Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
Mark Lyman had a simple concept in mind when he founded the International Exposition of Sculpture Objects & Functional Art nine years ago: Make fine, functional art available to the public. While highbrow types might have wondered whether there was enough of an audience for such an ambitious project, Lyman was confident.
The club is thumping, and everybody’s having a good time: You spy a woman across a sea of beautiful people and want to meet her. Do you: a) look in her direction until she smiles at you; b) send over a friend to see if she likes you, or c) saunter over to her and scream, “Wazzup?” You’re probably going home alone if you answered (b) or (c), but both are better than what a lot of people do: stare. “Many people walk into clubs with a defensive mind-set,” says Rodney Battles, author of Night Games! A Guide to Understanding and Enjoying the Nightclub and Bar Scene (Brown, $19.95), which hits stores later this month.
Forget about a fruit basket. Today’s stars expect to be treated to a lot more when they appear on awards shows. And MTV delivers.
The Friends of the James Jordan Boys and Girls Club made quite the splash with their first Beach Blast. Held at Phil Stefani’s kicky Castaways Restaurant at the North Avenue Beach–a favorite hangout for the Chicago cast of this season’s “The Real World”–the benefit attracted almost 200 revelers wearing their best casual beach attire. Surveying the crowd, Deloris Jordan appeared particularly chic and cool in a crisp summer suit.
Aging gracefully can be pretty … if you’re Tina Turner. But for the rest of us who never foresaw a future of thinning hair, wrinkles and expanding feet, growing older might be easier to deal with if we knew what we were in for. With that in mind, we asked some experts to warn us about what we may expect as we approach middle age.
Pamela Anderson plans to be injected with powerful antiviral drugs to treat hepatitis C–a sometimes fatal liver disease she blames on a tattoo needle she shared with ex-husband Tommy Lee.
All the trendy fashionistas have a taste for Juicy Couture. The eight-year-old line of casual wear recently got the kind of publicity money can’t buy when Hollywood hotties such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz and Gwen Stefani were photographed wearing their favorite Juicy pieces. Lara Flynn Boyle has proclaimed Juicy her preferred comfort-wear. And Sarah Michelle Gellar went so far as to say Juicy is the only thing she’ll wear to her early morning calls on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
At the best spots where singles mingle, people are focused on something besides meeting a date. With something (ostensibly) in the air besides romance, sparks can fly as if by serendipity. Here are some fresh ideas for getting out and about, along with some hints about who’s there and what to wear. The rest is up to you.
Loosen your belts. It’s that time of year again. Starting today at 11 a.m. and continuing for the next 10 days, we’ll all be in a feeding frenzy at the 22nd annual Taste of Chicago. “We’re very excited about this year’s Taste,” says Cindy Gatziolis, director of public relations for the Mayor’s Office of Special Events. “We’ve got some great restaurants serving all different kinds of food, from Italian to Jamaican to Korean to Thai.
In 1976, Yann Arthus-Bertrand was a journalist dabbling in photography. Then 30, the Frenchman, his wife and their two small children moved to Kenya to study the behavioral patterns of the lions living on the Masai Mara reserve. “At this time, I was mainly a journalist,” says Arthus-Bertrand, phoning from New York. “But I began to understand there was a lot I could do with photography that I can’t do with text. My wife and I began collaborating–me doing the photography and she writing the text.”
Exactly how do you sell a tragedy? A handful of entrepreneurs already has figured it out. The Australian fashion chain Quick Brown Fox carries a line of beaded handbags depicting planes crashing into the World Trade Center. One can be yours for about $87.
A downtown office worker was so offended by the smell of a colleague’s spicy lunch, she called security. Now that’s passive aggressive.
Vanilla gets a bad rap. Vanilla ice cream is dismissed as bland. Boring celebrities are put down as vanilla. And let’s not even get into Vanilla Ice. But Coca-Cola hopes to boost the hip factor of the much maligned flavor with its latest soft drink, Vanilla Coke, which debuts today at stores nationwide.
For some of her classmates going to the prom, a gown and flip flops are the way to go. But for Warren Township High School senior Courtney Crump, flat shoes are not an option.
Jeanne Farnan knew she wouldn’t cut corners on photography for her wedding day. “My [husband] and I splurged on the photos because we knew we might not remember everything from our wedding, but the pictures would be forever,” says Farnan, 25, who was married earlier this month. “I remember being a bridesmaid and all the pictures from that wedding looked so posed.” Like many modern brides, Farnan didn’t want her wedding album filled with dated photos that could’ve been taken at her parents’ wedding.
I am a single woman in a room filled with 56 available men. I could not be happier. Well, yes, I could–but there’s not much I legally can do about the 55 other women scoping out my potential dates. Welcome to FastDater, where the rules are simple and the dates are, well, fast. Three minutes, to be exact. “Date” is a misleading word, actually. What we embark on is more a series of get-to-know-ya interviews. Name. Age. Occupation. Buzz! Time to move on to the next interrogator, er, date.
Closets aren’t the only thing to sort through during spring cleaning. How about a little style shake-up to kick off the new season?
Good English food was an oxymoron until the Brits invaded America. Again. While they’re barging through our kitchens this time, we’re not so hot to keep them out. It helps that the latest imports such as Jamie Oliver, that hottie on the Food Network’s “The Naked Chef,” are easy on the eye. These days foodies are raising eyebrows at the sexy star of “Nigella Bites,” the delectable Nigella Lawson. She’s slim with model good looks, and this recent widow is raising a family without complaint or a ladle out of place.
At Brian Eccles’ Final Four party this year, he’ll offer his guests pizza and beer. But don’t look for a platter of crudites anywhere near the buffet table.
Chicago may have been dubbed the second-fattest city in the nation, but we’re moving on down–the scale, that is–thanks to all of you who’ve joined our Chicago Sheds a Ton campaign.