Monday, August 31, 2009

The Truth About Quirky Girls

Some of you aren't going to like this... :o)

Thanks to Boner Party for these delicate words of truth. I want to marry one of the men behind this site.

That Super Cute Quirky Girl From that Movie

Fellas: we’ve got some bad news for you. The adorable female lead from your favorite quirky movie would be an obnoxious maniac if she were a real person. If we have to see one more movie where Natalie Portman or Zooey Deschanel play delicate little quirkmuffins, we’ll probably enjoy it, buy the DVD, and start a Facebook group about it. BUT THEN we’d realize that those girls don’t exist in reality, and their closest real world approximations are usually total basket cases with daddy issues and a purse full of meds. Allow us to break the illusion for you and show you how shit would go down, real world vs. movie world.

Movie World: Super cute quirky girl (SCQG) puts headphones on you and plays you a song that melts your little heart.
Real World: You’ve already heard the song, and you pretend to be impressed. However, she can see through it and gives you the silent treatment for the rest of the day.

Movie World: SCQG tells you that you two are going for a ride. When you ask her where you’re going, she puts a blindfold on you and says, “it’s a secret.” Then the two of you sneak into the natural history museum after hours and make out in the dinosaur room.
Real World: The secret place she takes you to is her coke dealer’s house, and he makes you watch mildly pornographic movies where women fight each other.

Movie World: Cute girl invites you over to make a pillow fort. You two spend the evening eating s’mores under blankets and playing records, and then she dares you to kiss her!
Real World: Same scenario, but replace all the fun stuff with: the pillow fort reminds her of a traumatic childhood experience that she refuses to explain. You spend the rest of the night asking her, “What’s wrong,” and offering her tissues.

Movie World: After an intense shared experience, super cute quirky girl cuts all of her hair off in an adorable pixie cut and begins speaking with a british accent because she’s “starting over.”
Real World: After chasing xanax and vicodin with a bottle of red wine, she shaves her head unevenly and passes out at your cousin’s wedding.

Movie World: Your artsy, adorable crush constructs a scavenger hunt for you with step by step instructions. You have to take a picture of a smiling baby, find a cloud that looks like a sleeping lion, and release 5 balloons into the air. The final step of the scavenger hunt takes you to a rooftop, where she got your favorite indie band plays a private concert for the two of you.
Real World: She kills herself.

Turning Japanese

Kirsten Dunst looks like she's had quite the stroll through Harajuku.

If You Know What's Good For You

You'll go and read Ally Kay's latest Cocktail Epiphanies post.


I'm saying it out loud: I'm Chelsea. And I know why I'm called Chelsea, and I'm laughing my little snout off. Friends - true friends, whether they be for a moment or for life - are the greatest invention in the world. They are what inspire you to create, to change, and to improve yourself for a better future. They are the ones who tell you he's using you for one thing but in the same breath tell you what a twit he is for not wanting you to be his everything. Friends will gently give a shove to the baggage you need to off-load, and they'll laugh even as you cry because they know how much better off you'll be tomorrow.

Some other New York observations that you may not have previously been aware of:
* High heels are not in abundance as Sex and the City would lead you to believe. I had assumed when I was there in winter that it was some type of thick-leggings rationale for not wearing heels. No. They walk so much. They don't wear heels.

* Instead of heels, they wear a lot of wedges. Think of this what you will. Personally, I adore wedges, but I am aware of the belief that wedges create cankles - not if the wedge is thinly sliced at the back it doesn't!

* They walk a lot, which explains why it is possible to be size 0 (for some - my mind still boggles as to how much weight I need to lose to be size 2, let alone 0. Fuck you Rachel Zoe - in the nicest possible way).

* Most people have dogs. They have entire stores devoted to dogs: grooming, dog spas and pet accessories. Strangely, I saw very few vet clinics.

* Air conditioning systems - if at all (hello MTA!) - seem to be from the same era as Mad Men.

* Mad Men is close to surpassing SATC as my favourite New York-based TV series (*gasp*). I love love-hating someone they way I do Don Draper. And January Jones still reigns supreme in my best name and most beautiful face and hair categories. She truly is Grace Kelly reincarnated.


* "Does your long hair define you?" A key question during an intense discussion regarding whether or not I bob my hair. I still don't know the answer to that.

* Diners are so full of bad (coffee, fries, meals the size of the moon), but are the ultimate place of comfort if you feel lonely. People will always say 'hi' in a diner.

* Celebrities are not "everywhere". Second trip to NY, one month total spent in the city, official celebrity sighting count: 0. *deep sigh*

* New York is not only the city that never sleeps, it's the city that never stops talking. Not having someone comment on your hair, outfit, handbag, facial expression is mission impossible on NY streets. I love that.

Come Out of the Cupboard

Lily Allen irritates me intensely. I don't know why, perhaps it is the old lady in me that reacts so violently against her. Her calculated efforts at anti-celebrity/real-girl-stuck-in-a-crazy-mixed-up-world seem transparent and as cliched as this latest magazine cover featuring the little Lily-pad herself:


London Calling. Seriously? Is this the only thing we can think of when we reference someone or something from the UK? I've got an idea magazine editors: watch the first 40 seconds of This Is England and get back to your unimpressionable reading public.

I'm sorry. I'm terribly jetlagged, and I face a gruelling several hours of uni tonight. I am about to have my first caffeine hit of the day - somehow I'd convinced myself that a GOOP-style detox would make this mix of jetlag/hangover go away. What a ridiculous proposition!

I am also rather fascinated by this magazine cover, and the hype surrounding it:


Apparently it's near impossible to buy a copy of the actual magazine, such is the excitement surrounding the idea of putting a naked, real woman on the cover. Not that the nude, celebrate womanhood cover is particularly groundbreaking - think Demi Moore and Britney Spears' famous magazine covers in all their naked, pregnant glory.


As consumers, what is the difference that makes this latest cover from Glamor magazine so much more enticing than naked, pregnant celebrities? The woman featured has a lovely face, and I'm sure if she was thrown into a nice outfit (Nancy Gantz beneath, natch) she would be good enough looking to be strolling through a field advertising fabric softener or women's multivitamins. Why do we need warts and all all the time? Are we craving the magazine world to tell us that our body is fine enough to sit cover-side? Why do we need that? What is missing in our lives that we need reassurance from a team of anonymous fashion-writers who, if we believe recent pop-culture re the mag world, are more insecure and starved with hunger than the rest of us? Wait. That was the dumbest question I've ever asked. Cue cappucinno.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Twitter Gems

This 28-year-old guy lives with his 73-year-old dad. He twitters what his dad says. HILARIOUS.


Other entries include:
  • "My flight lands at 9:30 on Sunday...You want to watch what? What the fuck is mad men? I'm a mad man if you don't pick me the hell up."
  • "Your brother brought his baby over this morning. He told me it could stand. It couldn't stand for shit. Just sat there. Big let down."
  • “It’s watering plants, Justin. You just take a God damned hose and you put it over the plant. You don’t even pay rent, just do it. Shit.”
Not sure if it is legit but it is funny and I can just imagine an old dad saying this stuff.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Rent


We all kind of grew up in this apartment, even though none of us ever set foot in it.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Say Goodbye To Hollywood

"To “let go” does not mean to stop caring, it means I can’t do it for someone else. To “let go” is not to enable, but to allow the realization I can’t control another. To “let go” is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands. To “let go” is not to try to change or blame another, it is to make the most of myself. To “let go” is not to care for, but to care about. To “let go” is not to fix, but to be supportive. To “let go” is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being. To “let go” is not to be in the middle of arranging all the outcomes, but to allow others to affect their own destinies. To “let go” is not to be protective, it is to permit another to face reality. To “let go” is not to deny, but to accept. To “let go” is not to nag, scold, or argue, but instead to search out my own shortcomings & to correct them. To “let go” is not to adjust everything to my desires, but to take each day as it comes, & to cherish myself in it. To “let go” is not to criticize & regulate anybody, but to try to become what I dream I can be. To “let go” is not to regret the past, but to grow & to live for the future. To “let go” is to fear less & to love more."


- Anon.

Have you let go of something lately? It's amazing what you gain when you finally do it.



Pic credits

Thursday, August 27, 2009

99


A list of the top 99 Style Blogs - no surprises that the Sartorialist topped the list. A few Snapdragons' favourites also made the top 10 including Garance Dore, The Cut and Gofugyourself.

See the whole list here.

Orla for fall

Orla Kiely Fall 09 Collection - am loving the printed tights and pussy bow collars! Here's to cooler weather...

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Eggs on toast?



"Alone in the kitchen with an eggplant" is a book edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler which features essays from various contributors including food writers and film directors who discuss the quirky things people do and make when eating alone.

I am currently living alone and while the perils of living on my own (e.g locking myself out of the house!) can be frustrating at times, there is something really nice about being on your own and especially when it comes to cooking.

My usual solo "when i don't really feel like cooking and i live in Hong Kong where no one has an oven" efforts include eggs on toast, silken tofu with soy and ginger and viet rice paper rolls.

Japanese author, Haruki Murakami, enjoys making pasta while film director/writer, Nora Ephron, likes to have mashed potato in bed.

What are your eating alone habits?

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Letter to Readers

(Whoever you are... and if you care)

You are now in the capable hands of Phuong while I run away and chase after world peace for 3 weeks.


This picture means nothing, but I love it anyway. It's my early Happy Friday present. The pic above signifies me getting into a NYC cab. Very literal.

Just Say Yes


You should also hang around long enough to say "yes" when he's hinting at asking you out. You should also pick up the phone and call him and ask him out when you didn't give him the chance to ask in the first place.

Nudge, nudge. :o)

The Reason I Probably Won't

Get a bob.



I don't know how often one is called on to do this (courtesy of Tom Ford's latest eyewear campaign) with their hair, however I would always like to be prepared for such eventualities.

New York: Summer Styling

I had been making mental notes of what I wanted to look like this summer in New York, but ... I don't know. I guess having a life got in the way. Now I feel like I've aged several years from the STRESS of not knowing what k to wear each day! Ooooh. That's right. I'll just go shopping. Relax.



And of course, this summer's must-have item (at least here in Oz): denim cut-off shorty shorts. Sass & Bide of course have a pair - studded on the back pockets, and (in my opinion) exorbitantly priced at $250. That's more than their jeans - and there's only about 2% of them to be worn! Why, god, why?

Current Obsession: Bob Haircut

God. How many times do I need to bang on about a bob haircut before I get one?

German Vogue.

Yes, Yes, Yes!


Don't you agree?

Credits

Monday, August 10, 2009

Sienna Moon

Sienna goes the sexy red lips, beige dress and Veronica Lake hair waves. I wish my hair would behave itself like this! All of Sienna's latest publicity and fashion renaissance out of her boho old self have created muchos positive vibes re Sienna, less a scarlet pimpernell, more a blazing stylista (again).

I Remembered

And then forgot. My uber bad. I promise to give you details tomorrow.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Come As You Are

Vogue Australia's September issue fashion editorial featuring Abby Lee Kershaw and Catherine McNeil. As always, click on the pic for a bigger view. Flick through the pics and pretend you've just bought Vogue and a Cherry Ripe after battling through the snogging teens at Rankin's in the mall.