Friday I'm in Love

Thanks for your interesting comments on de-stressing this week, everyone - I loved reading how you turn off your brains and unwind. As a big first step, I did something crazy and new on Wednesday and Thursday of this week: I took a real lunch break! It turns out that eating anywhere but my office desk does great things for my brain, especially if that anywhere is a park bench next to a water feature. This is rocket science, I know. At any rate, we might be up to something fun and exciting this weekend - I'll 'fess up next week. In the meantime, some little tidbits from my world on the Web (outside of near-constant Todd Akin outrage, of course)... Have a wonderful weekend!

Time-Travel Photography

I'm obsessed with this photography project by Sergey Larenkov. Superimposing historical scenes (wartime action... wow) over today's images produces something eery and wondrous, all at once.

Hal Grades Your Bike-Locking

I just love this guy. Via Streetfilms comes this 2003 classic, Hal Grades Your Bike Locking. Hal rocks. There are sequels, too.

21 Jump Street

I love a good foreign film or depressing melodrama as much as the next film snob. You know what I also love, though? Well-cast comedy that's a lot smarter than you expect it to be. Enter 21 Jump Street, the couch with my guy, a big bowl of homemade popcorn, and the most enjoyable Friday night in recent history. Nope, not even kidding - this movie made me giggle. A lot.

Friday I'm in Love

Yesterday I fell flat on my face while walking. I was crossing a park to meet T at our neighborhood Metro station, and a slightly uneven brick hit my foot in just the right way, and... splat. Kind thanks to the homeless men who hurriedly rushed to my assistance. Oh my. So today, my knee is the size of a softball and the opposite foot is unable to bear weight. I'm feeling pretty graceful heading into the weekend... how about you?

SIGH.

Let's hurry up and make it 5 p.m., okay? Here are three things that made me smile this week (I've missed you, Friday I'm in Love!):

The Partisans: Birth Control Hearings (Redux)

This is the best response I can possibly imagine to the brain-exploding lunacy that is a bunch of men on Capitol Hill talking about birth control. Thank you, Andy Cobb and Second City, thank you...

U.S. Interstates as a Subway Map

Subway art will always be my favorite, but I'll give a nod here to the Interstate System as well... even if its existence is responsible for the sprawling of America. (getting off my soapbox now...)

Friends with Kids

You know those movie previews you see and in the first five seconds it's completely obvious that you will watch said movie and love it, due mostly to the fact that you love everyone* on screen? This movie is that [latest] movie for me. 

Have a great (and graceful) weekend, folks!

*Megan Fox excluded (obvs)

Friday I'm in Love

It feels great to be back in the normal swing of things enough to do a little Friday I'm in Love action. So let's jump right in!

Jonah Hill: Skinny, but Still Funny

  

Jonah Hill's new physique has been freaking me out... until watching this and realizing that, no, he didn't lose his hilarity along with his midsection. I'm excited to see 'Moneyball' this weekend, by the way. Anyone else?

Happiest Space Ever

I love this. As in, if I get sick of my downstairs bathroom decorating project I may just have to start painting happy little squares everywhere.

Girl Needs a Girly Bike

I want this. Hardcore want it. "Neeeeeeeed" it. Those little orange and red stripes?!

That's all from me! I'm excited to do some nesting and have some low-key fun this weekend. Happy Friday, folks!

Big drama outside, very small happenings inside

Oh, so that's what 11 hours of sleep feels like! Every now and then I get these glimpses of what it would be like to get an appropriate amount of sleep each night - which I'm convinced that none of us do - and I think maybe lack of sleep is the reason why we haven't yet achieved world peace or cured cancer. At any rate, I'm hopeful that 11 hours with a pillow will heal me in ways that days of meds and even green chile could not. Although yesterday's conference call muting while I hacked up a lung was productive, I can't do the same in my in-person meetings later this week, so this gunk needs to pack its bags and get outta my system.

It wasn't a bad weekend to be locked indoors on the couch, though. A little lady named Irene blew threw town, after all. It was a strange couple of days. I was home alone, half delirious from cold meds, frantically watching the storm ravage my homeland and checking in with the folks down south. Then I'm hunkering down while it's blowing my own neighborhood around. Then I'm frantically watching points north to see what the thing would do to our loved ones up there. Exhausting, and sad. We've had about enough of natural disasters this year, don't you think?

The next day I went for a walk around the neighborhood - the most physical activity I'd done in days, or have done since - and this is what I saw.

 

This is nothing compared to points south or north, of course... but certainly enough to make me feel humbled. And two houses down from ours, seeing a tree resting against someone's bedroom windows, that's enough to make me feel damn lucky. 

And so it was a hunkering-down weekend, as predicted, which involved eating the food that I (very oddly) found the energy to cook on Friday, meant to last a few days. (Perhaps expending all that energy in the kitchen is why it's taking me so long to get mine back?) I roasted chiles and made green chile chicken casserole. I made an ice cube tray of fresh pesto before the storm wreaked havoc on my basil (I only lost one branch, it turned out). I made more caponata. I made chicken piccata. I was so bored I even had an egg-poaching contest against myself (hint: I won). 

 

And then I collapsed. And fell in love with this television show. And confirmed that I never should've watched this movie. Which pretty much brings us up to date. How did you all fare in the storm?

Shrooms with Georgia O'Keeffe (you heard me)

I cooked mushrooms for dinner last night, per my "gorge on foods that T doesn't like while he's traveling" rule. Yep, dinner consisted of a huge plate of mushrooms. Not just any mushrooms, though: Francis Lam's mushrooms, a guy whose writing I enjoy immensely. A guy who begins his piece about mushrooms like this:

"Look, no offense, but chances are your sautéed mushrooms aren't very good." 

I respect that sort of approach. In "How to Sear and Saute Mushrooms," Lam breaks down for us the things we do wrong when we cook mushrooms, and how to do it right. The technique seemed surefire, so I was on board immediately. But it was Lam's style that made this post memorable for me, caused me to seek it out last night as I was going through my mental salmon/olives/mushrooms/tomato selection process. The way Lam speaks directly and makes gentle fun of the reader: hot. But the way he sprinkles in things like "I might as well baby them with some sweet, touching caresses beforehand, too": doubly hot.

And so I cooked Francis Lam's mushrooms, using two pans so as not to crowd them, turning up the heat so high it's a miracle my smoke alarm didn't go off, and no doubt making the neighbors salivate with the smell. And you know what? They were the best mushrooms I've ever made, hands down. They were meaty, full of smoke and flavor, and begged for red wine.

Not one to disappoint the perfectly cooked mushrooms, I got after the wine a little bit, and in my night of going solo did what any self-respecting girl does on rare night home alone: watched chick flicks*.

Let's talk about Joan Allen for a minute here. This woman can do no wrong in my eyes. Didn't she scare the hell out of you in Nixon? Didn't she impress the hell out of you in The Contender? Didn't she woo the hell out of you in Off The Map? I thought so.  This woman is a force. I love her role choices (The Ice Storm to the Bourne franchise?), I love her intelligence, I love her face. How fitting, then, that'd she play the woman with my all-time favorite face: Georgia O'Keeffe.

I love O'Keeffe's handsomeness. I love the lines in her face, the strength implied in it. Years ago at a photography exhibit of her life at the O'Keeffe Museum, I marveled at that face for what felt like hours. The grin on the back of a motorcycle, riding through the desert. The smirk that seems to carry a secret message just for you. The wise eyes, sizing up her work. The humbled eyes, unable to size up the vastness of the high desert. Maybe it's because I look the opposite of O'Keeffe in so many ways - I curve where she stretches straight across, my cheekbones have never quite seen the light of day, whereas hers could cut glass, she shrouded herself in black while I blanket myself in color, I could go on here - but looking at O'Keeffe, that face is the embodiment of being a wise woman to me. It's the look I'd love to have as a fierce old broad with a big laugh doing whatever the hell I please.

And that's the other thing about O'Keeffe that gets me: her commitment to a place I love so much, her inability to get it out of her system, her eventual decision to give herself over to a place. I cherish my five years in New Mexico as a sacred time - full of mistakes and hilarity and growth, but in so many ways the best time I've ever had. I know I left at the right time for me, but I'm only now realizing the extent of what it means to carry it with me always, wherever I go. O'Keeffe understood this about New Mexico.

So Joan Allen as Georgia O'Keeffe, then? It works. And yes, it's a Lifetime movie, whatever. It's available on Netflix. I admit to wishing there was a Part II - to forget Stieglitz and New York and to just stay in New Mexico with her friends, to be with her in her favorite place a while, to relish in this thing I like to imagine we share.

As a girl power signoff, I offer the painting at the O'Keeffe Museum that always stops me in my tracks. It's "The Blue Flower," and in person it looks like it should be made of velvet. I'll let you interpret as you will.

Note to Self: Need to get serious about booking a trip back to New Mexico.

*In my liberal interpretation of "chick flicks," I'm counting a Georgia O'Keeffe biopic and a documentary about industrial design. It takes a lot to make me watch a rom-com. Like, one or more characters from my fantasy island and no small amount of witty banter.

Brain candy

Some of the diversions that have recently made my days:

Arcade Fire's The Suburbs

So much has been written about this album that adding my own two cents feels extraneous. Yet since its release, it's all I've listened to, all I've wanted to hear. While I marvel at the construction and layering of the songs, it's the content that seals the deal for me. Whether I approach it from an academic perspective (valiant fighter of sprawl and protector of community identity that I like to think I am) or from a personal one (child of the suburbs who grew up to get hives from strip malls and low-density subdivisions), this is a complete and utter winner for me, an instant classic. These are songs I'll be listening to for years to come. (And you've seen the brilliant interactive video for 'The Wilderness Downtown' by now, yes?)

The Town

'The Town' was a much-welcomed bridge into Serious Movie Season for me, living somewhere in between plodding drama and action flick. As a vehicle of things to come, I'm happy to have this movie chauffeur me into a more highbrow cinematic season. I'm also happy that it promises much more from Ben Affleck, whose talent as a director and a writer is no longer something to wonder about, but something to get excited about. And c'mon, this is Boston. One of my places. It's also a fantastic cast doing good things. And it's a climactic scene in that "cathedral of Boston" I know and love, Fenway Park. It's a damn good flick that came to us at just the right time.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics

Sometimes I feel like books wait for you until just the right moment. This one had been on my to-read list for a year before I found it in a $5 clearance bin, at which point I forgot about it for two more years. But last week, there it was in wait, with the kind of protagonist I adore (wunderkind with a head for academia and a heart full of growing pains), intellectual discourse that's only funny if you get it (and then it's hilarious), a cast of well-developed characters, a crash-course through revolutionary action and a study in dissent, and a big, fat, stay-up-all-night mystery. Go read it.

City Island

 Kate told me ages ago I'd enjoy this flick, and sure enough, the girl knows my taste. Add this movie to your Netflix queue now. Just do it. It's hilarious and awkward and poignant and all those things that can happen when the loudest scenes are family fights at the dinner table. Find out what "botero" is. See Andy Garcia in his first role I've EVER enjoyed. Marvel at the final scene on the street, which is an absolutely brilliant five minutes of comedy.

What's on your to-hear, to-read, to-see list these days?

Nice little weekend

First up, this movie is so much geeky fun in one sitting, it hurts. Really, go see it. It's perfectly cast, adorably video gamed-up, self-conscious and gentle and biting and sweet and funny, and the music (Beck!) rocks.

Second, our patio work continues. I've had this beaten-up table for years (see its original incarnation here) and haven't been protecting it from the outdoor elements at all. It's been getting some TLC of late as part of our makeover efforts outside (pics soon!). Here it is after the weekend, sanded/refinished/repainted and ready for waterproofing:

Third: Ray LaMontagne! Such a good show with David Gray. My pal Dan is nominating himself for Husband of the Year for seeing David Gray three times this year at his wife's request. I enjoyed my first-timer DG status, although did feel badly this his nice light gray English suit was nearly black with sweat by concert's end. The other tragedy of the night was that I left five pounds of potato salad I made for tailgating in the fridge at home because I accidentally packed two containers of quinoa instead. D'oh! Hearing Ray sing our wedding song live made me pretty giddy, though. The man is fantastic!

Finally, bedroom makeover at long last! While the rest of our place has advanced to "completed decor" status, our bedroom has languished in a sad state since we got here. We had photos of bedding taped on the wall, potential paint samples everywhere, boxed art lying around, etc. We found bedding at long last and jumped on this totally inspiring paint color to make it pop. I'm obsessed with the color! Here's a messy bedding pic with the bed still in the middle of the room for paint-drying purposes, but you get the idea. The room is finally on its way, which feels pretty great. Can't wait to decorate these walls and get myself organized in there now! I'll post pics once we're finished, which feels like it might actually happen now that this step is done.

Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

This is how I've taken to dealing with workday stress:

Parenthood! With my celebrity doppelganger Lauren Graham, above (oh how I want her hair). I love this show. My sister and her husband told me forever ago that I'd love it, and I already knew I loved the cast, but I didn't have mental space for another tv show last year. Hulu to the summer rescue! My tv boyfriend Peter Krause to ease the workday pain!

I'm writing up a storm today to get the weekend here already. I'm pumped to see this movie, and also to see this guy live on Sunday. I already warned our fellow concert-goers that we're going to have to make out during our wedding song.

Any fun weekend plans in your neck of the woods?

Friday I'm in Love

Weekend! I personally feel like every weekend in the summer should be three days, don't you? We're off to Connecticut to hang out with T's family for the weekend, but before I go, three picks for the week:

Arrested Development: The Action Movie

Lest you think I'm a film snob who hates summer action flicks, please check out this re-imagining of Arrested Development... as an action film. Amazing! I love anything Bluth. (And fine, all I really want to see this summer is "The Kids Are All Right" and "I Am Love.")


Tovicorri iPad Case

I've decided that an iPad would be the perfect complement to my kitchen. I know, I know, this is kind of ridiculous. And I need this food processor first. BUT. Cooking with my laptop, where many of my recipes are, is a huge pain, not to mention not very good for my laptop. I worry about it and have to move it a lot and it gets in the way, or I have to keep stopping what I'm doing to walk to it in its safe place far from heat and splatters, etc. So I have it all figured out: a sleek iPad with every cooking link and app my heart desires, lightweight and limber and propped up on a cheap knockoff of this minimalist stand so that I can read easily. But outside of the kitchen, say on the train to Connecticut or hanging out at my local lunch spot, I will carry it in this Tovicorri iPad Case, which looks like me and is the opposite of the minimalist kitchen stand. And then all will be well in my consumer world. (After the additional acquisitions of the food processor, new patio furniture cushions, new living room chair, and new bedding, of course!)


The Crisis of Capitalism, in cartoons


In a natural segue from the egregious consumerism shown in my last entry... The Crisis of Capitalism! Whether or not you agree with this economist (or if you're not sure), this video is fascinating to watch for the rapid-fire cartoon interpretations of the lecturer's words. It's kind of like that UPS guy and his whiteboard, only ten times cooler. This video makes me feel rather skill-less, so be prepared for that if you also lack any sort of artistic talent. If you're feeling contentious or want more sides to his presentation, there are great debates about capitalism and Marxism in the comments of both the YouTube video and the blog post. Like my newfound appreciation for Van Gogh Espresso Vodka, this link is brought to you by my childhood pal Allie, who is a community banking rockstar when she's not pressuring me to consume mysterious liquor.

Happy, happy weekends, everyone!

Friday I'm in Love

Who's excited for the long weekend?! I am sooooo thankful over here. We'll be spending the weekend with all sorts of friends and fantastic couples, so bring.it.on! I leave you with this:

Balloons for Nole!

My friend Nole is doing something amazing today, and I couldn't be happier for her. Join me in being jealous, thrilled, and proud as she waves goodbye to her office of eight years and plunges into the world of doing what she loves full time: making the world a prettier, paper-ier place! Sending you love today, Nole ... hugs to come soon under a firework-filled sky!  (image source)

Old Friends in The House

My oldest pal Allie and her husband are staying with us this weekend, and I'm so excited to spend a few days with the gal who saw me through our fifth grade fortune-telling business, dramatic teenage beach weeks, New England college weekends, and so much more. This clip's for you, Allie, because we plain wore it out back in the day. One more thing: "Y'all is the horniest bunch of white folks I ever seen!"


The Man Your Man Could Smell Like is back!


Months ago I waxed poetic about my main man Isaiah Mustafa, and this week he triumphantly returned to the hearts of women everywhere with "Questions." The log, the kitchen, the motorcycle... yes please!


Have a fantastic long weekend, everyone!

Friday I'm in Love

One hopeless consumerism item for you this week, and two more videos. What can I say... videos have been doing it for me lately. (Why yes, my books are sitting neglected on my bedside table... can you tell? Give me a break, at least I finally subscribed to the Post! Being a bookworm again will commence once I can walk into my closet and I have art on the walls, okay?) Um, anyway, back to my picks for the week:

Two Paths Trench


It's raining this morning, which makes me think that I really "need" this trench. Very early birthday present to myself?

NASA Scientists Plan To Approach Girl by 2018


Pitch perfect, this video. Full credit to my sister-in-law for bringing this brilliance into my life. Seriously, watch it. Cackle. Weep with delight. Thank me later. (ps: While we're talking The Onion, I sometimes fear I'm turning into this guy.)?

The Runaways

Whatever, naysayers, this movie looks kind of rad. I know there are legions of Kristen Stewart haters out there, but I'm not among you for two reasons: A) I haven't seen any of the Twilight films B) I have seen Adventureland. But more importantly, Dakota Fanning all growns up and rocking it onstage? I want this movie to be 2010's Whip It.

Steel Gardenias

How many viewers recognized the gardenia in Best Supporting Actress Mo'Nique's hair as an homage to Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Academy Award?

Mo'Nique's acceptance speech was short, simple, and powerful. "I want to thank Miss Hattie McDaniel for enduring all that she had to, so that I would not have to," she said.

Endure she did. According to Salon, "Hattie McDaniel was barred from attending the "Gone With the Wind" premiere in Atlanta, because it would have been against Georgia law for her to sit in a theater with white people. She was not only the first African-American to win an Academy Award but the first to be allowed into the ceremony in anything but a serving capacity -- they stuck her at a table in the back. Although she was a talented singer and comedian, she won Hollywood's grudging respect by playing a maid named Mammy. And during her tearful acceptance speech (below), she said bluntly, "I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race." It was 1940. Here's the video:

Any wonder that Mo'Nique wanted to reference that moment? She's currently at work on a film about McDaniel, by the way. Honoring who came before her: nicely done.

Also bringing more to the Oscar table than meets the eye is Best Actress Sandra Bullock. Her acceptance speech was gracious, funny, warm, tender, real... all the reasons she's been labeled America's Sweetheart for so long. But as her tribute to her mother and her understated nod to her husband revealed, there's much more there than meets the eye.

Rewind the tape to the night before the Oscars, where America's Sweetheart Turned Best Actress recieved an award of a differnet kind - a Worst Actress Razzie for the deplorable "All About Steve." Not only did Sandy B show up to accept the award, she owned the moment. This is how you turn lemons into lemonade with a smile:

Grace under pressure in two very different ways, from the leading ladies of the night. Women to learn from, these two. Congratulations.

Calling Spring...

Last night's Oscar telecast? A little meh. I was pretty disappointed that we didn't get to hear a live performance of now-Oscar winning Best Song "The Weary Kind," which further proved the utter pointlessness of having twice the number of Best Picture nominees this year to introduce. But Jeff Bridges as Best Actor... yes! And the first female Best Director... yes! And not having to hear James Cameron shout, "I'm the king of the world! Again!"... yes! And pretty, pretty dresses... yes! My top three have me dreaming about spring:

Rachel McAdams in Elie Saab

Anna Kendrick in Elie Saab

 Maggie Gyllenhaal in Dries Van Noten

Speaking of spring, after a great and productive weekend with my parents, a few patio projects outside are promising me that a new season is on the way, too. More on that soon.

In the meantime, I'm looking for telecommuting time management advice over on EADL. If you also work from home and struggle with distractions from time to time, go check out the comments - there are some fantastic tips over there!

The Weary Kind

As I said last week, Crazy Heart is my favorite movie of the year. It's a fantastic film and a truly amazing performance from Jeff Bridges. The music, though? It lives on. And on and on and on. The night we got home from seeing the film, I downloaded four songs* from the soundtrack and they've been playing on repeat ever since. (I'm not alone, either - I've suckered my pal Kate into the Crazy Heart obsession, too.)

I know Crazy Heart's just now opening in smaller markets, so really, go see it if you haven't already.

Ryan Bingham, singer/songwriter responsible for the gorgeous "Weary Kind," played the couldn't-be-sweeter musician in the film who saved the performance of a drunken Bad Blake in southern New Mexico. He's only 28, and wrote the song in a night. Those insanely talented, old soul types kill me. Here's a great interview where he talks about the process:



And finally... the song for those of you not already obsessed:



Oscar nominations are out Tuesday. "Weary Kind" for best original song... who's with me?

*My lineup: Hold On You, Fallin' & Flyin' (the live duet version), Brand New Angel, and The Weary Kind

Friday I'm in Love (abridged facial hair edition!)

I'm a wee bit distracted this week, as you might have gathered. We'll be in DC this weekend finding an apartment. You know, just that place we will live for the next year of our lives. Starting really, really soon. EEK! We return to Dallas Monday night, at which time we are presumably calm and collected and ready to pack up 5,000 pounds of belongings (the mover's estimate... seriously) and get our acts together.  

So on that note, I only have two picks for you this week. But I'm not apologizing, because they're thematic, okay? I get a tad bit more credit this way, even if I'm missing one.

T's unemployment beard

I haven't yet entered the bittersweet stage of saying goodbye to our current zip code (even though MM has, and she is a darling for it), but I'll get there once my head clears. In the meantime, the only truly bittersweet goodbye I've really fully developed is for T's out-of-work facial hair. There's certainly lots to be said for smooth skin and dress pants and great shirts and the like - and they're coming with his new job, which of course I'm incredibly thankful for - but I've so enjoyed my scruffy House Husband this winter. This is a man who still fairly consistenly jokes that he's too clean cut for me (my previous partners were, let's say, a tad hairier than my preppy Nutmeg Stater), so you know I'm hanging on to my beard memories while they're fresh.

The true highlight of this week, though, which also involves fabulous facial hair?


"Crazy Heart"

This film is brilliant and beautiful, and absolutely my favorite thing I've seen this year. Jeff Bridges is tremendous. Just incredible. I mean, he was and is and always will be The Dude, but he is without question Bad Blake, too. The songs he performs in this film are so downright gorgeous and bare that I simply can't hear them enough; they've been on constant replay in our place ever since we saw the film. Seriously, go see this. Just do it. And while I'm at it, Jeff Bridges' website? Kind of unfairly cool.

Oscar season, technically

Oscar season is upon us! Although, wait a minute, is it really? Because I usually have a list of ten films to see by December 1, and I'm pretty sure that this year I haven't even heard of ten that I want to see before 2010. What gives? Is this just a ho-hum movie season? Has the industry as a whole decided that since the Academy announced there will be ten Best Picture nominations instead of the usual five, they can just throw crap on the screen and expect an Oscar nod? (I'm not kidding... a fair estimate is that 1 out of every 30 films released this year will receive a nomination. NOT THE POINT, Academy.)

I don't mean to start off with a rant, really. It's just that Oscar season is an annual highlight for me. I love delving into reviews, sitting in dark theaters, being completely entranced by a performance, reeling from great writing brought to life. I even love that hectic last weekend before the Oscars, a marathon of every movie I managed to miss up to that point. Would I love it if Oscar-worthy movies were more staggered throughout the year? Sure. But do I think that's what's going on this fall/winter? Nope. All that said, I did manage to see three entirely wonderful films last weekend. And in a year when "Transformers" has a decent chance of being a Best Picture nominee, I'd happily cheer for any of these instead.

Seriously, Hollywood, give me my serious movies already!*

An Education
The central players in this coming-of-age story (don't yawn) set in 1950s England are the elegantly slippery Peter Sarsgaard and newcomer Carey Mulligan, who brings some brains to the classic ingenue role. Mulligan is more than meets the eye here, while Sarsgaard is much, much less. Alfred Molina (!) does Alfred Molina, Emma Thompson mails in another Emma Thompson cameo (she's also fantastic and fleeting in Pirate Radio), and finally back on screen is the teacher that stole Jason Schwartzman's heart in Rushmore, here as another stand-up teacher fighting another good fight. This all might sound rehashed and uninteresting, but Nick Hornby's screenplay ensures that it is not. Worth a viewing, this one, really. 

Fantastic Mr. Fox
This film is such an interesting parallel with Where the Wild Things Are. I don't really mean to compare/contrast, just to note the presence of these two films together in the same season - I find that really interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed both movies. And while WTWTA is a testament to fantasy borne of daydreams, Fantastic Mr. Fox is grounded in reality-based fantasy - a subtle but important distinction. Wes Anderson finally broke free of his Wes Anderson-ness here, and it's refreshing to see him do something different. (Although fellow weary Wes fans, never fear, there's plenty of him still sprinkled throughout.) The cast is phenomenal (Meryl and George: Foxy Couple of the Year!) and the entire journey is so damn fun and full of heart that you forget you're drinking wine in an indie movie theater on a Saturday night while watching what amounts to a children's film. Now that's a victory.

Away We Go (DVD)
We've had this one sitting around from Netflix for much too long, and as soon as it began I felt guilty for all those months of neglect. I'm a fan of director Sam Mendes, but one of the complaints you sometimes hear about him is that he doesn't like people, and it shows. That's certainly one way to view the peripheral characters here, none of which are very likable (and most of which are hilariously unlikable). But what I loved about this film was the way in which the craziness of the people around these two brought forth what was so simple and beautiful about them and their relationship. They're a calm force moving through a hurricane of simultaneously fun and horrific cameos. Rent this one for Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski.

*I know, I know, I still have to see 'Precious.' Just working up to the planned depression, is all.

Levi's and Jim Jones: a tad much for a holiday weekend

Thanksgiving: excellent. Food: delish! And movies: so many movies! More on all of that soon. But for now, I've just got to get something off my chest:

The Levi's "O Pioneer" commercials (which happened to be played before both movies we saw in the theater this weekend) completely, utterly freak me out.

The commercial features an old Smithsonian Folkways recording of a Walt Whitman poem, set to hipster video. I like Walt. My copy of 'Leaves of Grass' has long been worn out. But I digress. The commercial:

(omg I can't believe I'm embedding this terrifying commercial onto my blog omgomgomg)



Here's the problem. Have you seen the American Experience episode about Jonestown, perhaps? It's completely, utterly haunting. Rather devastating to watch, to tell you the truth. Which I've done twice, since I'm a glutton for punishment. The end is nearly unbearable: recordings of Jim Jones issuing suicide directives to the crowd of 900 men, women, and children who died with him that day. "Lay it down," he orders them repeatedly. His voice is shockingly like that of 1957 actor Will Geer, who narrates the Levi's commercial. His tone is eerily similar. The themes... also really uncomfortably similar.

Whitman: "Come my tan-faced children, Follow well in order, Get your weapons ready."

Whitman: "We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger. We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend."

I can't bring myself to post Jonestown links here, but watch the video in the American Experience link above to get a taste of the completely bone-chilling similarity.

Scared of a Levi's commercial. That's me. Actually sitting in a dark theater wondering if somehow Levi's was dumb enough to use Jim Jones recordings, that's how eerily alike they are.

(Whimper.)

Pirate Radio: Mood booster for whatever ails you

Begin with one of my very favorite actors...

Pay tribute to one of his best characters...

Mix in another phenomenal actor....

Sprinkle in these moves...

Add in MURRAY (!!!) to your liking...

Garnish with a variety of other extremely likable people who are all fantastically styled...

Mix with a Richard Curtis screenplay (no need for 100% historical accuracy, right?) and serve to a fantastic soundtrack that'll have you humming and tapping your feet for two hours. What do you have?

Pirate Radio!

Confession: Window-Watching

I found myself completely entranced this morning by an article in today's Home section of the New York Times: Window Watchers in a City of Strangers.The piece elegantly peers into the lives of New York residents who watch their neighbors through their windows. Practices that might seem unsettling to outsiders are approached here as a reality of life for many New Yorkers, whose view out their windows often directly faces the private lives of neighboring strangers. The article introduces us to artists who find comfort in watching other artists work late at night; dueling dinner parties; family gatherings, and of course, sex and death. The resulting collage is a gentle look at a few much bigger questions: What's at the core of city living? Do collections of individuals whose lives surround one another's comprise a sort of family? Why do we watch other people, or why don't we?

"The artist Gail Albert Halaban explores the topic in a series of staged photographs, like the one above of a building on Third Avenue."

I admit to being a voyeur of sorts. I love glimpses into windows at night and enjoy seeing and listening to pedestrians on the sidewalk below my office window. While some might take a Big Brother approach to this sort of behavior, I feel more like a benevolent observer. Human behavior is fascinating to me, always, and I'm endlessly curious about people. The pitter-patter of conversation, pots clanging at the next place over... those sounds have always been comforting to me. And, ooh, I like the color of their walls... Ah, they're cooking together! See what I mean?

Peeking into other people's lives reminds me of one of my favorite quotes, courtesy of Mark Twain: "Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy." I suppose, for me, glimpsing even the smallest of behaviors is a way to write these bigger stories in my own mind. And it's worth noting that I only enjoy watching strangers, not people I know.

Tell me: are you a window-watcher as well?

* For illustrations of some celebrated New York residents' views, see "Personal Views of the City," a slideshow featuring the work of Matteo Pericoli. There are so many gorgeous photos in the article, as well, but unfortunately only two of the them are in the online version.

PS: This discussion reminds me of The Lives of Others, an absolutely brillliant film. Netflix immediately.

For me, funnymen?

I'd like to request the following subjects make their own feature-length films:


Tennis with Andre Leon Talley



If you saw 'The September Issue,' you know there are two takeaways: Grace Coddington is amazing and Andre Leon Talley is somehow more outrageous than we ever thought possible. I could watch him playing tennis and describing his accessories for hours. Burning question: how does he change his look on the court during cooler seasons? I must know!


Modern Family's 'Mitchell and Cameron'

I'm obsessed with Mitchell and Cameron from Modern Family. (Watch this clip if you're not already watching this show to see why.) While I am totally crushing on the entire cast (Sofia Vergara kills it as the hot Latin trophy wife cliche to Ed O'Neil), these two are just ridiculous. The toddler class last night with Cameron reigning in his "natural gifts" ?? No words.

Ken Tanaka from 'Glee'



My other television crush this fall, Glee, boasts another entirely loveable cast. And while I'm obsessed with Jane Lynch anyway, increasingly crushing on Mathew Morrison, and totally smitten with Jayma May's adorable J.Crew'd, OCD self, I think I have a growing soft spot for Ken Tenaka, the lovable but dumb football couch who happens to be proficient in early '90s R&B songs. I want to see where he lives! I want Ken to be happy! (And since Ken Tanaka videos aren't exactly sweeping the Web, let's just spend Thursday morning watching a YouTube Acafellas video that someone made by taping their video screen, why don't we? Look at Ken rocking his white belt!) Bonus audio clip, on knocking off a few reps, here.