Workin on my fitness: Gangnam style cardio

Could I love Cassie anymore?

In the wolfpack: Psy

By now, you have seen the amazing Gangnam Style video by K-Pop artist, Psy.

If not, drop everything you are doing and watch it now. Right now.  Cause this guy is on fire.  This guy is in the wolfpack.



Can't understand what is happening?  Are you so completely mesmerized by the hip shaking, hot tub drownings, horses and subway romances that you can't at all understand the point of the joyous video?  Yea, me too. 

According to ABC news, the repetitive chorus is "Oppan Gangnam Style", which means "Girls, your big brother is Gangnam Style."

"Gangnam means, it's like Beverly Hills of Korea," Psy told ABC News last month. "But the guy doesn't look like Beverly Hills. Dance doesn't look like Beverly Hills. ... And the situation in music video doesn't look like Beverly Hills. But he keeps saying, 'I'm Beverly Hills style.' So that's the point. It's sort of a twist."

Ahhhh.  It all makes sense now.  I'm going to go watch it 72 more times.  

Read the full ABC News article here.

Say hello to falsetto in three, two

My current four song playlist sounds like what they play in bars that cater to sorority girls or in an Abercombie and Fitch.  Which makes sense, since I'm somewhere between 15 and 23.  Enjoy.













xo kate

"When people ask me if I like Vegas, I wish I could express to them the feeling I get when I step in the cab line, about it see you ladies. It's just... giddy." -LL

McCarran cab line.  Where giddy starts.

This past Easter weekend (I apparently start blog posts and never finish them -- but in honor of D's trip this weekend, I thought I'd give my take on the Paris of the Desert.  I just made that up.  No one calls Vegas that.) was my annual trip to Vegas with my girlfriends.  The title of this post is a text I got from my best friend while she was in the cab line at the airport waiting to come meet us at the hotel.  One of the things that I love about Vegas is that from the moment you get off the plane, the experience is larger than life.  Even the cab line is an event -- there are probably 200 people in it at any given time (many more if you're arrive between 9pm-11pm on a Friday night) and the energy is electric.  You know from that first moment that this is a place like nowhere else on earth.

We've been to Vegas at least once a year since we were 21 and, since we're all getting up there, that means we've had quite a few nights in Sin City.  Originally, we went just for the clubs -- Vegas has some of the best nightclubs ever; always packed, big dance floors, cool tables and amazing DJs. (Seriously, I use to fly to Vegas just to see Clinton Sparks -- who lived maybe ten minutes from me in Boston -- play at Body English, my favorite (now, sadly, defunked) club ever.  The loss of Body English should be a blog post on it's own, since it closed seemingly for no reason and Vanity has nothing on B.E. At any rate, that's a story for another time, since this post is already so tangental that I can barely follow it.)  The clubs were just the greatest scene with the funnest crowds. (Crowds with some of the best pick-up lines ever in the history of the world, like, "Well, going to clown college really chooses you." or "Do you know Pepto Bismol?  I'm actually the heir to the Pepto Bismol fortune.") We always met fun, funny people there, got drunk, danced and had a great time.  There is definitely a certain level of trashiness in any club, and especially in any club in Vegas (Vanity is taking trashy too far.) but the trashiness can be ignored because of the fun.  Also, Vegas has the most amazing bathroom attendants of anywhere I've ever been.  One night at Drai's, I saw a woman rip her dress, go into the bathroom and take off the dress, wait in the stall while the bathroom attendant sewed the dress, and then put it back on and go back to dancing.  For real, that is service.  At any rate, we loved the clubs.  Even though there's still a giant Body English-shaped hole in my heart, I still think they are really fun.

It really is all that.

This past trip we spent time at the Palms clubs, Moon and Ghost Bar, which are worth visiting for the view alone.  You're like 45 stories up, dancing outdoors on this huge patio, with the Vegas lights all around you.  It's really surreal.  Making all the crazier, at Ghost Bar, the floor of the balcony is clear, so you're also watching cars whiz by on the street below you.  Unbelievable.

So, in short, the clubs are awesome.  As we've gotten older though, we've embrace some of Vegas' other attractions.  This past trip, for example, we saw Zumanity, the Cirque du Soleil show that borders on actual porn, but is still completely amazing, despite it's weirdly racist undertones.  Not only was it a great show, but it struck up a lively dinner conversation about which countries the Cirque du Soleil performers were B-list gymnasts in.  It's nice to have something to talk about over dinner.

Favorite people, favorite place. 

In another totally adult move -- and this is a highlight -- I learned to play craps.  It's legitimately the most fun gambling game I've played, and I really like to gamble.  Craps is the quintessential Vegas game, because it's all about strangers coming together to have fun.  In my first game, I won like a hundred bucks, had an entire crowd of strangers chanting "Eight for Kate! Eight for Kate!" and received a marriage proposal.  For someone who likes attention as much as I do, it was pretty much the highlight of my life.

To sum up, I love to dance, drink, gamble and watch acrobats perform well-chorographed soft-core porn.  Like in life, the most important part about Vegas is the people you share it with, and I'm lucky to get to go to heaven in the Mojave (I made up that name too.) with some of the smartest, funniest, wildest girls I know.  Ladies, I can't wait til next year.   For now, I'm so, so sad that I won't get to be with you, D, as you lose your Vegas virginity.  But I hope you know that I'm with you in spirit.  Enjoy the giddy, you deserve it.

xo kate

Fist Pumps and Baby Bumps

"MTV gets ready for fist pumps and baby bumps. … America's favorite housemates will all return to their home-away-from-home, and the house dynamic is headed into unchartered territory . . .as their lives outside the "Shore" take off in exciting new directions."  -MTV.com


I can't lie, I'm kind of excited about this.  That makes me hate myself just the tiniest bit.


xo kate

If you love me til the end of time then I will promise you the night of your life.

It turns out I can no longer get out of bed without David Guetta and Jennifer Hudson.  I hope it helps you as much as it helped me this morning.


xo kate

I won't give up on my life

Have you seen Lady Gaga's new video for Marry the Night? If you haven't, check it out here.

Do you get it? Yea, me neither.

Maybe I'm just vapid and dumb. Or maybe I just needed this concise, effective explanation:

GTL Thursday: Just Dance

You don't need to understand Italian to enjoy the video of one of my favorite Italian songs.  From the box step to the powder blue suit to the mystery man...there is only joy here.

I'm a movement by myself, but I'm a force when we're together...

A colleague of mine recently told me that flash mobs were, "soooo 2009."   Come on now now.  That just doesn't make any sense to me.

If dancing around my room alone is fun, and dancing at the Bell in the Hand with Kelly, Lisa, and Chaci is fun to the 10th degree, then it only stands to reason that participating in an organized dancing flash mob with all of my friends is so freaking fun that it hurts. Its science, guys.  Algorithms.

Besides, I'm pretty sure that no fun thing is ever dated.  It is like bowling.  Or like rollerskating.  Figuring out the rubrix cube. Winning Monopoly.  Wearing winged eye-liner.

And even though I've never done any of these things successfully, I hope you get my drift. And so, back to the topic at hand:  flash mobs.

I'll be honest: I don't know the official history of dancing flash mobs. But I do remember the first time I experienced the phenomenon...and if you were a teenager in the 90s, I'll bet my bottom dollar you remember as well.  Seriously, how badly did you want your high school to organize a dance a la "She's All That" for prom?  Whenever I see Freddie Prince Jr. awkward dufas face, I get the Rockefella Skank stuck in my head.  Now its stuck in yours too.



Recently, my friend Kelly and I took a cue from Usher and put together a flashmob for our friends' wedding.

Using a free and un-intuitive download of Audacity, Kelly mixed, cut, and blended the music mix; four songs, four styles, four times the fun.  Pulling inspiration from various music videos, movies, and youtube clips, we then choreographed the 2.5 minute number. We went for simple, classic and hella jazzy dance moves:  grapevines, the Carlton, spirit fingers.  Think Fosse meets Footloose and mix in some fist pumps...and boom goes the dynamite.

The bride, groom, bridal party, friends and family totally embraced the plan, learned the moves via silly youtube videos, and brought swagger and life and fun to the mob.  Check it out, son.



Kelly and I are also available for bar mitzvahs, sweet sixteens, and holiday parties.

Today's the day.

Kim and Waldo's wedding. Dflash and MixMaster Hodge's Dance Mob.

I'm dflash, btw.

Full video coverage will be shared this week.  In the meantime...

I've got the moves like Jagger.

Wellesley College official flashmob

I'm something of an expert on flashmobs.

And by "expert" I really mean that I am currently planning my first for Kim and Eric's wedding, with the help of my friend Bones. It is a brilliant, simple, and tasteful mash-up of the King of Pop, the Contours, the Pointer Sisters, and of course, LMFAO. Yes. We'll be shuffling. While the masterpiece is still a work in progress and not yet ready for primetime, please enjoy a recent flash mob put together by my alma mater, Wellesley College.

GTL Thursday: Cinema Italiano

The 2009 film Nine is pretty much crap compared to the Fellini film on which it was based.

Fellini's masterpiece, 8 1/2, cast a gritty fantasy of characters, flashbacks and dreams, that the musical was never able to capture. Even the pure genius of Daniel Day-Lewis couldn't save the updated film.

That said, I love Kate Hudson's rendition of Cinema Italiano.  Total wildcat. Thoughts?

Tuesday Loseday: My soul-mate is a ginger.

I can't decide if my favorite part is the two-finger-eyeball-watch or when he simply slaps his ass. Either way, homeboy is in the wolfpack.

Smile!

Smile!  It is a long weekend!

Spin that record, babe.

From apartment34.blogspot.com

Ghetto superstar, that is what you are...

People know me:  http://www.nextlevelboston.com/information.html

Yep.

Could it be?

You may recall that a few months ago Danielle, with the help of the cast of Glee, taught you how to Dougie.  Well, it seems like W&W may have a bigger fan base than we originally thought.

Here's a video of Michelle Obama doing the Dougie at a Washington, DC middle school.


I'm not saying the First Lady definitely learned to to Dougie on the blog, but I'm certainly implying that it's a possibility. I'm also using this opportunity to let you all know how awesome I think she is.

xo kate

I hope my sister meets these marines...

It's time to lose your mind and let the crazy out

Last night, I received an email from my good friend Bre (of BreBeauty) urging me to watch and review Ke$ha's new video, Blow.

Wowowowowowowowow.

As usual, Bre was spot on; this video is ahhhhmazing and weird and on crack.

Unicorns. Muenster cheese. Rainbow guns. Shoot-outs. And best of all, pack member James Van der Beek. I don't think I could ask for more.

The sheer awesome-ness of video does the beg the question regarding Ke$ha's candidacy in the pack. I've avoided the topic because I'm so torn about the musical stylings of Ke-dollarsign-Ha.

Most pop stars come on the scene and they are so fresh and so clean, clean. And innocent. And probably only wearing tinted moisturizer and some clear mascara. I'm talking about Brit in Baby One More Time. And Christina in Genie in a Bottle. Its only after years of experience in the business that they start wearing body paint and glitter and singing about sex and dating Jake Gyllenhaal and breaking up with Jake Gyllenhaal and arriving on red carpets drunk.

Ke$ha skipped over the virginal newbie image and went straight for the edge. She's already hard. Already tainted. Already drunk.

This disruption of the circle of celebrity life bothered me at first. But I'm starting to warm to Ke$ha's effed up, glittery ways. She's not partying and drinking to escape the prison that is spotlight. She's partying and owning the spotlight. I respect it.

That, and her songs are just so damn catchy.

What are your thoughts? Should Ke$ha be in the pack? Should Vanderdouche be nominated for Pack secretary or something? And muenster cheese? Is it as awesome as they say?