Shoeless and Crackless

I met Jeffrey on the corner of 49th and 7th in Times Square as he politely came up to me asking how much a cone was and reaching into his Big Gulp cup'o'cash handbag. I traded him a chocolate for a pic and he cheerfully posed for me before disappearing underground. Barefoot and unencumbered Jeffrey has it SO RIGHT I wonder where I went wrong with my life. I remember feeling free as a bird walking barefoot in Times Square in 2005 after some wannabe Sex in the City stilleto-ed date night with my than boyfriend. 6 years later I've dropped the man but still cling desperately to the implementation of shoes. Than along comes Jeffrey in his delicately tattered cottons, polar fleece tiger print blankie, twinkling spanish cross bling and XXL yamaka. Hashtag winning Jeffrey hashtag winning my hashtag heart.

HASHTAG ALERT!
#thesecracklebyOPInailsaregonnabeeverywherethisspringkeepaneyeoutandgetonthewaitinglistnow!

I saw this retro "crackle" manicure look several times today and finally got 'the scoop" with our lovely hand model Alicia. She said she had to get on a waiting list and that there is a silver shade coming soon. I'm going to have to get on the list so I can sport the "shattered glass" look to match the inevitable fate of my side mirrors. It's also handy that this trend caters to my notoriously busted service job manicures.

Return to Odd

Wow I just remembered I had this blog and that I love this blog. Gonna jump back in the embossed, tassled, vagazzled saddle and bring you my favs from my lunch spot on 46th and 6th and my nighttime hustle. I predict pastel workshirted cubicle crib crybabies and habedasheried hobos will feature prominently. Stay Looney Tuned for my first post:: scouring the streets as I write this!

I'm Proud to Be an American

Deepest apologies for the lag in updates: My laptop was stolen off my truck over the weekend and I have not had access to the internet or my photos until now...it took me 5 long days fighting the miser within to suck it up and buy a new computer.  I will NOT be bringing this on the truck with me so updating my photos on-the-go is a sad past time, I'm afraid, but I will be diligent about sharing my anthropological finds on the daily.  So we left off on none other than Independence Day.  Business was insane of course: I was parked on 44th and 11th with a delicious view of the fireworks, a delectable coating of chocolate and and an eye for the style of our heartland.  I managed to snap these few photos in between rushes of some all-american heros letting their flags fly high.  I have the utmost respect for the red white and blue in all her incarnations and am a huge fan of rocking American Pride wear year long.  Note my sweet post for the fire display! I am wearing a sequined Confederate Flag vest (which I was certain would start some fights) and perched high atop my dear Betsy where I caused quite the stir from the pedestrians below.

These are just plain good looks.  Especially the leather bumble bee necklace pouch.  This is Derek, 24 (seriously guys?  24?) Janet, 24 (liars) and Zoe 24, (maybe legit).  They all study design @ Parsons.  As 24 year olds. Well kids, your next assignment is to return to my truck in your most over the top FRUITS gear.  I can tell you have it in you.  Lets brighten these grey slabs we call home, k?

Applique Critique

Meet Jo Owens.   Jo is wearing an outfit of her own design and explained to me how she was rejected from Project Runway but received alittle press for being the oldest person in line.  I have always been a fan of oversized 80's craft appliques and Jo's outfit really stuck out to me.  Something about it brings me back to my Little Miss _____ pageant days and my mother's decorating style which was very cottage/country/americana for a brief period in the 90s. Take note that her hat also had a sequiney applique, it just doesn't show up in this photo.  Pure overstatement, far beyond style. Jo is a sculptor and designer and a very effusive and charming woman.  Check her stats @ www.artbyjo.com

iLook

Here are the cheap sunglasses in question: and the outfit I'm rocking while slanging.  The H&M neon yellow mesh piece on the left side is hanging up to dry after my chocolate spewed all over me first thing this morning...it was supposed to be my cover up but now my ass is very much on display beneath my In Gear genie pants. Oh well, we all know sex sells, especially on a rainy day like today.

We Sure Look Good in Our Cheap Sunglasses

As any of you following my Twitter ,@punky_n_betsy know, I had an absolutely insane day yesterday.  After oh so many things went wrong with my truck, a small ray of sunshine called Lisa arrived at my window and invited me to pull  up to Gavin Brown's enterprise, a  gallery in the West Village, for an opening.  Desperate to leave the spot early after I had been handed a violation and hearing ticket by an officer, I gratefully accepted the invite to what sounded like a fun and lucrative affair.  I was not disappointed when I pulled up to bangin' BBQ and growing mob of absolutely gorgeous people.   Piles of Legos being assembled by fathers and sons, a woman mopping up a gigantic melting ice cube and a bust of The Incredible Hulk are the images that stick out in my mind  from my brief foray into the swarm of heavily styled art elite.  Despite the myriad of couture confections I witnessed, these two young and bright creatures, Michael and Seanna took the cake from the crowd.  I immediately stopped Michael when I noticed he was wearing an identical pair of glasses to my own multicolored Lolita heart frames I got at one of my favorite stores, Rainbow.  Rainbow is a regular stop on my daily routine at this point.  If I haven't been able to make it home before work I always hit up my local Rainbow for a quick, poppy eye catching outfit.  The merchandise is disposably inexpensive,  very important since most of the clothing I buy will be unwearable or at least slightly tattered after a day of being splattered in chocolate, smeared in grease and soaked in sweat, side symptoms of my incredibly glamorous job.  Michael and I shared a lovely moment over our love of Rainbow and he and Seanna proceeded to hustle up enough change to buy themselves an ice cream cone.  I appreciated their spirit immensely and felt their glasses were honest expressions of their attitudes about themselves, each other and life in general.   Moral: Nothing is more gorgeous than a pair of cheap sunglasses.

I had the pleasure of meeting Celia Ammerman of America's Next Top Model this past Monday.  She was strolling down Prince St. and I crazily ran after her after my friend told me it was an ANTM model.  Although I didn't follow this past season, I read that Celia was well known on the show for her slightly outrageous outfits that she never apologized for, thus winning Tyra's respect.  Stunningly beautiful and a real doll, she was eating raisins during her lunchbreak from an undisclosed job and showing me her very fancy camera.  She loved my fake eyelashes which to me speaks volumes about her ability to embrace the superficial aspects of the feminine performance, something I believe every intelligent model must do at some point.

Beach Bums

This is what I'm talking about! Pure tack, pure americana (puerto rican style).  First person I see when I pull in this morning wearing a nearly identical shirt to mine!  Her name is Elizabeth and she works @ Seven.  She is 19 and studying fashion design @ Pratt.  You go girl: fearlessly bringin' some humor to the streets!

Formal Formula

So.  I drive an ice cream truck.  A Mister Softee ice cream truck (feel free to call me Ms. but not Miss, or Mrs. Softee:  I am a divorcee and proud of it.)  I park on the East corner of Prince and Broadway Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays where I use my truck as a lab for social experimentation, flavor combination and style documentation.  Soho is, of course, a megga nekkaa epicenter for fashion forward individuals and an extremely inspiring place for me to spend 9 hrs a day people watching for pay.  While I thoroughly appreciate the direction fashion has taken recently (genie pants holler: trend finally catches up with my obsession ca. 2004) I am currently more interested in styles that range from bland to tacky to costumey to touristy.  We can all spot someone with "style" and I am more and more convinced style is not something at all difficult to achieve.  According to my 1966 Websters New American Edition Dictionary 

style (stīl) n. 

1 A manner of doing. 2 A distinctive or especially admired manner of expressing thought 3 (The) fashion 4 the rules for arrangement or decoration

Which to me says "Hey.  We all got our style."

   What I'd like to focus on here are the happy accidents, brilliant exclamations,   or miscalculated but breathtakingly beautiful efforts of the everyman and artist alike as they strive to express themselves visually as the medium prescribed by modesty and tradition conceal the flesh but ultimately reveal the heart. 

Oh.  And Shoes.  My god there will be shoes.