matty

Dashboard Confessional, Stolen

Exit, U2

You know he got the cure
You know he went astray
He used to stay awake
To drive the dreams he had away
He wanted to believe
In the hands of love

His head it felt heavy
As he cut across the land
A dog started crying
Like a broken hearted man
At the howling wind
At the howling wind

He went deeper into black
Deeper into white
Could see the stars shining
Like nails in the night
He felt the healing
Healing, healing
Healing hands of love
Like the stars shiny shiny
From above

Hand in the pocket
Finger on the steel
The pistol weighed heavy
His heart he could feel
Was beating, beating
Beating, beating oh my love
Oh my love, oh my love
Oh my love

My love

Saw the hands that build
Can also pull down

The hands of love

Alicia Keys, No One / Freedom

I just want you close
Where you can stay forever
You can be sure
That it will only get better
You and me together
Through the days and nights
I don’t worry ‘coz
Everythings gonna be alright
People keep talking
They can say what they like
But all I know is everything’s gonna be alright

No one no one no one
Can get in the way of what I’m feeling
No one no one no one
Can get in the way of what I feel for you
You you
Can get in the way of what I feel for you

When the rain is pouring down
And my heart is hurting
You will always be around
This I know for certain

You and me together
Through the days and nights

I don’t worry cause
Everythings gonna be alright
People keep talking
They can say what they like
But all I know is everything’s gonna be alright

No one no one no one
Can get in the way of what I’m feeling
No one no one no one
Can get in the way of what I feel for you
You you
Can get in the way of what I feel for you

I know some people search the world
To find something like what we have
I know people will try
Try to divide
Something so real
So till the end of time
I’m telling you that

No one no one no one
Can get in the way of what I’m feeling
No one no one no one
Can get in the way of what I feel for you
oh oh oh …

espresso

Sent from my iPhone

Did You Ever Look so Nice, The Samples

We were children in our places
with the world beneath our feet
and growing up was on our faces
i remember yours so sweet

did you ever look so nice?
did you ever look so nice?

But every turn became our future
there for us to make our bet
that the longer i remember
youre still the hardest to forget

did you ever look so nice?

if we make it through these changes
find that nothing was in stone
but the glance of our exchanges
did they ever look so nice?

did you ever look so nice?

:: Google Music

European Vacation, by Jeremy Blacklow

Woman in window, Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre, Italy

City of Arts & Sciences, Valencia, Spain, designed by architect Santiago Calatrava

Jeremy Blacklow and Dustin Woehrmann, Infinity pool, just outside of Mykonos

Reinvention 2007.

No matter what you did,
No matter who you are,
No matter where you’ve come from….
You can always......change....
become a better version of yourself.

Ripe, Ben Lee

The moon sheds light across the end of the bed
You made me wait but now I’m touching your leg
And I remember all the little things you said
Quesadillas made with cheese
And a rock band who were Japanese

And for once
In my life
I saw what I wanted
And took a bite
I picked the fruit
From the tree
And it was ripe

Your love got big
Your jokes got worse
Each afternoon
Like bacon at a barmitzvah
Like a lead balloon
And who’s to say what really
happened in that room each day
I was looking for a bride
You were looking for a groom

And for once
In your life
You saw what you wanted
And took a bite
You picked the fruit
From the tree
And it was ripe

And all you people are the heroes i’ve known
Were staring off the edge, into the unknown
We are not there yet
But we cannot got home
So we cry and we sing
Yeah I remember everything

And for once
In our life
We saw what we wanted
And took a bite
We picked the fruit
From the tree
And it was ripe

:: Ben Lee, Blog
:: Ben Lee.com

Boring, The Pierces

:: Luxury!

Pandora's Box, 1991

Born in kansas
On an ordinary plain
Ran to new york
But ran away from fame
Only seventeen
When all your dreams came true
But all you wanted
Was someone to undress you

And all the stars you kissed
Could never ease the pain
Still the grace remains
And though the face has changed
Youre still the same

And its a long long way
From where you want to be
And its a long long way
But you're too blind to see

Frame of silence
Of an innocence divine
Is a dangerous creation
When you fail the test of time

And all the photographs
Of ghosts of long ago
Still they hurt you so
Wont let you go
And you still don't know

And its a long long way
From where you want to be
An its a long long way
But you're to blind too see

When you look around yourself now
Do you recognize the girl
The one who broke a thousand hearts
Terrified the world

And all the stars you kissed
Could never ease the pain
And if the face has changed
The grace remains
And you're still the same

And its a long long way
From where you want to be
An its a long long way
And you're too blind to see...

:: Holla to Kerry Weeks, my girlfriend in high school who just found me about a week ago. Kerry and I had an incredible time our Junior and Senior years of high school running around Westfield, NJ and Long Beach Island.....good times, right Ker? Kerry is married now and I can't wait to see her! Picture above was when I was 17 or 18...not sure which.

VMan

:: Latest issue of VMan now on newstands

Daughtry Live

Sent from my iPhone

Provincetown 2007

:: Shout out to Bryan Harper from Boston. Thanks for sending the picture :)

Typepad & iPhone App

:: The brilliance continues

Chris Daughtry, Live

:: Snapped this morning as I walked out of the subway near the Apple Store & CBS studios. They were setting up for Chris' live performance at noon today. Love the iPhone camera.

friday night lights

020, originally uploaded by :: matty ::.

Apple & Starbucks

:: Absolute Genius.

Ralph's Fashion Moment, WWD

Who hasn't mused on what it might be like to step for a moment into that renowned, rareified world of Ralph Lauren's creation, the one depicted in those glorious Bruce Weber photographs? Nearly 500 people got the chance on Saturday night when Lauren invited them to the Conservatory Garden, a jewel of a spot way up on 105th and Fifth Avenue in Central Park -a world away from typical fashion crowd scenes.

Arriving guests walked past a pair of urns spilling over with vibrant pink hydrangeas that flanked the Vanderbilt Gate, the ironwork masterpiece that in its previous life kept the railroad magnate sequestered safely from hoi polloi curiosity while in his 58th Street manse. At Lauren's fete, no drama getting through, each guest treated like a movie star, a sip of Champagne and then into a grand white tent appointed simply in sleek black and white (albeit with a colorfully horsey Edwardian runway backdrop), where the people-watching was as delightful as the A.C. (Hey, everybody, take a lesson. This isn't Europe.) The front row shone with star wattage, but not of the typical I'll-show-for-a-free-dress actress ilk. Rather, Lauren's A-list weighed heavily toward New Yorkers important in various fields, starting with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his girlfriend Diana Taylor, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, Charlie Rose, Martha Stewart, Dustin Hoffman and his wife, Lisa, Stephen Schwarzman, Robert De Niro, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, not to mention the ultrasupportive competition - Donna Karan, Carolina Herrera, Vera Wang and Diane von Furstenberg.

In response to the invitation's request for black tie, many women turned up, not surprisingly, in black. But there was also a big showing of white with a shot of silver here or there in the crowd, which played uncannily to one of the evening's leitmotifs - the Ascot scene from "My Fair Lady," the soundtrack of which played in the background. And why not? That Anglo gentility has always featured prominently in Lauren's work, and he and Eliza Doolittle herself, Audrey Hepburn, became friends back when he designed her clothes for a PBS series on gardens. (The show-opening song, however - "Boring" by The Pierces was atypical Ralph, with lyrics that delighted the audience: "Galliano, Donatella, Dolce & Gabbana - boring.")

The party celebrated Lauren's 40th anniversary in the fashion business, and his remarkable ride from a drawer full of ties at the Beau Brummel showroom to the clout implicit in taking over six acres of Central Park for a night. It also gave ample credence to Lauren's oft-stated professional mantra: "I do what I do." At various times object of both laudation and lampoon in this most mercurial of industries, Lauren has ultimately thrived without compromise.

That focus led him to note last week: "This is also a working event. I'm doing a collection. It's not a separate party." Invariably when a designer links two such occasions he risks having the fete trump the show. But here, Lauren turned out a fabulous collection, one that strutted his signatures left, right and center without turning archival; these clothes were all about next spring. He opened with an au courant ode to Audrey - a curvy, white gown trimmed in ribbons and worn under a big hat. Out next: a dapper his-for-her look setting up a ladies-gents counterpoint that continued throughout. Impressionistic garden party gowns offered a waft of the Thirties, while slick and yellow sportswear revved up the mood. And Lauren celebrated the horsey life not only with paint-splashed jodhpurs but with vibrant silk prints that worked as well for a saucy cocktail dress as for a sleek jockey jacket. He finished with a stunner: a silver chain-beaded gown.

After the show, Lauren took a long bow, stopping to accept congratulations along the way. He was then joined by his wife, Ricky, and, as they reached the models' exit, the backdrop opened to reveal the spectacular outdoor party setting.

Then, the crowd followed the couple into the elegant garden, made only more so by hundreds of hurricane lamps, 11 chandeliers, custom Ralph Lauren linens and napkins and 10 more of those 400-pound urns filled with truckloads of pink hydrangeas.

"Is this what it's like every year?" asked Karan. "Because if so, I'm never showing again. I'm canceling my show, I've already made the call."

Indeed, no expense was spared - 700 bottles of Champagne were on hand for the crowd, which included John Mellencamp and Elaine Irwin, Clarissa and Edgar Bronfman, Bruce Weber, Robert Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Mary, and the Lauren children. Of course, Stewart stopped one waiter proffering caviar to ask, "Who did the catering?" FYI, it was Olivier Cheng.

Bloomberg, admittedly not the world's most devoted fashion follower, paid tribute to Lauren for his civic contribution to the city. "If you called central casting and said, Find me a great New Yorker, they would send Ralph Lauren," he said. "When the city needs something, Ralph Lauren is always there." Perhaps now it's time for the mayor, who did not dress in a Lauren suit, to return the favor. "I am potentially his worst client," Bloomberg said with a laugh. "I have some shoes and shirts."

There were plenty of other clotheshorses in attendance to make up for the mayor's lack. The best thing about Ralph Lauren, said Hoffman, is that "if you're short, you don't have to have anything altered. I'm telling you the truth," he said, tugging at his suit, "this is right off the rack."

Chances are that SJP's spangly Ralph Lauren frock was not, but the actress still enthused about the designer. "[Ralph] personifies classic design and has created an elegant lifestyle for people to be a part of - even if you're not really a part of it."

Both Sawyer and Walters praised him for his humility. "He rarely gives interviews, you know. He doesn't like to talk about himself," Walters explained. "But he is the American dream."

Police Commissioner Kelly agreed: "His is a classic American story. It's what this country is all about."

Maybe it was the bubbly combined with the sultry heat - or that interminably long cocktail portion before dinner, the one hiccup of the night - but superlatives did seem called for. Wang, who first met Lauren when she interviewed for a design job, was not surprised at all by the lavishness of the affair. "Ralph's life has been so successful," she said. "He's like the hedge-fund guy of fashion. He's like Google."

With Dean Martin crooning over the sound system and the garden fountain streaming high into the air, guests ascended to the terrace, lit with thousands of candles, for a supper of herbed haricots verts, New Zealand lamb and wild strawberry shortcake. "I can't believe I'm living this life," Lauren said. Yes, but if this is the manner in which he celebrates 40, how on earth will he top it at 50? "I think I'll take a rest first," he said with a smile.

Ralph Lauren Spring 2008 Fashion Show

NEW YORK, September 8, 2007 – It was a fashion spectacle to end all spectacles. To celebrate his 40th anniversary in business, Ralph Lauren staged an extraordinarily lavish runway show and black-tie after-party in the Central Park Conservatory Saturday night. And it wasn't only celebrities or moguls—everyone from Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman to Sarah Jessica Parker and Diane Sawyer to Mayor Michael Bloomberg—who came out to support him. His designer peers—Vera and Carolina and Diane and Donna—did, too. Afterward, Karan joked, "I'll tell you what I'm not going to do: After that, I'm not going to have a show!"

As for the clothes, Lauren said, "I drew upon everything I ever loved, and that was it." He touched upon many of his best-known signatures, including haberdashery, equestrian themes, and Anglophilia, but this wasn't a greatest-hits collection—there's a Rizzoli book coming out next month that will cover all that. The show started in black and white: a ruffle-hemmed gown cut higher in the front to flash sexy fishnets and worn with a picture hat straight out of My Fair Lady, followed by a man's re-proportioned houndstooth jacket, waistcoat, and full-leg pants. From there, the designer worked his way through exuberantly colorful floral-print silk-georgette evening dresses and equally vibrant jockey wear. Before finishing with a red-carpet stunner in swagged silver chain and tulle, he sent out a group of taffeta dresses in bold primaries that stood out for their simplicity.

When all 72 looks had come and gone, a tuxedoed Lauren took an emotional stroll down the runway, greeting well-wishers and drawing wife Ricky to his side. The scene was accompanied by a standing ovation and Frank Sinatra's The Best Is Yet to Come. And to prove it, the painted backdrop parted to reveal a candlelit garden with tables for 400 guests. Hollywood couldn't have executed a grander, more cinematic moment.

– Nicole Phelps, Style.com

:: Backstage & Model pictures at Style.com

"Like a Henry James character, he (Lauren) is the last true idealist about America's imagination of itself," said Harold Koda, curator at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "That makes him the greatest ambassador of American style."

:: Article from AP

Provincetown 2007

provincetown 2007 Gray Clark Eric Michael 165, originally uploaded by :: matty ::.

Photos posted!

September

Steven Johnson, via Scott Heiferman: "September... even now that I've been out of school for almost fifteen years, I still have this vestigial sense of excitement every year right about now -- the sense that a new semester's about to start with all its possibilities"

How was everyone's summer? Just got back from an extremely enjoyable and relaxing time with close friends in Connecticut, Martha's Vineyard & Provincetown. Flickr photos to come shortly.

Don't miss the US Open this week, look for the big pony :)