I am very sorry for disappearing from the face of the earth this week. I have been so absurdly, unreasonably ill that I have begun to quote the bitchy girl from ‘Devil Wears Prada’ – “I feel like death warmed up” – whenever anyone asks me. Yesterday my friend T was coming into town so I stayed home from work in the hope that 10 more hours of sleep might fix something in time for me to take her out on the town. It didn’t really but I drugged myself up with decongestants and ibuprofen and took her out to Duane Park for dinner and burlesque (it was my responsibility as a hostess).

Duane Park

Duane Park has free burlesque shows on Friday nights. This is not the sort of burlesque I usually see; I tend towards the variety show/cabaret sort of acts, performances that are closer to comedy than dance. The two lovely ladies who took off their clothes in the stunning arena of Duane Park did so tastefully and with grace and and controlled sensuality. There was nothing vulgar or funny about it. Now the group I was with were probably much more inclined towards seeing beautiful women carefully remove their clothing than I was; it certainly seemed as though they were enjoying themselves. Actually I felt the star of the performance was really Brian Newman– the excellent trumpet player and singer who single-handedly created the speakeasy mood.

One of my companions was taking pictures during the show and I promise to post any particularly lovely shots of the dancers or of Brian Newman when he sends them to me!

This evening I had a prior commitment and therefore pushed myself out of my apartment once again… to attend a special preview wine tasting event being hosted by Brooklyn Based at the Red Hook Winery.

Red Hook Winery

Now to start with I should thank the fabulous people at Brooklyn Based who added a third tasting so that those of us on the wait list could check out this fantastic new winery. To get to said winery I took advantage of the newest form of transportation to hit the big city- The Ikea Water Taxi. I believe from now on I am going to recommend this to tourists as the best free way to see the Statue of Liberty and downtown Manhattan from the water. It is awesome. Hurray Ikea! Even Hopstop will now include the Ikea shuttle buses in its directions! I just hope the Ikea people don’t start charging (I promise to buy something next time I move!).

The space (see above) is beautiful; there are old tin ceilings and everything feels just slightly magical. Certain old buildings are like that; they have good bones. The tasting itself was quite fun; the on-site winemaker, Christopher Nicolson, told us all about the process from choosing the grapes (sometimes sorting by hand) to mixing different batches for interesting blends (E and I both loved one that was mostly merlot but just a bit of several other varieties). There were lots of “10 point words” but while I didn’t follow it all I did find it fascinating and I’m very much looking forward to seeing these bottles in stores.

I will be posting a few events for tomorrow and then a larger post for this week. Please forgive me for my negligence with this weekend’s events; I will try not to get sick again this season!