Botched Facial or Crying Catastrophe - Not Sure

So last night I got this awesome (or so I thought) facial at Tribeca Beauty Bar. I went in with flaky, dull skin and a few minor blackheads on the nose area. You know - nothing major - but definitely an obvious non-facial regular.

When I left, I was glowing. Like, really glowing. And I felt awesome.

Thennnn...my night turned kinda...well...let's just say bad. This "badness" I speak of resulted in a tidal wave of tears which lasted no less than two hours. Once I took a second to look in the mirror, it was as if my tear trail had been emblazoned onto my face in bright, tomato red. I went to sleep and woke up in the same state.

Presently, my face is on fire. And red as hell to boot. I'm sure the crying didn't help anything, but somehow I feel like this is not normal. And considering that I get a facial oh...I don't know...maybe once a...umm...well, this was the second one ever...I have a feeling that tingly mushroom scrub may have something to do with this.

I'd take a picture but I'd rather you continue reading my blog and not run away from the site of me. So instead, I'll leave you with this image so you can imagine the loveliness of the treatment process itself - which was magnificent, I must say - and help me forget about my current cherry-like existence.

Holy Lineup

Umm. So. Yea.

Bonnaroo. 2009.

nin. TV on the Radio. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Erykah Badu. Mars Volta. Neko Case.

That lineup?

I may have to go to ANOTHER music festival this year.

The thought of it is making me shriek like a little schoolgirl. Ok, maybe that's only happening on the inside. But still.

Roadtrip, camp-out blowout - Who's with me?

BeautyNews O.D.

Just in case you weren't aware - I mean, of course you ARE, but just in case - the Feb. issue of BeautyNewsNYC is up and there's some fun reading from some familiar folks. There's a cover story from me on VDay hair products, a cool contribution from a hotel CEO about budget travel, a cute review from Becks about Sassoon salon, and a very special guest appearance from my very own BF. He's quite the writer you know :)

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?