White Christmas

It's officially December and Christmas time is here! I was lucky enough to steal a moment at home to decorate my tree this weekend. I ate candy canes. I wore a Santa hat. It was glorious. I will spare you pictures. It's nothing you need to see, trust me. But in the spirit of things, I wanted to share the best kept secret of Christmas: the movie, White Christmas. It is the happiest, cheeriest, musicaliest of all the Christmas movies I've ever seen. It's a yearly tradition and it really puts me in the mood for all the tinsel and lights. It's truly a must-see! Here is a trailer for it:

By the way, this trailer is epic. It's interesting to see how film styles and even trailer styles change so much over the years.


Lauren's Rating: 10 song-and-dances out of 10 Bing Crosbys 
Thanks to Amazon for the pic.

Velveteen

Velvet. It's a tricky business, isn't it? One minute you love it, the next it's stifling. Well, in this moment, I'M LOVING IT. IN ALL ITS FORMS. I love the coats and the pants and the dresses. It's so snuggly and wintery. Too comfy. For your viewing pleasure:

Ralph Lauren

Leyendecker

Prada

Proenza Schouler

Givenchy

Vince

Kelly Wearstler

Photos courtesy of style.com

These Shoes!

We women have a particular fascination with shoes. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's because they can change the whole look of our outfit (or body--hi there, posture)--, or that they keep our toes warm, or because we're attracted to shiny things, or but they can be rather consuming. Which ones to get, (how to pay for them), which color, what to wear them with--these all are part of a woman's shoe shopping experience.

Shoes can be many things. There's the shoe of the moment that EVERYONE is talking about:

Miu Miu

There is the androgynous shoe:

Aperlai

There is the shoe as art installation:

Aperlai

But in this particular moment, I'm loving this shoe:

Alexander Wang

I'm loving the minimalist lines and the way it elongates the leg. Love love love. A little different look than this sucker, ain't it?:

Now I understand that you East Coasters or people who live in places where it gets colder than 60 degrees, might think, "welp, that's an impractical winter shoe...". And you would be right. This is not appropriate for you. In lieu of that (and spring's arrival), here is this shoe:

Alexander Wang

Equally sexy with the added benefit of not getting hypothermia. Win win.

All photos courtesy of style.com and the particular designers, except the second to last one which is courtesy of nastygal.com.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I don't know about you, but this is one of my favorite holidays. I hope you're lucky enough to be with whoever you call family, eating delicious homemade (or home-delivered, if cooking's not in your bag of tricks) food, and laughing louder than the rest of them. Happy Holidays!

Here's to A Better Life

I had the good fortune of attending a screening of A Better Life tonight with a Q & A afterwards with the movie's director: Chris Weitz (director of American Pie and About a Boy, and producer of A Single Man). 

Here is the trailer:

And while the movie was good and really socially relevant--especially in California and other border states--I found the discussion afterwards to be most interesting. I love hearing from directors about their process and their interaction with actors. Mostly I just love hearing from successful people how they got to be so successful. And from careful listening, I've discovered the secret: BLIND OPTIMISM. These people may not have known entirely what they were doing or how they were doing it, but they prepared themselves for the task at hand and worked hard to convince other people that they could be counted on.

So, it's time to no-holds-barred convince yourself and those around you that you are the most fantastic version of whatever it is you'd like to be. Let's inject a little naivete, optimism, and stubbornness into our everyday lives and see where it takes us. Hopefully, just as far as we expected.

Book of the Foreseeable Future: Bright Shiny Morning

 

It's been a while since there's been an installation of "Book of the Foreseeable Future" (insert booming announcer man's voice here). This is mainly due to the fact that the latest book I picked for this article was hella long. Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey (yes, that James Frey) is 501 pages of teeny tiny font. This man makes you work for it, that's for sure. Bright Shiny Morning is about Los Angeles, primarily, and the people lucky or unlucky enough to be living here. It follows a rich and famous movie star with more than a few problems, a Mexican-American girl's romantic journey, a young couple brave enough to go there with nothing, and a homeless man trying to do good. Each story is at once heartwarming and tragic. There are definitely moments in the book that I almost cried because of the beauty of it and moments that made me sick. It's really got it all. So if you simultaneously want to be terrified of and thrilled to move/travel/visit LA, this is the book for you.

Lauren's Rating: 7.7 bottles of Chablis out of 10 golf course weddings

Yellow Diamonds

It's music video time. We're exploring pop culture today. This Thursday we're looking at Rihanna's new video "We Found Love". Rihanna's videos can verge into a little darkness...and this one's no different. This video first made me wish it was summer again so I could wear cut-offs and little shirts, and by the end made me never want to try drugs. (Side note: I need her America bikini.) Its whole vibe reminds me of NastyGal and Urban Outfitters and Coachella all rolled together. Let me know what you think of it.

we found love--Rihanna

"It's like screaming. And no one can hear."

Forrested

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm really excited about this post. I don't like to favor one post over another, but I do. (They're not my children, after all.) So it is with conviction that I can say this one is a topper. This shoot for Flare is so beautiful, I can't not love it more than the rest.

This is, by far, one of the coolest editorials I've seen in a while. Every picture is gorgeous! I almost regret putting them all in one post because each picture needs to be savored. Expect me to use these photos more than once...I won't be able to help myself. The images are just too striking. And a nice offshoot--it makes me excited for winter to come!

Hyoni Kang by Chris Nicholls for Flare December 2011

The Beach Boys

 

There's something about living in California that puts The Beach Boys on permanent rotation on my Spotify account. I know they're not "sexy" like Simon and Garfunkel, or "edgy" like Hall and Oates, but sometimes The Beach Boys just hit the spot. Enjoy.

 

 

 

good vibrations, kokomo, barbara anne, california girls, god only knows

Words of Wisdom from the Dalai Lama

Some helpful reminders:

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. 

Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions. 

I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I can not judge the universe. 

If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. 

Sleep is the best meditation. 

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.

With realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability, one can build a better world.

I know that's a brain-full, but pick one or two that speaks to you and hold it close to you this week. Or month...or year...

Image from Fashion Gone Rogue

Minimalist Movement

 The sparkles and glitter and things are fun. Real fun. But every once in a while there comes a day when you want to wear almost nothing. Hence, the minimalist look.

Emma Ahlund by Adrian Nina for Fashion Gone Rogue, Emma Ahlund by Adrian Nina for Fashion Gone Rogue, Emma Ahlund by Adrian Nina for Fashion Gone Rogue, Lovisa Ekholm by Jesse Laitnen for Fashion Gone Rogue, Lovisa Ekholm by Jesse Laitnen for Fashion Gone Rogue

Glamorous Cat Lady

"I kind of imagine myself at eighty, a cat lady."
Juliette Lewis

 

Vogue Italia, Emily Ruhl by Nicole Anne Robbins, Sheila Marquez by Michael Donovan for Vision China, Vogue Italia, Anastasia by Diego Uchitel for Gravure, Vogue Italia, Vision China

Ivy Awards

On Monday, I was lucky enough to attend the Ivy Bethune Tri-Union Diversity Awards in Los Angeles (oof, say that 5 times fast). It's the 9th Annual time around for this award show that honors diversity in the film, television, and theatre worlds. It was great! It was a night full of love and acceptance. It was really a nice divergence from the feeling that a lot of people have about LA being heartless and cold. I found that is definitely not the case. 

It wasn't technically my first award show, but it was definitely my first award show with famous people at it. I saw Kim Coles:



And J.R. Martinez:



I was INCHES away from J.R. Martinez, the Iraq war veteran/ All My Children actor who's now killing it on Dancing with the Stars. I wanted to say "Congratulations" for the Diversity Award he received, but I CHICKENED! So, another lost opportunity. Oh well. He said something incredible during his acceptance speech. So I wrote it down, and now I'm telling you people. He said,

Be you. No matter where your scars are.

I loved that. I think it's important to accept your life and hardships and all the difficulties you've endured, and THRIVE with those scars.

Here are some pictures from the night's festivities, including me on the step-and-repeat at the end of the night (it was my first step-and-repeat and I was a little stupid):













Overall, it was a great night! I'm so glad I got the opportunity to attend! 

Oh, in case you were wondering, I'm wearing a vintage Saint Germain (a la Paris) lace dress over a black Frenchi dress with Enzo Angiolini shoes and a Calderon clutch. A bientot! 

Everyone is, in some way, in the war of their life.

So I've been living in LA for a little over a week now and oh my, what a journey this has been. They say moving is one of the most stressful things a person can go through...needless to say, I'm excited to get to pure fun part. The problem is, when you're moving, it's not only that you're moving locations. You're changing your job, your lifestyle, any familiar stores/restaurants/gas stations, and friends. It's a multi-fecta of change. Every aspect of your life changes in a way, so there's some growing pains to allow for that. That's just my personal take on the whole "Moving" phenomenon. If any of you are considering it in the near future, just be prepared for that.

Maybe some of you are going through stressful times as well. All I can say is good luck. Do the best you can to carve moments out for yourself that make you happy. If the stress is in your control, try to remember why you chose it. If it's not, do your best to realize that it'll pass. Time makes everything go away eventually. In the meantime:

war of my life--John Mayer

He who seeks beauty will find it.

Inspiration comes in many forms. Sometimes it's a song or a flower or a beautiful painting. Other times it is an old man with a camera and wily smile. In this case, it would be Bill Cunningham, a photographer for The New York Times who practically invented the form of photography known as "Street Style". In the documentary, Bill Cunningham New York, (available on Netflix) Bill is followed and reveals his process, values, and life as a man dedicated to fashion photography. It's a nice, slow, easy movie, but it's comforting, so if you're just wanting to relax to a sweet story of ambition, simplicity, and oddity, this docufilm is for you. 

8.2 "I got the shot"s out of 10 street cleaners jackets

"The wider world perceives fashion as, sometimes, a frivolity that should be done away with in the face of social upheavals and problems that are enormous. The point is, in fact, that fashion, you know, in point of fact...it's the armor to survive the reality of everyday life. I don't think you could do away with it. It would be like doing away with civilization. That's what I think. I'm like this crazy fanatic, but anyway, that's what I think about it."

Halloween Wrap-Up...a week later.

I told you that I would show you my Halloween costumes. So this is them. Day 1: I was full of energy and hardcore into my Gaga costume. That took a lot of time to bedazzle. Day 2: I was OVER IT. Hence, the awesome costume and accompanying pose. It's terribly flattering.

Eddie Izzard: Dressed to Kill

Ello! Alright, it's been a while since I've given any movie/television suggestions...I'm not sure if this is either of those things. It's a Netflix suggestion. If you don't have Netflix, well, you're up shit creek, now aren't ya? For today's viewing suggestion, I believe we're in for some comedy (from me? Heavens, no) from Mr. (Ms.?) Eddy Izzard. It's his comedy special "Dressed to Kill". If you've never heard of Eddie Izzard, he's a British transvestite comedian. Now, I don't know if this is high brow, low brow, or a medium brow of some sort, but it made me laugh. That's all I'm saying. And some days, when you're sick, tired, over-worked, in a bad mood, etc etc, it's nice to sit down at the end of it all and have a good laugh. Because, really, sometimes there's nothing else you can do about any of it. So if today is that day for you, I recommend this silly bastard to lighten your mood. It worked wonders for this guy (*points to self).

Lauren's TV Rating: 8.8 chuckles out of 1 fabulous pair of platform shoes

 

Image from gorillafilmmagazineblog.wordpress.com

This Color!

And in today's edition of "This Color!", we are discussing Burgundy. (oooooo....ahhhhh....) This wine color has been what everyone (read: bloggers) has been talking about as of late, and I gotta say, like a fine wine, I appreciated it initially, but it's only gotten better with age. (Glorious, glorious similes.) I didn't truly appreciate it until this spread by Elle Russia, and then my heart went pitter patter. Plus, I threw in a picture of Diane Kruger from Citizen K for good measure. I hope you enjoy. Preferably while drinking a glass of wine this fine Thursday evening.

Elle Russia, Elle Russia, Citizen K