Stylish Six

I wrote a feature for Metromix about Brooklyn Designers featuring my friends Rebecca Turbow and Alison Kelly, as well as some other designers I have been admiring.

Click here to read and rate it.

Radishes

Erin Fant came in to town and Starlee and I met up with her and went to Marlow and Sons for a variety of late night snacks including crostini, a radish plate, wine, a tortilla española, some soppressata, rhubarb pie with ice cream and a caramel and chocolate tarte with fluer de sel.

Okay so a radish plate consists of a bunch of radishes cut in half, a huge wedge of salted butter, and a couple slices of bread. We had a realization after chomping on our first radish slathered in butter (seriously, why is this a thing?) that we had been drawn to order the radish plate because a deep-seated memory of a certain Faerie Tale Theatre episode we had seen as children. A woman (Shelley Duvall pregnant with Rapunzel) develops an intense craving for radishes and has her husband sneak into her neighbor's (a witch obvs) yard to steal them. The sound of the woman crunching into these radishes seriously made them seem like the most delicious thing ever. Erin and I both had stories about getting our parents to buy us radishes and then feeling totally let down when they tasted like weird spicy yet bland carrots to our child's palate. I think Starlee had never had a radish ever and had been holding on to this nagging craving since girlhood. It was pretty amazing to end up eating a radish plate with two other girls who shared the same frustrated radish craving based on a Shelly Duvall show.

Anyway I looked it up and here is the key scene:


The psycho radish nightmare is pretty amazing:

You should go ahead and check out the rest of the episode, there is a pretty 'adult' joke about a cucumber in the first 5 minutes and I can only imagine there are some other gems that might have been lost on us as children.

Slow Dancing

Some kids in Argentina organized a huge outdoor slow dancing party at the Planetarium in Palermo. How did I not realize until now that I haven't slow danced since, I actually can't even remember.

The movement is called Que Vuelvan Los Lentos. I thought maybe Argentineans may finally be catching on to the whole irony thing, but it turns out the whole thing is just a marketing campaign for Doritos.

There are these sorta cute commercials.


They also have these ads that read: We all look the same from close up.

I can't tell if the point is supposed to be that one of these guys is ugly and the other is attractive or if its just supposed to be about how they are different. But I guess talking about extreme close up is a good introduction to slow dancing.

Currently Obsessed: An Unmarried Woman

An Unmarried Woman is a 1978 film about by Paul Mazursky, which was apparently very groundbreaking at the time, but doesn't seem to have aged to well. The story follows an Upper East Side woman whose husband leaves her and she has to deal with being alone. All in all the story is pretty cliche, she gets upset throws away all the stuff he left behind, goes to therapy, has some casual sex. But similarly to Mazursky's Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, it is pretty fun to watch, if only for the scenes of vintage New York City artist lofts and Jill Clayburgh dancing around in her underwear.

yes the dancing is awesome.

Girl TalkShe is friends with the Grandma from Gilmore Girls.

I kind of love Patty the daughter.

Here she is having a rap session with her therapist.

This dude is an artist check out his sculptures.

She bones him.

This guy is a way more successful artist who falls totally in love with her and wants her to marry him and be with her forever, in a slightly too good to be true Something's Gotta Give type scenario.

He gives her that painting. The screen capture is too small but the shoes she is wearing are identical to the espadrilles I just got on ebay. I'm gonna be rocking the 1978 jilted woman art hanging in Soho look this summer.

Then I just happened to read the New York Magazine profile on Sarah Jessica Parker and she mentions An unmarried woman as being a sort of proto Sex in the City.

Latina Magazine

I used to read Latina magazine back in 1997-9 when was a bright eyed feminista intent on reclaiming all things girly for the movimento. I really wanted to support it but I just couldn't get into it. Too many cliches, no distinct voice, bad fashion.
But things have changed, it seems they recently hired an entirely new creative staff and are going in a new direction visually. They enlisted my friend David Black to shoot this awesome road trip story.
During my afternoon snack expedition I went to the bodega and picked up my own copy. It's definitely looking a lot more hip these days. Here are some more spreads from the road trip story.


This is pretty cute:
Although the blond model is kind of a let down. They no longer translate the articles into Spanish but they still have ads in Spanish which is a little weird.
As far as things you wouldn't see in a magazine targeted at non-Latinos there were a few cool things.
This "raid her closet" feature on Denisse Guerrero of this Mexican electropop band Belanova:


They have a cute video but they won't let me embed.
There are some other stories that are kind of interesting, "What's in your make-up bag?" beauty story with Paula Garcés the hot girl from Harold and Kumar, an interview with Sergio Rossi shoe designer Edmundo Castillo but the Mexico City street style spread was pretty disappointing, I know there are much more stylish kids in Deh.Effeh. Diego Luna interview about Mr.Lonely Boy, hot. The interview with with Melina Matsoukas a young music video director is cool. Three empanada recipes, one tradish, one healthy, and one fast= pretty rad. A story about terrorism and FARC in Columbia is interesting and reminds me of the great political journalism that used to be in Jane (like how they broke the femicide in Cuidad Juarez Story). Last but not least there is a travel story on Cusco, Peru. with a really cute alpaca.

Elsa Mora Plant Girls

Check out Elsa Mora's blog for more cute stuff.

TURTLE

It seems Ami managed to snap a pic of the elusive turtle that lives in our back yard.
Apparently according to some man that Michael met on the street the turtle was found by the road upstate. The man brought him to Brooklyn and put him in the backyard which I think at the time was a communal back yard for everyone on the block. I think that was like 50 years ago. The turtle is on the lease so I am sure he will probably stay at least another 50 years.

Currently Obsessed: Alpacas/Llamas

I was obsessed with alpacas and llamas all winter. It's those long lashes that make them look like they are flirting with you that kill me. Apparently llamas are the big ones and alpacas are much softer. We were considering getting one and keeping it in the back yard, I would shave it and spin it into yarn and make the most exclusive local Brooklyn knits and sell them at Barneys for a million dollars.
Instead I bought some Misti baby alpaca yarn and made the softest scarves for Keren (purple), Michael (black) and myself (grey). (I have to find pics)
I went to a birthday party at Cheri from Scout's Holiday's apartment, which was sort of a wonderland of cute stuff: original artwork, Scout the dog, ruffled shower curtain, a heart shaped cake with California cut out of it, a more extensive collection of novelty tape than my own, a pedal operated bathroom sink, doilies hanging and adorable Cheri wearing an awesome Mayle dress with a sweatshirt over it.
Also they had this super cute llama.
It seems Kime from Moldy Doily has a sister with an alpaca farm in Ohio. So jealous!

I wanted this gold llama pendant from ebay but alas I was outbid.

I did get this llama cardigan.

Check out the close up.

Apparently this girl will make you a hand-painted portrait with a llama for $100, and $20 of it goes towards a llama share. I am seriously considering it.
And of course who could forget:
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