I purged my makeup collection of everything old, yucky, or ridiculous yesterday, in my pre-fall-pre-new-jobs-pre-new-semester effort to streamline life. So now I have a wastebasket full of cheap old eyeshadows I never wore, or three-year-old eyeliner, or wrong shades of concealer.
And to my joy, Stila - which I love, but seldom purchase - is having a very good sale on some of their oldies but goodies, and some collections, too. Plus, free shipping! Go fast!
I skim a lot of blogs relating to arts and culture during the day, and things catch my eye, but I hate to repeatedly blog little links here. I’ve been experimenting with Tumblr and I think it’s the right way to do it, leaving this blog for stuff that’s actually about us (hence the name, right?).
Ergo, I give you Culture Log.
I’ll be blogging several links and quotes and things per day that I find interesting. It’s all completely subjective. Tumblr doesn’t provide commenting features, which I’ve fallen progressively more out of love with anyhow, and it makes it very easy to quickly blog all kinds of media. Culture Log has an RSS feed, so feel free to subscribe . . . or not. This is mostly for my own edification and for anyone else who wishes to look over my shoulder and see what I’m reading.
I started this morning with yogurt/berries/granola (new carton of yogurt, which means cream on top!), a mug of Tazo Zen tea (because I didn’t have enough time to brew a pot of the loose lemongrass green tea I bought at the co-op this week), a softly glowing rosemary-mint soy candle from the co-op on the wine crates that double as everything-tables for us, and a little bit of time working on the couch watching the rain and appreciating radiator heat. It was rather lovely.
I got an email about the extra 20% off sale at J.Crew (there’s still nice things left!) and quickly bought this top in black, which has now sold out, because I’ve been eyeing it for months and I ended up getting it for something like $80 off the original price.
I really needed a black top for the summer. I have none, which is a serious problem in my wardrobe.
And now I’m at work; Tom ordered the Nick Drake “Fruit Tree” boxed set and it came yesterday, and I ripped it all to my computer and am loving it. This is perfect working music to keep me calm under stress.
Because I’ve realized of late that when I’m stressed out, I gripe to myself about having to go to work every day, or about having too much to do, and I don’t only make myself unhappy, but everyone else, too. And there’s no need for that. I have an excellent job with great opportunities that many other people would kill for. I think perhaps I’m just in need of patience.
So now I’m observing the loveliness at the Bodum site, because I want a way to brew one cup of loose tea (preferably both at home and at work) and am exploring options beyond the traditional tea ball approach of my youth. I very much like their Yo-Yo approach:
I’d need two, one for home and one for the office, but they’re rather reasonably priced.
I also really loved this:
That would make me happy, brewing on my desk at work.
But although I already have a really lovely set of espresso cups and saucers that I’m very happy with, these made me smile and wish:
Set of six for fifteen dollars. Come on, someone needs to buy them.
We have turned into wildly social creatures this week - I haven’t spent an evening at home yet this week, which is kind of a shame but only when it comes to my need to plow through about 120 pages of very dense reading on art and Marxist theory (for, against, who knows). I am about twenty pages from the end and about to go decamp in a Starbucks uptown to try and read it and maybe get started on the summary of the key parts of the course thus far. I feel wildly underqualified to take this class, and I’m so grateful. Otherwise, I’d be tempted to slack off and skate through, and instead, I’m totally on my toes. An excellent way to start the grand graduate school adventure.
I have little else to say, except that the Anthropologie catalog came yesterday and I was leafing through it as I was cleaning the kitchen this morning (behold my ridiculous ADD) and the clothes are so lovely. Anthropologie has been strangely hit-or-miss for the last five or so seasons, but they’re spot-on this spring. I could happily wear anything in that catalog and not feel like I was wearing my grandmother’s cast-offs (and in fact, I’d feel quite pretty).
Hey, we watched Kicking and Screaming (the Noah Baumbach one, not the Will Ferrell one) the other night. What a hysterical movie. Loved it in a similar way to how I love I Heart Huckabees, though a little less metaphysically weird.
I just have to say that I heard through the grapevine this week that a large number of the most competent and intelligent people I worked with back at the B of A have been laid off. Laid off! I guess I got out of there just in time. I wasn’t a bad employee, but I was certainly one of the more expendable ones, especially considering who apparently isn’t there anymore. Unbelievable. God works in mysterious ways.
Happy weekend! Buh-bye.
My latest article is up at Comment!
I was asked to write about “Things I Love: Clothes”. This proved challenging, as I love great clothes, but I don’t usually buy them. But, the article took a turn that I liked.
The Sartorialist runs through my feedreader (me, and everyone else on the internets), and I have to say, this look from today’s post is one of my favorites.
We saw The Darjeeling Limited last night after my class, and serendipitously ran into our friend Ira, who just moved to NYC from LA on Tuesday. Who would have thunk it? We’ll have him thinking that New York is a rather small town in no time.
The movie itself: it’s no Royal Tennenbaums, but it is sweet and fun. Personally, I was not too invested in the characters’ lives, but I enjoyed traveling with them. And I really loved the quirkiness of the whole cast. Adrien Brody always just cracks me up. It’s very lovely to look at, too, with great colors. If you’re a Wes Anderson fan, then it’s worth seeing now.
There was probably the greatest collection of trailers beforehand, too, including:
• Be Kind, Rewind - Michel Gondry’s latest (he directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep), and it stars Jack Black and looks hilarious.
• Juno - the cast includes Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute), Jason Bateman and Michael Cera (Arrested Development), and is directed by Jason Reitman, the guy who made Thank You for Smoking (easily one of the most brilliant dark comedies I’ve ever seen). Plus it looks like a very thoughtful, funny story about teenage pregnancy and adoption, but nothing at all like Knocked Up.
• The Savages - Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney. ‘Nuff said.
Also had a preview for Walk Hard, which I instinctively back away from - I’m a big fan of satire, but mostly just when it’s on TV - but I did end up in helpless giggles about halfway through, so who knows.
In other news, my copy-editing class looks like it will be a really excellent experience. I feel like it’s going to fill in all the strange gaps and divots in my editing knowledge, plus help me figure out how I can pull off doing this freelance. The class is mostly comprised of people who already work in publishing, an added bonus.
Speaking of school, this article in the Times about exploring ways to shorten the path to a Ph.D. is quite interesting.
Tom got called to work on the Glenn Close TV show today (Damages, I think). He called me and said they are out in far eastern Brooklyn, in a swampy place that’s definitely where you’d dump a body. I asked him if that’s what they were doing; “no,” he said, “but we did get to shoot Ted Danson.”
We have a very busy weekend coming up, which I’ve mentioned previously but will mention again because I like being able to go back and see what I’ve done. In short: tomorrow night we go hear Lorrie Moore and Jeffrey Eugenides read at the New Yorker Festival. On Saturday we go to the costume panel at the Festival, which features Colleen Atwood (Memoirs of a Geisha), Patrizia von Brandenstein (Amadeus), Patricia Field (Sex and the City, The Devil Wears Prada), and William Ivey Long (numerous Broadway productions including Grey Gardens, Hairspray and Chicago); then we’ll dash off to BAM for the Kronos Quartet More Than Four program. And on Sunday we hope to make it to the FREE “Parkour: New York” program at the Festival, and maybe have lunch with Angela.
Coffee? I think so.
I love September, and it becomes September this week. I’m incredibly psyched. My favorite season is coming! I know I have enthused about autumn too many times, but this is my blog, and you’re going to just have to hear it. :) We missed September in NYC almost entirely last year with funeral/wedding/honeymoon arrangements, so I’m grateful that it happens every year.
It was a busy, happy weekend. On Friday night I - and pretty much everyone I know - was at the Creek and the Cave in Queens for a concert, after which my talented-and-prolific writer-friend Beth and her husband Wayne gave me a ride home to Park Slope. I finished another disc of Six Feet Under over some popcorn. Crazy Friday evenings, I have.
We slept in on Saturday; I got up around 11am and read for a while (I finished it last night). Tom got up a little later (he hadn’t gotten in until about 7am), and we had brunch at Black Pearl, then went back to the apartment and gorged on Arrested Development till Tom had to go to work. I then read for a bit and finished the second season of Six Feet Under before bed.
My mom drove into town yesterday with my brother and two of his friends, who had been in Wildwood with my grandparents for the week. They came to church with me and then we headed down to Grey Dog for lunch and Soho for a little shopping (I bought a few things at Anthropologie - so sue me) before they headed home. I went to set for a while to see Tom and get my keys (long story).
Thursday is the anniversary of Dad’s passing. If you’ve joined me in the past year, you can read the blog entries from last August. We miss him greatly, but knowing where he is has been such a comfort.
Thursday is also, incidentally, move-in day at Messiah, and my brother is moving in, so I’m heading to Albany on Wednesday night, driving to Harrisburg with the family on Thursday and moving him in, and heading back to NYC and work on Friday. I’m glad it’s a three-day weekend.
Unrelatedly: The Anthropologie catalog used to be my favorite catalog (I have piles of old ones stacked up for future slicing-and-dicing), but I have to be honest - J. Crew has outdone themselves with their latest Paris-themed catalog. I think I’m in love. And I’d love to be a walking version. Anyone want to donate to the cause?
I’m a nerd, and because of that, I’ve already started on my 2008 book list. I’m taking suggestions.
We had a sublimely peaceful weekend, wonderful weather, very relaxing. Just what the doctor ordered.
Also, I discovered StyleHive. It’s like shopping with friends, social bookmarking, something like that. I think the site has a lot of cool potential. I’ve already found some incredibly links to nifty clothes/home things; many from Etsy, many from other places.
With no apparent connection to anything I’ve recently experienced, I dreamed last night that I was hanging out with Sergei Rachmaninoff. He was young, and cool, and very touched that I’d studied his music and loved it so much.
Also. I’m not a footwear snob (I think Uggs are kind of comfy and cute, as long as they’re only worn in snowy wintry weather), but I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing those ridiculous clunky Crocs from last year. However, I saw these in the April Lucky and they’re pretty cute, for summer rainy day footwear or commuting to work. I’d wear them.
Lastly, I saw this article a while back in New York magazine. They had two models, a show producer, and a fashion editor track their food intake during Fashion Week. Surprisingly healthy, normal diets. It inspired me to drink more green tea.
I initially read the headline of this article and thought them darn Brits!, but this bit convinced me they might be right:
“We have asked designers, model agencies and image makers to respect this responsibility and to use only healthy models for their collections. Additionally, we recommend that only models aged 16 or over are used,” the council said in a statement.
“We believe that regulation is neither desirable nor enforceable. What will make a difference is the commitment of the fashion industry to change attitudes through behavior and education.”
So, guess what? I write to you from my new MacBook Pro, which I have yet to name but suspect I shall (we named our wireless router “Gromit”).
I’m so twentieth century.
Tom came home early last night! We went to Biscuit BBQ to celebrate. It’s right around the corner from us. We’d actually gone to Night & Day, a restaurant that was in the same building, a few weeks ago, and then I was sitting on the couch reading Time Out and read that “the new Biscuit BBQ is in the same space that Night & Day once occupied”. Buh? You know you’re a New Yorker when . . .
So we went, and enjoyed pulled pork, biscuits, gravy, potatoes, candied yams - lots of carbs, but totally worth it.
In other news, we are going to Hiro Lounge to see Damien Rice tonight. It appears that those who say it’s an “intimate venue” weren’t joking; the site states that the room has a “standing reception” capacity of 200 and a seated capacity of 60. No wonder it sold out. (But fear not, friend, he plays the Beacon Theater in December. Check his site for details and scroll down.)
And now, because I just can’t quit linkage:
Microsoft Firefox - someone has a sense of humor. From the site:
Microsoft Firefox 2007 automatically shrinks text to abysmally small sizes, so all webpage content can fit onto a single apostrophe on your final printed page. This saves ink.
And for those of you who might not be awake yet, yes, this is a joke.
For those who eschew lemmingness in general but happily jumped on the Moleskine bandwagon because they’re worth it, there is moleskinerie. Check out this un-Moleskine related but still really cool BookCut entry:
And in a similar vein is Notebookism!
The girls on the Free People blog (yes, the clothing brand) are doing a meatless-wheatless-mushroomless foodswap/cookoff, and they have some yummy recipes up today for lentil dal and vegan shepherd’s pie. Tom and I are neither vegan nor wheat-intolerant, but I grew up around very very health-conscious folks and I’m always a little bit happy when I find recipes like this. (Also, we own two of the red “latte” bowl in the first picture, and four mini ones. Got them from Anthropologie. Good prices, too.)
I know I mentioned it before, but I am drooling over Paris Breakfasts nearly every day. Lovely watercolors, chocolate, the list goes on. Eye candy!
Last, but not least at all, I’ve been a devoted design*sponge reader for some time now, but I totally missed her Brooklyn Design Guide. And who knew? She’s a Park Sloper too. Every writer in NYC apparently lives in Park Slope. It’s quiet here.
Cool things:
- What inspires J.Crew.
- New cookbook forthcoming at Chocolate & Zucchini.
- I hope to knit this soon, because I think it is very cute.
Oh yes. And I got a haircut.
I like to inform as many people as possible ahead of time, as I am squiffy about having it pointed out to me when I see people later on. :)
Several weeks overdue for a trip to the barber, but Alissa and our friends the Gosas all agree I should keep growing my hair out in its current messy, spiked fashion until it can no longer stand up. Only thing is, human hair is amazingly springy, mine most of all–I have the Tigger of all hair types. If I don’t put anything in, my hair would go straight up in all directions like a white man’s fro. Peter Sellar’s and all possibilities from the post-punk rock movement are perfect examples of why this is a bad idea and I’m going to get a haircut later this week…
