Rag and Pony

There’s a communication theory that suggests most social interactions are just scripts. Dialogues we run because we know it’s the appropriate interaction, a social autopilot. It’s a pretty disheartening theory to think about. We bounce around our day, not really thinking abut what we’re saying just saying it because we’re expected to.

Think about that the next time your order your coffee.

More witches!

I woke up with that line stuck in my head this morning. Do you know how many times the same movie line can play and re-play in your head as you make coffee? More than you’d think.

In a city as progressive as our beloved Charleston, all the fun isn’t limited to the big kids. Especially when it comes to fashion.

B.b. Children’s Clothing is the design line of Barbara Beach, a Charlestonian who picked up her knack for children’s clothing designs from a clothing swap a few years prior. B.b. Children’s Clothing is inspired by vintage fabrics and colors, but with contemporary designs kiddos love.

Beach showed her collection Tuesday night at Charleston Fashion Week as part of the Southeast Emerging Designer Competition, wowing the crowd – and more importantly the judges – with her runway ready children’s wear. The clothes were so great, in fact, that they stood out even beyond the “awwww”-invoking mini-models skipping down the runway. One Fashion Week goer asks if that yellow coat comes in her size.

Beach made it to the top 3 finalists for this year’s competition and walked away with the overall People’s Choice award. A new generation of children’s wear has officially arrived.

And it’s not just fashion. Here are some of our favorite Charleston offerings for the crowd that prefers a good box of apple juice over the finest bottle of wine: 

Kids Yoga at Holy Cow may not be quite as rigorous as your hot vinyasa class, but the kids will certainly love it. The class meets Saturday mornings at 9:30am and teaches children the importance of focus while also getting them stretching and exercising in a fun laid back environment. Tiny yoga mats not required.

Fine (Pint-Sized) Dining might sound a little hard to come by – really, how many variations of peanut butter and jelly are there? – but many Charleston fine dining restaurants feature scaled down children’s menus for their youngest clients. Halls Chophouse even features their children’s menu on the website, and if the kids version of their hamburger is half as delicious as the adult version, juniors will be sold.

Redux Art Programs are as diverse as they come, from stamps to art history to even a class that combines art with math. Teach a child the importance of art early on and they’ll be gallery hopping with the best of them in no time. Redux kids classes are offered throughout the week with member discounts.

So have fun with the little ones. And give a good ‘ole chocolate milk toast to a town that embraces everyone…big and small.

Story by: Caroline Millard

Published in CHARLIE magazine, March 2010

i just had a bit of a panic attack looking at this job application.

Watched the tail end of a Good Eats episode featuring sandwiches while chowing down on a cinnamon pecan sticky roll. Welcome back to being a pumpkin.

I’m secretly, between me you and whoever else reads these ramblings, applying for jobs in New York.

Chances I’ll be wearing a bathingsuit tonight? 95%. I want the headline tomorrow to be “Caroline Millard forgets to wear pants” Just like Ke$ha

There are two shallow whimsies I loved in New York.

1. Eyebrow Threading : For $6.00 a very nice Indian woman wages war on your eyebrows using her teeth and strand of thread. The process is horribly painful, worse than any wax you’ll ever get anywhere. The result? The most perfectly groomed eyebrows you’ve ever seen. And complimentary face lift.

2. $20.00 Manicure/Pedicure Combination : Enough said.

I spent the past two days pouring through Google search results, harassing my Twitter followers and calling every Indian grocery/restaurant in the Holy City to come up with Charleston equivalents…because God forbid I go with out the combination of torture and cheap thrills.

Charleston Equivalents:

1. A woman named Rubal offers an eyebrow threading service in West Ashley. She doesn’t have a website, but has $10.00 threading.

2. The Charleston Cosmetology Institute has a manicure + pedicure combo for $23.00, if you can get away from the snob response to poo-poo cosmetology students handling your fingers and toes…it’s the way to go.

Two things I find marvelous right now:

1. Airplanes. I know how it works that an airplane can fly, but I still don’t understand how a giant metal object can stay in the air.

2. I am blogging via blackberry.

Last week I watched an episode of This American Life.

Watched. Because there’s a television show, did you know that? I didn’t. Not until last Tuesday.

As a point of interest, This American Life (the television show) looks exactly the way This American Life (the radio show) sounds. Except you can see everything Ira talks about, and in that same passively observational manner I love.

The episode opens with a short bit about a group of urban cowboys. Real urban cowboys. Kids, who live in Philadelphia and ride horses around the downtown neighborhoods, through the streets, and out into the rural areas surrounding the city. They are completely out of place, and infinitely wonderful.

I’d like to ride through Charleston on a horse.

Mike Phillips carries the second act. Mike is a 27-year-old man born with Spinal Muscle Atrophy. Unable to move, unable to speak he’s dependent on his mother for everything. He regularly blogs on topics like unicorn/turtle erotica and the daily chance he might die while having his trache replaced. There are two points in his story that pulled me.

Number One. Mike Phillips has a girlfriend. And they have sex. And they are in love. And she doesn’t care that he can’t do anything more than blink his eyes.

Number Two. Mike Phillips said that if he had his voice back, he would like it to sound like Johnny Depp. And you know what? Ira Glass made that happen. Johnny Depp read all the words Mike Phillips typed on his computer. I believe that is the Mariam Webster approved definition of “baller status”.

I don’t have a conclusion for any of this. Other that This American Life makes you about 35% more interesting every time you listen to (or watch) it.

Last night I had a dream that Emily Blunt escorted me to my seat at Fashion Week, which looked a lot like a Steeplechase. Then my car got a boot on the corner of Bogart and Rose, so I spoke to the Vietnamese sales cart owner in French. And woke up entirely certain there was glass in my eye.

Go figure.