My popcorn was fresh and my convertible was fly. Under twinkling stars fog gently rolled in and I got all snuggly on red leather waiting for the movie to start. Ahhhhh! This old fashioned Drive-In experience could only be happening in.... Manhattan's Lower East Side. You read right. The jam-packed city finally made room for a genuine Drive-In Theater. Well, sort of. There is one screen, one car and technically the whole thing's indoors. It is arty, it is kooky and I love it!

Readers of my Bravo! Design Blog know how much I adore rooting out mind-blowing designs and awesome ideas. This one is Genius. You just gotta see the little Drive-In hiding in plain sight on Norfolk Street.

I got a big kick out of watching people walk by the giant windows of this gallery space and then do double takes when the saw the red...]]> http://blogs.outzonetv.com/guest/2007/10/bryan_thompson_the_drive_in.php http://blogs.outzonetv.com/guest/2007/10/bryan_thompson_the_drive_in.php Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:52:58 -0500
My first and only experience with body art was back when I was a hyper six years old. At the time Patti LaBelle had a hit song about her "New Attitude."

I guess I wanted one too. So I got me a new "tatto-tude." I decided on polka-dots, so I could look just like a lady bug. I went in to my mom's purse, found a black marker and for the next hour and a half covered my entire body in little black specks.

When I was done I proudly marched out to the living room, stark naked and speckled from head to toe. By this point my poor mom had already been through a lot with my subversive creativity, but this prank was the last straw. She was not impressed with the art work. She screamed and then she scrubbed.

Boy, was I miserable in that bathtub, all pruny and...]]> http://blogs.outzonetv.com/guest/2007/10/bryan_thompson_you_need_a_tattoo.php http://blogs.outzonetv.com/guest/2007/10/bryan_thompson_you_need_a_tattoo.php Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:18:54 -0500 Kids are adrenaline junkies. That's why I get along so well with them. I love the fact that my 5 year old niece Bailey adores amusement parks.

She's just like her Uncle that way. When she was a teensy 3 year old she climbed onto the Legoland Water Trampoline. She jumps up and down, she wipes out, then she just laughs, dusts herself off and did it all over again.

Now she wants the fastest and craziest rides they'll let her on. No Disneyland "Teacups" or "It's a Small World" For Her." We'll be on an honest to goodness rollercoaster and she'll wind up comforting me. It happened on Seaworld on the Atlantis Roller Coaster. When the ride broke mid-cycle leaving us hanging mid-air. Bailey just giggled as we held on and made up songs to pass the time. It was what my Mommalou did with me when she needed...]]> http://blogs.outzonetv.com/guest/2007/10/bryan_thompson_amusement_park_design.php http://blogs.outzonetv.com/guest/2007/10/bryan_thompson_amusement_park_design.php Mon, 08 Oct 2007 18:42:06 -0500 I fell in love with my partner Dave at 80 mph. Literally. We were speeding down the 5 freeway on one of our first dates, headed south from San Diego on our way to Palm Springs. Giddy with new-relationship electricity, we hit the border of Mexico...and finally realized we had been driving the wrong way! We both laughed and had to admit that neither one of us had any sense of direction. "He's just like me," I thought and that's when it hit me that I'd like spend the rest of my days getting lost with him.

Years later, we're still in love but not nearly as lost. When cell-phone GPS came along, I praised the technology gods and went right out and bought us both the same model; a pink one for me and a grey one for him. Now I'm almost as attached to my pocket-pathfinder as I am to my man...and...]]> http://blogs.outzonetv.com/guest/2007/08/bryan_thompson_lost_in_love.php http://blogs.outzonetv.com/guest/2007/08/bryan_thompson_lost_in_love.php Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:57:47 -0500 After being exposed to a marathon of fashion shows and different takes on fall for over a week, it was hard to wake up on Saturday morning and head to Ibirapuera Park in Sao Paulo for more.

Luckily the only show I needed to attend was the cabaret performance put on by designers Dudu Bertholini and Rita Comparato for their buzzworthy womenswear label Neon, and that was at 6pm. I had the day to try to recover from all the parties and fashions, to stop by Osklen to do some shopping, and to consume as much caffeine as possible to keep my brain functioning. Because I am assuming most readers from this site are men, I am skipping any comments about the sequined swimsuit extravaganza created for Neon to the sound of "Unchain My Heart" (and the fact that I got to interview entertainer Bianca Exotica for Fashion TV after the show, which was...]]> http://blogs.outzonetv.com/guest/2007/02/brazil_guest_blog_images_1.php http://blogs.outzonetv.com/guest/2007/02/brazil_guest_blog_images_1.php Fri, 09 Feb 2007 19:13:52 -0500 My first day in Sao Paulo was a tough transition after the weekend in Rio: the fashion shows are held inside the Biennial building at Ibirapuera Park instead of the tents at Marina da Gloria with a view of the Sugar Loaf (and close proximity to the beach). The building is a much bigger version of the tents at Bryant Park in New York, and holds a media room filled with computers, three rooms for the shows, and several lounges sponsored by national magazines in which champagne and drinks float around all evening.

I skipped the first show in the morning and headed to Ibirapuera right after lunch in order to collect my credentials and to get used to the building. I had to attend the Tufi Duek show as two of my very best friends are the head designers of the brand, but the show I was really looking forward to was the 8 o'clock...]]> http://blogs.outzonetv.com/guest/2007/02/brazil_guest_blog_images_2.php http://blogs.outzonetv.com/guest/2007/02/brazil_guest_blog_images_2.php Fri, 02 Feb 2007 19:18:29 -0500 I am on the airport waiting for my flight to Sao Paulo. It’s been delayed (as expected) thanks to several issues involving air traffic controllers and the airlines in Brazil.

I am leaving Rio behind where I spent the last five days covering the fall collections from local designers at Fashion Rio. I was invited to attend the event as a member of the press for the first time, and decided not to decline such a good excuse to visit Rio and learn more about the designers -- and perhaps also get a little tan in between the shows. (To see even more pictures from Fasion Rio click HERE.)

As you can imagine, fall in Rio is not cold. Today it’s 75 degrees and drizzling, which makes it difficult for designers to conceive winter presentations loaded with cashmeres, exotic skins, and furs, in the same manner European designers do. Instead, designers in...]]> http://blogs.outzonetv.com/guest/2007/02/new_entry_guest_blogger.php http://blogs.outzonetv.com/guest/2007/02/new_entry_guest_blogger.php Fri, 02 Feb 2007 16:50:26 -0500 The shocking(?) headline after this morning’s announcement is the absence of Dreamgirls from both Best Picture and Best Director categories. (The flick did score eight nods; three for best song!)

But before we cry for Beyonce or start congratulating Helen Mirren, let us pay tribute to all the fine actors who were certifiably snubbed.

Best Actor NOT Nominated

Sacha Baron Cohen for Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Was there a funnier, smarter, more squirm-inducing performance this year? No.

Ken Watanabe Letters From Iwo Jima
The movie was nominated for Best Picture – Best Picture! – do they think it would be half as good without its star?

And that's after this release regarding the academy's narrowing it down to 9 finalist. They'll narrow it down to five next week: For the first time, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences unveiled a short list of potential nominees from 61 qualifying films in the category.

The nine movies in the running: ''Days of Glory'' from Algeria, ''Water'' from Canada, ''After the Wedding'' from Denmark, ''Avenue Montaigne'' from France, ''The Lives of Others'' from Germany, ''Pan's Labyrinth'' from Mexico, ''Black Book'' from the Netherlands, ''Volver'' from Spain and ''Vitus'' from Switzerland.

With Oscar nominations due out Tuesday, a few clear front-runners and some intriguing wild cards have emerged, along with an unusually open race for the top prize.

Still to come are honors by the Directors Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild, whose nominations came out earlier this month. Those awards should help sort out the much of the Oscar outlook, but unlike most years, when a solid favorite often emerges, the best-picture category could remain up for grabs right up to awards night Feb. 25.

A look at how Oscar season is shaping up: