This actually exists. Seriously.

Any other readers of the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book out there?  I am far from clear whether there is an actual Neiman Marcus store near my apartment, but the Christmas book still gives me good entertainment on an annual basis.  If you’re unfamiliar with the book, Neiman Marcus goes out of its way every year to put on a good show.  Yes, there’s some stuff in there that normal people might actually want to buy.  But there’s also always a whole parade of preposterous Christmas gifts that someone might buy, but certainly no one I know.

This is my favorite of this year’s preposterous gifts.  It’s not anything like the most expensive at a mere $25,000, but isn’t it great to imagine someone actually going to the trouble of designing and building these things for a Christmas catalog?

Dawn at Oquaga Lake... Life is hard.

Fall returns!  I don’t know about you folks, but I am feeling an urgent need to live it up, as I fear that this may be the last of it that we get.  Last week’s sojourn in late November was in no way enjoyable.  If any of you haven’t made it out of the city for a little fall color yet, here’s a little vicarious foliage for you with the second half of my trip to the Catskills.

After our trip to Storm King, we drove west to Deposit, New York, to stay at the Chestnut Inn at Oquaga Lake.  If you’re looking for a weekend getaway with your honey, I can’t say enough nice things about the Chestnut Inn.  It was, quite frankly, so romantic that the boy and I started speculating on the things that would have to happen next if it was a movie.  You know, tragic misunderstanding — one of us diagnosed with terminal illness — we catch Legionnaire’s Disease from the two-person jacuzzi tub.  (On second thought, that last would be more of a slapstick comedy.)  Deposit’s a bit out of the way (it was about two hours from Storm King), but well worth the trip.

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Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, NY!

Let’s hear it for fall!  Normally, I am a reluctant connoisseur of autumn. Yes, fall is great,but I am not one of those people who get really sick of light summer textiles before, say, November.  More importantly, fall also heralds the onset of winter, which I hate with a burning passion.  This year, though, I am enjoying it the hilt despite today’s awful East Coast drizzle.  Although I’ve done the fall foliage thing in New England and the Midwest in prior years, this last weekend was my first chance to explore the local resources during a trip to the Catskills.  Here are some of the highlights of our trip for folks looking to get out of the city this fall.

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Any interest in architecture or interior design? Or, you know, have a possibly prurient curiosity about how the other half lives?  This weekend is Open House New York‘s big annual weekend event.  I have to admit, I’ve been a bad New Yorker in this regard. Even though I’ve lived in New York since the event began (this is the seventh year), I had no idea it existed until about a month ago.  What a thing to miss!  This weekend (October 10 and 11), over 350 behind-the-scenes tours of New York buildings and architecture will be available completely free, including both private homes and public buildings.  Never gotten to see the inside of the Woolworth Building properly?  Here’s your chance.  All kinds of buildings in all five boroughs not  normally open to the public will be available for viewing this weekend.  Even if you’re feeling lazy or afraid to deal with the impending appalling MTA closures, chances are something interesting is open near you.

For a list of the open sites and tours, check out the event guide here.

Ready for next week’s opening of “Where The Wild Things Are”?  I am!  What kid didn’t love that book?  Since its publication in 1963, it’s been a treasured part of the childhood of generations of children.  I’m really hoping the movie does it justice.

Since it doesn’t open until October 16, however, we still have a bit of a wait.  If you’re looking to psych yourself up for it in the mean time, try checking out the Animazing Gallery in Soho (corner of Greene and Broome Streets).  From now through November 8, the gallery is hosting a Sendak in Soho exhibition including more than 200 pieces from Sendak’s own collection ranging from art for the Where The Wild Things Are opera, sketches, art from the book, and limited edition etchings.  I stopped in this weekend and was lucky to walk out without a lithograph in my hand.  Do I need a Sendak illustration?  No.  But that was probably the coziest exhibition I have ever been to.  All the illustrations you loved as a kid, the pictures that made the book so memorable — they’re there.  It was like being in the best decorated nursery in the world.  These are possibly the most adorable illustrated monsters in the history of children’s literature.

If you’re not looking to buy and don’t mind the admissions fee, the Morgan Library is also hosting a Sendak retrospective of pieces borrowed from the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia.   I haven’t had the chance to check that out yet, but the exhibition is designed to show Sendak’s creative process and includes pencil drawings and preliminary sketches for the book.

Let the wild rumpus start!

Dealing with addiction is one of our biggest ongoing public health problems, but did you ever imagine that addicts could be vaccinated against their addictions?  Unlikely though it sounds, the National Institute on Drug Abuse announced yesterday that an experimental vaccine to prevent cocaine users from getting high on the drug is showing promise.  (For a full discussion, see the Scientific American article here.)  The vaccine apparently works by triggering antibodies that bind to the cocaine molecules, preventing them from passing through the blood-brain barrier and as a result preventing the user from getting high.  Although the vaccine still has a number of issues to be worked out (for now, its effects are only temporary, and it’s not effective on everyone), this is potentially a huge step forward in treating addiction.

Aside from the tiny part of me that is saying “Spoilsports!” even though I’ve never had cocaine myself and have no desire to try it, I have to say that this sounds pretty cool.  I’m sure that this method will prove impossible to use on certain addictive substances just because of the chemistry, but still.   According to a quick Google, over 22 million Americans have substance abuse problems of some kind.  A tool that can give addicts some serious assistance in getting their addiction under control?  Fantastic.

Condé Nast announced yesterday that they were closing four magazines, shockingly including Gourmet.  (Click here for the NYT article on the subject.)  Cookie?  Never heard of it.  But Gourmet?  I was disappointed when Domino folded, but at least Domino was a relatively new magazine.  Gourmet is practically a grand dame by magazine standards, in print for nearly seventy years.  Wow.

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Yowza! From Herve Leger.

As I mentioned in my fall closet update post, I am allowing myself the frivolity of picking up one sequined piece.  Sequins have been in to varying degrees for several seasons now.  I’ve been drooling over them in concept, but somehow I’ve managed to make it to this fall without ever getting my fix.  Lucky for me, sequins are more fashionable than ever this fall, and the stores are bursting with pieces for every budget.  I still haven’t figured out which piece to add to my wardrobe, but my shopping has shown me that there is a lot of really great stuff out there.  After the jump, some of this fall’s best options for glitz.

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A silken touch of luxury. $58 at J. Crew.

Whooh!  The weather has turned crisp out there; I might even have to turn on the heat at some point.  In honor of our gorgeous fall weather, here’s a feature on scarves.  They’ve been in style all summer, but frankly, given some of the summer weather we had, there was no way I was putting anything around my neck that hadn’t just come out of the freezer.  Now?  They’re the perfect accessory.

The “new” thing, of course, seems to be snoods and infinity scarves (if you can bring yourself to call an item of clothing as old-fashioned as a snood “new” without snickering), but they for the most part look more warm and less pretty, so I’ll leave those for later in the season.  (Snoods?  Really?  Does anyone else feel like they might have to don a corset and several petticoats to wear one?)  I myself have christened the fall season by picking up the lovely at top, a long ombre scarf in soft, slightly crinkled sandwashed silk.  It’s worth noting that the scarf is available in different colors in stores than it is online; I fixed my orange craving by picking it up on Fifth Avenue in a gorgeous hue starting at peach and deepening to a dark burnt orange.  Could it be more fall?

The stores are full of scarves in ombre, tie-die, and perfect fall prints.  After the jump, a few of my favorites!

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Pair this with hard-core ankle boots, and... Get in my way. I dare you.

One of the (relatively) new kids on the block, Alexander Wang.  Wang, who won the CDFA/Vogue Fashion Fund award last year, put out his first full collection of women’s wear in 2007 and has been roaring through the fashion scene since.  His line so far?  These are clothes for the tough girl.  Wang himself has been quoted as saying that he designs for the “model, off-duty.”  Okay, I have to admit that strikes me as a bit much — it reminds me of some of the things I like least about high-end fashion — but it’s hard to argue with the clothes themselves.  They are hot — or alternatively cool, depending on which piece you pick.

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