Christmas Recap 2009












This Christmas was more on the low-key end of the spectrum. But they can't be all swinging now can they?
We had the annual Sisters lunch at Angle's house downtown, then Happy, Mother and I took a gander around the new 'meat packing district' of Atlanta where I made my pilgrimage to Sid Mashburn's shop. We sat on nearly every chair and sofa at Knoll and checked out the pate at Star Provisions. Later we went to Jacqueland to check in and discovered they had ripped out the kitchen and were modernizing it, which is quite exciting.
That night we had dinner with Dabney in the Highlands before heading home

The next morning I headed to the farm for a ride. It was Cator's first time back on a horse for a year so it was exciting for her. I took Fancy out for a spin and all was fine until she decided to leap over a tiny puddle (that we walked through 10 min before) and I went flying. Weeee! It was actually quite amusing. I've never been thrown and it was all simply because Fancy was trying to have some fun. My Aunt reminded me- if you weren't on one of those tiny band-aids of an English saddle you would of been fine! True!
I hoped back on and we headed to drier pastures.

For the big day it was a smaller affair. Happy spent the big day in Florida and Pop & Dot were at her family’s house. But it was fun all the same. Ashley came with her finance and Gordon and Kendall brought their newborn, Lily. Having a baby around at Christmas is always a crowd pleaser. We ripped, we drank, we ate and they left. It was a world's record in efficient Christmas crowd control.
Speaking of gifts- I love my new Kindle!!! Perfect for the trip to Africa! I also love my pony skin diary mother bought me for the trip AND my UGA bulldog embroidered pants from Athens.

Boxing Day was spent, as usual, at Connie and Ben Knights during the day. That evening I headed downtown for my second annual impromptu Class of '94 reunion. Good times! But boy we getting old- we weren't nearly as wild as last year. And we were so excited our mentor and favorite teacher Mrs. Humbert came down to party with us. She looks amazing!
And I got a chance to see Kathy's new home and baby. Adorable!

Sunday was spent relaxing at home. Gay dropped by to have a proper catch up since Christmas was so gummy. And that was that kids! I hardly drank; I passed out before 12 most nights and had lots of down time (believe it or not from what you just read).

Onward to Charleston!

Five Festive Events/One Wonderous Night









Last Thursday Rod, Lucy McIntyre and I hit the holiday party circuit hard. How did so many parties fall on one night? Maybe because New York Magazine said Thursday's are the best nights to go out. Maybe because it was the week before Christmas and people were getting into the frenzy. But basically I felt like I was back at Art Basel.

Rod and I met up at 6pm at the castle dressed to the nines. I was excited that my tailor hemmed my new Brooks Brothers holiday pants with two hours notice that morning. Going to so many events deemed a new pair of pants totally necessary. We both had a small dinner before hand. Who knew what kind of food lay in our future...

First stop was Hamish Bowles book launch, The World In Vogue. He held the book party at Carlton Hobbs home and showroom. What kind of antiques does Carlton show? "Only the best" as Rod said whilst sipping champagne. His home is one of the last great Upper East Side mansions. If I had been on reporter duty that night I would remember who used to own the house. But Hamish was ecstatic, "Oh you know Mrs. X used to live here and she was a great collector of Dior. I can just see her now descending that amazing spiral staircase in a nip-waisted couture gown!"

Indeed the staircase and everything else was amazing. We chatted with Amy Fine Collins, ran into Stephanie La Cava and had a good giggle and the entire 1stdibs.com crew was there rolling deep. Lucy arrived and we whisked her upstairs to check out some of the stunning objects. We ran into Carlton and James Reginato from W and Carlton exclaims, "Cator Sparks! The one and only!"
We have never actually met but he is a great friend of Philips. Apparently he inherited a chicken and PHJ told him of my love of the animal and we were planning a trip to the house to see said chicken until a hawk swooped down and took the poor chicken away. Alas.

After several more bubblies we depart down to Melanie Brandman's annual Christmas bash on Park Avenue. She owns my favorite travel PR firmand she is one of my favorite people as well. Her home is like Auntie Mame's brought to life. Packed to the gills with amusing people, Hi Horacio! Hey Colin Cowie! Greetings Bill Keith! and there is always so much champers the apartment could explode if they were all popped at once. We spent a good hour there before heading further downtown to Anthony Haden Guest's bash on the top of some building on Park. It was quite amusing! Loads of people I haven't seen for ages and lots of purple neon. Who is that over there in the glittering kimono? It's Daphne Guinness! I give her a light tap on the shoulder and she turns to me, eyes wide and purrs, "Darling, Cator!" We have a good catch up about Art Basel and then Lucy and I invite her to come downtown with us to Lorenzo's party at Chandelier Creative. She is all for it and we follow her out and pile into her car.
"Daphne can I hold your train? I hate to see that vintage kimono get scrubby on the floor"
"Cator, clothes are to be worn, not to be kept in boxes!"

And there you go. How I adore her thinking.
We arrive at Chandelier and it's like New Years Eve at Studio 54. There are at least 1,000 balloons of pink and gold floating about with ribbons cascading down to eye level. The help are all gym bunnies in saucy Santa outfits and the music goes between a gospel choir clapping and shouting and my handsome Alex Malgouyres DJ'ing.
Rod finds drinks, Lucy finds friends and Daphne and I take a tour admiring the 30-foot tree and the Jeff Koons like balloon animals behind Santa's throne.
Lorenzo is well pleased to see us. YAY! We miss him. A whole week with LM in Miami was delightful so we all had a proper squeeze and catch up. After chatting up Rudolph (yes, well not really, co-owner of the agency Anthony Keegan dressed up as him) and stealing his head for a shot I escort Daphne out to her car. She's being so good! We still have one more event to hit!

I find Rod, I round up Lucy and Claire and we bring Miguel from Interview and pile into a car for the final destination- Boom Boom.
We arrive and the place is popping. GQ had just finished their holiday dinner and loads of other editors, assorted gays, and saucy ladies were zizzing about in a holiday tizzy. Hey Justin and crew! Hey Adam 'Grawl' Shapiro! Marc Kroop is that you?
Rod has never been so I gave him a tour, and then we order drinks (ouch $40 for two drinks!) and mill about catching up with kids.

At 2am Rod and I decide it's time to turn into pumpkins. We sneak away and when our elevator hits the lobby and opens Lorenzo is staring back at me and bellows, "Oh no you don't! Get back upstairs!"
Balderdash, foiled again.
We get back in the lift with his posse including Terence Koh and head up for a nightcap. They all pile out of the elevator and charge the main room. Rod and I look at each other, wink and close the doors again. We just can't do it! Lolo I owe you a drink!

And that's how we got through one very long, exciting, eventful holiday party twirl.

Seasonal Sappy Thoughts



I love writing. Not only do I get to learn something (or a plethora of things) daily but I really enjoy being able to support and promote friends. I of course never expect anything in return. As the iconic Daphne Guinness said to me last week through her lace veil (natch), "Darling if you can't give freely, why bother giving at all?" Those words really stuck. Even in her surreal filtering of life, she can really hit home. I was impressed. It just goes to show ONCE AGAIN that fashion people aren't all frocks and feathers.

Today, toiling away at my desk filing two stories, arguing with an editor about another and trying to sort the chaos of post Basel piles, the buzzer rang. I got to the door to find a gentleman with a giant orchid in hand. I pulled away the plastic and ribbons to find a note from J Alexander. I had interviewed him for The Moment when his book launched several weeks back and had an amusing time doing it. He is always such a treat.

Frankly, the note brought me to tears. What wit! What thought... and it's just what I needed as I coast into a world of writing full time nervous, anxious and totally excited. Thank you Miss J.
Indeed- MORE, MORE!

Turkey Day at The Castle














Success!
I had 23 people at the house and we got everyone around the table!
Well, Oscar and his crew ran late so by the time they came we were done and they got in on seconds but we SQUEEZED in and got our turkey on.

Justin came over Wednesday afternoon and we made the mad dash to Fairway (which wasn't bad amazingly) got our 18 pound turkey and punkin pie ingredients and headed home to set up and get to cookin. We had drinks with Rod, ordered hot wangs from Pizza 123 and passed out at 10:30!

Thursday we got going at 8am and started drinkin at 10! People trickled in from 3-6 (ahem!)
Food was heated, turkey stuffed and we got everyone seated before we got our feast on.

Alistair and Bea stuffed their faces and then were glued to Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving.
Later we played two party games:
Where is the weirdest place you had sex?
What do you want for Christmas?

The answers caused lots of good giggles and scandal!
Around midnight Anne rolled in with Rebekah Maysles (you know her- her dad made Grey Gardens!) and finished off the rest of the wine. Yale made a special appearance too all the way from Canada.

At 2:30 the pah-tay wound down, the sink was full and so was I!
A good time was had by all.

Now on to Christmas!

Nicky Haslam's Book launch and other sordid events







Last Thursday I had quite the night. After an interesting studio visit at Nicholas Caito’s for Full Frontal, I met PR guru Rachel Shechtman at Bill’s Gay 90’s for martinis and fries before we popped by EBay’s pop up store (cute!).
Then I peeled off to The Pierre for Nicky Haslam’s book launch.
I was excited to attend because:
1) I have heard so much about Nicky in Vanity Fair and from Philip
2) I was uber curious to see the new Caprice

Upon entering the bustling bar area I bump into Fran Leibowitz, knock into Elsa Klench, nearly step on Mica Ertegun’s slipper and nearly spill champagne on Bob Colacello. Wheew! What a crew to see in the first minute and what a small bar area to slither through! What a great group of people. A dying breed really. Just think, not one of them has a reality TV show!

But I made it out to the other end where I find photographer Todd Eberle. Hooray! Todd is one of my favorite people and we always have a blast together (enter foreboding!)
Next up we spy Rebecca Guinness who is tragically leaving our shores next week back to Blighty. I am so glad she is here so we get a bit more one on one time together before she sets sail.

Then there is Nicky. At 70 years old he has gone full leather daddy. Black blazer, black skinny jeans; white studded belt and black riding boots with Cat of Nine Tails whipping about from each side. Daring! He signs my book and sends his love to Philip.

Todd gives Nicky a big smooch and they trade books. Todd has a copy of his new book of photography he just launched that is fab! A funny, jolly older man comes up and starts rattling on to Becca. Who was that? “Barry Humphries, an old family friend!” explains Beccs. Yay Dame Edna!

After having a very Annette de la Renta dinner (i.e. five bites of passed tuna) and quite our fair share of bubbly, Todd and I bid the party farewell. We end up at the National Arts Club for a Terrence Koh reading where he spoke in gibberish for 30 minutes. It was funny at first but I had to go to the bar for another martini after about 5 minutes. But love him for being so whacky! Then we ended up at Maries Crisis Café for a drink, AND THEN we landed at the Boom Boom where I got to spend quality time with Joey, Camilla Staerk and Brian Coates. We rounded out the night with a giggly moment in the elevator with Bridget Berlin who is back out and about on the scene. Thank God. We need more old fun Warhol babes like her to keep it real.

I’m not telling you what time I got home but I will say, Nicky would be very impressed.

Lucy and Cator's Punchy Pernod Dinner Party
















People may remember several years back when Lucy and I hosted a Pernod party. A friend in the liquor industry owed me a favor and sent over ten cases of Pernod and a waiter. The night was a success! But we had about 9 cases of Pernod left to consume. It's not a hugely popular drink of choice and as much as we gave it away and offered it at parties, the Pernod was still lurking in bars, closets, under beds and in the kitchen.

Several weeks back we had a smaller dinner party and decided to take the plunge and have a full fledged Pernod dinner party to use up vast amounts of the stuff. Huzzah! We developed an amazing menu, we sent out invitations and dragged out all the bottles of Pernod we could find. And of course in typical Lucy/Cator fashion, it had to be a dueling townhouse event.

We started off with appetizers at my house.
Lucy rolled out some dumplings into shallot pancakes and I made an apple salsa (from the NYT recipes!) consisting of chopped apples, onions, ginger, parsley and soaked in Pernod. YUM!

Then we trekked to Lucy's for chicken marinated in Pernod with figs and olives, Fay's salad with Pernod dressing and french bread with Pernod lemon butter.
Treat!

It was all quite civilized until we headed back to my house for dessert. John (Lucy's new roomie who we love!) made a lemon pound cake but ditched the lemons for Pernod. Zing!

By this time several bottles of Pernod had been consumed by guests as well as beaucoup booze and wine. The dance party started then conga'd down to Rod and Philips for champagne and singing then back up here for fun with the inflatable turkey (!) and the nerf gun I bought for Justin. Nik was in town from DC (he's a buddy from Charleston who I spend every New Years with) with Sarah and it was so great to have him as a surprise guest.

Stephen and Tina swung by after their dinner party wrapped up and brought Steve's new action figure from Avatar. COOL! Fay got very excited...

After they left mayhem ensued, costumes were changed and SOMEONE rode a bike through my living room in his underwear. NOT me!

Alas, a good time was had by all!
Sadly as I was cleaning up today I opened the hall closet and found three more bottles of Pernod. Zut Alors.

Mexico Night One





Hola Y'all! Im back from Mexico and had quite an eye opening time. Ok I admit I admit! I never had a desire to go to Mexico. Isn't it polluted, dangerous and dirty?
I found it beautiful, lush, hospitable and FU U UN!

I am posting my daily Full Frontal Fashion hits here as well. But here is my first nights entree to Mexico City society.
Oscar, my host, invited me to an antique dealers home that was beyond lush. Champagne flowed, dinner was divine and an impromptu floral photo shoot wrapped up the incredible evening.

Ole!

Colin and Angela in Atlanta!











Last weekend I took my British besties to ATL for a speedy education in culture and my kin folk.
Boy did we twirl. And eat...And drink...

We landed last Thursday and instantly hit the Varsity- the greasy V!
That night mother made a home made Southern dinner
Dad brought out the moonshine. We sat on the dock in the dark and sipped and giggled. Heaven.

Friday was Cracker Barrel then a MOMENTOUS OCCASION- A visit to the Bass Pro Shop! We bought flannels for $10 (bite me Ralph Lauren!), practiced on the shooting range and gazed at the massive fresh water aquarium. Then we took a quick trip to Jacqueland and later a breezy boat ride. I dont think I have ever seen Colin's eyes grow so wide than when he saw dads boat. A floating living room! We polished off a bottle of red on that trip.

Friday night we went to the club for dinner and, inspired by all the boozy club members, decided to carry the party home where mother, Angela, Colin and I all imbibed Stingers until 130am. Zing!

Saturday was a day in town doing the Grandparent circuit seeing Yaiyai for Greek food and Pop & Dot for cocktails then Laura and her girls for dinner.

We ended the night at a loft party with a very festive Genene, Rosalind and Anthony.

Sunday we spent the day with mom and my Aunt Cator in Athens starting off with a big brunch and then a surprise bottle of champagne.
HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY COLIN AND ANGELA!
It was a year ago that day I flew from Russia to Bristol to celebrate their wedding.

After a tour of the campus and town we headed downtown and dropped them off at the apartment they had rented for the night to celebrate and then I headed to the airport.

Sadly we never made it to Chic-Fil-A.
Oh the sadness! They must return!!!!

Cracklin' Kinderhook












People always make fun of me for planning things so far in advance. Ill send a save the date two months ahead and an invitation a month ahead. Obviously these people simply aren’t as busy as I am. But Lucy is. We planned this trip in July to visit her parents in Kinderhook. With all her weddings to attend and my social swirling this was the only time to squeeze it in!
Alas, it was well worth the wait.

Her parents moved up here from Bedford last February and love every minute of it. Their house is the Old Columbia Academy, built in 1797 and was later turned into a residence. Tina has done a fab job with the interiors with nary a corner untouched with something creative and cozy (and I mean that with the utmost respect! Copper candle sticks and vintage family photos abound!). And the yard has the best garden in town, so I discovered last night at dinner.

We drove up yesterday morning and it took us no time to drop off the bags and walk into town for a fall festival. There was kettle corn, local produce and a banjo/kazoo crew jamming out in the town square.

In case you didn’t know, Henry Hudson named Kinderhook when he dropped anchor in his now Namesake river in 1609 and a gaggle of Native American kids perched at the corner of the river to watch- hence- Kinder Hook- Children’s Corner. This is also the birthplace of Martin Van Buren, our countries 11th President. We didn’t have a chance to visit his house but we did pop by his grave on our morning walk.
After our time in town and a quick meal of hamburgers, hotdawgs, cheese soup (score!) and apple muffins, we headed back to the house to collect Lucy’s father and headed over to Hudson. As you all know I am quite familiar with Hudson and adore it. We tooled around the shops, found some great finds (shhh Christmas presents!) and even stumbled upon Hunt Slonem’s auction of his upstate mansion. Hunt is a favorite painter of mine and I’ve always ogled at images of his densely furnished Gothic Revival homes. Randomly we found a pile of Henry Hudson mask's commemorating his sail up the Hudson. He was a great addition to dinner!

Around 6pm we headed home, popped open some wine and started cookin.
Pork Tenderloin
Brussels Sprouts from the garden
Kale and Spinach from the garden
Purple potatoes from the market.
Yum!
Afterwards Lucy and I read our Vogue’s together commenting on errant fashion choices and layouts before having a good goss before heading to bed in the comfy country at 11pm.

This morning I peeled myself out of bed to watch my favorite show in the world- CBS Sunday Morning before downing another apple muffin and then taking a speedy walk through orchards and farmhouses and graveyards (Hey Martin!) with Lucy for an hour.

Not people to sit on our Laurels we bathed, dressed and popped by their neighbors home for a Bloody Mary. Tim and Nik have an amazing house, and in keeping with my Hunt Slonem moment yesterday, have decorated in a Neo-Gothic period (maybe with a splash of Gothic Revival?!). THEN we made a big ole frittata from last nights leftovers, imbibed a bottle of white and then headed out with Tina and Stephen to the Thomas Cole home.

Ole Cole was one of the founders of the Hudson River School movement (with Frederick Church, whose home Olana is another fave up here). It wasn’t as grand as Olana but interesting all the same. And the views he had of the Catskill’s are quite enviable. The house just received a big grant so they will be rebuilding old studios, revamping gardens and sprucing up the interiors. Can you believe after all that we had to dash to the train station for the 4:40? There we ran into a gaggle of gays who I know from Manhattan who have houses up here. We boarded, sat down and passed out.
I know, I know, it doesn’t sound like a relaxing weekend to most, but hey, I can watch the leaves turn from my urn one day!
Thank you La Lang’s for a most pleasurable weekend away. Can’t wait for the next.

Dandy in the Daily Telegraph



As I always say- people if you want to get out there you have to be out there!
I met Melissa several weeks back at the Standard Grill. We were having dinner with Lucy McIntyre and instantly
fell in love. What is it with me and English girls? Their accent? Looks? Humor? Love of horses?
Regardless we hit it off and she asked me if she could interview me for her new column about eccentric New Yorkers.
Sign me up!
After drinks at mine and a wild and indulgent night at Melba's we had a story.
Check it out here.
Enjoy!
(click the title above to read)