Wow, it was just the other day that I discovering John Rombola, writing him up as this week's style icon, finding this book on ebay. To my surprise, I found it waiting for me this morning and I just had to tell you about it.

Rombola by Rombola is a really lovely book filled with full page illustrations of the Circus, Bullfights, the Ballet, a Scaasi fashion show, The Opera, At the Beach and all around New York City. The city was his home, and according to the dust jacket, “Alert New Yorker subway riders have for several months been aware of a new spirit in poster art. The posters created by John Rombola for radio station WPAT have served to introduce to thousands of people a new creative talent.”

Man, can you imagine if radio station subway ads of today were introducing talent instead of all those Mega 97.9 ads? 1965 was a stylish time indeed, and Rombola's fresh, fun art fit right in.

If you're a fan (or a new fan like me that's only just heard of him) this book is worth seeking out.

Imagine if Nico went on a Primal Scream retreat with Amon Duul II and suddenly began singing in French and you get some idea of the mysterious, sometimes cacophonous, experience of listening to gorgeous hippy woman Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes's 1971 release Ame Debout (which means, I believe, “I am Standing”).

It's definitely a mind expanding album that takes some getting used to, but the more you listen, the more addicting it becomes. Her crazy wails over the guitar stylings of her magnificently bearded partner, Patrice Moullet, sound doomed, urgent, and spacey. This band was at the forefront of the French counter culture in the 70s and their lyrics (I have read) are politically poetic and strongly leftist.

They never attained world-wide popularity, in fact this record can be difficult to find (big thanks to Brian for tipping us off to this blog that features the album), but if you're a fan of psych/prog/folk rock, which it seems like more and more people are these days, it's worth seeking them out, possibly on eBay. I'll also be seeking out the films from Ribeiro's brief career, including Godard's Carabiniers (now on my Netflix que).

Plus the album cover features the most intriguing middle of the woods picnic I've ever seen, sorry Manet, while your scene may also include fruits, crazy hats and bread, these guys have long hair, wine and the potential to break out into an insane prog song at any moment, which takes the cake over shocking nudity (but just barely).

While it's possible to dig up some information online about artist John Rombola, museums will be happy to hear that I probably would have never discovered his whimsical work without them (Cooper Hewitt specifically). His books are sadly out of print, though the blog Dear Ada has posted this great scan of his book Rombola by Rombola and this flickr embroidery artist has found inspiration in his Bullfight Scene painting.

His name pops up in auction sales and the books Twentieth Century Pattern Design and Off the Wall. At one time he worked for Piazza Prints. It's his work for them, a trippy Alice in Wonderland wallpaper to be exact (on display at the Wall Stories: Children's Wallpaper and Books) that caught my eye (and the eye of Cookie Magazine) and made me so curious about him. Unfortunately more information is spotty. Though according to this photo, (which may or may not be the same John Rombola) he may have also designed costumes for the (now defunct) Harkness Ballet and was totally suave looking and surrounded by leopard ladies.

I am just finding this guy more and more intriguing, the harder and harder it is to know a thing about him. I even tracked down one of his books Rombola by Rombola (found on ebay, woo hoo) and bought it for myself for Christmas.

Rule number one with neighborhood darling Kanoyama is to make a reservation, from the minute we sat down there were at least five people waiting for tables. Often the eager crowds spilled out on to the street. It's a small space and tight quarters with no real decor to speak of, but that's completely beside the point. Who needs fancy ambiance when the sushi is so pleasing to look at?

We all ordered the omakase sushi dinner which gets you eight pieces the freshest chef choice and a roll for a little over thirty dollars. The day we went, tuna heaven was offered on plate in the form of two different kinds of sushi and a roll which were all exceptional. The octopus was superb and the unagi was presented beautifully in a long fillet with just a bit of the sweet basting sauce.

The unagi probably most represents the exceptional difference between Kanoyama and cheaper sushi joints. The fish was fresh and smelled amazing, and it was prepared simply so you could actually taste the freshness. I usually like eel, but the overcooked, over sweetened typical versions will never taste the same after this experience.

I wish I could give you more information on the other types of sushi we sampled, but it was all really tasty and made me feel like I should have beens paying through the nose (which you would be at other places of this caliber).

Beware of the wasabi here, it is potent stuff, not like the weak stuff you find in take out deli boxes. Also beware the carafes, they hold a whole lotta sake and before you know it, you're swimming in Masumi or Oyama (both really good lower priced options). They also serve Ginga Kogen Beer, which is nice crisp beer served in a blue bottle with a deer on it and Hitachino when available.

If you're tired of deli sushi and want to remember what it's really supposed to taste like without spending a fortune, have a blast discovering Kanoyama.

In the primeval Bialowieza Forest that straddles the border between Belarus and Poland grows the bison grass that eventually finds it's way into each bottle of Zubrowka vodka, giving it a pleasant, crisp autumn flavor.

The traditional beverage, which has been made the same way since the 16th century and was absolutely loved by the Polish royalty, was forced to change their recipe in 1978 when the FDA banned it for it's toxic compound, coumarin. You can still buy the updated, non toxic version and while it's not the “real deal” stuff that Poland enjoys, it might be a good thing that we don't hallucinate on our alcohol. I happen to live in the neighborhood where you can easily find it in every liquor store on the block.

In Poland, it's traditionally mixed with apple juice (known as a Tatanka). I used local, fresh apple cider and instantly found a new favorite. It's also excellent alone and chilled.

I found myself back again at one of my favorite places in NYC, The Cooper Hewitt last week. The main exhibit was not quite up my alley: House Proud: Nineteenth-century Watercolor Interiors from the Thaw Collection, with the exception of the “Library Interior at Townshend House” by a sixteen year old Anna Alma Tadema. This painting (the only link I can find is poor quality, sorry) made me want to crawl inside it and take a nap in bear skin after sipping absinthe and reading the latest Robert Louis Stevenson.

It's actually the smaller scale show Wall Stories: Children's Wallpaper and Books that's worth the admission and trip.?It's a delightful show with so many inspiring books and pieces. Among my favorites were the crazy fun sixties wallpapers of John Rombola (see this week's style icon) while working for Piazza Prints, the inexplicably gorgeous Winnie the Pooh frieze, Walter Crane's illustrations, the work of Tony Sarg and Ilonka Karasz.

The collection of pop ups is tons of fun with Popeye, Dick Tracy and my two favorites: the quirky pop up etiquette book “The American Toilet” and the wild Jolly Jump-Ups Journey Through Space complete with wiener roasting fey martians.

The show is up until April 5th.

Sure, I thought I was pretty high fashion as a teen. I was more daring than most even in the face of older bullies like a guy named Nathan that was always giving me grief about my hats (junior high found me in a rasta skull cap – even though I had no idea what rasta was, later I'd occasionally don a straw cowboy hat but more often a purple 1930's vintage cloche or a leopard print pillbox).

But all the Salvation Army leather biker jackets (which, mom if you're reading this, I'd love to try and find buried in my closet on my next trip home), baby vintage ringer tees, and crinkled maxi skirts in the world were never any match for the forward fashions found on Sea of Shoes.

The blogger's name is Jane Aldridge and she is in high school, armed with a wardrobe full of Martin Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, and Balenciaga AND, most importantly the creative sense to put it all together beautifully. It's almost enough to make you sick, except it doesn't at all.

Regardless of her age and privilege, you can't deny her wonderful taste, especially in shoes (obviously) and her inspiration collages are indeed, well, inspirational. She's also adorable like a half elf little sister and seems like a nice girl?though this Lillie Rubin dress does admittedly have me a little green with envy.

It's up to you how much of this thing you actually want to watch. I say “thing” because it in no way qualifies as a movie. It's more of a mash-up of mildly multi-racial 90's breakfast snack commercials, C + C Music Factory videos, and total nonsense, with a little Steven Seagal thrown in, e.g. lazy man's fighting in customized jackets.

In Ice's case, whose character in the film is a “teen” called “Johnny”, the jacket is over sized black pleather with the words “Lust”, “Danger”, “Sex”, “Dancer” and, Jim Jarmusch will be happy to learn, “Down by Law” appliqued all over it. Oh, yeah — and it also says “Yep Yep” on the shoulder, which is apparently a catch phrase of the man's because he says it many times throughout the film.

The story is as thin as an episode of Zack and Cody: the Suite Life, Lizzie McGuire, Boy Meets World (take your pick depending on your generation). There's a kidnapping sub-plot that Vanilla solves in both the laziest way possible (by brilliantly managing to recognize a sound he heard mere hours before), and the most inexplicable way possible (riding his crotch rocket up several flights of stairs — silently).

Most of the running time is devoted either to musical montages (some quite romantic) or a critique, from the artist's point, of nerdy and up-tight white Americans, all of whom stand around dazed and slack jawed at the very sight of Vanilla Ice and his crew of neutered urban dancers. It's very hard to take criticism leveled at the “squares” too seriously when it comes from a shirtless man wearing unbuckled shortalls emblazoned with the words “Oh Yeah” on the butt (“Oh Yeah” is purposefully stitched upside down on the inside so that it's readable when the shortalls are unbuckled at the top and hang from the waist) and a black fanny pack. Yep, yep.

I believe that this really is how he viewed the world, only he assumed that everyone was staring in awe and respect rather than complete dumbfoundedness. If you don't believe he was delusional, just take a look at the poster. It's almost cute the way it says, “Starring in his First Motion Picture” as if there were actually more to come.

I want to say I'm sorry to Kristin Minter who plays the love interest “Kat” A/K/A “College Girl”. What a horrible way to begin and end a career; between the fleshy legs of Robert Van Winkle on a neon yellow crotch rocket in the desert clad in a stone-washed jean jacket and a sunflower dress with a pair of biker shorts underneath (remember when girls used to do that?).

I want to expressly say that I'm not sorry to Naomi Campbell, who opens up the “movie” with this “song”. I think it's unfair that this performance is never brought up in articles about how she beats up hired help.

I'd like to conclude this entry the same way Vanilla Ice ends the movie — no not in a suit that cannot be explained, but with these profound words of wisdom: “I am O-U-T, out and forget all that peace stuff cause I ain't wit it!”