For a wonderful shopping find - head to Timeless Treasures on Sutter Street in the Fillmore Neighborhood of San Francisco.

Step into a world full of charm and insight. Vintage items from the East Coast and France. Huge collection of letters from old signs the world over.

Read the poem Joan dreamed up to invite you on over!

It is the week before Christmas and all over town
Everywhere you go folks are running around.
The frenzy and dismay are clear on their faces,
Too many errands, too many places.

They want something special to say that they care.
To family, the neighbors and the one who cuts their hair.
About friendship, affection, perhaps even love,
They search for unique gifts that will fit like a glove.

Then Hark! they shout! I know just where
I can find special gifts, and I am going there!
So over to Sutter Street near Pierce they flew,
To Timeless Treasures to ease their holiday blues.

A gift for a friend, a treasure for me,
They smiled and thought, How easy can shopping be?
Pretty French jewelry, vintage globes and old boxes,
Pretty soon the shoppers were feeling smart as foxes.

Vintage ornaments for the tree, a pretty wreathe
For the door,
Luscious cashmere scarves for her and him
Ideas and suggestions galore!

So whether you are just starting your shopping
Or feel practically done
We invite you to Timeless Treasures
For gifts second to none.

And while you are at it,
Pat yourself on the back
For bringing toiletries for our Barrel Drive
To help the homeless get back on track.

From Hayley, Anna, Joan and Jenny,
We send you our wishes happy and many,
For safe travel and fun and visits that cheer
And, most of all, a Happy New Year!

Who has the best New Years Eve party? Some of my "finest" moments have been in Amsterdam, Lake Tahoe, and the party I had to throw myself since San Francisco is not a great New Years town (this year’s Suite 15 party is the exception).

Amsterdam: What a crazy place!! It’s not as cold as you’d think, and this party town does everything right. The perfect mix of culture and unabashed partying is found here. We Americans, accustomed to the ban on fireworks in some regions, might not be prepared for the all-out firecracker warfare that goes on in the city center! People were shooting Roman Candles out their third-story windows onto the narrow alleyways below! Sheesh!

I grabbed some psychedelic mushrooms (hey, they’re legal there) and wandered through the streets all night long giggling, ducking into coffee shops for marijuana hot chocolate when I needed to warm up. I don’t think the spiked cocoa did much.

There is this grand tradition of out-with-the-old in Amsterdam, and soon street corners were brimming with fires as people burned old chairs, guitars and even couches. These ritualistic urban bonfires brought people together to consider the year passed and warm themselves in the blazes. On one street corner near a canal, a string quartet set up and soon I was dancing in the arms of my ex in the toasty glance of couches on fire with my tripping eyes darting this way and that. Not a bad way to bring in the new year…

Tahoe: Lake Tahoe is wild for new years! Tons of people crowd the streets and count down. Everyone’s in a great mood, the casinos are open forever and most people are young and hot. Fun!

For the yuppie Divas (30’s and over professionals), I HIGHLY recommend Squaw Valley. If you are under 25 and want to rage, head to South Lake Tahoe (Heavenly area).

San Francisco: All I’m at liberty to say is that we had a bathtub full of ice and champagne bottles in our penthouse and could see all the fireworks from the deck. I certainly won’t talk about the hot surfer I smooched who got offended when I asked him about sharks (he surfs in Northern CA where we have Great Whites). He turned to me and muttered, "We don’t talk about HIM." Whatever, like I had invited him over to talk!!

Other NYE Thoughts…Pub Club has a best of new years list, City Search has a rather unimaginative list (the NYC ball drop? As if!!), and NewYears.com has a good list of parties in major cities like Vancouver, Vegas and NYC (will Xtina Aguillera REALLY be at the Hudson Hotel???). And Urban Daddy picks its most urbane hot spots. Happy Hunting, Divas!!

May the New Year bring tidings of great joy to us all!

Global Orgasm Day

And speaking of great, great joy, December 22nd is Global Orgasm Day! Amp up your pagan Winter Solstice celebrations with an, um, celebration of your own!

Why? Let me paraphrase the website: to positively change the Earth’s energy field with a massive orgasm aimed at peace, love and joy that will hopefully counteract the current atmosphere of fear, weapons of mass destruction, genocide and war. Yes, there is even science behind this, from Princeton no less.

Check out the website for more groovy information (their contact page advises you to contact the webmaster if you like the site, and if you don’t like the site to contact your therapist), Global Orgasm.org. Oh, what the heck, I’m in! I’ve had lots of orgasms, but few have ever made history…

This year’s TIME magazine is recognizing YOU as the Person of the Year! Why is that? Because YOU control the content on the Web, YOU are the one who shares your thoughts via the Internet, because YOU willing to share your life online.  Congratulations!

For the past 3 years, TangoDiva.com has continuously developed a platform where our members can share their travel stories, connect with other members, and inspire other readers. First, it was our simple JetSet Forum, where you could post a query or request or travel insight, and other members could respond to you there. It is a tedious application, where spammers can easily sing up, thereby filling our coveted Forum with sex stories and Viagra website. Then, Stephanie Block joined us as our editor and she passionately edits and uploads story submissions from our readers. Currently, we have over 300 original travel stories on our site, each one carefully read and edited by Stephanie.

We get stories sent to us daily, and we just can’t keep up. Plus, our membership is rapidly growing and we are unable to personally connect each of our members with other like-minded members as we did in the past. When we have a few hundred members, we could take the time and introduce a member in Barcelona with a member in San Diego. But now, we have thousands of members and it is not that easy anymore.

So, in mid-January, we are going to a Web 2.0 model. Where each of our members will control their own content on the site. First Class Members will have the opportunity to connect with other members through searchable membership directory, as well as receive value-add products for their membership. We are all very excited about the changes that are about to happen!

Please let us know what you think, what you would like to see, and how we can make TangoDiva.com the number one website for women travelers.

My darling girlfriend Sonya, who happens to be a drop dead gorgeous Russian, opened up a fabulous boutique in San Francisco and threw a soiree to rival any fashion party in Europe. The name of her store is PODIUM, which means “runway” in Russian. The guest list read like the VIP pages of San Francisco’s social magazines, and between the glasses of champagne and chitchat, I was able to get a shot with San Francisco’s hot major Gavin Newson. Yes, I will vote for him, when he runs for president!

That afternoon, I had a photo shoot for 7×7 magazine’s February issue. Not knowing what to wear, I ran over to Sonya’s place so she could dress me for my big magazine appearance. Donned in the finest Parisian threads, I headed to my photo shoot feeling like a million bucks. I was met by my make up artist, Maria O’Reilly. She is an absolute master when it comes to making a girl look like a rock star. Just days earlier, she did Sophia Lauren’s make up for her Napa Valley shoot for a national magazine.

At the end of the party, I returned my Cinderella clothes back to their rightful owner, but Sonya generously said, “Keep the pants, they look amazing on you!” So I did!

You can find Sonya’s boutique at:

PODIUM
2415 Chestnut Street  
San Francisco
415-409-2415
www.podiumsf.com

I remember there being a time in my life when it was cool to throw parties in hotel rooms.  The likely result of such a party is pretty much disasterous.  I must admit, while I did attended such parties while in high school, I have never contributed in the trashing of the hotel room…until recently when I accidentally flooded an entire hotel room in about 4 minutes.  Impossible you say?  Not for me!  I am the one and only walking, living, breathing "Murphy’s Law"!  If there is a way for something to go oddly and horribly wrong - I can make it happen!  Here is how the event unfolded…

 I was enjoying a peaceful evening at the Hilton Hotel in Osaka, Japan (lovely, by the way) and decided to run myself a nice, warm bath.  Impatient as I am, I decided to multi-task by using the time that it took for the bathtub to fill to return a quick e-mail to a friend regarding my travels.  In all my life, I have NEVER to this very day, seen a bathtub fill as fast as this one did!  Right when I was through sending the e-mail (which, by the way, was no more than 10 sentances!) I turned to get out from the desk only to notice a good inch of standing water covering 85% of my hotel room!  In a panic, I ran into the bathroom to turn off the faucet and stood there in complete awe of the absolute disaster I had created.  The water was not only spilling over the top of the tub, but it had created cracks in the bottom of the bathtub and was now seeping out in every different direction!  Once I grasped the situation at hand, I decided to call a co-worker, who was just staying down the hall from me, for help.  She told me to just put some towels down and not to worry.  Clearly she had NO CLUE the extent of my bathtub nightmare so I told her to just come down and take a quidk look at my room.  After a few short seconds, I opened the door and invited her into my wading pool/hotel room.  All she could do is gasp at the sight of my room drowning in bath water.  In fact, it was so bad that when I opened the door to let her into my room, I noticed that the hallway outside of my door was soaked with water also! 

So after deciding that it would be best to keep this little mishap to ourselves (come on!  I am an intern!  I clearly do not have enough money to replace carpeting!!), we ended up using anything that might possibly be able to soak up water.  Hand towels, bath, towels, bath robes…ANYTHING that we could find to get rid of the water!  Finally, after about thirty minutes of work and a bathtub full of soaking wet towels and robes, I decided that maybe tonight I would skip my bath and just play it safe and go to sleep.  Nothing bad can happen if I am sleeping, right?  I swear, if there is the slightest possiblity of something going hysterically wrong…I am your girl!  After all that time of having "best hotel behavior", I successfully trashed a hotel room 100% unintentionally and didn’t even have one shred of fun while doing it.  (I did get a few solid laughs out of it in the end though

Oh, Divas. I am having like The Worst PMS ever! It’s as if my ovaries, Grinchified to the Extreme, are balking over all this holiday cheer. What are some of your menstrual managing secrets? Sometimes I find that a good, juicy steak with all its iron is the answer, dining like a vampire trying to make myself feel alive again.

Other times, tons of vitamins and wheatgrass do the trick: witchy concoctions of raw juice bar offerings bubbling over in their dank green and otherworldly orange vats.

And still other times, it’s OTC meds to the rescue: pain killers, diuretics, Tylenol and Midol. Because sometimes a woman needs to smart bomb the hell out of the rebel factions in her own body if she wants to survive.

And then there’s my favorite: Emotional Punching Bags! Those closest to you, bless their hearts. Last week, I picked fights with, in this order:

1- a guy I was dating who sent me an annoying text message. I let him have it with both barrels. Oops.

2- my dearest childhood friends from home with whom I grew up. One of us is getting married, and an emailed response to my rejected bachelorette party ideas left everyone shocked.

I swear I’m not usually like this! Is it the holidays? The cheap men and bad liquor? Or just some inexplicable lunar cycle? Should I just embrace the witchy, evil, dark magic side of myself? Because at the end of the day, it’s not that I’m NOT feeling truly angry with disappointing dates and friends who meddle, it’s just that usually I am too much of a lady to say anything.

I don’t want to be confrontational, which basically means that I don’t want to let people know how I’m REALLY feeling. Should I thank my pulsing, aching ovaries for their candor?

Because, although crude, the text message whammy I sent to the disappointing date had a kernel of truth. And my hometown friends? Well their ideas of a bachelorette party would make even Pollyanna be all, hey girls, you’re supposed to get down and dirty. I can handle a nixed stripper, but no talk of sex whatsoever so that we don’t embarrass the bride? Are you out of your mind?? (I had already purchased the penis straws and the game, "Pin the Blank on the Man.")

In closing, I’d love to know your thoughts. Being a woman is so tricky! If we are ever off kilter, ever dangerous enough to speak our minds, we are hysterical, or it’s that time of the month. I think we are taught early and often not to take on the world with both barrels, or ovaries. Because if we actually harnessed that irritable, boiling, viscous raw emotion, goddess help the power structure. They wouldn’t survive an hour.

And who knows? We might actually LIKE living on the edge and expressing ourselves!

So why not try an experiment- embrace the bloat! isn’t it a metaphor for all the hot-air filled people around you? rejoice in the lead-filled breasts that pain with every movement. don’t they reflect your heavy, aching heart? defy convention and be pms-power this month! (well, perhaps next month is better, after the presents have been distributed. No one wants coal in their silk stockings…) 

*(don’t forget to check the latest holiday air travel restrictions always updated in Diva Says!!) 

‘Twas right around Christmas and all through San Fran,

Tons of Divas were wondering where to find a great man.

A hunk and a hero who drives a red truck-

Someone you’re dying to drag home and…

Never fear, brilliant Divas, real men await!

This Sunday at Slide is gonna be great.

We’ve teamed up with Benefit to bring holiday honey

To young Whos down in Whoville who don’t have much money.

So impress a fireman with your generous donations-

And hopefully get invited to share flowing libations.

Either way, Divas dear, you’ll have done a great thing

By coming to our party and dressing up in bling. 

Benefit Magazine and Tango Diva need your presence to inspire,

So see you Sunday, friendly beauties, when we’ll all be yelling, "Fire!"

(For more information, visit our Calendar of Cool.) 

The Italians don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, though they do have a name for it: il Giorno del Ringraziamento. There was a big turkey dinner organized for grateful expatriates in Bologna, but it wasn’t happening until the weekend after Thanksgiving Thursday. What is it about the actual day of Thanksgiving that demands mashed potatoes, stuffing and family? Luckily, I had my little sister Anna out visiting, and she helped me realize all three of those requirements.

 
Armed with a modified shopping list, we cruised around Bologna looking for ingredients to prepare a goat cheese, walnut and dried cranberry stuffing and some killer garlic mashed potatoes. Being in a foreign country means adapting to new things on a daily basis, but sometimes cooking feels like the most difficult skill to translate. Temperatures are different, measurements are different, and the ingredients listed on the US recipe are scattered and hidden around the city with confusing names. But in the end, we triumphed and made a delicious dinner on Thanksgiving itself.

The next day we traveled to Modena, the birthplace of balsamic vinegar (Thank you, Modena!). Though almost everything was closed on a Friday afternoon, we stumbled upon the most beautiful autumn park I’ve seen. The trees were ostentatiously bright, the leaves on the ground were a colorful carpet, and the grey sky made all of it pop in unbelievable hues. For two California girls, a park full of fall foliage is better than a visit to an art museum. We missed the 15th century version of The Divine Comedy displayed in the closed gallery, but the warm chestnuts we ate from a paper cone as we wandered through the park made me forget all about it.

It was a perfect Thanksgiving.

The world is awash in new museums and concert halls! This list is by no means complete; if your borough is getting a new building, definitely let us know.

Berlin’s Bode Museum just opened last month, a historic edifice known for sculpture, art and coins, sitting pretty on Berlin’s Museum Island (Museumsinsel). Berlin has been a hotbed of museum activity with 25 openings in the last 10 years, including the new television and film museums as well as the Jewish Museum.

And in Miami, the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts opened its esteemed doors in October, with resident companies spanning all the arts: ballet, opera, theater, symphony, as well as the most contemporary and exciting comedians and performers.

The National Museum of the Marine Corps opened its doors to the public this month as well, the setting being none other than massive acreage outside the Marine Corps Base at Quantico. Offering artifacts, documentaries and outstanding technology, the museum seeks to bring the experiences of Marines in action to life, rat-a-tat-tat?

On that same theme, the National World War One Museum soon opens its doors in Kansas City, MO.

Opened in fall of this year is the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in the O.C. of CA. You can imagine that no expense was spared in opening this home of the arts including dance, theater, symphony, opera and more.

In Europe again, in Paris, they welcomed a new museum dedicated to indigenous arts from outside Europe, the Musée du Quai Branly.

Only a year and a half old is the Arab American National Museum in Deerborn, MI (why here I have no idea), as well as the Perth Concert Hall in Australia. In Valencia, Spain, the gorgeous El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia came to life.

On the horizon: if you adore the Centre Pompidou but spend most of your time in Asia, fear not! That museum plans to open a branch in Shanghai next year. 

So much culture and so little time! :)