I am in Love.

Tonight I was introduced to Veronica Lake for the first time. I'd always heard a lot about her, knew her hairstyle and that she was once considered one of the great sirens of the silver screen. I wasn't sure that I was going to like her because I'm an ardent fan of Katherine and Audrey Hepburn. To be fair, I haven't seen any Betty Grable or such the like. But when Veronica Lake came on-screen, I immediately knew who she was and was immediately enchanted with her. She is well-known for her hairstyle, nicknamed "the Peek-a-boo Girl" for her heavily side parted hair that covered the right side of her face. Women all over the country loved this style so much, that Veronica Lake had to film a special commercial during WWII to promote the updo. Apparently, Rosie the Riveter's peek-a-boo bangs were getting caught in the machinery! This style has now been emulated by modern stars like Christina Aguilera, Jessica Alba, Kim Basinger in the film L.A Confidential, and the ever-popular ScarJo.




Continuing on the subject of girl crushes, I would like to bring up Nylon's new It Girl issue. While they have their customary gushfest about Cory Kennedy and Peaches Geldof (both of whom I have no issue with), their covergirl is Zooey Deschanel!!

Zooey Deschanel first caught my (and a whole bunch of other people's) attention as Patrick Fugit's older musically-inclined-runaway-turned-flight-attendant sister Anita. She has since done other quirky characters that are equally as fabulous, and I'm sure everyone is aware of her enamoring turn w
ith M.Ward as She & Him. I love their contemporized torch song-style covers and I cannot wait to see what else they come up with.

Other girl crushes include, but are not limited to:

-Kat Dennings, of Charlie Bartlett and Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist fame
-Mary Kate Ashley (kinda makes me sad, but she seems pretty cool. plus, their straight to video movies were TOTALLY my guilty pleasure in high school. Winning London!? Good times.)
-Abigail Lorick (ghost designer of Eleanor Waldorf on Gossip Girl, in case you didn't know!)
-Blair Waldorf
-Christina Ricci
-Coco Rocha (who I know nothing about, but think is gorgeous anyway)



So! I will leave you this evening with the video for She & Him's so "Why don't you let me stay here?"



video credits: markdcatlin and lalamaker, respectively.

"Ambition should be made of sterner stuff"

This quote from dear old William Shakespeare seems to be pretty relevant to my life right now. I don't know if it's my study abroad coming up or just my returning instincts kicking into high gear, but I seem to be racking up goals here. I've become an English major, as well as a History major. This isn't too terribly crazy. Thanks to the extra credits I'll be getting while at Oxford, my history degree will be completed a year early. I'll still have to complete the majority of a major in a year, but with some tweaking, that shouldn't be really difficult. Then, as I was waiting for my philosophy class to begin, I noticed the cross-disciplinary minors board. I should have known better, but I picked up the "Medieval and Renaissance Studies minor" pamphlet. It turns out that I only need one more class than I was originally going to do to pick up that minor. So, why not?!

I feel like I'm constantly running around, constantly organizing things, sending e-mails, reading e-mails, filling out forms, the whole lot of it. But, on the flip side, I'm also going horse-back riding with friends, watching the Tudors on DVD (sidenote: WHY is British television so much better than American? Other than Bones and Gossip Girl, all I watch is British TV shows. Dr. Who, the Tudors, Robin Hood, Secret Diary of a Call Girl . . .) Grabbing dinner and lunch with friends, going swimming, and all other sorts of things. I've never been happier in college than I am right now!

I will leave you with the music video for Fleet Foxes' "White Winter Hymnal". The claymation reminds me of Wallace and Gromit!





P.S Having trouble sleeping with 4 boys in next room, snoring in sync so loudly it's like they're in my room, instead!

Your Favorite just the Same . . .

I just saw the movie Penelope for the first time. When it first came out in the states (February), I was interested in seeing it, but nobody wanted to see it. I'm home from college for the weekend and saw it in the video store. Voila! It didn't do fantastically well in the box office, so I had relatively low expectations. However, I thought it was adorable. It turned out to be well-written, well-acted, and just well done in general. The cinematographer is Michel Amathieu who, coincidentally, also did Amelie. The production designer was fantastic; the room has an amazing sense of class and whimsy. I want my first grown-up apartment to look like that.



Penelope is the story of a girl born with a curse. Without giving too much of the plot away, the family sets about the orthodox way of break the curse. But as everyone knows, a curse is by nature, unorthodox. I love the message they've put in the movie, and I have to say, I LOVE her clothes! The costume designer is Jill Taylor, and she didn't miss a beat. Or a stitch, I suppose. This is how I want to dress: classic silhouettes, bold colors, with a touch of girlishness.



plus it has James McAvoy in it. Check, please?

Am I the Only Sour Cherry on your Fruit Stand

Well, you'll be happy to know that the insomniac spell has ended. I crashed out on the couch around 9.30 pm the other day and slept until it was time to wake up for class. Of course, it could always begin again, so here's hoping. I'm not really sure what else to say, other than the fact that I felt the need to post something.

It's been two weeks and a couple of days since my friends and I moved into our first apartment. We've lived together before, but in a dorm situation. Which means that we're learning how to share a kitchen and living room for the first time. It's interesting, the different ideas that people grow up with. Not big ones, like religion or that sort of thing (though that is interesting, too) but things like how to load the dishwasher and what goes in the dishwasher. In my family, pretty much just flatware and the dishes go in the dishwasher. Everyday I'm confused, thinking "Can this baking sheet go in the dishwasher?". Furthermore, just washing dishes seems to be an ordeal for some people. Dishes have gone days, even a week without being washed. Finally I just got tired of the mess and cleaned them myself. I'm not saying that its a huge crime not to wash your dishes. Maybe I'm just a neat freak.

Other than that, I haven't got much else for you.

Insomnia . . .

So . . . . it's 3:30 AM. I'm still awake, from waking up at 9. I fell asleep at 6:30 AM yesterday morning. Something has got to stop. I'd really prefer not to drug myself with Nyquil or cough syrup or something, but I cannot seem to fall asleep! Does anyone have any suggestions? Anyway, since I'm awake, I figured I'd do a recommendation post (assuming, rather in a narcissist manner, that anyone besides myself reads this).

In music, I cannot get enough of the Brunettes. 1) They're from New Zealand, which makes them fantastic. 2) They run in a similar vein with Rilo Kiley, Tilly and the Wall, and those sort of quirky-yet-amazing bands.

favorite track: If You Were Alien (click here to view the indie-tastic video)

Also, I ripped a page out of Nylon to remind myself to check out Uh Huh Her, an electro-pop duo from Los Angeles. One of the girls, Leisha Hailey, was on The L Word which is pretty cool I guess. Anyway, they kind of run with bands like Ladytron and Metric, and I've been dancing around my room in my apartment like a huge toolbox all week.

favorite track: Not a Love Song (click here . . . oh, you know what to do)

The new Subways album, All or Nothing, is pretty amazing. The Subways were completely overplayed in America (or at least, Rock n' Roll Queen was) thanks to the OC, whatnot. By the end of . . . . 2004 (?) I was pretty tired of them. However, this new album shows a lot of growth in my opinion, both instrumentally and vocally. The overall quality of the songs has vasting improved as well, with a good bit more variation between songs. * I saw them in concert once when I was still in high school. I had Charlotte, the bassist, sign my shoe (a red chuck) and I remember feeling really weird that I wanted her to sign my shoe. Looking back on it, I'm sure she'd had people ask for much stranger things to be signed . . .

favorite (or favourite, in honor of their Britishness) track: Lost Boy

In movies, I'm really psyched about Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. I shall let the trailer speak for itself.




I'm more than a wee bit miffed about the whole "let's move the Harry Potter release date back" thing. Despite what the producers said, I think it's a pointless move done solely for monetary gain. Harry Potter has always been a holiday franchise and they've always done well. As long as the producers treat the fans with respect, the movies will continue to do well. Unfortunately for the studio bigwigs, they made a huge snafu with this one. However, the Twilight movie has moved in and taken the Harry Potter release date. So I am slightly mollified. Slightly.

Other than that I have no real interest in any movies that are coming out. Easy Virtue is a Noel Coward play that is being turned into a movie with Colin Firth, Jessica Biel, and Ben Barnes. I'm looking forward to that, but its so far only a British release. Watchmen, also, is going to be intense. I squealed like the (closet) fangirl I am over that one.

In other movie news, my roommate (R? I'm still feeling this one out) and I have decided to make our movie nights a thing. I compiled a list based on AFI's 100 Greatest Movies list, plus other movies I've been meaning to see (i.e Lust, Caution, There Will be Blood, No Country for Old Men, etc.) And we'll be watching these quite happily on nights and weekends.

This being said, I think I may take that cough syrup now. I do feel pretty sick, actually.