Any Second Now

Weekend in Pictures: South Park Wild West Walkabout

This past weekend, I met up with CC (I formerly referred to her as Pink Candles) from the blog Pink Candles at Ridgemont High and we took our kids to do the South Park Wild West Walkabout. Because there was so much to cover, I thought I’d break up the post into two parts, and this post will focus mainly on the atmosphere and food.

What’s a Walkabout?

It’s a fun-filled evening festival to introduce you to the shops and cafes of South Park.

From Kalima to Beech Streets, you’ll find shops open late, entertainment, specials, and surprises. Browse, explore, shop, and celebrate the independent spirit of our neighborhood.

– From the Wild West Walkbout flier, www.SouthParkScene.com

Charm in the Heart of the City

Nestled between North Park and Golden Hill, South Park is a historic enclave with a welcoming variety of independently-owned gift and clothing boutiques, markets and cafes, taverns and restaurants, art galleries and salons. Enjoy our special events and unhurried visits to our warm and friendly neighborhood.

– From the Wild West Walkbout flier, www.SouthParkScene.com

South Park reminds me of an area like Shoreditch in London, very artsy and quite eclectic. I would love to go back down there to take more pictures and maybe even do some outfit posts because there’s just so much visual candy out there. I’m glad that we started early because as the night went on, it got more and more crowded. Not only was there a lot to take in visually, music filled the air around every corner. Being bloggers, CC and I were snapping pictures left and right. Had I known that I would be taking as many pictures as I did, I would have charged my camera. Sadly, it died as we got to some very interesting art (which consisted of mutilated dolls and BBQ skewers).

Although there were dozens of places to eat by way of cafes, restaurants and food trucks, we opted for convenience (and a place to sit). We decided on a San Diego staple, Sombrero Mexican Food. If you like Blink 182, this local chain is one in the same in the lyrics from the song Josie: “She brings me mexican food from Sombrero just because” (I’ve read that fans still drop off letters and gifts at the Poway location). CC and her daughter had fish and chicken tacos and a combo plate, while I had my favorite rolled tacos. Dominic had been asking for french fries since we left the house, so we were lucky that they had it on their menu. Afterwards, we treated ourselves to fantastic ice cream at The Daily Scoop. CC explained that their ice cream comes locally from Niederfrank’s, who makes ice cream handmade from their location in National City. The reason I took a picture of the awning is because she also said that it was the former location of M-Theory Music, which can still be seen underneath. In that last collage picture, you can see my delicious waffle cone filled with two scoops: Butterscotch Marble and Blueberry Cheesecake. Yum!

CC’s daughter was so awesome and did her best to keep Dominic occupied during the evening. He was a bit grumpy because we woke him up just at the beginning of his nap right when we arrived. The only way we could really get him to enjoy himself more was to tell him that he could get his face painted at cute children’s store called So Childish, where they had many of the kid’s activities. Dominic got his face done up like his favorite superhero, Spider-Man. As a plus, every child got a free cowboy hat in line with the Wild West theme.

We ended the night with a couple of items for the road: a key lime cheesecake for CC’s hubby and a cafe latte carmelato for moi (made with Illy coffee) from Cafe Madeleine. The quaint corner location and French inspired signs reminded me of the little cafes I saw around Paris last summer. The coffee made for a nice handwarmer for the ride home. Dominic and I had a great time with CC and her daughter at the Wild West Walkabout. Part two of our South Park adventure will be about the shops we ventured into and some of my cool finds. Hope you had a great weekend!

Most Def

Does anyone remember the shoe brand British Knights? I had a couple of pairs once upon a time, and I adored them (they had the word “British” in them…enough said). My high top BK’s were blue, black and white. My low tops were my favorite because they were white all over, but the middle was a quilted black, purple and gold printed material with the initials BK embroidered in purple (very similar to the ones pictured above). I know it sounds hard to believe, which is why I included a scan of an old picture from back in the day, posing in my BK high tops. Dig if you will the leggings with the lace on the bottom, not to mention the gigantic hair bow and equally large hoop earings. I can also guarantee, the shoulder pads on that leather jacket would rival any football linebacker (shout out to Eileen for taking the picture). Very very late 80’s/early 90’s, no?

British Knight Def Shop

British Knights Roco Sneakers

I was recently introduced to an online European Hip Hop clothing website called Def-Shop.com out of Germany, and imagine my delight when I found British Knights! They have a whole line of the BK brand for both men and women, and I instantly gravitated towards that fantastic pair pictured above. The back can be flipped up so that the the shoes appear all black, but I really like them folded down. I got so excited when I found them that I called my husband into the room to look at the computer, at which time I realized that I hadn’t showed him that old picture of me. He just gave me a funny look and went back to his movie. I guess re-discovering my old favorite brand of sneaks wasn’t as exciting to him as it was to me!

The link in the above paragraph goes directly to the German version of the site, but if you click on the picture below, you will see the English version. Keep in mind that the prices are in Euros and all items ship from Berlin, Germany. I’ll be checking out more of from their site, and don’t be surprised if you see an outfit post from me rockin’ those bad boys above. Happy shopping!

FTC Disclosure: I received compensation and was asked to review the site. Although I did receive compensation, the opinions in this post are strictly my own.

(Top photo courtesy of uncrate.com; photos 3 and 4 courtesy of Def-Shop)

You May Be Blue

When trying to figure out titles to my posts, especially outfit posts, I’m usually inspired by song titles and lyrics. Typically, I can come up with a title or lyric from one of my favorite bands. If something doesn’t instantly come to me, then I do a search for a few key words to spark my memory. In the case of the title to this particular post, I just couldn’t find anything using the words “may” and “blue” from my staples like Depeche Mode, Joy Division, Duran Duran, or OMD. So into the search engine I typed “lyrics, may, blue” (the color of the amazing skirt I bought from Bella of The Citizen Rosebud’s Etsy store, and name of the Miista boots). Lo and behold, out came a song by a group called Vetiver called “You May Be Blue” on Subpop Records. I’m so glad I did that because I discovered an amazing band that I had not heard before. There are great live versions on You Tube (such as this one recorded in London back in 2007), but I dig the album version. In fact, I liked the song so much that I included the video below and bought the album To Find Me Gone (Vetiver’s second album). Oh the places you’ll go when fashion blogging, no?

(Note: I wore the outfit with thick black sweater tights and a black jacket. My new job is keeping me busy with long hours, so I haven’t been able to take outfit pictures like I should. I hope to include myself wearing the outfit in a future post.)

Outfit – Old Navy sweater; The Citizen Rosebud skirt; May booties by Miista, purchased from Shoescribe.com

Pink Candles in My Burning Kitchen

Two weekends ago, I had the pleasure of meeting two local ladies who are food bloggers. Darlene of My Burning Kitchen discovered my blog due to a link on M-Theory’s Facebook page to my post about Peter Hook. She contacted me through Twitter and we started to chat. Through Darlene, I met the lovely rocker girl of Pink Candles at Ridgemont High (I will respect her choice to remain annonymous, so I’ll just call her Pink Candles). Both have posted very sweet comments on my blog, and through email exchanges, we discovered that we each have quite a few things in common, mainly to do with loving the 80’s. Darlene shares my love of Duran Duran and groups like Depeche Mode and New Order. Pink Candles is more a hard rocker, which actually equates to our mutual love of metallic spikes and edge in our style (she had killer boots on when we met up). After a few Tweets and many emails later, we decided it would be fun to meet up.

Pink Candles arranged when and where, which I fully supported because I definitely would trust food bloggers to pick a more than suitable place to eat! She choose the Eclipse Chocolat Bar & Bistro in eclectic South Park. It was the perfect time of day to have their Sweet & Savory Bunch special, which is $16 for three plates. After having a salted mocha with homemade marshmellows, I started brunch with the rosemary potato wedges in a burnt caramel hollandaise sauce. Very savory indeed! Sadly, I don’t recall what Darlene and Pink Candles each had for their starters.

Next we had our main dishes, all pictured below. Darlene had the grilled panini (left), I had the build-a-benedict topped with brown sugar-pulled pork with a chile burnt caramel hollandaise sauce (middle), and Pink Candles had the mushroom thyme quiche (right). We all shared bits of our main dishes with each other and although my dish was very good, I liked Pink Candles choice of quiche. That flaky pastry was quite heavenly.

We closed with the sweet portion of brunch. I think it was an accident that both Darlene and Pink Candles ordered the same dessert, which was the burnt caramel apple cobbler. Now, that was a very interesting and very savory dessert because it was spicy, sweet, creamy and rich. The chile burnt caramel hollandaise sauce blended well with my build-a-benedict so the heat of the spice was more mild. But the spice was very prominent when used over the cobbler. I’m going to have to bring my girls Janice and Regi here, because I have found a new favorite dessert, which was the frozen peanut butter mousse. All elements of this dessert worked so well together and I just couldn’t get enough, even though I was a bit full from my starter and main dish. Next time, I will go there just for that dessert with a cup of coffee. So. Good.

After brunch, we strolled around South Park for a little bit, taking in some shopping. Pink Candles bought a few goodies and I vowed to go back there after Lent and explore more in depth the stores that we visited that day: Bad Madge, The Make Good, Junc Life & Style and Graffiti Beach.

And finally, pictured below are the desserts that both Darlene and Pink Candles each made and brought to share (as the sole fashion blogger not knowing this food blogger ritual, I came empty handed). Pink Candles made the yummy blueberry mochi cake and Darlene made the equally delicious yellow cake with sour cream chocolate frosting (the cake & frosting recipes are on her blog here). Pink Candles even made beautiful earrings for each of us (I have wore my pair to the Alicia Keys concert). I like this ritual, and I will definitely bring something the next time we all meet up! I have found new friends in Darlene and Pink Candles, and you can be sure that this will not be the only time I go on an outting with these beautiful and fun food bloggers.

Set The World On Fire: Alicia Keys in Concert

As you know, I’m an alternative music girl and the concerts I’ve attended lately have been heavy on the 80’s alternative. The last show I saw was The English Beat in January and then The Rewind Festival last summer in England. My hubby definitely likes more contemporary music that’s currently on the radio, so for his birthday, he asked for Alicia Keys tickets. We had date night when we went to her concert this past Wednesday at The Valley View Casino Center, formerly known as The San Diego Sports Arena (the last show I saw there was George Michael back in 2008). I recognized all the hits like No One, Fallin’, You Don’t Know My Name, and of course the recent hit Girl On Fire. Other than her amazing voice, I truly enjoyed the stage set, the lighting and her piano playing. Because I’m more of a casual fan, I’ll just let these pictures speak for themselves. Cheers!

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(Edited to add a couple of fun pictures taken in the arena before the concert. The Valley View Showgirls & lobster picture courtesy of Valley View Casino & Hotel’s Facebook page.)

Shaken, Not Stirred: 50 Years of James Bond

It’s crazy to think that super spy extraordinaire, 007, has been shaking and stirring things up since Ian Flemming created his James Bond character back in 1953. My mom has been a long time fan of Mr. Bond and I remember when my parents brought home “The Connery Classics” 007 video collection (part of it is pictured above). I believe the very first Bond movie I watched was either From Russia With Love or Goldfinger, but I’ll have to admit that I only really started paying attention when the theme music started to include artists that I knew like “For Your Eyes Only” as performed by Sheena Easton and of course “A View To a Kill” by Duran Duran. It was very interesting to read in John Taylor’s book In the Pleasure Groove how Duran Duran got involved with doing the theme for A View To A Kill:

I went with Janine [one of John Taylor’s ex-girlfriends] to a party Michael Caine was having at Langan’s in honor of that year’s Wimbledon tennis final, and I recognized Cubby Broccoli, the producer of the James Bond films, sitting at a table.

Janine introduced me and we got to chatting.

I said, “When are you going to have a decent theme song again?”

He said, “Well, do you want to write the next one?”

I said, “Absolutely.”

When I got home, I called the guys, told them “I think we have a crack at the next Bond film.”

– From the chapter “Megalomania At The Wheel”

I was just looking at the list of Bond movie theme songs and honestly, I completely forgot that A-Ha did the “The Living Daylights” theme (I’ll have to go back and listen to that). I will have to say that other than “A View To A Kill”, Adele’s “Skyfall” is my favorite Bond theme. She was amazing on the Oscars.

I’ve been thinking about “the spy who loved me” recently because of the 50th anniversary, and I just realized that my husband and I have seen the last three James Bond movies together. We have really taken a shine to Skyfall, which we saw in the theaters last November (he loved it so much that he brought home the DVD, pictured below). What I enjoyed about Skyfall is that it felt more like the old James Bond movies in that it had a bit of cheekiness to it. Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace felt very heavy and dramatic compared to any of the ones with Pierce Brosnan just prior. Skyfall had a touch of that cheekiness, mainly due in part to the interaction between Daniel Craig and Naomi Harris. It made me finally believe that Daniel Craig was James Bond.

Cheers to James Bond and his adventures in the last 50 years and those to come. I’m raising my martini in your honor 007!

(This post was written in collaboration with Veronica Stone.)

Depeche Mode 2013 US & Canada Tour Dates Announced!

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I had a sneaking suspicion that this was going to happen on the day of their Live on Letterman webcast yesterday (which was simply AMAZING): Depeche Mode announced their US and Canadian tour dates! This is from their official website, and yes, there is a date in San Diego. Tickets for the show at the Sleep Train Amphitheatre will go on sale April 6, 2013. You can guarantee that I will be there!

Tour: The Delta Machine Tour – North American Leg

08/22/13	Detroit, MI	DTE Energy Music Theatre	United States
08/24/13	Chicago, IL	First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre	United States
08/27/13	St. Paul, MN	Minnesota State Fair	United States
09/01/13	Toronto, ON	Molson Canadian Amphitheatre	Canada
09/03/13	Montreal, QB	Bell Centre	Canada
09/06/13	Brooklyn, NY	Barclays Center	United States
09/08/13	Wantagh, NY	Nikon at Jones Beach Theater	United States
09/10/13	Washington, DC	Jiffy Lube Live	United States
09/12/13	Atlanta, GA	Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood	United States
09/14/13	Tampa, FL	Live Nation Amphitheatre at the Florida State Fairgrounds	United States
09/15/13	Ft Lauderdale, FL	BB&T Center	United States
09/18/13	Houston, TX	Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion	United States
09/20/13	Dallas, TX	Gexa Energy Pavilion	United States
09/22/13	San Diego, CA	Sleep Train Amphitheatre	United States
09/24/13	Santa Barbara, CA	Santa Barbara Bowl	United States
09/26/13	Mountain View, CA	Shoreline Amphitheatre	United States
09/28/13	Los Angeles, CA	STAPLES Center	United States
09/29/13	Los Angeles, CA	STAPLES Center	United States
10/08/13	Phoenix, AZ	Desert Sky Pavilion	United States

(Photo courtesy of Side-Line Music Magazine)

Depeche Mode on Letterman Tonight!

Depeche Mode kicks off “Live on Letterman” tonight! Below are all the details from cbs.com. Rememer that in addition to the streamed live show, they will also perform “Heaven” on the show “Late Night With David Letterman”. You know I’ll be watching tonight!

Performance Will Be Streamed Live and Available On Demand on CBS.com and VEVO

CBS Interactive’s award-winning webcast concert series, LIVE ON LETTERMAN, kicks off 2013 with Depeche Mode performing live from the world-famous Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City and webcast on CBS.com and VEVO, Monday, March 11 (8:00 PM, ET/5:00 PM, PT).

Depeche Mode will perform a live set that will showcase previously unheard music off of the band’s highly anticipated upcoming album Delta Machine, as well as some of their classics. Delta Machine will be released worldwide on March 26 via Columbia Records.

The LIVE ON LETTERMAN franchise, which has surpassed 150 million views to date on CBS.com and VEVO, has hosted some of the most established bands and musicians across the globe, staged in an intimate and dynamic setting for worldwide followers to enjoy. LIVE ON LETTERMAN webcasts have included some of music’s biggest stars, from The Killers to Coldplay, Mumford & Sons, Adele and many others.

Fans can watch Depeche Mode’s webcast live or on-demand on CBS.com at http://www.cbs.com/shows/liveonletterman/. Additionally, the show is available live and on-demand through CBS properties, broadcast on select CBS RADIO stations, viewable live on CBS’s JumboTron in Times Square, as well as via a live audio stream on Radio.com‘s mobile applications. The webcasts are also offered on VEVO, the world’s leading all-premium music video and entertainment platform, through VEVO.com and its free mobile and tablet apps for iPhone, iPad and Android. The on-demand performances are available across the entire VEVO platform, including VEVO.com, its mobile and tablet apps, mobile website, connected TVs and syndication partners.

(Pictures courtesy of Depeche Mode’s and the Late Show with David Letterman’s official Facebook pages.)

Pictures From The "Bella Donna: A Makeover to Remember" Event

I attended the “Bella Donna: A Makeover to Remember” on Tuesday at The Art Institute of California – San Diego (previous post here). I met Tashina, who originally contacted me, and her colleagues who put the beauty event together. Students and friends treated attendees to wonderful makeovers. In addition to getting pampered like a princess, there was snacks, beverages and fantastic raffle prizes, with all proceeds to benefit one of my new favorite charities, The Princess Project. It was a fun night and I want to thank Tashina for informing me about the event!

Tashina (at the far right) and her colleagues at The Art Institute of California – San Diego

Awesome raffle prizes

Hair and make up in full effect

Many ways to get your nails did and done

Adorable mini-cupcakes by Queen of Cakes and Cafe

The Princess Project

The 5th Annual Princess Project Runway Event 3/14/2013

Yesterday, I met Jenna and Vicky, two lovely ladies from The Princess Project’s San Diego team at the “Bella Donna: A Makeover to Remember” event. They told me about a spectatular soiree happening next Thursday at the Hotel Palomar’s SummerSalt Rooftop Pool & Lounge. It’s their 5th Annual Princess Project Runway Event and will feature future fashion stars from FIDM competing in a live prom dress draping competition. Enjoy a fabulous affair that benefits a fashionable and worthy cause on March 14 in beautiful Downtown San Diego. Cheers!

“The Princess Project promotes self-confidence and individual beauty by providing free prom dresses and accessories to high school girls who cannot otherwise afford them.”

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