♥ Lisa Bettany shot this amazing photo of a Double Rainbow Over Manhattan after a recent storm in NYC.
In order to counter some of the disaster-fraught gloom looming ’round these parts of late,
I’ve ordered up a double helping of moonbeams and rainbows, liberally sprinkled with
some of my favorite faces to help dispel the lingering funk. Plus, I haven’t even had a
moment to warble with joy about how wondrous my recent NY visit was – unlike my
last visit there (which was not the rosiest or easiest excursion ever, alas) it seemed that
this journey was blessed from the start by some lucky star. Despite a few really insane
travel misadventures, everything came together swimmingly, and I got to spend time
with so many dear friends who I had not seen in far too long! Speaking of…

I got to visit with Gala, whose sweet face I had missed so much!
It was so, so good to spend some time with her – I wish I could
be back in NY celebrating her birthday RIGHT NOW! It’s today!
(Well, yesterday probably, by the time I get this posted…)
Many happy returns of the day, sugarbomb!

We made an eye-dazzling superhero duo in our retina-scalding get-ups.
I covet that delicious neon coral lace skirt from ASOS, fervently!
♥ Also, muchas felicidades to her and her bridegroom: MK + GD Forever!
– this makes me soooo happy! I can’t wait to meet the lucky fellow!

We lunched with Miss Mer at Veselka on fuschia borscht & pierogies,
followed by crack pie from Momofuku, which sent us all into diabetic
comas immediately. That stuff is hardcore, y’all! There’s a reason it’s called CRACK PIE!

Me + Mer = giant ♥

I had an incident with the gorgeous almost-Yves-Klein-blue dress Tamera sent me,
getting into a taxi. My abundantly callipygous posterior split the dang thing from
here to Saskatchewan! Luckily, the ladies accompanied me to Trash + Vaudeville
for some emergency superhero underpants in metallic teal to protect my uh, modesty.

Another marvelous woman born on September 13th – Miss Molly Crabapple,
who never ceases to amaze me with her work. She just completed her Week In
Hell, during which she locked herself in a hotel room with white papered walls
that she managed to completely cover in her drawings. My motto lately has been
“Where your comfort zone ends, life begins”, and Molly really put that to the test
with this project, testing her endurance beyond its limits, beyond reason – just to see
what could happen, what could be created. The lady’s a huge inspiration to me,
and to so many artists out there. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered anyone with
such intense FOCUS. She’s admirable, formidable, wonderful, and incredibly lovable.
♥ Here Is Everything I Learned in New York City
by Sarah Hepola
Cabbies Are the Greatest People on Earth, at Least for Fifteen Minutes
Thank you to Gala Darling for pointing me towards this article!

Rainbow saris, source unknown (let me know if you know the provenance for this
and the other mystery images here – I had no luck looking on Tin Eye, alas.)

Please, please, please take a moment to watch this incredible interview with my friend Altercation.
She just blows me away, y’all – and always has. We both moved to New Orleans the same year,
and I remember seeing her singing mournful murder ballads in a chiffon robe with her breasts exposed
and a beehive wig, from a tiny wrought-iron balcony on the side of the old Winter Palace. I remember
the first time I saw her shake her ass, and stood there, jaw dropped – hypnotized by that rolling motion.
I didn’t know an ass could move like that! I was there with her and Rusty and Freedia and Nobby for that
first bounce show in New York in 2009. Who knew then where all this would go? I’m so glad that she teaches
this dance to people, and that she asks people to think about it, to talk about it. She’s fucking brilliant. I love her so much.

Rainbow clouds, source unknown

Lio – Banana Split
“Ça me déplairait pas que tu m’embrasses
NA NA NA – Mais faut saisir ta chance avant qu’elle passe
NA NA NA – Si tu cherches un truc pour briser la glace
BANANA BANANA BANANA
C’est le dessert
Que sert
L’abominable homme des neiges
A l’abominable enfant teenage
Un amour de dessert
BANANA NA NA NA NA BANANA SPLIT
Les cerises confites sont des lipsticks
NA NA NA – Qui laissent des marques rouges sur l’antarctique
NA NA NA – Et pour le faire fondre une tactique
BANANA BANANA BANANA
Baisers givrés sur les montagnes blanches
NA NA NA – On dirait que les choses se déclenchent
NA NA NA – La chantilly s’écroule en avalanche
BANANA BANANA BANANA”

Photo by Clayton Cubitt

Photo by Clayton Cubitt – In-camera Dichromat Homage, Dorotheenstadt Cemetery, Berlin, 2007
♥ My friend Jennymarie Jemison has been working on this web series about life in the offices of a sex toy factory:
The Flesh Life – You Know You Want to See This
♥ Sex on the brain: What turns women on, mapped out
♥ I’m feeling this article by Susannah Breslin on Unemployment/Self-employment.
As terrifying as it can be to step on the limb of only doing what you love, and trying to sustain yourself
on what you make doing that, I have to say I don’t know if I could ever see myself going back to a “job-job”.
I’m pretty determined to make this work – go big or go broke, man. Just hopefully not both!
I prefer Hunter S. Thompson’s maxim: “When the going gets weird, the weird go pro.”
♥ Austin’s Planned Parenthood Loses State Funding – What fucking dark age are we living in, y’all?

One of Alphonse Mucha’s exquisite stained glass windows in Prague’s St. Vitus Cathedral.
♥ Spellcaster and Earth Angel…Angeliska Polacheck a sweet interview with me from the lovely Celeste Quesada
♥ A beautiful article from The Paris Review about Frida’s Corsets by Leslie Jamison
“Sadness is green as well. Also leaves and the nation of Germany. She has an entire vocabulary of color. Brown is mole and leaves becoming earth. Bright yellow is for the undergarments of ghosts.”
♥ I had the pleasure of meeting Miss Katelan Foisy during my visit to New York – I’ve been watching her hand-painted
tarot deck blossom card by card, and was so excited to see her latest work, featuring Baby Dee as The High Priestess

Babies can’t eat kimchee! That’s the look on my face when I smell kimchee!
Hate the stuff. Korean food is my favorite, though! Just not that part…

Handmade Portraits: YOKOO
♥ I love her. Thank you to JL Schnabel for sharing this.
“There is only the slightest chance that you might cross Yokoo’s path in the streets of Atlanta, Georgia.
Holed up with the quiet company of old movies, she knits about 15 hours a day. Running a one-woman knitwear enterprise from home,
Yokoo is an artist, a perfectionist and a “total control” worker. She enjoys being a part of the entire process: thinking, designing, sketching,
picking up the material, creating, photographing, promoting, trading and sending. She still gets butterflies every time she packages up a new order.

Kalash women. One of my favorite photographs. Still not sure who took it.
♥ 5 Views of East Side Show Room from the delightful Miss Tolly
One of my Austin favorite restaurants, written about lovingly by one of my favorite Austin blogger ladies.
She also came to Vintage Vivant recently, and wrote this sweet piece about her hijinks:
Meet me at the speakeasy, buy me some giggle water
♥ Why Lying Broken in a Pile on Your Bedroom Floor is a Good Idea – Akhilandeshvari, The Goddess of never not broken – by Julie (JC) Peters

There’s No Place Like Here: Brazenhead Books from Etsy on Vimeo.

♥ I meant to make a pilgrimage here, but there was no time! The Secret Bookstore – Brazenhead Books
♥ I want to visit all of these one day, too:
10 Unconventional Bookstores For Your Browsing Pleasure