Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Make every moment count like this turkey did.

The End of an Era

Vogue is tired. Anna Wintour's iron-fist reign has run(albeit in Prada heels) that magazine into the ground. I realized slowly that I had become less and less excited each month as the issues arrived. The articles no longer resonate. The editorials are uninspired. The new batch of "supermodels" bore me.

Agyness Deyn excluded of course....

Nevermind that Vogue doesn't actually put models on the cover anymore. The actresses they shove at me are not icons of style, grace, or daring. Jennifer Hudson? Scarlet Johanssen? PUL-leeze. And I believe I actually suffered a small cardiac arrest when I saw Anna gave Sienna-f&cking-Miller the September issue!

And I guess I'm just sick and tired of reading about fashion, fitness, and style that I don't feel are attainable or even relate to me anymore. .. I likely just kept the magazine out of habit. So, after 22 years, I finally ended it. I did not renew my subscription. You may think, so what? Its just a magazine. A magazine full of useless, expensive crap they try to shove down women's throats. ... But any Vogue devotee can tell you, Vogue is really more than that, at least it used to be. The magazine showed me about style, not just fashion. And for a dreamy 15-year-old culture hound stuck in the burbs, the monthly editions were my bible.

I still recall my very first issue. Isabella Rosselini showed me that I didn't have to be a blonde blue-eyed vixen to be beautiful. Oh, how I wanted to be her! I actually had my Vogue in my schoolbag as I walked up to the Lancome counter to buy my tube of Cabaret Red. *sigh* Oh, yes, I remember it well.

I hope one day to rebuild the relationship I once had with this venerable book, to recapture the magic. But I think, for now, Vogue and I need a bit of a break; deep in my heart of hearts, I'm hoping it won't last too long.

If It's Free, It's for Me

It seems so simple. Play a game. Feed the hungry.

Yep. At Freerice.com, you are presented with questions aimed at testing your vocabulary. For every one you get right, ten grains of rice are donated to the The United Nations World Food Program by the game's sponsors (Apple, Time|Life, American Express, etc). Right now the focus is cyclone-ravaged Bangladesh.

It couldn't get any easier! Oh hmm.. Well, for some of us, its still going to be a mountain to climb.

Edit: On 18 November 2007, 170,885,620 grains were donated. Since its inception on October 7, total grains come to 2,628,006,040.

That Time of Year Again

Its that time of year AGAIN!.... "Serious" movie season.... Bear with me now as this post may be more for me than for you, my esteemed reader.
Realistically, I won't get to even half of the interesting movies that will be released, but here's a wrapup of my list of Must-See's:

Wes Anderson's latest work, The Darjeeling Limited, is another rumination on family. This time he brings his usual suspects (Owen Wilson, Angelica Huston, Jason Schwartzman) to India. I was entranced just from the trailer. "Does anyone have any questions?" "Yes. What happened to your face?" There's also a 13min "prequel" you can download free from iTunes.

The buzz on No Country for Old Men has been huge, and I don't think it will disappoint. Dark and relentless, Javier Bardem is the most frightening baddie you will see, haircut notwithstanding.
I'm not the biggest Keira Knightley fan, but again... the buzz on Atonement has been really good. And, I'm pretty much a sucker for a period movie. Gothic mansions, catastophic misunderstandings, I'm in.

Sidney Lumet is back with another heist gone awry movie, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.
Philip Seyour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke. How could this Lumet piece go wrong you ask? Well, don't forget Family Business with Matthew Broderick and Sean Connery.. and who though remaking Gloria with Sharon Stone would be a good idea? But again, the buzz is good and I will watch PSH in just about anything....
I'm sure there are more coming out that I haven't listed. But again, I'm trying to be realistic about what I can fit in. Have any films to add to the list?

BRING IT!

I am often telling people who don't live in San Francisco all the cool stuff that goes on in San Francisco. I don't always take part in it but its always comforting to know its there. But lo! This past Saturday night I found out about Style Wars and felt it was too cool to resist. So I got tickets online, D and I rounded up some friends and headed out to 111 Minna to hang out with some cool fashionable folks.

We bumped into some unexpected friends and our little group got even larger. (Love when that happens!) None of us knew what to expect but we lined up by the runway stage anticipating F-A-S-H-I-O-N.. But the show didn't start until midnight and it got hotter than a U2 concert. We're talkin' General Admission.

When we saw the models saunter out in their wifebeaters and black hosiery, we knew the Battle had begun.I got caught up in the moment and forgot I had my camera phone until the last matchup.

We didn't stay past the first freestyle round, but we did see some fierce ensembles. This was one of our favorites on the left. Her skirt is rope coiled around.

I'm not sure if I saw San Francisco fashion in gear that night; but it just felt good to be in the presence of creation.

Gravel '08

I took a quiz today at Glassbooth.com. It tallies up which political issues are important to you and then spits out the candidate you should vote for..... It said my #1 choice for president should be Mike Gravel?! I don't even know who the hell he is??? Me thinks he may have been my Atmo Sci professor in college, but I can't remember anymore...