moma goes to brooklyn

Photo courtesy of happycorp

New York's Museum of Modern Art has taken over the Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street station in Brooklyn - by replacing ad space with reproductions of works from its permanent collection.

I'm all for exposing art to the masses, a la Transport for London's Platform for Art campaign. What's even cooler is the integration and thought process that went into such a well-rounded undertaking.

According to the Creativity article...

• Street teams handed out brochures and maps of the exhibit
• On the campaign website, visitors can download an audio tour for more info about 10 of the 58 pieces on display
• Calling a posted 1-800 number gives users additional information about the project and connects them with the membership department
  
• Typing in a three-digit code plays an audio track with artwork information
• Museum educators also offered tours of the subway exhibit

The exhibit, in conjunction with thehappycorp, runs through March 15th. If you're in NYC, be sure to check it out!

fifty and fabulous (exclamation point)

She'll probably be less than thrilled that I'm broadcasting this to the world, but today is my mom's 50th birthday. Know who else is turning the big 5-0 this year? Barbie.

She (Barbie, not my mom) will be celebrating the past five decades with various tie-ins and events. Here's what's slated for the icon of style:

• An Assouline look book
• Various partnerships with Fred Segal, including a line by Pat Field (!)
• 'Decades of Beauty' cans by Stila
• Third Avenue window and 50 Years of Barbie displays (the biggest public display in the U.S. to date) at Bloomingdale's on February 11th
• The Valentine's Day Barbie Runway Show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, including tributes by designers like Diane von Furstenburg and Anna Sui

I had a slew of Barbies growing up, including the original Midge and Skipper dolls, Barbie car and dream house that were my mom's. So I find it fitting that two of the coolest women are sharing a milestone birthday this year.

Here's to being fabulous at any age!

the visitor

In a world of six billion people, it only takes one to change your life.

That's the idea behind The Visitor (2008), a film I watched tonight with the fam and found deeply moving. Of course, I'm also a little biased because I'm a sucker for almost any movie shot in New York City. And anything involving drums.

Without giving away too much, I will say this: The Visitor is about college professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins), a Connecticut man who's excelled at carving out an empty existence since the death of his wife many years ago.

Until he returns to his old apartment in the Village to find foreign couple Tarek and Zainab (Haaz Sleiman and Danai Jekesai Gurira) taking up residence there.

While I try to avoid discussing politics at all costs, I have to admit that I've never been a fan of Customs/Border Patrol/Immigration. Maybe because when I was younger I always got searched as I traveled with my parents around Europe. And I was afraid of the menacing passport stamper person.

But The Visitor brings up some very valid issues, especially post 9/11. Despite what the trailer may lead you to believe, it's not a movie that will leave you warm and fuzzy all over.

But it will get you thinking.

whitney port does not a carrie bradshaw make

I'll be the first to admit that The Hills is one of my guilty pleasures. And that it used to actually be interesting. This past season I would watch it just to sharpen my sarcasm saw and shriek "are you kidding me?!" at the TV. All in good fun, really.

Until I saw this. The New York Post's Page Six dared ponder: Is Whitney Port the New Carrie Bradshaw?

If she is, I must be the Queen Mum. I'll be sure to let The Post know.

Out of the four Sex & the City girls, I've always related to (and loved) Carrie the most. So when I read the article, I think a little part of me died. She's an eloquent writer with equal amounts of optimism and sarcasm. And, of course, a fixation with fashion. Whitney? Not so much.

Here's The Posts's reasoning:

With The City's focus on friends, fashion, love life and nightlife—and with her caramel curls and joie de vivre—Whitney just might end up being NYC's new Carrie Bradshaw.

Don't get me wrong. Whitney was easily the most human-like character on The Hills. But after watching her never-before-seen initial interview at Teen Vogue with Lisa Love, I couldn't help but want to smack some sense into this poor girl. If you missed it, let's recap: Lisa Love asks Whitney who her favorite designers are, to which Whitney replies along the lines of "I don't have any."

But, as we all know, she got the internship anyway. True, Carrie also worked at Vogue. The real Vogue. If she had interviewed, she would have waxed poetically about Prada and Jimmy Choo for hours. Carrie would have rather been caught dead in a scrunchie and Candie's in Jersey than tell a Vogue editor she had no favorite designers.

It looks like Miss Port has some big Manolos to fill.