January 23rd was an important day. Not only was it the day that ushered in the Year of the Dragon, it was the day that Cloud of Chaos turned two. I take this as a lucky sign that 2012 is going to be a very good year here at Cloud of Chaos! And so to celebrate, I’m throwing a birthday bash, complete with gifts. And these gifts are for you!

Of course, if you’re going to throw a really big party, a bit of redecoration is always in order. If you look around, you’ll see that the walls have been painted, there is some new artwork, and I’ve installed a few new features to make the place more hospitable. What, exactly, is new here at the Cloud?

• Site Design

  A fresh look and polished pages make it easy to view, comment and share your favorite Cloud of Chaos content.

  Featured Posts

  Best posts from across the blog now appear in an animated flip gallery at the top of the sidebar.

  Work Page
  
You can follow me outside the Cloud, with links to my writing that has appeared elsewhere.

What would any party be without some very good friends to help? I am very fortunate to have four generous sponsors who jumped on board to support the Cloud of Chaos birthday bash and the relaunch of the site. Each of the sponsors has donated a birthday gift to give away to YOU, my lucky readers! Starting tomorrow, every day for the remainder of this week will feature a different Cloud of Chaos sponsor and birthday giveaway.

Hotel Veritas
You may remember this divine boutique hotel in Harvard Square from my original rave about it (which occurred, by the way, just after I started Cloud of Chaos and before the hotel had even opened). Now about to celebrate its own second birthday, the Hotel Veritas has received national acclaim for its exquisite design and impeccable service.

Come back on Tuesday to read more about the hotel and find out how you could be treated to your own intimate Cantabrigian experience at the Hotel Veritas.

Michelle Willey
This well-edited design boutique sells simple, elegant home furnishings and fashion accessories that are contemporary and timeless. Every nook and cranny of my apartment reveals some little luxury that came from Michelle’s Union Park shop, be they the Matouk linens in my bedroom and bath or my favorite summer frock that’s just waiting in my closet for winter to end.

On Wednesday, I’ll tell you all about what makes me so happy to have this incredible boutique right here in my neighborhood and you’ll learn what classic gift Michelle Willey could be giving you.

Knight&Hammer

Knight&Hammer is one of those sites where I go on a regular basis to drool and dream over the fabulous jewelry. I just want to be dripping in Joseph Knight’s innovative, fashion forward designs that represent the best ideas, materials, and techniques from his global jewelry heritage.

On Thursday, I will wax eloquent on all there is to love about this remarkable jewelry designer and how Knight&Hammer could make you fabulous too.


Recycle Studio
From the moment I stepped foot in this South End indoor cycling studio, I have been a devoted Recyclist. Recycle Studio infuses indoor cycling classes with an eclectic yet always right soundtrack and a yogic mentality. Recycle’s emphasis on the mind/body connection takes it light years beyond your typical spin class.

On Friday, I’ll tell you all about this workout gem, including the inside scoop on some of my favorite classes, and you will have your final chance to get a birthday gift from Cloud of Chaos.

I also want to give a very special thank you to my inimitable designer Jessica Sutton and her team at JSGD, whose incredible talent helped to bring Cloud of Chaos to life.

And finally, every party needs its own Facebook invite. I’m inviting you to the ongoing bash that is the Cloud of Chaos Facebook page.

The Facebook page delivers Cloud of Chaos posts directly to your news feed, as well as all of the gorgeous, fun, snarky deliciousness that doesn’t make its way into the blog. And for the duration of the birthday bash sponsor giveaways, you can get another chance to win when you “Like” Cloud of Chaos.

With sparklers and macarons, here’s to a fabulous year three!

The story is of a copy editor who arranges to meet his former lover for lunch at the Soho restaurant they used to frequent. She is married to a famous writer and has a glamorous life in Paris, while he has failed in his writing career, hates his mundane job and regrets the end of their affair. The restaurant has changed its look, the lovers are 15 years older, but the arguments, the old wounds and the familiarity is still very fresh.

All of the words spoken in this film come directly from Christopher Reid’s poem, both in the form of dialogue and recitation as voiceover, which is done by Alan Rickman. His voice – so silky, rich and warm – and his distinctive style of enunciation lend themselves perfectly to the reading of poetry. This is only one of a wealth of reasons why I loved this film so much.

Like the poem, the film is a beautiful piece, masterfully executed and full of delightful details. Commentary on the regrettable change that a beloved restaurant suffers with the passing of time, certainly a metaphor for the subject at hand. Observations of fizzy water that call Hemingway to mind. Multiple and various descriptions of wine that are simply delicious. The hilarious description of getting a boner. Grappa that “slips to its doom” is the sip that puts us all over whatever edge we inevitably come to regret for one reason or another. All elements introduced in the poem but brought to life so artfully through the cinematography and the performances of the actors, Rickman in particular, since most of what we see is from his point of view.

The poem rendered as dialogue fleshes out the unnamed characters and brings them into the present in a way that the voiceover anchors them to the past and the remembered love affair. He is nervous, still in love, drinking too much wine, and filled at once with an improbable hope and an inveterate hopelessness when it comes to her. Her banal update on life as wife and mother serves as a pointed reminder to hIm that he lost her to another man, the object of every bit of his regret and loathing, of himself included. He biliously envies her husband’s success, both literary and as as suitor, which only emphasize his own failure on both counts. His abominable behavior makes us see both the depth of his own long-nurtured hurt feelings and why she would have been compelled to leave him. The soliloquy she delivers, essentially delivering a final condemnation of his poetry, his faults as a human being, and of their affair, is marvelous. As is his response: “My little book was a great big bag of shit when I thought I was writing hymns to your sublime beauty and our lost love. Thank you for the elucidation.” It rather sums up the whole story.

As Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times Television Critic, said in his insightful review of the film:

…the reason to watch is for the sensual pleasure, and the plain fun, of artful language artfully spoken. This is a place where an offered menu “slices into the infant conversation like a sweetly swung ax” and a bottle says to a glass, “A word in your ear” before it “blurts out its sorrows in a splashy gabble.

Poetic pleasure indeed.

In a world where so many people seem to write poetry but so few actually read it, can television put poetry on the menu? Asks Charles Moore at The Telegraph in his review after The Song of Lunch debuted in the U.K. While his opinion of this particular film is not a wholly glowing endorsement, Moore does see it as a step in the right direction toward bringing the “voice of poetry” to television. It’s time, he says, “to bring it back, more boldly.”

This, as it happens, it the very mission of motionpoems. “To broaden the audience for poetry by turning great contemporary poems into short films for online, broadcast, and big-screen distribution.” For me it is a delightful new way to experience something I already love.

Although the original book The Song of Lunch, published in 2009 by CB Editions, is out of print, Faber & Faber reissued a new version to accompany the film and it is available at Amazon.com.

It’s the first day of the month – did you remember to say Rabbit, Rabbit before you got out of bed for good luck?

Do you know why we say Rabbit, Rabbit? According to Wikipedia:

“Rabbit rabbit” is a common British superstition. The most common modern version states that a person should say “rabbit, rabbit, white rabbit”, “rabbit, rabbit, rabbit”, “rabbits, rabbits, rabbits”, “rabbit, rabbit” or simply “white rabbits” upon waking on the first day of each new month, and on doing so will receive good luck for the duration of that month. In the United States, the tradition is especially common in Nantucket, Cape Cod, other towns within Massachusetts, and throughout Vermont, notably in Middlebury and Chester.

Fascinating!

Although we said goodbye to the Year of the Rabbit a week or so ago and are now in the midst of celebrating the arrival of the lucky Dragon, I do have a soft spot for this dangerously cute bunny.

Happy February everyone!

I’ve always loved visiting Chicago. The Art Institute of Chicago is my favorite U.S. museum, largely thanks to their extensive and impressive collection of German Expressionism and other post-Impressionist gems. The city has great jazz clubs, plenty of fun indie shopping, and a growing range of restaurants that are not steakhouses. There’s nothing quite like the architecture in Chicago; I always leave with a strained neck from all the upward gazing. Have you seen the architectural detail at the Shedd Aquarium? I die. So when I saw this post on the T Magazine blog about Ian Schrager’s newest hotel, Public Chicago, I was suddenly eager to pack my bags.

I absolutely agree with Pilar Viladas’s assessment of typical Ian Schrager hotels, where “style trumped service – and certainly comfort – more often than not.” I hated my one and only stay at the Hudson Hotel, so I don’t blame her for feeling “slight trepidation” upon checking into his latest venture. But, as she discovered, the Public Chicago is anything but typical.

A re-do of the fabled Ambassador East, a landmark 1926 building in the city’s Gold Coast neighborhood, Public Chicago, the first of a planned string of hotels, is Schrager’s spin on the recessionary trope of doing more with less. He aims to offer guests just what they need, and nothing they don’t, thereby making rooms more affordable. (They start at $135 a night.) The result, both in the 285-room hotel’s design (by an in-house team led by the architect Anda Andrei, a longtime Schrager associate) and amenities, is surprisingly elegant and refreshingly down-to-earth.

The lobby is a hip, but not too hip, update of its predecessor, with the original neo-Georgian architecture playing off neutral-toned upholstered furniture with a slightly French ’40s vibe. iMac computers line up on a long wooden table. At the other end of the lobby, the Library and Coffee Bar, with its generous windows and tufted leather banquette, is grand but relaxed.

But it’s the guest rooms that really impress. The original spaces have been spruced up rather than redone, and the decorating, while low-key, is chic and user-friendly. Normally, I can’t stand taupes and naturals, which I find only add to a hotel room’s anonymity. But here they’re used so skillfully that the effect is soothing rather than alienating. Add the crispness of a black steel desk, the coziness of a small-scaled, linen-covered club chair, and electrical outlets that a) you can access without moving an armoire and b) accommodate two chargers at once, and you’re in no hurry to leave.

I certainly wouldn’t be.

Since I never stayed at the Ambassador East, I’ll have to take her word that Public Chicago’s one disappointment is its restaurant, the Pump Room. It certainly looks beautiful, but had I been a frequenter of the old hotel’s “legendary restaurant, which attracted everybody who was anybody back when” I can see how I, too, might feel nostalgic for its “old-school glamour” in the face of such sleek modernism.

While I might find Public Chicago more fun were it tucked into one of the city’s funkier neighborhoods, its central location in the heart of Chicago’s Gold Coast means it is within walking distance to The Art Institute, Oak Street and plenty of other favorite spots. The next time I’m in Chicago, I definitely want to give Public Chicago a try. Who’s up for a trip?

“It was like visual Klonopin. Snore.”

I came across a fascinating article on the Publisher’s Weekly blog PWxya about books that inspire tattoos. I love the concept of having a tattoo drawn from a favorite book, and before now had no idea this was such a popular genre.

As someone who has been yearning for a tattoo of my own, I’ve spent a lot of time considering the art form and the importance of meaning and symbology when choosing a design, especially given a tattoo’s permanence (laser surgery notwithstanding). Gabe Habash, the story’s author, says:

What’s just as interesting as a tattoo is the story behind the tattoo, and that’s certainly true for the subcategory of tattoos that are inspired by famous literary works.

Habash, with some help, spent many hours combing the Internet’s two most extensive literary tattoo sites – Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos and The Word Made Flesh – then cross-referenced the tattoos they found most frequently with Google image searches, “all to get to the bottom of what books inspire the most tattoos and why.” They narrowed their list down to five books that inspire the most tattoos: Fight Clubby Chuck Palahniuk, The Little Princeby Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Where the Wild Things Areby Maurice Sendak, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderlandby Lewis Carroll, and Slaughterhouse-Fiveby Kurt Vonnegut.

Children’s books account for three of the five books, largely because of their enduring messages and the sense of childhood nostalgia they evoke. In the case of Alice in Wonderland, which, according to Habash, has inspired the greatest volume and the most variety of tattoos of all the books, people are mostly attracted the rich imagery the book provides. Tattoos inspired by Where the Wild Things Are seem to be pretty evenly split between images of Wild Things and Max. But the “single most popular book-inspired tattoo is, by far, ‘So it goes,’ the mantra from Vonnegut’s most famous book.”

Which leads us to the why behind these literary tattoos. Certain quotes and images that celebrate counterculture messages and promote the individual are popular, as is to be expected since these are typical themes among tattoo fans in general. Tattoos with specific connections to these books also evoke themes of loneliness, being true to yourself, and the appreciation of the world’s wonder and beauty.

Other oft-inked Vonnegut quotes are: “Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt,” “To die would be an awfully big adventure,” and “I carry your heart.” Fight Club also inspires a fair number of text tattoos (doubtless with a little thanks to Brad Pitt), with “It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we are free to do anything,” used most often. The Little Prince‘s most famous line, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye,” is also extremely popular.

With nothing like the semi-scientific method that Habash and his team employed to come up with their list of the most prevalent tattoos from the most popular books, I took a look at Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos and The Word Made Flesh to check out the literary tattoo phenomenon for myself.

For one thing, appropriately enough, The Word Made Fleshis actually a book!

The Word Made Flesh: Literary Tattoos from Bookworms Worldwide is a guide to the emerging subculture of literary tattoos — a collection of 100 full-color photographs of human skin indelibly adorned with quotations and images from Pynchon to Dickinson to Shakespeare to Plath. Packed with beloved lines of verse, literary portraits, and illustrations — and statements from the bearers on their tattoos’ history and the personal significance of the chosen literary work — The Word Made Flesh is part photo collection, part literary anthology written on skin.

Okay, so that’s going on my Amazon wish list immediately.

One of the things I loved about The Word Made Flesh was how many poetic tattoos were featured. I definitely could see a line from one of my favorite poems by e.e. cummings or Wallace Stevens finding its way into ink.

Of course, this tattoo interested me. Readers of the site are encouraged to post photos of their own literary tattoos, and the woman who submitted this said:

As writers, what are we if we aren’t evoking emotions from our readers? The semicolon is a tribute to all of my fellow writers who know how to use it correctly.

Where The World Made Flesh is a site that lends itself to browsing, Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos is better catalogued, with links to top-rated tattoos and categories and tags that make it easy to search for certain subjects or authors. It’s true that the books and specific tattoos that Gabe Habash mentioned in his article feature prominently, but I had fun clicking through the likes of Lemony Snicket and T.S. Eliot to satisfy my amused curiosity. I didn’t discover anything earth shattering or aesthetically outstanding, but it was interesting to note that “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” seemed to inspire lots of people and that tattoos made to look like old-fashioned typewriter text are cool, perhaps due to their straightforward simplicity and direct correlation to their literary source.

Some of my favorite tattoos from this site were, quelle surprise, based on poetry. I also loved this arm tattoo of a line from Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, one of my favorite authors of all time, and this quote from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.

Habash’s conclusions about why people choose certain literary references for their tattoos seems to be spot on, based on what I saw. Children’s books and their nostalgic subjects are popular, as are poems and other iconic phrases. Ultimately, why does anyone choose to have something inked on their flesh except that it speaks to them in some significant way. (Or they got really drunk and ended up with a Harry Potter tramp stamp.)

The tattoo I’ve been planning for the longest time is a crow, done by Zulu in LA, but my corvid won’t be quoting “Nevermore.” Poe is just a bit dark for me.

OUR MISSION is to broaden the audience for poetry by turning great contemporary poems into short films for online, broadcast, and big-screen distribution. We introduce talented video artists to some of America’s best living writers, step aside, then make the resulting videos free to subscribers. Completed films go on to screen at film festivals, art cinemas, libraries, schools, bookstores, and elsewhere.

Visit the Motionpoem website to check out the lineup of poets and filmmakers for the 2012 season, view motionpoems from previous seasons, and even subscribe to receive a new motionpoem delivered to your inbox each month.

I’ve always been an avid reader of poetry, but I must say I’m hooked on motionpoems. And I want to live in a converted chocolate factory and have a “Lacanian soap dispenser in the kitchen that looks like an industrial age dildo.” Gonna have to get on that.

General buzz is that 2012 is going to be a big year, with everyone from economists to astrologers gushing about signs that point to a year filled with good luck and new opportunities for prosperity and happiness. We might have the Dragon to thank for that.

Today heralds the arrival of the Year of the Dragon. Chinese New Year, or more accurately the Lunar New Year, is observed across the world among Asian cultures as the beginning of a new phase in a twelve-year cycle, each marked by a different animal in the Chinese zodiac. It is the most important of all traditional Chinese holidays and the 15-day New Year celebration is rich with symbolism and customs all centered around securing abundance for the year ahead.

There hasn’t been this much global excitement over Chinese New Year since 2007′s year of the Golden Pig, an occasion that only happens once every 600 years. Unlike in European cultures, which usually represent dragons as fierce animals to be feared, Chinese dragons traditionally symbolize power and good luck. The Dragon is considered the mightiest and most esteemed of all the signs and a Dragon year is believed to be particularly auspicious. Powerful, mystical, and magical Dragon is the bringer of spring rain. In Asia, where it actually is spring now, rain is welcome as it nurtures growing crops; metaphorically speaking, rain symbolizes the force that brings life to all things. Dragon grants blessings and is the symbol of power.

For details on what we can expect from the Year of the Dragon, I consulted my friend, expert Eastern astrologer Susan Levitt:

Dragon is the most powerful sign of the Chinese zodiac so anticipate a year that is exciting, creative, and over the top. Dragon’s influence inspires passion, drive, and daring. Dragon year is an excellent time to start a business, get married, have a child, or take incredible risks. But results can be drastic: undreamed of success or unrealistic fantasies that crash. Either way, life’s pace is speedy, dynamic, and anything can happen. Should Dragon year’s maximum volume leave you overwhelmed, take time off to retreat and rest. On a planetary level, expect extreme earth changes such as earthquakes, tidal waves, and volcanic eruptions.

The Chinese Dragon is wildly generous, overly benevolent, and extremely lucky, unlike the Western interpretation that Dragon is evil. Protective and powerful Dragon is the most sacred mystical animal in Chinese history. Dragon is a very ancient symbol in China, from the time of the dinosaurs. Proud and strong Dragon symbolizes royalty, wisdom, and prosperity. Magical Dragon can transform into any type of creature, and can overcome all challenges.

Everyone I know is looking forward to 2012 with excitement and anticipation. Many are starting new businesses or launching into new phases of their lives with creative endeavors or new projects. We couldn’t ask for anything better than such Dragon-like qualities to guide us through the year. (Just make sure to have your disaster kit ready for those earthquakes and tidal waves.) Check out Susan’s website to find out what the Dragon has in store for you.

A Chinese proverb states that all creations are reborn on New Year’s Day. The Chinese New Year is a celebration of change … a time to sweep away all that is old and unpleasant to make room for everything shiny and new.

That may be one explanation for why Hong Kong luxury IPOs are busy chasing the Dragon. “By 2015 China will account for around 20% of global luxury sales, according to McKinsey & Co., surpassing Japan as the world’s largest luxury market.” Even many Western companies are rushing to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange to take advantage of its current strength and growth anticipated in 2012.

Retailers have been working overtime to create special Year of the Dragon products, particularly targeting the Asian market, where the demand for luxury goods is strong and Chinese New Year traditions and beliefs are deeply ingrained in the culture. Like Rolls Royce, whose limited edition Year of the Dragon Phantom, priced at $1.2M, had already sold out by the first week of January. Haute horlogerie is taking full advantage of Dragon desire (and the strength of the Chinese market), with several watch brands paying homage to the imperial dragon and reviving traditional crafts and jewelry-making techniques to create exquisite time pieces the likes of which most of us will never see. In the article Year of the Dragon Is the Time to Strike, The New York Times provides excellent descriptions of dragon symbology and the extraordinary work that went into the creation of these truly amazing watches.

“Dragons in Chinese mentality have always been considered auspicious creatures carrying positive symbolic values,” Carson Chan, managing director and watch specialist at the auction house Bonhams Hong Kong, said by e-mail recently, pointing out that it was also an important symbol of imperial authority.

Conscious of this link, many watch brands have chosen to use the design of an imperial dragon, which is traditionally represented with a long serpentine body, a pair of horns and five claws. The imperial dragon often cradles a large pearl, which is believed to represent the wisdom of the emperor’s thoughts and commands. Only the clothing of the Chinese emperor was allowed to depict the five-clawed dragon, whereas that of his officials and other nobles had three-clawed or four-clawed dragons depending on their seniority.

If you happen to have a spare $380,000 or so lying around (which is the price of the Altiplano Double Jeu, the most expensive watch in the collection), you could treat yourself to one of the watches from Piaget’s dragon series. If nothing else, the craftsmanship and attention to detail that went into making these literal gems is drool inducing. Frankly, I was fascinated.

In a more-is-more approach, Piaget of La Côte-aux-Fées, Switzerland, has gone all out with a Dragon & Phoenix series that offers watch lovers a choice of 24 different models with engravings, cloisonné or enamel features of dragons or a phoenix. The phoenix, which Chinese tradition considers the queen of all birds and a symbol of virtue, represents the feminine yin to the dragon’s masculine yang and was usually associated with the Chinese empress.

Using a range of existing models, from Piaget’s ultrathin calibers to the Tourbillon Relatif, artisans have adorned them with the mythical creatures using a variety of techniques. The Piaget Altiplano’s grand feu enamel dial is decorated with the fierce head of an imperial dragon using a cloisonné technique that outlines the dragon in pure gold wire, while the bezel is paved with 78 brilliant-cut diamonds.

With the Piaget Emperador XL, a tourbillion model, Piaget designed a dragon in the shape of the number eight and set it with 257 brilliant-cut diamonds.

The Dragon is all about image so 2012 is definitely the year to step up your sartorial game. At Chinese New Year it is traditional to wear new clothes from head to toe to symbolize starting anew in the new year, as if we fashionistas needed any further justification. Now is the time when we’re beckoned to toss out the old and grungy in favor of new and refined. It’s all about dressing for the success of Dragon Year.

Even if a diamond-encrusted dragon watch is not in your shopping budget, there are plenty of other ways that you can get in on the Year of the Dragon accessories trend. There is virtually no limit to the variety of Dragon products available, from jewelry of all kinds to sneakers, bags, wallets, iPhone covers, sterling silver USB key fobs, barware, and even nail polish. The list goes on and on.

Still solidly in the most-of-us-can’t-afford-it category are two gorgeous handbags by Versace, one in silk with an embroidered dragon and jeweled decoration and the other in Chinese red python skin. Both are only available in Asia, of course. For those of us stateside who long for a dragon to carry on our arm, Coach and Bally both have Year of the Dragon offerings. Coach teamed up with Chinese tattoo and street artist Zhang Lan to create a series of bags and wallets that feature a traditional golden Chinese dragon painted on the brand’s signature “C” pattern. Bally’s dragon bag is a messenger style designed for men, featuring an embroidered gold and red dragon, with matching leather high-tops. For women, they’ve created a phoenix tote with matching flats. (Dragon and Phoenix are often depicted together and the Phoenix is considered the feminine yin to Dragon’s masculine yang. While the Dragon is the symbol for the Emperor, the Phoenix symbolizes the Empress.)

Of course, the writer in me is particularly enamored of the Cross Year of the Dragon pen collection and Shanghai Tang and Moleskine’s collaboration to create two Year of the Dragon notebooks. Of everything here, these are the pieces I most want to own. With the “mightiest sign of the Chinese Zodiac into [my] hand” imagine the amazing things I could write in a “notebook [that] features China’s most auspicious, powerful and successful symbol, the Dragon, embossed on the iconic Moleskine black cover.” Both the Dragon Notebook and the Feng Shui Diary have “classic Moleskine features – the elastic closure, paper band, bookmark and inside cover are all coloured in Shanghai Tang’s signature colour scheme.” The Cross pens, available as a fountain pen, rollerball or ballpoint, feature “layer upon layer of hand polished, high gloss lacquer, painstakingly etched with this iconic symbol of passion and strength.” The pens come in black and red trimmed with 23k gold plating and come in a special edition gift box with a booklet explaining the significance of the Dragon.

What I found curious and somewhat amusing was how universally sports equipment companies are jumping on this trend, although perhaps it shouldn’t be all that surprising given athletes’ propensity toward the superstitious when it comes to their performance. Why wouldn’t they want to get in on a little bit of Dragon luck? (And in the case of folks like Nike, not a little of the Dragon lucre.)

There is a special dragon Chuck Taylor All Star Hi from Converse. Nike has released a range of limited edition Year of the Dragon trainers, and Puma and Air Jordan both have created Year of the Dragon “packs” that contain specially designed accessories to go along with the shoes. All of them are beautifully designed (for athletic gear) but I have to give props to the Jordan Brand for getting into the spirit of the Dragon, even though they’re making a bit of a stretch by equating Michael Jordan’s lucky number 9 with Chinese mythology (8 is the number universally revered in Chinese culture).

While it’s fun to look at pretty things and even maybe buy a few of them to start the new year with something shiny and new, there are ancient and earnest customs behind the celebration of Chinese New Year whose purpose is to ensure happiness, health, togetherness, luck and prosperity in the year ahead. Family and community are very important, and good fortune and abundance come in many forms. I’ve written about many of these beliefs and traditions in my posts about Year of the Rabbit and Year of the Tiger.

May the mighty and benevolent Dragon bring you the very best year in 2012. Gong Hey Fat Choy!

Have I told you how much I love Shanghai Tang? No? Well, I do. A lot.

For one thing, I love their aesthetic – the rich colors and fabrics and liberal use of Chinese symbols. The first time I visited the Shanghai Tang boutique in New York I was struck by the clever way they rendered traditional Chinese designs in fabrics more typically seen in Western clothing and I was simply blown away by the sheer gorgeousness of everything they make. I still have the yellow silk Double Happiness and Double Fish pattern jacket I bought that day.

I was looking at the Shanghai Tang website while doing research for a post about Chinese New Year (you’ll be seeing that soon) and I ran across this Fortune Cloud bracelet. I think I actually gasped.

In the book of the I Ching, Cloud brings rain and good fortune flows freely like water. The more you see of it, the more luck it brings you.

What you, my loyal readers, don’t know quite yet is that I have big plans for my little Cloud of Chaos in this new year (you’ll be seeing some of that soon too) and, well, I could use some good fortune. Those of you who know me well are aware of my particular fondness for symbols and that my favorite way to invoke their power is to wear them as jewelry. It was too perfect that I would find a Fortune Cloud just when my spirits needed a boost, and on the eve of Chinese New Year no less.

Clouds, sometimes referred to as “auspicious clouds” (xiangyun 祥云), represent the heavens and also “good luck” because the Chinese word for cloud (yun 云) is pronounced the same as yun (云) meaning “luck” or “fortune”. Its form often resembles the auspicious shape of the lingzhi “fungus of immortality”. The cloud is a commonly seen design and when repeated in a pattern symbolizes never ending fortune.

This would seem to augur success for my endeavors this year. I like the sound of auspicious clouds. Excuse me; I’m off to find a bracelet.

We had the first big snow storm of the winter today. I needed new winter boots and, typically, had put off getting a pair until there were several inches of snow on the ground and there was nothing for it but to freeze my toesies in my rubber rain boots while I schlepped myself off to the store.

I knew what I was going to buy; I’d called ahead.

Of course, what I wanted were these: