A Cinematic Moment in the Middle of my Sex and the City Interview

The week my blog turned 10 years old, I got an email from the New York Post asking to interview me for an article about Sex and the City. This seemed like an exuberant high-five of synchronicity, of course I said yes.

I couldn’t help but wonder…what would I be asked in an interview about Sex and the City?

The interview took place over the phone. I was out and about on Friday evening, running errands in Soho, when the Post called me. I stepped off onto a side street with little foot traffic, and paced the block answering questions about Fleet Week and the “zsa zsa zsu” phase the show coined.

I’d just finished telling Dana Schuster that SATC delivered the fantasy of a city swarmed with sexy sailors for Fleet Week… when the reality is that when you give them a second look, most of them are awkward teenagers. Most of these men in uniform can’t even drink and still have adolescent acne!

Literally as I was on the phone, being interviewed about Sex and the City, specifically about Fleet Week and the unrealistic expectations the show elevated, a foursome turned the corner and walked right my way.

Not a Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, Samantha foursome, nope! 

A sexy sailor foursome!

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New York Cliché of the Day: Everyone Leaves the City for Memorial Day Weekend

The New York cliché is everyone leaves town for Memorial Day weekend. Residential parts of Manhattan can feel eerily empty while touristy areas are awash with crowds (and sailors: see yesterday’s post).

I escaped to a Connecticut beach for the one hot day this weekend. It was glorious, with an all-American barbecue and sand between my toes.

Happy Memorial Day. Hope you had a relaxing holiday weekend! Summer’s unofficially arrived!

[Replay Cliché] The Fantastic Allure of a Man in Uniform: Fleet Week NYC

Originally posted May 2016. It’s the middle of Fleet Week 2018, you’ll find sailors all over NYC destinations this weekend!

It’s that time of year. Every May, after the last white cherry blossoms blow off the trees, men in white hats blow into New York City. Expect seamen jokes from every media outlets and most ladies in Times Square. That’s right folks, it’s Fleet Week NYC. The ships arrive today and stay through Memorial Day.

“There’s something about a man in uniform.”

Expect to hear that phrase a lot this week. What is it about men in uniform? Especially the sailor suit that harkens to what two year-olds wear to weddings? I have theories:

The uniform fits him perfectly.

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photo: newyork.com

Men wearing close that fit them, it’s a sight for sore eyes. I still have PTSD from the tragic sagging pants trend. While more fitted styles have blessedly become more in fashion, it’s still not common place to see a nice ass accentuated by a nice pair of pants. Until you’re walking behind a group of sailors. Fellas can lie to themselves and their dating profiles, claiming to be 6′ tall, but not the US armed services! They’ll cut a man’s uniform to actually fit his 5’10 frame, saving 2 inches of fabric bunching around his ankles, and the end result actually makes him look taller. The superior posture drilling into him during basic training is attractive too. Read More

Weekly New York Minutes #19

Every Friday I feature some fleeting moments from my week that made me stop and think, “I’m so lucky to live in NYC!” And maybe some that made me think, “Bahaha this city is ridiculous and I love it.” Here we go for this beautiful week of May…

There is new public art at Rockefeller Center! It’s a book with wings titled “Uraeus” by sculptor Anselm Kiefer. You can read all about the artist intention with this work here, or you can be like me, unable to see this as anything but a Harry Potter homage. A physical HP book had a baby with a Golden Snitch and it’s perfect! Read More

New York Cliché of the Day: I Heart an Iconic “I HEART NY” Shirt

I bought an I ♥ NY shirt on an 8th grade class trip to NYC. We went to the top of the Empire State Building and I bought it in the gift shop. It was a child’s large and it basically fit me like the baby doll tees that were trendy at this time in 2000 (Class of 2000 4 Eva!). I took that shirt back to San Francisco and wore the shit out of it. I started crushing on NYC on that school trip. Wearing my I HEART NY shirt was basically the equivalent of writing my crush’s name all over my notebooks. It was retro and classic and I thought it went with everything.

That summer I went to my first concert (Blink 182 Roxx!). I freaked out before that I had nothing to wear to my first concert! It was right around my birthday so my aunt generously took me to American Eagle, her son’s favorite store, to find something to wear. I tried on maybe two things before declaring everything in the store too fucking preppy! I’d wear my trusty I♥NY instead. Yes, I was a 14 year-old girl whose aunt offered to buy her any outfit at American Eagle, and I turned it all down for a souvenir t-shirt. Hella punk rock, right?  Read More

My Blog is TEN Years Old Today and Could Use Your Help!

Oh hey, did you hear? My blog is ten years old today! It’s kind of the only thing I’ve been talking about all week!!

Happy Birthday new York Cliche!

To celebrate I did something I’m excited about and also scared. It’s something I’ve thought about doing many times in these ten years but always talked myself out of it…

WHAT HAVE I DONE!??

I, Mary Lane, blogger of 10 years, just launched my very first crowd funding campaign. EEP!

 

If you are in the arts scene in NYC in any way, this may come as a surprise. How the hell has it taken me this long to have launched a crowd funding campaign!? I couldn’t help but wonder… can you even call yourself an NYC creative if you never attempted some spectacular failure of a Patreon page?  Read More