February 2011: New Month, New Favorites.

TV

I haven't shared this before, so I will say: I love Parks and Recreation. It's cute, it's funny, and it's a love letter to local government. A delightful little show that had a really rocky start, but grew into itself in its second season and is blooming in its third season [which started up in January]. If you haven't seen it, go watch it! If Amy Poehler is not enough to make you watch, I am now in love with Adam Scott [not the first time] and Aziz brings a necessary kick - but let's face it, this is an ensemble show that makes great use of all its characters. It's beat Community as my favorite comedy this season. [Bored to Death is now my number two.]

As an ode to my favorite drama for the past five years - Friday Night Lights will be a beacon to me for network drama. It gets a lot of flack for being "a show about football", but as a non-sports fan, I still love this show to pieces. It's about family, growing up, and making the right choices. Brilliant acting, brilliant writing, brilliant cinematography. This show is my heart. It also might be an unpopular opinion, but I like the new cast better than the old.

Style

My go-to winter wear has been oversized sweaters and wool in general. Especially Ann Taylor Loft cape. The cape I bought last winter at a ridiculous sale price. It was the last one in the store and it was in my size [and an extra 50% off because it was in the sale section!]. I was wanting it the entire winter, and found it. I went off to Vietnam a few weeks after I bought it, so it has only this year gotten a lot of wear.

Thanks to their half of sale sales, Ann Taylor Loft and GAP have made a nice home in my wardrobe as of late, and growing.

Blog

The Coveted [edited: it is now The Coveteur] is my favorite January find. Click on a post, scroll to the bottom, click on a picture, and you have a wonderful slideshow of a fashion industry-er's favorite items and some stories behind them. An absolute thrill, and great photography! It deserves a post of its own, but because I am a horrible blogger, it gets this mention. Not only does it have amazing photography and fashion, the design of the site is unique and fresh. The front page is a collection of posts, in each post is a blurb about a fashion insider, some of their favorite inspiration from the web. Scroll down and there's a series of pictures of their things in their home. Hover over a photo and you get a blurb about the image. Click on the image and you have a sildeshow with the blurbs and images that you can control with your keyboard or by clicking! I'm in love.

Event

Uprisings in MENA [Middle East, Northern Africa] has made me glued to my twitter and grown my instaread by leaps and bounds. I'm pretty flexible about government styles, but I do believe in a responsive government. Historic moment right now. Let's let their voices heard.

This was fun! New plan: favorites post about whatever tickles my fancy. Hopefully I will be posting again soon!

Even death is not feared by those who lived wisely.

My great grandmother passed away last Sundayv (she's the eldest woman in the photos - mother of my mother's father). The subject is a quote from the Buddha.

I've learned more in the past few days about my family's religious traditions than I have the rest of the time I've been alive. In the Vietnamese-Buddhist tradition, there are many Buddhas that are venerated (sixty-two, I think). My great grandmother's funeral rituals lasted more or less two days. Rituals continue for another lifetime as kin keep the spirit of the dead alive. My father is anti-organized religion, but it was enlightening (pardon the pun) to see a religious side of my mother's family. My great grandmother was very religious; she meditated and read Buddhist prayer everyday, and even kept vegetarian for decades. The remains after her cremation left purple and green bone fragments that, according to Vietnamese lore, means she's resting with the Buddhas in the sky/heavens. This has been one of the few times I've hoped for an afterlife. My great grandmother was one of the most patient, kind-hearted, gracious person I've ever met. Even though we had massive language barrier, I could tell that she was a pure and genuine person. She was religious, but not preach-y. She grew up when women didn't go to school and was forced to marry young, having only my grandfather. She was forgiving to a fault, and I do hope she's resting peacefully now. After her long life, she deserves the best any world can show.

Tragedy in AZ

There are no words to truly express the tragedy that occurred in Tucson earlier today/yesterday. I just wanted to say that my thoughts are with the victims and their families. It's still shocking, even after all the poisonous words in our public discourse the past few years, that something like that would happen. It strikes at the core of our values as a democratic nation, that something as earnest and routine as meeting with your representative can end so horrifically. That a Federal Judge can be stopping by after church to say hello and a nine year old girl, recently elected to her student council body and invited by her neighbor for a learning experience in democracy can suddenly not be with us anymore. One of the most important aspects of a republic like ours is trust, and I feel like that is rapidly dissolving.

We can disagree without being disagreeable.

Please let someone good come out of this tragedy. Please let us learn that we cannot replace civil political debate with violent rhetoric. Please let us learn.