29 January 2010

I still love New York

My Chrysler Building

I love Manhattan with a passion that straddles the zone somewhere between infatuation and lust. It's alternatively enraging and ecstasy-inducing. It's a feast of the high and the low, the sacred and the profane, the beautiful and the ugly. There's no where else on earth like it. New York summons the best from me, as strange as that sounds. When I'm running through those streets I feel compelled to think smarter, to work harder, to be more.

The Lexington Avenue entrance to the Chrysler Building

Well in two weeks I'll be in the throes of thinking smarter, working harder and being more. My great pals at Brizo have invited me back for another Fashion Week event. In precisely two weeks I'll be second guessing what I'm wearing to a top tier runway show. For the second time in six months I might add.

An elevator in the lobby of the Chrysler Building

Team Brizo has invited me and a whole host of my bloggery compatriots to attend a seminar, a similar seminar to the one I attended last fall. What's going to be really interesting about this one is that all of the attendees are designers with internet followings. Now I "know" but have never met most of the people who will be in New York for this Brizo happening. I cannot wait to get back to New York, that's for sure. But when you throw in the fact that I'm going to be able to hang out with most of my blogging and Twittering cohorts, it's almost too much to think about. I hope team Brizo's prepared to entertain one dynamic group of people. The energy! The synergy! The industry gossip! I cannot wait and I can't find words to describe how it feels to be part of such an august assembly. I look over the attendee list and I see the names of just about everybody whose work and whose words I respect and admire.

The lobby desk of the Chrysler Building

It's not unusual for a manufacturer to host a group of specifiers for a product education seminar. I have been to more than my share of them. For the most part, they're pretty sedate affairs. We get the chance to kick the tires of products we can't always see in person and the manufacturers get to interact with and get feedback from the people who specify their products. So far as I know though, no company has ever assembled a group of specifiers who are also social media influencers. More, Brizo picked all of us specifically because we're social media influencers. Clearly, this is a company that values transparency and wants to engage its customers directly. This is big. I like Brizo's products and I liked them even before any of this New York stuff started. But their embrace of new and social media makes me respect them as an organization. Thanks Brizo!

A stairwell in the Chrysler Building

Photography from New York Daily Photo by Brian Dubé

11 comments:

  1. I could not have said it better! The synergy of NY and the aforementioned company will be a shot of exhilaration directly into the veins. Looking forward to it although have started the stress cycle of " what in the world while I wear?? ( by way tough to post without a plain Jane option as my google acct is not my blog??? Ideas?)

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  2. Now if I had 'Yankie $$$$' I would have their product(s) throughout my home. (It is the exhange rate and our taxes that hurt! Fully aware it is not their fault...smiles.) My favs are the Talo and Teresa Collections.

    Re 'what to wear', my goodness man it is easy to see you live in Florida as we Canuks not only ponder the same question every Season but we have to do it every day.
    (Just teasing you Paul.)

    Counting down the days with you and wishing you a great time in the Big Apple.
    -Brenda-

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  3. Omg.. I might have to come to the states JUST to visit the Chrysler building! That elevator is gorgeous!

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  4. get OUT!?! I am thrilled for you! Hell, I'm excited and I'm not even the one going!

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  5. Cheryl: We are going to have some kind of time. I'm looking forward to our sessions, the formal ones almost as much as the informals!

    Breanda: Thanks!

    Nim: The Chrysler Building is in a league all its own. There is Art Deco and then there is the Chrysler Building. It has to be seen to be believed. I've never been anywhere but in the lobby and I cannot imagine what wonders are in the upper floors.

    Melody: Can you believe it? Me at another runway show. It's a hard life. let me tell you.

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  6. Still very jealous! The Chrysler Building is my favorite building-- When I went a year ago I got some really great shots of it. What a city! I'll be living vicariously through your blogs!

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  7. It's my favorite too, hands down. I can't get anywhere near the East Side of midtown and not be transfixed by it at every street crossing. Until about four years ago, you could walk into the lobby from the street and just walk around. Due to the enhanced security measures that have that city in their grasp, you can't just walk in anymore. I walked through it for the last time just before the lobby closed down to the public and I took about a hundred photos of the stonework on the walls and floors. The mural on the ceiling's really stunning too. Ahhhh, I can get carried away for hours with the myth and lore that surround that building.

    If you read any other kitchen design blogs, a bunch of us will be in New York together for this event. I'll be curious to read everybody's postings from that weekend.

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  8. Last February was the first time I was able to visit that great city so it was a real treat to be able to experience my favorite building. I was able to get into the lobby and take the same photo's of the stonework on the floors and walls as well... what a delight. When you come to Chicago for KBIS you might want to check out the Carbide and Carbon building on Michigan Ave. It is currently the Hard Rock Hotel, and they really ruined the lobby area, but there are still pockets of greatness. Art Deco is my favorite design period by far.

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  9. Brava! Did anybody give you hard time for walking in there? I got chased out the last time. The last couple of times. New York has a ton of Art Deco charmers, a ton of them.

    I haven't been to Chicago in at least ten years and I'm looking forward to a return.

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  10. No one chased me out, just wished I could have explored more than the lobby. I did the Empire State at night on the trip as well and that was great too. While here make sure you stop in the Cultural Center on Michigan and Washington, just across from Millennium park... A must see. It has the largest Tiffany dome in the world and mosaics to die for!

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  11. No one's been inside of that building who doesn't work there in decades. There aren't any public spaces or observation decks in it as there are in the Empire State or Rock Center. if the Empire State building weren't such a tourist trap, it would be a great place to explore. The lobby in that building's enormous and there's a lot of great stone and masonry work in it. The interior walls are made from terra cotta block, cinderblock hadn't been invented yet.

    I'm taking notes on all of these Chicago landmarks you're pointing out.

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