Summer Reading

Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures): True Stories from a War Zone
by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait, and Andrew Thomson

My next choice for summer reading was significantly different. This book is a meaty, intense read, far from the light fare so many pick for a beach or camp book. That said, read it immediately.

This memoir from three perspectives details a decade of service in the Red Cross and United Nations. The authors are deployed in Cambodia, Haiti, Bosnia, Rwanda, Somalia, and Liberia with stopovers in New York throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. They are young, attractive, clever, and hopeful in Cambodia, there to help democracy reach the oppressed masses. Thrown into situations they don't fully understand and surrounded by the luxury and excitement of being a liberated and comparatively rich white civilian in a tropical paradise. They are naive, idealistic, adventurous and excited, and it is beautiful. Heady by their success, they keep their positions with the UN and seek deployment in the newly developing wars across the world.

Of course, as they face genocide, hatred, and corruption, each of the authors must reexamine their own motivations and positions. Their perspectives, while immersed in the chaos in each of the above nations, reveals the failures and poor choices of the US and UN leaders, the fallibility of individuals on either side, but also those glorious moments of pure and noble humanity so starkly exposed against the horrors.

Regardless of how thorough your history of the 1990s is, this well written set of vignettes and essays will give you an entirely new way to look at the involvement of the UN and US in developing situations around the world then and, in all likelihood, now.

The Fame Monster Bites Back

Oh, Gaga. I really do like you. I find your music, videos and daily life a really awesome perspective on fame, performitivity, and contemporary pop culture. I pretty much think you are awesome. And you always make for a rockin' dance party, even if it is just me in my living room.

But your new video for "Alejandro", above, is disappointing. First off, can we please talk about how the song itself is just a collaboration between Madonna and Ace of Base? And a really mediocre one at that? It's like a desperate attempt by both of them to regain number one status, but they've run out of ideas, so they just remix "La Isla Bonita" and "All That She Wants" and fail hard. If this song was anyone but Gaga, I doubt it would make the radio top playlists. I suppose, from a critical perspective, this faux collaboration could get some pop culture academics really excited, and so much of Gaga's work holds echoes of Madonna, but I'm not really sold.

And then there is the video. It is essentially a strange retrospective WWII scifi film featuring crazy Nazis and Madonna. All it was missing was Bai Ling's character from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, though I suppose Gaga's outfit first seen at 1:06 fills that role. And by Madonna, I mean her whole bag of crazy right up through Erotica (but definitely before Ray of Light). Seriously, all our favorite Madonna wacky antics feature in the video, and not in a great way. I know the director of the video has often collaborated with Madonna for her videos, but really?

Lady G is certainly all about the shock factor, and an androgynous nazi porn shoot definitely has a shock value, but in an almost predictable way. "Telephone" messes with gender expectations and plays with pop culture references, but is like very little we've seen before. "Alejandro" plays out like the first time a kid learns he can use Hitler as the ultimate insult -- inappropriate and shocking, yes, but really not innovative, compelling, or worth a second look.

PS: I did really like the brief dance sequence from 0:29 to about 1:00. And maybe 2.5 of her dozen outfits...
PPS: I really hope that the Dorothy Hamill haircut that she sports at 5:36, and that some indie babes are starting to rock (Inara George, for one...), doesn't catch on. I can't go through that again!

Oh dear...

I know I risk sounding like an overly analytical academic when I say this, but I'm going to do so anyway. This campaign is beautiful -- a sort of naive, glorious, sexy fantasy -- but as soon as all three models came together on the screen my thinking cap turned on and started analyzing all the LGBT (well, mostly LGB, though who knows with models these days...) connotations at work here. I'm pretty sure they just had a really steamy three some in the barn, but that childlike delight they display the whole time keeps things so innocent. Very interesting, but I must confess I was a bit too distracted by the film -- and I'm not even mentioning the rain -- to even notice the clothes. Oops.

Oh My

Do you know Gin Wigmore yet? She's a Kiwi, so I don't think so big on the US scene yet. My boy's sister sent us the album last Christmas and it quickly made its way onto my go-to playlists, and several of the tracks are on my workout mix. This is one of them. As a bonus, the video is rad. How does that voice come out of that cute little thing?

Summer Reading

Okay kiddos, apparently now that Memorial Day has passed, summer is official. For those of us who live in L.A., summer never really stops, but I think that actually fades some of its charm. What fun is summer if you don't have to wait impatiently for it during winter?

That said, I still love summer. And my favorite part as a student was the summer reading. I could read any and everything I wanted, without having deadlines or papers or analyses to keep in mind. I plan on doing quite a bit of summer reading, though with the added benefit of not stopping come Labor Day. And I'll share what I like here, so you too can have fun. First up is a book I've read before, but decided was worth yet another reread, and thus doubly worth a recommendation. I hope you enjoy.

A Taxonomy of Barnacles by Galt Niederhoffer

The love child of Jane Austen and Charles Darwin, this is a novel about characters, love, relationships, and growing up as a girl. Lovers go courting, sisters fight and defend one another, and the parents are inevitably bonkers. It has the charms of Austen's England, in a way, but is set in modern New York, and has a decidedly Darwinistic slant -- that is, nature vs. nurture -- to its dark and wry humor. Spunky, at times silly, but definitely delicious.

Time for a Picnic

Okay, so maybe I'm a little late in the blog world to profess my desire for a summer of picnics. Too bad. Between a delicious bottled pink lemonade found at the local grocery chain, the berries just begging to be made into a crumbly pie, and my everlasting love of chicken salad, potato salad, and deviled eggs, I think I need a picnic.

Now I just need a destination -- a hike up the foothills? A stroll over to a park? Perhaps a trip to the zoo? And a few happy eaters. Oh, and maybe a swell striped vintage dress... As soon as I'm done altering one of my finds from the always fab Playclothes, this picnic is on.

ps: Sorry for the lack of images lately... I'm trying to use only my own images (or at least mostly), but haven't got my camera up to speed yet...

Fauxbulous Party

Being a new girl in a strange city makes it hard to indulge my love of parties. I just don't know enough people here to successfully throw a party, and the few I do are all spread throughout the area, making it hard to get everyone together. However, I still get the urge to throw a party every other day. (Especially as my birthday comes up in a couple weeks.) So I've decided to throw pretend parties in my mind, and tell you all about them here, so you can attend them in your imaginations too.

Today's party is a fictional birthday party (one of many), for my upcoming day. Since it is my fake party, making me guest of honor, I'm going to wear my favorite navy blue dress and shiny gold shoes and hey, since we are playing pretend, I think I'll wear this necklace as my pretend birthday present to myself! The party itself will have a rose and gold theme, very feminine, glamorous and lush. Here's what I'm thinking:

Gold glittery party hats, like this awesome party. And I'm sure we'd get gold glitter all over ourselves and everything else, which would be delightful.

Tissue poms in pretty shades of rose and peach and metallic gold.

Cake balls instead of regular cake, served on sticks. I'm thinking spice cake with lemon frosting and a dark chocolate ganache coating.

Hey, how about a pretty table for the food, arranged in a pretty and colorful way. I think some thrifting might be in order for trays and plates!

Maybe some of my favorite little savory crostini to cut the sweetness -- pear, blue cheese, and walnut; cranberry, caramelized onion, and brie; apple, mint, and havarti all on freshly toasted slices of baguette.

And little party favor bags, like at the best birthday parties when we were kids, with horns, bubbles, candy necklaces. And maybe something grown up. I love the little splash sizes from Demeter. They're only $6 and last forever. I often wear grass in summer and paperback in winter, but this could be a great time to try birthday cake or something funky like play-doh or sawdust. Perhaps little cloth bags (simply undyed muslin?), with a happy message written on it in gold paint.

Starting from Scratch

One of the fun parts of a new home in a new city with mostly new furniture is all the new decorating schemes I can come up with. I'm not limited to matching all my usual furniture and art, and I get to entirely rearrange the little I kept -- much easier done as you unpack a new place than rearranging a fully set up home. This said, although I've been in our current place for nearly three months, and we've been almost entirely unpacked for about two of those months, I only just hung the first wall art a few days ago.

I've decided on colors for the apartment (mostly blues and greens with some plum and pops of rust, ochre, leaf, and yellow all on a black and white background), and have some things purchased, other things bookmarked or planned, and other things are on the wish list or eventual diy list. But one of the things I'm currently ogling as either a purchase or an attempted diy is collection of giant tissue poms.


At first I was thinking a nice collection over my tv in the living room, but the a.c. is right there and might cause issues. More importantly, my kiwi scowled when I mentioned the idea. Now I'm thinking over the bed, as a contrast to the accent wall (inspired by this in black and white, since I can't paint the apartment) I'm planning as an alternative head board. The trick is finding great tissue paper in all my very specific colors.

The every lovely PomLove has a gorgeous selection of colors, and also has clearly mastered the art of poms. I'm currently tempted by the She and Him mobile, seen above, but also by a collection of perhaps 5 or 7 poms in my preferred shades to suspend at various lengths from the ceiling... (I also want her paper source, so I can start using those gorgeous tissues for wrapping, decoupage, and every other possible paper use I can come up with...) If you too are interested in these lovely creations, check out the giveaway on Post Grad Hair Cut.

Girl Crush

It is probably painfully obvious that I have a big fat girl crush on Mrs. Deschanel, since every third post seems to involve her. But she is only one of my fave ladies who combine wicked, slightly awkward, vintage style with rad music and general coolness. Jenny Lewis is high on the list too, and I just finally saw this video recently and it made me very happy. (No embedding, so you get this pretty pic instead. xoxo

Awesome Sauce

One of my loves in life is bad movies. Yup. I loves me a bloody awful film, with poor effects, cheesy over the top acting, and absurdly mis-used budgets. I love them even more if they are scifi, but that is generally true of all things in my life. Thus, as I'm sure you can imagine, I love MST3K (Mystery Science Theater 3000) to the blue, blue sky. Goofy robots and human mocking really terrible movies on a space station and/or satellite. This, my friends, is tv with awesome sauce. If you are interested, I know a lot of them are available for instant view on netflix and on hulu. I grew up watching the show ever Saturday, and have probably seen every single one at some point. My absolute fave? The Final Sacrifice. Bad Canadian film about a cult. Worth it for the Canada jokes, alone (like contagious hockey hair), my family and I have watched this episode dozens of times, and even taped it on an old VHS, back before DVR...

Anyways, this new tumblr takes stills from various MST3K episodes and crafts haikus to pair with them. It is delightful -- though probably most funny to those who have some familiarity with either bad scifi flicks or MST3K. In any case, it made me giggle so I thought I'd share.

New Obsession

Okay, so this actually isn't a new obsession at all. I've been in love with She & Him forEVer now. Anyway, their new album is about to come out, and the first video is all over the blogosphere. Just in case you haven't seen it yet, please ogle Zooey's charming dance skills and that lovely white/red dress....

Yesterday I had a lovely conversation with a little old lady (Can I call her that? I mean it with all affection possible) while at work. She was funny, hip, and willing to give me advice on pretty much every subject without asking for it. And while normally someone spewing advice on everything without your having asked for it can be really irritating, hers was so spot on and charming, I couldn't help but bask in it. She was delightful.

She offered suggestions on more immediate concerns, such as getting a job worthy of me. She also informed me that my boyfriend should give me the biggest rock possible, because if it was a sacrifice for him to buy it, it'll be more of an obligation for him to stick around -- he won't want to walk away from an investment that big. I'm not entirely sure I agree with the logic on that one, but it was really adorable.

She also gave me more of the standard wise elder to foolish youth advice -- don't hurry this life, but don't waste your time/efforts/energy in the meantime. And while I'm sure most of us have heard something to this effect at various points in our life, it really hit me this time. Perhaps because her manner and other advice were so warm, honest, and quirky, perhaps because I was entirely smitten with her, perhaps because I was just open to hearing it, but something about it really hit home.

So I'm going to try and live up to her expectations -- though it is quite likely I won't ever see here again. This week I'll take pleasure and enjoyment from life, but I also won't spend my downtime lolling on the couch reading blogs and channel surfing. I'll actively try to change things in my life I don't like. On the list for this week:

1. New job. I may not get the job any time soon, but I can prepare myself for any openings in the future, and start making connections in a variety of fields that interest me.

2. New hobbies. TV, while I love it, isn't a real hobby. I'll work on my novel, do some sewing, and try to finish my book on physics. And maybe I can learn a little more about this magical but daunting new city -- the L.A. area has so much to offer, why waste time in my tiny apartment?

3. New health. I'll find a gym I like and eat real food in proper portions. With maybe a naughty snack or two over the course of the week.

Eating Well

As part of my resolutions, I'm trying to be healthier. This means, in large part, changing my eating habits. I'm a snacker, a mindless eater, and kind of a pig, especially when it comes to sweet treats and salty chips/crackers. Candy is definitely a problem. I have no intention to stop eating these things, not at all. Just eating them in greater moderation, and trying to balance them out by eating mostly really good, real food. Lots of produce, low fat dairy, whole grains, beans, with a bit of meat and other miscellany. You know, all those foods that you know you are supposed to be eating but don't necessarily do. Michael Pollan has told us this, The Food Network has told us this, and hell, probably Al Gore for all I know. The real trick is doing it.


The delicious blog the kitchn posted a few days ago about foodie Alton Brown and his way of eating better. I read the post and watched the links to Alton's show -- isn't he a cutie in that oh-so-delightful geeky way? -- and found myself pretty jazzed about all the goodness I could eat.

And if I may be so bold as to improve on Alton's wisdom, I suggest you throw a handful or two of leafy dark greens (like spinach! yum!) in that smoothie. Especially for those who don't like spinach so much -- all the other rich flavors totally overpower it, and you'll never know it's there. Plus, I like to pair my small to medium sized smoothie with a wasa cracker spread with peanut butter. Keeps me full longer, gives me something to chew on, and it is tasty! And I find that when I start the day eating right, I'm so much more likely to continue to do so.

The Hanky

My charming boyfriend uses handkerchiefs. When I first discovered this about him, I was delighted and amused, as the only other person I knew who used them was my southern gentleman grandfather. Also, I was a little freaked out, because who wants a used tissue hanging out in their pocket all day? But after awhile, I began to notice others who use them, and have borrowed them on occasion from said charming boyfriend. Then my lovely mother gave me a pretty floral one in my stocking this past Christmas, and I put it in my purse to have on hand. I've used it a few times, and appreciated its handiness, convenience, eco-friendly nature. And then I caught a cold. (I could now launch an aside on why this was just another reason for me to be annoyed with L.A., but I won't) And now I'm hooked. They are softer than tissues, can be used far more times before a new one is needed, and even then, you simply wash the hanky and start afresh. It doesn't hurt that it only gets softer with each wash, or that it makes me feel like a lady to pull a hanky from my purse, neatly folded into squares, to catch my sneeze. And tomorrow at work, when I'm sniffly and sneezy and generally disgusting, I'll have it tucked in my pocket to retain some semblance of dignity. Ladies and gentlemen, go get yourselves some hankies.

ps: The image is from here. I found lots of cute ones on etsy. I also found a box of 6 plain white ones at Ross for about $5, for all you crafty types to decorate yourselves. Or for you minimalist folks who like it simple.

Manifesto

Thanks to Have Your Cake, I found lululemon's manifesto earlier today. And it punched me in the head with all its goodness. I recommend it highly, especially if you, like me, are still in the "It's still early in the year so I don't have to start my resolutions just yet, right?" phase.

Full text version is here. Read and enjoy!

Resolutions

I really like New Year Resolutions. They give me goals, inspiration, and excellent unachievable tasks to make myself feel like I might have enormous potential. Seriously, though, I do love me a nice list of goals and make them throughout the year. I have my Before 30 list, my annual lists, and lots and lots of daily and weekly lists. Unfortunately, I tend to be really bad at the follow through. So I'm trying to make my annual list this year with some of my usual high standards, and enough that are truly accomplishable. Of course, the fact that I haven't really started any of them yet (cough, cough) is a great sign.

1. Feel Fancy every day, in at least some small way

2. Make use of the Library: Learn new things and read delicious novels for free!

4. Be healthy. Mentally, Physically, Emotionally.

5. Play often.

6. Finish my novel and sell it.

7. Start and finish a planned spoof with my sister

8. Revive my awesome band

9. Be a better (i.e., regular poster of interesting tidbits) blogger

10. Learn the complete dances to both Thriller and Single Ladies

11. Be a better sewer, crafter, artist

12. Be like Chuck

13. Become a teacher (HS English OR HS Earth Science if my lucky stars align)

Reading is Sexy

And the kiwi's know it! This video for the NZ Book Council is beautifully done. I can't imagine how long all that paper cutting and attention to detail must have taken!

Nerd Love

So we all know I'm a huge dork and have a deep crazy love of nerds. So, of course, one of my daily reads is Nerd Boyfriend. And while I am always delighted by the choices, I think November 17th may be my all time favorite.

Image found here.

'Tis the Season of Mint

Living in the northwest, I suppose that peppermint is really a year round flavor. It grows in great abundance everywhere, and I love it. Peppermint in salads, in tea, in pasta, as a breath freshener... My largest pot is devoted to my mint plant, which has gone from a couple wiggly stalks purchased at a local nursery, to the abundance seen below.


That said, the candy flavor variety is still near and dear to my heart, and I'm very pleased it is in season at a grocery store near you.

Mint M&M's are pretty much a divine gift from on high. I stockpile them as soon as they appear in stores, hide them from myself as a surprise out of season, and devour them in really unhealthy quantities. Stir a few into your morning coffee or glass of milk, mix them with ice cream or froyo, add chopped ones to cookies, or just enjoy a handful with another guilty pleasure.

Candy canes are another fave option, but I'm a bit of a snob about them. The cheap kind taste like (I know, I'm deranged for thinking this) old washcloths -- kind of mildewy and moist. Gross, right? I have no clue why I have this association. But a truly delicious candy cane, in either a classic hard style or a softer melt-in-your-mouth-like-dinner-mints style, make me very happy. I like to get a cold glass of milk and use a candy cane to stir it until it dissolves, leaving me with pink minty milk. It is SO good.

And for those of you who have decided that this quantity of sugar consumption is unforgivable for either dental or scale related reasons, I understand. Try some faux-sugar peppermint syrup in your coffee or maybe some good old fashioned peppermint herbal tea. Meanwhile, I'll take your share of M&Ms, thanks.

Ooh! Pretties!

This new-to-me tumblr, found thanks to You Are My Fave, is making me very happy.


You're welcome.