Pop-up shops are all the rage in NYC, London, Los Angeles and beyond.
Jack Spade invades Apartment Number 9 in Bev. Hills
It all makes sense considering setting up a pop-up store is financially more sound in this busted global economy. But it being SO in fashion, we must assume that when there’s a bunch, along come crappy ones, just like when music making and photo making became so easy with technology. Weeding out the lame and discovering and harvesting the quality ones can be quite a task.
Enter Apartment Number 9, a men’s boutique started in Chicago. Boasting a keen selection from street-wise choice brands like Seize sur Vingt, Band of Outsiders, Rag & Bone and Dries van Noten, the store quickly expanded to have 2 more outposts — both in California, one in Santa Monica and another in Beverly Hills.
Now, if you’re in Los Angeles, don’t miss out on the party tomorrow for their Jack Spade-laden season. Here’s the info:
Apartment Number 9 is handing Jack Spade the keys to their Beverly Hills location to launch our apparel collection and house our new fall/holiday bag line. Our Jack & Jimbo’s Bike Shop will have a presence as will our Book Lizard Lending Library, which will be curated by Phyllis Diller. We are also offering our collection of Halloween costumes, Map & Guide to the Fabulous Homes of the Stars tour books, metal detector finds, and hosting a transcontinental correspondence chess match between New York and Los Angeles.
We’re also pairing up with a few designers/brands like Reference Library, Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co., Beloved Bikes, Mordechai, Jason Polan, Mary & Matt, and Deadly Dragon Sound.
Opening reception : Thursday 10 September 2009 6pm – 8pm
Sounds provided by Selector JD (Deadly Dragon Sound)
Apartment Number 9
9877 Little Santa Monica Blvd
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
RSVP a must: jly@jackspade.com
If you are unable to attend the opening be sure to stop by anytime until Oct 31st. The shop will be open September 3rd thru October 31st.
Now, this dulce guerra actually crosses the river to the BK side.
On this side of the water, the Revenge is exercised in a form of a bar/lounge in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
main room.
As easily guessed from the retro-themed decor, the environment screams out HIPSTER. But don’t start hating so hastily. Luckily, we’re in the do-or-die B’Stuy, as opposed to ironic-and-nearly dead Williamsburg, which means, the clientele is slightly more laid-back on their self-presentation (or at least they pretend to be that way and we pretend to believe them).
notice the skull and the bird?
Basic well drinks like gin & juice is $5 and they offer it in a red plastic picnic cup. Now, we at LIB is slightly turned off by beverage served in plastic unless it’s at a BBQ or an actual picnic. But we effortlessly pretend not to notice, just because it fits the whole theme of this place. In the back is a, well, backyard, complete with a BBQ grill.
the backyard feels like a county fair.
From the cute DJ booth in the main room, local DJs deliver localized (yet not so much Biggie or Jigga – like we said, it’s more hipster here) tunes.
Go on the first Wednesday of the month for, as of the time of our writing, free hot dogs and 30-minute open bar sessions at 9:30PM and 2:30AM. See how hipsterly? Now we’ll see how this place will or will not be embraced by this ever-changing, yet historic locale.
Sweet Revenge
348 Franklin Avenue, Brooklyn, NY; 718.398.2472
What’s with the NYC obsession with tooth-aching vengeance these days?
Last year, within a couple of months apart from each other opened a café, then a bar, both named Sweet Revenge.
Sweet Revenge on Carmine Street.
The former, on quaint and lovely Carmine Street in the West Village, is a café in a slightly European sense in that they serve wine and beer in addition to the usual suspects like coffee, tea and some food.
But at this cutesy café, the hardest blow comes in the form of a still yet cuter incarnation: cupcakes.
Dulce de Leche ($3.50)
Here, the cupcakes are dressed up in a more grown-up fashion. They even give you cupcake & beer or wine pairing suggestions. Dulce de Leche is recommended with Stella Altois or Redcliffe Sauvignon Blanc.
inside awaits the luxe swirl of caramel...
On our visit this one afternoon, our favorite Very Strawberry cupcake (spiced Mexican cake with fresh strawberries baked inside!) was sold out. But if you do choose to visit, we highly recommend you try that.
Yes, even for us biggest fans at LiB, the recent and sudden heavy airplay of MJ songs makes us feel only that much more sentimental. So we weren’t gonna blog about it. But, we felt that we should, especially having found a kind download link for us MJ fans…
If you didn’t get to attend the memorial held in Los Angeles, here’s the program pamphlet to share in our memory.
We like funny stuff, yes? Yes. And we here at Life Is Butter love good, intelligent sarcasm. So yes, we use this e-card site called SomeEcards quite often. Even for an otherwise completely normal day, just to spice it up. We urge you to try if you have not.
Let us say straight off that we aren’t into talking so much about online shops, as we’d rather focus on things that we can physically experience.
But. (Yes, there’s always the But.)
We just got this privilege to invite you LiB readers to Rue La La, a by-invitation-only online brand sale boutique, so we figured we share. Here’s the link: Enjoy.
As their schpeel goes, Rue La La is “where Members discover premier brand, private sale Boutiques, each open for just a brief window of time.”
By “a brief window of time” they mean usually 2 days. And by “premier brand” they mean the likes of Marc Jacobs, John Varvatos, Balenciaga, Free People, J Brand, Badgley Mischka, Joseph Abboud, etc. etc. Most items are 50-75% off the retail price.
We just peeped the site and they got Marc by Marc Jacobs and Vera Wang Lavender up just now. Marc by Marc Jacobs’s “Jelly Jacquard Riz” bag – which we’d like to call the beachbag for pop punk rockers – for example, is $199 (orig. $428).
Go see it yourself, you shop-a-holic!
P.S. They don’t ship outside of the U.S. at the time.
Just back online from the super early preview listening session for Sean Paul’s new album Imperial Blaze.
The tracks that we got to listen to today were:
Now That I Got Your Love (prod. Stepehen “Di Genius” McGregor)
Birthday Suit (prod. Di Genius)
Press It Up (prod. Di Genius)
Hold My Hand (prod. Arif “Supacoop” Cooper)
She Want Me (prod. Di Genius & Mr. Harding)
Bruk Out (prod. Craig “Leftside” Parks)
Pepperpot (prod. Jason “Jigzag” Henriques & Mr. Shaun)
Lately (prod. Di Genius)
Straight from My Heart (prod. Delano Thomas)
So Fine (prod. Di Genius) *lead single*
The album is most likely going to include about 17 tracks, we predict.
So, how was it? If you like Sean Paul already, you’re gonna love it. If you love pop/contemporary R&B/pop-ish dancehall, you’re gonna love it. After the first listen, we at Life is Butter are liking it so far. We’ll see how we are gonna maintain/change our opinion when the album is closer to its release (expected due is August 18th).
“Straight from My Heart” is dedicated to his mom – we’ll probably ask him later what inspired him to write this. The idea is lovely, there’s no beef, but this is not our favorite track on the album.
Pop aficionados would probably enjoy the R&B track “Lately” about reminiscing the early good days of a relationship, or “She Wants Me”, a straight classic dancehall tune. Those people who have been listening to his past albums (=not just singles) would appreciate mellower tunes like piano-led “Hold My Hand” and “Pepperpot” laid over calypso beats.
Quite frankly, we are not sure why he & his people chose “So Fine” as the lead single. There seem to be better tracks on this album than that. Also we noticed that he’s got a heavy dose of lovely in-love songs. Is he tying the knot soon…?
