itslafactory, childhoodflames, garancecdore

luckymag.com, childhood flames, garancedore.fr

oh, just read.

(courtesy of haej)

google.org

Always amazed at what google has the power to do:


Google Uses Web Searches to Track Flu's Spread


google.org for more info

we interrupt the blogging hiatus

now back to being a bad blogger.

(via The Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan)

please...vote...ok...thanks

see halle berry overact

one more DS clip

on the day before

some words of wisdom from a former sparring partner of Palin

oh god

In case you missed it

I think that's one of the few times I've heard actual dead air during an interview.

Finally

Palin's avoidance of the press has become so abusrd, that Cambell Brown calls it out as being sexist. While I'm glad someone finally expressed some outrage about it, I'm not entirely convinced that this is sexism, so much as the fact that this she's simply an ill-prepared, unknowledaable-on-the-issues candiddate...neither of which has anything to do with whether she's a "she" or a "dude".

SNL opening skits - 2 for 2

Almost as funny (Text and story from politico.com):

Sen. John McCain’s top campaign aides convened a conference call today to complain of being called “liars.” They pressed the media to scrutinize specific elements of Sen. Barack Obama’s record.

But the call was so rife with simple, often inexplicable misstatements of fact that it may have had the opposite effect: to deepen the perception, dangerous to McCain, that he and his aides have little regard for factual accuracy.

The errors in McCain strategist Steve Schmidt’s charges against Obama and Sen. Joe Biden were particularly notable because they seemed unnecessary. Schmidt repeatedly gilded the lily: He exaggerated the Biden family's already problematic ties to the credit card industry; Obama’s embarrassing relationship with a 1960s radical; and an Obama supporter’s over-the-top attack on Sarah Palin when — in each case — the truth would have been damaging enough.

“Any time the Obama campaign is criticized at any level, the critics are immediately derided as liars,” Schmidt told reporters.

But as he went on to list a series of stories he thought reporters should be writing about Obama and Biden, in almost every instance he got the details wrong.

Schmidt criticized the press for the relatively sparse coverage of the fact that one of Biden’s sons, Hunter, is a registered federal lobbyist.

“His son is a lobbyist for the credit card and banking industry,” Schmidt said.

But Hunter Biden’s lobbying clients don’t include any banks or credit card companies. He did work, as a vice president and then as a consultant, for MBNA, a Delaware-based bank and credit card giant to which Biden had close ties. But he does not appear to have lobbied for the firm.

“Steve Schmidt lied — or just got it flat wrong," said Biden spokesman David Wade. "Hunter Biden has never — never — been a lobbyist for the credit card or banking industry."

Schmidt attacked Obama for his ties to William Ayers, who has spoken of his role in 1960s anti-war bombings committed by the Weather Underground.

"What we know for sure, and is beyond debate and argumentation is this: Senator Obama said that William Ayers is a guy that lives in his neighborhood. We know that that is a disingenuous and untruthful answer,” Schmidt said.

“Senator Obama began his political career in its early stages raising money at Ayers’ house,” he said.

Obama did hold a 1995 campaign event at Ayers’ house. It was not, however, a fundraiser, and Ayers did not contribute money to Obama’s first campaign, according to Illinois records.

Schmidt also complained of Obama backers’ attacks on McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

“As soon as Gov. Palin was nominated, one of … Obama’s chief campaign surrogates, [Florida Rep.] Robert Wexler, went out and accused her of being a Nazi sympathizer,” Schmidt said. “Where is the outrage to that aspersion on the part of some of the biggest newspapers in the country?”

But Wexler didn’t call Palin a Nazi sympathizer. He called former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan a Nazi sympathizer, and attacked Palin for allegedly having endorsed him.

“John McCain's decision to select a vice presidential running mate that endorsed Pat Buchanan for president in 2000 is a direct affront to all Jewish Americans. Pat Buchanan is a Nazi sympathizer with a uniquely atrocious record on Israel,” Wexler said.

(Wexler was apparently wrong: Though Buchanan claimed that Palin had supported him, she said she backed Steve Forbes in 1996 and 2000, and no evidence has emerged to the contrary.)

Asked about the series of errors, McCain aides could not provide evidence to back up Schmidt’s assertions.

One McCain aide, Michael Goldfarb, said Politico was “quibbling with ridiculously small details when the basic things are completely right.”

Another, Brian Rogers, responded more directly:

“You are in the tank,” he e-mailed.

vote or DIE

A very simple but (I thought) very good point was made to me last night, regarding polling data and Obama's numbers. Pollsters often get their data by calling landline phones at dinnertime, which inadvertently leaves out an important segment of the population: the cellphone-reliant youth vote. Several people in the 18-24 bracket (including yours truly) are sans landline phones. Therefore, a lot of national polling data doesn't include an important and very large segment of Obama supporters.

In years past, this hasn't been been hugely important because the youth vote has a pitiful turnout rate on election day. But this year, that could change.

Point being: never mind the women's vote or the blue collar vote as the game changer in the election. I think if the youth vote turns out in record numbers (or if they don't) it will make a world of difference about how close this election will be.

Tina Fey's best SNL skit

And a little sobriety from Frank Rich, blatantly liberal leaning to be sure, but who sure knows how to make a point:

"But race is just one manifestation of the emotion that defined the Palin rollout. That dominant emotion is fear — an abject fear of change. Fear of a demographical revolution that will put whites in the American minority by 2042. Fear of the technological revolution and globalization that have gutted those small towns and factories Palin apotheosized...

...Since St. Paul, Democrats have been feasting on the hypocrisy of the Palin partisans, understandably enough. The same Republicans who attack Democrats for being too P.C. about race now howl about sexism with such abandon you half-expect Phyllis Schlafly and Carly Fiorina to stage a bra-burning. The same gang that once fueled Internet rumors and media feeding frenzies over the Clintons’ private lives now express pious outrage when the same fate befalls the Palins...

...But the ultimate hypocrisy is that these woebegone, frightened opponents of change, sworn enemies of race-based college-admission initiatives, are now demanding their own affirmative action program for white folks applying to the electoral college. They want the bar for admission to the White House to be placed so low that legitimate scrutiny and criticism of Palin’s qualifications, record and family values can all be placed off limits. Byron York of National Review, a rare conservative who acknowledges the double standard, captured it best: “If the Obamas had a 17-year-old daughter who was unmarried and pregnant by a tough-talking black kid, my guess is if they all appeared onstage at a Democratic convention and the delegates were cheering wildly, a number of conservatives might be discussing the issue of dysfunctional black families.”

Not Jen Lindley

I've been quite a big Michelle Williams fan ever since Brokeback Mountain. (Dawson's Creek didn't quite do it for me, especially when she so randomly died at the end. Really, WB? Did you really think that show needed to be more morose and weepy than it already was?) So I was happy to see an extremely intersting interview (her first in eight months) in the Times. Some highlights: (Full interview here)

- "Looking ahead to her year off she said that she wanted to pick up a skill, some kind of handicraft. “I want to humble myself in front of a task like embroidery,” she said. “I like how physical work can really free your mind.” At a low point last year she signed up for night classes in bookbinding and calligraphy. “I was prouder of my little foldout book than of some movies that I’ve made,” she said.

- On what she reads during filming: "She...favors poetry over novels while filming so she’s not distracted by competing narratives."

- On her difficult past year: “I think I stopped feeling creative a while ago, and I’m just realizing it now... I used to have all the time in the world to daydream and even just to dream and let your unconscious do some of the work for you,” she said. “Now I’m up at 5 in the morning, and I don’t remember what I dreamed about.”

In any case, between her new Scorcese, Wim Wenders and Kaufman films, she certainly seems to be doing more interesting work than Katie, James or Joshua.

in other news

Doing my best to avoid the news for the next few days, because if I see one more picture of a certain creationist-loving, book-bannin', earmarks-using, bridge-to-nowhere-(until people noticed)-advocating 'Alaska-is-near-Russia-on-a-map-so-I-clearly-know-how-to-deal-with-North Korea' governor, I JUST might have to kill the next pitbull I see.

But enough of that. Happier thoughts and times prevail because:

Fashion Week Commences!








a) Designers at work: Thakoon (via NYTimes)

b) Lucky's good blog on the favorite items they're seeing

c) and the mother of all fashion week blogs, Cathryn Horn

(images: luckymag.com, nytimes.com)

A reminder why I need to start watching The Daily Show again.

Amazing:





Karl Lagerfield teddy bears, valued at $1,500 each, of course.

Diddy blog = more entertaining than mine

Oh, Sarah Palin. So much to say, so much to question, so little time. Where to start with thee?

How about by watching Diddy of Puff Daddy/P. Diddy fame spin around in a circle while he vents eloquently about the potential VP:



Some highlights:

"Alaska?? Alaska. Alaska! Alaska. Come on man. I don't even know if there are black people in Alaska...If you really think we're going to let you, like, win this election with these crazy decisions you're making, you're buggin'."


And his Extremely Sage Advice:
"You should have gotten Michelle Obama to be your running mate. That would have been fly."

Pumped for the speech, pumped for the fanfare, pumped for the guacamole I'm going to make. (I'm not sure why I keep correlating these DNC posts with food. But such as it is.)

Will try to post later with some actual thoughts on everything that went down this week, but for now I'll just leave you with links to other people doing the writing:

1. McCain's smart idea for an ad.

Side note: during my subway ride yestreday I wrote down a list of ads I would create if I were running the Obama campaig, (yes, i AM aware that I'm enormously lame) and what McCain is doing is exactly the same as one of those ideas I wrote down. Except, you know, with the candidates switched. Thievery, I tell you!

2. The best convention diary I've found online (from The Economist)

3. Politics: where hyperbole comes to die.

4. Call me an emo schmuck, but this moment last night was swell.

rocked it

Yeah, so Hillary just gave one of the best speeches I've ever heard. My leftover cheesecake was mighty good too.

asses of all kinds

For a rollicking good time, I strongly recommend getting boozy while watching the Democratic National Convention. Or more specifically, buying a bottle of Jameson whiskey while eating a 6" circle of glistening perfection known as Junior's cheesecake. While the initial excuse for this was Terence's birthday, the focus quickly moved away from him and onto the hilarity of the many awkward speeches of the night. Nancy Pelosi, I love you. But when you tell a long story about being Italian and American and eating Italian food while being American and then abruptly ending it with, "and then a little boy popped out under the table and said, Barack Obama!" it doesn't exactly...inspire. I think I snarfed instead.

The highlights, in my humble opinion, were the ladies of the evening -- Claire McCaskill of Missouri who gave the one feisty speech of the night, and Michelle Obama, who spoke extremely well. She also looked mad good. Not surprising, though -- this woman has got some incredible style:





Tonight: Hillary speaks and the "cathartic" process begins. Thank goodness there's still some whiskey and cake left in the fridge.

P.S. And to the Dems: if someone in some speech soon doesn't give the McCain campaign the swift, hard, ass-kicking they deserve after this, this and this, I will find a way to fly to Denver and have this guy do it for you.

where you get them jeans

I have never been a big fan of GAP clothes. The fit is always a little bulky, the seams a little too generous, and everything just feels so...sturdy. So practical. I have yet to own an item from there that makes me feel feminine, fashionable, or unique. Their jeans can be ok, but for me, nothing earth-shattering.

I want to like GAP. Who doesn't love their commercials. So fun! So catchy! So many celebrity endorsements! And although I find myself always stopping in and pondering whether I need yet another gray t-shirt or badly shaped navy dress (you just can't take suburbia out of a girl, it seems) I'm inevitably disappointed.

So when the Style Section today included a piece on GAP's new fall lineup under the care of Patrick Robinson, I was intrigued. Perhaps, perhaps, they had found the right designer to unearth the store's potential.



While the style is too hobo-chic for my taste, he's definitely gotten the androgynous look down in a much more stylish and modern way than they ever have. And certain pieces of the collection, like the woman's blazer on top and the leather vest in the middle picture seem like potential keepers.

What do you guys think? Is he really the "megabrand messiah"?

oh dear

click here for the whole series of, yes, lolz bush. Courtesy of The Guardian, that blasphemously liberal British newspaper.

this and that

Apologies for the spotty posting; it's been a bit of a marathon week. Terence's suggestions for post topics included a) videogames b) world of warcraft (a.k.a..."wow") and c) food. This post will be about exactly none of those things. Sorry, T!

1. Philiip Lim's kids line = some of the most ridiculously fashionable clothes I have ever seen. I can't stop looking at and coveting those exact outfits (well, maybe with some heels added) for my own size.

2. Minorities no longer?

3. A Cup of Jo posted this on her blog, and it's surprisingly hard. Try naming the 100 most common words in the English language in just five minutes. (I achieved the sad little score of fifty.)

built by wendy

Built By Wendy is having a pretty big online sale, and although the prices at 50% off are still not exactly budget friendly to my wallet right now, it doesn't hurt to look. Maybe some of you readers are baller enough to afford something. Some of my favorite items:

Two-tone dress: $146 (orig. $202)

Seersucker Sport Jacket: $136 (orig. $272)

Poplin pencil skirt: $94 (orig. $188)

Black stretch jeans: $135.00

spin

An actually well-thought out article on the reasons Obama is slipping in the polls, and why the arrogant perception is starting to stick. Written by Peggy Noonan, former speech writer to Reagan. Excerpt below:

"Two weeks ago a journalist, a moderate liberal, spoke to me of what he called Mr. Obama's arrogance. I said I didn't think it was arrogance but high self-regard. He said there's no difference. I said no, arrogance has an air about it of pushing people around, insisting on your way. Mr. Obama doesn't seem like that. He took down a machine without raising his voice. Extremely high self-regard, though, can itself be a problem.

"What's wrong with that?" my friend said. "You want a self-confident president."

I said yes, but it brings up the Churchill question. Churchill had been scored by an acquaintance for his own very high self-regard, and responded with what was for him a certain sheepishness. "We're all worms," he said, "but I do believe I am a glowworm." He believed he was great, and he was. Is Mr. Obama a glowworm? Does he have real greatness in him? Or is he, say, a product of the self-esteem campaign, that movement within the schools and homes of our country the past 25 years that says the way to get a winner is to tell the kid he's a winner every day?

Is Mr. Obama's self-conception in line with his gifts, depth, wisdom and character? That's the big question, I suspect, on a number of minds."

unhappy america

Almost 2 weeks old now, but a good article from The Economist worth reading.

oh little pig

click to view bigger size

ridin'

Hey there, clothes, you looking fine to me:

(tobi.com)

Also, what made my day, nay, week:
Chamillionaire (yes, Chamillionaire) somehow saw a little video ekp and I did for a company my sister works for, and wrote via email to our employers, "Saw the youtube video...that S is hot."

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Will all the recent talk of The Dark Knight dominating the box office in unprecedented ways (it breaks records! it cures cancer! Heath Ledger is agkuh*$lkb! (that's me I'm imitating)) it's easy to forget that fall is just around the corner, which of course means that TDK's competition for Oscar noms will be soon unveiling themselves.

It's easy to tell the studio movies that feel entitled to be put into the elusive "best picture" category: they feature A-list actors with some sort of British/Australian lineage and roll-out dates in between Thanksgiving and late December. One of these pics that has particularly piqued my interest is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Cate Blanchett, check. December release date, check.)

The mostly wordless trailer makes it hard to predict if this movie is actually good or if it's just composed of pretty images. (It should be noted that this film is an adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, which I have not read.) But it left me thinking it looked cool, eerie and somewhat imaginative. (It should be noted, though, that I'm a sucker for trailers in general.)

What do you guys think?

cheap thrills, contd.

In keeping with the 1 dollar theme, a long-time friend of my sister's informed me yesterday that it's possible to buy a $0.99 bus ticket between Boston and New York through the website megabus.com, the only caveat being that you should book your ticket about 3-4 weeks in advance. And yes, she attests that the bus is completely functional and not, you know, super sketchy. (image: condenast)

Favorite one(ish) dollar food items

When I scrounge around for quarters it's for a purpose:

Hit Cookies - $1.29

6 lemons or 6 limes - $1 at the produce store down the street

6 garlic bulbs - $1, same store (we love you Nam's)

Frozen fruit bar - $1 at the deli

oh lawd

Snoop is featured on a track on a huge upcoming Bollywood release. Can you guess the song title?

"A fusion of hip-hop and bhangra with a simple chorus (“Singh is Kinng, Singh is Kinng, Singh is Kinng”), it features Snoop Dogg giving “what up to all the ladies hanging out in Mumbai” and rapping about “Ferraris, Bugattis and Maseratis.”"

image: nytimes.com

Smitten Kitchen

One of my favorite type of blog is the food blog, and one of the best ones I've come across lately (thanks to hjk) is Smitten Kitchen. The husband-wife blog team has a huge following, so forgive me if I'm stating old news. But in case you're not a visitor, the food photography alone makes it worth the trip. See her very helpful tips on how to make the perfect pancake here.
(images: smittenkitchen.com)

Aggravating mistakes

Forgive me if this post makes me sound like a pretentious ass, but one thing I find pretty unforgivable is when people mix up the difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. By "people" of course, I mean those employed by the federal government to do some sort of work involving foreign affairs. (See the disturbing (hilarious?) article here that came out a while ago in the Times.) As the author points out, "After all, wouldn’t British counterterrorism officials responsible for Northern Ireland know the difference between Catholics and Protestants??"

Bob Herbert's latest column bring up the sad fact that John McCain is one of these people. Considering he's the contestant who uses his world affairs and military experience as a way to one-up his opponent, it's pretty disturbing how much the media has let his factual gaffes slide.

Obama has plenty of flaws (his FISA vote was more than disappointing) but at least I take comfort in knowing that he knows his basic geography -- McCain has talked about the "Iraq-Pakistan border" when they don't border each other at all. For all the scrutiny, circus stunts and invasive personal probing we put our candidates through, shouldn't knowing the ABC's of Middle Eastern politics be one of the more important tests?

Favorite recipes as of late

Stealing recipes off of food websites everywhere. All are not hard to make and are pretty inexpensive too.

1. Black Bean and Pineapple Enchiladas
(Tastes a lot better if you make your own enchilada sauce, and do NOT pour the extra pineapple juice over the dish at the end -- it makes it much too sweet.)

2. Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

3. Pasta with Eggplant

4. Spicy Tomato Bisque
(I prefer straight up grilled cheese with this rather than the brie toast)

(images: pilsbury.com, taste.com.au, bitten.blogs.nytimes.com)