Francophile

Lately, so many of the things I'm loving are French.  And it just so happens to be Paris couture fashion week - talk about timing!

Armani Prive couture (via style.com)

IRM - Charlotte Gainsbourg

Charlotte Gainsbourg, IRM: I never spent much time thinking about Charlotte Gainsbourg, quite truthfully, until last week when I decided to stream her album on NPR First Listen.  Then I streamed it two more times that afternoon.  The whole thing is a really well-made collaboration with Beck, with beautiful, sweet, and catchy moments.  The opening track, "Master's Hands," really shows the influence that Beck had.  I'm especially fond of "Time of the Assassins" which I have listened to more times than I can count at this point, and the spunk of "Trick Pony."

Garance Dore: the incredibly charming voice behind a blog of the same name; one half of the cutest possible street style photography couple.  I love her photos, sketches, and little footnotes at the bottoms of her posts.  She posted this video in November of her in action:















YSL Parisienne: This perfume just brought my YSL love up to a new level.  It's amazing, I might just spend non-existent money and buy it. 

Free Energy @ Brooklyn Bowl

Last night we went to Brooklyn Bowl to see Free Energy play for the wallet-friendly price of $5. It's an interesting sort of venue - with people actually bowling throughout the concert, picnic tables with people eating dinner, and various screens everywhere (in this case showing the Haiti relief telethon). I had only heard a couple (literally two) of their songs before going to this show, which they played back-to-back to close the set ("Free Energy" and "Something in Common"). Their aesthetic can only be described as "we couldn't look more casual if we tried", but it works for them. They played to the fact that all but one band member has long hair, with a lot of movement and energy (this is basically the only photo I got in which someone was standing still long enough to come out with a clear shot).

Overall: enjoyable show, but the venue was really distracting.

duly noted (or should I say quoted)

I know, I know, I want lots of things. And, I have lots of things. But... my walls don't have lots of things! In fact, if it weren't for my nice blue and yellow paint, it would be pretty depressing to look at these walls because they're so barren. Something that would really spruce up the empty space would be these vintage quotation mark lights! If only...

1940's Quotation Marks, $195 at Agent Gallery in Chicago (via A Continuous Lean)

this time, no parrot

This photo is from the last time Spoon put out an album, in the summer of 2007. They played a free show outdoors (it rained), and we met this charming parrot! That's New York for you, I guess.

This time around, they started off in LA, including a stop over at Morning Becomes Eclectic. There's video of their set, and it's sadly the closest I'll be coming to seeing them any time soon, as I'm lacking the $$ to go to Radio City, and was lacking the time/energy/gumption to stand outside of Mercury Lounge all day today to snag one of 200 tickets. If you have a spare 40 minutes, the KCWB appearance is solid, and has a few older tracks mixed in there:


I've enjoyed their new album, Transference, for the most part. It's much more like their stuff pre-GaGaGaGaGa, which I appreciate - though, my favorite album of theirs is still Kill the Moonlight, and this hasn't changed anything on that front. The album has definitely been growing on me the more times I listen to it. 2010 has so many other good releases coming up, it's pretty exciting. Oh, and I'm a big fan of the cover art/photo for Transference, too. Great saturated colors:

mex-i-can

I have a great fondness for Mexican food (always have, even during the years when I was afraid to eat it because I had gotten food poisoning in SoCal - but I'm over that now). This weekend I overindulged in this fondness by going to Rosa Mexicano with some friends. I also discovered that there is a Rosa Mexicano opening later this year in Chicago: yay!

chicken tacos: yum yum yum

I love how their sangria for one is served in a mini pitcher. And the tableside guac prep.

Brooklyn birthday faves

It's been over 2 weeks now since my actual birthday, but I love it so much that it's hard to let go! Last weekend I had a celebration at some of my favorite places in Brooklyn. Dinner at Jack the Horse Tavern (the ginger pear cake for dessert was delicious!), followed by a dance party (DeLuxe) at The Bell House. There was another birthday party going on at the same time, and we snagged some hats from them. I also learned that I will probably never be good at pinball - sigh.




It's a 3-day weekend coming up! (it really means nothing to me, though...) But the weather's warmish and hopefully we'll keep the ball rolling with fun things to do in 2010 :)

Fleas don't hibernate

The winter home of the Brooklyn Flea is at 1 Hanson Place in an old bank building. It's a really interesting place to hold something as extensive as the Flea, and there are definitely positives and negatives. The space itself is beautiful (as you can see above), but clearly its layout was not intended for that type of foot traffic. Some doorways and stairwells were narrow, and some booths were in awkward places. Overall, though, it lent a fun, different feeling to the Flea for the winter. The food is in the basement, which is also the old vault - it still has the old doors:


(left: vault doors; right: aerial view of the main floor)




^ Fun display finds at the Flea. I especially liked the rollerskates (really heavy!), wooden duck (too expensive), and the fact that this was only one of many buck busts. And there were also several sellers with vintage seltzer bottles. Interesting trends.

a reminder that someday spring will come

H&M just announced the launch of a "Garden Collection" for spring, full of girly dresses, floral prints, and nice, neutral staples. The "wow" factor really comes when you find out that the entire collection is made of a variety of sustainable materials. I was really excited when I saw the announcement today (via Refinery29), and it instantly brought up memories of my big New Year's resolution back in 2008 (when I wanted to only buy new clothing if it was sustainably manufactured), and the class I took that last semester of college that spoke at length about the possibilities of mainstreaming environmentally-friendly apparel that both a) looks good, and b) is at an affordable price point. Regarding these factors, I think that H&M has done a solid job, at least from looking at the photos. They're also using materials beyond organic cotton, including recycled polyester from PET bottles. It will be interesting to see how the clothes are in person, and the quality of the fabrics that they're using.





All images via H&M's lookbook - the collection will be in stores at the end of March!

internet fame

I noticed a lot of blog traffic coming from the hype machine today - highly unusual for me - and went on a search to find out why. Check it out:

I submitted my top ten list to their year-end zeitgeist of blogs, and have found myself being the primary quote on Fanfarlo! I'm so pleased, mostly because I really do think that they're great and should be more widely appreciated.

Happy 2010!

Last night we went to 2 parties: one UChicago law school party, and one art-y party somewhere near Lincoln & Diversey which was in a nice loft-ish space and had a band & DJ. Good times!




I'm horrible with resolutions, so I'm not making any. But here's to a new year, full of fun and good things happening!

p.s. They rang in the new year/decade by playing "Electric Feel". Approval.