Arial is not Helvetica;

I didn’t really want you, but I want you now–was so empty in me. Feel you crashing down, into the empty world (the music stops), want to rescue want to scream out loud “you will always be mine”; (part one)

elizabeth — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:38:06 +0000

It’s a little ridiculous, as my husband would say, how much Nancy Botwin has influenced my style lately–I’m shopping at Anthropologie and American Apparel, embroidery and ruffles aren’t necessarily verboten anymore, and I bought two pink tees. Pink is not a color I wear–living in a room colored in the stuff is enough to set anyone off of it–but MLP/Nancy convinced me that both light pink and fuschia are colors that I can actually pull off. Go figure.

To give you an idea of what’s haunted me on a satorial level, check out the following:

via

From “Lude Awakening,” season 1 episode 5

From "Dead in the Nethers", season 1 episode 6

from "Mile Deep and a Foot Wide," season 2 episode 10

The thing is–she’s only one part of my latest fashion influences. You’ll have to stay tuned to get a better read on why this character (and others, for that matter) get me so well, even despite my normal self.

Tagged: fashion, New York, television, weeds

Yet another new site…

elizabeth — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:30:30 +0000

New city, new site: check out our continuing food adventures at The Manhattan Food Project. Cin cin!

Interlude of poetry:

elizabeth — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 02:53:40 +0000

in Just-

spring when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it’s

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer

old balloonman whistles

far and wee

and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it’s

spring

and

the

goat-footed

balloonMan whistles

far

and

wee

–E.E. Cummings

(source)

Arial is not Helvetica; Tw Cen MT is not Futura.

elizabeth — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:32:16 +0000

(source)

Found from swissmiss, and I think this speaks for itself. I want a print of this so badly.

Tagged: design, fonts!

That the author dedicates it to “A Century Of Fakers;”

elizabeth — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:15:30 +0000

Just saw this on Gawker, and my mind is completely blown. Clearly, the ad execs who dreamed this up would have been better as futurists/psychics than as…well ad execs and creatives.

Just let Tom Selleck tell you all of the amazing things that AT&T would bring you in the future. Except, as Hamilton Nolan pithily points out, that AT&T would not be the company to bring it to you (at least in this iteration).

Although according to Stephen Colbert, perhaps they have, in some way or another (edited to add: I realize that the innovative arm of the old AT&T was left to die at Lucent, but the telecom monopoly reference is still relevant).

Tagged: advertising, innovation

Soir de fete;

elizabeth — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:36:15 +0000

One of my only serious designer indulgences over the past few years has been Hermès pocket squares–while I love the silk scarves, I have yet to figure out how I could realistically wear one that would justify their insane cost. My tidy collection of squares instead give me great options to wear in my hair or on a purse, plus the husband can wear one of the solid-color versions with his suits (therefore negating their cost even further). Given that I avoid logo bags, expensive jeans or triple-digit shoes, I’m OK with indulging in a little scarf now and again.

It’s been ages that I’ve purchased one, of course, but I always love checking in on the new patterns that the luxury chain has to offer, and I especially love seeing creative ways of wearing the scarves (especially since I refuse to buy one until I can realistically say that I will actually wear it). Enter Benjamin Nitot and his series of gorgeous women and men wearing Hermes silk (as found via Hebden) and it makes you want to pull out any scarves and channel a film ingenue:

(via nitot.org)

Of course, the day I want to start busting out the scarves is the day that it’s rainy and even a little snowy–due to their vegetable-based dyes, it’s strongly encouraged you to not get them even a little bit wet.

But the spring, it is a-coming….

Tagged: fashion, photography

It’s oh so quiet–shhh, shhh;

elizabeth — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:53:07 +0000

My apologies for my silence here–I’ve been hard at work over at Take Back Your Kitchen, but I promise I’ll be back here! In the meantime, please feel free to check out the new site!

Cin cin!

Tagged: food

Guido e Luisa;

elizabeth — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:40:30 +0000

UPDATE: To see the meal we enjoyed while watching 8 1/2, click here.

As I mentioned last week, on Saturday we decided to base our meal around the movie we were to watch that evening, 8 1/2. For anyone struggling in the creative process, it’s a fantastic film to indulge in, as the lines between Guido Anselmi’s memories, fantasies and reality were so thoroughly smudged as to make a very strange narrative that anyone who appreciates A Christmas Story would instantly love. While not as immediately comedic for anyone not fluent in Italian, the frustration of its main character are immediately apparent to anyone of an artistic disposition. To write with authority on this topic requires more than one viewing of the film–one of the reasons why it’s now on my media shelf as well as why I am not trying to expound on its deeper themes.

The visual style of the film struck a more primal aesthetic reaction from me, both in how Fellini filmed his surroundings as well as how he dressed his actors–it’s immediately stylish in a haute way, but it is inspiring in embodying an impossibly cool mid-20th century European “look”.

You look at these screenshots and say you don’t want to recreate them in your mind (or in your wardrobe):

(source)

I’d like to mull more over this film and its more cereberal aspects–but that is another day and another viewing (which will be soon).

As for the food we enjoyed, well that will be revealed in good time.

Tagged: art, film, italiano, Italy

How can I tell you, that I love you? I love you;

elizabeth — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:18:34 +0000

I heartily enjoy anyone who can offer a scathingly hysterical send up of how marketers target women, so Sarah Haskin’s series on Current TV called, appropriately, Target Women was one I immediately took a shine to, and for anyone out there who needs a five minute brain break, I highly reccommend you check them out. Fortunately, my friend Nicky over at XSquaredCurve has so conveniently posted all of them as they become available, so check it out!

Just don’t laugh too hard at your desk…

Tagged: advertising, commerce

Louie Louie, oh no, I said we gotta go. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I said Louie, Louie, oh baby, I said we gotta go;

elizabeth — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:15:38 +0000

In the five years I’ve either lived or visited New Haven, I had never found an opportunity to visit Louis’ Lunch, the famous, teeny joint whose claim to fame is having served the first hamburger. It’s right across the street from BAR, which is one of my favorite restaurants thanks to its delicious, cheap pizza and delicious, cheap house beers, and usually when we’re in that part of the city it’s to go to get pizza instead of hamburgers. But while we were out on Friday celebrating a good friend’s successful thesis defense, our buddy C proposed a quick trip across the street for no other reason other than none of us had been there, and it’s a piece of New Haven’s culinary history.

Care to check it out?

Front façade of the building, which is charmingly small and is the establishment’s fourth location after having a lunch wagon in two parts of New Haven and a tannery which has since been demolished.

The gorgeous streetlight.

A well-worn (and etched) desk bearing the initials, names and other words of prior patrons in the row of four chairs with small tables.

Gorgeous stained glass reminding us of whose house is providing us the delicious food.

Fourth-generation Lessens hard at work making burgers which are served on white toast. The only condiments you can order are onions, tomato or cheese. No mustard (there is a sign that warns you of this), and no ketchup. Period.

The machinery where the magic happens. There are three vertical cast iron gas stoves that they use, with gridirons that hold the patties so that they can cook on both sides at the same time. I was completely fascinated in watching them cook the burgers, and Jeff Lessen kindly informed me that the stoves are 114 years old. The bread toster that they use is from the 1920′s–and all four machines work as flawlessly as they did when they were first produced. It’s really a thing of beauty.

All in all, it’s an amazing spot to visit when you’re in the Have–I now know where to take the family the next time they pay us a visit.

As for the cheeseburger I shared with the husband? Fucking delicious.

Tagged: architecture, food, New Haven, photography