Fly Like Paper Get High Like Planes

It often takes me at least a whole day to decide if I really liked a movie or really hated it - I guess it's like that for me with many things. But, it took me a few seconds to know I liked Slumdog Millionaire. And then, the next day, I decided that I really liked it. And that I totally love Dev Patel (the adorable lead character, Jamal.)



Why did I like it so much? Is it because everyone else liked it? I don't think so. I hated Benjamin Button, and it seems everyone in or around "The Academy" thought that was fantastic - good enough even to be nominated for 13 awards.

Is it because it was a touching love story? Partly, but not totally. There have been lots of "love stories" that I've found to be completely gag-worthy. Sleepless in Seattle? No thanks. The Notebook? Make me vomit. I am pretty sure the love factor wasn't it.

Maybe it's because the music grabbed me. Well, I gotta give it props for that. Whoever the sound director was did an excellent job at choosing authentic Indian and American hip hop music to contribute to the film's grit. But that's still not it.

Although all of these things helped to make for what I believe was a great flick, I think the one thing that stuck with me was the overall feeling of sincerity and authenticity. It showed us some horrific realities about the slums of India, but not in such a way as to say, "Oh, look at these poor slumdogs living in India, how horrible, don't you feel bad for them?" No. It was more like, "This is India. Yes, it's bad here. So? That's not the point."

Here was a kid who's just like any of us - he wants to love and be loved. Simple as that. All of the horrific things that happened to him growing up gave him the drive to go after what he wanted - his companion.

Perhaps that's an all too simplistic description of a movie with a lot of things to say, but generally I like to boil down how I feel about something into as simple a statement as possible.

Gonna teach you tricks that'll blow your mongrel mind

Song of the day. Or maybe of the week. Or month:

Wolf Like Me - TV on the Radio.

You know how sometimes a song makes a reappearance in your life and suddenly it's on repeat in every music playing device you own? Cue in Wolf Like Me. Sexy.

Say say my playmate
Won't you lay hands on me
Mirror my malady
Transfer my tragedy

Got a curse I cannot lift
Shines when the sunset shifts
When the moon is round and full
Gotta bust that box gotta gut that fish

My mind's aflame
We could jet in a stolen car
But I bet we wouldn't get too far
Before the transformation takes and bloodlust tanks and
Crave gets slaked

My mind has changed
My body's frame but god I like it
My heart's aflame
My body's strained but god I like it

My mind has changed
My body's frame but god I like it
My heart's aflame
My body's strained but god I like it

Charge me your day rate
I'll turn you out in kind
When the moon is round and full
Gonna teach you tricks that'll blow your mongrel mind
Baby doll I recognize
You're a hideous thing inside
If ever there were a lucky kind it's
You you you you

I know it's strange
another way
to get to know you
You'll never know
unless we go
so let me show you
I know it's strange
another way
to get to know you
We've got till noon
here comes the moon
so let it show you
show you now

Dream me oh dreamer
Down to the floor
Open my hands and let them
Weave onto yours

Feel me, completer
Down to my core
Open my heart and let it
Bleed onto yours

Feeding on fever
Down all fours
Show you what all that
Howl is for

Hey hey my playmate
Let me lay waste to thee
Burned down their hanging trees
It's hot here hot here hot here hot here

Got a curse we cannot lift
Shines when the sunshine shifts
There's a cure comes with a kiss
The bite that binds the gift that gives

Now that we got gone for good
Writhing under your riding hood
Tell your Gramma and your Mama too
It's true
We're howling forever

Thanks Wall Streeters for so humbly turning down your bonuses...RIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT

It looks like bad news bears for the home furnishings industry. Like many other businesses, it's in trouble.

Quite a scary thought - particularly for my colleagues and I who rely on the market being stable for our own job success. This article in yesterday's Times tells all. And my favorite part is this quote from Ray Allegrezza, an editor at Furniture Today, another trade publication akin to FFI:

"If you had a billion dollars, you could buy the entire portfolio of publicly traded furniture companies, including Thomasville and La-Z-Boy, and still have money left over to go to McDonald’s."

So...in other words, one eighteenth of last year's Wall Street bonuses for a year of failure could have saved the entire furniture industry. Great.

Oscar Schmoscer

I know, they announced them a few days ago - old news. But I didn't get a chance to talk about it. So I'm a little late. Sorry.

Let's get down to it. Oscar nods. This is the first year in quite some time that I've actually paid a decent amount of attention to the movies in the running. I attribute that in large part to the boyfriend - we bring out each other's film enthusiasm. (He in me more than I in him, I admit. He's got it without me, but we've found that there are few things more interesting to talk about than the complexity of a good - and sometimes a bad - movie.)

Anywho - down to business. Benjamin F-ing Button. Or as my fellow blogger and long lost college journo classmate love, Chelsea so correctly called it, Benjamin Boring. She's right. Because it was. Boring. Brad Pitt was boring. And worse yet, it was LONG and boring. Terrible combo. AND it was lame to top it off. Just lame. But if you read my previous post on it, you already know about my loathing. That said, I can't understand WHY it got 13 nominations. THIRTEEN. It should get best makeup, no doubt. Anything other than that is undeserved, in my opinion. In fact, the only review of it I read that was accurate was a one-paragraph blurb in the New Yorker that confirmed I was NOT in fact, the only hater.

Then there's Milk. Excellent. Sean Penn: Excellent. Josh Brolin: Excellent. James Franco: Hot. Oh, I meant excellent. And totally hot...but gay...in the movie, that is. Well I guess that was sort of everyone in the movie. Penn's performance was so warm - I just wanted to hug him.

Another film we saw was Man on a Wire, a fascinating documentary about the man who strung a tightrope between the twin towers in the 70s and walked across it not once but eight times. Would be very happy to see that win some statues.

I didn't see either of the Winslet films - The Reader or Revolutionary Road - but I have no hesitation in saying I believe Kate should take it all away. She is and has been one of Hollywood's most talented and graceful women I've seen in my lifetime.

There are still many nominated flicks I'd like to see, but I'm most excited to see Slumdog - which I believe is happening tomorrow night. And Frost/Nixon will probably happen sometime soon as well.

Thoughts and opinions on which other movies I should be sure to catch?

Thanks!

Just want to give a shout out and big smile to everyone whose been flipping through our online issue of BD. We really appreciate the support and are excited that you guys are enjoying it. If you missed my last post, here's the link again. Happy design reading!

boutique DESIGN is totally techno

I'm still a sucker for print mags - I mean, who isn't? The smell of a fresh print run, the vibrancy of a bold stripe of ink on a glossy white page, the thrill of the "flip."

But it's 2009 and life is changing. We have a new president, jobs are dropping like flies and the ones that are still alive are increasingly techno-minded. If you don't know what Twitter is, you're SO not hip. If you don't text message you might as well ditch your cell and use a payphone. If you're not on Facebook you're basically a dinosaur.

So to keep up with the world, because we always do, boutique DESIGN has gone digital. And it's way cooler than we could have ever dreamed. EVERYTHING is clickable! OK, not EVERYthing...but like everything that you'd want to click. E-mail addresses, company websites, links, etc. And you can read all of our stories without ever having to take your eyes from your screen - since we know they're glued there.

Don't worry, it's not replacing the mag - we'd never leave our fellow print lovers in the dark. Still, this might just be the future of the publishing industry, so start getting used to it.

Friday's on a Tuesday

Impromptu gatherings are the best kind.

Especially when you haven't seen the folks you're meeting in FAR too long. Thanks for inviting us out Chris and Jeff - good to see you :)

Always an interesting conversation with these guys. Tonight's topics breached: sexuality, music, movies, astrology, the inauguration of BO, education, parenting, and probably a dozen others I've forgotten or can't think of. Interesting point made by Chris: Barack's speech really did rock. And the best part? He basically told the world - we're here for you, but don't F with us, cuz we'll F back. Ya heard?

Rockin.

P.S. Is it bad that one margarita - ONE - now officially puts me on buzz patrol?

Proud GF

Promotion isn't quite as shameless when it's not for yourself but for your boyfriend.

What?

Oh just read it. With or without his quote it's a pretty interesting story.

Though I will argue for the pro-New Yorker side, as clearly the writer is doing. The city will never die, despite Whitney Port's despicable attempts to ruin its rep.

Cold and Tired

It's gotta be the bitter cold that's making me so exhausted and un-motivated. Right? RIGGGHHHT?

Trying very unsuccessfully to do work here on this chilly Friday night. Yeah, I know, lame. Hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

I think I'm gonna go watch TV. Maybe there's a Seinfeld re-run on. Maybe it will be the one with the Giant Ball of Oil. "Helllllllooooo, I'm a giant ball of oil!" That's a good one.

Makeup. 4 Ever.

This, I thought, is the true meaning of Sephora. This is war — and war paint, the armaments of beauty, needs to be available, stat! There is no time to sleep or bathe, but there are products to correct the damage.
- Wilson, NYTimes

An article like this is what makes me question the beauty industry and being involved in it at such an introductory level. At the same time, I have to read it with precaution as this writer obviously has no clue what the makeup world is REALLY all about. She trivializes Sephora and its employees into something no better or different than a Disney store. While I don't defend all Sephora employees - many of them really don't have a clue - I don't agree with her notion that these people are all brainless party animals who are resorting to makeup by default.

Those of us who appreciate makeup for its artistry should not be lumped into this. Even if you are working at Sephora, if you're truly passionate about your art, you'll surely get out of there and learn some valuable information in the process. If you're one of the people that Wilson is referring to in her story and your main concern is covering up hangover eye bags, I have no words for you.

Twits Unite

So...under the coercion of none other than Rebecca Goldberg...I have started using Twitter. I mean, honestly, she practically shoved my face in the computer and forced my hands to the keyboard to make me sign up. I had no choice, it was total peer technology pressure. Ruthless!

Ok, umm, she actually didn't give a crap if I joined, but she did. So of course I had to check it out. In trying to see her profile - if you can even call it that - I miraculously created my own account. Now I can give minute by minute updates about what EXACTLY I'm doing. Isn't that GREAT?!

I'm not so sure. I finally figured out how to use it - but I still don't think I really get it. I have a feeling I'll be tired of it in a matter of days. That may be too generous. I think I feel the weariness setting in already...Twitter...yawn...Oh wait, no! It's cool! Update, update, what am I doing now? Update!

Nope, sorry still can't get into it.

Thoughts?

Men Really ARE from Mars

A visit home served me both well and ill this weekend. Visiting home is always comforting as I'm able to see Bubba (the dog) and Cheetah (the cat) and of course hang with Mom and Dad.

Mom and Auntie Lori brought me to their gym and I can't get over my jealousy of their immaculate workout haven - which they pay TEN BUCKS a month for! So not fair. My pitiful Y membership rapes me of $30 every month. Gross.

But Uncle Walter fixed my car yet again, saving me lots of loot and just generally being the best uncle ever for doing it.

Then came my semi-annual visit to the old watering hole and former job - the Main Street. And there I got into a conversation with Tricia which was truly enlightening in that I realized just how different women are from men. Both of us - her certainly more so - had men-related woes to release. And in talking she told me something I hadn't been able to really pinpoint before. She said:

"Men need to fix things. If they can't fix it, they wonder why you're talking about it and they get frustrated that you're dwelling on it."

How true! I hadn't thought about it that way, but she continued,

"Women like to talk about these things with each other. They like to vent and pour it all out to each other and they don't mind!"

While it is our partner's jobs to be understanding and to offer their love and support, what really can they do if you have bugs in your apartment? Or if your car broke down and AAA is on the way? Or if your best friend's boyfriend is a jerk?

He wants to fix it if you're upset. And when he can't - which often is the case - he's just going to get frustrated and then you're both going to end up annoyed. So, a bit of advice; don't talk for hours to your boyfriend about how your Mom pissed you off because she accidentally bleached your shirt. There's surely something better to talk about somewhere.

Right Where It Belongs

My song of the day...

See the animal in his cage that you built
Are you sure what side you're on?
Better not look him too closely in the eye
Are you sure what side of the glass you are on?
See the safety of the life you have built
Everything where it belongs
Feel the hollowness inside of your heart
And it's all
Right where it belongs

What if everything around you
Isn't quite as it seems?
What if all the world you think you know
Is an elaborate dream?
And if you look at your reflection
Is it all you want it to be?
What if you could look right through the cracks?
Would you find yourself
Find yourself afraid to see?

What if all the worlds inside of your head
Just creations of your own?
Your devils and your gods
All the living and the dead
And you're really all alone?
You can live in this illusion
You can choose to believe
You keep looking but you can't find the woods
While you're hiding in the trees

What if everything around you
Isn't quite as it seems?
What if all the world you used to know
Is an elaborate dream?
And if you look at your reflection
Is it all you want it to be?
What if you could look right through the cracks
Would you find yourself
Find yourself afraid to see?

- nin

I'm like the Ringleader...

...I call the shots!

Stuffed in a giant stocking filled to the brim with candy, came this small rolled up scroll from my roommate to me. In it contained a poem which was to be my gift and I was to read it aloud. For those of you who can’t see it well enough, I’ll transcribe for you:

A Christmas Tale

Twas the night before Christmas
And in VT on the 3rd,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a bird.
The girls were comfy on the couch so green,
Looking out the window as the snow was a gleam.
There was nothing to do that night in the Hollow,
But they pondered and thought while sipping chocolate and mallows.
Then Sam had an idea that filled her with joy!
Better than mani's and pedi's or any old toy.
She knew this idea would thrill her roommate,
But Kelly had to know now, she just couldn't wait!
And she got so excited and her eyes filled with tears
As Sam told her they were going to see
Britney Spears!

Get ready all you Brit fans...and don't be ashamed if you are one, you know she's like a car accident - you HAVE to look. But better still, you HAVE to dance.

Gorgeous. Amazingly Talented. Totally Deserves it All.

Don't you think?

Brooklyn We Go Hard

I never thought I'd say this, but I kind of wish I had MTV.

Well...just for like one hour. This Wednesday night. But that's it!

"The Real World" is actually taking place somewhere cool and familiar to me - BK - and it starts this week.

But alas, it already looks like it won't be very "real." I'm sure I'd get a good few laughs out of the motley crew that's shoved in the posh apartment in NYC (so real, right), and then quickly I'd get annoyed at how they continue to visit the "hottest" Manhattan clubs, get wasted, get in fights, get kicked out and get arrested. And surely take about 120,384 cabs throughout the season, never having to sit on the F train at 3 a.m. for 45 minutes to get back home. Fo real.

From this preview which I find slightly brilliant and totally hilarious, it seems that the cast is comprised of an even more ridiculously unreal swath of characters than ever before.

I think my favorite line is in the last paragraph:

"As Chet explains when he lands in the borough, speaking just under the Brooklyn Bridge: “Brooklyn is usually spoken of as more of a place you don’t want to end up.” He is worried he might be shot." (Thank you for that wit Ms. Bellafante.)

I think Chet, the Utah native has been bumpin Jay-Z and Lil Kim on his iTouch...a bit too much. Maybe he'll get a reality check - pun intended - when he realizes a luxury waterfront loft in Red Hook isn't exactly the projects.

If you watch the premiere on Wednesday, please fill me in on all the hilarity - especially if you live in New York - because I'm sure you'll then be even more amused and I can live enviously and vicariously through your Real World watching!

Drift off. Snap out of it! Driffffttinnng off again. Crap, wake up! And snore.

That's pretty much an accurate description of the three hour pain I endured watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. If you want to give three hours of your life away to a totally overrated and over-indulgent Brad Pitt celebration, by all means, fork up the change for this disaster.

But if I can prevent that from happening to you as it did me, you're welcome.

The movie mainly sucks because it's just too loaded with sap, cheese and corn - or more simply put...it's lame. It's unrealistic of course, but we can get over that. And as for romantic, that's fine too - when it's done well. (I'm a huge fan of Love Actually, which many might argue is completely unrealistic and sap-ridden, but I would argue is heartfelt and endearing.)

Button head is just embarrassing. OK, maybe I'm being to hard on him. It. Whatever. As the boyfriend said better than I could have articulated, after sitting through three hours of complete ridiculousness, one would hope that they are to take away some lesson about life or some theme that's captivating. If that's somewhere in this button mess, I couldn't find it.

And to top it off, I read this review and while giving it a thumbs up, the writer never talks about why it's so great other than the fact that technology has allowed the director the luxury of making Pitt look young again, despite his obvious signs of aging surely a function of Jolie and the baby bunch. Big deal. I can do that too. It's called makeup.

Exhuastion

Is what I feel right now. Makeup is tiring. Not complaining, just truth.

Long day today but Zoe and I put together some kickin looks. I can't show them to you yet because she's entering them into a hair styling contest in her hometown, The Hague in Holland. Cool.

Here's a snapshot of what it looks like when it all goes down - though I must say this is merely a small sampling of the product explosion that often takes place during such days. (This one included.) It's always surprising how much you realize you still have to learn when you experience it - no matter how many times I'm sure that'll always be the case.

Black, Pink, Gold

A few looks I'm playing with for a photo shoot this weekend. You can't see the colors and effects very well here but it's something. There's a very dramatic look with lots of blacks, a shimmery gilded look and two very bright pop looks. I'll post some pictures of the model post-shoot and see how these ideas translate.

Hiking it up

Everyone who knows me probably already has seen these pics and has heard about my ice palace adventure two weeks ago in New Paltz - but it was too awesome to not talk about it again. If you live in New York and haven't been hiking here, you have no excuse. (Unless you don't have a car or something, that sort of makes sense.) Word to the wise: if there is ever a massive rain storm and then immediately following, freezing cold temperatures, get your butt outside to see what nature does to the trees...

The day I remembered I started this

This is embarassing. No really. Who doesn't have a blog these days? Sitting here on my couch (actually the couch belongs to my roommate, but it's damn comfy) and staring at my To Do list, I noticed an empty line for one more item. I thought, "Hey it's a new year, why not make that something ambitous?" Maybe not ambitious, but at least a little more weighty than "return makeup to M.A.C." While that's something that happens to be of importance in my life, it's not necessarily a "life-bettering" task.

So here I am - on my blog that I created almost an entire two years ago. I guess there's a right time for everything. Let's make this time around a better one.