Merylathon: an update [and a digression about Barbra, and another about hats]

One of my New Year's resolutions was to watch every movie for which either Katharine Hepburn or Meryl Streep was nominated for an Oscar.

I decided to do Meryl first because I had seen less of her movies. I had already seen Music of the Heart through years of Orchestra classes. I've seen that movie/Mr. Holland's Opus way too many times, The Devil Wears Prada, and Julie & Julia. So I started with Kramer v. Kramer because it was her first Oscar win [and I was NOT watching The Deer Hunter by myself in my room (her first nomination)] and it is my dad's favorite Meryl movie. I won't give anything away, but I was especially excited with the ending because somehow in my dad's description of it I interpreted it ending the opposite way. And of course, Meryl is supporting in this role, but not out shined by Dustin Hoffman [whom I also adore, The Graduate is my favorite movie of all time]

Then I went to Doubt, simply because it was on Netflix instant watch. And holy moley, if Meryl can make me hate her, it just makes me love her more. Possibly her least fabulous role I've seen, she plays a nun, she is still Meryl through and through and doesn't let up until the credits role.

These were all preludes to my now favorite Meryl movie. I think Kramer v. Kramer is better and she is better in it. But five words: Robert Redford sans Barbra Streisand. I could go on and on about how much I hated Katie Morosky in The Way We Were as the only reason to watch that movie is the boat scene, but I digress.

Out of Africa was amazing. I don't think I can capture how much I loved this movie. But I can capture how much I loved Meryl's hats.

This is not the first time a movie has been ranked higher in my favorite simply for millinery. See His Girl Friday and A Room with a View

in a previous life, I was from Kentucky

first of all.

I love Georgia. I love Coca-Cola and kind of baby barf if I have to drink Pepsi. I think Waffle House is way classier than most people assume. And I don't even eatfried chicken unless it comes with a smiling "Welcome to Chic-fil-a."

But here is a list of reason I believe I am really from Kentucky. or at least half and half; Kentucky and Georgia.

1. I love Kentucky Basketball. My cousin played for them in the late nineties, so actually for a long time I associated Kentucky and the sport with a lot of family stress. But this season, I have realized how much I LOVE COLLEGE BASKETBALL. It also helps that Coach Cal is amazing and we're doing well this season. I bleed Blue, there's no way around it.
   
2. Patty Loveless' album "Mountain Soul" is probably in the top five albums that defines who I am. along with "Bookends," "Rubber Soul," "Ladies of the Canyon," and "Songs About Jane"
   
3. My favorite part of the movie The Last of the Mohicans is when Chingachook tells Hawkeye to go to "can-tuck-ee"
4. one time I met Ashely Judd at a Kentucky Basketball game. and she is just about the classiest Southern lady ever.

delicious=george emerson

first I have to say. I generally hate Helena Bonham-Carter. I hate all celebrities that break up celebrity couples that I have deemed to be perfect for each other. Another example it Brangelina. I only enjoy Brad Pitt up until 2005. Though with HBC, I can stand Kenneth Branagh, the other offending party their love-affair because Emma Thompson has found the gorgeous, wonderful Greg Wise.
so until Jennifer Aniston finds love, Brad Pitt is dead to be post-2005. But Angelina, I don't care. you suck.
BUTTTTT, Helena Bonham-Carter, as much as I would want to slap her in real life, is kind of awesome. and I mean it all worked out...sort of. She is committed to creeper Tim Burton. And Kenneth is married to Lindsey Brunnock--who Bonham-Carter introduced him to?...!?

whatevs.point of post. just got over my HBC hating enough to watch A Room with a View all the way through and omg. some where between George, bustle, cool hat, George, Italian murder, Italian piazzas, George, Maggie Smith and another cool bustle I fell in love. with GEORGE EMERSON.
you are a beautiful eccentric.
and now I understand why this is the movie is my mom's favorite movie that she most wants to live in.


could I have one please? kthx. oh, and that hat. and that hair. and that Italy. that'd be nice.

happy birthday!

today is one of my dearest friend's 19th birthday. so I've been scoping out etsy for the past week for some lovely b-day presents. here's what I found!

cupkozy

How cute is this!? It a reusable cozy for a coffee shop cup! and it rolls up so you can carry it on your keychain. I think this would be perfect for a coffee drinker. I think I'll buy one for myself.

5dollarshakershoppe

One of my favorite shops! I love the idea of giving/getting vintage salt and pepper shakers. I love this shop. They are super sweet and have great service!

johnnyvintage

Can't describe how much I love this little green apple ben franklin! I was thinking something like this for my friend would be perfec, she loves U.S. History.

also from johnnyvintage! I actually found this by searching for my friend's favorite color after selecting vintage. so when I typed in "aqua" I got this adorable deer!

TRADITION! tradition...

mmm. holidays are the perfect time for quirky traditions. Like that my family's viewing of Stalag 17? Not a "traditional" Christmas movie. It is does have a Christmas Tree, holiday cheer, snow and mention of, if not performance of "White Christmas." But of course, it also has spies, William Holden, Nazis, and a man dressed as Betty Grable. I really like this tradition because so few other people would celebrate with it.

Die Hard is probably the more mainstream non-Christmas movie; John McClain is crashing his wife's business' Christmas party. And that terrorist dressed up like Santa in the elevator? Screams Christmas joy.

Opening one present on Christmas Eve? I would say a little passe as far as uniqueness.

Reading The Gift of Magi? More literary, still a little mainstream. And at my house, we always strive for the quirky.

For about nine Christmases, my dad has read me two stories on Christmas Eve. "The Peterkin's Christmas Tree"by Lucretia P. Hale [which involves a family buying a too-tall Christmas Tree and raising the ceiling instead of cutting the stump] and Leo Rosten's "Mr. K*A*P*L*A*N and the Magi" which is the sweetest story about an English night school for immigrants and their teacher and present.

The Peterkin Papers, probably my favorite children's book of all time is in the public domain and available online here. Some of my favorite tales are "The Lady Who Put Salt in her Coffee," "About Elizabeth Eliza's Piano" and of course, "The Peterkins' Christmas Tree." They are all equally silly and wonderful.

If you do get to read them, I always imagined the Lady from Philadelphia to look like Katharine Hepburn.

inspiration december09/january2010 [thinking of spring]

went shopping today with my mom for christmas presents for the family. and I realized that I hate "fall colors." at least to wear. and idk why but they seem to bleeding into winter. reds and oranges and yellows. NOOOOO. give me jewel tones, pleaseeeeeeee. so I'm pining for spring right now.

anna sui's rtw spring 2010 collection looks like a peacock feather

primavesi by klimt, she looks like a model at the end of a runway no?

love the crinoline betsey johnson!

zooey deschanel and ben gibbard. my favorite indie couple.

behnaz sarafpour rtw spring 2010, reminds me of rosalind russell in his girl friday

behnaz sarafpour rtw spring 2010-love the asymmetry

behnaz sarafpour rtw spring 2010, mmm mustard, my favorite warm color

I WANT THESE BANGS.

anne hathaway at 2009 golden globes. love the color. I love purpley-navy in the spring

birken gainsbourg family

Jane Birken, Serge Gainsbourg and their progeny, Charlotte, are beautiful and have of hold on my interest. A few other people do this as being so supremely interesting; Katharine Hepburn, Angelica Huston, Buddy Holly. and I could very well write this post about the Rossellini-Bergman family.

my first exposure to birken-gainsbourg world was the birken bag reference on sex and the city.

which is funny because jane birken supposedly commented on how when her daugther would come to america people would ask her if she was the daughter of the bag.

later, in november of 2007, lisa robinson wrote this fascinating article about the home/world of Serge Gainsbourg for Vanity Fair. now as much as I regret it, I am not a regular Vanity Fair reader. whenever I read it I feel terribly bourgeois. And the text is really tiny. but this picture captured me:

Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg on the set of the movie Slogan, June 1968. By Gilles Caron/Contact Press Images.

They look so supremely happy.

Of course, Serge was a raging alcoholic...but this is right when they were about to get married/just married.

I imagine Jane as sort of backwards Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor was French best known for marrying an Englishman, but a formidable woman in her own right, and Jane was just this flipped. An Englishwoman so intertwined with French culture with a completely French daughter.

Charlotte! my favorite part of I'm Not There, a movie I found pretentious and annoying except for a few select parts. Well those select parts when the little boy obsessed with woody guthrie, heath ledger, cate blachett, and CHARLOTTE.

but seriously. check out that vanity fair article.

art is either plagiarism or revolution.

the daughters of edward darley boit

This painting changed my life. I first saw in on television on a Sister Wendy special on PBS. This painting gets compared to Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez, which I adore as well.

and while the subjects may mirror it, Las Meninas is about Velásquez controlling the situation that is so chaotic. In the painting his character is supposed to be painting the King and Queen. Infanta Margarita is being doted upon in the center, full of light, while Diegodear is hidden in the background. But he literally is still the more forceful figure, in his dark commanding garb, the only figure connected to the imposing canvas that slices the painting down the middle.

But

I like Daughters more. Las Meninas is generally considered one of the greatest paintings of all time, and I do enjoy it, but hey; I don't love the Stones either.

In Sargent's painting, which I discovered when I must have been about 12, he so well paint a portrait that isn't stiff or posed. The girls look as if they had just looked towards their father coming home. In a progression of light in parallel with age, the girls circle into darkness. But even in the light the youngest girl look so sad and disappointed. These girls are sisters, but they are isolated from each other. Even the two eldest and closest together are looking in completely different directions. Sister Wendy pointed out that girls grew up to live alone, those two eldest would grow apart from each other and from the world. From someone who lived for words, I realized that art like literature boiled down into just that singular moment. But that doesn't make the meaning singular.

sister wendy's notes

bloomsbury

obsessed with bloomsbury, I am.

It's not catastrophes, murders, deaths, diseases, that age and kill us; it's the way people look and laugh, and run up the steps of omnibuses. - Virginia Woolf

some inspo for you

fashion photos from style.com dires von noten 2004 spring ready to wear collection

1. these violet flowers looks like it was taken directly from vanessa's painting; 2. this mustard is the color of vanessa's kitchen; 3. morbid but...this coat reminds me of how virginia woolf killed her self, [put stones in a long jacket and walked into a river] 4. more american inter-war period but still deco, this color reminds me of daisy buchanan from the great gastby.

1. Charleston House, home of Vanessa Bell and Clive Bell-photo from Tate Museum website, 2. Virginia Woolf-Tate 3. Bloomsbury-group 4.Vanessa Bell's cover of Mrs. Dalloway, her sister's, Virginia Woolf, book 5. interior by vanessa bell 5. first menu from the omega group's dinner

behr color palette: serene sky 540c-2

daylight lilac 660b-6

plum shade 100f-6

chamois cloth w-f-110

bloomsbury

Gift Guide

1. Keep Calm and Carry On Water Bottle-Heliotrope 2.charming turquoise watch-fredflare 3. Gurgle Pots-Gurgle Pots 4. Clutch Purse-redrubyrose @ etsy 5. Rockin Guitar Cutting Board-tauntongreen @ etsy 6. Personal Library Kit-fredflare 7. Peacock Centerpiece Vase-Touch of Class 8. phreonlogy head jewelry stand-urbanoutfitters 9. Say Anything - Amazon

1. Wouldn't this be cute for the runner in your life? An inspirational message for just before the 2nd wind.

2. I love when people wear watches now a day; I love how something so everyday has become a throw back.

3. Saw these pitchers, they make an adorable gurgle noise when you pour water out of them! Hear a sample on the webpage. good hostess gift.

4. This etsy site makes really professional clutches is a variety of styles. Perfect for girlfriends, sisters, yourself :]

5. I thought this would be cute for my dad. He cooks a lot and loves music/guitar. It is kitsch and cute.

6. cute for all those english majors in your life. wait...does not every have one of those? because I have about twenty...

7. A. I love Peacocks. 2. this is perfectly tacky. 3. the store is Touch of Class, classy much?

8. Another statement piece for a table, windowsill or dresser.

9. To know Lloyd Dobbler is to love him. You are about to know Lloyd Dobler

Waffle House-they should call it Waffle Home

I love these kids, and waffle house. This will be our last WaHo adventure for awhile, which is severely sad. Katy's face found another dimple! and Will loves his toast.

John and me. We're so cute, when we hang out I feel like I am 15. He's the best pretend little brother ever and a beast at eating eggs and waffles.