Thursday, December 25, 2008

Food Politics

Merry Christmas and happy 5th night of Hanukkah!! WHEE! The NYT has a story (er, well, had yesterday, but it's hard to keep up w/ news in ol' Peoria) about the widespread hope that Mr. President-Elect will promote major change in the national food system. One of the dudes quoted is Eddie Gehman Kohan, the L.A. blogger behind Obamafoodorama, a fascinatingly niche site about Barry and chow. In the article, E.G.K. says:
"'He is the first president who might actually have eaten organic food, or at least eats out at great restaurants,' Ms. Gehman Kohan said."
How true. And sad.

By way of Obamafoodorama

Friday, December 19, 2008

The Palin Show: Season 2

The fun never stops, you guys. Levi Johnston's mommy has been charged with six felony counts re: a controlled substance (translation: she likely was making drugs or transporting 'em). Thanks, Anchorage Daily News.. Oh, and Bristol's due Saturday! Whee!

For old time's sake:

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Jewelry Face

I have apparently missed the boat. It was only today that I heard about Sarah Haskins' video series for Current TV called Target Women. (My friend R sold it to me immediately by calling it Jezebelian.) ANYWAY, it takes down advertising aimed at chicks, and the creator is this v. Comedy Central late-night-style personality who is an alum of both Harvard and the Chicago comedy scene. (*I* wanna be an improv star!) The latest video is about how wonderful it is for men to get their GFs/wives gleaming hunks of fugly jewelry for the halerdaze (that's "holidays" w/ J's Minnesota SLASH Chicago burbs room mom accent). Please watch.


Monday, December 15, 2008

Exercises In Branding

First off: UGH. I've been such a bad blogger. Christmas is so time-consuming, you guys. ANYWAY...

My friend C sent this rad link about could-have-been Obama campaign logos, and it got me thinking that 1) god, I love fonts and 2) god, I love branding. I the last couple years, I've been particularly drawn to logo art and logos-as-art. A few of my faves:

A. The Liquidated Logos from Zevs, this Parisian street artist. He does Coke, Mickey D.'s, etc. too, but I love the fashion ones.
From MocoLoco


B. The Learn the Basics puzzle for babies by Atypyk. Yes, I know that the concept of acquainting tots with the Nike swoosh is foul, but come on. You can't deny the coolness of the design or the statement it makes.
From Core77

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Do The Right Thing

Jon Stewart and Mike Huckabee talk gay marriage. The definition of right seems to be up in the air.

Bluh-GOY-uh-vich

Yesterday may as well have been national Blagojevich day, as far as I'm concerned, because I could focus on nothing else (not even new pictures of Suri wearing a coat!). Today, John Cass of the (flailing) Chicago Tribune writes an op-ed on the matter and basically talks about how, while this debacle and the the associated Clay Davis-style corruption doesn't come as a surprise to Chicagoans/Illinoisans who are used to these sort of local polischticks, the national media and the general public must be stunned—and a little bummed—that Chicago isn't actuuaaaallly the fairy tale-ized place they saw on the teevee on Nov. 4. He says:
"So though Illinois isn't surprised—this is after all the home of the Chicago Way—the national media must be shocked.

They've been clinging to the ridiculous notion that Chicago is Camelot for months now, cleaving to the idea with the willfulness of stubborn children. It must help them see Obama as some pristine creature, perhaps a gentle faun of a magic forest, unstained by our grubby politics, a bedtime story for grown-ups who insist upon fairy tales. But now the national media may finally be forced to confront reality."
But the issue with this idea that exposing Camelot's dark alleys negatively affects Obama is that—from everything we know right now—Mr. President Elect's hands are clean. Sure, Chi-town is looking a hell of a lot less shiny right now, but that almost plays into the fairy tale notion of Obama's perfection: He managed to be the anti-politician in a place that is full of the worst, dirtiest crooks out there. Rather than come out smelling like shit, he's looking like the flower who used the dung as fertilizer.


Clay Davis (of The Wire...I'm sorry) and his infamous "sheeeeeeiiiiiiiit"

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Gorge.

Why/how is Cate Blanchett always so dynamite? Here in Alexander McQueen. If I'm wearing something this bedazzled when I'm nearly 40...Sigh.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Ho Ho Holy Shit

YOU GUYS. I cannot even explain. Go to the website Betamaxmas right this minute. Basically, the geniuses over there have curated a collection of YouTube clips of eighties Christmas shows/specials/commercials. Not impressed? Um, there are three channels and a *guide* that will quite possibly keep you from accomplishing anything for the next three weeks.

The setting:
Now, GO.

I'm Sorry...HOT.

By way of Refinery 29.


I love a tennis boy almost as much as a soccer boy (see: my long-lost PBF) and am therefore OBSESSED with these new canvas kicks from A.P.C. x Nike. ("x" is the symbol used for all collaborations these days as the "+" is apparently too mundane?) They are a revival of Nike's 1975 All-Court model. Jean Touitou, I heart you.

Hi, Design!

After a weekend that largely consisted of 1) shopping online and 2) blowing my nose, I've realized some design/home obsessions that will no doubt still plague me when I've retired the DayQuil. (Ugh. I know.)

Numero uno: Mercury glass
Apparently, this effect is achieved by pouring some sort of silvering goo between the walls of a double-walled glass creation.


From the amazing Jayson Home and Garden ($35 ea.)


From Crate and Barrel ($219)


Numero dos: Wool plaid blankets
This is soooo not my usual taste, but the coziness factor is incredibly high. Obviously, I really only like the patterns in black, white, and camel.


From Toast, a British co. (£93)


From the ultra-classic Pendleton ($70)


Numero tres: Succulents
I live in a cave, and this likely accounts for some of my affection for the only plants that could survive the darkness and my lack of watering-and-fertilizing instincts. But then they're also just so pretty and green. Sigh.


From this rad La-la land company Succulent that only delivers its good stuff locally. Booooo.


There's something kind of subversive about this, no? From Viva Terra ($98)

Thursday, December 4, 2008

In Entertainment News...

Do you want the good or the bad first? (Unfortunately, there is not enough pressing info for the good-bad-good-bad-bad-good format.) Let's end on a good note anyway!

The bad: Do you recall the 12-year-old restaurant critic SLASH kid who just likes food and eating out? Well, Paramount is turning his story into a movie, and SNL's Lorne Michael will produce. I was under the impression that said story was just that he went for a fancy meal with the $25 bucks mommy gave him, but perhaps I'm wrong.

The good: Get ready for "DIE. D-I-E. DIE." season 2! WHEE! Oh, Rachel Zoe, why do I love you? But mid-2009 really is a long time to wait.

It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas Until Your Kitchen's Covered In Flour

I'm toooootally in a holiday mood, you guys. I'm writing my cards, online buying gifts, making T listen to seasonal classics from Mariah and Madonna...and, next up, I will BAKE, which is ultimately my favorite part because 1) it entails food and 2) you get so much credit for whipping up cookies because, for whatever reason, people think mixing together flour, eggs, butter, and sugar is harder than it is.

I'm going to make one of my mom's Chrismukkah specialties, heavenly hash, which is an ooey gooey combo of chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch, and marshmallows. It's her one Dec. treat that does not require a candy thermometer (which is really shocking if you know my mother, who hardly has the focus to complete a meal without leaving out a key ingredient). Beyond that, I'm playing domestic goddess with these crazy adorable sugar-crusted lemon sandwich cookies from this month's Gourmet and these brown butter cookies from a 1961 issue of the same inspired food mag (see the pretty pictures). [Please do not think that I resourceful enough to have dug up a sixties recipe on my own. The mag's website has this AMAZING roundup of the best cookie recipe from every year since 1941, and they all look so f-ing classy.]

OMFG, starving.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Michelle's Inauguration Dress: Getting Almost As Much Play As The Presidential Pup

WWD requested sketches of potential January 20 dresses from designers. My day and evening faves are below, and the rest are here.

From day...

By the loverly Rachel Roy.

To night. (Ok, that wording sounds soooo InStyle. Sorry.)

By Michael Kors, who I usually think is capital B Boring, but I feel like short-sleeve one shoulder is just the right amount of edge for the occasion.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

It All Comes Down To You

Sometimes, I get the random urge to watch forgotten romantic comedies like this one, staring the forgotten Freddie Prinze Jr., the forgotten Julia Stiles, and a slutty Selma Blair. Can someone please tell me where I even saw this movie in the first place? Probably on a brown basement couch.

The Collective Effervescence Of The Must-See TV Show

OMFG, someone—namely Adam Sternbergh—over at NY Mag is my soul mate. He has a story in this week's issue about how he just can't watch Mad Men even though every one of the two million people who do tune in try to get him to join their corps, like, every 2.5 seconds. He basically argues that since The Sopranos (a show that I, ahem, have never seen a minute of), we've been bombarded by the quality show—the thing you just HAVE to watch:
"Of course, The Sopranos changed all that. It normalized, then popularized, the idea that a TV show could measure up against the best of any art form. It heralded an age of creative latitude for TV creators, attracting vital talent to the medium. And it coincided with the rise of the Internet, which gave ardent TV fans a new place to gather and whip themselves into a froth—as if the office cooler had been transported into a giant echo chamber. All of which created the perfect conditions for a show to be declared the Best Ever—not just an amusing entertainment but a can’t-miss cultural event."
I'm always suspicious of the shows that win this Best Ever title—stuff like Battlestar Galactica, Lost, and Friday Night Lights—and have only become a card-carrying fan club member of one such program: The Wire (don't get me started). I too refuse to watch Mad Men even though K lent me her Season 1 DVDs. It just feels like I'm selling out or caving to the pressure of the masses, like joining Facebook in 2008 or wearing UGGs (ever). The author of this article goes on to address they why of watching THE show in our world of DVDs, Tivo, and (gasp) teevee on the internets:
"Maybe the furor around shows like Mad Men is not the product of some rampant mass hysteria. Maybe it’s the expression of a yearning for the last remnant of the traditional viewing experience we once shared. Long gone are the days when we would all sit down on Thursday at 10 to watch L.A. Law. So instead, to retain some sense of communal experience, we cling culturally to a single show. We don’t want to admit we’re splitting off in a million directions; we want to believe that all our eyes still occasionally turn in the same direction. (For the past year, the election campaign served this purpose—the one great show we all tuned into.) So it doesn’t even matter that not many people, relatively, are actually watching Mad Men. What matters is that everyone’s talking about it."
The election point is a good one, and this sense of communal experience is exactly why I watch every Monday what maaaaybe might not be one of the best shows ever, Gossip Girl. I know I can rehash the episode with ten people the next day (including my 38-year-old dude office neighbor), read the recaps on Videogum, and feel like I'm part of some big inside joke for a mere 40 min. of DVR time a week. Not to imply that Chuck Bass' fashion choices aren't reason enough to watch.

Thanks, Miss Isadora

Carine! Carine! Carine! EEEH!

Well, the rumor mill (apparently Gawker is back to covering publishing news? huh) says that Anna Wintour might be replaced by Carine Roitfeld (of French Vogue) come 2009. Now, last week, the gossipy guys and gals were claiming A Dubs was going to go work for Obama, soo...Ya get my drift. Regardless, I'm OBSESSED with Carine. As in, I want to be her intern/personal slave esp. if that means getting to touch her clothes. An ode:


From Gastrogirls


Aaaannd from the awesomeness that is Purple mag


I also love that a New York mag article from last Feb. by Amy Larocca said she looks like Iggy Pop.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Insert Cover Girl Joke Here

Tina Fey is on the cover of the new issue of Vanity Fair, but before I address the article, which was written by Maureen Dowd, we've gots to talk about the styling. Why is it that whenever anyone wants to prove T.F. (or, really, anyone for that matter) can be glamorous, they do this forced retro Hollywood L.A. Confidential look with red lipstick, side-swept curls, a bustier, and peep-toes? I'm over it. Way over it. And I'm also way over the biting-the-eyeglasses trick, which is apparently universal moron language for "I'm both smart and sexy!!!"

Moving on: The story itself feels...old. Like it was meant to come out on 11/11—a mere week after the election—but we are just seeing it now. This is clearly a problem that all magazines are facing—how do you deal with a topic that everyone cares about when you can't be at all current about it—but you can really feel it here when a big ol' chunk of page is dedicated to Tina doin' the Palin. The best parts of the piece come straight outta the comedienne's mouth. I guess that's kind of a duh, but still.

On binging before her shoot with Annie Leibovitz:
"Annie’s going to photograph my soul, right?"
On her high school social life:
"I remember bringing people over in high school to play—that’s how cool I am—that game Celebrity. That’s how I successfully remained a virgin well into my 20s, bringing gay boys over to play Celebrity."
On moving to NY
"I’m five four and a half, and I think I was maxing out at just short of 150 pounds, which isn’t so big. But when you move to New York from Chicago, you feel really big. Because everyone is pulled together, small, and Asian. Everyone’s Asian."

PS: Happy belated Thanksgiving!

PPS: Sorry for the long blogging break! I'm back! Not that you were really worried.