-27-

It was earlier this year that I was introduced to Ben Howard's music. The man has an absolutely sensational voice and an exceptional talent when it comes to playing the guitar. Sam's boyfriend played one of his videos for me. I just loved his voice and the way he harmonizes with India, one of his band members. The whole group is just so gifted! The video we watched was him singing 'Only Love' and there is something so charming about him. He exudes that very charm in his covers of Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen and Bruce Springsteen's Dancing in the Dark.

What's better than watching him on youtube or listening to him on itunes? Seeing him live, and we got to do just that!

Terminal 5 is a pretty cool venue to see bands. I had seen Passion Pit and Donald Glover (Childish Gambino) there and had a fun but sweaty time. The crowds were pumped, pushy, hipsters all dancing or trying to rap along. I couldn't imagine a Ben Howard show being like that.

The craziest part? The crowd was just as big and just as excited as I had seen them before. But there was more of an appreciation and respect for the man on stage. People weren't jumping or shoving, but swaying and listening. It was so peaceful and epic all at the same time. You couldn't help but fall in love with the performance.

He is already on his way to stardom but even when he is on stage you can see how much he cares about his music and the crowd. That he is so grateful to have all of these people there to support him.

Willy Mason, another talented musician, opened for Ben Howard and he too was an absolute delight to listen to.

Play either of these musicians for ANYONE and they will love them and you.

Have a listen
Old Pine, Ben Howard
Depth Over Distance, Ben Howard
The Wolves, Ben Howard
Oxygen, Willy Mason
We Can Be Strong, Willy Mason

-26-

There is nothing sexier than a guy and his dog. Bouncing around New York City, I see a lot of people walking their dogs. I know, just being a dog-lover myself, when I see anyone with their pet I immediately shriek, probably so high pitched that only the dog can hear.

I started to notice that people were much friendlier towards me when I had my dog by my side. They get these sweet smiles across their faces or point at her and whisper something to the person they are walking with, (I'm assuming they're saying nice things. At least I hope they are.)

I'll keep this post short and sweet. Gentlemen, if you don't have a dog, save your money, commit to the responsibility and get a puppy. Think back to economics, opportunity cost, what are you giving up to gain? Give up some free time, spend money to feed and clean something else and you will gain phone numbers and dates and maybe even a girlfriend or boyfriend, (whatever you want.)

P.S. If that doesn't work for you, at least your dog will love you.

P.P.S. You can literally wear whatever you want when walking your pup. Heck, you can go out naked. Only a small handful of people will judge you.

-25-

My dad kept getting on my case about watching Boardwalk Empire. I always wanted to watch it, but I already have so many shows, how could I possibly fit another one in! I decided to go ahead and start season 1. I have no idea why I didn't watch from the start. I cruised through all three seasons and was incredibly inspired. Fashion trends, no matter how old, never die. Who knows, maybe the flip hair-do with frosted tips will come back.

A look that guys with straighter hair should at least try is the Undercut: Short all around, long on top. Jimmy Darmody, Michael Pitt, has the coolest undercut I've ever seen. It's sleek and I'm sure with a heavy duty pomade, a comb and a good hairdryer anyone can do it. Unfortunately if you google "undercut" or search it in tumblr, you'll find a lot of girls sporting one. They have their hair long all over but one of the sides is shaved close to the head. It's one of those hair styles, that on a girl, would probably take a lot of maintenance, but hey, that's fine.

The tie pins, plaid suites, brightly striped shirts with usually a white collar, and vests with high break points. They just look so cool.

Mens fashion has taken a bit of a turn. Men have become more comfortable with just a woven button down and khakis. Sometimes they don't even wear a jacket! Which is totally okay, but it doesn't hurt to invest in a good 3 piece suit.

fabulous sketches by everydayimharrowin

Something to be mindful of, a high break point can be flattering on the body, for a vest, jacket or coat. For those of you who have a little bit of a tummy, this takes the eye away from that.  The break point is where the left side and the right side of the jacket/coat/vest meet at the center front of your body. It's a mature look that does impress. Vests shouldn't be so snug that your struggling to breathe. Actually, nothing should ever be that snug. If you can reach out like you have your arms wrapped around an invisible person and you're comfortable, then the vest fits. It should not be too big that you're swimming in it either.

A good fitting suit is always a must. Believe me, even if a passerby knows very little about mens fashion, they can always tell when you're suit is too tight, or too baggy.

It's okay to splurge on staple pieces. The ones you will get a lot of use out of. Looking professional and put together will not only impress in the workspace but also on a night out on the town.

Take tips from the past people.

Bravo Mr. Scorsese. Bravo.

-24-

I caved.
Got myself a Tumblr. It was bound to happen sooner or later. I think Tumblr is an incredibly smart company, but also, it's a fun way to express yourself in images. I always pinned pictures from Tumblr to my Pinterest, but I never considered getting one, until now. My Tumblr is called Ten P.M. and it is primarily menswear images, although I do throw a cute picture of a puppy out there every now and then.
I think it's cool that just like there are celebrity bloggers, there are Tumblr celebs. I mean, different actors, musicians and fashion icons have them, (James Franco, BEYONCE, Frank Ocean, Nick Wooster, Local Natives, Aziz Ansari and Joseph Gordon-Levitt) but there are people that just have the coolest Tumblrs, they become Tumblr celebrities. Some of my favorites for example are:

• GtheGent 
• Revelment
• All Roads
• Will Hunt Goods
• Single Malt Scotch
• What Should We Call Me
• Redwood Collective
• Rainy Days and Blankets
• A Well Traveled Woman
• Kanye Wes Anderson
• GQ Fashion
• Miki Miyuki-Zoku

I am not even close to being the only one with a menswear Tumblr. People have dedicated theirs to beards, watches, cars, tattoos, shoes, space, surfing, skateboarding, runway shows, women's fashion, awkward situations, even sex. Yep, be careful. You could be scrolling through someone's Tumblr seeing pictures of baby ducklings and cupcakes and all of a sudden there's a black and white image of two people going at it. It really catches you off guard and makes you wonder a lot about the person who created that Tumblr.

Don't let that steer you from wanting to create one though.  It's easily just another way to get inspired and find new fashion trends OR to thoroughly procrastinate even more. Either way, it's a lot of fun!
Here are the types of images I've been posting. What do you think?

 

-23-

Turning a new leaf people, I'm going to blog a lot more on menswear, because I really haven't been. So here we go.
It's getting pretty freaking cold outside, and although we all want to look trendy in our winter gear, be smart about your purchases.
I remember being in a design class and my professor wanted us to create an outerwear collection. I hoped right on that because I do love me some outerwear. I sketched all types of jackets, most of them were big, puffy and the bottom of the jackets went to hips.
My professor sat himself in front of me and shuffled through my sketches. He shook his head and said, "Listen, this problem doesn't apply to you, but you need to understand that when dressing a man, especially in cold weather, you have to trap in the heat." I told him I was confused how that wouldn't apply to me. "Cover his junk." He then pushed himself away from the table and continued to walk around the room.
I was kind of surprised that he just said "junk" in referring to a man's nether regents. BUT IT'S TRUE! If you are going to purchase a jacket, make sure you invest in one that is long enough to cover your junk. The last thing you want is to be walking on a blustery day and have a cold gust of wind hit you there. I wouldn't know... because I'm a girl, but I can't imagine that would feel very good.

-22-

 This next post goes out to someone very near and dear to my heart. While I have been stuck studying my little bum off she's out making great strides in the world and graduating from college. I am so proud of my best friend Mandelbaum. She has worked so unbelievably hard and I feel incredibly lucky to have her in my life.

Mandelbaum and I have been friends for a zillion years and to be honest, I'm not sure I particularly remember the moment we met. All I know is at a very young age she had her face buried in the New York Times, read books like The Bell Jar, explained to me what SKA music was, (she said it was bands with horns) and someone would send her letters pretending he was in the civil war. I just followed her around.

She is crazy smart and just wants to save the world, (I really think she will!)

She has an amazing family, a brilliant brain and a beautifully-nerdy heart. I love her for it. Although, I was a little freaked out when she started instagramming pics of her pet rat...RIP.
It's not everyday that you find lifetime friends, and I know I am going to sound like a total cornball, but I can't wait to see where life takes us. I want us to be trendy old ladies and our kids will be friends and *sigh* we'll talk about the olden days.

She likes reading, traveling, Star Wars, earth, Liz Lemon and being a vegetarian.

She's a pretty cool kid!

Cruising through Endor

But while you wait, check out these jams!!

History's Door, Husky (Just saw them live, good fun!)
Lay Low, Shovels and Ropes (My favorite song right now)
We Can Be Strong, Willy Mason
So It Goes, Portage
Bobby, Youth Lagoon

-21-

So this week was maybe the craziest week of all weeks. Hurricane Sandy came pummeling through the Northeast leaving millions without electricity. Manhattan was eerily quiet and abnormally dark. I traveled uptown and camped out at Sam's apartment during the storm. We stocked up on dry foods and lots of bottled water, all ready to brave Sandy together. We kept busy more or less, did some yoga... more like TRIED TO DO some yoga, stuffed my face with Honey Nut Cheerios, and played lots of Boggle. We took full advantage of this "Hurri-cation" (get it?) and watched lots of movies, walked around, (when it wasn't a torrential down-pour with 80 mph winds) and obviously ate a lot!

When I was finally able to make it back down to my apartment, I was relieved to find that my building was fortunately up and running, however, my internet was all messy. I called my mom with every intention to complain about my internet woes. Before I could even begin to drown her in my sorrows she started to tell me about all the people we know who are dealing with the aftermath of Sandy. Family whose houses are in shambles, friends with destroyed roofs from fallen trees and neighbors whose cars are totally mangled from the flying debris. She said that she and my dad were keeping positive, that they are alright, just without power. She practically sang the following words into the phone, "Problem or inconvenience...right?" And just like that, I felt like the biggest ass. I'm over here with a cold refrigerator, hot water and lights while some people don't even have a home to go to. I could not believe I was being so ridiculous, that something as insignificant as getting on the internet seemed like a big deal to me. I very quickly, shut up.

"Problem or inconvenience" refers to a story I was told the summer I was 16 years old. A very wise individual read this small anecdote to myself and my group of friends. It changed our lives. I then read it to my mom, she said it changed hers. Maybe it'll change yours. 

Sigmund Wollman's Reality Test

by Robert Fulghum

It was the summer of 1959. At a resort inn in the Sierra Nevada of Northern California, I had a job that combined being the night desk clerk in the lodge and helping with the horse-wrangling at the stables. The owner-manager was Swiss, with European notions about conditions of employment. He and I did not get along. I thought he was a fascist who wanted peasant employees who knew their place. I was 22, just out of college, and pretty free with my opinions.

One week the employees had been served the same thing for lunch every single day. Two wieners, a mound of sauerkraut and stale rolls. To compound insult with injury, the cost of the meals was deducted from our paychecks. I was outraged.

On Friday night of that awful week, I was at my desk job around 11 p.m., and the night auditor had just come on duty. I went into the kitchen and saw a note to the chef to the effect that wieners and sauerkraut were on the employee menu for two more days.

That tore it. For lack of any better audience, I unloaded on the night auditor, Sigmund Wollman.

I declared that I had had it up to here, that I was going to get a plate of wieners and sauerkraut and wake up the owner and throw it at him. Nobody was going to make me eat wieners and sauerkraut for a whole week and make me pay for it and this was un-American and I didn't like wieners and sauerkraut enough to eat them one day for God's sake and the whole hotel stunk and I was packing my bags for Montana where they never even heard of wieners and sauerkraut and wouldn't feed that stuff to pigs. Something like that.

I raved in this way for 20 minutes. My monologue was delivered at the top of my lungs, punctuated by blows on the front desk with a fly swatter, the kicking of chairs and much profanity.

As I pitched my fit, Sigmund Wollman sat quietly on his stool, watching me with sorrowful eyes. Put a bloodhound in a suit and tie and you have Sigmund Wollman. He had a good reason to look sorrowful. Survivor of Auschwitz. Three years. German Jew. Thin, coughed a lot. He liked being alone at the night job. It gave him intellectual space, peace and quiet, and, even more, he could go into the kitchen and have a snack whenever he wanted to - all the wieners and sauerkraut he wished. To him, a feast. More than that, there was nobody around to tell him what to do. in Auschwitz he had dreamed of such a time. The only person he saw at work was me, the nightly disturber of his dream. Our shifts overlapped an hour. And here I was, a one-man war party at full cry.

"Lissen, Fulchum. Lissen me, lissen me. You know what's wrong with you? It's not wieners and 'kraut and it's not the boss and it's not the chef and it's not the job."

"So what's wrong with me?"

"Fulchum, you think you know everything, but you don't know the difference between and inconvenience and a problem. If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire - then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy."
"Learn to seperate the inconveniences from the real problems. You will live longer. And will not annoy people like me so much. Good night."

In a gesture combining dismissal and blessing, he waved me off to bed.

Seldom in my life have I been hit between the eyes so hard with truth. There in that late-night darkness of a Sierra Nevada inn, Sigmund Wollman simultaneously kicked my butt and opened a window in my mind.

For 30 years now, in times of stress and strain, when something has me backed against the wall and I'm ready to do something really stupid with my anger, a sorrowful face appears in my mind and asks, "Fulchum. Problem or inconvenience?"

I think of this as the Wollman Test of Reality. Life is lumpy. And a lump in the oatmeal, and lump in the throat, and a lump in the breast are not the same lump. One should learn the difference. 

Good night, Sig.

Stay safe everyone, good luck with getting back into your regular routines and if you can check out the music below!

Take a listen!

Runaway, Mr. Little Jeans

Not In Love (feat. Robert Smith), Crystal Castles

Angels, The xx

Never Mess With Sunday, Yppah

Oblivion, Grimes

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!

-20-

Holy F,
What is wrong with me!? It has been way too long since my last post. I feel like I blinked and we ended up in the middle of October...
I thought I'd jump right in and make this post an homage to all things Fall. The leaves are changing, it's 39 degrees one day and 72 degrees the next, (so you're always sweating- don't lie, you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about). You order chai tea from Starbucks but the barista totally omits your order and hands you an overpriced, orange concoction, and best of all, you get to wear your Fall clothes!
Fall is all about layering, ready to face the elements...remember when I said 39 one day and 72 the next? Some places still have the AC bumping or the heat cranked up, you have to be prepared! There are totally ways to layer without looking like Violet Beauregarde.
Here are a few pics I collected to get you in the mood for Fall! Be cool,
Stay warm.

 

Hang Loose, Alabama Shakes

Sorrow, The National

Stubborn Love, The Lumineers

Down by the Water, The Drums

Blood, The Middle East

Kings of The Night, The Majority Says

-19-

My feets

Not too long ago I spent a week in Arizona. I packed light, grabbed the fam and headed to Sedona. Everything was so beautiful and red: The rocks, the mountains, my face...sunburn... Anyways, the trip was absolutely mesmerizing. We went on an adventure to the Grand Canyon. I was so proud of myself because I navigated us the entire way on my lil' I-phone. We took awesome photos, met a couple who was 96 years old and still trekking around the Grand freakin Canyon and my mom in full New Yorker fashion carried her Michael Kors bag the entire way.
Unfortunately I got attacked by no-see-ums, (hurt like a mother f******/they're bugs that literally just suck) and I spent the rest of the trip with welts on my body.
Sooooo I sat by the pool hopping in and out every 50 seconds. As soon as I would get out of the pool, I would instantly dry off because the air was so dry. P.S. we were there in a heat wave-good looks. Drank pretty drinks, and relaxed.

Sedona

Mini Waterfall

Sedona

BREAKFASTTTT

Charms I bought

One look

Finally bought a Pendleton bag!

Sedona sky

-18-

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY DEAR SWEET AMERICA!

Today is probz my most favorite day. 

On the list of things I love most in life, America, (and by America, I mean 4th of July) is in my top 5. Soon I will post my official list, but for now, there's America.

S'mores

Fireworks

Red

White

Blue

STARS N' STRIPES 

Have fun, play with friends and be safe

Listen to these

Miracle, Ghost Beach
Little Talks, Of Monsters and Men

Saw You First, The Givers (Click forward to 1:40)

Take a Walk, Passion Pit