What can I tell you. The 41st annual Halloween Festival Parade was off the hook! I dressed up as a Vampire photographer, complete with fangs, the real deal.  I won’t waste your time with excess blah blah here but it’s crucial to add that the lovely and talented Oscar winning actress, Whoopi Goldberg did the honors this year as the Grand Marshall. New York has no shortage of creative people and they sure showed up in thousands dressed up in every kind of costume imaginable. They definitely did not disappoint. As expected, “club” floats played music along the routes and I couldn’t help myself. Armed with my camera, I too danced my way up 6th avenue taking the pictures featured below. Click on the images to see an enlarged version. This is one of my favorite parades in the city. Please enjoy the pictures and be sure to check out the ones posted on my Facebook page as well.

Sign up for my newsletter on the right side of the site. You never know what might come through your email. Follow on Facebook and Instagram!

Whoopi Goldberg as the Grand Marshall

The weekend is finally here! Stepping out in Christian Dior swirl leopard print blouse and Escada sleek high waist pants complete with a vintage cape, Delvaux leather kettle bag and pagoda parasol. Of course, architectural shoes by United Nude. 🙂

Sign up for my newsletter on the right side of the site. You never know what might come through your email. Follow on Facebook and Instagram!

Alright New York! Looks like we are next on the Ebola epidemic scare!

According to Marc Santora at NYTimes

A doctor in New York City who recently returned from treating Ebola patients in Guinea tested positive for the Ebola virus Thursday, becoming the city’s first diagnosed case.

The doctor, Craig Spencer, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital Center on Thursday and placed in isolation while health care workers spread out across the city to trace anyone he might have come into contact with in recent days. A further test will be conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to confirm the initial test.

While officials have said they expected isolated cases of the disease to arrive in New York eventually, and had been preparing for this moment for months, the first case highlighted the challenges surrounding containment of the virus, especially in a crowded metropolis.

Even as the authorities worked to confirm that Mr. Spencer was infected with Ebola, it emerged that he traveled from Manhattan to Brooklyn on the subway on Wednesday night, when he went to a bowling alley, and then took a taxi home.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Cuomo spoke during a press conference  at Bellevue Hospital in New York on Thursday evening. Credit: Joshua Bright for The New York Times

The next morning, he reported having a temperature of 103 degrees, raising questions about his health while he was out in public.

People infected with Ebola cannot spread the disease until they begin to display symptoms, and it cannot be spread through the air. As people become sicker, the viral load in the body builds, and they become more and more contagious.

Dr. Spencer’s travel history and the timing of the onset of his symptoms led health officials to dispatch disease detectives, who “immediately began to actively trace all of the patient’s contacts to identify anyone who may be at potential risk,” according to a statement released by the department.

It was unclear if the city was trying to find people who might have come into contact with Dr. Spencer on the subway. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority directed all questions to the health department, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the issue.

At Dr. Spencer’s apartment in Harlem, his home was sealed off and workers distributed informational fliers about the disease. It was not clear if anyone was being quarantined.

Health authorities declined to say how many people in total might have come into contact with Dr. Spencer while he was symptomatic.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaking at a news conference Thursday evening before the diagnosis, said Dr. Spencer has given health workers a detailed accounting of his activities over the last few days.

“Our understanding is that very few people were in direct contact with him,” Mr. de Blasio said.

 A photo of Dr. Spencer posted on his Facebook page.

Dr. Spencer had been working with Doctors Without Borders in Guinea, treating Ebola patients, before returning to New York City on Oct. 14, according to a city official.

He told the authorities that he did not believe the protective gear he wore while working with Ebola patients had been breached but had been monitoring his own health.

Doctors Without Borders, in a statement, said it provides guidelines for its staff members on their return from Ebola assignments, but did not elaborate on those protocols.

“The individual engaged in regular health monitoring and reported this development immediately,” the group said in a statement.

A photograph of Dr. Spencer on his LinkedIn page.

Dr. Spencer began to feel sluggish on Tuesday but did not develop a feveruntil Thursday morning, he told the authorities. At 11 a.m., the doctor found that he had a 103-degree temperature and alerted the staff of Doctors Without Borders, according to the official.

The staff of Doctors Without Borders called the city’s health department, which in turn called the Fire Department.

Emergency medical workers, wearing full personal protective gear, rushed to Dr. Spencer’s apartment, on West 147th Street. He was transported to Bellevue and arrived shortly after 1 p.m. He was placed in a special isolation unit and is being seen by the pre-designated medical critical care team. They are in personal protective equipment with undergarment air ventilation systems

When duty called, I couldn’t resist! Clad in Valentino and Louboutin, I set out to capture the star studded annual Alzheimer’s Association gala for Shoeholics! Accompanied by my good friend Carla, it was a fun filled night. We met several of our other friends there: Ruth, Stephanie, Hayden, just to name a few. Girls just want to have fun…all for a good cause of course. No matter how high or low ones life is, it’s always important to give back to a worthy cause. For more on my coverage, details about the gala and to see more star studded pictures, please visit http://www.shoeholicsclub.com website. If someone you love is suffering from Alzheimer’s, get them the extra help they need and check out Skylark Senior Care.

Sign up for my newsletter on the right side of the site. You never know what might come through your email. Follow on Facebook and Instagram!

Carla

Hayden and Stephanie

Carla and Ruth

Shoeholics magazine, as seen in the event’s official program book

It’s safe to say that we all know First Lady Michelle Obama knows how to dance but we have really never seen her this way. She really knows what time it is! Watch her bounce in the video footage below. Get it Michelle!

Sign up for my newsletter on the right side of the site. You never know what might come through your email. Follow on Facebook and Instagram!

Fresh off the press, literally 5 minutes ago today, Chanel captures the fashion world by storm with a short film for the No 5 perfume! I’m usually not the type to gosh about ads but Chanel’s latest installment of the iconic No 5 perfume starring Gisele Bunchen, directed by “Moulin Rouge” and “Great Gatsby” Baz Luhrmann really moved me. What a great story and artistry. This is pure art in motion! Kudos Chanel!

According to Laura Argintar at elitedaily: Making the rounds on the party circuit comes with an expiration date.

After countless rounds at the gilded bars, sore feet from ridiculous heels, and a reshuffling of priorities (cough quality time with “American Horror Story” cough), you’ve reached your threshold of Sam Smith remixes and well vodka.

We can no longer pretend to ignore the signs that our party girl lives are ending. Yes, this important chapter in our lives (you owe your confidence to many morning-afters strutting in aggressive clubwear, after all) is slowly winding down.

But that doesn’t mean we’ll miss waking up in vats of hummus and crushed pretzels.

Welcome to the (non) club! Here are the 60 signs your party girl life is ending:

1. You don’t have any recently tagged Facebook pictures.

2. You feel weird when your dress is too short.

3. You only go out when there’s a birthday or special occasion… not just because it’s Friday.

4. You can no longer take a shot without a chaser.

5. You’re sick of not remembering everything.

6. Your voice is permanently raspy, and you’ve had enough calling home and your sister greeting you with, “Hey, Dad!”

7. You go to clubs and complain about how many people are there.

8. You’re tired of waiting for new credit cards in the mail.

9. You don’t consider “Dancing like no one’s watching” a real form of exercise anymore.

10. You’ve succumbed to the fact that you can’t walk in heels, and this doesn’t upset you as much as you thought it would two years ago.

11. You’re productive during the weekends.

12. You’ve gone more than three months without breaking your phone.

13. You forgot how to twerk. (Psh, girlfriend. NEVAAAA!)

14. You only want to go out to places where you can wear your pajamas.

15. You are now retelling your old stories from The Archives because you have no new ones.

16. You get drunk off two drinks now! For the girl who used to wear green pants and flash everyone from five-story rooftops, whoever thought this day would come?

17. You’ve recently found this thing called “good judgment.”

18. You never coat check because you know you aren’t staying that long.

19. When people ask you if you smoke cigarettes, you say you don’t instead of “only when I’m drunk.”

20. Your clothes are ruined from being spilled on, including the ones you wear to work.

21. Your taste in music has gotten significantly better. (AKA outside of electronic super galactic martian music.)

22. You can’t afford to lose your wallet anymore.

23. The thought of waking up in a stranger’s bed doesn’t excite you anymore… it scares you.

24. There is no more room on your legs for new bruises.

25. Insurance has asked you to stop drinking.

26. You’d rather be besties with your coworkers than the bouncers.

27. You’ve recently scaled back on your eyeshadow game.

28. You say things like, “I cant go out tonight. I need to catch up on my sleep.”

29. You can’t relate to drunk anxiety anymore.

30. You no longer need a pregame to feel OK about drinking a lot. You’re perfectly comfortable checking out with a bottle of wine all by yourself.

31. You started going home and seeing your parents again.

32. You’ve stopped living like a vampire.

33. You’re debating issues dealing with Syria, not what to wear that weekend.

34. You purchased a white couch.

35. The only man you wait around for is your delivery guy.

36. You bought your last shirt-as-a-dress ensemble from Forever 21.

37. You’d rather sleep in your own bed than someone else’s.

38. You’re insecure about your dance moves.

39. You actually care about and take notice of the price of drinks.

40. You never go a night without removing your makeup.

41. You are wearing tights again.

42. You actually have to go out and buy alcohol for when your friends come over. There’s no longer a constant supply in your freezer. Ditto for beer.

43. Coming home blackout isn’t funny anymore, it’s exhausting.

44. You can’t even stay up to eat late night.

45. After years of deteriorating your brain cells and forgetting 89 percent of your nights out, you start more phrases with “When did that happen?” than “Remember when?”

46. You can’t stay up past 10 pm on a school night.

47. When you go to drunk text your go-tos, they know by now not to respond. You’ve pretty much exhausted your list of booty calls.

48. Shopping for cute little party dresses has been replaced by shopping for cute tailored work pants.

49. Gold eye glitter doesn’t excite you like it used to… Sigh.

50. You don’t know the names of the new cool clubs. But you don’t actually care.

51. You’ve finally washed the hot, sess-pooly, retired alcoholic stripper stench from your hair.

52. You’ve started buying more “practical” shoes.

53. You forgot to buy red cups at the grocery store.

54. You’ve realized you won’t find someone who is “husband material” at the places you frequent.

55. When you see your drug dealer, he asks how you’ve been since the last time he saw you with your underwear tucked into your skirt holding a handle of Tito’s.

56. You’ve consecutively made it to work on-time every Friday morning.

57. Your hearing in your left ear could use some improvement from too many nights getting low near the bass.

58. You have time to do your laundry.

59. You can remember what the inside of the bar looks like.

60. You’re reading this post and thinking, “Sh*t, that’s me.”

Sign up for my newsletter on the right side of the site. You never know what might come through your email. Follow on Facebook and Instagram!

Please say it ain’t so!

A photo of the ordeal, taken by one passenger.

 

According to GothaMist: They delayed the flight because the seating wasn’t segregated! An El Al flight from JFK to Tel-Aviv was delayed on the eve of Rosh Hashanah after ultra-Orthodox passengers refused to sit next to women. One passenger described the whole experience as “an 11 hour ordeal,” and another tells ynetnews.com that the plane was prevented from taking off because “people stood in the aisles and refused to go forward.”

“Although everyone had tickets with seat numbers that they purchased in advance, they asked us to trade seats with them, and even offered to pay money, since they cannot sit next to a woman,” another passenger explains. “It was obvious that the plane won’t take off as long as they keep standing in the aisles.”

After the pilot pleaded with everyone to take their seats if only for takeoff, the plane finally departed Wednesday morning. But as soon as it was in the air, many of the passengers quickly stood in the aisle, in order to preserve several feet of sin-space between them and the opposite sex. One female passenger on the flight tells ynetnews.com, “I ended up sitting next to a haredi man who jumped out of his seat the moment we had finished taking off and proceeded to stand in the aisle.”

The aisle was reportedly crowded with men praying throughout the duration of the flight, making it extremely difficult for other passengers to access the restrooms and preventing flight attendants from distributing refreshments. “I went to the bathroom and it was a mission impossible, the noise was endless,” another shellshocked passenger recalls.

El Al issued this statement in the wake of the incident: “El Al does everything it can to give its passengers the best possible service year-round. These days bring with them a peak in air traffic to Israel, and our crews on the ground and in the air are doing the best they can to address the needs and requests of all our travelers while trying not to fall behind schedule.

“The company will examine the complaints and if some passengers are found to have acted out of line the company will examine its future steps.”

What’s really frustrating is that all of this could have been avoided if the airline had just distributed large plastic bags!

L’Shana Tovah!

Sign up for my newsletter on the right side of the site. You never know what might come through your email. Follow on Facebook and Instagram!

 

 

After a pit stop in London, the City of York in the UK & Berlin, I headed to Munich to check out the highly anticipated Oktoberfest at the heart of it all. The event cited 6 million visitors in attendance! Not one to be left out, I was decked out in my own take on modern Dirndle, the traditional Bavarian attire, one of which is a vintage set from the 1960s. I do intend to wear them again in New York City where taking fashion into your own hands is nothing but creativity and being different. Heck! I once wore my vintage Japanese Kimono acquired during my visit to Kyoto down Madison Ave! I have no shame at all. 🙂 At the event, I also spotted African print dirndls! #Africagoingglobal

Naturally, you can’t be around the Oktoberfest festivities and not taste the beer. This visit would mark my very first time drinking beer! I was fortunate to have witnessed the Bavarian costume parade and the beer tent parade a day before, but sadly I have lost a lot of those pictures to my external drive refusing to open. I hope the very few from my mobile phone would suffice for now.

I can honestly check off attending Oktoberfest off my bucket list.

Schoene wiesn fuer alle!!!

Sign up for my newsletter on the right side of the site. You never know what might come through your email. Follow on Facebook and Instagram!