Gainesville Fashion Gets Personal

Gainesville Fashion Week and Covetedlist.com hosted their first Personal StyleFashion Showcase yesterday, March 23, at 7pm in the University of Florida's Reitz Union Grand Ballroom as part of Women's History Month. Featuring 25 spring looks in fresh gradients of pinks and aqua greens, the show was both Gainesville Fashion Week and Covetedlist’s first to be hosted at the UF campus.

About 125 people came out to the event, and there were a lot of new faces in the crowd, says Flavia Cervantes, assistant producer and model coordinator for GFW. “Gainesville Fashion Week is trying hard to reach out to students this year,” she says. They wanted the event to be “eye-opening” to girls and “open up regular girls on the UF campus to see what fashion is,” Flavia says.

DJs Thomas and Ernie spun music throughout the free event. The models showed off a variety of looks featuring clothing from Dahlia Boutique, Wolfgang Boutique, Mesh Boutique and designer BobbyK. Flavia says the looks were “springy and feminine” with a lot of separates, spring dresses, skirts and tops. The fashion show had looks for all body types and gave viewers a first taste of the designers that will be featured at GFW, April 7-11. "The show showed how girls can experiment with their personal style and see what Gainesville has to offer,” Flavia says. “Fashion is a lifestyle here.”

—Shekinah Johnson, photos by Andres Farfan

Mixing It Up at the Reitz: Shots and Shooters

“Shots…Shots….Shots…Everybody” was the song of the evening. The final night of the bartending leisure course in the Reitz Union basement was bittersweet, and it was not from all of the Sambuca shots. Everyone came together one last time for good drinks and a few laughs from the many shots we learned how to make, including the Buttery Nipple, the Screaming Orgasm Up Against the Wall (read on for the recipe) and the Blowjob shot – yes, we got a demonstration. 

During the first half of the class, we learned the differences between liqueurs, cordials, shots and shooters. Here is the DL on these: Liqueurs and cordials are made from natural products, such as coffee, mint, citrus or almond. They are what we would call the “ugly” part of the drink because all of the sugar is what gives us that unbearable hangover. Liqueurs represent the name brands we are most familiar with like Kahlua and Baileys. Cordials are generic versions of our favorites but at a lower price. A bottle of Kahula (flavors consist of regular, hazelnut, french vanilla, etc.) is $16, while an identical tasting bottle of Kimora is only $9. 

Shots are made using one liquor, such as the Tootsie Roll (Kahlua and orange juice) and a shooter is a multi-liquor drink, like a B-52 (layers of Kahlua, Baileys and Grand Marnier). My favorite shooter of the night was the Hairy Navel, made with vodka, orange juice and peach schnapps (we used Dekuyper’s Luscious Peachtree). Also worth recreating is a Soho Lychee liqueur with a splash of cranberry, a popular martini combo in many Asian restaurants. 

Here are some other recipes to mix up at your next party:

Melon Ball: vodka, melon schnapps and orange juice

Washington Apple: Canadian whiskey, apple schnapps and cranberry

Buttery Nipple: Baileys, butterscotch schnapps (Add sambuca to make it a slippery nipple)

Screaming Orgasm Up Against the Wall: Kahlua, Baileys, vodka, amaretto schnapps, banana schnapps, Galliano and cream. 

Try these out during spring break and let us know what you think! 

The BJ shot in action

-Brooke Aronoff

Mixing it up at the Reitz: Rum

Rum, yum, yum. Wednesday night was round four of my bartending leisure course at UF, and the the menu tonight called for a whole lotta rum. If you closed your eyes, you might think you were already on Spring Break in the Bahamas. 

The secret behind rum drinks is that all of the juices, more specifically anything with grenadine, mask the flavor of the rum. Before you know it, you had four drinks and you feel fine, that is, until you stand up. Quick tip for you soon-to-be spring breakers: Drink some water in between all of your rum-filled beverages to stay hydrated in the sun. You don’t want to waste all of the money you spent sleeping with your face in the sand because you drank too many rum punches on the first day. 

If you want to stray away from those sugar-filled rum drinks, stick to a Cuba Libre- a simple a rum and coke with a wedge of lime. I challenge you to go to Gator City or Balls this weekend and ask the bartender for a Cuba Libre and see how they react. Chances are they will have no idea what you are talking about. But you will…sneaky sneaky! 

My favorite drinks of the night were the Rum Runner (the first Rum drink ever made) and the Blue Hawaiian. Try this the next time you are out: ½ jigger dark rum, ½ jigger white rum (we used Ron Carlos Rum for both), ½ Blue Curacao (insider info: it is actually identical to Triple Sec), a splash of pineapple juice and a splash of pina colada mix. Shake it all up and enjoy! See you next week for Tequila. 

-Brooke Aronoff

Mixing It Up at the Reitz:Vodka

A fellow student shakes it up at the Wednesday Vokda class 

Oh what a night! The “oh” is for the mini-hangover I woke up with this morning after week three of bartending class. I had a feeling this week would be a little intense. Our teacher, Wonton, whom you can spot hitting up Gator City after our “alcohol lesson,” pulled out vodka bottle after vodka bottle, giving us a little background about where each came from, how many times it was distilled (all vodkas are distilled at least three times before it is considered a true vodka), and offered his opinion about each one’s quality factor. To be honest, I don’t remember much of the historical aspect, but I can give you the lowdown on our multiple taste tests.

Wonton showed us how to make a Bloody Mary, the second drink ever made using vodka. He added ingredients a little out of the ordinary, including 1 1/4 jiggers of vodka (he used Level), tomato juice and swigs of Worcestershire sauce, tabasco sauce, horseradish, salt and pepper. The concoction tasted like a seafood dish or a cocktail sauce you would use to dip shrimp in. 

My favorite alcohol was Vincent-Van Gogh Pineapple Vodka, mixed with pineapple juice and a splash of cranberry juice. If you like fruity drinks, this is one to try. I also really liked the chocolate martini. I made it with 1/2 a jigger of vodka (we used Pravda, one of Wonton’s favorites aside from Level, ZYR, EFFEN and Stoli Elit – all in the $25 to $30 range) and Dark Crème de Cacao cocktail mix.  It tasted similar to Serendipity’s frozen, hot chocolate with a splash of alcohol. Delicious!

Next week, we have a break from class (probably to subside our poor livers), but we thought it would be a great idea to gather everyone together for a little happy hour in the Reitz Union basement. If you want to see me practice my bartending skills or in Wonton’s words, “do my homework,” let’s just say I’ll see you there.

--Brooke Aronoff

Hill Harper Comes to UF

I have a theory that the famous never sleep. This thought is driven home when I hear about people like Hill Harper. Are you ready for this? He plays, Dr. Sheldon Hawkes in "CSI: NY", he's appeared on "The Sopranos", "ER", "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and "The Visit", he's authored three New York Times Best Sellers, graduated valedictorian from Brown University, cum laude from Harvard Law School and he holds a master's degree from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. To top it all off he's created the very fitting Manifest Your Own Destiny Foundation, aimed at empowering underserved youth. Oh, and he was named one of the Sexiest Men Alive by People Magazine. And here I can barely turn out this blog post.

On Monday, Feb. 8, Hill will stop by the Reitz Union Ballroom to share some of his inspirational-speaker talents with us, as part of ACCENT's and the Black Graduate Student Organization Black History Month 2010 celebration. Doors are at 7pm, with the Hill speaking at 8pm. Get there early; you dont want to miss out on hearing what this wise man has to say.

Just a bit of pop-culture trivia: His real name is Francis.

-SG

Fresh Voice of Self-Help for teens to speak at University of Florida

Growing up, Josh Shipp was neglected, abused and abandoned. After growing up in a great foster home and learning from inspirational teachers and school programs, Josh developed a strong, positive attitude that is encouraging and relatable to teens. He will deliver his humorous yet profound life messages in the JWRU Rion Ballroom on January 29th. Doors open at 7pm and the show will begin at 8pm.

Josh uses his personal story of triumph over tragedy to inspire youth to overcome life’s struggles and live life to the fullest. After serving as State DECA President and on the School-to-Work student advisory committee, Josh committed his life to helping others achieve their goals. Josh has spoken to audiences of up to 27,000 and shared the stage with comedians such as Bill Cosby. He has also recently hosted a reality show called “Prom Date.” In addition to writing his own book, Josh coauthored three teen leadership books: “The Best of Success for Teens,” “The Making of an Unshakable Character,” and “Forty Voices.” He has also been the focus of various articles, interviews and a subject for other authors.

For more information, call ACCENT at (352) 273-4429. Visit our website at www.accentspeakers.com or e-mail ACCENT at accent@sg.ufl.edu

--Jason H. Attermann

Inside Out Art Exhibit

Need some culture in your life? Check out the current art exhibit in the Gallery on the second floor of the Reitz Union, Inside Out. The images in the exhibit include drawings, etchings and mixed media. Check out some of INsite's favorite pieces.

—Photos by Timothy Carswell