White Winged Doves, Tambourines, Lace & Chiffon!

Sadly, I was only able to spend a couple of nights in New York, but wow, what a couple of nights they were! On Thursday night, I met up with some close friends at Le Zie Bar in Chelsea and had a fabulous time!


Um, shouldn't these guys be feeding me grapes??? Miguel, Erin & Christine & moi at Le Zie.

And then on Friday night, Miguel and I turned it out for the 17th Annual "Night of a Thousand Stevies," at the Hiro Ballroom in the Maritime Hotel.


Night of a Thousand Stevies (hereafter, "NOTS") is an annual event where hundreds of mildly unhinged Stevie Nicks fans don as much gossamer, chiffon and lace as humanly possible, come together in some subterranean space in New York City, and spin and twirl and sing along to "hauntingly familiar" music all night long. Seeing as this was the 17th annual NOTS, this year's theme was -- appropriately enough -- "Edge of Seventeen." And indeed, every time that particular song was played (on average 4 or 5 times per hour), it seemed the entire crowd rose and swelled in some mass rapture. (Not one to want to feel left out, I shrieked and swooned with the rest of them.)

VIDEO
"Welcome to NOTS!" As frightening as this guy looks in this video, he was much more so in person...


Miguel and I are totally cute, but we just didn't measure up to the inspired ensembles put together by Miguel's friends, Richard and Michael #2.


Miguel with Richard and Michael #2

Men and women and everything in-between came from such far-flung entertainment meccas as Asbury Park, New Jersey and Reno, Nevada to do their very best to channel the White Winged Dove herself up on the stage, with varying degrees of success. Some performances bordered on the sublime, others were total trainwrecks, but all were captivating in their own unique way...


An audience favorite. I captured this video just moments before this guy started whirling like a dervish, knocked over the microphone stand and generally made a mess of things. I was just hoping his head wouldn't explode.


Here another performer demonstrates that signature lip-synching move: walking away from the microphone in the middle of a vitally important lyric. Perhaps we are now combining lip-synching with ventriloquism?

What were the other highlights of the evening? Well obviously the aforementioned feathers, lace, chiffon, and generally speaking lots of layers of lots of different kinds of white fabric...


Stevie fan caught from the, um, front.


Another Stevie fan caught from behind.

...and of course lots of tambourines...




The distribution of dimestore tambourines from the stage, as seen in this video, worked the crowd into an absolute frenzy. No one was immune, least of all Miguel, who body-checked several pocket Stevies to secure his very own "NOTS" tambourine, which survived precisely 4 hip slaps before disintegrating into a shower of tiny jingling disks onto the floor.


Miguel proudly displaying his NOTS tambourine.

And of course, there were white winged doves everywhere! Overall, it was an amazing experience, and the enthusiasm of a thousand other Stevies is totally contagious. I obviously wasn't the only one affected by it; just as a landslide was bringing down my reflection from the snow-covered hills, I turned around and this was the face staring back at me on the dance floor:

Guess who will be organizing "NOTS 18"! :-)

Don't ask me why I own a poet shirt. As soon as we left the party, I folded it neatly and placed it in the nearest garbage pail.

Well, just when I thought I

couldn't handle any more chiffon for the weekend, I swung out to Bayside, Queens on Saturday for a family party celebrating my cousins Annie and Maya making their first communion. This is chiffon done right! ;-)

Annie

Maya

My sister MaryBeth and I spent Mother's Day at our parents' place. Here we are with Mike and Marie, who were visiting from next door. (Doesn't my old couch look great in my parents' house, by the way??) We had a fun afternoon, though I was in a bit of disbelief that I would be leaving for Paris in less than 24 hours, not to return again until Christmas!

Next up, France!