Grazing Privates

November 24, 2008

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Hey everybody. I bet I smell like burnt wood this morning because I feel like I've been roasting by a fire for the last 48 hours. By a fire is not a bad place to be, by the way. Specifically, we were upstate in Millbrook, and that ain't a bad place to be either.

Saturday night we watched "Quantum of Solace" and none of us understood one moment of what was happening. I didn't care because Daniel Craig was running around in (very tight) fantastic clothes, accessorized perfectly. When Bond is all cut up and cut off and homeless in one scene, and then he shows up in a tight Gucci cocktail outfit a minute later, where does he actually go to get the clothes? Does he travel with a valet? And how many pairs of sunglasses does he have and where does he KEEP THEM? Do they get scratched ever?? I know it doesn't matter. Oh and why did they cut the sex scene? Judi Dench was great, too.

Upon my return, the West Village had somehow been transformed into something of a Christmas spectacular. It is too early I guess, but I got inspired to buy myself a present or two before the sun set. As much as I've bemoaned Marc Jacob's overtaking my neighborhood with specialty boutiques, what he's doing is incredible. As many overpriced bags and shoes as he sells, he offers a ton of low-priced and great clothes for everyone in two of his Bleecker Street locations. His gifty store is all stuff under 50 bucks, and his men's store has amazing staples (thin black ties, dress shirts, wallets) for really reasonable (J Crew-ish) prices. Marc is democratizing fashion!

Ralph Lauren isn't democratizing fashion, and I got no problem with that. What he IS doing in the West Village is offering free petty cab rides home to anyone who makes a purchase in his store. I live around the corner, but I wasn't about to turn down the opportunity to sit under a RL horsey-blanket and have petty cabby chitchat in the customized, plaid cart. I felt like kind of a fool but it was mildly entertaining. And nothing is free, by the way, because you really have to dump a big tip on the little RL boys who are schlepping you home.

I spent a lot of time over the weekend giving notes on cuts of future Bravo shows, namely two episodes of "Top Chef", one "Real Housewives of OC" and two "Real Housewives of NYC". The mean stewardess on my flight to Atlanta a few weeks ago was right -- watching TV hardly can be counted as real work.

I think what's great about "Chef" this season is that there are so many people for whom to root. And of OC ladies, I say that as we enter the fourth season their guard is down and we are deep inside their lives; it is a real-life continuing drama, that one. It’s no wonder Deidre Hall is losing her job when these ladies are giving it for real on another channel.

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