When I found out September was going to be personal style month here at OMFG, I was very excited to read everyone’s articles on what contributes to their style.

Style is subjective and objective. Our parents had first dibs on selecting our style while we were infants. Then inevitably somewhere in our toddler stage comes the day when we tell Mom: “I can dress myself!”. That day is momentous! Our first personal style statement. Style is influenced. Style evolves (hopefully). Our friends, hobbies, travels, books we read, the movies we watch – all this influences our style.

Winning “Most Fashionable” in my yearbook was as important to me as winning an Oscar was for Julia Roberts – seriously. I just always had a love of style and fashion. My mother was a big influence on me. We would take trips to New York City and spend the entire day at Bergdorf Goodman. The goal – to get some “essentials”. My mother was a big believer in quality over quantity. She taught me the importance of investing in classic pieces (the classic little black dress, a divinely tailored black pant, a crisp white shirt) and then mixing it with the trendy stuff. To this day I still spend the big bucks on the best jeans and dresses and then have fun in H&M blending in the fun trends that will not last a season, i.e. Ikat prints.

Accessories. If I had to do it over again, I would have loved to been an accessories editor as I LIVE for accessories.

Jewelry. From Cartier to Costume, jewelry is very powerful. Firstly, jewelry is emotional….we remember when and where we got each piece. Whether it was a graduation gift from mom and dad or a fab flea market find. Secondly, jewelry becomes sacred and one’s collection can be passed through the generations. Lastly, a statement piece can do just that….. just make sure when accessorizing with jewelry not to overdo it… If you think you have too much on, you probably do, so remove a piece.

Shoes. Ladies, I’m sure I don’t have to go on and on about the importance of good shoes, but it is important to have at least a few really good “go-to” stilettos/flats. I know that some brands are as much as a car payment, so keep a eye on those sales racks. At the end of the season try buying staple pieces for the next year, they wind up lasting much longer. Just as essential – find a great shoe repair spot to keep those big investments going.

Scarves. Probably one of the most versatile pieces one can own. Scarves can quietly grace your neckline. They can be used as a belt. Tied a certain way they work as a sarong or even a top! Folded over a few time as a headband or knotted on the handle of a bag; scarves are a fashionista’s secret weapon.

Handbags. Having lived in many different places from the country to the city… I can say that women in cities are definitely more handbag-conscious. It is the one piece that can really sum up and define your style and at the same time needs to be functional enough to carry all those “essentials”.

Style does not just reside in fashion does it?! The car we drive, the way we decorate our abodes is also a further reflection of our style and sensibilities.

I think the most important thing to remember, as cliché as it sounds, is to feel confident and have fun in whatever your rockin’. Don’t be so quick to judge! That gal with the nose-ring and Manolos or the headband and Babour coat may have more in common that we think!

In the words of Yves Saint Laurent; “Fashions fade, style is eternal”.

I think everyone loves cupcakes. Its a no-brainer. Its something that comes in a huge variety of flavor combinations, decorated in all different ways, and you can just pick one up and pop it in your mouth with little fuss.  Cupcake fans throughout time, along with the cupcake craze of recent years, need not be explained. Sweet treat = yum.

Read on, as I share with you my own personal cupcake favorites, and not-so-favorites, from the NYC area:

1.  The Bent Spoon
This tiny little spot in Princeton, NJ has some of the absolutely best cupcakes I’ve ever had. The cake is always soft and moist, the frosting addictively buttery and flavorful, with just the right amount of sweetness. I’m not a fan of the overly sweet, and I love the savory flavors that shine through this butter frosting. They keep it simple with golden cake or chocolate, organic eggs, and really fresh and good quality ingredients. And they come in two sizes: regular and mini. Get the mini’s because its fun to toss a whole cupcake in your mouth like Greedy Smurf.

2. Billy’s Bakery
Billy’s Bakery cupcakes are definitely some of the best, with great texture, moistness, and sweet icing that still retains a real balanced flavor. Their Manhattan locations, painted in pastel colors, are cute as hell and a really fun place to pick out a pretty cupcake and sit at a cozy table with some coffee and a friend. Incidentally, Billy’s also makes other great sweets, including some dope Banana Cream pie… but that’s for another time.

3.  Ciao for Now
This little family-owned cafe and bakery has three locations in Manhattan. I first sampled one of their cupcakes at a work function. There was a pretty little tray full of mini’s in chocolate and vanilla. Needless to say every time I got bored at that party I took a swing back around past the cupcake tray.  They were irresistible. Ciao for Now also makes an array of Vegan treats, equally as awesome.

4.  Magnolia
Sorry to rain on anyone’s parade, but Magnolia Cupcakes are not amongst my favorites. As I mentioned, I’m not a fan of super sweet cupcakes, which I find these to be. I first tried a Magnolia cupcake probably ten years ago and I could only handle a quarter of one cupcake. I recall describing it as eating a pancake with fudge on it. After many years, and lots of hype (after being a location on Sex & the City) the cupcakes are a little different, but still not my personal favorites. I understand why so many people like them however: They look great, are piled super high with sweet frosting, and have sort of become a piece of NYC novelty. Wah wahhhhhhh.

5.  The Treats Truck
The Treats Truck does all its baking in Red Hook, Brooklyn, then packs up a mobile unit they’ve so appropriately named “Sugar” and bring the sweets to the masses in Manhattan, parked in various locations throughout the city. The Truck, which runs on compressed natural gas,  delivers all sorts of treats from cookies to cupcakes to… dessert nachos?!?!?!?! Again, these cupcakes are more to the sugary sweet side, and I can almost feel my teeth hurting just thinking about it. But if that’s your thing, do it up. The cake is pretty moist, and they are always really fresh.

So thats the skinny on some sweet spots in the city.  I’m certain I have missed many cupcake spots that deserve accolades, so please comment with your favorite spots!  (Seriously, if you know where to find a good cupcake you better tell me.)

Top photo from QuintanaRoo on Flickr.

From Matt S. of The Unabashed Queer:
“I didn’t have any dryer sheets the other day so i used a baseball sized ball of aluminum foil and it worked great. And I love this new Febreze thingy. It’s 15-20 bucks but it works.”

From George B.:
“Consider the style option of wearing certain sweaters/dresses backwards to great stunning effect. Diana Vreeland was a great proponent of this styling option.”

From Nina M.:
“My friend just launched her line of jewelry, Chewed by Tuesday.”

The Beau and I, in preparation for Sex And The City 2, and in addition to perfecting our cosmopolitan recipe, crammed for several weekends and have come out on the other end of all six seasons of SATC alive and entertained. Now, this isn’t our first time tackling the series, but each time is special in its own way. I know it’s easy to hate the show from afar, but watch it and you’ll fall in love with it. Watch it for hours and hours straight and you’ll start connecting everything that happens to you to an episode of the show. Example: “That sounds just like that time Charlotte dated the guy who called her a ‘fucking bitch, fucking whore’ when he came…” or “This is just like the time Samantha was wearing the pearl thong up all those flights of stairs…”

Since not everyone has the time, patience, or desire to sit through six entire seasons and one long movie before the sequel comes out, we’ve chosen ten episodes that we really like. They’re not the most essential to understanding the series or the core relationships in it per se, but they’re the ones that make us laugh. Maybe watch one or two of them before the movie to remember just how good the show once was.

Sex And The City (Pilot), Season One
One word: Abso-fucking-lutely.

Oh Come All Ye Faithful, Season One
Samantha falls for “James and his tiny penis,” Miranda dates the Catholic playwright who showers after sex, and Big won’t introduce Carrie to his mom.

The Man, The Myth, The Viagra, Season Two
Miranda meets Steve and expects a one-night-stand, Samantha dates an old guy who “hung with these cool cats in Cuba” (and whose naked butt inspires her to flee the apartment), back with Big, Carrie invited him out with the girls and everyone is touched when he actually shows up, especially Miranda, who chases Steve into the rain for a tear-jerking kiss.

20-Something Girls Vs. 30-Something Women, Season Two
The girls go out the Hamptons, where Charlotte gets crabs and Carrie sees Big. With Natasha. While she’s wearing a sparkly cowboy hat. Then she pukes on the beach.

Easy Come, Easy Go, Season Three
Charlotte proposes to Trey and he says “Alrighty,” Carrie runs into Big and he tells her it’s over with Natasha, they start a steamy affair while poor chumpy Aiden is sanding her floors, and Samantha’s dating a guy “with the funkiest tasting spunk.”

Hot Child In The City, Season Three
Carrie meets a guy in a comic book store and finds out he lives with his parents. They get stoned, listen to Hot Child In The City, and when he gets busted by his mom and blames Carrie, she takes the weed and enjoys it with her girlfriends.

The Real Me, Season Four
Carrie walks (and falls) in a fashion show (produced my Margaret Cho) in Dolce undies and is stepped over by Heidi Klum and Charlotte learns her vagina is depressed.

Belles of the Balls, Season Four
Carrie and Aiden are doing well the second time around and for some reason, Carrie is trying to do the friend ting with Big. Big, meanwhile, is dating Willow Summers, a movie star. And when she breaks up with him, he takes a left by the sign for farm fresh squash and arrives at Aiden’s country house, where the two proceed to fight in the mud.

The Post-It Always Sticks Twice, Season Six
Charlotte doesn’t want to make a big deal over the fact she’s getting married a second time–until she does. Meanwhile, Samantha starts falling harder for Smith while Berger breaks up with Carrie via Post-It note. Then she gets stoned.

The Domino Effect, Season Six
Miranda is dating (and sexing) the hot Knicks doctor. Steve walks in on them, slams into the wall trying to run away, and ends up with a tampon up his nose. Big’s in town for a “heart thing” and Carrie can’t stop crying about it. He eludes to growing old together as she takes care of him, but the next morning he’s back to his old emotionally-distant ways.

I’m turning thirty next week. To celebrate this momentous occasion when I finally become a Woman, Mr. Smith is taking me to Amsterdam, where we will consume massive amounts of drugs and party all night with hookers, cause that’s what adults do…. No? Okay fine, we’ll eat pancakes and visit the Botanical Garden. Sigh.

Honestly, I am excited to be getting older. I got a job, I got a Mr. Smith, I got great friends and my dog is adorable. Life is good so things can only get better! I’m an incurable optimist.

Also, I could never remember how old I was in my twenties. Apparently I’ve been telling people I’m “almost 30” since I was 25, so this will make things simpler for me. This is probably a sign of mental decline, but I’m okay with that as long as I gain some wisdom in my old age instead. And respect. As we all know, the young ones respect their elders. Right, Rodney?

A couple of weeks ago, the Phoenix Suns basketball team dressed for a game donning jerseys that read “Los Suns.” They wore the jerseys to protest Arizona’s new and controversial immigration law. And there’s talk about moving next year’s All Star game out of the state.

Major league baseball is stepping into the fray too—their union warned that if the current law goes into effect, they will “consider additional steps necessary to protect the rights and interests of our members.” Hundreds of baseball players are foreign citizens and half of the 30 teams go to Arizona for spring training. The economic impact of teams going elsewhere is potentially devastating.

The very visible symbolic action of wearing the jerseys is important, and threatening to act with the pocketbook is one of the most effective tools around to influence policy and politics. Everyone knows that money talks.

But one of the best things about all of this, at least for me, is that these actions were a happy and eye-opening surprise.  Aren’t politics and sports strange bedfellows? Guess I’m guilty of some stereotyping about athletes and professional sports teams, some of it based on the highly publicized accusations about players behaving very badly. In this case, I give kudos and credit where it is due. Bravo to the Suns and to professional baseball for speaking out in an appropriate way and not being afraid to become involved in a controversial issue that matters to their players.

image info:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29755692@N04/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

With the recent arrival of the Apple iPad, there’s been a lot of discussion about the future of book publishing and the role of the e-book. An article in the New Yorker recently described the intense competition between Apple and Amazon in this market, as each company has built its own e-reading device (iPad vs. Kindle) and distribution system (iTunes vs. Amazon.com), but are still trying to figure out their relationships with publishers and authors.

Honestly, I’m not sure why you even need a separate e-reader. I don’t have a problem with the format of the news and magazines available online, and it’s been possible to download the Kindle app on your iPhone (and most smartphones) for free since last year. It looks great, it’s easy to use, and they have a huge library behind them, so there are thousands of free and cheap $.99 books available (current bestsellers usually cost $9.99).

The downside is that you can only read your book on the Kindle app or the Kindle device… which is bullshit (what am I going to do with all my books when Kindle goes the way of the cassette or beta video??). Download the Stanza app as well. It’s also free and easy to use, although it has a much smaller library. But it allows for many different e-book formats (although not DRM protected content like Kindle books), bestsellers seem a little cheaper, and you can find self-published authors and indie publishers.

But I’m going off on a tangent… my point is that the future of all these media devices is consolidation, right? I can’t be bothered to carry around a iPod and a phone anymore, so why would I want to add a big ass Kindle or iPad? I’m sure this just shows my ignorance, but I’m not buying this argument. I don’t want any more junk in my house. I want fewer electronics, not more! Really, I’m just waiting for the day when I can implant my computer into my head, Borg-style. This guy is already working on it.

As the OMFGstyle.com sports authority, I can’t help thinking about horse racing at this time of year—the Triple Crown to be exact. Three races starting with the Kentucky Derby in May, the Preakness two weeks later, and the Belmont Stakes three weeks after that.

There’s lots of pageantry, the horses are beautiful and graceful; the ladies’ hats are wild, especially at the Derby; and the mint juleps flow freely. And millions of dollars are at stake for the winners.

As a horse crazy kid who rode some amazing ex-race horses, I followed these races closely, and am old enough to have watched some of the great Triple Crown winners of all time—Secretariat’s 31-length romp in the Belmont, Affirmed’s three by-a-nose victories over Alydar.

But this isn’t about who the favorites are this year, or how many furlongs there are in a mile (there are eight), or the fact that there hasn’t been a Triple Crown winner since 1978.

The horses in these races are three years old. They’ve been ridden since they were one, and they started racing at two. They don’t mature physically until they are five, so it’s like having your 10-year-old child run three marathons in six weeks after two years of training. Sounds cruel, right? It is.

Why don’t the rules get changed? Because investors who own race horses want to make money, and the longer they have to feed and train young horses before those horses can begin to pay for themselves, the less likely it is that they will get their investment back. That and there’s the old argument, “this is the way we’ve always done it.”

What’s the difference between this and pushing a child to train for a sport like gymnastics or figure skating? The horses can’t ever say no.

This year, put on a big hat, sip a mint julep (or two), but instead of hitting the track to place a bet, maybe you can take that money and put it to use helping ex-race horses find good homes… There are rescue organizations like Canter that do outstanding work with very limited budgets.

Dead of Winter Movie Round-up: A Top 10 List

So, it’s cold as hell out, and it’s getting dark depressingly early… why not hole up with a warm beverage, some blankets, and the nearest pet or roommate? I for one am I huge sissy who will literally modify my social activity so that there is minimal contact with the outdoors. Somehow, watching films that feature people freeze their nuts off while curled up in your warm house takes the edge off, at least for me. Maybe I’m just a jerk. Anyway, here is my list of the ten best movies to Netflix for this purpose*:

1. The Shining – This is the gold standard of cabin fever, dead-of-winter insanity. Also, it’s scary as HELL. From the opening scene of a car winding through the mountains of Colorado set to fucking Stravinsky, you know you’re in for it, and this movie really lives up to the hype. Spoiler alert: freezing cold and buttloads of snow await!! Editor’s Note: The Shining also made Diana’s Top Ten Horror Picks.

2. Misery – Not for the faint of heart. While it’s not quite a scary movie, it definitely falls under the “psychological torture thriller” subgenre. Kathy Bates is awesomely insane, and, to me anyway, there’s quite a bit of comic relief in her performance. Again, Old Man Winter is a key player.

3. Let the Right One In – This is a great Scandinavian horror movie about a 12-year-old nerd boy who develops a crush on his new neighbor. Everything’s going great until people start turning up dead and drained of all their blood. Although this movie is moody, snowy, and bloody, there’s a sweet young-dorks-in-love subplot that’s endearing without being gross. Check it out!

4. The Royal Tenenbaums – This is probably one of my faves of all time, so I had to squeeze it in. Plus, the word “winter” is in the very first sentence of the movie, so there. Thanks, Alec Bladwin.

5. The Witches – A great movie adapted from a great Rohl Dahl book. I thoroughly enjoyed both growing up. The movie isn’t scary at all, but mostly just campy and good. Angelica Huston as the creepy head witch, lots of corny special effects, and Norwegian ghost story snazz. What’s not to love?

6. The Saddest Music in The World – Get ready to kill yourself! The title of this Guy Maddin movie is pretty self-explanatory. Fortunately, the sadness conveyed throughout the movie at time achieves over-the-top comic ridiculousness. It’s all Guy Maddin-y, with Isabella Rosselini, grainy, 20’s-era film, and snowy Canada.

7. Better Off Dead – Come on, John Cusack? Sexy foreign exchange students? Surly paperboys? A ski-off!? This kooky 1985 film is a no-brainer.

8. Fargo – Speaking of no-brainers, who doesn’t love Fargo? Wherever you are, you’re probably not as cold as it is there. Frances McDormand is as badass as ever in her role as a sassy preggo Minnesotan lady cop with a frumpy, doting husband.

9. Valley of The Dolls – This selection resonates with me for many reasons, but the main one is that some of the outdoor, winter scenes of Anne Welles’ hometown are filmed in MY homeland of Bedford, NY. The huge, crazy church where I took final exams, the movie theater, the flower shop where I worked in high school – all there, people. Plus this movie is just a boozy, yell-y gem of a film, and should be a cornerstone of any serious kitsch-lover’s collection.

10. Home Alone – Aaaaaah! Just kidding. This Christmas-y classic has all the adorable child actor, slapstick comedy, Joe Pesci you can possibly handle. Editor’s Note: Home Alone also made Cody’s Top Ten Holiday Movie Picks.

That’s what I’ve got. Send me all your “how could you leave out _____!?” comments, and let’s rap about it!**

*I guess it’s worth mentioning that if you don’t like scary movies, you won’t like my taste in movies. Sorry.
** I know I’m gonna hear about not including Dr. Zhivago on my list. I’ve never seen it! I’m just trying to keep it real over here…

Halloween is my favorite holiday for obvious reasons: the booze, the candy, the humiliated puppies in pirate costumes. Oh, and Skittlebrau. But if Friday The 13th has taught me anything, it’s that there is a price to be paid for such indulgences – death. A bloody, gruesome death…
Not feeling it yet? Check out a few of my favorite horror movies:

Dawn Of The Dead
The good guys battle zombies and bikers in a shopping mall. The remake was unnecessary, stick with George Romero’s 1978 classic.

The Shining
I don’t think this needs any explanation.

Ha! Here’s the real trailer:

Evil Dead
Another classic, although more campy than scary. I love Bruce Campbell.

Cabin Fever
Gross!

Blair Witch Project
Almost no special effects, no blood, no recognizable names – I can see why some people don’t like it. Whatever. It gave me nightmares for weeks so it gets a 10 in my book.

The Exorcist
A little girl masturbates with a cross. Eek.

The Descent
I watched most of this with my eyes closed.

The Ring
Yes, this is cheesy but also decently entertaining.

The Orphanage
Sad as a good ghost story should be.

The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow
Perhaps not a horror movie, but a great Halloween movie nonetheless.