Interview by Rebecca Wells with Laura Albert

Vienna Triangle is a brilliant novel that combines fact with the author's ingenious imagination to bring to life the historical figures of Freud and his disciples through the journey of a young academic in the 1960s. Kate, a young graduate student at Columbia University, is hard at work on her dissertation when a chance encounter brings her into contact with Helene Deutsch, one of the first prominent women analysts and one of only a few surviving members of Freud's inner circle.

As Kate begins to interview Helene, the narrative falls back into the mysterious and compelling world of Sigmund Freud and his disciples, where Helene introduces us to the humanity behind the masks of theanalysts. This journey becomes increasingly personal to Kate, as she begins to suspect a link between her own family and the world of the enigmatic Freud. At the same time, she is embroiled by the tangled set of questions raised by Helene's story. Who was Freud, really? Was his paranoia justified? And were his ideas even his own?

Vienna Triangle is a captivating experience. Part fact, part fiction, part imagination, this novel is a wonderfully detailed portrait of history for anyone interested in delving into the time of the analysts. Brenda Webster paints her characters effortlessly, allowing us to peer briefly into that space which any history devotee must be frustrated to miss: the space between historical portraiture and what really happened. And Kate is the perfect lens through which to view this story; her dual journey of historical and self discovery draws us intimately into the narrative and encourages us to care, deeply, both about Kate and those whom she studies. Below is an interview with author Brenda Webster.

Where did the inspiration for Vienna Triangle come from? Was there something specific about this historical period and its characters (Freud etc.) that sparked your interest?
I had written two books of psychoanalytic criticism, one on Blake, one on Yeats, so I was very familiar with Freudian theory. Then in 2000 I wrote a memoir, The Last Good Freudian, which chronicles my history in therapy and what amounts to abuse on the part of my therapists. I had gone on to other things in my next novel, The Beheading Game, and certainly had no conscious intention to do anything further about psychoanalysis. But one day I was in Rome reading Thomas Mann’s Lotte in Weimar, Mann was describing how the great Goethe sucked the life out of people close to him and used them for his own purposes. This made me think of Freud and Viktor Tausk. I wondered if genius couldn’t tolerate the existence of great talent in its vicinity. Since my artist mother thought of herself as a genius this had some resonance for me. Also, Helene Deutsch who briefly analysed Tausk and adored Freud, was my mother’s analyst.

Then I had to create a way of telling the story…how to engage the reader and that brought in another time period, the 1960’s. I created a frame in which a young scholar, Kate, gradually finds out what happened between Tausk and Freud while interviewing the elderly Helene Deutsch. So Kate’s research roughly echoes mine.

Did you find it difficult to allow yourself the freedom to craft fictional characters out of historical figures?
Helene Deutsch was difficult at first. I got bogged down in her biography and the result was wooden. I was simply transcribing facts into fiction. That went on for several months. But after I had created a narrator, Kate, and set her to interview Helene, the character came alive and I ended up being very fond of her. Tausk on the other hand was easy. I started writing a diary for him and it just flowed. Critics steeped in psychoanalysis have told me that they can't distinguish his fictitious diary from the real documents. That is one of the miracles that sometimes happens. You feel as if you are channeling someone. After the book was published an astonishing thing happened. Someone wrote from Amsterdam asking if any of the relatives of my 60’s heroine were still alive because she wanted to meet them. She was the great grand-daughter of Viktor Tausk! I had to tell her that Kate was a fictional character.

What sort of research did you do in order to prepare?
I read everything I could get my hands on about that period biographies of Deutsch and Lou Andreas Salome and Tausk--background material. My own analyst, Kurt Eissler had written two books defending Freud’s treatment of Tausk. I had no impulse to write a polemical book—either pro or con. I wanted to explore what happened, to re-create the people and the situations to decide for myself what motivated them, what their conflicts were. For me fiction was from the beginning a way of answering questions, a way of gaining insight. And as I researched my story, I came to feel that Freud had really played an important role in Tausk’s suicide and a subsequent cover-up. It became clear to me that because they feared Freud’s power, no analyst dared talk about what happened.

What is your favorite part of Vienna Triangle?
Brenda: I like the last part where all the strands of the double plot come together with what I hope is striking effect. Kate who has idealized Helene Deutsch as a model for her own life has to face the fact—along with the reader who must re-evaluate her feelings about Helene-- that Helene has colluded in hurting her friend, had put her career above everything. The question is what lesson will Kate take from that? What does she learn?

Beyond an entertaining book, do you hope your readers would also come away with perhaps another way to understand this time period and its characters? And who do you imagine as your audience?
I think I have given a fairly accurate picture of the very closed, hermetically sealed analytic world that may startle some people: The incestuous nature of their interactions. As when Freud analyzed his daughter, Anna. But beyond that, the way they put each other under the microscope, watching for slips, interrogating each other’s dreams. Freud kept a tight hold over them, not allowing the slightest deviation, banishing opponents and labeling them as psychopaths. I would imagine that many people don’t realize these things and it might cause them to wonder whether Freud, by keeping such a tight hold not only hurt people but kept psychoanalysis from developing freely.

There are other things I would want readers to think about, too. As my heroine, Kate develops a close relationship with Helene Deutsch, I was able to explore Deutsch’s views about women, about masochism in particular,which I had written about earlier defending her to the feminists. Now she was able to defend herself to Kate. Other issues came up: the conflict between motherhood and work, female loyalty and friendship how strong or weak it was in relation to a bond with a strong man. Thinking of my potential audience, these subjects should appeal to women more generally. The book became Tausk’s story filtered through the eyes of two women, one old, one young.

When did you discover you wanted to be a writer?
When I was little I thought my mother was a magician. She made things come to life on canvas. Branches weighed down with fuzzy peaches, blue-green bulls, enormous lilies, goldfish in an underwater world. Naturally, I assumed I would be able to do that too—but I was hopelessly bad at it. By the time I was ten, I’d resigned myself to painting with words. I started writing seriously when I was in High School. I was fourteen. My father had just died and my mother was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I wrote to save my sanity, alternating between Laurentian hymns to my boyfriend’s body and images of despair: black pools, screaming gulls wheeling over a lonely place. The poems were extravagant but they gave me a feeling of control. I was hooked.

When you write, do you find, beyond the story you tell, you have particular themes or a goal?
Several of my books have dealt with mother/daughter issues but my only longterm goal is to improve with each book. It has been a slow process. When I was in my twenties I wrote two autobiographical novels. I had a good agent and got encouraging letters from big presses but they mostly wanted me to change things I thought were essential and I wouldn’t. At that point I had no idea that much of writing is re-writing. I thought you just wrote down your story, typed it up and that was that. Discouraged I veered into criticism and wrote Psychoanalytic Studies of Blake and Yeats. It wasn’t until twenty years later after a divorce and re-marriage that –with the encouragement of my new husband–I dared go back to fiction. With my autobiographical novel Sins of The Mothers, I was fully aware of re-writing but took too much wrong advice and compromised too much. I think the subject, a masochistic marriage, was too painful and I didn’t yet have the tools yet to carry it off. I By the time I got to my memoir, The Last Good Freudian, I was able to put things in perspective and situate my life—much of it spent in analysis—in a historical and social context. But it is only with my new novel, Vienna Triangle, that I’m starting to do what I was meant to do: meld my understanding of psychoanalysis with what a lifetime has taught me about my subjects and my craft. Of course there is always more to learn and as one of my characters says in Vienna Triangle: “It is hard to get things right.” But trying and getting closer, is what makes writing so compelling.

What is your writing process?
Brenda: I work every morning for a couple of hours. In the beginning my thought is very fluid. Sometimes the “idea” is very slight. For instance for the novel The Beheading Game, I knew that I wanted somehow to revise the classic tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and make it more favorable to women. Otherwise, all I knew was that my hero Ren must be a drag queen. His voice came to me almost immediately but it took me many drafts before I decided that he would have to so something other than fantasize about the Green Knight. So I made him a theatre director putting on a transgendered version of the play. From there it was clear that the conflicts in his life should echo the events in his play and the book took off. The fact that I don’t work with a real outline and that I don’t know ahead of time how a novel will end makes it exciting to write. Unexpected things are always happening.

What literature do you read?
For the last 8years I have been on the Northern California Book Reviewers committee for the annual prize and so I have read a great many California authors. When I am feeling worn down and need nourishment, I tend to go back to certain old favorites, Tolstoy, Mann. Proust and especially Virginia Woolf. Every year in Rome, I treat myself to a re-reading of one of her books.

Is there a story that you are waiting to tell?
Again, chance came into it. When I finished Vienna Triangle, I was very unclear about what would come next. Then a producer in New York called and told me she loved Vienna Triangle and asked me to collaborate on a play. And that’s what we are doing! All I can say is that it turns out to be full of new stories.

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 07:07 PM | Permalink

South Pacific

"There are moments where music is so haunting, so absolutely pure, that it literally sends chills through one’s body. For me, “Bali Ha’i,” sung by Keala Settle, is one of those moments. The song -- dark, sensual, and dreamy -- is only one of the many gems in the performance of South Pacific, which I saw last Tuesday at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco. This production, directed by Bartlett Sher, is the first Broadway revival of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, and will run in San Francisco through October 25.

The story of South Pacific is simple enough. In the midst of World War II, a number of lost souls are gathered on a lonely island in the South Pacific, waiting – for orders, for a war, for peace, for freedom. Among them are Ensign Nellie Forbush, a nurse from Little Rock, Arkansas; Emile de Becque, a French plantation owner; Lt. Joseph Cable; and Bloody Mary, a native woman trying to make a living among the soldiers who have overtaken her island.

As is the case in musicals everywhere, romance blossoms. However, what makes South Pacific unique is its depiction of racism driving a wedge between the lovers.

Nellie Forbush, played with verve by Carmen Cusack, falls deeply in love with Emile de Becque (Rod Gilfrey), and is forgiving even when she learns that he fled France after killing a man – but she cannot stomach the idea that he was in a relationship with one of the native women, with whom he fathered two children. And Lt. Joe Cable, played by the silver-tongued Anderson Davis, is immediately enchanted by Liat (Sumie Maeda), the charming daughter of Bloody Mary (Keala Settle), but he cannot even begin to consider how he would go about introducing Liat to his mother back home in Philadelphia.

Rodgers and Hammerstein did not shy away from tackling the topic of racism when they first unveiled this musical in 1949, and this remarkable theme remains one of the most serious threads in the production today.

Bringing lightness to South Pacific are the ensemble pieces by the sailors, led by the indomitable Luther Billis (Matthew Saldivar), a goodhearted sailor hopelessly devoted to Nellie. Their songs, most notably “Bloody Mary” and “There is Nothin’ Like a Dame,” are show-stopping numbers that easily draw delight from the audience. Other gorgeous pieces include “Younger than Springtime,” sung by Lt. Cable, “Some Enchanted Evening," sung by Emile, and of course, “Bali Ha’i.”

The infectious energy of South Pacific is accented perfectly by the staging, flawlessly evokes the beauty and mysticism of the South Pacific. In short, Bartlett Sher has unearthed an excellent production, notable for the seriousness of the themes it tackles, the pure entertainment delivered by its musical numbers, and the cast which delivers a seductive South Pacific that you won’t want to leave."

Rent

"At precisely 8:00 on Wednesday night, a theatre crowded with Broadway aficionados went insane. Why? Because two people had just walked onstage. Who? Gandhi, perhaps? President Obama? Or even, dare I say, Santa Claus? No. No, no, and no. It was Adam Rapp, accompanied by Anthony Pascal, playing the parts they originated (Mark Cohen and Roger Davis, respectively) in the latest national tour of RENT. Accompanying them is the talented Gwen Stewart, who reprises her original role as the soloist in "Seasons of Love," which is arguably the most famous song of the musical.

This limited run in San Francisco will run through October 18 at Curran Theatre, and the latest incarnation of the groundbreaking 90s rock opera does not disappoint. RENT itself is the rock opera of rock operas, the show that defined a generation of Broadway-goers, the story that spoke to all 20-somethings trying to make it in the Big Apple. And then, of course, we can't forget that RENT is the musical that dealt so sympathetically and candidly with the AIDS epidemic that it earned a Pulitzer Prize for its troubles.

Although most RENT lovers will be beyond thrilled to see Rapp and Pascal just exist in the same theatre again (and don't get me wrong - they give excellent performances), to me the strengths of the show are in the ensemble pieces, as well as in some unbelievable standout performances by the rest of the cast. Every time the company is together and singing (as in "Rent," "Another Day," "La Vie Boheme," and "Seasons of Love"), the energy of the stage explodes. Justin Johnston as Angel steals every scene he's in with his flashy antics combined with genuine kindness, as well as his acrobatic vocal stylings. Lexi Lawson plays Mimi with a touching strain of innocence and a voice of pure gold, and Nicolette Hart as Maureen brings the house down with her fabulous performance of "Over the Moon." Other fantastic numbers to watch for include "Tango: Maureen," "Light My Candle," and "What You Own."

There are many messages one can take from RENT, and the beauty of this musical is that there is something for everyone. Yes, part of what initially defined its popularity was the sudden emergence of a musical for the youth, for the struggling artist, for the lost who are just trying to find meaning in their lives. But there is more than that. RENT is about forgiveness, about kindness, about giving, and most of all, about love.

Die-hard RENT fans, you won't be disappointed. This production of RENT features an energetic and passionate cast that promises to gather an entirely new generation of devotees to its curtains. And to the rest of you: this is perhaps the last time you will see three original cast members in a national tour of this brilliant show. The time to see RENT is now. No day but today."

~Rebecca Wells

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 05:59 PM | Permalink

Nisian Hughes’ show, Naked, that opened September 10th 2009 at the Witzenhausen Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, New York City clothes an imparted gratuitousness in a repetitive veiled finery of what is not rendered. Allusiveness is an epistemological creed in Hughes’ videos, housed in varied sized stainless steel frames.

Naked women, some in groups, some solo, all perfectly proportioned, pose in incongruous surroundings, a designed affectation: a wooded clearing, two naked women, both ostensibly at ease, one with her back directly on the ground, head resting on right arm, right leg bent at knee, crossing left leg while the other figure sits, back straight, holding an ax. The sprawled out woman pays her no heed, but the image disallows the viewer to conclude anything. The ax, menacing in that it looks like it can chop that resting head, seems totally unaffiliated with any reference, even the pile of chopped wood, facilitated by the nearby barbell to provide muscle development. We are set up, given determinants, pseudo-cohesion, led to back off.

Hughes presents women who are attractive, sexy, but expected titillations do not emanate from them. In fact, nothing springs from anything in these videos, not even being able to title them videos, for they are what Hughes calls “moving images which appear at first glance to be stills,” an unexpected shift within the “still” image. Our sense of knowing is abased. Hughes has created a new genre, “fake-out art.”

He configured the protective walls to any criticism of his art: banal, gratuitous juxtapositions, historical compositions referenced with a wink. He has cut cause and effect to lay out a controlled continuity. His videos are a landscape of “why,” and he exits with “blank” canvas variants sustained in a complimentary, inexplicably framed miniaturization. This is the art of intent that shakes substantiation.

~Alan Nadler

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 11:46 AM | Permalink

A spiked black-leather band around the wrist or neck -- that was all it took to freak the heck out of your average New Yorker in late '70s, early '80s. We laughed at the pet-shop owner’s scowls as we appraised the fit of a choker and spiked dog collars on one another, adding to their dismay with an occasional woof woof. There were no “Punk Outfitters.” We got our combat boots from Army surplus stores, and the rest of our paraphernalia we made ourselves.

Back in them olden days, the desire was for a look that made people shudder, or at least notified clearly in no uncertain terms that we were not one of “Them”! We were not part of their system of conformity. Everyday household items became a means to expressing these sentiments. Our rage combined with our fashion, and safety-pins that had once held up our diapers were now appropriated as accessories to hold together clothes or an earlobe. No-income sensibilities found creative usage for sharpies beyond tagging up LOUD FAST RULEZ on subway walls. A quick scribble on fingernails was decorative but did not accommodate a manicured pampered look. These nails were Mad Max’ish FLAT BLACK, no glitz, no gloss. And for a change-up, painting WhiteOut was the perfect antidote to those preppy girls being pretty in pink. For spice, a bit of yellow highlighter leant an ambiance of, “we will survive in the gutter better than you yuppie scum!”

Eventually, black nailpolish became the Vogue must have, but for us early punks who got our asses kicked for daring to sport dry marker on their nails, seeing models pose in Chanel’s black-polish felt somehow heathen! But we also knew, they still didn’t get it right. Our nails weren't a mirror for the soul -- all shimmer and shine with their glossy counterfeit black. Our ink was the certitude of tenebrous bleakness. Ours was the dead end we felt was offered us -- as the Sex Pistols gospel held it, “No Future For You!”

But then, something happens if you don't hit an early extermination. Suddenly you find yourself in your 30s or 40s and pink doesn't look so bad anymore. Actually it’s kinda cute. Maybe. And coating your nails with sharpies just doesn't have the same Raison D'Etre when you’re helping your child with homework and preparing school lunches. And you start to care that walking around with the scent of WhiteOut on your fingers might make other parents think you are a low-rent glue sniffer.

When my son was five and his new playground pals gathered round me to point at the piercings in my nose, eyebrow, under chin, and around my ear, and inquire loudly why I had metal in my face, the last bit of visual punk in me stepped aside. I always thought I’d raise a punk rock kid, but this is not how my punk ethic needed to express itself -- humiliating my son.

I have had only two manicures in my life, when it was a gift from someone else. I found it painful to sit and have someone I didn't know hold my hand with the touch of a loved one. They didn't want to converse, they wanted me to soak my hands in the pretend Palmolive, act pampered, and shut up. I didn't dig any of the colors they had on their wall for me to pick either. I suppressed the desire to ask for the marker that the receptionist was using to label plastic bottles. I just did cliche red and felt like a harlot sell-out.

Then one day my friend, the iconic makeup artist Mike Potter, pops on me that he is making nailpolish, and before I can sputter, “Et Tu, Bruté,” he pulls out what looks like a small flashlight. He says nothing, just takes my hand in his as a beloved would, twists the top, and the magic wand is painting. And it's a Proust Madeleine moment, I was a teen living by wits in New York City with street punk on my finger. I look up with him, tears welling in my eyes. He smiles, the arch grin of Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka: I make the impossible possible. This is necromancy in a bottle -- pure flatte black is here! It even applies like the spongy sharpie head, uniform, no brush strokes. It’s so innovative that if your nails were painted with this stuff and Matisse happened to time travel and was strolling by a café where you happened to be nursing a macchiato, well, he would stop dead in his tracks and do a portrait of the being who had managed to display gouache on, as the dictionary calls it, “the flattish horny part on the upper surface of the tip of each finger.”

It wasn't a stunner to find out Potter was christening his line K.O. -- as in Knock Out. It was Rock'em Sock'em Robots to me, I was floored.

And then it got better.

He took out another flashlight. He took my other hand. I closed my eyes.

I felt the vague dampness glaze my fingernail. After I opened my eyes the tears jumped ship and gushed down my cheeks.

“OH, oh! It’s WhiteOut! With highlighter mixed in" -- but not the look of yellow snow. It’s called Powder and it glows, but in a matte way.

“Who can take a rainbow...”

The punches kept ah’coming. He did my pinkies in Liberty-– the color of an old school oxidized penny or our lady of the harbor.

The sound of flip-flops, the pungent scent of chlorine filled my nostrils as the color of damp cement was spread on my middle fingers, it is called Flatte Top.

The Coup De Grace hit my toenails, red of the cheap splatter film color, getting its point across, vivid but no gratuitous shine. It is fittingly named after its inspiration, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

For the first time I have given a gift of PINK nailpolish to a grown woman. But with KO’s Calamine, I did not have the icky feeling that I was colluding against the feminist movement. It’s a decoration in remembrance of things past -- when that pigment of red mixed with a lot of white covered all mosquito bites. I could feel my momma dabbing it on with a cotton ball and uselessly admonishing, “Don’t scratch.”

With his his trunk-sized Louis Vuitton suitcase of makeup and brushes spread before him, Mike Potter conjures legends. He is the artist that created the famous Hedwig look for the film Hedwig and the Angry Inch. He’s the one who makes the lives of photoshop experts at Vogue a lot simpler. The only problem with being a patron of Potter is that there's no way you could ever try this at home. Potter doesn't just apply makeup, he transforms you. “How can I bottle you?!” was the constant plea his clients would pout, knowing they'd return to postmidnight Cinderellas.

Somehow Mike Potter found a way to bottle the reconstructing of who we are through our memories. I look at my nails, and it is the richness of printing ink dried. It is a teen girl encountering the world with the same passion that black absorbs in the universe and hides within. It was punk, it was a communal sense of hope within despair, a reminder that anything is possible. We will be heard. All captured in a bottle that looks like a flashlight.

~Laura Albert

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 01:14 PM | Permalink

Whoever said that two heads are better than one definitely had the right idea. Proof: The two-headed media monster that is Rickie & Melvin have been consistently terrorizing the world of U.K. radio with their anarchic humor. The comedic pair currently host the popular “Breakfast Show with Rickie & Melvin” on London’s Kiss FM, and have now joined the esteemed list of featured personalities over at MTV UK. We spoke to Ricky about how the two of them met and why he thinks their show’s so popular:

Give us the story of how you two met…
We first met at university. All the new students were taken to a local club. I remember thinking that I had to make as many friends in my first year as possible, if I wanted to have a good time. I just walked up to Melvin and introduced myself. That was 11 years ago and we've been friends ever since.

Let us know more about your new show on MTV…
Our new show MTV Digs is a continuity show. It’s a series of short studio-based links of banter, tomfoolery, and general chat. It’s on every afternoon on MTV-1 between the hours of 4-7pm. It's designed to create interaction with our audience and give the channel more faces and personalities for their audience to relate to.

How long has your radio show been running?
Our current radio show is in its second year, but we've been on KISS for three years. We started on the weekend breakfast show, because it was a good time slot for us to learn our trade, without causing too much damage to the station’s listening figures! After 10 months of doing that, we were asked to make the step up to the weekday breakfast show.

Why do you think your show is so popular?
The reason I think people listen to our show is because we play a lot of music, but we also have a lot of fun during our links. It's literally a group of friends on the radio listening to music, taking the mick out of each other and having a laugh. I think people buy into the fact that Melvin and I are genuine friends and have been for a long time.

Which do you prefer doing, TV or radio?
I don't love one more than the other. They're two different disciplines, which I think complement each other. Trying to master each of them ultimately helps us to become more than just presenters. Hopefully, we’ll end up being good broadcasters.

Who is your favourite duo of all time and why?
My favourite duo of all time would have to be my Mum and Dad. They’ve supported me for years, when I was just some kid who said he wanted to be a presenter. They never once told me I couldn’t do it.

How come you guys make such a good team?
I reckon we make a good team because we're friends just doing stuff we love doing. It doesn't feel like work when we’re presenting together. It feels more like people are peering into our lives and there just happens to be a microphone or camera there.

Tell us the one thing you believe two people should never share…
People should never share underwear! That’s just nasty.

What’s next for Ricky & Melvin?
To get everyone to know which one of us is which, because we look so similar.

~Donald Crunk

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 09:13 PM | Permalink

Many fashion-conscious folks would be resistant to going gray, finding it too safe. Not New York City-based designer Rebecca Turbow, who has designed an all gray line of clothing called… Safe. This spring, the designer showed her Fall/Winter 2009 collection during New York Fashion Week at the downtown Moeller Snow Gallery. The models stood on white cubes, donning the mod clothing done in all gray (with a bit of black thrown in).

When it comes to personal style, Turbow practices what she preaches. For years she has only worn monochromatic color combinations, even going as far as dying all her clothes and painting the bottoms of her shoes. Therefore, she was a perfect fit for our latest denim road-test. To wit, we asked Rebecca to test out a pair of Bzen's "Nathalie" tapered jeans. We thought this might meet her design expectations, since this Montreal-based premium denim line produces 100% hand-stitched, hand-sanded products. Constructed of black Japanese fabric, the style is washed down until it reaches a soft gray color: a perfect fit for Turbow’s own wardrobe. We asked her 10 questions:

Tell me about Safe.
The original concept of the line is about clothing and how it keeps you safe.

What’s your latest collection about?
It’s a little more grown-up, more sophisticated. I was calling it “’80s prep school.” It’s got a ‘80s vibe mixed with the ‘60s-mod era.

For a long time you only wore the colors green and white. And now you only wear the color gray. Explain?
It started about nine years ago, and I was really drawn to this shade of green. I started dying everything that color, and before I knew it, everything was green. It wasn’t even intentional, it just sort of happened, and then I became the girl who wore all green and white. Then last year, I needed a change in my life and I switched to gray. It’s great because I got to look forward to a whole new color.

What did you think of the Bzen jeans?
I think they are great. The color is really good. I’m really into cool grays, and these are a really nice cool gray in a medium shade.

Where did you wear your new Bzen?
I wore them all day doing errands, and I ended up going out all night in them as well! I went to a birthday party at the bowling alley Lucky Strike. Then I went to the Beatrice Inn, and I was there all night!

What did you pair with the denim?
I wore a silk, sort of oversize T-shirt, from my Fall 09 line. It almost acts like a dress because it’s pretty big and long. It looked really cute, because the jeans are really tight and skinny. Also, I wore my favorite little leather scrunch boots.

How did they fit and feel?
I love the fit and they look awesome! And they are really skinny, which I really like. My only issue is the waist was so low on them that they cut into my hipbone, which was kind of uncomfortable. But, I definitely got a ton of compliments …

Do you ever feel stifled by only wearing gray?
It can be so difficult. I’ve been trying to find winter boots this year and it’s impossible! It’s so much harder than you think it would be.

~Meredith Craig de Pietro

Posted by psychoPEDIA at 11:36 AM | Permalink

While many designer labels feel compelled to display the trademark moniker prominently on pieces as a testament to their own prestige or popularity, the designers behind Millions of Smiles, Michael Swan and Chris Leba, prefer to let their talent speak for itself.

Much like the cohesion the two designers exhibit when creating their collection, which has attracted high-profile clientele like Britney Spears and Drew Barrymore, the duo also transmits an unmistakable synergy in other aspects of their lives– not unlike Tribeca's new hotspot, Macao Trading Co-– which does a lovely balancing act of its own. With an unconventional menu, of which most items are available in two seemingly polar culinary genres, Chinese and Portuguese, Macao offers dishes such as Manila clams Portuguese prepared with chorizo and a Chinese counterpart dressed in black beans and chilies.

Even on a recent night in the belly of a recession, the restaurant is perfectly full. However, this comes as no surprise, as Macao is the handiwork of the Employees Only creators and Chanterelle’s David Waltuck. Joining psychoPEDIA for a taste-test of the new eatery, Swan and Leba, already seated with glasses of Tsingtao beers in hand, discuss the dishes and much more:

Do you know the story behind this place?
CL: You know how Hong Kong was a British colony, Macao used to be a Portuguese colony. So it had this great mixture of heritage. Macao is like the Las Vegas of Asia. I always hear these outrageous stories. It’s very similar to Vegas– call girls, gambling, shopping.

Appetizers arrive: Chinese-style shrimp served in crispy wrappers, Portuguese-style Manila clams and Portuguese-style fennel and artichoke salad with chickpeas.

CL: That was faster than McDonald’s. The service here is awesome.
MS: I wonder how Vegas is doing right now?

I think people still drink and gamble even when the economy is struggling. Dating is up…
CL: I guess people want company during hard times. So you’re in a good place. I think you’re ready. Are you on Nerve? You’re going on Nerve. Are you Jewish? Then you’re going on JDate too.

What do you think of these appetizers?
CL: The clams are really good. They’re interesting. I’ve never really tasted anything like this. What is that?
MS: Chorizo.
CL: It’s really good. The salad is fine but I didn’t love it.
MS: I don’t think they needed to fry the chickpeas. But the shrimp is really good.
CL: OK. So you’re in a good place. You’re ready.
MS: I think you’re ready. You just need to say that you’re going to get back out there.
CL: Just say yes to the universe. It’s liberating to say what you want. You have to make a hard stand and it’s going to go one way or another, instead of waiting around forever. Women are so funny like that, they just decide– and then that’s it.
MS: I was just reading that we find people who we look like. Like the spacing of our eyes, the shape of our face. It’s interesting. What happens in your mind while you’re growing up that clicks, I like this, I don’t like that. Then suddenly, you have a type. Do you have a type?

I don’t know. I don’t think so. Do you have types?
CL: Most say they don’t have a type. Women are more open. All my girlfriends looked different but I definitely have a type. Guys have a blueprint. And they’re looking for the woman that fits that. Confidence and passion are hot.
MS: And there’s a physical thing that needs to be there. I think especially for men, because physically, they have to be aroused.
CL: Yeah, you can’t fake it.

Entrees and sides arrive: Grilled lamb chops with red pepper jam, Portuguese-style grilled sirloin with bleu-cheese butter, a Chinese-style whole bass crisp fried with ginger & scallions, Swiss chard with currants & pine nuts, and Bacalao fried rice.

MS: I’ve been married for ten years now. Every relationship breaks down to this: you have to have the skills. It’s like playing tennis. You have to be good at it. Meaning for example, being supportive. It’s just very easy. When I was younger I had this habit, if my girlfriend said “black”, I’d say “white”. Now I’m like, “totally”. “I totally see what you’re saying”. Even if I don’t agree– I trade that with, I’m on your team. It’s a skill. But it takes years and years.

I like that. So what do you think of this course? This whole fish is pretty spectacular.
MS: The fish is delicious. I like the presentation. And the fried rice is amazing. There are pieces of fish in here.

And how about the lamb chops?
CL: Really good. The red pepper jam is interesting. But a couple of them were cooked a little more than I’d have liked.

What do you think of the vibe in here?
CL: I love those lights over the bar.
MS: We were looking at them before. I like the vibe but the décor is a little over the top.
CL: They could’ve scaled back on the props.
MS: But I love the darkness and the rustiness.
CL: The rice pudding– that is insane.

By now dessert has arrived. It all looks amazing and my cappuccino smells so good, I sip it by the spoonful. The rice pudding is insane. And although the name might throw you, the fried milk, which tastes like custard covered in a cinnamon-sugar shell is unusual and delicious. And obviously, you can never go wrong with chocolate torte.

On the way to the restroom Chris runs into their friend, John, at the bar. He joins us with a fabulous looking drink.

What are you drinking?
John: I’m not sure. The bartender asked me what I like to drink and I said something with scotch or whiskey and he gave me this. It’s so good– tastes like there is cardamom, bitters, orange. It’s a little spicy.

Later, co-owner Jason Kosmas, tells me a few of the secret ingredients: J&B Scotch, Mahjong, Carpano vermouth, five-spice bitters and Navan, a vanilla liqueur. Sweet and spicy? Uh, pretty tasty. Like pretty much everything here.

The Verdict:

Taste: 9/10
Looks: 8/10
Value: 9/10
Service: 10/10 Overall: 36/40

Macao Trading Co. , 311 Church Street, 212.431.8750

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