lennon's that i truly dig.  what follows is the original version & a plethera of different renditions by aimee mann, bryan ferry/roxy music, the deftones, donny hathaway, joe cocker and lou reed.

(btw, thank you to the original posters of these videos on youtube.)

john lennon


aimee mann


bryan ferry/roxy music


the deftones

donny hathaway


joe cocker


lou reed

tom & jerry's greatest hits

these songs just make me so happy...

guess i can't have my cake...

cake played in brooklyn a couple of weeks ago, which i've been waiting for the longest time to happen, but i skipped it b/c i was tired after coming home from a trip to AC.

i've been kvetching ever since about it -- not here, just out loud to friends & family --  but have decided to stop & deal w/ this nonsense once & for all by posting a bunch of of their live performances on "letterman" (thank you, cakevevo) & simply moving on.

hopefully, they'll be back in the NYC area again real soon.  till then, i have this to get me by.

bound away...


short skirt/long jacket...


the distance...


frank sinatra...


wheels...


long time...


never there...

back to the black tie beach

more photos from yesterday's black tie beach event (the first batch is here).  thank you, yiching lin, for taking & posting these on flickr, except for the last one, which carl took on his phone. :)

as for the mission itself... it was a really cool experience & i'm glad that claire & i participated w/ our friends.  everyone was in such a great mood & having a more-than-good time frolicking (sp?) at the beach & in the ocean while wearing our fancy duds (note: my purple frilly dress was bought at the salvation army for $7.50... not too bad a bargain.)

i'm gonna shut down & call it a day, but in the meantime, i highly recommend you visit charlie todd's improv everywhere site & check out this & his other missions.

& to the young gentleman w/ the blue bucket who was dousing people from behind, including me & claire... i was the one who dunked you in the ocean & i'll be watching out for you in 2013, buddy-boy.

black tie beach 2012

i don't have time to yammer about yesterday's incredible time at the 3rd annual black tie beach event -- this year at coney island -- so thank you to ari scott for taking these photos & sharing them on flickr, so i can share them here (there was a link allowing me to do it, so please lemme know if this ain't kosher &'ll remove 'em).  & thank you to carl for taking some snapshots for us to share, as well.  it's much-appreciated.

as you can see by the photos, we had a seriously fun time having a regular ol' day at the beach in our (thrift store) best.  in a quick nutshell, hundreds of us dressed-up in black tie attire & descended on the coney island beach to have some fun in the sun amongst unknowing beach-goers.

(many thanks too to charlie todd from improv everwhere -- the man who has been creating & executing amazing "social experiments," such as this.  check out the link for more pictures from three other photographers at the beach & details of all their missions.)

[update, 8/20: you can view more photos here.]

want some?... psych.

another proud moment today when claire told me she wanted to show me something funny she found on youtube... eddie murphy's "ice cream" routine.  here's his entire show for her & you -- my two faithful followers -- to enjoy: