Current Obsessions

In no particular order....
Arrested Development in syndication.
Green patent leather...especially the Hobo Whitney bag (can only find a picture of the red one...use your imagination)
The Eames Eiffel plastic armchair in blue


Luckily for me, DVRing Arrested Development is more or less free because the purse and chairs are not cheap and I can't have it all.

Never would have guessed this

Rashida Jones, who plays Karen on The Office, is Quincy Jones's daughter. True story.

She also has a photographic memory and studied religion at Harvard.

Correction

This is the picture that will be used to illustrate when Britney hit rock bottom.

At least, let's hope so for her sake. Can the spiral any further down?

My sister and I were discussing Britney's shenanigans yesterday and wondered why anyone even lets her leave the house at this point. I compared her to a rabid dog - except for running around trying to bite people, she's running around LA getting tattoos, trying to check into hotels with no ID or money, running away from rehab, crying, buying cheap wigs, and last but not least, smashing up cars.

Almost simultaneously, my sister and I expressed concern that if she doesn't shape up pretty soon, Atticus Finch is going to have to shoot her.

America's (and Alicia's) Favorite Architecture

I could spend hours on the AIA's America's Favorite Architecture website. The AIA polled 1,800 Americans on their favorite architecture and compiled a list of the top 150 structures. I was excited by how many I've seen in person...plus I can put together a list of places I haven't seen but now want to. Like the Rose Center for Earth & Space in NYC. How do I, of all people, not know about this place? Guess I'll just have to schedule another trip to NYC soon...

My own personal top 10 wouldn't contain as many DC monuments, but I'm hesitant to name my own top 10. Like my top 10 favorite songs, it's a pretty fluid list. Some mainstays:

• Fallingwater
• The Chrysler Building
• Milwaukee Art Museum
• The Guggenheim (the NY one)
• The East Wing of the National Gallery of Art

Noticing a trend? It's a little FLW-heavy. The AIA's list was, too....although FLW's highest-ranking structure was Fallingwater at #29. That's a travesty.

I noted three Mpls buildings on the list - The Weisman, The Walker, and IDS Center. Not too shabby of a showing.

...and yes, I am totally exploiting this post as an opportunity to repost my pictures from visits to some of these buildings.

I'm your mother, it's my job to worry

It's just my luck that my mom would get Midnight Express from Netflix a month before I head to Istanbul. God bless her, she called me yesterday to let me know what I was getting myself into. Here's a quick synopis of the film from Wikipedia (I've never seen it myself.):

On October 6, 1970, after a stay in Istanbul, an American citizen, named Billy Hayes, is arrested by Turkish police, on high alert due to fear of terrorist attacks, as he is about to fly out of the country with his girlfriend. After being found with several packets of hashish taped to his body, about two kilograms in total, he is sentenced to a relatively lenient four years and two months imprisonment on the charge of drug possession. He is sent to Sagmalcilar prison. In the remand centre, he meets and befriends other western prisoners and quickly prepares an escape plan, which fails. But in 1974, after a prosecution appeal (who originally wished to have Hayes found guilty of smuggling and not possession), his sentence turns into a 30-year term imposed by the Turkish High Court in Ankara. His stay becomes a living hell: terrifying and unbearable scenes of rape and physical and mental torture follow one another, where bribery, violence and insanity rule the prison. Monstrous wardens cruelly force the prisoners to undergo the worst brutalities. Some work for the prison administration as "informers." In a fit of madness, Billy Hayes attacks one of the prison informants who has denounced his escape plan and also falsely accused one of Billy's accomplices, biting off the man's tongue. In 1975, after being committed to the prison's insane asylum, Billy again tries to escape, this time by attempting to bribe the warden-in-chief. He ends up killing the warden, as the latter wanted to rape him, and Billy puts on an officer's uniform and manages his escape by walking out the front door. From the epilogue, it is explained that on the night of October 4, 1975 he successfully crossed the border to Greece, and that he arrived home 3 weeks later.

As horrible as this man's experience sounds, I am really not worried about my own safety in Istanbul (knock. on. wood.). As I explained to my mom, I may walk around the good old USA with a few pounds of hash strapped to my chest, but I always leave it at home when I go to Europe.

For some reason, that didn't make her feel any better.

Do you watch Top Design?

Are you just not feeling it?

I was expecting this show to take Project Runway's place in my heart, but it has fallen short.

My top annoyances:

• The judges (excluding Jonathan Adler). Their reasons for disliking designs are petty and inconsistent. They criticized one designer for putting paintbrushes and an easel on opposite sides of the room. Bitch please.


• Over 50% of the show is the judging process, so you don't get a good understanding of the designers' creative process or intention.


• Todd Oldham. AWKWARD.


• I wish they were in real rooms with windows, doors, etc. not to mention kitchens and bathrooms.


• Selfishly, I want to take away design ideas for my own house and I've seen nothing inspiring.

What do I love about the show?

• Jonathan Adler. Give me more Jonathan...and more of his blog.


• The designers. The not-so-spectacularness of the show can't be blamed on them. They are just as entertaining and talented as their Project Runway counterparts.

Pinch me

Laura recently turned me on to Pinch, a website that introduces you to a "cool person, place, or thing" each day. Today, they featured my favorite discovery in my new 'hood: The Riverview Theater. The Riverview shows a great selection of cheap movies...and in a midcentury modern venue to boot. You all know how I feel about midcentury design. I'm resisting the urge to steal the lobby furniture.

Vacation in Eden Prairie

Laura and I had a vacation in Minneapolis shopping day today. Vacation in Minneapolis is any day my friends and I explore places in the Twin Cities out of our usual hoods. Our adventure took us to:

• Maple Grove to visit Francesca's Collection. Seriously, though, why is the only FC in the Cities in Maple Grove? Wouldn't an Uptown location make 100x more sense? Unfortunately, the cute dress I bought is not on their website, but you better believe I'm psyched about it. I've been craving something Pucci print without the Pucci price and I found it.
• Eden Prairie to check out Von Maur at the Eden Prairie Center...where we discovered a Scheels, the sportswear store we both grew up with. We couldn't have been more excited.
• Bachman's for the very first time ever. I'd been told I'd be amazed by the size of the store and the variety of products, but it still exceeded my expectations.

Prediction

In a future episode of "Behind the Music" this picture will be used to illustrate the moment Britney hit rock bottom.

Now this is a fun holiday - today is International "That's What She Said" Day.

Happy "that's what she said"-ing kids!

After working in Phoenix last week, I stuck around on Friday and visited Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home. True to form, I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, which are up on Flickr. Since Taliesin West is still used by the FLW fellowship architects, the rules were a little more relaxed - meaning I could take pictures indoors and sit on the furniture. The tour guide, Ben, was fantastic, but I was distracted every time I looked at him by the thought that he looked just like Bug from Uncle Buck.

I also checked out a couple other FLW sites - the Arizona Biltmore and Grady Gammage Auditorium at ASU.

Speaking of Phoenix, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I like it. We stayed in Scottsdale, which had loads of fun bars, restaurants and shops. I'm working on talking my parents into retiring there because selfishly, I'd much rather visit Arizona than South Dakota or a retirement community in Florida.

Very Fine

I've had Direct TV for approximately one hour (that's right Time Warner/Comcast, you get no more of my money) and I already have a new favorite channel: Fine Living. I just watched Dwell, which is based on the magazine of the same name and features homes I completely covet.

"The Hoohaa Monologues"

Read this hilarious blog entry about a theater in Florida that had to change its marquee advertising "The Vagina Monologues" to "The Hoohaa Monologues." Too frickin' funny.

Like the "completely heterosexual" pastor article, I have to laugh so I don't stop and try to guess the number of Americans who truly believe that pastor is straight and vagina is a dirty word.....

Do they have an antibiotic for that now?

From the NY Times: Ousted Pastor "Completely Heterosexual"

"Forced by a gay sex scandal to resign as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Rev. Ted Haggard now feels that after three weeks of intensive counseling, he is “completely heterosexual,” says an overseer of the megachurch Mr. Haggard once led."

Right....

Hosed

This picture leads me to believe that Justin Timberlake has performed "Dick in a Box" at a recent live show. Sad it wasn't Mpls.

Daily Candy does it again

This is the height of ridiculousness - Daily Candy's travel issue for this week advertised a service called FlyLite.

Here’s how it works: You sign up online, and FlyLite sends you a suitcase to
fill with your usual travel kit (jeans, shampoo, golf clubs). They clean, store,
and catalog everything (in a virtual closet that you can arrange to your
liking). Before your next trip, select what you want online, and let FlyLite
know where and when you’ll need it. Your stuff will be there when you arrive.
The downside: So far the service is available only in the United States. And
it costs $100-$200 per trip.

Here are my problems with this service, as I understand it:
a) This company holds on to all your stuff until you're ready to leave - meaning you have to have a completely separate wardrobe and toiletry kit.
b) You still have to tote your luggage BACK from wherever you go. I'm wrong - they do ship it back as well.
c) You pick the things you want for each trip from a virtual closet. Wouldn't that take just as long as, if not longer than, selecting them from an actual closet?
d) ...and this is the kicker, it costs $100-200 per trip. Good Lord! All so you don't have to carry your luggage from your house to the ticketing counter. How rich/lazy would you have to be to justify that expense?

Update: FlyLite responded directly to my post, which is pretty cool of them. If you do use this type of service, they seem to be very attentive to detail and would be a good company to go with.

I still take exception to Daily Candy advertising this service. Their website doesn't spell it out, but my assumption has always been that Daily Candy Travel is targeted towards 20- to 30-something urban women who travel frequently (oh hey, that's me and my friends and coworkers).

Maybe it's just my pesky Midwestern values talking here, but if anyone I knew was using this service, I wouldn't think it was a wise fiscal decision, to say the least...and I'd ask to borrow $100 since they're clearly just throwing the dollars around.

I confess this would be a superconvenient way to travel, but stick to my guns that anyone my age who uses this service is lazy and/or has a trust fund (stereotypes are wonderful, aren't they?). Plus, they don't know the joys of efficient and creative packing, which my friends and I talk about more frequently than I'd like to admit.

New house shit Saturday

I've always liked Angela Adams' designs, but her rugs and handbags are a bit spendy, which is why I was thrilled to find signed prints on her website for an unbelievably reasonable price. I bought the Lulu print...and probably should have just bought the Mammy while I was at it. Both should fit in nicely in my living room.

BTW, the shelves I bought totally got returned. They were neither the right size nor color, so the search continues.

The sky is falling

The Dallas/Fort Worth area got a dusting of snow last night and people were freaking out. Obviously, to a Minnesota girl it was no big deal, so it was funny to see all the ruckus a trace of snow was causing. In all fairness, though, if I had to live through a Texas summer with a tornado rolling through my backyard every half hour, I'd pee my damn pants on a regular basis.

Unless it was this Texas Tornado in my backyard...because how fun would it be to call my friends and family to tell them the Texas Tornado was wandering around my yard again?

Are you watching 30 Rock?

...because you should be. It's the funniest show on TV. Check out some videos if you don't believe me.

On a related note, Tina Fey is totally my new imaginary BFF.

The Countdown Begins

The release date for the final Harry Potter book has been announced - July 21. I'd like to pretend I'll reread the first six books to refresh my memory, but I know I'll just read the summaries over at Sparknotes.

Yes, I am a little embarrassed that this is my second Harry Potter post in a week.