Freestyle Friday: 6.27.14

Happy Friday, friends! This week was so crazy, I had no time to post anything. I was excited about this week’s Tuesday Top Ten topic, which was what we like or dislike about book covers. I really wanted to do a “YA Then and Now” post for that, comparing recent YA book covers to our old-timey YA book covers from the late 1970s and early 1980s. One thing that hasn’t changed is that YA marketers are very aware that young girls are their target market, so it’s interesting to me to see the way they’ve changed these covers to appeal to girls then and now. So I suppose I’ll just save it for a later Top Ten.

I spent the first part of my week in New York for a conference. Words cannot express how much I love New York (although the garbage is overwhelming). I had hoped to have time to see one of my best friends from college, I had hoped to have time to walk around and take some pictures, but those things didn’t happen this trip because I was traveling with a group. We did stay at a great concept/boutique hotel in Manhattan called citizenM. (What follows re: hotel is not sponsored/affiliated—just my opinion) It’s a Dutch company that also has hotels in Amsterdam, London, Paris, Rotterdam, and Glasgow. The rooms are modern and minimal, which I really liked:

It was quiet and comfy and the staff was upbeat and friendly. It doesn’t offer room service, but it provides food and drink (including some good coffee) around the clock in an area of the lobby, which is also interesting and well-designed:

The price was very reasonable for midtown Manhattan and I would definitely stay there again if I were traveling alone. Although the bed was a nice size, the room itself would be a bit small for two people. I also sometimes like to workout in my room, but between the hard floors and minimal space, it would have been difficult to do anything more than some yoga poses or other minimal moves like squats.

The conference was at the Midtown Hilton. I’ve never been inside that hotel before, so when I caught my first view of the conference area:

I immediately recognized it from this:

I had to keep myself from yelling out, “Michael Clayton!” I am pretty sure my co-workers would have cared less, but I immediately messaged my husband to tell him. Also, despite hanging around in the lobby for pretty much the entire conference, I never did run into George Clooney or Tilda Swinton. I guess they never hang out there in real life, or at least not during corporate conferences about customer experience. What a waste.

Speaking of New York, last weekend I found this web series called city. ballet. about the New York City Ballet. Produced by Sarah Jessica Parker, it offers a glimpse inside the dancers’ lives. I watched the whole thing in one sitting (the videos are between four and eight minutes each, so not a huge time commitment), and it brought back the ballet-obsessed nine-year-old in me. I’ve been doing pliés all week, when no one is looking. Yes, I will be watching it again, I am sure.

On the reading front, I finished rock journalist Lisa Robinson’s memoir There Goes Gravity: A Life in Rock and Roll and Rene Denfeld’s The Enchanted. Look for reviews of those next week (and a playlist to go with Robinson’s book, of course!). I’m at a loss what to read next (something from this list), but I’ll probably try to read a physical book because after next week I will be traveling a lot and I don’t like to carry books with me.

Have a great weekend, everybody!