Wednesday, June 20, 2012

rc-4: Kelly Cutrone enlightens


Guess what?!?  10 more days until I move to Toronto.


In other news, it's been a while since I updated you on Reading Challenge #4 a.k.a. rc-4.  Almost 6 months in and 7 books down.  Not bad, but I'm going to have to kick it up a notch to reach my goal of 20 books in 2012.


My latest read (which I finished this morning) was If You Have to Cry, Go Outside by Kelly Cutrone -- Fashion PR Queen of New York: known for dressing in black, speaking her mind, and appearing on a variety of reality television shows, from "The Hills" to her own, "Kell On Earth".


The book wasn't what I expected.  I had been unsuccessfully reading Mockingjay, the final book in The Hunger Games trilogy.  I had really hoped to read the trilogy without stopping, but I regret to say that Mockingjay simply did not hook me.  The first book, The Hunger Games was fascinating throughout, hard to put down.  Catching Fire was so far from what I expected that it kept me engaged the whole time.  Mockingjay, on the other hand, was such a change of pace (read: slow) and just a whole other kind of story that I couldn't push through the first third.  It's now gathering dust on my kitchen table.  I'll try to get back to it next, but I won't force it.  I will finish it soon enough (everyone says it's worth pushing through for the sake of the ending), but if I'm not engaged, I'm not engaged.


Anyway, back to KC's "memoir".  First of all, I'd been reading The Hunger Games, so moving from that to a PR powerhouse's memoir, if you want to call it that, was a tough transition.  Secondly, feeling somewhat well-versed in spiritual language and ideals, it felt a bit rich to have spiritual advice coming from someone who I've seen straight-up call someone on their eating disorder in the middle of a bar on "The City".  However, when I got past my skepticism, I started to realize that Ms. Cutrone genuinely had a lot to offer.  She tells her own story - which is tumultuous and comes with all sorts of twists and turns - interspersed with both business-related advice as well as spiritual suggestions.  It's got a good flow, a fresh tone, and I actually got a lot out of it.  Definitely worth a read if you're looking for something different and light.  We'll see what I get to reading next.

rc-4 so far...

  1. What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell
  2. When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
  3. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
  4. Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
  5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
  6. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
  7. If You Have to Cry, Go Outside by Kelly Cutrone

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Birthday Week!!!!! / Discovering T.O. #7 / Port Hope Showcase

Last Monday, May 28, I turned twenty-five years old.  Quite a milestone, really.  I keep wishing I had some sort of letter from my younger self to my 25 year old self to see what I was expecting / hoping for.  The truth is though that it doesn't matter.  I couldn't be prouder of who I am and where I'm at in life, so letter or no letter, I'm one happy 25 year old...

...made happier by the fact that I had the most wonderful series of mini-celebrations of the day of my birth.  I'd like to tell you about them.

1) The Beamish House: locally just called "The Beamish", unfortunately this great pub and restaurant doesn't have a website.  Once a year the school that I work for throws a huge reunion weekend for its alumni celebrating 5, 10, 15, and so on reunions.  The weekend peaks with a dinner on the Saturday night on campus followed by an evening of debauchery, traditionally at The Beamish.  This small, quaint pub is taken over, and although its interior doesn't have much space, its patio is sprawling.  It's a great night, and two of my besties ventured out to Port Hope to enjoy the evening with me.  This was on May 26, but it kick-started birthday celebrations in just the right way.  Before they headed back to the city the next day, we indulged in the classic greasy spoon breakfast at Dimitri's in Port Hope.  I had the Grand Slam breakfast.  It may not have dill-infused hollandaise sauce drizzled all over it, but it did the job.

2) Jim's Pizza & Pasta: this is another classic Port Hope establishment that I highly recommend.  The truth is that this wasn't particularly the highlight of birthday celebrations, but I find that restaurants are a good anchor in this blog for other stories.  The real highlight was having my girlfriend come to PH on May 27 to have dinner, chill times, and then be there with me first-thing on my special day.  That said, grabbing dinner at Jim's Pizza is ALWAYS a delight.  This is my GF's favourite spot in Port Hope, and we always each get the pizza & salad combo.  With this combo, you get a small, 4-slice personal pizza with any 3 toppings you'd like PLUS a huge serving of delicious Caesar salad (Greek is also a choice, but I mean, really).  After our delicious dinner we bought some snacks and went home for a viewing of "Best In Show".

3) My Special Day itself: the authentic birthday day was no exception to the fun already had.  I woke up with the GF and opened a gift from her and from other family members who had sent theirs in advance.  Then I made us breakfast (she would've made it, but she likes the way I make eggs best!) and we lazily enjoyed the morning (I took it off from work), and then I drove her to Oshawa where she took the GO train back to Toronto.

I had a great day at work, complete with cheesecake shared with my colleagues!

When the work day was done, my Mom and sister came to Port Hope to take me to dinner.  And what a dinner it was!  We ate at Trattoria Gusto (finally a PH resto with a website).  I've eaten here 3-5 times before and it's very delicious.  I find that's a bit of an anomaly about Port Hope - not a lot to do, but 3-4 incredible restaurants!  We went all out, sharing a beet salad, calimari, and carpaccio to start, and then for my main I had the chicken parmesan, which was succulent.  We finished it off by sharing a decadent, rich brownie with a candle on top.  It was fantastic!!!

4) Old school gay village celebration: Even though I'd had my fair share of celebrations, I wanted to do it up right with a night out in Toronto, which went down this past Saturday, June 2.  I hemmed and hawed over how I wanted to celebrate, and it dawned on me - when was the last time I had a night out in the Church & Wellesley neighbourhood a.k.a. the gay village in Toronto?!?!  I came of age in that neighbourhood and came into my proud, gay self, and I have great memories (nostalgic already?) of drag queens and dance parties, so I thought - it's about time I go back.

This evening started with appetizers and drinks at Smith on Church St.  I'll be very honest with you -- I didn't really do my due diligence on Smith.  I basically looked for a restaurant in the village that had a few classy-looking/sounding appetizers and said, why not?  Full disclosure: all it took was seeing that Smith had a charcuterie board.  Charcuterie = class.  Thankfully my lack of research didn't result in 11 friends and I dining at a dive.  Smith had us seated at a long table set for 12 upstairs at the restaurant, with a big window, a fireplace (too hot for that though), and a view of the goings-on of Church St.  It had a great vibe and the drinks and food were great!  For the record, I did order the charcuterie board and I loved it.  I didn't look to see what was on it, but I did eat cow tongue and I enjoyed it!

After 3 lazy hours eating and drinking at Smith we head off to Zelda's new location on Yonge St. for a drink.  I ordered the "Proud Mary" (for its name only) and we left shortly after that.

Where did we go?  Where else does one go when they want an old school gay village celebration?  Buddies in Bad Times.  Buddies has such great music and so much sweaty and fun dancing on Saturday nights, and this past Saturday was no exception.  We danced and drank and had ourselves a great time until about 2:30 when last call was made and it was time to catch the late-night Yonge bus home.

Being 25 is off to a fabulous start, and many thanks to the friends, family members, and Port Hope/Toronto establishments that made my birthday celebrations so special!!!

Who's visiting?