franny and.

zooey deschanel is just, so, wonderful.

mark and i are a big fan of "top" lists. it's pretty much a given that whatever we're discussing, one of us will interrupt the discussion and say "HAY. TOP THREE [INSERT TOPICAL ITEM HERE]." Last nite, it was top three female comedians (we didn't share a single one, odd). Anyway, if I had to choose my top 3 actresses, ms. zooey would be in there. (other 2: julianne moore & catherine keener. i would watch them butter toast.) also i want zooey's hair, really really badly.


the new erin fetherston video starring zooey is on youtube now, and i gotta say, i wasn't as enthralled as i had hoped. the video barely showcases any of fetherston's designs, which are the most lovely, whimsical things, and the concept/direction is pretty underwhelming: zooey prancing around a forest to different songs in the same 2 outfits for 7 minutes. the kirsten dunst one was somehow more engaging, even though it had pretty much the same concept -- altho that cocorosie song! ah, gives me the good chills.

BUT, around the 4:45 mark, the soundtrack switches to an andrews sisters song, "tico tico." my beloved gramma's favorite group was the Andrew Sisters, and we used to play the cassette tape in the kitchen while she cooked or when i helped clean up after dinner. If I was lucky, she would agree to play the album on the record player and we'd listen to the scratchy trumpets blast that inimitable '40s big band sound, and I'd think of my grandma back in her day, wearing all those gorgeous dresses still hanging in her closet, dancing along to the Andrews Sisters in heels and red lipstick, her dark curls shining. We would listen to the album standing side by side at the kitchen sink, my child fingers soapy and pruned, and her spotted, strong hands confidently handling the china plates. Our hips would swing in unison to our favorite songs, 'rum and cola' or 'apple tree,' about a soldier begging his girl to wait for him until he gets home after the war:

don't sit under the apple tree
with anyone else but me
no anyone else but me
til i come marching home

ok, that was a major digression. the point is, zooey dancing around to the andrew sisters is the sweetest thing, it's worth at least going to that minute mark of the fetherston video just to see it. here she is in concert, singing 'i put a spell on you' with that unbelievably haunting, lovely voice of hers.

she moves she

four tet love.

pretty, preeeeeetty good.

oh YES, people.
LARRY DAVID AND WOODY ALLEN UNITE TO MAKE MOST JEWTACULAR MOVIE OF ALL TIME. here is larry (in his hipster plimsolls and my dad's legs) on the set. ohmygawd, i cannot relate the elation i doth feel. you couldn't pay me a hundred dollars not to see that movie on opening day.

wait, let's re-assess: i currently have 6 pounds to last me thru the weekend til my check clears. i'd take the benjamin, but that doesn't mean i'd feel good about it.

anyway, in honor of woody & larry, mine favorite jews, here are a few photos from the ad-hoc passover seder rebecca & i put together last weekend. we embraced our inner half-jews and introduced our goyem heathen friends to the joys of the haggadah (the telling of the story of passover).

look dad, i made charoset! (delicious dish of apples & nuts to represent mortar) you'll notice challah in there, that's because the anti-semitic Sainsbury's supermarket DIDN'T HAVE MATZOH. on passover! the eff. whatevuh, i told you it was ad-hoc.

we passed the laptop around the table and took turns reading the haggadah off of a pdf file on my computer since the printer in the computing commons was broken (always).

the tracks of my tears: a drop of wine on the plate for each plague, y'all. (apparently at this point we were only at the reading of the 9th)


(c)holla!

the way to my heart

review on londonist to come next week.
best.
cupcakes.
of.
my.
life.
~
happy
happy
joy
joy

i throw myself at men

"i have a bizarrely good vertical leap," says Lilly McElroy, photographer extraordinaire whose latest series involved literally throwing herself at men while a friend captured the moment on film. i'm so enamored of her physical play on the loaded phrase. her flying leaps are rad, but the guys' reactions are possibly even more entertaining. look at dude #3! he's not even bothering to try catching her! i don't think he got the memo that it wasn't supposed to be a DudeBro Chest Thump (there's got to be an official name for that).

I gotta get on this situationist-media bandwagon.


via my new favorite blog of the last ten minutes. NO WONDER I DON'T GET ANYTHING DONE.

contort yourself

wow, i've just found my new favorite web thing, evereverever.

dipsetmuthafucka has filmed himself dancing to a different song, in a different location, every day for the past six months. this video right here is 6 months of daily dancing distilled into 6 minutes, and it's pretty much the most brilliant, joyful 6 minutes ever. think: napoleon dynamite dancing, but bearded and hot, in better clothes, in sundry locations such as on beaches, in vintage clothing shops, in subway stations, and in his grandparent's living room (his grandparents lovingly watching from the couch, intrigued yet reticent). lerv.

touch touch

this is the entry to my bestestbestfriend's website, touchtouchpublishing.

it's her burgeoning publishing company that hopefully one day she (juliet), miranda july & i will all be working on together --

(and paying our writers ADVANCES, unlike HARPER COLLINS, but that's a worrisome publishing story for another time) --

anyhow, you all need to go and visit her site, because until she gets the publishing books end up and running, she is selling some pretty rad merchandise.

such as magnets whose thought bubbles say "LOODILY LOO" and this understated-ly hilarious Michael Keaton tee:
there, now i've added legions of juliet adorers to the world. it's good, as she's rather lovable. <3

bluebird, ii

this is how i get dressed

I don't have a full-length mirror anywhere, so sometimes I have to improvise to figure out which shoes go best (I went with the boots).

another thing that thrills me:

I'VE FOUND A FLAT FOR NEXT YEAR!!!!!!!

it was completely serendipitous, i was going to have to begin the arduous flat hunt in the next couple of weeks, which i was seriously not looking forward to doing because it's hell finding a flat in london (i tried it already when i first moved here because I was so miserable with my Draconian student housing complex that I tried to move elsewhere, to no avail).

anyhoodle! the other nite at a book launch party, this girl i had met once thru work and i were chatting, and lo and behold, she needed someone to move into her SICK ASS Shoreditch flat, and I needed a place by summer, and so I went to look at it and OH EM GEE. it is the sweetest fucking flat. Massssssssive common area, living room/workspace/open plan kitchen, 3 really cool arts/design student grads (girls from singapore, denmark, and switzerland), and an adorable little room for yours truly! AND IT HAS A DISHWASHER AND A ROOF GARDEN. SOLD! It's in my favorite area in London, exactly where I was going to concentrate my flat hunt. I can't believe it, it's almost too good to be true. whee. I move in the end of June, just after I return from visiting my wonderful Spaniards in Berlin.

view from entrance

view from kitchen

LIFE = COMPLETE.

So, pretty much the best website on Earth linked to MY Londonist post yesterday!!!! WHAT ELATION I DO FEEL!!!!!!!

Moe over at Jezebel linked here to my piece about misogynist British National Party leader who wrote that husband rape is "not violent" and is akin "force-feeding a woman chocolate cake." OH.MY.GAWD. Seriously thrilled. My favorite website links to my Londonist rant!

HUZZAHHHHHHHHHHHHH NON-RAPEY CHOCOLATE CAKE FOR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

new banksy

the latest from guerilla graffiti artist banksy.

there is one CCTV camera for every 13 people in london. it's creepy, and even creepier is, after 6 months i've almost become used to the cameras smattered in every building, every doorway, every train station, every escalator, every gate, every...

the publishing/art design company i worked for last semester, sweet dreams security creates provocative design for the everyday security-conscious world that we have seemingly almost blindly come to accept. Matthias's work has been exhibited at MOMA and has been named one of london's rising 'art stars' many times over -- his "meow" cat cover for CCTV cameras is one of his tongue-in-cheek designs that addresses this constantly watched existence. check out his stuff, it's pretty brilliant.

Fashion Gets Political: My Aunt's Musings

"How can these women deny abuse? LOOK AT WHAT THEY'RE WEARING. That's not abusive??"

ain't no sunshine when she's gone

Today may look like this:

But thanks to a looming essay deadline, it's all about this:

this makes me happy (and hungry for frosting)

Stop-motion cupcake waltz

In other baked-goods news, sam & i made flapjacks last nite. Flapjacks are like the quintessential british sweet, less high-brow than scones and far easier to make. We literally dumped a shitload of butter, sugar, golden syrup (which came in a tin that read PERFECT FOR PUDDINGS! in Old-Tymey script) and oats into a pan and baked it. They were delicious, but even better before we put it in the oven. we made ourselves slightly ill with repeated dips into the saucepan whilst the ingredients were melting. Yummm.

Tonight we're watching the last episode of Skins. Anyone else out there as freakishly obsessed with this show as I am??? It's like the british version of 'gossip girl,' but far better written and not as glitzy. And it's got the dude from 'about a boy' in it, all grown up and HOTTT with three t's.