Damn Spiffy!

New Professional-type website!

2010-08-10T22:38:00.000-07:00

So it should come as no surprise to anyone that I tend to do a bit of makeup work on the side (the side of what? Maybe the side of mixed veggies) anyway, I've recently finished publishing my portfolio, in as professional a manner as I was able (to do cheaply).

Take a look, if you are so inclined!

Annie's Film/Theater portfolio

Annie buys lotsa music

2010-08-07T13:08:00.001-07:00

Cheers and Hello!
Back in Wilmington for the weekend, just in time for the 6th Anniversary of Gravity Records!
%%%'s off for everyone!

I've been leering seductively at this CD for a while....last time I got OnWard Soldiers instead, so I was happy to pick this one up on the cheap!

In which Annie&Dani take NYC...and later, sing the bad decision song.

2010-02-24T15:13:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year from Annie, Femi, Goone, and RANDOM DUDE!

Proof that "Yes, Lynn, you were really that drunk."

More proof. Plus, Alex's really hipster-tastic shirt.

Letz Danz

The Incredibly Hip Hipster Party
(thanks, Alex, for letting us hit on all your friends!)

Then we all started kissing each other....with but 1/4 of the handle to go...

This was when Dani went missing for an hour.

We were singing...something. Anyway everyone on the subway thought we were drunk.
We were.

So drunk that Annie&Dani decided to put makeup on, and it was The Hardest Thing Ever.
The handle is halfway gone.....

Hugs!

And drugs! My drug of choice: Sexy Brits named Femi! Ow ow ow!

So how about Dani and I spend the whole bus ride into NYC arguing about how they are going to make 2010 into sunglasses.....

And then, lo and behold, Kat and Femi have some! A drunken photoshoot commences.

Dani holds the fridge, because the fridge is holding our vodka and we are all interconnected like all the dumb shit in Avatar.
This is the point where we started the handle.

This says, allegedly, 2010.

An Annie&Dani win!

Unfortunately, there are no equally-fabulous pictures of the morning-after, where Fred and I had a cuddle "only for survival, okay? a survival-cuddle," I get lost in the subway system, and Dani and I finally get breakfast and I DONT FINISH chocolate chip pancakes.
Still, however, an exceptionally successful evening!

We love you, NY townies!
With special thanks to our guest stars/gracious hosts/social directors
Lynn
and
Alex!

2010-01-11T10:28:00.000-08:00

I recently remembered (realized?) that my antics on New Year's Eve in Alphabet City were not only witnessed by Kat, but also documented in the form of photographs (and possibly video).

I'm a bit worried.

2010-01-10T10:21:00.000-08:00

Photo is largely unrelated to post, but nonetheless representitive of my return trip to ILM in general.

Someone else driving a lovely, clean car, willing to stop for lunch and singing along to songs with me was a 1000% improvement from a sketchy greyhound trip full of strangers eating boiled peanuts (Dear God, WHY???) far, far too close to me.

But am now back in my apartment, enjoying my fairly-lax final semester of undergrad.

E-GAD!

Kathleen's surprise welcome-back party was last night, and was carried off with a drunken aplomb typical of our peer group.

Aka, everyone argued about arrangements over-the-phone with me until I gave up, called The Orchestrator Of The Event (Maddy) and told her to please fix it.

Then Amy and I proceded to get a little drunk and tried really incredibly disproportionately hard to understand Friday's episode of Dollhouse.

We failed.

But then:

We partied.

And the party was a success. Which, in the long run, was more important, wasn't it?

Sleepy Hollow Photo Shoot.

2010-01-02T18:14:00.000-08:00

here is a town, two days journey to the north in the hudson highlands

it is a place called sleepy hollow. have you heard of it?

three persons have been murdered there, all within a fortnight. each one found with the head lopped off.

lopped off?

you will take these experimentations of yours to sleepy hollow, and there you will detect the murderer.

bring him here to face our good justice. will you do this?

remember, it is you, ichabod crane, who is now put to the test.

Annie:
Blue Chiffon Dress: Rodarte for Target
Navy Peacoat- Vint Talbots
Tights- Target
Thigh-High Boots-Chinese Laundry
White Fascinator-Antique Mall, Nyak, NJ
Sunglasses-H&M
Earrings & Ring-Equadorian silversmith vaguely related to one of mum's friends

Dani:
Green Silk Dress: Antropologie
Brown Leather Jacket: Vint Evan Picone
Lace up Mocs: Minnetonka

2009-07-14T21:04:00.001-07:00

The lovely Natalia made this art...not me. Too lazy.

Boys and girls, here’s the thing about me and the outdoors.
We don’t really get along.
I’m pretty high maintenance, my max amount of outdoor time consists of a run in the woods behind my apartment (rarely), drinking on the beach at night (more frequently) or reading in parks with large hats on (most frequently).

So when it came time to plan my summer, my first thought was not;
“Lets climb a mountain, go camping for four days, run back and forth in the mud, mosh, sleep outside in the blistering sun, sleep in a car full of ants, eat only powdered doughnuts and peanut butter, and finally mostly-hitchike home from South Carolina.”

And yet, dear readers, all these things DID happen;
All these things AND MORE! At the brilliant and fabulous BONNAROO!!!

This week: Bonnaroo posts!!!!

Film Stock

2009-07-09T05:48:00.000-07:00

So I know that I've been promising Bonnaroo posts for about a month now.....
Promises, promises.
I'm like that boy that never calls....
Instead, here is the most awe-inspiring thing I've seen all week.....a Gaultier couture gown
made of film strips.

Have you ever tried to sew film strips??
It's freaking impossible.
So it's decided then, when I am impossibly wealthy and up for an Emmy or Oscar (or even a Razzie) I will wear this dress to the ceremony. I will be criticized for being "too literal," but I will flick them off, then go do shots with my celebrity friends.

2009-06-29T23:24:00.000-07:00

The exhaustive Bonnaroo post is coming soon, I promise!

Fun Things: Effy's makeup from Skins series three

2009-06-06T00:06:00.000-07:00

So I've been watching Skins lately.
A LOT of Skins. Skins is a filthy filthy filthy British series (airing on Channel 4) that chronicles the lives of a group of drug-abusing, skull-bashing, smoking-drinking-backstabbing teens. It is MADE of awesome.
Anyway;
Like every night from 2am-6am.
Anyway.....I've been realizing slowly that Effy (actress Kaya Scodelario) and I have very similar eyebrows.

Kinda bushy, but tapered, and much darker than the rest of our hair. Anyway, from great opportunity springs creativity, so I decided to do more makeup experimenting. Yay!

Effy wears a really dark, arched smokey eye:

Which I then attempted, altering it slightly with the addition of some liquid liner. It's a crutch, I know it.

Sources:
Arched ECOTOOLS bamboo brush
Estee Lauder eyeshadows in 45 (Mink) and 33 (Silver Ball)
Urban Decay liquid liner in Perversion.

I think it's pretty cute. Def for man-eating club nights, I thinks.

Fun Things: Cheating Cheekbones with Black and White Photography

2009-06-04T15:30:00.000-07:00

I can't remember who I was discussing this with, but this is how I cheat with makeup, and give myself higher cheekbones in b&w and color photography.

I normally look like this:

It's about as cheek-boney as I can appear without fancy-schmancy SFX makeup.

Classy? Classy? Classy?

Trampy trampy trampy!

As you can see, the B&W makeup looks heavy and trampy in color (actually I was trying to look more like Theda Bara, but failed) and the color makeup barely shows up in the B&W photos.

Plus, me with a (fake!) gun. Ohh...badass!

Freaky Bohemians

2009-05-21T00:42:00.000-07:00

I haven't really dressed *cough* bohemian since high school, but it's hot and I'm lazy and I can't wear cardigans as shirts anymore.
Damn you, North Cah-lina weather!

Moving-back-in costume.

Sources:
Wilmington: Cotton skirt ($15, F21)
Jacksonville: Vintage Native American costume belt ($0, Dad's boy scout stash), Blousy teal top ($20, Marshalls), Leather-and-cork wedges ($15? So old that the labels have fallen off and I can't remember purchasing them)

Ten Day Vay-cay

2009-05-20T00:31:00.000-07:00

I'm so sorry, my darlings.
I've been a terrible terrible lazy blogger, but honestly, do you really want pictures of me lounging about my apartment reading crappy 70s mystery novels, filling out job applications, or eating popsicles?

Anyway, here's a few pictures from a challenge Dahling posted on TheFedoraLounge.org;

Female James Dean:

Sources:
Wilmington:
Thrifted Gap Jeans ($15, Plato's Closet), Thrifted 30-hole Doc Martins ($30, Flashbax), Nine West sunglasses ($10, Ross), Dropkick Murphys tee worn backwards (free, inherited from Tinks)
London:
Faux-leather motorcycle jacket (about $20, high-street knockoff store)

Hopefully, as I begin leaving the apartment more to go on such exciting errands as:
-Meeting with my Bonnaroo carpool
-Registering with millions of temp agencies
-Daily pilgrimages to the library to write my Fetish or Feminist paper on Russ Meyer.
......I will begin dressing in more exciting outfits. Perhaps with sequins.

Cheers,
A.

Backyard photo shoot

2009-05-08T17:42:00.000-07:00

Vintage belt and shoes, Dress from Target. Cheeszyy poses from watching ANTM.

More red. More work photos. Repetition and Variation.

2009-05-07T14:03:00.000-07:00

A bit housemaid-y today, what with the red red lips and headscarf, but
A. I was feeling a bit glum. Glum feelings=red lipstick. Hurrah, emotional placebos!
B. I had exam hair. Meaning it was getting generally a bit tangly and dirty and root-y.
Repro 30's sillouette dress ($20), vintage red belt ($1), red wooden-heeled mary janes ($25), Cinnibar bangles (same as yesterday), Oscar de Larenta for Accessory Street scarf (vintage, $1), fake pearl studs.

Mucking around with ancient vaccum. My glamorous life.

These pictures are not too cute today. Oh well. Prop almost-vintage (mostly just old) vaccum cleaner courtesy of my beloved workplace.

Red Stuff/More Stealthy work pictures

2009-05-06T17:41:00.000-07:00

Some more great pictures of what is stored behind my desk. This whole-outfit shot is a clearer than last week's, but still kinda crappy. Some day (in the distant future) I will reassemble my tripod and take these pictures properly.

Cotton hostess gown ($12), Cinnibar bangles (vintage, Hong Kong), Seed necklace (vintage). Rainbows, as my feet are angry with me right now.

I'm a bit sad, as this is the second-to-last day of my school job, and everyone that I knew who lived in the International student dorm is leaving and clearing out their rooms. I'm going home for the weekend, to stock up on much needed groceries (I've been eating puloined doughnuts for every meal for two days now. Gross) and for Mother's Day.
Monday, the greatly dreaded job hunt commmences.

I hate hate hate finals

2009-05-04T04:41:00.000-07:00

I'm spiraling that disgusting phase where all I've eaten for the past 3 days is orange food, I keep wearing the same raggety sweater everywhere (for comfort!), and I'm chugging gallons of gasoline-strength Box-o-Joe.

Hurrah! It's finals week!
I will try to survive and post once all the hullabaloo has dies down.

In the meanwhile, here is a picture of me stress-eating Flintstone's Chewable Children's Multi-Vitamins.

Incredibly sneaky work pictures

2009-05-02T17:45:00.000-07:00

Black pencil skirt, raffia strappy wedges, men's vest, liz claiborne button-up, straw fedora.

Unfortunately underexposed, I'm keeping one eye out for my bosses, as I'm supposed to be sitting in that chair and watching the front doors. I promise it's a cute outfit, I'll probably wear it again next week with the newly purchased (gasp) skinny jeans, like I did for part of today.

Book Sale Haul

2009-05-01T15:51:00.000-07:00

Liz Claiborne button-up ($10), frankenstiened green dress (maybe $12?), cruddy woven flats.

The book I'm reading is a biography of Russ Meyer titled Big Bosoms and Square Jaws.

My giant stack of autobiographies from the Public Library book sale. I finally found a copy of Me by Katherine Hepburn (for fifty cents!), and most importantly, The Movies, Mr Griffith, and Me by Lillian Gish (I have been looking for this for ages).
The best part is, this isn't even my whole stack, I also ended up with some lovely trashy 80's mysteries, an etiquette book, some feminist media books, and a record of classical compositions inspired by Edgar Allen Poe. Total cost: $16.

The Ubiquitous 5am Beach Quest.

2009-04-30T15:46:00.000-07:00

Decent pictures for being awake for about three days.

2009-04-29T15:39:00.001-07:00

I know I've been bad, but this week has been ridiculous!
In the next few days, I'll be posting outfit shots again, some photos from an awesome sunrise trip to the beach, and my derby outfit-in-progress.

In apology, I have posted my answer to the design-your-own-album-cover thing that's floating around facebook.

Bollywood Cookout

2009-04-25T01:31:00.000-07:00

Black and gold hippie dress, Slumdog scarf, cruddy rainbows.

This dress is a bit tent-y, but pretty much perfect for an outdoor picnic with my film-nerd friends (we discussed Mars Attacks v. Independence Day for quite a while), and later a screening of Rab ne Bana di Jodi at the on-campus theatre.
Pros:
-amazing pasta salad-from-a-box
-completed Derby costume
-Bananna pudding! zomg amazing and wonderful
-SRK dancing and being all adorable and muscle-y
-pre-24-movie-marathon planning with cute boys!
-Kara and I being dorks and flipping out at Dhoom 2 music

Cons:
-it is getting ridiculously hot.
-tent-y dress makes me look sorta fat
-wearing icky sandals again

More Complicated than I thought.

2009-04-22T23:10:00.000-07:00

Following a pleasant evening of snarking at Disney's Earth, then a not-so pleasant few hours at the Library, I immediately de-frocked to shower. Being the lasy SOB that I am, I tried to construct my outfit w/ Google image. Turned out it probably would have taken LESS time to just take the damn picture.

Ralph Lauren tshirt (black, $1), no-name pencil skirt ($10), Nine West flats (purple, $20), Slumdog scarf (yellow, $9). Black and burnt sienna gladiator bracelet (mom's vintage), witch-y Avon ring ($6).

There we go. That wasn't too bad. A pretty cheap outfit!
Tomorrow: I own a white tshirt. Maybe. This shouldn't be too hard....

Deepest Regrets from the Super-Glam Study Room.

2009-04-21T23:17:00.000-07:00

Laziest outfit ever: Betsy Johnson sunglasses, Bill Blass high-waist jeans, Slumdog rip-off scarf, safari button-down, "set" (aka fake blood + paint-covered) Rainbow sandals.

I am sorry to say that this experiment is kind of floundering. I was going to just skip today (again) since I had changed out of my cute classroom ensemble and into clothes that were supposed to be "non-distracting." I figured, however, it was a worthy outfit to document because I am wearing jeans.

My mom totally called me out on this scarf: "Who do you think you are, Frieda Pinto?"

Every time I wear these pants, I am met with exclamations of "OH MY GOD! You're wearing jeans?? I didn't know you owned jeans!"

So, I'm not wearing socks. That's how pale my feet are. Gross.

So, in conclusion; a day jam-packed with:
-Costume Tech classes,
-lab,
-dashing to the Film building to watch some dailies for the stuff I worked on this weekend, -my last Women in Film class (my fave professor is leaving for Barcelona!),
-an hour at the pool planning a Kentucky Derby party,
-attending a dress rehearsal for Our American Cousin
-and now I'm in the study room, trying to finish this damn Photography Portfolio so I can shower and sleep.

Hope your day is going better than mine!
Cheers!

Lazy outfit.

2009-04-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

Knockoff antropologie dress, vintage green cardigan, vintage belt, Harold Lloyd locket, Target loafers.

Wore the dress to a student film set today, where I did makeup ("Morgan Freemanesque" was the request) and then helped manipulate some fake vomit. Good day!
Added the cardi and new shoes for my work scheduling meeting tonight.

This was a pretty damn lazy outfit.

Outfit Post

2009-04-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

Cheap-o green satin wiggle dress, fishnets, superhero boots. A great smoky bar/club outfit.

Sadly, my evening out was aborted after all this effort. I guess that means the UK boys owe me a drink.Uu

2009-04-17T20:05:00.000-07:00

So, it should come as no surprise that I own a LOT of costumes. I'm going to start doing an outfit-of-the-day post, inspired by those fabulous people at Fedora Lounge. Here's (the end of) today's:

Cotton tourist Kimono (men's), Nikko teacup and saucer, 14K repro-retro earrings, Deco ruby engagement ring.

Weirdo Inspirations (lately)
-Navy and White
-Victorian "Japanese" decorating
-Pictures from the building of the Biltmore Estate in Ashville
-Patterns (really, I hate patterns normally)
-Helen, the bitchin Bollywood dancer

For Robert in Kiwiland: AZALERS!

2009-04-13T16:52:00.000-07:00

Anyway, a few weeks ago we had that stupid spring festival thingy where thousands (hyperbole) of tourists flood downtown and we all have to start paying for parking again, because all of the secret parking lots are roped off.

This is for Robert, as I don't think they have azaleas in New Zeland.

Eastertime Photogs

2009-04-12T16:30:00.001-07:00

These little kids were great, just running around, raising hell, chasing bees, eating too much candy.

"You're wearing khakis! Get off the grass!"

The crazy fantastical part of my brain insists that they are looking at some kind of portal to another world. Maybe one where they can have Easter candy all the time.

I hate gekos and lizards and thanks to the magic of telephoto lenses, I didn't have to go anywhere near this nasty guy.

I like taking pictures of myself in shiny things. It's a character flaw.

Depression glass. I wants it.

Awww. Tinks is a grown-up lumberjack dude.

Tinks, shave! Please!

Aaand, my final assignment for Photog class; COMPLETE!

In the Library

2009-03-25T17:20:00.000-07:00

I have about 15 windows open. I'm writing one...two...five...essays for my Women in Film (Feminazi) class, trying to find a mentor in my department for my Honors project, buying Bonnaroo tickets, and trying to figure out if I'm moving to a new apartment or not.

My brain needs a nap. In a bucket full of ice.

I'm also covered in bruises from Rocky Horror. Somehow, I always ended up at the bottom of the pool....and have a bruised (poss broken) middle finger, high-heel marks all over the tops of my feet, swollen toes from running in heels, horrible looking-bruises all over my back and ass, and scratches from my floor show outfit.

It was still the most fun I've had all semester. We're going to Raleigh to do it for real in April.

Cheers.

Cards For Awesome, Cards for Shame

2009-03-17T03:04:00.000-07:00

Hello children!

I am, in fact, not dead yet. This is what I've been doing;

Intensely preparing (with choreography, costuming, overcoming my fears of public semi-nudity) for my role as Janet in my uni's Second Annual Showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show. So that means some of my closest male friends have been dressing up in high heels and tiny underwear, and have been chasing me around our auditorium every night for the past week.

That's not me in the picture, by the way.
That is though. Note new techicolor dreamcoat hair.

End Credits=Made of Win

2009-02-10T18:30:00.000-08:00

Survey Survey Survey

2009-02-05T18:26:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I've been awake since noon YESTERDAY, I'll be at work for four more hours and I am BORED OUT OF MY GOURD. So--> survey time!

I give you money and send you into the grocery store to pick up 5 items.
You can only pick one thing from the following departments... what is it?
1. Produce - Bags and bags of oranges. Then I will eat 4 a day until I am really sick.
2. Bakery -Sourdough loaf. For awesome grilled cheese!
3. Meat -Well, my roomates seem to hate it when I buy roasted chickens and then pull them apart in front of them. So that.
4. Frozen -Girl Scout Cookies.
5. Dry goods -Diet Coke.

If I was to listen in on one of your conversations throughout the day,
what 5 phrases or words would I be most likely to hear?
1. "Bish!"
2. "I better get a Diet Coke soon, or someone is gonna die!"
3. "Dude, I didn't go to bed last night!"
4. "What's your damage"

So, what 3 things do you find yourself doing every single day,
and if you didn't get to do, you'd probably be in a pretty irritable/bad mood?
1. Diet Coke
2. Watch Doctor Who
3. Wear a dress/inappropriate shoes

What are 3 things that you have in your room that
have been with you for the longest amount of time?
1. The three obis that are hanging on my wall by my bed were decorations in our house in Oki, so that's.....17 or 18 years old
2. Windchimes that were purchased in elementary school
3. The sewing machine was my mom's first, and she got that when my parents got married, so....about 25 years (yes, older than me)

If you were only allowed to listen to 5 of your CDs for the rest of your life,
never adding anything else, which 5 could you listen to & be content with?
1. My 7-year-old mix cd of The Postal Service. The one Tim stole.
2. Radiohead/Hail to the Thief
3. Air/Moon Safari
4. Darjeeling Limited Soundtrack
5. Ryan Adams/Gold (not for it's marketability, but due to the highest ratio of # of songs to # of songs that are fucking AWESOME)

You're driving down the road, and suddenly you're hit with this
sense of road rage. What 3 factors probably contributed to it?
1. My radio is not tuned to NPR
2. Someone is driving 5mph and ASKING me to yell at them
3. We are listening to Rob Zombie or Bollywood music (True Story)

Sweet, you just scored a whole afternoon to yourself. We're talking a 3
hour block with nobody around. What 5 activities might we find you doing?
1. Sleeping
2. Going to thrift stores
3. Watching Doctor Who
4. Baking something/making a mess
5. moving the piles of clothing on my floor to other places on my floor.

We're going to the zoo. But, it looks like it could start storming,
so it'll have to be a quick visit. What 3 exhibits do we have to get to?
1. OHMYGODfoxes!!!
2. Sharks
3. That little coin-stamper thing. YOU KNOW they have one.

You just scored tickets to the taping of any show of your choice.
You can pick between 5, so what are you deciding between?
1. 30 Rock
2. How I Met Your Mother (to hang with my gay husband NPH)
3. Doctor Who ~and~ use the time travel to visit 1997 and see
4. Buffy (the first season. The one with the really bad clothes. Which I will mock)
5. Gossip Girl (because I am secretly tacky like that. Also, their costume designer seems AWESOME and like someone who needs to be my new best friend/second gay husband)

You're hungry for ice cream. I'll give you a triple dipper ice cream cone.
What 3 flavors can I pile on for ya?
1. Mint Chocolate Chip
2. Cherry
3. Orange Sherbert (this is going to be gross)

Somebody stole your purse/wallet and in order to get it back, you have
to name 5 things you know are inside to claim it. So, what's in there?
1. Red lipstick. Like FIVE of them.
2. Many pairs of gloves
3. A pair of flats
4. cruddy phone
5. Wallet full of id cards to EVERYTHING.

You are at a job fair, and asked what areas you are interested in
pursuing a career in. Let's pretend you have every talent and ability to be
whatever you wanted, so what 4 careers would be fun for you?
1. Haitian Voudoun Priestess
2. Mutant Enemy script toady
3. SFX/Gun Wrangling master badass (or a bounty hunter)
4. The person who makes the disguises in Mission:Impossible (before they were replaced by machines)

If you could go back and talk to the old you, when you were in high school
and inform yourself of 5 things you should know, what would they be?
1. Dude? That thing where you think that covering all your clothes with paint is cute? It ISN'T.
2. Get your driver's license so you don't have to flirt with boys to get rides home!!
3. Dying your hair? NOT A BIG DEAL!
4. Although the long blonde hair thing=Hot.
5. Seriously Annie? Car Jousting? THAT WAS A DUMB PLAN!!

Womanizer (I promise, it's better than it sounds)

2009-01-20T22:56:00.000-08:00

So, it turns out that Womanizer (yes, my dears, as warbled by the the multi-wigged, writhing nudist Britney Spears) is surprisingly good when covered acoustically.

*runs and hides*

Dear Gaspard Ulliel,

2009-01-15T22:44:00.000-08:00

Pleas stop being so attractive. Really. It would make my day a lot easier if your super-adorable floppy hair;

and your dimples,
and your amazing cheekbones,
would stop popping up on my parent's television and distracting me while I'm supposed to be doing important, scholarly activities. Such as purchasing textbooks. Or, you know, painting my nails. I would greatly appreciate it if you could do something to address this problem. Like maybe get an eyepatch, or grow scary facial hair.

Cordially,

Look what came in the mail!!

2009-01-07T21:23:00.000-08:00

Annie's Enormous List of January Tasks

2008-12-30T22:34:00.000-08:00

Wow...that's a really bland title. Whatever

To Do;

-retrieve bike from across campus (hopefully it has not been captured by campus police)

-purchase new lock and chain (functional)

-fix gear chain on beach cruiser (no more greaser neighbors to help :(

-purchase textbooks!!!

-send old laptop in for fix

-buy a strobe light for Kathleen's birthday (and cupcakes??)

-pick up fauxgagement ring from jewelers.

-Thankyoucards!

-deposit checks

-Meet with honors advisor re: qualifications for project

-switch out ipod boomboxes

-Laundry!!

-purchase ironing board

-make schedule for grad school visits.

Gah! I can't be that productive!

I know, I'll watch Roswell in the middle of the night, instead.

Yes, much better plan.

Today I'm watching...

2008-12-25T09:36:00.000-08:00

Because I'm kind of burned out on Christmas-themed movie-musicals and specials. Also because I decided to select my viewing material based on the geekiest stuff I could find.

Happy Hols!

Guess What I'm Watching....

2008-12-24T09:34:00.000-08:00

Loves it.

Reshoots, Honors Projects, Final Projects, Never Sleeping.

2008-11-18T19:38:00.000-08:00

The lady at the MAC counter petted my hair today. I was displeased.

Re-shoots for The Red Cape have begun.

God save us.

On the other hand, I've been picking Nelson's brain Re: Honors Projects and I'm pretty sure I know what I want to do:

Reactionary 3rd-wave feminist film with:

-explosions

-someone trying to explain negative behavior as a result of abuse, and the character hitting them

-someone being caught on fire

-fast, shiny cars

-girls robbing banks

-witty dialogue

Cheers, Mr. President.

2008-11-05T08:09:00.000-08:00

2008-11-02T00:34:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween from The Black Dahlia!!!

How Ironix

2008-10-24T12:57:00.001-07:00

That is all.

I bet Ayn Rand was a music snob....

2008-10-20T12:48:00.000-07:00

As a future defender of capitalism growing up in a Communist country, Alissa Rosenbaum probably felt this sense of isolation more acutely than most children. But she was particularly fierce in projecting it onto others. In taped interviews with Barbara Branden that would later appear in Branden’s book The Passion of Ayn Rand, Rand recalls feeling an acute protectiveness for anything she held dear. “This is my value, and anyone who shares it has to be extraordinary. I was extremely jealous – it was literal jealousy – of anyone who would pretend to like something I liked, if I didn’t like that person…. They have no right to admire it, they’re unworthy of it.”

See, I was right!!

Apparently, this involved deferring to her taste in music (she admired Rachmaninoff and Chopin and dismissed Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and Handel), art (Dali and Vermeer were acceptable, Rembrandt and French Impressionism verboten) and writing (she disliked Thomas Wolfe). Smoking, it appears, was mandatory.

2008-10-17T23:56:00.000-07:00

Vietnam:

World War One:
Dear Womankind, please don't be anyone's sexual blackmail today.

Dear Margo,

2008-10-15T23:54:00.000-07:00

Dear Margo Tenenbaum,

Can we please be best friends? I too, enjoy fur coats, secrets, eyeliner, and Luke Wilson. Maybe we can even secret smoke together and then write a play? Because that sounds fantastic.

Love,

Annie

"It's okay with me...."

2008-10-13T23:04:00.000-07:00

Note: A few members of the Fedora Lounge (fedoralounge.org) expressed some interest in this essay. To keep things simple, I just posted it here instead of sending it spewing off all over the internet. If you wish to read it, enjoy, and please ignore my shamefully vague descriptions of Marlowe's suit....

American Cinema (post 1960)

The Long Goodbye Style Analysis

October 2, 2008

In Robert Altman’s 1973 film The Long Goodbye, mis en scene, specifically the element of costuming, emphasizes the retrofitting of noir archetypes that Altman was parodying. The Long Goodbye was adapted from a titular1940s-era Raymond Chandler novel and updated to early 1970’s Los Angeles. Altman used this as an opportunity to comment on both the noir genre and the filmmaking society of LA as a whole. The costuming of four of the films characters, Phillip Marlowe, Eileen Wade, Rodger Wade, and Marty Augustine, reflect both their roots in the noir films of the 1940s and contain elements of satire that contribute to Altman’s vision of a hardboiled detective cast adrift in the moral abyss of the 1970s.

Phillip Marlowe is The Long Goodbye’s protagonist, a rumpled private investigator who takes his name from Chandler’s novels published in the 40’s (such as The Big Sleep). Marlowe sleepwalks through the film in a shabby, mismatched suit, a “goddamn J.C. Penny tie” and constantly scrapes matches against the sets to light his ever-present cigarettes. His costuming reinvents the sharp, pulled-together noir detective and introduces our protagonist as a slacker boy-man, mumbling his lines in a revamp of the standard mystery-tale narration. Marlowe is unable to function successfully in life; his friends use him (either for pot-brownie mix or for ‘aiding after the fact’), the PI business isn’t what it once was, and even his cat knows when Marlowe is lying. Marlowe is the film’s moral center; his unchanging suit and cigarette serve as comforting constants against the mercurial aliases, alliances and lies of the rest of the cast of characters. Marlowe’s costuming and automobile (a 1948 Lincoln Continental) are reminders of a time when morality was black and white; Marlowe’s trouble throughout the film is his inability to grasp the difference between his moral worldview and that of those around him. It is inconceivable for Marlowe that his friend Terry Lennox would use him to get the cops off his trail, or to set him up for murder. It is in this way that Altman draws attention to the differences between the Hollywood of the past and the Los Angeles of the present. Marlowe’s loyalty to his friends makes as little sense as his outdated suit to the contemporary policemen that arrest him; when they ask Marlowe where he comes from, he replies “a long time ago.”

Eileen Wade is unquestionably The Long Goodbye’s femme fatale. She employs Marlowe (Chandler’s novels rarely deviated in their loyalty to this element) and is eventually revealed as Terry Lennox’s duplicitous lover. Eileen’s wardrobe, however, completely satirizes that of a traditional femme fatale, she wears long, flowing cotton gowns in pastel colors, a far cry from the ultra-tailored ensembles of screen sirens of the 40s. Eileen Wade has adopted some hippie habits, perhaps believing that an artifice of naturalism will hide her web of lies from Marlowe. Her long, blonde hair is routinely down, hanging around her face, sometimes hiding her expression or, in the case of her initial meeting with Marlowe, bruises from her husband. The lone exception to this styling occurs in the scene where her husband, Rodger, questions Marlowe’s visit, implying that her sexuality is bound up with her hair, and now that her husband has returned, she cannot be as free with her affections as she was before. Eileen also compulsively eats dried apricots, echoing Marlowe’s cigarette habits, and totes around a huge, protective mastiff, again echoing Marlowe’s cat. Her thin veneer of control, over both her husband during his drunken rages, and her own emotions, dramatically shatter in the scene where Rodger Wade walks into the rough surf and drowns. Eileen’s immensely impractical cotton dress drags her down into the waves and it seems for a minute that she is about to give up too. A few scenes later, Eileen has recovered from her husband’s suicide, has sold their house, and is on her way to Mexico when Marlowe spots her on his way out of Marty Augustine’s apartment. She has retreated behind more typical femme fatale costuming stereotypes; a structured black-and-white suit and a sporty convertible. Marlowe finally encounters her in the final scene of the film, on a road leading to Terry Lennox’s Mexican hideout. She is again in a car, this time in a topless Jeep, and has reverted to her white, flowing dresses of earlier in the film, similar to what she was wearing at the death of her last paramour.

Rodger Wade is Eileen’s missing husband, and the initial impetus of Marlowe’s interaction with the Wades. When he first appears, in the Burbank Care Center he is clad in a belted, wrinkled white button-down with rolled sleeves, carrying a cane. He sports a grizzled beard that adds to his Hemingwayesque appearance, an impression that is underscored during his many alcohol-fueled rages throughout the film. In Chandler’s original novel, Wade wrote sword-and-sorcery novels, whereas in The Long Goodbye, he has been re-imagined as Hemingway, a kind of Great American Author, a scholarly type who has changed his name to up his book sales. Wade consistently appears in tweedy blazers, vests and fisherman’s caps, seemingly over the same pair of pants and shirt throughout the film, contributing to his characterization as an eccentric literary slob. One can almost imagine him passing out, waking up, throwing on a blazer, passing out, and waking up again in an endless cycle off screen. Wade’s costuming also emphasizes the age gap between himself and his wife. Wade is introduced in a hospital setting, too weak to notice that he is being taken advantage of. His main conflict is with his doctor, who, although smaller and weaker than Wade (who refers to Doctor Verringer as ‘albino mouse’ and ‘Peter Pan”) seems to control him in a way that hints at deeper problems than a struggle with alcohol. Finally, throughout The Long Goodbye, Wade carries a cane and is portrayed as physically and mentally weak. He is seemingly very aware of his age and how his jaded worldview contribute to his various weaknesses, he tells Marlowe “You don’t get to grow a face like mine unless you know a lot about men’s faces.”

Marty Augustine is the film’s archetypal gangster, played by Mark Rydell with a sort of hip aplomb that sporadically veers into psychotic, homicidal acts of violence. Augustine is first introduced in dialogue, as his thugs grab Marlowe on his way to pick up mail. Marlowe tells them he “only meets hoods by appointment” and Augustine turns to respond. Augustine steps out of the car and is revealed as a tiny Jewish gangster with a deceptively sweet voice and a feeling that “it’s Friday night, [I’m] supposed to be at Temple.” He wears a white polyester suit, an orange mock-turtleneck top, and shiny, white loafers, giving the impression that he was interrupted in the middle of a date with his girl. Augustine later counters this sweet persona by spontaneously attacking his girlfriend with a Coke bottle across the face. Augustine retains this bizarre dual personality later in the film, when Marlowe visits his office in an attempt to extricate himself from Lennox’s unfinished business. Augustine explains to Marlowe that the most sincere apologies are made completely nude, and proceeds to strip off his maroon checkered shirt and matching pants. His pan ethnic thug squad strip off as well, Harry (a young Arnold Swartzenegger), Pepe (clad in Mexican garb straight out of Central Casting) , Vince (who wears a large gold cross, in imitation of Marty’s Star of David necklace), and Jack, who has been dressing similar to Marlowe for most of the film. The whole scene reads like some kind of a peculiar Village People reunion tour until Augustine spots the five thousand dollar bill that Lennox sent Marlowe and Augustine orders one of his thugs to castrate him. Almost as suddenly, Augustine is distracted again and leaves Marlowe alone with his girlfriend. Marty Augustine even returns Marlowe’s money, as a reward for telling the truth. His character is played against noir type, Augustine is Jewish and short, and his scenes are played as a discomforting mix of comedy and horror. Augustine himself seems aware of his self-referentiality. When Augustine asks Marlow “What’s that supposed to be, some kind of smart remark?” and Marlow replies with a “Didn’t we do this before?” their conversation is not only referring to one that took place earlier that in the film, but also to the kind of wise-guy banter typical of the mystery-underworld movies.

The Long Goodbye stands today as the first in a string of 1970s neo-noirs, stylish reincarnations of classic Hollywood mystery tropes. These neo-noirs were critically lauded precisely because of their dissimilarly to the classics of the genre. The Long Goodbye in particular was celebrated as a critical comeback for Altman. The film’s sophisticated noir revamps and its sly Hollywood satire have earned The Long Goodbye a place in the lexicon of classic American cinema.

Huge Entertainment post

2008-10-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

In the past week I've watched;

The Thing

Factory Girl

Hannibal Rising

Amelie

10+ episodes of Degrassi

Vertigo (3x, for paper)

Nazi propaganda videos (class)

a radical islamic documentary (came in the mail to my parents house???)

Heroes (going downhill)

Mad Men (Inheritance)

True Blood (2x this week)

raw footage for my editing class (Troll documentary)

Some Like It Hot

The Death of Marilyn Monroe (History International)

Doctor Who (Partners in Crime)

Project Runway (penultimate episode)

Annie and the Incredible Snake Woman

2008-10-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

*in an effort to be more productive on this blog (aka, refrain from 20-day posting vacations) I will now be instituting free-writing based on the million-trillion pictures that are cluttering up my computer.

When I was in eighth grade (or maybe seventh? One of those in-between grades), my class went to the State Fair. Now, you have to understand, there are County Fairs and then there is the State Fair. County Fairs have produce and maybe a few really large farm animals, and generally some pretty crappy rides that look as if they are about to hurl their passengers, screaming, into the stratosphere. State Fairs, however have one INCREDIBLY important advantage; geeks. Geeks in the carnival tradition, meaning people who can swallow swords, guess weight, tell fortunes, raise huge three-headed horses, explain to you about preserving alien corpses and, finally sometimes have snake tails where their legs should be.

So our chaperons let us loose from the stinky stinky activity buses (they smelled foul because we were smoking stage cigarettes and pretending to play poker) and set us free. Free to stuff our faces with elephant ears (actually a cinnamon-sugar confection, not a site for pachyderm infection) cotton candy, deep fried oreos. Liberated to purchase stupid souvenirs such as giant inflatable aliens, joke hats, and cheap pocket watches (and also pocket knives, which were confiscated on the ride back).

Heady on all this ridiculous freedom, I wandered off to look at a 'preserved alien corpse.' I became distracted questioning the entrepreneurial young man as to the origins of said corpse, and lost my group of friends. I hardly noticed they were gone, but apparently, they wandered the grounds for a good ten minutes, trying to find me, caterwauling at an increasingly embarrassing volume.

Meanwhile, I had wandered to the Snake-Woman's booth. She wasn't really doing anything, for the most part she looked exhausted and jaded at the hubbub around her. No one was at her stall, for the most part the whole corridor of oddities was abandoned. It was there that my friends found me, chatting with the Snake-Woman about, I'm pretty sure, the likelihood of the alien corpse I had visited being actually real.

Later my friends confided that they had assumed I'd been abducted by 'carnies.'

Lazy Bones, Lazy Post

2008-09-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

I was wearing a semi-routine (for me anyway) outfit of a 50's style shirtwaist dress, seamed stockings, and 2.5 inch heels yesterday. I went to my Lighting class dressed like this, assuming that we were having another 3 hour lecture and I (stupidly) refused to attend a 3 hour lecture in jeans and a t-shirt. So instead my professor springs a studio day on us, so I got to run around the pitch-black set in my heels and dress, sliding all over the place and trying to perform normal grip-type activities such as; climbing over things, opening heavy equipment with my feet, coiling cables, and hauling big stupid heavy metal stands.

It was pretty comical. I've learned my lesson. I will now wear my 20-hole Docs with my 50's dresses to class.

Joan is my idol

2008-09-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

I must own this tshirt and spread the love.

2008-09-08T14:02:00.000-07:00

Bees! Bees! Hark to your bees!

'Hide from your neighbours as much as you please

But all that has happened, to us you must tell,

Or else we will give you no honey to sell!

-The Bee Boy's Song, Rudyard Kipling.

So today in American Teen Lit Honors (I know, really slack, but it's my LAST HONORS BASIC STUDIES and therefore wonderful. Also, we watch a lot of movies) I saved a bee. It was flying all kamikaze around the room and people were swatting at it despite my yells of

"Don't kill it, bees are disappearing!!"

and then it landed on some freshman's head. And hung out there and crawled up and down her highlights while she slowly freaked out. I decided that I was going to be Annie: Bee Savior and grabbed our printed out-reading (on surfing culture) and coaxed the bee (with talking and everything) onto the paper and then let it free outside. I felt very virtuous and spent the rest of class daydreaming, since I had only done about half the reading.

So, the moral of the story is: Lessons learned by watching Doctor Who (aka, that bees are secretly aliens and that when they disappear it means that some deux-ex-machina villain is planning a reality bomb that will make everything in the universe degrade to dust, then atoms, then NOTHING.) are totally applicable to real life.

Also , I've always liked bees. They are cute and slightly mean, and therefore much easier to relate to than, for example, butterflies.

End Random Post.

Dr. Horrible covers

2008-09-07T13:59:00.000-07:00

These make me so, so happy. I love YouTube.

Tina Turner=God

2008-08-30T21:48:00.000-07:00

From jezebel.com

2008-08-29T15:55:00.000-07:00

I sang a lot of Tom Lehrer in middle school. I was a funny child.

I post a lot of videos. I could say it's because it's the first week of classes, but it's actually because I'm very lazy.

If My Life was a Musical....

2008-08-27T14:43:00.000-07:00

....It would actually probably be nothing like Repo! The Genetic Opera. It would be more like Cry-Baby crossbred with Once More With Feeling.

*oh the nerditude*

So the combination of Tony Head and bald Alexa Vega and dystopian organ-theftery make me really, ridiculously excited for this to arrive in Wilmy. I plan to wear my Rocky Horror outfit and be generally fabulous.

Happy Birthday, Communism!

2008-08-25T14:50:00.000-07:00

So, this weekend I went to Maddy's birthday party (Theme: Villains), dressed as Communism.

It was rad.

So happy birthday, Maddy (and me and Communism).

This is sadly, not my car. Person who lives in my apartment complex, I'm sorry, but your car matched my outfit and I had to take a picture.

2008-08-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to me,

and as my birthday present to myself, I'm taking the day off. All hail blogger's pre-posting function.

Other people born August 24:

Dave Chapelle, American comic (The Dave Chapelle Show)

Orson Scott Card, sci-fi author

Yasser Arafat, politico

Stephen Fry, British actor (Bones, V for Vendetta, Gosford Park, The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

Rupert Grint, British actor (various Harry Potters, Driving Lessons, Cherry Bomb)

Steve Guttenburg, American actor ( Veronica Mars, Cocoon, various Police Academies)

Jean Rhys, author (Wide Sargasso Sea)

Chad Michael Murray, American actor (One Tree Hill, House of Wax, Dawson's Creek)

Also:

-Eruption of Mount Vesuvius and destruction of Pompeii (79 AD)

-St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (1572)

-Calcutta, India is founded (1690)

-British troops invade Washington and burn the White House (1814)

-Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera (1891)

-Amelia Earhart makes first female solo flight across the US (1932)

-American Communist Party outlawed (1954)

Cheers!

Literally.

Annie

Superheros Spanking

2008-08-19T16:25:00.000-07:00

I realize that this is a random post. So?

2008-08-18T16:20:00.000-07:00

So I met my soul-mate on Move-in day.

But only in the sense that I want to borrow all his books.

Poem without Rhyme

2008-08-11T01:08:00.000-07:00

Am back in apartment,

but am living in

squalor whilst

organizing too many belongings

into too small a space.

Tomorrow,

bike ride in flirty dress

mail must come in

for they

sent an

angry

email.

Seriously, I am a terrible poet. Mostly I just wanted to hit the return key a lot this post.

2008-08-08T11:36:00.000-07:00

I know, I'm sorry!
I've been really lazy lately but between packing and getting my car in order I've been feeling very uninspired and generally wearing the same Richard Chai for Target dress every day. Witness my shame:

In other news: Quentin Tarentino has contacted Britney Spears about a role in his remake of Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill! While I am elated that he's remaking it, I want to die a little inside my soul. Cause, Britney? Well she was just plain terrible in Crossroads (yes, I saw it. Ashamedness) and they wrote the goddamn movie for her.

Why must they piss all over Russ Meyer's grave like this??

A Mind that Empty

2008-08-06T19:52:00.000-07:00

Plans for first night back in Apartment
-put on smoking jacket
-break out my Capn' Mo's
-Watch the entire first season of Pete and Pete.
-Enjoy the freedom to pass out, mostly naked, on my own couch at 4 AM without fear of parental repercussions.

So that's going to be my Sunday night. Perhaps I should obtain snacks as well.

2008-08-05T13:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Roomates,

What do you think about doing this to our awkward wall?

2008-08-03T21:19:00.000-07:00

Lazy day, spent sleeping late, finishing the last Twilight book (oh, the shame) and battling hoards of back-to-school shoppers at the MCX and grocery.

I ended up buying my portable hard drive for editing class, as well as a new fire wire cable (i keep losing mine). I also rummaged around in the clearance racks while my mom looked at scary dress pants.

I almost bought this cotton sundress, but was appalled to find that even with summer mark-downs and clearance, it was $75! For a cotton dress!

What I'm reading.

2008-08-01T08:55:00.000-07:00

So I'm being really lazy and copy-and-paste-ing from a message board again. I promise once I'm done with my job (tomorrow is my last day!!) I'll resume my amusing, wonderful entertaining blog posts. Or maybe just post all the little half-finished songs and to-do lists I've been writing at work all summer.

Summer of the Dragon, Elizabeth Peters

-A steal from my local library at 50 cents. My neighbor owns all of these and I'm terrified that she'll move away and I'll never be able to read them again. They are the perfect balance of mystery, fluff and randomness.

Survivor, Chuck Palahniuk
-This was the only book in my bag while I was at the doctor's this morning, so I gave it a shot, even though I'd been saving it for when I return to university. Damn you, Chuck! You sucked me back in and I've read half the book now!

Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife, Linda Berdoll
-A few days ago, in an effort to weed out my substantial used paperback collection, I picked up Wuthering Heights. I thought that maybe I'd grown into British post Napoleanic romance-y novels since the last time I tried them. I thought wrong. So I chose this instead. This is the ultimate porny sequel to Pride and Prejudice, and I recommend it highly (not just for the porn) but because it peels back the layers behind two of the most arguably famous characters in Western Lit. I actually read this instead of reading the assigned stuff from Pride and Prejudice in high school (I'm such a rebel).

Reasons I Prefer MDTaW to the Original:

A. Porn-y

B. Characters make mistakes (even the good ones!!)

C. Intriguing sub-plots (including a paternity mystery)

D. Exploration of reality vs 'true love'

E. Engaging use of language (for me, reading Austen is like trying to swim through a brick wall)

So I realize that my declaration of loathing for Pride and Prejudice may instigate some....unhappiness. Sorry in advance. Anyway, that's what I'm reading this week.

City that Care Forgot

2008-07-30T21:52:00.000-07:00

So lately I've been thinking of my perfect vacation (for either the spring break of my senior year or the summer before grad school).

I've decided to go to New Orleans.

I have this fantasy of finding the perfect male friend to go with; someone who will go out dancing all night to jazz clubs and raves, who will contribute to my loose change when I decided that we simply must have a cup of coffee before we turn in for the night.

Someone who will play along when we pretend to be newlyweds (to get good tables) or brother and sister in town for a wedding, or high school sweethearts.

I want to ride streetcars (they're still there, right?), roam about in dusty museums, sit in old crumbly churches, have long conversations in graveyards.

I want to see the new low-income housing, the musician's community, and I want to make sure that the French Quarter is still there. I want to do silly touristy things like vampire tours and carriage rides. I want pub crawls and to take long walks through unfamiliar neighborhoods.

I want to dress to the nines for ordinary occasions, I want to find a dance hall and share romantic slow dances with men that I will never see again. I want to smoke cigars on a balcony, to drink pitchers of sangria, and to take pictures in front of other people's houses.

I want to lie, I want to feel free to follow my every whim (assuming I don't run out of money), I want to be all the people that I might never get the chance to be.

In short, I need to get all my crazy, impulsive, irresponsible behavior out of the way before I have to buckle down and be a serious Graduate Student Pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts.

"Way down yonder in New Orleans/In the land of dreamy scenes/There's a garden of Eden/You know what I mean." -Louis Armstrong

So that's my dream vacation. Am I weird or what?

Mood: Scheme-y

Deschanel, Zooey

2008-07-26T21:04:00.000-07:00

My blog seems sad today

So here's some Zooey!

That feeling, you can only say what it is in French.

2008-07-24T19:41:00.000-07:00

Please feel free to ignore my somewhat pretentious blog title. Today is not about a Stephen King short story that mildly rips off a Twilight Zone episode (can we say SupaGeek?).

It is, instead, about the amazing outfit my friend J. wore to his pre-birthday party last weekend. It makes me happy.

Happy Birthday, J! Get ready for the photoshopped wedding picture of you and Zooey Deschanel. Or maybe a fan for your apartment.

Mood: J. is clearly Xander. Like whoa.

The Promised Vintage Haul

2008-07-23T19:36:00.000-07:00

Scarves: Prater's

Chair: Neighborhood Yard Sale

2008-07-22T19:17:00.000-07:00

.......tis far, far too hot to wear this now. It has sleeves and sleeves=Satan.......

I realize three posts in one day is excessive, but oh well.....

I also realize that I've been complaining about the heat all summer, but today the power company finally caught wise to the fact that it's too freaking hot out to do ANYTHING.
They illuminated their realization by a brown-out that covered half the city and shut off all the streetlights, etc. Unfortunately, I was at work, and unlike at college, power outages in an eye doctor's office are not a good excuse to try to drink your neighbors under the table. Instead we ushered the baffled octgenarians out of their exam rooms and into the lobby, where we gossiped until the power came back on.

I miss Dub.

After work I changed in my car......
I've never talked about my mild exhibitionist streak?
Well, I have to wear evil khakis to work. They are hot and uncomfortable and I have to IRON them. So, I rebelled by spending the least possible amount of money on them. My work khakis are wrinkled boy's cargos from Old Navy. Total cost: $11. Anyway, they are incredibly good at trapping heat and looking ugly (unless I'm in a proGeek mood), so everyday after work I change in my car, either into a sundress (mmm floaty) or into this week's outfit of a cruddy vintage green cotton skirt and a supa-clearenced shirt from Gap. I am then free to roll down my windows, twist up my hair, put on some lipstick and enjoy my 17 hours until next shift.

So after work I went to the used bookstore (the only good one in town) and traded in $96 in crummy paperbacks. Store credit is magic.

Mood: Evil David Bowie

2008-07-22T17:50:00.001-07:00

OHMYGOD!

Like, Valley Girl, Ohmigod!

I Spy, Thrift Eye just put me on her blogroll, under Daddy Likey!!

Well, this is exciting to me, anyway.

2008-07-22T16:13:00.000-07:00

So, I've been a terriblebad blogger. I's so sorry!

In apology, I offer this: Natalie Portman's boyfriend doing a suprisingly good Bollywood music video.
The film nerd in me sees hints of Jai Santoshi Ma, Guide and Mughal-e-Azaam.

Sidenote: I like when Hindustaini pet names translate strangely into English.

Stay cool, Sodapop.

2008-07-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

So.....I've been a really really neglectful blogger. If this blog was a plant it would be seriously dead by now.
It's not my fault.....I had a crazy busy weekend;

-insane pre-birthday party (for J) on Friday night
-then awakened at the crack of dawn to set up for yardsale Friday morn
-purchase of awesome Mad Men chair
-getting caught in rain twice whilst depositing items at Goodwill
-waffles on Sunday......yumm
-loads of Sunday naps to catch up and avoid thoughts of work on Monday.

I did take pictures though! pictures will be here soon!

Watching:
Veronica Mars; Disc One, Season One (must return to Netflix)
Spaced (with Simon Pegg): Episode 4, Season One
Mad Men: Episode 5, Season One
The Middleman: Episode 5, Season One
All of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (on YouTube now)

Reading:
Belle Du Jour: The Secret Diary of an Unlikely Call Girl (still)

Excuse the Fangirl

2008-07-17T21:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, this may only be exciting to me....

But the Watchmen trailer has finally been released and it looks a-fucking-mazing.

2008-07-16T23:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm being a bit lazy and posting some reviews I wrote on the Fedora Lounge message board over the weekend. So sue me. (Actually, please don't. I spent the last of my money on pretzels today)

Finished:
Choke-Chuck Palahniuk
.......a little disjointed. After finishing, I took a look at the trailer for the upcoming film, and I have no idea how all of the tangents on sex addiction and stealing rocks and artificial insemination with religious relics will somehow come together to make one coherent story.

Snuff-Chuck Palahniuk
.......I actually really, really liked this. One of the hardest things (for me) to defend about Palaniuk is that he's a bit of a misogynist. Since I'm a female reader, it's sometimes refreshing to tap into such a bitingly alien perspective. The concept of the novel itself was interesting, even if the ending lacked the somewhat trademark 'twist' that can be usually found in his books. Snuff, however, is going to the top of my Chuck books because it is, in my opinion, a girl-power-masquerading-as-porn book. I simply do not have enough of those and I'm damn proud of Palahniuk for finally writing something with a strong female character.

Started:
The Monster of Florence-Douglas Preston and Maio Spezi
......about the most famous serial killer that almost no one has heard of. I picked this up because I love Preston's cheesecake techno-monster-disaster thrillers (I know, I know) he writes with Lincoln Child. It's beautifully written in a flowing narrative style that I've never seen in another true-crime book (I once slogged all the way through Portrait of a Killer to write an essay). I'm only about a hundred pages in, but the characterization is so elegantly drawn that I feel like I'm on top of all the twists and turns the case has taken.
Here's to hoping the ending's as good as the beginning.

Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow

2008-07-15T22:29:00.000-07:00

Yes, my dears. I titled my post with a Harry Potter quote.

Deal.

Today, I'm craving all sorts of yellow to clash with my hair. Delicious lemony shades to combat the evil blue/black polo and khakis that I must wear to work today. In my fantasy, I float about my house reading paperback mystery novels, drinking sweeter-than-sweet tea and arranging flowers in whiskey glasses. Perhaps this weekend, no?

Plug: The first photo, the one that started the obsession, is from Only Shallow's new ebay store, Tell Me A Story.

This is oddly hypnotizing.....

2008-07-15T19:28:00.001-07:00

OH no, oh no.

2008-07-14T22:20:00.000-07:00

A pox on stylish blogger superstars!

Because now I really really want to go back to Target and get this purse off the clearance rack. I do not need more accessories. Textbooks, Annie. You need textbooks.

2008-07-13T21:54:00.000-07:00

I recently watched the musical remake of Hairspray the other day while waiting for my little brother's x-ray results (long story). While it was entertaining (although I liked the stage musical better, and the John Waters original best), what it really did was make me nostalgic for the original Waters' musical; CryBaby......
-starring a 21 Jump Street era Johnny Depp
-starring Iggy Pop
-featuring Ricki Lake giving birth in a car
-and co-starring Traci Lords seducing a used car salesman
-and people throwing granny panties at a concert
-aaaaannnnddd.......Hatchet Face!!

Judge: By the way, that's a shame about your face.

Hatchet-Face: There's nothing the matter with my face! I got character!

Shboom

King Cry-Baby

Doin' Time for Being Young

Tear Drops are Fallin'

Please, Mr. Jailer

High School Hellcats

This is FILMMAKING, bitches!

Mood: Elated

2008-07-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

New blog header up, so until I can quit my mind-numbing job and run away to my city to take interesting, creative photos, I leave you with this one, from January.

Me and a mostly-roomate were out and about downtown (aka walking from an illegal parking space so we didn't have to find $$ for the parking garage) and we spotted a beautiful, wonderful coincidence. Someone had stupidly place the sign for their private investigator business on the first floor. I was wearing a fedora. Madness (aka an awkward photo shoot) followed.

The best part of this story is that the photographer and I made a detective movie together (I wrote and produced, she starred) our first year of university. Many a heart was warmed by our cheerful short film about foul-mouthed loan sharks, slacker detectives and mysterious women in my Carmen Sandiego Halloween costume.

So did anyone else notice....

2008-07-11T21:30:00.001-07:00

.....that it's been a pretty terrible week for magazine covers (see also: Go Fug Yourself)?

That being said, a tiny evil little part of me is excited for the Twilight movie, although this evil part of me was mostly squished when I saw the trailer. The special effects were just....meh. And as for the books....well, I'm pretty sex-crazed. I can only take so much weluveachothaOMG! at a time without SOME kind of action. Please, anyone. I'm sure if at least a secondary character was getting some, I'd be just fine with the books, and 100% on board to see Cedric Diggory be all un-dead (Maybe when Voldemort killed him he became a vampire?) and stalker-y.

And because Joss Whedon owns my soul (and my shriveled up little heart), I want my vampires chain-smoking, car-crashing, heavy-drinking and just a little bit....bad. I love me some "Oh!I love you/Oh! Your blood would be SO tasty" angst...but the Twilight vampires are so......vanilla (and now I've used S&M terminology on my blog. Yay). They are the cleanest-cut, most all-American vampires I've ever heard of. Can't one of them be a sex addict or something?

(Random side note: an ex-boyfriend of mine wore his belt all weird with the buckle to the side too. Fur-eaky.)
I have a daydream that I am Maggie Gyllenhaal. I'm pushing six feet tall, I wear fabulous high-waisted trousers, have an amazing resume and am married to Mr. Sexy Indie Star, Peter Sarsgaard. When I vacation with my cute and talented brother Jake and his girlfriend Reese Witherspoon, we go camping in a rustic lodge in New York, or to Italy, where we ignore the paparazzi and strut around being unique and creative and fabulous.

In this daydream, I am not wearing this makeup.

Mood: Critic-y

2008-07-10T22:21:00.001-07:00

Here's something I've always wanted to talk about, but never had the eloquence to say here:
A Weighty Issue

Dancing at work to:

Pot Kettle Black-Tilly and the Wall

Sally Cinnamon-Stone Roses

Fire in the Disco- Electric Six

Fucking hilarious

2008-07-09T19:51:00.001-07:00

Quick post-Pictures from set of The Red Cape

2008-07-07T05:38:00.000-07:00

2008-07-03T21:21:00.000-07:00

I realize this is weird, but I like that my self-tanner makes me smell like butter.

2008-07-02T21:12:00.000-07:00

Was released from work early today (SWEET!!!) so ran back to 2nd job (housesitting) and spent hours on etsy.com looking at other people's pretty pretty jewelry.

And this was my (lame) attempt at being creative. I still need to go to Michael's and buy jump rings and some more chains.

Reading: Fearless Fourteen, Choke
Listening:
CocoaRosie, Honey or Tar

Iggy and the Stooges, Sweet Sixteen

Mood: Satisfied

I'm Listening to...

2008-07-01T05:23:00.000-07:00

Black Francis-She Took All the Money

Girl in a Coma-Road to Home

The Last Shadow Puppets-Age of the Understatement

Ghost World

2008-06-28T19:26:00.000-07:00

Better (meaning actually me) picture of my hair

Today, I had an intensely productive day:

-Got locked out of neighbor's (I'm pet-sitting) house

-purchased a boar-bristle hair brush

-watched oodles of Dead Like Me.

-revamped a Sugar eye/lip palette to fit my MAC lipsticks

Step One:

Purchase cruddy Vegas Sugar makeup kit from Marshalls-$3.50

Step Two:

Pry out the little tins that people have stuck their fingers.

Step Three:

Scoop out the makeup goop and wash the little tins in very hot water. Wipe clean

Step Four:

Scrape lipsticks into little tins. I used Viva Glam 5 (an aubern-y red) and Ruby Woo (the perfect matte red)

Step Five:

Light a tea light candle. Place the tin full of lipstick onto a fork and melt over the flame.

When the lipstick is all smoothed out, it's finished.

Step Six:

Glue your tins back into the main case. Congratulate yourself on your craftiness.

Final Product:

The dark reds are the ones I did. I might replace all the glosses, because most of the time lip gloss just gets stuck in my hair.

Okay, so maybe not so productive

Mood: Accomplished.

True Blood

2008-06-27T22:49:00.000-07:00

I'm actually mad excited for HBO's new show, based on Charlene Harris' award-winning Southern Vampire series. Based on the cross-v-skin action in the trailer, it looks like this show might actually bring on the ick!

2008-06-26T19:00:00.001-07:00

Apparently, my university is partnering with Victoria's Secret to sell college-branded underwear.

I need to go throw up now.

Edit: But U of Minnesota is striking back!

I Miss Veronica Mars

2008-06-25T22:46:00.000-07:00

Montage of Deaths from Six Feet Under

2008-06-23T22:43:00.000-07:00

New Hair, etc

2008-06-22T20:43:00.000-07:00

I watched this today:

My new hair looks like this:

And I spent $90 on khakis at Old Navy for my new job that starts tomorrow. Kind of a dull day.

Mood: Grumpy

My love for you is real.....

2008-06-21T21:41:00.000-07:00

I am obsessed with this fictional singer-songwriter. Thank you, The N, for fufilling my need for both intense love triangles and SICK recording equipment in my tween-targeted television.

Also, I frequently sing to imaginary audiences in my kitchen, too.

I realize that my love for this show is cheezy and ridiculous...but it's summer, and I DONT CARE!!

Mood: evil, silly

2008-06-18T21:20:00.000-07:00

I've discovered that this is the only dress that has the 90+ degrees seal of approval.

-halter, so no sweat trapped on back

-seersucker, so light and wrinkle-proof

-white and gray, so it doesn't suck up sunlight like my black dresses

-A Line, so plenty of breeze on my legs

-cute and retro

-(knee-length) so I don't have to wear shorts and have people see my terrifing pale legs

I've already worn it 3 or 4 times since buying it a few weeks ago (running to the bank, on the airplane Rhode Island-to-NC, to the Arts By the Sea Festival) but I'm justifying it because it's such an obviously seasonal item that it will have to go back in storage in October. :(

My contact lens went a little crazy. Oh well.

I'm thinking of wearing it tomorrow, actually, and going for a stroll with my parasol and dogs.

2008-06-16T21:04:00.000-07:00

GAh!

I wore PANTS today.

Just as I recalled, it was crazy hot.

Will return to floaty dresses tomorrow.

Or maybe this:

It looks nice and floaty and comfortable.

Daria ipod

2008-06-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

It's so damn hot.

2008-06-10T21:42:00.000-07:00

How I long for the days when I could wear my knockoff anthropologie with tights.

It's ridiculously frikkin hot outside. Everytime I drive by the bank sign the temperature goes up....95....100....105.....and today 109!!! If my hometown were a human (go with me on this), their organs would be liquified.

Maybe.

I think.

So, I've been really lazy and wearing my sweat-proofiest outfits every time I step outside. I think I also might have to retire things like shoes that aren't flip flops and eyeliner.

This isn't me, but it is the dress that I've worn for 1.5 days in a row (yes, I'm gross. I'm also unemployed, so there)

I spent a lot of today on my couch watching Black Book, a Dutch film about WWII (Not to be confused with the Dakota Fanning/Brittany Murphy romantic comedy), and I've kinda sorta decided to dye my hair again :)

Expect a post about Black Book's awesome clothes when I can summon up enough energy to move in this heat.

itunes on shuffle....truffle shuffle....the ice cream I left in someone's fridge last weekend

2008-06-08T14:37:00.002-07:00

Here’s the game; (see how almost all my posts are list-type things. It’s because I was in Rhode Island for a wedding this week, and my computer access was limited at best. I'm back though, and there will be a more ambitious post this evening.)

1. Put your itunes, etc on shuffle.
2. List the first twenty songs that come up, no repeats
3. Explain. Gloat.

Okay:
1. Julie London-You Go to My Head→ part of the huge collection of Julie London that I downloaded after I watched V for Vendetta.
2. Howlin Wolf-Evil→ Freshman year, I decided to collect all the covers of “I put a spell on you” to make someone a Halloween cd, and that’s how I discovered Howlin Wolf. His version is almost better than Bette Midler’s in Hocus Pocus.
3. Yann Tiersen & Carla Bruni-Le parapluie→from Kathleen’s nap mix
4. James Marsters- Out.For.A.Walk…..Bitch→ not actually a song, but dialogue from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
5. Hawthorne Heights-Ohio is for Lovers (Live Acoustic)→ I don’t really enjoy the original cut of this song, but slowed down it’s nice and mellow.
6. Isaac Hayes-Run Fay run→ From the Kill Bill Vol 1 soundtrack. This was also on a short film I made in the very beginning of college, so I have a soft spot for it.
7. The Beatles-ObLaDi, ObLaDa→After Across the Universe, I downloaded a bunch of Beatles. My parents are Stones people, so I got in late.
8. Bright Eyes-Drunk Kid Catholic→ Bright Eyes make me ridiculously happy. Even if Ashlee Simpson chose one of their songs for her wedding.
9. AC/DC-Hell’s Bells→For playing loud in my car when I see one of my oldest friends from high school
10. Ryan Adams-La Cienga Just Smiled→ I love me some Ryan Adams. My buddy Jake introduced me to him (not really) sophomore year of high school, and Ryan Adams remains to this day the only famous person from my hometown (he even dropped out of my high school). My only pet peeve about this song is that it’s often highjacked by terrible tv shows for their season finales.
11. Blur- Coffee and TV→ Shit, this is old school. From the Cruel Intentions soundtrack
12. James Brown-Superbad→ I’m not sure why this is here.
13. Sufjan Stevens-Decatur→ There’s a street in my hometown named Decatur. I often play this song there.
14. Rolling Stones-Sympathy for the Devil→ I am 100% Rolling Stones, born and raised. I also remember seeing a Rolling Stones-themed ballet the summer I went away to art school.
15. Radiohead-Fake Plastic Trees→ The first Radiohead I ever heard, when I purchased the Clueless soundtrack from Goodwill. Classy
16. Neutral Milk Hotel-Holland, 1945→ A song about Anne Frank. I am so happy I randomly went to Stephen’s friend’s apartment and heard Neutral Milk Hotel on vinyl last year. My life would be sad and empty if I hadn’t.
17. Dhoom 2-Crazy Kiya Re→From the Hindi film Dhoom 2. The chorus of this song goes “Sexy Lady on the floor, keep you coming back for more.” The choreography features Ash Rai dancing on a giant motorcycle. We watched it a lot in Bollywood class.
18. Old Crow Medicine Show-Wagonwheel→ OCMS makes me really happy, especially Wagonwheel, because my neighbors learned the music by heart and then came over and performed it for our apartment one evening. Every time we go to Open Mike at the Juggling Gypsy, someone plays it.
19. Wreckless Eric-Whole Wide World→ I was obsessed with this song freshman year, so much that my roommate actually asked me to put on earphones (she was the most nonconfrontational person I ever met). I love the part in Stranger Than Fiction where Will Ferrel throws down the guitar and starts making out with Maggie Gyllenhal right as the chorus breaks.
20. Om Shanti Om-DardeDisco (Pain of Disco)→ More Hindi, this time from Om-Shanti-Om. This song has lots of half-naked Shahru Khan dancing in water, in a little fireman’s outfit, and surrounded by scantily clad ladies in Afros. We watched this a lot in Bollywood class too.

I'm wearing: my first time in shorts all summer, with my thrifted mexican embroidered top. My hair is 12 kinds of dirty, so it's all turbaned up. I look very crazy, but that's what air travel does to me.

laters