1. Jordache EVERYTHING. 

My best find so far is this amazing sweater:

2. Leather Skirts

Although I have yet to work up enough courage to wear these, I often wistfully pull them out of my closet and try them on.  There will also be a couple of vintage leather pencil skirts at our next sale!

I saw this feature in Lucky Magazine where this chick was wearing an electric blue leather miniskirt with a really conservative lace top, black tights, and black shoes.  I then spent an inordinate amount of time looking for the same skirt (only vintage).  Couldn’t find it in suede, but DID find this sick leather one. 

Even better, it’s from CHIA, which is an amazing leather retailer from the 80′s.   You know those like, red leather suits with ridiculous shoulders that they wore in Dynasty?  Yeah, CHIA whored that shite like no one’s business.

 Although I didn’t get the blue skirt in suede, I did find an amazing yellow one:

Finally, I bought this black one at the VV for like 6 bucks.  Sigh.  What would a chick’s wardrobe be without a black leather pencil skirt?  This one has some amazing snaps on the back slit… because a skin tight leather skirt isn’t suggestive enough:

3.  80′s Band T-Shirts

I. LOVE. THIS. SHIT.

4. Personal Art from the 70′s

This started out kind of weird.  I found this piece of Canadiana artwork at the VV, and thought it was awesome.  When I turned it around, it had an inscription on it from June 4, 1973.  Apparently Frank Vandersteen used to be a Reverend… then someone scratched it out.  Was it Frank?  Did he leave the church or did they chuck him out?  We’ll never know.

Then, I found this freaky craft art owl.  No inscription, but it was  painstakingly made with hundreds of nails and a bunch of thread.  Awesome.

This weekend I discovered the fantashtishe world of novelty moustaches on sticks.  One would think that the novelty moustaches on sticks industry would have exploded by now, especially because of the versatility offered by certain retailers.  For example, who could resist such “novelty moustache on stick” classics as:

THE GREASY ITALIAN ORGAN GRINDER (available in “small head” and “large head” versions):

THE EARLY 1980′S PERVERT:

THE “I JUST-GOT-PUBES”:

THE MID-40′S SINGLE UNCLE:

And, of course, the ever popular HITLER moustache.  For those times that you feel you need to really cross the line at your halloween party:

I’ve also discovered that, if you REALLY become  a successful “novelty moustache on a stick” retailer, you may be able to branch out to other business ventures, such as the “novelty lips on a stick” industry:

And let’s be honest.  Your “novelty moustache on a stick” is really only convincing if you have the lips to match:

…Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.

This is another reason why buying vintage is totally amazing and the solution to ALL your problems ALL the time.  I just started getting into amateur photography (I mean like infant stage… ZYGOTE stage), and I quickly found out two things:

1. When you’re in university and are taking drunk photos, you don’t realize how HORRIBLE flashes make people look (sorry Pam and Karey):

2. It’s really hard to take photos in low-light with no flash:

So, I decided to look into getting a mounted flash or a soft box for taking photos inside with low light.  First, I tried to be all serious about it and looked into getting a package from Henry’s.  However, I’m broke and I’m not very good at photography.  So that lasted about 10 seconds.

To make a longish story shortish, while at the FANTASTIC Goodwill, which I LOVE and which has treated me SO well, I happened upon this siiiickk vintage Smith-Victor hand-held photographer’s flood light.  Although I’m a little weary of vintage electrical safety, I tried this sucker out and it didn’t electrocute me, so I bought it.  FOR FOUR DOLLARS.  I mean, it’s so simple, so robust, still has the original poop-green paint on it… sigh.  Amazing.

Took a bunch of pics with it already and want to make out with it.

Vintage shopping 101:

If you find an item of clothing that is otherwise awesome, but is not EXACTLY what you are looking for, and it’s like $3.99 at Value Village, buy it.  Case and point – these super ball-licking cool vintage orange tab Levi’s jeans, Levi’s 539 jeans, and Lee jeans were so cool… but had the shortest, flood-leggiest legs ever.  I put them on when I got home and it was immediate tree-trunk legs:

So tonight I pulled out the trusty scissors and cut those pegs right off.  Now I have three pairs of HOT high-waisted vintage shorts. 

Suck my balls, stupid over-priced jean short retailers.

I can now say, with reasonable confidence, that I like short shorts.

If it weren’t socially unacceptable, I would gorge myself on delicious food until I looked like a glazed ham with legs.

Unfortunately, it’s not socially acceptable, so I have to settle for a few choice meals here and there to get my fix.  While in NY I had some GREAT food and some mediocre food… overall, a good experience.

So, the first two meals sucked donkey balls… one was from a pub and the other was a gross breakfast at a streetside cafe.  Not even worth mentioning.  HOWEVER, after that things started getting good. 

We went to Pastis on Wednesday night, which was pretty awesome.   I had to push my way through the hoards of celebrities clawing to get in, but once through, it had a fantastic atmosphere that felt authentically French.

I had an arugula salad with eggplant, chickpeas, and feta cheese.  It was yum.

One of the best end-to-end experiences of the trip was at Lil’ Frankie’s Pizza.  I passed by earlier in the day to check that sucker out – it seemed to be a cool place, so I headed there for dinner.  First, I have to say that the waiter rocked my world.  He was nice, SO knowledgeable, and a hottie to boot. 

He told us about the specials with such aplomb… it convinced us to purchase a ball of imported italian buffala mozzerella for TWENTY FIVE dollars.  But it was AWESOME…

The next course for me was a shredded duck ravioli with a tart tomato ragout.  I must say that, although the cheese was really the “king” of the meal, the duck ravioli was surely the “king that usurped the original king’s throne in a complex and dramatic murder plot”.  DEE-lish:

I will say that the meal was really heightened by the super-cool clientele and the weird and mismatched (and often freaky) decor.  Definitely a place I’d recommend.

I was speaking to a vegan friend earlier in the day, and she was gushing about the delicious cakes and pastries at Babycakes in the Lower East Side.  Baked vegan food really intrigues me… so I decided to stop by and try it out.

First, it was a bit tough to find… but once I figured it out, I loved it!  First, the atmosphere was great… wicked interior design concept and really friendly staff.  I asked the guy at the front to recommend something, and we chatted.  After he scolded me for not liking brownies, he recommended the coconut doughnut.  Moist and coconutty and totally delicious.

DOUGHNUT!!!

Finally, I had an AMAZING experience at Ruby’s in Nolita.  First, I walked by earlier in the week, and there was posse of very attractive men chatting out front. 

So already, there was an impetus for me to try it out.  Secondly, they have a surprisingly large menu for a cafe with a kitchen the size of a closet:

Third, the decor was pretty cool.  I kind of want to copy the painting on the wall…

FOURTH, I had the absolutely, positively BEST hamburger I’ve EVER had in my life.  EVER.

FIFTH, we saw NEW YORK PAM!

Hi Long Weekend.  I kind of love you.  Can we make out?

I like old stuff.  Especially old graveyards.  But I’m not weird, I swear.  I’m just fascinated by them.  Luckily, I was able to view and photograph many old graveyards in New York. 

It’s amazing to me that a whole bunch of old graveyards from the 1700s (!) are still completely intact and are like, one meter away from busy four-lane main streets in downtown New York.  The graveyard above was next to a huge cathedral off Broadway in NY - I walked by just as mass was coming out and the bells were deafening… a daunting sountrack to my photography of the gravestones.   Even more fascinating was the pic I took of the junk souvenir stand directly in front of the graveyard gate:

Yeah.  Like, DIRECTLY in front of it.  So weird.

Anyhoo, I also passed by St. Paul’s Chapel, a church right across from ground zero.  The church and the the gravestones were not harmed by the 9/11 attack (so I’m led to believe), and it was surprisingly lush and green… a bit of a haven in the middle of a very crazy area. 

Finally, probably the most interesting graveyard I found was elevated next to some project housing just East of the Financial District. 

Not sure if you can see it in the picture… but through the gate is the graveyard… underneath the graveyard (next to the painted wall) is a playground, and right next to the graveyard is an apartment building (see below).  Imagine looking out your apartment window at night and seeing a whole bunch of old gravestones??  Freaky-Deeky.  But fascinating.

Awwwww yeah, suckas.  That’s Christina Aguileira.. or Aguilerra… or whatever.  That chick. 

While being a coolness superstar in Soho, NY this weekend, I happened upon a (TOTALLY inconspicuous) stretch limosine waiting in front of some store.   Since I figured it was either going to be someone cool or someone about to crumble, I waited with the rest of the Paparazzi.  Turns out it was neither.  Aguileeirrra is clearly clinging to whatever fame she has left while trying to recreate herself as Lagy Gaga v 2.0. 

The ìnconspicuous limosine was there to carry her young child, her kabillionaire husband, and apparently perm-addicted assistant shopping.  Hey, that’s cool.  I will say that the limo probably wasn’t really the best choice to avoid the paparazzi.  Additionally, putting her child in the limosine child-seat was a bit awkward.  I don’t really think they make a line of child-seats for wraparound leather limosine seats with built-in bum warmers.

Note that having millions of dollars does not prevent your assistant from having horribly-fitting capri pants.

Please don’t judge me for exploiting Christina and her young child.  The whole experience helped me become thoroughly disgusted with celebrities, their grotesque attempts at “pre-scheduled” candid appearances… and made NEVER want to be famous… take a look at what it looked like from her end (kinda):