Jak and Jil is a revered and focused candid style blog that solely features beautiful shots of the style elite during fashion weeks. It's got a clean layout with nice large crisp photos that will make those with a passion for shoes especially weak in the knees.
The brainchild of fashion photographer Tommy Ton, this site goes the high road with the whole street fashion blogging trend. You'll get access to all the top players latest looks with a healthy dose of Carine Roitfeld and Kate Lanphear.
So even though David Wain's new movie The Ten is a bit of a disappointment, and I've heard from people who've met him that in person he's rather douchey (going to great lengths to defend his decision to tag British building with the provocative phrase 'AZ IZ); oiled up, tanned, mostached and long haired, his turn as Jesus Christ had me thinking all sorts of south of the border thoughts – if you know what I mean.
And while you may be able to fault him for sweating in this on trend and unlikable hat, he also co-wrote the pretty funny Tropic Thunder and was rad in Mulholland Drive.
My office is so nice they set up a projection of the inauguration but streaming problems intervened and we all ran downstairs to that Mexican restaurant with the big, bedazzled and lit up sombrero. So his speech was peppered with commentary like “you have to choose three kindsa tacos with that”.
Some are calling the speech itself downer, but I found it profoundly hopeful in it's pragmatism and strength. It's as if even the most cynical among us can believe that he is really, really going to do something, not just win hearts and votes anymore.
Michelle of course looked great, wearing smart and happy brocade by independent designer Isabel Toledo and Sasha and Malia have to be the cutest girls ever. I also went crazy for Aretha and her big, bold bow.
It was a proud moment in our history to say the least and on our wave of collective happiness, these bright, smiley Obama cookies were waiting for us to chow down on in celebration. Beyond the giddiness these evoke, they also happen to taste yummy, light and flaky. These are available through January at Eleni's. The McCain ones are not.
Great BeautyWhile recently going through my old Italian Vogues, I found a great photo retrospective about life time model and elegant beauty, Benedetta Barzini. Frustrated at not being able to read the accompanying article, I decided to find out what I cold about this sharp featured woman and found that she’s the kind of strong willed individual that blows the stereotype of a ditsy, shallow supermodel out of the water.
You might most recognize her today as one of the few models working with deep, well earned wrinkles but her career began back in the sixties. When starting out, after being discovered by the indomitable Diana Vreeland, she was once told (as she recalls in this 1977 People interview):
“Look—come to the parties, be nice to everyone, marry a rich American and you can stay in the U.S. That’s the way it works.”
Instead, she fell in with Warhol and had a highly publicized love affair with Gerard Malanga and she skipped out on her skyrocketing modeling career to act in Italy to became a feminist communist. This is probably why she is not a household name as she seemed destined to become and can be found no where near America’s Next Top Model’s judging table.
She can be found, however in the archives of the Sartorialist, making commenter’s wish for the genetics to look this good at her age.
While listening to the strikingly handsome but sadly insane Syd Barrett's solo effort, Madcap Laughs, I was struck by just how modern it sounds – not just in the sense of the lovelorn, art school, lo-fi trend of recent times; but also in a Thoroughly Modern Millie sense. Just listen to 'Love You' and you can easily imagine that Barrett was at least a passing fan of show tunes. More frequently though, the peppy album sounds more like a predecessor to the early work of Beck (whom tolerates constant comparisons to Barrett) and perhaps the single album most responsible for the irreverent wave of early 90s indie music, 'Long Gone' even evokes tones of Nirvana's unplugged session.
It's well known that Barrett's sense of reason was on the dark side of the moon by the time the unorthodox Madcap Laughs sessions took place. Most songs were first recorded by just Barrett and his guitar, other musicians would then add their pieces over that recording. According to the Wikipedia entry, this process was flawed:
Syd's playing and singing were highly erratic and unpredictable—he skipped or added beats and bars seemingly at random, or otherwise he would strum on a single chord for a long time before unexpectedly reverting back to the main portion of the song. This was all much to the frustration of the session musicians; a close listen to several tracks [in particular “No Good Trying” and “Love You”] will reveal the backing.
Even the album cover has one of those loony rock anecdotes behind it. According to Malcolm Jones on this very thorough site about the album's making:
One day in October or November I had cause to drop in at Syd's flat on my way home to leave him a tape of the album, and what I saw gave me quite a start. In anticipation of the photographic session for the sleeve, Syd had painted the bare floorboards of his room orange and purple. Up until then the floor was bare, with Syd's few possessions mostly on the floor; hi-fi, guitar, cushions, books and paintings. In fact the room was much as appears on the original 'Madcap' sleeve. Syd was well pleased with his days work and I must say it made a fine setting for the session due to take place.
The resulting music, perhaps because of its subsequent influence, doesn't sound quite as mad as I expected, but there's no denying it's an odd little album, layered with unique strokes of brilliance and happy accidents. Thanks again to Mike for the loan.
I know what Mickey Rourke was up to when we all didn't care about him – playing a villain opposite JCVD who surfaces at amusement parks. I know because I watched a third of Double Team a movie in which a (initially seemingly blind) Dennis Rodman wears cheap Halloween costume grade cyber tech bondage gear and goes by the name “Yaz“.
It cracked me up and while I usually don't have a difficult time explaining why something is funny, here I don't feel like I have to – his name was Yaz and it was Dennis Rodman.
The movie, sadly lacked the charm of a fine Seagal and insulted the late great Patrick McGoohan and Iron Maiden alike by ripping off The Prisoner, so we didn't it all the way through – but I did want to see more of Yaz, so I thought we might be going about it the wrong way: screw Double Team – let's just find more Rodman pictures..
Ends up there aren't very many. His other films available on Netflix include a Point Break rip off with skydiving in place of surfing and Stephen Baldwin in place of Patrick Swayze and another where Rodman is a “hip interpol agent” who has to team up with Dane Cook!
Needless to say, I didn't watch these and decided Double Team was a masterpiece by comparison. but Rodman just enjoyed making the film because there were “no refs”.
I know I've recommended This American Life before as an ideal way to spend a couple hours and as a TV Show and you know I hate to ever repeat myself here, but I thought I'd remind you all about the website, where you can listen to the archives for free.
In particular, I'd really like to point you towards episode #355: The Giant Pool of Money which explains the whole economic crisis with wit and candor in a way that one without a lot of financial know how can understand it.
I will be listening to the latest show about the Inauguration next.
While the Anasazis actually lived no where near the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, the real deal was brought down, brick by brick and faithfully reconstructed as a tourist site in my home town. I hadn't been since I was a kid, so on a recent trip home my family and I took advantage of the insane 55 degree weather and crawled through tiny abodes, sat on wooden ladders, and my dad even got inside the traditional oven.
It really is quite beautiful and unlike the Cave of the Winds up the road (which I'll tell you about next week), there is no guide required – you can stroll around on your own time. There is also a gigantic multi tiered gift shop sprinkled with rattle snake taxidermy where we got a shot glass with a bear inside it and a nice little museum with dioramas and lovely painted pots.
While it's clearly a paler cousin to the massive dwellings at Mesa Verde, it's a fun old timey tourist destination and you can eat some great Mexican grub and margaritas after wards at the brightly and sometimes erotically decorated Amanda Fonda restaurant in town.
Trend Forecaster extraordinaire, Li Edelkoort recently mourned the end of the Polaroid (the company stopped manufacturing the cameras and film in December) at a lecture. But with a ray of hope in her voice she said that one day technology would be able to replicate the look of a Polaroid. She needed not worry to long, because on Polaroid.net, that breakthrough is already here.
True, there is no instant and tactile gratification, no physical memory to store away in a shoe box or tile on your college apartment walls, but it's internet ready for whichever social site you belong to and they had the decency to keep the satisfying zooming sound for all us Polaroid lovers.
A couple weeks ago I was totally flattened out by that nasty cold that's going around. I missed brunches, birthdays, meeting up with old friends and work because of it. In short it was very sad, and I was not happy about it one bit.
What was even worse though, was the horrible prospect of having to drink the dreaded Theraflu. I promised Jim I would, since I know it helps, but it's got to be the worst tasting thing on the planet.
He promised that the brand had a whole new flavor and while rolling my eyes at him enthusiasm and holding my nose, I took a sip…
And you would never believe me if I told you – but you owe it to yourself for the next time you're sick to believe me. Theraflu actually tastes fine now! Oh, the world's topsy turvy and I managed through my cold with less suffering because of it.
The yummy ones are the new “Honey Lemon Infused with Chamomile & White Tea Flavors” for night time severe cold and flu and the daytime “Berry Infused with Menthol and Green Tea” all others are suspect.