Observations from the Coffee Shop 5.31

Some random weirdness from an, as I predicted, decidedly weird Memorial Day weekend.

The New York smoking ban took effect this past weekend and a saw a piece on CNN about it. I won’t try and argue its pros and cons but pass on some insight from the CNN report. An Israeli man said everybody there smokes and everybody is amazingly healthy, must be the desert air. They showed a shot of the plaque in Washington Square Park with a cigarette butt crushed on it, I swear it wasn't mine. And finally there was a man who spoke the truth. He said that if we all quit smoking we would all gain weight and than the city would send out the twinkie patrol.

I was at the bar watching the Phillies play the Mets and had an interesting conversation with a bar regular who was fully attired in his Mets jersey and cap. He explained to me how he can tell which Phillies ace is pitching when he isn't close enough to the TV to see the name or hear the play by play. Keep in mind this is was coming from a middle-aged guy with the deepest Brooklyn accent. His method is to check out the body because Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee are both 'big guys' but Lee is way more 'cut' and athletic looking. Cole Hamels is tall too but he has a 'scrawny modelish' body and Roy Oswalt is shorter with an 'ample' midsection. I kid you not those were his exact words. I couldn’t bring myself to ask about the relief pitchers.

As I recently discovered it was not only Memorial Day but Fleet Week here in New York and the sailors were everywhere with their oil cans of Fosters beer. I think I might need to buy me a little sailor outfit and than I too can drink a beer as I walk down the street. What just amazed me again this year was how many of them show up around the galleries and how many seem to think that I am just what they need to make their Fleet Week in New York perfect. Nothing like getting hit on by a straight guy in uniform whose line of sight is slightly below my neck. I never did see many women sailors and had to wonder where they all went for the week. I was thinking maybe they went to the strip clubs but that's just a theory of mine. Maybe next year I'll find out, that is if I remember its Fleet Week in the first place.

I had more to share but a pulled pork sandwich is screaming my name. I'll get back to you.

Observations from the Bar 5.26

So why am I writing from the bar on a Thursday afternoon? I took a rare two days off where I decided not to do anything work related so I'm at the bar watching an afternoon Phillies - Reds game. If the Reds should win this, they are losing 1-0 as I write, they will have earned it. The Reds lost to the Phillies earlier today in a 6 hour 12 minute 19 inning marathon which ended at 1 in the morning. Today's game started at 1 so they got little sleep, the game time temp was 85°, and Cliff Lee is pitching for the Phillies. Not going to happen.

Yesterday, well yesterday I did a whole lot of nothing. I wandered lowest Manhattan checking in at one Starbucks after another as I chased the barista badge on foursquare. I should have gotten it but evidently the foursquare computers didn't think what I did was possible. Along the way I also checked out some used bookstores I have wanted to get into but never did. I found some sweet deals on photography and art books but I refrained because I need more art books stacked in the apartment about as much as I need, well, more art mags stacked around the apartment.

I did make one very important discovery during my wanders. I was sitting at a marina next to the World Trade Center, just sipping my coffee, and wondering why so many people were out and about on a Wednesday. As I watched a police helicopter circle overhead I began to get more than a little worried when it suddenly dawned on me. Yesterday was the start of Fleet Week in New York and my art obsessed mind didn't even know it. Why was I not told? That also explains all the sailors I saw walking around and why Ash wanted me to be at the gallery all weekend. Sneaky bish knew and didn't tell.

As predicted the Phillies won rather easily by a 10-4 score. While I was watching the game a guy on twitter asked me to name my 5 greatest sports dynasties of all time. After some thought I threw him my own kind of fastball:

"k im going to make you think, 4 women's teams :) (@KcNightfire Give me your top 5 sports dynasties of all time...) in no particular order the current UConn womens basketball (6 champs since 00), 92-01 Maryland womens lacrosse (7 champs), 82-00 North Carolina womens soccer (16 champs), than my #1 is 07-10 Penn State womens volleyball (4 straight champs and a 107 match winning streak). honorable mention to Lance Armstrong, as far as i know he never did test positive for anything."

Now Philly moves on to play the dysfunctional Mets in New York this weekend. Fleet Week and the Phils in New York, going to be another weird one.

Sick Puppies - Riptide

Observations from the Coffee Shop 5.25

I have tried to stay away from posting other peoples writing on here, sticking with an occasional video I want to share, but yesterday I read something that I always think but have never put into words. I often wonder why Democrats and liberals always have to play nice. We shouldn't stoop to their level or it only demeans us are just two of the arguments for the biblical 'turning of the cheek.' But why should we? In the end the truth is simply the truth. Just because somebody can't handle it or doesn't like it doesn't make it any less true.
As Martin Luther King Jr. said "A right delayed is a right denied.” Truth.

"It Is Time For The LGBT Community To Start Kicking"
by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
LezGetReal
May 24, 2011

“‘And which one is this?’ he said. ‘The truth that is so precious it must be surrounded by a bodyguard of lives? The truth that is stranger than fiction? Or the truth that is still putting its boots on when a lie is running around the world?’…’The truth has got its boots on,’ he said. ‘It’s going to start kicking.’”- Terry Pratchett The Truth pg 292.

The day has come to stop acting as if tomorrow is going to be nice, and that those opposed to marriage are going to be willing to wage a war where the debate is going to be polite and kind. The hour has come to stop acting as if we are not at war, and that those opposed to us are going to let us live even if we lose. The minute has come to start kicking back.

They will claim that they are just protecting children, when in reality they are protecting their own privilege. They will claim that they are trying to protect families, when in reality they are aiming to destroy them. They will claim that they are trying to protect society, when in truth they are willing to do anything to destroy it.

They will hold up the traditions of the past and claim that they are sacrosanct. They will aim to put women into a lower place in society all the while claiming that it is for the good of the children. They will lie about lesbians and gays and how they are unfit parents all the while sweeping away the real and rational data that is out there. They would rather children remain in orphanages and in unstable foster care simply because they care less for the children than they ever claim. After all, the good of the children is not as important as protecting their privilege.

They will come with familiar faces all the while hiding their true masters. They will deny that those pulling the strings are from religious organizations, and especially deny that they are working on behalf of child molesters. They will cast lesbians and gays as monsters all the while hiding the reality that they protect monsters who prey on children. They will claim that they are working for a higher good, but in truth they will have sold their souls for a slice of the money they bring in and the fame that it brings. They will abandon their own children to gallivant across the country to spread their message of hate and lies and do so because they put more importance on keeping lesbians, gays, women, and all non-white males “in their place”.

They will convince some of those out there that they are their friends. They will get the occasional Black or Hispanic face to show the world, but in truth they are not friends to them.

You know these people, of course. They will come with the same tired lies that have been proven wrong time and time again and they will claim over and over again that it is the truth when it is a lie. They will talk about how the Catholic Charities in Boston had to fold up shop because of a law allowing adoption rights for lesbians and gays when, in reality, they know that the Catholic Charities were willing to remain open, it was the bishops and cardinals who, not caring about the children, shut the door. They will talk about children being punished for not accepting homosexuality when they cannot point to a single case anywhere.

The likes of Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown have sold their souls for a lot of money, and they and their cohorts will lie and distort so as to make it so that their side wins, and when that does not work, the Catholic Church will even send out priests to nursing homes to ‘help’ the elderly fill out their absentee ballots like it is rumored they did in Maine.

The time has come for the LGBT Community to start kicking. For every distortion and lie that they hit us with, hit back with the truth, and not just the warm feel good truth. If they say that lesbians and gays are not suppose to get married, then hit back with the stats on divorce and separation saying that we cannot make more of a mess of marriage than you guys. If they claim that lesbians and gays are child molesters, then hit them hard with the facts about the molestation of children in the Catholic Church, one of the two religious organizations using the National Organization for Marriage to do their dirty work at arm’s length. If they claim that this restricts their religious freedoms, remind them that there are many churches that support marriage equality and that those churches are having their religious freedom actively suppressed by them.

The time has come in Minnesota and New York to fight and fight dirty.

This is war, and we did not ask for it to be this way, but we will and must carry it forth as one."

'Just Say Takei"

Dedicated to the Tennessee State Senate which Friday passed the 'Don't Say Gay' bill that prohibits teachers discussing homosexuality. Under the bill any instruction in public classrooms will be "limited exclusively to age-appropriate natural human reproduction science." Supposedly in the belief that not talking about gay people will make us all disappear. The House version of the bill has been withdrawn for the current session, but its sponsor has vowed to reintroduce it next year.

Observations on Politics 5.21

Anybody that reads this blog at all, or for that matter anybody that knows me at all, knows by now I love politics. Not just because I care about the issues involved but because I love the excitement and confrontation of it. You could call me a fanatic, an enthusiast, or a devotee but for lack of finding a better synonym I'm a political junkie. For obvious reasons I hate the word but I am what I am.

Even for a political junkie these last few weeks have seen political theatre at its finest. It all started with President Obama's releasing of his birth certificate and than his mocking of Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents' dinner. Than the President laughed at jokes about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden knowing full well an operation was already in motion that would end in bin Laden's death.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's love child, Newt Gingrich in full self-immolation, and Donald Trump exiting the race with a whimper on May16th just added to the fun. The Trump exit had been predicted to the day months ago by Lawrence O'Donnell as it was the day NBC would announce its final fall schedule and the return of Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice." Than there was former Arkansas governor and ordained Baptist minister Mike Huckabee's exit from the race. Minutes before announcing he wouldn't run because 'his heart says no' Huckabee played bass to Ted Nugent's guitar in a rendition of "Cat Scratch Fever” and smiled as Nugent sang "I make the pussy purr with the stroke of my hand." This from a man who criticized Natalie Portman for being pregnant with her fiancé’s child and not having the decency to be ashamed of it. Once again well done FOX News.

I'm a lifelong Democrat who, if possible, gets more liberal and more radical as I get older. I don't understand how a woman or a gay person or anybody who isn't wealthy could be a Republican today. I take special pleasure in watching all the front running self righteous Republican presidential candidates crash and burn leaving the door open for a possible centrist candidate. Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman drew national attention in 2009 with his public support for civil unions and other rights for same-sex couples. Huntsman said “Let’s hope that someday all people are seen as equal under the laws of our land." I wouldn't vote for him but it shows there is hope.

There is always hope.

I saw this just before I finished writing this post and I wanted to share it. Michelle Obama speaking to the West Point graduating class on Saturday night, “no matter how you’ve grown up, no matter how you define family, all of you have someone in your life who believed in you and pushed you. You had someone who taught you the values and lessons that will sustain you when times get tough or you’re unsure of what’s ahead. Some of those people are here with you tonight.”

Like I said, there is always hope.

U2 - One

Observations from the Coffee Shop 5.16

Some random thoughts with no connection whatsoever. Life, art, sports, and than a quote ....

Over the past weekend I spent a few days at my dad's and heard a beautiful sound. I laid in my bed and listened to the sound of rain falling on the porch roof outside my old bedroom uninterrupted by anything but the far-off clap of thunder. No cat horns, squealing tires, or sirens so I spent most of the night awake, not tossing and turning but listening. It's a sound I didn't even realize I loved so much or missed at all until that moment but it suddenly became one of the great joys of my life.

I'm still in contact with my old boss and department head at PSU which is good because he also happens to be the guardian of my paintings. We traded a couple emails this week which tie into my post about the art market. In one note he mentioned how much he was struggling with the department's share of the state funding cutbacks and wasn't yet sure how it would play out. There aren't any good options that I can see and for now the front runner is a smaller course selection. I know this is only art but the cuts are everywhere in the system, repeated across the state, and across the nation. I don't see how we catch up with world leaders in science, math, and the like if we continue to cut back on education. Meanwhile the wars wage on, fully funded.

The Philadelphia Flyers season might have ended in a disaster but a couple days ago I found out something totally awesome. The Flyers will host the NHL's 2012 Winter Classic at Citizens Bank Park, the home of the Phillies. The Winter Classic is the outdoor NHL game that has been played on News Years Day since the first game in 2008. An official opponent has yet to be announced but rumors say it will be the hated New York Rangers which is just too damn perfect. I'm writing this now in the hopes my dad sees it and gets started on his x-mas shopping early this year because I so better be there. This year's game will be played in a baseball stadium and on January 2nd due to an Eagles' game scheduled for the Linc on January 1st.

Finally an H. G. Wells quote from the opening credits of the following video. "If we don't end war, war will end us." It might not end us but it will surely bankrupt us.

Thirty Seconds To Mars - This Is War

5/17 update - Just watched that video again and just have to say how much I love Jared Leto's videos. I shouldn't even call them videos because they are more short films. Just an awesome ending, the proverbial scrap heap of history.

Observations on the Art Market

There has to be something inherently wrong with a country where a major party wants to cut programs and services for the poor and elderly yet a Warhol or Picasso can be sold for 40, 50, or even $100 million. Just this past Wednesday Christie's New York took in $301 million at its Contemporary Art Sale a day after Sotheby’s New York did $128 million and Phillips de Pury $95 million. Math was never my best field but I think that makes $524 million in a matter of days. I know this is all supposedly private money but one has to wonder how collectors can amass such fortunes in the first place. CEOs ruin companies, ship jobs overseas, than pocket the profits before retiring to a life of leisure in their art filled mansions.

Personally I just think it is somehow wrong but at times that is a minority view in some circles. I have gotten into more than one argument over this with people whose thinking is basically that you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds. Many in the market don't support increased taxes on the wealthy because this would take away from a collector's ability to support museums, artists, and the like. It is as if the market has become addicted to the flow of money, bought and sold by the "New Medicis" of the Bush era. As government funding for the arts dwindles these so called 'patrons' dominate the art world today in a new pseudo Renaissance. They seem to call all the shots at major museums, art fairs, and even some major university art programs.

At same time the divide between the haves and have nots of the artist community mirrors the divide in our society in general. A smaller and smaller proportion of artists receive more and more of the funding and support. It sometimes seems being connected to the 'right' gallery is more important than an artist's talent. The artists themselves become of secondary importance to the gallery expérience.

While writing about the avant-garde movement over sixty years ago Clement Greenberg wrote that the movement was attached to the ruling class by “an umbilical cord of gold.” Ten years ago a professor of mine gave me a passage from a T. J. Clark essay titled "Clement Greenberg's Theory of Art" in which he wrote "Capital may be uncertain of its values, but it is not weary; the bourgeoisie may have no beliefs worth the name, but they will not admit as much: they are hypocrites, not skeptics." I could write a book about what I think either quote means but for now I'll leave it for you to think about. I will say that I think the umbilical cord is stronger today than it was sixty years ago.

If a post of mine ever caused me any grief this could be it but it is how I feel and contains nothing I haven't said at some time to one person or another. I just have never put all these loose thoughts of mine together before.

Rebellious to the end.

Links:
"Avant-Garde and Kitsch" by Clement Greenberg
"Clement Greenberg's Theory of Art" by T. J. Clark

5/17 update - and the big get bigger, "LONDON.- Christie’s announced Multiplied – an exciting new fair in the field of contemporary art. The fair will be held during the week of the Frieze Art Fair, 15-18th October ...."

Observations from the Window 5.11

This is one of the rare moments when I do what I had planned on and write about my Second Life too. Along with some friends I had a very emotional couple of days last week. For well over two years I and two of my best friends in either life lived together on the sim of yet another friend. As my best friend wrote on flickr "a place we all lived, loved, danced, cried." In a matter of days it was gone. For reasons unknown the sim owner was suspended and gone forever and our land was offline.

"The region has been reactivated until tomorrow to allow you to reclaim your objects," was all Linden Labs would say and so Thursday became a night only Dante could imagine. I really can't think of words to describe how emotional I was. I named my land 'Paradise Lost' after the book in which John Milton wrote "The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." It was my little piece of heaven, my escape, and a shelter from my sometimes stormy real life.

My friend can create beautiful jewelry, had a store, a workshop. It's something I never seemed to be able to transfer from real life and at times I had a hard time creating a box. I might not have created the pieces of my paradise but I created the whole out of the pieces I found. It was mine from the kites to the water lilies, from the movie posters on the walls of the house to the art work on the walls of the bedroom. It was my garden, my gallery, my home, it was my art, and now I miss it more than I thought I ever could.

I'm not quite sure why I even started writing this. I have had a debate with people now and than about emotions in sl. How I think a person has only have one set of emotions and that no matter how hard you try to be otherwise you can’t keep them separate. But I didn't even get into that here. I guess my friend was right when she said part of the grieving process is to admit it's alright to hurt and it does hurt. This is just my way of admitting it.

"Paradise Lost" seems a more fitting name than ever.

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World

Observations

This is a video I totally had to post even though he is a member of the hated New York Rangers. Steve Avery is the first New York professional sports team athlete to publicly support same-​sex marriage.

Mom

For various reasons it has been an emotional couple of days for me but I wanted to write something about my mom today. As busy as I sometimes get I still think about her every single day, still wonder what she would think of this painting or that, still wonder what she would think of me. On looking back I don't think I could have said it any better than I did last Mother's Day so here is what I wrote than.

"I was reading a Mothers Day blog post today that had me thinking. As you all know by now thinking is not always a good thing for me to be doing. But I could so relate to this girl because her mom had died of cancer at a young age.

I owe my mom so much. She was the first one to see something special behind my dark eyes. She would drag me around Philadelphia museums when I was barely old enough to walk. She was the first one to stick my fingers in paint, which was something that ended in quite a mess if I remember it correctly. And the first one to take me to wander the streets of New York and to visit MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) which was one of her favorite places in the world. She always praised my art but was also never afraid to criticize it.

When, as a teenager, I suddenly informed my parents I was gay she just hugged me and went about her business like I hadn’t just changed her life forever. From than on I knew I would be fine. She was the one who, in my rebellious high school years, kept me grounded when things could have gone so wrong.

She was always there for me until one day she wasn’t.

Everything I’ll ever be as an artist I owe to my mom and every time I look at a painting I wonder what she would have thought of it. Every day I wish I could thank her somehow.

I’ll leave you with a very fitting quote from the blog I read.

'This mother’s day be sure to tell them how much you care for all they have done for you, for you may never get another chance. Learn about their lives and you may learn something about yourself.'"

Happy Mother's Day.

Observations on the death of Osama bin Laden, part II

I know this is a rather long post for me I but there is just so much garbage being tossed around now it could have been twice as long. I started to write it yesterday as part of that post but I didn't want to take away from my personal thoughts. I was going to end the whole with the following questions but they don't seem to fit either post so I'm going to put it here. Now that bin Laden is dead what is the reason to be in Afghanistan at all? Isn’t it time to come home before we follow the British and Russian paths out of the Hindu Kush?

And part II ....

One depressing aspect of bin Laden's death is how conservatives have come out to take credit for it. It was because of George Bush's policies or it was because of water-boarding they say. Bush had seven years to catch up with bin Laden and never did. No, it was because of continuing hard work of government agencies and President Obama having the guts to make the call to do it when he was advised not to, my gut tells me Bush wouldn't have done the same. He would have used jets or missiles and wiped out half of Islamabad in the process. I wish this would have happened sooner but thankfully Bush never had that chance.

Still some of the insane talk is more entertaining than other. Condoleezza Rice speaking on FOX News about Bush's bullhorn speech at Ground Zero; "But President Bush had at Ground Zero probably the most important moment maybe in American history." In all of American history, to name a few things that means Gettysburg, July 4th 1776, Pearl Harbor, and a moon landing. Granted it was probably Bush's finest moment as President but it was overshadowed by his 'mission accomplished' speech a year and a half later. Coincidentally bin Laden was killed 8 years to the day after that later speech.

But some of this commentary borders on sheer petty ignorance. Even Rudy Giuliani said "I thought the decisions about getting rid of the body were exactly correct." Yet some would have had it very different. Among them Glen Beck, "I really would have put him in a meat grinder with a pig." And the always charming Michelle Malkin, "They should have fed him to the pigs and not the fishes." Is it any wonder some parts of the world hate us?

Than there are those, too many to name, that believe Bush and not President Obama deserves the credit for the death of bin Laden. Let me remind them of this Bush quote from a press conference on March 13, 2002, just six months after the 9/11 attacks. When asked about bin Laden's whereabouts he answered "I don't know where he is, I’m not concerned about him anymore." Which is precisely the reason why President Obama did do in two years what Bush couldn’t do in seven. It all goes to prove, as Rep. Barney Frank said a few weeks ago, they all seem to live in cloud cuckoo land.

In a presidential debate on October 7, 2008 than candidate Obama said “"We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority." Senator John McCain mocked him as being naïve.

It Gets Better

It really does ....

Observations on the death of Osama bin Laden

Sunday night was one of those nights that you are always going to remember. I woke up from a nap on the couch to the news that a major announcement was coming from the President, this late on a Sunday night it had to mean something big. Word soon began to leak on twitter but it wasn't official until almost 11:30 when President Obama said "Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children." Even before his speech ended the streets erupted with honking horns and the cheering of people. If anything the sounds I heard as I stood on the roof combined with the photos I was seeing from Times Square reminded me of New Years Eve here.

I wasn't in the city on the day of the attacks but I drove up with a friend about a month after. I took maybe 400 photos (l) while I was there, most of which I have never shown anybody but my family. I snuck around a barricade to get most of the shots, saw the smoke, the dust, the utter destruction, and smelled the terrible smells. I was escorted back to 'safety' by the National Guard who than proceeded to call my dad. I don't think I ever saw him so mad at me because I didn't even tell him I was going there. What I saw are sights that I never will be able to forget. I’ve been back to Ground Zero since and I have seen the new construction but I still see it the way it was that day.

I told that story because yesterday I read and saw some opinions where it was said that we celebrated the death of bin Laden too much. That, especially in New York, we were just showing how the terrorists had won in the way they had changed us. Those who think that have to realize that most of the people out in the street celebrating were my age or younger and 9/11 is the focal point of their lives. It both literally and figuratively changed their lives forever. So many died that day and since that the celebration should have been totally expected. It was a pure natural reaction to learning that our ‘boogeyman’ was gone forever and we were still here. I'm sure the death of Adolf Hitler was celebrated in much the same way.

I fell in love with this city years before when I visited often with my mom. I remember how the feel, the energy, and the art of the city just amazed me. But I also remember first hand what it was like to be here ten years ago. My first thought on seeing the look on people's faces that day was that the city was dying, that it would never be the same ever again, the terrorists had indeed won.

I was wrong.

midday update - A friend emailed me an article from The Washington Post that says a little more about what I was trying to say, Resilient New York takes grim satisfaction in bin Laden’s death. Also I received an email from somebody who wanted to remind me that bin Laden "was in fact the creation of the same military and political establishment that has killed so many people under the pretext of the fight against al-Qaeda." Whatever, 9/11 was a watershed moment, one of those rare moments when what came before and what came after are totally separated. Not for me to decide.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 5.1

I never have thought much about wedding photography. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with doing weddings, just that it doesnt seem to fit my personality. A few months ago I found this photo by Drew of His and Hers Photogaphy (l) and I fell in love with it and wanted to share. If there was ever a wedding shot I wish I had taken it is this one. It's just such a beautiful photo and the more I look at it the more I love it. Is there anything better to say about any portrait than that it makes you smile every time you see it? This photo does just that to me and it's not even black & white.

Well I guess I should admit that what reminded me of it was watching some of 'the' wedding on Friday. I watched for purely historic reasons, truth, it is history in the making and I'm sticking to that. So while I'm writing I suppose I could offer some thoughts and trivia on the wedding.

So here are my primary thoughts on the affair, The future Queen has an awesome name, Kate, and she was hot. But Kate's younger sister Pippa was totally hotter in her simple dress that was designed by Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen. If I ever get married I want a photo like the top and a dress like Pippa's. 

Pippa

My fav quote of the day was by Martin Bashir of MSNBC who said that the wedding just solidified England as the worst dressed nation in Europe. I guess I have to agree because it looked like some of the women guests had raided the discarded hat box at a Lady Gaga video shoot. On Thursday Dylan Ratigan did a funny piece on wagering on the wedding which included the odds on the wedding dress being red which paid $1000 on a dollar bet. More fun was betting on the color of the Queen's hat. On a $10 bet yellow paid $7.27, light blue $17.50, and my personal favorite black paid $330. The thought was that she always wears light blue in cooler weather so that was the way to go but the thought was wrong and she wore yellow. An unknown gambler placed a $6,000 bet on Kate wearing a Russian tiara which had been made for Queen Victoria. I don't know how that turned out. Where they will honeymoon is still a big secret with rumors swirling and changing daily. I liked the one that had them going to Transylvania where the Prince of Wales owns a property.
 

Personally I would pass on the vampire honeymoon, unless Pippa was going along. I know, you just can not take me anywhere.