By Nicole Guanlao and Nicole Tahan
NEW YORK — "I'm here to help out," said 9-year-old Aja Ellis as she arranged colorful fabric cut-outs on a long piece of felt. "I'm making scarves for people who are homeless and in shelters. I want them to be warm for the winter."
On Monday — Martin Luther King Day — there were many children like Aja sitting in circles and making scarves or bracelets in the gymnasium of Martin Luther King Jr. High School in New York. These kids weren't just sitting around playing arts and crafts: They were helping the needy and fulfilling part of Dr. King's dream.
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For punk-rock pilgrims headed to 315 Bowery, until recently the site of CBGB and the mecca of all things safety-pin and duct-tape, there’s a real shock in store. When I toured the space's reincarnation, I wasn’t fully prepared to see the former puke-and-piss palace converted into…a high-end clothing store.
Designer John Varvatos has leased the space and transformed it into his latest L.A. rocker-chic-friendly boutique. And while Varvatos has succeeded in keeping several of the club’s original elements intact, the space looks – and smells – starkly different from when I was last there, stepping on the carcasses of decades-dead mice drudged up during the move. Varvatos and his people have somehow managed to scour and scrub the dirtiest place in Manhattan – and transform it into a space that, I’ve got to admit, still manages to honor the memory of its former tenants. To his credit, Varvatos didn’t touch what remnants of CBGB were left behind before he moved in – whole sections of wall covered with rock fliers and graffiti remain, almost as headstones to the lore of this musical landmark, and even the crackled paint that covered the club’s walls wasn’t stripped away.
More after the jump.
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Well, I'm already back in NYC. Took a red-eye as soon as the show was done to be back for Fashion Week....yeah, I've had about 3 hours of sleep and I can barely believe that I've travelled across the country, did the VMAs and am in New York already getting ready to see the Marc Jacobs show...all in the last 12 hours.
2 highlights for me from last night:
1. As soon as I tossed to the big show, all of us (producers, stage managers, writers, camera men) huddled around the TV set on the pre show stage to watch the Britney performance. Of course, I ran out of battery on my camera, but the look on everyone's face was priceless. The gasping, the "oh-my-godding"......watching her teeter and totter on stage. SPEECHLESS!
2. Me running through the Palms with my luggage shoving and pushing the crowd, frantically looking for a ride to the airport. I ran over Ludacris with my roll-away luggage. PRICELESS! Sorry Luda!
Ok, fashionistas....I hope u approved of my outfit.....and here's some love from backstage at Marc Jacobs in New York.
Model backstage at marc jacobs. She's gonna have fun brushing that out tonight.
Me blogging on my bberry backstage.
Big kiss!
xoxo
