“There was kindliness about intoxication – there was the indescribable gloss and glamour it gave, like the memories of ephemeral and faded evenings.”

…. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned

The Impeccable Dapper

As an avid lover of WASP-style I was ecstatic to see the article by The Rake (a great magazine about impeccable menswear) on “The Dammed Dapper”. Republican or Democrat, Jewish or Protestant… the tailoring and colors are amazing.

http://www.ivy-style.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/gth-story.pdf

via Ivy-Style and Rake Magazine

Happy Birthday, T

To celebrate my aunt on her birthday I want to share a poem that makes me think of her…on a personal level, I will be celebrating her life today with lots and lots of her favorite champagne.  I miss you all day every day; love you.

 

Sonnet XXXIV

You are the daughter of the sea, oregano’s first cousin.
Swimmer, your body is pure as the water;
cook, your blood is quick as the soil.
Everything you do is full of flowers, rich with the earth.

Your eyes go out toward the water, and the waves rise;
your hands go out to the earth and the seeds swell;
you know the deep essence of water and the earth,
conjoined in you like a formula for clay.

Naiad: cut your body into turquoise pieces,
they will bloom resurrected in the kitchen.
This is how you become everything that lives.

And so at last, you sleep, in the circle of my arms
that push back the shadows so that you can rest—
vegetables, seaweed, herbs: the foam of your dreams.
By Pablo Neruda

To See McQueen

 

To fashion lovers who will be in DC this week… Alexander McQueen’s Spring 2010 Ready-To-Wear line will be presented at Hu’s Wear and Hu’s Shoes in Georgetown. Take this opportunity to pay homage to a fashion genius. Even if this line doesn’t include any pieces that you can imagine yourself wearing, just stop by to see them as great works of art.

Photo by Marcio Madiera, Style.com

Currently Reading…

City Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960s and ’70s by Edmund White

Self Fulfillment

This year I came to the realization that, for me, mediocrity kills. It is when I am bored that I lose my curiosity, my motivation and my happiness. I do not mean to connote competition to become the best, but I understand “mediocrity” to be defined by complacency, which causes boredom and indifference. Over the years I have discovered that I either feed off the challenges when I am a small fish in a big pond or I rise to the leadership roles when I am a big fish in a small pond: my career as an uninvolved student at a large university has satisfied neither scenario. At this point in my life—22, soon-to-be college graduate—my current surroundings are not going to change, so I must keep moving through my surroundings so I don’t get bored, and most importantly, change myself.

 While Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney was overall quite a disappointing novel, McInerney’s description of Tad Allagash perfectly aligns with my mentality:

 “You started on the Upper East Side with champagne and unlimited prospects, strictly observing the Allagash rule of perpetual motion: one drink per stop. Tad’s mission in life is to have more fun than anyone else in New York City, and this involves a lot of moving around, since there is always the likelihood that where you aren’t is more fun than where you are. You are awed by his strict refusal to acknowledge any goal higher than the pursuit of pleasure.” – Bright Lights Big City, Jay McInerney 

It is with that passage that I understood the causes of my happiness and unhappiness: mediocrity. That said, I have begun my efforts to change—- to be more engaged, responsible, cultured, well-rounded, motivated, educated, and happy person. This blog will hopefully highlight my most share-worthy findings….

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