March: favorites and finds

Blog Crushes!

Milk Teeths

I've been reading this blog for a while and love her thrifting adventures!

Avalonne Hall

Found this girl last month and am forever delighted by her words, images, and style.

TV

The Good Wife

I watched the first season in a week and I'm in the middle of the second season. I will definitely be caught up by the end of the week, probably by mid-week and it full of glory for me. I love the little politico in-jokes (Rahm! Ben Smith! etc. etc.). I don't love everything (the kids are annoying, I'm already bored with Blake since he's only been a device to further Kalinda's backstory), but overall it's ace. And a character Matt Czuchry plays I can get behind! And I'm a little infatuated (read: completely) with Will Gardner even though I shouldn't be.

Next up: season three Merlin or Twin Peaks. I'm betting the latter will happen. Excited!

And I already posted some of my favorite music as of late, but some new Childish Gambino
never hurt anyone, right? (I still recommend The Head and the Heart and The Lonely Forest wholeheartedly.)

Stores

This is just a cheat because I bought some goodies at the NBC Store. I also got something from Friday Night Lights but forgot to photograph it. :)

No time for sleep: TV and NYC

First off, this week's comedy line-up was superb! I am mostly speaking about How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family, Community, The Office, and Parks and Rec. All incredibly funny and touching in 22 minutes or less this week.

Next, some photos from New York. I had the most amazing time last week traversing the city. I cannot wait to go back! I stayed at a friend's family friend's condo in midtown, right across the street from the CBS studio by the river. Couldn't have asked for more!

Sunday: Just arrived. Walk through Chelsea with some locals (friend's great-aunt and uncle). Japanese food, then Turkish coffee/tea and dessert. Peruse Times Square. Happythankyoumoreplease at Angelika's Film Center.

Monday: Shopping in Soho. Spring Street Natural for lunch. Japanese erotica for dinner. Drinks and midnight diner food with friends.

Whoops. No photos to post.

Tuesday: Soho, Nolita, and Greenwich trekking (more shopping). Junior's Diner for brunch. Magnolia's in Soho. Meme for early dinner. Memphis on Broadway. Serendipity for night desserts. Bumped into Katie Holmes and Suri. Paparazzi swarm.

Wednesday: 30 Rockefeller Center. NBC Tour [lame]. Magnolia's on 6th. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon taping [awesome]. Amy Poehler and Tiger Woods. Bill Cunningham New York at Film Forum [recommended].

Thursday: Brooklyn. Art museum and botanical garden. Jamaican for lunch. Beacon's Closet in Park Slope. The Chocolate Room. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying on Broadway [with Dan Radcliffe].

Friday: Lower Eastside [Kat's Deli]. Chinatown. Gremacy Park. Upper Eastside. Bloomingdale's. Goodwill. Dean and Deluca. Metropolitan Museum.

We didn't take as many photos as we should have, but that just shows how much we were enjoying our time, right?

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!

TV Round Up: 30 Rock, The Office, Fringe, and Undercovers

Hello patient readers! I'm going to try to start a better posting schedule so I can refresh my brain and organize my thoughts better. Of course, this is not the best week for me to be starting, but we shall see how it passes!

Out of schedule, I would like to share a few little snippit thoughts on some shows this week. This Thursday in particular was amazing for me as a viewer.

30 Rock, The Office, and Fringe were my far my favorites. Those episodes are some of my favorite of the entire series of the shows thus far.

30 Rock because I am a sucker for politics and I loved Queen Latifah's Representative Regina Bookman. I hope she comes back. The race dialogue in the show was especially interesting as I just finished reading Watching Race by Herman Gray that dissects presentations of blackness in television in the 1980's and early 90's, including the role of exceptionalism (Twofer) that is explored in the episode.

The Office was just pitch perfect for me. I'm one to still have high regard for the show since Jim and Pam got together. I think the writing is still superb week-to-week, even if my fan enthusiasm has waned, but this week just filled me with joy. Seeing Andy sing, the unrequited aspect of his feelings for Erin, seeing Jim and Pam grow up, Michael's silly shenanigans, Darryl. It all just worked so perfectly. I laughed, I ached, I did all the things that needs to be done. It probably comes down to seeing Andy in Sweeney Todd.

And Fringe. Playing with the new alt!world is allowing the show to grow more than it would have normally. Watching Olivia try to retain her old memories and getting to know the alt!world is more memorizing than I expected. It's like seeing another side to the characters you know and love.

As far as least favorite, Undercovers was underwhelming for me this week. I am a fan of the lightheartedness of the show, and the spy genre in general, but this week was flatter than the other two. I'll keep on it because I still find the show charming and cute, nothing serious to wrap my brain around, but I am finding their trope a little trite and I don't know how long I can keep it up if every episode is the same. Let's see some development! Just a little? It doesn't have to be a super serious spy show to have some substance.

These are not the only shows I watch, but I just felt so much love for these episodes I had to share.

{Photos from FOX and NBC}

Day life: 2010 - 07 - 23 / 24

I hope everyone had a happy weekend. Mine was mostly filled with sunny skies, a little shopping, some Project Runway and Star Trek

I finally bought some alcohol in the states after turning 21 abroad five months ago. It feels good to just have a beer and watch some of my favorite tv or with a meal.

I love these sandals and can't wait to take them out when the sun starts shining! They're a little too big, so I wear them with inserts, but aren't they darling? Just a little sneak peak at a summer shoe post soon.

And my two buys at A Rusty Rooster in my hometown. It's a lovely little antique store with little odds and ends that I adore. It looks like a lot of things were marked down (unusual), but it means I will probably be back several more times this summer. But first, I need to find a leather strap for this lovely satchel. The leather is buttery soft now, and the inside is roomy will all sorts of compartments! And it was only $2.40 (marked down from a reasonable $6.70). Crazy good.

The other purchase was a muffin tin to keep some of my earrings in.

Not very exciting, but a couple other things filling my time has been:

• Comic Con news! (Especially the hilarious Community panel - and of course the pen-eye stabbing! CRAZY!)
• Finding out that my Representative in DC is retiring (Rep. Brian Baird) from leafing through my voter's pamphlet. Right now I'm voting for Denny Heck.
• And, of course, Mad Men fever! (my favorite link so far: creator Matt Weiner being interviewed by the amazing Diane Sawyer)

Here's to another great week! And it should be as I will be in Portland starting on Thursday to see some of my favorite people.

ETA: I'm also on the lookout for: a new mobile phone (upgrade time! - I'm considering an iPhone, but unsure) and a new camera (pretty... please? But my sister is letting me use her's for now). Any comments/suggestions are wanted!