Things I Like #4

Self-Referential Art

There are many self-referential works of art that I enjoy, including "Arrested Development", JK Rowling's Beedle the Bard, and Warhol's silk-screens. But this new find combines my love of Hipster Preps and 80s Rock Stars: Vampire Weekend and Peter Gabriel.

I loves me some Vampire Weekend, but I also am loyal to the 80s rock my parents raised me on. Thus, when I found out about a certain inter-mixing yesterday, I realized I had witnessed a Christmas miracle. That's right ladies and gentlemen, Peter Gabriel has finally covered the VW song in which he is so lovingly name-dropped: "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa". His version is charmingly ironic; instead of saying "But this feels so unnatural/Peter Gabriel too", he sings, "It feels so unnatural/to sing your own name". GENIUS!

The Blizzard: Day 8

8 DAYS! I've survived over one foot of snow, my parents' constant Weather Channel updates, freezing rain, excruciating boredom, driving, watching all 5 Harry Potters, Christmas shopping at the mall with half the stores closed, bad TV, not being able to see any friends who live outside of the neighborhood, and NOT HAVING A CHRISTMAS TREE. You heard right team players, NO CHRISTMAS TREE. It's quite sad. We have two Charlie Brown trees--they are the miniature Christmas trees we bought last year and failed to plant (I guess laziness paid off for my family)--but we don't have a REAL Christmas tree.

Yesterday the father-unit and I went on a trek to find a Christmas tree. We walked through a foot of ice-covered snow (my climber father said it was "avalanche snow", which certainly boosted my morale), but did not get a tree. There were a few tree places open, but we forgot to bring a sled to drag one home with. Trees, it turns out, are very heavy when iced over. It was a blow to the Christmas spirit, let me tell you. It looks like it might start to thaw out on Tuesday, so perhaps we will take the opporunity to escape the neighborhood and find a tree.

PLEASE STOP SNOWING! kthnxbye

Things I Like #3

Riccardo Marzi collections

Riccardo Marzi is this sort of expensive/kitschy, faux-high art decorative dinner-ware from Tuscany. When I get married, this is going to be at the top of my gift-list. I saw his stuff in Italy (they have a baller outpost in Florence that lets you see how they--along with other local artisans--make all the stuff: http://www.maestridifabbrica.it/), but they also sell it at Mamma Ro/La Vita Vera, a FABULOUS Italian ceramics importer on Portland's NW 23rd: http://www.mammaro.us/store_locations.htm. Back to Riccardo Marzi. The charming English translation of the Italian website says that Signore Marzi was "grown among craftsmen" in the artistically fertile hillsides outside Florence, but basically he just tweaked the centuries long Tuscan ceramics tradition by "floating" natural objects in high-quality resin platters, bowls, picture frames, lamps, vases, napkin rings--you name it, Riccardo makes plastic molds of it.

Anyway, judging by the Italian website's layout and flowery language, it seems like Marzi might be the Thomas "painting with light" Kincaid of Italy, but whatevs, I loves me some resin platters! And so does the Museum of Modern Art: http://www.momastore.org/museum/moma/ProductDisplay_River%20Stones%20Bowl_10451_10001_24373_-1_11515_11518_null__6H101

If anyone is curious, here are my favorite pieces:

Summertime

Wild Flowers

My all-time favorite is the Wheat and Oranges. Please, someone who loves me, buy me this collection!

OMFGGGGGG, I want it!! Can't you just imagine hosting amazing dinner parties with all this stuff casually displayed on the table or hung on one of the dining room walls? Someday my dream will come true! Even better, perhaps I will marry into the family (he has a son named Andrea) and I will kill two of my dreams with one stone: marring an Italian man and owning a full set of Marzi decorative wear.

The Blizzard: Day 2

Well, my friends, I am housebound for a second day due to The Blizzard. From the way the newsanchors and weatherpersons are talking about it, you would think this storm is as big as the one that made Santa resort to using Rudolph.

Today I ventured out into the icy world to retrieve mail for my mother. No, my mother could not wait until the snow and ice melted to get her mail; she needed contact from the outside world to keep her from getting cabin fever. Therefore, dutiful daughter that I am, I pulled on socks, rain boots, ski pants, two sweatshirts, mittens, my Northface, a scarf, and a flappy-ear hat just to make my way down the driveway to the mail box. It is trecherous territory out there, my friends. I felt just like our beloved Yukon Cornelius and his ragtag team of puppies (a St. Bernard, wiener dog, lassie dog, scottie dog, and beagle, apparently). The trek was long and hard (that's what she said), and I wasn't sure I'd make it there and back. But, lo and behold, I did not slip or drop the mail, and my mother was somewhat appreciative when I returned. Sadly, the two pieces of mail I risked life and limb for were 1) a maid service flyer and 2) a credit card offer. Great. All in all, it was a successful mission and got me out of the house for a few moments.

SNOW DAY! TAKE YOUR TOP OFF! WOOOOO!

It's been snowing since early this morning and we have about 2 inches at my house, 3-4 in the big drifts. I could pee my pants I'm so happy, but I don't want to mar the whiteness.

As a child of the Northwest, I am used to one real snow day per year. Every once in awhile we got lucky, like the year I was a junior in high school and we were out for an entire week due to snow and ice. My bestfriendneighbor Liz and I spent the week building a ginormous, fabulous snow fort. We used the recycling bins as molds for bricks. It was glorious. It was exactly the experience we were never granted as children. Honestly, I can't ever remember having more than 2 inches as a child. Sledding was difficult and usually consisted of falling of the sled and skidding down the hill, getting dirty from the slush-snow mix that formed on the concrete. Snow days usually culminated in a big wipe out, after which my mother slapped band aids on Liz and me and gave us hot chocolate. But the snow week of 2004 was epic; we sled without injuring ourselves, we made snow people that didn't melt the next day, our fort held together with real snow and not that powdery shit, we tramped around in dirty boots and wearing several coats. By the end of the week we hadn't showered at all and were totally sick of the snow and the ordeal of putting on layer after layer of protective clothing.

I've had a couple fun snow days in college. It was enjoyable watching friends from Hawaii flip out when they saw snow for the first time our freshman year. Sophomore year we took cafeteria trays and sled down the many campus hills. We had an epic snow ball fight in the quad, we raced around and cracked the ice that grew on the surface of the fountain's pond. Best of all, the roommate and I opened our windows and stuck our heads out to catch snow flakes on our tongues. Then we had peppermint schnaaps in hot chocolate and proceeded to get tipsy to that wonderful holiday classic "Elf".

Last year we had a white Christmas in Portland. Both my parents have lived in Ptown their whole lives and it was their first white Christmas. Liz and I ran around after opening presents and got all soggy. We had disgusting hair and wind chapped faces for the rest of Christmas.

And now, 2008. It's the first day of Christmas Break and I'm at home and every thing is white and magical! I was the first one up and I totally forgot that it was supposed to snow, so when I opened the blinds and all was white as far as the eye could see, I was a little verklempt. No cars had ventured out yet, so the streets were a clean field of white. I put on boots and a coat and ran around outside with the five year olds for a few minutes before coming back inside and drinking hot chocolate and putting on Christmas music so that my parents would wake up and enjoy the snow day with me. Just because it's snowing doesn't mean I become any less passive agressive. La famiglia has been having a very idyllic snow day so far. Rockwell would be proud. We all sat in the family room and read the paper, drank hot chocolate, played with the cat, put out more seed for the little birds and squirrels, and went on a snow walk through the neighborhood. Snow apparently makes the parents and I happy to spend extended amounts of time together.

I plan on spending the rest of the day putting up Christmas decorations and checking how much snow has accumulated every hour on the hour. My dad propped a yardstick up against the house so we could scientifically know the precise amount of snow that has fallen. Snow is the only time that my mother and I show any interest in my father's science experiments, so he is capitalizing on the moment. Coffee cake and hot chocolate are currently being offered to me by my mother, and thus I must run.

Peace beezies, enjoy the snow day if you're so lucky to have it!

Birthday!

Thanks for everyone's birthday wishes and special thanks to everyone who showed up last night for the festivities. Even MORE thanks to those who bought me drinks. My first few hours as a 22 year old have been wonderful!

Things I Like #2

Things I Like

There was a request for this entry of "Things I Like", so here it is:

Celebrity Children.

Why do I like the spawn of Hollywood hotties? First, they usually have two attractive stars as parents, which means they are DOUBLY adorable and will eventually be a SUPER hottie (unfortuntely, this is not always the case. Ahem, Rumer Willis). Second, at the age of three, they are wearing more expensive and fashionable clothing items than me. Third, they're hammy for the cameras, unlike their world-weary celebrity parents who no longer smile for the cameras when they're grocery shopping. Their children, however, always smile when a photog is snapping a picture of them with mommy and daddy after their Scientology session. Fourth, they're cute, they're sassy, and I don't have to actually interact with them. As many Team Lara fans know, I enjoy looking at small children, I enjoy small childrens' miniature clothing and shoes, I enjoy the concept of small children, but I rarely enjoy spending large quantities of time with small children. They yell, they get messy, they cry, they whine...In short, they are far too much like me. However, looking at pics of and reading articles about celebrity children satisfies my enjoyment of cute, quiet, polite, independent, well-dressed small children without facing the reality that children are never any of these things.

Here are my favorite celebrity children. This is based off of rigorous research from a scholarly journal called "Perez Hilton".

• Cruz Beckham: he is the youngest son of David (may-jah hottie) and Victoria (member of the first favorite band) and he break-dances. Enough said.


• Shiloh Jolie-Pitt: on principle, I don't want to fawn over Shiloh because I have serious reservations about her mother (she seems like a wonderful mother, but she once drank her husband's blood and made out with her brother--two facts that are hard to forget); but, one look at those eyes and those outfits and I am oohing and ahhing over her. She'll probably end up being a rock star. I also really like that she carries her baby doll around with her and that she seems like a laid back, California baby. When Shiloh grows up, I'd rather hang with her than Suri, I'll be honest.
  
  
  


• Suri Cruise: mostly I am fascinated because she really should not exist. Who in a million years would imagine that Tom Cruise would get with sweet little Dawson's Creek girl and create a Scientology baby who wears Burberry? Anyone? Me neither, but he did and it's awesome. I love Suri because she seems perpetually pissed off, and it's hard to maintain that kind of attitude at the age of two. I like that she never wears pants, and that she enjoys stuffed animals. I covet her Burberry and Pucci jumpers. I appreciate that she's an only child. I like her stylish bob and her bangs. I like her painted nails.

• Violet Affleck: OH MY GOD! She is hands down my favorite celebrity child. If I have children, I hope that mine is as cute and sweet and quiet-looking as this one. She is never not smiling in pictures, she wears cute, yet not outlandish (ahem, Suri) clothes, she plays on jungle gyms, she has curly blonde hair, she has dimples, I've never seen a picture of her crying or looking pissy, she has two major hotties as parents, and she is going to be a big sister. CUTE CUTE CUTE CUTE CUTE (and so well-behaved)!
  
  

• Cara, Maddy, Aaden, Collin, Joel, Hannah, Leah, and Alexis Gosselin: technically, these are not celebrity children because they are famous due to a reality show in which TLC captures what it is like to live in a family with two sets of multiples. But whatever, I am still hopelessly devoted to these little trouble makers (who really don't make as much trouble as eight kids could if they set their minds to it). I love them (with the exception of Maddy, but more on that later) because they wear cute clothes, they are incredibly photogenic, they mumble and have made-up words, they all have little personalities, they have one special characteristic that makes it easy for me to remember who is who, they seem to like each other, they don't appear to be hellions (again, excepting Maddy), and none of them has a tantrum without some merit--if I were one of eight, I would flip out from time to time, too. They are all adorable and I would be totally star-struck if I ever saw them in an airport flying to Hawaii or Florida or Colorado or any of the other million places TLC has sent them this season as a means of getting higher ratings.
  

I'm not going to lie, though, I do have favorites. I adore Alexis, Hannah, and Aaden. I would rather gouge my eyes out than spend time with Maddy, who seems to be a total attention whore at the age of 8. God help the Gosselin parents when she is 16. Cara, her twin sister, is pretty cute, too; sadly, Collin and Joel are pretty whiney and lacking personalities, and Leah just pales in comparison to Hannah ("Hannie") and Alexis. Reasons why I love Alexis: she's sassy, she doesn't sleep, she is a little bossy, she is cuddly, and she loves her stuffed alligator. Reasons why I love Hannah: she's the girliest, she won't let Kate cut her hair, she wears adorable clothes, she makes really cute facial expressions, and she's helpful around the house. Hannah is my over-all favorite and I want to adopt her. Jon and Kate have eight kids, I'm sure they wouldn't miss one! Spread the adorable love! Reasons why I love Aaden: he wears glasses.

Aaden:

Alexis:

Hannah (this is not the most flattering pic of Hannah; she must just not be photogenic, because she's by far the cutest on tv):

And that concludes my extensive research on celebrity children. I hope you've enjoyed the fruits of my labor. Look forward to the next Thing I Like post which will be about Emma, my Lynx Point Siamese kitten and the Team Manager of Team Lara