i went to SPiN (ping pong club) and my friend got schooled by judah friedlander

last night, i attended the SPiN NY Event for Haiti, which consisted of a tournament of models playing ping pong, a live auction and a silent auction all benefitting disaster relief for Haiti.
a friend of a friend invited me and quite honestly, i was incredibly intrigued and incredibly skeptical. i had just read about susan sarandon's ping pong club, SPiN, which is the one i went to and yes, i saw her there. she's a lot shorter in real life but that's probably b/c i am used to seeing her projected 20 feet high. but back to what i was originally saying, my skepticism originated from the fact that it sounded very schtick-y, a club where people play ping pong? it sounded so incredibly hip, too hip.
once getting there, my fears began to feel slightly confirmed, but i tried my best to keep an open mind. inside SPiN, you walk down a flight of stairs and are in a basement light with black lights and candescent lights, giving everything a blueish tinge and making any white in your clothing glow like there's nuclear particles in it. walking around the perimeter of the basement, there are some windows and doors that open up to the 6 train, as if to give it a slightly grittier feel. however, given the price of drinks and the amount of suits that frequent it, it felt super slick, in-spite of the decor and basement level location.


however, watching the models battle and seeing judah friedlander compete started to change my mind.
not only did it look like fun, it looked incredibly active.
now, i'll be the first to admit i know squat about ping pong, the most i know is vaguely how to play tennis, from the 5 years of lessons i suffered through as a child. and ping pong is quite different from tennis. watching everybody play, i started to get kind of jealous and i wanted to join in. everybody looked like they were having a fun time! ping pong looks like it took all of the fun elements of tennis but made it better, b/c for starters everything is closer together and you have to move but you aren't running long distances (which i hated). but it's a sport that can be enjoyed anywhere (such as your house or a bar, like in this case).
watching everybody play (models and suits alike) everybody looked like they were having a really really awesome time and nobody seemed to care or mind that they were jumping all over the place. it was silly and jovial affair and when's the last time you went to a bar in new york and experienced that? probably a while ago?
so i snapped snapped snapped some photos


and we had snagged the front and bottom row of the bleechers (just like in a high school gymnasium) and we were so close to the players, the ping pong balls kept rolling and hitting our shoes.
after the main game, judah vs world champion of ping pong, judah friedlander came over to us and we had a nice chat. he said aviva, alannah and i looked like a cool girl gang and he handed us out flyers for his new book, which i believe all of us (aviva, alannah and i) will promptly buy once it's released.
here's the cover of his book.

judah started chewing the fat with us about schools (he went to nyu) and ping pong. he told us about how it's an olympic sport and how he played when he was younger and started two years ago after watching it during the beijing olympics. okay, now i am really intrigued about ping pong.
later on in the night, he gave alannah some ping pong lessons and she was definitely schooled. she also improved a lot, so if she becomes a master ping pong-er, judah should take some credit for that.
so long story short, i really wanna take up ping pong and alannah seconded that decision.



and while i wasn't there to shoot street style, i couldn't resist shooting this lady in the amazing green dress. i went up to take a normal street style shot of the lovely lady in green and her male companion, however i felt like this one did them a lot more justice. and check out her friend's amazing briefcase! i am swooning over it! it's the briefcase of my dreams, and if you gave it a long strap, i think i would've just stolen it from him, except not really b/c that's illegal.
i also think this may be jezebel's jenna sauer but i'm not sure...b/c i only have this and this to go off of.
if she is or isn't, this is still probably the prettiest green dress i've seen ever, hands down.

what i wore:
rachel comey dress and jeffrey campbell shoes



what a long entry!
ta ta for now,
c