When I Was Twenty-Four

April, 2012

Dear Imaginary Friends,

Once upon a time, after graduating from graduate school, I lived in this lovely building on lower Fifth Avenue. It was a small sublet, just one block away from Greenwich Village's Washington Square Park. My husband and I recently trekked up to Manhattan where we stayed at a hotel just a block away, and it was a great stroll down memory lane for me.

Now of course, the building has gone condo, as one at a time,  people have given up their leases. Seems to be the way things are going.

Despite the roaches, the crappy boyfriends, one and all, I loved living here while earning slave wages. 

I worked in sales at Georgette Klinger on Madison Avenue, one of the few sales jobs where no commission is paid. We sold series of facials, mostly, as well as skin treatments, makeup and various products. I worked for a swanky company, and I lived in a swanky building, and I soon went broke. The upside? I liked it while it lasted. And I danced at Studio 54 while living here, twice. Small budget, but living large.

Your Imaginary Friend,

Patsie

Ajuga: Meet Bumblebee

In my front yard

My Front Yard this Spring

This Spring put on quite a show of flowers. The patience of gardeners all over America was rewarded tenfold.

Arcadia Gallery in SOHO, Now Showing Rob Liberace in New York

BY ROBERT LIBERACE

The Whitney Biennial

The Whitney Biennial

What's got people standing in long lines? Art!!! This month is the Whitney Museum of Art's Biennial of new and innovative art. The building is chockablock with artists, hipsters, gallery owners and their collectors carefully perusing the newest rising art stars. Among artwork that we saw: a Viking funeral boat atop a wood pyre, an artist's bedroom/ studio/ storage space, movies of people dancing, a paranoid schizophrenic's self-mutilation, a pipe organ playing bouncy music that had everyone dancing a little (including the guards), an installed room with clothes sewn and painted to reveal the body parts that they were meant to cover, et cetera. Was it truly all art? Not for me. But there were certainly some things only a museum could collect due to their size or ephemera. So maybe it is more about getting attention than anything else. 

An artist.

I think. 

Patsie

Foodies! Tackle Greenwich Village in NYC

Dear Imaginary Foodie,

Where should I eat in the village, both west and east, in New York City?

Hungry and Dazed

Dear Hungry with the bad hair,

If you like Italian, and who doesn't, try Frankie's Spuntino 570 on Hudson Street, and dell'anima.

For desserts and snacks go to Cafe Reggio right off Washington Square Park. For organic, vegan or vegetarian, try Organic Grill. It is on First Ave by 7th street in the East Village.

Bon Appetit!

Need a hair re-do? Try Arrojo on Varick Street and ask for Jennifer C.

And you're welcome!

A Special Mormon Nightmare of Hell

My favorite skit or scene last night in the Broadway production of Book of Mormon was called a Special Mormon Hell Nightmare. 

It involved dancing and singing versions of the following:

a. Donuts 

b. Hitler 

c. Attila the Hun 

d. Starbucks cups 

e. Some guy in a khaki suit 

f. The devil. 

g. Johnny Cochran! He is the lawyer who kept OJ Simpson out of prison. Last but not least was 

h. Jeffrey Dahmer, who proceeded to try to eat the other bad guys.

Future possible additions could be bacon and Peeps.