LOVE IS A BATTLE DROID

I AM A TUMBLR

2010-07-16T16:27:00.003-04:00

Hey my faithful readers:

I have created a Tumblr. It is for the LOLz I find on my daily internet journeys, and not for fashion or news or anything really time-sensitive, but a repository of GIFs and ads, pictures and videos of the terrifying, banal and gorgeous.

It'll be like this, except awkward for everyone involved.

Summer is for (Hat) Lovers

2010-04-07T22:28:00.005-04:00

Ask anyone who has walked into a retail space with me the last six months: I've been on a holy mission to find a hat. Wait, no, not just a hat, but THEE hat. The hat to bring me comfort, joy, compliment my wardrobe, make any late day look a little less rushed.

Eugenia Kim is one of my favorite haberdashery makers (haberdasherers?). She's certainly made a name for herself as a purveyor of fine hats, and her straw hat has made its appearance on pretty much every St. Mark's knock off stand this side of 14th street. But, lets be frank, her hats are pricey. So I'm pretty psyched she's doing a line for Target.

While I think that all of these are fine summer options (especially the sun hat with the bow), I like the fedora best, I think. In black. Obvi. Since they will be under $20, I may snatch it on April 18th. With the Cynthia Rowley yellow platforms. Oh Target, how you slay me.

For My 100th Post, A Tribute to Alexander McQueen

2010-02-11T13:04:00.003-05:00

On the first day of FW2010 presentations in New York, we all woke up to discover Alexander McQueen had killed himself. My love for McQueen was well-known, especially on this blog, and I feel a bit at a loss. He was one of the few mainstream avant garde-ians. I don't think I can think of another industry death that would make me more sad. People say RIP a legend, and I would point out McQueen was not a legend, but a viable, vital force in the fashion industry (unlike a 'legend', like, say, Vivienne Westwood).

Better people with more knowledge could do a more fitting tribute, but I'd like to collect some of his fantastic imagery in one place. Without further ado, here are some of my favorite looks of McQueen, spanning the last few seasons.

Spring 08

Spring 08

Fall 09

Fall 09

Mens Fall 09

Fall 08

Fall 08

Men's Fall 2010

Spring 2010

Spring 2010

Resort 2010

His epically understated pre-fall 2010

Pre-fall 2010

Pre-fall 2010

RIP McQueen. You made extraordinary, tortured, impassioned things and the world is richer having been your playground. Let us celebrate you, and your creativity.

Shane McGowan Still Alive, Teams with Johnny Depp

2010-02-03T17:49:00.005-05:00

Not to be a harbinger of doom, but with all of the recent celebrity demise, who'd have thought Shane would outlive Swayze or even Lux Interior? But here he is, alive, and helping Haiti.

How amazing would it be to actually be present for the recording of Shane's newest project? The Pogues frontman has gathered all of punk's royalty, including my hero Nick Cave, my heroine Chrissie Hynde, Mick Jones, Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream, Glen Matlock and Paloma Faith. Oh, and also, on guitar is this guy Johnny Depp. You may know him from some of my favorite movies of all time. (I wonder how Shane and Johnny got to know one another? What a bucket of crazy those two would be. Amazing crazy, of course.)

Apparently, this mega group is going to cover 'I Put a Spell on You' (too bad he didn't as Diamanda Galas to join) for the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. It was recorded last Friday, so expect it out next month. And also it expect like a lovely car crash. (Thanks Pitchfork)

Mitch the Monster

2010-02-02T14:03:00.000-05:00

Every now and again I appreciate a well-created plush toy. Mostly because I adore all things cuddly, and now and again I really think its crucial to snuggle up with something artistic and adorable.

I love Kauzbots, I think they are a great gift, especially because they have a bit of a altruistic slant. I also thoroughly enjoy Doma plushes, which are creative and a little bit morbid, and have a certain corporal charm. And for your sneaky needs, a Shawnimal's ninja melts your heart.

Last week, a new buddy emerged on the scene, with my pal Jake's (and crew) cyclops Mitch. Mitch is effing adorable, with a droopy eye and a soft, snuggle-able body made of recycled felt. He just looks like he needs a buddy, with his one furtive eye, pleading for your acceptance. And you, my dear, are perfect for him, especially at the key price of $40.

Scoop him now. Special edition, ya heard?

All Right, Jerks

2010-02-01T01:35:00.002-05:00

Enough of this hiatus. I am back, with my own personal blogging passion. I have a vendetta. I have an urge to purge. I am here because all of the tiny bits of information I gather through out my day need some sort of place to rest their wary heads, and this blog is as good as any.

So get ready for previews and insights. And in the mean time:

Be a dear and order me these JC limiteds fron Need Supply, would you? They are just the right amount of studded, but still have that Mary-Jane t-strap we all need now and again.

Thanks a ton.

Leila Goes To Germany, Loesers Are Involved

2009-11-25T12:11:00.002-05:00

I've been painfully, horribly bad at updating you, my sweet sweet blog, but I just wanted to show you what I've been up to. In the whirlwind of journalistic would I've undertaken, my friend Tony at Asylum and I hopped on over to Germany, and I helped him find his family (kind of). Mostly, we failed. Scroll to 2 minutes to see us not find the Loesers in Germany. Also, we drove some Volkswagens.

Boys! Boys! Boys!

2009-08-10T11:10:00.005-04:00

Refinery 29's "How To" guide for guys in hot weather hits the nail right on thee head. Simple, fitted and colorful. Makes me want a drink with an umbrella in it.

A couple other gems for boys:
What Comes Around Goes Around's Palma shirt, on sale for $65

Zuriick's cheery canvas slip ons - $55

J.Crew's poplin button up for $40

Little style snacks for you.

Happy Monday!

New Look!

2009-08-06T18:57:00.001-04:00

How awesome is my new logo?

Thanks so much, Zach Weiss!

Best Fashion Movie Quotes of All-Time, Ever

2009-08-06T18:35:00.003-04:00

Remember when Cher pleaded with her mugger not for her life, but her Alaia dress in Clueless? Or Singin’ in the Rain musically immortalizing a “string full of pearls with a suit of tweed?” As Bruno busts up the box office in Thierry Mugler, I'm going to recall classic fashion quips, and count down my top sartorial-inspired cinematic quotes:

10. “I think tomorrow is a ‘Say Something’ hat day.” Patrick Swayze, in a brilliant turn as Vida Boheme, attempts to cheer up her fellow queens as the ladies are stuck in Kansas, for To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.

9. “Yes, Derek, they’re jeans and they’re in order.” Parker Posey’s Mary chastising her closet-rifling friend in Party Girl.

8. “This is a really volcanic ensemble you're wearing, it's really marvelous!” Duckie, one of my favorite fashion inspirations, in Pretty In Pink.

7. “Impossible! You're in the fashion world. We're cold, artificial and without sentiment.” Anna Wintour predecessor Maggie Prescott tells it like it is in Funny Face.

6. Cher: "Oh, no. You don’t understand, this is an Alaïa.” Mugger: "An a-what-a?” Cher: "It's like, a totally important designer.” Mugger: "And I will totally shoot you in the head. Get down!” Alicia Silverstone fights for Azzadine during Clueless.

5. “A string of pearls with a suit of tweed, it started quite a riot. And if you must wear fox to the opera, Dame Fashions says dye it.” Gene Kelly oversees a musical that tackles changing fashions in the classic Singin’ in the Rain.

4. “Clothes make the man. I believe that. You say to me you want to go shopping, you want to buy clothes, but you don't know what kind. You leave that hanging in the air, like I'm going to fill in the blank, that to me is like asking me who you are, and I don't know who you are, I don't want to know.” Marshall, the wise chauffeur who teaches Tom Hanks the value of Armani in Joe Versus the Volcano.

3. "A lot of the style gurus in Austria are saying like Osama Bin Laden is thee best dressed guy, do you think so?" Sascha Baron Cohen taking it a bit too far in Brüno.

2. “Well, it's all about looking good, helping the silhouette…and all about getting a great fuck, honey.” Thierry Mugler, explaining his fetishistic inspiration to fictional reporter Kitty Potter in Robert Altman’s chaotic Ready To Wear.

1. My number one pick isn’t as much of a quote as it is a powerful monologue. Watch, and see Meryl Streep explain why we do what we do.

2009-07-12T14:15:00.002-04:00

Dear Ladies at Is-Mental,

I hate the summer. Well, that's not true. But I hate wearing shoes in the summer, because I am pretty much a boots/heels type girl and, while summer boots are a wonderful thing, I'm beginning to feel like I need to up my shoe game and not get a calf-and-up boot tan.

We both live in New York. Can you, in all of your fashion expertise and style curatorial skills, give a good round up of acceptable, New York sandals? Is there such a thing, or will be feet end up covered in street goo and rat feces? What is acceptable, especially for a girl who kind of dreads sandals and anything with the word "gladiator"?

Thanks in advance, and I would love to hear what you have to say on the matter.

xo,

Leila at Battledroid

Why Today Is Good: The Maxx!

2009-07-02T12:09:00.003-04:00

"Most of us inhabits two worlds, the real world, where we are at the mercy of circumstance, and the world within, the unconscious, a safe place we where can escape..."

Oh man, one of my favorite nineties shows has finally been revived via the interweb, thanks to MTV realizing that Julie Winters and her luggish pal, The Maxx, is worth a second look. They are currently streaming six episodes online, which is only half of the series.

The comic itself is totally twisted, dark, hilarious and hopeless nineties. While the TV show talks about Julie and her rabbit, it only covers, like, the first trade paperback. The series itself follows Sarah way more, and the outback, and Maxx as a homeless guy. The TV series does a fantastic job of staying totally true to the comment, though Maxx's wheezy voice can be a bit much.

But it keeps one of my favorite quotes eve, which is Julie telling a creepy homeless guy to, "Keep in mind that I have a job...while you have a blanket with vomit on it."

Man, MTV Oddities were so good. I have The Maxx, Aeon Flux (which is way darker than that Charlize Theron monstrosity) and the totally dark, funny The Head. Wherever did that one go?

Eternally love the 1990s...

The Maxx

Here's the clip where Maxx chases the Isz dressed as a grandma.

The Maxx

And this is the crabbit moment, which I dig. "The outback slug can leap nearly a quarter mile into the air! But...it hasn't mastered the ability to land. It has no natural enemy...it's just stupid."

My Imaginary Life Through McQueen

2009-06-05T12:18:00.004-04:00

Gilt Groupe had an A. McQueen sale today. I trolled the site, pretending to put things in my cart and imagining the ways I will wear them. Sigh. Just tossing a couple grand towards a new dress. I mentioned to a friend that Alexander McQueen is probably one of my top five favorite designers of all time (For the record: Nicolas Ghesquière, Jil Sander, YSL, Rei Kawakubo - dark, elegant and pretty hard to argue with), though I tend to cycle through designers. So here is the existence I must have if I were to purchase any of these Alexander McQueen pieces (ranging from $600-$2000, each):

For hosting my first socialite event:

If I ever were to get married:

When I win my first Oscar:

The Oscar afterparty (after I won):

Announcing my company has gone public:

Someone else's party, that I still need to make a serious appearance at:

God, what a great life I lead.

I'm so sorry, little blog (Friday Videos on Monday)

2009-06-01T23:31:00.003-04:00

I've ignored you. It's not my fault - I've been busy writing over at Switched.com. They are good to me there, and you are good to me too, but things come first, you know? So to make up for it, I'm going to show you a couple of my favorite songs to listen to to get into the mood for spring. Ok? I'm glad we can agree.

Love,
Leila

Because, don't we all want to be adored? I love the droney rhythm guitar in this. Stone Roses paved the way for so many nineties bands: Pulp, Oasis, um...Bush? It's a really poignant song. With a simple message.

Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored
Uploaded by jesus_lizard.

An amazingly classic find. This is early 808 State doing some crazy minimal acid house with a wacky guitar solo. Why can't we have parties with people just filming random people swaying in warehouses anymore? 1990 was so cool. Everything was so excessive and baggy.

I would like to point out Tom Hingley's gnarly teeth. Only in England...this is a great sing-along song. And I wouldn't really include it, because it isn't groundbreaking music, but the Michel Gondry video is rather lovely. Early, I believe...

A bit later in their career..but I've always liked this The Fall song because it kind of reminds me of something rockabilly. And Marc doesn't have that super dull, typical-talk voice, and I kind of like him all squealy.

Can you guess the theme of my videos? The correct post gets a prize!

Interview With German Painter Evol

2009-05-06T00:35:00.003-04:00

German tromp l'oil artist Evol started off being everything that I have a hard time connecting with in art: graffiti-based, German, hyper and obviously political and performative. But I was have been interviewing him for a piece I'm working on and I've gotten quite familiar with his work, and its really quite astounding. Growing up in a war-torn Berlin with all of these pre-fabricated concrete slabs with bullet holes and spraypaint marring its surface allowed Evol to celebrate the grit of the city. And he did this meta-urban thing, where he started using cubes and electrical boxes to paint on other structures, so it was like this mini buildings next to the real thing. It's pretty engaging.

This is going to be in Surface next month, but they aren't running nearly any of the interview, and I thought that he was so articulate I had to post it somewhere. He is such an unpretentious, interesting artist. I think if all artists talked about their process as just a "It's just what I do and its to make things pretty" like he does, I would...er, interview more of them.

BD: A lot of your work deals explicitly with architecture - usually run-down, extremely urban looking spaces. What continues to draw you towards these dilapidated buildings? Do you find beauty in them? What about your background (educationally or otherwise) that pushes you towards the urban landscape?

Evol: In fact, the works sort of portray the area that I moved to almost nine years ago. Most of the buildings looked like that back then; most of them weren't renovated, and of course, you couldn't have called it a posh neighborhood, because it appeared rather poor. But in the end that offered possibilities and space for people to make things happen with little or no money, like off-cinemas, illegal or improvised bars and clubs or galleries or other projects. You just could do it - no one really cared and you didn't need resources to do something spontaneously or temporary, and what you described as rundown or dilapidated was in fact was pretty charming: visible history on facades with marks from generations of inhabitants, silent stories of existence (isn't it that what all the tourists like about Venice or small villages in Southern France e.g.?)

So because to all the stuff that happened here, the area got more and more popular. And just like anywhere else gentrification happens, prices go up, thousands of gallons of yellow paint were dumped on those buildings and took away the charm, the people and the possibilities. So for me, the surface of those buildings is a symbol for a neighborhood that offers a lot of discovery /exploration because it hasn't been commercialized yet.

Installing the work at Flamingo Beach Lotel

BD: How did you start in product development? Are you drawn towards architecture in a similar way? Why or why not?

Evol: I drew all my life and as far back as I can remember, Iwanted to study graphic design back. After a few tryouts/internships, I couldn't imagine spending my life doing it. So I tried it out by adding another dimension: I´m not naturally drawn to architecture, it simply is my surrounding. I like living in a city, and if you spend your days or nights walking around or looking for spots to be played or spots others have played, you start developing an eye for it. I mean, buildings or architecture in general are the stone manifests of our society ...

BD: You came from a graffiti-filled background, but your work seems to vary from typical European graff artists. What did you take from the graffiti scene, and what do you think it could do better without? Do you think your similarities are mostly in the fact that you and graffiti artists paint outdoors?

Evol: I think there is no typical European style or something, since there´s a huge difference between Prague, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Milan, Rome, Barcelona, Amsterdam...and that´s what I like about it: when people try to develop their own visual language or playground of expression (I mean, it's difficult to throw funky letters like from the New York 80's. On the other hand: that has been done in the 80's already). And/but that´s what I took from it; the possibility to tell your own story by leaving your mark in public spaces. Get to an audience you don't know, leaving something on their daily ways, using impartiality and the unexpected.

I wish people would be more aware of this, the joy of discovering your surrounding/social environment.

BD: Would you consider doing more commissioned work? Your show catalogue talks a lot about "artistic schizophrenia" and having two VERY opposing sentiments: Nike's and armored tanks, anti-commercialism on a product box. Can you speak a little more about being so contradictory?

EVOL: As a product designer, I was doing commissioned work. And there´s nothing wrong about it. Abstractly seen, it´s a problem with certain parameters, and you gotta find a solution for that. There´s nothing wrong with shoes, your feet can be quite cold without them. It´s the level of commercialism we have to deal with these days.

The tiniest corners of your life get branded ("brandalism" as someone whose name I can't remember right now once subsumed it), so as an artist, I´m my own client, and my reflections on the things surrounding me are the products.

BD: What is your favorite type of place to paint?

EVOL: It could be my studio, because I´m struggling with a tiny, fragile stencil that almost doesn't survive from the cutting mat to the table the way that it should to get sprayed, or a well chosen place in public where a certain impact can be made on the passerby...

Images courtesy of the artist and Wilde Gallery

Enough with the Recessionista

2009-04-08T23:08:00.004-04:00

Ok, I'm a young freelancer who lives in a "quaint" part of Brooklyn. But those who think its adorable to add a cute little "-ista" to the end of recession to glam it up a bit (Thanks, Manhattan Storage) are the same people that come up with heinous phrases like "stay-cation" or "sandwich-ocracy." And those people make my job harder, because I am not into coining an adorable neologism to make us all feel better about not being able to afford even Samantha Ronson.

So I'm pretty much doing what I swore I would never do when I started this blog: I'm going to tell you how to save money but shop wisely. Seriously. And this has nothing to do with my ability to save money - I am completely useless when it comes to planning fiscally - its because I made the choice at a young age to dress a specific way and, as I just mentioned, I'm completely useless when it comes to fiscally planning (ie. always broke).

I can't offer helpful tips like, "Pay off your credit card" or "Stop focusing on labels" because if you haven't figured that stuff out by now, put down your Gateway and go read Marie Claire or something.

But I can tell you how I have successfully scammed and conned my way into having a reasonable wardrobe (the person I usually scammed and conned was myself...):

1. Bookmarks:
This little mechanism on your internet browser is genius. See, I love to internet browse. I love checking Oak and Pixie Market, Welcome Hunters and Topshop, and when I am done, I see about 70 things I like. So I bookmark them throughout the month. Then on payday (which was a once a month thing for me, but I imagine the non-rent payday for normals), I scanned my list. Most of what I liked earlier in the week kind of sucked to me now. Or now that I had my credit card out and it WASN'T a spontaneous purchase, I was a little reticent. And the stuff I did like, I reeeeeally liked.

2. Avoid shit stores:
My roommate looks good in a potato sack so sometimes she comes back from Strawberry or Joyce Leslie with a bag of things that I kind of envy. And I have a pair of jeans from JL that are amazing (a great color teal, totally keep the stretch). But if you start shopping at H&M only, you are going to look like you start shopping at H&M only - which is fine, except that garbage is so poorly made.

3. Check the content:
Labels are important. Not the designer labels, the fabric. Poly/rayon/acetate combos are not very soft and look really cheap. 100% cotton, a little nylon - thats the stuff that cozy is made of. One of the reasons I support Uniqlo so whole-heartedly - they have cheap cashmere-blends. So I can drop $20 on a cardigan that looks like a spent more on it, because its material isn't made from something that feels like old Barbie hair.

4. Tailors:
Yes, thrift stores are the best things ever, but even if you find something great that doesn't fit perfectly, tailor it. And, even better, take OLD stuff of yours to a tailor.
Ok - my tailor is magic. She makes beautiful things happen to shirts that were a bit boxy, pants that are too long, even t-shirts that were meant to be dresses. Dudes, I cannot tell you how much this applies to you. I literally know maybe one guy that doesn't wear ill-fitting jeans, and that's because he's a drag queen. Seriously. Get your hems up.

5. Google rebate codes:
Some may call this janky - I call this resourceful. See this website: RetailMeNot.com. It's a really comprehensive, un-popup-py way to research codes for stores you like. For instance, get 10% off at Urban Outfitters using the code SPRING. Get free shipping at Yoox with FREESHIPPING@YOOX. Seriously. The internet won't judge you.

But the best way to save money during the recession but not look like a schlub is to NOT SHOP. You don't look like a schlub. Go to thrift stores and buy a ton of accessories. Borrow stuff. Put a ribbon in your hair or grow out a beard. Throw out your clothing that you hate (or...even better, sell it at Beacon's Closet. But whatever you do, don't buy crap simply because its cheap.

Blame this whole rant on H&M charging $39.99 for a cotton stretch skirt. Pure rubbish.

JENNY HOLZER: Protect, Protect

2009-03-30T23:16:00.005-04:00

In a moment of blind luck, I was invited to preview Jenny Holzer's largest retrospective in fifteen years, "Protect Protect" at the Whitney last week. Running til May 31st, the show is immaculately curated, a winding journey favoring a lot of Holzer's more contemporary works and then ending in a darkened room with her trademarked neon flashing messages.

A brief glimpse of Jenny Holzer: She gained recognition in the 70s with her "Truisims" which were a type of "Escatological Laundry List" that she posted everywhere. She began to project onto buildings, using phrases and sentences that were aggressive, usually dealing with war or sex. Dark, critical and deliciously masochistic, her work then continued with "Lustmorde," which was a depiction of rape from the view of the perpetrator, victim and viewer. Today she is working on "Redactions," which takes "unclassified" documents detailing the Iraq war detainee treatments and quite literally blows them up to be examined.

Because her work is unapologetic and inflammatory, there is something adolescent in a lot of what she does - magnifying words or difficult speech and then making the viewer swallow the often painful imagery. One of the suits from the Whitney was explaining, almost apologetically, that "with Jenny Holzer, its not just the words that she is depicting, but the actual visualization of the words." While it is true that the flashing marquees and neon lights are fairly beautiful, I totally disagree: It IS the words that are so moving. Simple, unhinged language being ignited like a billboard is incredibly and irresistably powerful. A lot of her work challenges the viewer as being passive - by reading this you are passively accepting the world - but then encourages a different course - RUIN YOURSELF BEFORE THEY RUIN YOU. This dichotomy, this tension, is what draws me to her work. She is both the accuser and the accomplice.

It takes a while before you can step over intert bodies and go ahead with what you were trying to do.

Some days you wake and immediately start to worry. Nothing in particular is wrong it's just the suspicion that forces are aligning quietly and there will be trouble.

Some Redactions.

A confession from a soldier admitting to killing a child. The hand written note and the fact that it was on a wall by itself was simply impactful.

The physical presence of the confessions.

Jenny giving us a tour.

Massive handprints of torture victims.

Some of her neon structures.

Lustmorde. This is my favorite of her works. She took human bones and bound them with metal that was engraved with her work. The statements themselves are nauseating and powerful. I was physically shaking at the pure physicality of her imagery. You can see more here.

I feel who you are, and it does me no good at all.

The simplicity of her language and presentation is so vehement.

May 31st at the Whitney.

Twitter? But, I just met 'er?!

2009-03-25T23:33:00.001-04:00

You can follow me now.

http://twitter.com/leilaclaire

If you had been following earlier, you could have witnessed my traipse around Washington Square Park to locate the elusive Topshop truck.

I promise you it will be good fun.

L

TENOVERSIX Private Line

2009-03-24T14:17:00.002-04:00

The lovely ladies over at Is Mental always talk about how amazing TenOverSix is - with good reason. The LA-based retailer is a bit of LA's response to, say, Opening Ceremony (besides, er, Opening Ceremony) or something a little more quirky. And, for FW 09, the gals have created their own capsule collection, made of lovely coats, bags and even a couple pieces of jewelry.

Actually, the laptop bags are quite cool - I really have been noticing a lot of paint dipped things recently and I like that you can actually discern a where the paint stops.

Oh, and two-toned shoes are always amazing, and are apparently made by Kristen Lee, whom I've been following secretly since Surface did its big LA thing.

Is there something happening in a Navajo-print, native inspired way here? Can I get a poncho?

Where The Wild Things Are

2009-03-23T15:40:00.004-04:00

Massively uplifting news today. The dream project "Where The Wild Things Are" is not only in production, but trailers are being released this weekend and stills have finally hit the interweb. Possibly one of the best adaptations of all time (except for Jodorowsky's ill-fated Dune, perhaps, or Terry Gilliam's Watchmen). If you haven't heard, this is like, a fortuitous alignment of impossible forces: The story is apparently very faithful to Sendak's 1963 children's masterpiece, it's directed by Spike Jonze, written by Dave Eggers and starring Catherine Keener and Forrest Whittaker.

And the test footage was so heart-warming it almost melted my ice-encrusted soul:

where the wild things are video
Uploaded by masalladeorion

The pictures that surfaced on USA Today look amazing. Max is irritated instead of cute, the movie looks thoughtful instead of oafish and there is a general sense of expanse and melancholy.

Oh, and to top it all off, the boy who PLAYS Max is actually NAMED Max as well. I can't wait til October.

CROSSING LINES and CAMILLE ALTAY

2009-03-07T22:13:00.003-05:00

Very exciting news that I wanted to draw the general attention to. Camille Altay, who you might recognize from such roles as My Best Friend 4Ever, just got accepted into her first real-live jurored show. Located at the fairly large and reputable Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Camille is one of several artists located all over the east coast to be featured in a show that "engages latitiude, limits and attitudes with boundaries either upheld or transgressed."

Camille's work has always been fascinated with geometry and placement: things meld, morph and merge in often cartoonish, overtly sexual ways. Abstract notions feel somewhat tangible - and there is always something a little threatening but also precocious lurking beneath the surface (like a child offender...?). I think this show has a theme that is very much in line with her work, and it sounds like it's quite a good fit for her. Rumor has it she is going to apply for a solo show. And, it's Delaware, which is quite fancy.

Here are some lovely, line-featuring works of Camille's:

I believe that the "Universal Events" series is the piece that made it in the show, but I can't find a digitial representation of the specific work.

Anyway, if anyone heads to Delaware in the next few weeks (the show is up til the end of April), check it out, take some pics and I would totally post them.

Want More Leila??

2009-03-04T00:37:00.002-05:00

You can always stalk me over at Interview. Just check the fashion blog, or here.

Amazon in the Mood

2009-03-02T16:40:00.004-05:00

Hello.

Since when did Amazon.com start getting amazing shoes at absurd prices? Why didn't I know about this? Why are they so cheap? And, is it wrong to like how well Jessica Simpson rips off of Balenciaga? Has this been going on for a while? Can someone talk to me about this?

Guess "Maeve" Boots for $60.85

Botkier Jamie Boot for $168.73 (marked down from $460...)

Camper Twin bootie, $58.00 (marked down from $200)

ALL BLACK cut out bootie, $58.00 (marked down from $170)

Oh dear. Jessica Simpson taking a page out from Nicolas Ghesquiére for these heels. Quite nice - at $104.00

Nine West Nistka lace-up, $50.00 (marked down from $150). It's ok to like Nine West. High quality, most of their ideas are not their own. It's okay, I promise...

Killer 'bats from Seychelles, $72.00

Diesel Prairie boots, $79.00 (marked down from $238)

Perhaps you can't tell, but I'm not quite ready to let go of winter, because my footwear options run dry. But boots and shorts, as we all know, is probably the best combination since chocolate milkshakes and fries.

(ALMOST) Spoiler-Free Review of WATCHMEN

2009-02-20T19:45:00.002-05:00

I had a chat with the impossibly lucky and incredibly well-versed Matt Harper over at MTV. He is the resident comic nerd over there, and with a degree in Cultural Studies, he actually has a fair amount to say about movies. So, of course, his opinion is pretty valid when it comes to comic book cinema, so I bugged him about his experience having a super-secret peak at the highly anticipated Watchmen movie out next month.

Ok - quick rundown: Watchmen is written by Alan Moore and is a graphic novel, and it kind of exploded a lot of ideas about comic books being about tits and guns. It takes place on the eve of a Soviet attack on the US, and a bunch of half-washed up "costumed adventurers" dealing with the problem of not being wanted anymore. There are no superpowers, except for Dr. Manhattan, who is a literal Atom Man, further deepening our nuclear-age anxiety, and Dr. Manhattan is the US's greatest protection against invasion. And costumed adventurer and war hero The Comedian is dead, so schizo/moral-upholder Rorschrach investigates if someone is wiping out heroes to cover-up something much larger than Soviets.

Zack Snyder, of the divisive "300", has undertaken the movie - and clearly the Soviet anxiety will bring up comparisons to 9/11, etc. Fans are torn: this is like filming "War and Peace" for Russian Lit enthusiasts, "Neuromancer" for hackers or even The Bible. Really.

So I gave Matt a few questions, and he had more than insightful answers, so here is a first glimpse from a real authority:

Battledroid: Zack Snyder is gratuitous, slick and overly produced. Does this help Watchmen, or does it take away from Alan Moore's grittiness?

Matt Harper: Ok, you kind of guessed one of my criticisms...some of the gritty realism of 1980's New York is lost in the slick translation. That being said, i have to give Snyder tons of credit for not holding back with the dark tone of the movie. It is 100% a hard 'R'...lots of gory violence and graphic sex. (Note: there is one particular violent scene that is missing...I’m sure many people fans will notice and complain about its absence, but Snyder has promised that it had to be cut for time, and will be in the director's cut)

Courtesy of MTV

Battledroid: Give me a brief plot outline:

MH: Dont be lazy! Read the book. There's your plot outline. Seriously. (There is one main divergence, and a few small omissions, but generally they all make sense...)

Battledroid: What actors did an incredible job? Who shined? Who was hard to take and why?

MH: Jackie Earle Haley was amazing - its jarring to hear Rorschach speak for the first time...but you get used to it quickly. And there is one particularly line in the prison that Jackie Earle Haley “nails” (and interestingly, is not spoken by Rorschach directly in the book). Malin Ackerman is a bit weak, but a lot of her scenes are with a CGI character...although, I should also mention that I find the Laurie’s character completely annoying in the book, and i think some of the changes they made to her were an improvement character wise anyways.

Battledroid: The genius of Watchmen is the self-referential glorification of comic book history and the tension between Golden/Silver/Modern age ideals. How did the movie deal with flashbacks? Was it effective? Did the comic book-ness lose out on the big screen, or were you still able to make those connections between the comic book archetypes and the movie? Or did they characters become "action heroes"?

MH: Obviously some of the flashbacks had to be cut for time...the character that suffered the most in this respect was Nite Owl...BUT where Zack Snyder really succeeded was in creating a totally believable and immerse world/history. There is so much detail in every shot. So yes, Dr. Malcolm Long has a much smaller, and less interesting role, but he's still there at least.

As far as whether they become "action heroes"...Snyder has embellished a lot of the action sequences...but I understand his reasoning for this. But I think he's managed to keep a lot of the realism, pathos, and moral ambiguity of the characters, so in this respect, they are never *fully* glorified as heroes...if anything they are small, narrow-minded, and ultimately ineffective - exactly as they should be. (My one caveat is that I cant fathom how Silk Spectre is such a good fighter...even after being retired for a decade, and wearing high heels...but that was a problem I had with the book as well, so whatever [BD NOTE: Laurie doesn’t smoke in the movie!!!])

Courtesy of MTV

Battldroid: Rorschrach: Was he portrayed as a good guy or a bad guy? Hollywood needs one, and Rorschrach is neither...

MH: I *kind* of agree with that statement...but Hollywood also loves a badass. Rorschach is portrayed exactly as he is in the book. He sees himself as a morally superior avenger, others see him as a psychopathic vigilante. What I’ve always loved about Moore’s book is that every character has a different moral outlook on the world...yet all of their outlooks are flawed. And thankfully this is something that Snyder hasn’t
Messed with.

On that note though, I think this movie is going to be very hard for non-watchmen fans to relate to simply for that reason - there really is no character for the audience to identify with...

Battledroid: How awesome was Bubastis? Seriously.

MH: Seriously? Um, good I guess, but not in very many scenes at all. Ozymandias still kills him though!

Courtesy of MTV

Battledroid: My favorite interaction in the whole series is between the kid and the newspaper vendor. Did that happen?

MH: Yes, but no. It was shot, but is not in the movie (though you can see them in a few shots). Snyder has promised that in the fall, a super-long edition (3:30 I think) of the film will be released, which will include those scenes with Bernie and Bernard, as well as the Tales of the Black Freighter interstitial.

Battledroid: Can you talk in depth about one really wonderful, exhilarating sequence, i.e. the highlight of the movie? Where did it drag?

MH: Hmmm. Its hard to pick out just one moment, really. I guess the origin flashback for Dr. Manhattan - but I think that's mostly just because I love the character, and i think they pretty much nailed him. I guess its not the highlight of the movie, but it stands out in my mind at this moment

Also, the title sequence is “amazing” and perfect.

[NOTE: SPOILERS AHEAD]

Aaaand, I guess the scene that drags is the conversation between dr. Manhattan and laurie on mars...mostly because this is a long conversation, and Malin Akerman isn’t that great. (although I should mention that they cut down the conversation noticeably...including my favorite line from the whole convo [NOTE: The line about everyone being a puppet on strings, Manhattan is only able to see his]). Oh also related to that scene, her realization that the comedian is her father is kind of lame in the movie...

[/SPOILERS]

Battledroid: Will fans love this movie? Will the general populace? How does it compare next to 300? If you were Grumpy Old Crazy Alan Moore, what would you think?

MH: If they are reasonable, yes. It’s really hard to imagine anyone doing a better job adapting this book. So if a fan isn’t happy with this movie, chances are that they wont be satisfied by *any* adaptation. Will the general populace?…Doubtful. I saw the movie with a few people who were unfamiliar with the book, and they hated it. Its really hard to approached if you don’t know what you're getting in to. Which is sad, because it really is a pretty good adaptation.

And as for crazy old Alan Moore? He would probably hate it too...not because it disrespects, or does disservice to his masterpiece, but because watchmen was written by him *specifically* for the printed page...so much of the book's storytelling techniques exploits the printed medium, so ultimately a lot of genius of the book cannot be completely and faithfully translated to any other format. (And also because Alan Moore really is a crazy old man at this point...read some of his recent work if you don’t believe me)

Again though, Zack Snyder has done as good a job as is humanly possible. I think people should think of the movie as a monument to the book...or a companion piece. What is accomplished by the film is amazing and breathtaking, but is not meant to, nor does it, replace the book by any means.

I should add that overall, Watchmen is the most faithful comic book adaptation i have EVER seen...there were so many moments that i literally felt like panels had come to life...[NOTE: He also said this about “300”]

Again, like I said, I think people should judge it somewhat separate from Moore's work...keeping in mind that there are some things that are just impossible to translate from the printed page.

Indeed Matt Harper, indeed.

Minimarket + Agent V (aka, The Swedish Thing)

2009-02-09T00:17:00.006-05:00

Because of my continuing obsession (and stalking) of poor Henrik Vibskov, I've cozied up to his press agency Agent V, which is based in Germany. Immediately, I realized they are a bit like People's Revolution in the US (who rep, like, everyone cool). So I poked around their website and I found possibly my favorite new designers of things I would actually wear.

Minimarket is a group of three cute Swedish girls (seriously, can that country do no wrong?) who make clothing that looks like Topshop meets a fantasy and is kissed by ladybugs. I would probably wear every look from their SS09 collection. I actually think its because I don't hate their usage of color. Perhaps I even actually want to (gulp) wear some of it...I'm debating writing their PR person and begging to translate their site for me so I can order some of their clothing, but I don't think I'd be able to settle on one item.

I would look pretty awesome in that pleated white shirt and that Bordeaux skirt. Really. Something must be done.

TAG YOURRIT

2009-01-18T19:20:00.005-05:00

Without having any prior knowledge of this blog game, lovely Amanda over at Is Mental just informed me that I was tagged in her blog. What this means is that I need to post a picture, on her command - and I'm not going to argue with her.

Here's the deal:

::go to the 4th folder in your computer where you store your pictures
::pick the 4th picture in that folder
::explain the picture
::tag 4 people to do the same

So, this is a horrendous picture of myself and my roommate Georgia at a party last summer in Williamsburg. It's about two AM and the cops are about to bust the place and we are both sweating buckets. I ended up wearing the same AA dress as my friend Jill (the dangers of American Apparel), but it looked pretty great in that disheveled-cracked-out-drunk-2AM American Apparel way...and the only reason I didn't toss this is because rarely do my cheekbones get the photographic credit they deserve.

Ok, I tag Michael, Meagan, Camille and Mary Reilly

Wee!

McQueen for Target

2009-01-16T16:15:00.003-05:00

Ok, let's get this straight. This isn't actually Alexander McQueen, it's McQ, his diffusion line that is a helluva lot less. It's not as leather-and-studs, dominazi as is regular stuff - it's like, McQueen for Americans. So not only is this a for-Target line, but its a diffusion line's for-Target line. Which probably means ole Alex didn't touch, see or think about any of these designs.

That being said, they aren't that bad. And Target knows that people will buy, so the average piece is about $50-60 (which is a bit much - these Target lines have the staying power of a season). I got the lookbook today and chose a few of my favorite looks for you, my lovely readers. And this is pretty new. There is some benefit, I suppose, in using your job to better your blog.

What I really like are the shoes - which I don't think are a part of the collection. I totally dig the vest/shirts with the halters, and I've been looking for a good tux coat.

Further proof that when even the King of Rock Fashion needs cash nowadays, we are in a very dire predicament.

The Shipment

2009-01-12T22:12:00.002-05:00

My amazing and hyper-talented roommate and friend Georgia X. Lifsher is involved in a very exciting project. Having linked up with Asian inciter Young Jean Lee, she assistant directed Young Jean (who also dates musician Mike Doughty)'s newest production, The Shipment.

I went to go see this at a preview this past Saturday, and, like most people my age, a two hour play on "race/identity politics" is not my idea of a relaxing Saturday afternoon. But The Shipment was refreshing, hilarious and poignant. There was a beautiful song, a semi-offensive/tedious/hilarious stand up comic and a short play with a twist that I didn't see coming.

And today Georgia comes home with the New York Times. It appears that The Shipment got one hell of a write-up, and I'd love to share it with you here:

Cultural images of black America are tweaked, pulled and twisted like Silly Putty in “The Shipment,” a subversive, seriously funny new theater piece by the adventurous playwright Young Jean Lee at the Kitchen.

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Amelia Workman, left, and Okieriete Onodowan in "The Shipment."

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Prentice Onayemi in "The Shipment."

Ms. Lee, who is Korean-American, consciously set herself the uncomfortable task of creating what she calls a “black identity-politics show,” having explored and lampooned the culture of Christian churches and Asian-Americans in her previous works “Church” and “Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven.” (Clearly she likes a challenge.) Combing through the images of African-Americans that dominate the media, Ms. Lee wields sharp, offbeat humor to point up the clichés, distortions and absurdities, turning the wearily familiar — a foul-mouthed stand-up comic, a drug dealer, a would-be rapper — into loopy, arch cartoons.

Please don’t let the social-studies tag “identity-politics” put you off; “The Shipment,” performed by a diversely talented cast of five black actors, will bore or offend only the humorless. Ms. Lee’s method is not to wag a finger but to wink and smile, trusting that you’ll register the point after you’ve had a good laugh.

The show is provocative but never polemical, and it is pleasingly eclectic. There’s a little song and a little dance; straight-up comedy; sketches; and a short, essentially naturalistic play. But even in the lighter moments, Ms. Lee, who also directed the show, does not shy away from prodding the audience’s racial sensitivities — or insensitivities — in a style that is sometimes sly and subtle, sometimes as blunt as a poke in the eye.

Eye-poking comes first, after a brief, antic dance sets the playful tone. Douglas Scott Streater strides onstage in the guise of an abrasive, trash-mouthed comedian. The monologue he performs, full of blush-making sex jokes (including a pro-incest riff) and scatological reveries (he complains that he’d rather tell bathroom jokes than work over the black-white thing again), pays affectionate tribute to the transgressive spirit of great black comics, from Richard Pryor to Dave Chappelle.

Some of the stinging observations could easily have been pulled from a routine on “Original Kings of Comedy” on HBO. Annoyed by white people’s annoyance when black people point out they’ve experienced racial discrimination or oppression, Mr. Streater parodies their own fondness for complaint.

“You ever heard a white person whine?” he asks, then switches from street voice to the sound of a crisply enunciating nerd. “ ‘I don’t know what I’m doing with my life.’ ‘I hate feeling fat all the time.’ ”

But the heightened abrasiveness and the lurches into absurdity intimate that the posture of the angry, foul-mouthed black stand-up has become a constricting pose. The machinery of the entertainment industry keeps performers boxed in categories that challenge neither white nor black audiences. At one point the comic confesses that he doesn’t talk like this offstage but is too afraid of the reactions of his peers to drop the persona.

The sketch that follows, the show’s funniest segment, is a comic-strip odyssey about a young black man, Omar (Okieriete Onodowan), who aspires to rap stardom. Shortly after waking up one day and announcing his dream to his dubious mom, He is seduced into drug dealing and thrown in prison. There he meets a religious fanatic named Paul the Extremist and a record executive who eventually makes him a blinged-out star.

The style is deadpan surrealism. When a basketball-playing friend flops on the ground suddenly, Omar exclaims: “Oh no! A drive-by shooting!” The introductory monologue from the zombified drug kingpin (a hilarious Prentice Onayemi) is typical of the skit’s chipper style.

“I’m going to rob people and shoot them and also sell drugs,” he tells Omar blandly, arms waving slowly in hip-hop motion. “You should do it too.” The weirdly innocuous tone, like that of a children’s book, is presumably Ms. Lee’s mordant commentary on the simplicity of the dominant narratives of black urban dysfunction and/or achievement prevalent in the cultural atmosphere.

A somewhat inscrutable song follows, performed a cappella by three of the cast members. But it provides a palate cleanser leading into the last and longest segment, on the surface a straight-up naturalistic comedy set at a cocktail party.

Even on its bantering surface, the play takes a few turns into the peculiar. After pouring drinks and making the usual welcoming chatter, the party’s host, Thomas (Mr. Streater), eventually begins playing odd, antagonistic games, dredging up humiliating secrets to expose. Things get more macabre still when threats of murder and suicide are served up along with the crudités.

But both the play’s surface realism and the lurid incidents Ms. Lee sprinkles across it are really just diversionary tactics meant to keep us guessing about the larger game she’s playing. To say much more would be to spoil the sucker punch line, but as she does in the best of the material in “The Shipment,” Ms. Lee sets you thinking about how we unconsciously process experience — at the theater, or in life — through the filter of racial perspective, and how hard it can be to see the world truly in something other than black and white.

The article can be read here, and tickets can be bought here. And you can see Georgia's name here:

THE SHIPMENT

Written and directed by Young Jean Lee; produced by Caleb Hammons; associate director, Lee Sunday Evans; sets by David Evans Morris; costumes by Roxana Ramseur; lighting by Mark Barton; sound by Matthew Tierney; choreography by Faye Driscoll; assistant director, Georgia X. Lifsher; dramaturgy by Mike Farry; fight choreography by Jason McDowell Green. A Young Jean Lee Theater Company production presented by the Kitchen; at the Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, Chelsea; (212) 255-5793, Ext. 11, or ticketweb.com. Through Jan. 24. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes.

WITH: Mikeah Ernest Jennings, Douglas Scott Streater, Prentice Onayemi, Okieriete Onodowan, Amelia Workman, Foteos Macrides and Joseph John.

Congrats Georgia!

Guess Who Is Officially A Fashion Blogger For Interview Magazine?

2009-01-09T14:52:00.000-05:00

Moi?

Moi.

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/blogs/fashion/2009-01-09/hindmarch-member-british-empire-plastic-bag/

When You Do Propose

2009-01-05T13:33:00.003-05:00

Please do so with this ring: It makes me feel the most Battlestar Galacti-fine.

And to cap off our marriage which celebrates the fact that being nerdy is in fact the coolest thing to be, you can add these earrings into the mix.

And I'll probably say yes, unless I'm feeling particularly snakey, in which case, you might want to opt for this slithery little gem.

There is nothing quite like jewelry as your "statement" piece. Or your best inside joke with the world.

Happy New Years!

Dancing Hexagons

2008-12-27T04:58:00.001-05:00

Don't worry guys, I found the scariest thing of 2008 (time almost ran out!)

8 BEST PRODUCTS I PURCHASED IN 2008

2008-12-24T18:55:00.003-05:00

What happens, of course, as you get older is the increased awareness of things you do and do not own. Words like "investments" and "longterm" begin to come into your purchasing vocabulary. Like, "these Balenciaga heels would be a great investment" or "I need to make a longterm decision about my skin care." Seriously. What did you think I was referring to, some sort of liquid asset?

Ha, I'm a journalist. I take what I can get.

So in no particular order, here are the eight things I discovered that I am glad that I committed to in 2008:

1. 16 gig iPod nano in purple - It's purple. It's small. It shuffles when I shake it. And it is engraved. So when it peters out, I'll feel good I only spent $159.

Runners up: Chronotrigger for DS; an iPhone, if I'd purchased one

2. Sponge Avocado Oil - This lovely little product literally smells like avocados, and when you put it on at night, you actually can FEEL vitamins pulsating in your pores at an alarming rate. Srsly.

Runners up: MAC Powder Blush; Malin + Goetz Mojito Soaps

3. My MOMA boots - Though I can't find them on Yoox anymore, I'm supplying another pair that are equally inspiring. These boots, though being worn pretty seriously for eight months, look brand new. And I get stopped on the street, by punks and stroller pushing moms, to hear how rad my boots are. Duh.

(the only photographic evidence I have of said boots)

Runners up: Vintage buckle-up cowboy boots; Alice + Oliva booties for Payless

4. Fresh Direct Membership - Well, I didn't actually buy this, but I sure used it. And I spent less money and ate better. The four-minute meals are seriously nom-ular, and I found that I really dug their soups. And I didn't have to haul around cat litter. So, pretty sick.

Runners up: Making friends with my dry-cleaner; discovering the joy of tailoring vintage dresses
5. Tide to Go Instant Stain Remover - Though I often fished it out of my bag and handed to people in lieu of a pen, this little baby saved me a few too many times in Ought Eight. Oh, and if you are invited to a birthday party but you forgot a gift and all thats left between you and the celebration is a Duane Reade, there ain't no shame in a pack of Tide to Go. It'd be appreciated, I promise.

Runners up: Bleach, in everything; Electrical tape for holding everything except electrical products together

6. Rapidshare account - Did you know you could find anything on Rapidshare? Tom and Jerry's Nutcracker movie? Nationwide 8th graders student reports? Also, incredibly obscure albums that you once already paid for but have been destroyed by time/humiliation/moving? All there, for 55 Euros a year.

Runners up: Flickr Pro Account

7. American Apparel 2x1 Rib Nylon Spandex Leggings in Black - There is a reason why American Apparel is beginning to rival Starbucks in its obvious positioning in NYC. Yes, its ad campaign makes me want to claw my eyes out (with cleverness!), and everyone I know owns 8 pairs of Slim Slacks, but there is nothing more basic than a basic. And I sit directly in the middle of the leggings-as-pants debate: if it looks good, do it. If I have to see your underwear line, don't. In black, they are best.

Runners up: Nylon Tricot Figure Skater Dress; Nylon Tricot Highwaisted Skirt

8. A subscription to the Economist - The most snotty of posh periodicals, the Economist ensured I had the (right) opinion on everything this year, from McCain's gracious concession speech to his not-so-gracious campaign, to the messy re-election of Robert Mugabe, to Mumbai not being India's 9/11. And really, I got to keep this cover, which is pretty frakkin' epic:

Runners Up: An increased addiction to Ben Tausig's crosswords in The Onion; Enjoying increased job security over Vogue-rs

So there is my year in investments. It's fairly lackluster (hey, we are in an economic slump and I make a pittance), but what's a year without making a couple intelligently absurd purchases.

Jews and Design :: Hannukah version

2008-12-23T15:08:00.002-05:00

While we often joke at Surface about doing a Jewish issue (no Zaha or Karim...but plenty of Dror!), the most basic way to look at the secular nature of design influencing a non-secular lifestyle is religious imagery. And since the cross is pretty much canon and the tree gets all the glory anyway (and the Kwanzaa Kinara is, you know, a lot like a menorah), leave it to the Heebs to come up with pretty fancy holiday decor. So here is my round up of the season's best (and most clever) menorahs, in no particular order:

Holiday Skyline Menorah by Jonathan Adler

The Man-Orah by Josh Korwin and Alyssa Zukas

The Hannu-kit at Reddish

Sahar Batsry's Flame Menorah

Last Match Menorah by Kathleen Walsh

Cube Modern Menorah by Modern Tribe

Menorah Glass Candleholder by Frabel

Rivington - at Maxwell Silver

From Leila "Not Quite A Jew...More, Just Jew...ish" Brillson

Andrea Galvini = modern day Magritte

2008-12-17T23:26:00.007-05:00

If Magritte took pictures, and those pictures had an intense preoccupation with the surreal and often threatening intersection between nature and modernity, they would look an awful lot like Andrea Galvini's works. The young Italian photographer lives part-time in Milan and New York, and his photo's are really, absurdly eerie and breathtaking.

Often using animals and stark, foggy backgrounds, it appears that he has a preoccupation with both smoke and balloons, and using both to obscure any sort of defining characteristics. Anytime he shows eyes, it seems to belong to an animal, which are depicted in (creepily funny) multitudes. Apparently he is currently doing a residency at Location One, which is about a five minute walk away from Surface, so I might stalk him for a print.

Wait. I WILL stalk him for a print.

‘la morte di un’immagine #6’, 2006

‘la morte di un’immagine #5’, 2005

‘N-1 #1’, 2007

‘l’intelligenza del male #5’, 2007

‘la morte di un’immagine #7’, 2006

via Designboom

DESIGN GLUT

2008-12-04T12:26:00.002-05:00

I have to give some love to my two little friends, the charming Kegan Fisher and Liz Kinnmark, the totally irreverent and completely talented duo that make up Design Glut. Not only are they both adorable (by the looks of it, they just got themselves a shmancy photoshoot - but in real life the girls are less glam but equally cute), but they have a fledgling little Brooklyn design firm that focuses on cheeky, DIY projects.

Also, and not to make me biased, they attend Surface events like it's their job. They come to parties, to speaking events - they are like the smart, interesting kids that you always meant to be friends with in high school - but for the New York indie design scene.

Of course, they just launched a sale on their site, which is impeccably designed and very visually appealing. A couple of their products are pretty rad, like the globally inspired world links necklace:

Which is only $60, but at their sale price is less than $50.

I also like their newly introduced world currencies money clip...:

REMEMBER: Use coupon code HAPPYFUCKINGHOLIDAYS

I recently got emailed about this small DIY project the two girls conceived of (with a $100 prize!) involving a Christmas tree ornament and following some cutting-and-folding instructions. Commenting on the current economic situation, the girls are encouraging people to cut out their money-tree-topper, assemble it and send them a picture of the project for prizes and general sense of community. Take a looksee here and see what you can come up with. Can you beat these two? Send me a copy if you dare to submit.

Happy fucking holidays, indeed.

All I Need Are Some Lights On A String

2008-12-01T21:14:00.002-05:00

This weekend, in a fit of passion, I pushed all of my furniture to the center of the room, pulled my clothes out of the drawers and knocked books off of shelves. It wasn't a temper tantrum - I just decided that I needed to freshen things up before winter really sets in. What has appeared, apparently, is a blank spot around my bed that needs some type of lighting apparatus.

While I'd prefer not to channel the 14-year-old girl in me, I think I might be best off with string lights. You can find them in the weird Chinese import shops around Canal, you can find them at Oriental Trading and, apparently, while stringlights.com is not registered, partylights.com IS.

While I don't want jalepenos or rubber ducks or something like that, I'm not quite willing to succumb to Christmas lights. I DO work at a design mag. I COULD possibly think of something more creative than the lighting that you put around a pine tree.

So, easy first stop: momastore.org.
It's the no-duh of design shopping, and I query string lights, and BAM, they got 'em. Of course, they happen to be the string lights from the previous post, which are certainly not worth the $100 dollar price tag and aren't exactly mood creating.

String Ten Light

And while they look awesome in a set of three, one lonely one in my room would be pathetic.

Then I head over to one of my favorite blogs, Design Boom, which does a nice job of covering the conceptual and the practical. I search "string lights" because I don't know a better term, and the only hit are the damn Brilliant Lights installation I saw at the Seoul Design Olympiad. Seriously.

And I definitely think I would creep myself out with those above my bed.

So I head over to the old trustworthy Ikea page. And Ikea has some affordable lighting options that an adult might use - not all hearts, butterflies, weird lanterns and stars. Like the (bear with me)

Kallt

Or the kind of awesome spidery Minnen.

But no, look at the lighting page found here: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/lighting/14971?pageNumber=0
Not one, not one of those lighting options are available for shipping. And if you think I'm going to waste a Saturday trekking to Red Hook for some string lights...you don't work as hard as I do.

In desperation, I hit up Target, hoping to find SOMETHING, maybe some Jonathan Saunders designed lighting, or at least Isaac Mizrahi...But have you ever shopped at Target online? It's like shopping the store - rows and rows of hits come up with decreasing relevancy. Wrong size, weird color, you think you saw it cheaper in another department. And the tags are labeled:

All Lighting

All Novelty Lighting

String + Hanging

All Outdoor Lighting

String Lights

But what's the difference between novelty, string and string and hanging? I cannot possibly cope, even though I found a semi tolerable mesh-bronze string lights, which I am not purchasing because I'm not spending $50 on something that could, upon further review, look like a bug zapper.

The moral is: who needs shopping savvy and design blogs when you have good ole DIY-ingenuity. So I'm going to do what any good Brooklyn-dweller would do...I'm going to march down to a hardware store, get some sturdy wire and christmas lights, and mold and shape my own damn lamp, thankyouverymuch.

DESIGN GIFTS :: THE FUTURE PERFECT

2008-11-18T17:36:00.002-05:00

My friend Andrea just moved into a new place, and I love nothing more than sending her Craigslist stuff of what she should buy. Christmas shopping makes me much more exhilarated than Christmas itself.

So I've decided to start composing a little list of places to go to get really excellent gifts, as part of my hunting-things-down-for-you-on-the-internet impulse and also to have a definitive, unbeatable Christmas shopping guide.

When I received an email from the newly launched The Future Perfect design website today, I thought it would be a good introduction. Its a really interesting but expensive website, but I promptly got a 15% off coupon for your disposal (which, apparently, you just need to call about to use)

Here are some less expensive items that would make a wonderful gift:

String Lights

Optical Glasses

The Leather Bear Bookend

Forget-Me-Knot Ring

eBay HAUL

2008-11-17T01:10:00.003-05:00

I would just like everyone to know that I just posted some amazing things on eBay, and they should go bid their little tails off.

Can't remember my store URL? How dare thee. It's here, at Missy Meow.

Lots of vintage, some Halston, Cheap Monday and Betsey Johnson. Help thyselves.

THE REAL BUFFY

2008-11-14T16:50:00.002-05:00

It's very exciting to think of being alive in a time where you really feared being attacked by a vampire. I mean, to be prepared, really brace yourself for a possible vampire strike. Today, we have terrorists and hurricanes, but I don't think we fear for the supernatural or the undead nearly as much as we should (hence, my continual blogging-about-zombies).

Let us reminisce about simpler times, when real things like monsters and blood suckers kept us awake.

And let us think about how much we would spend to protect ourselves from them? A national deficit? Never. $14,850? Maybe.

Apparently a real, live vampire hunting kit (housed in walnut casings and complete with garlic and holy water) sold at Steven's Auctions for that exact amount.

How beautiful is that? Look at those immaculately carved stakes and those matching bottles? I wish that my cosmetics were organized that nicely.

I think I am going to go home, dump out my Shu Uemera bottles, and fill it with holy water, just in case.

Via Core 77

CALVIN KLEIN PRIVATE SALE

2008-11-13T11:30:00.002-05:00

My dear friend, Krysta Gonzalez, is a Divisional Field Assistant for Calvin Klein, and she let me know about a 30% private sale at Calvin Klein. Just click this LINK.

I think I'll pick myself up this lovely little belted PONCHO:

Or maybe this little boatneck dress.

There is good stuff for men as well. Take advantage of this, because it ends on Sunday.

Thanks Krysta!

WELL, MY LIFE HAS CHANGED

2008-11-10T20:25:00.002-05:00

Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows I love my Netflix. It gives me a sense of completion, a sense of accomplishment. I achieve a little bit each time I mail back that red envelope. My account is enriched every time I rate a movie, write a review or leave a friend a note.

The only thing holding me back from complete adoration was being on a Mac and not being able to stream live. Well, my friends, that's over. According to Gizmodo:

LOS GATOS, Calif., October 27, 2008 – Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), the world’s largest online movie rental service, today announced it has begun the deployment of Microsoft Silverlight to enhance the instant watching component of the Netflix service and to allow subscribers for the first time to watch movies and TV episodes instantly on their Intel-based Apple Macintosh computers. The deployment, which will initially touch a small percentage of new Netflix subscribers, is the first step in an anticipated roll-out of the new platform to all Netflix subscribers by the end of the year.

Silverlight is designed for delivery of cross-platform, cross-browser media experiences inside a Web browser. It is expected that Netflix members who watch movies and TV episodes instantly on their computers will enjoy a faster, easier connection and a more robust viewing experience with Silverlight, due to the quality built directly into the player. Among the viewing enhancements with the new player is a breakthrough in timeline navigation that vastly improves the use of fast-forwarding and rewinding. The new Netflix player takes advantage of Play Ready DRM, which is built into Silverlight, for the playback of protected content on both Windows-based PCs and on Macs. That had not been possible with previous generation technologies.

“Silverlight with Play Ready offers a powerful and secure toolkit for delivery of dynamic streaming, which offers faster start-up, and higher quality video, adapted in real time to users’ connection speeds,” said Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt. “Members who enjoy watching movies and TV episodes from the growing library of choices that can be instantly streamed at Netflix will be thrilled with this next generation improvement of access and quality, on a broader range of platforms, including Intel Macs and Firefox.”

“Instantly streaming from Netflix directly addresses the needs and wants of today’s Web users by providing on-demand, high-quality online video,” said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft Corp. “By using Silverlight, Netflix can deliver to its subscribers a higher quality video experience on the Web, on more platforms.”

Silverlight was tried and proven this summer as NBCOlympics.com streamed thousands of hours of live and on-demand online video for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

For Macintosh users, the Silverlight player will work only on Intel-based Macs, which currently account for roughly three-fourths of Mac units operated by Netflix subscribers.

I logged in and saw no difference, but when I use the Gizmodo link found here, everything appears to be copacetic. Finally, I can watch Surf's Up without the Netflix community watching as it gets added begrudgingly onto my queue.

PORN FOR OBAMA

2008-11-04T12:35:00.003-05:00

I recently discovered that shock photog Terry Richardson (who basically popularized that DIY-70s Style-American-Apparel-sweaty-girls-in-no-clothes photography that is virtually everywhere) got to meet the man with the plan, and take a flick of him, up close and gritty.

Pervy Terry and O to the BAMA.

Man, congrats on appealing to the subculture, Barack. Seriously - who'd ever think a presidential candidate would be shot by the same guy that shoots the S & M exploitation project "Wives Wheels Weapons".

LANDSLIDE '08!

EBAY FIND :: BALENCIAGA WRAP DRESS

2008-11-03T23:24:00.003-05:00

Check out this super sick Balenciaga black and white avant garde wrap dress I found on eBay. It's cashmere and silk, and is a little big on me, so I'm not going to bid, but you should. You should bid now, and let me come over and smell it when you win.

Friday Afternoon Videos :: HALLOWEEN VERSION

2008-10-31T14:29:00.004-04:00

Everyone's favorite day to party is upon us, and it couldn't be nicer in New York.

Enjoy my favorite scary tunes:

"Everyday is Halloween" - Ministry

"Night of the Living Dead" - The Misfits (Danzig-era)

"Halloween" - Siouxsie and the Banshees

"Cryptorchid" - Marilyn Manson (Sidenote: This video provided the theme for our eighth grade haunted house, which I acted as creative director and included themes such as damnation and salvation, torture and redemption. It would have been a poignant commentary on modern teenage suffering, but there was an asbestos leak in the basement.)

This is pretty self-explanatory, and crucial (of course).

Seoul Design Olympiad and The Cat That Came From Korea

2008-10-29T21:47:00.010-04:00

Initially, the reason I wanted to go to Seoul was because of SDO (Seoul Design Olympiad). I wasn't aware until recently, but Seoul, in the next decade, is totally renovating itself, and getting hugely famous designers and architects to come in to help. So in an effort to keep Seoulites feeling connected, they hosted a "Design Olympiad" which was a crash course in all things design. (A design competition, exhibitions by Jamie Hayon and Zaha Hadid and an emerging designers market) It worked. I was enthralled.

Belinda and I went because of our late arrival, we had an extra day. We both were expecting to be disappointed, and if it wasn't for the damp, chilly weather, we would have had a completely flawless day. I did a bit of shopping, met up with Park Jong Chul (the completely English-less menswear designer) for some tea, and then dropped by the showroom of Lee Ju Young, who is Marilyn Manson's personal designer. But don't hold that against her - her eye for exquisite menswear details could give Marc Jacobs or Patrick Ervell a hint or two.

Then I met up again with Belinda for some sight-seeing, candy purchasing and worm smelling. Really, thats what I did. Exhausted, I limped into bed, with only the culinary delights of an impending breakfast to worry about the next day...

Belinda is entering the SDO. These are collected pieces of rubbish hung festively around the entrance. It was...effective, I suppose, if you like glittery bits of trash.

One half of the curvacious and ribbed conference center...

...the second half!

Here are a few of the "build your own bench" submissions, which encouraged citizens to come up with bench designs

The official (get this) FONT of Seoul. They have their own font.

Heh. Remember earlier when I said, "They use cute creatures to sell everything!" Welll....that's still true, but that one particular creature is "Arrrr...Ng." Yes, I'm spelling that right. He's some mysterious doorknocker, and he is certainly cute (well, maybe not here).

Belinda traipsing through the stadium. Watch her traipse!

I'm inside the conference center, which was awkward, because I said, "Take a picture of me! I'm inside the conference center!"

These kids were bloody talented. I kept peeking on their work, and I'm guessing art is taught with an iron fist in Korea.

JeeYoon taking a break, exhausted from leading us around.

This, my friends, is the most stylish life vest I have ever seen...If we gave up our orange things for one of these, I might be inclined to wear one more....

Ok, this is a dress for the military that converts into a tent. They don't offer any alternative to what you should be wearing when you are sleeping in your dress tent, which leads me to believe the military in Korea is mighty sexy.

A kind of janky but clever watering device.

Lights being all design-y.

Belinda and I sitting on a desk called the "His and Hers Desk", made for two people to work independently, but together!

Look closely, but that shirt has an imprint on the underside, allowing wearers to pull it over their head for a scary face.

Grossest clothes hanger ever.

This little guy was sitting in the corner reading his paper for over an hour.

This man (who didn't speak a lick of English) was painting shirts with biodegradable ink. He only made things out of refuse, and he gave Belinda and I a handpainted calendar.

Koreans love taking pictures of their pictures.

Arrrr...Ng in the flesh! He's adorable.

Inside of Lee Ju Young's showroom, which was a lush gothy fantasy (perfect for moi).

Leather embellishments.

Her men's color pallette

A shirt with netted ornamentation, very shipwreck-victim. Loved it.

When I headed back to Fashion Week, there were celebrities there and everyone was trying to get a picture. Koreans love their celebrities...

Doing something New Yorkers never do...waiting in line.

Seoul streets.

A Korean arcade.

Rice wine, which I brought home to discover it tastes monumentally better when served out of a clay pot with a wooden ladel.

The epilepsy attack that is a 7/11.

Belinda: "Should I get the one with the smiley little creature, or the one with the smiley little creature?"

Ok, maybe zoom in or click the picture for this one. That ketchup was SO pristine it looked like a food ad.

And, as promised, snail shells and stinky bugs. Those bugs smelled like rotting, I don't know...bugs?

Last morning!

Our dining view.

On the bus to the airport, toting the cat I bought from the Young Design Mart. That cat was the bane of that day, but I brought it around the world to hang out in Brooklyn.

Well, there's my trip. It was epic and a bit anti-climactic. I didn't learn Korean boxing nor did I get caught in a international heist, but I did learn a lot and come up with a zillion pitches. And I made a few friends too.

And the cat. Don't forget the cat. I came out of this with a lovely cat (and more press schwag than I can measure...).

Fashion shows + flourescent light = a very long day

2008-10-24T14:45:00.007-04:00

I appeared at the Seoul fashion week at like, 10:30 AM when it was opening at noon. I walked around, the only Caucasian for kilometers and had to listen to some of the worst music I've ever heard. It wasn't that it was just bad or out of my cultural understanding - it was really, very bad. The drum beat sounded like an elephant dancing. An awful elephant.

The shows themselves were very strange, like slightly off, way more sober imitations of NY fashion week. Some of the stuff I didn't like at all. And I enjoyed other parts quite a bit. I saw Ha Sang Beg's show, which was a massive undertaking and apparently a tremendous amount of Korean celebrities were there. It was incredibly like Christopher Kane or Bernhard Wilhelm or someone out of that new British school.

Of course, after the shows, I met my friend Sai who is the buyer for the sickest store in Seoul, Space Mue invited me to Sang Beg's after show, and of course (well, not of course, I was entirely shocked) Henrik Vibskov arrived. Being one of my favorite designers - and consequently the closing act of fashion week - I was ecstatic.

Oh, of course. I did a bit of shopping. Because the shopping here is amazing. Incredible. I braved rain and crowds and giants mobs of cheery Korean girls to do it.

And I fell asleep in my clothing. Of course.

Day 2 outfit

This is my typical breakfast. There are dumplings, some delicious muesli/coconut combo, and a whole weat bun. Do you see that fruit at the top? No idea what that it. It has the consistency of a apple but tastes a bit like a plum meeting a pineapple.

Remember how I said everything sells with a cute figure emblazoned on it? Well, here.

Fashion week (at like, 10 AM)!

A totally organic/anatomical piece by Moon Kyung Rae

Details of Moon Kyung Rae's lung-like dress

This bag has a bit of a bicycle on it!

Le Conte de Asura - which is OK.

They had funny hats and kind of half-assed shoes.

I like the seperates I think. Seoul has a lot of mens-inspired womenswear.

The people in Seoul dressed a lot better than the shows in NY

Finale

They had this dramatic wedding/mourner to end the show. It was lousy.

Ha Sang Beg

Check the extreme ruffles on the shoulders and trim.

His menswear was very femme

See the front...

...now the back! The ruffles are great.

This dress was so beautiful.

Finale

I can't really get into bubblegum pink and mens clothing...

Ha Sang Beg came out to talk to me

This is the translator helping me with Park Jong Chul

After the interview, Jong Chul said that I was the best journalist that has ever interviewed him and he wanted to give me a gift.

On our way to dinner in the university district.

Some yoms

In Korea, giant men lure us into eateries.

Ordering din. We are all sitting on our knees.

We had lots to drink. This is Jee-Yoon. She is Jan's counterpart, except young, laid back and isn't afraid to laugh.

No one knew what this was. No one.

Soup!

Aaron investigates the underwear store.

This is Sai. She's very cute and I adore her. We've met up several times, and she is incredibly knowledgeable about underground European fashion.

HENRIK VIBSKOV

Sang Beg and the tall Dane!

I slept in this morning and took off running, completely fuzzy and confused. I was so exhausted from yesterday, and I could be content never chatting again. Though, interviewing someone through a translator is delightful because they get straight to the point.

SEVERE JETLAG, or HOW I STOPPED WORRYING AND ATE KIMCHI

2008-10-23T08:51:00.014-04:00

It's 2:35 pm NY time, and like, 3:45 AM Seoul time and I can't sleep. I passed out around 9 out of sheer exhaustion, but now I have the impetus to blog, blog, BLOG.

This morning I woke up anxious and a bit reluctant, afraid of the people on my trip and the weather. I also was incredibly hungry, but no fear, the Hyatt had the best breakfast I may have ever eaten. I could eat breakfast there everyday for the rest of my life. My tum is grumbling just thinking about it.

Here is what is strange about a press trip: you have a group of people that have to stick to an agenda. The group of people is organized by another group of people. The agenda is immutable. The organizing group often has to heard the agenda group, which makes it feel like a large, adult field trip. This makes it feel less like being in another country and more like being an ornery kid, who simply wants to view the Gilbert and George and is only feigning interest in the floor of very similar, teal-painted traditional Korean pottery.

The architecture in this city is mind-blowingly weird. The brochures keep suggesting its a cross of East and West, and they aren't exaggerating. It verges on eerie modernism, Western style boxes with Eastern pagodas or something meant to imitate a Jean Nouvel modernist structure. To be honest, I don't feel like I am on the other side of the world at all, because the roadways, the houses - they speak of efficiency and mobility, but not EXTREME efficiency and mobility - very Western.

However my favorite moments are when Korea loses its design posturing and populism takes over. Neon, moving signs and cute characters (they literally think they can sell anything by putting a smiling pig or a dancing cat on it. And it's true. They can.). When the moments of sheer Orientalism shine through, in all its garishness, I think Korea is best.

Anyway, here is my day in photographs. We went to the Leeum Art Museum and had a meeting with Mass Studies Principal Minsuk Cho. We went to see Korean retailer Space Mue (in all its glory) and had a traditional Korean lunch. Then we met with architect who designed the Korean Lock Museum, amongst other places. Yes, that is correct, the Korean lock museum...

My room at night, with the bed reflected onto the city.

Well, you ought to know what I was wearing!

This is a sweet bun filled with black bean paste. I want to bring these home with me. You know what? I might. I might put a ton in my bag and see what the Hyatt does.

It was a rainy day...

Have you ever been inside a Korean office space? Because, uh...I have...

The Leeum Museum, which has a small but high profile collection of modern work like Rothko, Gilbert and George and Matthew Barney, but also an entire building dedicated to traditional Korean art.

Louise Bourgeois spiders!

This is Aaron. He's from Dwell. He is pondering why its raining and they won't let us run screaming into the courtyard with the spiders.

In the traditional Korean art building, designed by architect Mario Botta. I thought it was incredible. Much better than the other building, which was a lovely Jean Nouvel designed space.

Me!

Me looking at our dumb electronic speaking machines. The woman spoke as if she was in a Mac Talk program. It was terrifying.

A pagoda!!

This guy was a master of painting portraits and cats. Do you see the kitt tail peaking behind the chair? He was so adept they called him Catman*.

*not actually true.

Um, you know. Pottery.

Murakami.

Gilbert and George!

Reluctantly, I think Damien Hirst is pretty brilliant. This is a large mural lined with pills, and when you look at yourself in it, you look like a Chuck Close painting.

Noodles and lunch!

Getting our nom on. Nom nom nom!

This guy says NO PARKING. How can you refuse something so cute?

Street life

Residential buildings...

Crossing the bridge to Space Mue.

Belinda (who is the managing editor at Metropolis) and I simultaneously fell in love with these.

Space Mue exterior, designed by Mass Studies.

The interior (as you can tell, I've succumbed to mirror shots).

Psychedelic.

The space was really breathtaking. I loved it in there. It was like an exhibition space.

And they had these Rick Owen boots that I could be convinced to stab someone for.

The famous Ann Demeulemeester shop...

But I was more interested in downstairs, also owned by Space Mue, which had brands like Bernhard Wilhelm and KTZ.

Very nice.

A killer Hermés building.

Ok. This woman was making waffles shaped like fish. On the street. Filled with red bean paste. I joked that our tour guides were dealing with a bunch of cats - bring us a great treat, and all we want to play with is the box.

Belinda and the feesh been woffle!

Oh, you know, Evil Dead: The Musical in Korean.

Wet day.

About to have a meeting with Seung H-Sang. Very professional

They wouldn't let us go into the Robot Museum.

Korean nights.

At the Seung H-Sang-designed Lock Museum. Seriously.

This is Jan. I think she hates me. Actually, I'm pretty sure she does, because she may hate all of us. She has this beautiful schedule and all we want to do is deviate from it.

Have you ever been to a Korean lock museum? Because, um, I have.

Who knew there could be so many locks!

Yes, thats a cat in the back, and yes, that key is protruding out of that bull's bum.

Night.

Korean barbecue, and then my camera died.

So I came home and crashed, understandably. Tomorrow, fashion week. At least thats something I know about...

Executive Class

2008-10-22T08:07:00.004-04:00

It is 9PM in Korea and I've been up now for exactly 24 hours. I kind am seeing blurred bits around the edges of my eyes, so I am going to make this post short - not like my flight. At all.

Since noon today I've been struggling with ethical issues, namely, why the hell do these people think I'm important? I mean, the amount of paper one PR rep wastes on one journalist is probably more than she'll ever write in her life. I have bags of brochures and guides and pocket books, and I am just wondering, what do you think I'm going to do with this? Do you think I'm an executive. Do I LOOK like an executive? Why do you think giving a lowly edit assistant a first class flight around the world is EVER going to benefit you?

The first class flight, by the way, was exquisite. I can't sleep a wink (I need my feet to be level with my head to sleep. That's the absolute truth, and I just realized it as I was writing this), the movies were awful, but goodness I love airplane food. The perfect servings. The anticipation. The perfect pairing of tomato juice and cracker. It's appealing to the side of me that has always been fascinated with TV dinners - all of your senses being appealed to at once. Lovely.

I watched Kung Fu Panda (charming, innocuous), Hancock (confusing, innocuous) and Love Story (sad...and just, sad) and did a fair amount of work. Didn't manage to drink enough to kill the time, but I did get to keep the little slippers! (Add that to the list of things people waste on me...)

Ok, hitting delirium. Here is one shot, of me, right now:

Guess What? Korea

2008-10-17T00:01:00.003-04:00

I am going to Korea in...let's see - it's Thursday? Five days.

And I'm really excited. I think Korea has some of the best fashion and art in the world. It's what happens when you have one of the world's biggest democracies cuddled next to a true, potent dictatorship.

You get amazing art projects like Gwon Osang's work for the killer band Keane as promo shots for their upcoming album, which I will be seeing at the Seoul Design Olympiad when I'm out there...Osang photographed the members and then pasted the pics onto lifesized statues he made of the band. Its so simple - and really gorgeous.

It's amazing what happens when you have a government that is so encouraging of its artists and experimenters. The art that is coming out of there is rivaled only to the art that comes out of mainland China - and some parts of Britain.

via Creative Review

S'il Vous Plait

2008-10-16T23:00:00.004-04:00

Everything at 80spurple is 15% off today.

Can someone PUHLEEESE buy me this? Max thinks I'm too skinny forrit but I don't care.

It's not very much money.

And its true. I actually will, indeed, be your best friend.

Quite Literally The Ugliest Shoes I've Ever Seen

2008-10-07T18:55:00.004-04:00

I don't expect much from Target, but these literally caused me to stop in my tracks.

I am shocked and awed.

WINTER A-COMING

2008-10-04T13:13:00.002-04:00

I've been recently hunting winter coats for friends. I don't particularly know why, because I have a great coat from Mackage that I adore, but I tracked a couple fantastic winter choices that I just had to document.

Speaking of Mackage, this is so gorgeous I thought about taking out a loan for it (Hey, I am a sub-prime candidate!)

via Mackage

I found this amazing hooded/asymmetric Diesel coat at 80s Purple that I just had to share. Its really great - I really like how it feels kind of post apocalyptic.

via 80 purple

Cheap Monday is quickly becoming my favorite brand for a deal, and that reason is because it is really well tailored, excellently crafted clothing that is, well...cheap. Cheapish. Cheaper than usual. They do good stuff, men and women. If I was still looking for a coat, I would really consider this Monika jacket for the winter.

Via Karmaloop

Surprisingly enough, this is from Urban, whom I believe is beginning to position themselves as a more "upscale", boutique-style retailer. Which I think is a buncha hogwash. But this, this is really adorable and I've been looking for a chic way to introduce plaid into my wardrobe. It's so Sarah Palin-esque, you gotta love it.

Via Urban Outfitters

Note: I would like the Urban one best, because I have, as I've explained, a great winter coat. But I've hunted these beauties, and in the spirit of journalistic integrity, I'm compelled to share.

My Little Ingenuity

2008-09-29T13:42:00.004-04:00

My dear friend Matt Harper passed this on to me, via The Great White Snark.

Being a child of the eighties, I can't imagine a more fitting way to celebrate the pop-culture that has so heavily impacted our lives.

While I didn't play with many "girl" toys (if I recall correctly, my three favorites were Ghostbusters and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, along with the All Dogs Go To Heaven happy meal toys), I did adore My Little Ponys. They had hair, delicate and oddly sensual faces, cool traits and they all did something (sparkled, smelled like candy, had some moveable parts).

So to re-connote them as awesome and threatening pop cultural icons is really clever, and to do so so successfully is even more impressive. Take a look at these Ponys, all dolled up, with their "My Little" gimmicks:

My Little Cthulu

My Little Storm Trooper

My Little Pan (from Pan's Labyrinth)

My Little Alien

My Little Batman (This one is so cute)

You can see more of this stuff at the artist's DeviantArt page. Now, if they only had Ponys like this when I was a kid, I may have turned out totally different, unafraid to mix pop cultural references and with a predeliction for dark humor.

Get it? Cuz I do that stuff now. So I wouldn't be different at all.

My sad affair with Spore

2008-09-29T00:17:00.004-04:00

So, EA (the makers of Sims and other such life absorbing games) released Spore, which you can see with all of these goofy ads around the city about evolution. (Which, delightfully, has angered the intelligent design folks.) And being the crafty little journalist I am, I wrangled myself a copy, hunkered down in front of a large screen/high def iMac, and tried my hand at playing God.

Immediately, I was hooked. Designing my little critters in my own image, they started as vegetarian (which received many laughs from the peanut gallery, running defenseless from giant things that I could barely see with dreamy Brian Eno music playing in the background). Like, here:

Which is beautiful and fun (but really stressful), but then the fun began. I ate enough of something and killed enough of something else that my tiny little cells turned into brains and I got to walk onto land. And I looked like this:

Those things on my butt? Apparently, they are for speed. So I evolved a bit and changed, got myself a family, and went about my herbivore lifestyle. It was entirely engrossing. I was getting my arse handed to me by those who chose to give themselves fangs and a taste of blood (because the Spore database draws from other users creations - I've heard my little guy has since been seen in space in other people's games).

Openly, admittedly, my goal was to create the cutest frakking thing you have ever seen. I wanted to literally melt the heart of my enemies. So I became a pig/bird:

Gosh thats adorable. I had horns for fighting, arse wings for speed, and HUGE cat ears (we all know huge ears = dangerously cute). What you have to do is run around this little world, befriending other creatures by doing a dance for them and singing (or making them extinct by chowing down on them) and then you gain a bit of power - another trait, more DNA points to purchase an upgrade. Well, being as cute as I was, I had all the charm in the world, so I quickly became this:

This is not my cutest development - but as someone pointed out - hands are necessary. Though, I am a fan of those toes and tail combo. I had great flying skills. Anyway, I was having a blast - tweaking my nose, dancing for six armed bird-men, singing songs and making friends and using my wings to sneak into carnivores homes and stealing traits. And then, BAM - I had to evolve.

I mean, Will Wright (aka the Sims Daddy) didnt' really think this evolution thing through enough. Its great that I can control almost every aspect of my body. It's wonderful that I am not locked into any type of quadra/bi-pedal tradition here, but what if I don't want to evolve? What if I want to run around as a duck/deer all day? But alas, there was nothing more I could do. No more points to score. No many steps up. I had to end up like this:

And then, to my dismay, like this:

As soon as I hit the tribal stage, the stage that Will envisions our human traits begin to emerge, that our ability to interact on a social level develops, I totally lose interest. You literally have a choice between conquering, or befriending. Not developing weapons. Not exploration. Not farming or planting.
(Note: The above is not nearly cute enough, much to my dismay)

That's it. Diplomacy or war-making. This dichotomy is disturbing to me as an observer of social behavior, and boring to me as a game player.

Granted, I just hit civilization and I'm hoping things pick up here. I made a building bit Spore quit on me and it wasn't saved. It was a cute building - I'm still trying to charm myself out of any sort of confrontation. But the "if you can't eat em, join em" mentality is a little dismaying, especially from someone as enlightened as Mr. Wright. I was really hoping to have an open ended, super intuitive and intertwined experience - not a guy that directs me to my destiny: be a war lord or cute pig/cat-winged thing who dances for acceptance.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY

2008-09-23T14:18:00.002-04:00

The man is finally 10!

From NY1:
It's been a decade since a young wizard named Harry Potter put his spell on the hearts and imaginations of millions of fans across the world.

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," the first book in the series, is 10 years old today, and to celebrate, fans are reading it aloud cover-to-cover in SoHo.

Harry Potter devotees, who lined up for hours to get a chance to read, say the book's rich description is what makes it special.

"I think it created such a world, there was such much detail in every facet of it, and it made it come alive for everyone," said one fan.

"You're seeing the world through Harry's eyes and he's seeing it new and you're seeing it new and that introduction is really resonating," said another.

"That really blows people away," said a third. "They read this book and they fall into this world that they never really expected."

The reading is going on at Scholastic headquarters on Broadway between Spring and Prince Streets.

The reading can also be followed at scholastic.com/readHarry.

From a boy that lived under a cupboard to the symbol of a generation growing older, happy birthday to the series that charmed me into waiting 2 hours in Soho for the darn last book to drop...

Beautiful/Lovely

2008-09-22T21:32:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I found this music video that was utterly absorbing. Sometimes, every now and again, I run into a music/visual collaboration that is totally moving ("Atmosphere" by Joy Division, "Rabbit in your Headlights" by UNKLE/Radiohead, etc.) but this is by a relative unknown so I must pass it on. Steve Reich/Philip Glass disciple Volker Bertelmann is Hauschka, a one man + many collaborators experimental pianist with charming folk sensibilities. His music tends to be less esoteric than his contempories, and thus, has that haunting quality that only a piano and a violin can have.

The video itself is made by a Massachusetts couple who do design/animation work under the name Overture who recently got a write up in a design competitor of ours named Die Gestalten. Apparently this is one of three videos they are doing for the composer. They are delightfully humble, and make this video a gorgeous combination of loss and hope, sadness and innocence. With the lingering music and over a backdrop of snaps and pops (electronic) the video is a narrative of a little plump bipedal creature exploring a land that looks like a still from Princess Mononoke, if it was done in water color.

"Eltern" by Hauschka

The album is out today, and you can buy it here.

Friday Videos

2008-09-19T12:18:00.005-04:00

The Cramps "Garbage Man"
If its wrong to love The Cramps, I don't want to be right. I just don't love those people who are make loving The Cramps a part of their identity. This is such a good/crappy quality video. When I get really upset at work, I listen to this album. Therefore, my theme for this week is creepy and wonderful front peoples and how music is only improved by personality.

Ministry "Same Old Madness"
This is that weird era that spawned "Everyday is Halloween" where Ministry was flirting with the dark side but still had pop sensibility. And its incredible. I love AJ's dominator/cop/latex costume. Man, I want this now. I want this to be my now.

Fleetwood Mac "The Chain"
It was recently pointed out to me that "The Chain" is the first appearance of post-punk. You have that amazing bass breakdown that occurs in 1977, two years before Joy Division started making the exact same noises in Manchester.

Ice Cube "Good Day"
I didn't have to shoot my AK. Today was a good day.

DESIGN FOR OBAMA

2008-09-18T16:17:00.004-04:00

Aaron Perry Zucker, a senior at RISD, launched Design For Obama, a clever grassroots based website that allows designers (or aspiring designers) to upload campaign images for the presidential hopeful to be voted upon. Users can download images and print them, creating their own Obama '08 signs (that are usually cooler than anything political campaigns send out).

My darling readers, this is an example of grassroots meeting the global community. This is an example of youth getting involved in politics in an effective and anti-aggressive way. This is an example of how art can become influential without being commodified!

And its also pretty cool. I highly doubt McCain supporters would get together and start designing and the democratizing their projects.

Its not very good right now, but I believe it just came up because I've noticed more additions each time I've visited the page. So go, sign up and vote or contribute a creation (and vote in November too!)

via Core 77

MISSY MEOW

2008-09-16T22:35:00.004-04:00

Like the smart shopper I am, I've decided to convert my addiction into something possibly lucrative. I've dug through my closet, my roommates' closet, my friends' closets and several other second hands locales to find some clothing I feel like other people would like, and I took pictures of them, used fancy words in their description, and BAM, I'm on the eBay.

So far, I've sold a Fendi watch for $140, David Yurman perfume for $70, and some old, fairly gnarled birkenstocks for $25. Which I think is pretty impressive, for someone who runs their shop out of a curtain-cum-closet hanger and has to peel cat hair out of everything.

Check it out here:
http://myworld.ebay.com/leilaclaire23

There isn't a tremendous amount of good stuff up there, but every now and again I get some amazing cosmetics you should check out. And its also funny to see me parading around in clothing long forgotten.

Also, while I'm at it, be a friend of mine on Facebook, which you can do here:
http://apps.new.facebook.com/blognetworks/blogpage.php?blogid=43471

I'll list some of my goodies from fashion week, which would have been much more interesting to write about if I didn't leave my camera at the Gagosian halfway through.

Fashion Week and the Pain That Follows

2008-09-08T12:27:00.005-04:00

I am certainly no style.com, but I've managed to wrangle myself a couple of good invites for New York's Fashion Week, which kicked off last Thursday. Naturally, I forgot to bring my camera (not once, but twice), so I am being very 21st century and showing you the images I snapped with my Blackberry.

I took my roommate Georgia to the opening of FIT's Gothic: Dark Glamour, at the school. There was a lot of fun outfits (from both people in and out of the show), but Georgia brought up a decent point: What's the difference between a gothic look and an Eduardian look, besides spikes? I would love to actually have gothic defined - is it Bram Stoker inspired? Is it something one can purchase fully realized from a mall? How did these two looks combine?

We enjoyed drinking blood red cocktails, but the thing that really thrilled us was the history of fashion section, right off of the reception hall. Goth be damned - we got to see Chanel froom the 40s, YSL from the 50s, Dior from the 60s and Halston from the 70s. We almost lost our minds over a pair of McQueen thigh-high boots that were literally the most dramatic things I've seen, probably ever.

We headed uptown to the Gen Art Fresh Faces in Fashion at the Grand Ballroom. Somehow we got great seats and a pretty good giftbag (including a $200 gift certificate to get hair removed?!). But the show was lack luster at best. Eight designers showed, new faces that have generated some buzz, like Crhee and JF and Son, but nothing really impressed me. In Georgia's words, there were way too many shirts on the runway, and I know S/S isn't as thrilling as the colder weather, but khakis and boatshoes have never been revolutionary.

The one designer I really liked was Richard Ruiz. He actually had structured and feminine cuts, and had this weird geisha thing going with girls and umbrella's. He also was actually glamourous. Here are some horrible, Blackberry-esque shots.

On Friday, I headed west by myself to see the Form collection. They took a huge risk and had the show in the Skylounge of an apartment building, but because the day was textbook perfect, it ended up being gorgeous. You can see the images of the models against buildings and the blue sky. The collection had a lot of wavy, gauzy material blowing in the wind, a lot of wrapped layers, and a bathing suit that I literally could die for (Super deep V, pleasant amount of side-boob, delicate cream color...)

Afterwards, I headed to the tents to see Erin Fetherston, which was hellish. People were clawing and panicking, and I was so hot and sticky from the Form show, I left early to meet a coworker at the Academy of Art show. The Academy of Art, which features emerging designers much like Gen Art, had a pretty decent show. Yes, there was knitwear, but there were also some more experimental, edgier designs (like the geometric forms from Warot Subsrisunjai). You can see MUCH better photos here:

Tomorrow I brave Rodarte, Betsey Johnson, Max Azria and Vivienne Tam. I think. I left my schedule on the train. I'll remember to bring my camera this time...I swear.

Riitta Ikonen

2008-08-26T23:35:00.003-04:00

I stumbled upon recent Royal College of Art graduate Riitta Ikonen tonight before bed, and I felt compelled to show some of her pictures. She appears to be a photographer and a textiles designer - a perfectly complimentary match. Her photographs are some of the most moving, emotional and humorous I've almost ever seen. I feel compelled to share her. Perhaps I will pitch her to V or even save her for Surface's art issue. Whatever it is, I think she's somebody worth noticing.

From the series "No One Belongs Here More Than You":

"Human Nylon":

From the "Snowflake" series, a self-portrait:

"Leaf and Bird":

I think this is pretty amazing. I'd love to see a movie about her images. Glad to get her in before I say good night.

NYLON :: Shameless Self Promotion

2008-08-24T15:48:00.003-04:00

Check out this September's Nylon. It's the TV issue, but notice the fashion news section for three pieces by a very familiar name. There is one more - my intro piece on by boe jewelry, but I didn't grab a pic of it.

Here' are some shots because there is no digital issue yet:

www.nylonmag.com

Hooded Justice

2008-08-24T15:03:00.003-04:00

I recently watched Nicolas Roeg's classic sci-fi "The Man Who Fell To Earth". The movie, of course, further defined Bowie as an experimenter and a pioneer, but it is also a style cornerstone for any young man who has embraced the lure of androgyny.

Even those who have never seen "The Man", Bowie's orange, wig-like hair and porcelain skin are iconic (from the cover of "Low" as well). Yet, the thing that caught my eye the most was his reoccuring jacket, a dramatic piece that included a large, ear-height collar double with a hood that looked more sophisticated than street.

My nearly obsessive, practically exhausting search for a winter coat last year allows me to believe that no one has really picked up on this striking hood/collar combo. I finally found a collar that was acceptable at Mackage, but to find a hood attached was difficult. (Note: This year is going to be ALL about obnoxiously huge collars - lets hope someone pops in their Low album and finds a way to stand apart by be-hooding their creation.)

This fall, I will do my best to revive the hood - take it away from hoodies and put it on fitted, well-tailored ensembles. My search has been fairly unfruitful, but I did want to point out Kill City's killer "Black Hooded Dress":

http://www.killcity.net/handlers/style.php?groupvalue=Womens%20-%20Dresses&style=73-265

This delish eBay find from Japanophile's Rabbit Angel:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=260277175085

Hooded tee from my favorite NYC boutique I can't afford, Oak:

www.oaknyc.com

A great vintage find from Nasty Gal's webstore:

http://www.shopnastygal.com/

What I'm trying to say is: Hoods...I fancy you.

Friday Music Videos - Madonna ed.

2008-08-22T13:20:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I really love Madonna. Yes, she's totally crazy and probably a little scary, but as an icon, as a visual force, she is undeniable. You can track trends by tracing her professional trajectory. And her videos have ALWAYS been a tour de force. So today, I get a little gay for Madonna:

"Rain" - a personal favorite of mine. That hair is incredible, and so perfectly mid-90s. (Also, a Mark Romanoff vid)

"Justify My Love" - What is going on in this video? I don't care, its so bloody sexy.

"Open Your Heart" - There is a reason that the cone bra is so epic. And that reason is tassles.

"Express Yourself" - An early David Fincher directed this pre-Alien III vid.

I know "Get Together" is a little late 2000's rave, but I kind of love this song. It reminds me of a Sunday, drinking a mojito on a rooftop. But the relaxing way, not the cheesy way.

You really cannot deny the Madge.

Vancouver Zombie Walk 2008

2008-08-22T12:24:00.002-04:00

Canada loves its zombies, from Toronto being blown to bits in Resident Evil 2 and Max Brooks' World War Z has it as a safe zone because zombies freeze in the hellish winter. I was recently referred to the photography of Goh Iramoto, a young Vancouver photographer who captured the 2008 Zombie Walk in Vancouver. It looks really amazing. That hand makes me hungry...

You can stalk the aspiring photographer on his Flickr account. I know I will.

Lolla pt. 2

2008-08-20T23:13:00.003-04:00

So, basically this is super outdated, but I have GOT to post it, right? I'd been talking about it for days and days and weeks. But Sunday was what it was all about, and Adam and I enjoyed some Girl Talk, Love and Rockets and then, of course, Nails.

Adam and I start our day off by noticing that someone spilled their drunk guy on the lawn.

Then Mr. Black dragged me to see Flogging Molly. Like most Irish bands, people brought accroutements to wave about in the crowd.

I ran into Andriu Strausser and Hannah Adams waiting to see Girl Talk!

The crowd actually went NUTS for Girl Talk . It was the craziest I saw them all weekend. Go Gregg!

Adam and I struggled bc Girl Talk/Flogging Molly/Love and Rockets were all playing at the same time. Guess our passion for 80s goth/pop wins in the end.

This dude stopped us to tell us that we each had the best shirts that he saw in the whole festival, and he felt better about humanity knowing we were friends. He insisted on taking our picture.

Here is his work:

The crowd, as the sun begins to set

Then the guys from Bauhaus sans Peter Murphy + the extras from a Flaming Lips show (not true, but it kinda looks like it...)

Trent takes the stage. Adam and I know that enduring the crowds/heat/hangovers may be worth it.

Best way to close a show ever:

The sign, as we leave, exhausted...

The maniacal crowd, which made me miss Chicago ten-fold.

Parting image: Me lost on Michigan Avenue, people a bit too blurry.

In summation - I wish I didn't miss Saturday. Also, the fact that press passes got you literally no where was silly - it was impossible to cover the concert in any sort of reasonable way without being trampled by hundreds and hundreds of exposed breasts. Basically - this concert made me irritated with the Gen X-ers it came to represent, mostly because they are trying so hard. So darn hard.

Unexpected highlights: None
Best show of the concert: NIN or Radiohead
Worst: So, so many

Well, perhaps next year...

Lolla-review pt.1

2008-08-12T23:29:00.005-04:00

Yes, I know how long its been since Lolla, but if you had the kind of week I've had you would be probably dead, in an alley somewhere, with cats eating your eyeballs.

Chicago was great, had a rough night Friday and missed out on Saturday but made it out on Sunday. I refuse to let my personal weakness interfere with my blogging, so I present you a photographic journey of Lollapalooza, starring myself and Adam Black.

Entering the city:

Look! I finally get to take a picture of the Bean as a tourist!

Millenium Park/kids in the fountain/bliss

Ellen at dinner, skyline behind

More kids! Water pouring:

Lolla begins. Adam and I are hot

and cool...

Gogol Bordello outside of the press tent:

Surveying the scene with Adam Black/Red

I geeked out because of the photo op

Tony and Dylan; we were walking from one end to the other

Clayton Hauck, from everyoneisfamous.com
(You can see me HERE!)

Tony, Cristina and I are deciding to go to see the Cool Kids

Aleah mustaching while we were watching the Cool Kids DJ

Adam and I in the Hippie Pit with his Bruised Pit. There were these awful hammocks and we got stuck in one during a lull

The always beautiful Edie Renee, whose boyfriend (now fiancé!) also played the fest!

Watching Cool Kids DJ from backstage. Kids were going wild!

The Dj (a friend of Adam's whose name eludes me) stage dove. I love the little shoe sticking out!

Radiohead! Dylan and I snuck into the VIP area. It was a really intense light show.

That's it for Day 1! Will put up Day 3 pics tomorrow!

FRIDAY VIDEOS

2008-08-01T00:31:00.002-04:00

Ok, ok - it just turned Friday in Chicago, but I know that I want have nearly enough time tomorrow to post a proper video tribute to Lolla, so I'm doing it right now.

The band I'm most psyched about:

NIN - "Hurt" (live)

Cat Power - He War

Grizzly Bear - "Knife"

Radiohead - "Paranoid Android"

Battles - "Tonto"

Is anyone going?
If so, they should buy me a mojito.

On another note, while I don't think I can ever see myself committing fully to this city in the near future, I miss the hell out of it, and its really quite a beautiful city.

Lolla Sched

2008-07-30T11:08:00.003-04:00

I don't know why I'm so excited. The lineup isn't even that good. I just want to run amok, I suppose. And see NIN. Love that they are playing at the same time as Kanye, so the hordes will run over to see him.

I also hope I have access to the VIP lounge.

Soon, Chicago, I will come back to you.

Schedule is HERE

New York Jewelers I Want Stuff From

2008-07-30T00:28:00.008-04:00

I've been running into jewelers on blogs and whatnot that are New York based and feature some stuff that I really like. There is this nice trend of incorporating found, recycled or natural objects into necklaces and bracelets, and I think it makes things look a bit more well-crafted. And I like fake bling, aggressive images encased in metal or gold, or laser cut acrylic. All three of these designers have a really unique aesthetic, but there is something similar. I can't quite figure it out...

Alex and Chloe: Geometric and extravagant, Alex and Chloe kind of made it big with this awesome necklace featuring the CC of Chanel in black plastic dripping down. I can't find where to purchase it online for the life of me, so I will just have to satiate my desire with a diamond cut out, and amazing perception bending shape and a bit out oceanic imagery (as a way to soften up the collection).
Chloe's Zero Carat Diamond: $52.00

Alex's Pyramid: $56.00

Dream Reflector Necklace: $111.00

Oh, and if one of their swords fell onto my neck, I wouldn't complain one bit.

Erica Weiner : This is the only designer I've actually purchased something from, and Erica wrote me a nice email thanking me for my purchase. It made me feel like I was really supporting something: giving an artist money directly. Erica works with found and organic materials. I love how antiqued everything looks. It has this sweet nostalgic feel, but also stays within the corporal by having these pieces that have a very biological, almost 'cabinet of curiosities' undertone to them. I ADORE the claw necklace.

Book Lover Necklace: $45.00

Raptor Talon Necklace (Gold): $90.00

Twig Bracelet (Silver): $80.00

Made Her Think: Seemingly teeeny tiny, the webstore doesn't have much, but what they do have seems to be a happy medium between Alex and Chloe and Erica Weiner. That antiqued, claws-n-teeth thing translates into a tougher street style that feels very contemporary. Unfortunately I culled this from another blog, but I'm excited to see what this little Brooklyn upstart can do. I am certain that I'll be seeing a ton of those Pyramid Totem Cuffs around - its colorful, charming and a little bit threatening.

Talon Ring: $88.oo

Pyramid Totem Cuff: $132.00

Rose Totem Cuff: $264.00

Note: you can purchase all of these online...so get yourself something threatening and beautiful. Or get it for me. Either/or.

Game Over?

2008-07-29T14:56:00.003-04:00

Really? Facebook is killing Scrabulous? But...but...it made me feel so smart, and, like...non-myspace-y. It allowed me to flirt without being overt. It was a way to signify that, while we aren't quite friends, we are more than acquaintances and certainly ready to move into wordplay territory...

Now I have nothing left to do with my time but blog over and over and over again.

Apparently mega-corp Hasbro couldn't take the tiny, independent group of college students or Indian kids or whomever they are taking all the credit over their invention. I mean, I guess...but if not for copying other people's ideas and passing them off as your own (or making money of of them), then what is the internet for?

Nuts.

Via NYT.

THE BENEFITS OF BEING A POOR JOURNALIST

2008-07-27T20:30:00.003-04:00

I get lousy pay. I work hard hours. I take abuse that is usually not warranted. But sometimes, when I am having the lousiest day, I get delicious chocolates sent to me without warning. And I feel sad because I would never cover anything culinary, despite how delicious it is (and this IS delicious) but they arrived at such a proper moment.

And then I came home and had wine with friends and ate my chocolates.

So the least I can do is put pictures of the Vosges chocolates on my measly little blog. Feel hungry, and get some. I would seriously recommend them - they come in very unique and delicious flavors (like curry and dark chocolate, or fennel and ginger), and their gift boxes are paired with wines and olive oils and would probably impress anyone.

Here is photographic evidence:

We are so totally satisfied. It was a house of yum.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON VIDEOS

2008-07-25T15:15:00.004-04:00

Seven days to Lolla

I have a random assortment of old faves, including the video my brother worked on and the song my mother adopted as our family's anthem one jobless Labor Day.

DHS - "House of God"

Kate Bush - "Hounds of Love"

Nico - "My Only Child" from Philippe Garrel's La Cicatrice Intérieure

KLF -"3AM Eternal"

Nirvana - "Negative Creep"

It's a dark playlist today. I'm feeling restless.

PATRICIA PICCININI

2008-07-24T21:36:00.002-04:00

David Cronenberg-like, Patricia Piccinini is fascinated with growths, birth, turning the unnatural into the natural. She is completely absorbed by taking uncanny images and makes them soft and maternal. Her most famous series is entitled "Natures Little Helper", and features these fleshy, inhumane creatures paired with helpless children, and positing that they are genetically engineered to raise our children - possibly better, and more eerie, than we can.

Here are some totally bizarre, emotional and terrifying images from that project:

I think these images are really beautiful and creepy. I've followed her work for some time, and I like her commentary on the tenderness between the innocent and the obscene, and how our own humanity is reflected in those moments, but how disturbed we still are by birth and physical, corporal openings and gashes. Also, I like how she uses our cues for "adorable" - big eyes, long lashes and friendly faces, and puts them on grotesque, naked forms. She's really quite excellent.

So when Designboom wrote about her project involving mopeds, I had to pass it on. It seems that Piccinini has created these little moped creatures and has shown us what its like to raise a baby moped.

I adore those zoomorphic eyes on that last one. I don't understand why these move me so much, but they are really amazing. I've always been touched by imbuing inhuman objects with very deep emotion - which is why sad dolls scare the crap out of me.

See more of here stuff at her website, patriciapaccinini.net.

Flickr & Museum of Natural History

2008-07-23T14:48:00.002-04:00

Last weekend I took my camera and headed to the Natural History Museum, where Max took me to the museum for the first time. In true Leila style, I couldn't help thinking of the Museum of Natural History in Chicago, which I think is a pretty world class museum. However, the New York version had a grand sense of history, and certain rooms I entered (specifically the Woodland Creature Drawing Room - the Audabon room) had a very classic vibe.

We went on a Saturday so it was a bit of a madhouse, and I learned two very important things. The first is that its BY DONATION ONLY. This is crucial. It doesn't say anywhere that its donation only, and it saves you, say, 20 million dollars. As I figure, wealthy donors go to absurd soirees so the Museum can afford air conditioning and to buff the backside of the cave men in the dioramas. The struggling editorial assistant is going to enrich her life, two bucks is enough for her.

The second thing I learned is that the special exhibitions are INSANELY overpriced. We wanted to see Horses, but the line was long and the ticket inside was not by donation only, and was certainly not worth looking at a genealogical retrospective of the equine. Bodies wasn't worth it. The Komodo Dragon exhibit wasn't worth it. Rarely are special exhibits worth it.

Another pleasant aspect of the Museum was the gradual decrease in light throughout our journey. Vaguely chronological (dinos at top, cave people and civilization at the bottom), we started top-to-bottom, in a bright room filled with bizarre bones and hypothetical creatures. And then we passed to weird monkeys and evolution, and we got this very strange glowing green light. The diorama glass boxes section (the funniest/funnest part of the museum) was bathed in kind of a fluorescence that may have attributed to the crushing headache I had that afternoon, but we traveled down to see the different eco-systems. While Chicago has that giant T-Rex that is so terrifying, New York had its fair share of dioramas. I mean, most of the museum was composed of scenes frozen in time.

Then Max and I visited the Gem Room, which looks like a bad movie set from the 70s or at least a very rich washed-up rockers living room. Max says he gets "Golden Years" by David Bowie stuck in his head every time he enters. Last we hit the large whale room which was gorgeous and made us feel very small, and it was this huge, indigo room with a giant whale. But I didn't take any pictures because, by this time, I was exhausted.

Anyway, I wanted to take this time to introduce my Flickr account which has now gone PRO, an investment I strongly recommend for anyone. I usually put some pretty good images up there, so check it out and be my friend.

POSTED AT: http://www.flickr.com/photos/leilaclaire/

MTV Launches Comic Blog

2008-07-23T13:31:00.002-04:00

MTV, ruiner of everything awesome, has launched their comic movie blog which features inside information concerning the now totally freaking legitimate genre of the comic book movie.

As cynical as I am about Viacom as a corporation and a galvanizing cultural force, this blog is put together by totally capable and passionate individuals (and I know was a goal of their more dedicated members for almost two years now). Yet, using their all-powerful resources and connections, I'm sure the blog will feature a lot of exclusives, like this image that I cleverly stole of the Owlship from the upcoming Watchmen movie:

So far, it seems very Watchman/Batman heavy, but it seems like it has a great deal of potential. My inside source, the heavily involved Matt Harper, has leaked that upcoming topics would include some panels (including the Christian Bale "Terminator 4") and interviews with Joss Whedon, Keanu Reeves, Frank Miller and the entire cast of Watchmen. Also, he told me that they will have exclusive access to Rodriguez's "Red Sonja", which is a Amazon-esque Conan spin off about a red-haired, sword-wielding babe played by Rose McGowan (obvi.) Woot.

Anyway, I'm curious to see how this goes, or if it will end up rehashing things we already know with a slightly watered down, innocuous angle.

MTV SPLASHPAGE

BUYING VINCENT GALLO'S SPERM

2008-07-21T12:02:00.002-04:00

My friend Andy told me that it is possible, via the internet, to purchase Vincent Gallo's (of RRIICCEE and such thrilling movies as Buffalo '66 and Brown Bunny) sperm on his website.

Of course, I didn't think he was telling the truth, but then I thought about it. Vincent Gallo perfectly encapsulates that Terry Richardson-esque, polaroid-sleeze, DIY-style of film, and it would be perfectly reasonable to believe he would offer up his sperm to the tune of $1,000,000.

Here is what Gallo says:

"Price includes all costs related to one attempt at an in-vitro fertilization. (A $50,000 value) If the first attempt at in vitro fertilization is unsuccessful, purchaser of sperm must pay all medical costs related to additional attempts. Mr. Gallo will supply sperm for as many attempts as it takes to complete a successful fertilization and successful delivery. Sperm is 100% guaranteed to be donated by Mr. Gallo who is drug, alcohol and disease free. If the purchaser of the sperm chooses the option of natural insemination, there is an additional charge of $500,000. However, if after being presented detailed photographs of the purchaser, Mr. Gallo may be willing to waive the natural insemination fee and charge only for the sperm itself."

Ha ha. Look. He's being ironic. That ole Vincent Gallo, doing something so unbelievable as offering up his sperm for a million dollars. What a hipster. What a cad. What an experiment-or. Ha ha. Greasy megalomania is always funny.

You know, I have never heard his music, but his movies are just frankly bad. I do not enjoy them. I do not enjoy stretched apart, sad people in sad situations with sad backdrops who don't really have any compelling reason to be sad. And on top of that, he skeevs me out. In fact, I never use the word skeev unless its in conjunction with Vincent Gallo, and his over-sexed, under-groomed persona.

This is why people cringe when you use the word "auteur." He also resembles a bird-Jesus to me. A bird-Jesus covered in a fine layer of man-fur.

Oh, you can also buy Vinnie's childhood Hopalong Cassidy bedspread for $3,000 - probably a better investment if one didn't want to spend the million on his "specimen."

Bonkers for Batman :: Friday Video Edition

2008-07-18T12:08:00.003-04:00

There was something curious that happened in New York when Heath Ledger died. Maybe because I was in Soho, maybe because the gay boys in my office cried, but it was a moment that will be pretty well-defined in my recollection of 2008.

And its carried over to 7.18.08

Viral marketing, intensely sold out shows, screenings from 3AM-6AM. This movie is remarkably unspoiled, based on one of the most iconic figures of 20th century fiction and has a romantic death surrounding it. It's like The Crow, but with less suck.

So, in celebration of the vice-like grip Batman has on this real-life Gotham, I bring you a musical tribute to the Batmen of the past, of which the cinematic representations have been decidedly lack-luster as my selections demonstrate, for my Friday video presentation.

FROM BATMAN FOREVER (1995)

Seal - "Kiss By A Rose"

FROM BATMAN (1989)

Prince - "Batdance"

FROM BATMAN RETURNS (1992)

Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Face to Face"

FROM BATMAN AND ROBIN (1997)

Smashing Pumpkins - "The End is the Beginning is the End"

and lastly - Batman outsurfing Joker:

This is, strangely enough, the second time I've witnessed this Batman use his shark repellent spray from his utility belt. Lucky for that spray...

Enjoy your Bat-day, and I'll enjoy my 10:20 viewing at Union Square.

Facebook

2008-07-16T13:08:00.002-04:00

Find me now onnit.

I think?

This is mostly a test, but I really think that Facebook is a really integrative, intuitive tool and everyone should use it. Everyone aside from my father, because that is weird.

You can find me here: Leila

FALSIES

2008-07-16T11:04:00.003-04:00

Fake eyelashes are one of those things I don't think a great deal about, but always appreciate when I see them employed correctly. I think, like fake nails or high heels, its something I want to bring into my life, but I just don't really have the usage for.

However, in my recent intensive Viktor and Rolf research (started by their retrospective and the amazing couture dolls they created), I ran across V&R for Shu Uemura and found their exquisite, incredibly unique eyelashes. The campaign is really quite lovely, in this fantasy-whimsical-Viktor& Rolf way, and I have never considered eyelashes art pieces until now.

From top to bottom: Rhombus (named after, what I would assume, to be the gold shapes imprinted on the lashes); Wing (the paper-clip looking ones); Swirl (the dramatically sweeping, incredibly soft lashes - my personal faves).

Apparently, this is based on the S/S '08 runway collection which is inspired by Marcel Marceau, which I can understand in the sense that he's a mime with pronounced makeup and ways of expression, but it really reminds me of John Tenniel or something Ozma would wear in Frank L. Baum's original Oz books.

Once again, eye lashes truly signify the luxurious and I've never felt mine have needed much accessorizing, especially because I couldn't find the occasion to do so. However, upon researching Shu Uemera, I've found there are quite a lot of accroutemants to the eye lash, and it appears that this quick glamor fix is rather inexpensive (minus the V&R pair which clock in at $120) . In their Fantasy Lashes section, Shu's most expensive pair are $25, which I suppose may be a lot for something that you wear once or twice, but with intensively dramatic, criss-cross lashes like the Dazzling Black Diamante's, it's a pretty great deal - though, glue isn't included.

Also, use JULY08 for free shipping.
And send me pictures if you ever DO procure any of these.

Shameless advertisement

2008-07-06T01:45:00.004-04:00

Well, I thought I'd share with you the fact that I am, in fact, a legitimate writer. Check out the newest issue of "V" (with Gwenyth on the cover) and see a couple of my stories - on Olafur Eliasson, Richard Misrach and Jade Jagger. Here it is:

http://www.vmagazine.com/index.php

But I don't think the digital version is free yet, so in the mean time you can read me in the last issue of V with the other Gwen on the cover, found here:

Spring 2008

or here:

http://www.vmagazinedigital.com/vmagazine/2008spring/

Lovely, eh?

Bird Day

2008-06-28T14:54:00.002-04:00

Hello friends. I'm sorry I haven't posted recently - but I've been kind of...distracted.

Yet, today is my birthday, so I am going to share some videos with you. I also want to review Spore, and talk about WALL*E but that is in good time and I promise I'll dust ye off. But to celebrate my age turning, I'm going to show you my favorite things to watch on YouTube.

DRESDEN DOLLS - Lonesome Organist Rapes Page Turner

EBN-OZN - AEIOU Sometimes Y

BOOKA SHADE - Charlotte

MINISTRY - Lay Lady Lay

ROBYN S - Show Me Love

See yall soon!