It's My Dog's World: I Just Live In It

Just in Time for School...

A dog who will eat your kid's homework for him or her.   Seriously...it's a kid's size t-shirt on Threadless.com, and it's on sale, so....hurry!

Adventures in Hoboken and Reasons to Live: A Great Cafe Around the Corner

Oh, Dames Coffee.  Smart barista, sexy art, great coffee.  And a nice cinnamon roll, too.  More kudos here.

Here, too.

toothpastefordinner.com

Unlikely Dog Friendly Spot of the Month: The Time Warner Center, NYC

When I have a little more time, I will wax rhapsodical about the lovely stores of Georgetown in Washington, D.C., and the staff who welcomed my mutt and me inside.

But today, let me briefly praise the Time Warner Center, which I visited last night, and which, for all of its hoity-toity-osity and grand, soaring design (check out the view from the third floor), welcomes dogs. And not just foofy little dogs, either.  One day, when I was shopping at Williams-Sonoma. I was gently nudged by a large and lovely Malinois.  I think his owner was looking for some peppercorns, but the Malinois was more interested in Bundt pans.  Note to Williams-Sonoma--time to start making Bundt pans in the shape of dog bones.

I am NOT one of those people who thinks dogs belong everywhere--though I do think we owe them a lot, including our transformation as a species from desperate nomads to agrarian farmers with nice houses.  And so it's not just nice, but almost primeval, sometimes, to be in a lovely place, as the Time-Warner Center is, and, after buying a delicious nicoise sandwich and a crazy fantastic tiny brownie from Bouchon Bakery - and still be hanging with your best pal, whose ancestors made living inside safely and eating meals without being set upon by predators possible in the first place.

It's My Dog's World...But Sometimes We Share It With George Michael

I know, I know, I promised to solve Hoboken's horrible bad driver problem....and clean it up at the same time.  But meanwhile, I won a George Michael video with this entry on Modern Fabulosity about her, and Jeff, and our crazy love.   So don't judge me.  Because how could I resist a man who sings "You gotta have Faith?"

What Could You Do 52 Times in a Year?

There's a glorious discipline to doing something over and over again, on a consistent basis.

My creativity/drawing/writing hero Lynda Barry created a whole book about it, called 100 Demons. It's a drawing exercise based on sumi-e painting that she learned from her teacher in college.  When I took her class, she explained that "demons" could be anything--they were just a frame for what you, inevitably, were going to create.  You could call it 100 Coffee Cups.  100 Presidents.  100 Dogs.  What wants to comes out, will come out, if you just keep working.
 

My music hero Jonathan Coulton put a song out there, once a week, for a whole damned year, a Thing a Week.  He wrote some gems--his song "A Talk With George," manages to be this incredibly specific description of writer/bon vivant George Plimpton, and a completely unsappy Live Your Dreams song.  He also covered "Baby Got Back," which I was delighted to hear LIVE at Joe's Pub, to ukelele backup.

And Manoel Felciano, the gloriously spooky Toby of Sweeney Todd, is doing it right now here  with Sunday Songs.  Listen to a nifty song about purple. And a lovely remembrance of actress/playwright/powerhouse Oni Faida Lampley.

I'm wondering if I could write a tiny play every week.  A playette?  A play-ini? Have I mentioned that I'm going to have a play-ini in the Estrogenius Festival in October?  Well, I am.

What could you create every week for a year?
 

Things That Would Never Have Happened This Week Without My Dog

I would never have met a retired Army colonel who was walking a chihuahua who liked Faith. The colonel turned out to have worked BOTH for Enrico Fermi on the Manhattan Project and for Robert McNamara on a doomsday scenario.

I would never have ended up having a philosophical discussion about Buddhism, quantum physics, and infinity with a dentist from Beirut (because Faith coveted his pastry).

And finally, without Faith's friendly sniffing, I would not  have noticed that the last guy out of the elevator at our hotel...was presidential candidate and former Senator John Edwards.

Oh, the places you'll go with a pitbull mix. 

Happy Birthday to Me, and Madeline Kahn Appreciation Day!

Yup. It's my birthday...and by some wonderful coincidence, Madeline Kahn Appreciation Day.  Do partake of her mad glory at StinkyLulu.  She was a comic genius.

And thanks, Dad, wherever you are, for taking me to Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein when I was too young. It's twue, it's twue.

It's My Birthday Week....

So let the dancing begin!

I am cute, evil, and for sale in the Vuitton shop

Murakami_3, originally uploaded by Empress M.

I've been to the Murakami show at the Brooklyn Museum twice already, and I'm more confused than ever. The colors SHOULD make me happy, but the images make me disoriented. The craftmanship should awe me, but instead, I keep imagining the assistants who had to sand down all those shiny surfaces.

This image is part of a much, much, larger group of statues in the lobby of the Brooklyn Museum. As I waited for my husband near this creature, I felt giggly and filled with unfathomable dread.

Brooklyn + Burlesque = Fantastickiosity

Night of the Living Dead Girls.  Coney Island.  One of my pals is in this, and you should really, really go.  Check her MySpace page for details.