Interiorgalactic Planetary

When you think of the Beastie Boys, you probably think of the rhymes, the evolving style over the years, the crowning sense of humor so often absent from hip hop.  Not real enough? Not enough solid beats as they wandered into different musical territory?  Just watch, learn, nod your head and try not to smile.  (The payoff at the end is so worth 5 minutes of your life): 

 Now we bring you a belated story of interest: multi-talented Mike D also dabbles in interior design.  Check out the New York Times feature on his redesign of a Brooklyn townhome. [Click Here].

Want to see all the photos not in a slideshow? Fear not, just [Click Here].

For my purposes, I vote for what appears to be a guest bedroom as taking the top prize.  In the cold New York winter, retire to a guest room resembling an upscale boutique beach hotel.  We love it, and in an age of MTV cribs where bigger is always better, cheers to Mike D. Now let's go to White Castle.

Palm Beach Swede Fest

Movie star and Director

Happy Hour Fashions

Do you ever go to happy hour?  Happy hours are occasionally planned and sometimes spontaneous. But whatever you wear, you usually have to wear it to work too.  That is unless you live close to work or your happy hour spot of choice.  

Well I've snapped some photo's of a couple of outfits I caught on my happy hour outing here in West Palm Beach. 

To the right it's me.  I had on a white shirt dress with a full nude slip underneath.  I also had my signature piece, the blue-green leopard scarf. I am a little frightened by the amount of leopard pieces that I have collected over the years. I also added a splash of color at my feet. I probably could have done without the belt, but I felt I needed a waistline.  I will also mention that it was jean day at work and I wore jeans to work.

Now for my friends.  These ladies added color to the picture.  Even the girls in black or black and white had color in their outfits.  

This was a birthday hour for my friend Emily in the bright red dress to the left. Can you tell we are in South Florida or what?  
Danielle,  in the black and white, had a red bow in her hair, red shoes, red necklace and rosy lips. Regina, in mostly black, splashed her color with a really cool yellow mini skirt.

Are they hot or what?  The guys behind them think so.  I know at least three of us who play soccer together have really toned legs, which is also part of the fashion here in South Florida.  Being in shape is part of your outfit.

Of Murals and Men

Murals, murals everywhere.  When you have the space, why not?  We have seen that public art can help us reimagine or see in a different light those ordinary spaces we may pass by every day.  Check out the Flint Public Art Project, for example.  So it is in that vein we draw your attention to just one building in Lake Worth, directly across the street from City Hall.  Too much? We say, paint the whole city.  Too little, in fact.

 

 

Of Classic Cinema's Fashion

Everything changes in 80 years.  Yet how much more does it say about the staying power of stars from the golden age that they still look gorgeous and distinctive in absurdly outdated fashions?

The double breasted pinstripe will probably never come back, unless one happens to join a crime family, or if one is being overtly ironic.  But Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. still looks dapper as ever out in 1938's "The Young in Heart":

Likewise, Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer's absurd outfits in the classic 1939 "A Love Affair" do not make us shake our heads.  They are both so magnetic and good-looking that we can ignore Dunne's football sized shoulder pads with some kind of bowtie, and Boyer's ridiculous plaid number.

I suppose this means that it is the star in the outfit - and not the label or the cut of the fabric - that makes an outfit work or not.  So get out the pomade and the upper-crust early 1900s Atlantic American accent and go to work.

Peace, Love & Wellness Fashion

Who doesn't love a good festival?  It gives you something to do on the weekend and drives business and consumerism.  This weekend, I went to the Peace Love & Wellness Festival in Palm Beach Gardens. 

The fest was peaceful, I found products and services that I loved, and I am certain the local business in the Midtown, Palm Beach Garden's area did well.  

As a Fashionista, I noticed the fashion. They had free yoga, so many showed up sporting their best yoga pants/ yoga outfits. I suspect it was a marketing technique. There was a retail story/yoga studio that sold bright, vibrant yoga fashions.  I ended up obsessed with yoga pants when I left.   Although, at the $75 price tag, I left without a pair.  One day.

The kids joining in on the yoga fun and  fashions!

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Caribbean Brutalism

In discussing all things brutalist in the architectural commentary on our blog, we have not yet examined any hybrids of our favorite type of building.  Now, then, we bring you the aesthetic delight of the Virgin Islands Superior Court complex, to which we give hearty cheers:

I hesitate to argue that this is 1993 building is a brutalist hybrid of sorts.  But I think a case can be made that this complex does represent a combination of both Caribbean and brutalist influences.  The red roof with its Caribbean shapeliness certainly reminds one of typical St. Thomas dwellings (see below), and the structure itself, with emphasis on the concrete, with its strange third floor overhang, and its minimalist window arrangements, does remind us of more typical brutalist pieces.  I heartily approve of this rather cheery take on brutalism, and give you this study as evidence that brutalism does, indeed, continue to live on and influence architects even in our day.