On Prom and Infinity

by Zooey Deschanel

If only high school were as simple as a teen movie. I would have loved to have been as single-minded as your typical teen heroine (must get in with the popular crowd, must get floppy-haired dude to take me to prom, etc.), but as a teenager I had a lot on my mind. For instance, infinity. How was I supposed to think about prom when I spent so much time thinking about the concept of infinity? Prom was OK, but infinity was interesting and terrifying. This made it a lot harder to think about the dudes with floppy hair.

I often liken my high school experience to the opening scene in Stardust Memories, where Woody Allen is sitting on an unmoving train with a lot of really miserable-looking people, when out the window he sees an identical train, only on this train, as I remember it, everyone is happy and attractive, and there is a young Sharon Stone wearing a feather boa, and there are men in sailor suits popping bottles of pink champagne. He can no longer accept his sad train existence now that he has seen the happy train, and he tries in vain to escape. The difference between Woody Allen and me was, I kind of liked my sad train. I saw that there was another version of high school that was being peddled by the media but I could never connect with it.

Of course, I went to an artsy sort of school, so things were a little bit different. It wasn’t unusual to find a young gentleman wrapped in a piece of duvetyne theater curtain secured with safety pins into a makeshift toga. And no big deal guys, but we had Guys Wear a Dress to School Day. But even surrounded by all these unicorns, I felt like the unicorniest. I just did not fit in.

One day my history teacher asked our class, “Do you guys think about infinity?” Most of my classmates gave him the you’re totally lame blank stare, but my mind started racing. “How does he know?!” I wondered. He said, “I used to think about infinity, and then I stopped.” He chuckled to himself. For me, this moment mapped a strange intersection of emotions: whereas I now knew I wasn’t alone, the people I wanted to connect with, my peers, seemed even farther away. I guess it was then that I realized I wasn’t required to LOVE high school, like the movies demanded; I didn’t have to want to go to prom and homecoming or be the center of the social world—I just had to make high school a place where I could get better at the things I wanted to do. And that’s exactly what I did.

Kate Voegele Live in Berlin

There is no living voice like Kate Voegele. Her first album, Don't Look Away, consistently rocks my world, and that includes the ubiquitous cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." But trust me on this one: you've never heard it like this. Admittedly, the camera work here sucks (sorry!) but turn the volume up high, close your eyes and let the music fill the room and your soul...

[I] Love Lists

I love lists. Grocery lists, to-do lists, word lists, movie lists, travel lists, bucket lists. And now, a love list. Thank you, Eero Saarinen. This man may have designed a JFK terminal and invented the womb chair, but he will forever in my heart be remembered for the love list that made me fall in love with lists all over again.

From this great book:

   

I - First I recognized that you were very clever

II - That you were very han[d]some

III - That you were perceptive

IV - That you were enthusiastic

V - That you were generous

VI - That you were beautiful

VII - That you were terribly well organized

VIII - That you were fantastically efficient

IX - That you dress very very well

III - That you have a marvelous sense of humor

X - That you have a very very beautiful body

XI - That you are unbelievably generous to me

XII - That the more one digs the foundations the more and more one finds 

the solidest of granit[e] for you and I to build a life together upon

Ocean's Kingdom

NYCB dancers + Paul McCartney score + Stella McCartney costumes

= Ocean's Kingdom 

Red Wine Chocolate Cake

I think there are very few people who would not include wine, chocolate 

or cheese at their last meal. Thankfully, this has all three. 

First Crush red + Dutch cocoa + mascarpone 

It's like the "tipsy" version of red velvet cake!

The Guggenheim Speaks to Me

I had strange dreams last night, about wandering through a room full of bizarre shapes and patterns. When I explained this geometric phantasm to a friend, she said, "Oh, it sounds like the Guggenheim." So it may be. 

Soul Pancake #6

Well things are pretty lousy for a calendar girl

The boys just dive right off the cars and splash into the street

and when they're on a roll, she pulls a razor from her boot

and a thousand pigeons fall around her feet 

~Tom Waits

Aubrey Plaza at 2011 Emmy Awards

Don't worry, you're not going crazy. Expect me to blog about this girl on a weekly basis.
Because of her hipster vibe, Aubrey might be the last person you'd expect to pull off the old Hollywood style. But since it's the Emmys, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say she did, right? But first let me let you in on a little secret: Aubrey is obsessed with Judy Garland. Apparently she listens to her records while she's cleaning, and has memorized all these facts about her. She has said that if she could meet any fictional character, she would choose Esther Blodgett (from A Star is Born). So all this, aside from being totally stunning, makes perfect sense. Jean Harlow lips + Ava Gardner hair + an oh-so-twenties Juan Carlos Obando ruffle-front gown = A-plus!

And don't let me forget this little gem...

I didn't say she spoke like a lady!

A Little Thing Called The Music

Nothing like blasting Never Mind the Bollocks to 

kick off a Sunday morning (Emmy Sunday, no less!) 

As for the portrait, it only seemed appropriate: iconic woman, iconic band. 

Analeigh Tipton at the 68th Venice Film Festival

This reminds me of something Leona Lewis would wear while belting a Celine Dion song, in a duet with Beyonce, in the style of Mariah Carey. All it needs is the Heart of the Ocean, preferably by Bvlgari or something. It also helps that this former model has been well schooled in fierce by T-Banks herself.
Just look at that runway strut. What a goddess.

Soul Pancake #5

As if you were on fire from within,

The moon lives in the lining of your skin.

~Pablo Neruda

It's a Poehler Party

I have a lot of personal heroes. Many of them are women. Many of them are just as smart and creative and even as funny as Amy Poehler is. Here's the thing though: a lot of talented people have troubles with doubt and insecurity. It even destroys some people's careers. When I see Amy on my television, I see someone who is not only smart, creative, funny, feminine and a feminist but unapologetically so. She does what she does and she "doesn't fucking care if you like it." I think that is one of the very best things about Amy Poehler, and that's saying a lot. Happy Birthday Amy ♥

Soul Pancake #4

Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. 
Between the two my life flows.
~Nisargadatta Maharaj

Damsels In Distress

So, it's been over ten years since Whit Stillman did a movie...remember The Last Days of Disco? Well now that it's 2011 and all, Whit brings it again (at the Venice Film Fest no less) with a spunky, romantic-entangled comedy dubbed "Damsels in Distress" and starring Greta Gerwig (love!), Analeigh Tipton (love!), and Adam Brody (hot!!) Also, apparently Aubrey Plaza makes a cameo as a "jaded, overly mascaraed, tap dance skeptic on suicide watch." Um, when can I see this, like, I don't know...now?

It's Big, It's Gay, It's...Ice Cream!

Curried toasted coconut + pumpkin butter = NOMS! 

Henry James once said 'summer afternoon' contains the two most beautiful words in the English language. 
I say 'ice cream' comes pretty damn close. 

Behold:

Say Something Nice!

Soul Pancake #3

All the glory that the Lord has made

And the complications when I see his face

In the morning in the window

 All the glory when he took our place

But he took my shoulders and he shook my face

And he takes and he takes and he takes

~Sufjan Stevens

The Names

"The Names"

by Billy Collins

Yesterday, I lay awake in the palm of the night.

A soft rain stole in, unhelped by any breeze,

And when I saw the silver glaze on the windows,

I started with A, with Ackerman, as it happened,

Then Baxter and Calabro,

Davis and Eberling, names falling into place

As droplets fell through the dark.

Names printed on the ceiling of the night.

Names slipping around a watery bend.

Twenty-six willows on the banks of a stream.

In the morning, I walked out barefoot

Among thousands of flowers

Heavy with dew like the eyes of tears,

And each had a name --

Fiori inscribed on a yellow petal

Then Gonzalez and Han, Ishikawa and Jenkins.

Names written in the air

And stitched into the cloth of the day.

A name under a photograph taped to a mailbox.

Monogram on a torn shirt,

I see you spelled out on storefront windows

And on the bright unfurled awnings of this city.

I say the syllables as I turn a corner --

Kelly and Lee,

Medina, Nardella, and O'Connor.

When I peer into the woods,

I see a thick tangle where letters are hidden

As in a puzzle concocted for children.

Parker and Quigley in the twigs of an ash,

Rizzo, Schubert, Torres, and Upton,

Secrets in the boughs of an ancient maple.

Names written in the pale sky.

Names rising in the updraft amid buildings.

Names silent in stone

Or cried out behind a door.

Names blown over the earth and out to sea.

In the evening -- weakening light, the last swallows.

A boy on a lake lifts his oars.

A woman by a window puts a match to a candle,

And the names are outlined on the rose clouds --

Vanacore and Wallace,

(let X stand, if it can, for the ones unfound)

Then Young and Ziminsky, the final jolt of Z.

Names etched on the head of a pin.

One name spanning a bridge, another undergoing a tunnel.

A blue name needled into the skin.

Names of citizens, workers, mothers and fathers,

The bright-eyed daughter, the quick son.

Alphabet of names in a green field.

Names in the small tracks of birds.

Names lifted from a hat

Or balanced on the tip of the tongue.

Names wheeled into the dim warehouse of memory.

So many names, there is barely room on the walls of the heart. 

Aubrey Plaza at 2011 ALMA Awards

In a Giambattista Valli dress from the Fall 2011 collection
and Brian Atwood Maniac pumps.
Love the bunchy, offbeat, textured skirt
in contrast with the sleeker, more elegant long sleeves.
Oh, and ahem, those legs! What. a. stunner.

My Version of The Giving Tree

Something I drew while listening to Bon Iver's new album this morning. 

A little way of saying fare thee well to summer.

Soul Pancake #2

“Embrace who you are, because 

you will never be anyone different.”

Soul Pancake #1

I am thankful for laughter, 
except when milk comes out of my nose.  ~Woody Allen