vip in the city

Easy as 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288

This blog post’s title is inspired by The New York Post’s infamous 1989 “Easy as Pi” headline, which appeared over a front page image of illegally obtained answers to that day’s New York State Chemistry Regents. The publication resulted in a massive run by high schoolers to purchase The Post, followed by the abrupt cancellation of the statewide exam on my birthday — so awesome! — and raised all sorts of controversy regarding the paper’s journalistic ethics.

On the 20th anniversary of Pi Day, 3.14 (naturally), SYB hosted a Pi(e)-themed potluck. Fellow pi and pie enthusiasts gathered in Sunnyside to enjoy the bounty of foods that were either in pie form, or related to π, i.e., round, spherical, cylindrical or conical. For the occasion, I made a round vegetarian shepherd’s pie — if such a thing can still be called “shepherd’s pie” — substituting a combination of portobello, cremini, oyster and shiitake mushrooms for the ground lamb layer.

This year, The New York Times ran a “Win a Pie on Pi Day” contest, soliciting submissions of poems about pi (”piems”?) or pi-ku (in three-line, 3-1-4 syllable format.) The most useful of these, like the MIT cheer “Cosine, secant, tangent, sine, 3.14159!,” aid in the recall of the digits of pi. Among the the pi mnemonics I know of — most of which assign digits based on the number of letters in each corresponding word — my favorite remains: “How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics!”

The current world record for pi memorization belongs to Japanese mental health counselor (ha, now that’s ironic!) Akira Haraguchi, who managed to recite pi to 100,000 decimal places in 2006. I very humbly top out at about 35 decimal places — sufficient for computing the circumference of the known universe with an error no greater than the radius of a hydrogen atom.

Yeah, I think I can live with that.

In Times Square on Pi Day:

Oh, and despite never having taken those pesky Chem Regents, I can still chuckle appreciatively over the existence of Mole Day, celebrated annually on October 23 from 6:02AM to 6:02PM, i.e., 6:02 10/23. I leave it to SYB to devise an appropriate potluck theme in honor of that occasion. (”Avocado,” perhaps? *Groan*)

Tags: math, pi, Sunnyside, Times Square

Windswept way up the West Side

The arduous, detour-ridden trip up to Washington Heights almost derailed the entire evening, bringing our coterie through Herald Square, into the wine store inside Penn Station, onto the A, windblown along 168th Street, aboard an MTA shuttle bus and finally, finally to the Hudson View Gardens.

We lost one member of our party long the way, but the hardy four that made it to JD’s birthday celebration were rewarded with a spirited party among Kiwis and medical researchers, and slices of astoundingly decadent birthday cake.

David Glass’s aptly named “Ultimate Chocolate Truffle Cake” truly is like a giant bourbon-infused truffle in cake form: richly dense, it manages to pack in more dark chocolate flavor per bite than just about anything I’ve ever tasted. Locally, the cake is available at Zabar’s — by the slice, too — but for non-locals, the Bloomfield, CT factory ships nationwide. Fine Living named it among the ten best desserts available by mail order.

There’s also an “Incredible Delicious All-Natural Reduced Fat Chocolate Truffle Cake” with 77% less fat than the original version… but tonight’s was not that cake. A slim, fat-packed wedge was all we could manage before the swift, but strange cab ride home.

Tags: birthdays, chocolate, UWS, Washington Heights

Project Runway finale party!

Well, it wasn’t quite effortless, but in the end I made it onto the list for tonight’s Project Runway finale viewing party at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. Most who know me know that I’m a huge Project Runway junkie, so this was a big night for which I have SC to thank — both for putting the plans into motion and for rallying to the adventure, despite battling a 103 degree fever.

When would we have this opportunity again, after all?

Contestants from all four seasons of the Bravo reality series were on hand for the broadcast, which took place in the hotel’s subterranean screening room. But before the airing, there were cocktails, champagne, passed hors d’oevres, and lots of people watching. Among the constantly popping flashbulbs, I very quickly overcame my initial reluctance to snap copious photos of the festivities. It seemed that at every turn was someone I recognized from television: Ted Allen of Queer Eye and Top Chef fame, Kara Janx (Season 2), Malan Breton (Season 3), Alison Kelly (Season 3), random models scattered throughout — instantly identifiable for towering head and shoulders above everyone else…

And at the center of it all, in the press area, was tiny 21-year old finalist (and fan favorite) Christian Siriano. Hmm, interesting…

Now at that point in the evening the finale had yet to air, so the season’s winner was not publicly known. We had our strong suspicions, but although several in attendance clearly had inside information, they were sworn to secrecy. SC and I had no luck wheedling the information in advance out of the The Weinstein Company producer we met at the coat check.

Tim Gunn was one of the most popular guests at the party, chatting with everyone (designers, reporters and lay people alike), and being generally charming.

Finalist Rami Kashou (below) arrived about an hour before the show, all smiles, followed last of all by Jillian Lewis, petite and beautiful in her strapless, lacy metallic minidress, and escorted by her boyfriend/business partner Lewaa Abdulkhalek.

Victorya Hong, whose new line na•be — nah-BEE, Korean for “butterfly”– launches in Fall 2008, was accompanied by her tall, bespectacled husband, and smiling more than she ever had on the show. Tim gave a dishy, refreshingly candid post-show interview in which he confirmed what a “sourpuss, a crabby apple… a sour pill” Victorya was throughout the entire PR run. (Me-ow!) Christian was considerably less harsh in his characterization of her… but he may not be the most impartial judge as we all know how he feels about Asians, generally.

[Update: Oh, snap! Victorya responds to Tim's comments via Blogging Project Runway!]

Chris March in animal print (of course!) and a dry-eyed Ricky Lizalde in red patent cap (ditto!), with Andy Cohen, Bravo’s senior VP of Programming:

I was pleasantly surprised to run into KC seated with another editor on a banquette outside the theatre. We spent a brief time catching up, and before we knew it, the 10PM hour drew nigh, and the guests were herded inside for the finale broadcast.

By the time Heidi Klum announced “This… is Project Runway!“, almost every seat in the theatre was taken: Tim, the three finalists, a couple of their models and assorted VIPs were seated on couches in the front row, facing the hovering cameras, while several of Season 4’s contestants clustered in a row near the rear. CS and I were relegated to perching on the steps along the side — total fire hazard, but at least we were in good company with PR stylist Nathaniel Hawkins behind us and, for a while, the Project RunGay Boys.

Kathleen “Sweet P” Vaughn, Jack Mackenroth (his boyfriend, Top Chef Season 3 runner-up Dale Levitski was not in attendance), Victorya, her model Jacqueline and Carmen Webber (seated):

Last year’s PR winner Jeffrey Sebelia, Santino Rice (Season 2) and Kit Pistol (Season 4) watched the broadcast with fans in Los Angeles.

Here in New York City, the screening was rather lively, with much cheering from the audience for all three designers. Commercial breaks were muted, and offered everyone a good opportunity to speculate amongst themselves and to dash to the bar for refills.

The Bryant Park collections drew lots of appreciative oohs and ahhs for Christian’s, Rami’s and Jillian’s work. (Not aired: Sweet P’s and Chris’s showings before guest judge Posh at Fashion Week in early February — decoy collections which predated the broadcast of their subsequent elimination episodes.)

I will say that Bravo did a reasonable job maintaining suspense when most (including judge Michael Kors) seemed to have the winner of this contest pegged early on. And though I’d found Christian’s preening — dare I say: bitchy — affectations throughout the season pretty off-putting at times, it was rather endearing to see him humbled at the end — clearly wanting the win so much, but extremely nervous that it would slip away.

It didn’t, of course. Christian Siriano wins Project Runway Season 4! (”Hello, did you have a doubt? Come on, what up?“) Later that night when Christian was presented with that comically giant $100,000 check in front of his competitors, they seemed as a whole thrilled for him, which suggested to me that his antics didn’t generate too much ill will, and were probably exaggerated for good television.

Post-show, Tim with Kevin Christiana (whom I startled on the way into the party by inadvertently squealing his name… forgetting for a moment that this wasn’t my living room and that the contestants could, you know, hear me) and Sweet P, pretty in purple.

When we congratulated Christian’s runway model Lisa for winning the spread in Elle magazine, she thanked us sweetly and beamed in her new outfit — a one-shouldered dark blue ruffled mini-dress, created by you-know-who the night before, just for this occasion.

Season 1’s winner Jay McCarroll, whose “homelessness” as reported in a New York magazine feature on the post-show difficulties faced by Bravo reality stars turned out to be greatly exaggerated. With Nora Caliguri (Season 1) and her sister.

The party continued late into the night at Marquee, but CS and I headed home with our TRESemmé gift bags, having had our fill of fierceness and fabulosity for one evening.

Tags: Bravo, Project Runway, reality TV, television, TriBeCa, Tribeca Grand