I Rant, You Read: Bronx Bombers Vs. The Brooklyn Nets

So it's no big news that I am a Bronx boy born & raised.  Proud of it too!  However, a new pride has arisen over the past decade that I must say although I get it, it's still a tinge angst-making.  The Brooklyn Pride movement.  The angst floods in, not so much that I am not a Brooklynite but more so since I feel like there is a new member that wants inclusion into the clubhouse that is New York City.  The Brooklyn Nets.  To add fuel to the fire, they're heralded by the Prince of the New York hip-hop scene come savvy entrepreneur Jay-Z, who is kinda like King Midas when it comes to igniting the fire of pride in New Yorkers who allow music to bridge gaps and create hip-hop mixes at parties where one would expect to hear show-tunes and 80's rock.

I bring this up since what I've noticed is more people donning Brooklyn Nets caps when this is just the team's first season.  No proven record or history of championships although the recipe for blue ribbons seems to have been set in place by the new flight of a wandering people in search of affordable rents and an unpretentious social environment to live the NY dream fueled by entrepreneurial and creative NY'ers of which Jay-Z was one.  Angst-making mainly due to the feelings the pride created.  As a New Yorker, I want to experience it, however as a non-Brooklynite I feel the cap represents a pride of a borough that I really don't feel since I don't live in it.  Also, let's face it, some Brooklynites are as stalwart and militant about their support of the borough as Eleanor Caruthers is adamant about the preservation of her Upper Eastside co-op.  I almost feel like I'd be cheating on the Bronx and my world famous Bombers.

So I thought about it some more and I'll chalk it up to this.  I am toying with buying and wearing a Brooklyn Nets cap more so for New York rather than the borough.  After all, me in New York is as classically diverse as any American in America.  I was born, raised and first started working in the Bronx, went to high school on the Upper Eastside, college in Chelsea, get my haircut in Harlem, hangout and shop in the Soho, LES & the Villages, work a lot in Midtown, dance till dawn in Washington Heights and Inwood, dated and partied in Williamsburg, Bed-Stuy & Fort Greene and made livings in Queens and Staten Island.  Let's just hope the Nets have a decent season.  After all, win or lose, the Yankees still have an unparalleled history, so I'll always wear their cap.  However, for the Nets, namesake of Brooklyn or not, you're still New Yorkers and as little as I wear caps, I'd rather wear winners.

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Dave White

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Made the List, Checked it Twice, Then Went For Vodka on Ice: Sample, Trunk and Holiday Sales Alert

I trust you've by now made your list and certainly checked it twice.  If not, don't be embarrassed or annoyed.  Neither have I.  If you thought we were the only procrastinators then think again.  There are many people who wait until the last minute to get gifts and within good reason.  Who wants to deal with the crowds, the lines, the shoving and the empty 'out-of-stock' items all in the name of the holidays.  I mean, have you walked on 34th Street or on Broadway in Soho in NYC?  It's not the tourists making the city manic for the holidays.  It's the Mr. and Mrs. "Miller" who 'mill' around the sales floor look for God knows what for their list that resembles an auditing ticker tape.  "Linda Looky-Loo"  who blocks your way while making an annoying art-form out of slowly looking through a pile of picked over sweaters in a crowded wherever.  Then theres "Carol and Peter Pack-mule" who are verifiable going to make someone go 'holiday card laden mail carrier postal' if they smack you with their one of ten-thousand bags on some street corner again.

Well suck it up and decide whether you're in or out.  The pot just got thicker and sweeter.  There's just under two weeks left to get your act together, and retailers know this.  So to coax you out of your anti-establishment holiday boycott, they are some nice deals going on today and this weekend in NYC and online to sweeten the deal and the empty your pockets; all in the name of the holidays of course.

Check out these five sales today and this weekend:

601 West 26th St

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Dave White

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Just Right Jewels: Amy-O Jewelry

We've all seen her.  That girl at the party who just doesn't get it quite right.  Maybe the dress is a bit too snug around her chest.  Perhaps the hairdo is all wrong for the neckline of her wrong-colored frock.  It may even be the case that the dress looked like a million bucks on the rack and ten million bucks on the accompanying ad of said dress on a 16 year old model, but on her it looked like she was a bloated cougar.  I think most of the time the case is that many women play it safe so their dress doesn't really sing; it just produces a "so what?" kind of response.  What's the problem then?  Usually it's what labels like Amy-O Jewelry addresses as their main aesthetic.  

Amy-O Jewelry, which stands for 'Accessories Make Your Outfit', believes in it's acronym.  The jewelry that the line offers wants women to believe in that too.  How often is the case where women can't find a new dress that fits like their freak-um dress or afford a new dress like in the magazines?  Many times they just need to find key pieces of jewelry that they can use to balance and accentuate their outfits until that favorite dress, blouse, blazer or neckline has run its course.  This is where Amy-O steps in.  The company offers a wide array of statement jewelry pieces, oftentimes in a few color and metal-ways within a style, that give a woman's outfit that eclectic update it may desperately need to cause more 'oohs' than 'ughs'.

Mixed metals, strongs shapes, conversations pieces, edgy pieces, streamlined embellishment and bejeweled semi-precious and mixed material surfaces are what makes Amy-O a cool company for your dressing and holiday party conundrums.  The company offers something for the tastes of all kinds of women; those who want to keep a strong low profile and those that wish to keep all eyes staring at them all night long.  For if clothes make the man and a great dress is hard to find, then truly A.M.Y.O.! 

 Amy-O Designer Gina

Amy-O Jewelry

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Dave White

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A Lively Table = Lively Guests: HenHouse Linens

While studying architecture during my first year in college one of my good friends, who knew of my love for fashion, gave me a book entitled "Architecture: in Fashion".  Inside this book were numerous historical philosophies and correlations between personal dressing and adornment and the impact that  architecture and interiors have made on the way we dress and live.  In this book and throughout my fashion schooling I've learned how close the dance is between architecture and fashion.  This is mainly due to fashion being a kind of 'sign of the times' through a dictation of dress and adornment and architecture being a more stalwart representation of the structures that encase our personal, social and  occupational livelihoods.  It's this dance that has influenced everything from music to sports to how we entertain socially.

Lately, fashion has been more about the mood.  Completely gone are most of the rules many of us and our parents grew up on.  Only little boys wear shorts with blazers, your shoes must match your handbag, no white after Labor Day and plaids and stripes are not a match.  Today is more about the moods adhering rather than the colors adhering.  Mad mixings of prints and colors that seem irreverent together and visually busy groupings are moving fashion forward past old ideas of how to adorn and decorate and into a realm of being influenced by the collective harmonies associated with a mood, a feeling, a spirit or an energy.  A mashed cohesiveness through shapes, levels of adornment and maybe an understood artistic movement play major roles now more than ever and your interior spaces are not exempt.

Enter Hen House Linens.  You've heard me speak before of how fashion affects the way we dress but I had the pleasure recently of discovering Hen House Linens and seeing how clever pairings of print and color affect the way we entertain.  How often do we sit at a table so seemingly perfect visually that we are scared to even move the silverware out of fear that some disgruntled butler will banish us to the kiddie table.  Well Hen House Linens takes the fussiness off the dining table and throws in a helpful dose of chic fun and festivity.  The company takes one key idea and applies their fun aesthetic to an arrangement of placemats, napkins, napkin rings, table runners, oven mitts and pot holders to name a few.  The idea is that not only are their colors and uniquely scaled prints inspired by familiar remixed graphics fun but also the interchangeability and two-for-one aspect of the aforementioned pieces as well.  

Napkins can become place mats, pot holders can become cozies for dishes on the table and many of the products have two faces.  Bang for your buck and 'two birds with one stone' has always been something that I've deeply been an advocate of.  It adds longevity to fashion and when done well, as with the case of Hen House Linens' extra durable and heat tested materials, the quality wears well season after season and can undergo heavy use and still remain as nice as the first day it was used.  

The added and obvious bonus to Hen House Linens products ushers in when you realize that everything and anything goes together.  It's simple chic that makes sense in everything from a French Countryside home to a modernist dining table.   There are no rules for a perfect table as it can be arranged according to the eclectic tastes of you or your guests, to distinguish drinking glasses and plates amongst your guests and whatever fun mood you wish to create for social gatherings.  I'd like to think that in much of the same way a balanced ensemble in front of the mirror creates feelings of security and confidence, a happy table makes the dinner conversation and interaction among the guests more gratifying and social.  The current delightful collection of Hen House Linens including their chic holiday collection is now available at HenHouseLinens.com and at Gracious Homes to help you arrive exuberantly table ready for the holiday season.

HenHouseLinens

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Dave White

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