On Vacation

Be back next week!

The B-List.com

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Israel is 62 and Suri Cruise is 4

Happy birthday!

I was just wondering if this little girl knows how to walk? I feel like for the past 4 years, I almost always see her being carried. I'm not hating on a 4 year old, i'm just making an observation.
Most recent pics just from April:

(I know she knows how to walk. I just think it's weird.)

Other Birthdays Today via dlisted:
James Franco (32)
Maria Sharapova (23)
Catalina Sandino Moreno (29)
Hayden Christensen (29)
Kate Hudson (31)
Luis Miguel (40)
Jesse James (41)
Ashley Judd (42)
Suge Knight (45)
Ruby Wax (57)
Tim Curry (64)
Israel (62)

Recipe For NYBuckeye

Been doing a lot of organizational thinking. I have come up with a recipe for what my blog currently contains and what I will continue to blog about. I feel like this is a place for people from all different backgrounds and sometimes people just can't handle the mishmosh.

Hmmm maybe I need a webpage with tabs for the separate categories...yea I like that idea. Great! A new project, I wonder how long this will take me to get going?

RECIPE FOR NYBUCKEYE BLOG

1 pound of Public Relations (entertainment & general)

1 pound of Event Planning

2 cups Pop Culture

1 cup Fashion

1/2 cup My Life

1/2 cup NYC/Cleveland

1 Tablespoon of Random

Throw in together, add a little spice, and let simmer and stew.

Enjoy!

Did You Know

there are currently only two active Jewish NBA players?

Now that the Playoffs are underway, there are a lot of TV specials on the teams. I was watching something on the Lakers and something about Jordan Farmar caught my eye. I looked him up and found out the above fact. The only other Jewish player is Omri Casspi on the Kings, who was the first Israeli to be drafted (in the first round too!).

Random Thoughts From A Tweeter (Part 1)

@beccameyers

"Are there still photography classes in high school? Who still uses film and developes? It's a dying trade, but so is woodshop..."

It's Always Sunny in Sex and the City

What is one of the greatest episodes of It's Always Sunny In Philidelphia, "Who Pooped The Bed", here is a snippet of Sweet Dee running into a car after trying to steal expensive shoes that don't fit her because she is trying to be more like the girls on Sex and the City. Plus, Artemus is one of the greatest characters and besides The Nightman Cometh, this is her best work.

Kristy Mitchell

via RocknRollBride, I found this photographer. A different way to look at flowers.


More here.

Best Gift Ever

I am OBSESSED with monkeys and I was looking at some photos and saw this:

It's awesome for a couple reasons. 1. It's a freaking monkey! 2. It's slightly unrealistic to own one, but to play with on for an hour or so is a great alternative. 3. Definitely adds some originality and spice to the pics and event. 4. Way more original then a typical groom's gift like a watch.

An April Weekend In Columbus, Ohio

Went to Columbus for a friend's birthday...

Birthday Boy Pic

Brutus & Me

Shopbop Daily Pickins

Shopbop.com tends to be overpriced but for killing time, inspiration and the occasional good sale item, they do the job.

Ella Moss Kit Kat Dress $138

Gryphon Sequin Miniskirt $88.50 (sale, and the dress version is on sale too.)

Alkemie Thorn Bangle $101 (sale)

Party In Your Mouth, For Less

This is so cool. I hate spending so much money on such a large amount of spices I don't need. Now they sell just a pinch and it is awesome. McCormick now sells Recipe Inspirations, a complete set of all the pinches you need for a full recipe (which is also included on the package). Another idea that makes you go, "Why wasn't this made sooner!?"

Life Of A Blogging Model's Agent

My friend works over at NEXT Model Management and posted some candids from the recent fashion shows. Just thought I'd share.

(Photo's by Maddy Root.)

Yoplait Light

Been eating a lot of Yoplait for breakfast. They come in so many delicious sounding flavors and so far, all have tasted good enough for me. Check out their flavors! (I've even highlighted the ones I have approved.)

LIGHT FLAVORS

Apple Turnover
Apricot Mango
Banana Cream Pie
Berries 'N Cream
Blackberry
Blueberry Patch
Boston Cream Pie
Harvest Peach
Key Lime Pie
Lemon Cream Pie Orange Crème
Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Raspberry Cheesecake
Red Raspberry
Red Velvet Cake
Strawberries 'N Bananas
Strawberry
Strawberry Orange Sunrise
Strawberry Shortcake
Very Cherry

Very Vanilla
White Chocolate Strawberry

LIGHT & THICK FLAVORS

Blueberry Pie
Cherry Cobbler
Cinnamon Roll
French Vanilla
Key Lime Pie
Lemon Meringue
Mixed Berry
Orange Crème
Peaches and Cream
Strawberry

OxyMORON Of The Day

Today I read an article in The Daily News how Bloomberg is going to charge rent in NYC homeless shelters. Um, is that not an oxymoron?

Ruining The Fantasy

I read an article today about how Twitter is ruining celebrities. People are hearing things they don't want to hear out of the mouths of these characters they know from a screen and when it doesn't fit the character they imagine in their head, it's crushing. But with twitter, unlike other forms of media, these are coming straight from the horses mouth, making it that much worse.

This same feeling transcends into real life too as Irin points out in meeting fellow writers she admired. I had a similar feeling about meeting celebrities. When you feel like you know someone, or have this image in your head, and then meet that person and that image is shattered, the fantasy is over. You know longer look at them the same. I don't know why we think we know these people but we do and I don't know why we are confused when they are not how we fantasize them being, but we are. Twitter is only another outlet to get to the same failed feeling.

Chris Noth was the first person of a handful to do this to me. Mr. Big in Sex and the City may be "the bad guy" but there is still something mysterious, drawing and handsome about him to viewers. When I met him at a work event, it was so far from the person I had hoped to meet, it

was crushing. Realistically, you know these people are not like their characters, but you still have an image you hope they withhold and when they don't, it's such a bummer. I was dealing with this drunk slob kabob instead of a slick and put together man. So disappointing. I'd almost rather not get an inside look into these people's lives, their twitter accounts included because it only sets you up for disappointment (not always, but most times). But at the same time, it's like watching a disaster, how can you not look?!

TeaCupPuppies

Bored and dogless, I look at teacuppuppies.com every now and then just to smile. My cousin and grandma got their dogs here.

Carrie vs. Dabney

Baby Hipster

I went to American Apparel today and they have the cutest baby line!

Birthday Girl

Weddings are easy to obsess over. But as an event planner, there believe it or not, are other events besides weddings to plan. Birthday Girl recognizes that quite well and although not her full time job, she runs this beautiful blog for fun.

It's choc-full-o ideas for that special day that comes every year, not just once. Also, remember my recent entry on inspiration boards? She SELLS them! $25 a pop, I love it!

Such cute and quality stuff. If you need idea's for a birthday, you need to check Birthday Girl out.

Being A Grown Up Is Fun

Polenta Is The New Black

Have you noticed polenta making its way into your life more and more? I have. It was served at a wedding I recently went to, it's been making its way onto menus and food shows. I like it, I just wish I knew how to cook with it. Polenta is boiled cornmeal.

That's really all I have to say about it. I just wanted to make the observation that it is gaining popularity. Anyone have any recipes?

Inspiration Boards

I love wedding inspiration boards!

PR Bias or Not?

As a publicist, I no longer look at anything the same. When I see a celebrity wearing a particular brand, partying at a club, a product in a magazine...I always think to myself, what did their publicist have to do with this? Same goes for when I see publicists mention companies, venues, products, etc. on a nonprofessional level. I feel like I am always skeptical about the genuineness of it. But then I really thought about this and realized, as far as personal shout outs from publicists, it's most likely genuine. Here's why.

I don't own my own company and I certainly don't get to pick my own clients. Even people that pick their clientele don't always 100% stand behind them (possibly they accepted them as a client for financial reasons, or favors.). In an ideal world though, your PR rep truly believes in you.

That said, when a publicist shouts out a client in a non pitching manner, say on their blog or twitter or even in conversation, I do not think it is a business move (at least not directly). I think they actually believe in what they are promoting. Naturally we are skeptical to think that they are being biased, but a publicists grass roots are in word of mouth. When I trace back to the root of why I became a publicist, it only made sense. Whenever I found a food or a band or something else I loved, the first thing I would do is pass that information along. It was a natural promotion. When I found out that this actually had a name and it was called public relations, I knew what I was going to make a living doing.

People shouldn't be so skeptical about publicists promoting clients on their own personal time (I'm not talking about a company format). If they didn't support them on a personal level, they would not bother supporting them on their own time. They would leave it to the business hours, and not take the extra step to shout them out.

Happy Easter

There is a place nestled in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio called Eggshelland.

Since 1957 the Manolio family of Lynhurst has been offering the public a fun, free display of painted eggshells arranged on their front lawn in the shapes of popular cartoons, Easter bunnies, and religious images. Now a local tradition, EggShellLand has grown over the years to include designs featuring over fifty thousand hand-painted shells, which the family plans all year and then sets up with the help of their fourteen children and grandchildren.

These are my own photo's because of coarse I went as soon as my friend Melissa was in town and told me about this place. For more photos, you can click on their website which is linked above.

NYTimes talks about interns too

The New York Times had an article that isn't exactly new news. In fact, I have been concerned and outwardly talking about how I feel that interns are being taken advantage of and jobs are being lost due to these internships. But the Times article takes it one step further and states the actual laws these companies could potentially be braking and what plans to be done. The fact is there are too many small independent places to take care of this situation completely, but at least people are a little more aware.

Growth of Unpaid Internships May Be Illegal, Officials Say

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Published: April 2, 2010

With job openings scarce for young people, the number of unpaid internships has climbed in recent years, leading federal and state regulators to worry that more employers are illegally using such internships for free labor.

Convinced that many unpaid internships violate minimum wage laws, officials in Oregon, California and other states have begun investigations and fined employers. Last year, M. Patricia Smith, then New York’s labor commissioner, ordered investigations into several firms’ internships. Now, as the federal Labor Department’s top law enforcement official, she and the wage and hour division are stepping up enforcement nationwide.

Many regulators say that violations are widespread, but that it is unusually hard to mount a major enforcement effort because interns are often afraid to file complaints. Many fear they will become known as troublemakers in their chosen field, endangering their chances with a potential future employer.

The Labor Department says it is cracking down on firms that fail to pay interns properly and expanding efforts to educate companies, colleges and students on the law regarding internships.

“If you’re a for-profit employer or you want to pursue an internship with a for-profit employer, there aren’t going to be many circumstances where you can have an internship and not be paid and still be in compliance with the law,” said Nancy J. Leppink, the acting director of the department’s wage and hour division.

Ms. Leppink said many employers failed to pay even though their internships did not comply with the six federal legal criteria that must be satisfied for internships to be unpaid. Among those criteria are that the internship should be similar to the training given in a vocational school or academic institution, that the intern does not displace regular paid workers and that the employer “derives no immediate advantage” from the intern’s activities — in other words, it’s largely a benevolent contribution to the intern.

No one keeps official count of how many paid and unpaid internships there are, but Lance Choy, director of the Career Development Center at Stanford University, sees definitive evidence that the number of unpaid internships is mushrooming — fueled by employers’ desire to hold down costs and students’ eagerness to gain experience for their résumés. Employers posted 643 unpaid internships on Stanford’s job board this academic year, more than triple the 174 posted two years ago.

In 2008, the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 83 percent of graduating students had held internships, up from 9 percent in 1992. This means hundreds of thousands of students hold internships each year; some experts estimate that one-fourth to one-half are unpaid.

In California, officials have issued guidance letters advising employers whether they are breaking the law, while Oregon regulators have unearthed numerous abuses.

“We’ve had cases where unpaid interns really were displacing workers and where they weren’t being supervised in an educational capacity,” said Bob Estabrook, spokesman for Oregon’s labor department. His department recently handled complaints involving two individuals at a solar panel company who received $3,350 in back pay after claiming that they were wrongly treated as unpaid interns.

Many students said they had held internships that involved noneducational menial work. To be sure, many internships involve some unskilled work, but when the jobs are mostly drudgery, regulators say, it is clearly illegal not to pay interns.

One Ivy League student said she spent an unpaid three-month internship at a magazine packaging and shipping 20 or 40 apparel samples a day back to fashion houses that had provided them for photo shoots.

At Little Airplane, a Manhattan children’s film company, an N.Y.U.student who hoped to work in animation during her unpaid internship said she was instead assigned to the facilities department and ordered to wipe the door handles each day to minimize the spread of swine flu.

Tone Thyne, a senior producer at Little Airplane, said its internships were usually highly educational and often led to good jobs.

Concerned about the effect on their future job prospects, some unpaid interns declined to give their names or to name their employers when they described their experiences in interviews.

While many colleges are accepting more moderate- and low-income students to increase economic mobility, many students and administrators complain that the growth in unpaid internships undercuts that effort by favoring well-to-do and well-connected students, speeding their climb up the career ladder.

Many less affluent students say they cannot afford to spend their summers at unpaid internships, and in any case, they often do not have an uncle or family golf buddy who can connect them to a prestigious internship.

Brittany Berckes, an Amherst senior who interned at a cable news station that she declined to identify, said her parents were not delighted that she worked a summer unpaid.

“Some of my friends can’t take these internships and spend a summer without making any money because they have to help pay for their own tuition or help their families with finances,” she said. “That makes them less competitive candidates for jobs after graduation.”

Of course, many internships — paid or unpaid — serve as valuable steppingstones that help young people land future jobs. “Internships have become the gateway into the white-collar work force,” said Ross Perlin, a Stanford graduate and onetime unpaid intern who is writing a book on the subject. “Employers increasingly want experience for entry-level jobs, and many students see the only way to get that is through unpaid internships.”

Trudy Steinfeld, director of N.Y.U.’s Office of Career Services, said she increasingly had to ride herd on employers to make sure their unpaid internships were educational. She recently confronted a midsize law firm that promised one student an educational $10-an-hour internship. The student complained that the firm was not paying him and was requiring him to make coffee and sweep out bathrooms.

Ms. Steinfeld said some industries, most notably film, were known for unpaid internships, but she said other industries were embracing the practice, seeing its advantages.

“A few famous banks have called and said, ‘We’d like to do this,’ ” Ms. Steinfeld said. “I said, ‘No way. You will not list on this campus.’ ”

Dana John, an N.Y.U. senior, spent an unpaid summer at a company that books musical talent, spending much of her days photocopying, filing and responding to routine e-mail messages for her boss.

“It would have been nice to be paid, but at this point, it’s so expected of me to do this for free,” she said. “If you want to be in the music industry that’s the way it works. If you want to get your foot in the door somehow, this is the easiest way to do it. You suck it up.”

The rules for unpaid interns are less strict for non-profit groups like charities because people are allowed to do volunteer work for non-profits.

California and some other states require that interns receive college credit as a condition of being unpaid. But federal regulators say that receiving college credit does not necessarily free companies from paying interns, especially when the internship involves little training and mainly benefits the employer.

Many employers say the Labor Department’s six criteria need updating because they are based on a Supreme Court decision from 1947, when many apprenticeships were for blue-collar production work.

Camille A. Olson, a lawyer based in Chicago who represents many employers, said: “One criterion that is hard to meet and needs updating is that the intern not perform any work to the immediate advantage of the employer. In my experience, many employers agreed to hire interns because there is very strong mutual advantage to both the worker and the employer. There should be a mutual benefit test.”

Kathyrn Edwards, a researcher at the Economic Policy Institute and co-author of a new study on internships, told of a female intern who brought a sexual harassment complaint that was dismissed because the intern was not an employee.

“A serious problem surrounding unpaid interns is they are often not considered employees and therefore are not protected by employment discrimination laws,” she said.

Hoax

I HATE April Fool's Day! Instead of ranting about how for some reason I'm gullible today and no other day, I'm going to give props to a prank.

In-N-Out Burger, the west coast burger chain, pulled a fast one today. They went through some pretty extensive lengths, hanging up signs in NYC, making people think they would open up at some point.

True or Not, a TON of people are talking about it and will be today if they aren't already. For a way to get your brand on people's minds, HIGH FIVE. Granted, I don't know how my knowing about In-N-Out and not having one available will boost their sales in any way, I still give them props for stirring up some chit chat.

@BurgerConquest on Twitter posted photos.

What Took So Long?

Along with Swiffer, Ziploc technology, and the bump it (kidding), comes dresses (particularly wedding dresses) with pockets that make me wonder, "what took so long"?!?!

A dress with a hidden pocket is genius. I saw it for the first time at a wedding about a year ago and this bridesmaid was a pretty funny girl. She was like "screw tissues, I got fruit snacks!". It was like a lightbulb in my head went off. LOVE IT!

(Dresses by: Jasmine Couture, Mori Lee, Vinyards by Priscilla of Boston, Jim Hjelm, Amsale)