Kid Vids....Sharing the Kid's Cuteness

We witness trending YouTube themes.
Not sure how I feel about Roomba-riding kittens .....mesmerizing but perhaps a bit cruel? I don't know, are the kittens enjoying the ride?
But now we get kids!!! Cute kids!!! Just being themselves.
This week's highlights:
"John, did you eat those sprinkles?"
Yet another version of Gangnam Style dance, the first I've seen in a car seat.

These are real. Obviously someone had to snap the cellphone into record mode but the kids are just doing what they do.

Unlike the forced cute variety.

She's Back.....

Where have I been? Don't ask (don't tell either) but here we go again. Mom stuff, life stuff, perhaps some cool tech stuff, certainly ocean stuff and save the universe stuff. And dance, we are doing that again too.
Welcome back.

Artist/Activist Asher Jay creates costumes for my dancers....last week's Blue Beyond Borders event at ACA Galleries in NY. It was fun, three very talented dancers moved like mermaids (and merman) to the mesmerizing music of Garth Stevenson.

All this was to support Dr. Susan Shaw's Marine Environmental Research Institute, a wonderful ocean conservation group that works to study, quantify and hopefully eliminate toxins in our seas.

Times Square, Red Stairs

New York. Springtime. The Fleet's in, note all the cute sailor boys all over town. And fresh new features.
Times Square has erected a 27-step program of glowing ruby stairs over the TKTS Discount ticket booth on 47th Street. And the traffic has been rerouted to the chagrin of taxi drivers. A true people-platz now, enabling one to safely gaze transfixed at the surrounding electrified canyons. Hazards have been transferred from automobiles to cameraphone wielding tourists.

Cannes Film Fest

The circus known as the Cannes Film Festival is all about greasing the wheels of the cinema industry. Players from around the globe, meet, greet, view, negotiate, buy (hopefully), discuss behind closed doors or at lunches/dinners, on the beach, cafes, hotels.
But most evident are the armies of photographers dispatched to this seaside resort, entrusted with getting the shot.
Of what?
Stars of course. The studio gold is the celeb, buffed, fluffed and wheeled up to select locations where screaming (Mariah!!!! Over here!!!!) shooters jockey for the shot.
Ladders are key. And valuable. Note the pre-dawn ladders locked and ready for the next day's red carpet photo op.
Yes they all belong to someone and no, don't even think about moving someone's ladder.

Check Out Check In

Not actually a hotel lobby, but a grand space indeed, Zurich Airport, Terminal 5 offers a soaring light-filled space. Shopping. Chocolates. Watches. Hugo Boss. Chocolates. Elegant, calm, sleek. Oddly unpopulated. Nice airport.

Check Out Check In

Welcome COCI, a new feature on my blog, as I travel and enter countless hotel lobbies.
Hotel lobby.
This area of first impression is becoming more distinct than ever. A grand entrance. A sweeping view. An embodiment of the style/vibe of the place, as it tries to distinguish itself from all the other lodging options. Elegant. Old world. Hipper than the others. Lobbies mesh a variety of elements to create impact. Soaring ceiling. Dazzling lighting. Groovy bars and gathering nooks. Signature scented candles.
In fact, this is now a subject of study, complete with it's own unique measurement system to evaluate specific atmospheric elements.
Witness New York's Hudson. Working with a non-discript red brick residential building, designer Philippe Starck created, not a room, but an experience. The scale and flowing foreigners gives it an airport feel. But tongue in cheek.
Deets:
"The surreal design of the medium lobby has a unique mix of avant-garde. It's filled with brick masonry, dark wood, a 45 ft carved oak desk with a huge hologram lit classical chandelier and a tangle of vines fronting a 30-ft high vine-fronted glass roof. Nearby, French doors lead to a wonderful terrace beckoning with plantings, oversized furniture, and tongue-in-cheek sculpture and a bar (in season). The hotel's decor is captivating with it's color infused escalator."

More Obama Food!!!!

Egads, am I onto something here?

Surely yes, because Gothamist is running this stuff as well. NYC sharpies are out catching tributes to the 44th left and right.
Obama Fried Chicken and Pizza (they don't fry the pizza, it's just a welcome mat to comfort food) is a re-branded fried chicken place on St. Nicholas just south of 116th Street, uptown.

Not even sure if this is legal, let alone ethical, but don't we love the tribute vibe?

So yes, you are on board, and hungry, so why not go takeout from Obama Fried Chicken (and pizza),
And wash it down with a bottle of Obama Cuvee?

French winemaker Angela Bousquet-Keita, who hails originally from Guinea in Africa, has created a vintage wine to celebrate the election of the first African-American to the White House.

Der Spiegel tells us about a visionary female vinter based in France:

Bousquet-Keita, who believes she is the only black female winemaker in the entire country, described how she felt a "moment of ecstasy" when Obama won the election. "It was the advent of a world that I had always dreamed of for my children," she told the French daily Le Monde.

Too cool!

"While she intends to charge a steep €150 ($198) for three bottles of the wine, Bousquet-Keita says all the profits will go to an NGO working in the Darfur region of Sudan. That gesture was inspired by the fact that she has employed refugees from Darfur to work in her vineyard for the past few years.
She hopes to be able to present the president with a bottle personally when he visits France in June. Made from three different grapes, she says the wine should improve with age:
"It will be much better when served during his second term."

Second term....people, start those plots of Obama greens right about NOW!