“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

Having worked in fundraising for wonderful charities, it is with a heavy heart  to learn about the horrendous scam circling Madonna‘s now ill-conceived school for girls in Malawi. I say ill-conceived because if this project was properly structured, with vigorous oversight, then 3.8 million dollars would not have vanished. Who is to blame? Surely the Executive Director, Philippe van den Bossche, who became involved with Madonna’s trainer, Tracy Anderson, in the middle of the project. Now it makes sense why Madonna fired her “celebrity trainer ass“. Now, someone tell me how a 15 million dollar project allows for a 3.8… Read More »

I would hate to be retailer right about now. Forget the fact that the economy is still in the doldrums. Only the luxury brands are cleaning up now because Wall Streeters and their wives are shopping like they have just been told that the end of the world is really nigh. Meanwhile the rest of the world who misses shopping and spending, has been reduced to “just looking” and trying on…the poor man’s retail therapy. Brace yourself, the retail environment is about to go through yet another shift…if not slump. Google announced their foray into the schamtta business joining the… Read More »

Last night was the big kahuna of the New York City social whirl, The Costume Institute Gala, a.k.a. Anna Wintour’s Playground. If you were not there, then you do not exist. If you are not on Anna’s guest list, you might as well just curl up and die. If you are not BFFs with a top fashion designer, then you might as well just call it a day and move out to the suburbs. Sounds harsh? Perhaps…but it is true. The theme this season was American Woman. There’s all sorts of good reasons for this theme since America’s schmatta business… Read More »

I have heard just about enough from the Tea Party, the Tea Baggers, the morons, whatever you want to call them. What country do we live in and worse, what year is this?  When I think back to when the United States was truly, beautifully motivated for change, back in the late 1960’s, when our message was Women’s Rights, Black Power, Student’s Rights, Stop The War, Peace Now, Flower Power, Peace, Love and Woodstock, it makes me sad at the rhetoric we hear now from crowds. Many of these Tea Baggers can barely string together a coherent sentence and worse,… Read More »

Just read the unfair article in Vanity Fair by the seeming fey Michael Lewis and wonder, “What the fuck was up her skirt?” I was just in Reykjavik this weekend and had a lovely time. The Iceland Design Center hosted a 3-day series of events call DesignMarch. It’s all about design…in March…get it? You march around town…and…see design. Anyhoo, there was a group of fantastic international design writers, editors and me invited by the government to explore their burgeoning creative industries ready to be discovered or rather, ready for their close-ups, me being Mr. DeMille. While is Iceland, I was… Read More »