Vertical Gardens

Saw this in the Times. SO SO COOL!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/garden/06vertical.html?ref=garden

I want to do this. Think ORL would be angry? Maybs...

CUPCAKES

image courtesy of NYTimes

I want to bake cupcakes. I love this article about how cupcakes have become popular in Paris; does that somehow legitimize them as being "chic"? Is the cupcake the new petit four?

I think the savory one with the tomatoes looks cool...I wonder what the "cake" part is. A biscuit? Corn muffin? Here's the link to the article.

Dennis Hopper

One of the most important contributors to American film and photography, Hopper recently was given a star in Hollywood (about time...) and unfortunately is suffering from cancer. The Times' Manohla Dargis narrates a short retrospective of his career here

James Cameron in the Amazon

Cameron visits the Amazon to see the real-life version of "Avatar" take place: tribes fighting modern "progression". See the slideshow here.

Modern Love, NYTimes

This article about a man and Michelle Williams seeing their toddlers interact is adorable. I guess some things never change.
Read it here.

For Students, a Waiting List Is Scant Hope

The NYT seriously loves writing articles like this. And I, sucker that I am, subsequently love reading them.

McQueen in the Times

This is the only article I've liked so far.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/fashion/04mcqueen.html?ref=style

Dissipating Confidence in the Runway

“Fashion today is an unstructured landscape in which ideas and trends exist concurrently,” said Simon Doonan, the creative director for Barneys New York. The notion, he added, of deconstructing and interpreting the runways for directions is stale, if not archaic. “It just doesn’t work anymore.”

- From a NYTimes article

This is exactly what I've been thinking recently -- re the majority of what I'm seeing on the runway in the past seasons (much less magazine editorials), I've had the feeling of "oh, that's pretty... but nothing I've never seen before."* Granted there must be plenty of designers doing new things, but they're not showing in the fashion tents to Hamish, Anna, Carine etc. I know I've logged quite a few posts on NY fashion week recently, but I don't feel like NY Fashion Week runways have conveyed anything new yet. I'm still waiting for something this season - something amazing, something fantasmical. Maybe next season...

*Exception: McQueen's amazing alien dresses last season. RIP.

NYTimes: Dating at College

This piece explores the imbalance of male and female populations on campus; higher female populations are rumored to cause more strain on dating culture.

I think some of this article is ridiculous, but there is one quote I appreciate.

"“Women do not want to get left out in the cold, so they are competing for men on men’s terms,” she wrote. “This results in more casual hook-up encounters that do not end up leading to more serious romantic relationships. Since college women say they generally want ‘something more’ than just a casual hook-up, women end up losing out.”"

This one is absurd:

"As for a man’s cheating, “that’s a thing that girls let slide, because you have to,” said Emily Kennard, a junior at North Carolina. “If you don’t let it slide, you don’t have a boyfriend.”"
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Who are these girls?

Gawker posted about it too.

Eve Ensler and V-DAY

In NYTimes Magazine, The V Generation: Questions for Eve Ensler

 "V-Day, your foundation, has raised some $70 million since 1998, largely through benefit productions of “The Vagina Monologues.”
I don’t think of it as a foundation, but a movement. V-Day exists in 130 countries now. This year there will be about 5,000 performances in places from Paris to Brest, France, to Greece to Tanzania."

I had lunch with Eve Ensler a few years ago, and fuck she's cool.

Michael Pollan

From the writer of In Defense of Food (“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”) comes Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual.

An excerpt from his interview about Food Rules with the NY Times' Well Blog:

“Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.” That gets at a lot of our issues. I love French fries, and I also know if I ate French fries every day it would not be a good thing. One of our problems is that foods that are labor or money intensive have gotten very cheap and easy to procure. French fries are a great example. They are a tremendous pain to make. Wash the potatoes, fry potatoes, get rid of the oil, clean up the mess. If you made them yourself you’d have them about once a month, and that’s probably about right. The fact that labor has been removed from special occasion food has made us treat it as everyday food. One way to curb that and still enjoy those foods is to make them. Try to make your own Twinkie. I don’t even know if you can. I imagine it would be pretty difficult. How do you get the cream in there?"

Well what do you know, Fay and I (er okay, all Fay while I sat there) made and ate some cookies last night. Who knew she is just as impatient as me while baking!

Another great bit:

"Some of these rules require absolutely no explanation. “If it came from a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don’t.” “It’s not food if it’s served through the window of your car.” “It’s not food if it’s called by the same name in every language.” Think Big Mac, Cheetos or Pringles. Another one I like, “The banquet is in the first bite.” Economists call this the law of diminishing marginal utility. When you realize the real pleasure in food comes in the first couple bites, and it diminishes thereafter, that’s a kind of reminder to focus on the experience, enjoy those first bites, and as you get into the 20th bite, you’re talking calories and not pleasure. I think there’s a lot of wisdom in that."

I agree. And I liked how he talked about diminishing marginal utility.

You Look Smart

Fluffy NYT article about how younger men are now into dressing better:

Dressing for Success, Again

 "And at Topman, the men’s branch of the popular Topshop, the category it calls “smart” clothing — dressier togs that straddle work and play — has been one of the best performers in its new New York store.

“I think it’s a reaction against the homogeneity of casual wear,” said Gordon Henderson, the design director of Topman. “There’s nowhere to go with that in terms of personality, whereas a suit sets you apart. And now there are suits that are cut for young people. There’s never been that before, so it’s new to them.”"

I like that phrase, "smart clothing". Shouldn't all clothing be smart, in the original sense of the word?

Etsy is In!

I have been talking incessantly about doing crafts and stuff with my friends this winter. It was, at first, going to be for my own, personal expression; a headband here, a pair of earrings there, maybe even a scarf. But now that Etsy has become much more well-known as a venue for selling wares, from iPod cases to ugly hair clips, why shouldn't I start a business? You down, Georgina?

Some people make like $250,000 a year doing their crafts, more than they made at their previous jobs (layoff=artistic expression time!). College grads of 09, here's something you can do that might even give the same or more work hours/week as your elusive finance job!

Here's the Times piece about Etsy.

I feel like I could do better than some of the stuff on the site. See for yourself how simple some of the items, like hairclips, are mad easy to make. Etsy.com

But these gaiters are pretty ridiculously awesome. I could be the Yeti for all of Hanover's blustery blizzards!
Or I could be from Williamsburg with this "Cranberry Cozy"! Do I see an MJ pin? I actually kind of like the cozy, but come on, the rest of the styling is kind of absurd. PS: Etsy was started by a couple of people in Brooklyn, so the site design does remain faithful to some kind of artsy craftsy alternative scene.

White River Junction Featured in NYTimes!

Shout-out to the Still North in the Times Travel section this week. I almost went to the fashion show at Revolution last spring--this time I'll make a point of going! Looks like a fun place.

I also took a class this summer with Jules Feiffer about the history of cartooning that was absolutely amazing. His teaching assistant/intern, Katherine Roy, was associated with the Center for Cartoon Studies in WRJ. I definitely want to check out the other side of the river this winter!

Here's the link:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/travel/13surfacing.html?ref=travel

Hollister truth bomb

Lusty Hollister Store (NYT article)

Exactly true about the Hollister where my friend works in SOHO.

Jason Wu

Cute. Now every time I go to Strand I'll think of him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/nyregion/21routine.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss

Columbia University Doesn't Care About Their Students, Writes Columbia '09*

A NY Times Opinion article currently spotlights the topic of colleges' cost cutting, with professional and non-professional opinons on what colleges can cut to reduce spending. One voice is Dartmouth's own Victoria Boggiano, my fellow writer/editor for The Dartmouth Daily Newspaper. I can't say I wholly agree with Victoria about cutting the amount of deans, but that's not what caught my blogging interest.

To me, the most fascinating part of this compilation of opinions was the apparent destitution Columbia students live in, to the point where their writer-representative has no suggestions on how to cut costs. Hannah Howard, a 2009 graduate of Columbia College, currently writes a column, “Served,” for Serious Eats where, incidentally, my friend is also working now (she knows her). In reading her Columbia U POV, boy does it sound terrible to go to school there.

See for yourself:
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/what-colleges-can-cut/

Conclusion: Thank God I didn't go to Columbia.

*Well, that's the gist of her op-ed.