Pictures of Chicago as I've never seen her

This brand new photoblog is rockin' my socks this morning.

Check out The Windy Pixel.

Photo by Mike Boehmer 

Even if you're doing something else.

Photo by Justin Kern

Well Phrased, You

I don't know who wrote this.

I found it after I clicked through a handful of blogs, linking blogroll-to-blogroll, Choose Your Own Adventure!-style.

Fauxhawk and I are going to his cousin's wedding in a few weeks, and I'd like to say, for the record, that it is extremely inconsiderate of his relatives to plan a wedding during the Uglies. For those of you who live in California, Florida or any of the warm countries, the Uglies consist of the second half of December, all of January, February, and March and most of April, when office workers from the Northeastern United States transform into pale, disgruntled, elephantine creatures...So you see, if Fauxhawk's family had chosen to celebrate their nuptials in July, or even September, I might have had a fighting chance. I might have had something cute to wear. Instead, I will have to fashion some sort of tarp around my naked form and be vigilant about revealing back fat. 

And I like the featured jewelry.

Read the whole post here.

Anyway, it's amazingly well-put.

True-ché, Persephone. True-ché.

I'm singing in the, the major key

I love the song,

I love the dancing,

I love Pat Wolf's outfits,

and I love how the entire thing is just this side of crazytown.

Somehow, miraculously, these are sprouting...

Who'd a thought?

speaking truth and filled with joy

Chicago is thawing out. On our way to do some art. Coffee is love. Windows are down. Regina Spektor is on. 

"TRUTH ABOUT TO GO DOWN":

This is how it works You're young until you're not 

You love until you don't You try until you can't 

You laugh until you cry You cry until you laugh 

And everyone must breathe Until their dying breath 

No, this is how it works You peer inside yourself 

You take the things you like And try to love the things you took 

And then you take that love you made And stick it into some 

Someone else's heart Pumping someone else's blood 

And walking arm in arm You hope it don't get harmed 

But even if it does You'll just do it all again 

Fiona Apple Time.

"I've been a bad, bad girl."

Sick Truth

Who has HBO?? Who has it?

Seriously, I need a place to be watching this...

"Quirky French director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) teams up with HBO’s equally off-kilter series, The Flight of the Conchords,and the resulting episode — “Unnatural Love,” which airs February 15 — is pure, unadulterated pleasure.

The Conchords, of course, are a New Zealand folk band. But the love interest here is Australian, and that allows for endless, over-the-top Aussie jokes (expect plenty of references to the continent’s criminal past). As for Gondry, his distinctive, dreamlike touch turns both of the episode’s musical numbers into surreal showstoppers."

--From Very Short List, 6 Feb 09

Thoughts for a winter's night

"The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating -- in work, in play, in love.

The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, 

from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade 

around as rational hesitation. 

To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life."

--Anne Morriss, Starbucks customer, "The Way I See It" #76

OH. MY. GAWD.

Y'all.

I can't even DEAL with this.

WHY DON'T I GET THIS CHANNEL?

Tom and Lorenzo have found for us all a veritable Aladdin's Den of fabulous bitchery: 

RuPaul's Drag Race

You can watch it on Logo (which might be a fictional channel)

or

They have the entire thing posted here.

I can't even breathe right now.

MAKE THIS A PRIORITY.

Quoth Uncles Tom and Lorenzo:

After that, it was Project Runway time as the queens wiped off their makeup and got busy with their dress forms. Miss Ru explained the challenge in a way Tim Gunn never would: "To help you accessorize, we went to the Dollar Store and got you a whole bunch of crap," and then added a tagline that just might put "Make it work" to rest:

"Make me proud, and remember, don't fuck it up."

...

And the kissoff line that outdoes all the others, from "Auf Wiedersehen" to "See you later, decorator," to "Pack up your knives and go," NOTHING can top Ru's sendoff:

"Sashay, away. I hope you take this experience back home with you and continue to do what you do best and inspire the children."

Seriously, bitches. You need to be watching this. It's both a hellaciously fun reality competition while at the same time it's a dead-on satire of them.

Delightful!

Pourquoi Pas Moi?

Mareva Galanter -- 2007

The internet video gods have been good to us today

They have given us this gem...


(I think Gladys is actually my Grandpa)

And also David After Dentist, which won't embed.

(This is your kid on drugs.)

I found a new site today...

...and we will bike off into an uncertain but almost unquestionably adorable future.

Illinois Airship Tumblr

Photoclassificationship

"Exactitudes kicked off 14 years ago when Rotterdam-based photographer Ari Versluis and stylist Ellie Uyttenbroek noticed that their city’s youth were expressing their mass nonconformity by wearing nearly identical outfits.

(The name is a mash-up of exact and attitude.) 

The project grew exponentially from there — you’ll meet tattoo babes, grannies, punks, and preppies — and its excellent website now includes subjects from London and Paris. 

(They, too, look eerily alike.) 

The overall effect is cool but disconcerting."

--From Very Short List, 13 Nov 2008

Fruquitos!

My friend Josh is a culinary master.

His previous creations have ranged from genius (Cadbury S'mores) to nearly inedible (Pizza Roll Pizza), but last night he trumped them all.

With...

THE FRUQUITO!

It's basically a bunch of Gushers wrapped in a Fruit Roll Up.

And you can make them in the Jewel parking lot!

Flippin' Sweet.

Bet you can't not eat just one!

I look just like Buddy Holly

"I think there is a very subtle shift from the metal I grew up on to Weezer.

I think the big shift was from a minor key to a major key.  ... 

It's coming, I guess not from a place of power and fantasy, but rather an acknowledgement of,

'Oh, I don't actually have a lot of power,

I am a geek.'

Whereas metal is trying to pretend you are not a geek."

--Rivers Cuomo

Interview with The AV Club

The Onion, vol 45, no 05

Magic!

This has been my favorite currently-airing commercial since first I saw it.

Now, I'd like it known that I HATE diet drinks.

Anything made with Aspartame or Splenda or any other artificial sweetener is not something I want to put into my body.  

BUT

I've always wanted to be hugged by cupcakes.

SO

I LOVE THIS

And you can imagine how I felt when Andy left a bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper here last night, and Ashley got some cupcakes from a date, and we realized this morning that we could RECREATE this moment of zen.

Cupcakes Make People Happy

This made me laugh A LOT.

superpoop.com

All the little details are so intriguing...

Like the socks and watches and toothbrushes turning away from each others

And patterns of their clothes and the couches

And the little wind-up baby toy

Kate Nash

"Foundations" Video -- 2007

I just love things like this.
Attention to detail.
It's a little bit precious, but totally enjoyable (if you're me).

Complete Artistic Communion, he said.

"For me there is no hierarchy in art.

Things have an inherent quality or they don't.

A collection is like a dinner party.  It is made up of the people you invite, but also the people you don't.  There are also, of course, the ones who couldn't make it.

...

It would never have crossed Yves's mind to say to me, "Ah, I saw a Picasso..."  He knew perfectly well what was interesting with Picasso, as did I.  

But let's talk about that for a moment, about the couple that Yves and I were.  

Like all couples we went through "storms," as the Jacques Brel song says.

But if there's one area where we never had the slightest disagreement, it was art.

Never.  Not once.

Not about painting, not about opera, not about theatre.

We were always in complete communion.

Of course, that's how all of the collection came into being."

--Pierre Bergé to Judith Benhamou-Heut in Interview, Feb. 08

{speaking of the upcoming auction of the art collection he created with his longtime partner, Yves Saint Laurent,  during their 50 years together}

I love dinner parties I don't have to wear makeup to

Grate the cheese.

Sauté the pears, apples, and soy bacon.

Steam the vegetables with some Tony's for good measure.

Bake up a pear and gouda bread pudding and serve to your pals.  Nom.