In Honor of the Day

Lately I've been getting into perusing old photos. It feels different than looking at a photo shoot that's been designed and staged. Pictures of history and real life events are so much more powerful, even if you want to look at them for the fashion choices! The Life Magazine website is a really good resource. It has picture galleries with content ranging from the Civil Rights movement to Nazi parades. Quite the gamut. I'm thinking of even making a little weekly segment of these old photographs, but we'll see how diligent I actually am at it. 

For now, enjoy these pictures taken at the first Super Bowl ever held. 

Hope your day is full of food and football. Go wild, you crazy kids.

 

 

 

All photos from Life.time.com

We're all winners here

A few weeks ago (oh gosh, how time flies!), I was lucky enough to get an invite to the Music Video Production Association Awards. It's basically the Grammy's for the music videos themselves, instead of just the songs. If you want to learn more about the Music Video Production Association, click here.

 It was a pretty spectacular turnout. It was held at the Taglyan Grand Ballroom on Vine in Hollywood

 

-- side note: This place is BEAUTIFUL!! If any of you are looking to get married in the Los Angeles area any time soon, check this place out. It has a striking ballroom and a beautiful garden area.--

and had an amazing dinner before the awards began. I think this was the first time I've had steak, chicken, and fish on one plate at the same time. I took a picture of my plate, but I remembered to do that only after I'd half-eaten everything, so I don't think you guys would want to see it. You'll have to take my word for it; it was quite a spread. 

Then came the awards, where they honored the production side of the videos from artists like Rihanna to The Black Keys to Skrillex to Sara Bareilles. 

Here's some pictures from the night and a few of the winning videos that I particularly liked:

 

 some of the winners were voyeuristic:

 

some of the winners were retro:

 

 some of the winners were patriotic:

 

some of the winners were simple:

 

 some of the winners were cult-y:

 

some of the winners were futile:

maroon 5 - Never Gonna Leave This Bed, sara bareilles - Gonna Get Over You, kanye west and jay z - Otis, the black keys - Lonely Boy, cults - Go Outside, lana del rey - Blue Jeans

Met Ball

The Costume Institute Gala at the Met is what dreams are made of. It's the moment when designers pair with their muses and show off their skills to the nth degree. They made these beautiful ladies look even more striking than usual (if it's possible--hellllooo beyonce!). Here's some of my favorite looks of the night. I would die for the Ralph Lauren dress. Oof. Bold. Daring. FASHION. Perfection. I know those are just words that I strung together haphazardly, but it felt right. So enjoy these images like the Fashion Slave you are! #fashiondoesntquit

 

Camilla Belle in Ralph Lauren

 

 Chanel Iman in Tom Ford

 

Florence Welch in Alexander McQueen

 

Ginnifer Goodwin in Monique Lhullier

 

Diane Kruger in Prada

 

Beyonce in Givenchy Haute Couture by Riccardo Tisci

Photos courtesy of PatrickMcMullan.com

Midnight to 50

Los Angeles is really good for my movie star dreams. This week I was lucky enough to attend a screening of Midnight in Paris and 50/50 hosted by the Malibu Film Society. The director of 50/50, Jonathan Levine, stopped by to talk about the film afterwards. He was really interesting. I got to speak with him after the screening. Normally, I never talk to celebrity-type people (remember how I was a foot away from Xzibit and didn't say a word?), but this was a smaller venue so I felt braver than usual. He was nice. He talked about his early days in film school and the trials and errors of working on projects with few resources.

So, if you think about it, I am now one degree away from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogan. Think about it.

Just in case you didn't know, Midnight in Paris is an Oscar-nominated film about a man's love of Paris and days gone by. There's plenty of Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams and Marion Cotillard. A lot of people love this movie. Most people love this movie. ....I find it a bit silly. You know that discussion you had with your girlfriends in middle school about which decade you would live in if you could live in a different time? (answer: 1920's) This movie is basically just two hours of talking about that. I don't know...to me, it's just a little predictable. But, don't let me influence you, because most everyone I know likes the movie.

Lauren's Rating: 7.8 dulling cocktail dresses out of 10 bottles of Champagne

Now, 50/50 was an interesting bag. It was simultaneously terribly sad and really funny. Despite the sadness of the material (cancer in a young man), you never felt very hopeless. If you know a little about the movie, you know that it was written by the man that this happened to (Will Reiser), so you know he lives in the end. I hope that's not too much of a spoiler...if it was, oops! Sorry 'bout it. Ultimately, I really enjoyed it.

Lauren's Rating: 8.4 medical marijuana cards out of 10 pube razors

Geek Chic

Ladies! I found out where the boys are!!

I don't know how many of you are Nerds-- or more affectionately Geek Chic Ladies/ Gentlemen-- but for those of you who are, I attended CES (Consumer Electronics Show) a week ago in wild Las Vegas on some company dime. Holla at your girl. I figure I'm officially a grown-up since my work is sending me places for free. Especially Vegas. No lame corporate weekend bonding trips in the mountains for me. I'm a city girl, I is. 

Now, I'd never been to CES before so I had no idea what to expect....I should have expected everything. ALL THE THINGS. Everything that we buy was there. Everything that has a battery or plugs in or contains any form of energy whatsoever was there. There were computers and cars and radios and iPod accessories and 3D gadgets and headphones and washing machines. Literally. Everything we buy. So it was overwhelming and huge and impossible to soak in (even over 4 days of walking and staring bug-eyed).

Here are some pictures from my days there. And like any responsible blogging girl, I FOUND THE ONE PAIR OF SHOES AT THE ENTIRE EVENT. I think they're made of plastic....silicone? Rubber? Not quite sure on the deets. But I guess cubify.com has a little machine that makes them right in front of your eyes. I filmed a video of the process (see below), I've rewatched that video, and I'm still a little fuzzy on the science of it all. Perhaps, ya'll are a bit more tech-y than I. 

Oh yeah, Xzibit and 50 Cent were there. I was mere feet away from both of them. I got a pic of Xzibit, but unfortunately not Fiddy because his entourage was composed of 10 guys, each over 6'5''. Little Lauren couldn't see over their heads. Sad day. Plus they walked really fast. So there's that. 

"Why were rappers at the nerd convention?" Good question. 

Also, Bieber was there. But I missed the little man and his hair (that keeps getting shorter). Twelve-year-old girls' heads are exploding that I could miss such an opportunity. But frankly I was a little bummed. Apparently last year GAGA was there. THAT would've made my head explode.

Enjoy the Geek Chick Fest:

This is that Cubify video (above)! It made those shoes and chess pieces you see in the pictures above. 

Thanks CES! It was a delightful time!

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!