part four: the winter white party
for the second week in a row, it begins and it ends with jealousy. and this week, it shows. i suppose the story starts back last thursday, but first a dream: this morning, i had the most metaphysical dreams i've had in quite some time as i found myself begging my intern for sex. now, let's be completely clear. on like EIGHT different levels i find myself repelled if not disgusted by my somewhat typical college intern. with red hair and the slurred speech of the typical "cool kid," i mostly find myself making conversation with this intern to find out where NOT to go downtown and what NOT to see at the movie theatre and occassionally just the opposite since attending a college downtown and coming from a family with money -- the mother of this intern is a direct report to one of our VP's and the father is some sort of money manager or something -- makes this intern relatively in the know when it comes to things like what's happening after a playoff game or what bar do all of the college kids go to. well, the past couple of weeks, this intern has tried changing the hair and i gave advice and that was that. also, i learned that my intern would not be my intern soon. budget cuts. now, let's be clear. i have never liked people younger than me. i have never liked people stick-thin. i have never liked people who look like my intern PERIOD. so i don't know what sort of emotional cocktail lead me to have a dream about this intern, but in the dream: we were somewhere where people had the abilities with relative ease (think the film supernova) to just endow themselve with better looks and enhanced musclulatures and my intern not only used this power to transform a teenage face into a mature one -- think bruce weber for abercrombie and fitch -- but to transform a scronny frame the same height as mine but forty pounds lighter into one plump with the sex i've not experienced in quite some time. and with this newly beautiful body, we lay together remarking how inconsequential sex really is and why shouldn't we just enjoy ourselves if this is all just fake. while getting turned away, we pursued this line until i awoke.
now, for those who don't know, my recent successes have allowed me to live the flush life i had once enjoyed before the economy had turned this far southward and i've found myself doing those things which i've always experience with my move downtown and have finally found the means to execute them almost fully. yes, i still need a mercedes benz, but let's leave that aside for now. so last thursday, i received word that the young professionals planned a winter white party at vintage and since the last one at push wnet so well last year, i decided to get my colleague to fill in for me and i went shopping for my perfect "winter white" outfit which, in a particular irony, composed itself of a white ralph lauren shirt iwth yellow stripes and a white blazer. as i drove home, my high school friend who's a lawyer sent a text message to me informing me that she's too drunk to drive and swilling wine at bella brava. so i asked if she needed me to pick her up to go to the winter white party, but gladly she didn't because as i walked up the stairs i noticed that every light in the entire complex found itself lit except for those in my apartment and when i walked inside, i found that my power had gone out. yes. this is how my week of excess begins. in the gutter. so i change clothes by the light of my cell phone and manage to meet up with my friend at bella brava looking as flawless as if i had changed in a home with full light and when i met her, she had finished her last cocktail with a few of her old (and older) firm buddies and suddenly found the wherewithal to drive to vintage and we did and while we had a great time, i embarrassed myself by thinking that someone i knew, who i met years ago at one of these functions, stood as the president of the zodiac group to whom i find myself wildly attracted for a number of reasons. anyway. the event was a dud and after an hour or two of carousing with the up-and-comers, my friend begged me to come to dinner with her at bangkok thai. yeah. when i tried to invite along the new membership chair who actually looks quite good, she scoffed and said, "why are you inviting other people to our dinner?!" and i thought to myself that we may have an issue because this social event should in no way find itself construed to a date and exclusionary in any way. so we went to bangkok thai and she commented that she felt out of place since the diners at bangkok thai looked like the drinkers at the only bar in town. well, i noticed one particularly discordant diner at the front booth and then we sat down and ordered. well. moments later, the stockbroker walks up to our table all jovial and handsomer and i jump up and reach out with a screaming hug. yeah, that character in the first booth apparently and the stockbroker had gone out to dinner together. so after that, i guess it became clear to my high school friend that the dinner between us meant no more than just dinner. so after dinner, i went home and remember that i didn't have power so i went over to the p.r. girl's house. we drank a little and then went to the bar in a flurry or electric drunken energy and i looked good, felt good, danced good, floated through the crowd and i saw my old irish friend and within minutes i had re-connected with a deposed -- now hung -- middle-eastern dictator. we chatted and chatted and kissed and all the chemistry that we had years ago came flowing back. at least, for a moment. after that, i somehow got home and i paid my electric bill at the p.r. girl's house and went home and went to sleep with my lights on.
on friday, i stuffed my face with sushi in the morning and then i went to z grille to lunch with the hot latin sales assistant. yes. i've had this theory for a while. but whores give a scent. and they pick up people far hotter and with greater frequency although they look no better than the rest of us. yeah. after seeing the stockbroker with someone else who i found inferior yet again, i found myself emboldened in a particular way to interact with people in a way that normally never happens. yeah so we had this langorously long lunch and then got a coffee afterward for which the hot latin sales assistant paid. now, when we walked down the street together, the hot latin sales assistant having gained a few pounds and i having lost a few and in my designer label-whoring best looked like a super-stereotypical ideal of a couple.
Here is your single's love horoscope
for Friday, January 23:
Your burning desire to say or do something trumps your own good judgment. Burning emotions don't justify ugly words and mean actions. If you're angry with someone, spit it out. Honesty is the best way to clear the air now.
on friday night, i did nothing except gab on the phone with everyone including rob who has somehow wandered into the ex-file.
on saturday, i worked all day and then i treated myself out to a dessert at park shore grille which was super amazing and then i went over to the p.r. girls for a couple of bottles of champagne and good times because i discovered on friday that the deposed middle eastern dictator -- now hung -- sent me a text message at 2:16 AM the night before. oh yeah. booty call. missed booty call, that is.
on sunday, i worked and afterward i went to red mesa cantina served the most delicious swordfish i've ever had and the most horrible pinot grigio. of course not. and then on monday, did i got to work? of course i didn't. i did pick up the exsomeone from the airport though and that ended in an expected way. and then on tuesday, i went to work and found myself under immense stress even as the new president found himself inaugurated. that's when i called the exsomeone to announce that i didn't win the salesperson of the quarter. wednesday, we had a major deadline and i blew it, but it's the economy, stupid. i called the stockbroker that day over something even more retarded. i don't even know why. and then i called on thursday and got sent to e-mail without answer and decided i need to meet someone new. i did nothing on friday night as i should have. last night, i went to bella brava after work and then went to the the only bar in town where i had a massive punk out with one of my regular shoppers who i really wished i could have had the chutzpah to talk to but didn't. i regret that. but hey, i got a good life. i've bought one painting. i'm on my way to buy this amatuer piece from redbutton.com
now, onto my silent and ongoing political rant. first, how ironic is it that we've replaced the jackie o. with the michelle o. and that my mother's name is a variant of the first and my sister's is a varient of the latter. and can we talk about her inaguaral outfits and how they tied in to what i wore to the white party? okay. finally, seeing the few appointments to the cabinet really made me realize again (which says alot because since when has the american people been THIS invested in the minuteae of the administration as to have opinions on each and every cabinet appointment) that the importance of a diverse cabinet comes in the way they are able to influence policy by wielding the power of their departments. they don't have to get executive orders or laws passed, but they can influence both and run their departments in such a way that issues get forwarded without the president having to take the political heat. but aside from that, i found it interesting (even as i watched "prayers for bobby" tonight) how the three different prayer leaders prayed.
The Biology of Dating: Why Him, Why Her?
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/time/hl_time/storytext/08599187611300/30790898/SIG=12spht1md/*http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1876113,00.html?xid=rss-fullhealthsci-yahoo
Mon Feb 2, 4:20 pm ET
Ah, the eternal question: Why is he with her? Biological anthropologist Helen Fisher thinks she has found the answer after studying academic literature on personality and poring over 40,000 responses to a questionnaire on a dating website. A Rutgers professor and paid adviser for Chemistry.com, Fisher not only believes in romantic chemistry but is zeroing in on specific chemicals. She spoke with TIME about her latest book, Why Him, Why Her: Finding Real Love by Understanding Your Personality Type. (See pictures of the 20th century's greatest romances.)
A lot of things influence who we're attracted to, but one thing that has always puzzled scientists is the role that personality plays in mate selection. Have you solved that riddle?
There are two parts of personality. There's character, which is everything you grew up to believe and do and think. And then there's temperament, which is your inherited traits. Some people are more stubborn than others, some are more curious, some are more aggressive. What I'm trying to do is add the role of biology, of temperament, to our human understanding of love. (See pictures of other species in love.)
You basically break people down into four broad temperaments, each associated with certain brain chemicals.
There was a great deal of data that people vary in terms of their expression of dopamine and norepinephrine, serotonin, estrogen and oxytocin and testosterone. I culled from the academic literature all of those data points that show that these particular brain-chemical systems are related to certain aspects of personality. And I saw constellations of temperament traits that seemed to be associated with these chemicals.
What are the four types?
People who express dopamine - I call them Explorers - tend to be risk-taking, curious, creative, impulsive, optimistic and energetic. The traits associated with the serotonin system express themselves in what I call Builders. They're cautious but not fearful, calm, traditional, community-oriented, persistent and loyal. Directors have traits associated with activity in the testosterone system. These people tend to be very analytical, decisive, tough-minded; they like to debate and can be aggressive. The fourth type is the Negotiator. Men or women who express activity in the estrogen system tend to be broadminded imaginative, compassionate, intuitive, verbal, nurturing, altruistic and idealistic.
How did you choose the four types and ascertain who they like?
They emerged out of the genetic literature. I didn't impose them. I read the literature, and I found them. And then I developed the questionnaire to make sure these people did express these four [types of temperament] and expressed them in these ways. That study was done on 40,000 people. And then on the dating site Chemistry.com, I watched who gravitated to whom. (Read about the effects of romantic movies.)
Could you actually test people for these chemicals?
We're doing that study right now at Pacific University [in Oregon]. It's taken us longer than we expected, and the problem is that it's a college population. We can get participants, but they're taking Ritalin or Wellbutrin or Prozac or anabolic steroids, or they're taking birth control pills or they're taking cocaine, or something which alters their brain chemistry. Science is not easy.
Is it possible that you could have a blood test and know what kind of partner you should look for?
It's possible. Remember with mate selection that timing is important and proximity is important. And don't forget your childhood plays a role. Let's say you're an Explorer type who grew up with Explorer parents who were just so nutty that you were constantly holding on to your high chair. Then in your college and early 20s, you went out with people who were risk-taking and novelty seekers, curious and creative like yourself and had some bad experiences. You might turn to a nice, solid, loyal, conscientious family-oriented Builder to have your babies. Even though it might not normally be the most natural type for you.
So you can use your system to see who you might be drawn to and seek them out?
There are other things too. When you're going out on a date, if you understand your primary type and the type of person you're going out with, you can better reach them and create more intimacy with them. Because the four types define intimacy differently and look for different things in a partner. They even use different words. In one of my studies on Chemistry.com, I looked at what words people used and, sure enough, the four primary types used very different kinds of words. If you use the words that ring true to this person's temperament type, with your lover or even your children or your lover's parents, and behave in ways that click with this temperament type, you can reach people more effectively.
If we're to some extent directed toward certain people by our neurochemicals, does that mean if we take Ritalin or Prozac or are on the Pill that we're likely to make bad dating decisions?
Yeah, that's a problem. You're going to marry a different kind of person. As long as you stay on the drugs, it might be O.K. What I'd do is get off drugs before you fall in love - and marry the person after that very early intense stage of love has worn off. I've always maintained that it's adaptive to marry after that stage. I think all over the world people are doing this, because they're living with their partners and even having children first.
Explorers are drawn to Explorers, Builders are drawn to Builders, and Negotiators and Directors are drawn to each other. But what if you're already married? Is your study useful then?
Yes. You can understand where the pitfalls are going to be and how to avoid them. In a long relationship, you have to pick your battles. There are some you're just never going to win. And there are others you'll win more effectively if you profoundly understand who your partner is.
According to your theory, I'm an Explorer-Director married to a Negotiator-Explorer. Is there any hope?
How long have you been married?
Eighteen years.
Do you have any children?
Two.
Well, from a Darwinian perspective, you've already won.
Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
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January 20, 2009
Gene Robinson's Invocation at the Inauguration's Opening Ceremony
Following is the text of the invocation given by Bishop V. Gene Robinson at the opening ceremonies of President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration Sunday, January 18th. Robinson delivered the prayer at the base of the Lincoln Memorial facing a crowd nearly a million people strong that filled a stretch of the National Mall all the way to the base of the Washington Monument.
Good afternoon,
Before this celebration begins, please join me in pausing for a moment to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.
Oh God of our many understandings, we pray that you will bless us with tears, tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women in many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die a day from malnutrition, malaria and AIDS.
Bless this nation with anger - anger at discrimination at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants; women, people of color; gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort at the easy simplistic answers we prefer to hear from our politicians instead of the truth about ourselves and our world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.
Bless us with patience and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be fixed any time soon and the understanding that our next president is a human being, not a messiah. Bless us with humility, open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.
Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance, replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences.
Bless us with compassion and generosity, remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the ways we care for the most vulnerable. And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office fo the president of the United States. Give him wisdom beyond his years, inspire him with President Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for all people.
Give him a quiet heart, for our ship of state needs a steady calm captain. Give him stirring words, we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.
Make him color blind reminding him of his own words that under his leadership there will be neither red nor blue states but a United States. Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.
Give him strength to find family time and privacy and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods. And please God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents and we’re asking far too much of this one, we implore you oh good and great God to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand that he might do the work that we have called him to do. That he might find joy in this impossible calling and that, in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.
Amen.
(Advocate.com)
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Text of Rev. Lowery's inauguration benediction
By The Associated Press - 6 hours ago
Text of the benediction by Rev. Joseph Lowery during President Barack Obama's inauguration, as transcribed by CQ Transcriptions:
___
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou, who has brought us thus far along the way, thou, who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path we pray, lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee, lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee.
Shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand true to thee, oh God, and true to our native land.
We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we've shared this day.
We pray now, oh Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family and his administration.
He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national, and indeed the global, fiscal climate. But because we know you got the whole world in your hands, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations.
Our faith does not shrink though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.
For we know that, Lord, you are able and you're willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds, and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor, of the least of these, and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these.
We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that yes we can work together to achieve a more perfect union.
And while we have sown the seeds of greed - the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.
And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.
And as we leave this mountain top, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will.
Bless President Barack, First Lady Michelle. Look over our little angelic Sasha and Malia.
We go now to walk together as children, pledging that we won't get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone.
With your hands of power and your heart of love, help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nations shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid, when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around ... when yellow will be mellow ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.
Hosted by Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
WorldNetDaily
Rick Warren's prayer
'I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life ...'
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Posted: January 20, 2009
2:07 pm Eastern
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WorldNetDaily
Transcript of presidential inauguration prayer by Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, Calif.
Almighty God, our Father, everything we see, and everything we can't see, exists because of you alone.
It all comes from you, it all belongs to you, it all exists for your glory.
History is your story.
The Scripture tells us, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one." And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.
Now today, we rejoice not only in America's peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time, we celebrate a hinge point of history with the inauguration of our first African-American president of the United States.
We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven.
Give to our new president, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity.
Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the Cabinet and every one of our freely elected leaders.
Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.
When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us.
When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us.
When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us.
And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches and civility in our attitudes - even when we differ.
Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all.
May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy, and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet.
And may we never forget that one day, all nations, and all people, will stand accountable before you.
We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.
I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life - Yeshua, Isa, Jesus, [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus - who taught us to pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
Calvin Klein
June 24, 2008
The season may be Spring 2009, but 2008 is an Olympic year, and this time around Italo Zucchelli offered his most comprehensive analysis yet of American sportswear. The Stars and Stripes even made an appearance, subtly embossed on tops. The sporting element was literalized in echoes of baseball and fencing (padded blousons and britches) and the use of athletic fabrics: gray jersey, cotton perforated like Airtex, a high-performance bonded paper. Paper? Yep, Zucchelli’s fabric experimentation came up with something that looked like leather but was actually superstrong paper. Turn it into a tee, pair it with chambray jeans, and you had the Zucchelli pitch in a nutshell: emblematic sportswear items transmuted for the future.
Same with the tailoring he has focused so tightly on since he came to Klein. Suits had a slightly boxier-or more generous-feel, but he whacked them with a hit of fluoro color so intense the audience actually gasped. It was an early sixties vision of the future-Mad Men Go to Mars-an impression that was helped along by Chet Baker on the soundtrack. As a European, Zucchelli’s perspective on emblems of Americana is inevitably slightly distanced, ironic even. Hence the models' styling: silvery, swept-back hair, glassy blue eyes. In them, Zucchelli saw otherworldly athletic perfection.
- Tim Blanks
Kris Van Assche
June 27, 2008
If consistency is a virtue, then Kris Van Assche is guaranteed a place in heaven, so true to his original vision does he remain. For a retiring lad from damp, chilly Antwerp, he’s mightily obsessed with hot Latin blood. “Amor o muerte”: That was the key to his latest collection, though quite how it was supposed to play out in the clothes was obtuse. As usual, the man he imagined was an incongruous cross-generational hybrid: an Old World gent who’d sit around in the plaza with garters on his shirtsleeves and a rose in his buttonhole, and a barrio boy-high-tops, baggy shorts, waistband slung low. A hybrid vibe underpinned outfits like a gray suit with cargo shorts for pants, an athletic top with cable stitching, and a tuxedo jacket with a waistcoat back.
This marriage of the formal and the casual is something Van Assche has been trying to broker since he launched his own label, but it wasn’t completely successful this time around, possibly because the mix is still coming across as crisp and proper as communion wear. (The designer is a dry cleaner’s dream.) Van Assche's recent guest editorship of the worth-tracking-down Antwerp biannual A Magazine spotlit his appreciation of the sheerly physical, as did his finale here of bare-chested boys in "formal" activewear. He needs more of that looseness, less of the prissy poetry.
- Tim Blanks
Bottega Veneta
January 18, 2009
Tomas Maier's response to hard reality was to go soft. He had the comfort factor of a cardigan in mind ("Not an actual cardigan, but that attitude," he was quick to point out) while he was putting together Bottega Veneta's Fall collection. So knits were the foundation, in everything from the obvious (sweaters and such) to the add-ons (a cashmere bow tie?). Fabrics washed to give them a gently worn character are a Maier signature, but here the suedes, velvets, and cashmeres attained a reassuring feel-good fuzz, peaking with a plush teddy-bear topcoat in shearling. Wrap yourself in that when your world is crumbling, and the blue meanies will surely just fade away.
Maier shaded his soft parade with a gentle palette of chocolate, mocha, and gray. There were tasseled loafers, but they looked positively aggressive beside the desert boots that seemed more appropriate to the mood of the collection. Likewise, the croc satchel versus the big old hobo bag. Maier also trimmed away the volumes that have distinguished recent Bottega collections. If those proportions evoked Hollywood he-men of yore, the caressingly trim new silhouette was a kinder, gentler proposition, even if-perish the thought-it bordered on the bland. To couch the transition in cinematic terms (always a pleasure with a Bottega show), if it was Chaplin we saw on Maier's catwalk a while ago, this time around you could stick a porkpie hat on the model wearing a shrunken herringbone blazer and pants and-presto!-you were looking at Buster Keaton.
- Tim Blanks
Versace
January 19, 2009
The wraparound screens at the Teatro Versace played footage of collapsing ice shelves. Such harbingers of environmental catastrophe could have been Donatella's way of saying she was hip to the apocalypse trip. Or they may simply have been an introduction to the Fall show's opening passage of winter white. A coat, a suit, a sweater passed by in a snowy flurry. A later group of blues-all shades, from an ocean-blue fur-lined parka to an aqua leather blouson-could equally have referred back to that video footage. Or maybe they were just using blue as a perfect partner for white.
We'll never know the truth, but what we can say is that blue and white defined the character of the new Versace collection to the point that the appearance of a camel leather jacket or a cherry-red blouson felt…odd (although perhaps not as odd as the fur stoles that decked a couple of models at show's end). Coats are the big story in Milan for Fall 2009, and Donatella showed some doozies: a half-belted gray tweed topcoat, a glazed trench, a bathrobe wrap. They were standouts in a collection that otherwise felt like it was treading water-possibly in the frigid sea depicted on the screens above our heads.
- Tim Blanks
Salvatore Ferragamo
January 18, 2009
The Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi's work has a luminous stillness that would admirably suit itself to the work of a few fashion designers I can think of. Unfortunately, Massimiliano Giornetti isn't one of them. Although he felt Hammershøi's pictures invoked the "intimate luxury" he was seeking in his clothes for Ferragamo, Giornetti's fatal flaw was a commitment to "everything on the same level." Gym and opera house, track pants and tux-the mix created a collection where coherence flew out the window.
And form scarcely even followed function in its pursuit of luxury. Leather track pants? Well, they weren't destined for a workout. Nor was the angora hoodie. There was a distinctly Mitteleuropean bourgeois vibe in the cape paired with rust velvet pants or the fur-collared blue velvet jacket. You might maybe even include the fedora-topped double-breasted suit in a cream felted wool in that group. Telling, perhaps, that the most successful outfit in Giornetti's Fall collection was an unconstructed double-breasted navy jacket and baggy cream pants. It made for a smart summer look.
- Tim Blanks
Isabel and Ruben Toledo
A Marriage of Art and Fashion
http://dept.kent.edu/museum/exhibit/toledo/Toledo1.htm
Broadbent Gallery
March 15 - October 8, 2000
Mull & Paige Palmer Galleries
March 15 - October 8, 2000
Anne Bissonnette
Curator
Enter Isabel and Ruben Toledo's world and find two highly talented individuals working in synergy. Muse to her husband's sculpture, painting and illustration, Isabel Toledo conceives of shapes and structures to clothe the human body. Complementarily, Ruben Toledo's surreal view of life brings humor and unconventionality to her industrial world.
Born in Cuba one year apart from each other, Isabel and Ruben met while attending high school in New Jersey. They married soon afterwards, and entered the New York fashion world almost immediately. Strongly anchored in Cuban culture yet highly individualistic, both approach their craft with passion. From her American upbringing, Isabel gained an appreciation of machinery, practicality and comfort while retaining a love for traditional elegance. Ruben's irrational, instinctive approach to art fused with American popular culture, exploding in playful, incisive and intensely surreal observations on fashion, beauty and life.
After decades of mutually inspired creative endeavor, the couple refuses to be categorized or assimilated by the establishment. An idiosyncratic figure in the American and European fashion world, Isabel stopped presenting bi-annual collections in 1998 after twelve years of intense production. Today she creates at her own pace, testing the results until they meet her standards of excellence, and furthering her investigations into concepts close to her heart. Effortless at first glance, her garments are actually painstakingly engineered to be fluid and comfortable and to feel familiar. Even the elaborate spinning helixes, suspended shapes and geometrical constructions are anchored with both pragmatism and poetry. A multi-faceted artist, Ruben Toledo is the master of several media. His best-known work delights in the absurdity, audacity and charisma of the fashion world. Unlike many illustrators, he adds wit and perspective to the representation of the human figure.
Entwined in the same universe but respecting their separate talents, Isabel and Ruben Toledo draw sustenance from each other's abilities, strengths and esthetic beliefs. Freedom of thought is their common ground.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-fea-fashion-obamas,1,7972787.story
Michelle Obama's Inauguration Day 'lemongrass' ensemble by Isabel Toledo a style-watcher hit
By SAMANTHA CRITCHELL
AP Fashion Writer
3:16 PM PST, January 20, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) - First lady Michelle Obama wore a sparkling yellow sheath dress with matching coat by Cuban-born American designer Isabel Toledo for the inauguration of her husband, a choice many applauded as a cheerful message of hope and a vote for the American fashion industry.
In some light, the embellished ensemble took on a pale greenish cast, coordinating nicely with green gloves from J. Crew and Jimmy Choo green patent pumps.
President Barack Obama wore a red tie and white shirt with his suit, topped with an overcoat adorned with an American flag pin.
Their daughters were style icons in their own right, with 10-year-old Malia in a double-breasted periwinkle-blue coat with a blue-ribbon bow at the waist, and Sasha, 7, in a pink coat with orange scarf and satin belt, a coral-colored dress peeking out at the hem. Their coats were from Crewcuts by J. Crew.
The fashion industry has anxiously looked to the election of Obama for months, embracing his wife as an emblem and ambassador of modern style, who wears clothes from young designers as well as mainstream American retailers.
Toledo, who had a short stint at Anne Klein but is considered relatively avante garde, is exactly the kind of designer Obama gravitates toward.
"There is nothing that comes close to this moment," Toledo said, speaking in New York. "It's not just my moment and hers, but it's the world's...It's not only what she's wearing. It's what the moment represents."
Toledo designed the outfit with hopes Obama would choose it for the ceremony, though Toledo did not know for certain until Tuesday morning. Toledo said the coat is made of wool lace in a silk net, with a silk radzimir underneath and a layer of pashmina for warmth. Obama also wore a cardigan with the matching dress, and a jewel-like embellishment at her neckline.
Toledo said she chose the "lemongrass" color for the optimism it represents.
"I didn't want a traditional blue or red," she said. "That color has sunshine in it. I fell in love with it. So did she."
That unusual shade of yellow "really popped" on Michelle Obama's complexion, said fashion designer Kai Milla, wife of Stevie Wonder and an invited guest to the swearing-in ceremony.
"What I recognized more than anything from our new first lady and Hillary (Clinton) and everyone else is that everyone was fresh," she said.
The overall look was largely a hit.
"She's off to an auspicious start," said Hamish Bowles, Vogue magazine's European editor at large who curated the Metropolitan Museum Costume Insitute exhibit on Jackie Kennedy in 2001.
"Mrs. Obama's choice today was appropriate, dignified and elegant but it also had a considerable element of fashion panache," he added. "She's finding great American talent."
She also connects with American women.
"What's so powerful about Michelle Obama is we all see ourselves in her. She's a modern woman who is fashionable and even flamboyant in her style and she is still taken seriously," said red-carpet and magazine stylist Mary Alice Stephenson. "She's wearing that dress today for all of us."
The Obamas' look Tuesday contrasted with that of the outgoing Bushes, with Laura Bush in a dove-gray skirt suit and matching coat.
On the podium with the Obamas, Vice President Joe Biden wore a navy Hickey Freeman suit he bought at the Nordstrom's in King of Prussia, Pa., paired with a blue tie, while his wife, Jill Biden, had on a bright red coat over a houndstooth dress by Milly and high black leather boots.
Also catching style-watchers' eyes: Aretha Franklin singing to the immense crowd gathered at the Capitol in an over-the-top hat with an oversized bow and beading.
"Aretha is a larger than life personality, why shouldn't she wear a larger than life hat?" said Nicole Phelps, executive editor of Style.com.
Yet, she added, the gray color of Franklin's hat was an attempt to yield the spotlight. "The fact that it was gray to match her outfit can be seen as an acknowledgment that it's the Obamas' day, not Aretha's, i.e., she's a star but she wasn't THE star today."
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Associated Press Writer Megan K. Scott in New York contributed to this report.
http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-ig-ny-michellewatch0119,0,5124760.story?track=rss
From Newsday
Who's Jason Wu? The designer of Michelle Obama's gown
BY ANNE BRATSKEIR
Special to Newsday
9:58 AM PST, January 21, 2009
"First of all, how good-looking is my wife?" asked President Barack Obama at the first of 10 official inaugural balls, as Michelle Obama revealed her second blockbuster outfit of the day: a white chiffon one-shoulder gown by Jason Wu.
The dress, with a strap across one shoulder, ruched bodice, fluffy appliqués and sparkling beading, will (as tradition dictates) be donated to the Smithsonian.
>>Photos of Michelle Obama
Wu, 26, who was born in Taiwan and works in Manhattan, has been compared to Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera. But that Park Avenue sensibility is often tempered with a touch of youthful whimsy.
Not everyone loved it.
"It's an inauguration, not a prom," fashion personality and stylist Robert Verdi said. "I was expecting a different silhouette like a halter -- and color. Nancy Reagan wore a one-shouldered Galanos, Laura Bush wore white and of course, Jackie Kennedy wore it. Wearing white is the historic route and I thought she'd do something different."
Oprah magazine creative director Adam Glassman disagreed. "I love that she's wearing white," he said. "It's about optimism and a new start and a fresh moment; she's the bride of the evening. I think she looks modern, youthful and fresh, and I'm happy she kept her hair the way she wears it, instead of some updo."
>>Photos of the inaugural balls
The new first lady put the fashion world on notice from the very beginning Tuesday: Expect the unexpected.
Odds were that her Inauguration Day outfit would come from any one of America's new fashion darlings like Thakoon or Wu, or an African-American designer such as Tracy Reese or perhaps her local favorite, Chicago designer Maria Pinto. Instead, she went with Isabel Toledo, a veteran Cuban-born designer based in New York who is known for her creativity and beautifully structured lines.
The jewel-collared, pale yellow-gold lace coat, sweater and sheath dress ensemble featured a clever hidden layer of pashmina and to help the first lady stave off the cold. Obama accessorized with green Jimmy Choo shoes and green gloves from J. Crew.
Toledo, who only learned that Obama would wear her design early Tuesday morning, told The Associated Press, "It's not just my moment and hers, but it's the world's." She said she chose the "lemongrass" color of the outfit for the optimism it represents, fitting as the Obama campaign based it's message on hope and optimism.
"That color has sunshine in it," she said.
Many applauded the choice. "I think Isabel did a brilliant job," said Simon Doonan, of Barney's New York. The famously imaginative creative director spent the day changing three windows of the Madison Avenue flagship store to honor the designer. "It's about formality, appropriateness and history," Doonan said. "The dress was regal and appropriate."
"I thought she looked beautiful," said Glassman. "With just that touch of embellishment, I think it came across as being special without being too royal. It was not like she was wearing the crown jewels."
And he liked the way she wore it. "She looks pulled together and chic, but not scary fashionista. She wears it real, and you see her first; you're not looking at the outfit."
As for the new president, he looked presidential in a dark suit, red tie and white shirt, topped by an overcoat adorned with an American flag pin.
At least one fashion type gave Jill Biden a big thumbs up for her red coat, houndstooth sheath by Milly and black boots. "She looked snazzy and contemporary, kind of like a modern-day Nancy Sinatra," said Verdi. He was less keen on the first lady's look. "I'm sure the outfit was pretty in person, but it photographed sallow. . . . I like colors . . . you can assign a name to."
That said, others were happy with the pick and what it means for American fashion. "I think the choice of Isabel Toledo is inspired and (Obama) continues to be adventurous in her choices," says Constance White, eBay's fashion director. "This will be a great contribution to American fashion, because she will be broadcasting American talent around the world."
now, for those who don't know, my recent successes have allowed me to live the flush life i had once enjoyed before the economy had turned this far southward and i've found myself doing those things which i've always experience with my move downtown and have finally found the means to execute them almost fully. yes, i still need a mercedes benz, but let's leave that aside for now. so last thursday, i received word that the young professionals planned a winter white party at vintage and since the last one at push wnet so well last year, i decided to get my colleague to fill in for me and i went shopping for my perfect "winter white" outfit which, in a particular irony, composed itself of a white ralph lauren shirt iwth yellow stripes and a white blazer. as i drove home, my high school friend who's a lawyer sent a text message to me informing me that she's too drunk to drive and swilling wine at bella brava. so i asked if she needed me to pick her up to go to the winter white party, but gladly she didn't because as i walked up the stairs i noticed that every light in the entire complex found itself lit except for those in my apartment and when i walked inside, i found that my power had gone out. yes. this is how my week of excess begins. in the gutter. so i change clothes by the light of my cell phone and manage to meet up with my friend at bella brava looking as flawless as if i had changed in a home with full light and when i met her, she had finished her last cocktail with a few of her old (and older) firm buddies and suddenly found the wherewithal to drive to vintage and we did and while we had a great time, i embarrassed myself by thinking that someone i knew, who i met years ago at one of these functions, stood as the president of the zodiac group to whom i find myself wildly attracted for a number of reasons. anyway. the event was a dud and after an hour or two of carousing with the up-and-comers, my friend begged me to come to dinner with her at bangkok thai. yeah. when i tried to invite along the new membership chair who actually looks quite good, she scoffed and said, "why are you inviting other people to our dinner?!" and i thought to myself that we may have an issue because this social event should in no way find itself construed to a date and exclusionary in any way. so we went to bangkok thai and she commented that she felt out of place since the diners at bangkok thai looked like the drinkers at the only bar in town. well, i noticed one particularly discordant diner at the front booth and then we sat down and ordered. well. moments later, the stockbroker walks up to our table all jovial and handsomer and i jump up and reach out with a screaming hug. yeah, that character in the first booth apparently and the stockbroker had gone out to dinner together. so after that, i guess it became clear to my high school friend that the dinner between us meant no more than just dinner. so after dinner, i went home and remember that i didn't have power so i went over to the p.r. girl's house. we drank a little and then went to the bar in a flurry or electric drunken energy and i looked good, felt good, danced good, floated through the crowd and i saw my old irish friend and within minutes i had re-connected with a deposed -- now hung -- middle-eastern dictator. we chatted and chatted and kissed and all the chemistry that we had years ago came flowing back. at least, for a moment. after that, i somehow got home and i paid my electric bill at the p.r. girl's house and went home and went to sleep with my lights on.
on friday, i stuffed my face with sushi in the morning and then i went to z grille to lunch with the hot latin sales assistant. yes. i've had this theory for a while. but whores give a scent. and they pick up people far hotter and with greater frequency although they look no better than the rest of us. yeah. after seeing the stockbroker with someone else who i found inferior yet again, i found myself emboldened in a particular way to interact with people in a way that normally never happens. yeah so we had this langorously long lunch and then got a coffee afterward for which the hot latin sales assistant paid. now, when we walked down the street together, the hot latin sales assistant having gained a few pounds and i having lost a few and in my designer label-whoring best looked like a super-stereotypical ideal of a couple.
Here is your single's love horoscope
for Friday, January 23:
Your burning desire to say or do something trumps your own good judgment. Burning emotions don't justify ugly words and mean actions. If you're angry with someone, spit it out. Honesty is the best way to clear the air now.
on friday night, i did nothing except gab on the phone with everyone including rob who has somehow wandered into the ex-file.
on saturday, i worked all day and then i treated myself out to a dessert at park shore grille which was super amazing and then i went over to the p.r. girls for a couple of bottles of champagne and good times because i discovered on friday that the deposed middle eastern dictator -- now hung -- sent me a text message at 2:16 AM the night before. oh yeah. booty call. missed booty call, that is.
on sunday, i worked and afterward i went to red mesa cantina served the most delicious swordfish i've ever had and the most horrible pinot grigio. of course not. and then on monday, did i got to work? of course i didn't. i did pick up the exsomeone from the airport though and that ended in an expected way. and then on tuesday, i went to work and found myself under immense stress even as the new president found himself inaugurated. that's when i called the exsomeone to announce that i didn't win the salesperson of the quarter. wednesday, we had a major deadline and i blew it, but it's the economy, stupid. i called the stockbroker that day over something even more retarded. i don't even know why. and then i called on thursday and got sent to e-mail without answer and decided i need to meet someone new. i did nothing on friday night as i should have. last night, i went to bella brava after work and then went to the the only bar in town where i had a massive punk out with one of my regular shoppers who i really wished i could have had the chutzpah to talk to but didn't. i regret that. but hey, i got a good life. i've bought one painting. i'm on my way to buy this amatuer piece from redbutton.com
now, onto my silent and ongoing political rant. first, how ironic is it that we've replaced the jackie o. with the michelle o. and that my mother's name is a variant of the first and my sister's is a varient of the latter. and can we talk about her inaguaral outfits and how they tied in to what i wore to the white party? okay. finally, seeing the few appointments to the cabinet really made me realize again (which says alot because since when has the american people been THIS invested in the minuteae of the administration as to have opinions on each and every cabinet appointment) that the importance of a diverse cabinet comes in the way they are able to influence policy by wielding the power of their departments. they don't have to get executive orders or laws passed, but they can influence both and run their departments in such a way that issues get forwarded without the president having to take the political heat. but aside from that, i found it interesting (even as i watched "prayers for bobby" tonight) how the three different prayer leaders prayed.
The Biology of Dating: Why Him, Why Her?
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/time/hl_time/storytext/08599187611300/30790898/SIG=12spht1md/*http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1876113,00.html?xid=rss-fullhealthsci-yahoo
Mon Feb 2, 4:20 pm ET
Ah, the eternal question: Why is he with her? Biological anthropologist Helen Fisher thinks she has found the answer after studying academic literature on personality and poring over 40,000 responses to a questionnaire on a dating website. A Rutgers professor and paid adviser for Chemistry.com, Fisher not only believes in romantic chemistry but is zeroing in on specific chemicals. She spoke with TIME about her latest book, Why Him, Why Her: Finding Real Love by Understanding Your Personality Type. (See pictures of the 20th century's greatest romances.)
A lot of things influence who we're attracted to, but one thing that has always puzzled scientists is the role that personality plays in mate selection. Have you solved that riddle?
There are two parts of personality. There's character, which is everything you grew up to believe and do and think. And then there's temperament, which is your inherited traits. Some people are more stubborn than others, some are more curious, some are more aggressive. What I'm trying to do is add the role of biology, of temperament, to our human understanding of love. (See pictures of other species in love.)
You basically break people down into four broad temperaments, each associated with certain brain chemicals.
There was a great deal of data that people vary in terms of their expression of dopamine and norepinephrine, serotonin, estrogen and oxytocin and testosterone. I culled from the academic literature all of those data points that show that these particular brain-chemical systems are related to certain aspects of personality. And I saw constellations of temperament traits that seemed to be associated with these chemicals.
What are the four types?
People who express dopamine - I call them Explorers - tend to be risk-taking, curious, creative, impulsive, optimistic and energetic. The traits associated with the serotonin system express themselves in what I call Builders. They're cautious but not fearful, calm, traditional, community-oriented, persistent and loyal. Directors have traits associated with activity in the testosterone system. These people tend to be very analytical, decisive, tough-minded; they like to debate and can be aggressive. The fourth type is the Negotiator. Men or women who express activity in the estrogen system tend to be broadminded imaginative, compassionate, intuitive, verbal, nurturing, altruistic and idealistic.
How did you choose the four types and ascertain who they like?
They emerged out of the genetic literature. I didn't impose them. I read the literature, and I found them. And then I developed the questionnaire to make sure these people did express these four [types of temperament] and expressed them in these ways. That study was done on 40,000 people. And then on the dating site Chemistry.com, I watched who gravitated to whom. (Read about the effects of romantic movies.)
Could you actually test people for these chemicals?
We're doing that study right now at Pacific University [in Oregon]. It's taken us longer than we expected, and the problem is that it's a college population. We can get participants, but they're taking Ritalin or Wellbutrin or Prozac or anabolic steroids, or they're taking birth control pills or they're taking cocaine, or something which alters their brain chemistry. Science is not easy.
Is it possible that you could have a blood test and know what kind of partner you should look for?
It's possible. Remember with mate selection that timing is important and proximity is important. And don't forget your childhood plays a role. Let's say you're an Explorer type who grew up with Explorer parents who were just so nutty that you were constantly holding on to your high chair. Then in your college and early 20s, you went out with people who were risk-taking and novelty seekers, curious and creative like yourself and had some bad experiences. You might turn to a nice, solid, loyal, conscientious family-oriented Builder to have your babies. Even though it might not normally be the most natural type for you.
So you can use your system to see who you might be drawn to and seek them out?
There are other things too. When you're going out on a date, if you understand your primary type and the type of person you're going out with, you can better reach them and create more intimacy with them. Because the four types define intimacy differently and look for different things in a partner. They even use different words. In one of my studies on Chemistry.com, I looked at what words people used and, sure enough, the four primary types used very different kinds of words. If you use the words that ring true to this person's temperament type, with your lover or even your children or your lover's parents, and behave in ways that click with this temperament type, you can reach people more effectively.
If we're to some extent directed toward certain people by our neurochemicals, does that mean if we take Ritalin or Prozac or are on the Pill that we're likely to make bad dating decisions?
Yeah, that's a problem. You're going to marry a different kind of person. As long as you stay on the drugs, it might be O.K. What I'd do is get off drugs before you fall in love - and marry the person after that very early intense stage of love has worn off. I've always maintained that it's adaptive to marry after that stage. I think all over the world people are doing this, because they're living with their partners and even having children first.
Explorers are drawn to Explorers, Builders are drawn to Builders, and Negotiators and Directors are drawn to each other. But what if you're already married? Is your study useful then?
Yes. You can understand where the pitfalls are going to be and how to avoid them. In a long relationship, you have to pick your battles. There are some you're just never going to win. And there are others you'll win more effectively if you profoundly understand who your partner is.
According to your theory, I'm an Explorer-Director married to a Negotiator-Explorer. Is there any hope?
How long have you been married?
Eighteen years.
Do you have any children?
Two.
Well, from a Darwinian perspective, you've already won.
Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
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January 20, 2009
Gene Robinson's Invocation at the Inauguration's Opening Ceremony
Following is the text of the invocation given by Bishop V. Gene Robinson at the opening ceremonies of President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration Sunday, January 18th. Robinson delivered the prayer at the base of the Lincoln Memorial facing a crowd nearly a million people strong that filled a stretch of the National Mall all the way to the base of the Washington Monument.
Good afternoon,
Before this celebration begins, please join me in pausing for a moment to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.
Oh God of our many understandings, we pray that you will bless us with tears, tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women in many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die a day from malnutrition, malaria and AIDS.
Bless this nation with anger - anger at discrimination at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants; women, people of color; gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort at the easy simplistic answers we prefer to hear from our politicians instead of the truth about ourselves and our world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.
Bless us with patience and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be fixed any time soon and the understanding that our next president is a human being, not a messiah. Bless us with humility, open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.
Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance, replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences.
Bless us with compassion and generosity, remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the ways we care for the most vulnerable. And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office fo the president of the United States. Give him wisdom beyond his years, inspire him with President Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for all people.
Give him a quiet heart, for our ship of state needs a steady calm captain. Give him stirring words, we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.
Make him color blind reminding him of his own words that under his leadership there will be neither red nor blue states but a United States. Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.
Give him strength to find family time and privacy and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods. And please God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents and we’re asking far too much of this one, we implore you oh good and great God to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand that he might do the work that we have called him to do. That he might find joy in this impossible calling and that, in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.
Amen.
(Advocate.com)
###
Text of Rev. Lowery's inauguration benediction
By The Associated Press - 6 hours ago
Text of the benediction by Rev. Joseph Lowery during President Barack Obama's inauguration, as transcribed by CQ Transcriptions:
___
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou, who has brought us thus far along the way, thou, who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path we pray, lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee, lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee.
Shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand true to thee, oh God, and true to our native land.
We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we've shared this day.
We pray now, oh Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family and his administration.
He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national, and indeed the global, fiscal climate. But because we know you got the whole world in your hands, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations.
Our faith does not shrink though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.
For we know that, Lord, you are able and you're willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds, and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor, of the least of these, and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these.
We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that yes we can work together to achieve a more perfect union.
And while we have sown the seeds of greed - the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.
And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.
And as we leave this mountain top, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will.
Bless President Barack, First Lady Michelle. Look over our little angelic Sasha and Malia.
We go now to walk together as children, pledging that we won't get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone.
With your hands of power and your heart of love, help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nations shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid, when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around ... when yellow will be mellow ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.
Hosted by Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
WorldNetDaily
Rick Warren's prayer
'I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life ...'
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Posted: January 20, 2009
2:07 pm Eastern
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WorldNetDaily
Transcript of presidential inauguration prayer by Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, Calif.
Almighty God, our Father, everything we see, and everything we can't see, exists because of you alone.
It all comes from you, it all belongs to you, it all exists for your glory.
History is your story.
The Scripture tells us, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one." And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.
Now today, we rejoice not only in America's peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time, we celebrate a hinge point of history with the inauguration of our first African-American president of the United States.
We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven.
Give to our new president, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity.
Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the Cabinet and every one of our freely elected leaders.
Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.
When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us.
When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us.
When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us.
And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches and civility in our attitudes - even when we differ.
Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all.
May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy, and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet.
And may we never forget that one day, all nations, and all people, will stand accountable before you.
We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.
I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life - Yeshua, Isa, Jesus, [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus - who taught us to pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
Calvin Klein
June 24, 2008
The season may be Spring 2009, but 2008 is an Olympic year, and this time around Italo Zucchelli offered his most comprehensive analysis yet of American sportswear. The Stars and Stripes even made an appearance, subtly embossed on tops. The sporting element was literalized in echoes of baseball and fencing (padded blousons and britches) and the use of athletic fabrics: gray jersey, cotton perforated like Airtex, a high-performance bonded paper. Paper? Yep, Zucchelli’s fabric experimentation came up with something that looked like leather but was actually superstrong paper. Turn it into a tee, pair it with chambray jeans, and you had the Zucchelli pitch in a nutshell: emblematic sportswear items transmuted for the future.
Same with the tailoring he has focused so tightly on since he came to Klein. Suits had a slightly boxier-or more generous-feel, but he whacked them with a hit of fluoro color so intense the audience actually gasped. It was an early sixties vision of the future-Mad Men Go to Mars-an impression that was helped along by Chet Baker on the soundtrack. As a European, Zucchelli’s perspective on emblems of Americana is inevitably slightly distanced, ironic even. Hence the models' styling: silvery, swept-back hair, glassy blue eyes. In them, Zucchelli saw otherworldly athletic perfection.
- Tim Blanks
Kris Van Assche
June 27, 2008
If consistency is a virtue, then Kris Van Assche is guaranteed a place in heaven, so true to his original vision does he remain. For a retiring lad from damp, chilly Antwerp, he’s mightily obsessed with hot Latin blood. “Amor o muerte”: That was the key to his latest collection, though quite how it was supposed to play out in the clothes was obtuse. As usual, the man he imagined was an incongruous cross-generational hybrid: an Old World gent who’d sit around in the plaza with garters on his shirtsleeves and a rose in his buttonhole, and a barrio boy-high-tops, baggy shorts, waistband slung low. A hybrid vibe underpinned outfits like a gray suit with cargo shorts for pants, an athletic top with cable stitching, and a tuxedo jacket with a waistcoat back.
This marriage of the formal and the casual is something Van Assche has been trying to broker since he launched his own label, but it wasn’t completely successful this time around, possibly because the mix is still coming across as crisp and proper as communion wear. (The designer is a dry cleaner’s dream.) Van Assche's recent guest editorship of the worth-tracking-down Antwerp biannual A Magazine spotlit his appreciation of the sheerly physical, as did his finale here of bare-chested boys in "formal" activewear. He needs more of that looseness, less of the prissy poetry.
- Tim Blanks
Bottega Veneta
January 18, 2009
Tomas Maier's response to hard reality was to go soft. He had the comfort factor of a cardigan in mind ("Not an actual cardigan, but that attitude," he was quick to point out) while he was putting together Bottega Veneta's Fall collection. So knits were the foundation, in everything from the obvious (sweaters and such) to the add-ons (a cashmere bow tie?). Fabrics washed to give them a gently worn character are a Maier signature, but here the suedes, velvets, and cashmeres attained a reassuring feel-good fuzz, peaking with a plush teddy-bear topcoat in shearling. Wrap yourself in that when your world is crumbling, and the blue meanies will surely just fade away.
Maier shaded his soft parade with a gentle palette of chocolate, mocha, and gray. There were tasseled loafers, but they looked positively aggressive beside the desert boots that seemed more appropriate to the mood of the collection. Likewise, the croc satchel versus the big old hobo bag. Maier also trimmed away the volumes that have distinguished recent Bottega collections. If those proportions evoked Hollywood he-men of yore, the caressingly trim new silhouette was a kinder, gentler proposition, even if-perish the thought-it bordered on the bland. To couch the transition in cinematic terms (always a pleasure with a Bottega show), if it was Chaplin we saw on Maier's catwalk a while ago, this time around you could stick a porkpie hat on the model wearing a shrunken herringbone blazer and pants and-presto!-you were looking at Buster Keaton.
- Tim Blanks
Versace
January 19, 2009
The wraparound screens at the Teatro Versace played footage of collapsing ice shelves. Such harbingers of environmental catastrophe could have been Donatella's way of saying she was hip to the apocalypse trip. Or they may simply have been an introduction to the Fall show's opening passage of winter white. A coat, a suit, a sweater passed by in a snowy flurry. A later group of blues-all shades, from an ocean-blue fur-lined parka to an aqua leather blouson-could equally have referred back to that video footage. Or maybe they were just using blue as a perfect partner for white.
We'll never know the truth, but what we can say is that blue and white defined the character of the new Versace collection to the point that the appearance of a camel leather jacket or a cherry-red blouson felt…odd (although perhaps not as odd as the fur stoles that decked a couple of models at show's end). Coats are the big story in Milan for Fall 2009, and Donatella showed some doozies: a half-belted gray tweed topcoat, a glazed trench, a bathrobe wrap. They were standouts in a collection that otherwise felt like it was treading water-possibly in the frigid sea depicted on the screens above our heads.
- Tim Blanks
Salvatore Ferragamo
January 18, 2009
The Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi's work has a luminous stillness that would admirably suit itself to the work of a few fashion designers I can think of. Unfortunately, Massimiliano Giornetti isn't one of them. Although he felt Hammershøi's pictures invoked the "intimate luxury" he was seeking in his clothes for Ferragamo, Giornetti's fatal flaw was a commitment to "everything on the same level." Gym and opera house, track pants and tux-the mix created a collection where coherence flew out the window.
And form scarcely even followed function in its pursuit of luxury. Leather track pants? Well, they weren't destined for a workout. Nor was the angora hoodie. There was a distinctly Mitteleuropean bourgeois vibe in the cape paired with rust velvet pants or the fur-collared blue velvet jacket. You might maybe even include the fedora-topped double-breasted suit in a cream felted wool in that group. Telling, perhaps, that the most successful outfit in Giornetti's Fall collection was an unconstructed double-breasted navy jacket and baggy cream pants. It made for a smart summer look.
- Tim Blanks
Isabel and Ruben Toledo
A Marriage of Art and Fashion
http://dept.kent.edu/museum/exhibit/toledo/Toledo1.htm
Broadbent Gallery
March 15 - October 8, 2000
Mull & Paige Palmer Galleries
March 15 - October 8, 2000
Anne Bissonnette
Curator
Enter Isabel and Ruben Toledo's world and find two highly talented individuals working in synergy. Muse to her husband's sculpture, painting and illustration, Isabel Toledo conceives of shapes and structures to clothe the human body. Complementarily, Ruben Toledo's surreal view of life brings humor and unconventionality to her industrial world.
Born in Cuba one year apart from each other, Isabel and Ruben met while attending high school in New Jersey. They married soon afterwards, and entered the New York fashion world almost immediately. Strongly anchored in Cuban culture yet highly individualistic, both approach their craft with passion. From her American upbringing, Isabel gained an appreciation of machinery, practicality and comfort while retaining a love for traditional elegance. Ruben's irrational, instinctive approach to art fused with American popular culture, exploding in playful, incisive and intensely surreal observations on fashion, beauty and life.
After decades of mutually inspired creative endeavor, the couple refuses to be categorized or assimilated by the establishment. An idiosyncratic figure in the American and European fashion world, Isabel stopped presenting bi-annual collections in 1998 after twelve years of intense production. Today she creates at her own pace, testing the results until they meet her standards of excellence, and furthering her investigations into concepts close to her heart. Effortless at first glance, her garments are actually painstakingly engineered to be fluid and comfortable and to feel familiar. Even the elaborate spinning helixes, suspended shapes and geometrical constructions are anchored with both pragmatism and poetry. A multi-faceted artist, Ruben Toledo is the master of several media. His best-known work delights in the absurdity, audacity and charisma of the fashion world. Unlike many illustrators, he adds wit and perspective to the representation of the human figure.
Entwined in the same universe but respecting their separate talents, Isabel and Ruben Toledo draw sustenance from each other's abilities, strengths and esthetic beliefs. Freedom of thought is their common ground.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-fea-fashion-obamas,1,7972787.story
Michelle Obama's Inauguration Day 'lemongrass' ensemble by Isabel Toledo a style-watcher hit
By SAMANTHA CRITCHELL
AP Fashion Writer
3:16 PM PST, January 20, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) - First lady Michelle Obama wore a sparkling yellow sheath dress with matching coat by Cuban-born American designer Isabel Toledo for the inauguration of her husband, a choice many applauded as a cheerful message of hope and a vote for the American fashion industry.
In some light, the embellished ensemble took on a pale greenish cast, coordinating nicely with green gloves from J. Crew and Jimmy Choo green patent pumps.
President Barack Obama wore a red tie and white shirt with his suit, topped with an overcoat adorned with an American flag pin.
Their daughters were style icons in their own right, with 10-year-old Malia in a double-breasted periwinkle-blue coat with a blue-ribbon bow at the waist, and Sasha, 7, in a pink coat with orange scarf and satin belt, a coral-colored dress peeking out at the hem. Their coats were from Crewcuts by J. Crew.
The fashion industry has anxiously looked to the election of Obama for months, embracing his wife as an emblem and ambassador of modern style, who wears clothes from young designers as well as mainstream American retailers.
Toledo, who had a short stint at Anne Klein but is considered relatively avante garde, is exactly the kind of designer Obama gravitates toward.
"There is nothing that comes close to this moment," Toledo said, speaking in New York. "It's not just my moment and hers, but it's the world's...It's not only what she's wearing. It's what the moment represents."
Toledo designed the outfit with hopes Obama would choose it for the ceremony, though Toledo did not know for certain until Tuesday morning. Toledo said the coat is made of wool lace in a silk net, with a silk radzimir underneath and a layer of pashmina for warmth. Obama also wore a cardigan with the matching dress, and a jewel-like embellishment at her neckline.
Toledo said she chose the "lemongrass" color for the optimism it represents.
"I didn't want a traditional blue or red," she said. "That color has sunshine in it. I fell in love with it. So did she."
That unusual shade of yellow "really popped" on Michelle Obama's complexion, said fashion designer Kai Milla, wife of Stevie Wonder and an invited guest to the swearing-in ceremony.
"What I recognized more than anything from our new first lady and Hillary (Clinton) and everyone else is that everyone was fresh," she said.
The overall look was largely a hit.
"She's off to an auspicious start," said Hamish Bowles, Vogue magazine's European editor at large who curated the Metropolitan Museum Costume Insitute exhibit on Jackie Kennedy in 2001.
"Mrs. Obama's choice today was appropriate, dignified and elegant but it also had a considerable element of fashion panache," he added. "She's finding great American talent."
She also connects with American women.
"What's so powerful about Michelle Obama is we all see ourselves in her. She's a modern woman who is fashionable and even flamboyant in her style and she is still taken seriously," said red-carpet and magazine stylist Mary Alice Stephenson. "She's wearing that dress today for all of us."
The Obamas' look Tuesday contrasted with that of the outgoing Bushes, with Laura Bush in a dove-gray skirt suit and matching coat.
On the podium with the Obamas, Vice President Joe Biden wore a navy Hickey Freeman suit he bought at the Nordstrom's in King of Prussia, Pa., paired with a blue tie, while his wife, Jill Biden, had on a bright red coat over a houndstooth dress by Milly and high black leather boots.
Also catching style-watchers' eyes: Aretha Franklin singing to the immense crowd gathered at the Capitol in an over-the-top hat with an oversized bow and beading.
"Aretha is a larger than life personality, why shouldn't she wear a larger than life hat?" said Nicole Phelps, executive editor of Style.com.
Yet, she added, the gray color of Franklin's hat was an attempt to yield the spotlight. "The fact that it was gray to match her outfit can be seen as an acknowledgment that it's the Obamas' day, not Aretha's, i.e., she's a star but she wasn't THE star today."
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Associated Press Writer Megan K. Scott in New York contributed to this report.
http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-ig-ny-michellewatch0119,0,5124760.story?track=rss
From Newsday
Who's Jason Wu? The designer of Michelle Obama's gown
BY ANNE BRATSKEIR
Special to Newsday
9:58 AM PST, January 21, 2009
"First of all, how good-looking is my wife?" asked President Barack Obama at the first of 10 official inaugural balls, as Michelle Obama revealed her second blockbuster outfit of the day: a white chiffon one-shoulder gown by Jason Wu.
The dress, with a strap across one shoulder, ruched bodice, fluffy appliqués and sparkling beading, will (as tradition dictates) be donated to the Smithsonian.
>>Photos of Michelle Obama
Wu, 26, who was born in Taiwan and works in Manhattan, has been compared to Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera. But that Park Avenue sensibility is often tempered with a touch of youthful whimsy.
Not everyone loved it.
"It's an inauguration, not a prom," fashion personality and stylist Robert Verdi said. "I was expecting a different silhouette like a halter -- and color. Nancy Reagan wore a one-shouldered Galanos, Laura Bush wore white and of course, Jackie Kennedy wore it. Wearing white is the historic route and I thought she'd do something different."
Oprah magazine creative director Adam Glassman disagreed. "I love that she's wearing white," he said. "It's about optimism and a new start and a fresh moment; she's the bride of the evening. I think she looks modern, youthful and fresh, and I'm happy she kept her hair the way she wears it, instead of some updo."
>>Photos of the inaugural balls
The new first lady put the fashion world on notice from the very beginning Tuesday: Expect the unexpected.
Odds were that her Inauguration Day outfit would come from any one of America's new fashion darlings like Thakoon or Wu, or an African-American designer such as Tracy Reese or perhaps her local favorite, Chicago designer Maria Pinto. Instead, she went with Isabel Toledo, a veteran Cuban-born designer based in New York who is known for her creativity and beautifully structured lines.
The jewel-collared, pale yellow-gold lace coat, sweater and sheath dress ensemble featured a clever hidden layer of pashmina and to help the first lady stave off the cold. Obama accessorized with green Jimmy Choo shoes and green gloves from J. Crew.
Toledo, who only learned that Obama would wear her design early Tuesday morning, told The Associated Press, "It's not just my moment and hers, but it's the world's." She said she chose the "lemongrass" color of the outfit for the optimism it represents, fitting as the Obama campaign based it's message on hope and optimism.
"That color has sunshine in it," she said.
Many applauded the choice. "I think Isabel did a brilliant job," said Simon Doonan, of Barney's New York. The famously imaginative creative director spent the day changing three windows of the Madison Avenue flagship store to honor the designer. "It's about formality, appropriateness and history," Doonan said. "The dress was regal and appropriate."
"I thought she looked beautiful," said Glassman. "With just that touch of embellishment, I think it came across as being special without being too royal. It was not like she was wearing the crown jewels."
And he liked the way she wore it. "She looks pulled together and chic, but not scary fashionista. She wears it real, and you see her first; you're not looking at the outfit."
As for the new president, he looked presidential in a dark suit, red tie and white shirt, topped by an overcoat adorned with an American flag pin.
At least one fashion type gave Jill Biden a big thumbs up for her red coat, houndstooth sheath by Milly and black boots. "She looked snazzy and contemporary, kind of like a modern-day Nancy Sinatra," said Verdi. He was less keen on the first lady's look. "I'm sure the outfit was pretty in person, but it photographed sallow. . . . I like colors . . . you can assign a name to."
That said, others were happy with the pick and what it means for American fashion. "I think the choice of Isabel Toledo is inspired and (Obama) continues to be adventurous in her choices," says Constance White, eBay's fashion director. "This will be a great contribution to American fashion, because she will be broadcasting American talent around the world."