Poetry Carla Bruni Style

Image via New York Sun

The most exciting thing I did today was snatch up the latest copy of Vanity Fair from my local drugstore. Usually, I do not buy magazines. I buy a cup of tea at Barnes and Noble instead, read the week's magazines in one fell lunch hour swoop, and call this budgeting. But occasionally a magazine cover will make me draw my breath in sharply. How could I resist the title "Carla Bruni: The New Jackie O?"

Carla Bruni entered my consciousness this January, when a particular nude print began hurdling off the walls of the small photography gallery I was working at. I remember one immensely awkward conversation with a client, who demurred that our particular print had a slightly different hip-to-under-arm angle than the pose he was most fond of. Apparently Carla Bruni was a subject of frequent study by him, as he had her as his screen saver.

In following the news I've been vaguely aware of Carla Bruni's power perch beside the French president Nicolas Sarkozy. The Vanity Fair article delivers the heady, dense history behind this. Following the love affairs of the two of them required all of my concentration for a full 40 minutes. Yet what makes the story so fascinating is the character of the subjects. Carla Bruni, independent, violinist, lyricist, won me over by the end of the article, as had her amazing outfits.

But it was a Google search for Bruni after reading the article that brought the full implications of the subject to my attention. It appears that her latest album, No Promises, is no less than a musical rendition of poems by Yeats, Dickinson, Auden, and Rossetti. I'm super-excited and putting it on my wanted list. See, I was right to catch my breath at the Vanity Fair article. Even if my original reason for knowing the subject was some guy's screen saver.

Planetarium Pictures

Images via Tara

Kids and planets--I had so much fun with these pictures.

Mutton Sleeves

Subway stop image via Tara

Today I had a productive day off. I went to a Calvin Klein seminar hosted by my job, got my hair cut, went to the Natural History Museum, and had a discussion with my boss about whether or not I should get paid for the time I spent at the Calvin Klein seminar. To my mind if, on your day off, you're going to go into work at 9am to eat croissant and strawberries, drink coffee, gossip with co-workers, and watch a Project Runway model demonstrate Calvin Klein dresses, you should get paid for it, right? Besides, I learned valuable information, such as what a mutton sleeve is, which I will shortly be dispensing to customers. The discussion went well, my boss threw his hands up in the air, waved them around, and smiled.

Serious Calvin Klein demonstration via DFR

Art in Action Window

Image via Tara

Why, why, why, am I still up? I am going to regret this, seriously regret this, as I worked late shift tonight and am working early shift tomorrow. But somewhere I must fit poetry in. And that's why I'm still up.

Borders on 59th Street Columbus Circle

Images via Tara

I adore bookstores. Where else you can travel around the world by turning a corner?


She was really into it. I wish I'd asked her where she was going. Oh wait, I think I know ::studies book and map:: Germany.


What's hot in the magazines.


Power of Art.



Starbucks moment.


Two awesome kids. They were reading the books aloud to each other with vivid commentary. One thing I couldn't help noticing is how the kid on the left is looking up at the picture of the black man on the cover of the book. It reminds me of the whole controversy over the Vogue cover which depicted LeBron James giving a power roar. At the time, I thought the controversy was over hyped. But looking at that little kid, I might have to re-think my position.

Whoa, whoa, whoa

I know, I know, I know. Where have I been going so fast? I'm sleeepy tonight. But must stop and give a passing bit of affection to this blog. It's half-way through July already!

Actually, things have not been going as badly as these past 8 days of blogging silence might suggest. I've been focused on work. And have written up a "spec" piece which I plan soon to be waving at various on-line magazines in hopes of tracking down free-lance work. And I've actually had the gumption to send out a bunch of poems to on-line journals.

I also have a sudden new belief. I'm possessed by the idea that organization is the key to all success. This would seem to bode dimly for me. Lack of organization characterizes everything I do. It's tantamount to the way I write poetry--tripping on ideas strewn across the floor, walking in through the wrong door, catching the wrong train, obsessing over the wrong idea.

But I think like most things, if you want to excel, you need to possess both sides of all equations. Be impossibly social and solitary. Traditional and cutting edge. Imaginative and grounded. Navigate both organization and disorganization. Yes I'm citing Csikszentmihalyi. So far, I've got disorganization down. And lately, my organization kick has resulted in me stacking up my books and papers, laying my clothes out for tomorrow, and finding time to go for a run. Woot!

Bits and Bytes of NYC

Some more snippets of photography. I think I'm in love. :)

Bryant Park: Where great conversations are born on lunch breaks.

Gigabyte kids.

View into Whole Foods on Columbus Circle.

Intruding on someone's smoothy.

Making myself part of the art. A Central Park South Gallery I need to research further.

Stripes in my Mind, Part 2

Image via Tara

I got a camera! It is possibly the cheapest camera on earth, and I paid way too much for it. But am as happy as if it were Canon. I have been taking photographs in my mind for forever. Here they are in real life for the first time! :)

I knew immediately what I wanted to photograph first. The Louis Vuitton Store on 5th Ave. I am not terribly obsessed with Louis Vuitton bubbles themselves. But I've always been intrigued the way the store teamed up with artist Takashi Murakami. And the way the store windows are themselves a work of art.

I did not realize there was a mirror behind the florescent tubes until I started taking pictures. So the picture at the very top of the page is my first, unwitting, self-portrait.

Go to: Stripes in my Mind, Part 1