Trailer Trash

That's actually a bad pun because none of these movies look like anything you would throw in a garbage bag:

Let's start with NINE. Not too big on musicals, or Fergie, and kind of bummed they don't have any actual Italians playing Italians (Sofia Loren being the obvious exception)--but this still looks-a-very-good-a!



How will we be able to handle Penelope Cruz and Marion Cotillard in the same movie? I'm worried the whole world will look so ugly after watching their perfect mugs for two hours.

There are no words for Iron Man 2:



And The Runaways, finally! This is sure to be in the canon of great movies about a rag-tag group of girls with big dreams who refuse to listen to mean guys who say things like, "Go shopping!" Or, "Go do your nails!" or, in this case, "Go sell Girl Scout cookies!" (Though the only other one that comes to mind at the moment is Whip It!)



Dakota Fanning, a current valley girl, is playing Cherie Currie, a born-and-raised valley girl (now valley woman). Kristen Stewart is also in this movie and she and I are practically the same person because we both eat Spicy Tuna Rolls with our dads at the Kabuki on Ventura and DeSoto when we're home. Look:

The untrained eye can't tell, but they are indeed outside Kabuki

And look:

This actually isn't inside Kabuki, it's some Chinese buffet on Victory and DeSoto that my dad's obsessed with. Close enough.

Loafing

I've been on a loaf-making kick: banana-walnut, and hazelnut, specifically. I don't share these loafs with anyone, and eat an entire pan over the course of a week's breakfasts.

To feel like less of a land mammal, I've replaced white flour with whole wheat flour, and white sugar with organic evaporated cane sugar. Throw in organic butter for good measure. It still tastes amazing, but the calories and fat don't count, because they are organic calories and fat. (And everyone knows that being an organic-few pounds overweight is way sexier than like, Popeye's fat.)

And in burger news: Shake Shack is coming to Nolita! This spring, corner of Mulberry and Prince. I keep walking past the tiny vacant lot and picturing what's to come, my eyes turning to giant, flashing cartoon hamburgers.

Shake Shack: The Accidental Empire of Fast Food on NYTimes

Easy-peezy banana walnut bread from Food Network

Hazelnut loaf cake from Kirbie's Cravings

*Photo of loaf is not my own, it's also from Kirbie's Cravings.

2 Songs for the Week

Someone played this song on vinyl Saturday night at a house party I crashed in Cobble Hill. (Sometimes I get to say things like that and sound like a 15-year old Ohio girl's idea of cool. {Or my idea of her idea of cool--she's probably way cooler than me.})

The band is called Still Flyin', and the song is Good Thing It's a Ghost Town Around Here. I'm still figuring out if their other songs are any good, but this one is fun: It has a disco bass line, a saxophone , and a chorus!

Still Flyin' Good Thing it's a Ghost Town Around Here

Of course there is a chorus, look how many people are in this band! It looks like a Brooklyn Organic Cheese Co-Op Coalition. And what's a baby doing in this band, anyway?



I am very late on Deerhunter. It's sad. Katie put this song on my birthday mix a few weeks ago and my face exploded. I love songs that start out super-catchy and then spin off into something completely different, keeping you totally attached through all the changes, until it ends and you're like, "Wait, what just happened?"

If you haven't listened to Nothing Ever Happened by Deerhunter, do yourself a favor now, and thank me when you're done listening for the hundredth time!


Deerhunter Nothing Ever Happened

A Statue Flies in the Face of Corruption

After the retarded, ridiculous, generally dumb-ass conviction of Amanda Knox, I am so mad at Italy.

But Berlusconi's broken nose proves that the Italian justice system does work sometimes.

Snicker-inspiring attack on Berlusconi.

Just the tip of the why-he's-an-asshole iceberg.

An infuriating symptom of judicial backwardness in Italy.

A tiny ray of hope in the intelligence of masses.

Holidays and Hideaways

Marisa posted this video on her Facebook, and since I'm a sucker for super-group collaborations, heartwarming sentiment, 80s nostalgia, and transcendent choruses, I'm re-posting Do They Know it's Christmas?.



Still festive after all these years, but knowing what we do about the 80s, I can't help distracting myself by thinking, "Which one of them was coked-up at that very moment in filming?" The Bananarama girls look particularly hungover.

The following isn't holiday music, just some songs from the Where The Wild Things Are score (I'm embarrassingly late on seeing the movie and discovering the soundtrack's brilliance), by Karen O. I love her.

Hideaway - Karen O. and the Kids

Worried Shoes - Karen O. and the Kids

Eye Kandi(nsky)

The current Kandinsky exhibit at the Guggenheim is a delight. Even if you're not big on abstract art. Especially if you don't remember what you memorized about him for your freshman year art history final. ("You," in both cases means me.)

Wassily (a first name to repeat in a funny voice as much as possible) basically worked until the day he died. Now, lots of serious artists do that but usually the swan songs they leave behind are highly stupid like Eyes Wide Shut, or hyper-boring like A Prairie Home Companion.

Kandinsky's work just gets better and better as you ascend the upward spiral that is the 'Heim. By the middle you're like, "Oh, this must have been his peak." Then you keep going and you see that you were wrong. Finally, you reach the top level and see that all his years of theorizing, spiritualizing, painting, and other -ings culminated in perfect, bouncy treats like Succession, below:



Okay, so my next recap will be on MTV's fist-pump-ariffic, gelled-to-perfection, tanned to resemble overripe citrus, Jersey Shore. Another sublime work of art!

Dutch Door Press Greeting Cards

I found these really cool, woodblock printed cards from Dutch Door Press at McNally Jackson. The designs are folksy but super-balanced and they come on this really nice, heavy white card stock.

Some examples of their cards:







Dutch Door Press: Letterpress and Design Studio

Dutch Door Etsy Shop

They also do stuff like calendars, and it looks like a line of stationery and textiles is on the way.

Good and Better

How these guys arrange the weirdest and most unnatural noise until it sounds warm and hope-y is what makes them great:

Animal Collective - What Would I Want? Sky

I want to hate Vampire Weekend because they seem like soft Ivy League brats and rip off Paul Simon's own African rip-offs. But they do it so well! This new song Cousins is quite rad. Exciting enough to pay extra attention to. I suggest listening to the audio of this before you watch the video, just minimize distraction.

Zhu Zhu Pets Safe!

Good Guide a buncha bullies.

Read the LA Times story here.

Mini-Thrillers

Has anyone seen these amazing Broadview/Brinks Home Security commercials? (I have, because I've been attached to my couch in a 48-hour NyQuil stupor.)

They're like Lifetime Original Movies in cute travel-size packets. Brilliant!

Some of my faves:

The Stalker Ex



A.J.



Home Alone