MY ELECTION DAY ADVENTURE

Have you been following Natasha Burns’ chronicle of her journey across America?

If not, here’s the plot summary to date.
* My extremely charming and talented Australian blog buddy landed in Los Angeles about a week ago.
* Dede of Dream Create Share and Christine of Dolly Belle’s Peep Show were her cordial tour guides. Check out their beautiful blogs to join in Natasha's fabulous Shabby Chic expedition.

* Next, Natasha flew to Georgia where altered art/mixed media maven Jenn introduced the down-under darling to Halloween (the holiday isn’t much celebrated in Australia) and assumed the mantle of gracious guide. Check out Natasha’s first ever Jack-O-Lantern on Jenn’s Sweet Candy Creations blog.

* Before heading North, the two southern belles (living in Melbourne automatically confers southern status) traveled to Savannah where they met mosaic artist extraordinaire Penny Carlson of Lavender Hill Studio and enjoyed the splendors of this historic city.

MY ELECTION DAY EXCURSION

Having voted a week early, I turned up in NYC on November 4th to join Natasha and Jenn for several days of non-stop shopping and sampling local food specialties.

I met the dynamic duo at Jing Fong, an enormous Chinese dim sum palace.
My friend Chitsou, who rarely misses an opportunity to share his native cuisine with visitors, ordered an amazing array of delicacies, including these faux carrots filled with peanuts.

I surprised Natasha by presenting her several gifts from Jo of Neere An Dear Creations
(including the rose painting in the lead photo!)

You’ll have to wait for Natasha to fill you in on our post-lunch shopping adventures and Chitsou’s negotiating know-know...

However, here’s a peek at one of our stops... Pearl River Trading, one of my favorite places to find unexpected treasures.
Its bargain-priced imports were a hit.

Later, that same day, while more than 130 million American were casting their votes, we had a quick drink in SoHo with photographer Dan Mayers.

My ‘Best of NYC’ excursion continued on the Lower East Side where Natasha and Jenn tasted hot dogs and sour pickles from Katz Delicatessen.

Then, it was on to Rupa and The April Fishes’ Election Night Extravaganza concert at Mercury Lounge.
The name April Fishes was inspired by the French term les poissons d'Avril, a similar concept to April Fools day.

I'm a big fan, so I hope you will check out their latest album and let me know what you think.

Rupa now has two new members of her fan club.

My friend Scott presented Rupa with a bouquet when the TV over the bar indicated that Barack Obama’s victory seemed certain.

Along with the many of New Yorkers, we took our celebrating onto the streets of New York.

We partied til the cows came home, and since there aren’t many cows in NYC...
We stayed up mighty late!

TRINITY CHURCH

As promised, you're invited to join me at Abby & Sean's wedding in New York City.
The ceremony was held at Trinity Church on Broadway and Wall Street in Manhattan.

The train stops right on the corner by the church.
Just down the block is the famous Wall Street bull.



The first Trinity Church was built in 1698. It was destroyed in the Great NY Fire in 1776.
The second church lasted from 1790 to 1840.

In 1846, the church that you see here was built. Three's a charm!
The graves of Alexander Hamilton and many other famous NYers are in the church's cemetery. It's said you can tell the tourists from the native New Yorkers because the tourists walk along looking up at the big buildings. However, on lower Broadway, there is a good reason to look down. The sidewalk has plaques at regular intervals to celebrate each of the city's ticker-tape parades.

The first ticker tape parade was held in 1886. Others, such as one to commemorate the return of Theodore Roosevelt from his safari in Africa, followed.

For over half a century, they were held for every visiting head of state and to celebrate historic events of all sorts. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, hometown sports champions and astronauts are the more usual recipients.
Now that ticker tape machines have gone the way of the dinosaurs, ordinary white paper is shredded into narrow strips to be tossed from office windows and rooftops.

After Abby and Sean were pronounced man and wife, we boarded a bus provided by the proud parents and headed for Brooklyn.

That's the Brookyln Bridge with Manhattan in the background.

To be continued...

CELEBRATION #3

Yes, I love New York.

And I snapped a few good photos when I was there last week for wedding #2, but since I'm off to Los Angeles in the morning for celebration #3, you'll have to wait to see more.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway (see below). One lucky winner will be selected on June 18th.

MYSTERY BOOK UPDATE:
For those counting along... 14 chapters done, 9 to go.

SHOP TALK

Here's another view of New Kam Man, my favorite grocery/housewares/take-out food shop in Chinatown. For those visiting NYC, the store's address is 200 Canal Street. Happy shopping. I'm off to New Jersey for a few days. Coming soon, photos of my new couch and a yummy present I've received.

CHINESE NEW YEAR IN NEW YORK

Got your walking shoes on? First stop... Chinatown.
Jean and Nhi live in Virginia and were visiting NYC for the first time since they were kids. Even though I might now be considered an out-of-towner, it was my pleasure to show them around town.Unlike years past, it is now perfectly safe to watch the Chinese New Year parade. You no longer risk your clothes catching fire or going deaf from the constant explosions of several tons of fireworks.
Fireworks, traditionally tossed from rooftops and windows onto those below, are now outlawed. Really! There wasn't a firework in sight. The mini explosives have been replaced by poppers which quietly spew colorful confetti into the air.
After watching the parade for a while, we headed across Chintatown to meet up with my friend Chitsou and have dim sum. Born in China, Chitsou is my local dim sum expert.

Dim sum is served for breakfast and lunch in numerous Chinatown restaurants. Golden Unicorn, a three-floor mega-restaurant, is my current favorite. It is known for serving a huge assortment of steamed buns, noodle dishes, braised veggies and authentically-prepared seafood. The offerings, served from rolling carts, change every hour or so. The servers shout out what they have on their carts in Chinese.
Nhi, who is Vietnamese, and Jean, who is Korean, quickly mastered the “peek and point” technique to get the tiny dishes of dumplings and other fare they desired. When Chitsou showed up, however, there was rapid fire conversations, which yielded a few especially tasty specialties along with delicious chrysanthemum tea.
After brunch, with Chitsou as our interpreter, we went shopping and each of us found exactly the Asian ingredients and housewares we were looking.Around 3 PM, we crossed Canal Street and wandered into the Little Italy section of lower Manhattan. Since it was a chilly day, we stopped at the Ferrara Café for cappuccinos .... and some of their legendary Italian pastry, of course.
A few calories later, we headed for Soho, where expensive restaurants and shops selling luxury goods have replaced many of the art galleries.

Eventually, I journeyed back to the hotel where I changed my clothes and went right back out. It was time to meet yet another group of friends for a late dinner!

Fish, a seafood restaurant on Bleeker Street, was my destination. I ordered a salad (I was still full from the morning’s munching) but enjoyed checking out the fabulous seafood specialties that shared the table with my greenery. The blackened, grilled, and fried fish all looked wonderful.

After dinner, the guys (I was the only female this evening) wanted to go to a café for dessert. We strolled along Bleeker Street checking out several quirky clothing shops, a few restaurants, a luxury pet boutique pet, and a used CD store before arriving at Rocco’s Pastry Shop. The gang drank exotic coffee creations and ate pastries while we argued about politics. Having finally reached my limit… I ordered a mint tea.

MYSTERY PROJECT UPDATE: A new annotated outline is due tomorrow. Once it gets approved by the publisher, I will begin work on the second draft. The major changes are that the 900 some odd word Introduction that I wrote has been divided into a Foreword, which will be signed by the designer and an expanded Introduction. The chapters have been slightly rearranged in Part 1 of the book and certain ones need to be expanded, too. Looks like March will be a very busy month for me.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

I'm back, staring at my computer screen again. My Flamenco Festival weekend in NYC was great. Need some vicarious thrills -- or calories? Read on…

Note: This isn't NYC. I took some of today's photos in Spain when I was there in 2006 for the Flamenco Biennial. This ceramic embellished building tower was in Seville. I've provided photo info, so you won't get lost.

FRIDAY'S AGENDA: Today, Dan and I worked on revising our bios and putting together a few paragraphs of tantalizing text describing our Cozy Waterside Cottages book.

Our editor at Gibbs Smith needs to submit copy for their Spring 2009 catalog before she goes on maternity leave in March. We also spent some time researching a future project.

(El Alcazar, Seville, Spain)

Our research took us to Smith Street, one of Brooklyn's tragically hip shopping destinations. Home & Haven and Environment337 are two chic home boutiques that are must sees.

(Home & Haven)

We also stopped into one of my favorite Boerum Hill haunts, Ohio Knitting Mills.
The shop’s story is unique. Several years ago, sculptor Steven Tatar was searching for scrap metal near his Cleveland studio and came across an abandoned factory.

Inside, he discovered thousands of never sold sweaters, capes, vests, and other knit goods. He acquired the rights to sell the Ohio Knitting Mills items and opened his novel shop.
Brand new, yet vintage, all of the shop's knits were produced from 1947 through 1974 when the mill was shuttered.

We also checked out several of the antique and salvage shops on Atlantic Avenue. In the early 80s, when I lived on Atlantic Avenue, there were dozens of shops and bargains to be had.

Now, the number of shops has shrunk and the price tags have skyrocketed. Looking to blow the budget? Try City Foundry (and City Foundry Annex) for an intriguing assortment of quirky salvage and vintage wares. One of their scrap metal robots would make a great conversation piece.

(Cordoba, Spain)

CHOW DOWN: Lunch (party of 2): Brawta, my favorite Jamaican restaurant. Since I was going to be having an early dinner, I ordered the "available all day" breakfast special, ackee and salt cod.
Dinner (party of 2): Molyvos, a Greek restaurant around the corner from City Center. Assorted spreads, salad, and grilled fish with wild greens and lentils.
Tapas: Terrific tidbits catered by Solera.

FLAMENCO: Tonight my friend Linda and I attended the World Music Institute’s 8th annual Flamenco Festival Gala at City Center. (I’ve missed only one of the eight galas due to a severe flu.)

City Center resembles a mosque with neo-Moorish architecture and decorations. It was built in 1923 as a meeting hall for the members of the Ancient Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and later converted into a concert hall.

It was great catching up with dozens of music world friends, sipping Spanish wines and nibbling on tapas.
Before the show, there were free flamenco lessons and Marisa (above) shows off her moves.

This year, the show was titled Mujeres (Women). It showcased three dancers, Rocio Molina (below, who stole the show), Belen Maya (who in the show must go on tradition danced with a sprained ankle), and Merche Esmeralda (one of Flamenco’s grande dames) plus Diana Navarro, an outstanding singer.The show was extraordinary. Jennifer Dunning of the New York Times agreed with me. In her review of the performance she said, “the core of [Rocio’s] solo was a sustained build-up that was spellbinding, a term I resolutely stayed away from for three decades.”

(Robert and Helene, Cordoba, Spain)

SWEET DREAMS: I spent the night, or what was left of it at a friends’ apt in Brooklyn Heights. (Full Disclosure: my friends, Robert and Helene Browning, are the executive director and publicity director of The World Music Institute.)

(Courtyard, Cordoba, Spain)

SATURDAY’S AGENDA: My hosts and I shopped at several Middle Eastern groceries, bakeries and record shops. I stocked up on some hard-to-find ingredients and a reissue of an old Arabic CD.

(Seville, Spain)

CHOW DOWN: Lunch (party of 3): Assorted Middle Eastern salads, fresh baked pita bread with string cheese and a spinach potato pie.
Dinner (party of 8): Azucar/Guantanamera, about 2 blocks from City Center. Shared appetizers (including calamari, chorizos and seviche) and Cazuela Marinera (seafood casserole)

(Cordoba, Spain)

FLAMENCO: Tonight, our group of six fans of Spanish dance headed to City Center to see Eva Yerbabuena’s Santo y Sena (Signs and Wonders), another performance in Flamenco Festival 2008.

Several years ago at The Festival, Eva’s flamenco ballet 5 Mujeres 5 wowed me. This time I was disappointed. Que lastima (What a pity!)

(Cordoba, Spain)

To Be Continued...

MYSTERY PROJECT UPDATE: The latest new creative team has requested a substantial reorganization of the existing material. "Cut and Paste" makes moving around text blocks easy but unfortunately, it doesn’t magically provide flawless transition paragraphs. That is my problem!