ReaLifePromoTV Features AWKWORD, For-Charity MC from NYC

Click either of the images to view, watch, listen, etc.

The People v. The MTA (The Free Swipe Movement)

As long as they keep hiking prices, keep sharing your unlimited metro cards — and it's not even illegal! So, really, no excuses. Join #TheFreeSwipeMovement



They even reppin the cause in Russia! Peep the news segment on civil disobedience in the U.S.:



S/O NYC The Blog.

XXL Featured Banger: AWKWORD - "The People's Champ" [Video]

Monday Nov 1 7:15 AM CDT posted by xxl staff -- AWK goes for the title!



To watch the video via XXL, click the image above. Or, just watch it here:

New York City's Influential Creatives (though not I) Featured in INFLUENCERS Documentary

Don't sweat the oversight. You'll get me on the next one ;)



INFLUENCERS is a short documentary that explores what it means to be an influencer and how trends & creativity become contagious today in music and fashion.

Directed by Paul Rojanathara and Davis Johnson, the film is a Polaroid snapshot of New York influential creatives (advertising, design, fashion and entertainment) who are shaping today's pop culture.

Shout to Highsnobiety on the look.


Written by AWKWORD.

VIDEO: AWKWORD - "The People's Champ" (HD) (Monstar Films / VLAD TV)

** UPDATE ** Now watch the video at SPIKE TV!

AWKWORD links up with VLAD TV's Monstar Films team in the East Village (New York City) to shoot the HD video for his revolutionary rap anthem "The People's Champ" (prod. J. Glaze)... And they got even more than expected, with all the creatives and crazies who hang around the legendary Mars Bar!... Cameos from R.H. Bless, Ashy L Bowz, Fanesha Fabre, Whatzisface, ATG, model Maggie Wall and pop artist Jamelah.



To watch the video with scrolling lyrics, click here.

For behind-the-scenes pics from the shoot, brought to you by The Hip Hop Chronicle, click here.

To download "The People's Champ" (mp3) for free, click here.

Click here to download "WE ARE THE BASTERDS (The 9/11 Edition)", the mixtape on which the song appears, also featuring Asher Roth, B.o.B, Rapper Big Pooh, Crooked I, French Montana, Jadakiss, Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Kanye West, KiD CuDi, Lupe Fiasco, Nipsey Hussle, Sean Price, Wiz Khalifa & more.

For the more modest stripper - the 'wedding white' platform

The skanky yin to my slutty yang:

For the more modest stripper - the 'wedding white' platform

The skanky yin to my slutty yang:

Don't care how, I WANT IT NOW!

A week from yesterday, today and tomorrow, I will be in New York City wearing the equivalent of a Wonka Golden Ticket around my neck.

This accessory, which is actually a press badge not an easy-button necklace with one-click transport into Georgina Chapman's life, will not only grant me three-day admission to a fashion trade show the size of Micronesia but will also give me the opportunity to bring back to you, my readers, months in advance, a peek into the "new Autumn arrivals" displays at boutiques such as Bop, Revolve, Barney's Co-op, Muleh, Pink Mascara, La Garçonne, among others.

The event is called The Coterie, it's held at the Show Piers on the Hudson, and its list of participating vendors reads like the ultimate wishlist of ASJiNE-adored fashion lines:

Robert Rodriguez, Milly, Tracy Reese, Anlo, Diane von Furstenberg, Twelfth Street by Cynthia Vincent, Rich & Skinny, Dolce Vita, Twig, Karen Zambos Vintage Couture, Mara Hoffman, Goldenbleu, Madison Marcus, Elijah, Paul & Joe, Foley & Corinna, Alice + Olivia, Cacharel, Rebecca Minkoff, Castle Starr, Shelly Steffee -- the list literally goes on forever.

For those of you who, like myself, hadn't heard of this biannual event until very recently, its primary purpose is to serve as an in-person lookbook for personal stylists like Rachel Zoe and buyers attached to independent boutiques like Urban Chic and department stores like Neiman Marcus. Closed to the general public, The Coterie, unlike Fashion Week, is a cut to the chase, all-business atmosphere; sure, those in attendance will likely be dressed Sartorialist-cool -working on your feet 10 hours a day for 3 straight days is no excuse, after all- but I've been told on good authority to make like a fly on the wall the first two days and to just "observe," take in the well-oiled machine that is the designer-to-buyer transaction. Tuesday, the reported quiet after the stressful storm, is when I'll actually attempt to dialogue with the designers and/or their representatives to better understand the directions and influences behind their Fall/Winter collections.

And to fawn. To involuntarily and shamelessly fawn.

Why I'm taking two days leave from work, cashing in R's generous Amtrak Christmas giftcard and sleeping consecutive nights away from my life partner to attend The Coterie is threefold:

First, I want to identify with first-hand authority what the next season's trends will be from the smaller fashion lines.

Second, since I'm planning to conduct a series of post-Coterie interviews with DC-based boutiques' buyers to discuss the processes through which they "edit" their selections, I thought it important I, too, have firsthand familiarity with the collections.

And third, I just really want my Veruca Salt in the Golden Goose nursery moment.

As mature and collected as I know I'll need to be around these fashion insiders, you better believe my inner-dialogue as I walk past the new Robert Rodriguez dresses, Anlo straight-leg jeans and prim, slim, Karen Zambos blouses will look a whole lot like this:

Don't care how, I WANT IT NOW!

A week from yesterday, today and tomorrow, I will be in New York City wearing the equivalent of a Wonka Golden Ticket around my neck.

This accessory, which is actually a press badge not an easy-button necklace with one-click transport into Georgina Chapman's life, will not only grant me three-day admission to a fashion trade show the size of Micronesia but will also give me the opportunity to bring back to you, my readers, months in advance, a peek into the "new Autumn arrivals" displays at boutiques such as Bop, Revolve, Barney's Co-op, Muleh, Pink Mascara, La Garçonne, among others.

The event is called The Coterie, it's held at the Show Piers on the Hudson, and its list of participating vendors reads like the ultimate wishlist of ASJiNE-adored fashion lines:

Robert Rodriguez, Milly, Tracy Reese, Anlo, Diane von Furstenberg, Twelfth Street by Cynthia Vincent, Rich & Skinny, Dolce Vita, Twig, Karen Zambos Vintage Couture, Mara Hoffman, Goldenbleu, Madison Marcus, Elijah, Paul & Joe, Foley & Corinna, Alice + Olivia, Cacharel, Rebecca Minkoff, Castle Starr, Shelly Steffee -- the list literally goes on forever.

For those of you who, like myself, hadn't heard of this biannual event until very recently, its primary purpose is to serve as an in-person lookbook for personal stylists like Rachel Zoe and buyers attached to independent boutiques like Urban Chic and department stores like Neiman Marcus. Closed to the general public, The Coterie, unlike Fashion Week, is a cut to the chase, all-business atmosphere; sure, those in attendance will likely be dressed Sartorialist-cool -working on your feet 10 hours a day for 3 straight days is no excuse, after all- but I've been told on good authority to make like a fly on the wall the first two days and to just "observe," take in the well-oiled machine that is the designer-to-buyer transaction. Tuesday, the reported quiet after the stressful storm, is when I'll actually attempt to dialogue with the designers and/or their representatives to better understand the directions and influences behind their Fall/Winter collections.

And to fawn. To involuntarily and shamelessly fawn.

Why I'm taking two days leave from work, cashing in R's generous Amtrak Christmas giftcard and sleeping consecutive nights away from my life partner to attend The Coterie is threefold:

First, I want to identify with first-hand authority what the next season's trends will be from the smaller fashion lines.

Second, since I'm planning to conduct a series of post-Coterie interviews with DC-based boutiques' buyers to discuss the processes through which they "edit" their selections, I thought it important I, too, have firsthand familiarity with the collections.

And third, I just really want my Veruca Salt in the Golden Goose nursery moment.

As mature and collected as I know I'll need to be around these fashion insiders, you better believe my inner-dialogue as I walk past the new Robert Rodriguez dresses, Anlo straight-leg jeans and prim, slim, Karen Zambos blouses will look a whole lot like this:

Beginning of the night at right...

...end of the night, below:


Chartreuse and Park Slope may not be black and Upper East Side, but last night I learned that happiness isn't determined by the dress you have on or the backdrop against which you celebrate the start of the new year but rather by the steadfastness of friendship, the promise of a clean start, appreciating life for the intangibles, not the materials, and...okay, not really, but it is about the deep-down glee of realizing that after all these years of living in separate countries and having to rely on e-mails, text messages and the occasional phone-card call, your bow-seat bestie is still as deliciously dead-pan, ragingly wry and unabashedly egocentric as she was when you first met eight and a half years ago.

Here's hoping your NYE was filled with as many overdressed antics as ours!

Happy 2008!

Beginning of the night at right...

...end of the night, below:


Chartreuse and Park Slope may not be black and Upper East Side, but last night I learned that happiness isn't determined by the dress you have on or the backdrop against which you celebrate the start of the new year but rather by the steadfastness of friendship, the promise of a clean start, appreciating life for the intangibles, not the materials, and...okay, not really, but it is about the deep-down glee of realizing that after all these years of living in separate countries and having to rely on e-mails, text messages and the occasional phone-card call, your bow-seat bestie is still as deliciously dead-pan, ragingly wry and unabashedly egocentric as she was when you first met eight and a half years ago.

Here's hoping your NYE was filled with as many overdressed antics as ours!

Happy 2008!

In my absence...

This is as good a time as any to let you all know that starting today, I will be out of blogging commission until Monday, November 26th. I'll be in New York City this weekend for shopping and divorce celebrating and then over to Mitten State Michigan the following week for some good old fashion stomach expanding.

Don't roll your eyes, BridalBird, as long as I've hit the gym beforehand, I can clean-plate homemade stuffing and cranberry sauce like a brand-new, thousand-dollar Dyson.

But anyway, the main point of this post it to let y'all know that if you're one of the lucky ones still in the District next Tuesday, be sure to check out fEMME fETE's annual Holiday Designer Gift Fair from 6:30 to 10:30 at the Four Seasons in downtown Georgetown.

I've received numerous e-mails in the past week asking for tips on good girlfriend gifts, and without a doubt, this will be one of the best, if not the best place to pick up reasonably-priced, unique presents for all the women on your shopping list.

Tickets are available in advance on fEMME fETE's website (recommended) and at the door for $30, a price that includes complimentary glasses of wine.

So...on that note, have a wonderful, indulgent-but-not-too-indulgent holiday, and I will see you back here in just over a week.*

air kiss,
Johanna & the 'Squieu

*I think we both know this is bullsh*t -- more likely than not, I'll post something in the interim

In my absence...

This is as good a time as any to let you all know that starting today, I will be out of blogging commission until Monday, November 26th. I'll be in New York City this weekend for shopping and divorce celebrating and then over to Mitten State Michigan the following week for some good old fashion stomach expanding.

Don't roll your eyes, BridalBird, as long as I've hit the gym beforehand, I can clean-plate homemade stuffing and cranberry sauce like a brand-new, thousand-dollar Dyson.

But anyway, the main point of this post it to let y'all know that if you're one of the lucky ones still in the District next Tuesday, be sure to check out fEMME fETE's annual Holiday Designer Gift Fair from 6:30 to 10:30 at the Four Seasons in downtown Georgetown.

I've received numerous e-mails in the past week asking for tips on good girlfriend gifts, and without a doubt, this will be one of the best, if not the best place to pick up reasonably-priced, unique presents for all the women on your shopping list.

Tickets are available in advance on fEMME fETE's website (recommended) and at the door for $30, a price that includes complimentary glasses of wine.

So...on that note, have a wonderful, indulgent-but-not-too-indulgent holiday, and I will see you back here in just over a week.*

air kiss,
Johanna & the 'Squieu

*I think we both know this is bullsh*t -- more likely than not, I'll post something in the interim