Each fall, everyone here at the office gets all excited about
the new television premieres. We love Alias!
We love American Dreams!
Last Sunday, those two began the new season with
episodes that really knocked our socks off. What makes
a good season premiere, you ask? Well, I’m not exactly
sure but I do know it needs to be high-energy!
We are so excited about the new fall line-up at fredflare.com – tons
of amazing new things coming your way in the weeks to follow – that
we thought it would be fun to have a premiere of our own. Last
week we had a roller skating party at the Roxy here in NYC,
our first big fred flare event. It was a blast!
I guess it all came about because lately we’ve been obsessing
about the 70's. We love the TV shows, music, fashion and fads
of that era and thoroughly enjoyed this summer’s "I
Love the 70s" series on VH1. One of our fave things about
that time was the big skating boom. It seemed a perfect theme
for our party!
The Roxy is probably one of the hottest clubs in New York – big
peeps like Madonna and Cher have even performed there – but
every Wednesday night they turn the dance floor into a roller
rink where you can suddenly find yourself in this strange portal
transported to Xanadu, or at least your hometown roller rink.
As I was skating I did feel like I was back at the Roller-Rina
in Perry, Ohio listening to Olivia sing "Magic".
You have to believe…
To get my skating column on, I did a little research and discovered
that people have been rolling skating for over 250 years! There's
even a National Roller Skating Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska
dedicated to its history with a collection of artifacts, photographs
and all kinds of skating memorabilia. (Field trip!)
Roller skating actually began in Belgium when a man took a
pair of ice skates and attached little wheels. Eureka! Unfortunately,
he forgot to add a braking system so you can only imagine what
happened to that poor guy… At least he had an excuse.
I spun out of control tons that night, even with a breaking
system.
Here’s a quick timeline for ya… In the early 1800's,
barmaids in Germany started wearing roller skates to serve
because the beer halls were so large. (Beers and skates… Fun!)
In America, during the 1950's – my fave decade – waitresses
at drive-in restaurants wore roller skates for the same reason.
It seemed a perfect marriage of function and fashion. In the
70's that marriage became an open one when Disco had her sexy
way with everyone. The 80’s were also big for roller
skating. Keith says Van Halen’s "Jump" was
a major skating jam for him. Might as well…
I guess that brings us to the 2003 fredflare.com skating party
which began, like any other big event in my life does, with
some serious soul-searching: What to wear? I guess I ended
up looking more 80's than 70's, with my red mesh tee, denim
skirt and red tights that I hunted down for days, but once
you find the right look you just have to go with it. I put
on some shiny red lipstick to look even more like a hussy and
I was ready!
Everybody had such great party outfits! You’ll see by
the pictures that red was big.
You’d think we planned
it! Keith was definitely dressed to hang out with me all night
with his red gingham shirt. Chris wore his new Gap cords in
honor of Madonna and Missy. Where’d ya get them jeans?!
Our guests really got into the spirit of things, too. There
were satin shorts, knee socks, rainbow tees, striped shirts,
and more cords. Some people came directly from work so you
would also see business casual and Chanel suits on the rink!
Our party was in the back bar overlooking all the action. Chris
and Keith had decorated the space with swags of felt
garland to jazz it up real nice. It was the perfect home base. You
could be off the rink but still see it all! A big highlight
of the party, when you weren't skating, was taking pictures
of Piera and Shanelle, the cuties of Kandy Katering.
They looked amazing!
Kandy Katering specializes in cookie towers, cotton candy clouds,
crazy Hostess platters and practically anything snack-related
you could imagine. For our party they were dressed as cigarette
girls, but they only had chocolate cigarettes. The traditional
bell-hop costume was replaced with HotPant roller girl finery,
on skates of course! They had tons of candy reminiscent of
the 1970's: pop rocks, candy jewels, ring pops, pixy stix,
homemade candy kabobs and tons more. (Email Piera for
more info about Kandy Katering. They are a sweet addition to
any
party!)
Skating brings the best out in people. I think everybody was
having a great time because you could hardly get some peeps
off the rink! Everyone enjoyed skating ‘round and ‘round,
taking it all in. There are some real characters at the Roxy
on Skate Night that also provide tons o’ entertainment!
I'm sure they have been skating there for years... There were
amazing break dancers on skates, old school graduates of Jane
Fonda’s workout club and Roller Aladdin, who would simply
skate backwards with the biggest grin on his face. You knew
your wishes were coming true…
Many of our guests were really great skaters, too! Cutest couple
skate award shout-out to Jim and David of KleinReid! Chris
also skated with lots of cute girlz. He boogied with Hillary
out on the middle dance floor, skated backwards with Leja from
Sweden, and with me, well, we fell down and laughed and laughed…
We were so sore the next day but it was totally worth it! It
was super great to hang out with friends and also meet some
new ones. Thanks to everyone who came! Let's do it again sometime!
Skate on!
