Model - Paris Fashion Week

The lady on the Bridge - Paris FW

This pic was taken on Alexandre III Bridge
after Guy Laroche Show

Mickey Lunettes - Paris Fashion Week

Cool !

Electric Blue Lady - Paris FW

Outside Pierre Cardin Fashion Show

Pourquoi Pas?

Why not XOXO darlings? Have you been catching up on the latest on the Upper East Siders? This season is very good even if my Louboutins and I are struggling to keep up. So sorry for the absence of post yesterday, I'm afraid the Blogger Bouncer was giving me the cold shoulder of his velvet rope and logging in was something that was just not going to happen. But no tears for me mes cheries maybe just some Wayfarers as I've been blinded by the amazing fabulousness of last nights costume. The show featured the girls at the insta-important Fashion's Night Out event that has swept NYC by surprise the last two NYFWs with its glitz and its glam.

{hollywoodlife.com}

Blair's dress was amazing. The perfect frock to turns those heads

as you step out the cab ready to party. Thank you Pre-Fall Valentino!

{gossiprocks.com}

But Serena's dress stole my heart. Flowy, unique, and backless,

its everything I always look for in a gown. Bisous Jenny Packham!

Whose heels would you walk a mile in darlings?

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The Rays are in the playoffs!! Is anyone actually watching?

Way way way back in June, I mentioned how the attendance of the Tampa Bay Rays is absolutely ridiculous:

“While watching the latest installment of the Rays-Marlins series, I can only look in shame as to what is taking place. What should be a big series that’s the talk of all Florida sports news is just a blurb in the pages. The attendance in this ballgame was 23,000, which actually is a little bit higher than usual Florida games. By comparison, we have the Pirates nabbing 38,000 fans in their homestand, and they are by no means a decent ballclub. No need to insult the Pirates, but the Marlins and the Rays are thick in the playoff hunt, with the Rays remaining the best team in all of baseball. And plus this is supposed to be a statewide rivalry, similar to the popular Subway Series up north. The last Rays home game reached 25,000 and a week before that against the Blue Jays, the attendance was a meager 16,000. Why such low numbers?”

It seems that the attendance has become an actual topic of discussion, months after I brought it up mind you (not tooting my own horn or anything, but HA! Saw it coming). With two popular Rays players pointing it out, a major backlash has occurred amongst fans of Rays and all of baseball. What started out as a simple plea for more support in the stadium has turned into a hot-topic issue that concerns an excellent young team struggling to find a consistent fanbase in a sport that has reached new levels of competitiveness with the influx of incredible pitchers.

After years of complaints from fans about what had been happening to the team, the owner gives the team a new name, a new look, a new attitude, and a fresh start. The Rays did what the Expos did in the early 90s; rely heavily on a good farm system and a core of hungry young stars. Before you know it, Tampa became a tough scrappy team that was three wins away from actually winning it all. And nowadays, they have among the best records in baseball in the toughest division in ALL of sports (There is no argument here, do not even think about arguing this).



The owners even lobbied for a new stadium, which was promptly put down by the city of St. Petersburg. So now, there is recoil amongst the few Rays fans in the area when David Price and Evan Longoria complained about the terrible attendance in a potential playoff-clinching game. The backlash has been quite heavy amongst ESPN and the Tampa Bay media. Want my take? They are totally correct in every possible manner, and I am about to explain why.


The Tampa Bay Rays are on a much smaller payroll than the Red Sox, Yankees, Phillies, Dodgers, and other teams. Even with the payroll expanding several 20 million dollars in the last couple of years, it was still among the lowest in all of MLB. The fact that they are competing with such a young scrappy group of players (and winning most of the time) is quite unbelievable. They have been described by the Northeastern media as the “Team That Won’t Go Away.” Unlike the Rays teams of the past (leading up to 2008), this team does not give up, will not give up. Every game, they will give you 110%. In spite of all this, they are still among the lowest in attendance. Even the Pirates can average bigger numbers than the Rays, and this is even with Tampa playing fan favorites like the Red Sox and Yankees constantly. Just how much do empty seats affect the psyche of a baseball team? Observe this stat from the article back in June:

“The Rays are 18-15 at home, far from the best home record in baseball. I am sure the sluggish numbers, the amount of empty seats, and lack of support (especially when the Yankees and Red Sox come into town) contributes to their weaker play in Tampa. In comparison, here are the home records of the teams with extremely high attendance: Yankees (24-10), Phillies (17-14), Dodgers (23-13), Cardinals (23-11), Twins (23-13). See the difference (unless you are the Phillies)?”

Now look at the home records of the said teams:
Yankees (52-29)
Phillies (54-30)
Dodgers (43-35)
Cardinals (47-28)
Twins (52-29)

The three best home records amongst those five are all going to the playoffs. Home field advantage does exist, but if there are few witnesses, the advantage ceases to exist. But are the prices high in Tropicana Field? Not in Tampa. You can easily find good seats for prices between $15-$30 for regular games, $20-$40 for more important and high-profile games. Parking? The prices range from a high $20 to a lower-than-usual $10. So why aren’t they going to the games? The games are generally cheap, the parking isn’t ridiculous (and sometimes even free), and the team is clearly winning and clearly bothering the big boys of baseball the Yankees and Red Sox. So why was there a laughable 12,000 watching the Rays attempt to clinch?

Many fans are crying foul because “overpaid ballplayers are telling fans to spend their money and head to the game”. The overpaid part is slightly true, but slightly justifiable. We Americans are obsessed with sports, especially football. At least five NFL franchises are worth over a billion dollars, and the Yankees are the richest baseball team with a billion in revenue. No matter what the economy is, sports can and will forever make good money, no matter what the circumstances are. So, the overpayment comes from the fact that these ballplayers are extremely valuable, and owners can and will pay top dollar to maintain them. Longoria isn’t the one demanding the overpayment, the business demands it.

Now, look at it from the player’s point of view. The Tampa Bay Rays are in a terrible location, in a nasty division, and a terrible stadium that literally stole a win from them earlier this year (against the Twins, when a popup turned into a hit because of catwalks). Quoting me from earlier:


“Tampa Bay represents St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Ybor City, Treasure Island, amongst other little spots next to Tampa. However, they chose a more secluded and uglier part of St. Petersburg for the home team. If you’ve ever driven around there, the location is very tricky and somewhat confusing to reach. The surrounding area isn’t exactly the best area, and it takes 10 minutes of driving to even find the highway.”

They are in one of the most grueling schedules in all of sports, and all they want is to see major support. They want to see the support that the Red Sox, Phillies, and Yankees receive on a yearly basis. After years of totally shifting the franchise from joke to near-champ, the players felt like they deserved it. We all know they deserve the press, fame, and popularity that they were (somewhat) getting. Yet, inexplicably, they just weren’t getting the fans. Not only that, but the fanbase of the Sox and Yanks were more powerful and present during those heavily-contested matchups. Does this sad scenario sound familiar? Well, it shouldn’t, unless you are a baseball buff.

Anyone remember the Brooklyn Dodgers? Well, back in the 40s and 50s, the Brooklyn Dodgers was also a young, scrappy team that was constantly taking on the big boys. In spite of lower attendance numbers, smaller fanbase, and a stadium built in a tough location, the Brooklyn Dodgers would play year after year, constantly trying to thwart the Yankees. What eventually happened was that when the Brookyln area refused to help the dwindling attendance of the team by building a new stadium, the owner went to the west coast in a shockingly fast rate and crafted the Los Angeles Dodgers. To this day, Brooklyn has some ghosts from that fateful day. The Tampa Bay Rays of today are becoming the new millennium’s Brooklyn Dodgers (to an extent, the 1994 Montreal Expos), and if something doesn’t happen soon, they will move as well.

St. Petersburg straight-up is not supporting their team, not supporting their future. The fans haven’t really been there to support either. Why would the owner spend more money if the fans aren’t arriving? While the owner’s decision sounds a bit selfish, from an economic standpoint, it makes sense. I am a huge Rays fan, but I admit that we really don’t deserve the success of our ballclub. The Marlins-Rays game I went to several months ago was embarrassingly empty. Even the insane Yankees-Rays series didn’t hit sellout crowds. St. Petersburg doesn’t want a new stadium for our team, nowhere in Tampa Bay can you find land available for a new stadium, it just wasn’t being allowed. I have constantly screamed that the solution to this dilemma is this: start supporting our hard-working franchise, or move the team to a place that will support them better. Orlando anyone?

The Tampa Bay Rays can potentially create more jobs, and create more revenue, but there just isn’t enough support to allow for this wonderful franchise to flourish. And once again, I am being quite critical on an area, on a state that has been economically hit in recent times. However, as a community, you have a beautiful gem that is not fully being appreciated. I am not saying that there are no loyal Rays fans, but what I am saying is that they deserve more. Why can’t they have the heavy fanbase of winners like the Yankees and losers (well, not loser per say, but a team missing the postseason) like the Cardinals, Rockies, Mets, and Pirates?

Bottom Line: I am a big Rays fan that will follow the team no matter where they go or what happens to them, because I can’t see the Rays remaining happy in St. Petersburg much longer if this continues. They clinched as I typed this article, but still didn’t see a sellout crowd, still didn’t see a full house, and they even had the always-reliable David Price pitching. Now do I ask for sellout crowds every single night? Of course not, but I should see full houses on important games, on heavy matchups, on most September games, and when the playoffs arrive. I totally agree with Longoria and Price and sympathize with their pain. In comparison, they sound like a great writer that has no readers, like a great band that has no audience when performing. They aren’t telling you to spend money on them; they are telling you to help support a young team in a heavily contested league that needs whatever small edge they can get.

Congrats to the Rays, this team is excellent for baseball. However, if Tampa Bay altogether doesn’t see what me and most baseball buffs see, who knows what might happen to the franchise in the future. I’d hate to see them go, but I hate to see them suffer too. Just watching the Orioles-Rays game the night before, and seeing the sadness and subtle despair on their faces was quite heartbreaking.

If you are a Rays fan, I want you to prove it. Support your team.


Stop sitting! Get up, be loud, be proud, and shout it out:



GO RAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Three Mesquiteers, No. 14 - Outlaws of Sonora (1938)

While The Three Mesquiteers may have been conceived and marketed as a cowboy trio series, when one looks at the marquee posters over time, something becomes clear: there was really only one star. Robert Livingston. His Stony Brooke has always been the heart of the series, with Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune simply serving as support.

Outlaws of Sonora is undoubtedly Livingston’s starring vehicle, where his talents (as an actor and stunt man) are brought ever more into the forefront. But there is only so much one can do with a necessarily limited role such as Stony. What’s Livingston to do? Go the Peter Sellers (or Eddie Murphy) route, basically, and perform a dual role. And not just any. The villain! This is not the first time this has happened, oh no, not by 1938 (I’ve seen many a silent comedy short with the same plot), but Outlaws of Sonora marks an occasional new direction for the B-western.

It doesn’t take long for Stony to run into his dastardly doppelganger, in the form of Dude Brannen. In a case of “incompetence necessitated by the opening act,” Stony is captured by Dude’s lawless band of outlaws in a cross-country delivery of “$” sacks. Stony’s life is only saved when Dude notices their uncanny, and highly coincidental, similarities. See for yourself:


Hold up, that isn’t right. But it really works on the same principles. Mustache = evil. Darker outfit = evil. Such easy visual shorthand rather frees Livingston from that pesky need to differentiate his characters through acting. (He’s no Alec Guinness, circa Kind Hearts and Coronets.) See for yourself:


“You look just like him, Dude,” one of Dude’s goons opines, in the first of many lines which recall The Big Lebowski. And Dude (it sure feels odd without the preceding “the”) has precisely the brainstorm the screenwriters were wishing for. He shall shave off his mustache, wear good guy clothes, and pin all his misdeeds on Stony. Then where’s a bounty on Stony’s head, they collect. Mwa hah hah hah HAH!

You’d think this setup would be enough to fill out the scant hour these Mesquiteer masterpieces run, but you woefully underestimate this series’ need for purposeless padding. So get ready for 5 minutes of billiards, with an unnamed pool player who is actually credited fifth (Otis Harlan). He’s not even a professional pool player, or someone who could lend this scene interest. He’s just the guy who voiced Happy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – that’s his big claim to fame. What is this scene doing here?!

Okay, now [the] Dude can enact his reign of quasi-terror. With unerring plotdar, he goes to the same bank which has been entrusting Stony with their “$” sacks. So Dude is handed an “$” sack. So he shoots the bank manager dead. Just like that. It’s like the inhumane executions in Fargo, NOT a kids’ 30s matinee serial! Dude escapes town, but makes damn sure he is seen by all, and predictably mistaken for Stony. Mesquiteers Tucson and Lullaby do not know how to take this news, and simply deduce that “He is loco.’


In a movie that absolutely cannot settle down on telling a rounded story with complete scenes full of non-filler material, Outlaws of Sonora reveals its other ace – the Montage. Around 35% of the movie is montage, while another 35% is time-wasting – that means under a third is actual movie. So Dude’s reign of Stony terror is conveyed through the usual 30s means: stock footage, spinning newspaper headlines (oh yeah), and Robert Livingston performing context-free variations on all his favorite stunts while attempting an “evil” persona. His maniacal laugh peppers the film, which is to its detriment since Livingston cannot conjure up a single genuinely evil iota. It’s like trying to be a Justice League villain on helium.

Oh, and even the freaking montages need filler content! So they don’t just show us assembled clips. They fade ever soooo sloooowly between clips, creating massive pockets of unwatchability throughout. (The image above partly suffers from that.)

Nothing’s progressing on the Tucson/Lullaby side of things, and Dude is engaged off in Montage Land, so let’s look in on Stony. Film well over half over, he manages to get the better of the least competent guard I’ve ever seen in a genre full of incompetent guards. He then knocks out Dude’s dukes, taking Dude’s place as Stony pretending to be Dude pretending to be Stony. Thank Jeebus, this movie is finally starting to take advantage of its “mistaken identity” premise!

For…all of half a minute. That’s how long it takes Dude to recover, and holler out Stony’s deceit. The various nearby goons instantly know who the real Dude is – ‘cause far be it from a B-western to present the tiniest amount of hero/villain confusion, even when it’s purely appearance-based (not moral). But this at least leads us to something expected, which we’ve been mostly denied – a horse chase. With gunplay. (Oh, and it’s largely expressed in montage, naturally.) And I’m not even counting this stuff as “time wasting,” even though it surely is, because by Mesquiteer standards this is content.


No, here’s what I would call “time wasting” – A 10 minute scene set in an Old West saloon, with zero connection back to the “story.” This is Rosita (Stelita Peluffo), who sings a saucy Spanish number, but it’s been dulled and slowed enough to be palatable to a 1930s white audience. In other words, it’s completely stultifying. And guys, it’s a little late to attempt the “sexy Latina” thing (nine entries after failing to do so with freaking Rita Hayworth!) when your leading lady is as strangely odd in appearance as this. (At least we’re not saddled with a love interest this time, as Outlaws of Sonora can barely get its act together long enough to tell an A-plot.)

With the film entering its final 10 minutes, and the conflict between Stony and Dude seemingly forgotten about, what do they do? They load up the highest quotient of Elmer Horror in any Mesquiteer film so far. That is, long, loving shots abound of Lullaby’s Satanic ventriloquist doll, and I can say without exaggeration that these images could never be charming. I’m surprised 30s audiences could stand for such mortal terror, seeing as these are the same people who thought the original Dracula was “scary.” I no longer have any new ways to warn readers about Elmer’s soul-sucking appearance, so let us just say Elmer is suddenly on screen for way too long, and it literally made me shiver.

Here he is, in the middle of mentally undressing Rosita:


And here he is – AH GAHGGHH! – I don’t even know what the hell beast is doing here!


And so, finally, in comes Dude (or maybe it’s Stony…nah!, it’s clearly Dude – confusion is never even attempted), He’s finally realized the problem with his plan to frame Stony – he looks exactly like the man! Since this is what inspired Dude in the first place, I’m surprised it skipped his mind. And his solution is to seek out the town doctor, and demand some plastic surgery…Uh…WHAT?! Plastic surgery, in the Old West?! Oh sure, my insistence on questioning Mesquiteer logic is a fool’s errand. Remember, the late 30s practically invented plastic surgery as a “cure all” plot device – see roughly 13 different Charlie Chan movies…

Stony arrives and – A fistfight resolves everything. For the good guys. I have lost the energy to over-elaborate upon this.

Only…Stony dukes it out with Dude. One actor, remember, done five decades before the CGI era, trying to play two guys fighting each other. Needless to say, it isn’t a hugely successful effect. Nor does Stony’s ultimate victory ease my “concern” that random riding posses still won’t try to kill him for the bounty – which the movie conveniently forgot all about half an hour ago.

Before I sign off, let me consider the rest of The Three Mesquiteers’ first cycle – the final two films made while this most famous trio remained. (Livingston left.) These movies don’t exist on DVD, or online, or really anyplace other than rotting in some basement in Los Angeles, so there’s not much I can respond to. Here goes…

Riders of the Black Hills (1938) – The Black Knight, being a horse and not a Middle Ages warrior or a cheap Batman knockoff, has been horse-napped. The Mesquiteers are framed and arrested for this job, seeing as they (in)conveniently have a horse which looks exactly like Black Knight. (If it was good enough for Stony...) It seems as though everything climaxes with lookalike steeds racing in each other’s steads at the big derby. If it’s anything like Charlie Chan at the Race Track, I would hate it. (Interestingly, it’s starting to seem as though all 1930s franchises visit the same settings. If the Mesquiteers go to the opera, I’ll know something’s up.)

Heroes of the Hills (1938) – The Mesquiteers, being kind and loving friends to all humanity, decide to do the charitable thing in light of prison overcrowding and start their own chain gang. Did I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang teach no one in the 30s that this was an asshole thing to do? Conflict arises when the Mesquiteers face off against an evil developer (is there any other kind?) who wishes their chain gang to fail so her can profit from building a new prison – Never mind the fact that this chain gang was started in the first place because there wasn’t enough money for a new prison. Plot holes, in a Mesquiteers movie? No!

This is not the end of the franchise, not by a long shot (16 down out of 51), but it is the end of an era – the Original Era. There is nothing new under the film series sun, and the 30s were just as open to recasting major parts as any film period since then. And even with Robert Livingston (temporarily) bowing out, that means we haven’t seen the end of Stony Brooke. What joy!


Related posts:
• No. 1 The Three Mesquiteers (1936)
• No. 3 Roarin’ Lead (1936)
• No. 4 Riders of the Whistling Skull (1937)
• No. 5 Hit the Saddle (1937)
• No. 6 Gunsmoke Ranch (1937)
• No. 7 Come On, Cowboys! (1937)
• No. 8 Range Defenders (1937)
• No. 9 Heart of the Rockies (1937)
• No. 10 The Trigger Trio (1937)
• No. 13 Call of the Mesquiteers (1938)
• No. 19 Santa Fe Stampede (1938)
• Nos. 29 – 38 (1940 – 1941)
• No. 35 Prairie Pioneers (1941)
• Nos. 39 – 51 (1941 – 1943)