April Showers Approaching…

And the hope of May flowers must keep us going. The forecast is looking pretty shitty for the upcoming weekend, which is always disheartening when there is so much fun to be had outside. No matter, whatever will be, will be. Besides, the earth needs the rain right now, and if this helps produce a glorious garden later then it will have been worth the dampening of spirits. As Mr. Python once extolled in song and practice, ‘Always look on the bright side of life.’ 

To the end, here are a couple of April blossoms to set the stage for May glory. This is a daffodil and some grape hyacinths – a match made in color palette heaven. When in doubt, let nature make the bouquet. Both of these bulbs require some forethought and planning – they must be planted in the fall for these spring blooms. I like that sort of design. It reminds us that we need to plan occasionally, and that without some organization we might miss out on such rewards. A happy lesson for all of us Virgos, or anyone who enjoys keeping their life on track. There is enough we cannot control. Let’s design what we can, when we can, because the world is ready to topple us all at any moment. Stand strong, little bulbs. Your beauty has been well-won. You are right on schedule for when we need you most. 

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Tiny Threads: An Insignificant Series

Getting tripped up on my palazzo pants is a benign reminder that I’m human after all.

Human and fabulous.

(And more than a little ridiculous.)

#TinyThreads

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Impending Boston Blooming

Some of our Boston celebrations are just around the corner, and the city is in the midst of unfurling its spring flower buds with glorious abandon. The city is especially magical at this time of the year, when you happen to step beneath a blossoming apple tree and inhale its perfume, or when the morning dew rolls off the puckered pout of a Narcissus cup. Braddock Park bursts with its own charm as pockets of crocus scream to be noticed amid a sea of ivy leaves. The fountain might already be running by the time of this post, and if it’s not it should start any day now – the steady gurgling a comfort when the front windows are open to the night air. I could spend an hour sitting at the table, looking out over the street and watching the dog-walkers and kids ambling by.

On nice evenings I’ve been known to bring a cocktail outside and settle onto the top of the steps, extending the comforts of home right up against the street and the friendly neighbors. If I have friends coming over I’ll often wait for them there too – that way I get to see them as soon as possible and not waste one moment out of their presence. Nothing makes me happier than seeing Kira or JoAnn making their way along the Southwest Corridor Park to start a Boston adventure, or waiting for Andy to return from the car with a last piece of luggage for an anniversary weekend. It’s all happening…

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A Rare Political Meme

This says it all. 

[Find my incendiary political side on Twitter.]

#Resist 

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A Recap Fit for an Easter Monday

The high Catholic holidays are now behind us, which can only mean the happy transition from spring to summer is well in progress. The temps have finally agreed to go along with our mind-set, and yesterday Andy and I put away the pool cover for the summer season. A happy moment indeed. On with the recap for the past week – photos from our family Easter Sunday gathering coming in a few days, along with a Savannah recap, so come on back soon…

For once, let’s begin with the Hunks of the Day, which included Zachary Levi, Dan Carter, MalumaMatthew Noszka, Lil Dicky, and Francisco Alvarado.

Let’s follow that line-up with the #TinyThreads feature.

Madame X will see you now.

A gin fit for the summer season.

The new Madonna song (and surprise, I love it). 

The boy I never wanted to be.

Might Louis Vuitton be the scent of the summer?

Don’t joke about Good Friday, they said.

Or Holy Saturday.

Or Easter Fucking Sunday.

Easter libations to carry you through the whole of spring. 

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Libations Fit for a Resurrection

Good Friday may get all the Bloody Mary glory, but Easter morning should come with its own set of cocktails to get use through the family dinners and pastel nightmares this holiday can bring. To that end I’m giving you a few links to drinks that would work mighty well when you need a bit more than church wine. The first is my go-to Easter classic, the Ramos Gin Fizz. If you put an egg white in it, what’s to stop it from being breakfast? The second is a recent addition to my cocktail arsenal: the Grasshopper. Think of it as the sweet antithesis to the savory Bloody Mary (Mary’s holier-than-thou cousin perhaps). Third, the Aviation, which is lovely enough to impress for the church set, and potent enough to allow you to put up with them. 

The common denominator to the first two options is the cream that lends them a morning-coffee feel. It blunts the edges of the liquor, softening the harshness at such an early hour. It also adds some fatty richness to the whole affair, wrapping everything in gauzy colloidal suspension – the perfect sort of Easter wrap for pastel decadence. As for the Aviation, it’s pretty enough to stand on its own without the cream. 

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The Return of the Bunny in Purple Tulle

I will never understand the unabashed joy that comes from seeing my unabashed terror in this childhood Easter Bunny photo, but it runs deep and wide, and this is a perennial favorite at Easter time.

As young as I was, I distinctly remember waiting in line at Mohawk Mall to see this horrifying creature. I remember being scared out of my mind. Hopefully I had a diaper on too. For many years thereafter, I steered clear from the bunnies that began appearing in malls every spring. I’ve conquered that fear, but such residual terror always runs the risk of being resurrected when one least expects it. I found myself coming down the escalator at Crossgates Mall a couple of weeks ago, deposited right in the sightline of a friendly rabbit. I dodged and swerved and kept a wide berth. No sense in tempting fate to repeat such terror. Even if this one had a friendly face and was totally lacking in a tulle tutu around his neck.

Happy Easter y’all.

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Tiny Threads: An Insignificant Series

It’s a good thing I never got into heroin. Or crystal meth. Or bath salts. Well, aside from their intended use. I love bath salts in a hot bath.

#TinyThreads

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A Purgatorial In-Between Place

The purgatorial period between Good Friday and Easter was always one of suspense and tension in my childhood home. The kids among us were usually just thrilled to be on Easter recess, but in the oppressively-Catholic atmosphere of our house, the apparent death of Jesus and the impending resurrection left us in a state of limbo. Even when our favorite Uncle would visit, there was a halting aspect to our celebration, the way death hangs over everything when it touches us.

The weather being so volatile and variable at this time of the year, and the date of Easter always switching from early to late to everything in-between, also wreaked havoc with one set of scenes or circumstances. We’d vacillate between days outside in mud and rain, to days inside with snow and sleet, to days outside in sun and splendor, to days inside in peaceful slumber. Sometimes there would be violets already in bloom, other times there would be snow on the ravaged tips of barely-rising daffodils. Everything seemed to be in a suspended state of indecision.

So it is on this Saturday, as we wait in joyful hope of His coming, an eternal reminder and symbol of returning hope, the way spring always comes back, the way summer follows suit. Amen and Halleluh!

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Good Friday Cookies

Come on. 

It’s funny.

Happy Nailing!

Happy Good Friday!!!

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Tiny Threads: An Insignificant Series

There are some days when Albany can’t handle the party going on below my waist.

#GoToHellPants

#TinyThreads

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Summer by Louis Vuitton

Les Colognes Louis Vuitton.

Those words taken together should strike terror into Andy’s heart, because the last time I experienced a Louis Vuitton obsession he was generous enough to gift me with one of their classic Keepall bags at a price point which shall remain absent on this site. The fact that they have been doing fragrance for a couple of years was not lost on me, but I never ventured into any research or experimentation because, well, money.

With the Les Colognes collection, a trio of summer-inspired scents looked as if the House of Vuitton might be making a more mainstream attempt at fragrance at a slightly more affordable level. (And it turns out that at $250 one gets 100 mL, which is roughly the same cost of a Tom Ford Private Blend, only with twice as much product.) Enough vulgar cash conversation, we are here to determine the merits of the scents themselves, not a financial lesson which I have no business giving.

Jacques Cavalier Belletrud is the perfumer behind the three offerings: Afternoon Swim, Cactus Garden, and Sun Song. Artist Alex Israel was tapped to design the flacons and packaging – brilliant, colorful works of art in vibrant shades of blue, green and yellow – ideal for the sunny, beachy, summery feel of the set. It sounds heavenly, as much for the specific notes as for the season they portend. Sun Song offers the sweet citrus of orange blossom; Cactus Garden gives off a green, lemongrass effervescence; and Afternoon Swim, on paper at least, sounds like my perfect cup of summer sun tea, with its mandarin and bergamot breeziness.

Citrus is notorious for its fleeting nature, gone too soon like summer itself, but this is the one season of the year where I don’t mind so much. Heavy, cloying, monsters of sillage have no place in the lighter days when heat and humidity strike down all in their path. Besides, a re-application during the day is a welcome boost when the afternoon starts lagging.

Of course, this throws a sweetly-scented wrench into the spring/summer cologne proceedings, which up to this point have been dominated by selections from Hermes and Diana Vreeland and possibly Tom Ford. Will Louis Vuitton topple such venerable favorites? Only the summer knows…

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The Boy in Overalls and Keds

“He wanted, as did I, to become something he’d neither yet seen nor dreamed of, something he’d recognize the moment he saw it: himself. Yet he was constantly confounded, for no matter how much he adorned himself with scarves and jewelry, he could not understand that this was himself, as was also and at the same time the boy in overalls and Keds. He was split in two pieces – as who was not? – the blond wave cresting rigidly about his close cropped- hair.” – Richard McCann, ‘Mother of Sorrows’

Engaging with a recent bout of nostalgia, and embracing all that we were, I find myself taking a brief sojourn back in time to when we were young. Writers such as Richard McCann, who wrote the featured quote above, are much more adept at evoking such memories. I can only approximate what it was like, what I was feeling, and mostly it only resonates with me. Still, most of our memories convey similar wistfulness and longing, and perhaps you can relate to reaching an age where you have just as much to look back on as you do to look forward to. I hate ending a sentence with a preposition, but sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do. Like looking back. Now I’ve gone and muddled the day before it’s even begun. That’s what revisiting the past can do.

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Medellin by Madonna & Maluma

A shuffling little tropical trifle, this breezy ditty is really like nothing Madonna has ever done before. With the aid of a very relaxed Maluma and his reggaeton influence, it’s the perfect encapsulation of the coming summer, and Madonna’s intimate and occasionally whispered vocals (slightly reminiscent of the ‘Ray of Light‘ album’s beginning and ending) strike new territory for pop’s returning queen.

I like its casual, soft-focus vibe, and at this point in her career Madonna doesn’t give a fuck about the haters, so silencing the anonymous online trolls requires nothing more than a shrug. I’m a die-hard fan who enjoys most of what she does (not all) and I happen to already love this one. It’s a lovely intro to the ‘Madame X’ experience, as well as a wonderful, wistful slide into the spring/summer seasons. This was made for summer lounging, pool parties, and sunny drives. It doesn’t bother trying to live up to impossible expectations, and ends up giddily surpassing them because of it. Sometimes you just need to enjoy what a song sounds like and go with the flow. One-two-cha-cha-cha…

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