Concrete Jungle Where Dreams Are Made Of

So I just got home from my third concert since i've been in NYC. I love this city. The fact that i've seen three concerts in the last month without making a single 1.5 hour drive to STL amazes me. Tonight I saw one of my favorite singers, Jay Brannan. I'll talk about that more in a bit but first let's catch up on what's been going on since my last post!

Took this photo from the 28th floor of an apartment building on Upper East Side

First i'll update you on what i've been doing at DKNY. In the marketing department, the Direct Marketing Coordinator (my supervisor) and I have been working on the 4th quarter sweepstakes. At all of the DKNY stores in the US there are ballot boxes (which I ordered and sent) where you put your information on a piece of paper and drop it in for a chance to win a $500 shopping spree. I'm sure that you all have entered a sweepstakes like this at one point or another. Well now that we've started getting entries it's my job (again) to enter every single entry into an Excel spreadsheet. Groundbreaking and exciting stuff--let me tell you. To give you an idea of how many of these I will be doing, the last sweepstakes they had received 13,000 entries. I was lucky enough when I first started the internship to enter a good majority of those and now i'm back at it again... If my enthusiasm isn't dripping from these words I sincerely apologize. Oh and please, the next time you fill out a sweepstakes entry like this, make sure you write legibly. There is most likely a small-town intern somewhere in Manhattan entering each into a spreadsheet like me and it makes our lives much easier if you know basic hadwriting. There's no excuse for this lack of penmanship unless you're a pre-schooler or a doctor. Oh but one cool thing I should mention is that my supervisor was on a plan from Chicago to New York on Monday morning and was sitting with Snookie from Jersey Shore in first class. I was pretty excited. My supervisor on the other hand was not impressed and said "she was as much of a mess as you'd expect her to be."

The other night I was walking down the street, talking on the phone when I rean across this. I was pretty excited about it.

Donna Karan's step on the fashion walk of fame

This past Wednesday I had the chance to see Deadmau5 live at the Roseland Ballroom. He's a very popular dubstep (techno) DJ that travels worldwide. He's one of my favorite DJ's so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see him live. It was a great show--very high energy, sold out screaming crowd, and everyone was dancing. I had the time of my life. My friend John went with me and we ended up going out afterwards and made one hell of a night out of it. Pics below:

For some reason since i've moved to New York I have become somewhat of a bookworm. I don't ever watch TV anymore and have already read five books since i've been here. This is has been unintentional and I hope that it doesn't make me sound conceited. The point in mentioning it though is that books are expensive! iBooks are about $10 a pop and buying a physical copy is just as bad, if not worse. I decided that this was a good time to get my first ever library card. And what better place than the New York Public Library?! If you're a fan of Sex & The City you know that the New York Public Library is where Carrie and Big were supposed to get married before he chickened out and "couldn't just get out of the car". Well let me tell you I found a HUGE discrepancy with that movie. In the film, Carrie decided to have her wedding in the building that "houses all of the great love stories" when she is returning some books and sees how beautiful the library is. Turns out you can't rent library books from there!!! This sounds ridiculous, I know, and I was as shocked as you are. Believe me. I signed up for my library card, looked up the book I wanted, and waited while they found it and "checked it out" for me. Well apparently at the NYPL when you "check out" a book it means you can sit there and read it. That's it. I imagine if I had tried to take the book out of the building I would have been pummeled to the ground by a few minimum wage security guards. I had to go across the street to a "branch library" to actually take some home. Oh and here's the list of books i've read in case you're interested. I highly recommend all of them.

• When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
• Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
• Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris          (i'm a fan, can you tell?)
• Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
  Soon to read/currently reading:
• Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher
• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Okay now let me please write about the concert I went to tonight. You may or may not know who Jay Brannan is. He's amazing. I discovered him about six years ago after I saw the movie "Shortbus" that he had a role in. I've been obsessed ever since and even had "meet Jay Brannan" on my bucket list. He's a gay folk singer that writes some of the most amazingly dark, satirical, honest, and heartbreaking songs. The show was held at a venue called Joe's Pub. The place had been recently remodeled and was very nice. This wasn't like the other concerts i've attended in NYC where everyone is standing together like sardines and are all screaming. It was a pretty classy place where you reserve a spot at a table and have a waitress serve you your drinks and food. He started his setlist on time which I appreciated as most musicians make you wait over an hour after the time listed on the ticket. He opened with one of my favorite songs, "Beautifully". 

"It's not that you're not beautiful, you're just not beautiful to me. She said how beautiful do I have to be? When I look in the mirror you're the only one I see and I have loved you beautifully..."

The show was very intimate and he joked with the audience between songs and was very entertaining. He played some of his old songs as well as a plethora of new songs that have yet to be released. After the show I had the chance to meet him in person, shake his hand, take a photo, and chat for a bit. I was ecstatic. Of course I look ridiculous in the picture. I have found out that when I meet someone famous or even semi-famous I always look ridiculous in the picture with them. I will work on this... 

On my schedule coming up i've got..... well.... nothing. Since i've been here it seems i've had some sort of event every week but now I don't have any concerts, fashion shows, or fashion events coming up that I know of yet. Hopefully i'll find enough entertaining things to do so I have something to blog about! Thanks for reading.