Cosmos, Flirtinis, Sex and the City...2

Seven has a great rooftop bar. On a slightly cold night, this modern firepit is lovely.

5.27.10 - Mary, MJ, some other girlfriends and I went to Minneapolis to watch a midnight screening of the new Sex and the City movie. We had Cosmopolitans and Flirtinis at SEVEN, relaxed on the rooftop and enjoyed the beautiful night sky before walking across the street to Block E where we watched the second SaTC.

A Cosmopolitan.

A table filled with martinis means good times.

A Flirtini.

Okay, so the movie...Well, it was strange. It was like a weird fantasy getaway except none of it really matched the title. First of all, Abu Dhabi is so last year, and for a movie actually filmed in Morocco, they should have just rewritten the plot to go there instead, it wouldn't have made that much of a difference, and in fact, I would have preferred a lovely Marrakesh adventure to the ladies' cliche ethnic excursions.

Other than the numerous expiates (which makes sense, hello it is the UAE) in the movie, who were all pretty much treated like harem slaves in some cringe-worthy moments, there were a few holes that really were never filled, also after 6ish years of getting to know some of the other characters in the tv series, some of the men were literally reduced to one minute cameos or a ridiculous 20 minute wedding scene complete with real life Swarovski-inspired swans. Samantha's character was ridiculous unfabulous sometimes, from her hormone-crazed frenzy to humping everything on set, it was tacky.

Fashion was either a big hit or a really big miss. I did love all the snake-inspired pieces Samantha wore and in general, I like Middle Eastern prints and patterns, so I was mostly happy with how they were cut and worn. I got a huge craving for khussa's during the movie and decided I need to add to my small collection of khussa flats by buying more. I loved Carrie's market bazaar outfit. I heard that her symmetrical-cut large skirt was the delivered to famous SaTC designer, Patricia Field, as the form dummy for another skirt, so she modified it to be a real skirt and I loved it.

To SaTC's credit, I will say that this movie had more actual people of color then Prince of Persia, which after watching the credits roll on both movies, I quickly realized the only role in PoP that featured a person of color was Sir Ben Kingsly's roll, and many people don't even realize that he is half-Indian. Both movies really needed some actual Middle Eastern or Arabs in the movie, but SaTC had a few, PoP had none. Tsk tsk.

The first SaTC movie was absolutely fabulous and this one, because it didn't live up to my expectations, was...well, just less.

My afternoon in detox

5.24.10 - And by detox, I mean foot detox. This adventure began when Mary saw a local news anchor's comedic experimentation with foot detoxification. Mary told me about it, I saw the news spot and we both decided to check it out - especially after we learned that if we mentioned that we heard about the ionCleanse foot treatment on TV, we would get a 50% discount.

Mom, Mary and I went to the Aurora Spa in St. Louis Park and let's just say, the spa was not at all what we thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be a "I'm at the spa, darling," but it was more of a mini-spa-in-the-wall.

Above and below: The ionCleanse machine. Our setting: Volts = 19.60, Amps = 2.23...whatever that means.

I bet you can't wait to discover what my color was.

My mom's color was orange (purifying the joints).

Part of the abstract I read while waiting out my 45 minute foot detox.

I forgot to meditate! Maybe that's why I didn't feel differently after?



Sexy! My color was yellow-green/brown/orange with black flecks which is just a hot mess. Apparently the ionCleanse purified my kidney, bladder, liver, joints and extracted some heavy metals out of my system. Ugh. It looks bad, but it didn't smell like anything.

Probably totally unrelated, but my feet got really itchy and irritated during this process. I also think that they should rinse the client's feet off before starting the foot detox, especially considering that I had lotion on my feet that had little flecks of gold in it.

Notice all the particles in the water? All of ours looked like that too, but the camera picked it up better against her skin tone. I think Mary had some foamy white and some other colors that I don't remember.

"Color is produced even if there are no feet in the water." Hmm hmmm.

We washed everything down the drain, rinsed our feet and hit the street. Contrary to the brochure (you may feel tired, lighter or energetic), I didn't feel differently at all, but for $15 it was an interesting one-time experience. I was not impressed, mostly because there was only one ionCleanse machine and so it took nearly three hours for us to all cycle through, but it was an semi-enlightening experiment. I got to read some abstracts and research papers about the entire process and found a lot of weird holes or other facts that made me cynical of the foot detox process and all it's "benefits."

Check it out if you are so inclined, but don't expect a lot, also I recommend that you go during the weekday when it is less busy or maybe get a colonCleanse if there is a wait...oh, yeah...they have one of those.

Mo'Nique: Spread the Love Tour

Academy Award winning actress and...comediAnne?! Not comedienne or comedian?

5.13.10 - MJ, Mary and I went to see Mo'Nique at the State Theatre in Mini-an-apolis (M'N said Minneapolis like that all night long and it was really funny). I was excited to go and I had a good time, it was an memorable experience, and by that I mean, it was the first time I've seen people full-out patted down at at the State Theatre; I've been to tons of shows there ranging from the Nutcracker to David Copperfield and I've never seen such security. I thought it was very typical of unfortunate (MN) racial politics interesting that most of the Black guys got frisked while pretty much everyone else just walked on in - including my friends and I.

Before the show, the last time I saw Mo'Nique was when she won an Oscar for best-supporting actress in Precious (a must see!) so I was glad when I got the opportunity to go see her and take some good friends along. I guess I don't really think of M'N as a comedian, but this tour was definitely showcasing her style. She had two male warm-up acts which basically  made jokes about the same thing - women. I was kind of surprised because I thought it would be a more balanced in terms of making fun of men and women, but the night proved me wrong.

The accommodating and nice ushers I know from previous events, were that night, strict security guards who gruffly greeted and demanded that no photography of any kind was allowed - there was a sign stating thus that I really wanted to take a picture of, but alas, I never got around to it. Anyway, NO ONE all night long listened to the security guard ushers and took all of the videos, flash/non-flash photography (like me!) they wanted. It hilarious. As soon as she walked on stage, all kinds of flash started going off and after a few minutes I realized that I could take pictures and probably get away with it because I wasn't using flash, and therefore wasn't standing out every time a guard scanned the crowd.

She was funny, but I kind of wish she was there to do more of a motivational or inspirational talk rather than joke about weight loss or the differences between White and Black women and the men that they date. I appreciated the humor, but I guess I would have liked to hear her speak on some more serious topics. I will say that it was a good crowd and people really seemed like they enjoyed themselves; it was nice to see so many different people having a good time together, laughing in agreement and slapping their knees without inhibition.

After the show, we went to...where else? Palomino for drinks and apps. I ordered a white peach sangria (I think) and it was very refreshing. 

I'm glad I went, it was fun and I did laugh a lot. I don't think I'd go to see her in a comedy tour like this one again, but if she decided to tour with an all-female comedian troupe next year, maybe I'd actually go see that because I think the topics would be different and a little bit more balanced. If Mo'Nique were on a bill to speak at a conference about pretty much anything else I'd definitely go because I really like some of things she's said about more serious topics in the past, and I really respect her as an actress...and I get that you can't always be serious, so I guess in the end, I'll respect her as a comedian too.