5 Things Meme: The Buck Stops Here!

I’ve been tagged by Joerg and then also by Amy (Stein) too. In a stroke of brilliance that smacks of consideration for my fellow bloggers and unbridled narcissism, I give you 35 things you probably don’t know about me, taking care of the 10 things I’m required to reveal and the 25 things I was supposed to distribute amongst 5 other unfortunate bloggers. For your convenience, I’ve picked subcategories to reveal the mystery of me to you, dear readers:

5 Foods I Dislike
These are foods that I do not like. This is not a knee-jerk, tried it once and won’t go near it again kind of thing. As I kid I’d try anything - my brother was a super picky eater; since people thought we were twins (identical, meaning that I was often mistaken for a boy, damnit) I jumped at any opportunity to differentiate myself. I continue to retry these things, and so far: no dice.

1) Eggplant Texture: ugh, slimy.
2) String Beans Again with the texture. This time: fuzzy, ick.
2) Mushrooms Taste like what I imagine old socks must. Ollie can have ‘em. (See pets section below.)
4) Licorice Is this surprising? I should think not.
5) Orange flavored things Orange as an ingredient in savory foods, orange marmalade, orange soda: vile. Occasionally I will enjoy an orange or a cup of juice, but it’s probably my least favorite citrus flavor.

5 Movies I’ve Seen Recently + Enjoyed
This is by no means a comprehensive list as I tend to watch a lot of movies. Although I rarely go to the theater and have yet to join the cult of Netflix, I usually have at least 3 or 4 movies in my Tivo queue. My favorite movie of all time is The Apartment, in case you were wondering. There, now you can sleep at night.

1) Desk Set - A Hepburn/Tracy flick with an electric brain, awesome midcentury design, shades of feminism and a rockin’ title sequence. Just saw this yesterday.
2) Mad Hot Ballroom - City kids compete in a 5-borough wide ballroom dancing competition. I was surprised by how much I loved this. I guess I’m a soft touch.
3) Pride & Prejudice - In spite of the fact that I was afraid that Keira Knightley’s collarbone was going to jump through the tv screen and cause me bodily harm, I enjoyed this enormously. I’m a sucker for historical drama, it doesn’t even need to be that good, the costumes and sets are usually enough to hold my attention.
4) Anne of a Thousand Days - Richard Burton as Henry VIII! Surprisingly racy dialogue for a movie made in the 60s! I found this movie oddly riveting.
5) The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie - Luis Buñuel’s surrealist exploration of class, politics and manners. Funny and quite relevant to present times. I also loved the mod dresses.

5 Pets I Have Had
My current canine companion is Ollie. If you know me or you read this blog regularly, you have met her or seen her picture and if you’re lucky maybe she’s eaten one of your socks. Here are the pets of my youth:

1) George, a turtle. The aquarium sure did smell.
2) Martha, companion to George.
3) The Lizard of Oz. My friend Adrianna smuggled the Lizard of Oz home to me from the Bahamas. She brought him on the plane under her hat, literally. He was small and brown and ended up drowned in a small bowl of honey. Poor L of O.
4) Petunia. An ill-mannered stubborn brindle bulldog. Cause for much sibling acrimony as walking her was a task that my brother and I both abhorred, especially once the Pooper Scooper laws were enacted. (Ah, NYC in the seventies.)

5 Jobs of I Have Held
I have had a lot of jobs. It’s better now that I work for myself. Better for me, better for the people who are not burdened with the task of trying to manage me.

1) I have been the sysop/admin of not one but two BBSes. The first was an Excalibur BBS that was a component of a (deep breath) integrated online and cd-rom quarterly arts and entertainment magazine that existed very briefly in the mid-nineties. After that I was the Admin for New York Online, which was a First Class BBS run off a Mac out of my friend Omar’s apartment in Brooklyn.
2) I was a switchboard operator at the Paramount and Royalton hotels in the early nineties.
3) I was the door person for a short-lived afterhours party in the old Knitting Factory space on East Houston.
4) I worked at a jazz publishing house, trying to shakedown ASCAP and BMI for royalties.
5) When I was in college I worked as an assistant to a jewelry designer who lived on the Lower East Side. She was a nice Jewish girl from Queens turned Bohemian. Her boyfriend at the time was a bongo-playing cokehead. She had previously dated Basquiat and had one of his paintings on the wall in her apartment. She’d send me out on errands to get findings and beads, then I’d pick up ice coffees at Ray’s newsstand on Ave A and return to her apt where we’d usually smoke some pot before starting to assemble jewelry.

5 Favorite Articles of Clothing I Adore
This list changes frequently. The items below are my current front runners. The common threads among them: easy to wear, easy to personalize and it’s not like every other woman in NYC is wearing the exact same thing. Also comfort is key for me - you won’t see me hobbling around town in pencil skirts and Jimmy Choos.

1) My pink Hermes scarf with birds on it. It was a gift. (A gift of the best kind, I might add: something I’d never ever buy myself, but love oh so much.) I have a thing for birds, and for pink. A marriage of wonderful things.
2) My black shirtdress from H&M. It’s a little too lowcut, but hey, hello boys! Also, it has epaulets.
3) My blue cotton shirtdress from Forever21. I wore this almost every day when I was in LA. It’s very 50s like - wrap top, full skirt. I think Isaac (Mizrahi) would approve.
4) My metallic gold clogs. I get countless compliments on these, and let’s face it, it’s hard to be grouchy when you’re wearing shiny gold shoes that are actually comfortable.
5) My tall black Frye motorcycle boots. They look good with basically everything, my mother would hate them and they keep most of my outfits from veering into dull and/or unsexy territory.

5 Things I Do Not Have
I know, I know, I seem like the sort of girl who has everything. Alas, I do not. Herewith, some of the things I do not have many of which I don’t give a fuck about.

1) A College Degree. Scandal! Yes, it’s true: I dropped out of college. God knows what I might have made of myself if I’d gotten that BA in Creative Writing (Poetry Concentration.) I showed so much promise, carrying on the legacy of my grandfather, uncle and father by attending Stuyvesant High School (a legacy further continued by all three of my half-siblings.) Moody and wayward youth that I was, I spent most of high school not in it, making me quite the black sheep amongst my over-achieving classmates and establishing the precedent for my collegiate career as well.
2) A Digital Camera. For reals! How rindonkulous is that?
3) A laptop. This is dire. My iBook died around Christmas and I haven’t gotten around to replacing it yet.
4) A trust fund. Apparently this is a pre-requisite for many gallery owners. File under: things I did not know (or simply chose not to acknowledge) prior to opening my gallery.
5) A bicycle. I love riding bikes! Mine was stolen, recovered miraculously several months later and then stolen again quite a while ago. I haven’t replaced it yet, although I think I will soon.

5 Magazines I Have Read + Enjoyed Recently
1) Topic Magazine. I just got the Games issue and it was delightful. Buy it.
2) The New Yorker. I let my subscription expire and need to renew, as it never fails to engage me (and/or make me feel guilty for being terribly behind.)
3) Fast Company. Surprising sleeper hit! I hadn’t picked it up in years and recently bought a copy for my flight to LA (the issue w. John Legend on the cover.) In spite of it’s rah-rah frat boy writing style that all seems very pre-1.0-bust to me now, I read almost every article in the issue and found myself recommending it to friends.
4) Some Japanese magazine that I picked up at a store in LA and didn’t end up buying because it was just too expensive. It was gorgeous, design-y, fabulous fresh photography. Each issue had the substance of a book. I, um, forgot the title and the website I jotted down (g-wall.org) doesn’t help me at all.
5) New York. Perhaps the ideal material for hate-reading. The recent Dash Snow article, or any of the subjects of the Look Book, typify the sort of shit I can’t resist reading and/or talking about even though it’s vacuous, sensationalistic and elicits exactly the sort of response they are hoping to provoke.

And that, my friends, is me in increments of 5. Fascinating reading I know. Stay tuned for my love letter to LA. (I had such a great trip!)