Another GIGSoup Concert Review: HAIM at Radio City

(C) PipPepPop

Happy Cinco de Mayo! While some people were enjoying Mint Juleps and Margaritas, I was enjoying some live music from the exceptionally talented sisters of HAIM. Check out my GIGSoup Concert  review of HAIM at Radio City Music Hall! The trio of sisters play all of their own instruments and they take dance breaks. 







FALLING: Haim at Radio City

(c) PipPepPop Alana and Danielle Haim

(c) PipPepPop Este Haim

LITTLE OF YOUR LOVE:
HAIM at Radio City

Paris, je t'aime!

I think the Gargoyles are up here!
(c) PipPepPop

As Blair and Serena once agreed in Gossip Girl's season 4 trip to Paris, any great duo must divide and conquer the city to make the most of it.

From the Gossip Girl episode 4.1 into to the 'Belles du Jour' episode:

"Serena's locked down the left bank 
and become a muse to us all. 

Meanwhile, Blair rules the right bank, 
storming the shops and consuming the 

classics and sampling sugary snacks like 
a modern Marie Antoniette."

-- Gossip Girl

I recently returned from a whirlwind 4 days in Paris with two of my best girlfriends from college. While I have yet to pick my favorite bank to rule, we packed a great deal into our brief travels before we traveled to Italy. It was pre-fashion week, it was cold, and it was like walking onto the set of a movie. Bons baisers, I'm in love! Here are some photo highlights and lessons learned from Paris.

1. Everything looks like it's part of a movie scene

The beauty of European cities cannot be described. Every small and charming cobblestone street looks like it was meticulously put together for Matt Damon to be chased down. Some of these buildings are 300-400 years old. They've withstood countless plagues and wars and they're still standing. despite the VERY cold temperatures of about 20 degrees F, I was excited to walk all over and uncover each new arrondissement. 

(c) PipPepPop

(c) PipPepPop

2. The people of Paris are warm and delightful
Over the years, I've heard my share of stories from friends that Paris is not the friendliest city for Americans. I was happily proven wrong. We met kind locals everywhere, from the shopgirl who spent three hours patiently helping my friend and I decide on dresses to museum guides, taxi drivers, waiters, and the hotel staff.

Breakfast. (c) PipPepPop

I have to thank the kind man with the Addidas gym bag who kindly guided us to the opposite metro platform and narrowly saved us from heading toward the soccer stadium instead of our hotel. I also misplaced my camera for a day, and fearing the worst, resigned myself to never seeing it again. At the end of the day, I discovered it in the hotel breakfast room, right where I had left it when I snapped a photo pf my breakfast.




3. The food is amazing! Try it all!

Macaroons & tea at Nescafe
(c) PipPepPop

 As mentioned above, my breakfast was 100 times more exciting from the morning the plane landed in Paris. Gone were my usual oatmeal or cereal and milk combos. I welcomed fresh from the oven pain au chocolat, fruit, yogurt, fresh juice, and cafe au lait.

I had a variety of lunch and dinner dishes ranging from cheese plates (yes this was most of my dinner one night), beef burgundy, fresh salmon or shrimp sandwiches, croque monsieurs, chicken provencale, pate, salad with haircot verts, escargot.... and now I am starving. French food is amazing, as is all of the bread.  For dessert, there were chocolates, champagne, mousse, crepes, macaroons, and one night, we had a beautiful green absynthe cocktail.

4. The BEST view of the Eiffel Tower is from the Arc du triomphe!

The Champs
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With French Glamour
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This happened completely by accident, but we ended up at the arch roundabout at the end of the
Champs Elysees at about 5 in the afternoon. We thought "What's another 600 or so steps (total, not each way) when we already can't feel our toes?"

It came down to choosing between the Eiffel Tower and the Arc in terms of what we could handle physically after doing some serious hiking through churches and museums earlier in the day. The walk was perilous, but we trudged upstairs (inside thankfully) and emerged at the top of the arch as the sun was tucking into the Seine.

5. Visit a new cafe every day, but return to old favorites!
We did some touristy things, like visit the cafe from the charming movie Amelie. It was a lot of fun. We also found some great places in our neighborhood and became locals there ASAP. I tried all 3 of the roses offered at one restaurant (not in one sitting; one each time I visited).

  

LEFT: Caf Amelie from the movie. CENTER: The street is THIS big!  RIGHT: The Sacre Coeur- aka the Castle on the Hill. I went on my only paid public bathroom trip here. I'm happy to report I've seen many worse bathrooms than this. All Photos (c) PipPepPop

6. Talk to Everyone, Shop Local
The most amazing moments from the trip were chats we had with the locals. We stopped in every bookstore, boutique, shoe store, haberdasher, etc.. and even a department store.

PHOTO CAPTION: I fell in love with the vibe of this Gatsby-inspired cocktail 
bar and restaurant down the street from our hotel. (c) PipPepPop

7. Be Silly! Selfie it! Goof Around for Pictures!
Some of my favorite trip pictures were making silly faces at Notre Dame or posing in front of the Eiffel tower. If helps if you have a selfie stick, which I received as a present from a friend. It served us well on the trip because we never needed to ask a stranger to take out pictures!

Eiffel Tower
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Group selfie outside Shakespeare and Company. (c) PipPepPop

8. Sleep when you're home! Make every minute count

Me and the Mona Lisa
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'Single Ladies' dance.
(c)PipPepPop

While I am the first to admit jet lag can hit me hard, I trudged through my first day in Paris to fall asleep for a reasonable 6 to 7 hours. The next morning, we hit the Louvre hard, and it was worth the early rise. We climbed out of a cab at 8 am and got in line outside the glass dome to wait like it was a red carpet premiere or Disney World. We headed right for the big ticket exhibits, the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo statue. After, we perused paintings from various centuries and took in one of the best things, the royals jewels dating back to King Louis!

Photo captions below: (LEFT) The Louvre before opening. (RIGHT) Gems from Napoleon's family. 

 

Scandal: The Line of Succession for Press Secretary

Tonight while watching Scandal, I realized there have been entirely too many people in the role of press secretary. People with this position end up dead or blackmailed. There have been more press secretaries than seasons of the show.  Here is the master list of mentioned White House Press Secretaries:

 1. Britta Kagan
This poor gal was the first press secretary of the Grant administration. As a loyal staffer,  Ms. Kagan was shot along alongside  President Grant when they arrived at his birthday dinner (season 2). President Grant recovered and Kagan died.

2. Olivia Pope
In the wake of the Grant shooting, Olivia Pope came back to the White House (season She guided the administration  through a challenging media storm. She also helped the staff make it appear President Grant was ready to resusme power from VP Sally Langston way before he was ready.

3. Jeannine Locke
Although never offically named on the show,  Jeannine became the de facto press secretary. She took on the press in season 3 after Olivia retired and went back to professional fixing. Locke was forced to leave the White House after a very public declatation as the president's mistress. She sacrificed herself (and recieved a nice payout) to protect Olivia and President Grant's secret relationship.

4.  James Novak
Novak was was a journalist who bargained with his husband, Chief of Staff Cyrus Beene, to get a baby. As an out of work stay-at-home dad, Novak leveraged his husband again to get the open Press secrstary job.  This time, the stakes were much higher. James was tricked by bis husband into having an affair with VP Langston's closeted husband, all in the name of outing the man and ruining the VP's presidential campaign. Then James discovered his husband covered up VP Langston's murder of her sinner husband (season 3). There were a lot of complicated emotions involved there. When James began leaking details of the murder to the attorney general (under an alias),  he was killed by Jake, the leader of a super secret US-based CIA organization, B-613.

5. Olivia Pope (again)
In the season 5 finale, Olivia held a press conference announcing the death of President Fitzgarald's son, Jerry.

6. Abby Wheelan
Abby begins season 4 as the new press secretary for President Grant's second term. Olivia goes awol at the end of season 4 and shuts down Pope and Associates, leaving abby to find a new job. 'Red' became President Fitz's work wife and was promoted to Chief of Staff, which she remained into season 5. She left the White House in a scandal as well.

7. Marcus Walker
I have no idea if there was a press awcratarybin between Abby and Marcus, be he was defibtely press secrstary5 in season 6. Walker fell in love with Mrs. Grant during her run for office (season 5-6) and left with her ex-husband to start a foundation at the beginning of season 7.

8. Audrey Campo
Audrey was seen on screen as the press secretary for President Mellie Grant in tonight's episode when Olivia falsely promised to resign as chief of staff.

Fashion or Foe: Keeping an Arm's Length

I'm addressing this message to anyone who is in charge of making shirts. What is going on with sleeve lengths? I bought one long sleeve shirt this year (at deep discount) that had decently sized sleeves. This shirt pictured is not it! I tried on many shirts and tossed them aside because they fell halfway to my fingers. Length isn't the only problem. I'm also seeing a lot of sleeves that have weird shapes, bell, pouf and my favorite, any variety of cold shoulder. I cannot stand for this anymore. Where can I buy a sleeved shirt for the winter that ends somewhere at my wrist and goes straight down?

Beauty Tuesday: Vitamins on My Face?

I am a fan of vitamin c. The singer,  known as Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick, had some great songs in the late 90's. For the purposes of this blog, I'm taking about the actual vitamin. I've been taking a supplement every day for over a month since my family got the flu. It tastes a bit metallic, but it can be an amazing immune booster. Last month,  I read about seems for the face that have concentrated vitamin c. I picked up one a few weeks ago to see what all the fuss was about. Overall, I'm not sure I get it.

After some research,  I picked up Clinique's fresh pressed vitamin c daily booster at my local Ulta Beauty. For my first try at
a serum, I was willing to pay less than $20.00. With an attractive price of $19.50  at any location with a Clinique counter, it seemed perfect. At the store, there were two packages, one with a vial and a package with 4 vials ($75.00). The idea of the multi-pack is to use one each a week. I'm not a "vial each week" committed to my face. after three weeks of using vitamin c mixed with moisturizer at night, I'm not impressed. My skin seems a little softer than an average January day, but I can't see or feel a difference in my face.