das ist berlin

a wee photo roundup from berlin. i leave for greece tomorrow, so blogging is going to be few and far between til i get to chicago in a couple of weeks. I plan on purchasing an ibook immediately upon arrival in the Land of the Dollar. Life without constant internet access has made blogging DIFFICULT, my friends. Oh so challenging. In other news, I'm officially moved into my Shoreditch flat and I couldn't be more thrilled........ah, what a difference it makes, living in tha East End! Pure joy.

teehee.

entertaining graph website.

(back from berlin, will update with photos & stories tomorrow!)

auf wiedersehen

tomorrow i head to the vast industrial space of berlin. it will be my first trip to germany (not counting a day trip over the french border to Birkenstock, on a school trip, when i was 15. no, i did not buy birkenstocks that day, i'm not that lame).

i'll be meeting up with 3 spanish friends from my semester abroad in grenoble -- one of whom i'll be seeing for the first time since that semester abroad, 3 long (?) years ago. if you have any suggestions of places to go, things to see, apfelkuchens to eat, shops to shop at, then do let me know--

see you next week, lovelies!!

(photos courtesy of juergen and tal bright flickrstreams)

So long, Farewell...

Modish is one of the very first blogs I started reading daily when my blogsession commenced about 2 years ago. Jena started Modish with the goal of sharing with the blogosphere the incredible hand-made goods she found on independent, online shops. Her blog became so popular she was able to quit her job and make a living off of it (living the dream!). She even posted about a vintage Lagerfeld dress I sold in my online vintage shop back in the day!

Now, she's closing the doors of her online Modish shop so that she can have more time to concentrate on her blog and her own writing, so hurry up and get over to the shop before June 30th to get 15% off everything(enter 'byemodish' at checkout).

Because they're hungrier than we are. Because they believe in life more than we do.

Summer Sundays in London are marvelous. Brick Lane & Spitalfields market, oh my. Bought my first Paul Auster novel (The Brooklyn Follies). Peeked in on the all-day jungle/house music dance party in the back room at one of my favorite London spots, Cafe 1001. Stood in line for 20 minutes to get the revered, unbeatable, gloriously tasty Japanese pancake (chopped vegetables cooked with cheese in shape of pancake, topped with scallions and sweet mayo) only to have the power on their griddle go out just as it was our turn, and walk away sad and empty-tummied. No matter, we moved onward and upwards, to the other J-food: Jewlicious.

Had my first bagel ("beige"?!) since I've moved here, at the 24-hour white-fronted Beigel Bake on Brick Lane, filled with cream cheese and lox, for just £1 flippin' .50. Insane. Anywhere else in the city and it would be more than £4, easy. Next door is another bagel shop, yellow-fronted. We did a taste test and theirs is superior: they add lemon juice & pepper to their sandwich, build each one to order, and their beigels are fluffier. Both offer plain beigels for just 20p, an unheard-of deal and if I weren't kind of carb-phobic I could live oh so cheaply on them.

re-bourne on a friday nite

On Friday evening, Victoria, aka my boyfriend, and I went out on a hot date to Hakkasan, a Michelin-starred Chinese resto in the heart of Fitzrovia. Of course we didn't eat, but gussied up for a splurge on fancy drinks at the underwater-esque bar. At £9.50 a pop, the martini I ordered better have been the best I've ever tasted...and lo, it was. Pineapple juice, fresh-crushed ginger and basil/cilantro foam. Waow. Their menu looked impressive, and we kept hoping in vain that some businessmen with holes burning in their pockets would invite us to dine with them -- the £280 appetizer looked particularly alluring. Instead, a seemingly coked-out Scot chatted us up, quoted a Pulp Fiction scene at length, and then blustered on his merry way with his Aussie friends.

Then we headed to Bourne & Hollingsworth, my favourite bar in London. It's decorated like your grandma's living room, wallpaper and candles in tea cups. Their DJ was overly excited about each record he spun, climbing up on the chair and waving his hands in the air like he just didn't care. Witness:



Loved him. Clearly the fellow in front of me was also a fan.

Naked Bike Ride Day in London

I was checking out my the final degree show at Central St. Martin's, so I couldn't make it over to Hyde Park in time to witness this, but man do I wish I had. These flickr photos from the Londonist flickr pool almost make me wish I had even -- gasp -- participated. They seem like they're having so much fun, and totally nonchalant about the fact that the only thing between their arse and the world is a wee leather bike seat. The ride was to protest global dependence on oil and to celebrate National Bike Week.





well, we know he's not Jewish. Nice accessorizing with the wig, though.



(photos via randydandy's flickrstream. do yourself a favor and go check out the rest.)

UNICORNS: EXIST!

childhood fantasies: substantiated.

gewd fewd.

I've been tagged by the lovely Ms. Flora to answer a few quick preferences about food, food, glorious food. Flora & I both worked on these books at Otterbach & Partners publishing company. She did all the illustrations for both books, and they're fan-bloody-tastic. I even have one of them hanging in my room, a dog that's a dog-walker (incidentally, one of the 7 beloved jobs I held last year in Phoenix).


Her post is here, replete with her own drawings (!) as answers. My answers will not include my own drawings because 1) it would look really bad 2) i don't have a computer anymore, mine's broken and i'm waiting til i go home in july to invest in an ibook.

anyhow, my answers, onwards!

1. One thing I don't like: Any kind of melon. And olives.

2. 3 of my favorite foods: Frosting (or frosting'd foodstuffs), fish-heavy maki rolls, massive apple pancake from Walker Brothers (Chicago)

(photo via eszter's flickr)

3. My favorite recipe: Mejadarah (Arab vegetarian dish with lentils & rice) from one of my favourite new restos in London, found here

4. My drink: Lemonade tinkling in a glass with ice on a summer porch somewhere

5. The dish I wish I could cook: Hmm...the vegetarian lasagna my friend alex made from Jamie Oliver's cookbook. That was amazing. Also, my mom's Texas Sheet Cake, the best chocolate cake in the world. (and i'm not really all that keen on chocolate)

6. My best food memory: My first trip to Europe, 9 years old. Paper-thin sandwiches inlaid with diaphanous slices of cucumber brought to our luxurious Oxford hotel on a silver platter, underneath a fancy serving dome (what are those called?).

I'll cheat: that memory AND at my sister's wedding dinner in the heart of Tuscany, on a terrace overlooking the Tuscan countryside, 8 courses of black truffle-decorated pasta, fish, rabbit, and the biggest mixed fruit tart mine eyes hath ever seen.

Have a go? ripelondon, touchtouch, & gill, I tag thee.

to market, to market.

Yesterday morning was my first visit to Columbia Road flower market, a Sunday ritual for green-thumbed Londoners. It's tucked away in Shoreditch, but all I had to do was follow the direction from where the clusters of people carrying greenery were coming. Easy peasy.

I met up with one of my future flatmates (moving in 2 weeks, can't waiiiiiit) for iced lattes and breakfast, curb-side. It was a delightful visit, and I am pinching myself with disbelief at the idea that it will be just a 5-minute walk from my doorstep once I move.

This photo was taken just before some heinous lady shoved me to the side as she moved past me (the tiny walkway betwixt stalls is impossibly crowded, but STILL, yo), and i fell into those flower pots. My calf is bruised, but I felt worse for fucking up some marketer's plants. It was so crowded no one seemed to really notice, though, but I was still blushing beneath my white ray bans.

Lovely antique shoppe.

We munched on breakfast and sipped our delicious iced cold drinks whilst watching all the people move past to the sound of this lovely man's accordian. Ah, summertime in London. And then I had to wonder: could I be any happier?

so many foreign worlds

things are good, y'all. it was a gorgeous, SUNNY, hot hot weekend in londontown. i've got a tan now. and my megaroo is finally back, for good. see how cute she is?:

we celebrated by heading straight for Buttercup Cake Shop, for the best cupcakes in town. Behold, the Sticky Toffee cupcake:

Zach & Corey were here all too briefly. We walked around and got soaked in the rain on Wedensday, ate mezze and drank wine at the delicious Gallipoli on Upper Street in Angel (go!), ducked in form the rain to catch Evensong in the first row of Westminster Abbey (glorious), and generally walked all over London in wet leather boots.

Lantern lights a-glow at Gallipoli.

Zach drinking from a pot of custard, which he assured me is really their version of our pudding, so not nearly as fattening/disgusting as it would be to consume a whole pot of actual custard. Or something.
Last tube, ghost town, Angel.

well, lookie lookie

you know, it's just me and justin vernon of bon iver, i'm just chillin' at his feet whilst he serenades me, whatevs. (i'm the blondie with my back to the camera, sitting right in front of him)

(photo found via 4ad, bon iver's record folks)

(my review of the show for londonist linked in the post below)

Bon Iver

Best gig I've ever, ever, ever had the joy of attending.

Bon Iver @ St. Giles in the Field church, last nite.

(photo via .sarahcass.)