scenic route

marcel made me laugh

2010-08-20T10:17:00.001-04:00

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.

344 sq ft transforming apartment

2010-04-29T16:53:00.005-04:00

Emily sent me an email titled "I'm pretty sure you're going to love this..." with a link to the video above. She was right. This Hong Kong-based architect has created the coolest/most efficient dense city living apartment I've ever seen. The concept of moving walls is so simple, I'm amazed there aren't more apartments out there like it (maybe there are...). It reminds me of an extremely exaggerated version of the house I lived in in Japan. I love the way the Japanese use sliding doors with rice paper panes to section off or open up a room, to maintain the integrity of a rectangular space, and to transmit light.

supreme court nominees

2010-04-27T16:20:00.003-04:00

There is some interesting commentary about potential Justice Stevens-replacements circling out there on the intertubes right now. I particularly like/agree with two posts from Salon.com blogs: 1) about Solicitor General Elena Kagan and her not-tactical argument in her recent brief the the case U.S. v. Stevens--no way is she going to get the nomination, and 2) about the absurd call for a mom on the Supreme Court--seriously, the double standard for successful women makes my blood boil. Kate Harding explains why, so I won't repeat it except for this: "the idea that the success of childless women is somehow sending the wrong message to little girls -- who are still, after all, growing up in a society where 80 percent of women eventually have children (and among the other 20 percent are women who were infertile, who were prevented from adopting for one reason or another, who never found the right partner and weren't up to the challenge of single motherhood, etc., not just women who chose to be child-free...) -- is absurd." Amen.

super sessions

2010-04-23T16:43:00.002-04:00

Here is Team USA's film from the Jon Olsson Super Sessions! What you say? Only the sweetest freeskiing competition out there folks! The dish:

"21 of the world’s best freeskiing athletes and 12 of the world’s finest ski film makers will work together in 7 different teams, representing 7 nations. The teams are: Sweden, Norway, Europe, Down Under, Newschoolers, USA and Canada. Each team consists of five persons, two filmers, two pro skiers and a rookie skier. The rookie is new for this year and the only condition to classify as a rookie is that you haven´t participated in X-games before 2010.

The teams will have 264 hours to unleash their creativity on the features in and around Åre. The goal: To put together the most amazing and entertaining 5-minute edit. There’s a neat cash prize. Winner takes it all."

Jon is all-around awesome. He's only 28, but he's one of the world's best-known freeskiers... and he is now pursuing a racing career again as well. He won Nor-Am Finals this past March, and his goal is to make the Swedish Olympic Team in 2010. Anddddd this is a competition he puts on. Cool. (Plus he lives in Monaco--can I have his life please?!)

Team USA's video features Simon Dumont, Alex Schlopy and Tom Wallisch. My sister and I parked next to TW at Park City during my last visit. We left the resort at the same time. He and his bros were chilling next to us and we tried very hard to play it cool, like the nonplussed bad-ass skier gals that we are. Secretly we were all butterflies, of course. Brush with fame! Anyway, the video:

JOSS 2010 - Team America from Jon Olsson Video Blog on Vimeo.

lack of

2010-04-23T16:37:00.002-04:00

I haven't written very much on my blog in the past year. I have been bemoaning this lately, because that is why I started a blog in the first place--to write when I have few opportunities to do so. However, I've spent a lot of time recently writing for applications and WOW does that consume my composition energy. I hope to intersperse my interweb finds with more commentary in the next few months, now that I am done applying for things (I hope!) for a little while at least. We'll see...

a makeover for city hall

2010-04-15T16:28:00.002-04:00

Boston City Hall makes me depressed. The outside structure isn't all that bad, I actually kind of enjoy the geometric inverted terrace look (for lack of a better way to describe it). However, it feels like entering a crypt when you walk inside. Cold, dark, concrete. How is anything supposed to get done in there when it feels like a tomb? And the fact that it is plunked in the middle of a vast wasteland of brick plaza doesn't help. That's why I perked up when I saw that the Boston Society of Architects' Rorch design competition picked a City Hall re-do as its challenge for 2010. I'm a fan of the winning design. It addresses the building's key problem-- the dark interior-- while making the building less imposing from Congress Street. Now if only Boston could get some money...

dewy insect

2010-04-06T12:02:00.004-04:00

What an incredible image photographed by Miroslaw Swietek. This super-close-up shot of a blue dragonfly covered in morning dew looks like some high tech art installation or a brightly lit digital marquee/billboard in Times Square. It's so cool how nature and technology can overlap. That overlap is a key component in what I consider "ideal" design.

a timelapse video by sean stiegemeier

2010-04-05T20:41:00.001-04:00

Wowwwwwwwww.

Stomacher - Untitled/Dark Divider from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

green olympics

2010-03-30T15:27:00.004-04:00

Vancouver might have used e-waste to make the Olympic medals, but Rio is going to blow Canada out of the water--literally. RAFAA Architecture & Design from Zurich has designed a solar and water powered waterfall tower to generate renewable energy for the 2016 Olympic Village. It looks incredible, read more about it on Inhabitat.

"Telephone" by Sesame Street feat. Lady Gaga

2010-03-29T11:02:00.002-04:00

The latest mash up of Muppets and Gaga makes me laugh:

sport bag

2010-03-26T16:10:00.004-04:00

What a cool summer bag! I found this pic on Garance's blog. It is such a neat mix of tech-wear and high fashion, which is one of my favorite clothing genre clashes. And of course the brilliant cucumber green is right up my alley. I can picture Gwen Stefani carrying this bag; actually, it reminds me a little bit of the enormous Rastafarian-colored envelope bag I have from Gwen's fashion line, L.A.M.B. Note to self: use your awesome L.A.M.B. bag this weekend!

the underwear forest

2010-03-23T22:55:00.004-04:00

I was skiing at Deer Valley last week when one of the instructors asked me to ride up the lift with some of his "Reindeer" (a/k/a 5 year olds learning to ski). So it was me, Patrick, and Aiden on the chairlift. I learned their names right away because they had DV-issue ID stickers stuck to their helmets. They were super cute -- they were so short that their legs stuck straight out on the chairlift seat and thus their skis were perpendicular to the snow!

Patrick had obviously seen one of those trees adorned with ladies' panties and Mardi Gras beads (ubiquitous at ski resorts), because this is the conversation that ensued on the ride to the top:

Patrick: Have you seen the underwear forest?

Aiden: What's the underwear forest?

Patrick: It's a forest and the trees are all covered with ladies' underwear.

Aiden: Really???

Patrick: Yeah, there are wolves in the underwear forest. And deer. And moose. And deer. And mice. Blind mice.

Aiden: What's blind?

Patrick: It's when you can't see.

Aiden: Oh. I thought that it's when you have blonde hair.

Patrick: You aren't supposed to ski in the underwear forest. The animals protect the underwear. There are even signs that say you can't ski. But you can, because even though the animals are scary they are actually dumb. I ski right by them.

Aiden: Will you tell me when we pass the underwear forest?

Patrick: We already passed it, it was way over there.

Aiden: Oh. [Pause]. Are there thong in the underwear forest? [Note: yes, thong, singular].

Patrick: What's thong?

Aiden: Ladies underwear that are really long.

It was all I could do to not die laughing.

hi-YAH!

2010-03-10T15:44:00.004-05:00

Emily, Emily and I are taking a free self-defense course offered by the Brookline Police Department. We had our first class last night and I already feel more empowered! After going through basic avoidance and risk minimization techniques we got down to the physical stuff. First order of business: hits and blocks. We learned how to properly straight punch and heel hit to the nose (the latter is "devastating" apparently). At first we were all a little scared to hit the policemen (they wore pads), but after the first few hits we each felt a HUGE adrenaline rush. It felt great to yell and strike with all my might -- I was practically shaking (not to mention sweating) after from the epinephrine surging through my body. As I pictured myself facing down my imaginary attacker I gleefully thought: "You picked the WRONG WOMAN, buddy! Bwhahahahaaa!" Next class: kicks and holds. Final class: we get full-on attacked by a police officer and have to fight him off (eek!).

I can't believe I waited this long to take a self defense course. Every woman should do it: 85% of females who resist sexual assault are successful. Although I hope I never face a threat of sexual assault, I am confident that I will now be well prepared to protect myself. That is a GREAT feeling.

Also, the Ems and I are now feeling so bad-ass that we might take a boxing class! I hope it works out.

oh my goodness, the accessories!

2010-03-09T13:43:00.003-05:00

This image is from Scott Schuman, The Sartorialist. This lovely blonde is practically encrusted with stones and I LOVE IT.

Handsome Men's Club

2010-03-08T13:08:00.001-05:00

I almost died laughing when I watched this sketch from Jimmy Kimmel.

Hooray for Bode!

2010-03-04T11:45:00.000-05:00

I'm so happy that Bode Miller won a gold medal in the men's super combined* this last week! Bode took (and still takes) a lot of hate for his performance in Torino, both on and off the snow. (Refresher course: Bode was made Olympic media darling, a/k/a the Lindsey Vonn of 2006. Then Bode said that winning medals didn't really matter and didn't hide his party-animal tendencies. Then he didn't win. Americans got mad because he didn't give them what they wanted, skiing/personality/lifestyle-wise.) People seem to think Bode has "really turned himself around" since four years ago. Well... not exactly. I think Bode is essentially the same person he was in Torino: a maverick. He still doesn't care what anybody thinks, will say whatever he wants to the media and hunts for perfect skiing, not medals. It really annoys me when I hear people say that Bode "didn't care and didn't try" in the last Olympics, because Bode works incredibly hard and is ever in search of perfection. The media wanted him to be something he wasn't (untouchable Olympic golden boy), and it all came out as one huge mess. It does seem like he has since realized that it is extra-awesome when great skiing coincides with results, though. He was stoked to have that Gold! I loved the audio the cameras caught at the bottom of the hill after Bode won -- Ivica Kostelic to Bode: "You deserve it buddy, I'm so happy for you. You're back!" (Heart Ivica too! He is so cheery and a great competitor.) Yes, Bode has had a rough 1.5 years riddled with injuries but he's worked hard and it was awesome to see him going for it at the Olympics. Yay Bode!

*Total side note: I love how the Italian commentators call it (phonetically) supah combinatia! (I watch it live via the interwebs since NBC's coverage is dismal).

backcountry weekend

2010-03-01T21:04:00.005-05:00

I just returned from a lovely weekend escape to the B. family homestead in Vermont. Boy, did I need to get out of the rainy, depressing city. The second I stepped out of the car the familiar fresh scent of pine and snow (with a little bit of mud mixed in) relieved any lingering stress. Ahh.

The most significant adventure of the weekend: my first true foray into alpine touring/backcountry skiing. I am hooked! It was a beautiful sunny day, and Charlie and I joined a few other friends (and Samson the dog) to skin up the west side of Mt. Mansfield then ski down the backcountry classic Teardrop Trail. The T.T. was cut by the CCC in the 1930s and is really technical and challenging, which, of course, I loved. We gained 2,500+ feet of vertical. Luckily I was in good enough shape to motor up the trail with -- and in front of -- all the guys. Ego boost! My favorite part of the trip was our celebratory picnic at the summit. Charlie and I sat on a makeshift seat (the climbing skin-covered bases of our upside down skis), and ate Ski Queen cheese from Norway and sipped a Long Trail ale. Yum. And extra satisfying when we'd been hiking for 2.5 hours. Then we dropped over the "forehead" of Mansfield and managed to get some fresh tracks a few days after the big storm. I feel accomplished, refreshed and... really tired. That means it was a great weekend.

Norwegian alpine ski team dances to "Beat It" by Michael Jackson

2010-02-25T17:06:00.003-05:00

This video is solidly in my top 5 favorite videos of all time. Mostly because I love ski racing and I know who these dudes are... which makes it wayyyy ridiculous. The secret to Aksel Lund Svindal's success!

bright + bookish den

2010-02-23T14:16:00.003-05:00

I usually have a clean/modern or rustic preference when it comes to interior design, but I am in love with the den pictured above (see it on Apartment Therapy). It combines three of my favorite things: intense color, patterns, and books. I think books are a beautiful way to decorate a home (albeit not so great when it comes time to move). My friend and bibliophile Kalika tells me there is a bookstore (The Strand perhaps? Cannot remember.) that sells books by the yard purely for decorative purposes. You can even purchase customized books-by-the-yard according to a color scheme. I'm not sure I fully support selling books-by-the-yard, as I like to think of my bookshelf as a trophy case, e.g. "yes I have read Aristotle's Metaphysics, thankyouverymuch!" But if it looks awesome enough I guess I can relax my "principles" a little...

valentines versus Christmas cards

2010-02-19T16:56:00.005-05:00

This year (once again) I slacked on sending out Christmas cards. Come February it was too late to send out holiday cards so in a fit of crafty energy I whipped up some homemade valentines and sent those out instead. So far I'm getting great feedback... perhaps I'll do valentines instead of Christmas cards every year! That way I don't have to worry about cards during the super-busy holiday season, and I'll have a fun little project to work on during the dark and dull month of February.

I've fallen, and I can't get up.

2010-02-19T10:10:00.001-05:00

Too cute/hilarious not to share. Emily sent this to me, she found it here.

"are you stupid?"

2010-02-18T21:16:00.001-05:00

Yes, Sven, the American press covering the Olympics are stupid. Thanks for calling them out:

"green" gold medals

2010-02-18T15:08:00.002-05:00

Cool fact: the medals being given out at the Vancouver games are all made from e-waste! So they represent not only international people friendship, but friendship towards the environment as well. Here is the text of the article from More Intelligent Life:

Despite having hosted the Winter Olympics twice before, only on Sunday did Canada succeed in winning a gold medal on its own snow-covered soil. The medal itself, earned by Alexandre Bilodeau, a champion mogul skier, also represented a unique environmental achievement in Olympic history, as it was made in part from recycled materials. Specifically, the medal included metal salvaged from the circuit boards of electronic devices, otherwise known as e-waste.

Bilodeau’s medal—along with the other 614 Olympic medals and 399 to be awarded at the subsequent Paralympic Games—helps to both highlight and combat the growing environmental problem posed by e-waste. Electronic devices that were once considered luxury items are becoming as commonplace and personal as toothbrushes. Because they contain toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and beryllium—as well as recyclable metal and plastic components—safely disposing this flood of phones, computers and televisions when they break or become obsolete is a challenge.

By teaming up with Teck Resources, a Canadian mining company, the creators of this year's Olympic medals—Omer Arbel and Corrine Hunt, both Canadian designers—have brought new attention to the issue and prevented 6.8 metric tonnes of e-waste from ending up in landfills.

London, the site of the 2012 summer games, is expected to feature green medals modelled on Vancouver’s example. Organisers of the London games are spinning their entire "One Planet Olympics" around the idea of global sustainability (which is evidently the the third "pillar" of the Olympic Movement, along with sport and culture).

But Vancouver's medals still leave room for improvement. Weighing in between 500 and 576 grams each, the medals are the heaviest in Olympic history. Less than 2% of each medal’s weight is derived from gold, silver and copper recycled from electronic devices. London’s medals could certainly do better (could this be another Olympic competition?), but this is a winning start.

~ CORBIN HIAR

Olympics O.D.

2010-02-16T15:53:00.004-05:00

(This is me with the mascots in Torino, 2006. Please excuse the duckface,

I was trying to kiss her on the cheek and still look at the camera.)

I am so excited that the Winter Olympics are here! I will be virtually attached to the Games at all times over the next two weeks: TV, live streaming online, print analysis, radio... you name it, I will be following it. Something has come over me... must be OLYMPIC FEVER!!! Symptom 1: I find it inexplicably easy to emotionally connect with the competitors within about 2.3 minutes of beginning to watch an event... any event. Who knew I could get so into nordic combined? Yet there I was, white-knuckled, bouncing out of my seat cheering on Johnny Spillane. Symptom 2: I think I am an expert in every obscure sport after watching for 15 minutes and reading one, maybe two articles. The rational side of me realizes I know nothing, yet I insist on speaking to friends/co-workers like I've been following it my whole life. Symptom 3: Excessive crying. I'm pretty sure I set a crying spectator OR (Olympic Record): 3 times in the first 30 minutes, 2 of the 3 over commercials (the combination of swelling orchestra and little kids pursuing their dreams and mom cheering from the sidelines gets me every time). Symptom 4: getting ZERO work done because my eyes are glued to the live timing of the skiing events.

I took this quiz to see which of the mascots I was most like. My result was Sumi, an adorable mountain spirit who is part black bear, part thunderbird and appears to have some sort of orca whale transformation power. SWEET. His favorite food is hot cocoa... we were meant to be best friends. I like how VanOC has integrated the culture of the West Coast First Nations into the Vancouver mascots... does anyone know what significance of the marshmallow-headed Torino mascots? Me either.

On another note, I'm really annoyed with the people protesting the Olympics (it is my understanding that the protesters take issue with countries spending money on sports). A) Protests are my pet peeve, they annoy me to no end. B) Why shouldn't countries invest money in an event that promotes international friendship? I think that is an important thing for countries to invest in. What other event does that? That's right, NO other event does that. I think the police response to the protesters was awesome. Apparently they formed a sort of rugby scrum and chanted "move back" (or something similar, my mom told me this story) while steadily advancing-- non-violent AND sports-like.

Finally, now that I am not an NCAA athlete, I am allowed to bet. A group of my skier friends have started a betting pool on the Olympic skiing events and for the first time I have formed a fantasy sports team. So far it has gone well: my man Didier Defago of Switzerland, a relative dark horse, took the all-important men's downhill title! Great pick! I have great hopes for my other picks too, especially Ted Ligety... I am already getting anxious, not so much because I have money on him but because I really want him to do well regardless. On second thought maybe I shouldn't have picked him, I'm already too emotionally invested. Take Olympic Fever Sympton 1 (see above), add in a sport I DO care about on a regular basis and that is a scary mess of anxiety-ridden Ingrid! We took Lindsey Vonn out of the draft because we all wanted to cheer for her regardless (and we all would have been very bitter towards whoever drafted her...).

commitment

2010-02-12T10:10:00.000-05:00

I went to the gym this morning. I forgot my sneakers. So I worked out in my Uggs.

another MYO unhappy hipsters

2010-02-08T14:13:00.004-05:00

Unbeknownst to their clique, Amanda and Kyle met at a furry convention.

(What is this photo? I found it on Apartment Therapy.)

moped fantasy

2010-02-05T12:38:00.004-05:00

My college roommate Sascha and I have a yet unfulfilled fantasy to ride candy-colored Vespas along Lombardy poplar-lined back roads throughout the Italian countryside. Cheesy, I know, but deliciously so. Sascha and I tried to rent scooters when we spent 3 weeks in Tuscany during our junior year abroad. Tragically, no one would rent us scooters because we had zero experience driving them. Small wrinkle in our ingenious plan. Curses! Someday it will come to pass.

I was reminded of our Audrey Hepburn-in-"Roman Holiday"-daydream when I came across these chic Tod's moped helmets (here). I would go for the orange one.

My own "Unhappy Hipsters"

2010-02-04T11:57:00.005-05:00

It was then she realized, indignantly, that they had only lived out his childhood fantasy.

(Photo: John Clark in Dwell)

Unhappy Hipsters is my favorite funny blog of the moment. It inspired me to make my own post!

"a little too much"

2010-02-01T16:28:00.002-05:00

This is Ania. She is assistant buyer for Luisa Via Roma--THE online boutique for fashionistas worldwide. I found her picture on Garance Dore's blog and immediately fell head over heels with her style. I love how she always goes for a detail that is "a little too much"--it reminds me of my style in high school and college. Not so much now that I work in a conservative office, but Ania has inspired me to once again be daring in my style choices.

And... I COVET HER DOG.

Ingrid Siliakus

2010-01-28T14:44:00.003-05:00

I got really excited when I saw an article on Apartment Therapy with my name in the title, and I wasn't disappointed by the link: paper architecture by Dutch artist Ingrid Siliakus! Paper architecture is incredible; the designer creates a three dimensional form by cutting and folding a single piece of paper, mandating exceptional attentiveness and precision. I love how meditative and process-based Ingrid's work is.

Her artist statement from the 2006 Holland Paper Exhibition reveals a beautiful mind, both philosophical and poetic:

"...Working with paper forces me to be humble, since this medium has a character of its own that asks for cooperation. It is a challenge to find this cooperation with each separate paper brand I work with. Working with paper the way I do, namely by means of cutting and folding creating paper sculptures, asks of me to work with meditative precision. Paper architecture does not bare haste, it is its enemy; one moment of loss of concentration, can lead to failure of a piece..." "...I experience an ultimate satisfaction at the critic moment when the paper, with a silenced sigh, surrenders and becomes a blade-sharp crease. The sound of the paper, which guides this surrendering, to me is incomparable..."

love notes

2010-01-27T14:59:00.004-05:00

I watched the movie Bright Star last night. The movie is about John Keats and his lady love, Fanny Brawne. I really enjoyed the film--solid period drama with beautiful cinematography. As a pretty things enthusiast, I loved the letters Keats and Fanny sent to each other via courier. When I told my roommate Emily how much I liked them, she sent me a link to Hello Handmade on Etsy. They make valentines that could have come straight from a Jane Austen novel (see image above)! Being a crafty type, I think I'll make some of my own valentines this year. Papersource, here I come.

What I've Been Up To For 3 Months

2010-01-07T15:15:00.001-05:00

Not making this video, just acting it out in my own life. But now I'm back!

House Boat

2009-10-15T15:15:00.002-04:00

I've always been obsessed with living on a house boat. This isn't exactly what I had in mind, but I am still a big fan: House on the Water, "self-sufficient house for a nomadic life offshore."

Club Love

2009-10-13T17:09:00.001-04:00

Love this mashup!

Kakapo "shags" zoologist

2009-10-02T15:54:00.002-04:00

While filming the kakapo in New Zealand, zoologists Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine have a hilarious encounter with this rare parrot: Link to BBC video.

Autotuned Carl Sagan ft. Stephen Hawking

2009-09-25T16:23:00.003-04:00

Sometimes the things that I think are cool amaze even me. I like the autotune phase popular music is going through at the moment, and cosmology and Stephen Hawking as well. But together? Admittedly this is totally strange, but I liked it so I'm posting it anyway.

Can barely stand it

2009-09-15T15:56:00.002-04:00

This video is priceless (from Steve V).

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

Nietzsche Family Circus - a favorite

2009-09-11T09:42:00.000-04:00

"Much within you is still worm."

I've written about the genius that is Nietzsche Family Circus before, but I felt the need to post a link to one I found particularly hilarious on my last visit to the site of saccharin + nihilism.

Word Jumble

2009-09-10T09:25:00.002-04:00

I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in what oredr the ltteers in a word are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is that the first and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe.

The passage speaks for itself. The human mind never ceases to amaze me.

Soil Clock

2009-09-09T16:06:00.003-04:00

Not that a clock uses that much energy, but I really like this soil-powered bamboo clock I found on Inhabitat. The clock's copper and zinc electrodes plug into the soil which acts as a conductor for the electrical current, creating a power source out of the dirt.

Harmonica Beatbox

2009-09-03T13:13:00.001-04:00

I love a good hybrid. Here is an oldie-but-goodie... Yuri Lane's harmonica beatbox:

Time Lapse | 1 Year Walk

2009-09-01T13:15:00.002-04:00

Another sweet time lapse video! Cristoph Rehage walked 4,646km from Beijing to Urumqi, China. He took self portraits along the way and put them together in this video:

The Longest Way 1.0 - one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.

Burnham Pavilion

2009-08-26T11:48:00.002-04:00

Yet another incredible design featured on Yatzer! The Burnham Pavilion in Chicago reminds me of a cross between a monarch butterfly chrysalis and the underbelly of a manta ray. Read all about the concept, materials and design here.

Style Love | 80s Exec.

2009-08-11T16:32:00.004-04:00

I am loving this look, which I spotted on Garance Doré's blog. It looks like a male CEO's power suit and glasses circa 1980-something fitted for a beautiful girl. I am attracted to the contrast between style and wearer and, per usual, to the nerdy specticals. I recently a new pair of glasses from Robert Marc (these babies) that are fantastically nerdy. My co-worker tells me they make me look like Cousin Oliver, which means I succeeded in my purchase. I specifically asked the salesman to give me "the nerdiest glasses [he] could find" (direct quote). They look quite dashing, if you ask me. The salesman told me that I was the first woman he'd ever seen that could pull them off, but I think he just wanted me to buy them. Little did he know, he didn't have to sell me on them. I like to think they make me look like the girl in the picture above. I will have to try to run into Garance at Paris fashion week and if she takes my photograph, I'll know the salesman wasn't just buttering me up.

This is Home

2009-08-07T16:42:00.002-04:00

My submission is posted on the This is Home blog! It's the fourth one down. I first read about the project on reading my tea leaves. Briefly, This is Home is a "visual exploration of the concept of 'home,' across continents, oceans and neighborhoods." It is a work in progress at the moment; readers submit one-sentence ideas about what "home" is, and the words will eventually be combined with images. At the end of August, readers can vote for their favorite word/image combination and the winners will be made into a set of postcards available on Etsy.com. I love this project, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Home is a nice thing to meditate on, especially when one is young, uprooted and in "transition mode."

NYC Legos

2009-08-06T16:44:00.002-04:00

I love Legos, so I thought this blog post was hilarious and awesome. I especially like the "Fresh ground pepper?" one, 'cause it (maybe inadvertently) pokes fun at how unnecessarily huge pepper grinders are in gourmet restaurants.

O.I.C. HQ

2009-08-05T13:36:00.006-04:00

I was doing some perusing around Yatzer, one of my favorite design blogs, when I ran across a post about a Willy Muller Architects (WMA) design of the Organization of the Islamic Conference Headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Absent any context, the design is striking. When it first caught my eye it brought to mind a futuristic glistening pyramid straining to pull its roots from the earth as it pushed towards the heavens. The philosophy behind the design makes it that much more fascinating. It is based on a cupola, which "is an outstanding feature on squinches in front of the mihrāb (a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the qibla, that is, the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca and hence the direction that Muslims should face when praying), which is made up of small columns and horseshoe arches, and an elaborate shell decoration that points to great technical mastery," according to Yatzer. This type of cupola is most notably comes from Byzantine and Mesopotamian architecture, and is a fixture across the Middle East and the Mediterranean. WMA saw the cupola as "a visible and powerful icon from the vast and rich culture and history of Islamic architecture, appearing since long ago and in very different points of the world but always under the same common identity." That, of course, is a nice structural metaphor for the purpose of a conference for the Organization of the Islamic. It is so much more interesting when a building is not just a building, but rather a physical manifestation of an ideal or philosophy. Read more details about the project here. (The image is from there, too).

Things I like July 29, 2009

2009-07-29T16:40:00.002-04:00

1) This dwelling, which looks like a strange bulbous woodland growth. It's qualities remind me of a slime mold.

2) A reminder that minutiae don't have to be minutiae-- in fact, I think it's all in one's mind.

3) Anna the Bernese Mountain Dog.

Tree house

2009-07-24T16:26:00.003-04:00

I'd really like to live in a tree house. I'm not sure if my slight obsession started with watching birds nest or watching The Swiss Family Robinson, but either way this desire has been with me a long time. There are all sorts of tree houses available these days. Companies mass-manufacture kiddie-safe versions and some clever hoteliers have dreamed up little tree bungalows where you can stay on vacation. Quaint! However if I were to live in a tree house, I'd go all out and move to Papua New Guinea where I could lodge in an extreme high-canopy house of peril, like the ones shown above (images from here). There I could listen to the pre-dawn chorus of Birds of Paradise a la David Attenborough and insist on sleeping strapped into a harness. Just in case.

Gnarled hands

2009-07-24T15:09:00.002-04:00

I saw a small Chinese man with the most amazing hands on the train this morning. They were dark and weathered, with knobby, walnut-like knuckles and neatly trimmed nails. The best part was the web of veins, clearly articulated through the paper-thin skin and enhanced by the humidity. His spidery vessels looked like a tree root system partially unearthed by a rainstorm, when you can see the roots twist and branch and eventually dive back into the earth.

ZOMG Ron!!!

2009-07-21T16:00:00.002-04:00

This video (thanks Em!) is amazing. It combines two of my great loves: Harry Potter and Japanese TV. Having lived in Japan, I can authoritatively say that the hilariously awkward interviewer is exactly like 90% of Japanese TV hosts. Yes, they are that ridiculous. The Japanese entertainment aesthetic totally baffles me, but I love how zany and overwhelming it is. My favorite part is when she touches his eyelashes (that actually happened to me once in a train station in Japan!):

10 most creative apartment blocks

2009-07-16T16:25:00.004-04:00

While surfing the interwebs, I found a list of the "10 most creative apartment blocks" (in existence, I guess. Supposedly, anyway). My favorite is the colorful, tortuous, verdant Waldspirale in Germany (see above). I love how it looks like bands of sediment, almost like it has been carved out of a hill by some ancient civilization. It blends naturally with the surroundings, unlike so many buildings that clash with the environments they are built in. That organic quality is a virtue that designers and developers overlook far too often, in my opinion.

Wow | Clock

2009-07-16T15:25:00.000-04:00

Continue Time clock by Sander Mulder:

Spencer Dock Bridge

2009-07-15T16:42:00.003-04:00

I just found some amazing pictures of the new Spencer Dock Bridge in Dublin, Ireland (from here). I love how the flowing lines mimic the properties of water and how well the light colored finish reflects the Royal Canal, creating a seamless effect with the water. The bridge was built by Amanda Levete Architects.

Tan Hong Ming

2009-07-14T13:36:00.002-04:00

Most adorable video ever. It was made to promote diversity in southeast Asia. Tan Hong Ming is Chinese, and the little girl is Malaysian.

How to build an ark.

2009-07-02T16:57:00.002-04:00

It has been a ridiculously rainy June in Boston. I'm glad that our newspaper, at least, is maintaining a sense of humor. They posted a graphic article on how to build an ark. See it here.

Mascot Taxonomy

2009-07-01T16:33:00.002-04:00

GOOD combines 3 of my great loves (sports, categorizing and big costumes) in its Mascot Taxonomy!

Gingerbread | Oak Bluffs

2009-06-30T22:26:00.013-04:00

After growing up in a Victorian era town, I've always been fascinated by gingerbread houses, such as these places I ran across in Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard this past weekend. I love the whimsicality of the bright colors, complicated roofs and decorative porches. Especially the one with the carousel horse cutouts.

F.A.T.

2009-06-25T16:09:00.003-04:00

During my interweb cruisin' I ran across the English architecture firm Fat (an acronym for fashion architecture taste). I really like Fat's whimsical and colorful aesthetic. Check out their website here for more pictures and press.

M'Afrique

2009-06-25T10:24:00.002-04:00

I discovered this beautiful installation via Yatzer. Patrizia Moroso asked Steven Burks to design the project for her Milan showroom. I love the contrast of traditional African influence with modern design and, of course, the COLOR! M'Afrique included "works by contemporary African artists such as Soly Cissé and Fathi Hassan, the photographer Mandémory and the architect David Adjaye’s “African Cities” research project were presented alongside new designs by Ayse Birsel & Bibi Sek, Phillipe Bestenheider, Tord Boontje, Patricia Urquiola and Stephen Burks himself, who re-upholstered many of Moroso’s signature pieces in fabrics that he and Patrizia Moroso found on their trips to Senegal." (from The Moment)

Thought for a rainy Friday

2009-06-19T12:34:00.001-04:00

One thing I like about Boston when it rains is that the city smells of ocean.

Costumed

2009-06-17T12:39:00.005-04:00

One downside to living in a historical city such as Boston is the multitudes of summer tourists. They mosey along, crowding the sidewalks and park paths, making it impossible to walk anywhere at a speed faster than a snail. I do like eavesdropping on the tours, to hear new Bean-town minutiae. I also think it is hilarious that there are so many pedestrians traipsing around the city in colonial-era costume (the tour guides). The incongruity of a 20-something man in a tri-cornered hat and brocade tail coat carrying a very large papaya through Haymarket or a pair of middle aged women in mob caps and bustles squatting on a stoop sharing a cigarette never fails to amuse me. Also, apparently it makes tours more authentic (or something) if the guide speaks in a British colonialist accent. I wonder if they train you to speak that way, or if you have to be a good at it to get the job. I think I'll try to look up the job description now...

Lego | Design

2009-06-11T18:11:00.009-04:00

I am obsessed with these installations by artist/lego lover Jan Vormann. Repairing building chinks with these little plastic toys is such a simple idea, but absolute genius. I have been a lego enthusiast ever since I can remember, and a lover of old stone buildings for just as long. The contrast of age, color and material is striking; the fact that it combines two of my favorite building elements is an added bonus. Pictures from here.

Dance-Off

2009-06-11T13:08:00.002-04:00

I love a good dance party. The hilarious video below is of a dance-off between USF and UConn during the 2009 Big East baseball tournament. I've always thought that the best athletes are also great showpersons; both require confidence and bravado.

Place names

2009-06-08T16:01:00.003-04:00

One of my favorite pastimes is reading atlases to find cool place names. I was reminded of this today as I was addressing a letter to someone who lives on "Big Hammock Point Road." I would love to live on a road with a fabulous name. There are a few road names I remember driving past that have stuck with me for years: Horn of the Moon Road, Fisher's Folly, Star Pudding Farm Road. I wonder what star pudding is? I've been to some towns with great names, too. Mosquitoville (10 miles from my hometown, for real!), Oil Trough, Hell. My best friend and I though we were soooo hilarioussss when we were looking at a map and we asked her dad if we could "go to Hell." (We were eight, and easily amused). When I was studying abroad, I discovered that England had some of the best, as in funniest, place names. They are almost absurd in their literalness. I am of the opinion that the British try to give towns, roads and landmarks ridiculous names like Penistone and Butt Hole Road (also real, see here) so that they can giggle to themselves.

Donut Day

2009-06-05T16:58:00.002-04:00

Today is National Donut Day! You can get a free donut from Dunkin Donuts when you order coffee. Not that a free donut from Dunkin's is any great deal, but it's the principle that counts.

In honor of Donut Day, I would like to draw your attention to Chapter 2 of the Massachusetts General Laws, which addresses various emblems of the Commonwealth. It is hilarious. M.G.L. Ch. 2 Sec. 51 states that "The Boston Cream donut shall be the official donut of the Commonwealth." Good to see that our tax dollars are going to good use...

I love time lapse.

2009-06-03T14:46:00.003-04:00

I lovelovelove time lapse videos. This one, filmed by a friend in the second degree, is out-of-this-world:

Time Lapse Round One from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Check out his Vimeo page!

Santigold

2009-06-02T15:23:00.002-04:00

I had the pleasure of attending the Santigold concert with my super-cool friend Dani at Boston's House of Blues last night! She was a fantastic performer. I would describe her music as aggressive pop, with reggae and hip-hop influences. (No wonder I like her... those are three of my favorite music genres). The coolest part of the show was Santigold's backup dancers (featured in the video below!). The two women would stand stone-faced and unmoving, then suddenly break it down with some amazing dance moves, then return to statue position. As a bonus, MC Spank Rock made a special appearance!

Check out her video of "L.E.S. Artistes":

Most adorable birthday

2009-05-29T22:05:00.002-04:00

My cousin, her husband and their three gorgeous children are living in Zurich for a year. It sounds like they are making the most of their time there, making trips to all the surrounding areas and immersing the kids in Swiss schools. This morning I received an email from my aunt describing the most adorable birthday tradition that I have ever heard of!

An excerpt from her email:

Tuesday was Hanna's seventh birthday and to celebrate, the teachers picked several of Hanna's new friends and they walked to Hanna's apartment with a small wooden farm wagon, put on the golden birthday cape and pulled her to school for the morning!

Are you reading this, friends? I want a gold cape and a wagon ride. My birthday is in a week. Start planning.

Bird song study

2009-05-26T10:02:00.002-04:00

"Birds learn to sing in much the same way that humans learn to talk — they absorb vocabulary and rules of usage through imitation. But a new paper by neurobiologist Partha Mitra suggests that in birds, at least, grammatical rules are hard-wired.

"Mitra raised a group of male zebra finches in total isolation, with no exposure to other birds. As expected, their songs were far less structured and melodic than normal finch songs. Then Mitra let newly hatched finches learn songs from the isolated males; as that second generation matured, she let a third generation learn songs from them — and so on. Each generation imitated the older one — but corrected the songs’ ragged structures in a way that made all the songs increasingly resemble the songs of wild zebra finches. According to Mitra, an innate structure was asserting itself within the population."

From my VSL email!

Mathnet!

2009-05-22T13:55:00.003-04:00

I was only allowed to watch PBS as a child. I was also a huge math nerd (plastic glasses and all!). Add these two factors together, and you get an eight year old girl enamored of the show "Square One TV." My favorite segment was "Mathnet," which spoofed on "Dragnet," in which the detectives use math to solve crimes. I had almost forgotten about it, until I saw this comic on xkcd! I thought it was so awesome that I started hyperventilating.

Blossom

2009-05-21T15:38:00.002-04:00

My friend and roommate Emily had a quotation by Anais Nin as her gchat status message the other day:

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. "

I love that metaphor. It uses 'leafing out,' one of my favorite natural phenomenons, to capture how I feel about change and coming into one's own: it's most natural when it can't not happen.

Equation

2009-05-12T16:45:00.000-04:00

Humidity + pumps = shoe farts

Minutiae

2009-05-12T16:38:00.004-04:00

A few things are brightening my day today. Two literally, one figuratively.

1) My toenails are painted lilac.

2) My watch is neon orange.

3) Conversation upon answering my phone at work:

Man on the other end: "That's a great way to answer the phone... It's almost like singing!"
Me: "Why thank you, sir!"

There are about fifty other things as well, but I won't get carried away.

Walk maximization

2009-05-08T15:24:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I volunteer to go get the mail at work. This is how I go to the mailroom located in the basement of the high-rise office building I work in...

...if it is a yucky weather day:
Down freight elevator. Endlessly entertained by the lift operators; sitting in an elevator all day make them strange folk.

...if it is a nice day:
Down the main elevator. Out the back entrance. Down the outside steps. In the side entrance to the lower level to mailroom. Back out side entrance. Walk around block. In the front entrance. Up main elevator.

My special talent, unknown to most of my acquaintances, is creating walking routes that maximize either indoor time (in winter, when raining) or outdoor time (when warm and/or sunny). Feel free to ask for my suggestions.

Surfing the Amazon

2009-05-07T16:17:00.001-04:00

Clearly, today has a theme.

Surfing Video: HD Super Slo-mo

2009-05-07T14:50:00.001-04:00

The first shots of this kind ever recorded!

Lilacs

2009-05-06T16:37:00.003-04:00

Somehow real spring (not just the first hints of it) has crept up on me. I didn't realize it until I spotted my first lilac shrub of the season, peeking over the fence in the back of my apartment building. Lilacs = spring proper. My mom had a beautiful lilac planted outside our kitchen window. It was a transplant from her mother's garden. My mom's mom died when I was fairly young, but one of the things I remember clearly about her is how much she liked sharing plants. Mom didn't like snipping the blooms from her lilac, so she would send us to pilfer branches from the neighbor's enormous shrubs to put in a vase on the dining table. "Take them from the side that faces away from the Bedard's house!"

Scooter Sail

2009-05-05T09:59:00.002-04:00

Chicago officially holds the nickname "The Windy City," but I am strongly of the opinion that Chi-town should cede that nickname to Boston. Any time there is a transition in weather, Boston turns into an enormous wind tunnel. There are countless days when I have to lean into the wind at a 45-degree angle while I walk down Boylston Street to avoid being blown over backward. The wind effect is particularly bad for skirts, hair, shopping bags, and not looking disheveled.

However, the other day I saw one clever Bostonian who has managed to harness the fierce wind and use it to his advantage: he has built a sail for his scooter! As I struggled across Copley Square, Scooter Guy raced by me on his makeshift street windsurfer. The contraption consists of a large plastic tarpaulin secured to a wooden boom, which is attached to the shaft of the scooter handlebars. He then holds the top edge of the tarp, and moves his arm to direct the speeding scooter around corners and pedestrians. FANTASTIC (if slightly dangerous). He flew around an entire city block in the time it took me to walk 150 meters!

Green

2009-04-30T10:28:00.003-04:00

I love leaves. It is easy to forget what Life looks like during the six months that leaves are gone. Spring is spectacular, and not only because of the colorful blooms of the crocus, daffodils, hyacinth and tulips. My favorite part of Spring is the green. The green of Spring is far from uniform. It is as various as the reds and oranges of Fall, just cooled on the color spectrum, from the yellow forsythia and willows to the lime boutonnieres of the sprouting oaks and the darker emerald of the early leaf-ers. Ahhhh... newness!

Edinburgh | Freestyle Biking

2009-04-23T16:48:00.002-04:00

Danny MacAskill. Whoa. Almost as insane as wingsuits.

Springsteen

2009-04-23T09:22:00.003-04:00

I went to my first Bruce Springsteen concert last night, and I am on a serious Boss high this morning! Unlike other aging rock stars, Bruce still puts on an astoundingly energetic show. He rip-roared through the whole performance, and the crowd in the Garden was electrifying. Bruce's gritty sensibility seems particularly relevant these days. His performance of the 19th century spiritual "Hard Times" was probably my favorite song of the night; that, or "Workin' On a Dream."

The very best element of the show, however, was Bruce blowing snot rockets on stage to clear his voice.

Fenway love...

2009-04-21T16:49:00.001-04:00

I was having way too much fun not at a computer to post the last few days, but I'm not sure I was having as much fun as this guy:

Field Guide to Lava

2009-04-16T11:38:00.002-04:00

I love field guides (in general) and volcanoes are fascinating. Thus, I bring you today's interweb discovery: a Field Guide to Lava!

Tweenbots

2009-04-14T14:04:00.003-04:00

Today I am loving Kacie Kinzer's art project/social study Tweenbots.

"The journey the Tweenbots take each time they are released in the city becomes a story of people's willingness to engage with a creature that mirrors human characteristics of vulnerability, of being lost, and of having intention without the means of achieving its goal alone."

Thanks to Emily for sharing this!

Nietzsche Family Circus

2009-04-13T14:04:00.003-04:00

My latest interweb discovery is the Nietzsche Family Circus, a site that pairs a randomized Family Circus cartoon with a randomized quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche. It's amazing how well they complement each other. Although Nietzsche is a great writer and thinker I feel that he takes himself much too seriously, which makes me tire of him quickly. Family Circus is a cartoon that can be enjoyed only by those people with the mildest sense of humor. But together they mesh into a happy medium; I can't stop clicking "refresh."

Freezer bird

2009-04-10T16:12:00.006-04:00

My friend Dani and I were talking about what an embarrassing dad our boss is going to be to his three daughters. Naturally this conversation turned to our own fathers, who we agreed had their fair share of insane (but mostly lovable and hilarious, as opposed to embarrassing) moments.

I would like to share my favorite "am I really related to him?!" moment:

While hunting, a beautiful goshawk got caught in the honeysuckle netting behind our house and broke his neck. Being a family of lay ornithologists (one of us--Dad--by choice, the rest of us by default), this was an amazing opportunity to examine a bird of prey up close (see picture). Because of the way he died, the goshawk was in perfect condition. We have a small natural history museum in our town that houses an incredible collection of birds. My dad's best friend Charlie happens to be the curator of this museum, so not knowing what else to do with our find Dad called Charlie and offered it as an addition to the museum collection. The museum would love to have it, said Charlie, but the museum freezers were full at the moment (I guess there is a lot of wildlife to donate in Vermont) so would we be willing to keep it in our freezer until space opened up? Dad thought that was a great idea, much to my mother's chagrin (because we don't need to keep food in there or anything, you know), so the goshawk took up residence beside the frozen peas and the ice cube trays for the three months. And, for the next three months, any time my friends came over to the house Dad would get very excited and say "Hey, check this out!" and then proceed to whip the goshawk out of the freezer and show it to everyone. There were many stunned teenagers who left my house that spring. Good thing I had gotten over my cripplingly-embarrassed-by-my-parents stage by that point, otherwise I'm not sure I would have ever lived that down.

"Unique"

2009-04-09T15:42:00.010-04:00

I've written about the word unique before (here). Unique-ness is a subject of great interest to me; I even wrote my undergraduate thesis on proper names (that's the name for a unique object/being, in case you've forgotten the definition from grammar school- haha see what I did there?). I ran across the picture above on a very entertaining blog of signage using unnecessary quotation marks. I had a good laugh at this post in particular, because it is so typical of local craftspeople. They all claim to be unique (and I will concede that they are, technically) but their wares are all so similar that I find most crafty stores/shows tiresome very quickly. There are some amazing artists out there, but mostly my experiences go like this: What a nice boiled wool hat. And look, jewelry made out of old silverware. And natural soaps that smell of patchouli! Oh wait, I've seen this a million times... which is what makes this sign so accurate/hilarious!

Different but the same

2009-04-08T17:03:00.002-04:00

Patterns in humanity, documented by photographer Peter Funch in his series "Babel Tales."

Magnetically sensitive livestock

2009-04-06T14:14:00.003-04:00

German scientists recently published a paper detailing research that strongly indicates that cattle and other livestock are sensitive to magnetic fields. Nature never fails to amaze!

Here is the abstract:

We demonstrate by means of simple, noninvasive methods (analysis of satellite images, field observations, and measuring “deer beds” in snow) that domestic cattle (n = 8,510 in 308 pastures) across the globe, and grazing and resting red and roe deer (n = 2,974 at 241 localities), align their body axes in roughly a north–south direction. Direct observations of roe deer revealed that animals orient their heads northward when grazing or resting. Amazingly, this ubiquitous phenomenon does not seem to have been noticed by herdsmen, ranchers, or hunters. Because wind and light conditions could be excluded as a common denominator determining the body axis orientation, magnetic alignment is the most parsimonious explanation. To test the hypothesis that cattle orient their body axes along the field lines of the Earth's magnetic field, we analyzed the body orientation of cattle from localities with high magnetic declination. Here, magnetic north was a better predictor than geographic north. This study reveals the magnetic alignment in large mammals based on statistically sufficient sample sizes. Our findings open horizons for the study of magnetoreception in general and are of potential significance for applied ethology (husbandry, animal welfare). They challenge neuroscientists and biophysics to explain the proximate mechanisms.

Cheese cave

2009-04-06T10:50:00.003-04:00

I am making plans to visit a cheese cave. Just in case I haven't mentioned it before, I come from the BEST STATE EVER.

Pic for the weekend

2009-04-04T17:40:00.003-04:00

Ahhh... weekend. From dogs-looking-like-people blog.

...and the hippo was allergic to magic.

2009-04-02T14:24:00.002-04:00

Imagination is a wonderful thing. I watch this video when I feel like mine has run away for the afternoon:

Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

By Capucha.

Frustration: City Parking

2009-03-30T11:41:00.003-04:00

If Job had lived in the 21st century, I am quite sure that the Lord would have sent him to Boston to try to park his car. Do you ever just want to saw off the trunk of that car parked 2/3 in one spot, 1/3 in another and 3 inches from your front bumper (great illustration here)? I do, frequently. Most motorists' lack of spacial awareness and parking courtesy is appalling. I would be in favor of Boston restricting all city traffic (besides taxis and buses) to Smart Cars and Mini Coopers. There was a tiny yellow-and-black Smart coup parked on Newbury Street the other day and - SHOCK! - it actually fit in those minuscule parking spaces.

I have found that the best strategy to avoid bursting a few blood vessels is to plan on an extra 1/2 hour to find a spot, and to map out a "parking circuit" around your destination that you can drive around multiple times, so that you don't get lost in a labyrinth of one way streets. Also, you should take lots of deep breaths, make a playlist of your favorite songs (the ones you stay in your car to hear the end of after you have parked), and repeat "serenity now" every time you discover that what you thought was a parking spot is actually a fire hydrant.

Style Love | Spots

2009-03-27T15:51:00.002-04:00

She looks so damn good. The photo is from Garance Dore, my favorite stylista/blogger.

Cooking for Karl Lagerfeld

2009-03-26T20:45:00.004-04:00

I had a good laugh last fall when I heard the news that Karl Lagerfeld, the genius behind Chanel, had bought property in my home state of Vermont. The NY Magazine article confirming the rumors induced a flurry of emotions in this fashionista's heart:

1) Disbelief. Karl Lagerfeld? Shouldn't he be summering in Monte Carlo? He doesn't know what he is getting himself into; the Green Mountain State simply can't cater to his needs! (Then I remembered that Karl most likely has magical powers and will bring his needs with him.)

2) Amusement. Can you picture Karl the chic automatron wearing Carhartts? With dreds? Smoking a bowl with aging hippies who smell of patchouli???

3) Pride. Karl Lagerfeld wants to come to Vermont! And he wants to shoot Chanel ad campaigns here! This confirms my strong opinion that I come from THE BEST STATE EVER!

4) Defensiveness. Wait... he's not going to bring his posse of Louis Vuitton luggage-toting and turn our lovely state into the new Hamptons, is he? We hate flatlanders.

I didn't hear anything about Mr. Lagerfeld coming to Vermont after the article in NY Magazine, so I assumed Karl had made an impulse purchase which he soon abandoned for the society crowd in Ibiza. How wrong I was.

Tuesday I received a text message from my dear friend Ben, who is living in the Burlington area. It read: I am cooking dinner for Karl Lagerfeld and his entourage. I almost passed out from the shock. And envy. Ben sent me this email the next day:

Apparently Karl Lagerfeld bought land up in the Champlain Islands - it is probably an entire island. For dinner he came into Burlington (Monday night as well) with a cohort of very handsome male models to the restaurant where I wash dishes and cook (Trattoria Delia). Last night I was the appetizer chef, so I made appetizers for the entire crew. They were kinda dicks - which surely is de rigueur inside really haute couture. The party of 19 was supposed to show up at 7:30, then pushed it to 8:45, then it was 13 showing up at 9:15, finally 5 showed up at 9:45. They had pretty bizarre dietary requests (I guess that goes with being a model and designer) - no oil, no extra butter, no sides... But our filet was "the best piece of meat" Mr. Lagerfeld ever tasted. We have a few really attractive servers who were invited out for drinks with them. Of course, being a rag-a-muffin, I was not invited out... So there's my story: I cooked dinner for Karl Lagerfeld and his coterie.

Ben, count me jealous.

Aurora Borealis | Time Lapse

2009-03-25T12:47:00.002-04:00

If I made a list of "favorite things" like Oprah, time lapse videos would definitely make the cut. This one of the aurora borealis is beautiful, and can be found here on YouTube. Dear Nature: you done good.

SkyMall

2009-03-23T20:44:00.000-04:00

I have returned from a brief blogging hiatus, during which I spent four days without a computer (*gasp*) lying on the beach by the Gulf of Mexico. On the plane ride there...

...I had the pleasure of perusing the SkyMall catalog. Browsing SkyMall has always been one of my favorite flight-travel activities. Every time I look at that magazine, I am just as entertained as I was when I saw it for the first time. The content hasn't changed much since I first looked at SkyMall. It is still a mishmash of the most superfluous gadgets and ridiculous knicknacks I have ever seen. I mean, let's be serious. Why on earth would you ever buy an enormous synthetic rock to hide your garden hose? Is a hose really that unsightly?

This flip through I was particularly impressed by one product that I haven't seen in the catalog before. "Jumpin Jammerz" are footed onesie pajamas-- for grown ups. Again, seriously? "In hard to find adult sizes!" the ad exclaims. Well, no kidding adult sizes are hard to find. In the words of the Trix cereal rabbit: footed onesies ARE FOR KIDS. The black with neon electric guitar print is pretty sweet looking, but I stopped wanting to wear those pajamas around age 6.

Does anyone actually spend money on this stuff? I always wonder. They must, or else SkyMall probably wouldn't be tucked into the seat pockets on every commercial jet. The stuff some people are willing to buy never ceases to amaze me.

100 x 100

2009-03-23T11:13:00.001-04:00

100-square-foot apartments in Hong Kong's oldest housing project, photographed by Michael Wolf.

Style Love: Nike Legends

2009-03-15T21:59:00.004-04:00

These Nike Legends are my newest footwear acquisition. I got them at Bodega, which is my favorite store in Boston. Bodega likes to pretend it is really counterculture and underground; it even has a false storefront (that appears to be a seedy bodega, naturally!). Even if everyone knows about it these days, Bodega always have limited runs of really sweet kicks which means it is still the go-to place to get unique sneakers. I'm pretty confident I'm not going to be running into any other girls wearing these babies any time soon. My uniform so far this spring has been black leggings, a dark tunic top, white denim jacket, gold earrings, a clay colored Marc by Marc Jacobs hobo and these gold Nike Legends! It meets all of my requirements: cute, comfortable, and NOT jeans-and-a-black-top.