Lux Lotus

The Smart Set, etc.

The new edition of The Smart Set is at MaudNewton.com, including a political salon in Brooklyn that is one of my events this week! It's the usual mix of things I plan to stop by and wishful thinking, e.g. WEEKEND: I’ll be in Omaha for the (downtown) Lit Fest, and as such, can think of little else but Omahype and fretting about which heels will be best on the cobblestones of the Old Market and where to get a copy of Zuleika Dobson for the plane... What else have I been up to? Lots of lunches now that I'm back in town with exciting projects to discuss. Lately, I've been to Good World with Bud Parr, Little Giant with the ladies of LUNCH (!), Cafe Gitane with Ms. Jones (so charmingly in the news) today; tomorrow I've got a hot date for breakfast and parties to attend at the Museum of Sex and the Lotos Club later on this week. After that, I look forward to sleeping on the plane!

Book Lover

I have been living in the future lately, both workwise --- CRUST, my fall publicity pick, comes out in two weeks; CORRESPONDENCES, which'll be 'round in November, just launched THE POSTCARD PROJECT; and the events I'm booking for clients are months away -- and just in terms of things I am looking forward to at the moment. So as I finished drafting the press release for next month's edition of UPSTAIRS AT THE SQUARE (Alaa Al Aswany & Rachael Yamagata, save the date: 10/16) this evening, I took a break and fully realized that I am going to Omaha for the (downtown) LIT FEST in like, five days! It hadn't slipped my mind, per se, but now I am really excited.

11 Things I Want on Saturday Night

Another day in the weekend
Something to name "Apollinaire"
An Alhambra necklace
A trip to Paris
A Chanel purse
My lovely new bed to be delivered
A wrought iron bench for my balcony
My orchids to bloom again
Quiet
Excitement
A good night's sleep.

Thanks Daddy

Previously: Windowlicker.

Windowlicker

One of the loveliest things about going to an ashram, or any kind of meditation retreat, is the philosophical clarity that such an experience can impart. I realized how much is optional, and how to focus on what is essential and truly of value rather than what's clamoring loudest for attention. I'd rather have one beautiful thing in my whole life than a hundred lesser ones that just caught my eye for a moment. Also, this looks warm so you could sleep in it (pretty much all I thought about on breezy Canadian nights!).

[Rick Owens Lilies strapless wool dress, $995 at Net-a-Porter]

Windowlicker - from the French for window shopping: faire du lèche-vitrine - appears on Tuesday and Thursdays at 10am EST-ish.

LuxLoves: Muddy Waters, et al

I have been listening to "The London Muddy Waters Sessions," a cd I picked up in Charlottesville in the spring, pretty much every day lately. You can stream the whole album at Rhapsody, and I highly recommend it. My favorite songs are: "Who's Gonna Be Your Sweet Man When I'm Gone," "Young Fashioned Ways" and "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town."

Since returning from nearly two months away (Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Montreal, etc.), life in New York has been almost unbelievably busy as fall is in full swing and that means more work than ever.  So I was walking back from lunch today and musing on how a few years ago Lux Lotus was more about long posts about art exhibitions and films and now well, now is now. And I like that.

What I'm into this very moment (besides the afore-mentioned): My friend Jonathan's blog, 19 Months, about going to cooking school, catching up on the goss' at Cityfile.com.

Windowlicker

Something about this bag makes me want to buy it and some white jeans and fly to Australia to hang around music video sets with Stephen Lance while flipping through Russh magazine with my Emmanuelle Khanh sunglasses on and eating Tim-Tams and saying whatever...

["Azana" by Sandoval Handbags, $210 at Smashing Darling]

Windowlicker - from the French for window shopping: faire du lèche-vitrine - appears on Tuesday and Thursdays at 10am EST-ish.

Min Jin Lee in the Japan Times

and it's fascinating!

"Sitting across from best-selling New York author Min Jin Lee in a Tokyo expat cafe, I can't help thinking that the heroine of her debut novel "Free Food For Millionaires" is the one sipping ice tea and talking sex. Like Lee, protagonist Casey Han is unusually tall, refined in speech, and deeply interested in hat-making...

...Lee is about 100 pages into her next novel. It will focus on Koreans in Japan under the title "Pachinko." Set in Tokyo and Osaka, the story centers on trader Solomon Choi, who becomes embroiled in a Wall Street scandal, and his father Moses, a pachinko parlor operator. Koreans, many descended from people forcibly brought to Japan during the 20th century, dominate the pachinko industry because traditionally they have been barred from better jobs here. The pinball-like game is rich with metaphoric potential. Players zone out in the miasma of fast beats and cigarette smoke in parlors, which are both casino and opium den. The black sheep of Japanese leisure, pachinko has never been exported like karaoke or manga..."

After a Fashion

...The Smart Set returns! This week's edition is, as ever, at MaudNewton.com.

Tuesday in NY: "Upstairs at the Square"

If you're in New York, come check out one of the top picks in this week's issue of The New Yorker! Quoting our host, Katherine Lanpher:

Everyone has a story about who they think they are.

New York Times media columnist David Carr had his. A former crack addict and alcoholic who wheeled through jails and rehab centers only to land a new life as the happily married father of three with a great job.

But as any good reporter can tell you, no story is simple. When David set out to write his memoir, he made a crucial decision: to report it. The result is “The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life. His Own.’’

The book is already a best-seller, with the New York Observer declaring it as the tome that has redeemed the memoir.

You can find out more by coming to our next edition of “Upstairs at the Square,’’ the show where writers and music mix. On Tuesday,  we pair David with Greg Laswell, whose haunting tunes are everywhere – from the counter at Whole Foods to “Grey’s Anatomy.’’ A regular at the Hotel Café in Hollywood, Laswell has been described as a “beautifier of the real, with a voice and style that recalls Coldplay or Nick Drake. His new cd is “Three Flights from Alto Nido.’’

It’ll be a night of reporting and redemption – so come join us.

Details: Upstairs at the Square
Tuesday  Sept. 9th 7 p.m. sharp FREE
Barnes and Noble at Union Square
For more info, go to: www.bn.com/upstairs