Drinks On A Schoolnight?

Ran down to West Chelsea last night to see my friend Firth MacMillan's gallery opening. And when I say West Chelsea, I mean West Chelsea. I ditched hopstop's recommended plan of taking the 6 train to 51st street, then jumping on the E train to 23rd. Instead, I took the 6 down to 28th and walked a good half hour to the Hudson Guild.

I didn't really know Firth was into photography. The last opening of hers I attended, about a year ago, was ceramics. Not necessarily a man's cup of tea, but you still want to support any artist friends you might have and gallery openings are seldom a bad time.

But last night, she rolled out some soft-focus photography, and I was blown away. I'll let you try to guess what the image is of on the front page of the site I gave you in the first paragraph. I hope she puts more of her stuff online for y'all to see. She had about eight or 10 large prints that for my eyes seemed to prioritize color slightly ahead of shape. Firth truly has a gift, and I think you'll be hearing about her more in the future.

After that, it was off to Pravda, my favorite vodka bar. OK, it's the only bar I enjoy that bills itself as a vodka bar. And here I am thinking I'm in the know by ordering Ketel One the last 10 years or so, but the smartender last night recommended Russian Standard, and I'm fairly certain that's my new fave. Much smoother and even lighter, but doesn't lack an end result. I had a different kind of buzz after a couple of them. As you know, I typically avoid libations on a schoolnight, but it was a going-away party for my dear friend Sneha, who's on a plane at this minute flying to Egypt to spend a week before moving to Italy for a new fashion design job. She's the gal who I saw "Eastern Promises" with in December and she jumped out of her seat when Naomi Watts was wearing a Ralph Lauren dress that Sneja designed. She's fancy.