The Life and Times of...

"Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. It even has a watermark. "

2011-11-28T02:25:00.000-08:00

So the irony of the situation is this:

a. I just finished reading The Great Gatsby last night.
b. It is far too late for me to still be up reading blogs, but here I am.
c. I was literally just getting ready to close up the 'ole macbook when whaBAM, I came across the coolest art that I've found in a while.

Christmas wish list item numero uno - The Heads of State Great Gatsby "Business Card" Poster Print

Its description according to the site:

"Chapter four of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby reads like a VIP guest list of the Jazz Age. Taking inspiration from those pages, this poster is comprised of the business cards and personal stationery of the movers and shakers that attended Gatsby's parties in the summer of 1922."

And sure enough, pp. 61-63

"From East Egg, then, came the Chester Beckers and the Leeches, and a man named Bunsen, whom I knew at Yale, and Doctor Webster Civet, who was drowned last summer up in Maine...From West Egg came the Poles and the Mulreadys and Cecil Roebuck and Cecil Schoen and Gulick the state senator and Newton Orchid, who controlled Films Par Excellence...Benny McClenahan always arrived with four girls...I have forgotten their names...and their last names were either the melodious names of flowers and months or the sterner ones of the great American capitalists whose cousins, if pressed, they would confess themselves to be...

...In addition to all these I can remember that Faustina O'Brien came there at least once and the Baedecker girls and young Brewer who had his nose shot off in the war."

Oh, and I mustn't forget the lovely Miss Golf Pro Herself...

I WANT.

[Btw, the title quote is Patrick Bateman on business cards in case you were stumped.]

Leave it to Nylon Mag...

2011-10-30T23:24:00.000-07:00

to include this French rendition of "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" in one of their Nylon TV specials.

Absolutely adorable.

Muguette - "Ces Bottes Sont Faites Pour Marcher"

cat woman.

2011-10-30T23:21:00.000-07:00

Spring/ summer 2011 collection campaign of Atsuro Tayama directed by Emmanuelle Peck.

ATSURO TAYAMA Spring-Summer 2011 from Emma PICK on Vimeo.

peaches 'n cream and tiffany blue.

2011-09-28T00:33:00.000-07:00

I simply cannot get enough of my new necklace and messy buns.

little fig.

2011-09-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

"Strangeness & Charm"

2011-09-22T18:46:00.000-07:00

-Florence & The Machine-

"On sped my rainbow, fast as light;
I flew as in a dream;
For glorious rose upon my sight
That child of Shower and Gleam."

pp. 317 Jane Eyre; Mr. Rochester's song.

Copper Tubing Beaded Charm by Betsy Youngquist - 3D Non-Functional Jewelry

Wake Up.

2011-09-13T23:23:00.000-07:00

"You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you are living. Then you read a book… or you take a trip… and you discover that you are not living, that you are hibernating. The symptoms of hibernating are easily detectable: first, restlessness. The second symptom (when hibernating becomes dangerous and might degenerate into death): absence of pleasure. That is all. It appears like an innocuous illness. Monotony, boredom, death. Millions live like this (or die like this) without knowing it. They work in offices. They drive a car. They picnic with their families. They raise children. And then some shock treatment takes place, a person, a book, a song, and it awakens them and saves them from death. Some never awaken."

— Anaïs Nin (The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1)

Reblogged from Paperdollblewsaway.

Aroma.Aura.Balm.Scent.Spice.

2011-09-13T23:01:00.000-07:00

My three favorite perfumes as of late:

Fig by Royal Apothic

Antique and powdery. My kitty's name is Figment, Fig for short. Naturally I had to have this scent. That, and Oprah loves RA.

So Hooked On Carmella by Benefit

Vanilla and lilac. I gave this to my best friend Ash. The packaging fits her personality perfectly.

Pipe by
Patch NYC for Soap & Paper Factory

Nutty and smooth. Like my Great Grandpa Walt. He always smoked a pipe.

Patch NYC Art

Currently listening to:

"Like Lions Do" Right Away Great Captain

Familial Conversation.

2011-09-13T22:11:00.000-07:00

INT. FAMILY KITCHEN. AFTERNOON.

A GIRL is sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch while her FATHER is bustling about grabbing at her deli chicken and potato chips.

GIRL: Wait, so what course are you going to again?

FATHER: It's a course on concealed...[pauses and mumbles something inaudible]

GIRL: Wait, what was that?

FATHER: A course on carryingconcealedfirearms.

He walks out of the kitchen and down the hall.

GIRL: [pause and then calling after him] Uhh, you know that's not legal in our state, Dad.

FATHER: I know it's not. It's only illegal in two states: Wisconsin and Illinois, thanks to our dumb governor.

She takes a bite and laughs.

GIRL: We should move.

"Like heath that, in the wilderness, the wild wind whirls away."

2011-09-12T18:23:00.000-07:00

I very much liked this outfit.
Going for pizza at Pino's with Alex tonight.
Today we decided that we want to have a dog some day and name him/her Pilot, like Mr. Rochester's dog in Jane Eyre.

Title: "Fallen is Thy Throne"
A poem by Sir Thomas Moore

Quoted pp. 131 Jane Eyre

Marcus Foster: I Was Broken

2011-09-12T17:50:00.000-07:00

This song is beautiful; I'm catching a slight Mumford vibe.

The cinematography is pretty stunning too. I love that the two of them have an intent conversation by looking directly at the camera, making us, the audience, their middle man.

Marcus Foster - I Was Broken from Ryan Clarke on Vimeo.

This girl...

2011-07-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

I just can't get enough of Flo.

As in Flo & the Machine.

She's so earnest and whimsical, just look at her website.

My new favorite song:
[Currently on my 47th listen.]

Paon Rouge.

2011-07-07T23:37:00.000-07:00

Translation from French: Red Peacock

...as in Red Peacock Designs, with which I have simply fallen in love.

Designer Kristen Gosselin (based right here in Rockford!) uses quirky and ethereal odds and ends to create truly unique jewelry: vintage dominoes, typewriter keys, skeleton keys, pocket watches without innards, and Clue game pieces from the early 90s.

It just so happened that she was working a tent at an art fair right outside the restaurant I work at, and when she came in to buy a key lime bar, I couldn't help exclaiming over the peacock necklace she was wearing. "Thanks! It's a domino," she replied casually. "I made it myself. You want to buy it?"

[I love when the shopping comes to me.]

So naturally I went out to look at the rest of her wares during my break and came across all sorts of wonderful, dreamy treasures, the best of which are pictured below.

Kristen (the sweetheart) even hand-delivered this Ferris wheel vintage domino necklace to my work today after making it special for me. Now that is what I call service!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Wooden domino inspiration

It instantly reminded me of Carnivale, so naturally I had to have it.

Typewriter key inspiration, the first of which I snatched right up. I'm an English major, I love punctuation!

;]

Skeleton key inspiration

CLUE

"Miss Peacock in the Billiard Room with the rope."

"Mrs. White in the Hall with the candlestick."

"Mrs. Peacock in the Dining Room with the knife."

"Mr. Green in the Kitchen with the wrench."

Pocket watch inspiration

Mrs. Peacock did it...again.

Melamine domino inspiration

I'll end with a little nostalgia...

Go check out Kristen's stuff! You won't be disappointed.

Below My Feet

2011-07-07T22:44:00.000-07:00

Alex posted this new M&S song on my Facebook last week, and since then I've listened to it, but I hadn't really listened to it...if you know what I mean.

The lyrics are sincere and spiritual. I need to be asking God of the same things more often I think.

[I'm emotional tonight.]

Excellent news though; my sister Erika and brother in law Philip are in town for a few days, and we're going to New Glarus, WI tomorrow to go to the brewery! They also get to see the show on Sunday night along with my other sister Alyssa, all of my extended family, and a couple friends from work.

Life is so good, and I'm so blessed.

"You were cold as the blood through your bones
And the light which led us from our chosen homes
Well I was lost

And now I sleep
Sleep the hours and that I don't weep
When all I knew was steeped in blackened holes
I was lost

Keep the earth below my feet
For all my sweat, my blood runs weak
Let me learn from where I have been
Keep my eyes to serve and hands to learn
Keep my eyes to serve and hands to learn

So I was still
I was under your spell
When I was told by Jesus all was well
So all must be well

Just give me time
You know your desires and mine
Wrap my flesh in ivory and in twine
For I must be well

Keep the earth below my feet
For all my sweat, my blood runs weak
Let me learn from where I have been
So keep my eyes to serve, my hands to learn
Well keep my eyes to serve, my hands to learn

Keep the earth below my feet
For all my sweat, my blood runs weak
Let me learn from where I have been
Keep my eyes to serve, my hands to learn
Keep my eyes to serve, my hands to learn."

Fincher's Tribute to Larsson

2011-07-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

After much perseverance, I have finally finished reading Dostoevsky's The Double and am now very excited to move on to Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I understand that I may be jumping on the bandwagon a tad late, but no matter! I'll very happily move from one psycho thriller to the next.

Here are some promo photos from W Magazine for David Fincher's American film version (Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander). Kinda racey...

Can't wait to start my new read and certainly can't wait to see it on screen. Expected theatrical release December 21, 2011.

Phantom.

2011-07-06T00:01:00.000-07:00

I have had the pleasure of performing as Meg Giry in a production of Phantom of the Opera at Rock Valley College's Starlight Theater this summer, and in honor of our second and last run (starting Wednesday, July 6th!), I wanted to blog about some of the intellectual morsels I've discovered in my research concerning the story and its general history.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Overture"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Who is this angel, this angel of music..."

To begin, I'll say that the musical is only a semblance of the book by French author Gaston Leroux. I read the latter during rehearsals, and despite its differences, the novel's sinister ambiance - the rat-strewn cellars of the Paris Opera, mid-19th century - stirred a fearful curiosity I've learned to use in the show.

The novel concentrates much less on the musical's "pre-opera diva" protagonist Christine and much more on the attempts of her wealthy suitor Raul to apprehend the opera's "Phantom," a deformed man named Erik who kidnaps Christine after her first performance as lead. Raul is approached by an ambiguous character called "the Persian" who lives in the bowels of the opera house and associates himself with Erik through their shared time in India, the personal knowledge of whom he knows will help Raul in his efforts to save Christine.

Totally absent from the stage production (and regretfully so, I must say), the Persian offers narrative insight into Erik's troubled past and the malevolent motivation behind his gruesome actions. Entire chapters are devoted to the Persian's accounts, the most important being his explanation of their acquaintance. Erik, commissioned by a czar in India to build an architecturally elaborate palace impenetrable by the czar's enemies, is suspected of potential treason as he is the only person who could navigate an enemy through the palace's many labyrinths. Paranoia causes the czar to want his architect executed, so he employs the Persian to complete the task. However the Persian, similar to the huntsman in Snow White's tale, takes pity on his victim and fakes the execution, exiling him to Paris and thus saving his life.

And here is where the plot of the musical begins. At the beginning of the show, all we know of the deformed Phantom is that he is gifted as both musician and architect and that he has become perversely obsessed with a young opera singer, so much so that he pretends to be the spirit of her deceased father and commits violent crimes to obtain her love. We only see how his physical insecurities and deranged desire for ultimate power over Christine drive him to insanity; nothing is ever said of what he's endured in the past.

To be honest, the book was somewhat dry at times, and the musical is absolutely beautiful and redemptive in its depiction of Christine's forgiving relationship with the Phantom. But I'm grateful to have learned some historical (be it fictional) background into the Phantom's troubled psyche.

I also learned from the novel that the underground labyrinths and lakes of the Paris Opera actually exist! They were built as an anti-irrigation system so that the opera wouldn't flood and were also used as a sort of "underground railroad" during the Revolution.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Andre, please don't shout. It's publicity, and the take is vast. Free publicity!"
"But we have no cast..."

My fellow castmates Erin and Megan also contributed to my interest in Phantom trivia. Erin brought a book called The Complete Phantom of the Opera to a rehearsal one night, and I must have spent at least an hour flipping through the history of the tale in all of its forms: literature, film, television, and stage theater. The best part was the book's inclusion of artwork: the early illustrations of Joseph Hope Williams, vintage movie advertisements/photo-clips from different film versions including Rupert Julian's 1925 silent adaptation with Lon Chaney, and Degas-inspired paintings done by Robert Heindel that capture different scenes from the original musical in London.

Joseph Hope Williams

Rupert Julian's 1925 version

Arthur Lubin's 1943 version

"I'm Here, I'm Here, I'm Here"--Robert Heindel

"The End of Innocence"

"Phantom Dancers" [My personal favorite, as my character Meg is one of the ballerinas ;]

"Sarah and Michael, Music of the Night"

"The Phantom, Michael Crawford"

"The Phantom of the Opera"

"The Phantom, Michael Crawford"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Why so silent, good messieurs? Did you think that I had left you for good..."

Megan introduced me to the idea that the short story "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allen Poe may very well have inspired the costuming and overall feeling of peril adopted by Andrew Lloyd Webber for the first scene of the musical's second act, "Masquerade."

Here's an excerpt I found especially befitting:

"It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to hearken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused reverie or meditation. But when the echoes had fully ceased, a light laughter at once pervaded the assembly; the musicians looked at each other and smiled as if at their own nervousness and folly, and made whispering vows, each to the other, that the next chiming of the clock should produce in them no similar emotion; and then, after the lapse of sixty minutes,

(which embraces three thousand and six hundred seconds of the Time that flies,)

there came yet another chiming of the clock, and then were the same disconcert and tremulousness and meditation as before."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"God give me courage to show you, you are not alone."

Last but not least, I came across a verse the other day that reminded me of what I believe to be one of the most profound themes belonging to the famed story, regardless of the medium in which it takes form...

Psalm 39:5

"You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath.

Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro:

He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.

But now, Lord, what do I look for?

My hope is in you."

Wedding dress.

2011-06-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

PSYCHE!

Not my wedding yet, but here is the adorable Topshop dress I found for the weddings of Mr. and Mrs. Nick and Jen Lashock and soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs. Mike and Anna Lentini!

Congratulations girls!

Me and my hot HOT date!

Denishawn and Modern Dance.

2011-06-26T00:36:00.000-07:00

C.o. A Secret Forest: The Birth of Modern Dance

I came across the blog linked above shortly after I'd finished Barry Paris's biography of 1920s film savant Louise Brooks, and though I didn't learn any new details about the Denishawn Company for Modern Dance that she joined at a meager 15, I did love that it has a complete collection of photography from that period of her life.

Doris Humphrey (standing) and directly to the right is Louise.

It's been a few months since I finished Paris's bio, and from time to time I still think about how much I relate to Louise when it comes to our passion for modern dance. Starting when I was only 9, I danced for 10 years at a studio that concentrated heavily on modern and even took a course on Isadora Duncan's techniques through intensive core work, contraction, and continuous movement. Denishawn, started by Louise's mentors Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, esteemed many of the same techniques as Duncan and may have even pioneered them on the public stage more successfully than she. The company heralded beautiful, fluid movement unlike any other.

The "motivational science of movement," as explained by Barry Paris in his biography, was a theory belonging to French philosopher Francois Delsarte (1811-1871) and one that Ted Shawn closely emulated in his choreographing practices. According to Paris, Delsarte "correlated every human movement to an emotional state. His tenet was that movement expresses emotion much more viscerally and directly than speech; that, in fact, it is emotion which produces body movement in the first place."

'Degrees' from top to bottom:

It is absolute
It is enchanting
It is evident
It is certain
It is
It is probable
It is doubtful
It is improbable
It is not
It is impossible
It is evil (or rejected)

Like Louise, I identified with the art form and fell in love with it but had a hard time wholly understanding it. Louise had a strained relationship with Shawn and St. Denis and felt that she continually fell short of their expectations. She resorted to performing in a chorus line with Ziegfeld's Follies for better pay but was never creatively fulfilled in her dancing ever again. I, too, felt that I often fell short of my choreographers' expectations and decided before I'd graduated high school that I would never be good enough to try to make it in the dancing world.

That doesn't mean, however, that it isn't still one of my most beloved passions. And I miss it.

At the end of her life, Louise said that she considered dancing her greatest love, more so than either acting or writing (both of which brought her greater fame and success). I'll be honest, professional film acting and/or creative writing are two of my other biggest dreams, but now that I'm at a crossroads where deciding on one passion and pursuing it is an absolute necessity, I'm confused by a woman who admitted that her greatest fulfillment came from dance, a professional ambition that ended when she was just 17.

My point in bringing this up is not that I'm convinced I've missed some sort of calling in a professional dance career; it's more that I don't want to miss any kind of future opportunities God has for me by chasing a dream that could very well end up being less fulfilling than I'd imagined.

That being said, I do sometimes forget about the amount of time and energy that I poured into modern dance--an extremely complex (both emotionally and physically) form of movement for such a young girl--and I'm sure I never fully grasped its precepts, especially those borrowed from Delsarte. I think I'm finally to the age where I can appreciate the native culture, tradition, and emotional zeal that modern dance represents, but instead of pick it up again, I've ironically put all of my current dancing energy into its antithesis: classical ballet. I'm in a production of Phantom of the Opera at Starlight Theater and have worked very hard for the last three months to perfect only a few simple moves on pointe. It's been a wonderful accomplishment proving to myself that I can actually perform such a difficult style, but like Louise's experience with the Follies, I feel that my true devotion belongs to a much different kind of dance.

I miss the freedom, the bare feet, the flexed feet, the heaviness, the stark contrasts in dynamic (ups and downs, ins and outs), the close connection to easy respiration, the core concentration and the trust I come to have in my core to control all movement.

I miss letting down my hair from a strict bun and rushing into a free dance only to fall to the floor with arms outstretched.

I miss the friction, the turmoil, the risk...

the bare honesty that ensues.

Louise knew all of this and lived her life as a metaphor in similar form.

I think that's why she considered herself foremost a dancer, and I think it's why I do too--not because it's what I do best, but because it's when I feel the most.

Svenska Summer.

2011-06-24T22:55:00.000-07:00

I feel that summer has officially started now that the Swedish Midsommer Fest here in Rockford has come and past--a day full of Swedish pancakes, ware, strawberries and ice cream, meatballs, flower crowns, and the sifting through of antiques at MorMor's Attic where I found a Dala horse candle holder, water color gift tags, a typewriter, AND an Andrew Wyeth painting for a grand total of $30.

$5...and it still works!

"Christina's World" 1948

The best part of the day was wandering around the John Erlander Home Museum with my dad for the first time since I'd started going to the Fest a few years back. Circa 1850, it's one of the oldest and best refurbished Swedish homes in the area with all original craftsmanship, painting, and Swedish decor to boast.

[Think color-block wood floors, hand-crocheted afghans, hand-carved mahogany desks and chests, hand-painted stencil and gild work around the top borders of walls, an antique coffee grinder in a miniature kitchen with a wood burning stove...sigh.]

"To travel is good, but home is best."

This grinder was my favorite. They used to mix an egg in with their fresh grounds for extra flavor before they cooked it on a stove. Strange, but I cannot wait to try it. My dad said egg coffee is excellent.

Ironically, I just painted my bedroom walls a light shade of sea foam green and found that the exact same color appeared everywhere in the museum home: that chest in the kitchen, the walls, the knick-knackery. My dad said that at least I come by my Swede roots honestly.

Having been so inspired by the home's dainty attention to detail and since I haven't blogged in a long while, I'm dedicating my first to some flowy, flowery, Svenska-inspired fashion and music.

Var så god.

[You're welcome.]

"Come Rain, Come Sunshine"
by Swedish band Pallers

Topshop's Swedish Summer Collection

Divas.

2011-04-19T20:40:00.000-07:00

I might be a tad bit behind on popular music's latest ladies of the stage, but no matter. These two songs make me feel gooood.

Florence and the Machine "DOG DAYS ARE OVER"

Ida Maria "OH MY GOD"

Goorin Bros.

2011-04-19T00:47:00.000-07:00

I scoured the streets of downtown Playa del Carmen for the perfect Panama hat but never found exactly what I was looking for - a malleable, burnt barn straw-hewed topper fit for a bright summer's day.

[I suppose Mexico was the wrong place to be looking for a Panama hat in the first place.]

Lo and behold, a customer came into the store just the other day wearing a Goorin Bros. crown label millinery gem, and I was so jealous that I almost jumped over the counter to find out where she got it.

Apparently there's a boutique right by where I used to live in Wicker Park. Looks like I'm going to have to make another trip into the city. I just love finding these things out after I've moved home.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

Very...Britney, Brad, Johnny, etc.

Very Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Proud to announce...

2011-04-19T00:24:00.000-07:00

that I have officially finished reading the 550 page Louise Brooks biography I started just under a year ago.

What a tormented soul she was.

One of my favorite quotes is an epitaph chosen for her by the book's author Barry Paris, taken from one of her favorite authors - Marcel Proust.

"Everything great in the world comes from neurotics. They alone have founded our religions and composed our masterpieces. Never will the world know all it owes to them nor all they have suffered to enrich us. We enjoy lovely music, beautiful paintings, a thousand intellectual delicacies, but we have no idea of their cost, to those who invented them, in sleepless nights, tears, spasmodic laughter, rashes, asthma, epilepsies, and the fear of death, which is worse than all the rest."

Indeed, Louise was one of these neurotics. She lived a boastful, fast, liberated existence, damning all that took advantage of her and only finding solace in the books on her shelf. She was undoubtedly lonely and overly self critical, thinking that she was a failure at most everything she attempted in life. But she contributed a great deal to the art of expression in her dancing, acting, and writing, candidly giving away her opinions and her soul to people who never expected nor deserved such passion or intellect from a uniquely beautiful young girl in mid-twentieth century social/hierarchical/financial (and the list continues) chaos. These qualities simply were not conveyed in women in film before her. More profound than her accomplishments in screen personality and conviction, however, was Louise's cultural challenge to strive for veracity in understanding one's past and meaning. She labeled eras of her life for what they were - good, bad, sweetly and sourly unforgettable, drunken, failed; periods of spiritual growth and periods of darkness. Regardless of the implications, Louise was (I believe) honest to a fault with her loved ones and herself, constantly searching for God and redemption. I only hope that I am neurotic enough to contribute as much of a masterpiece to the arts and to Truth as she bravely did, despite the cost and the sleepless nights.

Certainly she wasn't perfect...but at least she never pretended that she was.

Hesher

2011-04-12T22:22:00.000-07:00

Definitely reminds me of an avant garde yet-even-more-twisted-and-dysfunctional Matilda. Being that the Dahl classic is one of my all time favorite childhood reads and being that Nat Portman produced, I'm sure I'll give this kooky flick a go.

Mink Pink

2011-04-12T22:18:00.000-07:00

These Aussies knoww-ho-ho what they are doing when it comes to fashion, man. And come to think of it, in a recent post I'm pretty sure I said the same thing of the blokes down under when it comes to their fine acting capabilities.

Australians are just cool. End of sentence.

MinkPink.com

MINKPINK SUMMER 2011 .

MINKPINK Swim 2010 .

Summer reading.

2011-04-12T21:49:00.000-07:00

New manicure, new leaf ring (creé par moi), newfound copy of Gravity's Rainbow in my old bedroom...

today was a good day.

Oh, and decided to slide in great Grandpa Walt's old sunshine state treasure box just to make the photo look cool.

;]

Date a girl who reads.

2011-04-09T21:59:00.000-07:00

Found via Diary of a Daydreamer.

"Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads."

— Rosemary Urquico

Lanvin's Private Library

2011-03-27T17:49:00.000-07:00

The Selby has inspired me to appreciate decoration in living spaces a tad bit more.

In browsing through the photography collection of Todd Selby, connoisseur in documenting the diverse places people call home, I came across a special opportunity he had to photograph French fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin's private library. Her early photographs, sketches, and collection of Victorian mode literature are unrivaled in their attention to detail - winsome, aristocratic, intelligent, confident, and theatrical...like her.

listening to:

2011-03-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

Bad Books

An epochal collaboration of Kevin Devine, Andy Hull, & Co.

"You're A Mirror I Cannot Avoid"

Catchy to the max.

God, give me motivation.

2011-03-16T21:49:00.000-07:00

"I love writing but hate starting. The page is awfully white and it says, 'You may have fooled some of the people some of the time but those days are over, giftless. I'm not your agent and I'm not your mommy, I'm a white piece of paper. You wanna dance with me?' and I really, really don't. I'll go peaceable-like."

-Aaron Sorkin

Films to wait for...

2011-01-16T23:50:00.000-08:00

Two of which happen to feature Mia Wasikowska. Those Aussies - simply bred for good filmmaking.

Jane Eyre
Release: March 11

Yet another rendition of the Bronte classic, only with an eery air [pun intended] of spiritual darkness in each dimly lit, wide-angle shot.
Directed by Cary Fukunaga

Restless

I love the morbidity of the opening shot sequence and the symbolism you know it will play in regard to the rest of the film's redemptive plot line.
Directed by Gus Van Sant

Happythankyoumoreplease

"It's the simple things in life" as the old adage goes, right? If only I'd thought to write an indie screenplay with that very theme and work in a few interconnected characters and plot lines. I mean, it's not like it's been done before or anything. (American Beauty, Happy Go Lucky, Crash...) Still, this one looks pretty adorable.
Directed by Josh Radnor

Frankie and Alice

I recently saw an interview with Halle Berry where she mentioned that she'd fought a number of years to personally produce this film, which I found pretty remarkable and endearing. It takes an introspective look on the saga of a paranoid schizophrenic, where the dueling alter is a white, upper-middle class debutante vying for control over the mind of a black, disco-dancing hussy living amidst the 60s' uproarious Civil Rights Movement. Right up my psychoanalytical ally.
Directed by Geoffrey Sax

Hanna

Not generally my type of movie, but let's face it - whoever thought casting the Albino-looking Ronan as a 14 year old assassin badass was going to make an excellent motion picture is a cinematic clairvoyant ahead of his or her time.
Directed by Joe Wright

"there's more to you than plantin' and plowin'"

2011-01-16T22:31:00.000-08:00

Dior apparemment...?

2011-01-16T22:12:00.000-08:00

Je ne sais pas, mais je le veux...mal.

Trop cher, j'assume. C'est triste, non?

the soul and a new place

2011-01-16T21:45:00.000-08:00

Major Label Debut - Broken Social Scene

reminds me of us, dear. think we can both fit in that Dexter shirt...?

days spent apart stacked on days spent together...365 of them to be precise. only appropriate that our means of documentation would be the same - two cook books on a pot on a coffee maker...our creativity bears sweet irony, i hope you know.

-Parker Fitzgerald-

the signs in the stars

2011-01-13T20:03:00.000-08:00

My beliefs have never rendered me much of an astrology buff, but the oft tainted powers of fortune telling and telekinesis have been heavy on my mind after finishing the first season of Carnivale with my boyf Alex. Ironically [or perhaps fortuitously] enough, my cousin Brooke got an adorable Pisces necklace from American Eagle for Christmas.

Jealousy spawned an Etsy search for all things Zodiac, and the accessories of Louise Rose were the sprightly result.

-My 2011 Horoscope-

[I haven't read one of these in ages]

"As a Libra, stability and balance is very important. The Libra 2011 yearly horoscope shows that 2011 will be a great year for Libras because it brings much of the same. This will inspire Libra to branch out and try some new things! Be prepared for a slight bump in the road at the beginning of the year, as there will be some challenges regarding career, but nothing that is impossible to overcome. There will certainly be a special someone vying for your attention, but keep yourself under control Libra. You don’t want the promise of true love to get burned up in the fires of this romance."

"As per the Libra Horoscope, 2011 would be a positive year, as you will experience a dynamic & vibrant approach in career as well as life in general. You will be active, inquisitive and ready to open up new channels in life."

Hmm...I'm balanced and stable, yet experiencing bumps in my career choices [haven't made any] and ohh boy do I have the promise of true love all right!

Fairly accurate, I'd say...looking forward to those "new channels."

Masquerade!

2011-01-09T16:41:00.000-08:00

"Burning glances, turning heads.
Masquerade!
Stop and stare at the sea of smiles around you..."

December thirty-first, two thousand and ten - a mystical New Year's Eve with the red wine pouring and spilling, the Coors Light cans spraying and crunching; the inside jokes of Catch Phrase phrases shouted at the top of drunken lungs; kissesKISSESkisses stolen everywhere; hearts pounding in chests and on long legs; Mardi Gras masks hewn in ash, creme, silver, forest, and marmalade tied with ribbons over curly hair; home-made guises lathered with glitter and feathers, fashioned and donned by man and femme alike; Iron Man grimaces worn tough as the plastic, Wal Mart boys' section treasures they were; mini tacos eaten with zest and glee; reveries outside on the upper porch deck in surprising 50 degree warmth; and smooching the love of my life at midnight, at 12:01, at 12:02, at 12:03...

"Ghoul and goose.
Green and black.
Queen and priest.
Trace of rouge.
Face of beast.

Masquerade! Take your fill, let the spectacle astound you."

My resolutions [plain and simple]:

Write more.
Don't dwell as much.

Hope the spectacle of 2011 astounds you as much as it will I...

;]

The Brooksie Renaissance

2011-01-05T00:03:00.000-08:00

Fashion inspired by the 1930s silents' doll-face and self-proclaimed "pet ocelot" herself, Louise Brooks.

Yuna Yang's fall 2010 line and her quote:

"With her forward thinking fashion sense, her clothes became an external representation of her innovative and liberal spirit. Lulu's fashion heralded the emergent role of women in society, part of the twentieth century's momentum that would give rise to feminism, women's liberation and its corollary, ready-to-wear fashion."

Here here.

Ironically, LB often thought she looked Sapphic, once complaining to author Kevin Brownlow that he'd followed a photograph of Greta Garbo "with that dyke photo of me" [pictured below]. He replied saying, "I love that picture of you. Far from being Dyke, I think it's terribly sexy." Her response?

"Whatever makes you think being dyke is not being sexy? On the contrary, it is double sexy. Same with boys."

...appropriate since boyish tailoring and its accompanying feminist stigmas are now extremely celebrated in women's fashion [i.e. boy. by Band of Outsiders...♥].

Literary quotes from Louise Brooks by Barry Paris, of which I'm proud to say I am finally finishing all 550 pages this weekend!

Shameless

2010-12-22T20:17:00.000-08:00

Apparently they swiped it from the BBC, but Showtime gave me Dexter so I'll trust that their rendering of Shameless will be worth watching. Very United States of Tara with its dysfunctional, kids-as-parents plot line, but hey - who doesn't love a drunken, kooky William H. Macy...?

My wishlist:

2010-12-22T18:59:00.000-08:00

The Double: A Petersburg Poem by Fyodor Dostoevsky [because I've tried and failed to read it for free online...there's something about page turning I just can't give up]. Juicy Couture Lovergirl eyeglasses [for the reading, of course]. American Eagle Fair Isle sweater [for to be warm whilst reading].

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-22T17:57:00.000-08:00

The only Christmas card I received this year--from Ash.

I like #10: the Lord "a-leaping."

Rifle Paper Co.

For English Lit Nerds Like Me.

2010-12-15T23:17:00.000-08:00

I just love when my blog posts can [somewhat] unintentionally relate to each other in theme. After seeing Beauty and the Beast on stage the other night, Rach asked if I'd ever seen the French film version, La Belle et La Bete. I responded with an enthusiastic "YES" and immediately had imagery running through my mind of Jean Cocteau's ethereal palace gardens and monstrous shadow lighting.

This then brought to mind the poster on Veronique's red bathroom wall in her little apartment in Paris - a place I once called home.

The next day I fortuitously came across this pic of an adorable literary clutch by Olympia Le Tan, carried around Paris during this year's fashion week [thus making me all the more nostalgic]...

...and searched to find that Le Tan's collection is more vast than a classics fiend such as myself could ever have dreamed or imagined.

[Never mind, of course, that they're $1450 a pop.]

And to wrap up my relative series of artistic and cultural interests, it just so happened that Natalie P. toted a Lolita (her first on-screen role) to the premiere of Black Swan, the latest film that I've seen and so been obsessed with since the release of its trailer two and a half months ago [review blog to come soon.]

Le Tan even has a cute kitty that reminds me of a street cat I know named Boots.
But this one's name is Fritz.

Look at that bow...this woman is great.

Oh Fritz.

Merry pre-Christmas from Grandma!

2010-12-12T13:42:00.000-08:00

The other night my lovely Grandma Helen treated me to an excellent performance of Beauty and the Beast at the Coronado Theater downtown (she'd never seen it before and kept asking if the two ended up together, but I refused to give away the ending). Gaston sounded exactly like the original Disney version, costumes were a miasma of 18th century, Marie Antoinette-style frills and lace, and "Be Our Guest" was perfect. Belle even wore a bib with Sebastian on it throughout the scene! Disney's coreferentiality to The Little Mermaid - cute touch.

Grandma also bought me TWO early Christmas gifts, about which I am simply pleased as punch: a vintage baby blue cologne bottle that I've decided to use as a vase and a brass-finished plate necklace of a white swan gliding serenely across a lake.

Necklace by Grandmother's Buttons, how appropriate.

All in all it was a great night. We're buds.

Our "Judicial" System.

2010-12-07T15:32:00.000-08:00

I have two very depressing and familiar words for you...

JURY DUTY.

After evading my summons last July when scheduled to be in Orlando for three months I decided to report at 9 a.m. yesterday like a goodly citizen, only to spend a nine hour day listening to and eventually berated by a bunch of court room idiots. Now ok, I didn't want to be there. No one does. I didn't want to be picked. No one does. But I found myself becoming sincerely interested in the case and fervently listening to both the instructions of the judge and the attorneys' questioning of each potential juror, rather than sleep, daze, or read my book (like every single other juror waiting to be questioned.) The case was as follows, and since I left that room classier than anyone else in there, I'll leave names unmentioned:

Plaintiff (woman; mid-forties or so) gets rear ended by two defendants (young girl; mid-twenties, and young man; not present, out of the country...I'm glad that we all have to show up at his hearing, but he doesn't have to). Both defendants have already admitted their liability in causing the accident, but the plaintiff claims that she has "severe, chronic neck pain" and is now suing the aforementioned parties for a "significant sum" in order to pay her medical bills. Not much other information is given us.

Immediately after hearing the few facts of the case, I flashed back to the time when I was 16 and sideswiped an older man, healthy enough to repeatedly yell at me for hitting him, yet hurt enough to be sent to the hospital for "neck pain" and charge my insurance thousands for his ambulance. I then flashed back to the time when I was in second grade and got rear ended with my mom by a semi, crushing the back of our Camry - both of us totally fine, unnecessary health care and lawsuits far from our minds. Hell, I went on to get 3rd place in my spelling bee that day. An 8 year old's gotta be tough.

Point being, I've been on both sides of the fence but can't necessarily relate to someone claiming to be seriously injured after being rear ended. A car flipping, loss of a limb, a paralyzation, a driver or passenger's death - I understand that these things warrant a lawsuit, but a little bit of whip lash? Not so much.

So I started watching the plaintiff. She looked forcefully tired and 'weak,' rubbing her neck every so often for dramatic effect, slouching, asking her lawyer to pour her water for her, making close eye contact with jurors who seemed like they might help her case and getting bored during the questioning of those who seemed like they might side with the defense. In all honesty, she looked like one of those ladies that might come in to Mary's Market and send her salad back three times because "I asked for NO pine nuts, NO feta cheese, dressing ON THE SIDE, and GRAIN bread. You think you can do that??"

"Uhh, so basically you just want some lettuce with a slice of tomato...be right back with that ma'am."

In so many words, yes, I was judging her. I was formulating biases without knowing all of the facts; I was allowing my personal experiences and negative feelings about monetary reparations cloud my view on the case. But isn't that to be expected? I'm an opinionated, conservative college grad who takes her experiences seriously and has grown up with a malpractice-wary dentist father who made me fully aware that people are often conniving and sue-happy. Oh, and I've seen Chicago one too many times not to notice when a party or attorney appeals to the jury for emotional sympathy.

Case in point (pun intended): The prosecutor small-talked with literally every single juror so as to sway them his way before the proceedings even started.

P: "Soo, I see here that you're not originally from Rockford. Where'd you grow up?"
J: "Oh, I uhh actually grew up in the Kansas City area, sir."
P: "Ohh yah, I'm familiar. Beautiful place over there!"
[Yah, like Kansas is beautiful.]
P: "You enjoy that?"
J: "Uhh, yes sir I did."
P: "Well good, good. Glad to hear it, son. So, what are your feelings on Tort Reform?" [smiles]

What with the prosecutor wasting an unlawful amount of time wooing each uneducated dummy (I was one of five people with a college degree) and what with there only being 35 of us to choose from at the start, both parties started running out of options and time. There were only six of us left which made me nervous, my mind was racked and tired from following the questioning, and I felt uncomfortable that the judge kept making awkward eye contact as though he was particularly waiting for my reactions. I guess it must have looked strange that a young girl in the back would be the only one paying attention besides the juror in question, but still...WEIRD.

It was 6 o'clock before I was finally called, and they still needed two jurors. They asked me the usual "Do you know any of the parties involved, do you have a pending claim filed against you, have you ever been a witness, juror, or party in a civil lawsuit, etc. etc.," to all of which I answered "no."

But then it came time to answer whether or not I would have "conceptual" issues in signing a verdict that, if all evidence and abiding law deemed it so, awarded the plaintiff a significant sum of money, to which I was the FIRST person who answered "yes."

Talk about a wrench in their wheels and a fly in their tea.

I respectfully explained the case's similarity to my prior accidents and the naturally biased feelings that those occurrences had caused. I explained that this "significant sum" would depend on the exact amount of its signicance and how, even before hearing any of the facts, I felt that the defendants admission of liability shouldn't deem them responsible for thousands or possibly millions of dollars of medical bills just because health care is expensive.

There, the prosecution shouldn't want me.

I also mentioned that I'd once held an internship with a judge at the court house who once was a prosecutor, possibly for the same private firm as the prosecuting attorneys.

There, the defense shouldn't want me either.

I was 100% honest, figuring that my honesty would be enough for immediate dismissal. I wasn't the best juror for that particular case, and certainly they wouldn't pick me just because they didn't want to hold another jury selection, right? Wrong.

The prosecution certainly did not want me, but my strong feelings against "significant" financial awards made me extremely desirable to the defense, and something about my level of education, my experience in a court room, and the strange way he'd been watching me pay close attention throughout the day made the judge side with the defense in keeping me. And ohhh man did that piss off the prosecutor...

The judge and defense took their time questioning me, each of them 'nice'...nicely passive aggressive in persuading me to put aside my "personal feelings and be fair...Are you sure you have nothing else going on that would make you not want to be here?...My, my it is getting late, isn't it, we should be wrapping this up shouldn't we!" (implying that I should comply and answer how they wanted me to since they were running out of time...as though it was my fault the prosecutor paused in between everything he said and the defense attorney began asking people their favorite color just to look cute, no joke). By the time it was the prosecutor's turn to question me, his suave demeanor had completely changed into a stern grimace which he turned on me with frustration. He began questioning...no, interrogating me on the things I'd said previously, twisting my mention of having biased tendencies toward this particular case into my being incapable of possessing any qualities of fairness whatsoever in my entire being, thus causing me to back peddle on my earlier claim in order to defend myself, for which he attempted to make me feel guilty! He condescended me by asking the same question three different ways just to see if I'd answer differently, mocked my response by chuckling through his repetition of it, literally acted as though I was the one on the stand in front of a grand jury...as though I was the one who had done something wrong.

He was threatened.
I was flabbergasted, offended, and confused.

Noticing the prosecutor's temper tantrum for not having immediately gotten his way, the judge finally dismissed me from the court room. I felt guilty and embarrassed - the same feeling you get after leaving the principal's office. And I knew I didn't deserve to feel that way. I could feel a migraine coming on, and it took everything in me not to say something derogatory on my way out, so instead I went to the bathroom and just broke down.

After rants of cursing on the phone to my boyfriend, parents, sister, and best friend (I was pissed) I spent my night at home with a bottle of wine, a meatball pizza, mocha java ice cream, and Eat Pray Love.

To think I once wanted to be a lawyer. Psh. If this is how our judicial system is consistently run, there is absolutely no way I'd take part.

DEX.

2010-12-07T13:28:00.000-08:00

Only ONE episode left in the season!

Any predictions???

I think Deb knows........I think Deb's always known.

Novice thinking.

2010-12-03T21:01:00.000-08:00

"If only I had an enemy bigger than my apathy, I could've won."
Mumford & Sons "I Gave You All"

Well, in lieu of this lyric's very prominent relevance in my life, I have begun writing...finally. Not a ton, but enough. It's still
hard for me to set my own goals when it comes to finishing an entire story (or even blog or book), but I've certainly been
jotting things down more often, and I suppose, too, that it's more of an ongoing battle; must keep telling myself that as long as
I do a little bit here and there, just keep the juices flowing, then I won't completely lose creative drive. More importantly, the
day to day processes of work and play will start pouring forth good material for coverage. However, I still only write for
myself, and it dawned on me that writing on a team for a bigger audience (something I would love to do) could prove to be a challenging switch.

I read an interview between two young filmmaker friends - NYU grads Jody Lee Lipes and Lance Edmands - that touched on
the creative process from a novice point of view. Most interesting to me was Lipes' discussion on how he maintained a certain
amount of creative stamina when he had no money and was forced to commercialize his work against his will. For both Lipes
and Edmands the biggest obstacle was and still is figuring out how to fulfill personal creative goals while still drawing audiences.

The Interview

LE: "When you're making a film it's a constant battle about what you want and what does the audience want."

JLL: "I definitely think that movies that push the boundaries of entertainment and storytelling can be great, but to me the
ultimate goal is to make films that are unique, but that still have a mass appeal. The best creative minds can create a movie that
everyone loves but still has its own voice. Even someone like Kubrick was always upset that more people didn't go to see his
movies...I think it's more about your personality. I have a sort of lofty theory that when you make movies you have to make
strong decisions. I think most of the movies I like turn out better that way, rather than trying a thousand different things
without a commitment to telling a story a certain way."

Make strong decisions and commit.
Commit. Commit. Commit.

At least I'm getting a little better in this endeavor...

It will follow the rain.

2010-11-17T21:15:00.000-08:00

"Have you ever seen the far side of a mountain swallow the sky,
as you travel through the valley,
as you're speedin' still far behind...

Have you ever seen your baby getting caught by the lonesome wind,
and the whistlin' round the corners telling you they have let her in...?

...separation can now begin.

Have you ever seen the far side of a mountain swallow the sky,
as you travel through the valley,
as you're speedin' still far behind...

Where the children will blink and sigh.
They have caught a lightning strike in a jar just to watch it die.

Yes, it will follow the rain."

For Ash.

2010-11-10T11:31:00.000-08:00

Rosi Golan
"Follow the Arrow"

♥

"Follow the arrow where it goes, you'll know where it leads.
Follow your instinct, you might finally find the one missing link...

Then you'll see what you never believed could be."

It's been far too long.

2010-10-30T16:43:00.000-07:00

Home is where the heart is, and I'm glad to say I've come back to some true loves.

-Alex Wolf
-My mom's homemade chili
-Figment
-My old job at Mary's Market (an easy and reliable paycheck)
-Grandma Helen
-Dave & Suse
-My bed
-My '92 Ford Explorer
-Edward's Apple Orchard
-Drinks at Scoreboard
-Fall

I've already enjoyed a perfect birthday dinner with my boy at Brio, a perfect birthday bash at Cappy's for his birthday, sitting
for a couple of hours drinking hot chocolate with Grandma Helen, watching football and scary movies with my parents,
cleaning out my ENTIRE room, making a random trip to NIU to party with Alex's bro, eating brunch with old friends in
Chicago and drinking drinks with older friends in downtown Rockford - along with so much else.

My front yard.

Birthday.

Edward's!

Cleaning house with Fig.

It feels good to be back, and I can't wait for what the next months of my life hold. For now I'm content to spend some much
needed quality time with Alex and with my family, work through the holidays, and celebrate with a few nights out here and there.

Everything will come together soon, I can feel it.

Favorite song [and certainly how I feel] as of late:

Blessed.

2010-10-12T19:19:00.000-07:00

Family is so much like an automatic club that God allows us to be born into...a way to make sure we never feel left out of anything.

And I'm glad I got into the one I did.

So glad.

College

2010-10-07T19:21:00.000-07:00

The excerpts of "Howl: I" that remind me of my University days.

by Allen Ginsberg

___________________________________________

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness: starving, hysterical, naked...

Angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
who, poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high, sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of
cold-water flats, floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz,

who bared their brains to Heaven under the El
and saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tenement roofs illuminated, who passed through universities with radiant cool
eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war...

Peyote solidities of halls, backyard green tree cemetery dawns, wine drunkenness over the rooftops,
storefront boroughs of teahead joyride neon blinking traffic light,

sun and moon and tree vibrations in the roaring winter dusks...

a lost battalion of platonic conversationalists
jumping down the stoops off fire escapes off windowsills...

whole intellects disgorged in total recall for seven days and nights with brilliant eyes...

who studied Plotinus, Poe, St. John of the Cross, telepathy, and bop kabbalah
because the cosmos instinctively vibrated at their feet in Kansas...

who disappeared into the volcanoes of Mexico leaving behind nothing but the shadow of dungarees and the lava and ash of
poetry scattered in fireplace Chicago...

who faded out in vast sordid movies, were shifted in dreams...

who wept at the romance of the streets with their pushcarts full of onions and bad music,
who sat in boxes breathing in the darkness under the bridge, and rose up to build harpsichords in their lofts...

who scribbled all night rocking and rolling over lofty incantations which in the yellow morning were stanzas of gibberish...

who threw their watches off the roof to cast their ballot for Eternity outside of Time...

who sang out of their windows in despair...

who barreled down the highways of the past...

who drove crosscountry seventy-two hours to find out if I had a vision
or you had a vision or he had a vision to find out Eternity...

who fell on their knees in hopeless cathedrals praying for each other’s salvation
and light and breasts, until the soul illuminated its hair for a second...

rocking and rolling in the midnight solitude-bench dolmen-realms of love...

the last fantastic book flung out of the tenement window, and the last door closed at 4 A.M. and the last telephone slammed at
the wall in reply and the last furnished room emptied down to the last piece of mental furniture,
a yellow paper rose twisted on a wire hanger in the closet,
and even that imaginary; nothing but a hopeful little bit of hallucination—

who dreamt and made incarnate gaps in Time & Space through images juxtaposed,
and trapped the archangel of the soul between two visual images and
joined the elemental verbs and set the noun and
dash of consciousness together...

the madman bum and angel beat in Time,
unknown, yet putting down here what might be left to say in time come after death...

an eli eli lamma lamma sabacthani saxophone cry that shivered the cities down to the last radio..."

Read full poem here.

"do something worth remembering...with a scar."

2010-09-30T23:20:00.000-07:00

DARK SIDE OF THE LENS from Astray Films on Vimeo.

"I never wanna take this for granted, so I try and keep motivation simple, real, and positive. If I am to
scrape a living, at least it's a living worth scraping. If there's no future in it, at least it's a present worth
remembering. For fires of happiness and waves of gratitude, for everything that brought us to that
point, enough at that moment in time, to do something worth remembering with a photograph or a scar
- I feel genuinely lucky to hand on heart say I love doing what I do, and though I may never be a rich
man, if I live long enough, I'll certainly have a tale or two for the nephews...and I dig the thought of that."

for grandma helen.

2010-09-30T22:48:00.000-07:00

What she's called me ever since I was a very little girl:

Pronounced "sooker" [rhyme: booker] "tup" [rhyme: cup].

Swedish Wikipedia

Sockertöpp: "A sugar-loaf pressed into a large cone. Sugarloaf Mountain can be cut or trimmed with a sugar-tong to
get the appropriate pieces [for] coffee. Sugar Tops were stored sometimes in sugar chests. Sugarloaf
disappeared from the grocery market [when] the mass produced bitsockret came, but can sometimes be
available in stores with an old-fashioned touch."

Psalm 46:5

2010-09-28T19:13:00.000-07:00

I like both versions......

"God is within her, she will not fail; God will help her at break of day."
-NIV

"God has taken his place in her; she will not be moved. He will come to her help at the dawn of morning."
-Bible in Basic English

"The poetic idea here seems to refer to the day as having turned away 'from' us at night, and then as turning about 'toward' us
in the morning, after having gone, as it were, to the greatest distance from us."
-Barnes' Notes

"God is in the midst of her....the church and people of God; not merely by his essence, power, and providence, as he is in the
midst of the world; but by his gracious presence, and which always continues, though not always perceived..."
-Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Truth?

2010-09-28T10:46:00.000-07:00

God is good.

And today is a good day.

;]

Review of a Review

2010-09-26T19:28:00.000-07:00

"Wallowing in Misery for Art's Sake"
by A.O. Scott - New York Times

It is both surprising and refreshing to me that this New York Times film columnist actually acknowledges the ubiquitous
pretense of film festivals, being that people like him are often in close conjunction with the semantics of their production.
Instead of an air of overall praise, he aligns himself with people like me who find it aggravating that a) the general public is
rarely (if ever) given the opportunity to attend, b) most of the films screened (especially foreign submissions) are otherwise
impossible to see, and c) independent films are sadly being taken off festival rosters in favor of manic depressive art films
deemed worthy by executives (see title).

I learned from this article that a large contributing factor to these issues is high brow film societies' disdain for "the American
art-movie economy" or "the independent sector" of festival submissions. Scott explains that independent film companies,
struggling along with the rest of the country from the wayward economy, have started commercializing their material, be it
minimally and begrudgingly. Nevertheless, festival execs are aghast at the presence of any commercialization whatsoever and
have hitherto cast a furrowed critical brow on indie gems, resulting in their gradual replacement with a slew of depressing
featured films that display absolutely no evocation of viewing pleasure whatsoever. In other words, anything redemptive,
American, and only-commercial-enough-to-put-food-on-the-table is rejected.

Now, don't get me wrong, I can appreciate a despondent foreign film as much as the next guy, but those that I'm not as crazy
about I wouldn't be able to see even if I wanted to. Scott alludes that the reason for this restriction is the executive assumption
that the general public isn't interested in these kinds of films, meaning there's no need for festivals to be made readily
available. Neither are the films themselves for that matter, because any kind of mass distribution would certainly buck their
"no commercialism" rule.

Mind's eye of festival execs: "If we eliminate the only films they'd be interested in attending and make every other film
impossible to find then maybe we can make our high brow critical society even smaller..."

Thus, promotion to keep festival attendance a caste system of what Scott refers to as "a transnational fraternity of directors,
journalists, and well, festival programmers" is in full swing.

After all that, I guess I'm just complaining because I feel left out, festival films are impossible to find, and I love indies.

End of story.

short film.

2010-09-24T12:59:00.000-07:00

by Arev Manoukian

so beautiful, i love the music.

Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.

i am the place where i am: well, i left my heart in barcelona.

2010-09-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

"Las Coleccionistas is a photography studio in Barcelona, which produces and disseminates visual projects. Understand
photography as the interplay between light and emotion as a way of communicating at its most provocative, connecting with
people and spread, but also as a form of participation, a tool that helps them find new meanings and alternative interpretations are closer to of their environment."

Those nights.

2010-09-23T20:31:00.000-07:00

Here’s to those nights.
Those wintery nights on the second floor of the building of bird’s egg blue,
in the city we hardly saw.
Never much mattered,
sitting on that $60 couch we loved so well – bottles of yellow tail, the faux-fur blanket,
watching the mystery of Trinity unfold or the brotherhood of an Irish gang be destroyed and redeemed,
all while Figment jumped up the walls and Harmony laid on the orange chair...
gazing adoringly over at us;
those wintery nights of Angels & Airwaves and Band of Horses
when we made pasta dinner and stayed up late,
had tickle fights and talked deeply about friendships,
shared the last cigarette;
those wintery nights when we were motivated to do anything and everything.
And write.

I loved those nights…

and can’t wait for more, love.

photography by Joe Lieske
"There are stories written on the sidewalks"

The Tribond of Blogs.

2010-09-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

New York Times Style magazine columnist Leanne Shapton may just be my new favorite writer.

Her theoretical and personal views are reflected in "We Three Things," a column that concentrates on a collective theme
amongst a trinity of objects, ideas, design, art, technology, literature, food...basically anything quirky or quintessential in the mind's eye of its author.

My three favorites:

"Head First"

"Pass the Marmalade"

"Water Colors"

View her full collection here.

music theory by daniel hunter

2010-09-20T21:41:00.000-07:00

c.o. Alex Wolf.

"Bands don't 'lose' the ability to make 'good' music. They simply choose to make something different than what you like. Hence the reason people always argue about which album from a band is better, newer, older, etc. Any artist in the world can sit down and use the same formulas to write the exact same types of songs again. Billy Corgan, even, could probably sit down and write an entire album that sounds shockingly like Gish, but why would he want to? Gish came out in a certain time period. It was a great album because of the context in which it was released. He's doing something different now. Most people don't like it, but that doesn't mean he should resort to copying his old material idea for idea.

As for me, I don't want any help. I don't make music hoping people on forums will think it's 'good' enough for them. I make it for fun. And to me, making some things that are boring, or overly long, or completely out of place, or too dissonant, or unexpected, is fun. That's why songs I've been writing recently have seen comparisons as far and wide as Maroon 5 (this thread), Nine Inch Nails, Jack Johnson, Interpol, etc. Those are all completely different bands, so clearly I'm either having an identity crisis or I simply make music for the enjoyment and not for the praise that would come along with focusing my efforts on one sound, or what a particular group of people would call "good". Making diverse music is divisive by its very nature.

I'm not sure what you do for fun. Maybe you play video games or read books. Whatever it is, I'm sure most people that play video games don't play the same game type over and over. They change it up for fun (personally, I like everything from FPS to RPGs to sports and racing games). It's the same when I make music. I would be bored if I made the same kind of music all the time. My next album will probably be my most bipolar to date since I've thrown caution entirely to the wind when it comes to song choice."

Listen to Analog Rebellion...it's good for you.

Films to wait for...

2010-09-20T21:31:00.000-07:00

Black Swan (In the vein of everything Hitchcockian that I love...loosely based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's
novella The Double, which you can read for free online here.) Opens December 1, 2010

Blue Valentine Opens December 31, 2010

Never Let Me Go based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro (An absolute MUST read...look for a review in
the next few days.) Select release September 15, 2010, but it opens in Orlando October 8--maybe look for it near you then??

It's Kind of a Funny Story based on the novel by Ned Vizzini (Currently reading and already loving.) Opens October 8, 2010

As long as we're on the topic of good old Walt...

2010-09-20T20:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a cosmetic ode to those luscious lady libertines: Cruella, Maleficent, and The Queen.

This isn't the first time that M.A.C. has devilishly lured me with their adorable Disney devotion...
I bought this little lip gloss diddy for my friend Lyssa a while back.
Fantasia is still one of my all-time favorites.

Illustrations III: Disney Concept Art

2010-09-20T19:54:00.000-07:00

One of the first movies my mom ever saw in theaters was Sleeping Beauty.
One of the first movies my sisters ever saw in theaters was The Little Mermaid.
One of the first movies I ever saw in theaters was Beauty and the Beast.
My cat's name is Figment (after the purple dragon at Epcot), my oldest sister and her husband live in Orlando (though he can't stand the theme parks, the rest of our family frequents them almost annually), and my favorite c.d. is a Disney compilation that one of my best friends Lyssa put together a few years back--featured are "Hakuna Matata," "A Whole New World," and "Under the Sea" to name a few.

Needless to say, when I stumbled on Disney Concept Art during my new found appreciation for illustration I became infatuated.

For more images...

Sleeping Beauty
Artist: Eyvind Earle

Cinderella
Artist: Mary Blair

Alice in Wonderland
Artist: Mary Blair

Lady and the Tramp
Artist: Eyvind Earle

Pocahontas
Artist: Michael Giaimo

Peter Pan
Artist: Mary Blair

Fall >> "Read More" for full spread.

2010-09-18T23:48:00.000-07:00

Philip Lim

[2008's runway, but honestly...I don't care. "In" season or "out," I'm still diggin it.]

Lyell

Boss Orange

Eat Pray Love: The Book.

2010-09-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

A few excerpts on the novel by its parts (Italy, India, Indonesia) and its immediate effect on my life: memories induced, lessons learned, intertextuality...etc.

Italy

Elizabeth Gilbert’s life here caused within me a spontaneous combustion of nostalgia for my life abroad. For example, I allowed myself to have a chocolate croissant the other day for the first time since I’d been home from France (my sister and her husband bought it for me from a cute French bakery in downtown Winter Park). It was so good I nearly cried. I really wish that I had indulged in French cuisine more when I’d been over there. Liz (and yes, I feel connected to her enough that we are now on a first name basis) was so ambitious in her attempt to find obscure restaurants, and her success in relaying the mastery of these dishes not only justifies and compliments the life’s work of these hard working Italians but also promotes their way of life with eagerness and ease. (Serious props to her understanding of ancient Roman history, too). Overall, however, reading this portion of the novel allowed me to fully appreciate my life abroad for exactly what it was: beautiful, imperfect, difficult, rewarding, enlightening, compelling, full of fast-paced and slowed down memories, new people, history, languages, tears, laughter and regret. And beauty. And God. And life.

Did I mention beauty…?

India

Upon reading Liz’s struggle with meditation, her quote by Walt Whitman struck me hard. She longs to attain what he described as the capability to stand "apart from the pulling and hauling...amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, unitary...both in and out of the game and watching and wondering at it all." The word “compassionating” intimidated me, as I don’t necessarily see myself as a very compassionate person to begin with, nonetheless one who causes others to imbibe a compassionate nature within themselves. But it motivated me to ask God for a more compassionate outlook on the world so as to at least set a good example for others while hopefully mending aspects of my life that have long been ignored. This whole portion of the novel reminded me of a scene in The Darjeeling Limited when Frances forlornly gazes at his demolished face in the mirror after removing his bandages. With a forgiving and understanding brother on either side, this exchange brings a little hope and redemption to each of their situations:

Frances: "I guess I've still got some more healing to do."

Jack: "You're gettin there though."

Peter: "Anyway, definitely guna add a lot of character to you."

…

Jack: "What should we pray for now?"

I guess we will all forever have more healing to do, and in the meantime more prayer is a reassuring comfort. I think Liz would agree.

Bali

One of the many reasons that I came to fall in love with Liz occurred in her chapters on Bali. I was at first critical and judgmental of the decisions she made in her sexual relationship with Felipe, and actually got into a pretty serious argument with my sister Erika over the matter. She pointed out to me that we all have made our decisions on sex, including myself, and are not right to assume we know that which is or is not best for someone in his or her intimate relationships. It was hard for me to swallow since I took what she said to heart, and only after my emotions came to a boil could I finally take a deep breath and admit that she was right. So among the other elements of this book that have taught me a lesson (whether or not Liz originally intended for them to do so), its propensity for honesty and admittance without judgment was powerful, and I’m sincerely grateful to my sis for dragging that truth out of me.

On a lighter note, I loved that after moving into a small cottage in the Balinese countryside, she decides to give all of the plant life her own new “moniker” since she doesn’t know what anything is called:

“And why not? It’s my Eden, is it not? Daffodil tree, cabbage-palm, promdress weed, spiral show-off, tip-toe blossom, melancholy-vine and a spectacular pink orchid I have christened ‘Baby’s First Handshake.’”

Just a glimpse of the self-entertained woman who so deftly describes her life in newfound territory.

I want to strive to be creatively comfortable within my own Eden always, wherever that may be.

As should we all--it’s for our best.

my life needed new music.

2010-09-12T00:46:00.000-07:00

My Last.FM library as of late:

1. Laura Marling - "Alpha Shallows"
2. Faded Paper Figures - "Invent It All Again"
3. Steel Train - "Better Love"
4. Horse Feathers - "Honest Doubters"
5. Hurricane Bells - "Tonight I'm Going To Be Like A Shooting Star"
6. Local Natives - "Sun Hands"
7. Iron and Wine - "Faded From the Winter"
8. South - "Paint the Silence" (Acoustic)
9. Oberhofer - "Away Frm U"
10. St. Vincent - "Ride"
11. Vampire Weekend - "Exit Music" (Radiohead cover)
12. Lykke Li - "Window Blues"
13. City and Colour - "Casey's Song"
14. Ben Gibbard - "Church Mouse in the Church House"
15. Brand New - "Okay I Believe You, but My Tommy Gun Don't"
16. Death Cab for Cutie - "I Will Possess Your Heart"
17. Kyle Andrews - "You Always Make Me Smile"
18. Horse Feathers - "Hardwood Pews"
19. The Smashing Pumpkins - "1979"
20. Band of Horses - "The Funeral"
21. City and Colour - "Sensible Heart"
22. Death Cab for Cutie - "Bend to Squares"
23. Horse Feathers - "Dust Bowl"
24. Sea Wolf - "Middle Distance Runner"
25. Oberhofer - "Haus"

Thank you, Alex dear, for the introduction.

;]

Amelie.

2010-09-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

When watching Amelie for the bajillionth time, I came to the scene where she cheerfully flits over to the blind homeless man waiting to cross the busy street [the homeless man who plays bewitching tunes on an early 20^th century record player in the Abbesses train stop] and aids him down the comic strip sidewalk to the train, all the while explaining each and every zany, lovely goings-on that occurs as they pass...

And I cried for how beautiful it was.

In my personal opinion, this scene independently portrays the solitary aim of the film as a whole, a film that everyone needs to watch at least once in his or her lifetime.

Everyone.

2010 Honda Civic Tour

2010-09-09T19:27:00.000-07:00

The other night I had the pleasure of covering the 2010 Honda Civic Tour in Orlando. A friend from work only had one press ticket on her hands (and wasn't very keen on attending a concert alone) so I kindly relieved her of the task ;] Read my full review here!

Celebrity Extra: Paramore Concert Review

For all the photos...

oh man..

2010-09-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

I want em.
I've been missing my black kitty Figment a heck of a ton lately...

Paul & Joe

blue haired and boysterous.

2010-09-06T14:49:00.000-07:00

There is nothing about this song or its video that I do not love.
I hope I'm still mischievous when I'm old...

Ewok Love.

2010-09-04T22:24:00.000-07:00

My boy and his new pup Teddy.

♥

go.

2010-09-04T22:20:00.000-07:00

Clockwise from left: Fibonacci Coat, Signature Boot, Rebel Without a Purse Backpack, Travel Journal--All Modcloth.

Barcelona 2009

To the Stars.

2010-09-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

by Randy Edelman.

I've loved this song since I was about nine years old and heard my friend Jenna play it on the piano at her birthday party, but up until now I had never known what it was called.
Apparently it's from a movie called Dragonheart, but I remember it being called "The Rose" when I saw the sheet music sitting on her piano stand...I don't know, I could be wrong.

Seven Years in Tibet and Patch Adams have used it as their anthem as well. It may very well be the best movie music with Shakespeare in Love's theme as a mightily close second...

...makes me think of what God might play when someone comes home.

;]

photography II

2010-09-01T20:25:00.000-07:00

Speaking of sisters, my middle Alyssa was just tagged in a photo from what I assume is a new film project...

but I imagine her to be a tear stained and luminescent geisha, reminiscent of a tripped out Marion Davies after a night of speak"easy on the gin, Marion" bliss with Bill Hearst and Pepi Lederer...

love it.

photography by Lisa Menzel

sunshine cleaning.

2010-08-30T15:34:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while since I've done one of these, but this one certainly does warrant a warm, praiseworthy review.
It's about a baby sister who can't really get much right, and an older sister who, despite her own problems, takes on those of her family in order to make things right...make things sunny again.

Needless to say, it hit close to home.    ;]

I have not seen a more unique and redemptive film in a long time. Neither have I seen a film that portrays such an authentic relationship between sisters, something that I believe is next to impossible to truly render on screen. I should know better than most and rightly so being that my two older sisters and I have complicated, beautiful, dynamic relationships, as do any and all sisters that I know well. My two lovely siblings have been there for me in huge ways all throughout my life. As of late, my eldest Erika is letting me live with her during my internship at the magazine she works for and my next eldest Alyssa let me crash on her couch in Chicago whenever I needed to during my college career in the city.

Both listen to me and give me wisdom (though it's always self deprecatingly so..."I mean, this only comes from my personal experience...I really don't know everything. But I think..."), both mother me and take care of me when I'm sick, have body function difficulty, need a home cooked meal or a resume check, am a weepy mess over some blown-out-of-proportion issue of mine, etc., and both 100% understand where I'm coming from when it comes to life decisions, romantic relationships, family, and friends...

and being a college graduate with little to no direction.

So they give where they can without expecting anything in return (except for maybe a helping hand or two to feed kitties once in a while), and I've come to more fully appreciate their presence in my life as I've gotten a little older. This movie only confirmed that they're going to be there when times get rough, and after four years of analyzing film from an objective point of view, it's been nice to find a little catharsis in the thought that I can turn to Erika and Alyssa in the exact same way that Norah Lorkowski turns to her older sister Rose.

Amy Adams becomes (as she always does with her roles) the very essence of Rose--a forlorn single parent to both her deviant little boy Oscar (he gets kicked out of school for licking things, namely his teacher) and her tattooed, crass little sister Norah, the earnest and loud-mouthed Emily Blunt (her last name is telling in this particular role). This being said, the girls' father (a harebrained Alan Arkin) is also a single parent struggling as much as his daughters when it comes to finding work. He peddles to niche shops for a living and not very well. Taking after her father's knack (or lack thereof) for unconventional work, Rose decides to turn her few skills as house maid into a more financially forgiving business: biohazard removal. In other words, she and her unemployed sister Norah clumsily clean up crime scenes in an attempt to make a quick buck.

The work is excruciatingly difficult, putrid, and grisly. Nevertheless, the two young sisters soldier through, and it's great fun to watch their initial disgust (only one episode of vomiting, surprisingly) evolve into a series of macabre, sarcastic banter at the sight of crime scene gore. For example, upon arrival to a client's mangled home they must search the premises for any bloody remains waiting to be wet-vac'd. At their first home, a domestic dispute case, Rose calls in her sister after finding the big, red surprise in the bathroom: a finger in the sink and blood spatter covering the shower. Norah's sardonic reply:

"Ya think they loved each other....?"

The questioning of marital stability is one of the film's major themes and so is the attempt at reconciliation between daughters and absent mothers. But in my opinion, these are only at the surface. More than once the characters call out to an unseen God, whether it be through a conversion van's intercom or while hanging on for dear life under a railroad track as a freight speeds past--and the responses they receive are how they deal with their pasts, how they come to understand and connect with each other...how they bring a little sunshine back into each others lives. And this was where I found my sisterly catharsis.

My favorite response of all,

"I recommend the pecan pie."

photography find.

2010-08-30T12:20:00.000-07:00

tricia mckellar.

"In itself the proposition 'God exists'  is necessarily true, 

for in it subject and predicate are the same."
-Thomas Aquinas

gimme.

2010-08-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

I crumble......

an adage:

2010-08-17T18:17:00.000-07:00

wise words.

"Don't go looking for boys in the dark

They will say pretty things then leave you with scars.

Do go looking for boys in the park

For this is where the true gentleman are."

                           --A Seamstress's Verses, 1898

i know mine spends a lot of time in the park....
LANDSTROM park, that is.
;]

style inspiration: Ash.

2010-08-17T14:24:00.000-07:00

An original by yours truly, Sarah Larson.

Clockwise from top left: Calypso Samantha Shirt, Mor Cosmetics, Ayaka Nishi's Spine Bracelet,
Jeffrey Campbell Jackie Shoe, Modcloth Polynesia Dreaming Ring, Lanvin Metal Ring, PRPS Torn Love Short

stop motion.

2010-08-17T10:55:00.000-07:00

Not until I saw Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox and was forced to watch its special features by my bestie Lyssa and her boyfriend Blake did I fully come to appreciate the dynamics of stop motion.

It was a confusing movie, so I would like to watch it again before I write a review. Until then here's another stop motion snippet that I think is mesmerizing. The evolutionary theme is not to my personal liking, but the artistry is phenomenal and vast. I especially love the sound effects [i.e. the crab clinking through a drain pipe, hehe] and all of the dinosaur murals!

theory of a--

2010-08-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

So two days ago I went with my sister Erika and bro-in-law Philip to a miniature art fair at Red Light Brewery in Winter Park, FL. There were hand-made accessories, crepes, and vintage galore, but what stood out to my eldest sister and me the most was the vast array of trendy cupcakes.

Cupcake earrings, cupcake embroidery, clay cupcake ornaments...
and just plain CUPCAKES.
Well, not exactly plain...

Erica and Emily of Bee's Knees Bakery catered the event with their ever-so-delectable morsels of cream and cake in a cup.
We tried: Pink Pretty (Strawberry cupcake with strawberry cream frosting)

and would like to try: Orange You My Honey (Orange and honey cupcake with orange cream frosting)

Philip also surprised us at the office last week with a box full of Blue Bird Bakeshop's cakes. Red velvet and apple...I think I had one of each.
Oops.

And now for a little cupcake theory [as promised] by trivia lord Wikipedia:

"A cupcake is so named because it is a small cake the size of a teacup. In previous centuries, before muffin tins were widely available, the little cakes were often baked in individual pottery cups, ramekins, or molds. The name fairy cake is a fanciful description of its size: an appropriate size for a party of diminutive fairies to share. Recipes for “cup cake” — recipes whose ingredients were measured using a standard-sized cup, instead of weighing the ingredients — have a confusingly similar name. These cakes could also be baked in cups; however, they were more commonly baked in tins as layers or loaves. In later years, when the use of volume measurements was firmly established in home kitchens, these recipes became known as 1234 cakes or quarter cakes, so called because it is made up of four ingredients in equal ratios; butter, flour, eggs and sugar. They are plain yellow cakes, somewhat less rich and less expensive than due to the reduced proportion of butter. The names of these two major classes of cakes were intended to signal the method to the baker: “cup cake” uses a volume measurement, and “pound cake” uses a weight measurement."

As Queen Marie's old adage went, let them eat [cup] cake...

illustrations II

2010-08-16T09:45:00.000-07:00

So very appropriate for my recent aesthetic tastes.

Portland's Julianna Swaney of Oh My Cavalier:
"I'm inspired by fairy tales, animals with sharp claws, Victorian hair weaving, antique ephemera and postcards, bird song, nursery rhymes, lace, cabinets of curiosities, anthropomorphism of all kinds, and many more things!"

Her blogs:
Oh My Cavalier (Drawings)
Rare Red Bird (Personal)

...

2010-08-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

Blog: Nathalie from Germany

illustrations I

2010-08-15T18:37:00.000-07:00

So lately I've become obsessed with antique illustration, especially Grimm's fairy tales and Disney concept art. I've always loved ethereal imagery and recognized the first few images of Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel from a 1909 edition of The Brothers Grimm illustrated by Arthur Rackham that my sister Alyssa used to read to me before bed when I was only about seven years old. He also illustrated our edition of Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass, which I've been meaning to read again for quite some time now.

What's interesting is that the world of fairy tales is so haunting and graphic to me still. I have no idea how I managed to fall asleep after seeing the gruesome, "Grandmother" Wolf eerily eyeballing his dainty, red-hooded prey, or the tower-mistress [a terrifyingly haggard witch] peering around the corner at Rapunzel's father right before she accuses him of theft and forces him to give up his one and only child...

Little Red Riding Hood

Rapunzel

Alice in Wonderland

Through the Looking Glass

I don't post things about celebrities often....

2010-08-14T18:42:00.000-07:00

but this just may be the cutest retro beach outfit I've seen in a while.
Makes me think of my trendy Grandma Helen back in the 40s.

Isabel Lucas.

Grandma Helen...one of my very best friends.

I am absolutely in love with this photo. Whoever took it captured with paradoxical wit the enormity of the tree under my teeny little grandma.
What a big, mighty soul she is though...

look at those superb saddle shoes.

goofball.

Paris.

2010-08-12T08:08:00.000-07:00

So I wrote my first blog entry for DWH called "Top 5 Romantic Spots to Steal A Kiss in Paris."
It made me want to go back more than ever.

View it Here!

+kissing tree+

2010-08-09T14:37:00.000-07:00

...in 10 days.

<3

Make your own!

Another to add to my list.

2010-08-05T20:53:00.000-07:00

Desire Under the Elms by Eugene O'Neill. A play, 1928.

A semi-contemporary re-telling of the Greek half-Goddess Phaedra that takes place in rural New England.

snail mail surprise.

2010-08-05T18:35:00.000-07:00

So my best friend Ash just sent me this adorable notepad...

"...because it made me think of you."

Eiffel Tower and friends. Ahh memories.
I love surprise gifts in the mail.

And I love her ;]

Okay Tina.com

;]

Figment.

2010-08-03T12:57:00.000-07:00

So I just have extreme lovies for my kitty Fig right now..

He's at home in Illinois and I'm here in Florida. Oh Fig, how I miss you.

2010-08-02T20:49:00.000-07:00

Soooo apparently there's a Mad Men casting call contest through Banana Republic that requires 60s garb to enter, and I really want to submit these photos for consideration.

P.S.

I miss my apartment SO much, and I miss Harmony [featured in Rach's photo] even more.

photo credit: Nick Rienzo

Louise: Part I

2010-07-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

So in honor of finishing 'Act One' of the Barry Paris Louise Brooks biography I'm currently reading (300 pages thus far), I've decided to share a

beautiful quote known to be the favorite of her mother Myra Rude Brooks--avant-garde philosopher, pianist, and literate extraordinaire.
I was going to wait until I had finished the book entirely to begin unlocking its characters and history, but half way seems milestone enough to start the
cumbersome yet gratifying process.

Graphic Art by Bill Brauker

[pp. 16-17]

"Myra Brooks's unfeigned love of literature often stunned the townspeople. When the ladies of the Methodist Episcopal Church decided to assemble a
booklet called 'Favorite Quotations of Cherryvale People,' they elicited some predictable Biblical and Shakespearean material, plus a smattering of
Tennyson, but mostly the kind of homespun proverbs one might expect from small-town, turn-of-the-century Kansas folks. Nellie Pilkington's favorite
quote--'Every cloud has a silver lining'--was typical of the words to live by. But Myra, when it came her turn, selected a sweeping philosophical
declamation by William Emery Channing (1780-1842), the great Unitarian reformer and minister:

'To live content with small means, to seek elegance rather than luxury and refinement
rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable; wealthy, not rich; to study hard,
think quick, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages with
open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never; in a word
let the spiritual unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common.---This is my symphony.'"

And this was the mother of the girl who was arguably the best actress of our time...
my beloved Louise.

the piano.

2010-07-30T20:33:00.000-07:00

My new favorite song.

pocahontas.

2010-07-30T19:50:00.000-07:00

So Lyssa totally called it when she picked out that Native American spirit pouch for me in Vegas...

Regard her fashion trend clairvoyance:

my first polyvore: edible accessories.

2010-07-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

;]

clockwise from top left: Takashimaya Banana Macaron Ring; Cotton Candy Toothpicks,
Petit Four Lip Balm, Peanut Butter and Jelly Pouch, Yum Yum Mini Earrings--All Fred Flare; Egg Coin Purse...I wish I knew.

this is getting ridiculous.

2010-07-30T13:20:00.000-07:00

So this whole working at a wedding magazine thing is giving me waaaaay too many ideas for my nuptials that don't even exist

...yet.

I want them to do my dessert bar...

Sweet & Saucy

them to do my flowers...

Visual Lyrics

and them to do my cake.

Sweet Heather Anne

oh dear..

royally__remarkable.

2010-07-24T00:09:00.002-07:00

So this was the immaculately illustrated blueprint for Margot Tenenbaum's bedroom.
Note the bearded mask and the IBM electric typewriter.
Those Andersons are great.

And I really want my bed in a turret.

by Eric Chase Anderson

2010-07-17T14:29:00.000-07:00

It wasn't until after I posted those pictures that I realized another common theme...

death.

-Copeland
-Elliott Smith
-my blonde hair
-Harmony

It's been a strange day..

b&w

2010-07-17T13:50:00.001-07:00

So, just came across some black and whites I've collected over the years.

Eat, Sleep, Repeat album art.

me...long ago.
photo credit: Rach.

rest in peace, harmony.

bullet.

2010-07-16T00:42:00.000-07:00

"I fell in love in the front seat of your car.

The road was shorter than it looked
Like ten years and two more.
And I held the boy closer than was safe.
Take what you want from me,
I'm not afraid to turn around
To see you by my side.
Hey, I felt pretty when they turned out the light.
I didn't know just what was going on.
When all my guts were telling me to run
I stuck around when I should have been
There with you.
Now after all that we lost,

I swear I'll never let go.

You and I both are nothing but thieves...
We take what we want when we need.
I had a chance for a better life,
But all that I've known is to
Run, run, run, from the devil in disguise
Like a bullet, a bullet, a bullet into the night.
We are the last generation of hope,

And I wouldn't mind if
Together we died alone.

I was 21 when I lost control.
I took my hands off the wheel;
Wheel it spun on its own.
And I lost so much of what I loved.
Take what you want from me,
I'm not afraid to turn around
To see you by my side.
And I felt pretty when they turned out the light.
I didn't know just what was going on.
When all my guts were telling me to run
I stuck around when I should have been
There with you.
Now after all that we lost,

I swear I'll never let go.

You and I both are nothing but thieves...
We take what we want when we need.
I had a chance for a better life,
But all that I've known is to
Run, run, run, from the devil in disguise
Like a bullet, a bullet, a bullet into the night.
We are the last generation of hope,
And I wouldn't mind if
Together we died alone.

I said, 'As long as you're here then, together I can die alone.'"

away.

2010-07-15T23:38:00.000-07:00

So as much as I hate Skype sometimes...

...I really love it.

him too.